Early Risers.

[AndyID]

4 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Hmmmm?? Same story as Paisley and the River Cart. I suspect we've been had. Snopes might have something to say about it.

 

Yup. Looks like it's a load of cobblers stinking fish.

 

"despite much investigation, no-one has ever tracked down an actual document showing this"

 

https://historum.com/threads/the-“salmon-clause”-for-apprentices.179809/

 

 

Did someone mention Rodgers and Hammerstein? How about "Salmon Chanted Evening"?

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by AndyID
moinfo

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

When I visited Australia in October I was sent back with some double-coated Tim-Tams. Arguably they are forbidden to me, but I permitted myself an occasional one from the 'fridge. Civilization has progressed to the point that some versions of Tim-Tams are available here - but not dark or double-coated.

 

 

You can always knock up a cheesecake..

 

Note - although called a cheesecake, you  shouldn't use these:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[J. S. Bach]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 ...snip... The Seekers ...snip...

One of my favorite groups, much better than that flop-haired one.

[Tony_S]

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

One suggestion I read of was for Susan Carter to do a monologue from the village shop, to bring us all up to date.

 

Can you imagine, Christine Barford ,Peggoi Woolley and Jill Archer all taken before their time.

The Mosses being sent to Dartmoor to crush stone.

Grey Gables burning down again

Brian and Jennifer downsizing again.

Harrison Burns investigating a great mystery involving Bunting being found in a Yurt behind a Tagine

The Gills make an appearance

Shula is made Bishop of Felpersham

And how Phil got away with locking Grace in the stables...

[Coombe Barton]

Bring back Mrs Dale's Diary

"I'm very worried about Jim"

[Barry O]

9 hours ago, TheQ said:

Unfortunately Kraft took over cadburys,  lied through their teeth promising no changes.

 

And promptly changed the recipe for the chocolate  in the UK. 

They shut the Cadbury plant in Dunedin. The kiwis hve stopped buying Cadbury products. Kraft are a particularly nasty piece of American Company..lots of lies...

 

Baz

Edited May 1, 2020 by Barry O

[Barry O]

Congratulations Polybear! While I am not at state pension age my 3 pensions from work are great! My last BAE Submarines pension has just gone up to £99 a moth.

 

Baz

[Barry O]

 Goodnight good people!

Baz

[newbryford]

My reminiscence of the Official Secrets Act.

 

As an 18 year old, I was accepted on the "student engineer" programme with Ferranti Ltd and my first 6 monthly placement after basic training at Hollinwood, was at Cairo Mill in Oldham. somewhere east of Manchester. (location obfuscated)

First day there and it was into the personnel department (no "HR" in those days) for a photograph for my ID card and told to "sign this".

When I read the back of the ID card, it said that I had read the OSA and complied with it's terms.

Caught me by surprise and scared the crap out of me at the time..............................

 

As it was, the factory built parts for assembly into larger systems elsewhere and it was totally improbable that anything I knew - or found out whilst working there - would have compromised the security of the UK in the early 1980s.

 

Nearest I got was seeing a curtained off area testing bits for a Royal Navy vessel that is now retired (and since cut up).

As mere students, we were not allowed to step beyond the plastic chain surrounding the curtain.

We spent most of our time making intermittent wiper control systems for our cars using NE555 timers and relays.

Either that or wandering around the factory trying to find equipment to calibrate in the lab [*] - usually Avometers - various marks of the Model 8. 

I used to love rebuilding cracked/broken cases using sellotape as a mould and filling it with Araldite, then filing it down to fit the sections together

 

I still have the ID card somewhere.

 

WFH -ish. Friday.

 

Have fun folks.

 

Mick

[*] our calibration lab would be a mere speck on the standard of Qs lab. Our main calibration rig would be calibrated elsewhere and that elsewhere would have their equipment calibrated somewhere else - and eventually that would be calibrated by Mr Q

[BSW01]

Good deevening everyone 

 

This morning’s shopping trip was uneventful as usual, I managed to get most of what was on my list, but I had to make do with a pork pie for dinner, as the butchers are not making pasties at the moment! I was lucky in that I managed to dodge the rain whilst out shopping. This afternoon the rain was particularly heavy, once again spilling over the guttering near the bathroom. On the next dry and wind free day, I shall get out my extension ladders and see if there is anything clogging up the guttering causing the over spill. 

 

After dinner I had every intention of sitting down and making some drawings for the control panels, but I decided to sit on the sofa next to Sheila and completed a bit of eyelid inspection instead.

 

I do like hobnob biscuits, especially the ones with chocolate on them, I also like dark chocolate digestives too, but I don’t buy them anymore, as Sheila wouldn’t eat them and I would be down to me, so I’d eat far too many of them, which isn’t very good for the waistline!

Thursday means that it’s bin night, so it’s out ready for the bin men, but that could be anytime from 7 o’clock tomorrow morning. 

 

Now then, here’s a question for you all.

 

Why is it, when I’m making scrambled eggs, I don’t break a single yoke, but when I’m doing a fried egg, I’m guaranteed to break at least one of them?

 

Polybear, I hope know you’ll enjoy your retirement, but then I’ve had almost 3 years practice. 

 

Goodnight all 

[AndyID]

16 minutes ago, newbryford said:

My reminiscence of the Official Secrets Act.

 

 

At one point a department in my organization was working on Tempest stuff. The situation was a bit strange. As I wasn't a US citizen I was not supposed to know what they were actually doing

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[AndyID]

3 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

Now then, here’s a question for you all.

 

Why is it, when I’m making scrambled eggs, I don’t break a single yoke, but when I’m doing a fried egg, I’m guaranteed to break at least one of them?

 

 

That's probably one that can never be answered, but there is a potential fix. What you need to do is con the eggs into thinking you are making scrambled eggs by cracking them into a bowl then, before they can figure out what you are up to, you suddenly transfer them from the bowl to the frying pan.

[J. S. Bach]

7 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

At one point a department in my organization was working on Tempest stuff. The situation was a bit strange. As I wasn't a US citizen I was not supposed to know what they were actually doing

Did they know what they were doing?

[J. S. Bach]

A belated happy retirement to Polybear.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[AndyID]

44 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Did they know what they were doing?

 

How would I know?

[pH]

Australian Timtam = UK Penguin (without the silver paper wrapper). Discuss.

[JohnDMJ]

 

1 hour ago, newbryford said:

My reminiscence of the Official Secrets Act.

 

As an 18 year old, I was accepted on the "student engineer" programme with Ferranti Ltd and my first 6 monthly placement after basic training at Hollinwood, was at Cairo Mill in Oldham. somewhere east of Manchester. (location obfuscated)

First day there and it was into the personnel department (no "HR" in those days) for a photograph for my ID card and told to "sign this".

When I read the back of the ID card, it said that I had read the OSA and complied with it's terms.

Caught me by surprise and scared the crap out of me at the time..............................

 

As it was, the factory built parts for assembly into larger systems elsewhere and it was totally improbable that anything I knew - or found out whilst working there - would have compromised the security of the UK in the early 1980s.

 

Nearest I got was seeing a curtained off area testing bits for a Royal Navy vessel that is now retired (and since cut up).

As mere students, we were not allowed to step beyond the plastic chain surrounding the curtain.

We spent most of our time making intermittent wiper control systems for our cars using NE555 timers and relays.

Either that or wandering around the factory trying to find equipment to calibrate in the lab [*] - usually Avometers - various marks of the Model 8. 

 

 

Ah, what memories; the infamous NE555 and the Avo8 MkIII.

 

Having also signed the OSA, I went on to break torpedoes for their manufacturer, designing the instrumentation system to record how we broke them and instigating an intermediate calibration method so that the full recording system could be calibrated without having to send all the transient recorders, charge amplifiers (for the accelerometers) and the plotter as individual items; I only had to send a box of 8 capacitors and a sine wave generator to the calibration lab!

[AndyID]

35 minutes ago, pH said:

Australian Timtam = UK Penguin (without the silver paper wrapper). Discuss.

 

Never had one but I think the look a lot like Penguins. If course they all come from the Southern Hemisphere.

[newbryford]

42 minutes ago, pH said:

Australian Timtam = UK Penguin (without the silver paper wrapper). Discuss.

 

Why don't polar bears eat penguins?

.

.

..

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

..

Because they can't get the wrapper off..............

[Erichill16]

Can’t sleep tonight. Some work going on on railway which is a bit odd as they usually send us a letter saying what to expect. As I can’t sleep ought to go and have a look but can’t be bothered. Sounds interesting, lots of tooting and clanking etc. Raining now so really really can’t be bothered. SWMBO got bedside light on reading so may as well look around here. Anyway goodnight or should I say good morning, I don’t know and does it really matter, does anything?

 

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

I have yet to encounter a British Monte Carlo.  And indeed a British Anzac Biscuit - oh - wait - we had some in the Fortnum & Mason's assortment SWMBO bought for Easter.  Every bit as hard and boring as their Aussie counterparts.  Monte Carlos, on the other hand, are a snack in themselves and require neither dunking nor a second nor third one with the same cuppa.

Monte Carlos are indeed a treat. ANZAC biscuits are often little better than hard tack with sugar. Best avoided when there are so many superior alternatives. 

 

3 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Afternoon tea - as we mentioned it - is definitely thought of as a British "thing".

Afternoon tea as "high tea" is indeed a very British thing. Years ago in my summer with a Queensland state government entity, ladies with trolleys laden with tea, coffee and biscuits patrolled the hallways in the late morning and mid-afternoon, so tea taken in the afternoon with biscuits is a thing in Australia, but usually sans the cucumber sandwiches, cake, scones and clotted cream in a formal setting.

[monkeysarefun]

12 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Monte Carlos are indeed a treat. ANZAC biscuits are often little better than hard tack with sugar. Best avoided when there are so many superior alternatives. 

 

Afternoon tea as "high tea" is indeed a very British thing. Years ago in my summer with a Queensland state government entity, ladies with trolleys laden with tea, coffee and biscuits patrolled the hallways in the late morning and mid-afternoon, so tea taken in the afternoon with biscuits is a thing in Australia, but usually sans the cucumber sandwiches, cake, scones and clotted cream in a formal setting.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/eat/life-in-lockdown-arnotts-shares-secret-monte-carlo-biscuit-recipe/news-story/d517e74711e50e91eb36643e2f232428