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The Night Mail


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Posted (edited)
12 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Bear may be many things, but he is not a Cake thief.

 

He always asks politely before taking it....

 

It goes something like this

 

"Can I have your cake? Mmmmmawmmommomom"

 

"What do you mean, No? "

 

Andy

Edited by SM42
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10 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

He always asks politely before taking it....

Like a Gentleman of The Road? A Knight of The Road? A Highwayman (Highwaybear perhaps??)

 

I'd be polite too, if I was holding a pair of loaded flintloocks (or whatever is the PB equivalent)

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1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:


Abject apologies my dear chap. I shall don the hair shirt for the day and promise to be good despite any encouragement from the Bear to misbehave.

 

Dave

 

As if I would.....😇

 

24 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Bear may be many things, but he is not a Cake thief.

 

He always asks politely before taking it....

 

If I'm being watched I do......

 

11 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

That's an expensive target.....

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18 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

"Not original box" indeed! Looks lovely, and affordable if it runs well, but I am always wary of that seller's claims. Are one set of front steps bent under? 

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9 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

As if I would.....😇

 

 

If I'm being watched I do......

 

 

That's an expensive target.....

Only if you haven't got any coupons.

 

Oh by the way the washing is on. You have been warned.

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1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

A point consistently overlooked by those who wish to rubbish the idea of "Victorian Values" for their own grubby little political ends.

 

Whilst it is true that for a good portion of the Victorian and Edwardian era, life was - at the very bottom of the social scale - pretty grim, it was the same across most of Europe (with perhaps the exception of Germany after 1883 with Bismarck's Staatssozialismus - which was one of the earliest examples - I would argue - of using Realpolitik to achieve a positive social outcome that in turn has a positive political outcome [maintaining social balance and harmony]).

 

Those who now rail against "Victorian Values" and the wishful (and well-heeled) Victorians who eulogized (fetishised?) the "simple country life" overlooked the reality that until the advent of the industrial revolution, life for the majority - especially rural workers - was pretty ghastly. As picturesque straw thatched cottages may be from the outside, inside they were often as squalid and unhealthy as the cheap back-to-back housing built later in the century to house industry's workers. And whilst incredibly flawed on many levels, the Industrial Revolution would not have succeeded had it not provided the majority of people with something better than before.

 

But returning to "Victorian Values". These, or a version of these, were inculcated in me in skool when I was a wee lad in the early 60s (back when when Britain was not regarded by a goodly chunk of its citizens as an "evil white man's empire"). These values included (but were not limited to) the following unspeakable awful and colonialistic attitudes such as

  • Honesty
  • Integrity
  • Diligence ("doing the best you can") 
  • Sportsmanship (in the sense of of "playing fair" and "treating everyone fairly")
  • Loyalty
  • Fortitude
  • Civic Responsibility
  • Social Responsibility
  • Personal Responsibility
  • Self-Reliance
  • Charity (in the sense of helping others)
  • Self-Sacrifice (in the sense of not putting yourself first all the time)

Like all philosophical and ethical approaches to life, often - for many reasons - such values were only honoured in part (sometimes "more in the breach than the observance"). But as a code and a philosophy to live up to, there have been (and are) worse.

 

So whilst the Victorians and their now much derided "Victorian Values" made mistakes and were hardly "plaster saints", what so many conscientious Victorians strived for - and often achieved - makes the current posturing of politicians and self-appointed (so called) do-gooders seem all the more tawdry.

To quote Mr Kipling from one of his less known poems,"The Return" (spoken by a veteran returning from the Boer War)

 

 

If England was what England seems

An' not the England of our dreams,

But only putty, brass, an' paint, '

Ow quick we'd chuck 'er! But she ain't!

 

He wasn't the best-selling popular writer of his time for no reason. 

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2 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

He cannot pardon himself. The pres can only pardon Federal crimes. This was a State crime.

 

2 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

Don't you believe it. 

 

Anything is possible with him. Probably just change things so he can. 

 

Might even just deny the whole thing as fake news.

 

Andy

I had certainly not realised until today that there was a precedent for a Presidential candidate standing whilst imprisoned 

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2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

A point consistently overlooked by those who wish to rubbish the idea of "Victorian Values" for their own grubby little political ends.

 

Whilst it is true that for a good portion of the Victorian and Edwardian era, life was - at the very bottom of the social scale - pretty grim, it was the same across most of Europe (with perhaps the exception of Germany after 1883 with Bismarck's Staatssozialismus - which was one of the earliest examples - I would argue - of using Realpolitik to achieve a positive social outcome that in turn has a positive political outcome [maintaining social balance and harmony]).

 

Those who now rail against "Victorian Values" and the wishful (and well-heeled) Victorians who eulogized (fetishised?) the "simple country life" overlooked the reality that until the advent of the industrial revolution, life for the majority - especially rural workers - was pretty ghastly. As picturesque straw thatched cottages may be from the outside, inside they were often as squalid and unhealthy as the cheap back-to-back housing built later in the century to house industry's workers. And whilst incredibly flawed on many levels, the Industrial Revolution would not have succeeded had it not provided the majority of people with something better than before.

 

But returning to "Victorian Values". These, or a version of these, were inculcated in me in skool when I was a wee lad in the early 60s (back when when Britain was not regarded by a goodly chunk of its citizens as an "evil white man's empire"). These values included (but were not limited to) the following unspeakable awful and colonialistic attitudes such as

  • Honesty
  • Integrity
  • Diligence ("doing the best you can") 
  • Sportsmanship (in the sense of of "playing fair" and "treating everyone fairly")
  • Loyalty
  • Fortitude
  • Civic Responsibility
  • Social Responsibility
  • Personal Responsibility
  • Self-Reliance
  • Charity (in the sense of helping others)
  • Self-Sacrifice (in the sense of not putting yourself first all the time)

Like all philosophical and ethical approaches to life, often - for many reasons - such values were only honoured in part (sometimes "more in the breach than the observance"). But as a code and a philosophy to live up to, there have been (and are) worse.

 

So whilst the Victorians and their now much derided "Victorian Values" made mistakes and were hardly "plaster saints", what so many conscientious Victorians strived for - and often achieved - makes the current posturing of politicians and self-appointed (so called) do-gooders seem all the more tawdry.

 

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

A point consistently overlooked by those who wish to rubbish the idea of "Victorian Values" for their own grubby little political ends.

 

Whilst it is true that for a good portion of the Victorian and Edwardian era, life was - at the very bottom of the social scale - pretty grim, it was the same across most of Europe (with perhaps the exception of Germany after 1883 with Bismarck's Staatssozialismus - which was one of the earliest examples - I would argue - of using Realpolitik to achieve a positive social outcome that in turn has a positive political outcome [maintaining social balance and harmony]).

 

Those who now rail against "Victorian Values" and the wishful (and well-heeled) Victorians who eulogized (fetishised?) the "simple country life" overlooked the reality that until the advent of the industrial revolution, life for the majority - especially rural workers - was pretty ghastly. As picturesque straw thatched cottages may be from the outside, inside they were often as squalid and unhealthy as the cheap back-to-back housing built later in the century to house industry's workers. And whilst incredibly flawed on many levels, the Industrial Revolution would not have succeeded had it not provided the majority of people with something better than before.

 

But returning to "Victorian Values". These, or a version of these, were inculcated in me in skool when I was a wee lad in the early 60s (back when when Britain was not regarded by a goodly chunk of its citizens as an "evil white man's empire"). These values included (but were not limited to) the following unspeakable awful and colonialistic attitudes such as

  • Honesty
  • Integrity
  • Diligence ("doing the best you can") 
  • Sportsmanship (in the sense of of "playing fair" and "treating everyone fairly")
  • Loyalty
  • Fortitude
  • Civic Responsibility
  • Social Responsibility
  • Personal Responsibility
  • Self-Reliance
  • Charity (in the sense of helping others)
  • Self-Sacrifice (in the sense of not putting yourself first all the time)

Like all philosophical and ethical approaches to life, often - for many reasons - such values were only honoured in part (sometimes "more in the breach than the observance"). But as a code and a philosophy to live up to, there have been (and are) worse.

 

So whilst the Victorians and their now much derided "Victorian Values" made mistakes and were hardly "plaster saints", what so many conscientious Victorians strived for - and often achieved - makes the current posturing of politicians and self-appointed (so called) do-gooders seem all the more tawdry.

I hadn't realised that Bismarck was the originator of Stste Socialism. It doesn't much surprise me. 

 

Much of the iconography and graphic design of the NSDAP was deliberately designed to appeal to an electorate traumatised by the past decades - the black/white/red colours, for one thing. 

 

Hindenburgh gave them his blessing; the various ex-General Staff officers and vetersns associations which played a significant part in politics at the time thought they could control them. 

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4 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Rumour has it that a rather obnoxious slug that worked for the Great Empire made such a PITA of himself whilst working in the Hebs. that the Army (IIRC) decided to get rid of him (not in the way that some of us would've liked, sadly.....).

 

On a subsequent visit they got him talking about things he shouldn't have been talking about whilst in the Bar of the (Dark Island?) Hotel; there just happened to be some MoD Security Guys in the Bar at the same time.  What a coincidence......

Apparently on the following Monday the PITA got as far as Glasgow Airport before receiving a Tannoy message over the Airport PA to go to the nearest Customer Service Desk as there was a message for him.....

That was the end of his trips to the Hebs.

Did he get his P45?

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3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:


I already did to HH yesterday.

 

Note for puzzled readers: some time ago I offered to build a French metre gauge locomotive from a kit for Jamie to go on his layout diorama that he is making. I had actually forgotten about it but the kit has now arrived at Chateau Guest and will be inbound at Hunt Towers next month. I just hope that the instructions are largely graphic as my French is no more than totally inadequate.

 

Dave

 

I will have have a go at translating the notice de montage. Ti's the least I could do. 

 

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

And it doesn't have panniers either. 

 

Jamie

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1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Did he get his P45?

 

Sadly not; he also didn't get "the top job" some years later when everyone thought he would, despite (probably) being the most qualified.

 

For some strange reason he disappeared for several days afterwards 🤣

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6 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Abject apologies my dear chap. I shall don the hair shirt for the day and promise to be good despite any encouragement from the Bear to misbehave.

 

Dave

Hmmm, about that bridge...........................................

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Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

Don't you believe it. 

 

Anything is possible with him. Probably just change things so he can. 

 

Might even just deny the whole thing as fake news.

 

Andy

 

6 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

Don't you believe it. 

 

Anything is possible with him. Probably just change things so he can. 

 

Might even just deny the whole thing as fake news.

 

Andy

 

He might try but he'd have to amend the constitution and that requires 75% of both houses to agree.

 

Sorry about the double quote 😀

Edited by AndyID
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40 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

In other hippo related news.

 

An early Father's Day present was received yesterday afternoon:

 

17171622848084226793946075022506.jpg.38e0866aaa0c153efbf95295557ea89b.jpg

 

 

 

Bear spotted one of Big H's relatives whilst in Malta....

 

IMG_0602.JPG.61074aae532bd7bcebd2693f87d1c3de.JPG

 

 

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6 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

What a low down trIck - lulling me into a false sense of security by telling me it isn't green then POW! my eyesight is ruined again. 

 

Dave

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36 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Bear spotted one of Big H's relatives whilst in Malta....

 

nIMG_0602.JPG.61074aae532bd7bcebd2693f87d1c3de.JPG

 

 

 

I think you must be mistaken Bear; none of HH's clan is soft, they're all hard cases.

 

Dave

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We have been out in town for a celebratory meal. 

 

Some good traditional Polish food and a beer each for £23 and just off the main square. 

 

Mrs SM42 then went to a political rally for the EU elections by her favourite party in one of the squares. 

 

I sat out of the way marvelling at the hypocrisy. 

 

I think she was the youngest there. 

 

It's a sort of Polish version of UKIP but more engaged in the EU.  

 

If there were 70 there I'd be surprised. 

 

Andy

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Well, the chap doing our drive and paths finished this evening. The drive and paths look good, which unfortunately is more than can be said for the surrounding windows, doors etc. that bear the evidence of a lot of high pressure spraying involving muck, even though they were also sprayed with water afterwards. Hence the Management has decreed that tomorrow is clean the outside of the house day. Seem fair? It would be had she not also invited some friends round for a meal tomorrow evening. Sheesh!

 

Dave

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Posted (edited)

Funny you should mention  jet washing of patios. 

 

Guess what I've got to ( been ordered to) do by next weekend.

 

Four 12 hour shifts between now and then are irrelevant, as is the chance of bad weather. 

 

It has to be done by Saturday as we have visitors  

 

Be helpful if I was in the country at present as well

 

Andy

Edited by SM42
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