Celebrating Positives (offset of the Gripes Thread)

[old man emu]

17 minutes ago, facthunter said:

Like Benny Hill? Nev

Horses for courses. Benny Hill's shows were light-hearted music hall productions. Nothing wrong with that. But the British have a tradition of making high quality dramas in which all the theatrical skills of the Ages are applied. That makes this type of production classy.

[old man emu]

When I did the plumbing for the bathroom, I used those tap valves that are supposed to be easier for people with weak hands to turn off. I turned them off too hard and eventually the hot and cold taps would not open so I couldn't shower. This morning I bit the bullet and investigated the problem. I found that the rubber dome of the valves were stuck into the hole they were meant to seal. Winding the tap just caused the spindle shaft to move on the stem of the washer. 

 

I pulled the dome valves out and replaced them with normal type ones. Success! 

[facthunter]

I once got fluid on the Joint from a tap on the knee . You Kneed the correct TAP.  Nev

[onetrack]

In our laundry trough, I installed the half-turn taps with the ceramic sealing washers, that take little effort to turn, because SWMBO has arthritis, and she struggles with regular taps.

 

It was made worse in our laundry because the taps come out of the wall on the RHS of the trough, so you need to turn your hands at 90 deg to twist the taps.

 

The ceramic disc taps are about $40 from the big Green Shed and they simply insert into a regular tap housing, you just have to take out the regular handle, spindle and tap washer.

 

They require very little effort to turn, and the best part is, the ceramic disc replaces the regular tap washer and lasts indefinitely, never needing regular replacement, like normal tap washers.

[facthunter]

I have some and they seem to go tight after a while.  Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

9 hours ago, facthunter said:

Like Benny Hill? Nev

Oh you mean not like comedy greats from Australia, such aas Fast Forward, where one show was a bunch of blokes dessed up in rugby kit walking through different settings singing "Show us your tits!"...

 

At least Benny Hill has classy ladies and genuine wit... and was produced one or two generations prior, when the worlds PC standard arent what they are today, nor when fast forward was produced.

Edited March 30 by Jerry_Atrick

[onetrack]

I always liked Benny Hill for a daily dose of smutty English humour!

[Jerry_Atrick]

Request, dear chap; risque

[Jerry_Atrick]

Well, it was mothers' day here today.. and so I resisted putting on the box set of Benny Hill... 😉

 

Shes gone off antipodean whites lately - a little too raw compared to their European cousins, and normally tucks into a Co-Op select Pinot Girgio that is about £7 (Co Op is sort of a mid - down market store, but I like a lot of what they do, to be honest). But today, it was off to Waitrose, which is one of the high end supermarkets here (the meat would rival any decent butcher in Aus). And, a bottle of Sancerre (pronounced sonserr) . So it wouldn't pollute my other stuff, it had to go in a separate bag (just kidding!) It wasnt cheap, but there were a couple there in the well over £70 range, so it was a bargain basement one.

 

I decided I would cook today and not my usual chicken pasta, or steak, or pan fried sea bass. My partner loves Mediterranean food, so I found a few recipes of a Mediterranean main, and a couple of side dishes and went to work. I can tell you, I am no cook.. if I lived by myself, I would probably get a roast chook from Safeway and have a basic salad with it for as long as it lasted. Bugger me, it was hard to get timings right, and of course, the times they put in the recipe are never right.. But, somehow, although it wasnt Michelen Star or Rosette quality, it sort of worked.  And, as I am cleaning up (normally whoever cooks, the other cleans), massive Brownie points have been earned. I may do my medical and go for a fly.

 

[facthunter]

Pinot Grigio and Pinot gris are the same varietal.   Nev

[old man emu]

Pinot Moor is a popular one for blokes with a certain condition.

[facthunter]

It would be fatal. . Nev

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

I'm meeting a potential girlfriend in a few days time, a long way from here, about 250ks, she's the most beautiful and wonderful lady I ever talked to. I simply don't deserve her, but I'm meeting her anyway. She's taking me out for lunch and I'll talk my head off attempting to persuade her to join me in a long term relationship. Her ex conscript husband died, R.I.P, great bloke from all accounts. He was a bit like onetrack, endured the setbacks, then got back on his feet to work and raise a family.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

You did raise a family onetrack? I was only guessing there.

[facthunter]

Best of luck. (I mean it too) Nev

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

No problems facthunter. It's one of those adventures you go on with an open mind and reap the rewards if you don't stuff up. That's how I'm looking at it.

[rgmwa]

Good luck. Just don't talk about politics and don't complain about anything or you'll ruin your chances. 

[onetrack]

GON, No - I have no family, I went through a very difficult time after my return from Vietnam, and broke up with my then girlfriend, and effectively "went bush" for a long period of time, during which time I found it very hard to establish a relationship with any woman. 

However, I met a good woman when I was 41, and she was 39, and we clicked and "shacked up", and we just celebrated being together for 35 years yesterday.

 

She was a divorcee who raised a girl and boy to adulthood, on her own, with outstanding results, as both her son and daughter are upstanding citizens. Perhaps being a Police Superintendents daughter and knowing right from wrong was a big help, but she has exceptional strength of character, and set strict boundaries for her kids.

 

A major problem was, she got her reproductive system stitched up in her late 20's, deciding that she never wanted any more children. I tried to get her to reverse it, but that only produced a high level of stress in her, so I didn't push it. Her experience was that men just give you babies, and then abandon you, and it was an experience that affected her outlook for good.

 

She had been married to a pretty useless drug-using musician initially, and her marriage barely lasted 5 years before she booted him for infidelity, and general uselessness. She never got a cent in child support from him over his entire life, and he died a couple of years ago with little by way of assets, and after suffering from multiple cancers for quite a number of years, from his mid-60's.

 

He actually died in total squalor in a rented property, and despite treating his kids with disdain, and using them as a source of funding regularly, they still went and spent the effort to clean up his property and sort out his affairs - great credit due to them.

The property was in such a state, they actually had to use breathing apparatus and pressure cleaners to clean the place up. It was full of rotten food, dog turds, uncollected waste and mounds of general rubbish. It took them 3 weeks to clean the property up! Abandoned cars from other people, knackered furniture items, the rubbish they had to clean up was mind-boggling.

 

I've got a reasonably good relationship with my stepson and stepdaughter, despite a few rocky patches early on. Stepdaughter and SWMBO are like twins, they have a very strong bond, and my arrival caused a few problems there for a while, as SD tried everything she could, to get rid of me.

But we established a relationship, that while not close, is a satisfactory one, and she accepts I'm part of the furniture now. Unfortunately, she has suffered from endometriosis since puberty, and has been unable to procreate, so that has been a bitter blow to her.

 

Her brother insisted he was never going to have children for many years, as he spent 18 years with one partner - then that partner up and left him suddenly, for seemingly minor reasons - so he went on to find himself a divorcee who has two adult sons, and despite a late marriage, they had a son together in 2014 - and as he's an only grandchild, I think he's probably spoilt. 

There are many things I'd love to change if I had my life over again, but one has to accept what life dishes out, I know a lot of people have had some pretty shi**y lives, and ended up in dire straits when circumstances they had little control over, seriously affected their lives.

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, Grumpy Old Nasho said:

I'm meeting a potential girlfriend in a few days time, a long way from here, about 250ks,

Strewth! He'll go 250 clicks on the off chance of a relationship, but won't drive a 70 click round trip for the benefit of his country! 😁

 

Seriously, I hope she sees you as a modern day Rudolph Valentino, and will fall into the arms of The Sheik

[onetrack]

Maybe GON is the Sheik from Scrubby Creek?? 😄

 

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

Give it up, I haven't met a nice lady at a polling booth yet.

[onetrack]

That's because you don't go to polling booths, you told us!! You're not following a consistent storyline here, GON! 

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

I could get any girl I want, a lady working in a shop once told me. The thing is, she didn't tell me how.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

1 minute ago, onetrack said:

That's because you don't go to polling booths, you told us!! You're not following a consistent storyline here, GON! 

I've been to plenty of polling booths, just not lately.

[facthunter]

Every second person is of the Opposite SEX. How good a "catch" are you? The Lady in the shop must have thought you had sex appeal?. Put a sign up SEX APPEAL Give generously.  Not quite subtle enough?  Nev