Early Risers.

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Simon G said:

Warcop is used as a base for Army Cadets at times.  

I think Warcop is mainly used for infantry training now, as is the other main training area in the north, Otterburn. 

 

At one stage it was a tank gunnery range, and I've fired 120 mm APDS. HEAT and HESH rounds there.

 

The last shoot I did there, now many years ago, was with the venerable 84 mm Carl Gustaf anti tank rocket launcher.

 

I managed a direct hit on a Centurion hull from 250 yards.  This was a 'full strength' round rather than full sized training ammmunition.  It made a very loud bang when it was fired, and an equally loud bang when it hit the target.

 

Being on the receiving end would certainly ruin your afternoon.  

[jamie92208]

My son did a lot of training at Warcop when he was in basic training with the Coldstreams at Catterick. 

 

Jamie

[pH]

33 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Lots of drumlins in Paisley. My parents' house was built on one. Convenient for sledding but we never seemed to get enough snow.

 

Even through the 1962/3 winter?  I think we had a couple of months of sledging, just down the road from you.

[Barry O]

Back from a grand lunch out. Transpires youngest Herbert had food poisoning!

 

Warcop..yes we did a TOGS trialthere. None of the other Chieftains had TOGS fitted so lots of "Gis a look"...

I took a newcastle based colleague up to have a look at a proper thermal sight. He was gonsmacked by the sheep, deer and other animals you could spot many ....... away. Ime, i just got frozen stiff and covered in snow!

 

Scared the bejeesus out of a flyboyby tracking himusing thermal..no live rounds so he could fly on...

 

Off to freeze at our last Leeds MRS CIO meet of the year. 

 

Stay warm!

TTFN

Baz

 

 

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, Barry O said:

 

Scared the bejeesus out of a flyboyby tracking himusing thermal..no live rounds so he could fly on...

Dad said on a dark and foggy night on his first sentry duty somewhere in the northeast of England he nearly shot a sheep. He hadn’t heard one cough before. I don’t suppose thermal sights existed back in the 1940s. 
Tony

[TheQ]

By the time I was doing guard duties in the north east in the 1980s, we could safely protect the place with ....

 

 

a torch and a whistle....

 

Outside of annual  35 shots at a target, we  never got issued with an SLR unless on excersize,   and never even received blank rounds...  I do remember plodding slowly through 3ft of snow, while walking the perimeter and checking unmanned buildings... 

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, pH said:

 

Even through the 1962/3 winter?  I think we had a couple of months of sledging, just down the road from you.

 

I was a bit too old by then although I do remember walking across the frozen Cart near the Canal Line with my cousins and brothers.

[grandadbob]

Evenin' each.

Hollyhocks! Been to the medic for follow up to my keeling over episode a couple of weeks ago  and he found  BP through the roof. Change/increase in meds may be  needed but first various blood & water tests required for diabetes, liver and kidney functions. Just when I though things were going rather well.

Deep joy - not.

P!ssed off of Sutton.

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, pH said:

 

 

Edited December 18, 2019 by AndyID
Duplicate

[J. S. Bach]

14 hours ago, AndyID said:

Crikey! Someone just sent me this. I've no idea what it is. Any suggestions?

 

 

 

It looks like a 30° crossing with an illustrated parts breakdown of the replaceable parts shown in their respective locations. The parts shown look like guard rails, note the angled approaches to guide the flange into the flangeway.

Edited December 18, 2019 by J. S. Bach

[leopardml2341]

Another day over - check.

Anotherday older - check

Another day wiser - Hmmmm!

 

Goodnight and best wishes to each.

[woodenhead]

Goodness me, what a stressful week I have had so far.

 

Yesterday I awoke very early at 5am (not by choice but couldn't sleep).   By 6am I was working and the day went downhill from there fast - first I had to go to my late father's flat to let some chaps in to pick up some apparatus.  Confusion reigned when they came for different items than I was led to believe they were here for but I then set off back home.  Later I was getting my lunch out of the fridge when I became aware (because my iced coffee was not cold) that the fridge had failed and was actually at 14 degrees and rising.

 

Panic ensued as I imagined Christmas day without a fridge freezer - till my wife reminded me that there were a perfectly good separate fridge and freezer at my father's.   Whilst trying to gather an extra set of hands to help manhandle the white goods into my car I went onto a work conference call where I literally lost my sh*t over a project.  I think the fridge freezer was the final straw in stress for me this month and I just let go in the conference call.  Anyway call over I set off in the now rush hour for the fridge and freezer with my father in law as extra hands.  Got the items back home, cleaned them out, got them working and put all the warm items in.

 

I was clearly not with it and for some reason the only website I look at for a replacement for the broken fridge freezer in the kitchen is John Lewis and the only fridge freezer I might like has a 4 week wait - more angst, more stress and by 11 pm last night I could hardly string a sentence together.  When I got up this morning I convinced myself the freezer part of the fridge freezer had also failed and quickly transferred the items to my father's freezer.

 

Then I set about looking for a fridge freezer, widened search to include Currys as I can pop in and look at said item.  Identified a couple more options at Currys but also begin thinking about why the broken fridge freezer is making all the right noises and still seems to be trying to cool stuff even if it says 18 degrees on the thermometer and -20 on the freezer I thought was also broken.  Ended up watching a video from a repairman who pointed out that sometimes even frost free freezers get an ice build up which disrupts the flow of ice and defrosting can solve the problem.    I look in the freezer, it appears it will all come apart easily and after half an hour of using a hairdryer and several flat implements I have the front of the cooling area opened up and I can see some ice, bit more work removing some screws and the rest of the mechanics of the freezer are exposed - I remove the lump of ice and put it all back together - the only damage I cause comes when I try and force a metal shelf in the wrong way and it pierces the wall but not in a way that will cause any further issues.  

 

Anyway, I put the fridge freezer back on and went out to currys - it amazes me that even a big superstore no longer carries the stock it advertises on the internet - but I did find a decent Samsung fridge freezer than I am now interested in, the LG one I wanted to see wasn't there and I also got to see a make I hadn't heard of Haier who make items for John Lewis which is also an option.  Nothing bought, I head home to update Mrs W on progress and say we need to decide tonight which one to order.

 

Of course this is all moot now, the 'broken' fridge is now back down to 5 degrees (from 18 when I went to Currys) and the freezer is back at -20 as it should be.

 

Perhaps if I hadn't been all stressed yesterday i would have done my homework on causes of fridges failing to stay cold, but on the other hand I may not immediately need the new fridge freezer and actually I have now have two 

 

The universe did send me a lesson today though, in Costa the woman two ahead of me managed to make an absolute meal out of buying a snack and a drink, must have been stuck in the queue 15 minutes whilst she was served and I saw it as a message to just let it all go and not get stressed by the delay.  The Barista must have seen how stressed I was, he actually asked me how I was feeling and hoped I would have a better end to the week.

 

Maybe I will now...

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

By the time I was doing guard duties in the north east in the 1980s, we could safely protect the place with ....

 

 

a torch and a whistle....

 

Outside of annual  35 shots at a target, we  never got issued with an SLR unless on excersize,   and never even received blank rounds...  I do remember plodding slowly through 3ft of snow, while walking the perimeter and checking unmanned buildings... 

They used to feel we were qualified enough to be armed with pick axe handles.

 

One of our duties was to escort the Paymaster on his weekly cash run.  I would drive the car and parked opposite the bank (there were double yellow lines outside the bank) and a colleague, we'll call him 'Kev' would stand outside the the bank wearing a steel helmet, goggles carrying the pick axe handle.

 

All went well for a few weeks until the day 'Kev' was accosted by an officer of the law about his attire and demeanour.  The Paymaster came out of the bank, and there was a rather unpleasant conversation.  It went along the lines of 'Kev' presenting an aggressive demeanour which would not be tolerated and the next time he or anyone else appeared like that outside the bank they'd get nicked!

 

After we got back to the unit, the Paymaster went and had words with the CO.

 

Next pay run we did.  I parked right outside the bank on the double yellows, windows down with the engine running and 'Kev' sitting in the front passenger seat.

 

Along came our antagonist from the previous week and you could see that he was about to blow a fuse.

 

'You can't park there, move it now or I'll nick you' he yelled through the window.

 

'F*ck off you plonker', 'Kev' retorted.

 

The not so nice policeman, by now incandescent with rage, bent down to window level and turned a rather odd grey colour when he found himself looking down the business end of a Sterling SMG.

 

At this point, the Paymaster walked out of the bank, got into the car and off we drove.

 

Next week 'Kev' was back outside the bank in helmet, goggles and holding a pick axe handle.

 

The constable was not to be seen.

 

My Browning remained in the door pocket as nobody had complained about that, probably because it hadn't been seen, so had not come up in the diplomatic exchanges that had followed.

 

 

 

 

 

[Coombe Barton]

Work, lunch judgement and friends.

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2019/12/18/sounds-of-the-season-18-o-adonai-and-work/

[grandadbob]

Our new (Bosch) fridge freezer came from our small friendly local dealer who is a member of the Euronics Buying Group.

https://www.euronics.co.uk/store-finder?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjZrruZXA5gIVDLTtCh3bUwkIEAAYASAEEgJdNPD_BwE

There are apparently 600 independent dealers in the UK  (and thousands more worldwide) who are members and they can offer prices comparable with the likes of Curry. (and in the case of our guy a better service)

Edited December 19, 2019 by grandadbob

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Decided to give the club a miss tonight. Still got the cold hanging on, its not full man-flu but a Lem-sip fortified with a bit of Caledonian falling down water is in order before bed tonight. Bin day tomorrow so have to get them out before bedtime. 

[roundhouse]

Another good day meeting friends but not for my other half as this time it took her over two hours to get from Farringdon to East Croydon due to a second day in a row melt down of signalling south of London. Its bcoming more than a joke on the way the signalling keeps failing (let alone problems with the trains themselves). We did have a pint of a nice dark beer for her when she did eventually get to the pub but she is getting very drained with constant delays and rammed trains just to get out of London in recent weeks.

[pH]

Thinking about it, there was a lot of physically carrying significant amounts of money, wasn't there? As a 17-year-old junior porter, I used to carry a leather cash bag containing a day's takings for Paisley St. James station from there to a bank in the centre of Paisley. On a Monday, that could be a significant amount. 

 

Then, as a bus conductor, on a busy shift, you could take in 45 pounds - when a conductor's pay for a 'bare' week was 11 pounds 10 shillings. Though you would usually make a partial pay-in at your break, so you wouldn't be carrying the whole amount. And the day's take for the garage would be taken to the bank by bus! 8 male staff sitting spare in the canteen would be delegated, and a back-door bus with platform doors would be used. It would be parked right outside the door, a path to the door set up with 3 people each side, and the other 2 people would lug the massive metal trunks into the bank.

 

But my dad could beat that. My grandfather and his brother had a business in Glasgow. They had a disagreement with their bank (this would have been before 1925), and decided to change banks. They withdrew the money from their account in cash, and walked it down the street to their new bank. My dad, still in primary school at the time, was given a one thousand pound note to put in his pocket!

[BoD]

On a school skiing trip, many years ago I had to go to a bank to withdraw the pupil’s spending money.  I was carrying several million Lira.  Just under a thousand pounds I think it was.

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[PhilJ W]

I worked in a payroll department for 30 years. We had four armoured Transit vans for delivering wages to various sites. The vans only lasted two or three years before they were knackered due to the weight of the armour. One of the vans had the front suspension collapse, fortunately it wasn't carrying any cash. The local Ford dealer sent another Transit breakdown truck to tow it in. The tow truck driver got a shock when the front of the tow truck started lifting off the ground. In the end they had to use a heavier tow truck.

[Dave Hunt]

During a shopping trip with SWMBO today I spotted a bottle of Penderyn Welsh single malt and doubtless due to the influence of a certain pachyderm not far from here decided to buy it and see what it is like. Then this evening the guys from the jazz band who practice in our workshop every other Wednesday gave me a present to say thank you for letting them use the place which was ...... a bottle of Penderyn. Having now accumulated the stuff I do hope that I like it; do I hear rumblings of approval from a certain muddy hollow?

 

With feelings for GDB, Woodenhead and John during their trials and tribulations as well as others who ail I bid you all a pleasant and peaceful night. 

 

Dave

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[tetsudofan]

Talking of money and banks when I first arrived in Hong Kong back in 1966 once I had to deputize for the Cash Officer on a Saturday and after the bank closed had to go down to the vault to check the cash before the doors were closed and locked for the weekend.

 

The total cash in the vault that was just about the equivalent of one million pounds, the first and last time I actually saw one million pounds in the flesh!!

 

It was also interesting that the Honkers and Shankers and the Chartered Bank issued bank notes on behalf of the Hong Kong Government. The Government only issued coins and 1 cent notes equivalent, if I remember correctly, to about 100th of 1/6d.

 

When last in Hong Kong (a few years ago) bank notes were issued by Bank of China, HSBC and Standard Chartered.

 

Keith

 

 

[Mike Bellamy]

About 40 years ago I was riding the Black Horse around a Lincolnshire Market Town and we often had to go to one of the other 'Big Four' to buy cash from them as we had gone below our minimum cash balance and needed more to make up the wages for the town's largest employer. Even in those days I would be walking through town with ten grand in my pocket and more if there were two of us.

 

After redundancy in the late 1990s I had a temporary Christmas job at a major high street store in Derby where I counted more cash than we had at the bank. Normally we had cash in from local shops, loaded it into the Cashpoint and it was spent in the shops - the same money went around in circles and so we had a low overnight balance. In the store at that time almost everyone still paid cash and it went away daily to a regional cash centre - it took 3 of us to count and check it all every day. Of course now most of the banks are closed and everyone shops online or use their card(s) in shops so I guess the cash in the bank is even less.

 

Mike