I don't feel that my washing is really clean until it's been through three downpours - in the winter a good frost is also required. They do say that rainwater is so softening

If you're near a major city, the acid rain will make your clothes look like a swarm of moths have been at them

The Guide Dogs for the Blind charity has today asked me to be in their team for the Brighton Marathon...

I seem to have become obsessed with picking modules, for the second year of a degree I don't know I'm even going to get on to yet, let alone survive the first year....ohhhh dearrrr Must not get heart set on degree, must not get heart set on degree, must not get heart set on degree...is it results day yet?...

Well I'm not, so it won't

I'm rural enough to get away with it thankfully but when I lived in Leeds it was another story..... My mum always rewashed things if they got caught in the rain at all.

I can't actually see my computer properly any more because the sun has got so low, it's streaming through the window and right into my face!

Solari has made 1001 posts since April 28th...is this a record?

Well done anyway Solari!

And about 500 of those were in the last week!

Great minds...I almost put that too!

He doesn't get out much
You don't want to know how many PMs he's sent...

Er... that is crazy.. I must have verbal diarrhoea

FYI I mostly post while I'm at work waiting for tasks to complete... I have a gargantuan project going on at the moment which involves a lot of waiting while the stupid thing recalculates everything when I change stuff I *do* have a very active social life, actually (and a lot of friends who like to get me drunk, despite my protests, obviously!)

So ner!

Just finished packing (at the last minute, typical bloke!) and I'm off shortly

S'ok - we like you really!

Well you can have a break from my nonsense until tomorrow evening anyhow I will resist using the Blackberry to check things I think!

Just waiting for my sister to bring my car back, she stole it for the week and left me with her girlie puma (which I don't want to be seen driving in all honesty as I look ridiculous in it... it's so small, my knees are up by my ears if I try)

Oh, and thanks all for putting up with me

Vaccine injection today
Hope it isn't too bad. The first one wasn't as bad as I thought

Big daughter has finished her GCSEs, so we purge the wardrobe of uniform, and see the empty spaces. Off we go to shop for some clothes and............................we had a nice shopping trip. Really . No arguments.
She chose lovely tops and some white linen trousers after taking on board Gok's idea of black and white with brights. It all goes together and with what she already had (mostly black).
SHe did get a bit cross with me again though I succummed to some very pretty, flowery Doc Martens. Says she won't be seen dead with me if I wear them Bet my Mum won't like them either
LIttle Jen loves them, and Basil grinned.
Bev

FLOWERY Doc Martins?

Wow. I live in my black ones in the winter and although they take ages to get in and out of they make me feel braver walking through a dark churchyard after organ practice!

Flowery ones for summer.....

Braver than me, I run through the churchyard in the winter before/after bell practice...

Is it cerivax? If so, the second one isn't so bad either, imo!

My random thought... I got an electric shock at work today. Was most unpleasant!

I used to (aged 8) have some of those! They were cool, I think I still have them, as I couldn't bare to throw them away! *sighs at now having huge feet*

They make them in size 6, and they are in the sale at Schuh

Aww, just looked them up, and indeed they are exactly like my old ones. Sadly I don't wear leather shoes anymore (become a more strict vegetarian), so will just have to remember them being utterly cool when I used to wear them!

Are you ok?

Jacob.

"van" replaces "cab" in predictive text on a blackberry.

I was out with a friend quite late last night, we went to a great gig and were laughing and meandering our way slowly back to the station - Soho late on a summer's night feels like a great place to be. I get the mainline train home and she gets a tube. But it was quite a long wait for the next train, so I got on the first train to Lewisham intending to get a bus home from there. But I went onto autopilot and forgot to get off at Lewisham. My friend always gets home first and texts me to check I'm home safe, I replied "I'm so stupid, forgot to get off at Lewisham, I'm in the back of a cab now". But cab was replace by van. Frantic texts "what are you doing in the back of a van?! R U OK?".

I'm very lucky to have friends who worry about me.

Miss Ross, the first thing to ask is that you are feeling OK and not suffering from any unusual symptoms?

Secondly I would like to know if it was from the mains electricity or a static electric shock? The latter is unpleasant but rarely injurious if it comes from normal causes, such as brushing your feet over a dry synthetic carpet and then touching some earthed metal.

But an electric shock from the mains is not acceptable under any circumstances. There are rules and standards that cover these, from the design of the equipment to how often it should be tested. If the shock came from a fixed piece of electrical equipment, such as a wall switch, socket, air conditioner (these are examples as you don't say what caused it) then these items are covered by Wiring Rules which apply to all buildings, including homes and places of work. If it came from an appliance that is plugged into a socket (kettle, printer, computer and so on) then these are known as portable appliances and in places of work must be tested every year by an expert using a Portable Appliance Tester (and this process has become known as PAT testing).

If one of these is the case, it is essential you report to your superior that this has happened. Assuming you weren't poking a metal object into something you shouldn't have, it is not your fault that you got a shock. It could happen again, to you or someone else, and next time it could be fatal.

Gerald, I'm ok now but felt very funny for a few hours afterwards. It's a hard feeling to describe.

It was an electric fan... I was putting something on to a shelf near it and was avoiding going to close to it for fear of my hair getting caught up in it (of all things...) But somehow I managed to brush against it and there was a rather ominous 'cracking' sound and I felt really... I don't know, not 'tingly' but more extreme. I got the feeling that if I was to touch my hands together or something it might happen again, which I doubt could happen, but I felt that it was still going through my system, if that makes sense.

Ouch. Glad it's ok now. Hope it doesn't happen again

sorry, double post

I've had quite a few electric shocks... a few years back I was installing a load of power supplies, and despite my colleague telling me he'd turned off the mains, I put my screwdriver on to one of the terminals to unscrew it and got a massive belt. Cue me being sent flying backwards - I didn't speak for hours and went white as a sheet.

Cue my geordie workmate calling me a "soft, southern p**f" for being generally traumatised as that was the biggest belt I'd ever had

My mutti has found facebook, and comments on EVERYTHING

So now I've started posting nasty photos of her on her wall

Oh we do have fun

That's good news, I am glad you are better now. Electric shocks can be a more extreme form of tingling, and they run from the point of contact to the nearest earth. The worst possible case is when it comes in on one hand and goes out on the other, since it has to cross over the heart area. I am not a biologist, but I know many parts of the body function on minute electric currents, which is why when you give them a large one there are often unusual effects that can last a while.

So the thing to do now is get that fan unplugged with the socket switched off and without touching it again until power is removed, and get it PAT tested. If you can't get that done, get it properly scrapped. It really is not worth the risk.



You should consider yourself very lucky for surviving your accident. Nobody should have "quite a few electric shocks" - the first one should always be the last one. Which is another way of saying that if it doesn't kill you, you should make 100% sure the mains is off before touching electricity again.

Haha

My parents don't know I have Facebook

I think it's still possible it was static shock. A fan's blades would generate quit a lot of static when running at speed

If they know who you are on here, they probably do now.

Probably. No harm done this time anyway. Thanks Gerald and fsharpminor for your contributions.

Also, fsharpminor, if you have some sort of problem with me could you please let me know? You seem to be attacking or questioning a lot of my posts at the moment and I don't think I've really done anything to provoke it. Apologies if I have.

I mostly used to work with DC equipment, that was only the 2nd mains shock I'd ever had (the time before the one I mentioned being because of some kit that some idiot had earthed incorrectly)

I get static shocks a *lot* however in my office building. I am convinced that something is wrong with our lifts and am sure they are acting as some sort of giant Van de Graff generator. I keep getting shocks off of them... but seem to be one of a select few that experience this

Mains (Alternating Current AC) and Direct Current (DC) shocks are far more dangerous to the body than static electric shocks. The nature of static electricity is such that it generally exists on the outside of the skin and it is the sudden discharge to earth, usually through painful points such as finger tips which have a high concentration of nerve endings, that causes the sharp pain. It is not normally dangerous to the human body, although it can be painful. The pain does not normally last for too long after the discharge. As fsharpminor has pointed out, static electricity is caused by two surfaces (that have to be made of dissimilar materials) rubbing together. So it is common to cause a build up of static when you slide out of a car seat, which you realise when you hold the door handle to shut the car door. It is also very common in office buildings when you walk over synthetic carpets wearing shoes of a different material (such as leather or plastic), particularly in weather when there is very low humidity content. Lifts can cause static electricity, but generally because nowadays they contain microchips for control purposes, they should be adequately earthed to get rid of the electricity which the lift itself generates. The simplest way to protect yourself against the pain of static electricity is to touch something metal with the fist clenched using one or more knuckles to carry the shock. This works for car doors, the metal plates around lift buttons, and so on.

This does not work for 240 volt mains, or high current DC terminals (note the use of the word current not voltage. High DC voltage is dangerous, but so can the 50 volts used in for example telephone exchanges, since the fuse protecting the battery can allow enough current to flow to kill you with just 50 volts). On no account should current from these sources be discharged to earth using any part of the body, since the current more often than not travels through internal organs and causes irreversible if not fatal damage.

I am so pleased and relieved to read that you are feeling better now, Fiona .

I did BTEC Electrical and Electronic engineering when I did my apprenticeship, but it doesn't help that much when you make assumptions about what other people do or have done! That lesson was well and truly learned years ago Also, you sometimes have no control over something developing a fault - often the first time anyone knows it's faulty is when something goes bang or someone gets zapped!

I've had a couple of ringing current belts as well, seeing as I've mostly worked in telecoms Getting a hit on those old metal tag frames isn't funny as your hand flies away and gets impaled by the metal terminals on the opposite side Asking someone to "hold this", handing them the krone connector plug and then pressing the ring button on the tapper was a common occurence back in my first job (the current would flow across their finger in this case, sadistic sods)!

As for the lifts, I just use my plastic pass I'd already thought that the carpeting in the office could be a problem, but I like the idea of a large VdG generator (I saw the one in Boston Science Museum several years ago... that thing was crazy!!!) - the lifts in this office have had endless problems it seems.

I am a first aider at work, and as part of our training we were told that all mains electric shocks should go to A&E for an ECG. It's most likely not necessary, but it should be done (but bear in mind I am doing the first aid at work course so it is the employer covering themselves in this situation).
The reason given is that an electric shock that goes near the heart can set up an out-of-phase heart rhythm. If you take an ECG, there will be a normal tracing, and a less-powerful version of the same tracing slightly out of step - a sort of 'shadow ECG'. This can just fade away naturally with no problems, but the problem is that if while it is 'wearing out', the shadow ECG and normal ECG cancel one another out - one should be an up and the other a down, and you end up with a flat line...no heart beat.
They did tell us that it is very unlikely, and also that if anything were going to happen it would happen within 24 hours, but that if we ever had to deal with a main electric shock -> ECG required.

Actually, knowing our first aid trainers, they've probably told us the right thing to do, but their reasoning could be thoroughly dubious. They once asked us what was in danger if you had an injury to your left-hand side, and we all muttered 'spleen' and the trainer said 'no, your liver' and proceeded to demonstrate where his liver was on the left side of his body...


Of course, my husband got an electric shock at home once, he told me a day or two later, and laughed at me when I said that if he'd told me at the time I'd've said he needed to go to hospital

I have PM'd you, cannot understand your comment at all !

Im getting close to 5000 posts !

Spammer!

Do you get a prize?

Yes - the disintegration of your real life...

People are funny.
There are quite a few part time people in my office, these people usually arrive after me, and leave before me. So they don't see me in cycle-commuter-garb
Last week there was a meeting, and one lady who is not normally around was around late. On my way out of the office, I went past where her meeting was, and she saw me in silly top and lycra shorts.
She's just come over to talk to me, and ask the inevitable 'do you cycle in then?', to which I once again avoided the temptation to answer 'no, I just dress like a cyclist to confuse people' and told her that I did indeed cycle in, three days a week at the moment, soon to be four days a week (once music lessons stop for the summer hols).
"Oh, so you've moved house then."
"Erm, no."
"But I thought you lived in Stortford...?"
"I do"
*sputter, disbelief, etc*

I still find it amusing that I'm seen as some sort of super-human to be able to even consider cycling to work! Today was even more amusing as the other person lives 10-15 mins walk from the office but she hasn't walked it once in the five years she's lived there and worked here!

thunderstorm + flooding + leather summer shoes + bare feet = blisters

Er, they don't know I'm on here either...

I went to Banks today and bought two publications. Seems a long time since I've done that! Well, on my own, anyway...

Newsflash: Fiona is walking home from work!