Other What's ruining your life right now?

Good Luck mate, give it all you can

Not feeling great myself, having picked up a chest infection on the last day of my holiday and had the most horrendous journey home from Heathrow.
Got to the M25 / M3 interchange, which was marked down to 1 lane for road works to find that the M3 was shut from the M25 to M4 with no proper warning.
Followed the signposted diversion rather than following my instinct and diverting to the A3, and found myself on the M3 heading into London, completely in the wrong direction. First place to turn round was the Sunbury roundabout with a 1 mile queue to it, (at 8.30pm on a Tuesday....), should have gone in further and turned round

Back on M3 Southbound, off onto the M25, followed the markeddiversion; which, Bu**er Me, took me back to Sunbury FFS.

So, round again and back to the M25; 40 extra miles and 90 wasted minutes later, I was on track on the A3 southbound.
I'll be emailing the Highways Agency about this, the signage was so misleading...Grrt /rant

 

Good luck CM. Hope it all goes well

 

Snapped a ratchet tool, bolts allegedly only done up to 40nm (so the manual says) clearly its been done somewhat more.

 

Result! Good work. Good luck with the next stage

 

EDIT: Don't reply to posts without reading the rest of the thread...

Congrats man, good luck

 

Damn! Missed the religious loony thread on Sunday, in "Serious".

 

Error on the dash popped up basically I need to take the wheel off and replace the indicator stalk, literally a ten minute job. Airbag released fine, found the bolt got an 8mm allen key, slow in, twist, not budging, OK. Bit harder, nope.

Bolts meant to be done up to 40Nm torque, I snapped a ratchet trying to remove it. Manned up went for three foot breaker bar with socket. Bolts not moved but the head is now mangled.
Appears at some point someones decided to use an impact gun to tighten it up. brilliant!
Thankfully its not raining as the problem is I cant activate the wipers, so £10 for a new bolt and a few hours work with a friend this weekend to basically cut the bolt off.

 

Good luck with the interview, sometimes it's when you feel your worst , you shine.

 

My Millie has been at it again,last night she bought in this bird dropped it in the living room and then came and asked me for her tea. When I turned to look for her she was beside a chair playing with the little thing.
Unlike the last one it it did not fly away when I released though it's wings seem undamaged.
So found a box, thanks Amazon, cut a couple of silicon cake things down, added water and a bit of bread and will check on it tomorrow when hopefully it will be able to fly away.


Edit:
It is with great sadness that I report that the little bird did not make it. Actually bought a lump to my throat when I opened the box this morning to find the lifeless body.
I have no issue with cats/Millie killing but I do not like the cruelty that they can display towards their prey.
As this is not the first live bird and I doubt the last I am going to make inquiries at suitable bodies to see if there is not something more I could do to give the birds a better chance of survival, in saying that the last one I caught flew away when I released it back outside.

 

Unfortunately the shock tends to do for them even if they're not badly injured. The playing with prey is definitely my least favourite thing about cats.

Not much that can be done about it, other than keeping your cat in (especially at dawn and dusk). I don't agree with collars for cats, but if you're minded to put a collar on your cat, a bell does help give the birds and mice a chance.

 

I could not keep her in and as for a collar with a bell, I had another cat that used to have this and it did not hinder his hunting abilities in the slightest. As for Millie she would have the collar off before she got through the cat flap.
Bugger brought in another bird this morning at least this one was dead.

 

Yeah, our cats have never worn collars as they simply couldn't abide them, plus there's the risk of them getting caught up in them when outside.

Keeping a cat in the house isn't great, but you could try restricting her hunting hours - dawn and dusk are prime hunting time, so perhaps keeping her in then might help.

 

Millie comes and goes as she pleases but oddly she does her best hunting outwith dawn/dusk so it looks like I will need to put up with her behaviour.

 

Proper cat collars have an elastic section for exactly this reason. They should be fitted loose enough that you can slide 2 fingers between the collar & the cat's neck without hurting the cat. This way, should the collar catch on a branch etc, the cat can wriggle free of it safely.

One of the best tips I've seen to stop cats & squirrels climbing onto bird tables is to fit a metal Slinky spring around the post. When they grab it, they're lowered gently to the ground.

 

Domestic cats are the most successful hunters out of all of the cats. Something like a 90% success rate.

She's bringing it to you because you've fed her. I've seen barn cats in the USA and trust me, they don't bring you anything I've seen them swallow mice whole.

You can't stop it man it's her instinct.

 

I am currently lying in bed unable to move without excruciating pain caused by my back injury. I tried to get up a few hours ago to have a shower and get dressed; made it as far as the door then collapsed and it took me 15 minutes to get back into bed. It's been a **** week.

 

I am not looking to stop it as the only way to so would be to confine her which is an absolute no no.

I have arthritis in my lower back and left hip and every now and then it decides to show me who is boss. Unfortunately with a partner who is even less mobile I am afraid I have to break out the walking stick and pretty much get on with it. So know where you are coming from.
Hope you recover quickly.

 

The best domesticated cats at hunting are Siamese. Our first one, Savannah was a master at it, anything that moved she'd have it. Doves, Pigeons, Magpies (yes you read that right) Crows, Jack Dawes, Mice - the only thing she didn't catch was rats !

The new cat, Spirit (also Siamese) is also just as adept at hunting - brought us in a mouse last week, I know its still living as its now running around under the kitchen units where we can't get at it ! My Dad tried to rescue it and failed - clearly she was only in the mood for doing half the job.

 

My F1 bengal took down a turkey buzzard (vulture). Probably about twice the size of a Siamese

He used to drag raccoons into the garage as well lol. When he left you a pressie it was usually massive.