Screwfix, get in quick...

[John Rumm]

Putting the simple banner on the "Checkout" link (with a warning at the top of the front page as they have been doing for the past few weeks) would seem to be equally fool proof.

[John Rumm]

Hmmm... had about 3 so far this month ;-)

Not quite the same though, takes longer to search and no cookies to keep an order in!

(unlike Axminster where the dead tree version is quicker than the web site!)

Well - as they say, ultimately all publicity is good publicity.

[Ian Stirling]

For me.

rotating banner "amazing special deals Free express delivery (no minimum order) For september only."

Top of the page in the middle.

[Anna Kettle]

And I had you down as an electrician. International jetsetting electrician? Maybe not

Anna

~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|

01359 230642

[:::Jerry::::]

Tell that to J. Ratner and company.....

[Andy Hall]

Believe me, there's noting glamorous about going on aeroplanes and staying in hotels in other countries, Anna. The excitement of getting up in time for the 0655 to Frankfurt on a February morning lost its lustre long ago, if it ever had any. The choices are window or aisle seat on the plane (or centre if unlucky); trying to eat rather than wear what the airlines claim is food and then whether the bathroom is on the left or right when arriving at the hotel.

Having said that, I do enjoy meeting people in other countries and understanding their ways of doing business and outlook on life - so that compensates in some way.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Set Square]

Are we looking at the *same* site? My link is

- with no such banners. I've even done several forced refreshes - in case an old version is coming from a cache, and have disabled my pop-up blocker - all to no avail!

Please post *your* link!

[chris French]

In message , Set Square writes

I think Ian was talking about Toolstation............

[:::Jerry::::]

Err, me thinks it's this one

- the discussion had moved on and away from Screwfix.....

Doh ! :~)

[Set Square]

Oops! Not surprising that I didn't find it on the Screwfix site, then!

Actually, I have just re-read the thread. It was Ed who first raised this amnesty business - when replying to a message about Screwfix in which Toolstation had been mentioned. It's by no means clear though (to me, at any rate!) that he was talking about Toolstation and not Screwfix!

[Ian Stirling]

I don't especially. I want one with the features, but organised so that they do not get in the way of the primary function - a phone.

Colour display - cool! Great, if they could be on all the time, and show useful status like if it's got a signal, have you missed a call or have a message.

I could care less if it can play the latest music video as wallpaper, if it has to turn off in 30 seconds or eat battery life.

Clamshells with an external display are one "sort-of" answer to this, but bring up their own problems of fragility - it's inherently going to require more plastic to get the same sort of rigidity and solidity in a hinge and two parts of the case. Which means they tend to skimp.

I was initially dismissive of the "xpress-on" covers, and all of the clones. However, if well done, they can transform an "oh bugger, I've just scratched my phone case on a wall, and I'll now have to send it away" to "buy a new cover for a fiver".

MP3 player - cool! But it drains the battery in 3 hours.

And adding another couple of rows of buttons all with tiny little logos on to access 'features' is just barking mad when it means you have to shrink the rest of the keys, and make actually entering numbers hard.

[Huge]

[11 lines snipped]

[17 lines snipped]

Or better still, "Who gives a damn?"

[John Rumm]

You still remeber the name, so it worked, kind-of!

[:::Jerry::::]

Well not really, considering that we remember not to buy from because they just sell c*ap !..

[Anna Kettle]

LOL OK you've convinced me! Funny how other peoples work always seems much more glamourous than your own. I've just spent two days on hands and knees crawling around in 20mm of accumulated dust in a church roofspace inspecting the ceiling below. I am filthy dirty and exhausted. Yet I get a steady trickle of people who email or phone me up wanting to know how they can do what I do for a living.

Do you ever get to see any old buildings in your travels? If so, have you seen any decorative plasterwork? I know Southern Germany / Austria has sgraffito and someone told me that the Algarve has pargeting, but I've hardly ever been to the European mainland in my life - always gone for holidays somewhere more exotic and 3rd worldish

The water should be warm now, so thankfully off for a soak in a hot bath

Anna

~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|

01359 230642

[Andy Hall]

I guess that one's own chosen occupation seems easy to oneself and sometimes attractive to others.

Looking at your web site at some of your work, I can appreciate a real artistry in it as well as what I imagine is going to a huge amount of trouble to get the authentic and right materials for restoration.

I don't often have the time, unfortunately - mostly it's arrive at airport, go to meetings, go to eat, go to hotel, do emails, go to bed and repeat the next day with different people. Occasionally there is an opportunity though.

There is certainly a great deal of valuable architecture in Germany, and it is obvious as you move from northern Germany to Bavaria and further on - for example gothic churches in the north like the Dom in Koeln and onion-shaped domes in the south. I've never studied plasterwork in them, but my guess would be that it's more likely in the south to have ornate decoration - the northern ones seem to be much more austere. Possibly there is more around as you go further south that wasn't architecturally remodelled by the RAF.

I can ask some colleagues next time I see them as to where makes sense to go.

It might also be worth looking at places like Budapest. I am pretty sure that you would find interesting things there.

Well deserved by the sound of it.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Ian Stirling]

Well, if it's worn through the case, I think it's generally time to get it fixed :) I should have said I wasn't talking cosmetics.

(happened when I was working against a concrete surface, and ended up scraping the phone along a sharp edge.)

[Anna Kettle]

Oh thank you kind sir. You mustn't say restoration though it is a dirty word in the trade. Use conservation or repair

and lots of very good Swiss plasterers on their doorstep. Much of the finest plasterwork in Venice was done by Swiss plasterers

Much Polish decorative plaster was lost in the last war, but under Communism was restored to its original condition so there must be some excellent plasterers in Poland. Czech plaster is gently fading away I think and I know nothing about Hungarian plaster

And (getting hastily back to DIY) when I replumb the hot water system it will

a) Not get cold so quickly and b) Be switchonable from my mobile

Anna

~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|

01359 230642

[Andy Hall]

Sorry. Presumably one shouldn't have been so remiss as to let it get into such a bad state in the first place.

But you also do new commissions as well, yes?

That I didn't know.

Mr Gabriel can offer advice on that.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Lobster]

They now seem to have changed things so that only X number of users can access the site at once as a mechanism of keeping the volume down. I was working at my PC this evening, and kept clicking 'refresh' on a Screwfix window every so often, until finally I managed to get in, and select and place an order. Very strange way to run a business if you ask me. (the ONLY reason I used them is that I needed to order some more of the same lights for a project I'm working on, and didn't know where else to get them from)

David