Early Risers.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

A long time ago I learned how to do broadcast interviews.  In a book about the late Sir David Frost I read of the importance of listening to the answer before asking the next question.  It is obvious when you think about it.  Yesterday morning I watched the Andrew Marr show.  It soon became clear that he paid little heed to that advice.  He was talking to Michael Gove but not listening to him.  Nearly every morning at least one of the presenters of Today behaves in much the same way, not waiting for the interviewee’s reply to be finished before wading in with the next question.  At least Marr had the manners to apologise to Nicola Sturgeon for interrupting her.  Something is wrong here.  Is there really so much news to cover that those being grilled and those doing the grilling have barely time to breathe between questions?  If I were in charge I would allow sufficient time for each interview to be completed without what some would see as discourteous behaviour.  Perhaps that explains why I never managed to land a job in radio – though I did try.  In 1970 BBC Radio Bristol was recruiting.  I applied, took a voice test and didn’t get the job.  If I had, I would have found myself working alongside the likes of Michael Buerk and Kate Adie.  Conjure with that if you will! 

 

There were panic stations yesterday when I could not find my CAMRA membership card.  The immediate need was to know my membership number so that I could access the webshite that has replaced the monthly newsletter “What’s Brewing”.  Oddly, it let me in without asking for the password that I do not have.  Some frantic riffling ensued.  In a pile of paper which had lain undisturbed for a good few weeks the missing card and vouchers came to light.  Unfortunately this was not before I had notified CAMRA that my card had been mislaid.  I am sure that the jovial crew in the St Albans head office will rejoice with me that all is now well.  Yeah, right.

 

Continuing warm thoughts to Gordon and family and Dave and his dad.  Best wishes to all.

 

Chris

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple hare,  573/358

Another good nights sleep, 7.25 hours with just one wakeup to turn over..

 

Noticeable was the lack for Forepaw pain, no complaints about the weather, even though it was chuckinitdarn.. Slight pain from the finger joints of the right hand , but that was caused by drill kick back when the drill bit suddenly locked in the hole for one of the keel bolts yesterday..

 

Ben the I'm staying right here Collie was not that interested in getting up this morning with the rain hammering down outside,  though when it was time for patrol he did condescend to go for a walk as it was down to a light rain... His attention was taken by a Muntjac hurtling off in the distance, but Ben realised he had no chance of getting near it, so he didn't bother chasing..

 

If you remember I mentioned the raising of the Car park by the bridge , and the fact the road is now lower than the car park..

The inevitable has happened, the road is now a pond...

 

The company car pass has gone missing, I can only assume it's come off and slid down the window to inside the dashboard..

 

I noticed the Marr yesterday, interviews these days seem to be more about getting the interviewers point of view over and not getting the answer.. Similarly the stupid shouting out loaded questions to the MPs in the street, knowing they won't get an answer..

 

 Today is finishing this weeks major system started last week, at the time it was left Friday, all was going well. This won't take all day, but there is  the programme for the next 3 months  to do, so that will take some time..

 

Time to... Check the company spam..

 

 

 

 

[Barry O]

Ey up! Knees and back are not happy abour getting cold and wet yesterday.pah!

 

The DRS system in cricket is to get rid of the "howlers".. great but it has some major flaws in it which means that it produces some itself. Nuff said .

 

Today shall see a bit of painting of items which run on two shiny bits of paralel metal..good... then some "clothes sorting".. bad.

 

Have a good day everyone!

Stay safe and just hope all of those who are missing or unwell have a good day.

 

Baz

[Andrew P]

Firstly thoughts still for Dave's Dad, and Gordon and his Family.

 

Not see Deb's on here for what seems like a very long time, so again, I hope all is well.

 

Sun / Cloud / Sun / Cloud?

Walk / No Walk / Walk / No Walk?

Now as I look out it looks like it might rain any minute, so it is probably NO WALK.

 

Have a good day one and all, Stay safe and well. Summers nearly here.

 

 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning, our weather is not very maritime at the moment but that may soon change and actual sunshine will be replaced by the liquid variety.  Not a huge amount to report but there may well be some reassembling of repaired chairs today and some garden rubbish may be tidied up. 

 

I will wish you all good day and of course thoughtsxare with thevHunts and Gordon plus happy anniversary to our correspondent  from Guelph.

 

Jamir

[polybear]

1 hour ago, chrisf said:

Greetings one and all

 

A long time ago I learned how to do broadcast interviews.  In a book about the late Sir David Frost I read of the importance of listening to the answer before asking the next question.  It is obvious when you think about it.  Yesterday morning I watched the Andrew Marr show.  It soon became clear that he paid little heed to that advice.  He was talking to Michael Gove but not listening to him.  Nearly every morning at least one of the presenters of Today behaves in much the same way, not waiting for the interviewee’s reply to be finished before wading in with the next question. 

 

 

Bear watched the Channel 4 News yesterday - Krishnan Guru-Murthy interviewed someone (an MP/Politician).  I felt like climbing thru' the F.screen and strangling KGM for that very crime.

On a good day Bear, if interviewed (h.unlikely) would be tempted to say "Why don't you shut the F. up and let me finish the question you've just asked me??"

On a bad day it would be "Listen, you C.... if you interrupt me just one more time then you'll be having this interview with yourself....."

 

29 minutes ago, TheQ said:

If you remember I mentioned the raising of the Car park by the bridge , and the fact the road is now lower than the car park..

The inevitable has happened, the road is now a pond...

 

 

The Civil Engineers on that job really knew their stuff then.....

 

In other news:

Bear predicts a morning of unpacking and inspecting, followed by an email to the kitchen manufacturer to report any defects or missing items; so far it's one door and one drawer front (both have marks) and a missing chrome screw cover.

Then a call to Miele to discuss the finer points of oven installation requirements, followed by a call to the local gas man to book a slot for capping off the gas pipe.

Then what?  S'pose I'd better think about modding the sink base unit to allow the dishwasher pipes to come up thru' the floor to meet the supply and drain pipes for the sink.  After that it's a 1001 other similar tasks on a seemingly endless list....

 

Bear hit the sack at 11pm last night, then remembered I'd not "spent" one of my C-19 Test Vouchers (£25), despite reminders on Outlook - the vouchers are only valid for 3 months, during which time you have to effectively buy a Gift Voucher with any one of a number of Companies (Amazon, Screwfix, Argos, JL, Currys etc etc.) or lose it (the 3 months expires today, but I'm not sure if that means it would still be spendable today or not).  So it was up again to do the deed  - since all the kitchen "big ticket" items are now covered (apart from sink & taps and the worktops) then I had to ponder what to use the voucher for - I figured Amazon was probably the safe option, so there it went.  During all this I managed to trigger the alarm too, just to please the neighbours.  I shut it off so quickly I very much doubt they had time to zone in on the culprit though 

[PupCam]

3 hours ago, chrisf said:

 In a book about the late Sir David Frost I read of the importance of listening to the answer before asking the next question.  It is obvious when you think about it.  Yesterday morning I watched the Andrew Marr show.  It soon became clear that he paid little heed to that advice.  He was talking to Michael Gove but not listening to him.  Nearly every morning at least one of the presenters of Today behaves in much the same way, not waiting for the interviewee’s reply to be finished before wading in with the next question. 

Nail well and truly hit on the head there Chris

 

I have to say that I've never had a particularly high opinion of politicians of whatever flavour (and I certainly have no wish to do party politics here!) but over the last year or so the fact that there is in fact a far lower form of life has been brought into sharp focus for me.   

 

I give you the journalists &  interviewers.   What has become crystal clear is all they want to do is make a noise under the misguided illusion that they are "teasing out the answers" from our "public servants" that the public want to know whereas IMVHO all they are trying to do is to make a name for themselves and justify their mostly disgusting salaries (Check out the BBC salaries website ...!!!)  Often they ask questions which clearly cannot be answered eg "Can you guarantee all lockdown restrictions will be lifted a week on Saturday?" - No you stupid person!   Of course they can't  guarantee anything and it really is of little or no consequence as to who the question is aimed at.     The questions they should have been asking were those that would actually give the public some insight into why decisions were taken and the rational behind their actions.  The population would then have some "facts" (well, wishful thinking I know) on which to make informed decisions.

 

I blame 24 Hour News coverage .........

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A quick look in as I'm off out shortly to visit a certain emporium. This will be the first outing since Warley 2019! Muggatee first and then I'm out.

[Coombe Barton]

2 hours ago, Andrew P said:

Not see Deb's on here for what seems like a very long time, so again, I hope all is well.

 

Debs and her mum are well, and Debs is composing music.

[jonny777]

Windy and showery in North Somerset this morning. Yesterday went without too much incident. Grandchildren had a walk to the swing-park, and visited the allotment. I duly cooked then burgers in bagels (only because we had them left over in the freezer from eldest son's visit in April, and they needed using up). 

 

We sat outside in the warm sunshine until the rain arrived mid-afternoon. Son-i-law was administering the count for city council seats, so the grandkids had to wait for that to finish then go home to pick him up. Greens did very well, apparently, and now have an equal number of council seats to Labour (24 each; out of a total of 70). 

 

One possible problem could have been the youngest grandson (aged 4) catching sight of a small-ish rat which he called a mouse. I went along with this deception, as I didn't want him to alert the entire area with shouts of "I can see a rat". He did tell me that he thought mice were smaller, but I replied that one must be really greedy and he was happy with that. 

 

I watched a fascinating programme on TV about a Bronze Age settlement preserved in the fens, and is now undergoing archaeological excavation. Apparently, so much has been preserved that they have found textiles, and uneaten food in almost perfectly complete bowls. 

 

The site is called Must Farm, and is between Whittlesea and Peterborough. I had not heard of the findings until last night. Amazing what can be discovered after 3000 years. 

[AndrewC]

Greetings from the boring borough. 

 

A bit of a wasted weekend but I think we both needed a bit of down time. A few beers & darts in the man cave Saturday night was the extent of activities. 

 

Wood fired pizza night as long as the rain holds off. 

 

The so called journalists these days are more about their own "celeb" status than actual proper journalism. 

 

Little else to add. Coffee time then a crap load of time wasting meetings with sh*tgibbons. 

[Coombe Barton]

1 minute ago, jonny777 said:

The site is called Must Farm, and is between Whittlesea and Peterborough. I had not heard of the findings until last night. Amazing what can be discovered after 3000 years. 

I also watched it. Have you ever been to Flag Fen, also Peterborough? Shows some of the techniques. Excavated by Francis Pryor and Maisie Taylor.

I have a number of their books and papers, great reading. The one time I met Francis we talked about sheep, as they specialise in Bronze age breeds.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

The sun is shining at the moment, but rain looks imminent by the look of some very dark clouds in the east. There’s not a lot planned for today, I may mop the cellar floor, as I’m leaving dusty footprints about again, but to be honest there’s not a lot I can do about that at the moment, given the task in hand in the cellar, but ho hum. I also want to finish the ‘NOTES’ list too. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

 

Brian

 

 

[jonny777]

55 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Nail well and truly hit on the head there Chris

 

I have to say that I've never had a particularly high opinion of politicians of whatever flavour (and I certainly have no wish to do party politics here!) but over the last year or so the fact that there is in fact a far lower form of life has been brought into sharp focus for me.   

 

I give you the journalists &  interviewers.   What has become crystal clear is all they want to do is make a noise under the misguided illusion that they are "teasing out the answers" from our "public servants" that the public want to know whereas IMVHO all they are trying to do is to make a name for themselves and justify their mostly disgusting salaries (Check out the BBC salaries website ...!!!)  Often they ask questions which clearly cannot be answered eg "Can you guarantee all lockdown restrictions will be lifted a week on Saturday?" - No you stupid person!   Of course they can't  guarantee anything and it really is of little or no consequence as to who the question is aimed at.     The questions they should have been asking were those that would actually give the public some insight into why decisions were taken and the rational behind their actions.  The population would then have some "facts" (well, wishful thinking I know) on which to make informed decisions.

 

I blame 24 Hour News coverage .........

 

 

I agree with this to an extent, but I think the problem also comes from the current MSM doing very little journalism. The TV interviewers are so used to simply regurgitating press releases, that they have no in-depth knowledge of the subject they are discussing with politicians on air. 

 

Therefore they cannot ask them serious questions about the current (or recent past) decisions because their ignorance would be exposed. The TV questioners get around this the only way they know; by proposing hypothetical future scenarios or situations, which may or may not be likely but could throw the politician off balance. 

 

They have yet to descend to a point where they ask "precisely what would your party do for the British people after a large asteroid strike?", but I'm sure it is only a matter of time. 

 

 

 

[Coombe Barton]

7 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

The TV interviewers are so used to simply regurgitating press releases, that they have no in-depth knowledge of the subject they are discussing with politicians on air. 

At the risk of of straying into politics, but Gove and Johnson were journalists, so they very well know the game.

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup where it is windy with threatening grey clouds. The forecast says no rain though...

 

Best wishes to Dave's Dad and Gordon S and anyone else who is suffering.

 

TV interviews with politician I find best avoided; the journo repeatedly asks the same question, the politician rarely if ever actually answers the question, so we the audience hear what the politician wants us to hear.

 

Right, on with the work!

[Andrew P]

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

Debs and her mum are well, and Debs is composing music.

Thanks for the info John, good to hear she's O.K.

[polybear]

51 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

......then a crap load of time wasting meetings with sh*tgibbons. 

 

 

Been there, done that.....far too many times to mention.  I'm convinced that most of the gibbons attend as many meetings as possible, separated only by coffee breaks/"networking" etc. in order to avoid doing proper work and getting found out.

 

The morning has so far been consumed by un-folding corrugated cardboard packaging into flat sheets for temporary storage (it'll come in handy to protect new granite worktops when the tile splashbacks are done - imagine dropping a tile onto new £££ granite - the amount of packaging consumed by a pre-assembled kitchen delivery has to be seen to be believed).  The rest of the morning has been scoffed by unpacking and examining kitchen bits - lots of them.  All done carefully - I'll be fine for bubblewrap and sheets of very thin foldable polystyrene type material for a long time to come .  Still more to do.

One or two bits will get flagged up as marked, but very slight on the grand scale of things. 

[Winslow Boy]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Bear watched the Channel 4 News yesterday - Krishnan Guru-Murthy interviewed someone (an MP/Politician).  I felt like climbing thru' the F.screen and strangling KGM for that very crime.

On a good day Bear, if interviewed (h.unlikely) would be tempted to say "Why don't you shut the F. up and let me finish the question you've just asked me??"

On a bad day it would be "Listen, you C.... if you interrupt me just one more time then you'll be having this interview with yourself....."

 

 

The Civil Engineers on that job really knew their stuff then.....

 

In other news:

Bear predicts a morning of unpacking and inspecting, followed by an email to the kitchen manufacturer to report any defects or missing items; so far it's one door and one drawer front (both have marks) and a missing chrome screw cover.

Then a call to Miele to discuss the finer points of oven installation requirements, followed by a call to the local gas man to book a slot for capping off the gas pipe.

Then what?  S'pose I'd better think about modding the sink base unit to allow the dishwasher pipes to come up thru' the floor to meet the supply and drain pipes for the sink.  After that it's a 1001 other similar tasks on a seemingly endless list....

 

Bear hit the sack at 11pm last night, then remembered I'd not "spent" one of my C-19 Test Vouchers (£25), despite reminders on Outlook - the vouchers are only valid for 3 months, during which time you have to effectively buy a Gift Voucher with any one of a number of Companies (Amazon, Screwfix, Argos, JL, Currys etc etc.) or lose it (the 3 months expires today, but I'm not sure if that means it would still be spendable today or not).  So it was up again to do the deed  - since all the kitchen "big ticket" items are now covered (apart from sink & taps and the worktops) then I had to ponder what to use the voucher for - I figured Amazon was probably the safe option, so there it went.  During all this I managed to trigger the alarm too, just to please the neighbours.  I shut it off so quickly I very much doubt they had time to zone in on the culprit though 

 

Right Fred said. The docket says we have to raise the carpark by 6 3/4 inches  to stop it flooding so that's what we'll do. Young apprentice looks at the car park then at road then back at the carpark. But Gaffer won't the road flood then. Gaffer looks at the young lad in his brand new high visibility vest and the old pair of rigger boots that the Gaffer had given him this morning and says with a sigh - if the docket says the car park got to be raised to stop it flooding then that's what we do. None of our concern if that means the road will flood. Its early days for you young lad. Leave the thinking to them that's paid to it. The apprentice looks at Fred and makes a note of these wise words on his pad that he'd been given this very morning along with his new boots. When he grows up he wants to be just like Fred.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

I'm finding the comments about interviewing on radio and tv rather amusing and as CB has said  a couple of those currently often being interviewed have crossed from the other side of the game.  It'a a very long while since I did my broadcast interview training but it was made very clear to me that a key part of being interviewed - assuming it was unavoidable (see below) - was the various techniques you could deploy to avoid answering the questions the interviewer put to you.  in other words how to bury bad news while ostensibly being prepared to come on air and be interviewed about it.  This could at times be better than the alternative of saying 'no spokesman/person available' which is the standard answer if you don't want anybody to be interviewed - the media understands that but the public often don't.

 

So you can often start with a situation where the interviewer wishes to ask certain questions, the interviewee has no intention of answering those and instead wishes to simply reiterate their particular 'party line'.  A really good interviewer will try to break through that defensive barricade by having fully researched their subject and coming at it from a number of different directions but a lazy or ill-informed interviewer won't bother.  Equally knowing full well that they won't get any answers out of the interviewee some interviewers will simply make it look 'informative' by offering their own answers as part of their questioning.  The important thing to remember is that anybody being interviewed is only there to get over their own message, even if it is a deliberately confusing one, and they are really just using the interview to do that, irrespective of what they are asked.

 

Press conferences are however rather different because it can  be 'you' up against' them and if there are a number of 'thems' they will often ask questions in their own particular way - if they are any good - so you need to think quickly and carefully about your answers.  If you can gain 'control' of the conference then that is the best way to handle it but the opportunity to o that isn't always there.  On one less than pleasant occasion (the Taunton sleeping car fire) I had to take a conference involving reporters from almost all the national dailies some of whom were rather hostile.  But I got things going nicely when early on one of them asked my name - to which I replied 'Happy to do so, it's  A B R Spokesman', which he assiduously wrote in his notebook as I slowly said it and which his 'colleagues' jumped on with great glee - that got them in the necessary frame of mind.

 

Best wishes and positive thoughts to Dave's dad and Dave's efforts to improve matters for his dad and, of course, for Gordon and his family.

 

Have a good day one and all and stay safe.

[PupCam]

I have to say, this made me chuckle !

 

 

[simontaylor484]

In this o

24 minutes ago, PupCam said:

I have to say, this made me chuckle !

 

 

On this occasion it would have to be The Jam.

 

But thats entertainment 

 

Im now going back underground 

[AndrewC]

24 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

In this o

On this occasion it would have to be The Jam.

 

But thats entertainment 

 

Im now going back underground 

I saw them once, but it was down in a tube station at midnight. 

[New Haven Neil]

A'noon from a sleepy small brown bear.

 

An awful night, so stayed in my pit as SWMBO went to work (on her bike, in the peeing rain!) and didn't surface again until gone 9.  Most unusual for me, we're fairly early risers - as befits membership here.  Too much done in the garage yesterday for this decrepit body to manage methinks. 

 

So a lazy day, had a trip to the tip and a little shopping, then a bit of housework I suppose, will need/expected to be done. Pah.  At least it has stopped raining, but it is really rather windy, so not pleasant for a walk around the village.  Maybe tomorrow.

 

As for the conversation about political journalists, is it always the same guy that shouts out the stupid questions outside No. 10?  Sounds like it to me.  How utterly pointless and rude.  Our politics here are very different, no parties, just individuals, two per sheading.  Mostly utterly useless of course, all on an individual crusade for their own interests.  But less of that banned talk.

 

7 days with no new cases of the lurgy 11 cases still live of which only 1 is in hospital , 81% of population have had one dose of vaccine, 21% second dose - going well.

[simontaylor484]

What a mixed bag weather wise today.

 

Bright sunshine to start with

The wind got up and down came the hail stones. Now its still and dry but cloudy.  

John CB beat me in suggesting Flag Fen i believe it is a preserved trackway.

 

For those who like archaeology i can reccomend the Waterloo uncovered channel on you tube .Phil Harding from Time Team sometimes appears. Pre covid they were digging Hougemont Farm.

 

Looks like the bill for Hitachi is going to be huge i wonder if they have had to remove sharp objects from company HQ.

I believe that 800 class are aluminium bodied depending where these cracks are may pose problems with electronic devices inside the coaches.

 

The first transport company i worked for bought 10 extender trailers they opened from 45'-65'. They started cracking on the cross members the bill that went to Montracon who built them was astronomical.