Since I have a few quiet days, and it really is getting pretty warm out in the garden, I am having a few sessions on the Dining Room table, rolling dice and seeing how some rules scribblings shape up. This week's mission is to add a set of tweaks to my WSS rules to make them work for the ECW. Things are going all right at the moment.
I was out this morning at 06:30, to water our new plants. There is no immediate likelihood of a hosepipe ban here - this county has more than enough water, but I like to get it done early just to be on the safe side, in case the environmental vigilantes are on the prowl. The timing also allows me to go outside in pyjamas and dressing gown (and straw hat, and gardening boots) - one does not have to look one's best. At that time of the morning, I can also enjoy the singing of the blackbird and the song thrush in residence, since they sit on top of the tallest tree on the other side of the lane and attempt to shout each other down. Excellent.
***** Late Edit *****
Completely separate topic - I've been looking at some specifications for a possible new car, and am keen to make sure that the luggage carrying capacity is better than my current vehicle. I'll certainly find some more details online, so am not unduly concerned, but I am astounded that the manufacturer specifies the capacity of the boot (trunk) in litres. Interesting.
Two obvious questions present themselves:
(1) What possible use is this? Unless I convert my luggage into a liquid, and pump it aboard, I can't see that such a figure helps very much.
(2) What on earth do they think their customers intend to carry?
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Re the capacity of the car boot, apparently liters are more intuitive and a better representation of the relative size of an irregular shape than cubic meters are.....Google it for more detail, that is what I did !
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm obliged to accept this, though the "intuitive" bit is maybe stretching it a bit. Right, I think to myself, can I get my bicycle into the back of my car? Well, obviously it depends how many litres the bicycle is. My junior science classes taught me that I only have to dip the bicycle in a handy pond, measure how much less it weighs, and the difference is the weight of the volume of water displaced (at 1Kg per litre - thank you, Dr Bryant). That is the volume of the bicycle. Now we're getting somewhere...
DeleteThere is still a need for some maximum linear dimensions as well, I think, but this could keep me busy for hours.
I was once buying a garden trampoline and got the young man in the shop to carry the large package out to my modest family car, a Ford Focus. The young man expressed doubt that the long package would fit inside, but I assured him that I was confident that no manufacturer of garden trampolines could survive unless the trampolines fitted, in packed state, into a Focus. We opened the back and it transpired that one rear seat could be folded down, creating a space into which the width of the trampoline just fitted, by millimetres, while its length occupied, to my vindication, very fully, the length of the space from the back of the driver's seat to the inside face of the tailgate.
DeleteThere you are, you see. In a sensible world, the advertising for the Focus would have proudly claimed that the luggage accommodation could handle a trampoline - everyone would find that helpful.
DeleteOn the thread of spaces which can be readily understood, I received an email last night which claims that 4 traditional British house-bricks occupy 5 litres - that sounds OK, though they would not be very handy things to keep around for measuring purposes. I have heard people, when asked for an estimate of how large something is, say "like a shoe-box", or (long ago) "like a pound of margarine". A more recent example, in discussion with (or about) couriers, referred to a package as being "capable of being delivered through a house letter-box", though that might, I suppose, get us into problems with a vaulting pole. It is tricky, I can see that.
One personal requirement from me is that it would great if my wargame boards could be transported in my next car. For a while I had a Renault Traffic van, which could handle this very nicely, but had some other shortcomings as a people transporter [don't arrive at the theatre in a van, unless you are the lighting man].
Sweet peas always remind me of my grandfather (and Dahlias), he was a very keen gardener (and smoker). I like roses and fuchsias - loads of flowers for your efforts.
ReplyDeleteWhen booking my flight to Edinburgh my luggage allowance was in litres too - although they did have a link to a handy guide that provided measurements. Why I had to follow this when they could have told me that in the first place is one of the wonders of the modern age.
Roses are a lot of work, man, but they are lovely. They remind me of my dad, who spent many stressful years engaged in biological warfare against greenfly.
DeleteNow that I have become Organised, I store my WSS soldiers in stacks of 4-litre Really Useful Boxes - the going rate is 6 units to a box, though there's a lot of air in there, of course. I also have a long history of cleaning and stripping old figures in big coffee jars, or ice-cream tubs (2-litre, plastic). So maybe it is logical to measure my armies in pints.
The airlines are heavily into linear dimensions too - you try telling them that your vaulting pole is only 4 litres, and their response will start with "well, yes, but...". And, if they are Ryanair, they will fine you €50 cash on the spot for speaking out of turn. Are you sure the airline wasn't just limiting how many bottles you could take with you?
I am sure the airline is not still dwelling on my last multi litre bottles saga. I mean I could still stand when I got off the plane (albeit with the help of those two very nice Security Guards).
DeleteMatt - I was hoping this would not come up. As I think I am on record as saying, I feel this whole incident was not helped by insensitive reporting. I believe there is nothing intrinsically political about wearing an ostrich costume during Ramadan, and would be very pleased to believe that nothing further will be heard of the matter [by the way, where the heck did you get it?].
DeleteLet us agree that we shall say nothing more about the issue - no-one will ever know. I have your back, brother.
Thanks for covering my back Sir - the sign of a true gentleman.
DeleteI would also appreciate that if by chance some hack journalist contacts you about the (alleged) misappropriation of the opening day promotional costume for "The Happy Ostrich Tapas and Nacho Bar" that you handle it with the same sensitivity. Thank you.
Nice to see more of your garden pictures Tony. It seems you and I have similar ideas about what to wear early in the garden, although down here I can dispense with the dressing gown. Once upon a time I would have wondered what the neighbours would think but now I don't care. The head gardener here has managed to achieve a great deal of colour this year and we are blessed with a great many butterflies.
ReplyDeleteHi Jim - good to hear from you. Before the big hedge on the southern side of the garden blew down in Storm Babet (Oct '23), no-one could see into our garden, so I still feel a little exposed from that direction.
DeleteIt's more than likely that my neighbours wouldn't notice if I wore something completely illegal - if they did, they would just nod knowingly. We now have a big gap on the western side as well, where the last of the juniper trees came down in December, until the new bit of the beech hedge thickens up. In passing (literally? two senses?), yesterday morning a girl from the stables paused in the lane, right outside our gate, while her horse dropped a mighty load - the load was about 15" high, and I would not like to estimate its bulk in litres. In a hot, dry spell, this is far from ideal, since it will get spattered about and also a lot of it will end up inside our mudguards, which is not recommended on a hot day. Thus I dug out the old shovel, and went outside and cleared it into the bushes opposite, and hosed down the roadway (and the shovel). I admit that I had put on some proper gardening clothes beforehand. There are limits.
It looks like a terrific summer for plants - especially weeds, by the way - but some rain about once a week would be welcome. Cloudy here today, and quite a bit cooler thus far, but still no rain forecast.