Diana Had To Go To Work,

and I had some forms to post by snail mail,

 as we left the house we noticed the winds overnight had brought a bower down,

 and made a bit of a mess,

 Diana stopped at the 162 stop,

 I carried on to the post office then past some of the earlier buildings in Beckenham to Sainsbury's, shopping completed then home,

 the dahlias in the Gate House garden,

  putting on a good show,

through the park,

 I stopped to have a look at the tree that had the broken bower,

it looked like the bower had a hollow or weaker part in the middle of it, maybe making it a tad weaker, in the afternoon Steve called round for a coffee and a chat, after saying farewell it was a salmon salad for my evening meal, then feet up for an evening of television, I picked Diana up later from the 162 stop then home, a coffee, one from Game of Thrones and we were off to bed.

I Have Not Featured A Motorcycle,

for some time,

 so here is a really neat one, it is base on the gem of a motorcycle, a very old Honda 4 cylinder 400cc motorcycle, which this hill climb/cafe racer was the donor for, now here is the thing, you area student but you want to build a motorcycle, what do you do? you cleverly convince your professors that building a race bike would absolutely make sense as your Masters of Architecture thesis project, 

which is what Marc Vertesi joined by his brother Philip, a Physiotherapy student did, they run 2VMotos in Lausanne, building and repairing classic customs when their heads aren’t in the books, so, inspired by European designers of the early 20th century comes this peer-reviewed racer from the bones of a 1976 Honda CB400, aptly named ‘Schienenzeppelin’,

 but needing to write a 148-page thesis and finish the bike in the next two months the internet proved the best place for the other tins. “We sourced a half fairing in Thailand, hand-shaped by OmegaRacer out of aluminium and a Benelli Mojave replica tank also out of aluminium.”

 the complete overhaul includes a honed block accepting 0.5over pistons. The top end is ported and polished, with KPMI valve springs inside and a bank of Keihin CR26 carburetors on the outside. While the spark side is upgraded thanks to Dynatec coils and Pamco electronic ignition. Finally, a stunning set of Delkevic 4-1 pipes were bolted on,

 the forks were rebuilt with Wirth progressive springs and fitted with a lower aluminum triple tree from TTR400 and a billet top tree. For the period correct look replica Borrani rims were laced up to the hubs with stainless steel spokes, before being wrapped up in Avon Roadmaster rubber. With a special order sent to British shock specialists Hagon resulting in a custom pair of their pieces bolted up to the rear,

  a tray was built to hold and house a lithium-ion battery, regulator and starter relocation switch. The kick start was removed and replaced with a TTR400 plug, with the same company also supplying the rearsets. With the other half of the race controls, Fehling clip-ons, wearing a Nissin retro master cylinder and braided brake lines,

with time running down and Marc furiously writing up and photographing every detail of the build and its inspiration, some quick testing showed the need for a racing clutch and stiffer springs. Finally, the build was completed with minimal graphics and the seat upholstery done in vintage RC181 style using Alcantara by Lugon Garnisseur,

with Europe in the middle of summer the Honda has been competing flawlessly in the Swiss Hill Climb Championship and when it’s not racing the renaissance CB400 sits in the 2VMotos shop next to a copy of Marc’s brilliant thesis, which you can read here, and follow the shop in Instagram, photography by Rob Hamilton, what a really nice café racer and what a great thesis!

If We Were In The Market For A Swimming Pool,

what shape/type to chose?

 a rectangle one is a good, but plain choice, so now for something completely different,

 and for roughly a similar price I am guessing we could choose one of these, if the choice is between to rectangular and a tropical-looking swimming pond, which one would you choose? Louisiana-based Zydeco Construction, is willing to create the most spectacular custom oasis to prove it’s worth the investment, 33-year-old Eric White, the founder of Zydeco, claims his beautiful swimming ponds feature crystal turquoise water and are surrounded by fine sandy beaches to recreate the look and feel of a tropical summer destination, they can be made as small or large as the client’s property allows and prices start at around $20,000, photographs by Zydeco Construction,

 “It has always been a dream of mine to do these different things,” White told the Daily Advertiser, “I am all about figuring out a way to make things happen. I can look at any situation and come up with a way to fix it. I like to stay in the market for things that most companies don’t offer, especially custom requests.” White, who has worked in construction for over 15 years and previously ran a pool-building company, says he has been contemplating the idea of tropical swimming ponds for years. He has researched ways to turn regular ponds into stunning-looking locations, going as far as designing a patented specialty pump for them, and is now proud to offer the service to interested parties,

  “Each pond that we do is customized for that area and for the customer. It isn’t something that can be done in a day, they are a true labor of love and I want every customer that comes to me to be happy. We will do something different on every pond we create,” Eric White added,

reactions to them have been mixed, while some social media users loved the idea and wished they had the backyard space or money to afford one, others questioned the practicality of the investment over a regular pool,

the pool probably needs a bit more maintenance than a regular pool, but you can’t deny it looks so much better too, and to have a pool like this in the back garden a bit of extra maintenance and a few buckets of sand a year, to my mind is a small price to pay for a tropical look pool, I can just imagine it once a suitable selection of plants have been planted around it, stunning!

I Remember The First Time I Used Super Glue,

I stuck my fingers together,

 and got into a terrible mess, well that glue has got nothing on this one! the new world’s strongest glue is based on one-component, heat-curing epoxy resins used in the automotive industry and mechanical engineering. DELO claims that complex mechanisms like electric motors in electric cars would be inconceivable without these adhesives, and this is how they proved it is the strongest glue in the world, DELO, a small German company specializing in industrial adhesives, recently set a new Guinness Record after successfully suspending a 17-tonne-truck in the air for an hour using only super-strong glue,

in an attempt to show that it produces the world’s strongest adhesives, Bavaria-based company DELO set out to lift a 17.5 tonne truck one meter above ground using only 3 grams of a very strong glue developed specifically for this event. They used an industrial crane and four aluminum cylinders with a cover surface of of 3.5 cm (the diameter of a standard soda can) bonded to the wheels of the truck with a few drops of high-temperature-resistant DELO MONOPOX adhesive. The truck hung in the air for a full hour, thus breaking the previous record of 16.09 tonnes,

“We made it!” Sabine Herold, managing partner of DELO, said after the successful record-breaking attempt, “The great result is an absolute team success, which also shows how we work every day. We don’t shy away from challenges and we know our adhesives can live up to extremes.” photographs by DELO.

Do You Believe In Fortune Tellers,

specialising in extrasensory services, spiritism and astrology?

the unnamed plaintiff, from the Siberian city of Omsk, did, he was left by his wife in August of 2017, He told the court that he was devastated at the time, but found hope in a TV advert that promised to help people win back spouses and lovers, as well as remove various types of curses. With nothing else to cling on to, the desperate man immediately called the company, and was told by the manager that she could bring his wife back to him, as she possessed a certain “magic, sensory knowledge” that had helped her deal with similar cases before, but alas it did not happen, which is why the Sixth Sense, a Russian company that allegedly specializes in extrasensory services, fortune-telling, spiritism and astrology, was recently ordered to pay damages to a client after its psychics and magicians failed to bring back his estranged wife, according to the Russian government's official daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the despondent husband called the advertised number and was told that his wife could be made to return using "magic knowledge", a contract was drawn up, and the man paid a company called The Sixth Sense 260,332 roubles ($4,000, £3,300) for "extrasensory services, fortune-telling, spiritism and astrology", His wife, however, never came back, and M.E.A. as he was known in court sued The Sixth Sense, the Kuybyshevsky Court in Omsk could not find any evidence of the above services having been rendered and awarded the man 400,000 roubles ($6,300, £5,100) in compensation, now here is the thing, if fortune tellers are so good, why have they not won a fortune, or am I missing something here? 

First Stop,

the bank,

 across the road from the cinema,

  which is now looking as it should after its recent renovation, a quick walk soon brought me to the dry cleaners after a shop at Tesco's, as the cleaners was near the shop I called in to say hi to the boys,

 arriving home and opening the windows,

 we had a sleepy guest in the garden,

 Reynard was having 40 winks,

  opening the window,

  must have woken him up when I opened them,

 so time to go, 

  but first a scratch,

 and then he was off,

 a couple of days ago I mentioned I had finished this book, 

Pictorial Wonders and Tales of Wild Life, as I mentioned a fascinating read, there were 90 or so factual short stories all around or before the 1900s,

 it had a number of nice illustrations,

 and a number of pages,

 where the woodcut nearly took over the page at the opening of some of the stories, I forget how much I paid for it, but not more than a few pounds, and you can still buy it today I found one copy here,

  this is the book I have just started,

 With Stanley on the Congo by Miss Mary Douglas,

 the original had a colour preface, sadly missing in my copy,

 there are illustrations throughout the book,

and at the end of the book a number of other titles for further reading, I am just one chapter in but so far it is a easy read, I am sure there are some copies for sale, but in any event here is the full book at Heritage History,

late in the evening Diana called to say she was on the bus on her way home, so off to the bus stop and back home we went, where it was feet up for a game of Thrones, we are now getting to the last few episodes of series 7, we both hope that series 8 comes out on bluray soon, and with that we were off to bed.

Many Of Us Do Daily Exercises,

I spend 20 or so minutes 6 days a week on mine, 

just enough to get me breathing hard and breaking into a sweat, just do not over do it, and here is a reminder of what can go wrong if you do, on July 10, Tang, a 19-year-old girl from Chongqing, China, decided to challenge her best friend to a squatting competition to see which one of them had more stamina, the problem was neither would give in, Tang told doctors that they both must have done around 1,000 squats before they decided to call it quits, but by that time their leg muscles had begun to break down, after the casual competition turned extreme endurance contest tang reported feeling a little sore, but thought it was perfectly normal after that kind of workout. The next day, her legs were still sore, but she went to work as usual, thinking it was just post-exercise soreness. She only realized the seriousness of the situation on the morning of the third day, when she woke up with unbelievably sore legs and an inability to bend them at the knees. After somehow reaching the bathroom, Tang noticed her urine was the color of black tea, which she had learned in the army was a sign of serious problems in the body, Tang was rushed to the hospital where doctors diagnosed her with rhabdomyolysis – a life threatening condition caused by the death of muscle fibers and release of their contents into the bloodstream. It can lead to life-threatening complications like renal failure, as the kidneys fail cannot remove waste and concentrated urine. In rare cases, rhabdomyolysis can be fatal, Doctors told Tang that she was lucky to come in as early as she did and that she was young, which helped her body recover better. If this had happened to an older person, it could have caused acute renal failure, so note to self, no squats and do not over do it!

Feeling Stressed?

cuddle a cow!

cow cuddling has been around in Europe for a while, but now a farm in upstate New York is giving Americans the chance to unwind by getting up close and personal with peaceful bovines for just $75 an hour, Mountain House Farm, a beautiful 33-acre retreat in New York, has been offering wellness sessions with horses to guests for the past nine years, but recently added cow cuddling on the menu as well, Suzanne Vullers, a Netherlands native who runs the farm with her husband, brought two cows back with her from a visit to her home country, after learning about the hearing about the health benefits of cuddling with cows, “To be honest, we did not know that it was so unknown in the US,” Vullers told CNN. “A lot of people are familiar with therapy dogs or cats … people don’t associate this with larger animals, like cows.” photograph Mountain House Farm/Facebook, the farm offers just one or two cow cuddling sessions per day, which they usually limit to around two people. The experience is currently priced at $75 per hour, but allegedly helps people “stay healthy, mentally and physically”. The owners emphasize that their farm is not a petting zoo and that visitors wanting to take part in the Horse & Cow experience have to consider both themselves and the animals. So every cuddling session is scheduled ahead of time in a way that does not interfere with the cows’ natural rhythm, “We’re not a petting zoo. It’s not all about you. It’s about us and them,” Vullers said. “For us, it’s very important that the animals have choices and it’s as much their choice to connect with humans as it is for us.” what a neat idea, now if I were a farmer and had a herd of say 50 cows and had two sessions a day with each cow, that's 50  X  2  X  $75 = crikey that's $7,500 a day! give the cows one day off a week to make milk, so 6 days  X $7,500 a day = $45.000 a week! now where can I buy a herd of 50 cows?

Good News Alert, Good News Alert!

at last,

it is a sad fact of life that according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, depression affects 16 million people while anxiety disorders affect 40 million people, these numbers, which I believe are already overwhelming, are just from the United States, but there is good news, a new study led by University at Buffalo revealed that a plant compound found in red wine, called resveratrol, shows anti-stress effects “by blocking the expression of an enzyme related to the control of stress in the brain, resveratrol may be an effective alternative to drugs for treating patients suffering from depression and anxiety disorders," says Ying Xu, MD, PhD, co-lead author and research associate professor in the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the study, published on July 15 in the journal Neuropharmacology, was also led by Xiaoxing Yin, PhD, professor at Xuzhou Medical University in China, although not conclusive, (and if you want a wine drinking volunteer to help with your research let me know), the results are good enough for me, look at that I feel happy already just thinking about a glass or three of red!

In Case You Did Not Know,

there is a record breaking heatwave in the UK, 

 last week, London’s Heathrow Airport reached 98.4°F (36.9°C), a new record for July, while the temperature in Cambridge, England broke triple digits, 100.5°F (38°C), for only the second time in recorded history, so what to do? have fan will travel,

 sticky steps could be a problem though,

 but not for this chap who brought the beach to a street near him,

 another reason to own a Samsung,

 did LT really print this?

and finally a really cool cat!