Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

Looking up Flinders brought to mind the interactions of the British and French navigators in the south seas.

 

Flinders' meeting with Nicolas Baudin at Encounter Bay (South Australia) is one example. While it occurred in 1802 during the peace of Amiens, neither of them having any knowledge that their nations were at peace yet they determined to meet. Baudin would later stop in Sydney to resupply before returning to Île-de-France (Mauritius) where he died. 

 

Earlier, Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse arrived off Botany Bay on January 24, 1788. This is two days before Arthur Phillip raised the Union Flag at Sydney Cove, having sensibly decided that Botany Bay was less suitable for a settlement than Port Jackson. HMS Supply had first arrived in the area on January 18. Rarely do Australia Day celebrations mention French onlookers, but they were in the area (in Botany Bay) and would be so for the next several weeks. The only reason we know anything about the Lapérouse voyage is because he was able to send papers home aboard the Alexander, one of the convict transports.

 

Lapérouse had crewed with Louis Antoine de Bougainville whose circumnavigation of the world returned to France in 1769. James Cook would depart for his circumnavigation in 1768, but not return until 1771. In 1768, Bougainville barely missed being "first, non-Spanish, European tourist in Tahiti" since Samuel Wallis and Phillip Carteret arrived there in 1767.

 

The Spanish had been in the area in the 16th century.

 

Tahiti had a slew of tourists beginning with Wallis and Carteret and Bougainville, and followed by Cook (1769), Bligh (1789) and Edward Edwards in HMS Pandora in 1791.

 

It is postulated that Edwards might have passed by signal fires set by shipwrecked survivors of Lapérouse's voyage when passing Vanikoro (in the Santa Cruz Islands, southeast of the main Solomon Islands). Like Cook, Edwards would wreck on the Great Barrier Reef. Unlike Cook's HMB Endeavour, Pandora would sink.

 

Edited February 5, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[AndyID]

35 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

I just thought that I had another interesting home/country to add, but it may be cheating as I wasn't quite born at the time.  My parents were in Iraq in 1959, Dad worked in oil exploration and there was a bit of do brewing (Hussain, S, Ba'ath party had something going on there IIRC) so Mum left in a big rush.  Dad had a harder time getting out but he and others did make it eventually.  A couple of weeks after Mum got home I arrived, so I was nearly born in Iraq - which had I been, might have lead to me being interned at the time of the first Gulf war. I suppose I now live in the right place for that!

 

 

One of the local big-shots in Paisley had spent a lot of time in Iraq managing electrical installations. He had a habit of starting sentences with "When I was in Baghdad.........".

 

Naturally, he was always referred to as Baghdad Shaw.

 

[brianusa]

20 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< before being posted to Admiral Jellicoe's flagship for the duration of WW1 and taking part in the Battle of Jutland.

As was my grandfather who served in the Royal Navy in both wars and was on HMS Adventure when she was sunk in the Thames estuary early in WW2.

        Brian.

[polybear]

4 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Whilst waiting I have received a steady stream of parcels for other flats.  Mr. Hermes knocked next door with a trio of items and finding no-one home then knocked here which isn't a problem as I will always take parcels for neighbours.  Whilst doing the necessary Mr. TNT appeared with a parcel also for the same neighbours which was also taken and whilst doing that Mr. Somebody-else arrived with a parcel for farther along the block - as they also were not home he asked if I might oblige ..... I should charge storage and handling!!!  I wonder if they could arrange to be out next time they order pizza

 

This works well until Mr. Postman is too lazy to put a "No. 7 has your parcel" card thru' the letterbox of the intended recipient.  So they're left waiting for a parcel they don't know has been delivered, whilst the Good Neighbour gets slowly more and more p1ssed off that the owner can't be bothered to come and get it.....

[TheQ]

Had I turned up a couple of months later I'd probably be Australian,  me turning up when I did delayed them going,  and then they never did.. 

 

Talking of Dad he's a bit better today and he's had another heart scan maybe the warfarin is working. 

I've been in discussions with my sisters on me and Co going up for a visit, but it won't be this weekend,  as my brother and his family are going and we don't want to overload Mum or Dad all at once. 

 

Mind you with the forecast it's don't fancy 800miles there and back this weekend ,  my brothers a lot closer in Knaresbrough. 

 

I have been filmed about 6years ago for a local TV piece about Horning boat show ( 2nd May this year) and about Horning  sailing club. Whether it was transmitted I have no idea. 

 

Dads been on TV a couple of times,  in the back ground as a steward at Thruxton circuit.  Also,  if you remember my comments about school food,  he was on Southern TV as head of the PTA,  complaining about the school dinners and the poor cooking facilities...  It worked in that the school got new cooking facilities,  but didn't benefit me,  as I moved onto secondary school.. 

[Gwiwer]

10 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

This works well until Mr. Postman is too lazy to put a "No. 7 has your parcel" card thru' the letterbox of the intended recipient.  So they're left waiting for a parcel they don't know has been delivered, whilst the Good Neighbour gets slowly more and more p1ssed off that the owner can't be bothered to come and get it.....

As a good neighbour I would always try to deliver anything not collected by the next day.  Sometimes people are away.  One or two don't read English and cannot easily understand their delivery card.  Other people may keep different hours to us.  I don't sit on stuff just because it hasn't been called for - I'll make the effort.  And it helps us to all get to know each other as well.

 

We have the added occasional inconvenience that the flats over the shops, which back onto our block, share some numbers with ours but are W***** Parade not W******* Court.  The Royal Mail gets it right.  Van Man usually does.  Of all the parcels I was offered today several were for 4a which (in our block) is Neighbours Upstairs.  But one was for 4a over the shops which backs onto us.  As they are not within our block I don't take their parcels.  

 

When Neighbour Upstairs collected her parcel tonight she mentioned that sometimes their stuff goes to 4a over the shops and they have trouble getting it because those people refuse to sign for it and it is simply returned.  

 

It's an easy enough mistake to make when the precise location of an address - especially a very similar address - is not obvious because of the location.  We don't have a street number and the flats over the shops are accessed only from the rear which is in our block's parking area.  

Edited February 5, 2020 by Gwiwer

[TheSignalEngineer]

26 minutes ago, brianusa said:

As was my grandfather who served in the Royal Navy in both wars and was on HMS Adventure when she was sunk in the Thames estuary early in WW2.

        Brian.

Small world. About 4 years ago Trisonic of this parish posted about his great uncle who was killed on the Somme in 1916. I looked up some details for him and found that he is buried about 10 yards from my own great uncle at Delville Wood. My wife's great uncle was posted missing presumed killed in action at High Wood, about a mile from where my own great uncle was killed the following week.

Edited February 5, 2020 by TheSignalEngineer

[TheQ]

When we lived in MK the area we were in was laid out in outwards facing squares,  with a children's play area surrounded by each group of houses.  So each square could face 4 other groups of houses with different street names... 

 

Street names?  Yep each group was called street or road, Not square, so either side of the tarmac was officially on a different road!!! The posties got used to it but police, ambulances and white van man were totally confused..  If you go to the MK show you're on the edge of the chaos... 

[New Haven Neil]

This works well until Mr. Postman is too lazy to put a "No. 7 has your parcel" card thru' the letterbox......

 

This is the life of the model railway retailer!  We get lambasted for non delivered parcels, or more usually accused of not sending it, when a: we can prove it left our premises as the collection van driver signs for them, and b: it is royal mail delivery operative that has failed to leave the card, not us.....#sigh#

 

There are days when I could go back to the young offenders team....then again.....

 

 

[Dave Hunt]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I think that the acrobatic movements I require of my fingers are probably constantly reopening the wound.

 

The mind boggles!!

[TheSignalEngineer]

6 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

This works well until Mr. Postman is too lazy to put a "No. 7 has your parcel" card thru' the letterbox......

 

This is the life of the model railway retailer!  We get lambasted for non delivered parcels, or more usually accused of not sending it, when a: we can prove it left our premises as the collection van driver signs for them, and b: it is royal mail delivery operative that has failed to leave the card, not us.....#sigh#

 

Had exactly the same thing with ParcelFarce two weeks ago. Ordered some stuff (non-muddling) from one of my usual suppliers via ebay as they had a better offer there than on their own site that day. Parcel should arrive Monday or Tuesday, out of house on Wednesday, still no sign Thursday. Checked ebay and got tracking number which told me that it had been left at the local Post Office counter on Monday. No sign whatever of a card and at the alleged time of the delivery attempt I was on the drive loading some garden rubbish into the car to take to the tip later in the afternoon....

[leopardml2341]

Goodnight peeps.

[Gwiwer]

31 minutes ago, TheQ said:

either side of the tarmac was officially on a different road!!!

Portslade in Sussex beat MK to it by many years.

 

One side of the main north-south route is Boundary Road (technically in Hove) and the other is Station Road (Portslade).  Even the local taxi drivers can get confused by that one.  I pity anyone sufficiently unaware that they attempt to book a taxi from Boundary Road to Station Road.  They might find themselves charged flagfall for getting in and getting out without having travelled an inch!

 

I'm sure there are other examples.  I had one on the tip of my brain as I started this post but it (my brain) has gone prematurely to sleep and it (the location in question) has therefore slipped my sleeping mind.

 

G'night All. 

[TheSignalEngineer]

Well at least there were no mishaps on grandad duty today. Decided to use the e-bike as weather was a bit better and didn't have to do any other errands requiring the car. It's just 8 miles each way and I can do it in 33 minutes despite a couple of 400ft climbs. The car usually takes me 24 minutes so not all that much benefit.

Tomorrow probably back to the swimming pool, also car will be needed as I have to drop them off at the badminton club after school, them move elder one to Cubs straight after. Like being a parent again without the same energy level.

In view of that lot I think it may be time for a shower and sleep.

[Kingzance]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

KZ, I'm a bit concerned about your navigational skills if the Arctic is considered a continent, and I am compelled to "harrumph" at the assertion that "Australasia" is a continent. While that may well have been an apt description at the height of glaciation my compatriots will insist that the continent today is "Australia".

.

We have Lt. (later Captain) Matthew Flinders to thank for popularizing the name over the more hypothetical Terra Australis or the dubiously claimed Nova Hollandia, which Cook reinforced in his maps as New Holland.

 

According to Wikipedia he makes the following footnote in his "A Voyage to Terra Australis":

 

Michael, I was just a simple marine engineer and so I had almost nothing to do with the Sundeck Dept who were responsible for pointing the things and whose forefathers gave names to the lumps they encountered . I just hoped we didn't bump into any unexpectedly as that would presumably get my feet wet. 

There is an Arctic Ocean, in which sit a few land lumps, generally covered by ice, Greenland being the largest. Are those lands not part of the Arctic? Australia is similarly the largest land mass between the Indian Ocean and South America but there are many other islands of various sizes, including Tasmania. Call it what you will, they are generally grouped together but I accept Oceania is an oft-used term. Islands off the coast of South America are regarded as belonging to that continent, as islands off the coast of North America are similarly classified as part of North America. The British Isles and the island of Ireland are classified as part of Europe too.

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

It always amused me that Colchester Hospital was on Severalls Road

In France you know you are near the hospital when you see signs to a crem and several funeral directors.  Very comforting as you enter the car park.

50 minutes ago, TheQ said:

When we lived in MK the area we were in was laid out in outwards facing squares,  with a children's play area surrounded by each group of houses.  So each square could face 4 other groups of houses with different street names... 

 

Street names?  Yep each group was called street or road, Not square, so either side of the tarmac was officially on a different road!!! The posties got used to it but police, ambulances and white van man were totally confused..  If you go to the MK show you're on the edge of the chaos... 

You should have tried to police a set of flats in Hunslet (South Leeds) called Leek Street Flats. System built by IIRC Shepherd Construction, the complex was 5 stories high with walways at the 2nd an 4th floors. Some flats went down as you went through the door, others went up.  Two adjacent doors would usually have different street addresses. Leek Street had disappeared completely and various parts of Jack Lane (Home to the Hunslet Engine Company) ran through the site and there was even a Boys club with a Jack Lane address. None of the Flats used Jack Lane most blocks were named after long dead councillors.  Fun was had. The insulation and waterproofing was so appalling that they were all demolushed in the 80's barely 20 years old. I belive that it took Leeds another 20 years to pay the debt off.

 

Jamie

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[Ozexpatriate]

31 minutes ago, Kingzance said:

There is an Arctic Ocean, in which sit a few land lumps, generally covered by ice, Greenland being the largest. Are those lands not part of the Arctic? Australia is similarly the largest land mass between the Indian Ocean and South America but there are many other islands of various sizes, including Tasmania. Call it what you will, they are generally grouped together but I accept Oceania is an oft-used term. Islands off the coast of South America are regarded as belonging to that continent, as islands off the coast of North America are similarly classified as part of North America. The British Isles and the island of Ireland are classified as part of Europe too.

While I was having a bit of fun, I hope I did not come across as being annoyingly pedantic. The Arctic is certainly an ocean, but is not a continent. Australians are proud of their landmass being considered the seventh continent, rather than a mere island. They will rankle at the suggestion that it is an island, though do see themselves as part of an Australasian economic zone.

 

Oceania is indeed a vague term. Depending on context, the Commonweath of Australia (as distinct from the geological, continental landmass) is often lumped into it, particularly in histogram charts where some quantity is calculated according to a regional distribution. Even the continental landmass is included in this definition. Curiously, Orwell includes the fictional nation state defined by IncSoc as being Oceania.

 

Edited February 5, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

The mind boggles!!

It's them duelling banjoes

 

[Tony_S]

To add to all the exotic birth/pre-birth locations I can add that my parents lived in Wolverhampton until shortly before I was born.

[newbryford]

2 hours ago, leopardml2341 said:

 

Not too far from where I live, there used to be three [*] rather large mental institutions - built in the late Victorian era with funds from Manchester........

So I blame the Mancs.

 

[*] Now down to one small unit due to close soon and one "hospital" with a rather high double barbed wire fence and a double "air-lock" style powered gates.

 

 

Edited February 5, 2020 by newbryford

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Only a few months ago I had a parcel delivered when I was out and it was left with a neighbour six doors away. When I went to collect it the lady asked me which number I was as she had parcels for three other neighbours lined up in her hallway. As it turned out the other neighbours were genuinely not at home for one reason or another. 

[TheSignalEngineer]

Before I go to bed, I just picked up a bit of cricket memorabilia which may interest Baz @Barry O and any other fans of a certain age.

 

Dad passed this book on to me with the instruction to keep it and pass it on to a young cricket fan some day, family member if possible.

 

Mom bought the book for Dad at Christmas 1955. He was a great Warwickshire supporter and in 1957 became a club member.

I think that the autographs date from that year when England played West Indies in the First Test, which was the first one covered by Test Match Special.

 

Dad was sitting in the old Members Pavilion and collared John Arlott during lunch to sign the book for him. John said certainly and I'll get you a much better autograph than mine, whereupon he took Dad to the BBC box and Introduced him to the great Kent and England all-rounder Frank Woolley whom Dad had seen play for Kent in the last years of his career. Also there were Denis Compton, Jim Swanton, the Telegraph cricket correspondent who was doing the interval summaries and Peter West who was presenting the TV highlights.

 

 

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[TheSignalEngineer]

43 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

To add to all the exotic birth/pre-birth locations I can add that my parents lived in Wolverhampton until shortly before I was born.

Yow'm nearly a YamYam then.