Early Risers.

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from a cloudy LBG.

 

Work continues but my boss was made redundant - he's now winding down. The theory is we can do without his position which means I and y colleagues will report directly to the main board. Who are busy enough I suspect without having to deal with us.

 

I predict we'll have someone new sooner or later.

 

The boss seems OK about it now it's sunk in. He's realised there is a lot of tricky stuff coming in the tax world that he no longer has to care about; no kids, no mortgage, no need to work - he has time to work out what he would like to do next!

[TheQ]

Meanwhile in my world the mechanical design engineer has put his notice in with just the minimum notice.

 

My boss is now on a fortnights holiday and when he comes back it's down to 2 days a week.

 

The guy they want to take over from him has had no offer of increased pay, so he says he's not going to do it..

 

87 working days left...

[Pacific231G]

6 hours ago, The Lurker said:

It would have been the cricket. And as the Windies were in the middle of making Tony Greig grovel, perhaps all would have been forgiven. And Mars was even drier than SE England that year!

Yes it probably was, unless the live cricket coverage was on BBC-2, as Grandstand used to feature a number of sports . In NC-1 (the BBC-1 network control room), Grandstand usually made Saturday afternoons very peaceful because they generally just looked after themselves and came out bang on time, followed by a flurry of activity at the end with trailers etc. before running the next programme.  That afternoon was different because we didn't know until about ten minutes before exactly when the first images from Mars would arrive and there had been a decision to go live with them whatever was happening on the sports front. Technically the images weren't quite live because they were scanned from the camera either in monochrome or with three colour filters in turn and transmitted back to earth line by line. I think JPL also had to do some processing on them before release.

 

It's cloudy here now but the sun did peep out this morning and I managed to mow the lawn with the hand mower (far better exercise than the hover mover and no mucking around with cables!)

For my morning exercise I must of course than Edwin Beard Budding from Stroud who was also responsible for football hooligans, all those endless hours wasted watching England's batting collapse and, worst of all Wimbledon. 

By inventing the lawn mower (patented in 1830), in order to produce a smoother surface for sports fields than could be achieved with a scythe,  Mr. Budd enabled all those sports, which had of course existed in a primitive form long before, to be played on fields consistent enough for them to be codified and organised into leagues etc.  Though it now seems to involve a lot of mowing I don't think we can blame Budding for that worst of all sports, golf as that seems to have established itself before the greens could be properly mown and I suppose we really should thank him that we ended up with cricket rather than baseball.  

 

 

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Pacific231G

[simontaylor484]

Grandstand I can just see the teleprinter football and rugby scores now. Saturday afternoon was Wrestling on ITV instead. 

[BoD]

47 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I thought perhaps it was some dialect term I was unaware of until I remembered what letters were adjacent to “n”.

Crumbs. You don’t mean Baz has gone to his makers do you?

[polybear]

Bear here......

One out of three door frames now has architrave attached - it's come out well (one of the corners isn't spot-on, but "wants looking for" from normal viewing distances;  the use of mirror screws with flat chrome caps to secure the architrave worked well, but is slightly "in yer face" at the moment - Bear will soon hopefully get used to it though.

 

Buddy ex-next door phoned earlier too, for a brief talk; he & his SWMBO are off to their apartment in France imminently for 2 months - and since she has to come back to the UK regularly for work reasons there's a fair chance that a certain Bear will get a week out there at some point, which will be pretty good if it happens.

Edited June 9, 2022 by polybear

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I've been looking online at some retirement properties. I'm looking at three different areas, local (South Essex) Hornchurch/Romford and Ipswich. The rents seem quite reasonable £500-600 a month when you consider the full time warden and some other facilities provided. I will be contacting them to see what else that covers such as central heating or even council tax. The only problem is that a few of them have waiting lists. I've also contacted some local estate agents for a valuation on the house, One at £290,000 two at £295,000 and one at £300,000. As my brother is also looking for sheltered accommodation I'll be talking to him about it.  

[polybear]

Bear would suggest that GDB doesn't try this at home......

 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/video/viral/guy-performs-amazing-tricks-on-his-unicycle/vi-AAYesoW?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=1180f6bf0bca46a6a9053e93098682ff&category=foryou

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, BoD said:

Crumbs. You don’t mean Baz has gone to his makers do you?

Or maybe here?  

 

https://www.mwrpc.org

[iL Dottore]

Captain Cynical is MOST unhappy - the ER thread has been bereft of doggy photos for quite some time. No Ben, no Pebbles, no Rolo, no Poppy, no Sydney....... 😠

 

And when Captain Cynical is unhappy, he shares the unhappiness around - painfully!

 

Therefore, unless @TheQ, @simontaylor484, @Kelly , @Erichill16(and others) post doggy photos within the next 24 hours, ER will be in a world of hurt.

 

You have been notified!

 

Captain Cynical

 

NOTE Cat photos are NOT an acceptable substitute and may only be posted if the cat in the photo is accompanied by a dog!

 

[polybear]

7 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Therefore, unless @TheQ, @simontaylor484, @Kelly , @Erichill16(and others) post doggy photos within the next 24 hours, ER will be in a world of hurt.

 

 

 

Will this do?

 

[Gwiwer]

Woof

[AndrewC]

13 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Captain Cynical is MOST unhappy - the ER thread has been bereft of doggy photos for quite some time. No Ben, no Pebbles, no Rolo, no Poppy, no Sydney....... 😠

 

And when Captain Cynical is unhappy, he shares the unhappiness around - painfully!

 

Therefore, unless @TheQ, @simontaylor484, @Kelly , @Erichill16(and others) post doggy photos within the next 24 hours, ER will be in a world of hurt.

 

You have been notified!

 

Captain Cynical

 

NOTE Cat photos are NOT an acceptable substitute and may only be posted if the cat in the photo is accompanied by a dog!

 

I always thought he was barking. 

 

Oh come on, someone was going to say it eventually. 

[TheQ]

What's the doggy word for GROAN?

[Erichill16]

Been sleeping in spare bed of late. Someone has been keeping my side of the bed warm. Sydney this morning

 

 

[simontaylor484]

[Gwiwer]

8 minutes ago, TheQ said:

What's the doggy word for GROAN?

Judging by the mutt upstairs it's some sort of canine exhalation with vocals approximating to "URGHHH" 🙄

[PhilJ W]

55 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Captain Cynical is MOST unhappy - the ER thread has been bereft of doggy photos for quite some time. No Ben, no Pebbles, no Rolo, no Poppy, no Sydney....... 😠

 

And when Captain Cynical is unhappy, he shares the unhappiness around - painfully!

 

Therefore, unless @TheQ, @simontaylor484, @Kelly , @Erichill16(and others) post doggy photos within the next 24 hours, ER will be in a world of hurt.

 

You have been notified!

 

Captain Cynical

 

NOTE Cat photos are NOT an acceptable substitute and may only be posted if the cat in the photo is accompanied by a dog!

 

Heres a couple to be getting on with.

[The Lurker]

3 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

Yes it probably was, unless the live cricket coverage was on BBC-2, as Grandstand used to feature a number of sports . In NC-1 (the BBC-1 network control room), Grandstand usually made Saturday afternoons very peaceful because they generally just looked after themselves and came out bang on time, followed by a flurry of activity at the end with trailers etc. before running the next programme.  That afternoon was different because we didn't know until about ten minutes before exactly when the first images from Mars would arrive and there had been a decision to go live with them whatever was happening on the sports front. Technically the images weren't quite live because they were scanned from the camera either in monochrome or with three colour filters in turn and transmitted back to earth line by line. I think JPL also had to do some processing on them before release.

 

 

I do remember the Mars surface pictures - but probably from Newsround in the week. I seem to recall that space stories were given lots of Newsround coverage, especially a few years later when they showed shuttle launches as well.

 

Grandstand was big in our house, more in the winter; we watched the rugby league and were then allowed to turn over to Play Away, but back for the glories of the teleprinter!

 

As the weather was good in the summer of 76 I suspect my Dad would have been playing cricket, as I would I over the local rec with my mates. That was one of the summers I spent mainly playing cricket; the dad of one of the boys in my year was groundsman at the rec and one summer he rolled us our own strip between the pavilion and the main square. That clearly wasn't 76 because I remember us finding an old cardboard box and using it as covers on our strip when it rained - not something that was a problem in 76!

[BoD]

 

Fifteen and a half now.  Blind as a bat, deaf as a post, legs have started to give way occasionally and he bumps into or falls over things.  BUT … for as long as he isn’t suffering he will get all the love  and attention he deserves.

 

[simontaylor484]

Timed must be hard

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-61747092

[PhilJ W]

How about some puppies?

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by PhilJ W

[PeterBB]

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Woof

Are you barking mad?

[iL Dottore]

12 minutes ago, PeterBB said:

Are you barking mad?

He’s beyond Barking, Peter. He’s gone full Dagenham – three stops beyond Barking

[iL Dottore]

58 minutes ago, BoD said:

 

Fifteen and a half now.  Blind as a bat, deaf as a post, legs have started to give way occasionally and he bumps into or falls over things.  BUT … for as long as he isn’t suffering he will get all the love  and attention he deserves.

 

What a lovely old boy. Senior dogs deserve a love (and treat) filled retirement. Apart from the normal, age related, infirmities as long as they are healthy, not in pain and happy with their lot, then let them live out their lives for as long as it will stretch!

And after a lifetime of faithful companionship, dealing with canine blindness, doggy deafness* & dementia and the occasional spot of incontinence is but a small repayment for what they give to us over their lives!

 

Those people who dump old dogs at shelters just because they are old are deserving of our contempt - if not more.

 

* One has to be careful when diagnosing doggy deafness: they may have some hearing loss, but a lot of the time (at least with Lucy and Schotty) doggy deafness is like central heating: it is turned on when it is needed! 🤣