Early Risers.

[Coombe Barton]

11 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

So stipulated. But June 24 is hardly the "middle of summer" either, which is the point I had attempted to make and I don't really understand how the name stuck.

 

Midsummer is, by custom and practice, when rents are paid, labourers hired (in the Medieval system) and legal assizes conducted. The origins go back to Roman times and prior and taking mid too literally can be a problem.

 

[petethemole]

There's a lot of fly tipping reported in the back roads around Southampton.  I get the impression it's by people who've been paid to take away rubbish, building waste etc. but won't pay to tip it legally.  Pictures on local websites occasionally include scrappable items in these loads.  The metal fairies take scrap, pile it high in their pick-ups and weigh it in.  Why would anybody drive around all day collecting scrap and then dump it in the countryside?  I occasionally leave stuff out for them and they had a good haul when I had the bathroom refitted. 

[polybear]

2 hours ago, AndrewC said:

Smart meter installation day. The bonus of this is I can cry off a meeting that I've been dreading all week. (not bad, just dealing with c*ntpuffins of epic asshattery levels) "sorry, power going off for meter install, can't make it" 

 

 

 

Bear recommends caution when they ask you to unplug PC's etc to avoid risk of damage.  Bear complied with this instruction carefully - but overlooked the "frost-free" fridge freezer, which presumably has microprocessors inside.  Result?  One dead fridge freezer at power on.  Could've been a complete coincidence of course....

 

1 hour ago, The Lurker said:

Bear - presumably you didn't turn on the laptop to find out what time TP opened - you just asked Alexa?

 

 

 

Bear turned the laptop on.....

The thought that Alexa might know the answer just didn't enter Bear's head - I've just tested her and the clever c*w knew the answer - and quoted my local branch in the process.

TP used to be bl00dy expensive unless you had a trade account, but recently they seem to have seen sense, which is dead handy as my local one is a very easy 5 minute drive away

 

34 minutes ago, PupCam said:

I would urge caution on adopting such an approach;   If the "metal fairies" decide that they don't want your carp "valuable re-cycling material" after all and decide to deposit it in the scenic tidy tip (just about any local country lane) then IF it can be traced back to you you could (quite rightly IMHO) be prosecuted.  

 

I've no idea were you live but round here (rural Bedfordshire/Hertfordshire) fly-tipping is a huge and disgusting problem that makes my blood boil every-time I see the latest deposits.     To be fair, the Council (once again IMVHO) are their own worst enemies; they should make using the local amenity tips the easiest way of disposing of rubbish NOT the hardest which, of course, does not excuse the dirty fly-tipping scrotes but perhaps goes some way to explain why they do it.   Of course, them having no pride or indeed brain cells does go quite a long way in that explanation too.

 

I'll get off my horse now ......

 

Bear favours an alternative approach to the problem - place SAS Snipers in known problem locations with a "shoot to kill" instruction.  Should have an effect PDQ.

Perhaps Bear should run for office?

[TheQ]

We've 2 washing machines, 1 tumble dryer and a cooker waiting for me going to the scrap man.

Plus there several batteries , I didn't melt down for the keel of the boat , they'll make a few bob as well.. Just waiting for the end of restrictions and I'll load up the trailer...

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Sunshine and clouds for it to hide behind a with more clouds to come - so it won't be warm but at least it should stay dry.

 

I had. a surprise at the Polling Station yesterday as I was handed a ballot paper for the Crime Commissioner's post.   As those standing for this largely irrelevant sinecure hadn't bothered to either admit by flyer through the door the fact that they wished to commission crimes or indeed to say what they would do about getting our local coppers out enforcing the law I could but conclude that they had no interest in me, or other voters, and were in. it for themselves.  I therefore marked my ballot paper accordingly to indicate to anyone who cared to look that the candidates were really only in it for themselves - a far more satisfactory way to exercise my democratic responsibilities thanputting an 'X' alongside a meaningless name.

 

I find it little odd that midsummer is thetime when rents are paid and hirings made.  The traditional time for agricultural hirings was after the harvest had been gathered - usually around Michaelmas I think.  Some sources quote the agricultural employment year as running from October to October which would make a lot more sense than having a sort out in the harvest season or just before it.  Tithes were certainly collected after the harvest and not in midsummer and agricultural rents are normally paid in half years (which reminds me that our April rent is overdue).  Such things could well of course have varied round the country but in some places some of the sheep shows and sales are in September /October while the lamb sales follow the lambing season in the spring - again marking stages the agricultural year.  Similarly changing things, such as labourers at the time when working days are at their longest sounds a bit odd as there would be plenty to do on the land at that time.  But maybe it was just different for my family's involvement in farming in Berkshire and Yorkshire?

 

Cleaning of the vacuum is high on the agenda shortly as the living room is in process of transfer from its winter livery (including red covered cushions) to its summer livery (pale blues and greens on the cushion covers).

 

Have a good day one and all and stay safe - there's still pelnty of the lurgi about.

[Coombe Barton]

15 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

I find it little odd that midsummer is thetime when rents are paid and hirings made.  The traditional time for agricultural hirings was after the harvest had been gathered - usually around Michaelmas I thin

The English Quarter days are when 'everything' happened. These are: Lady Day, 25 March, Midsummer Day, 24 June, Michaelmas, 29 September, Christmas, 25 December.

[Coombe Barton]

20 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

agricultural rents are normally paid in half years (which reminds me that our April rent is overdue)

Most common rent on an agricultural  lease I've had to deal with (from a software point of view) is "Fourteen weeks after lambing and three weeks after harvest"

And don't get me started on "three lives" tenancies

 

 

Edited May 7, 2021 by Coombe Barton
Usual typoman

[Compound2632]

22 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

The English Quarter days are when 'everything' happened. These are: Lady Day, 25 March, Midsummer Day, 24 June, Michaelmas, 29 September, Christmas, 25 December.

 

24th June being the Feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist. When the Gregorian calendar was instituted, a trick was missed. The calendar was implemented such that the solstices and equinoxes were restored to their positions at the time of the Council of Nicea in 325*; had it been implemented as a full correction to the Julian calendar, i.e. as if it had been in force since 45 BC, the major feast-days of the Annunciation, Nativity of St John the Baptist, and Nativity of the Lord, would have been aligned with the solstices and equinoxes an Christmas day would be the shortest day and Midsummer Day the longest (in terms of daylight hours).

 

*I suspect, but haven't checked, that it was at Nicea that the Church adopted the Julian calendar.

[Coombe Barton]

19 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

*I suspect, but haven't checked, that it was at Nicea that the Church adopted the Julian calendar.

It was.

However they did not take into account the difference of the Julian calendar to 'real' time, but the equinoxes and solstices were 'out' even then.

And they renumbered the years to start at 1 at the then calculated time of Christ's birth.

Whether this was correct we don't know, as it was three hundred years adrift.

[Coombe Barton]

40 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

24th June being the Feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist

And St John's Eve is important in west Cornwall, with the bonfire festivities on Chapel Carn Brea on 23 June, and Golowan in Penzance

 

Edited May 7, 2021 by Coombe Barton
Autocorrect being 'helpful'

[AndrewC]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Bear recommends caution when they ask you to unplug PC's etc to avoid risk of damage.  Bear complied with this instruction carefully - but overlooked the "frost-free" fridge freezer, which presumably has microprocessors inside.  Result?  One dead fridge freezer at power on.  Could've been a complete coincidence of course....

 

Ouch. All off before he started. Spend ages trying to access the socket switches. Done and dusted in under 90 mins. Unlike the last muppet who worked on the gas meter, this one knew what he was doing and did a proper post installation purge. Smelled a bit but at least the boiler and cooker are working properly. My next trick will be trying to remember how to reset the clock on the cooker. 

[BoD]

Afternoon all.

 

I too had second jab, the Pfizer one,  yesterday.   Area is bit sore - similar to the 'dead' arm you get when someone thumps you there. Still, small mercies, grateful and all that.

[Andrew P]

It was so warm here this morning that I was outside painting some timber cladding with NO SHIRT on and the Sun on my back and it was really nice.

 

Now quite chilly and overcast.

 

It was all finished outside by 11's / coffee and fruit cake time, so that's another job done.

[Compound2632]

24 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

It was.

However they did not take into account the difference of the Julian calendar to 'real' time, but the equinoxes and solstices were 'out' even then.

 

Thanks. Yes, as I said, it would appeal to the tidy-minded if they'd made the full correction.

 

26 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

And they renumbered the years to start at 1 at the then calculated time of Christ's birth.

 

That was Dionysius Exiguus, exactly two hundred years later, though his system wasn't in widespread use until popularised by St Bede another two hundred years later in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People and officially adopted by Charlemagne in the early ninth century.

 

Sorry, I'm a calendar nerd.

[TheQ]

IIRC in Scotland the main Hirings were at the end of October, (St Denis Day)? with a lesser one 6 months later,  as some had a 6 month or Annual contract. 

 

They got half (plus various extras like food and or fuel ) or a small allowance plus food and accommodation. At the end of their contract they'd get the rest of their money..

[PupCam]

I've just had to go through the very long, tedious and expensive process of re-taxing one of my old motorcycles

 

I like the Historic Vehicle class! 

 

I've also just spotted another rather nice air-cooled RD for sale.   No, I mustn't 

 

In other news:

A sudden rush of blood to the head found me phoning Tower Models yesterday afternoon.   

The DPD man has just delivered a box of O Gauge Peco track and a couple of turnouts

[Rugd1022]

Just a 'heads up' to those of you who are or will be travelling about down London way, with lockdown easing and everywhere becoming busy again the pick pocketing mobs are out in force once more - on the way down to Battersea on Wednesday to relieve my mate on 6M51 I had my wallet nicked somewhere between Euston and Queenstown Road stations. I used my debit card at Euston to buy some grub, put it all in my over the shoulder kit bag and headed for the tube and then Waterloo and by the middle of the afternoon received a text from my bank informing me of six instances of suspicious activity on my card in Chertsey, a place I've never been to. Each transaction was around £20 so whichever parasitic scrote nicked it was obviously trying it on in small doses (the seventh attempt at brazen theft was thankfully thwarted when the card was declined). Luckily there was no cash or anything else of importance in the wallet and I managed to get the card cancelled by the time I'd got home later that evening (amazingly my new bank card arrived this morning), but folks, please be vigilant lest these lower than the lowest pick on you next 

[PupCam]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear recommends caution when they ask you to unplug PC's etc to avoid risk of damage.  Bear complied with this instruction carefully - but overlooked the "frost-free" fridge freezer, which presumably has microprocessors inside.  Result?  One dead fridge freezer at power on.  Could've been a complete coincidence of course....

How does that work then?     Presumably the power is turned off, man "installs" (I use the term loosely) meter, man eventually turns on power and configures meter.  Even if they superimpose a signal on the mains, which I don't think they do, that's no different to a baby alarm, internet/wifi extender etc etc   

 

Is the overall operation effectively not just a power cut?  

 

Surely you don't have to buy a new fridge freezer after every power cut?    If so, that would link in with my previous post and no wonder there are so many blxxdy fridge/freezers in the hedgerows round here!

 

[TheQ]

I have a credit card holder and a wallet.. Never in the same pocket, Never in a bag. 

The wallet is attached to a trouser loop by a chain..

 

[petethemole]

7 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Surely you don't have to buy a new fridge freezer after every power cut?    If so, that would link in with my previous post and no wonder there are so many blxxdy fridge/freezers in the hedgerows round here!

The gas in them means that scrap dealers won't touch them.  Councils will take them for the usual fee but they end up in a fridge mountain awaiting processing.  So people who don't want to pay the council and don't care either dump their own or pay the dodgy waste clearance boys.  Most metal fairies don't seem to touch them, but some will cut the motor out for scrap and dump the carcass.  My old full-height freezer sits at the back of the house and makes a great store for beer and cider.

[PupCam]

2 minutes ago, petethemole said:

Most metal fairies don't seem to touch them, but some will cut the motor out for scrap and dump the carcass.

Precisely my point

[AndrewC]

18 minutes ago, PupCam said:

How does that work then?     Presumably the power is turned off, man "installs" (I use the term loosely) meter, man eventually turns on power and configures meter.  Even if they superimpose a signal on the mains, which I don't think they do, that's no different to a baby alarm, internet/wifi extender etc etc   

 

Is the overall operation effectively not just a power cut?  

 

Surely you don't have to buy a new fridge freezer after every power cut?    If so, that would link in with my previous post and no wonder there are so many blxxdy fridge/freezers in the hedgerows round here!

 

Basically it is a CYA (cover your a*se) exercise by the installer and supplier. In the rare and it is very rare, case there is something amiss with the installation, once the power is switched on there can be a spike or if there are too many things plugged in, a current inrush similar to what is experienced with DCC sound locos causing cyclic breaker tripping. Better safe than sorry. 

[PupCam]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear favours an alternative approach to the problem - place SAS Snipers in known problem locations with a "shoot to kill" instruction.  Should have an effect PDQ.

That would be my favoured option too, they wouldn't re-offend.  

 

Of course, no doubt Society would then be impinging on their human rights to be disgusting little scrotes and it would be frowned on.  Personally, I think if you fly-tip (and many other offences too) you waive all human-rights and you should get what you deserve .....

 

Does that make it sound like I care more for the planet and the general environment in which we ALL live rather than those poor  defenceless scrotes?

 

Oh well, so be it! 

[jamie92208]

5 hours ago, 45156 said:

Morning All

 

As ever, much skipping, and not a lot to report.

 

Guitarists among us might just appreciate this wonderful rendition which popped into my inbox.

 

 

She is a wonderful player, and very attractive too - and that smile at the end just melts me - Sweden is lucky to have her as a resident

 

Regards to All

Stewart

I concur, very pleasant to watch and listen to.

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

It was.

However they did not take into account the difference of the Julian calendar to 'real' time, but the equinoxes and solstices were 'out' even then.

And they renumbered the years to start at 1 at the then calculated time of Christ's birth.

Whether this was correct we don't know, as it was three hundred years adrift.

I was once told that the monk who calculated the year of Christ's birth did it using the list of Roman Emperors to tie it back to the dates given in the gospels.   It is alleged that he miscounted and missed out a lesser known emperor and thus the proper date is actually 4 BC rather than year 0. 

 

Jamie

[PupCam]

9 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

if there are too many things plugged in, a current inrush

So exactly the same as the power being restored after a power failure.

 

(I get the CYA aspect)

Edited May 7, 2021 by PupCam