Nice People Thread No. 14, all Nice and Proper

bugslet

PN, B&Q do courses, nearest for you is Poole. No nothing more than that, but might be worth investigating.

GDB2222

PasturesNew wrote: »

Actually, I just need a good electric screwdriver to remove/move the latch. But I'd also like to fit the lock I've bought. And to affix the wooden baton securely to the wall (it flaps). And to affix a postbox to the wall or gate.

So general "drilling knowledge and skills".

I'm quite handy with a saw. When I chopped up the sofa I noticed that I was creating straight/clean saw lines very easily. It could even turn out to be a talent I didn't know I had.

But I need guided experience on these sort of skills/tools, to give some confidence.

My current power screwdriver wasn't man enough when I tried to undo the latch screws, it just chewed the bits. I do think that there might be some physical element to it.... e.g. if you lean into/onto the screwdriver then it'll stay in the screw slot, but I lack physical weight/strength for that too.... which could be the real problem and not the screwdriver I was using. Maybe my butt's not big enough for manual labour. Maybe Builders' Bum's a pre-requisite.

Yes, you need to push against the screw head. Stand a bit back, and just lean in.

You need a decent drill driver, not one of those cordless screwdrivers. The latter generally don't have much torque, and they are hard to grip well enough to get some weight behind them.

LydiaJ

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

How about canal tow paths? Not sure how many in London, varies by area... But I'm not well up on London Geography!

A canal tow path come into a subsection of the category of "footpaths" IMO.

GDB2222 wrote: »

This was a one-off spreadsheet that will not be used again. I should add that I did not devise the spreadsheet; I merely amended it a bit. If I had done it from scratch, I would have avoided a formula like that, probably by using a UDF. However, the question remains how best to make complicated spreadsheet formulae easier to understand and check?

At my work, I can write macros for my own personal use, but for anything that's to be used by other people, there's significant pressure to put everything into worksheet functions, however opaque, so that nobody has to click "enable macros" and IT can feel happy that nobody's messing with the security settings. My automated system for setting up spreadsheets for internal exams has plenty of VBA, but it has to come with special instructions to tell users to enable macros. Everything else I do with VBA doesn't get used by anybody other than me, so I can just make them all trusted documents and code (with comments) to my heart's content.

Spirit_2

Doozergirl; We have spent much of our married life watching things fall into disrepair and then moaning when they cause further damage. In the last couple of years we have had a LBM and surprise surprise , it results in no or less damage. You don't need Doozer when its windy you need him to repair or remove broken items when he is there and able to do so.

vivatifosi

If you are wondering, could you look out through an upstairs window? It's normally easy to see whether it's police this time of day as when they hover they have search lights on.

Have you checked Twitter?

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've had a (police?) helicopter hovering over/around the house for the last 15 minutes. It's quite high, but audible.

There used to be a website where you could look up why they were up there, but that seems to have stopped 2+ years ago.

I'd like to know if they were looking for a missing person, a stolen car ... or 3 men with a gun that'd robbed a local bookies

Round here it would be all over the local facebook groups in minutes.

This morning a house that was in the middle of having a replacement roof fitted had a fire, from facebook I gleaned that the family were safe, all their names, the names of their neighbours, the name of the dog (also safe), that the fire was probably caused by the storms breaking the protective sheets covering the roof, water getting in and the electrics shorting.

Spirit_2

One of the things I don't miss is the commute to work. Winter journeys were frequently grim, sat on the M27 or gridlocked on nearby roads. A 50 minute commute regularly took 90 to 120 minutes.

The local hazard is fallen trees and branches.

We are in staying in London on Friday night, will drive up. We are staying very centrally but will take cab to Royal Albert Hall Friday night and walk around shopping on Saturday. Will dress up warm as I have just seen the forecast Lots of warm clothes, but more suited for rural life.

Loanranger

PN, would YouTube be any help to show you how to do those jobs you want to do? I have only ever wielded an electric drill once in my life and that was 25 years ago so I know the issue is maybe lack of confidence bordering on fear of the unknown but, actually, you are in charge of the tool and not t'other way round. That's what I told myself when I drilled that hole 25 years ago.

Loanranger

I understand exactly what you mean. It was just a thought.
I once foolishly bought one of those exercise vids in the 80s, Jane Fonda or some such lovely but I couldn't figure out how to watch her AND do the moves simultaneously.EDIT: Blimey that sounds leery!!!!

GDB2222

PasturesNew wrote: »

Sadly, no. I am inept and my learning style isn't suited to Youtube. I need to see it being done, then try it while being watched, then listen to what I am doing wrong and understand it, then do it more correctly while being watched, then do it a few times.

Youtube only works if, having watched it, you do exactly what they did - and you might not notice something really, really important.

I need to be watched/corrected.

I also have a fear of electrical things, things that could hurt me and things going catastrophically wrong

The trouble is that that falls down because there are no classes available. Could you possibly get some scrap timber and practice on that? That really limits the opportunity for catastrophe. Otherwise, you are stuck in this impossible situation where your side door doesn't work, but you can't fix it, and nothing changes.