Early Risers.

[Erichill16]

Sorry should have said good night.
By the way battery is flat on the Nemo van!  Bu99er!

Goodnight

Robert 

[jamie92208]

ID's mention of the SBS reminds me of the late ted Harrison a Healey Mills driver who was a club member. He often came out with me putting up or taking down signs for the show.  Over the years he told me about his war.  He'd been in the navy in the Med and got bored so joined the SBS.  In his own words they raised all sorts of hell in the Aegean. They often took over whole islands for a short while and had running fights with the Italians and the Germans using converted fishing boats.  One day in 1944 things went wrong and he ended up getting machine gunned on a beach and had 4 bullets in him.  When things calmed down he was well treated and spent 6 months in a German hospital till he was discharged to a POW camp.  When he returned he went back to work on the railways and eventually became a driver.  He was actually a ember of the Special Forces club in London.  He always said that his right knee hurt and after he retired it got so bad he went to hospital.  An X ray revealed that there was a bullet lodged in it.  It was taken out but the surgeon didn't keep the bullet.  He applied for a backdated war disability pension but they wouldn't believe him.   I helped him write some letters and he eventually got his pension uprated but only after a long fight.   Shameful treatment by the authorities of a great guy who had done his bit when he could have stayed at home in a reserved occupation.

 

Jamie

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land.

4 hours ago, polybear said:

 

 

 

 

Possibly Trials based at RAE Aberporth?  It's been a missile/rocket firing range since 1941 - quite possible that a radar system could have been positioned there.  I do know that they conducted firings of V1's after the war, having seen the photos.

 

 

Quite possibly. The aircrews and aircraft used were from a couple of OTU's , the aircrew had completed their training and were awaiting allocation to an operational unit. There home base was in Lincolnshire and they had flown out via Lancashire and then flown south crossing Anglesey. Either my mums cousins aircraft had climbed or the other aircraft had dived is not certain but the other aircraft managed to make an emergency landing at an airfield in the west country with severe damage to the inner port engine and the bomb bay. Both aircraft were Halifax III's that had been withdrawn from front line service and well past their best.

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

A

 

Regarding the Big H’s suggestion of the gibbet for the scrote that assaulted KZ’s SiL, I would suggest that putting the scrote into the stocks and letting the community (at a safe social distance) decide how unpleasant the stay in the stocks would be is an appropriate “community sentence” (and very democratic: one man, one rock).

 

Cheers

 

iD

 

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Jeez, you really ARE bored......

 

 

Can Bears (and Hippo's) have a rock too please?  Or even better, several rocks....

Why waste rocks and the effort of throwing them when you have this:-

They seem to have plenty of hose to deliver the contents.

Talking of 'lucky' transfers from ships that went on to sink with great loss of life. I had a colleage who was a Royal Marine aboard HMS Prince of Wales. He was put ashore at Singapore to help reinforce the garrison there and ended up on the Burma death railway.

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Well we are now gearing up for the ditch party.  

 

It would have been a muddy hollow party, but there is no mud, just dust.

 

Bunting has been deployed along with a Union flag.

 

Red, White and Blue is the theme:  I shall wear a Red (Welsh ) rugby shirt as part of the ensemble.

 

To add a bit of excitement to the proceedings, I have fenced off a part of the muddy hollow with rope and signs which Proclaim 'Danger UXB Keep Out'

 

The UXB is there, partially buried, and the enclosure forms a natural social distancing barrier.

 

Time to make the Pimms (It's bring your own booze and snacks.

 

Too much effort for what will last about 10-15 minutes?

 

Probably but it's going to be a bit of fun!

Well, It lasted nearly an hour and three quarters.  

 

Much fun and frivolity whilst observing social distancing.

[Happy Hippo]

4 hours ago, polybear said:

Possibly Trials based at RAE Aberporth?  It's been a missile/rocket firing range since 1941 - quite possible that a radar system could have been positioned there.  I do know that they conducted firings of V1's after the war, having seen the photos.

If it were radar trials then they would have been conducted at Malvern  which was the RSRE establishment during WW2.  We were still using it for air defence radars in the late 1980's.

 

The Air Support unit was based at RAF Defford. (during WW2)

[Gwiwer]

Just had our evening walk in a warm twilight.  It feels like a summer night out there.  

 

People a-plenty out and about though many are keeping their distance.  Quite a few parties in progress, all with good music and VE regalia, though only one seemed to involved more than the occupants of the house concerned.  We eschewed (a good word, that) the riverside stroll through Radnor Gardens on the grounds that there were more than a few folk there and some were definitely engaged in horizontal waltzing.  

 

We came across Neighbour (Top Flat) sitting on a seat outside the shops having locked herself out.  She was desperately trying to call a locksmith.  Not a lot we could do to help in the current circumstances but another time she would have been offered a cuppa or a beer at ours and - if needs be - the spare bed.  Not tonight.  Upon our return she had regained entry but parted with £75 for the privilege.  

 

SWMBO requires a muggerdecaf.  I must oblige.  All the best until tomorrow. 

 

[Dave Hunt]

RAE Aberporth controls the air to air and air to ground missile firing range in Cardigan Bay. I've fired quite a few A-A missiles there and in the mid-70s worked at the Strike Command Air To Air Missile establishment At RAF Valley in Anglesey from which we conducted trials and training firings in conjunction with Aberporth. That site had several radars including FPS 16s that were originally used for tracking missile and rocket launches by NASA and suchlike. Airborne targets were operated from RAF Llanbedr further down the coast.

 

Dave 

[Coombe Barton]

Celebration or commemoration?

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/05/08/ve-day-reflections/

[leopardml2341]

Beer consumed.

 

Bed o'clock.

 

'night all.

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[laurenceb]

12 hours ago, Andrew P said:

Just been to get a picture of this Spitfire in some ones front garden around the corner from us.

 

It's about 3/4 scale I would say, and made of wood by the chap that lives there, even the Prop goes around, especially on a windy day.

 

 

 

 

 

Thought it looked familiar. Looks like it has had a repaint since the last time I saw it.

Night awl

Edited May 8, 2020 by laurenceb

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

After this morning’s failed trip to the big orange DIY shed, I placed an order on line and the paint will arrive sometime on Monday, so that’ll do nicely. The few other items that I wanted to pick-up this morning were unavailable for home delivery or click and collect, so I’ll go else where for those. Once home I made a start on cutting and fitting the cladding the the arbor. The back is almost finished, there are 2 pieces left to fit, but these will have to wait until it’s assembled as they will hide the fixing screws. I’ve also completed one of the side panels too, again there are a couple of pinto fit which will again hide the fixing screws. I also sanded down a piece of wood that I’m using to make a peg rail, which Sheila wants to have fitted to one of the bedroom walls. So far it’s been sanded, and holes drilled for the legs. The board itself has had 1 coat of primer and the 5 pegs have each had a coat of varnish.

 

Both of my parents were children during the war, Sheila’s however were older. Her father (8th army) and his 2 brothers (parachute regiment and RN) and brother in law (RAF) all participated, as did 1 of her mother’s brothers. Sheila’s dads brothers all got back home safely, but his BiL was missing in action over Europe and was never recovered. Sheila mother’s brother also came back safely. 

 

The night was rounded off with a nice bottle of wine. 

 

Goodnight all 

[Barry O]

Going through my family history i have found that of my grandfathers brothers one  was lost on HMS Drake in WW1  one was lost in (we think) a battlecruiser at Jutland and one died at Dunkirk. My matenal grandmother also lost a brother at Dunkirk.

 

My mum survived the Coventry blitz and Dad survived flying in Wimpeys (38 squadron) in the middle east ( he once dropped a torpedo on Rommel's HQ), long distance air delivery units then Arnhem (48 squadron on Daks). If he had stayed in the RAF he would have been on the Berlin resupply flights ...

 

I think that people who cause problems during lockdown should be assigned as cleaners in ICUs. That way they can return value for their self centred approach. 

Baz

Edited May 9, 2020 by Barry O

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[Tony_S]

Evening all.

The family Zoom was a bit of a curate’s egg. Good bits were nephews contributions , one showed us his baking including the wonky bagels and the other one seems to have got a job in Zurich  The Californian resident dog (a Maltese Yorkie cross) appeared but showed cat like disinterest in the proceedings. One person however had a bit of a rant and didn’t seem to take into account there were small children listening and viewing. I won’t be initiating any Zoom chats, I will stick to phone calls to individuals. 
I made a slot car kit. Absolutely no instructions. I haven’t put all the tiny bits of the body on yet as I want to check it works reliably. At first attempt it went backwards but that was easy to change. At least for the body I could look at photos of the real car to work out what went where but the chassis took some thought. 
There was a street party half way down our road. I could see that most family groups seemed about 2 metres apart. 
We watched La Traviata from Covent Garden tonight.  Opera isn’t really my preferred medium of music but the performance was rather splendid.

Tony

[newbryford]

15 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Sorry, but that was not a good and/or skiliful landing. A good and safe crosswind landing is best achieved by approaching with drift on (I.e., pointing sufficiently into wind to fly straight towards the runway) then immediately before touchdown applying rudder to 'kick off' the drift and land on both mainwheels simultaneously. The way you described the landing is not a good idea. There are other ways such as what is called the one wing down approach but they all end up with touchdown being with the aircraft pointing down the runway and on both main wheels at the same time.

 

 

 

I may have not given the pilot enough credit. I guess that how he did it is as you explain,

All I really remember is looking along the runway from a side window just before landing. The last moment kick was probably what made me describe it as "touch and turn".

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

The socially distanced street party went well and was down to various socially distanced groups still in conversation with each other 3 hours after the start of outdoor picnicking and imbibing.  The pics below show views up and down teh road respectively during a lull in the community singing.  all round an excellent and very convivial afternoon - at a suitable distance for all conversations.

 

 

 

Both of my grandfathers did their bit in the Great War and were both involved in farming in WWII so weren't liable for service even if they'd fitted into a suitable age group.   Dad failed the army medical so spent the war doing various jobs depending on where he was directed by the Ministry of Misuse of Skills (who took him out of an aircraft factory where he was doing skilled work and put him on site work knocking up wooden accommodation huts and the like sometimes in the middle of air raids).  But he also  joined the AFS and remained with them throughout the war which took him to a variety of places to assist in fighting fires etc occurring during and resulting from major air raids.  He also got involved locally here in fire watching when he wasn't elsewhere putting fires out and that was how he met my mum who was in her first teaching post here but had also joined the AFS.  I haven't got a clue where either of them were on VE Day but presumably somewhere round here as they had been married for a few years by then and lived locally in rented accommodation.

 

And if you think 'they' get things wrong nowadays it wasn't much different during the blitz when mobile AFS units found out to their cost that the last thing which was standardised were the threads on fire hydrants and hoses so what fitted in, say, Southampton didn't fit in Birmingham or London or wherever.  So they finished up carrying a stock of various adaptors to enable them to use hydrant supplies with their own hoses  wherever they were sent.

 

[newbryford]

Big bro is definitely on the up.

 

He made Radio Lancashire a couple of day ago!

 

Listen from 1:33:25 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08b4sx0

 

And Helen is a star!

 

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by newbryford

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Lee Clarke]

Ignore me....Nothing to say..... just testing the new avatar but now I'm thinking it could alternate between a dog, and a train, and be suitable in more places.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[TheQ]

Mooring awl, inner Temple Hare.. 

About 3.75 hours sleep so far. 

 

no parties here,  and once the lawnmower mower stopped not a peep out of the neighbours . I suspect some social undistancing, at their parents,  as the parents car has been appearing outside their house recently without occupant.

 

We were too knackered after the days labours. 

 

As it is,  these labours have caused  me to awake at 01:44, pain in various places especially my right hand from lifting heavy objects.

 

Later from the comfort of the MrCH sofa,  the legs of the radar were repaired.  Then the next scenic sub board was removed from under the weights and I produced lots of yellow snow. I need to take a hoover down there.. 

 

Today another 400- ish bricks to move,  and more yellow snow needs making. 

 

But first 

Time to attempt more sleep.

Edited May 9, 2020 by TheQ

[J. S. Bach]

Good night owl from the Piedmont.

[leopardml2341]

Much too early (again)!

 

Mornin' all.

 

Now time to attempt more sleep.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

I must compliment Rick on his T shirt.  To my shame, I have neither visited the Blue Anchor nor sampled Spingo.  I hope that in time I will do both.  Many of those that I possess are distinctive.  The really good ones commemorate something.  One of my most prized is an original Strawhead T shirt designed by Ron Baxter.  It is well over 30 years old and now very fragile. Whenever I went to a Strawhead gig, and I went to many, I made sure that I was properly dressed – call it a badge of honour if you like.

 

I found the one of which I posted a picture yesterday on the Stonewall stand at Pride Cymru in Cardiff in 2018.  I could have bought an English language version but I surrendered to my sense of mischief.  It can be quite a conversation piece, though that is not its purpose.  I wore it one day when I was in Sydney last year.  A member of railway staff was far more interested in the shirt than in sorting out the problem I had with my ticket.  Perhaps its finest hour was when it was translated back to me in a Bristol night club. 

 

Some of my T shirts are considered provocative.  It is high time that I resurrected one of my favourites, which I found at a beer festival.  It proclaims: “Eat football, drink football, talk sh!te”.  One rather prudish acquaintance feels that I should not wear it when young children might be present. While he has a point, I do not know why he said this on a photo charter, where the language used by the organiser would have caused much more offence than a mere garment.  I happened to be wearing it a few years ago when I called at the Tesco store just off the M32 north of Bristol.  A lady hailed me and said, in finest Bristolian: “Arrr!  I want one of they for my husband.  He follows Rovers”.  “Say no more, madam” I muttered.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris