Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

We have watched quite a few Nordic TV crime series but also like the Sicilian series Montalbano , and Young Montalbano. One review said all they do is eat and discuss the crime. Probably why we like it. Aditi reads a lot of Nordic crime novels but doesn’t always like the transition to television. 
Tony

[iL Dottore]

53 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

We have watched quite a few Nordic TV crime series but also like the Sicilian series Montalbano , and Young Montalbano. One review said all they do is eat and discuss the crime. Probably why we like it. Aditi reads a lot of Nordic crime novels but doesn’t always like the transition to television. 
Tony

One review said all they do is eat and discuss the crime.

eat and discuss sport.

eat and discuss art.

eat and discuss music.

eat and discuss fashion.

eat and discuss politics.

eat and discuss theatre

eat and discuss love...

 

Aah, the joys of living in a culture that really appreciates the importance of food in life (Japan, Italy, India, France, Malaysia, Thailand, China). Not for these cultures the frozen, microwaved, meal, "two meals for £2" or the "sandwich-at-the-desk".

 

Don't get me wrong, there's really great food to be had in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia, but I would argue that the overall culture in these countries is that "food is fuel" and - apart from the infrequent celebration - not to be "fussed over" Doing the equivalent of travelling from Tokyo to Osaka to eat a perfect Okonomiyaki or the equivalent of spending a day cooking the perfect Hyderabadi biryani is not only alien but unthinkable to many (most?) people in those cultures.

 

Damn, now I'm hungry...

 

Enjoy POETS day

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Lane. There's some wet stuff falling out of the sky at the moment, can anyone explain it please? Seriously though its very welcome after about six weeks without any significant rain.  Now no hay fever, irritation from eczema and even Arthur Itis is taking a nap.

1 hour ago, AndyB said:

 

Is there a facepalm button available in here?

Will this do?

There's even an Emoji, or a few.

[simontaylor484]

There were 2 seperate series of Wallander 1 starred Rolf Lasgaard and were films of the novels the second starred Krister Henriksson and carried on different stories suggested by Henning Mankell especially the decline in Kurt Wallander health. Iirc the series stopped because the actress who played Linda Wallander committed suicide and Mankell wouldn't continue. He since died

 

These were shown on Bbc 4 maybe they are still available on i player.

 

I like Montalbano and the young Montalbano too they are so different to the American stuff that is on all the time

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon all,

 

Excellent rainfall last night and the weeds are now looking much more cheerful while I haven't checked I strongly suspect that we will now have full butts (of rainwater that is, for those who might not be familiar with the English version of english).  Talking of which there really are some fruit cakes 'over there' and it gets even worse when you realise some such people are regarded as sane enough to buy an assault rifle which probably has a cyclic rate of fire that puts an SA 80 to shame; weird country.

 

Anyway back to the thunder and lightning - we had at least two storms and probably three or four when counting the time lag between flash with the preponderance to the east  of us and the smaller show to the west. But nothing overhead except the nice hard rain - which of course was not so much 'overhead' as landing on the garden and house.  The lad and I enjoyed watching it, Mrs Stationmaster slept through it - even with bedroom windows slightly ajar and the blind up.  And both cats expressed their displeasure until they remembered they were hungry and left the comfort of kipping against a human or hiding in the wardrobe.  it is now much cooler but could preferably get cooler still.  And I hope it hasn't too badly trashed the various fields of grain around here which hadn't yet been harvested.

 

I've b neb ver seen any of the Nordic crime things apart from a bit of the Wallander one with Branagh in it - I'm more a 'New Tricks' and 'Father Brown' sort of person - and both are now running on the Drama Channel as 'Father Brown' has just resurfaced there replacing 'Death In Paradise' (which also had its good points ... ).  On a very different theme 'The Key' was repeated on Moving Pictures the other evening and while I don't much like the film the last few minutes are well worth seeing because our local station was doubling as some sort of seaport terminus and there w are one or two excellent shots right at the end, including the final frames, catching what has long gone.

 

Good to see various returnees and that Andyram's shop survived the pandemic;  i think it mightn't be a bad idea to take a break from fostering for a while after that bad experience.

 

Right enjoy the rest of your day folks - be it wet or dry, hot or cold, and remember to stay safe.

Edited August 14, 2020 by The Stationmaster

[polybear]

4 hours ago, grandadbob said:

Many years ago my dentist, who I liked considerably, told me that he was no longer going to treat NHS patients himself.  I could change to one of the other dentists at the practice but I decided to stay with him.  To do this I had to join Denplan and although it is more expensive I've never regretted it.  It currently costs me £28 a month which covers all routine check-ups, consultations, fillings, root fillings, X-Rays, and all other clinical time. However you are liable for the materials and making costs of crowns etc. Also any dental treatment needed in an emergency anywhere in the UK or overseas. There is an excess payable of £15 if the treatment is outside of normal surgery hours.

Any dental treatment required after an accident or trauma up to £10,000. No excess payable.

Additional cover for oral cancer and a cash benefit of £30 per night inpatient hospital admission for dental treatment.

 

As I've had quite few problems dealt with over the years including a couple of root canals  I'm quite happy with the cost.  He retired a couple of years ago but the young chap who has taken over the practice is, in my opinion, an even better dentist.

 

 

.....And GDB supplements his muddling tokens with his very reasonable Denplan sales commission.....

[Gwiwer]

10 hours ago, TheQ said:

Band 1 £ 22.70,  that's inspection,  clean and if required X-ray. 

Band 2 £ 62.10 , filling,  removal , root canal, 

Band 3 £ 269.30, crowns, dentures , bridges and anything more complicated. 

That would be NHS rates. Trying to get NHS dentistry in many places, even for those entitled to fee-free. There is more chance anywhere within cooee of here of getting rocking-horse poo for the roses. 
 

Private can charge what they think their market will bear, it seems, while BUPA fall in between. I had two crowns done at the nearest BUPA costing me just over £700 the pair. They wanted another £800 for a root canal job which I have yet to go ahead with. 
 

7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

This came up on Facebook, can't help thinking that one squirrel has got it wrong somehow.

Oh I dunno. Looks like fun if you’re into all that!  
 

Radio London

Radio London, Radio Caroline and others in their numerous iterations were the stuff of my mis-spent younger days. Names (including but not limited to Tony Blackburn) which had become familiar quite literally on the air waves duly appeared on BBC Radio 1 but with content sanitised by “Auntie”. The job was done however. The music younger people listened to was finally being broadcast nationwide, legally and to anyone who could tune in.   
 

I listened in as Radio 2 shed the 247m transmission and Radio 1 opened. At 7am. The etheral Theme One recorded specially by Van der Graaf Generator (very radical for the Beeb) gave way to the familiar Tony Bkackburn theme which still included a “woof-woof” soundbite from a dog he named Arnold. 
 

The Move kicked the new station off with Flowers In The Rain and a new era began. 
 

In other news SWMBO has just been to the tooth-wrangler (private) and has parted with £550 for two fillings, one quite large, a scrape and polish, quite a lot of anaesthetic (gel and injections) and a small amount of discomfort. 
 

I have taken advantage of moist conditions to weed and tidy the gardens and am now enjoying beer o’clock admiring my efforts

 

 

[simontaylor484]

Stationmaster

 

The assault rifles will probably have a better cyclic rate than the original SA80 aka the civil servant ( dosnt work/cant be fired) although the Susat sight was good unless dropped due to leaking of radioactive gasses. The initial bullpup rifle programme was flawed. I qualified as a coach on the SA80 when i was in the cadets and vividly remember bits dropping off the rifles. 

I saw The Key a few weeks ago and remember the scene well with Rood Ashton hall with the British Railways painted out on the tender. 

Could you please advise me as to what station iy was 

[The Stationmaster]

5 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Stationmaster

 

The assault rifles will probably have a better cyclic rate than the original SA80 aka the civil servant ( dosnt work/cant be fired) although the Susat sight was good unless dropped due to leaking of radioactive gasses. The initial bullpup rifle programme was flawed. I qualified as a coach on the SA80 when i was in the cadets and vividly remember bits dropping off the rifles. 

I saw The Key a few weeks ago and remember the scene well with Rood Ashton hall with the British Railways painted out on the tender. 

Could you please advise me as to what station iy was 

Henley in one scene but there might be somewhere else in another scene.

 

SA80s in the Cadets - wow!!   Showing my age we were due to get SLRs but instead they were all shipped off to India or Pakistan when they started one of their regular little punch-ups (probably over Bengal?) so we carried on with our real rifles - the Rifle No.4 and of course there was still plenty of -303 ammunition available for the rate at which we used (two range days a year for live ammo to shoot the Empire Test plus seniors were allowed 20 rounds with a Bren on each range day - although filling your own mag seemed to come with counting problems  ).    Biggest problem was that we had to use the SLR arms drill with the Rifle No.4 -  rather uncomfortable on the fingers.

 

.303 ammo was however getting short by 1966 and Bramley were down to their last 1 million rounds all of which were lined up for Bisley that year,   However we found on a visit there that a problem had emerged because rounds had become contaminated, possibly due to the dye in the bandoliers, causing the cartridge cases to develop damaging contamination.  We visited a hut where the rounds were being checked - all 1 million of them - with the bandoliers being taken out and every round taken out of the charger to be checked.  if they could be cleaned they were and then put back into a new, clean, charger and a new bandolier to go back into store for Bisley while any rounds that were too badly corroded were being put aside to be blown up somewhere on the Bramley site.  Four blokes working hard and they had about three weeks to get through the outstanding unchecked rounds - a lot of outstanding unchecked rounds.  

 

We missed the good bit - blowing up of the discarded ones - but had the satisfaction of watching a couple of the demonstration explosions as the  highlight  of our day.  I understand the explosives demonstrations at Shrivenham in the 1990s were far more interesting but alas I missed out on the chance of going on the security course (for particular civilians) they ran there as my final big railway employer had stopped sending people on that a couple of years before I arrived with them.

[simontaylor484]

Back to the dentists theme i haven't been for a few years. My dentist who i had no problem with decided to fill a tooth when iy shoild have really come out. I was left in agony never known pain like it had to go to emergency dentist and it was pulled.  I lost all confidence in them i changed practice. The nurse there decided to stick herself with the  needle used on me. The practice were really funny with me made me feel like a criminal almost (the injury happened between me leaving the chair and paying) i know they also have a duty of care to their staff.

They asked me in front of full waiting room if i had any blood borne viruses so i never went back

[TheQ]

Afternoon awl, 

Soon after I finished typing this morning,  Thor moved off heading for his spiritual home. It then rained gently for 2.5 hours. The rain meant no work on the MhRC,  so into the boat tent I went. 

 

The temperature has dropped 2 degrees in here,  it will no doubt drop further.  It was somewhat who-mid in the marquee. 

 

I drilled the holes for the cross bars,  then cut the Stainless Steel tube to fit,  including the vertical post for the front.

  The outside of the  cockpit combing was ground reasonably smooth,  then filled. 

The hull sides were sanded, then cleaned of dust,  then painted. 

That lot took 6 hours. 

 

Long discussions have been had,  it's now been decided this, the current living room, will become the library. This will create more temporary storage in here,  while we play musical chairs with the rest of the stuff.  It makes no difference whether  this or the other room becomes the library as they are mirror images of each other.

So thoughts on construction methods and materials for shelving , have been wandering around the brain

 

The SA 80 was brought to RAF Neatishead for the WAAFs to try,  I've never seen one for real, I used the SLR only.  30 shots a year was all you got in the real RAF. 

Edited August 14, 2020 by TheQ

[JohnDMJ]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

This came up on Facebook, can't help thinking that one squirrel has got it wrong somehow.

 

I suspect that one of them (can't think which one!) may be showing, but not wearing, his true colours!

[petethemole]

We had some rain yesterday afternoon, accompanied by thunder but not from close by. However the rain was torrential, and it coincided with my attempt to make it to the shops 'before it started'.  I got thoroughly drenched in 10 minutes at the bus stop and gave up before the bus arrived.  By that time part of the route home, which is at a lower level than the road, was 3" deep in dirty water.  I got home, changed and dried off and had a hot soup.  I planned to go back out if the rain stopped, which it did, and stayed stopped.  By then I was too p***ed off to bother.  Yesterday's shoes are still sodden. 

 

The son of a former colleague was a senior NCO in 2 Para and had also served 'elswhere'.  He tested some of the first SA80s on ranges in Wales.  Apart from bits dropping off, and the fact that you couldn't drop one out of an aircraft and expect it to work, his main complaint was that it was too low-powered; when you shot a sheep with one, it wouldn't fall over.  Accuracy wasn't an issue IIRC.  I shot  a short .22  version on a miniature range and got a very tight group.

 

Time to put the tea/dinner on.

[New Haven Neil]

Evening.  Small, incremental but steady improvement in Grace, all the good wishes are working folks - thanks.

 

As for crime well I'm a bit of a Father Brown fan myself, for the gentle humour, and Vera because of its locations, and I loved Inspector Morose and Lewis.  All that posh tottie perhaps.  Kevin Whatley was a disappointment in person though, when I met him briefly - arrogant man. Not keen on the dark Scandi stuff, but Mrs NHN reads it all, she has heaps of them.

 

Scorchio here again to day, we're going to pay for this.

[New Haven Neil]

Oh, and.....I am now mostly....officially retired!  After the stress of the last 7 months trying to keep the business going, I'm ready for it.

[Andrew P]

4 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Oh, and.....I am now mostly....officially retired!  After the stress of the last 7 months trying to keep the business going, I'm ready for it.

ENJOY, The Housework list starts on Monday, haha.

[J. S. Bach]

16 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Might I ask what the SSN is? It's probably something really obvious.

It might actually be an SSBN.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I don't watch a great deal of TV nowadays so I cannot comment on the Scandinavian or Italian detective shows. Back in the day I used to watch Inspector Morse and New Tricks which was about the last ones I made a point of watching. Nowadays I prefer a different form of detective work in such programs as A House Through Time. This afternoons rain cooled things down a bit but now its getting close and muggy again, according to the weathermen we might have a thunderstorm and then we might not. There is tea to be drunk, be back later.

[simontaylor484]

I don't mind touch of frost on tv as a lot of it was filmed locally e.g. ferrybridge power station, the old Pontefract hospital, pontefract town centre although the books were set in the Thames Valley. 

 Dalziel and Pascoe was another good one (although it reminds me of the steelworks  near motherwell) set in Yorkshire but filmed in Brummingham

[Tony_S]

5 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

One review said all they do is eat and discuss the crime.

However the lead character Salvo Montalbano will not talk while eating, sometimes to the annoyance of his colleagues. 

[New Haven Neil]

Ah I forgot 'No Offence', which had a couple of elements that rang very true of the black humour within the job on occasion.  While I wasn't a police officer, I worked closely with them as the office manager of our version of a young offenders team, and my boss was a DI.

 

Edit:  Before I retired the first time!

Edited August 14, 2020 by New Haven Neil

[AndyB]

12 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

As far as I know it's the US navy abbreviation for a Nuclear attack submarine.  SSBN is a ballistic missile sub. The Letters are usually folliwed by a number.  

 

Jamie

 

Not just the US Navy but our's too as its a generic term. 

SSBN: Ship, Submersible,  Balistic, Nuclear. 

SSN: Ship, Submersible, Nuclear.

I can't remember what the acronym was for non-nuclear boats, i.e. diesel powered boats like the RN P&O classes. 

[Barry O]

strange that the word "ship" is used.. in Barrow they were "Boats" not ships...no clue why

 

Baz

[Coombe Barton]

2 minutes ago, Barry O said:

strange that the word "ship" is used.. in Barrow they were "Boats" not ships...no clue why

 

Baz

According to my late FIL "A ship can carry a boat, but a boat cannot carry a ship."

[polybear]

56 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Kevin Whatley was a disappointment in person though, when I met him briefly - arrogant man.

 

Best Bear wishes for Baby Grace.

I met KW's sidekick, Jimmy Nail on a flight to Edinburgh in late '85/early '86.  Dead nice guy; Auf Weidersehen Pet was big at the time.  Last seen standing outside the airport, waiting for the bus.....

 

21 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

It might actually be an SSBN.

 

Yes - "Ship, Submersible, Ballistic, Nuclear".

 

17 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

I don't mind touch of frost on tv as a lot of it was filmed locally e.g. ferrybridge power station, the old Pontefract hospital, pontefract town centre although the books were set in the Thames Valley. 

 Dalziel and Pascoe was another good one (although it reminds me of the steelworks  near motherwell) set in Yorkshire but filmed in Brummingham

 

Pretty good, though I'm more of an "Inspector George Gently" kinda Bear myself.  Judge John Deed was pretty good too - we could do with a few like that in real life.

 

In other news:

Bloke over the road came across to apologise for his house alarm going off all night (I never heard it) - he called an out-of-hours alarm engineer at 1 in the morning.  Ninety quid call out fee.  He disconnected one wire, probably the mains supply and then said that neighbour would now have to wait for the battery to run down (total bo11ox).  For this he then charged another hour's labour (out of hours rate) - three hundred quid.  I'd ve done it properly, for half the price .  Muppet.