Early Risers.

[The Lurker]

5 hours ago, BoD said:

Thinking of Mal the other day put me in mind of this. Another glass to be raised tonight.

 

6 years! Don was one of the reasons I started reading ERs, along with Olddudders and a few others. Just the way he posted...

 

I have a glass that I shall raise to him and to Mal; it’s been and still is a busy time so I have missed the day itself. Still , Mrs Lurker is out of self isolation and mightily relieved (as are the walls she was climbing), although another two year bubbles were turned away today; the school’s attempt to keep virus levels in the boring borough from going berserk.

 

take care all, the Islay needs finishing 

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

The weather has been rather meh today, dull and cold, but dry at first, although as I mentioned this morning, there was evidence of overnight rain about. On my way back from the butchers this morning, it started to rain, luckily it wasn’t heavy and I was wearing my coat and hat. I was also successful in obtaining a pastie, the first time in a couple of weeks! However, the alternatives that I’ve had to make have rather nice!

 

Good evening everyone

 

This morning I forgot to mention that I was going round to Vickie’s to drop off birthday presents for Ava, (which is on Monday) Evie and Max (both a week on Tuesday). I went round whilst they were all at school, so that Vickie could hide them from the kids. I dropped placed them all on her door step, then sent her a text once I was back in the car, so she could take them in.

 

When I was single, I loved shift working, particularly afternoons and nights and to some extent early’s. They worked well enough when we were first married, although Sheila never liked afternoons as it meant I saw a lot of the children when they were young. But once the children started school, as I saw a lot less of them. So I switched jobs to one where I only worked Monday to Friday days.

 

On the subject of bomb threats/scares, the company I used to work for had several very high profile security sites, one in particular in the Lake District, had electric fencing and was linked to the police armed response squad. Several former work mates have had to answer questions to armed police when attempting to lock or unlock the site and have been a bit too slow to deactivate the alarm or contact grid control to inform them your entering the site!

On one occasion, the police and army organised a security test, which involved a small army team attempting to gain access to the site and pretend to ‘blow up’ the one of the control rooms. A date was set for the exercise to take place overnight, the evening came and went and nothing happened, no site alarms, no fence trips or building alarm activations were detected. The following day the police contacted the army and asked why they hadn’t tried to get on the site and what went wrong. The army replied, nothing went wrong, it went exactly to plan and the bomb’s in a small bag beside the door of control room 3. Sure enough, when a site check was made, there was indeed a bag outside the door of control 3! there were a few red faces after that I can tell you. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[petethemole]

That reminds me of a story from my late Dad, who was with the British Military Liaison Mission to South Africa in WW2.  As there was a lot of anti-British activity they were concerned about the security of General Smuts' HQ.  The General was confident his security was adequate, so one night Dad and another guy broke into the HQ udetected, opened the safe in Smuts' private office, planted a 'bomb' and escaped.  Following a phone call the next morning Smuts agreed to take advice on improved security.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

It looks as though the NHS is preparing for my CT scan already.  Yesterday I received a letter telling me all about the process.  It is most informative and I rather wish that I had been sent one when I had a scan five years ago to determine the extent of my cancer.  With it came a leaflet about low residue diets, telling me to avoid high fibre foods among other things.  This would have been so, so helpful prior to the colonoscopies that went wrong.  “Please avoid any red or purple foods or drinks” it says.  Oh well, that’s Ribena off the menu for a while.  More of a shock is the prohibition of porridge.  It does recommend crumpet.  Say no more.

 

I have been reading in bed.  It can be most effective at sending me off to sleep and I hope that the authors of what I have been reading lately are not offended.  Some nights I catch up with the comics – sorry, magazines – to which I subscribe.  On others I choose a book, whether to check a fact or several related to m*d*ll*ng or purely for pleasure.  In the latter category I have just finished “Give Me Ten Seconds”, the entertaining autobiography of John Sergeant, former chief political correspondent of the BBC.  I remember buying it in 2002 when I was working in Cambridge and being most irked to learn that the man himself had been signing copies in the shop where I bought it the previous day.  It could be interesting to learn what if anything others read in bed.  Hint, hint.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[Erichill16]

ER on RMWeb!

 

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

5.50 hours plus 1 hour not too bad a night's sleep.

 

Dry overcast and quite breezy out there, and considerably warmer than yesterday morning. As I found out when summoned by Ben the hunting Collie.

There was definitely something out there he was following the trail of, and at one point he was going round the car looking under it.

 

I always have a book to read before sleep..I've just read another on the Roman empire, which in respect of leaders, has remarkable parallels in places, to the orange one..

This was followed last night by a book on olive green kettles from a headquarters on Academy street in Inverness..

 

As for site security my 12 years in the RAF, we patrolled secure sites with a pick axe handle and a torch.. and most of the time without the pick axe handle..

Getting arms out would have taken some time. Obtaining authorisation to get the keys, getting  the key to the key cupboard and signing for it, going to the key cupboard getting the keys to the armoury and signing for them.

Going to the armoury opening up, signing again of course, unlocking the weapon racks, the ammunition cupboards , sorting and issuing weapons everyone signing for everything of course...

Other than thirty rounds a year at the range, we were never actually issued with weapons except for parades..

 

Plans for today, first demolish the last sheet of osb into smaller panels for the ceiling, .

Then it's insulation time,  so facemasks, gloves, hat, overalls etc, the rolls of fibreglass  are 4ft wide, so will have to be unrolled outside and cut into sections... Then retreat inside before the expected rain.

 

Time I think to consider food, and a muggacoffee..

[jamie92208]

14 hours ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

Trying to gargle with TCP for a sore throat . . . . . . 

.

Or gargling with crushed aspirin, having to swirl the glass before each sip.

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

Ey up!

To assuage @chrisf hunger for info..

 

At the moment I have just finished re-reading Thud! By Terry Pratchett. The latest HMRS Journal is now ready for reading on my bedside cabinet...

 

Good morning ERs! Yes @Erichill16 not as many ERs appear early (uk time) every day. A few lurk..talking of which..

 

I hope @Natalie and @Kelly are ok. We haven't heard from them for a while.

 

others are also missing.. not just from ERs but from RMWeb... @Kingzance and @trisonic being two examples.. just hope they are ok.

 

blowing a hoolie here at the moment. Not sure what I have on my slop chit today but her indoors has delivered my mugatea so ..TTFN!

stay safe, carpe diem!

baz

Edited November 21, 2020 by Barry O

[Barry O]

My adverts on here at the moment are for printers and a "life-changing chicken" gift card...

 

Baz

[jamie92208]

8 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Evening All,

Another day and another walk with Syd and Mil. Can life get any more exciting?

At least it’s the weekend and footballs back. MY team are playing Notts Forrest, always a grudge match, miners strike, scabs and the like. Mum doesn’t like the atmosphere so probably glad she can’t go. Me, I like it!

Goodnight

Robert

By shots that almost sounds up to date, they were still fighting Spencerism (think 1926) when I worked in South Kirkby.  

 

Morning all. We have ground frost herebut it's sunny and the log burner is going well.  The Ash that we are burning at the moment is lovely, one log an hour.  

 

As to bedtime reading, I've just finished An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris, an excellent  novel based round the Dreyfus affair. However I often have various comics as Chrus would call them.  In planning the new bathroom I have a very serious design issue. The task is to make some sort of shelf near the throne, for reading matter. This is a serious project. Does it need to be paperback sized, or to take a magazine.  

 

Anyway Beth seems to be adapting well to the CPAP machine.  I managed to repkenish stocksvof essential red liquids yesterday and at the monent there are no firm plans for today apart from our usual video call to the girls.

 

Jamie

[polybear]

9 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I made a bag up for exactly that purpose and fitted it with a shotgun blank cartridge firing device.

 

You would not be surprised to know that when it went off, most people immediately dropped the bag started running.

 

Try that today and you'll probably end up with a stream of claims for PTSD.....

 

8 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

An explosion of flavours ?

 

 

Groan....

 

7 hours ago, BSW01 said:

When I was single, I loved shift working, particularly afternoons and nights and to some extent early’s. They worked well enough when we were first married, although Sheila never liked afternoons as it meant I saw a lot of the children when they were young. But once the children started school, as I saw a lot less of them. So I switched jobs to one where I only worked Monday to Friday days.

 

On one occasion, the police and army organised a security test, which involved a small army team attempting to gain access to the site and pretend to ‘blow up’ the one of the control rooms. A date was set for the exercise to take place overnight, the evening came and went and nothing happened, no site alarms, no fence trips or building alarm activations were detected. The following day the police contacted the army and asked why they hadn’t tried to get on the site and what went wrong. The army replied, nothing went wrong, it went exactly to plan and the bomb’s in a small bag beside the door of control room 3. Sure enough, when a site check was made, there was indeed a bag outside the door of control 3! there were a few red faces after that I can tell you. 

 

I would've thought that seeing a lot of the children when they were young would be classed as a good thing?  Confused.....

 

I worked with a couple of guys that used to do a lot of work at RAF Boulmer, which uses Radar to monitor all aircraft in and around UK airspace - including Ruskie Bears (not of the fluffy variety) trying to sneak in.

They told of a story whereby a (UK Special Forces?) guy sneaked in one night and spent time placing small packages marked "bomb" in various strategic locations around the site without being detected.  In the morning he presented himself at the guardhouse and asked to see the C.O., who he then told what he'd managed to do, after which he spent all night (on the roof of a building?) asleep.  A somewhat embarrassed C.O. was quiet for a moment, but then asked which building he'd been on.

It was one with a radar dish on top....which had been on all night....

The C.O. advised the individual to go see the M.O. as a matter of priority.

 

22 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Ey up!

To assuage @chrisf hunger for info..

 

At the moment I havevhust fij8shed re-reading Thud! By Terry Pratchett. The latestcHMRS Journal is now ready for reading on my bedside cabinet...

 

 

I ask Alexa to read me BBC News, often using the "Alexa, tell me more" option to stretch it out a bit.  If that doesn't send me to sleep then it's "Alexa, read me "A Bear called Paddington" which does the trick - which is absolutely no criticism of the book you understand (it's a literary great in my eyes), but more my ability to snooze.  Works a treat.

 

In other news:

How do you get ER'ers names to highlight in little boxes in posts?  I've yet to discover that trick?

 

All the talk about bomb scares made me think of this man, who was from Cornwall - there was a TV programme about him several years ago and certainly brings a tear (or several) to the eye:

https://americamatters.com/rick-rescorla-saved-2687-lives-on-september-11/

From memory he was trouble by the memory of the guys he commanded in Vietnam that never came back, so when the Twin Towers happened he had to keep going back in to find those missing from the headcount.

Nearly 2700 Morgan Stanley employees owe their life to him, with all but eleven not escaping.  First Class honours due.

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

7 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Try that today and you'll probably end up with a stream of claims for PTSD.....

 

Probably less than their cleaning bill for soiled undergarments!

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

 

Getting arms out would have taken some time. Obtaining authorisation to get the keys, getting  the key to the key cupboard and signing for it, going to the key cupboard getting the keys to the armoury and signing for them.

Going to the armoury opening up, signing again of course, unlocking the weapon racks, the ammunition cupboards , sorting and issuing weapons everyone signing for everything of course...

Other than thirty rounds a year at the range, we were never actually issued with weapons except for parades.

And the  pile of paperwork afterwards if you came back with less ammunition than you went out with!

 

What you describe about doing the absolute minimum does nothing to help the individual become skilled with their personal weapon.  They are not used to it and, for want of a better word for it, scared by it's presence.  

 

I can't remember when it finally became policy to start arming sentries on a regular basis, but it was probably in the 1980's.

 

On a more light hearted note I used to drive for the Paymaster on the weekly bank run when I was based at Ashford, Kent.

 

 After a dispute with the local police about the sentries carrying pick axe handles in the high street, we agreed this looked too aggressive, so the two guys going into the bank started to carry a  Browning Hi Power instead.  As the designated driver I got the luxury of a Sterling.

 

Plod was a bit cross and came over to the car to admonish the Paymaster. But left rather quickly after seeing my offering peeping up at him.

 

A week later and we were back to the pick axes!

 

 

 

 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Milder today so no frost but it is breezy.  It should be mainly dry with the chance of the odd shower.

Didn't get around to finishing off the decorations so that may get done today.  May. Possibly. 

Re supermarket subs,  Sainsbury's are pretty good on the whole although we've had the odd strange thing.  They also give a refund voucher for the difference if the price for the sub is greater.  You can also specify on individual items whether to allow or disallow subs which is quite handy if you are particular about certain things. We are so there are about a dozen things we won't have subs for.

Bit of a calamity last night in that I missed the fact that the first game of the new Rugby Premiership season was being televised and my two favourite teams were playing.   Never mind, there are internationals on today which won't be missed.

Next up today is a walk to obtain some magazines for Her Highness,

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 21, 2020 by grandadbob

[TheQ]

50 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Try that today and you'll probably end up with a stream of claims for PTSD.....

 

 

Groan....

 

 

I would've thought that seeing a lot of the children when they were young would be classed as a good thing?  Confused.....

 

I worked with a couple of guys that used to do a lot of work at RAF Boulmer, which uses Radar to monitor all aircraft in and around UK airspace - including Ruskie Bears (not of the fluffy variety) trying to sneak in.

They told of a story whereby a (UK Special Forces?) guy sneaked in one night and spent time placing small packages marked "bomb" in various strategic locations around the site without being detected.  In the morning he presented himself at the guardhouse and asked to see the C.O., who he then told what he'd managed to do, after which he spent all night (on the roof of a building?) asleep.  A somewhat embarrassed C.O. was quiet for a moment, but then asked which building he'd been on.

It was one with a radar dish on top....which had been on all night....

The C.O. advised the individual to go see the M.O. as a matter of priority.

 

 

RAF Boulmer radar site, yes back then, one man wandering around every 3 hours with a torch, you get a coach and horses onto the site and no one would notice.  We never had the man power to guard the place properly. You wouldn't need special forces, just someone with wire cutters  or a couple of ladders.

 

Boulmer had, when I wandered around with a torch between working on the equipment.

1 type 85 radar max power 60 mega watts, the R12 building with the radar actually on it, he would need a ladder or two to get on that roof, if he was up there all night he'd be seriously radiated. No one, but no one was allowed up there, even on low power at 10 mega watts..

 

1 type 84 Radar 5 Mega watts, there's steps up to the third level but you could step off on to the single story building and shelter behind  air ducts. The furthest from people wandering around. The man would go in the building on patrol to check the equipment, but certainly not on the roof past the radiation warning signs. As it is lying on that roof being shelter by the air ducts he'd have no problem from radiation.

 

2 HF 200 radars that's nodding height finders  2.5 Mega watts each, tall steel buildings, not a place to try to get a kip on.

Edited November 21, 2020 by TheQ

[TheQ]

26 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

And the  pile of paperwork afterwards if you came back with less ammunition than you went out with!

 

What you describe about doing the absolute minimum does nothing to help the individual become skilled with their personal weapon.  They are not used to it and, for want of a better word for it, scared by it's presence.  

 

I can't remember when it finally became policy to start arming sentries on a regular basis, but it was probably in the 1980's.

 

 

 

 

I left in 88, and on radar stations we weren't armed by then, but following that I visited airfields and it certainly wasn't long before I saw SLRs being carried,  replaced by SA80s soon after..

Edited November 21, 2020 by TheQ

[Winslow Boy]

To be honest we did have a degree of sympathy for the guy whose fault it was as we were at the very back of the building so furthest away of where the 'bomb' was, plus we weren't really part of that division so had very little to do with the rest of the building. 

 

It does though highlight though just how lax people become with security particularly if they don't see it as part of there responsibility. I can recall on several occasions being able to gain access to some 'secure' sites by being able to flash a pass and give a good reason for being there where I could, certainly on one occasion made quite a difference to our royal family.

[jamie92208]

9 minutes ago, TheQ said:

I left in 88, and on radar stations we weren't armed by then, but following that I visited airfields and it certainly wasn't long before I saw SLRs being carried,  replaced by SA80s soon after..

When No 2 son was a Coldstreamer in 2005/6 he used to enjoy working the Tower detail. At 10pm they changed out of their dress uniform into 95'(IIRC) then patrolled the boundaries with Bayonets fixed on their SA80's. Apparently  the end of a bayonet was very good at persuading drunks out of the ditch by the traitors gate.

 

Jamie

[Joseph_Pestell]

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

Mooring Awl,

5.50 hours plus 1 hour not too bad a night's sleep.

 

Dry overcast and quite breezy out there, and considerably warmer than yesterday morning. As I found out when summoned by Ben the hunting Collie.

There was definitely something out there he was following the trail of, and at one point he was going round the car looking under it.

 

I always have a book to read before sleep..I've just read another on the Roman empire, which in respect of leaders, has remarkable parallels in places, to the orange one..

This was followed last night by a book on olive green kettles from a headquarters on Academy street in Inverness..

 

As for site security my 12 years in the RAF, we patrolled secure sites with a pick axe handle and a torch.. and most of the time without the pick axe handle..

Getting arms out would have taken some time. Obtaining authorisation to get the keys, getting  the key to the key cupboard and signing for it, going to the key cupboard getting the keys to the armoury and signing for them.

Going to the armoury opening up, signing again of course, unlocking the weapon racks, the ammunition cupboards , sorting and issuing weapons everyone signing for everything of course...

Other than thirty rounds a year at the range, we were never actually issued with weapons except for parades..

 

Plans for today, first demolish the last sheet of osb into smaller panels for the ceiling, .

Then it's insulation time,  so facemasks, gloves, hat, overalls etc, the rolls of fibreglass  are 4ft wide, so will have to be unrolled outside and cut into sections... Then retreat inside before the expected rain.

 

Time I think to consider food, and a muggacoffee..

 

These "security" arrangements sound like a script for Yes, Prime Minister or Dads' Army.

[Barry O]

When I first joined Royal Ordnance at Barnbow in 1989 modplod carried guns..much to  the annoyance of the local constabulary...

 

Scared me rigid ..especially if you turned up before 6am to collect a pool car, having an SA80 or similar pointed at you for no good reason was not good...

 

At least they didn't go off on their own.. not like the Heckler and Koch ones used later by West Yorkshire Police...

 

Baz

[Andrew P]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

My adverts on here at the moment are for printers and a "life-changing chicken" gift card...

 

Baz

Lucky you, mine are for Ladies under garments and frocks.

 

Off to READ the adverts now.

[Dave Hunt]

When I joined the RAF in 1966 it seemed that the only duty for a gate guard on a base in the UK (should there actually be one) was to direct visitors to SHQ or wherever else they wanted to go. Even in Singapore when I was posted there in 1968 the security was less than the average Boy Scout could have dealt with but after the riots of 1969 things were tightened up a bit. In Germany in the early 1970s things were very different and base security was taken very seriously but back in UK there were still situations such as at Coningsby where the main gate was guarded  but a few hundred yards up the road the side entrance to the Mess was wide open and offered access to the whole place. Then came the IRA and things began to change but as Q, HH and others have described it took quite a while before we reached the state of security that exists today. Regarding the carrying of personal weapons, back in the early 1960s aircrew used to be issued with Smith & Wesson .38s carried in shoulder holsters under the lifejackets, which was bulky and quite uncomfortable, then someone pointed out that during an ejection the inertia of the gun would probably tear it off and do considerable damage to the person (whether this was ever proved or disproved I don't know). After a while we were issued with Browning 9mm automatics but the only time we ever got to fire them was during annual Ground Defence Training when it usually became apparent that the safest place to be if faced by a pilot with a gun was directly in front. Much later we got some sort of little pop guns - possibly Berettas but I can't be sure - but by then the whole idea of aircrew carrying personal weapons had begun to seem faintly ridiculous and I didn't take much notice of them. I was much more at home with Aden cannons, 20mm Gatling guns and various types of missile. The best fun I ever had firing land based weapons was the 120mm job in a Chieftain tank - quite an experience.

 

Enjoy Saturday everyone.

 

Dave