Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

We have several bird baths of different depths - the ickle jobs like wrens and spuggies go for the shallow bowls, the fat pigeon for the deepest, the medium job works for the like of the starlings.  Woody doesn't seem to like a bath though, never seen him down in the garden.

[New Haven Neil]

Todays entertainment was an archery round at the alternative course we don't often go to, as it is a bit rough for us older broken types, and basically impossible for us if it is wet.  However it is nice and dry and we thought we would have a round there before the vegetation gets too thick, it is very remote - well, as remote as you can get on an island 32 miles long - and nobody else uses the land but us, it belongs to the family of the couple that run the club.

 

Be afraid.....

 

 

Very....

 

Edited May 8, 2022 by New Haven Neil

[Coombe Barton]

... and having done the freezer, I now feel pretty chilled ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2022/05/08/rate-of-case-decrease-minimal/

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

…Wealth is a burden ... allow me to relieve you of that burden... please make cheques payable to ... 

Consider yourself as minor royalty, as in you are 132556789th in line….

2 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

..Or is it due to your [Yorkshire?] wallet being fiercer than an angry SWMBO on steroids and as protective of your cash as a mother of her young? 

My wallet, and not many people know this, is made out of a special leather  obtained by breeding a Yorkshire cow with a Scottish bull. Not only is it almost impossible to get money out of a wallet made with that sort of leather but you also have to undergo special training to be able to stand any sort of chance of getting your cash back

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

Wealth is a burden ... allow me to relieve you of that burden... please make cheques payable to ... 

I am more than happy to do so.

but in order to make you the lucky recipient of £100,000, I will need the following:

• Your bank account number
• Your pin code
• Your account password

And

• A postal order for £5000 (To cover administrative costs – this will be refunded)

Please send all details to:
 

CCI GmbH (Nigeria)

Department of Fiscal Probity

For the Attention of the Prince

Lagos

 

 

[The White Rabbit]

14 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Consider yourself as minor royalty, as in you are 132556789th in line….

 

Pah... and there was me figuring on being 13256789th in line... 

 

15 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

My wallet, and not many people know this, is made out of a special leather  obtained by breeding a Yorkshire cow with a Scottish bull. Not only is it almost impossible to get money out of a wallet made with that sort of leather but you also have to undergo special training to be able to stand any sort of chance of getting your cash back

 

I think you might want to 'speak' to your minions, as that sounds very like the standard spec for any Yorkshireman's wallet... As a self-respecting super-villain, I anticipate you'd aspire to higher standards? 

 

9 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I am more than happy to do so.

but in order to make you the lucky recipient of £100,000, I will need the following:

• Your bank account number
• Your pin code
• Your account password

And

• A postal order for £5000 (To cover administrative costs – this will be refunded)

Please send all details to:
 

CCI GmbH (Nigeria)

Department of Fiscal Probity

For the Attention of the Prince

Lagos

 

Certainly. PM sent. BTW, I assume this was the original term for the General Organisation of Nigerian Astronauts in Distress Department, prior to the re-organisation? 

[Pacific231G]

8 hours ago, grandadbob said:

Good morning all,

Lovely sunny day here and it looks like I'll be spending some time in the garden.

Rugby watched over the weekend, some of it enjoyed, some not so much TB.

Friends from over the road came for a drink or two last night and stayed until 12.45am.  A good time was had even though I'm on soft drinks for a week. They've never been on a cruise and were thinking of going on one to Norway so were asking questions about our recent trip.

 

 

I've never been to Butlin's Flavio but I have been on several "big boats"  and suspect they bear as much resemblance to each other as I do to a brain surgeon.  If Butlin's have got  menus like this then perhaps they're not that bad? 🤔😃😋

 

 

Sample menu (changed daily) in the 4 main dining rooms on P & O's Iona.  There are (I think)16 other dining venues with other types of food and menus including CHIPS).   You can go and eat whenever you like, just use their app to book and you'll be told how many people are waiting in front of you and are then called when your table is ready.  The longest wait we had was 20 minutes.  If you just want a quick bite at some of those places you can just turn up and get a meal.  Yes, these ships are huge and certainly not for everybody but we like them and we've never found them to be too overcrowded even when full.  Currently P & O are only running at 75% capacity and keeping the other cabins free just in case they're needed for quarantine.  We weren't aware of any major problems on our last 2 cruises but then I suppose they'd hardly advertise it unless there was a really serious outbreak.

Time to get out in the garden.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

 

Are P&O cruises part of the same company that runs P&O ferries? If so I'm afraid I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole after their recent shennanigans. My sister and BinL have been on many cruises with Fred Olsen and always enjoyed them but I'm afraid cruising has never appealed to me (neither has Butins for that matter but each to their own)

 

I was going to do a load of ediitng today but, after a very pleasant 6 km walk along the GUC and through the meadows between it and Horsended Hill, I discovered that the garden fence had come adrift  (next door neigbour's  responsibility but owned by an HMO landlord with, it is said, 150 such properties in the area and no regard for the state of said properties) so spent a fruitful couple of hours fixing it. One of the posts had rotted at its base so two panels of the fence had been swaying in the breeze for a while but I couldn't figure  out how to secure it. Today I found a couple of iron fence stakes that had been hiding from me behind the garden shed for months so hammered one of them a couple of feet into the ground and fixed the post to it by drilling bolt holes through it and securing it to the stake with a metal strap. Quite a lot of work with the B&D drill required even to enlarge the holes in the metal strap which were of course too small for the stainelss steel coach bolts I found lurking in the "things that might come in useful box) I can't remember what, if anything,  the coach bolts had been bought for, possibly joining bseboards, but being inox they should survive for a few months.

In any case, it was far too nice a day to spend sitting at the keyboard. Lunch and afternoon tea in the garden.

Lamb shank with roasties tonight, yum yum.

 

Edited May 8, 2022 by Pacific231G

[simontaylor484]

I have set up a charity to save certain types of marine life  it is called Campaign for All Sea Horses 

 

Please forward any cheques or postal orders made payable to CASH to my address 

Thank you 

[simontaylor484]

P&O ferries and the cruise line are 2 seperate entities with completely different parent companies 

[PhilJ W]

40 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Please send all details to:
 

CCI GmbH (Nigeria)

Department of Fiscal Probity

For the Attention of the Prince

Lagos

 

 

A few months ago there was a spate of dog kidnappings locally. As if that wasn't bad enough some oink phoned up someone and demanded a ransom for their pet though it turned out he didn't have the dog. The victim smelt a rat so asked the oink for his bank details which the idiot duly gave. These were duly passed on to the police but not before also being passed on to a couple of Nigerian princes.😆

Incidentally most of the kidnapped dogs have been rescued as it was realised that most of the kidnappings took place while the travelling fraternity were in the area.

[grandadbob]

15 minutes ago, Pacific231G said:

Are P&O cruises part of the same company that runs P&O ferries? If so I'm afraid I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole after their recent shennanigans. My sister and BinL have been on many cruises with Fred Olsen and always enjoyed them but I'm afraid cruising has never appealed to me (neither has Butins for that matter but each to their own)

 

Totally different company to P & O Ferries but unfortunately a lot of people don't know this so the cruise company have a campaign going to distance themselves from the ferry company:

" The campaign aims to clarify that P&O Cruises is not affiliated with P&O Ferries and is part of an entirely separate company. P&O Cruises is owned by leisure travel firm Carnival Corporation, whereas P&O Ferries is owned by shipping and logistics business DP World."

 

Carnival Corporation own this lot:  Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises (Australia), Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard.

 

Edit:  Simon beat me to it.

Edited May 8, 2022 by grandadbob

[J. S. Bach]

10 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 ...snip... They also sell a pine needle syrup, which sounds intriguing enough to buy a bottle.

So now your pancakes/waffles will taste like Christmas trees?

[Tony_S]

40 minutes ago, Pacific231G said:

Are P&O cruises part of the same company that runs P&O ferries?

No, they are part of the company that also owns Cunard. 

Edited May 8, 2022 by Tony_S

[TheQ]

Afternoon awl. 

Having spent the day sailing, communications with Nigerian princes was  non existent .

 

It's been reasonably warm most of the time, the wind was reasonable too, though it dropped occasionally.

 

First race the jib extension stuck again, or to be more precise was sticky, I think the varnish hadn't gone hard. Couldn't get enough forestay tension either.

 

Second race I rigged a string to pull the extension back in.

 

Third race I'd got irritated by bits of string so I removed everything I could, re rigged the forestay to front end of the jib club.

And...,

It worked..

Kept up much better with the fleet.

 

Fourth race, 

A few more tweeks, was with the fleet for half the race even in front for small bits.

Lost it a bit in the second half, when the light winds meant that the others taller sail area paid off.

 

I've brought the mainsail home for modification, once done it will mean the kicking strap can be used , that will improve the mainsail shape and increase the forestay tension. If the forestay is still not tight enough, then I'll fit a block and tackle below the jib club to increase the tension.

 

PS, Blue Moon is not owned by P&O ferries, nor come to that by Carnival corpse.

 

Edited May 8, 2022 by TheQ

[Winslow Boy]

7 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

They have already hit the streets. And a dangerous menace they are too. 
 

The trial-area hire ones are supposed to be speed-limited to 15mph but are, apparently, very easy to “unlock”. The hirer is also required to hold a suitable driving licence and is not permitted to allow others to ride. Yeah. You stop them. One licence holder hires, unlocks and then lets all his mates have a go seems to be the reality. 
 

All the rest remain unlawful in public areas yet there are plenty of cases recorded where they have been clocked at above 40mph. On roads. On footpaths. Even through shopping centres. And what is done about this?  
 

Nothing. 
 

The police claim not to have resources which may in part be true. They do have faster vehicles able to catch a scooter rider but the latter has the advantage of being able to duck down an alleyway. 
 

Owners of private property are very much on their own. Shopping centres often employ security but it’s the same cat-and-mouse game as with the police. The mouse always wins because the cat is too big and reacts rather than proacts. 
 

Just as with skateboards and, probably, every other form of wheeled transport there are users and users. Some are respectful and abide by the rules. Others are not and have neither care nor respect but a self-entitled “right” to do as they will. 
 

Locally we are still dealing with the aftermath of a fatality - a hired scooter hit a pedestrian who died from their injuries. The hire scooters are still parked outside the shop awaiting trade but the shop is not the most popular on the High Street. 
 

Where do we draw the line?  

 

Snipers?

 

Catapults?

 

Stingers?

 

Baseball bats?

 

Do you notice the recurring theme here 

[J. S. Bach]

A few mangonels and trebuchets would definitely be a help here.

[J. S. Bach]

7 hours ago, grandadbob said:

Garden furniture has been brought out from hibernation, uncovered and cleaned.  Now sitting in the sun with a muggatea watching a procession of aircraft heading for foreign parts from Heathrow.  The Boss has just informed me we still haven’t got enough yellow flowers!  Lots of birds hopping onto fences and looking for the missing feeding station.  There has been a major downturn in pigeon visits and deposits! 👍😄

 

I have a few spare yellow flowers in my lawn:

 

 

 

Later this month, the daisys will (hopefully) be in full bloom. I will not mow the back yard until all (or at least most all) have deadheaded. The front yard will get mowed as it is visible to others but I will set the blade at its' highest to preserve the majority of the wild rabbit food, er, clover.

 

 

[polybear]

 

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Incidentally most of the kidnapped dogs have been rescued as it was realised that most of the kidnappings took place while the travelling fraternity were in the area.

 

Shome mishtayke, shurly?  As if.......

 

1 hour ago, grandadbob said:

Totally different company to P & O Ferries but unfortunately a lot of people don't know this so the cruise company have a campaign going to distance themselves from the ferry company:

" The campaign aims to clarify that P&O Cruises is not affiliated with P&O Ferries and is part of an entirely separate company. P&O Cruises is owned by leisure travel firm Carnival Corporation, whereas P&O Ferries is owned by shipping and logistics business DP World."

 

Carnival Corporation own this lot:  Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises (Australia), Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard.

 

Edit:  Simon beat me to it.

 

And it seems that people are not only not wanting to use them for a cruise, they're not recommending them or wanting to work for them.  So P&O Cruises have been sh@fted good n' proper thru' no fault of their own.  I wonder if they'll re-name themselves in the new future?

 

Bear here.....

Another coat of paint above the Dado Rail on the remaining (window) wall + alcove; that finishes all walls above Dado Rail level (I do still have to do the window reveal).  A Happy Bear.  Tomorrow will see the wall below D.R. painted - there's a chance I'll get it finished in a day but it's more likely that the last (3rd) coat will be on Tuesday morning.  That concludes Bear's excitement for the day.....

[polybear]

31 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Snipers?

 

Catapults?

 

Stingers?

 

Baseball bats?

 

Do you notice the recurring theme here 

 

Very thin Piano Wire stretched between a couple of posts - neck height should be about right....

[polybear]

Bear's Sunday Funnies.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Polish immigrant went to the DMV to apply for a driver’s license.
First, of course, he had to take an eyesight test.
The optician showed him a card with the letters
‘C Z W I X N O S T A C Z.’
'Can you read this?’ the optician asked.
'Read it?’ the Polish guy replied, 'I know the guy.’

 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Si Attica has woken up again so Nurofen has been taken. The foxes were back this afternoon so I restored the pee line and will be giving it a boost tomorrow. Now to tackle Farcebook, be back later.

[brianusa]

12 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

After visiting a friend, we stayed overnight in a very nice hotel and had a wonderful breakfast, with fresh baked bread from the local baker and fresh cured and smoked meats from the local butcher.

 

WADR to our Euro friends, cold breakfast is not on!😟   We usually find that bacon and eggs is usually available upon request these days, no doubt a concession to non Euro visitors.  In fact the last time we were offered a fair representation of a FEB with 'cooked' meats.  Much better!  We shall come again sometime.

Lest anybody think we need to have fish and chips everywhere; not so, as we like to try different dishes, just not for breakfast!😋

    Brian.

[PhilJ W]

When I visited southern Germany nearly fifty years ago now that was the normal breakfast, a choice of cold meats together with fresh bread. We have our 'full English' but in other parts of the world breakfast traditions are different. In Barbados for example breakfast was fresh fruit picked from the trees in the hotel garden.

[simontaylor484]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Snipers?

 

Catapults?

 

Stingers?

 

Baseball bats?

 

Do you notice the recurring theme here 

Fishing line strung at neck height perhaps ?

 

Looks like polybear had a similar idea

Edited May 8, 2022 by simontaylor484
Beaten to it

[Erichill16]

10 hours ago, polybear said:

 

At least Butlin's have got Chips.....

 

 

And The Exploited.

Cant see them on a cruise ship though, a bit ‘niche’