Yup, online as of about 40 minutes ago. More news in the morning.

Technorati Tags: google street view

The 80s music on the Drench advert, where a goldfish picks out the location of a ball in a cup, is called “Push it To the Limit”, by Paul Engemann. Although the advert is only a few seconds long, you may recognise it from the soundtrack of Scarface, and of course, GTA 3, as part of Flashback FM. In fact, all of the Flashback FM tracks are from Scarface.

I do like the Scarface soundtrack, and it’s so long since I’ve played it. On it goes.

In other news, at 16:29 today, the Revo Dalek which had been salvaged from Lancaster Road, received its first power in its new home, with help from a gear tray supplied by Andy The Iridium Fan. This is also the first time in my entire life that I’d lit a SOX (low pressure sodium) lantern. I took a photo at the immediate time of switch-on, but the floor in the living room was a mess so none of you will ever get to see it. To me, however, it was a groundbreaking moment.

Technorati Tags: advert, drench, low pressure sodium, Music, revo dalek, scarface, sox, streetlight

Unfortunately, for the majority of you readers, “getting back in the habit” referrs to the following ramble about the removal of some of Hartlepool’s oldest streetlights. I know by the time you’ve reached the end of this sentence, most of you will have clicked the back button, or at least started looking at something other than the text that fills your screen, but it’s the sad announcement that the Revo Daleks are now almost extinct in Hartlepool.

The Revo Dalek, is not a pretty lantern. In fact, as a child, I always thought there was something wrong with it. I have distinct memories of travelling down Lancaster Road as a mere infant, looking up at these oddly shaped lanterns, and saying to my late mother that “its chips are hanging out”. Chips, referring to integrated circuits, as I assumed that a streetlight consists of more than a bulb, ballast, ignitor and switch. Clearly, my childhood presumption was wrong, as they survived for around another 25 years.

But seriously, these particular lanterns remained a bit of a mystery. Even as a child, I could tell they were absolutely ancient, and as I learned more about streetlighting, I learned more about them. I’m sure I photographed an example, and posted the images to the StreetlightingUK mailing list, where the lantern was identified.

The Revo Dalek, isn’t its official name. In fact, it got the name “Dalek” because of the dimples on the side of its bowl resembling those of a Dalek from Dr. Who. As I’ve only ever seen one episode of the afore mentioned televisual presentation in its entirety, I’ve never seen the connection. Either way, the official model numbers were C13720 to C13723, though there are no markings on any of the lanterns to tell which model is which. There are at least 3 variations that I know of. Later models adjusted the cast iron moulding to accomodate top-entry variations, and no doubt this could also be used for photocell mounting. These particular examples preceded the recasting, and so don’t have a circular point on top…

Now, there’s a particular reason why I chose that image. You see that post that’s being cut down? Well, I now own that particular lantern, thanks to Andy The Iridium Fan delivering it to Mercuryvapour Towers.

As you can imagine, after roughly 50 years lighting a small patch of Hartlepool, it’s in a sorry state. The bowl is cracked, complete with a bullet-hole, but it’s a complete example. The weather has been disgusting since I received the lantern (and so is the bird shite on top of it), so I’ve not had chance to photograph it properly yet.

One thing I always assumed, due to the lantern’s size, is that it was gear-in-head (as in, the “chips”, as I referred to them as a child) were stored in the lanterns canopy. This wasn’t the case, and is the reason why lanterns of its age still survive. Most, if not all modern lanterns now, include their workings in the lantern, which means if one part fails (other than the bulb), the whole unit is switched out. This is why, these days, you never see a full row of streetlights that look exactly the same. Something fails, they replace the entire thing instead of repairing it.

However, Andrew has promised the electrickery bits to get it working again. Before that, however, it’ll need a hell of a clean. We’ll need some decent weather before that happens.

Thanks to a night out that went wrong (that deserves a whole blog post on its own), I ended up walking down Lancaster Road, and caught the last time these Revo Daleks were lit, as they were disconnected the following morning…

EDITl Balls! I pressed “publish” accidentally. Still, it’s close enough.

Technorati Tags: dalek, lamp post, revo, streetlight, Streetlighting

I’ll tell you what. Several free beers, that’s what! Well, lagers anyway. Thanks to Kris at work, I’m in possession of several cans of the frothy stuff, and all because he doesn’t drink the stuff, and they run out of date at the end of the month. Trust me, they won’t last until the end of the month. They’ll struggle to last the end of the day. To show my gratitude, I’ve dug out the webcam, and am now creating a time-lapse of me drinking them, which I’ll probably stick on Youtube at some point.

While I remember on, unfortunately, it’s bad news for the webcam on this site, I’m afraid. You may remember that it used to catalogue my entire life for many years. Unfortunately, since I have now upgraded to Windows 7, my Logitech Quickcam 4000 simply will not function on it, which means even though it’s not actually done so for many years, it’s never going to return. And considering that I rarely use this site now for anything remotely “recent”, I can’t see me investing in a Windows 7 compatible model. It’s a bit of a shame. I always trusted Logitech and their “futureproofing”. Unfortunately, it seems that I was wrong to do so. I can’t even get the driver to begin installation, although I did get the “setup” screen by changing a command in the setup.ini file.

While I’m geeking about computers, I might as well make a mention of the newest hard drive in my 1TB commection. I have 4 drives at 1TB. 2 internal ones in daily use, and 2 external ones to back up the internal ones. Buying a new drive was an easy decision for me to make, especially as someone I know lost pretty much his entire life when his hard drive died in his laptop. The trip to Maplin also involved the first trip to the store formally known as the Euro Trade Warehouse, now called usave. Those of you who followed the blog before the mass purge earlier this year will remember some of the classic things that has been purchased by the Percivals, such as the radio toilet roll holder…

You’ll not be surprised to find this still gets regular use, as a toilet roll holder, clock, and radio when somebody is in the bath. Altogether, this was a worthwhile purchase, and one that we have had for over 6 years now. This means, however, that the plastic’s started to turn yellow, which means it doesn’t look as fresh as it once did…

Anyway, back to the other days’ Euro Trade Warehouse usave purchases. I didn’t get that much, to be honest. Instead of coming out with a black binbag full of tat, I came out with a few huge crates to store my tat in, for you see, next week will see the 2010 edition of “Life Laundry”, where I go through the stuff which I’ve hoarded over the years, and bin as much of it as humanly possible. I’ve got plenty of stuff to chose from, and after only an hour at it, I already had a load of stuff landfill-bound. There’s also the fun prospect of actually cataloguing what I’ve got, and which box it’s in for future reference, should I actually need any of it again.

One thing I did avoid buying in Euro Trade Warehouse usave, were these “specialist” knives…

Oh, and while I remember, yes, yes, I know I haven’t updated much. That beast of a thing called “a life” is keeping me away from the computer. You may find I’m a little silent on everything at the moment, even flickr. In fact, that image you see above is only the 6th image (5th photo) I’ve published on there in 2010. In fact, let me know you a little league table of what I’ve done over the years. Here’s a quick rundown on previous years stats…

Jan/Feb 2007, 176 photos.
Jan/Feb 2008, 612.
Jan/Feb 2009, 68.
Jan/Feb 2010, 5.

I blame the weather, I really do.

Technorati Tags: ass knives, backup, hard drive, usave

• Why am I watching Superbowl XLIV? I'm in England, and therefore don't understand a thing that's going on. #
• #sb44 They're ripping the theme off CSI! Naughty Who! #
• Bugger! Just reached 500 tweets and didn't realise #
• Might stay in bed. Still not up. Nothing to get up for #
• Oh, wait. I do have something to get up for. Now i need the bog. #
• And my phone battery is almost dead too. Bah. So much for staying here all day. It's cold outside the duvet #
• Now on the bog. Should have done a before and after weigh in. Feel a stone lighter though #
• No clean socks left. Will have to peel some off the floor #
• Heating fucked again. Joy. #
• Heh. That says a lot about me. Fucked is in my predictive text. #
• Car air freshener next to the front door. Smells like sick #
• I'm off to see the vendor, the wonderful vendor of booze #
• Warmer out here than in house #
• A burned out street light. Must report it. #
• Someone has left their headlights on #
• Two keys on my key ring. Why do i always, without fail, pick the wrong one. #
• Should have got some crisps while i was out #
• Time for some gta4 #
• Out of gta4 for now. Think h'll have a beer. #
• Haven't had that beer yet. Going downstairs to keep warm #
• Back upstars. Not had much beer. #
• Cancel that. Had lots of beer now. Got the turntable playing some ancient tunes. #
• Heating is currently working. Not keeping me comfortably warm though, because of where I'm sat. Just taking the chill oout of the room #
• Rockmelons / That Word (L.O.V.E) One of my guilty pleasures. No UK chart impact, bought it for 10p when Hit Parade on York Road was alive #
• Hoovering took much longer than normal. Bloody moulting dogs. Think I'll wrap them in cling-film until the spring #
• Cooking curry. Smells lovely #
• "Bed" early, got up early. Gah. #
• Just been to bakers. Bought some buns. Still warm! #
• What the hell? Someone's just let off a firework right outside our house. Saw the flash as if it went off in the garden #
• Oh dear. I believe i am drunk #
• Stoned in the bathroom. Warmest room in the house. #
• Stood in the bathroom. Another predictive text cock up. #
• The dogs do like their walkies. #
• Wroking the lead clip after 18 bottles of Kroeny is a challenge, however #
• Er, no. I didn't understand that last tweet either. #

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