New Coat

I got fed up with getting wet in all this rain so I went to buy myself a water proof coat. I went to Costco. Normally when you're looking for something like that you can never find anything but I did ok. I needed something with a hood after my brolly 'exploded' on friday. It was a collapsible one and I pressed the button to extend the handle and it flew apart.

The coat seems waterproof but I still got damp wearing it but I think that was honest-to-goodness sweat instead. The coat has one of those mesh type linings which should let your skin breathe but it still makes me sweat. It only cost me £10 which isn't bad. It's a good make - Trespass.

Fruit Machine

Last night our son came back, with an old One Armed Bandit fruit machine. He bought it off the Internet. Not sure why though. It was heavy, took several of us to carry it into the house. It's one of the proper old ones where you put a coin in and pull the lever. It's got buzzers and a bell inside, the bell is like in an old alarm clock with a hammer to hit it.

I suggested he took it to work and installed it there. Get people to play it at lunchtime and he could take the profits. I don't know how much he paid for it. When we opened it up and looked inside, it's got a counter in there showing how much money it's taken. We don't know if it's been reset or whether that's since new but it's taken £900 and paid back £700. That doesn't seem much for an old machine so it might have been reset.

It's got the old mechanical reels inside which spin when you pull the lever. With it being mechanical I don't know how random it is. You used to see this in the arcades, you'd get the old dears sitting around waiting for the reels to show a particular configuration. If the person playing got up and left, they'd rush over with their handbags and start playing. They knew when a machine was going to pay out.

I've got a friend who used to go from pub to pub playing the quiz machines. He knew all the trivia and stuff. He used to work on the ticket machine at the football ground. He was on a TV quiz show once, a bit like the bloke who works for us who was on but didn't win anything. This other quiz show was a football specific one though.

The Date

It's a very appropriate date today, the Twenty-Second. 22 - two little ducks. It's raining. Nice weather for ducks.

Phones

We seem to have started getting nusiance phone calls at home, at around 6 or half past. I used to answer the phone by giving the last 4 digits of our phone number but I've stopped doing that. I just pick up the phone but not say anything. If I speak or say hello, the line usually goes dead, as if they don't recognise my voice.
The other night we got a phone call and it was for our son. Somebody was trying to sell him something. The other day in work I phoned the number we were given for the Print Room and got a load of adverts, someone trying to sell us printing services.

Washer

The washer motor burned out on our car. We needed new one so I checked the web. They had them for £25. That's not cheap but much cheaper than going to a garage. The trouble is we've got to take wing off. You can't just open bonnet and do it.
The car would have failed mot. It's only the wipers at the front. The ones at the back are working. I suppose I could have swapped the tubes but that wouldn't have worked really.

On the Buses

They should be banned - school children. All the school traffic and buses were crowded. I was later in work this morning. I didn't get off the bus til half past 8 and I then have to work to the office from the stop. The bus was back on it's old route after the roadworks, a longer route.

There is a stop in front of speed check sign. It's a 30mpg area and the sign lights up when you approach it. They've put the bus stop sign right in front.

The first stop on the route hasn't been reinstated yet. I didn't like that. And there's someone I meet on the bus, she would have been later getting into work too. She is supposed to start at half past 8. She'll be put in the late book for that!