Early Risers.

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Looks like Mondays are turning into shopping days. Went to Meadowhall for only the second time since March with the intention of getting some seasonal gifts. We didn’t really succeed and only bought a few groceries at Mand S but I got 4 boxes of my breakfast muesli. I’ve a feeling presents willl be bought online. . 
Balanced the books for November in the afternoon/evening and did a bit of tidying up in my room. 
Almost forgot, changed a couple of damaged light switches.

Early  start tomorrow with the nephews and Sydney coming round for breakfast so l’ll bit you a goodnight,

Robert

[BokStein]

 

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

And made even more famous in Round The Horne, the sequel to Beyond our Ken (FWIW, I think that RTH is the much better and funnier programme).

I have been a long time aficionado of RTH (and had the wonderful experience of being in the audience for a RTH recording, long before I knew what a double-entendre was).

 

What is perhaps is a sad commentary about today’s society is that RTH would not be considered “appropriate” (aka “politically correct”) today and yet the sympathetic portrayal of the the two gay characters in the series, the out of work actors Julian and Sandy, did much to paint gay people in a positive light (and the actors portraying Julian and Sandy were themselves gay).  And this in a time where homosexuality was illegal and homophobia rife in society.

 

When I looked at from a certain angle, RTH was very daring and progressive indeed, but as it was not “in your face“ and aggressive, the comedy did more to influence peoples opinions than any amount of “Woke”  posturing can ever do today.

 

 

I couldn't agree more! For a while recently, RTH was being broadcast on Radio 4 Extra and made for excellent listening. When it changed to Beyond Our Ken, I heard part of one episode and switched off!

 

Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams were so bona! And as for Rambling Sid Rumpole, may one continue to furtle!

 

Unfortunately, Innuendo and Double Entendres seem to be a thing of the past, but without them, we would never have had the Carry On series of 30 films (Columbus is too pc) or the likes of Bob Monkhouse or Frankie Howerd et alia who, IIRC, never swore or stated the obvious but just made good use of these two techniques to induce a suggestion.

 

I would finish with my favourite Double Entendre, in which a girl walks into a bar and asks the barman for a double entendre. The pc insanity of the current times forbids me from delivering the punch line!

 

Somehow, puns seem to have survived, however. Consider the classic quote from Carry On Matron: "[Kenneth Williiams] Matron, I was once a weak man", [Hattie Jaques] Doctor, once a week is enough for any man!

Edited December 7, 2020 by BokStein

[brianusa]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

Wokeness and political correctness are the scourge of modern society.

I have Polish neighbours one side and Ghanians on the other everybody gets on ok the only problem we have is a lot of houses are rented so there is quite a turnover of residents in normal times. 

Whatever wokeness is?  Sadly too many rentals tend to drag down the price of ones property value if concentrated in one area and frequent ownership has a similar effect.  At least it does here!

    Brian.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

I managed a little time in the workshop after dinner, I didn’t get any wiring done, but instead I did a bit of preparation for when I have a bit more time to actually get the wiring installed, hopefully sometime over the weekend. I knocked off early as I had a fruit tea loaf, which I’d left soaking since last night to finish off. Once the flour had been added and mixed it went in the oven for a couple of hours. 

 

After tea it was time to complete the Sainsbury’s Grand Prix, it was quiet and well stocked, but there were a couple of people not wearing masks, both young men and of an ethnic group best described as the ‘at risk’ and as far as I’m concerned both candidates for the Darwin Award. 

 

Goodnight all 

[simontaylor484]

One of my favourite scenes that you would never get away with was from til death do us part and Alf goes into the shop after his wife has died.

I wont post a link on here because it could offend some 

[PhilJ W]

I may have mentioned before that they are carving up Basildon town centre. This involves one-way streets becoming two way and other access roads being closed. Someone has very conveniently posted a video of driving around the new layout here. 

 

Even more convenient for me as it starts and finishes at the end of my road. Tony has mentioned going into Basildon so I hope this is useful.

Edited December 7, 2020 by PhilJ W

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

 

[The Stationmaster]

9 hours ago, Barry O said:

Nope, I have had booster shots for a number of Vaccines over the years.. Yellow Fever anyone?  It is only recently they have stopped handing out Tetanus boosters. Some Vaccines offer "lifetime " protection based on the reduction of people who have actually got a problem with that particular nasty. 

 

Baz 

 

 

Tetanus  jabs definitely have a lifespan. because when I suffered my earth (actually a bramble) fault in the garden a few months  back the hospital checked the date of my last anti-tet injection and I was somewhat out of date so was given one - not a booster but the full on version.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[BR60103]

As I have no idea what you are scraping off your walls, a lot of posts have been unrated.

 

Comedy: I feel that liberating the language and ideas that can be used has eliminaed the need to be clever in communicating something without saying it.

 

As Guelph has had 56 cases of that thing, we are now in code red. I'm not sure what that fully means, but I think the book store will be closed and the likker store open.

 

[J. S. Bach]

6 hours ago, Tony_S said:

 ...snip... Quite a lot of the people on QM2 were using the regular Atlantic crossing as they didn’t  really like flying. Not that everyone has a week to spend eating 4 meals a day. Some of the passengers had 4 legs, I think it was 20 dogs and 1 cat. British dogs had a lamppost to wee on, there was a fire hydrant for US dogs. 

Hmmm, I did not know that there was a cultural difference!

[J. S. Bach]

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

A ...snip...

It may be those people who hop from one cruise to another may be doing it for the same reason (I am led to understand) retired people buy huge mobile homes in the US and spend their retirement travelling from place to place. By having no fixed abode, they are, in effect, minimising their tax burden.

 

As to the difference between “a cruise“ and and “ocean voyage“ I suppose it is the difference between a mass produced item and bespoke, tailored, clothing. Certainly these huge (2000+ passengers) cruise ships are incredibly detrimental to the places they visit on their itinerary. As Venice and Barcelona can sadly testify. I suppose some might consider these cruises “luxurious“, although from what I’ve seen it seems to be quite a tawdry “bling“ type of luxury. And with many of these cruises, I get more than a whiff of “enforced jollity“ of the type you would find in a 1950s holiday camp. And yet, with the right ship, the right crew, the right level of accommodation and dining plus a good mixture of fellow passengers (and not too many) a cruise can be indeed a most enjoyable experience.
 

G’night All.

 

iD

They do need (here, anyway) a fixed address for legal purposes; a P. O. box (with a mail forwarding service) seems to suffice.

 

 

As for cruises, I have been on one; an all-expenses-paid cruise on the Gray Funnel Line to Hong Kong, Japan, and the Philippines. Note that there was an airport on the roof!

[iL Dottore]

5 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I can’t see what is wrong about being aware of other peoples situations. I can’t see why not using insults or terminology nowadays just   because previous generations did is so wrong. ....

You are quite right, Tony. We certainly do not want to return to the days where racism and homophobia were casual every day affairs. However “political correctness” and its evil bastard offspring “woke” actually foster the complete opposite: instead of creating a sense of inclusion - accepting people for what they are (the dream of Martin Luther King) -  people are pigeonholed according to whatever “special characteristic/group identity“ is thought to be trendy and right-on. Very Orwellian, very “four legs good, two legs bad“.  And woe betide you if you should have an opinion contrary to the current “woke” groupthink  If you are unlucky, and unfortunately too many people are, voicing an unacceptable opinion results in a Twitter mob baying for your blood, trying to destroy your life and livelihood.

A far cry from the idea of tolerance and inclusion.

5 hours ago, BokStein said:

....Unfortunately, Innuendo and Double Entendres seem to be a thing of the past..

Innuendo: an Italian suppository!

That was offered - to much hilarity - by one of the regulars on I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue as one of the entries for the Uxbridge English Dictionary.

ISIHAC  was, until very recently, the last bastion at the BBC of double entendre and innuendo - all done in the best possible comedic taste.  Jack Dee taking over from Humphrey Littleton on the latter‘s demise was an inspired bit of casting, unfortunately -  at least in the last two series I’ve listened to -  the writers seem to have lost their comedic nerve and ISIHAC seems to have lost a lot of its zing. The “rippling Sven” is very much like salt, just a little is needed to enliven the dish, but the meat and potatoes - at least in the hands of Humphrey Littleton - was very much the “delightful Samantha” who seems to have been banned from all current episodes of the program. Undoubtably, somewhere and at sometime, one of the “professionally offended” complained to the BBC about this innocuous and funny characterisation.

6 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Wokeness and political correctness are the scourge of modern society.

I have Polish neighbours one side and Ghanians on the other everybody gets on ok ... 

I couldn’t agree more, as I posted above, “woke” is not about tolerance and inclusion but the complete opposite. It cannot be denied that, originally, what became “political correctness“ and then gave rise to “woke“ was started with very good intentions. But like many such things, it has been hijacked by ideologues and extremists to further their own goals. Additionally, being “woke” is a risk-free way of showing how morally and ethically superior one is to everyone “non-woke” (to give a concrete example: it’s oh so easy and risk free to “call out“ racism in the lyrics of a traditional and much loved song, but to actually do anything about any of the serious problems afflicting some of the UK’s minority communities - too risky and not solvable by a few keystrokes on Twitter...)

 

For a thought provoking lecture, look for Stephen Fry‘s talk about political correctness on YouTube.

 

I’ll continue to be an equal opportunity misanthrope; disliking equally - without fear or favour - people of all ages, genders, orientations and ethnicity (I dislike people, but like all sensible misanthropes, I like individuals)

Edited December 8, 2020 by iL Dottore
Typo

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from Crabtree land. A lovely bit of Such language occurred yesterday. We haveca veryvwell spoken English couple in the village called Banks. Helene, our former mayor, referred to them as M et Mme Bonks.   Would that be fit for ISIHAC.

Anyway the builder started yesterday and cracked on at a good pace. The current bathroom used to be a separate bathroom and toilet and the toilet door had just been left in place but locked. It is now a breeze block wall and the shower base is ready for concreting.  Cutting into the concrete floor slab did generate some dust and obviously that was my fault.  

 

Anyway this morning I'm off to Cognac to pick up a new freezer and some plumbing bits.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

 

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by jamie92208

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

How the other half live!  I have never been on a cruise.  I may have been cruising a few times but that is another matter altogether.  The type of cruise most people mean is that carried out on a socking great ship which might just fit under Sydney Harbour Bridge.  From what little I know it is probably a good idea to have so many on-board activities available as a very welcome alternative to "Oh look, there's a wave.  Oh look, there's another one".  In fine weather a few hours on deck can, I feel sure, be very relaxing.  The sea voyage from Heysham to Douglas is a good starter.  I had been looking forward to experiencing Holyhead to Dublin and return in June.  I have done Holyhead - Dun Laoghaire a few times but this was at night and at a timeof year when lounging around on deck was not an option.  As far as I know, the nearest you can get in Switzerland is a voyage on Lake Thun.  Oh, how I shall miss my annual trip on a paddle steamer on C*****mas Day.  The River Great Ouse in Bedford has absolutely nothing to compare.

 

From cruises/cruising we go, via Julian and Sandy, to Kenneth Horne.  I was in London on the night he died, Valentine's Day 1969, and knew nothing of the sad event until the next day.  For the record, I was at the Disc and Music Echo Valentine Ball and somehow managed to gatecrash the backstage party.  I never thought to take my autograph book, which is perhaps just as well as it would have been a bit of a clue that I should not have been there.

 

Yesterdsy I tested one of the masks I bought in Swindon.   It still makes my glasses steam up but it looks so much better. 

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[Sir TophamHatt]

Morning all.

 

The week of working just one day as the rest is annual leave. Same next week too!

 

Loving the misty mornings, just wish it was frosty for longer. Boring when it's just wet.

[BokStein]

Good Morning (or at least is indoors!)

 

6 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Tetanus  jabs definitely have a lifespan. because when I suffered my earth (actually a bramble) fault in the garden a few months  back the hospital checked the date of my last anti-tet injection and I was somewhat out of date so was given one - not a booster but the full on version.

 

I was given a record card several years ago to record the administration of the tetanus booster every ten years!

 

44 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Good moaning from Crabtree land. A lovely bit of Such language occurred yesterday. We haveca veryvwell spoken English couple in the village called Banks. Helene, our former mayor, referred to them as M et Mme Bonks.   Would that be fit for ISIHAC.

 

 

A fine piece of Cribtroo to start the day

 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

As herself went to collect a large green tree shaped onbject yesterday decorations day has been declared to be ...tomorrow. so in between getting my hair cut (hallelujah!) And getting ready for an on line AGM  I know what I shall be doing tomorrow.

 

It is very wet here but I have to go to the post office. Pah! Hope the queue isn't as long as it was on saturday.

 

Mugatea awaits so TTFN, have a good day, stay safe and positive thoughts to all ERs especially the "missing" ones.

 

Baz

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

I haven’t opened the curtains yet so I don’t know. if is foggy. We will be off to Chelmsford later to retrieve my car. We have no more appointments for the rest of the year.  
The only thing I recognised from the video Phil posted was the Maplin store. My recent visits to Basildon have been to the hospital. We used to go to Basildon for most of our shopping but gradually stopped going. 
Tony

[AndyB]

Morning all

The MiL is a bit of a veteran at cruising. Fred Olson ships are somewhat smaller than the skyscrapers of the sea.

She tends to offset the calories by doing many "turns round the deck" each day. 

I'm not sure she ever went under Sydney bridge but I've seen the photos of her going over the top of it.

She did mention one couple that were doing a "round the worlder". The husband jumped ship for one leg through Asia which he deemed "less interesting" flew back home, and rejoined the ship again later.  

She also mentioned that when numbers are down the crew are also scaled back. Hopefully that doesn't split up crew members that are married to each other. 

 

Anyway, on another matter b.p. readings are down significantly for the last 3 days. Long may that last. 

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl Inner Temple Hare,

 

What is Dominic Cummings favorite song?                                                                                                                                                                  Driving home for Christmas...

 

 

 

What is the favorite film of the year?                                                                                                                                                                                Home alone..

 

 

 

Why can Santa's Reindeer travel this year?                                                                                                                                                                       Because they have herd Immunity....

 

 

Normal service is now resumed..

3 hours plus not a lot just a few bits of dozing not good at all, my back is the main culprit.

 

Dull overcast and ranging from Misty to foggy ,  and that was driving home last night.

 

This morning heavy fog, ice, moon faintly visible through the clouds. The fog probably contributed to the fact I passed an accident, a police car either side, flashing blues, with plods standing either side on traffic duties, no doubt getting colder and colder.

In the middle a Japanese 4X4 on the road, facing the right way, facing that, a car on the wrong side of the road, a people carrier off the road, bonnet at a strange angle. This was at a bend between two pieces of road you can just about overtake on and there is a cross roads there.

 

I managed to get some OSB cut at the orange shed yesterday, so I should have enough to finish the ceiling. More measurements needed for doors for the shelving units in the work shop. Having cut a few pieces of wood already, I've already seen piles of saw dust collecting on shelves, so to stop that, doors are required.. Also I've been informed doors are needed for the library, to keep the dust off her books. This means a redesign for somewhere to mount hinges..

 

I got phoned by the doctors yesterday afternoon, I'm to attend the vampire  next week.. It will be interesting to see what the clinical valuation is of the effect of the changes to my diet.

 

Time I took a stroll down to the lab, and see if the overnight automatic bit of cal has run properly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[polybear]

8 hours ago, brianusa said:

Whatever wokeness is? 

 

 

Don't ask Bear - he's never heard the term either.

 

3 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Hmmm, I did not know that there was a cultural difference!

 

QM2 probably installed both a lamp post and fire hydrant for fear of being accused of racism if they didn't.....

 

In other news:

Bear has a mild headache, encountered during the night and still here so a couple of pink pills were encountered (paracetamol does nothing for me).  Most likely a bit of a cold en-route, or not drinking enough yesterday.  Not planning a serious DIY day today anyway, as I want to have a bit of a clean-up of tools, tidying etc.

 

edit: I see that Chuck Yaeger has died aged 97, so a pretty good innings - and pretty incredible bearing in mind the antics he was involved in. RIP

Edited December 8, 2020 by polybear

[AndrewC]

Greetings from the boring borough. Back to work today after a 5 day weekend. Yea weekend, boo work. Today I will be mostly clearing my inbox. 

 

Most of the weekend was spent moving stuff around in the shed in order to continue removing the plasterboard and replacing it with osb. Almost half way there. A trip to the tip is forecast in order to get rid of all the old plasterboard and remaining obsolete insulation. Hindsight is an amazing thing. I really should have rented a van & storage space, emptied the shed, stripped the walls and dumped the waste in one shot. Instead I move stuff, do a section, repeat. Meh. There is at least now space for the freezer to live. That arrives next week. 

We did manage a socially distanced substantial meal at one of the local Micro pubs Friday night.  Christmas is turning into a damp squib. Neither of us has any motivation to bring down the decorations from the loft which would normally have been up by now, apart from the tree. (never before the 12th or we end up with a bald twig by Jan 6. SWMBO's Russian/Ukraine heritage) Usually we'd have had at least one shopping / pub visit to the West end and our annual Mediæval Bæbes concert to look forward to. I can't wait for this miserable year to be over with. 

 

That's about it. No latte today as the milk hasn't come yet. Plain black coffee it is. 

 

Enjoy the day. 

[TheQ]

Ben the country Collie rejects fire hydrants or lamp posts.. He wants a tree..