The Night Mail

[Tony_S]

14 minutes ago, newbryford said:

The local rules are that If you hit one with your shot it's a free replay of the shot, and you also get to rpelace your ball if it runs over it and chews it up!

Sounds like,the script for a prequel to “The Terminator “

[Joseph_Pestell]

11 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I'm sure I've told this story before but a few months after we moved to Reading, Berks, we received a postcard from one of my wife's former Polish colleagues that had spent over a month in the post and had a US Postal Service rubber stamp "Not Reading, PA". The sender had forgotten to write "Anglia" or "Wielka Brytania".

 

Another of my wife's colleagues from Poland, an American, visited us. At first she pronounced our town's name Reading, as in reading a book, but being a skilled linguist it didn't take her more than a few minutes to start saying "Redding".

When living in the 5th arrondissement in Paris, I had two flatmates from the USA. Much of their was diverted via Paris, Texas.

My mum, who was a very studious child, consumed reading biscuits (Huntley & Palmer's) with her books.

[MrWolf]

If the Terminator had a lawnmower, I suspect that it would be something like this Dennis cricket pitch mower, powered by a 600cc Blackburne engine. 

I've already looked, long since and very little is transferable to the Blackburne motorcycle engines. 🤥 

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by MrWolf

[Tony_S]

When my son was in junior school and the topic was the Victorians the children were given a list of places. They had to chose the transport from London in the later Victorian era to the place. Matthew was called ‘stupid boy’ for suggesting horse drawn transport, railway and finally horse drawn transport for final delivery of a piece of machinery. The teacher said that most of the journey would be by ship. He said she hadn’t specified which Perth .

[Oldddudders]

4 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

When my son was in junior school and the topic was the Victorians the children were given a list of places. They had to chose the transport from London in the later Victorian era to the place. Matthew was called ‘stupid boy’ for suggesting horse drawn transport, railway and finally horse drawn transport for final delivery of a piece of machinery. The teacher said that most of the journey would be by ship. He said she hadn’t specified which Perth .

The arrogance of teachers knows no bounds. At primary skool - I started there 70 years ago today - I was ridiculed for saying the pastry board at home was black. It came from Delabole slate quarry.... Oh, and for the avoidance of doubt, each rower in the Boat Race has two oars.....

[Happy Hippo]

8 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

When my son was in junior school and the topic was the Victorians the children were given a list of places. They had to chose the transport from London in the later Victorian era to the place. Matthew was called ‘stupid boy’ for suggesting horse drawn transport, railway and finally horse drawn transport for final delivery of a piece of machinery. The teacher said that most of the journey would be by ship. He said she hadn’t specified which Perth .

She is now  probably an advisor for the local authority, or a school inspector with Ofsted.

[Tony_S]

 Well as his lawn tractor, Aditi’s Das had a Merry Tiller Rotovator. For cutting the long grass in the orchard he had a scythe sickle mower attachment. Like this one. 

 

I was once propelling it under power across the lawn down to the orchard when one of the wheel clips became disengaged and before I could release the throttle it had slewed through a peony display. I could see Aditi’s Dad wasn’t actually very happy about it  he liked to present  himself on being “calm”. 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Tony_S

[Oldddudders]

3 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

She is now  probably an advisor for the local authority, or a school inspector with Ofsted.

Sherry's daughter - a headteacher from this week - had a spell with Ofsted. She enjoyed the experience, but did not wish to lead an inspecting team, despite several inspected schools giving her a glowing reference for her constructive approach. She will not be returning to their fold. They are having trouble recruiting - the vast majority of inspections are done by teachers with a current teaching job - and that has got worse since the Caversham tragedy. 

[Compound2632]

22 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

When my son was in junior school and the topic was the Victorians the children were given a list of places. They had to chose the transport from London in the later Victorian era to the place. Matthew was called ‘stupid boy’ for suggesting horse drawn transport, railway and finally horse drawn transport for final delivery of a piece of machinery. The teacher said that most of the journey would be by ship. He said she hadn’t specified which Perth .

 

I'm not so sure. Wasn't the Tay navigable to coastal shipping as far as Perth? But I agree there would be horses at either end of the journey, whichever Perth was meant. Or camels?

[MrWolf]

12 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

The arrogance of teachers knows no bounds. At primary skool - I started there 70 years ago today - I was ridiculed for saying the pastry board at home was black. It came from Delabole slate quarry.... Oh, and for the avoidance of doubt, each rower in the Boat Race has two oars.....

 

I remember one of my primary school teachers telling me (in front of everyone in the class) that if I was born in 1971, it was highly unlikely that my grandfather was born in 1884 as I claimed.

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

I have used all of those and the phrase that sprang to mind on seeing them was slightly different to yours. Mine was; how many times have you stood in the middle of the 'estate' - other more insignificant terms of grass areas are available, stood cursing (use your imagination) because a) it wouldn't start, b) cut and c) stop. Bonus prize if you get the answer within thirty seconds.

WB - I nevva sed nuffink about them working. I just said that they look cool.

 

Anyway, I reckon the Japanese have cornered the market on things that “look cool and work”. They have even made the 1000cc utility car (an engine of 1000cc or less means less tax) look cool whilst working flawlessly.

As do their motor mowers

[TheQ]

Grandad had the use of a Ministry of Public Buildings and Works scythe mower of a fairly large size for mowing Ludgershall Castle. I wasn't allowed to play with it..

MoPBaW  is now called English Heritage / Historic Scotland/ Cadw and the equivalent on Fraggle rock is Manx National Heritage.

 

Just mowed the jungle till almost out of fuel.,  grass area now slight more , jungle slightly less..

 

A friend's daughter's got told off in a Scottish school for saying Lincolnshire where they had lived wasn't flat. The friend ended up cornering the teacher on a PTA night to put him straight..

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by TheQ

[Tony_S]

12 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I'm not so sure. Wasn't the Tay navigable to coastal shipping as far as Perth? But I agree there would be horses at either end of the journey, whichever Perth was meant. Or camels?

Possibly but it wasn’t really necessary to call him stupid for not supplying the answer she wanted. 
She had “previous” too. He had been called stupid when asked to mark his route to school on a map she supplied. The first task was to identify the road he lived on. Our road wasn’t on the map.  When the topic was India she told the class the population was 800 million. Matthew said he had seen a news report about a baby being being born as the billionth baby so her information was out of date. She said he had no right to disagree with her and could only do so when he had a good degree from a good university. This became a family joke as each time he graduated we asked if he was going to return and tell Mrs P what the population of India was.He said she wasn’t worth wasting his time on. At least in secondary schools, students get a range of teachers, being stuck for all your education for a whole year with a nasty bigot isn’t nice. 

[Tony_S]

I was fortunate that most of the colleagues I worked with in education seemed to have the right attitude to dealing with their students education. There were a few odd characters but on the whole they were fine. I just don’t know how with a few exceptions my poor son managed to encounter so many awful ones during his junior and secondary education. We were consistently told we had unrealistic expectations of his ability. 
 

[TheQ]

My brother was always being told he wouldn't do very well. His school reports were terrible..

He got an A* or distinction in everything and ended up doing more subjects  than would normally be allowed..

 

For instance getting a A* in Russian sixth year studies ( equivalent to first year at university ) having not done O Grade or Highers in Russian.

Edited September 6, 2023 by TheQ

[PhilJ W]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

THIS is what I mean

I mean, how cool is that?

Although these are pretty cool too

 

These, on the other hand, are NOT cool!

 

Let’s face it: garden equipment has to be green and - in the case of mowers - you have to have enough audible grunt to show that you mean business.

 

Hearing a John Deere or ATCO motor mower start up with a pleasing roar will definitely cower the grass and weeds into submission.

Be honest here: how many times have you spent a couple of hours in the garden with your plastic grass tickler only for the lawn to look almost completely untouched. The grass and weeds smirking at you for your futile effort.

 

Wouldn’t happen with a John Deere or ATCO!

 

Ever considered  a John Deere Gator? https://www.deere.com/en/gator-utility-vehicles/  You could even use it to pop down to the local shops.

[polybear]

2 hours ago, newbryford said:

All this talk of mowers.....

 

Saw this whilst out playing at an away course yesterday. 

They have 5-6 of them on the course and just keep trundling away 24/7, returning to their docking stations every now and then for a recharge.

 

 

 

 

I wonder how they stop them from being nicked in the middle of the night?

 

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

 Well as his lawn tractor, Aditi’s Das had a Merry Tiller Rotovator. For cutting the long grass in the orchard he had a scythe sickle mower attachment. Like this one. 

 

I was once propelling it under power across the lawn down to the orchard when one of the wheel clips became disengaged and before I could release the throttle it had slewed through a peony display. I could see Aditi’s Dad wasn’t actually very happy about it  he liked to present  himself on being “calm”. 

 

ISTR a story about Vincent Motorcycles looking at diversifying into various similar machinery, one of which had a rotary blade on the front (like a hover mower).  They invited various people along to a demo and by all accounts it worked rather well until the blade came off and went zingin' thru' the undergrowth, chopping everything in it's path - fortunately this didn't include any people.  I don't think much came of it after that.

Not sure if the story is true (or accurate) - perhaps @MrWolf knows?

 

What's the blue pipe hooked up to it?  Some sort of power take-off perhaps?

Edited September 6, 2023 by polybear

[newbryford]

Just now, polybear said:

 

I wonder how they stop them from being nicked in the middle of the night?

 

 

 

The question was asked.

They have GPS tracking (obviously for the work they carry out), so can easily be located and a built in audible alarm if moved away from their expected zone of operation

A story was told that a similar machine had been stolen from another golf course and was found abandoned in the middle of a nearby roundabout.

The offending van had also been caught on camera and when the perps were asked about the mower in the roundabout, they had said that the alarm went off in their van, it was so loud that they had to dump it ASAP!

[Tony_S]

2 minutes ago, polybear said:

What's the blue pipe hooked up to it?  Some sort of power take-off perhaps?

Although that looks rather like Aditi’s Dads machine it is a photo from the internet and FiL’s didn’t have that pipe thing. When we moved here the back garden was just compacted earth. FiL lent me the Merry Tiller. Our heavy London Clay caused the machine to shed a rotor blade. I welded it back on but my repair soon failed. I took it to a garden centre that welded it, but said if it failed they would discount the price of,a new rotor by the repair cost. It was fine and it was never going to fail on the soil on Aditi’s Dad’s land. Silt from Trent floodplain. It just trickled through your fingers if you picked it up. No bashing it with sledgehammers like here. 

[iL Dottore]

24 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Ever considered  a John Deere Gator? https://www.deere.com/en/gator-utility-vehicles/  You could even use it to pop down to the local shops.

I like it! 😁👍🏻

[Tony_S]

12 minutes ago, polybear said:

wonder how they stop them from being nicked in the middle of the night?

We stayed overnight in Southampton recently and noticed there were a few robot vacuum cleaners in the corridor. That they were “nickable” hadn’t occurred to me but I did wonder how they avoided being trip hazards. 

[MrWolf]

36 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

I wonder how they stop them from being nicked in the middle of the night?

 

 

ISTR a story about Vincent Motorcycles looking at diversifying into various similar machinery, one of which had a rotary blade on the front (like a hover mower).  They invited various people along to a demo and by all accounts it worked rather well until the blade came off and went zingin' thru' the undergrowth, chopping everything in it's path - fortunately this didn't include any people.  I don't think much came of it after that.

Not sure if the story is true (or accurate) - perhaps @MrWolf knows?

 

What's the blue pipe hooked up to it?  Some sort of power take-off perhaps?

 

 

They did in fact build and sell quite a few Vincent Rapier rotary mowers, they were of course expensive and like a lot of 20th century British inventions, twenty years ahead of their time so not that many sold before Vincents went under.

 

They also came up with what is generally considered to be the first jet ski, something else that didn't catch on for twenty years:

 

https://watercraftjournal.com/videos-is-the-vincent-amanda-water-scooter-the-first-true-pwc/

[MrWolf]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

 Well as his lawn tractor, Aditi’s Das had a Merry Tiller Rotovator. For cutting the long grass in the orchard he had a scythe sickle mower attachment. Like this one. 

 

I was once propelling it under power across the lawn down to the orchard when one of the wheel clips became disengaged and before I could release the throttle it had slewed through a peony display. I could see Aditi’s Dad wasn’t actually very happy about it  he liked to present  himself on being “calm”. 

 

That's an Allen scythe attachment. 

 

Another piece of murderous garden machinery I have rescued several of is the original motor scythe made by Allen of Oxford:

 

Here's one mowing its way to the earth's core, they could be a bit of a handful:

 

https://youtu.be/NQSgp_dg77Y?si=Fmb2Ij_hrQ1rsd-o

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

I like it! 😁👍🏻

Been there and got the hat and t shirt.

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, MrWolf said:

 

That's an Allen scythe attachment. 

 

Another piece of murderous garden machinery I have rescued several of is the original motor scythe made by Allen of Oxford:

 

Here's one mowing its way to the earth's core, they could be a bit of a handful:

 

https://youtu.be/NQSgp_dg77Y?si=Fmb2Ij_hrQ1rsd-o

If you didn't start with wrists made from steel cable you soon got them. Plus you got shins covered in cuts.