The Night Mail

[Dave Hunt]

22 hours ago, Northmoor said:

English people rarely appreciate that North and South Walians are VERY different people.

 

Years ago my sister and BiL were on holiday in Snowdonia when they witnessed the incident that every English visitor seems to experience there, of walking into a shop where the staff speak English until they have to serve someone.  BiL overheard them make some very derisive comment about the Caesneg customers in front of him; unfortunately for them, BiL was brought up in Trimsaran and is First Language Welsh.  One of the politest people you could possibly meet, he was able to inform the shop staff with what he thought of such rudeness in their own language and in no uncertain terms.

 

When I was stationed at RAF Valley a colleague and I went into a pub in Holyhead where just that happened. When the scrotes started pointedly speaking Welsh and glancing at us in a way that said, "We're talking about you, boyos, but you can only guess what we are saying," the two of us switched from English into German and gave them back the meaningful glance treatment. Soon afterwards they left, giving us filthy looks on the way out. The barman laughed and told us he was  from South Wales and couldn't wait to go back there. 

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

7 hours ago, DenysW said:

Bl$$dy drafty place (hence good surfing because there's nothing stopping the waves rolling in  from New Zealand), and also home of the Bondi Long Sea Outfall for (part of) Sydney's sewage.

 

Manley an even bigger victim of the sewage.

 

Thank the Lord that even though I've been to both I've never gone swimming there!

 

Dave

[polybear]

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Well maybe  just  pay your doctor's and nurses  a decent wage   and they won't all be rushing  down here, spending all the extra time they get off taking.up space  on Bondi Beach and you won't spend 2 days  waiting around in  A and E.

 

Bear very much suspects that if you asked the British Public if the Gov should give the Docs & Nurses a big fat pay rise then the vast majority will vote yes - but if the Gov also said it'd cost another 1% on Income Tax then there may well be a very different answer.

 

[Dave Hunt]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

We tend to get a fair few birds and animals found dead around the Hippodrome.  Sometimes it's only bits of feather where it has been taken by a raptor or owl.  Local cats tend to play with their victim before finishing them off.  Sometimes they get taken home as presents, whilst others too big to easily carry, such as a baby rabbit will just get left.  I take the rabbit(s) over to our neighbour's field, and leave them in a prominent position where they will usually be scavanged by a buzzard.  Buzzards are very lazy birds and prefer to live off carrion rather than actively hunt.

 

Recently we have seen a few Red Kites appear.  Whether they have been blown out of their usual mid Wales haunts or if their range is increasing eastwards remains to be seen. (I suspect the latter).

 

Since they are also advancing up the M40 corridor, it will soon be wall to wall apart from an air exclusion zone around B'ham.

 

Our cat is too idle to catch anything apart from as man sun's rays as he can. Today he was dozing on the patio when one of the local blackbirds who is nesting in the tall garden hedge flew down onto the patio table and started giving it laldy about Horace invading his territory. Horace's only reaction was to yawn and turn over.

 

We saw a red kite whilst on our way from Hunt Towers to Shrewsbury the other day.

 

Dave

[Tony_S]

33 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Buteo Buteo is the common Buzzard.

Falco subutteo is a Hobby. Red Kites Latin name doesn’t see to be the connection. 
I have seen lots of red kites over the Thames Valley and in Northamptonshire. I haven’t seen one in Essex yet. 

[jamie92208]

24 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Falco subutteo is a Hobby. Red Kites Latin name doesn’t see to be the connection. 
I have seen lots of red kites over the Thames Valley and in Northamptonshire. I haven’t seen one in Essex yet. 

They are apparently common east of Stevenage as I was informed on Saturday. The Leeds ones have spread from a captive breeding programme at Harewood House. 

 

Jamie

[pH]

8 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

 

I remember going ashore in Capetown the first time I ever visited and feeling a deep sense of rage when I went looking for the way to the city centre and realised that rather than Capetown the idiots on the bridge had managed to navigate us to some god forsaken place called Kaapstad (no, I'd never heard of it either). Fortunately I managed to enjoy my run ashore despite this navigational failure, though there was a conspiracy of silence on-board an the blunder was never mentioned. I dunno how the cargo managed to reach us in the wrong port.

A friend of mine began his seagoing career in the 1960s on Cunard cargo ships sailing to the east coast of the US. A common trip was London to Savannah, then Charleston and back to London. On one occasion, nearing the coast, they radioed Savannah to arrange their arrival. There was considerable confusion, since Savannah could not see them, by radar or visually, where they were claiming to be. Eventually, they had to admit that they were actually approaching Charleston.

[Compound2632]

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Recently we have seen a few Red Kites appear.  Whether they have been blown out of their usual mid Wales haunts or if their range is increasing eastwards remains to be seen. (I suspect the latter).

 

Since they are also advancing up the M40 corridor, it will soon be wall to wall apart from an air exclusion zone around B'ham.

 

I don't think I've seen them further north on the M40 than Oxfordshire. They are very common round here - I've seen six pairs round out lake and in Twyford the other day, I counted twenty circling together - there was probably someone having a barbeque!

[Compound2632]

51 minutes ago, polybear said:

Bear very much suspects that if you asked the British Public if the Gov should give the Docs & Nurses a big fat pay rise then the vast majority will vote yes - but if the Gov also said it'd cost another 1% on Income Tax then there may well be a very different answer.

 

Ah well there's the thing. You can't have European levels of public services and American levels of taxation.

[Winslow Boy]

3 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Ah well there's the thing. You can't have European levels of public services and American levels of taxation.

 

Bit political but yes you can it's called the never never or on tic.

[Steamport Southport]

16 hours ago, polybear said:

 

That reminds me of a TV series in the mid 70's starring the late, great Bill Maynard:

"Oh No, it's Selwyn Froggit"

About time they replayed it on telly.

 

Already has been. Either ITV 4 or Talking Pictures a few months ago.

 

But I think they're all on YouTube anyway and it's worth looking for cheap DVD box sets in places like CEX.

 

I was surprised how short the episodes were at about 20 minutes each, then realised it was ITV and the adverts have been cut out!

 

 

Jason

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

Our cat is too idle to catch anything apart from as man sun's rays as he can.

 

 

I had a cat like that once.

 

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Bear very much suspects that if you asked the British Public if the Gov should give the Docs & Nurses a big fat pay rise then the vast majority will vote yes - but if the Gov also said it'd cost another 1% on Income Tax then there may well be a very different answer.

 

There was a poll last year where the majority agreed to a 1% tax increase to pay nurses more.

[AndyID]

5 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Ah well there's the thing. You can't have European levels of public services and American levels of taxation.

 

I'm a bit out of touch but I have the impression that taxation is much higher in the UK than it is in the US. Of course in the US tax varies a lot from state to state. Public services vary a lot by state too.

 

We've lived in five US states in the past 40+ years and we've been fortunate that the public services we've received have always been very good. Medical care has also been very good although it was always expensive until we qualified for Medicare. We have no complaints about it at all.

[The Johnster]

7 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Buteo Buteo is the common Buzzard.

 

This is correct, though Johnster was labouring under the misapprehension that Buteo Buteo was the Red Kite, which is actually Milvus Milvus.  Bonus points awarded to HH and deducted from The Johnster.

[Happy Hippo]

Looking at the  Latin genus and species (these are the last two parts of the seven part classification of animals) used for birds of prey made me think back to various N American snakes:

 

Crotalus adamanteus   Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake

Crotalus  atrox               Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

Crotalus horridus         Timber or Canebrake Rattlesnake

 

DH is probably very familiar with Crotale:  Which is a short range French surface to air missile system. Crotale being the French word for a Rattlesnake.

 

Likewise probably the most well known air to air missile system is the AIM-9 Sidewinder.

 

The Sidewinder being another Rattlesnake:  Crotalus cerastes.

 

What is it with snakes?

 

Armstong Siddeley produced the Mamba turbo prop engine which was probably best known  in it's Double Mamba form as the power plant of the venerable Fairey Gannett.

 

The GWR got in on the act with it's PYTHON, which was the telegraphic code for a Covered Carriage Coach van, and also with the more generic SNAKE which was the code of a passenger full brake as opposed to the more common goods brake TOAD.

 

This is what happens when I get up before the sun is out!

 

However, I was reliably informed yesterday evening that today will be sunny, and I will be working in the garden.

 

Lawn mowing seems to be top of the agenda.

[Northmoor]

7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

There was a poll last year where the majority agreed to a 1% tax increase to pay nurses more.

Unfortunately, what people say they will do in an opinion poll and what they actually do in a polling station, are frequently not the same.

[polybear]

7 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

Unfortunately, what people say they will do in an opinion poll and what they actually do in a polling station, are frequently not the same.

 

Agreeing to do a Tandem Parachute Jump strapped to a Hippo after a few Beers down the local is one thing - actually jumping out the door is another........

[Happy Hippo]

11 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Agreeing to do a Tandem Parachute Jump strapped to a Hippo after a few Beers down the local is one thing - actually jumping out the door is another........

Once your strapped on, it matters not whether you want to go or not. 

 

If I decided to leave....

 

You would be coming with me!

[TheQ]

Looking it up there were 8 breeding pairs of red kites here in Norfolk in 2016, so here are probably more now.

 

I can't tell one bird of pray from another.

Edited April 19, 2023 by TheQ

[Winslow Boy]

11 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Once your strapped on, it matters not whether you want to go or not. 

 

If I decided to leave....

 

You would be coming with me!

 

Be careful there Big H your letting your true character show its self there. We all know that beneath your air of sleek, urban sophistication there lurks an evil, manipulative psychopath but we just don't like to see it please.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Winslow Boy

[DenysW]

33 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

Unfortunately, what people say they will do in an opinion poll and what they actually do in a polling station, are frequently not the same.

The cost of the NHS is roughly £4,000/taxpayer/year (£120Bn divided by 30 Million). Those numbers for taxpayers include the income-tax-paying poor. I understand 70% of its cost is wages. A big pay rise after years of below-inflation pay rises may be fair, but would be very visible in the tax bill, be it from VAT, income tax, or whatever.

[Happy Hippo]

47 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Be careful there Big H your letting your true character show its self there. We all know that beneath your air of sleek, urban sophistication there lurks an evil, manipulative psychopath but we just don't like to see it please.

You've missed out sadistic narcissist from your character assassination.

[Happy Hippo]

As if I could be evil?

 

[Happy Hippo]

Or maybe?