Mysterious Tractor Matchy-Matchy

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The game is quite fun though….

Every now and then something happens that makes your world rock slightly on its axis. I had one such moment last week when a courier turned up with a large box. Which contained a tiny deck of cards adorned with pictures of tractors. It’s a very nice implementation of the pelmanism game. Only one thing wrong really. I’ve never ordered such a game. In fact I don’t even own a tractor (or have any plans to get one). I’ve carefully checked the order. My name and address are all properly entered. I’m not sure where this has come from. I’ve contacted the supplier to try and find out what is going on. Most strange.

Driffield Steam Fair

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There were loads of engines like this

Last week we couldn’t make our annual trip to the Whitby Steam Fair because bad weather got in the way. So today it was excellent to be able to go down to the Driffield Steam Fair and look for some traction action (sorry).

I was worried that the Driffield event might be smaller than the Whitby one, but it turned out (at least to me) to be a bit bigger. There were loads of engines, large and small bustling about the showground. There was a funfair, pizza and amazing bubble waffles. The weather had a little go at spoiling this show too, but there were only a couple of showers during the four hours we were on site. It was great. I’m definitely going again next year.

Happy Birthday Me

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It’s a lovely little device

It’s my birthday today. Yay! Above you can see my present to myself. It’s a Minox daylight developing tank. It lets me take film from my tiny spy camera and develop it without needing a darkroom. You put the film cassette inside the tank and the film is pulled out into the developing spiral. Then you add tiny amounts of developer and fixer and then you get your strip of developed negatives. At least, that’s the theory. I’m looking forward to trying it for real.

My birthday was great. Lots of cards and presents. And chocolates. And cake. Good times.

Computer Speedup trick - turn off iCloud Photo Sync

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Start the icloud app and then clear all thse options for Photos

The title of the post says it all really. For a while I’ve been bothered by the way that the fan in my PC kept coming on when I wasn’t doing much. Then things seemed to slow down every now and then. A little detective work with Task Manager showed that the Apple iCloud Photo Sync process was grabbing 10% of my machine for no apparent reason. I’ve turned off photo sync. There’s no particular need for it on the PC and it has solved the problem.

I had a look at the Apple support for this problem and the suggested solution was to remove iCloud and install it again. Which wasn’t terribly impressive.

Achievement Unlocked: Rediscovered my Meccano Motor

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I have no idea what I’m going to do with it.

When I was around 12 years old I got a Meccano motor for Christmas. Not just any motor. It had a six ratio gearbox and it came with tiny plugs that I could use to connect it to my Minic Motorways transformer. It was awesome. I made all kinds of remote controlled moving things with it. Then I lost it.

A few years I ran across the same motor in an antique centre in Beverley. After a few weeks of dithering about whether or not to buy it the motor then vanished from the shelf. Oh well. Then this week it (or one like it) appeared again. So I pounced. It’s in the original box and it looks as if it hasn’t been used. I’ve not fired it up yet. I’ve got plans involving MOSFETs and low speed control.

Back to England

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One of my purchases was a set of illuminated clothes pegs for hanging up photos. They seem to work

We had to come home today. Back to England. Nothing like going abroad to give you a perspective on where you live. England is a bit like France. But in black and white. Or should that be grey and white. Everything looks smaller, meaner, unhappier and less well cared for. It wasn’t always like this, but over the last few years we’ve been managed by people who are more concerned with meaningless ideological stupidity than making sure that the place (and the people) are looked after properly. Oh well. Hopefully things will change soon.

Harrogate is wonderful

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We could have done with some clouds to make the sky more interesting..

Harrogate is a wonderful place. Not just because of Bettys, or the fantastic game shop but because of the amazing park that runs alongside the town. It has everything you might want for fun, especially if you are six years and six months old (or thereabouts). There’s a zipwire, crazy golf and somewhere that sells ice creams. Plus a padding pool if you’re feeling brave and have a towel with you. We had a very happy time there today. And we’ll be back.

There are a lot of different makes of trees in this picture

Too big to post

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I’m selling stuff on eBay to fund my camera habit. The rule is that if I haven’t touched the device for a year it is fair game for sale. I guess the same rule will kick in when I’ve had the cameras I’m buying for a year or so……

Somebody has bought one of my music machines. So I carefully packed the device up in a box, stuck the labels on it and headed for the Post Office. To be told the box was too big for the service I wanted to use. The limit is 60cm. My box was 61. So, anyone out and about in our neighbourhood this lunchtime will have seen a tall, cross chap walking around with a large parcel muttering under his breath.

Of course, like most of my problems, it’s all down to my laziness. Rather than make the box fit the size of the thing being posted I instead used one which was too big and filled the space with packing material. I called this the “Amazon approach”. And laziness part 2 - not checking the maximum package size - guaranteed that I was going to be making multiple trips to the Post Office.

The solution was brutal and quick. I hacked the end off the box, cut out a chunk of cardboard and stuck it back on again. Size now down to 56cm. The box is now on its way, and I’ve got enough to pay for the cameras I shouldn’t have bought…..

Shameful garage

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No hot water this morning. Nothing says “welcome to the new day” like a cold shower. The boiler is showing a fault code, which in a way is a good thing for me because it means the problem is now out of my hands. And probably not my fault. Although it might of course be very expensive.

We called the plumber and he came round this afternoon, took one look at the huge mess in the garage and told us that he couldn’t really do anything because he needed to be able to get close to the patient without having to hack his way through heaps of stuff. Fair comment. I’ve spent the afternoon clearing a path and sauntering down memory lane. He’s coming back tomorrow.

Ebay Bargains from Rob

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I took this with a camera I’ve just bought….

In a vain attempt to get in some cash to pay for all the cameras that I seem to have bought over the last six months I’ve put a few things on ebay. The way I see it, I’m getting paid to make space in the cupboards. Win win. Although I will miss some of them a bit.

Every item will be perfectly packed and promptly posted.

Pardon?

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If you are wondering why I’ve put a picture of York city centre in a post about earwax, you have to ask yourslef what you would rather have a picture of…

I’ve been deaf in one ear for the last couple of days. The problems started when I was proving my manliness by going on the big water slides while on holiday. As a result I got a lot of water in my ears. Normally this disappears after a while. You get a warm feeling down the side of your head as half a pint of chlorinated water runs out of your ear into your collar and you get your hearing back with a pop and a gurgle.

Not for me this time though. My left ear was completely broken. I think a sudden inrush of water had forced a bunch of wax up into the ear and blocked it. In the long term I suppose this would save money on headphones and give me the perfect way of ignoring things I didn’t want to hear (which I have apparently been doing for ages). But I really wanted to go back to the stereo lifestyle and so today I tootled down to a place in Cottingham to have someone look into the problem. The process started with an examination of the working ear, which was completely clear. The broken one however, was very blocked. Ear wax removal involves using a funky sucking thing to gently remove the wax. My wax was apparently very sticky and it took several goes, plus some rinsing with another funky device, to get it all out. The sounds I heard during this process were awesome.

I was tempted to ask if they would do the job for half price, what with them only having to work on one ear, but in the end I was so pleased to get my proper hearing back that I paid up and left very happy.