Annual Christmas problem

[spuorgelgoog]

It's associated with "paki bashing".

"jock bashing" if it exists is probably a different thing entirely.

Owain

[Halmyre]

Just try getting spare bulbs as well. It's amazing how many subtly-differen t-sized green push-in bulbs there are out there. One year I went out two da ys before Christmas Eve to look for spares for blown bulbs. None could I fi nd but Homebase were already selling off their Christmas stock to make way for barbecues and patio sets and I got a set of 100 for £5.

[Halmyre]

I find LEDs are too directional and you need twice as many to look effective.

[Andy Burns]

I find the "straw hat" type are quite effective, I have a few strings of the quidshop R/G/B/Y LEDs dangled over various plants outside.

[bert]

In article , Ian Jackson writes

Because you get them out switch them on and then roll them up whilst the filaments are still hot and fragile. Get them out, put them up, sort them out in situ.

[bert]

I have 2 sets of Noma filament bulbs I've had for about 20 years. Still possible to order the bulbs on line.

[Ian Jackson]

In message , bert writes

No, I don't. I'm pretty sure that by the time I roll them up, they are more-than-adequately cold.

That's plain daft. If you do that, it's 100% certain that they aren't going to work after they have been put up. It's a darn-sight easier to check them BEFOREHAND, and fix if required.

[bert]

In article , Ian Jackson writes

I sort mine out once. You sort yours out twice - and the second time when they are in situ. So who's daft?

[whisky-dave]

The person that sorts them out for themselves, my parents used to get me to do it.

[ARW]

Avenue - does that make it posher than a Road or a Street?:-)

[charles]

avenues are tree lined, so yes.

[Terry Casey]

It depends: the 'avenue' we were living in until recently didn't have a single tree - and neither did any of the other three 'avenues' on the same estate!

As for being 'posh', it might have been once but certainly not while we lived there ...

[Bob Eager]

The ultimate has to be this one, which I always thought rather good because of the full name:

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Get yourself a voltage detector pen (I'm assuming your lights are old enough to be mains powered, with say 20 12 volt lamps in series). If the live feeds the lamp side and the neutral the return side (you can swap the wiring inside the plug if required), then you simply run the pen along the wire until it goes out. There's your dud bulb.

The problem I used to have was 250 volt light set bulbs vs. 230 volt light set bulbs. The new ones always failed very quickly.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

They should like both. They're just short forms of a word.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

The ones that blow short circuit are better, then you have one fuse bulb on the end. If a normal bulb blows, only it goes out and you know which one it is.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Run them off a dimmer switch, they last longer.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

A lot of council estates get called posh names to make them sound better, they're still shitholes.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

I remember 20 years ago the in thing was to save trees. Now apparently they are a health and softy hazard and people keep cutting them down.

[DerbyBorn]

Never as posh as the developer's names for new developments.