75ZT Community

Yes remember the plank used to go about once every six months with my grandad, our local barber Paul bayliss he won the lottery and gave it up, then bought two female hairdresser shops and ran those instead, left his wife and lived with one of the female hairdressers he is still running them now he's in his early 90's now, but lives on his own see him go to the local pub everyday, and driving the Jag he bought himself with his winnings.

Don't remember a plank but do recall a cushion or two being used for us little ones, also a cut-throat razor to shave the back of the neck after a quick sharpen on a leather strop. Our trip to the Barber was once a year, mum would keep us trimmed otherwise and I seem to have a recollection of a basin being used at times.

takestock wrote:Anyone remember the plank of wood across the armrests of the chair to sit on

Yes. And a funny smell from the heater in the middle of the floor.

That was before, in order to save money, Mum got hair cutting equipment, and did ours at home. There was a particular implement known as a hair thinner. Basically a razor blade in a comb. It was supposed to thin the hair by cutting it with the blade, but actually seemed to work by tearing hair out. I can still feel the pain. TBF she got quite good using the scissors. If as I'm clearing their apartment, I find the kit, that hair thinner is going to get smashed with the biggest hammer I have. Then burned as well.

Duncan wrote:

takestock wrote:Anyone remember the plank of wood across the armrests of the chair to sit on

Yes. And a funny smell from the heater in the middle of the floor.

That was before, in order to save money, Mum got hair cutting equipment, and did ours at home. There was a particular implement known as a hair thinner. Basically a razor blade in a comb. It was supposed to thin the hair by cutting it with the blade, but actually seemed to work by tearing hair out. I can still feel the pain. TBF she got quite good using the scissors. If as I'm clearing their apartment, I find the kit, that hair thinner is going to get smashed with the biggest hammer I have. Then burned as well.

I was just thinking, my mother bought one of those hair thinners, as well. It was like an implement of torture. It was a cream colour and double-ended. I must ask my siblings if they know what happened to it.

daveo138 wrote:I was just thinking, my mother bought one of those hair thinners, as well. It was like an implement of torture. It was a cream colour and double-ended. I must ask my siblings if they know what happened to it.

And you know what, they STILL sell the things. £8 from Amazon.

For once, a succesful day. Fixed something. Tap in the bathroom had quite suddenly started dribbling instead of a decent flow. Suspected the aerator was gunked up, but even when removed still the same. Affected hot and cold the same too. Took the cartridge out and found debris, which I suspect had got stuck between the cartridge and the outlet to the spout. Whatever, clearing it out restored floe again. And amazingly, the valves weren't stuck and the tap came apart without drama!

The last time I had to fit some new tap valves, I had to use a wiper arm puller to remove the tap handles.

daveo138 wrote:The last time I had to fit some new tap valves, I had to use a wiper arm puller to remove the tap handles.

Yeah, I was kind of worried about that. Luckily, none of that. One thing worth mentioning, a problem I've encountered over years, is trying to get the valve out of a 'normal' tap to replace the rubber washer or similar. Trying to make sure the tap itself stays still while turning the valve is tricky. Last time I had to do it was on the MILs (sadly after she was gone) tap. Had seen a product on Dragons Den that adressed the problem. Barely more than £20. Used only once (so far) and reduced the stress so much.

Sitting watching the different TV news channels covering the expected return of the Artemis-2 astronauts. Doubt that I'll be able to stay up to watch their reentry ~ 01:07hrs as I'm struggling to stay awake atm with still ~ 1.5hrs to go. I wish them well but fear for their safety, and not without good reason. The heat resistance tiles are not fit for purpose, they were found to be failing on Artemis-1 and NASA has kept them for the current Artemis-2. The reentry profile has been tweaked to try to mitigate against the problem but it is not a proper fix and using a crewed mission to test it is not what I would expect. Very surprised that NASA signed off the mission with this known problem given the issues found in the past with its risk-assessment and decision-making processes.

personally i think it is all a big con, why as it taken so long to land back on the moon with the amount of tech they have now compared to the 1960's even looking at the re-entry bit convenient that they have a 6 minute black out and with the powerful cameras about today why can they not track and film it coming back down, they managed to film Princess Diana from two miles away at times.

The capsule was most likely dropped out of one of those massive aeroplane to move tanks and the like about and at the end of the day what is is going to achieve for mankind, money that could be spent better helping us now while we are still here.

Well, I managed to stay up to watch the splashdown. Pleased they made it ok and there are some good pics of the event in the following link here: NASA

I have only a passing interest in these matters so know nothing, nothing at all. Re the comms blackout, at cruising altitude and speed Concorde would be doing ~ 1350mph. In that environment the outside air temp would be -40c to -70c but because of the air friction the surface temp of the wings would be ~ +100c. The nose temp would be a little higher still at ~ +127c. I mention that to give something to compare with the figures for Artemis-2 which on reentry came screaming in at ~ 25,000mph. The air cannot part when hit with that speed so it compresses and the compression causes heat and friction. The heat is so great at ~ +2700c (~ half the temp of the Sun's surface} that electrons are displaced and ions are formed creating a cloud of plasma which envelopes the crew capsule. Radio waves cannot penetrate it, the phenomena is routinely used by radio hams who bounce transmissions off the Earth's ionosphere.

Edited: Typos corrected.

Today we started rubbing down all the paint work ready to take it's first undercoat before we then gloss all the door frames and skirtings, have a feeling it's going to take at least a week to get it all finished, but we are on course to make sure we have a relaxing summer with no jobs to catch up on, a few rain showers here yesterday hoping today will be better.

Well, all systems go here at Stocks towers, Thursday we start our 12 day trip up to the Scottish highlands. A couple of overnight stops before heading for the ferry to take us over on to the Isle of Skye to the Trust property we have for 7 days, I know there is a bridge but ferry is more fun. This culminates with us meeting up with our son and his fiancé to addend his wedding in Scotland. Marina is so excited, new dress, shoes and hat. Me, grumpy as ever and spending time making sure the landrover is prepared for a 1500 mile journey (and over 4 tank fulls of diesel.
Checked sons 30+yr old camper van over as he is proposing to tour Scotland in it for his honeymoon only to find a leaking waterpump due to a collapsed bearing, what a pig of a job on a petrol talbot express as its part of the engine mount. all stripped out and waiting of the arrival of the new one tomorrow so I can fit it before we leave.