The Night Mail

[Happy Hippo]

A reminder that not all children grow up in fortunate circumstances.
The following is a true story:

 

 

"When I was a child, my father cheated and didn't love my family.
Later, my parents divorced.
Soon my mother died in a car accident.
My brother and I could only live in my grandma's old house.

Grandma’s sister was an alcoholic.
The whole family lived on my grandma's savings.
Grandma recently died.

My Uncle Andy is barely keeping himself out of jail from day to day.

My brother left home and won’t talk to us any more.
Dad, now 73, had to go out to work to support the family and eventually
he is going to want me to do the same thing.”

Yours sincerely,

Prince William

[Oldddudders]

74, actually, two days younger than me. 

[PhilJ W]

5 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Did I hear the Iranian team declined to sing their own National Anthem? Cue a number of inhumane executions when they fall out of the competition. 

I thought that was North Korea.

5 hours ago, rockershovel said:

Some years ago I was working in ME when Iran played USA in the World Cup. The joke going round was that the Iran team were on an incentive scheme; when they came home they would be guests at a public execution. If they beat USA it would be someone else's......

 

On a serious note, respect where it's due. Those chaps have to go back to Iran afterwards. It's not hard to strike virtuous poses when you face no meaningful sanctions and need never work again, financially speaking... 

If they go back to Iran afterwards. I can see a few defections, even to other Middle East states such as Iraq.

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

74, actually, two days younger than me. 

My brother is 2 weeks older than the king and a cousin is another 2 weeks older. Small world.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

42 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

My brother is 2 weeks older than the king and a cousin is another 2 weeks older. Small world.

 

Jamie

I think I was told by my mother, that all the babies born on the same day as Charles got a present of some sort.

 

Jamie

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I think the last proper gun boats were the Brave class fast patrol boats which served until circa 1970.

 

I always thought the RN dropped the ball when they disbanded the fleet of MTB and MGBs that comprised Coastal Forces and went down the big ship route.

 

Yes but an admiral wouldn't look right in a MTB.

 

Anyway I remember reading somewhere that there are more admirals than there are ships. As this is several years ago I can only assume that the number of admiral's has increased whilst the number of ships has continued to decrease. Don't you just love the mentality of looking after number one at the expense of the defence of the realm. Or is that too cynical.

[AndyID]

3 hours ago, BoD said:

Hand carved surely.

 

Well, it's a change from cuckoo clocks, in'it?

[Winslow Boy]

33 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I think I was told by my mother, that all the babies born on the same day as Charles got a present of some sort.

 

Jamie

 

Do they have a couple of million in the bank or a billion pounds worth of paintings in the attic. Thought not.

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

74, actually, two days younger than me.

 

Six months older than me. Growing up I was a bit jealous of of him. I'm not now 😀

[AndyID]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

A reminder that not all children grow up in fortunate circumstances.
The following is a true story:

 

 

"When I was a child, my father cheated and didn't love my family.
Later, my parents divorced.
Soon my mother died in a car accident.
My brother and I could only live in my grandma's old house.

Grandma’s sister was an alcoholic.
The whole family lived on my grandma's savings.
Grandma recently died.

My Uncle Andy is barely keeping himself out of jail from day to day.

My brother left home and won’t talk to us any more.
Dad, now 73, had to go out to work to support the family and eventually
he is going to want me to do the same thing.”

Yours sincerely,

Prince William

 

Well, as Elon Musk discovered;

 

" Money Can't Buy Me Love"

[Dave Hunt]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

My brother is 2 weeks older than the king and a cousin is another 2 weeks older. Small world.

 

I was born 653 years to the day after Edward the second. How spooky is that?

 

Dave

[bbishop]

1 minute ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

I was born 653 years to the day after Edward the second. How spooky is that?

 

Dave

Bu99er that!

[Dave Hunt]

And what's more my birth was precisely 348 years after Oliver Cromwell; it gets spookier don't it?

 

Dave

[New Haven Neil]

Playing with the train set.

 

[DenysW]

Next time please can you put a pannier alert at the start of the post? We surely want to keep the thread welcoming to those with refined sensibilities.

[Dave Hunt]

4 minutes ago, DenysW said:

Next time please can you put a pannier alert at the start of the post? We surely want to keep the thread welcoming to those with refined sensibilities.

 

It's partially excused by the pa**iers being black rather than green.

 

Dave

[New Haven Neil]

7 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

It's partially excused by the pa**iers being black rather than green.

 

Dave

 

Dare I say one is green - but the hiding prairie is black.

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

14 minutes ago, DenysW said:

Next time please can you put a pannier alert at the start of the post? We surely want to keep the thread welcoming to those with refined sensibilities.

 

Sorry.  Here's a non-paneer to make it better.

 

[bbishop]

The colour is irrelevant.  The only Panniers not the work of the devil were the Belgian class 51!

[Oldddudders]

Sherry points out proudly that she was born on her birthday!

[Northmoor]

2 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Yes but an admiral wouldn't look right in a MTB.

 

Anyway I remember reading somewhere that there are more admirals than there are ships. As this is several years ago I can only assume that the number of admiral's has increased whilst the number of ships has continued to decrease. Don't you just love the mentality of looking after number one at the expense of the defence of the realm. Or is that too cynical.

It wouldn't be surprising, for a long time there have been considerably more Squadron Leaders in the RAF than there are squadrons.  Not so many years ago there were more Brigadiers in the British Army than in the US Marine Corps, despite the latter being four times the size.

 

If you really want to shrink the cost of the Armed Services, reducing senior officer numbers would have a disproportionate effect.  Many of the costs of their additional entitlements grow in proportion to the number of individuals (e.g. childrens' private school fees) whereas reducing the number of junior ranks by 10% doesn't enable you to close 10% of a barracks, the gym or the canteen.

 

Now guess what ranks get to decide how Ministers' cost-saving plans will be implemented at the detailed level.

[Dave Hunt]

1 minute ago, New Haven Neil said:

Dare I say one is green - but the hiding prairie is black.

 

Ah, on my screen they all look black; or could it be that the sight of a green pa**ier is too much for my brain to allow me to register?

 

Dave

[bbishop]

7 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Sherry points out proudly that she was born on her birthday!

Feminine logic.

[New Haven Neil]

Just now, bbishop said:

The colour is irrelevant.  The only Panniers not the work of the devil were the Belgian class 51!

 

is that this thing?  Defies the Whyte notation.

 

[Dave Hunt]

7 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

If you really want to shrink the cost of the Armed Services, reducing senior officer numbers would have a disproportionate effect.  Many of the costs of their additional entitlements grow in proportion to the number of individuals (e.g. childrens' private school fees)....

 

Since there are now far fewer overseas posts, the number of officers entitled to receive a part of children's school fees is quite small. Even before that, though, there were not many officers sending their children to private schools. In my career I knew very few.

 

Dave