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4 minutes ago, Oztalgian said:

Shops should have areas for products that are not Made in China.

Too right, OZ. Not always possible, though. Sellers need to state country of origin. Had a small victory last week. Old Felco 4 secateurs cannot be sharpened any more (20 years old). Do I get some cheap Chinese lookalikes for under a fiver?

Bought a replacement blade from Switzerland for £12. They do new springs for a couple of quid. Set for another twenty years of use. Plan A is to live long enough to wear them out!

I find I can get a lot of Bike-related stuff from Taiwan. Hopefully, they'll stay out of China's clutches.

Buying stuff is very confusing when Raleigh call their tyres Schwalbe to make them sound German.

Country of origin needs to be clearly stated wherever you buy stuff.

Sunday rant over.

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Just got back from QMC again........the last eight days have been a bit Traumatic to say the least,,...blood tests,,X-rays,,and today a visit to a Consultant........cut a long story short......problem

Result........CT Scans all clear......just got letter..been sweating for a fortnight......

Two years ago today..........my life changed forever,,,about this time i was on my way down to the operating theatre for what turned out to be a ten hour operation...........its been life changing in

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Not many years ago the stuff coming out of China was rubbish. Now it’s where the quality high tech stuff comes from. I have equipment in my workshop that’s made in China and has been going strong for 20 years or more. My Apple computing gear is made in China and is brilliant. There’s a lot of capitalists in China. We sell Rolls, Jags and Range Rovers to them. I don’t know what it’s like for the ordinary workers though surviving under an oppressive regime. This oppression won’t last forever. There will be a revolt and then we’ll have to look elsewhere for cheap goods as they will price themselves out of the market when they get fair wages. Africa is pretty much untouched regarding mass exports to the West. Perhaps that continent will be the next source of cheap goods.

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Phil, I am not talking about the high end stuff that is made under the control of multi-nationals. They cannot afford to have their brands compromised.

I am talking about most of the clothing, poorly sewn together, loose threads everywhere, buttons that fall off at the slightest provocation and not to mention sizing. A properly made Australian shirt is only in the single dollars more expensive.

General hardware items nuts, bolts, screws etc that the head comes off or threads strip when tightened with a bit of force.

Stuff supposedly made from "stainless steel" that rusts overnight. and yes I do know there are different grades of stainless.

Tools like spanners and sockets that open up at the application of a little bit of grunt. The list goes on and on, you know what I mean.

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This topic is heading towards the Politics thread I think but...

 

The 'so called' Communist regime in China is nothing of the sort.  It is some form of State Dictatorship, which uses its power to issue edicts from above..to force compliance.  My wife had many Chinese students when she taught EFL to overseas 'business types' and often recounts tales of how even here.. they were afraid to speak their minds, and incredibly naive about freedoms we take for granted.  One day she was explaining how we grow a few veg in our garden and the student replied in surprise 'They allow you to do that?"

 

I don't think the Chinese regime will collapse any time soon.. more likely it will spread its influence. And if it does collapse, it will likely be transformed into a gangster state along the lines of Russia, where the Big Money backs a criminal dictator like Putin and elections are a sham.

 

Meanwhile..  Africa, which assorted European powers, but most notably the British, exploited and de-stabilised for centuries, is now being ignored by the West as China pours investment in and begins shaping Africa as its power base in the West.

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I’m not sure we get much Chinese clothing here. Most of that cheaper stuff tends to come from Bangladesh or from the sweat shops of Leicester. We still turn a blind eye to modern slavery over here but people don’t seem to march against that preferring the slavery of yesteryear.

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48 minutes ago, Oztalgian said:

General hardware items nuts, bolts, screws etc that the head comes off or threads strip when tightened with a bit of force.

 

It's a well known saying here that Chinese screws are made from cheese and it's a tossup which fails first, the screw or the driver...

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I'm confident that the Chinese are perfectly capable of making excellent quality tools and they most likely do so.  I don't think that is the issue. The trouble is that many Brits are cheapskates who buy everything on price and don't assess, or often even recognise, quality.

 

We may make any number of criticisms of China and its population.. but stupid they definitely are not.  So.. as long as we are prepared to buy 'tat' at rock bottom prices.. they are prepared to sell it to us.

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2 hours ago, philmayfield said:

Not many years ago the stuff coming out of China was rubbish. Now it’s where the quality high tech stuff comes from.

 

It's similar to the situation with Japan in the 60s and 70s. Back then, something being made in Japan was synonymous with a cheap, low-quality product.....eg cars and hi-fi.  Eventually they improved and innovated; now products from that part of the world are on a par with - or better than - anything produced in other places.

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A friend of mine who used to work for Anderson Strathclyde, and used to install his companies machines in countries across Europe and China told me, they licensed a Chinese company to make their range of shearers in China to reduce shipping costs from Scotland to China.

They learned their lesson pretty quickly as the machine steel castings were not up to spec, metallurgical skills and China do not go together. So they ended up just licensing the Chinese company as an assembly plant and sending all parts from Scotland to China.

Big problem with China is they do not respect patents or copyright.

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1 hour ago, Cliff Ton said:

It's similar to the situation with Japan in the 60s and 70s

 

Motorcycles being the classic example

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Indeed. I will never forget being passed..around 1966.. on the way to Cadwell Park on my old 250 cc Royal Enfield Crusader Sport (Max speed about 70 according to the speedo.)  No problem with the first one.. a big Beeza...or the second..a big Norton.. but the third to pass..and keeping up with the other two.. was a little orange/yellow thing which just went 'Yeeeeeeee..iiiinggg..' as it passed.  They were all stopped at  a petrol station a bit further on and I got a close look at the orange/yellow thing.  Yamaha summat or other.  250.. or maybe even a 125... but way quicker than me..

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Back from our short break only to be met from Torino airport with the worst downfall I think I've ever seen. The windscreen wipers going faster couldnt cope with the deluge. Had a lovely time visiting cousins and a surprise from a neice who was touring Sicily with her husband and friends. All over too quickly but theres always a next time with plenty of time to organise.

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Pleased you were able to make your Pilgrimage Nonna and meet up with your relatives. Now it's time to get back to that cactus you're saving for me. :rolleyes:

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BK We saw the real McCoy whilst travelling from Palermo to Trabia. Huge trees of Indian figs some with flowers and some with fruit. Tried to take photos of them but it was impossible to stop. 

The downpour we saw from Turin yesterday news in the evening that there were floods everywhere after.

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IMG-3924.jpgThe jacuzzi says everyone should live a life with a sea view.

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https://postimg.cc/gallery3wNYRM3

 

Just part of the family eating lunch at 4.30pm. We were late because of the slowness of carhire firm, so the others had eaten.

The other two pics are the views from the apartment we stayed in.

We should have gone to the village of Valledolmo but covid stopped that. A friend of Alexs cousin lent us this apartment. Thought that was a beautiful gesture. So peaceful on the waters edge.

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Looks fabulous Nonna, so pleased you had a catch-up with family and a change of scenery.

We’ve been by the sea in Dorset for the past 18 days and it’s been great.  
Got back this evening but we hadn’t planned staying down there this long, we packed the car up on Saturday and got a couple of miles down the road and a warning light pinged up on the dashboard.  As we had 200 miles ahead of us we diverted to the local Audi garage where they were only doing MOTs on a Saturday.  A service engineer checked the engine and did a pressure test and said it was the thermostat causing the issue but they couldn’t fit us in until this Thursday. He commented  “the thermostat always fails on these”,  great, that’s good to know then!!  We went back to our place and then got a local garage to fix the problem this morning, a lot of money but no doubt cheaper than Audi main dealer prices.   At least the weather has been lovely for our enforced extended stay.

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Today, for some reason I have got a mega craving for a ciggie. Haven’t had a proper one for months and haven’t had a craving for a long while. My vape just isn’t hitting the spot at all today. Good job you can’t buy them singly (I can remember getting them from Jacks on staverton, they were Park Drive he used to split the packs of 5) or I might have been tempted. 
I did enjoy smoking (not very politically correct I know but then I never am) and the problem with vaping, for me, is that the vape pipe doesn’t feel like a cigarette at all. Yes I get the nicotine hit to feed my habit but it just isn’t the same somehow. Oh well will keep busy and probably raid the fridge as well, could be a chocolate day I think. Hopefully it will have passed by tomorrow.

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Treat yerself to some Old Hoborn chewing tobacca SG. But make sure you have yer spittoon ready!  :rolleyes:

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Ive been almost 3 years 'Fagless'' SG.........and still get the craving everyday 3 or 4 times..........sometimes pretend to smoke with one of the Wifes...not lit..flick it up into me gob give it a good suck and pretend to blow the smoke out.(which makes her laugh cos since my OP i cant blow)...while at the same time asking her ''If she comes here often and would you like a dance Duck''

            Makes me feel better and lessens the craving....also for some reason watching 'Talking Pictures where they all smoke helps as well.........lol

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