Any question answered...

Here's a tip: It'll take two of you. Get some webbing, like seat belt or better still a cotton variant thereof - it doesn't slide around as much as seat belt does. Make a small loop in one end of the webbing, and using that fashion it into a lasso. Pull it tight around the object that's due to leave the attic, and lower it down to the person below. Rinse and repeat. Me and my sister cleared our parent's loft in circumstances similar to your's in next to no time. No climbing up and down stairs/steps. We're both beyond retirement age.

I used a builder's bag on a rope when I needed to clear a loft with poor access. Fill it up, let it down, person at the bottom takes it off and you fill a new one up whilst they empty the one you let. Keep switching them and lowering down.

Honestly the thing i'm dreading most is going through the stuff in the attic, it's chocca with stuff and getting in and out through the hatch on at tiny landing at the top the stairs makes it harder.

Stating the obvious here, but get a mate to help with this bit. Taller the better. If one of you can pass things through the hatch while the other handles them down, it takes no time at all. Take things like the handles off the loft ladder which get in the way.

Beaten to it x2

My partner wants a smart watch specifically for Shazam app that works offline.
It’s so she can get the name/artist of tango music while she is dancing at and then sync later (we are an all iPhone/mac household)
Has to be cheap as possible as it will not be used beyond this specific task.

As far as I understand it, you can only get Shazam for either Apple or Androidwear-based smart watches.

I'd be looking for a cheap used one myself, so CEX or ebay?

I have an Apple Watch Series 3 going spare. Boxed with both strap lengths. DM if interested and works for you.

Will DM
Edit no DM! It appears the OS stops at 8 and you need 9 for Shazam

She's using the British Heart Foundation. They offer it nationally by the look of things:

https://www.bhf.org.uk/shop/donating-goods/house-clearance

Use existing phone in constant Shazam mode?

Thanks

What's happened to the mince pie appreciation thread? I cannot seem to find it.

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/159548/

Ta.

I want to make a big planter for a bay tree next year. I assumed I'd make it from wood, but have started to wonder about fibre glass.

Most probably a big ply box reinforced with fibre glass.

How difficult and expensive is this sort of thing?

I've watched YouTube videos and it strikes me that making something to a professional finish which is as light and strong as made as efficiently as possible requires a lot of skill. But DIY over-building a fibreglass doesn't seem that hard.

Am I being naive?

How long is it safe to leave a sealed in wax cheese out of the fridge?

Was at a farm shop on Friday (22/11) and bought my parents some Christmas presents, locally made oatcakes, pickles and a cheese in wax (dated well into next year). Got home and forgot about the cheese until today (25/11). Have put it in the fridge now but is it likely to make them ill if I give them it in a month’s time?

Hard cheeses sealed in wax can keep for quite a while. If it’s a hard cheese, afaik it’s safe to just cut away any mould. If it’s cheese with holes and it’s mouldy, that’s probably more difficult to remove any mould.

Unlikely to make them ill I'd say but it just might not taste great, which undermines the present angle a bit...

I would think you'd be ok for quite a while.
Do an image search for Neal's Yard Dairy.
Plenty of cheeses on display there, unrefrigerated.

It's fine, no one eats the waxed cheese they get as presents. It just goes in the back of the fridge for a month then gets thrown away

depends, if a Lancashire bomb then ‘thrown away’ = ‘taken to my room with a spoon and DND set on the door’

How long is it safe to leave a sealed in wax cheese out of the fridge?

Cheese was invented to preserve milk without refrigeration. Since the wax is a more or less airtight container, I'd expect it to be safe for months at larder temperature with no other protection. Matured hard cheeses are exempt from temperature control regulation in some regimes, or have limits for shipping, storage and display of 25-30°C, which yours probably hasn't seen nor ever will at your location 🙂

Cheers all, I’m reassured.

Battery vacuums. Our Dyson has packed up. Any other decent options or do I just suck up paying into the brexit man’s tax-avoidance racket and having the battery pack up just out of warranty?

Ours started running out on the Max setting after three seconds, but years later runs on low power for ages, enough to get round most of the house. Quite odd. I think for the last model we had I bought a third party replacement and it was a crock of shit. /CSB