On The Sofa (6)

[Kaddc @kaddc]

Hi, I don’t know if anybody on here can help but my daughter has a collection of Doctor who figures as she is a huge fan but is now looking to sell on her collection. I think she has a few rare ones, is there anywhere or anybody on here where I can gauge their worth please? Thank you 🙂

[Arbutus @arbutus]

@indigomoose    I too like the idea of an explanation that includes the Romana and Six regenerations. It would have to be a cleverly done, and we know Moffat is up for that! And like @bluesqueakpip, I can’t believe that we are completely done with the Danny/Orson thread. For one thing, the existence of Orson is a big loose end; for another, as long as Clara’s arc continues, I think that Danny will remain relevant.

[Whisht @whisht]

btw would love to say hi and welcome to @indigomoose for introducing some rather nice bonkers.

fantastic!

I like the “ship’s log” idea for the Tardis.

I also like the idea of a head cannon, though sadly feel its only likely after Dalekisation……

[IndigoMoose @indigomoose]

@whisht

Head cannons are used to blow people’s minds. (Pun enforced)

[IndigoMoose @indigomoose]

@whisht

OH! You can also use head cannons to defend your ship!

[Whisht @whisht]

ah @indigomoose – defending shipping with head can(n)ons is another thing entirely methinks…

;¬)

[Anonymous @]

@kaddc

Not wishing to disappoint, but I will anyway, I can’t help, I’m afraid. The only thing I’d suggest is to check eBay for equally similar rare figurines from which you might deduce the relative worth….and which you’ve thought of already.

@indigomoose indeed, welcome to you: great ideas about the sentient Tardis and “shipping”….and head cannons. This happens to me a lot: not the ship but the blowing up of one’s head. Also, love the purple avatar. It reminds me of a character from Angel (Buffy-verse) who said “pur-pla” for purple. Holy dooley.

Kindest,

Puro.

[Anonymous @]

@bluesqueakpip @indigomoose

Yes, I agree: an explanation should be forthcoming.

The Frobisher connection is well known around these parts. Though some of my dearest and nearest, here, don’t particularly like Torchwood and I’m firmly with them. I could well do without it. I find Barrowman appalling as an actor. Appalling. But that’s me. Compare him to the astonishing James Marsters in that one episode where they shoot a bar apart only to end up “pashing” gloriously. Marsters =scene stealer. Barrowman =scene negatron.

But no, shouldn’t be so harsh on young John, as in the early Who eps with Eccleston he did very well and there was a reckless energy which I enjoyed.

As for Frobisher I think this is a tenuous connection and therefore less likely needing an explanation? Again, that’s me: but I would like lose ends regarding Pompeii sewn up. And yes, there was Baker (good mention @crieshavok), Lalla Ward -again a good spot and whilst I knew it, it was great to have that ‘zinged’ into my brain again 🙂

My memory needs a Tardis boost wherever possible. Which is why all my ‘dreadful’ predictions with Who have never come to pass: much like a Tardis materialisation in my own house never materialising, as it were.

Kindest, puro.

[ichabod @ichabod]

@purofilion  I agree on Barrowman; I never could shake the feeling that he was performing in a stage show in his head, a musical full of dashing about instead of action, that would lead him suddenly fling up his arms and start belting out show tunes.  Just — wrong; the wrong size, the wrong — wattage? — for the TV screen.  Something.  Of course, it works — I don’t remember anyone else from Torchwood, except the tragically betrayed John Frobisher (strangely enough — quiet desperation just works better for me, maybe).  I think Frobisher’s story was fully presented and brilliantly wrapped up, so I’m not keen to see him again.  The gun behind the back, the wife and kids looking up at him, and the closing door — perfect.  Messing with perfection is generally a mug’s game.

[lisa @lisa]

Tonight on BBC America the episode of Blink is on. The director of Blink Hettie MacDonald
is also the director of the first two episodes of season 9. This article popped up today
’10 thing you might not know about Blink’

http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2015/08/doctor-who-10-things-you-may-not-know-about-blink/

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

@kaddc

Hi – I have a small collection of the figures and can probably give some general advice. This is from the UK standpoint (we have a few different nationalities on the Forum) and in the expectation that you are talking about the 5 inch Character Options figures that were launched with the new series (and have grown to include the older series). I’m also anticipating that your child opened them up and played with the things as nature intended, rather than doing the collector approved thing of putting them in a shrine in their original packaging (which substantially increases the value).

The best single piece of advice I can give you at the moment is to keep them for a while. Put them in a big crate and stick them in the attic or at the back of a cupboard. The reason for this is that the average 8 year old who bought those toys back in 2005/6 is now a teenager looking to put childish things away, going off to University, getting a job, or whatever. The toys were the success story of the period and lots were produced in large volumes. With all these kids hitting the “magic age” for selling on within the last few years, there is an abundance of them on the market. Take any car boot or market stall that sells second hand goods and you’ll find a lot of them going for £1 – £2 each.

You’ll see prices like that on e-bay, as well as prices that are inflated, especially for niche figures that were ordered exclusively by people like Forbidden Planet (mainly the old series). At this point it’s really “what will I be offered” rather than “what are they worth”, because the manufacturer is still churning out figures, and what was once rare is becoming commonplace (for example this set of the Fourth Doctor, D84 and The Master, which were all “rare” last year is available currently from B&M for £12.99).

The ones that consistently seem to fetch a considerable amount at the moment are the “build a figure” Figures. These were assembled from multiple packs with an arm or a leg, head, torso in with other figures to force you to buy them all to complete the set.

The K1 Robot (big silver thing at the back) is valuable, as it required you to purchase all the other figure with it to assemble.

So it’s quite common to see the K1 (Giant) Robot, Gelth phantom, Vespiform (giant wasp) and Cyber controller from a Second Doctor story going for considerable sums (£30 – £60).

The main reason for the advice is that I was in a similar position once upon a time. At 17 I sold all my Star Wars stuff I’d been collecting since 7 for beer tokens when I went to University. I got a couple of hundred quid, which was OK in 87. Everybody else was selling stuff at the same time. It was a buyers market. If I’d waited for ten years it would have been a four figure sum. I could kick myself now, but hey – beer seemed more important at the time.

In 10 years, some of the kids who sold decided their childhood obsessions were not so childish afterall, and started collecting. They wanted the originals. They were earning money and they would pay. The glut of figures had diminished (natural attrition – “dog ate my Stormtrooper, dad”, etc) and so the price went up.

When I sold my stuff there were a couple of items I wanted to keep. They went into the attic with books, comics and magazines while I went off and had adventures. When I settled into a house 10 years later, the first thing my parents did was empty their loft into mine. That was a fun weekend ploughing through all the gems and rubbish I can tell you. A lot of happy memories awakened. The point of this is that I found something I didn’t want to part with. My “Giant Robot” produced by the company Denys Fisher in the 1970s.

I showed it to a fellow fanboy who immediately, on the spot, offered me £80 for it. It’s worth a lot more even if it is unboxed. It’s not even a particularly well constructed figure, but it is a piece of history to him. Boxed at the moment, £300. Unboxed, £175. What will that build a figure version be worth in 10 years?

So – wait for the rush to die down, sell later (if your daughter doesn’t go into gooey delights in 10 years and decide she is a collector after all) and get a lot more. Collectables is a waiting game.

If however, you wish to continue to sell, I think this forum that specialises in these type of things may have more specific advice.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

I have jet lag. I’m awake at 4:00 and thinking of the ramifications of the pricing of Doctor Who toys.

The forthcoming day will only get weirder, I can tell. I’ll catch up on all the other posts later, I think.

[Missy @missy]

This question may have been raised already. If so I do apologise. There are so many posts, that I cannot read them all – not enough hours in the day or days in the week, so, here we go.

Clara is constantly saying that she has always been looking after the Doctor – saving him in fact. This has puzzled me, and although Steven Moffat usually ties up any loose ends, has he ever explained how Clara managed to be on Gallifrey waiting to recommend which Tardis the Doctor should pinch?

I refer to The Name of the Doctor.

Missy

[Anonymous @]

@missy  Clara jumped into the Doctor’s time stream? After the GI dropped himself ‘in it’, Clara felt her only choice (River was dead after all!) but to jump in after him and wherever he was, she was too. In the Name of the Doctor it clearly shows her appearing -because she could – at the Silence in the Library with Tennant, behind Dr Pertwee as he drives Bessie and on and on backwards into time finally ending up (somewhat confused and “where the hell am I?”) in front of the Tardis:

which would not take him where he wanted to be but where he needed to be.

Even that last phrase suggests something almost like a primer -the Tardis primed his journeys so that he could  be at the precise point which allied with Clara. Now, that last bit? I made it up. But it works in a philosophical sense insofar as with the ‘wrong’ Tardis she may not have stepped into the ‘right’ situation. I would add that in this timestream there is no backwards, forwards, past or future -simply a ‘time’ where all protons basically smash into each other like a Feynman diagram.

I refer to Shane Carruth. Can’t help myself  :sigh:

I now am watching some re-hash of a Billy Joel song circa 1989 ‘We didn’t start the fire’ desperately trying to show up how wonderful Australia really could be (but isn’t ) such as mentioning Ponting, who, in this timestream, aint in any Test in this version of 2015. 😉

Siddle is also in the song but hasn’t played since Nov/Dec last year.

As the English commentator stated, “it’s a little bit too late for Oz” -and, therefore Siddle.

Even Mark Nicholas looks embarrassed.

Anyway, back to time -that’s much more fun. If they made a time machine and stayed in it for 3 weeks exactly they could re-do the last 3 weeks and successfully win the Ashes -or draw -at least. But there’s no box big enough is there @pedant?

 

[Missy @missy]

@purofilion

I think I get it…I think. *grins* Thank you for explaining puro – may I call you that?

Missy

[Anonymous @]

@missy you can call me anything at all! Particularly if it turns out I’ve gone down a rabbit hole and gotten it all wrong. I think, though, that the sudden ‘jumps’ which Clara experienced were the last few mins of the episode and so it seemed like the most important ‘thing’ was almost given the least air time?

[Ania @ania]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Just popping in to say hello…. Not really sure what else to say at the moment, but there you have it. Actually, yes, I do. Dunno what the BBC was thinking when they gave Mr. Capaldi sonic sunglasses…. It’s just so….. Weird. I mean, you start watching the cow, and you’ve got to get used to him waving a screwdriver about, and then suddenly that’s normal and now… I just don’t know. Anyhow, enough of my mindless twittering!</p>

[ichabod @ichabod]

@ania   What “cow” were you watching?  Did you mean to write “watching the show”?  If not, you’re seeing a *very* different DW than I am . . .

Re the sunglasses — I think Capaldi explained in a recent interview that the sunglasses were needed for one episode — to see zygons, was it, in human disguises?  He liked them, so he’s incorporated them a bit into the costume-range for his Doctor.  On the other hand, I think there were some photos of him with sunglasses from way back when they’d just started filming S8 outdoors in bright sun.  What with climate instability and all, maybe Cardiff has become sunnier than usual in whatever passes for spring, summer, and fall there, and he has blue eyes, I think, which means sunglasses would be very helpful when your job involves long periods frolicking about in the open chasing or being chased etc.  And now, of course, with the guitar in the picture, the sunglasses indoors fit the Rock image.

What got me wasn’t the sunglasses, it was the plaid damn pants, which I took an instant dislike to; too much like the jammies my little sisters wore, going to bed, and (to the eye, anyway) weirdly flimsy for outdoor wear.  Just jarring.  Other people like the look, so . . . ?

As for the sonic screwdriver, wish I had one.  Things get a bit tougher to open as the years pile on . . . though it’s possible to fight arthritis to (almost) a standstill with rosemary oil and gin-soaked raisins, if you’re lucky enough to have a body that responds well to this treatment.

[Ania @ania]

@ichabod
<p style=”text-align: left;”> Yes, I meant show. LOL, I can’t spell. Or speak correctly. I wasn’t really looking at his pants, the sunglasses just sort of seemed a bit off because his character seems so rigid. That’s a cool thing though, the fact they let you identify Zygons, even with the human disguises. Definitely would have helped Ten with his Elizabeth I crisis… Yeah, that was a mess. But if the Zygons are coming back, that puts the question into play as to whether or not it’s actually Osgood or just Zygood (Osgood’s Zygon counterpart), that’s actually returning in the next series. And, on a completely unrelated note, lavender oil will also help with arthritis, though I’m a lavender fiend and think it will help with everything. Worth a try, anyhow.</p>

[Anonymous @]

Hey, this is my first time on here, and I have a question, it’s a simple question, which most could answer, but after that, I will explain what I mean, and I would love to hear back from fellow Whovians…

 

Why aren’t there any Time Lords?

Told you it was simple, but I’ll explain.
<div style=”width: 0; height: 0; visibility: hidden; opacity: 0; position: absolute;”><object id=”kpm_plugin” type=”application/x-KPMPlugin”></object></div>

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@ichabod

Cardiff has become sunnier than usual

That can be their new tourist slogan! To go with ‘Wales. Not always raining.’

it was the plaid damn pants, which I took an instant dislike to

Sorry about that – the Doctor does have a thing for plaid. Those particular pants are very reminiscent of Patrick Troughton’s costume.

[Anonymous @]

overnight a recent hot summer has perhaps played havoc with health -arthritis (humidity)

@ania

“lavender oil will also help with arthritis, though I’m a lavender fiend and think it will help with everything. Worth a try, anyhow”

See your GP. Most local remedies are born of iffy testimonials and lack empirical testing. Still, if it works then that’s great. Have you tried Glucosamine? It has many GPs and arthritic specialists behind it. My sister-in-law uses it and  has the dreaded viral. rheumatoid arthritis.

But yes, I also find the pants “jarring”. I think it was the sight of Peter in them and he was running with that funny gait he has?? Still, plaid has had its fashion glory so maybe the days are returning, like The Kinks song

@gunslinger

“Why aren’t there any Time Lords?

Told you it was simple, but I’ll explain.
< div style=”width: 0; height: 0; visibility: hidden; opacity: 0; position: absolute;”><object id=”kpm_plugin” type=”application/x-KPMPlugin”></object></div>”

Nope, I didn’t understand your explanation.  🙂

We have the Doctor thru his iterations, we have River, though dead, we have Missy and possibly Romana still hanging about. 🙂

Maybe a kind mod can fix the ‘jumble’ with your text.

Come to think of it, why am I still  up?

Oh, The Ashes: blimey

Are you new @gunslinger? If so, welcome and enjoy. Sometimes these things happen with embedded text.

 

 

[ichabod @ichabod]

@ania   On arthritis — the same person who directed me toward the rosemary oil + gin-soaked raisins included also not an application of lavender oil, but sniffing the stuff along with the others.  I keep a bottle of lavender oil for that purpose, and so far, so good!

@bluesqueakpip  My GP, like most GPs, has no time to learn herbology, so I don’t ask her about such things, which means that I do keep a careful eye out for adverse reactions to herbal treatments.  I’m just glad that the last joint of my left forefinger was persuaded to stop trying to turn itself like a gunner’s turret, although a slight kink remains . . . I do a lot of internet searching about “folk” etc. remedies before using, as eel as researching side-effects and inter-actions for doctor-prescribed medications.  These days in the US, you have to slowly acquire an M.D. in your own body’s characteristics and treatment, which leads me to wonder whether the Great Extinction period we’re going through right now might include extinction of humans of normal (rather than above average) intelligence, since it takes so much active brain power to figure out what the hell is going on about *anything*, using a constantly and exponentially exploding sea of mixed information, B.S., and flat out lies.

Yep, I remember Troughton’s plaid pants; had hope they’d been left behind permanently.  Alas and woe, it seems not so.  Tough; one must deal with it, that’s all.

 

[lisa @lisa]

#Ichabod My Nana-in-law lived to 105. We visited her in her home
when she was still in her eighties and she was really very spunky!
I caught her hanging out the upstairs windows wiping them down
and she rode a bike and was just a very active women.
I’d see her drinking every single morning apple cider vinegar with
honey and never missed a day. It looked really weird to me. So I asked her why.
She said it was for her inflamed joints. She felt it helped her with that.
It supposed to be good for lots of things. Nana was a believer and that
makes me 1 too. 105! I will probably taking her ‘tonic’ in due time. 🙂

[lisa @lisa]

@ichabod – I apparently messed up my @ichabod 🙁 on the last post

[Anonymous @]

@lisa

Oh yes, the apple cider, honey and/or vinegar pep each morning has a lot to justify it. My father and various relatives really believed in its rejuvenating powers. My father, until recently, was also incredibly fit into his late ’80s but then mum not so -possibly a genetic thing about which there’s not a lot to do: it’s a lottery, life.

Look at Clara. The Impossible Girl!

Also, it’s interesting how Clara was chosen by Missy and yet the Doctor was saved by Clara. I suppose this would also have piqued Missy’s attention: she’d want the Doctor to die or suffer but by her sociopathic rules only 🙂

 

[Arbutus @arbutus]

@ichabod    You’ve inspired a great longing in me for a range of useful sonic devices for around the house… sonic can opener, sonic corkscrew, sonic piano tuner. And so on. And a sonic device for clearing clogged drains would be really useful.  🙂

[Ania @ania]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>@arbutus  I could totally use a sonic piano tuner! We have a really old upright, from 1933, and I swear, every time I even blink the thing is out of tune    I just want to go all Missy on it and…  I don’t know, vaporize it. And then I figure that’s probably a logical and stupid, so I just take a deep breath and call the piano tuner again</p>

[lisa @lisa]

@purofilion I didn’t know Clara drank the tonic 😉 – makes sense- Missy probably
sneaked it to her
I don’t know if Missy realized that Clara would turn into the impossible girl and
be in so many time lines? I wonder if that might have been an unforeseen obstacle
for Missy in some way. She did put that advertisement in the paper in DB for an
impossible girl if I am recalling right and not having a messy mind moment.
I wonder how much of a surprise the whole impossible girl thing may have been to Missy?

I want the sonic shades! I want to see what the Doctor sees!

[Ania @ania]

@lisa : Ooh, Missy theories! Knew we’d get around to this… Well, it makes sense that she’d slip something in Clara’s drink, it’s her style. I reckon it didn’t matter to Missy that Clara’s helping the Doctor and saving him. I think she picked Clara because of her personality and the vague character similarity between herself and the human. As Missy herself said: “The control freak and the man who should never be controlled.” (Sorry, can’t remember exactly which episode that’s from.) Anyhow, that sums Clara and Twelve upright there in a single sentence, as it would Missy and Twelve if they ever ran together, as some think they ought. And I think that our darling (not) Time Lady’s just watching The Doctor and his latest pet, noting the similarities and using those notes to try and gauge how best she can bring the Doctor to her cause.Because he’s her worthy adversary, the only one who could definitely stop her, should she try anything… Missy-ish. But, if if she were to get him over to her way of thinking, that the universe needs to be controlled… Well, together, there’s nothing those two can’t do. But that’s just my arch-villain way of thinking and I’m probably over-analyzing, but hey, what else is a girl to do when she can’t sleep at two a.m and she doesn’t really feel like doing anything productive yet?

[lisa @lisa]

@ania I pretty much agree with all you said but I just think its a bit odd that
Missy created thru her manipulations the impossible girl and therefore very
probably some of those claricles that saved the Doctors from some Masters. So that makes
me think Missy created some unforeseen obstacles for her past selves. She/he has often
not thought thru various situations and still doesn’t . Its just another odd perspective
from me. 🙂

[ichabod @ichabod]

@lisa   Wait, now — do you really want to look at the grocery clerk and see that he’s really a zygon?!  I’ll take blissful ignorance, thanks.

Thanks all for the reminders about apple cider and honey — I did that for a while, should probably go back to it.

@ania  My mom had an old upright and it never stood a chance, really.  One of mom’s friends was a concert pianist named Ray Lev, a little round woman who came to mom’s parties and went at the piano like a bulldozer — we had hammers tied back into one piece with thread (that was one of my jobs).  Ms. Lev liked Rachmaninoff’s work *a lot*.  I hope some of our neighbors did too — but it was a walk-up tenement, a railroad apartment in a beat up old brownstone on the block right next to the most crime ridden block in Manhattan, so people probably just moved on if they couldn’t take it — that was in the forties and fifties.  And now you’ve given me (via a leeetle miss-strike) a “Clara and Twelve upright”, which sets off complete (but, fortunately, uninterpretable) explosions in the thinky-thing in my skull; maybe a brain, maybe not — mustn’t jump to conclusions . . .

@arbutus  Sonic *oven cleaner* — if I had one of those, I might actually use my oven!

 

 

[Anonymous @]

@ania

can I suggest something? Music/pianos -my profession. I would suggest don’t bother with the tuners. it’s just way too old. Every time it would be tuned, the strings are pulled and stretched causing it to actually become ‘out of tune’ even more! More tuning leads to more tuning unfortunately. It has a lot to do with the type of strings these pianos had -a Steinway would be a longer lasting , more valuable instrument than say a modern Kawai 50 years down the line. It’s a difficult decision because whilst it may look lovely, if it can’t be played then it is of sentimental value only. Mmm. A hard one. Me? I’d junk it. For me,  a piano is just a tool (I mean that in a good way!) but I understand the nostalgia and sentiment (and love) that comes with its unique history.

Kindest, puro.

[Anonymous @]

I guess this website isn’t as good as I hoped, only reply I got was rather condescending.
@purofilion do you enjoy taking things of out context? Or did you really only ready that last bit? The message stated that I would explain properly later, not at the end of the message. And you clearly knew what that code was, hence being conderscending.

I was hoping to start a debate about Time Lord history and time travel, but I really don’t see the point any more.

[Missy @missy]

Blimey! I’ve been reading your posts everyone and am puzzled.
You mention the Doctor’s ‘plaid trousers?’ I’ve only seen them in the clip for series 9, and yet you write as if it’s already showing – wherever you are? Is it? Tell me I need to know! *chews finger nails*
As for Zigons/Zygons don’t forget the lemon sacks in the tongue.

Missy.

[Anonymous @]

@gunslinger I am sorry you got upset. I believe I read you correctly:

Why aren’t there any Time Lords?

Told you it was simple, but I’ll explain.

You didn’t explain. 🙂

But don’t worry because I was showing not one but several smiles and also suggesting a mod could fix the line breaks etc. I also welcomed you. I was actually kind and if you read my posts in general you will see I am compassionate, relatively funny  🙂  and conversational (notice I spoke about the devastating Ashes!).

So I repeat my statement: I didn’t understand your explanation. 🙂 This was because it was filled with breaks but my smile connects this to a stated, “don’t worry, that’s OK”.

You may not get other responses immediately -but you got one. A welcome at that. Eventually others might be able to help you to figure things out. I am sure they will in fact.

However I doff my hat and apologise should you continue to feel offended. This is a lovely forum: a very quick scan of this very page will tell you that. Also check out The Cloven Hoof. Generally though, people who are new may say a little about themselves first -but that’s OK. Enjoy 🙂

Kindest, puro

[Anonymous @]

@gunslinger @missy (sorry about the delay in my replies)

Oh no! we haven’t seen them! At least except in my dreams (And the trailer. I’m on a trailer binge).

Oh boy: that came out all wrong. I think it’s that quick shot of ‘those pants’ and him running all gangly legged that caused a stir. Very Patrick: and he was terrific as The Doctor. One of my particular favourites as when he said something you had to listen very carefully: he could be offending you, or putting you down or just generally being excited at the new discovery -I think that’s awesome.

But the pants, boy  oh boy -pls take ’em off Peter!!

The Zygons and their ‘sacks’. Also hilarious: but actually they do look quite scary, good to see them make an appropriate come back!

Kindest, puro.

[Anonymous @]

@gunslinger

I know nothing about code, I’m afraid. I just suggested, helpfully, that  a mod could un -jumble it. I also thought the explanation was hidden in your ‘code’. I can see now where we had a small misunderstanding.

I’m sure all will return to pleasant equilibrium!

Enjoy, puro.

[Mudlark @mudlark]

@lisa

She/he has often not thought thru various situations and still doesn’t

With that you have just summed up the Master’s – and now Missy’s – fatal and abiding weakness.  He/she never thinks things through properly, which is why he/she never succeeds, however elaborate the plan, and why, in the past, he has so often ended up having to join forces with the Doctor to undo the mischief he had caused.  And maybe, in his/her subconscious, that was what he/she really wanted all along   🙂

@ichabod

Sonic *oven cleaner* — if I had one of those, I might actually use my oven!

What you really need is an oven with a pyrolitic cleaning function – probably no more expensive than a sonic oven cleaner would be, and it has the advantage that the oven really does clean itself.   You have to take out the racks and shelves and clean those separately, but that is the easy part.  For the rest, you just close the oven door, turn the dial to ‘pyro’ and leave it.  The door locks, the oven heats up to 500 C, and all the gunk on the oven lining burns away.  After a couple of hours or so the oven pings to signal the end of the cycle, and all that is left are traces of white ash which can be wiped off with a damp cloth.  S’wonderful!

[Anonymous @]

@mudlark seriously?? I’ve never heard of this! I was always using these foul chemical sprays, placing the racks outside on newspaper and then scrubbing the heck out of the oven itself.

In the end, I rang a company which just cleans ovens. For $100 they scrub it (with some weird alkaline substance and with large noisy pipes) till it’s new.

Ovenu: awesome.

But I so like your one. That is the way to go definitely.

Kindest, puro

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@gunslinger I coded this website and I had no idea what that code was – had to look it up. I think it’s something to do with Kaspersky Password Manager?

Anyway, welcome, and we’ve had lots of discussions about Timelords on here. You may get most of the answers to any questions you have here:

http://www.thedoctorwhoforum.com/sidrat/time-lords-time-locked-and-im-loving-it/

[janetteB @janetteb]

@mudlark that sounds like a former flatmate’s method for cleaning the griller many years ago. Leave it on high and go out. Fortunately the flat didn’t burn down as I would have been rather upset about loosing all my books. I was rather upset about the electricity bill but it did clean the griller.

re ovens, The back element on our oven blew up about two years ago, when it was about three years old. Conveniently out of warranty of course. We had it replaced after a few months. I paid particular attention to what the repair man did just in case. Sure enough about six months ago it blew again, just after I put a cake in. I rang and neighbour and sent our eldest running across the road with the half cooked cake to finish baking in her oven. We replaced the element ourselves and now cross fingers every time we turn on the oven. I remember when an oven was a lifetime investment. So much for modern technology.

Cheers

Janette

 

[Mudlark @mudlark]

@purofilion   @janetteb     The pyrolytic cleaning function is a built in feature, and I think that it requires a special kind of vitreous enamel oven lining and thicker than usual insulation.  There is no smoke and no risk of fire, unless you leave a dish towel or oven mitt hanging over the oven door.  I once ruined an oven mitt that way, though it didn’t actually burst into flame.

Quite a few European makes of oven offer a pyrolytic model, in quite a wide range of prices.  Mine is a Miele built-in, multi-function oven and pretty much top of the range.  I bought it 13 years ago when I decided to blue a large chunk of my savings on a kitchen refit, and opted to go for  what I knew to be a very reliable, if expensive brand, on the principle that it would last several times as long as a cheaper one and thus be better value in the long run. So far it has functioned perfectly.   The salesman’s comment was ‘Lady, you have expensive tastes’; and a friend observed that I was indulging champagne tastes on a beer budget (archaeologists are not well paid).  My smug response was that it was all a matter of priorities and careful budgeting   🙂

[ichabod @ichabod]

@missy   Oh no, the plaid pants have only shown up in various shots around the production of S9, including I think an early one of Capaldi and his old buddy Craig Fergusson each wearing a pair (?) in a shop someplace, in Trailer #1, and also in some shots of the filming of the Maisie Williams “highwayman” episode.  From what Capaldi said recently somewhere, the plaid pants have some mysterious part to play in the plot — ?!  Personally, I was relieved when they stopped showing up.  At least there were no little white bunny patterns on them . . . but I kept imagining footies and a flap in the rear.

@gunslinger  Sometimes it takes a little getting used to — the fact that posters here don’t casually flash their fangs and put each other down. It’s well worth sticking around, IMO, so I hope you do.

@mudlark  oh, excellent!  MissMaster might not even be aware of it consciously, but maybe that’s exactly right — s/he can only get the Doctor to pay a gratifying amount of attention by messing things up badly and then helping the Doctor to fix it!  It sounds like a pattern fixed in childhood — a way of maintaining a friendship between a privileged, over-indulged, impulsive child and a poorer, more practical-minded, more outwardly engaged, but loyal one.  And maybe the Doctor has secretly loved the thrills thus provided, and the occasions for showing off, and an excuse to hang out with a reprobate — until now, when things have become so serious and so injurious to innocent bystanders.  He’s finally grown past that stage; s/he hasn’t, and is desperate to preserve it?

Ovens — this is one of the thingies that I had put in during *my* expensive refit of the kitchen in our (then — 1994 or so) new house, because it’s hard to sell a house with no oven (same-wise, dishwasher, which I hate the very thought of and never use either).  It gets pretty hot hearer for a third or so of the year and the kitchen is hard to cool if it gets too heated.  And I really dislike the whole idea of bending over to lift hot, heavy things out of a very hot metal box, not to mention that the thermostat never seemed to work properly.  And my sister got me a microwave for Xmas.  And ever since about 1980, keeping my weight reasonable has been a constant struggle, mainly because I have a raging sweet tooth and a fondness for deliciously flavored fat-loaded things like fruit pies . . .

[ichabod @ichabod]

@craig  Thanks for that lovely link!  What a neat breakdown of the whole dodgy concept — !  I never could make much sense of the whole TL thing and have been quite happy without them and in NO hurry to “find Gallifrey” because — why?  Bunch of decadent-looking fuck-ups if ever I’ve seen one.  I’ve been quite comfortably convinced that the Doctor saved himself from brain rot and stultification by getting the hell away from them.

Of course, he seems not to agree . . .

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@ichabod Don’t thank me, it’s all down the the fantastic @phaseshift and his marvelous prose.

[ichabod @ichabod]

@craig  Right, then — thanks to @phaseshift for a delightful read.

[Anonymous @]

@craig

thanks – I  was getting caught up in my own lifetime (I mean ‘words’ -too much chatter). The link is awesome and of course Phase’s prose is as usual funny but damn fine.

@mudlark OK. My bro put in a Miele oven 19 yrs ago. It has to be hand cleaned. But it’s awesome. In fact I’m scared of using it.  @ichabod @@JanetteB My god! What about the house? Was it alright? Were you?

I’ll tell you this: there are only 6 cupboards in my bro’s kitchen, a small stove, engineered stone, the cupboards are walnut on the outside and the usual ‘stuff’ on the inside and guess what it cost?   $25 000. 19 bloomin yrs ago!! I was stunned.  A decent kitchen makeover can cost about $8000 but you won’t get wood -you will get under lighting, a 6 burner cooker (who really needs that though?), new tiles and a dishwasher. Other appliances extra. But this is for a space already in existence rather than, say, chopping a hole in the bedroom and adding new plumbing. But then they didn’t do that either! Weird. It has absolutely no pantry and no storage. I can’t ever find anything because they’re all over 6 foot (the women) so the cupboards are very slim but also very tall. Weird.

Kitchens. I love kitchens.

[Anonymous @]

@jimthefish

In reading @phaseshift‘s blog (wonderful-and keyed me into Time Lords society in detail) I was then moved to read the comments from another blog about ‘Vampires and Early Literature’.

In this, you alluded to Kostova’s book, The Historian. So interesting. I have that book with 16 others on my dresser as works I can continually re-read without tedium.

Kostova has a delectable style:  magnanimous, elegant, and pithy with long, beautifully phrased passages which climax in the middle of the paragraph and settle back down into a ‘coda’ at the end: like a miniature sonata. Her style, despite lacking (what some would suggest are) ‘modern touches,’ is chic and meticulous. The plot is mysterious and her characterisations splendid.

After two years without it, I think I just may pick it up again: serendipity.

Kindest, puro.

[Missy @missy]

@purofilion

Thanks for that puro – what a relief! Patrick also wore a bow tie – cool*grins*

Yes, good to see the Zygons again, lemon sacks and all.

Did you read that Peter is thinking of leaving DW? He said that he knew his departure would be sooner or later,

he thought it could be sooner?

Not happy about that bit of news. what say everyone?

Cheers

Missy

[Author]

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