Early Risers.

[The Lurker]

2 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

My School motto

Dat Deus Incrementum

Officially God gives growth

Unofficially For Chrissake give us a rise.

 

 

 

Snap

[Coombe Barton]

• Sports as a means of staying healthy - if that's your thing
• Sports as a prelude to visiting the pub - no
• Sports watching in the pub - no
• Professional sports - not really
• Sports fans - definitely no as they seem at the moment to be a vector in COVID spread
• Obsession with sport - no - it's too akin to warfare

And personally:

• Cycling as a means of exercise - to damned dangerous on the roads
• Jogging/running - not for me
• Walking - yes, but don't do enough of it since the last dog.

 

[The White Rabbit]

Arternoon awl,

 

Hopefully the day's exercise is now done. T'was an exercise in moving mattresses and destroying desks. With a sideline (minoring for americans) in manipulating membranes. As I've had little luck in using conventional channels to find a socially useful purpose for STR products, it's been time to improvise. Sadly, much of this involves some demolition of usable (but unpopular) products. More positively, it appears we may be able to make progress with the garden as some stone we needed to complete this is now available again. (New definition of a millisecond: the timelag between being told it's available and me saying, "We'll have it"). So it was time to cut the weed-proof (allegedly!) membrane in preparation. Next week could be busy. But I could do with some exercise, shifting around four tons of stone will help. 

 

More strawberries had. It looks like another year when the blackbird has had all the redcurrants but the strawberries are so plentiful, there's enough to go round. I wonder if we have another nesting pair in the garden, the last few days, whenever I've been near a certain bush, there have been rustlings and muffled tweets. As always, it was the bush most in need of a trim! Still, it's a good excuse to procrastinate. 

 

4 hours ago, Danemouth said:

All this talk of sport with tennis, cricket and kick-ball. Am I the only man in the UK who doesn't give a s0d for any of it

 

Here I am a Welshman with no time for Rugby

 

That's a plus one for the survey of lack of interest in most ball-games. Either participation or observation. Though I do like playing certain 'adapted' variations. I think my issue is the formality and money involved with the 'professional' games. I don't care for golf at all, but am quite happy to play crazy golf. The version of cricket I used to play (with considerable enjoyment and panache) is not the same game Baz would recognise. But when you only have four or five players instead of 22 and rather less space, perhaps that's only to be expected? 

 

And when it comes to iconoclastic behaviour, I'm a Yorkshireman who doesn't drink beer. And prefers rugby union to league. I have been anticipating excommunication daily for the last 20 years... 

 

School mottoes in Latin? What about Jamie's? It makes more sense to me than many of them. 

Edited June 27, 2021 by The White Rabbit
forgetfulness

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from a grey Sidcup. Congratulations to Danemouth and Mrs Danemouth.

 

quiet Sunday here punctuated by Elder Lurker’s first jab later. 
 

I am more in the sports fan section- cricket foremost and football and motor sports. I will watch most others but am less enamoured of sports which are subjective; success depends on whether the judges like you is harder to get. One sport I watch a lot less of these days is Rugby; I have largely gone off it over the years.

 

as for iconoclasm; I enjoy telling overseas colleagues, especially in the US, that I am an Englishman who doesn’t drink tea!

[New Haven Neil]

Windaz weshed, van polished, car washed, garden tidied (garden railway visitor days Mon and Tues) and I'm off out!  Still lovely and sunny.

 

Oh, our school motto was something like  'Labor Omnia Vincit' - Work Conquers All.  Ish.  I didn't take Latin, not being destined for the medical profession, and only getting involved in some aspects of (the right side of the) law 35 years later, which was not a planned happening.  Life's twists and turns can quite take one by surprise.

[New Haven Neil]

PS - jamie, I don't think we have the offences Against the Person Act here, it is covered by The Criminal Code 1872.  yes, 1872.....we're up to date here you know. 

[JohnDMJ]

I can not bite my tongue any more so I'm 'jumping in' here! (And I may be blunt!)

 

Sports.

 

I find the concept of professional (as in getting paid for participating) sports completely abhorrent and overrated. Can't they get a 'proper' job and contribute (non-financially) to the community?

 

Amateur (unpaid) sports, on the other hand, provide a, generally, low key, competitive recreation from the daily 'grind'.

 

OK, so there is an argument that vehicle technology has improved through F1 'racing' but I gave up on that when I recognised the "it's your turn to win this time" syndrome which was often easily spotted!

 

When it's all boiled down, the 'professional' sports people are on a par with the likes of actors, comedians and other performance artists, i.e. merely providing an escape mechanism from the normal humdrum existence.

 

What's your job? I kick an inflated pig's bladder around a grassy area for up to 90 minutes, sometimes longer.

 

And what's yours? I throw myself off a ten metre high concrete platform into a pool of water head first.

[The Stationmaster]

2 hours ago, AndrewC said:

I’ve seen similar in Belgium that are mounted on a flat bed truck for removals and heavy goods deliveries. 

And also in Holland.

[The Stationmaster]

Happy anniversary Dave and Mrs Danemouth.  I hope you didn't fall for all that commercial stuff and actually give her some rubies but did it properly with a card and a hug  

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

School mottoes in Latin? What about Jamie's? It makes more sense to me than many of them. 

Our schol motto was in Latin but translated meant, "The seal of the Bishop of Durham" I think, utterly meani gless.  The motto on my signature was one that I liked. It was translated into Latin for me in the Ratty Arms at Ravenglass. This task was done by a Cambridge Classics scholar, the late Pete Fazakerly a much missed volunteer on laal Ratty.  He wrote it out on a beer mat for me. Much ale had been quoffed by that time but many years later another Classicist confirmed that the grammar was correct, over a drink at a transport fair.  I used to have it written on a whiteboard in the office at work. I don't think any of my senior officers understood it.

 

Jamie

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I switched on the TV a little while ago to watch the news only to find that the usual programs were on and not the kick-ball. I had a quick perusal of the listings and it stated in small print if the football isn't shown the program is as below. The listing below shows the normal programs. I had settled down to read a book anyway and I'm half way through already.

[laurenceb]

Congratulations to Mrs & Mr Danemouth

[PhilJ W]

Oops, nearly forgot, congrats to Mr. and Mrs Danemouth.

[laurenceb]

What really.... me off about football is the way some people act as if its the most important thing in the world. Bloke I know is most amazed that I am not watching the "game " inspite of me telling him many times I have no interest

[Pacific231G]

4 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

So far as my schoolboy Latin was concerned I never quite saw the reason to learn translations for "The Gauls have ridden to Rome but Caesar's soldiers already knew all the women".  If we were going to learn something useful why not "Domine dirige nos - virtute et industria" ?   

 

Afternoon all.

The inscriptions on the London and Bristol Railway's* double coat of arms has always amused me.

I think the Lord's likely guidance to the City of London might be surmised by his son's actions in the temple: as for Bristol's virtuous industries, they seem to have respectively comprised human trafficking, gin, cigarettes and arms. 

 

The promised rain hasn't materialised in W. London yet but we're supposed to be getting thunderstorms tonight. We shall see. The public stick ball course was particularly busy this morning when I had my daily constitutional with cars parked everywhere on local streets so I assume they were all trying to get their games in before the rain, which then didn't.

 

*I think the London and Bristol railway may have had another name,  grand or great something or other,  but probably not one that anyone would still remember . 

Edited June 27, 2021 by Pacific231G

[iL Dottore]

11 hours ago, Andrew P said:

 ….excellent days at the Mid Hants Diesel Gala…

Although I prefer electric traction for current-day rail travel and I greatly enjoy the drama of steam, I confess to having a very soft spot for the Class 50. Very much a reminder of my years spent working in the UK (living in Hampshire meant that travel between Andover and Waterloo, at the time, was coaching stock invariably hauled by a Class 50).

Although I am sure that those with greater knowledge of motive power and diesels may have their reservations about the Class 50, but to my eyes it has to be one of the most beautifully designed (aesthetically) diesels that have ever worked on British rails.

7 hours ago, polybear said:

…Bear saw this contraption in use whilst wandering around Changwon, South Korea back in January 2019; I've never seen one in use in the UK before - I wonder if the removals guys have them over here?..

As a majority of the population rent apartments, these contractions are pretty common in Switzerland, as they are in effective way to get large items of furniture in and out of “high altitude“ flats.  I’ve seen a few in action that go up about six stories, any higher than that and I believe that the apartment building has to have a freight elevator.

6 hours ago, Danemouth said:

..Am I the only man in the UK who doesn't give a s0d for any of it ..

6 hours ago, leopardml2341 said:

Nope, same here.

6 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

…As far as sport is concerned virtually all of it is an area of total disinterest for me…

6 hours ago, PupCam said:

No

5 hours ago, BSW01 said:

I'm another who doesn't watch the football, tennis etc …

2 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

….That's a plus one for the survey of lack of interest in most ball-games. Either participation or observation. ..

 Me neither! 

It does seem that you are in august company, Danemouth.

I can be persuaded to play one or two sports, but as for watching them I believe there is a hobby common to all of us which I find to be more compelling (that hobby, of course, being R*****y M*******g)

2 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

• Sports as a means of staying healthy - if that's your thing
• Sports as a prelude to visiting the pub - no
• Sports watching in the pub - no
• Professional sports - not really
• Sports fans - definitely no as they seem at the moment to be a vector in COVID spread
• Obsession with sport - no - it's too akin to warfare

Are you channelling the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett by any chance? His great character - Lord Vetenari, enlightened despot* of Ankh-Mopork - observed that the sole purpose of any sort of sport or exercise was simply to maintain health, keep the bowels regular and prevent the individual from becoming a burden to it the state!
* Lord Vetenari is firm believer in the democratic principle of “one man, one vote“. Lord Vetenari is the man and he has the vote…

Reading in Terry Pratchett’s novels how Lord Vetenari manages to efficiently and effectively govern the ongoing chaos that is Ankh-Mopork has prompted more than a few readers of TP’s works to observe that Lord Vetenari would be a better choice to run any country than practically any modern politician you could name….

5 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Lunch included Jalapeño sauce and raw onions. Who knew? Makes your eyes water so much you forget about hay fever briefly. 

Also a useful tool when your nose is all bunged up by a cold. An onion and chilli relish (or any other sort of dish in which they play a major role) will certainly have the beneficial effect of clearing out the sinuses. Depending on how bad the cold is, it may be necessary to upgrade to something like a Scotch Bonnet Chilie or similar.

 

Off to prepare dinner for Mrs iD, alas without chilies, so I bid you a pleasant Sunday evening

[Danemouth]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Happy anniversary Dave and Mrs Danemouth.  I hope you didn't fall for all that commercial stuff and actually give her some rubies but did it properly with a card and a hug  

 

No Mike, we've decided to invest the money in having some work done on the house

 

However I did buy her some flowers and a couple of bottles of Mateus Rose and received a bottle of Penderyn in return.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

Edited June 27, 2021 by Danemouth

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, JohnDMJ said:

What's your job? I kick an inflated pig's bladder around a grassy area for up to 90 minutes, sometimes longer.

In many cases the job only involves watching the ball for that time. It is perfectly possible to complete the duration without having made contact with it. 
 

46 minutes ago, laurenceb said:

Congratulations to Mrs & Mr Danemouth

Similarly wished from the Hill of Strawberries where a suitably-charged glass has been raised over a roasted woollybeast. 
 

 

[JohnDMJ]

1 minute ago, Gwiwer said:

In many cases the job only involves watching the ball for that time. It is perfectly possible to complete the duration without having made contact with it.

 

I know, I exaggerated slightly! With 22 jobsworths and only one pig's bladder, they are right to share it! Gives them all an equal chance of going off injured cos they miskicked said bladder and broke a toe nail!

[Gwiwer]

In other news I received a text message (apparently) originating from a mobile phone number not ten minutes ago. 
 

“Hermes” has apparently missed my delivery today and requires a £1.45 “redelivery fee” to be paid for an item I am not expecting. 
 

Not content with that a voice call was received from the same number. I diverted it straight to auto-reply. Just to remind folks that my recorded message starts with “Welcome to the phishing and nuisance call detection service. Your call has been traced for immediate enforcement……..”

[Tony_S]

The secondary school I went to had a Latin motto which was strange as Latin wasn’t taught there. The school badge was a lightning bolt piercing a gear wheel with Discimus Faciendo underneath. 

[J. S. Bach]

9 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

...snip... Or the brown envelope was nicely full, thus costing less than laying the pavements....

Over here they are (usually) white!

[New Haven Neil]

4 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Over here they are (usually) white!

 

Always brown here!

[Coombe Barton]

... and filling (lots of) holes ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/06/27/new-faces/

 

[J. S. Bach]

Congratulations to Mrs & Mr Danemouth.