Be Excellent To Each Other

Snagged one of these from Screwfix for a fiver not so long back:



A real workhorse, no cupboard queen. More for the garage/jobs.

For the house though went with this high-performance offering from Vileda except in Kawasaki green:

Nice! What m2 / min are you getting out of those?

I mean I could give you raw numbers (trust me they're impressive) but it's more about the soul with these sorts of things.

The brush came with it

Do you feel like you’re missing out on the ability to cut precision slices of bread with the Vileda? It’s got nice lines, but not sure how I feel about the lack of serration.

That first one is a proper man’s dustpan. Not sure I could handle something like that.

Good for any bits of Yorkie that gets dropped after a proper days graft.

You'd be fine it's actually fairly easy to handle, even for a lady, although admittedly probably wouldn't be an ideal choice as someone's first dustpan.

I’ve definitely got some past dustpan experience. Do they do them in a more feminine colour scheme? I fear that would clash with my girl shed.

Those bigger trade-style ones are brutally effective for sure, and the yellow and black colourway screams 'get out of the way, there's a mess to be cleared'.

But I've been moving away from these, to a plug-in electric solution for my kitchen spill needs. Luckily the infrastructure is already plentiful at home, so I don't need to use a range extender.

I've bought a new fridge to replace the previous fridge I bought in 2018 as it's now decided that it'll only work... Sometimes.

Excitingly the new fridges dial goes up to 7! The old one only went up to 5.

It's 2 colder!

Why the heck don’t we have temperature read thermostats on fridges? Set your fridge to 3°, thermostat regulates it to 3°. I do not get why this is not the standard.

Mine does.

Paint, and carpet.

I know that some do, I just don’t understand why it isn’t the standard for all new units I suppose.

Looks great!

You probably could have replaced the thermostat for about £20

Unexcitingly, my recent purchases are;

Miyoo Mini Plus - a little retro handheld that's sort of a Gameboy Color shape. Very pocketable for killing downtime at work but I hate a) the software and b) the feel of it in my hands and so it's going on eBay this weekend.

Brita Water Filter Jug - I'm trying to drink more water but REALLY HATE the bottles you get from Lidl now. Especially as they've got the cap always attached and are weirdly difficult to open. But my tap water tastes a bit chlorine-y. Tried this out yesterday and it's mostly good. Doesn't taste as good as bottled mineral water but definitely an improvement. And I won't be injesting as much plastic now hopefully.

Funny you should say that as I did try to change it and would you believe, the plastic bit that covered the thermostat was glued in and I couldn't remove it without wrecking the fridge.

I spent a good few hours trying so in the end, I gave up.

There's a lot of retro handhelds with new ones coming out each month, but they nearly all seem compromised in some way.
There must be a market for a higher quality device where you don't need to immediately start modding the controller or OS from day one

Totally. The amount of fannying about each time is annoying. The Odin 2 or Retroid Pocket 4 both look good. It's just the idea of shelling out for something that may end up living in a drawer that puts me off. My Switch Lite gets pretty good usage compared to other handhelds I've owned though.

This is why I like the Evercade. I've got a few handhelds that will play everything but like yourselves, I don't like fannying about with them. The Evercade gives me a curated list of games which means I don't sit staring at a games list with thousands of roms on it before playing nothing.

Part of the problem with the mini handhelds is that the vendors often dont make a usable OS so its up to the community , and these things are coming out at such a fast rate that they never quite catch up.

@blucey try 'onion' firmware on there which is a little friendlier than the stock OS



And if you want a 'handheld' (stretching the definition here) that will play everything then the Steamdeck will do it all and is relativly painless to setup , however its really not a pocketable device :-)

Looks like Antibes on the wall to me.

I did. I had the SD card prepped right away for it. I can see why people like it but the 'menu' button would often be a bit unresponsive and would lock up. I wasn't impressed but I think that's a hardware thing more than likely.



All roads kind of lead that way. I just don't have much of a Steam library and it seems like all the really good Humble deals ended a long time ago. But the OLED Steamdeck does look really capable and decent.

I moved my Evercade EXP on quite quickly. I love the idea but the execution didn’t quite work for me. The screen was a little small and many of the games had the difficulty turned right up.

The arcade games are apparently getting dip switches soon to help with the difficulty settings but yeah, some of them (especially the shooters) are brutal!

I’ve played 1943 *a lot* and I was struggling to get past the third level without just feeding it with credits.

Yeah, definitely the game.

Enough of this video game and console chat, let's talk water and filters cos that's something I actually have time to enjoy.

The brita jug did a good job for us but eventually I got a bit fed up of it (it was always empty when I went to use it, as someone had drank all the nice filtered stuff and not refilled it, and the cartridges seemed to need replacing quite frequently), especially as the household grew.

So I installed a separate drinking water tap on the kitchen sink - it's fed through a cartridge filter system so it's always ready to use. Super convenient, all came as a kit on one box and didn't take long to do. I was fortunate in how my taps were plumbed in, so it was a simple disconnect-fit-screw back together job. There's a whole range of filter types that can be purchased but I go for the 2 cheapest ones and it's pretty good.

Our fancy fridge (bought second hand, was a bastard to get into the house and I even had to take the bloody doors off) has a water chiller and an ice maker, so i spurred the filtered water off to supply that too, it feels pretty sweet and modern. Now I have to find another excuse for my poor health than lack of hydration.

All the piping is plastic though.

Got me some new wifi sending out tubes.

Ace! Will they reach Dudley?

I've got an older Deco wifi mesh system. I'd like to upgrade but mine's okay (albeit still just wifi5 or whatever) but THE COST! I can't believe how expensive this stuff gets.

Hmmmmm, might have to run a wire.

Yeah, I was upgrading from a Google Wifi setup and my frustrations overrode my naturally skinflint nature.

I'm not sure he's going to post here again.

Because of his poor Wifi?

Best get running that wire Davpaz!

Well, that’s a bit shit. I’ve replaced the thermostat at least twice on my Mum’s fridge. It is a Miele, but it’s also 20 years old, at least

Well, that’s a bit shit. I’ve replaced the thermostat at least twice on my Mum’s fridge. It is a Miele, but it’s also 20 years old, at least

Well, your replacement didn’t last long.

Old fence removed.



New fence panels installed

Most of the kitchen is now in the kitchen. Basically done right?

Right. A couple of hours and a bit of swearing and all will be well.


I also bought.

Kallax units in dark brown to replace the Kallax units in beech for my records in the back room. Kinda pointless but they will look nicer with the new sofas and repainted che-umon-oy breast. Got an extra 4 spaces too so I can buy more records.

Hello. I'd like to buy a book your most expensive paint!

What's that you say? A heatwave?!

To the hoodie shop!

A thicknesser. If you want to make a mess, this is the tool!

I did not buy a thicknesser today, but I DID sign up to a woodworking community workshop where some nice man called Ivor has said that it’s ok that I am a complete beginner and that I will have plenty of help from committee members to build birdhouses, bird tables and the like and learn some skills.

Just wanted to share with someone else who is obviously a master carpenter like myself.

That's fantastic, well done!

Can you make me one of these? I want one, but I don't want to pay £75 for one

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1742257 ... ch_click=1