Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

There seems to be a history of paranoia in Russia going back to the October Revolution in 1917.

I'm no politics student but 

Trotsky assassinated 

The Royal Family assassinated

The murder of the officer classes and White Russians 

Stalin's various purges leaving millions dead

The Katyn Forest massacre of Polish intellectuals, Army officers.

The occupation of Eastern Europe post war 

Is it a National trait one has to wonder ?

Don't forget Stalin's Ukrainian Geocide (Holodomor) when he closed the borders of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic during the great famine in 1932-1933 where about 3.5M Ukrainians died.

 

Also worth noting is where much of the fighting in the Russian Civil war on what was known as the "Southern Front" took place and with whom.

 

An adjunct Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Ukraine-Central Powers), separate from Brest-Litovsk (Russia-Central Powers) which recognized the Bolshevik Russian State was signed where the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire) recognized Ukraine as a neutral state. There would then be the Soviet-Ukrainian War or War of Ukrainian Independence, depending on your point of view.

 

EDIT:

The Eastern Front in 1917 bisected what is now western Ukraine. (Lemberg in the linked map is Lviv.)

 

Edited February 28, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

9 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Wasnt there an incident when a rocket was fired from Norway for scientific purposes and tge Soviets thought it was a pre emptive strike and nearly came to pressing the button

Black Brant - January 25, 1995.

[Mike Bellamy]

9 hours ago, Kelly said:

Sounds pretty sensible. My parents had to do similar and needed my brother to go get stuff down for them. My father had stashed all sorts of things up there! 

 

Father-in-law once owned a holiday caravan at Skegness which was rented out to family and friends. It was sold at least 30 years ago. Last year we removed all the bedding he had saved up in the loft . . . . . . . . 

 

5 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

 *He was well known on the model railway circuit, known by all, including some ER's as 'Wheels'.

 

Yes I remember Brian - a one time regular at 7mm Narrow Gauge Shows - didn't his layout "Hollies End" have a connection to the group of the same name ?

.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

Wasnt there an incident when a rocket was fired from Norway for scientific purposes and tge Soviets thought it was a pre emptive strike and nearly came to pressing the button

Then there was that  incident in 1981 when Trevor Chappell bowled the last ball of the final of the  Benson and Hedges  one day international  series  to Kiwi tail-ender Brian Mckenzie underarm,  thus denying him the chance of hitting  a six to tie the match . Geez talk bout the nonstop outrage coming from the other side of the Tasman, if the Kiwis had of had nukes I'd still be glowing in the dark. 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Don't forget Stalin's Ukrainian Geocide (Holodomor) when he closed the borders of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic during the great famine in 1932-1933 where about 3.5M Ukrainians died.

 

 

Bear saw a report earlier (can't find in now ) that said that there are Russians baling across the border PDQ before the curtain comes down again....

[jamie92208]

I used to say that the contentsvof our loft in Gildersome  would be my revenge on the kids when they put me in a care home.  That didn't wok because we moved. It took 2 skips and several days of work to clear it.

 

As to rewards forvlong setbice. I did eventually get extra annual leave days up to a total of 29 days per year. I also got the 'not getting found out' medal aka the long service and good conduct medal after 22.5 yrs service. About the time I was due to retire I got the Queen's golden jubilee medal and that's it.  My pension is my main reward.

 

On another tack completely, I  had a great lunctime meeting with Dave Hunt and Happy Hippo.  The world was put to rights and coffee cakes and panninis were consumed.  Dave wil hopefully be posting again soon.

 

Jamie

[TheSignalEngineer]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

I'd love to know how Currys etc. expect you to store a box for a 75" telly - ever tried getting one of those thru' a loft hatch? 

Must be nearly as big as a box for transporting a Mountain Bike.

 

2 hours ago, polybear said:

FIFA and UEFA have booted all Ruskie Teams out of the kick-ball 

I thought Mr McCoist summed up the previous FIFA statement rather well on Talk Sport.

"Football  Union of Russia"

 

On to more serious subjects. The Head of the Culinary Arts Department has been at work.

 We have fresh Cake. Good job because I had just accomplished my annual task of almost single-handedly demolishing a 23cm iced Ch-----as Cake by the end of February.

[monkeysarefun]

Lismore Mcdonalds when its sunny compared to at the moment. (from the Guardian)

 

[Ozexpatriate]

4 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Lismore McDonalds when its sunny compared to at the moment.

Mum's family are from the Northern Rivers of NSW. One of her late Aunts lived in Lismore. We used to visit occasionally when I was little.

[polybear]

22 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I used to say that the contentsvof our loft in Gildersome  would be my revenge on the kids when they put me in a care home.  That didn't wok because we moved. It took 2 skips and several days of work to clear it.

 

Every time Bear goes into Beamland (aka the loft - I was up there earlier) I think "Buddy Hell, look at this lot" 

I must have a clear out; the only problem is that everything up there "is useful"....

 

22 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

....and good conduct medal.....

 

"Good conduct"??  C'mon Jamie - this is us you're talking to.......

 

In other news.....

Bear *may* have to do some small amounts of "touching in" on the coving - just an extra coat localised over some of the in-line joints; it all depends on how they appear in the morning - which seems to be dependent upon light level & source (daylight or leccy light).

 

After that Bear wants to sort thru' the muddling tool collection in search of the most suitable candidates for etched brass kits.  It could take some time....

 

And finally.....

There are reports (and video) on the News that a certain A55hole has resorted to the use of cluster bombs on civilian areas...

[monkeysarefun]

10 minutes ago, polybear said:

There are reports (and video) on the News that a certain A55hole has resorted to the use of cluster bombs on civilian areas...

Also seen images of rocket launchers capable of firing thermobaric warheads being transported into Ukraine. That'd be  a horrible way to go.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Si Attica has been brought out by the rain, Nurofen has been deployed.

1 hour ago, Mike Bellamy said:

Yes I remember Brian - a one time regular at 7mm Narrow Gauge Shows - didn't his layout "Hollies End" have a connection to the group of the same name ?

He was a great Hollies fan, I think he was mates with one of them. He was quite a character and being confined to a wheelchair didn't seem to stop him getting up to mischief.

[polybear]

17 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Also seen images of rocket launchers capable of firing thermobaric warheads being transported into Ukraine. That'd be  a horrible way to go.

 

Plus:

"A huge convoy of Russian armour, nearly 17 miles long, is advancing on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, satellite images show"

 

[Coombe Barton]

... Last week I let it be known that I would be addressing assessment questions in today’s lecture. 69 students showed up. ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2022/02/28/severity-of-the-variants/

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Barry O]

Good to hear we may see the return of @Dave Hunt.

 

When I worked for a company who now builds submarines in Barrow I had past service in St Evenage (rocket things) and Vickers (tank things). My total of 20 years service went unnoticed by HR as they had no records.. which is probably why an old colleague used a decent lawyer to get compensation for industrial deafness from the company..

 

Notice on the video today bomblets going off in a city in Ukraine..and that when a Russian T series tank is hit by a shell from an identical Ukranian vehicle the armour doesn't stop the round.. that's why you do"fire at" trials..oops!

 

Baz

Edited March 1, 2022 by Barry O
Spellung

[monkeysarefun]

14 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Notice on the video today bomblets going off in a city in Ukraine..and that when a Russian T series tank is hit by a shell from an identical Ukranian vehicle the armour doesn't stop the round.. that's why you do"fire at" trials..oops!

 

Someone needs to show that to the Russian developers of the online game "World  Of Tanks" where any Russian tank is capable of stopping  any round whilst in itself having laser like accuracy so a T34 can penetrate the front of a Tiger 2 from about 1000m, then  if the Tiger responds with its 88mm gun the round will encounter the mysterious "cloak of dispersion" that all Russian tanks in the game have and just disappear magically. 

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

By the time I’d got to Sainsbury’s this morning, the rain had stopped. The rain stayed away until just before 4 o’clock, when it started up again, accompanied by some fairly strong winds. Thankfully, the winds were short lived and all seems calmer now and it stopped raining a few hours ago. 

 

The afternoon was spent reading, again gathering information about to airbrush skies and back scenes. I’m hoping to be able to do a few practice pieces in the next few weeks. My intention is to set up my easel on the workshop deck, fix a few pieces of pre-painted (both blue and white) sheets of lining paper and give it a try. I’m hoping that I’ll soon get the hang of it as well seeing which method I prefer, ie, white on blue or blue on white. 

 

I only got 1 long service award, for 25 years and that was 12 months overdue! Apart from a certificate, I got a pen and £500 in company shares. I still have them along with shares I bought using the share-save scheme, they’re quite a nice little earner. However, during my service, my holiday entitlement was increased with my service, until I reached 15 years service, which gave me the maximum 33 days (plus 8 bank holidays) per year. 

 

Earlier today, I read that the next round of sanctions against Russia, will also be applied to some of the Belarusian politicians who’ve assisted Putin. But then, if you lie down with dogs, you’ll get fleas. 

[monkeysarefun]

41 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

I only got 1 long service award, for 25 years and that was 12 months overdue! Apart from a certificate, I got a pen and £500 in company shares. I still have them along with shares I bought using the share-save scheme, they’re quite a nice little earner. However, during my service, my holiday entitlement was increased with my service, until I reached 15 years service, which gave me the maximum 33 days (plus 8 bank holidays) per year

Did  you not even get long service leave there, seems a bit miserable and illegal of them.

 

: (hmmm, reading from Wiki it looks like Long service leave  might be a special  Australian thing, so probably not illegal, just miserable...)

 

In Australia, long service leave (LSL) is an employee entitlement to an additional vacation on full pay after an extended period of service with an employer. Employees are generally entitled to long service leave over and above their annual leave if they work for a particular employer for a certain length of time. A common entitlement is that employees who remain with the one employer for ten years are entitled to three calendar months' (ninety days) paid LSL, less on a pro rata basis, the longer they stay with that employer. When a worker ceases work with an employer, he or she is usually entitled to be paid the amount of LSL entitlement not taken on termination on a pro rata basis, though usually after a minimum period of service.

It remains one of the great entitlements for working Australians and one that is peculiar to the Australian labour market. The rules governing long service leave entitlements vary for different employees depending on their circumstances and the relevant jurisdiction.

 

Many people haven't claimed  it when they leave a position  after 10 years so get 3 months pay handed to them -  you should give it a go..

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[TheSignalEngineer]

When my Dad retired from the Fire Service he had done 25 years.  Just before he was due to finish the Chief told him that unfortunately he wouldn't get a long service award (although he already had the Fire Service medal for long service) because when he joined it was still the National Fire Service, only coming under council control 8 weeks later. His reply was "Ah, but from 1939 to 1942 I worked for the City Transport Department then from 1942 to joining the brigade I was doing military service which doesn't count as a break, so you should really have given it to me nearly three years ago."

The next day he got a call telling him to turn up the following week for the presentation.

[monkeysarefun]

12 minutes ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

When my Dad retired from the Fire Service he had done 25 years.  Just before he was due to finish the Chief told him that unfortunately he wouldn't get a long service award (although he already had the Fire Service medal for long service) because when he joined it was still the National Fire Service, only coming under council control 8 weeks later. His reply was "Ah, but from 1939 to 1942 I worked for the City Transport Department then from 1942 to joining the brigade I was doing military service which doesn't count as a break, so you should really have given it to me nearly three years ago."

The next day he got a call telling him to turn up the following week for the presentation.

No offence but gotta say from some of this mornings (my time!)  posts there  seems  to be a few tight miserable d1cks in charge over there!

Edited March 1, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[Adam88]

I was told that the Aussie tradition of long leave periods dates back to the days when visiting the mother country took several weeks by sea.  Today, even by air. it takes 24+ hours each way.

[monkeysarefun]

12 minutes ago, Adam88 said:

Today, even by air. it takes 24+ hours each way.

Thats pretty quick compared how long it takes us to get here.

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

17 hours ago, The Lurker said:

I hadn't twigged until the news reports yesterday that Ukraine seems to be strongly catholic, rather than orthodox. 

Not sure where that comes from. Ukraine's religious demographics are quite diverse with lots of regional variation.

 

According to this Wikipedia page:

Quote

... 71.7% of the population declared themselves believers. About 67.3% of the population declared adherence to one or another strand of Orthodox Christianity (28.7% of the Kyiv Patriarchate, 23.4% state simply 'Orthodox' with no declaration as to which Patriarchate they belong to, 12.8% of the Moscow Patriarchate, 0.3% Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and 1.9% other types of Orthodoxy), 7.7% Christian with no declared denominational affiliation, 9.4% Ukrainian Byzantine Rite Catholics, 2.2% Protestants and 0.8% Latin Rite Catholics, 2.5% Islam, Judaism was 0.4%; while a small percentage follow Hinduism, Buddhism and Paganism (Rodnovery). A further 11.0% declared themselves non-religious or unaffiliated.

There is a lot of "ownership" tension between different sects over the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv and it is currently a secular museum.