Good Morning Monday, 12th January 2026

[Bruce]

Good morning all on another cool overcast day, temperatures only getting into the low 20s, keep hoping for rain but it just refuses to fall.

Was a bit upset this morning because our first Monday coffee and cake morning of 2026 was postponed until next Monday, Upset it a bit too strong, I was just looking forward to it but one of our number was in pain and another hadn’t returned from seeing grandkids. Ho hum…

On my walk recently I spotted a Red-Flowering Gum which was looking really pretty, I meant to put up a photo but forgot. They are like Bottle Brush they look wonderful when in flower but the flowers don’t last that long. Unfortunately my photo doesn’t do it justice it is much brighter than that.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with an eye specialist to decide if I get a cataract or two removed.

Will probably spend some of today in the garden doing some of the jobs the hot weather prevented me getting on with last week.

What are you up to? I hope it has warmed up a bit.

Take care…

[mart]

Good morning - Dull and gloomy this morning but warmer and not raining. I’m going to carry on with the determination to eat and drink more than of late. The GP is making a house call here today. I feel highly honoured

Have a good day

[Graham]

Morning all…

A damp and grey start to the week here on the southern coast of Hampshire. Not a great deal going on here at the moment. A bit of tidying, cleaning and putting some stuff away, that about it. I’m sure something else will turn up, as it aways does. Meanwhile - coffee!

Have a great day all…

[swimfeeders]

Hi

Good Morning All.

I was supposed to have people here yesterday, but they had to miss, they have the bug which is going round locally, so I have things half finished.

A very wet day today, flood warnings already locally, but the snow and ice has gone.

I will be spending the day trying to work out all the different things Alexa can do now it is linked to all my cameras.

Enjoy yourselves and have a safe day.

[OldGreyFox]

Aye Up from South Yorkshire…
An old ailment has returned after I thought I’d got rid of it, so it’s off to the chemist to see if there’s anything I can rub on it…
A nice day for getting the big ladder out and taking down the last of the Christmas light on the gable end, and a drawer to mend after the bottom fell out, and some wires to shorten on the phone in the lounge, Mrs Fox doesn’t like them but Rosie the cat does…

[Rose2]

Good afternoon everyone, lots of sunshine today but absolutely freezing! It was below zero early this morning and still only 3C when I went into town to get my car battery replaced. Such a nuisance, I was just leaving to go to my exercise class this morning, got into the car, turned on the engine and there it was, that horrible “suffering” noise when the battery’s down. Luckily, my son was at home and was able to give me a jump start. The battery had never been replaced before, six years old, so not bad I suppose.

Have a good day everyone.

[OldGreyFox]

In the good old days Rose, cars were fitted with a starting handle, now they’re full of really useful stuff, but none of it works when the battery goes flat, not even the engine…

[swimfeeders]

Hi

Great weren’t they when we were teenagers OGF.

The starting handle and a cheap wreck of a car meant very good biceps.

I have fond memories of them.

They were like a kickstart on a motorbike, you put them in a hole in the bumper and turned the engine by hand, hard work and sometimes they would kick back.

No seat belts in cars at that time, mum and dad in the front, mum holding a baby and the back seat crammed with kids.

There would riots now if you did that but great fun and we survived.

[OldGreyFox]

Absolutely Swim, we used to buy cars for a tenner with a years MOT on them and run them for a year and then sell them. Sometimes we got back more than we paid after a minimum of work.
Parts were courtesy of the local scrap yard, but you had to find the right replacement and dismantle it yourself. I picked up many a mini engine for twenty quid and had it fitted by teatime.
all good fun though and it kept us out of trouble.

[Bruce]

@swimfeeders

The starting handle and a cheap wreck of a car meant very good biceps.

I had a 1963 ex GPO Morris Minor van. the battery packed it in one winter so I just used the starting handle, it was fine except if you stalled at traffic lights then you had to leap out with the handle, start the car leap back in and take off.

@OldGreyFox

Absolutely Swim, we used to buy cars for a tenner with a years MOT on them and run them for a year and then sell them.

Ah! Memories of Tooting Banger Mart.

Actually I bought a Mk10 Jag at an auction for £10 because it had a ding in the door, drove it until the rego ran out then took it to a scrap yard and got a tenner for it.

[swimfeeders]

Hi

Hats off to you and OGF Bruce.

My first car cost £35 , nearly a year MoT and failed the next one, so scrapped.

I was always in trouble with Mum, oil and grease all over the drive and garage.

Different times, decoaking the head was routine, drum brakes and hand painting the car.

I wasn’t ever a great mechanic, but having a car was essential for getting a girl.

The brakes where terrible, all drum brakes and I put shims in to make them better.

So much for that, they were too thick and the brakes kept seizing, took me hours to get back one night and girlfriends Dad was waiting and fuming.

She was hours late home after the agreed time and her dad was huge, very scary.

The joys of youth in those days, so different now.

No throw away society, make do and mend.

Second-hand was the name of the game, get a house and you soon learnt about DIY and painting and decorating etc, etc.

Us oldies still have those skills, we can clear loos, sinks etc etc.

It is magic to them now, same as techie stuff seems magic to me.

How can they text so fast using both thumbs?

The world is so different now, mental arithmetic is weird to them, they have calculators.

We had Log Tables and slide rules in our exams but we weren’t stupid, just different.

I can amaze the 8 and 9 year old kids of my helpers with what I can do in my head and using a few strips and chemicals.

I can also amaze them with how stupid I am with basic techie stuff which they have been used to from a very early age.

Different times, different skills and abilities.

The world has changed and the littlies will lead very different lives to ours.

There are times when I feel very old.

[Bruce]

@swimfeeders

My first car cost £35 , nearly a year MoT and failed the next one, so scrapped.

I was always in trouble with Mum, oil and grease all over the drive and garage.

Different times, decoaking the head was routine, drum brakes and hand painting the car.

I wasn’t ever a great mechanic, but having a car was essential for getting a girl.

The brakes where terrible, all drum brakes and I put shims in to make them better.

Yep, yep, and yep. My first car was a 1947 Hillman Minx, I bought if from a bloke at my work for £10. It was awful but I had a lot of fun in it. Death on wheels.

As you say decoking the damn thing was almost a weekly chore, side valve engine, constantly replacing the head gasket because the space between cylinder 2 and 3 was too small, manual ignition advance.

The brakes were awful, operated by cables, bad adjustment meant only one brake and they were all leading shoes so there was virtually no brakes when in reverse.

Vacuum operated wipers going uphill came to a near stop going downhill threatened to throw the blades off the car.

Solid front axle and kingpins. Dozens of grease points. Wind open leaking front windscreen combined with an ever leaking sunroof

British cars were absolutely the worst in the world. No wonder the Japanese took over!