Thread 16 - TalkLair: "Well, I'm not exactly quaking in my stylish-yet-affordable boots, but there's definitely something unnatural going on here."

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 15).

Another year over, a new one just begun...

In the TalkLair, the hearth is glowing, the walls festooned with tinsel, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors, the tree is twinkling with fairy lights (and possibly being clambered on by cats). The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch though, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics.

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey Christmas roast beast over there in the corner of the cave…

That reminds me, @duc748 ... I still can't remember where I parked your Ferrari, but thanks for the loan anyway.

The AirWrap saga was very odd. Still, a few people got interested in buying an AirWrap as a result so good for Dyson, I suppose.

And, yes, stay safe people in the path of Eowyn!

I've done a garden tidy. Hopefully nothing left to blow around/away. Just pondering whether or not to cancel tomorrow's pilates class, which on current forecast would mean going out at the height of the storm.

That AirWrap story is brilliant. Also mind-boggling at the sheer brass neck of some people! (There was one a few years ago about some stolen designer glasses, very similar. And last week one about a party bag).

Agreed @Kucinghitam . Why on earth would it cross anyone's mind to effectively steal £500 quid's worth of property from somebody who is a friend? Though I guess that kind of CF doesn't really have friends - only exploitees.

I'd never heard of an AirWrap before, so of course, my first thought was, 500 quid for a fucking hair-dryer! 😮

I know! The hair dryer I use is 25 years old, cost about £20, and works fine, it dries my hair and that's all I want it to do. It's also a rather nice shade of dark blue but that's beside the point.

What's meant to be special about an AirWrap?

I suspect the chief selling point is the price: I mean, for £500 it must be something special, right?

I think the AirWrap is about curling hair more than just drying it. No getting round the fact that it’s stupidly expensive though!

Still have power so far, but it's loud out there, and seems to be picking up again.

Half the shed roof has lost its felt, one of the waterbutts is some way down the garden, and there have been at least 2 rooftile-like smashing noises. I am not.going out to investigate those in more detail.

Our weather station also says we've had 44cm.of rain since midnight, but I'm pretty sure that's wrong. I suspect the wind is triggering the rain sensor, which is a sort of bucket-and-seesaw arrangement.

How are things down south, Elderberry?

Skies clearing here in West London, and relatively still - the trees are barely moving. But I was woken up at about 2.30 by a massive gust of wind which actually shook the house.

Sounds scary @NoBinturongsHereMate! I have friends in Belfast, they said the same about it being loud out there but that they still have power.

We're in a Yellow zone and what we seem to be getting is near-stillness interspersed by huge sudden house-shaking gusts every minute or so. I was sort of expecting a more constant wind but it's not like that at all. We're very close to an Amber zone - DCs' school is in it but is open as usual.

It's gusty up here, there was a strong breeze when I took the dog out earlier, but it's since started howling. The sea is getting very big.

All quiet here in the NW. Sunshine and blue skies, although the wind is very gusty. Nothing worse than the cover blew off my bike, as far as I can see,

The solar panels make it louder here, they're rattling and squeaking rather a lot.

Next door had left some washing gout. That's gone, as have 3 of her fence panels. And I've located the landing place of the roof tiles - next door's garden, but could have come from her roof or ours. Next door the other side has lost a section of downpipe.

Breezy but not too breezy here in my bit of suburban north west London. Next door’s wheelie bins were keen to explore the neighbourhood in the night but mostly it was very rainy.

Glad to hear you still have power, Bint, hope it stays that way.

Sympathetic thoughts to all you storm-afflicted people. All is calm over here, sunny and bright on the snow. It's too cold for the snow to melt but we have only had the one five inch fall and all the roads are ploughed and driveways shovelled or ploughed. DH has scattered salt on hours. Because I've been so poorly this month, every time I go out he goes out first and scrapes the windshield for me and makes sure the car is OK. He is a lovely man.

That's ours, not hours! Damn the lack of an edit button on the iPad app.

While next door is being repointed I've been keeping the car in a car park just down the road to keep it away from the cement dust. Moved it back last night because it would be easier to explain to the insurance company if it got squashed under a tree on my drive rather than a random tree elsewhere. Good thing I did move it, otherwise it would have been in this footage. www.facebook.com/share/v/1AtvDZ54A6/

Cripes! That would have been nasty! I was at Morrisons a little while ago and pushing the trolley to the shop was a struggle, the wind kept pushing it sideways. They're mostly holes!

We have a cage that's sits over the blackbird/robin food plate, to keep cats and pigeons off. It's a cube about 18" square made of wire mesh large enough for a blackbird to fit through, so holes a bit over 2" square. I didn't bother moving it when doing my free storm tidy, because it's never shifted - being made up almost entirely of holes. It's tipped over and blown several feet.

The red warning was supposed to end at 2pm. Still quite blowy.

Glad you moved the car, Bint, that was a lucky escape!

Wow Bint! How lucky you moved it!

I hope the storm is easing off by now. It sounds like an actual properly scary one. Storm free here in Worthing.

I think I may have a virus on my laptop. I was searching for something, clicked on a link and it went all "Oh no you don't. Bad virus possible. What have you done you fool!!!" and I keep getting stuff coming up now telling me that I should run antivirus, which then won't run and that someone in Russia is connected to my PC - good luck with that Putin, there's fuck all on it of any interest to anyone and I have bugger all money, so fill your boots. I don't know if I have a virus, am about to have a virus or blah. It's close to reaching the end of its life anyway as everytime I put it to sleep it turns off and when I go to turn it on a get black screen with "hello idiot your battery is fucked and I am about to die, howdya like them apples!" All in all, I have a very unhealthy machine which I'm about to turn off because it's that time of night when bed would be a very good idea indeed.