Early Risers.

[simontaylor484]

Just had an amusing email in the old spam box.

It purported to be from DHL but the logo on it was in the same style as DHL but was BHL. It was accompanied by a picture of a brown UPS truck.

It was deleted immediately 

[Pacific231G]

1 hour ago, BoD said:

For some reason I don’t think they would ever think that a good idea in this country.  A 14 day  first class rover is/was £1250.

 

Making rail transport easier and cheaper would ….  Oops … sorry … heading into forbidden territory.

Indeed. The lower orders would start moving around just as the Duke of Wellington feared and he thought that would probably lead to revolution. Mind you the 5th Duke of Wellington, also Arthur Wellesley, was president of a right wing group in the 1930s that supported Nazism and I certainly won't repeat his comment on the cause of WW2 here.

The first Duke rather changed his mind about railways after George Hudson  helped him to make a great deal of money by advising him when to buy and sell railway shares.

Edited June 12, 2022 by Pacific231G

[Dave Hunt]

I had an email today telling me that if I wanted to keep my access to Sky I would have to agree to the new terms and conditions, available by clicking on a link. Bit of a giveaway as I don't actually subscribe to Sky.....

 

This afternoon Jill and a pal went for a walk that I reckoned would take them a couple of hours plus but I stayed at home to 'get a few essential jobs done'. The cunning plan was that the jobs would take a bit under an hour, leaving me an hour and a half or so in the railway room/workshop. Within a minute of them leaving I was down to the workshop like a rat up a drainpipe but then, calamity - a few minutes in to some modelmaking Jill returned for something she had forgotten!  You're nicked me old son as Jamie would have said with the result that another job was added to the list. Ah, well at least I still managed about half an hour working on the models. 

 

Dave

 

[polybear]

2 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 Check out the video of Mark Higgins lap in a  Subaru . Average of 128.73 MPH ,

lap time of 17-35 . Speeds of 170 + in places .

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRg5Sp1iQMc

 

 

Makes you realise just how talented, sorry, f. nuts the bike guys are - add 30-40mph to the top speed, with no steel box, race harness and full roll cage surrounding you.  This racer met a pigeon going the wrong way at 200mph (him,not the pigeon...):

https://talksport.com/sport/motorsport/1126955/isle-of-man-tt-rider-200mph-pigeon-crash/

[Ozexpatriate]

5 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

Conservation of angular momentum means that, unless there are forces acting outside the planet and its atmosphere, the whole system should rotate at the same speed. In this case though there are forces acting, notably the moon. So, as lunar tidal forces gradually slow the earth's rotation the  moon gets further away and the total angular momentum of the earth-moon system remains constant.  This also happens, though to a lesser extent, from interaction with the sun and the other planets.

Indeed. The human invention that *could* materially impact rotation is spacecraft. Enough spacecraft cumulatively 'borrowing' terrestrial gravity to slingshot themselves into the void theoretically would have an impact. They'd need to be very big and a lot of them.

 

The bigger problem of cumulative low earth orbit is damage to the spacecraft themselves from accumulated fragments of junk. The James Webb telescope already has had to compensate for micrometeoroid damage.

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

Today is cooler (presently 14°C) with persistent light rain all morning. It has stopped and should clear this afternoon.

 

At least the Portland Rose Festival had dry (cloudy) weather yesterday for the return of the Grand Floral Parade after a two-year hiatus. Golf in Canada is on television - much of which is quite exceptional. A lazy afternoon I think.

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[Tony_S]

34 minutes ago, polybear said:

This racer met a pigeon going the wrong way at 200mph (him,not the pigeon...):

I was on the A5 riding my motorbike doing about 70 mph when a bird hit me. It was something about starling size. It hit my upper chest, it seemed to disintegrate. I was a bit sore later, I was surprised as I wouldn’t have expected it to. My brother had a pheasant fly up and hit his helmet obscuring his vision. He stopped. As he pushed the dead bird off his helmet, the car behind asked if he could have it. 

[PhilJ W]

I've hit a pheasant before now. I'd barely stopped when the driver of the car behind me was out of his car collecting it. A car in front of me hit a pigeon and from the cloud of feathers I thought it must be dead but it quickly recovered and flew off.

[New Haven Neil]

Deano Harrison hit two birds in the Senior race, one smashed his screen and the second the fairing, he was running first on the road (TT is a time trial with riders starting at 10 second intervals, not a mass start event).  Hard lad.

[Dave Hunt]

I once had a birdstrike in Malaya when flying a Hunter. It was a bl**dy big bird (type unknown) and it  hit smack on the nose as I was doing about 420 knots. The bang was unbelievable, the windscreen was covered in blood and gore, the nose cone largely disappeared, the gun ranging radar in the  nose was smashed to bits and when the aircraft was examined back at base it was found that the  front bulkhead was distorted. That was just one of a number of birdstrikes I've had over the years but certainly a memorable one.

 

Dave

 

[BoD]

5 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

I once had a birdstrike in Malaya when flying a Hunter. It was a bl**dy big bird (type unknown) and it  hit smack on the nose as I was doing about 420 knots. The bang was unbelievable, the windscreen was covered in blood and gore, the nose cone largely disappeared, the gun ranging radar in the  nose was smashed to bits and when the aircraft was examined back at base it was found that the  front bulkhead was distorted. That was just one of a number of birdstrikes I've had over the years but certainly a memorable one.

 

Dave

 

How was the bird?

[PupCam]

Evening All!

 

14 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I take the MGB down to Brig

 

I do like a nice MGB.  Particularly in British Racing Green.   Oh, that's not what you meant? 🤔

 

7 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

So, as lunar tidal forces gradually slow the earth's rotation the  moon gets further away and the total angular momentum of the earth-moon system remains constant. 

 

Talking of the moon, I was engrossed in some more lunacy last night.   Little by little I think I'm making progress.   Anyway, this is what it looked like last night from Puppershire.

 

 

1 hour ago, polybear said:

This racer met a pigeon going the wrong way at 200mph (him,not the pigeon...):

https://talksport.com/sport/motorsport/1126955/isle-of-man-tt-rider-200mph-pigeon-crash/

 

I've clocked (chased up the road) pigeons a number of times on both 2 and 4 wheels.  I reckon they do ~ 40mph so that really wasn't going to end well for old Percy was it! 😂

 

In Other News

 

Another nice run up to the Danish Camp on the AJ with a friend to meet up with some former colleagues and scoff.     Very nice indeed apart from a slight faux pas ordering breakfast saw my Full English miraculously turn into a child's egg, sausage and beans.  Well I suppose it was better for me if nothing else.

 

Going back to back garden astronomy briefly.   I pointed the telescope to an apparently relatively empty bit of sky almost vertically above me and having tuned the exposure took 20 or so frames using my nifty automatic remote trigger.    This afternoon I've been having another crack at exposure stacking and processing.   Finally I think I may be getting somewhere!    Anyway, it turns out that there were quite a lot of very faint stars lurking there after all 😀

 

 

Night folks!

 

Alan

 

[simontaylor484]

17 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

I once had a birdstrike in Malaya when flying a Hunter. It was a bl**dy big bird (type unknown) and it  hit smack on the nose as I was doing about 420 knots. The bang was unbelievable, the windscreen was covered in blood and gore, the nose cone largely disappeared, the gun ranging radar in the  nose was smashed to bits and when the aircraft was examined back at base it was found that the  front bulkhead was distorted. That was just one of a number of birdstrikes I've had over the years but certainly a memorable one.

 

Dave

 

Change of flying suit required?

[Ozexpatriate]

14 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

... it  hit smack on the nose as I was doing about 420 knots.

Nasty. Better than an engine intake perhaps?

 

Alaska Airlines has a famous story about an inflight fish strike (presumed salmon) on the cockpit eyebrow window. It was dropped by a frightened eagle.

[Ozexpatriate]

3 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Anyway, it turns out that there were quite a lot of very faint stars lurking there after all

I'm struggling to see your nice photograph for all the grot on my laptop screen, but scrolling I can tell the stars are there. (It's a touch screen and I don't like scratching it by trying to clean it all the time.)

[Winslow Boy]

17 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Evening All!

 

 

I do like a nice MGB.  Particularly in British Racing Green.   Oh, that's not what you meant? 🤔

 

 

Talking of the moon, I was engrossed in some more lunacy last night.   Little by little I think I'm making progress.   Anyway, this is what it looked like last night from Puppershire.

 

 

 

I've clocked (chased up the road) pigeons a number of times on both 2 and 4 wheels.  I reckon they do ~ 40mph so that really wasn't going to end well for old Percy was it! 😂

 

In Other News

 

Another nice run up to the Danish Camp on the AJ with a friend to meet up with some former colleagues and scoff.     Very nice indeed apart from a slight faux pas ordering breakfast saw my Full English miraculously turn into a child's egg, sausage and beans.  Well I suppose it was better for me if nothing else.

 

Going back to back garden astronomy briefly.   I pointed the telescope to an apparently relatively empty bit of sky almost vertically above me and having tuned the exposure took 20 or so frames using my nifty automatic remote trigger.    This afternoon I've been having another crack at exposure stacking and processing.   Finally I think I may be getting somewhere!    Anyway, it turns out that there were quite a lot of very faint stars lurking there after all 😀

 

 

Night folks!

 

Alan

 

 

Dandruff Mr Puppers? Or you've not made a good enough job wiping up the bat poo

Edited June 12, 2022 by Winslow Boy
B........y auto correct.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land.  Its been known to rain fish, apparently its not an uncommon occurrence.

 https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/12/31/fish-falling-from-sky-texarkana/9062273002/  

Getting ready for the trip to Ipswich next Saturday, luckily I was able to fill the car up before the price was raised once again. Weather forecast is that its going to be very hot, 31C. on Friday, just keep fingers, toes and anything else crossed that the A12 will not be too busy.

[Winslow Boy]

Well that was different to one of normal Sundays.

 

DD got her long walk around the 'paddling' pool at Lowton. Nice sunny weather and I have photographic evidence to prove it but as Mr Bear would say turdycurses its not on this tablet is it.

Never mind you'll all believe me won't you!

 

So of we toddle to the christening via the byways and leafy avenues of Wiganshire only to take the wrong turn in Wigan - now look here Google you said straight on

 

Got there in the end before the synchronized swimming took place so all was well.

 

Then off to a posh hotel to catch up with what everybody's been doing and of course the free food.

Let no one say I pass up free grub.

 

Back home in time for DD to have her grub and evening patrol of the local park.

 

Wont need any help counting sheep tonight said Zebabdee

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[PhilJ W]

For all those who love a full English breakfast. 

https://thehootleeds.com/leeds/this-leeds-cafe-sells-a-full-english-breakfast-inside-a-hollowed-out-loaf-of-bread/?fbclid=IwAR23hMI5MPu3JNWwTPT6D9EFRmahsDI2-cXmH3fX7INkaBYDtenss-mnmGE

[andyram]

Evening all and I hope that this post finds you well. Today has been ok. I was up early to drive over to Matlock Bath for a 10am opening. Sarah has often questioned my reasoning behind having my earliest start on a Sunday. It owes much to my earlier days, rising early to play 5 a side football. I am used to early Sunday starts. In addition I like to offer the early opening to modellers so they can come to the shop before the place gets busy with tourists and motorbikes. The local cafe is always open for breakfast too!

 

 Having said all of the above, I was starting to question the early opening too. Very few had taken advantage of this opportunity since I restarted Sunday opening in April. On the drive over I contemplated the pros and cons of opening a little later. On arrival,I found a customer on the doorstep. It just goes to show you can never predict anything!

 

 The day was busy and I was late closing with customers still coming in sometime the planned 4pm closure resulting an acceptable day. Further good news is that some of held funds from EBay have been released. Not before time. 
 

Tomorrow will be a call to the regulator about the issues with Sky. Their complaints team are due to call by Tuesday to give me an update. When they call, they will also be asked why I was not offered the three months free I am due as i domestic customer of 19 years standing. I will be interested by their excuse.

 

Night all.

 

Andy

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well the weather has been very kind to me today, if so what blowy. The garden is looking a lot tidier now and the roses are really starting to show themselves. A second wheelbarrow full of cuttings and weeds was taken to the green bin this afternoon, it’s now looking pretty full, but if I squashed it all down there’s still plenty of room, although I doubt I’ll be putting much more in this week, maybe the odd weed or dead flower perhaps. 

 

Here are a couple of photos, the first one is of the shady garden, beside the path that leads to the cellar. 

 

This one is of the patio and fireplace. 

 

 

 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[Ozexpatriate]

11 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

This one is of the patio and fireplace. 

Which looks very nice with all the greenery now grown in full.

[Ozexpatriate]

I dare not show photographs of my patio moss farm. 

 

When it isn't a rainy day, I will motivate myself to go after an annual Himalayan blackberry* cane (growing from under the neighbour's fence from a spot neither of us can really reach) and a thistle that I 'suddenly' noticed. (It's about 3' / 1m tall.) There is much work to do.

 

* An exceptionally well adapted invasive species here. It's everywhere rigourous weeding is not in place.

 

With all the Spring rain (not complaining) the flowers and flowering shrubs have become very droopy with all the additional weight of the rain and insufficient sun. The week ahead has more hours of sunshine forecast.