The good morning, good night thread

[Pharosian]

fnord, sorry to hear that you're physically, mentally, and physically scarred... but whatever possessed you to volunteer for a 14-hour shift? I'm pretty sure it's not legal for an employer to *require* that kind of workload... I've waited tables before and I know what a toll it takes on the feet. My sympathies.

[Ed]

They can't forcibly disconnect it, even if it's immediately dangerous, Delph. A gas engineer can advise you that's it's unsafe and ask your permission to disconnect, but that's the limit. They also cannot force you to bring an old installation up to current standards, so all that crap about an inspection hatch is pure BS. And five hours to change a heat exchanger -- WTF? I think you gave them too many cups of tea

fnord -- ouch. Fourteen hours serving is a damn hard day. I don't envy you at all

[marc_chagall]

The bumph says, "From 1st January 2013, gas engineers will be required by law to be able to see the flue to inspect it. Unless inspection hatches are fitted, they will not be able to confirm that your flue is safe and will have to turn the boiler off... If you do not meet this deadline, your gas engineer will have to turn the boiler off... From 1st January 2013, any registered gas engineer will be required by law to turn the boiler off and formally advise you not to use it until inspection hatches have been fitted in appropiate places" etc etc. Sounds like they really mean it. They also say that in the meantime, I must get a carbon monoxide alarm. I never use one in the kitchen (where the boiler is) for the same reason I don't use a smoke alarm in there - as I cook on gas, it would probably be going off all the time. Ho hum.

In the meantime, I see they've kindly left the old heat exchanger in my back yard. I can't use it as a plant pot. I can't sit on it. Not quite sure what to do with it... do such things have scrap metal value? Rag and bone man would probably take it if I can catch him, I suppose. I'm certainly not going to pay the council to take it away.

[fnord33]

fnord, sorry to hear that you're physically, mentally, and physically scarred... but whatever possessed you to volunteer for a 14-hour shift? I'm pretty sure it's not legal for an employer to *require* that kind of workload... I've waited tables before and I know what a toll it takes on the feet. My sympathies.

There was nothing voluntary about it. The job sucks so bad they can't stay fully staffed. Everybody worked a double yesterday. As for the legality of forcing people to work 14 hours without a break, I don't know. I think all those worker protections laws have been loop-holed out of existence for non-union employees. Tipped employees need to form a union. I don't know why we haven't yet. We get paid 2.13 an hour to pretend to be slaves for the management and the diners. We don't get benefits, so when the job gives us tendonitis, sciatica, shin splints, arthritis, fallen arches, etc... we can't even go to the doctor. Maybe Michael Moore will do a documentary about us some day. 

Putting my soap box away now.

On an unrelated note, the compressor on by new (refurbished) air conditioner just went out. I've only had it for three months. My A/C guy is looking for another one. In the meantime, I think I'll be spending a lot of time out of the house.       

[Ed]

The bumph says, "From 1st January 2013, gas engineers will be required by law to be able to see the flue to inspect it. Unless inspection hatches are fitted, they will not be able to confirm that your flue is safe and will have to turn the boiler off... If you do not meet this deadline, your gas engineer will have to turn the boiler off... From 1st January 2013, any registered gas engineer will be required by law to turn the boiler off and formally advise you not to use it until inspection hatches have been fitted in appropiate places" etc etc. Sounds like they really mean it. They also say that in the meantime, I must get a carbon monoxide alarm. I never use one in the kitchen (where the boiler is) for the same reason I don't use a smoke alarm in there - as I cook on gas, it would probably be going off all the time. Ho hum.

Note they say they'll turn it off (not disconnect it) and advise you not to use it -- they can't disconnect without your permission, so they turn it off, and then you turn it back on if you want to. They can't force you to do anything. This sounds a lot like British Gas. They carry on like they can do whatever they want, but they can't. It really is a bad idea to have a flue running through a space where you can't inspect it, though. I wouldn't sign off on it even without the legislation in place, not without inspecting the condition of the flue throughout its route.

In the meantime, I see they've kindly left the old heat exchanger in my back yard. I can't use it as a plant pot. I can't sit on it. Not quite sure what to do with it... do such things have scrap metal value? Rag and bone man would probably take it if I can catch him, I suppose. I'm certainly not going to pay the council to take it away.

Yes, the price of scrap is very high at the moment. You should get a few quid for it, or at least get it carted away for free. Copper is at about £6 a kilo, so I would guess cast iron would be at least a quid a kilo.

[marc_chagall]

Thanks Ed. Useful info.

The flue runs behind panels in the kitchen which are screwed to the wall so easy enough to remove for inspection purposes, I would have thought. The kitchen's single storey, with a pitched roof, so the flue then runs through the attic space which has access through a hatch, so again, it can be inspected, even if somewhat uncomfortably for excessively large heating engineers. However, British Gas is British Gas... if I'm going to stick to their service plan, I'll have to stick to their rules, and to be fair, they're very quick at coming out and fixing problems when stuff goes wrong, so I probably will.

[Ed]

Sounds like good enough access to me, Delph, but yeah, if it gives you peace of mind that they're not going to kick-up next time, then it's worth doing. British Gas engineers are a complete nightmare. Everything you would expect from the spawn of a huge and ancient bureaucracy. They drive me crazy

In other news, as I previously reported, by youngest son has two piano lessons booked next week with two new teachers. Not previously reported, however -- tonight he broke his left arm on a friend's trampoline, so that's that knackered for a few weeks. He's also right in the middle of his SATs, with two more days of exams to sit. I'm guessing he'll find the arm a distraction because it'll be painful? I don't know, because I've never broken anything (not yet, but now I've gone and written it down).

[marc_chagall]

So long as it's a simple fracture, it shouldn't be giving him too much trouble, I wouldn't have thought. I remember my brother breaking his arm by putting it through a window as a child. The plaster cast was an inconvenience and he had to cancel piano lessons for a while, of course, but that was about it.

Multiple and serious fractures on the other hand can drive you psychotic. *speaking from experience*  

[Rev. Austin]

Like an idiot, I accidentally deleted the original file for one of the anthologies I'm editing so now I've got to copy and paste from the pdf and reformat the whole bloody thing  what a wally! 

In other news, I'm trying to find a birthday pressie for my mum - can any of you fine folks recommend any authors who're like James Patterson or Nora Roberts?  I'd like to get her something different to read but along the same lines as these chumps. 

I'm also super busy practicing with one of the three(!!!) bands I'm in, because we're going to be rocking and rolling live on BBC Radio Humberside next Sunday!  Woop! 

[jingold]

Has she tried JD Robb?  That's Nora Roberts' pen name for her futuristic police procedural series.  Naked in Death is the first in the series.  Might be worth a try.

I haven't read them, BTW, so no promises on quality.   

[notsoscarey]

Sorry I've been absent so long--I get in my groove of just checking one forum and all else falls apart.  Please forgive me!     Let's see...I've been writing like a fiend and even subbed the story I wrote for the 6th Anniversary comp to an anthology.  Just waiting to see if the editor liked it.  *fingers crossed* 

[jsorensen]

@Rev--maybe Janet Evanovich?  My wife likes her stuff--some detective/humor mix genre stuff...

@notsoscary--welcome back...nice to hear that the writing for you is in full swing...good luck with your sub...

[Pharosian]

In other news, I'm trying to find a birthday pressie for my mum - can any of you fine folks recommend any authors who're like James Patterson or Nora Roberts?  I'd like to get her something different to read but along the same lines as these chumps. 

Has she tried JD Robb?  That's Nora Roberts' pen name for her futuristic police procedural series.  Naked in Death is the first in the series.  Might be worth a try.

I haven't read them, BTW, so no promises on quality.   

That's a really good idea, jingold! I've read about 20 of them, and I think they're terrific! The characters are really well done. Each has his or her own personality, motivation, outlook, appearance... there's nothing cookie-cutter or cardboard about them, and layers of their personalities are revealed throughout the series. I recommend them highly!

While each book can be read on its own, I strongly suggest reading them in order due to the unfolding nature of the relationship between/among the main (and even some of the minor) characters.

[marc_chagall]

Went to the DLI museum in Durham last night, where they had the selected entries and winners from the Jerwood Drawing Prize. Some stunningly good work. Some... hmm. The winner received £6000 for a piece that was interesting and attractive but not a spot either creatively or technically, in my view, on some of the other entries. The one that really took the biscuit, however, was the second prize winner. £3000 pounds prize for an tatty wooden table with some ring marks left on the top from too hot drinks. Not a drawing of the table; the table itself, the marks no doubt being the 'drawing' element.

Now, there's the old joke: how many contemporary art gallery visitors does it take to change a lightbulb? Two - one to change the lightbulb, one to say, 'My four year old could've done that.'

My husband was incensed by the table. He could've done it. Easily. Anyone could've done it.

But 'anybody' didn't. An artist did and submitted it and won £3000 for her trouble. Anyone else could have. They didn't.

[delboy]

But 'anybody' didn't. An artist did and submitted it and won £3000 for her trouble. Anyone else could have. They didn't

But if anybody could, maybe they did. If you were only looking at selected entries and winners, there might well have been hundreds of similar entries by creative anybodies. It would be interesting to understand what elevated the ringed table to winning status in the eyes of the judges compared to other entries.