The Night Mail

[The Johnster]

5 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

We are petless family.

 

In the past we have had Rabbits, Guinea Pigs, Canaries, Goldfish, Dogs, Bantam Hens and Rats and Tortoise.

 

Dogs are great companions.

Rats are fantastic as pets, being far more entertaining  and amenable than Rabbits or Guinea Pigs.

Bantams are real characters.

Tortoises are Tortoises.

 

Fortunately I still keep my animal husbandry in with various creatures that reside with neighbours or relatives.  This includes Charlie, a rather chatty African Grey Parrot who is over 40 years old!

 

My sister has cats:  I have no interaction with them, although I have told my younger sibling that I do an excellent line in cat caskets.

 

She was not impressed.

 

Much as I am fascinated by reptiles, I have never felt the need to become a keeper, preferring to see them in their natural habitat. 

 

We have fishes (freshwater, tropicals in the living room and goldfish in a lined planter on the patio).  Some fishes are simply decoration, shoal of Harlequins in my case, others are proper little charaters, playful and interesting.  We have Mollies, which I try to breed for colour, and Yoyo loach, which are complete nutters and incredibly entertaining.  Don't have the room in this little flat, but when I had a bigger tank I kept Angels; like all Cichlids these are feisty and intelligent, got attitude!  The Mollies' constant shennaigans are a bit of a soap opera for The Squeeze, who passes terrible judgements about their moral standards but thinks the fry are cute, especially as they are born live.  Sadly, most of these wrigglers have to be culled, or they would take over your flat, the building, the steet, the city, the nation, the planet, and eventually everything else with little 'bringing on' tanks. 

 

The RSPCA recommended method is a solution of clove oil, which simply sends them to sleep without any struggle or apparent suffering, quick (about a minute for the wrigglers), effective, and smells nice.  I save the few I think are going to develop good colour, having a good stock of blacks, but this is a hit and miss business, as they don't develop their full colours until late adolescene, about 2 months after birth.  By this time you have grown attached and the cull is tougher on you.  I keep them for 2 weeks and then select those I think are going to be worth keeping, 1 or 2 with obvious colour variations out of about 40 or 50 wrigglers, but a couple of times these have reverted to black in adulthood.  I like black Mollies, but have plenty.  The females are allowed in the main tank and I separate the males into the bringing on tank, where the co-exist happily with the wrigglers, and drop a female in to breed every so often.  Otherwise the females are constantly harrassed and stressed and I don't think the frustration is good for the males either.

 

There is also a guinea pig.  The Squeeze kept them as a child in Poland, and wanted one, so I bought her one, but fell in love with the little guy myself almost immediately; what can I say, he nuzzled me in the neck.  I am constantly amazed at the volume of squeakery that such a small animal can produce when he realises one of us is in the kitchen and there might be a treat in it for him.  He is feisty, funny, and very affectionate unless he's in a moody, rare, and you need to keep your fingers out of the way, but he will give you due warning with a head toss; back off, or else.  We've both been nipped after ignoring such warnings (especially when his nails are being trimmed, which he hates, one of the reasons for setting up the run outside in warm weather), but relatively gently; they are quite capable of going through to the bone! 

 

The Squeeze says every one she's ever had has a completely different and individual character, but reckons this one, Mr Squeak (or Tilluc in Polish) is the funniest and most affectionate.  He is brilliant, getting on a bit now, we've had him 5 years and they manage about 7 on average apparently.  He knows how to play the cute card, in spades!  Fat little thing, but I'm in no position to take a moral high ground on this matter...  He will sit on my shoulder for hours, presumably thinks he's Long John Silver's parrot, I can walk around with him and he's quite happy, could prolly take him up the pub!  He also makes delightful little burbling noises when you stroke him, and we have full conversations with him when he is vocalising, which he obviously enjoys.  They like company, and we are home most of the time, but if one of us goes out, he will stare at the door until their return, then pretend to ignore the wayward human when it gets home.  Unless it comes home with a shopping bag, then it's 'squeak, squeak, where's my treats, whatchoo buy me, then, come on, feed me now'!!!

 

I agree about rats, though, lovely things.  Used to know a hippie girl, Abbie, who had long dreadlocks and kept one in them.  It would peek out and freak folk out in the snooker club we used to go to.  There was a punk chap, Benny, used to go in there as well with a python, not the GW sort, that he wore around his neck like a scarf.  This was very friendly and would nudge you with his head if he wanted a fussing, like a labrador.  Benny looked terrifying, but was a really nice bloke.  Unless you kicked your dog, that is; saw him beat up a guy over this once.

 

Our animals are a constant and consistend source of pleasure, and take very little effort to keep.  The fishes look after themselves, with the aid of power filters, which need sorting out about every 6 months or so when the flow decreases.  I keep an old tennis ball in the goldfishes' planter in winter in case it ices over.  They will survive for some time like this but eventually suffocate because they will deplete the oxygen in the water and the ice prevents the water from absorbing more at the surface, so it has to be broken, but smashing it sends percussive shockwaves through the water which can harm the fishes' hearing and swim bladders; swim bladder health and a good filter are key to keeping goldfishes, which are coldwater coldblooded and eat more than tropicals of similar size, especially in warm weather when their metabolism functions at a higher rate, and therefore poop more, messy b*ggers.

 

They are calm-natured and calming; I understand fully why ancient Chinese mystics praised them for their wisdom and peaceful ways, though the unsuspecting insects that swoop over the water surface in summer and disappear with a 'gloop', never to return, may not agree...  Ours happily eat out of our hands, and will swim in to your palm with the top half of their bodies out of the water for you to stroke them.  Cold-blooded animals often take pleasure in contact with warm blooded ones in this way; Benny's python certainly did.

 

Hence the ball; it floats and can easily be removed when ice forms, leaving a hole for you to get a lever in there and prise the ice upwards.  Mr.Squeak gets spot-cleaned every morning (who am I kidding, I don't get up until afternoon most days) and his bedding changed when it starts to smell and gets damp, about every 10 days.  He has a run. which is put out for him to occupy while this is going on, or for him to spend time out on the patio in warm weather, but he has to be kept dry; they are prone to bronchial and lung issues.

[Gwiwer]

17 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

18 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 ...snip... Ask me what a rod, pole or perch looks like (and indeed how long each is  ...snip...

A fish, about ten to twelve inches or so, and very tasty

A perch which could be caught with a rod or a pole 

[zarniwhoop]

13 hours ago, The Johnster said:

The result of using leds that have to be beefed up and narrow-beamed to meet requirements.  The driver can’t see as much as he could with halogens or even powerful filament bulbs because there is less of a ‘floodlight’ effect, the light is less diffused.   Also a consequence of better street lighting levels.  
 

Glad I don’t drive any more!

Better street lighting levels ? Just wait until your local lights get replaced with current low-spill lights. OK on residential roads, but very poor on 40 mph dual carriageways.

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Don't worry, there is the Loire between where we have just booked the accommodation and your chateau grande.

 

Any recommendations as to whether to take a train or to fly?

 

I am brushing up on my Frenglais.

I would suggest looking for direct flights but I'm not sure who flys there. The other possibilities are fly to Pais CDG then catch a TGV or drive using a Portsmouth St Malo ferry which gives you a decent nights sleep and is the only about an hpur and a halfs drive from Nantes.  I'll send ypu a PM.

 

Jamie

Edited February 11, 2023 by jamie92208

[Winslow Boy]

2 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I would suggest looming for direct flights but I'm not sure who flys there. The other possibilities are fly to Pais CDG then catch a TGV or drive using a Portsmouth St Malo ferry which gives you a decent nights sleep and is the only about an hpur and a halfs drive from Nantes.  I'll send ypu a PM.

 

Jamie

 

Be careful there Jamie I think Big H might be playing you there by saying theres a river between where he's going to be staying and your domicile. Hippos are very good swimmers. So make certain you cover the south bank and I don't mean the one in Paris.

[SM42]

1 hour ago, zarniwhoop said:

Better street lighting levels ? Just wait until your local lights get replaced with current low-spill lights. OK on residential roads, but very poor on 40 mph dual carriageways.

 

Round here the street lights have developed a habit of coming on as you drive along. 

The problem is they tend to come on behind you for about 1 second. 

 

It's like a drive through disco

 

Andy

[Oldddudders]

Alison's eldest is at Uni in Nantes. It was a rather late booking - due to his dad (i.e.her ex) defaulting on Rowan's wish for a pilot's course instead - and he has never managed to get lodgings in Nantes. [Instead he commutes from Angers, where his girlfriend is a medical student. She is one of 800 med students who, at the end of their first year, will be ranked, and only the top 100 continue.] So affordable accommodation in Nantes is never abundant.

 

Meanwhile, Rowan, currently studying English which he finds stupendously easy, is now hoping to transfer to a course in Angers next scholastic year.  Just in time for the men w funny-shape balls to come to town. Many being Welsh, like his dysfunctional father, who is from Aberystwyth. 

[TheQ]

Going back over many posts.

 

I suggest not looking for the left hand edge of the road when dazzled in some places round here, that would put you in the ditch, sometimes 10 foot deep  in winter full of water and don't go looking for a white line either, there rarely is one. On the edge or the middle..

 

Drove through warcop on the A66, (2016) they had put up new speed limit signs on new posts, there were also the old speed limit signs.

 A few had the the remains of black plastic bags round them, but not over the signs anymore. So you had twice as many signs as required showing alternate speed limits of 50 and 60mph, so what was the limit?

 

 On the approach to nearest town 5 miles away. They've fitted the useless led street lights .. 

Down one side of the road...

The other side of the road is a hedge, no lights, but two foot paths.

At night you have no chance of seeing anyone coming out from behind the hedges..

[Tony_S]

We will be off to France in June so should manage to avoid any rugby related traffic. We will be a bit south of Geneva though our planned route avoids Switzerland (just). We won’t be doing it in one day though, we will stop overnight about half way. The stopover hotel is one we have stayed in many times but Novotel have sold it. Now owned by a Dutch company so hopefully will have good chips. 

[Northmoor]

9 hours ago, polybear said:

 

There is also the following that (should) be at the back of every Biker's mind:

Unless you happen to be very, very lucky then.....

If you come off it's gonna hurt

There's a good chance it'll hurt a lot

It may well fu....er, mess up the rest of your life

You might just end up dead.

 

Sadly the above makes a certain Bear think twice about riding a bike again - mainly due to the tw@t drivers in the vicinity of Bear Towers who (a) haven't a clue how to drive, and (b) the aggression in some may well lead to them punting you off cos' the day of the week ends in a Y. 

I've been off the bike for over 15 years but am seriously craving getting back on one.  However I never enjoyed riding "down here" as much as in Scotland.  When living in Dunfermline, I twice rode to Crianlarich via Callendar, A82 to Balloch (stop for chips) and back in four hours including the stops, about 160 miles; many of the roads were empty or used by locals who knew how to drive at more than 42mph.  It helped that in mid-summer I could do this after tea and still get home in daylight....

 

Darn Sarf, it's not just the volume of traffic (including lots of drivers seemingly interested in everything other than driving) but with the higher population density, you can be out for hours and hardly get anywhere.  It's often a tedious stream of 30, 40, NSL, 40, NSL, 40, 30, 50, 30, NSL, 30, 40 etc. plus the associated roundabouts and traffic lights. 

[pH]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

I suggest not looking for the left hand edge of the road when dazzled in some places round here, that would put you in the ditch, sometimes 10 foot deep  in winter full of water and don't go looking for a white line either, there rarely is one. On the edge or the middle..

 

23 hours ago, The Johnster said:

… you know those rumble strips that wake you up when you are approaching a roundabout on a fast road, bububububububumbump …

I drive 640 kilometres (in the spirit of recent discussion on units, 400 miles) when we go to visit one of our sons and his family, more than half of it on two-lane rural or mountain roads. Especially on the mountain sections, there are many places where there are pretty precipitous drops immediately off the narrow shoulders. There are usually longitudinal rumble strips between the driving surface and the shoulder. The bumps are much smaller and closer together than on the UK roundabout strips, so they don’t disturb the ride, and they produce a “rrrrrr” warning sound if you drive on them. Very useful, especially in the dark. On some very twisty sections, these strips are also installed on the centre line.

 

https://www.tranbc.ca/2012/07/11/lets-get-ready-to-rumble-a-story-of-rumble-strips/

Edited February 11, 2023 by pH
To add link to government transport department website.

[PhilJ W]

Talking of speeding bikers. There is a road in South Benfleet called Essex Way. It has a short stretch with a steep downhill section that also has no speed limit. A couple of weeks ago I was going down there at 50mph and there was a cyclist ahead of me and pulling away from me. I keep my speed down to fifty as the speed restriction starts at the bottom of the hill, on a right hand bend.

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

A perch which could be caught with a rod or a pole 

I was familiar with the perch as an area measurement equal to a square rod. It was commonplace as a unit of land in Australia pre-1974 where suburban lots were sold in perches (160 perches per acre). A quarter acre being 40 perches.

 

Back then I had never heard of it being a dimension of distance (rod, pole, lug) being a quarter chain - or 16' 6". 

 

In the US, I've never seen perch, pole or rod used. There are historical references to chains and expect there's still some reference in surveying. In common usage only inches, feet, yards, miles, square feet and acres are used.

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[Dave Hunt]

There's a place on the outskirts of Liverpool called Belle Vale with a long, steep hill leading down to it and when I was a lad it was a favourite place for some fast and furious cycling. I don't know what speeds we could reach going down the hill but we could certainly keep up with the buses and some of the more adventurous could even get alongside them on occasions and wave to the passengers. It probably came into the category of raving dangerous but it was great fun. Going back up the hill was a different matter.

 

Dave

[Happy Hippo]

3 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Be careful there Jamie I think Big H might be playing you there by saying theres a river between where he's going to be staying and your domicile. Hippos are very good swimmers. So make certain you cover the south bank and I don't mean the one in Paris.

Jamie knows my word is my bond.  Despite there being a quite nice bridge on the E62 (among other numerous crossings).

 

More likely to be at risk would be Olddudders as he is north of the Loire.  But he too is quite safe, as he and Ashers might set Alison on me.

[BoD]

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

I've been off the bike for over 15 years but am seriously craving getting back on one.  However I never enjoyed riding "down here" as much as in Scotland.  When living in Dunfermline, I twice rode to Crianlarich via Callendar, A82 to Balloch (stop for chips) and back in four hours including the stops, about 160 miles; many of the roads were empty or used by locals who knew how to drive at more than 42mph.  It helped that in mid-summer I could do this after tea and still get home in daylight....

 

Darn Sarf, it's not just the volume of traffic (including lots of drivers seemingly interested in everything other than driving) but with the higher population density, you can be out for hours and hardly get anywhere.  It's often a tedious stream of 30, 40, NSL, 40, NSL, 40, 30, 50, 30, NSL, 30, 40 etc. plus the associated roundabouts and traffic lights. 

 

When we were driving up in Scotland shortly after covid restrictions relaxed  it seemed that every little village, small settlement or even individual roadside houses had a new 20 mph limit applied.

[Tony_S]

57 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

There is a road in South Benfleet called Essex Way. It has a short stretch with a steep downhill section that also has no speed limit.

Before all the hill climb enthusiasts head over to race up Essex Way, it does have a speed limit of 60mph! Years ago, the bottom of the hill was a popular spot for the police with speed guns. A colleague (motorbike rider) at work was stopped there for doing 40 where the  30 limit started. He heard over the radio, the radar gun officer telling the booking officer that he had been doing 40 even after his impressive brake application 

Edited February 11, 2023 by Tony_S

[New Haven Neil]

Back to units - wasn't there an airliner disaster or near disaster caused due to confusion of the crew between pounds of fuel (US) and litres (Canada).  I mean, how can you measure a liquid accurately in pounds? Pchah.

 

And motorbikes, well, yes, had a few.....um a lot.... raced a couple, fallen off a few too.  Racing though is so different, you get into a 'zone' of such intense concentration things almost go into slo-mo, the detail is intense, I assume it is like using a VERY powerful stimulant (never used recreational drugs, but spent a few years persuading young offenders not to) it really is quite something if you 'get there' - not everyone does.  Plenty folk older than me do still race, there's no way on earth I would consider it at this age, the reactions simply are not there now. I do the occasional track day, or did prior to current skeletal issues, which reminded me the older I get, the faster, er, I was. I potter around on road bikes, but seldom go very fast.  No national speed limit here of course.....on reflection I've been faster in cars than I have on bikes on the road for quite a few years.  

[Tony_S]

3 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

can you measure a liquid accurately in pounds

When making my usual loaf of bread I have to add 280 ml of water. So being too idle to find a measuring jug I just add 0.28kg.

[PhilJ W]

3 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Before all the hill climb enthusiasts head over to race up Essex Way, it does have a speed limit of 60mph! Years ago, the bottom of the hill was a popular spot for the police with speed guns. A colleague at work was stopped there for doing 40 where the  30 limit started. He heard over the radio, the radar gun officer telling the booking officer that he had been doing 40 even after his impressive brake application 

There used to be regular hill climbing events held in Benfleet and Thundersly to the north of Bread and Cheese Hill (Hart Road) up until the early thirties when the roads were surfaced. 

[Tony_S]

1 minute ago, PhilJ W said:

the early thirties when the roads were surfaced. 

Possibly the first and last time they were surfaced. The roads locally whether A , B or unclassified are in quite a poor state at the moment. 

[Dave Hunt]

10 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Back to units - wasn't there an airliner disaster or near disaster caused due to confusion of the crew between pounds of fuel (US) and litres (Canada).  I mean, how can you measure a liquid accurately in pounds? Pchah.

 

The combustion value of fuel depends on its mass and since different grades of aviation fuel have different densities, measuring them by volume does not give an accurate indication of their productivity. Hence most aircraft fuel gauges are calibrated in pounds or kilograms, which can be related to range and/or endurance.

 

Dave  

[New Haven Neil]

8 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

The combustion value of fuel depends on its mass and since different grades of aviation fuel have different densities, measuring them by volume does not give an accurate indication of their productivity. Hence most aircraft fuel gauges are calibrated in pounds or kilograms, which can be related to range and/or endurance.

 

Dave  

 

Well yes Dave, of course - even us floating types measured the SG of our fuel, but...this still happened.  Interesting.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider

[SM42]

Measuring fuel  litres or whatever unit of volume you prefer will give a different result at different temperatures  

 

There are more molecules in  a litre at 0c than at 25c  

 

The mass is thus a better measure than volume.

 

Andy

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

Back to units - wasn't there an airliner disaster or near disaster caused due to confusion of the crew between pounds of fuel (US) and litres (Canada).

There certainly was the Mars Climate Orbiter $329.6 million mistake.

 

Pound-force seconds thrusters // Ns trajectory calculations.

Quote

The primary cause of this discrepancy was that one piece of ground software supplied by Lockheed Martin produced results in a United States customary unit, contrary to its Software Interface Specification (SIS), while a second system, supplied by NASA, expected those results to be in SI units, in accordance with the SIS. Specifically, software that calculated the total impulse produced by thruster firings produced results in pound-force seconds. The trajectory calculation software then used these results – expected to be in newton-seconds (incorrect by a factor of 4.45) – to update the predicted position of the spacecraft.

There is no place for foot pounds per furlong units in space flight (or just about *any* other engineering, though there are plenty of things still using fractions of an inch).