Early Risers.

[brianusa]

20 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

 But the town and its character have changed very much - as happens everywhere - and that s why you can't go back to the place you left, it has changed as well as you

 

An interesting conversation especially if you hail from the SW but TSM says it all.  I and my contemporaries knew Plymouth as a fairly nice, vibrant place, especially having been rebuilt after WW2 and the blitz.  It has subsequently been disparaged not without reason as my last visits presented a far different city.  Similar, but with so many later additions and wear and tear, that really did little to enhance the old place.  Time and distance obviously plays an important role and as others have noted, other areas of the city have been like affected as it would be impossible to have a fifties city in the 21st century without a lot of changes.  So perhaps we are not the best judges; after all we don't live there any more!

      Brian.

[Coombe Barton]

... and a smiley Cyclops ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/09/26/flu-jab-day/

[TheQ]

7 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

I have a not so little list, but required some sort of freedom of movement - could bring the caravan across and spend a few days when we're allowed to do so.

If I:m still active by then.

Colby, of course, because of the name.

 

When house hunting I looked at a very nice house in Colby,  didn't buy it because the primary school was the other side of the fence, which would have sent the dogs crackers at play time.. 

I'm assuming st Giles, Colby,  which is out on its own as the village is very decentralized today. 

 

Colby is administered by Colby and Banningham council,  St Botolph's Banningham is the others side of the road from the Banningham Crown which is where my club, Broadland MRC holds it's Christmas dinner. We've had good meals there I can recommend it. 

 

We're back... You didn't notice we were gone did you,  7 hours of no power, the main meal was a couple of sandwiches of  tinned ham,  with tomato,  and a cold drink.. 

 

Of ancestry, providing no one has been naughty en route,  then my direct male line is of Viking ancestry via Normandy,  so not a slave of the Roman Empire . Though we may have enslaved a few,  raided a few Saxon churches, killed a few  French,  Saxons , Welsh,  Picts,  Scots,  and all while not wearing Hollywood horned helmets.. We were nice misunderstood people really.. 

Edited September 26, 2020 by TheQ

[TheQ]

Power off

Power Back on.. 

[Tony_S]

14 minutes ago, TheQ said:

We were nice misunderstood people really.

That does seem to be the general theme expressed in Viking museums in Scandinavia. 

[Coombe Barton]

There's also a place called Colby in the Isle of Man and also a village in the Lake District, but I'm fairly sure my family, many, many moons ago, are from Norfolk.

[simontaylor484]

13 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

That does seem to be the general theme expressed in Viking museums in Scandinavia. 

Also Jorvik in York well worth a visit in more normal times. Shows them as mainly traders not raping and pillaging as popular conception 

[Tony_S]

6 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Also Jorvik in York well worth a visit in more normal times. Shows them as mainly traders not raping and pillaging as popular conception 

We checked into a hotel near Copenhagen and we were surprised that they knew about our town. “Yes, we know all about Benfleet.” Last Danish raid (9th century) into Essex. Didn’t go well for the Danes. 

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[Barry O]

Goodnight to most, evening to some and morning to others across the world.

 

Baz

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. When doing my family tree I looked up some of the more unusual surnames and thats how I found the French/Flemish ancestry. The surname was Jiggins (in various spellings) and apparently the name is derived from the French for a hearty fellow. It was almost exclusively an Essex surname dating back to the early 18th century when there was a mass migration of weavers from what is now southern Belgium/northern France.

[The Lurker]

16 hours ago, pH said:

It’s amazing how much you can learn about dinosaurs from your 3 year old grandson!

When Elder Lurker was that age his knowledge of dinosaurs was amazing. Within 2 weeks of being given dinosaur top trumps, he knew them all, the era they cane from and whether they were herbivore, carnivore or omnivore. That was long before he could read. I loved it because I loved dinosaurs when I was around 5 or 6 and am still fascinated by them. Mrs Lurker was less keen and MiL felt humiliated to have her pronunciation corrected! Best of all was Mrs Lurker getting very embarrassed as they walked up the High Street and he asked her “what’s that one, Pachy...Pachy...why do I have to shush?” (Pachycephalosaurus, or pachyrhinosaurus if you wondered!)

[The Lurker]

16 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. When doing my family tree I looked up some of the more unusual surnames and thats how I found the French/Flemish ancestry. The surname was Jiggins (in various spellings) and apparently the name is derived from the French for a hearty fellow. It was almost exclusively an Essex surname dating back to the early 18th century when there was a mass migration of weavers from what is now southern Belgium/northern France.

When I was at school, there was a boy in an older year with surname Gubbins and another with the surname Jobbins. No idea where those came from; perhaps they are Kentish. I have certainly not come across them elsewhere 

[PhilJ W]

25 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

When I was at school, there was a boy in an older year with surname Gubbins and another with the surname Jobbins. No idea where those came from; perhaps they are Kentish. I have certainly not come across them elsewhere 

Possibly from the same root. Jiggins could and was spelt Jiggens* or Giggins. *On one census both spellings were used on one street and the heads of family were brothers!

[J. S. Bach]

5 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

And I had thought there was only one railway with Q in its initials!

There is also the CB&Q: Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; "Burlington Route" proudly emblazoned on its cars. Now part of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF). My July 2009 OER* also lists seven other reporting mars that have "Q" as their first letter.

 

 

*Official Railway Equipment Register; published monthly for over 125 years.

Edited September 26, 2020 by J. S. Bach

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well it never really warmed up, but I resisted switching on the heater, instead I closed the workshop door! It was sunny for most of the day, but went very dull after dinner and I half expected it to rain, but non fell. However, as has been noted by others on here, it has been very windy (outside) for most of the day, it finally subsided around tea time. 

 

Well I've managed to  finish the platform and the support frame of the turntable vacuum motor, all that’s left to do is make the operating motor casing, the handrails, the roof and the stand pipe etc. I’m hoping to get most of that done tomorrow. 

 

Ancestry, my surname has links to Ireland and a recent DNA test that my half sister (in Canada) had done confirmed that there is an Irish link from our father. I only need to go back 3 generations on my mothers side to get a Portuguese connection. There is I think a Norse connection somewhere, as I believe the condition ‘dupytrens contracture’ I suffer from is also none as ‘Viking claw’. Literature I’ve read about this confirms that it is usually found almost exclusively in white, Northern European males!

 

Goodnight all

Edited September 27, 2020 by BSW01
Oops

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[J. S. Bach]

15 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

Good evening everyone 

 

Well it never really warmed up, but I resisted switching on the heater, instead I closed the workshop door! It was sunny for most of the day, but went very dull after dinner and I half expected it to rain, but non fell. However, as has been noted by others on here, it has been very windy (outside) for most of the day, it finally subsided around teat time.  ...snip...

 

Goodnight all

Hmmm!

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[iL Dottore]

7 hours ago, Tony_S said:

.... having taught teenagers for years, many who do silly things do grow up to be sensible adults.....

I’m wondering if there is a good reason, biologically, for teenagers to do stupid, self destructive, reckless and dangerous things? Especially with teenage boys.

Could it be, before the days of medical professionals and the like who could patch up the survivors, that this was a biological right of passage? Inasmuch as if you did something stupid and dangerous – such as chuck a rock at a sleeping Sabretooth Tiger - being able to survive that act of recklessness meant you were (biologically) fit enough to reproduce.

Many years ago, I read an interesting science fiction story (at least I think it was a short story found in an anthology of science fiction)  in which explorers find a population where all the adults sported a missing top finger joint. Turns out that their “rite of passage“ meant that all teenagers had to go through an endurance test which culminated in the teenager having his/her top finger joint removed.  If the teenager screamed when the joint was removed, the teenager was clubbed to death as he/she had not demonstrated that they were “human” by being able to control “the animal“ in them (i.e. not screaming because of the pain).

And what do teenagers face nowadays? Just GCSEs, sheesh, the kids nowadays have it easy!

6 hours ago, TheQ said:

...Of ancestry, providing no one has been naughty en route,  then my direct male line is of Viking ancestry via Normandy,  so not a slave of the Roman Empire . Though we may have enslaved a few,  raided a few Saxon churches, killed a few  French,  Saxons , Welsh,  Picts,  Scots,  and all while not wearing Hollywood horned helmets.. We were nice misunderstood people really.. 

Oh dear me! It seems to me, going by what is published in a number of British publications, that you are due a long sit on the social naughty step for your ancestors’ activities....
As for not being “naughty en route“, I suspect that’s wishful thinking.  Weren’t the Vikings, no matter where they ended up, responsible for a trail of redheaded b*stards (or “illegitimate children“ if you wanted to be polite) wherever they went?  It’s a historical theory which seems to be supported by the presence, all over Europe, of little pockets of redheaded people surrounded by a much larger populations with completely different features.
Which raises an intriguing question: if in the past pockets of redheaded people sprung up from wherever the Vikings touched down (in more ways than one), what will we see in the future – in terms of population differences - in those areas surrounding a large IKEA?

5 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Also Jorvik in York well worth a visit in more normal times. Shows them as mainly traders not raping and pillaging as popular conception 

Oh I don’t know, if these “traders“ were anything like today’s upmarket grocers, then “rape and pillage“ is a very good description of their activities. Have you seen what ******** are charging for a bottle of Bollinger or what ****** and ******* are charging for a tin of Beluga caviar? If that isn’t pillaging, I don’t know what is.

Finally, if I may return to the topic of CoVID-19 for a moment, I read something rather interesting the other day (whether or not it’s true, I’ll leave it up to the historians is amongst you to decide). Apparently, there was the equivalent of the “coronavirus deniers“ during the time of the bubonic plague. These individuals, who denied the presence of that terrible disease, were called by the rest of the (surviving) populace “Rat Lickers“ (an interesting bit of medical trivia I read sometime ago: apparently if you had an ancestor who caught the bubonic fly and survived – and there were a few - biologically you are apparently at less risk of catching HIV).

 

Most of today will be dedicated to recuperating from yesterday, when - in the absence of Mrs ID and the Wolfpack - I ate and drank far, far too much. Apart from a little roast pork tonight, I will be consuming black coffee and aspirin for the better part of the day.

 

Have a splendid Sunday

 

iD

[BokStein]

Morning,

 

What a way to start a Sunday!

 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

I’m wondering if there is a good reason, biologically, for teenagers to do stupid, self destructive, reckless and dangerous things? Especially with teenage boys.

Could it be, before the days of medical professionals and the like who could patch up the survivors, that this was a biological right of passage? Inasmuch as if you did something stupid and dangerous – such as chuck a rock at a sleeping Sabretooth Tiger - being able to survive that act of recklessness meant you were (biologically) fit enough to reproduce.

Many years ago, I read an interesting science fiction story (at least I think it was a short story found in an anthology of science fiction)  in which explorers find a population where all the adults sported a missing top finger joint. Turns out that their “rite of passage“ meant that all teenagers had to go through an endurance test which culminated in the teenager having his/her top finger joint removed.  If the teenager screamed when the joint was removed, the teenager was clubbed to death as he/she had not demonstrated that they were “human” by being able to control “the animal“ in them (i.e. not screaming because of the pain).

 

ISTR that there is one religion which carries out a similar practice on the and also that a Japanese order ceremonially remove the end of their little finger as a rite of passage.

[TheQ]

Mooring awl,  inner Temple Hare, 

5.5 hours sleep so far..  

Wind still howling, still gusting 45.

 

Left elbow is complaining, hands are slightly making their presence know. 

 

Already been out, Ben the desperate Collie wanted out 05:15  I just stood by the door. He disappeared down the garden,  and a while later came running back very much happier. Very dark out there. 

 

I saw a big ground level flash in the long distance, looked electrical. 

 

Of the 4 grand parents,  the one I mentioned before's wife was of Irish descent, arriving as navvys,  

On my mother's sides,  granddad's side were miners from Cheshire, there being a village of that name as well,  though there is a village of the same name in Lincolnshire. That grandmothers family were from the isle of Wight,  Ventnor area. They all lived in Ludgershall Wiltshire for many years. 

 

As for what the Vikings did,  the revisionism  seems to fly in the face of documented history.  Viking war bands roaming the country from the first raids about 793, then fighting and defeating  the fyrd until Aelfred, beat Guthrum in 878. 

Vorvik is of course mostly  after the defeat of Guthrum,  some settlers had already started arriving before Aelfred stopped the Viking take over of the whole of England  until the Forkbeard and Cnut  era 

 

Time to hit the snooze button... 

 

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

There is a forthcoming event in my diary!  Oh yes there is.  For once I have something to anticipate.  OK, I'll come clean.  It's my flu jab.  It's at 2 pm Thursday at Stalag Surgery, or possibly an ancillary gazebo alongside, for the thought of actually setting foot in the Goldington Road medical practice will be difficult for some to swallow.  Not such good news is a summons to the blood test place ASAP.  I will get that over and done with on Monday once essential tasks are completed.  What essential tasks are those then, Chris?  Why, making my weekly donation to charity, otherwise known as purchasing one lotto ticket for Wednesday and one for Saturday.  Sometimes I get a free lucky dip.  Sometines indeed I come out of the newsagents or convenience store with folding money that Camelot has let me win.  In the absence of genuine excitement this will just have to do.  It gets me out of the house.

 

Much of yesterday was spent at Virtual Scaleforum.  I have been asked to review it so working on that task is how I plan to spend today.  A hearty breakfast must come first though.  Let us hope that my ability to concentrate reappears, for of late its absence has been conspicuous and not a little distressing.

 

As I type this there is discussion on the TV about the moment when the heating is turned on after the summer.  For me, that was yesterday afternoon.  I am sure that I held out longer last year.  Now they are talking about overseas travel.  It's all right for some.

 

Best wishes to all - and that includes students incarcerated in halls of residence, flats and other accommodation thanks to that ruddy virus.

 

Chris