Early Risers.

[Winslow Boy]

1 minute ago, polybear said:

 

Sounds like an ideal compo claim case for Julia Roberts to investigate......

 

 

No offence taken; any coincidence between @grandadbob's post and the Lat-Long coordinates of GDB's Shed now being known by The Great Awl are purely coincidental.....

 

 

Any suggestion that @enz is the PR Director for Port Kembla Steel Works is being vigorously denied....🤣

 

In other news......

Highly recommended viewing:

 

BBC4 at 02-55am tomorrow - "Winterwatch 1963 - The Big Freeze"

About 45 minutes of uninterrupted B&W footage, with a bit of modern blurb at each end.  Choo Choos feature significantly, as does life in general.

No doubt it'll also be on BBC iplayer.

 

Oh I've just read this. I'm going funny and i don't mean in the Hee Hee Hah Hah kind of way.

[Barry O]

A great time has been had at the Taverners lunch and also with relatives.

 

Jonny Bairstow was a very good speaker.. his mum kept him in check..and he bought two of the auction lots. 

 

If you want to know about what pollution doest your lungs look at Port Clarence 8n Teesside or Armley asbestos factory in Leeds.. not good at all.

 

Sleep well!

 

Baz

[polybear]

Just received the latest OWL email - it seems that scrotes have nicked a catalytic converter was stolen from a vehicle within the car park at the local large Tesco Supermarket - which is usually rammed with shoppers (though it could've happened to one of the night shift workers/shoppers).  B'sterds.

Do you ever get the feeling that it's a losing battle?

Incidentally, do/did any of our fellow ER'ers who are/were ex. Police regulary have that "Why the F. did we bother?" feeling after a Judge lets off a total Scrote with a pathetic sentence?

[Darlington_Shed]

1 minute ago, polybear said:

Highly recommended viewing:

Definitely up for that... I remember the freeze - best times ever. We lived (I was 7 yrs old) in a residential close with a small green space surrounded on three sides by housing. All the local kids spent days constructing an igloo in the middle from blocks of compressed snow carved out with shovels and spades. Almost 60 years later and it's one of my clearest childhood memories.

 

Only found out, as an adult, that my parents had to burn the tyres off my dad's motorbike to keep us warm that winter.

 

Just looked on Google Maps... here it is (we lived in the penultimate house on the left-hand side; you'll have to imagine the igloo in the middle of the green):

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

MIA, busy day mostly outside and didn’t finish until 9:30 after taking nephew home from kickboxing.

Anyway Goodnight.

 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

I’ve been a bit more active today than I was yesterday, but I never managed to get any boxes put back into the storage area. Although I did re-organise the contents of several, managing to fit in the items that arrived yesterday. I also updated the inventory I have on the computer, with all my recent acquisitions. I then organised the order that I’ll put the boxes into the storage area. R-T-R coaches and trucks at the back, kits (locomotives, coaches and trucks) in the middle, followed by R-T-R locomotives. Finally, all buildings and scenery supplies will be at the front, as these will be needed before the other stuff. 

 

As we had an overnight frost last night, after dinner I hard pruned the pelargonium that lives in a pot, then put it in the workshop where it will over winter. I could have put it in the shed, but it may get forgotten and I’m more likely to remember to keep it watered if I see it regularly, which I will if it’s in the workshop. I also did a little tidying up in both the front and back gardens as we constantly get leaves blowing in off the road and trees etc. By the time I’d finished, it was starting to go dark, so I put my tools away and called it a day, then came inside for a well earned muggertea. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[Ozexpatriate]

The army/navy football game is on Saturday. Ahead of the contest the Midshipmen of the US Naval Academy pranked the Cadets by dropping ping pong balls (and "BEAT ARMY", "FLY NAVY" leaflets) by air on the West Point 'apron'. 

 

CNN: Navy carries out secret mission to drop ping pong balls on Army rivals ahead of annual football game

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[iL Dottore]

6 hours ago, polybear said:

Just received the latest OWL email - it seems that scrotes have nicked a catalytic converter was stolen from a vehicle within the car park at the local large Tesco Supermarket - which is usually rammed with shoppers (though it could've happened to one of the night shift workers/shoppers).  B'sterds.

Do you ever get the feeling that it's a losing battle?

Incidentally, do/did any of our fellow ER'ers who are/were ex. Police regulary have that "Why the F. did we bother?" feeling after a Judge lets off a total Scrote with a pathetic sentence?

I know The Bear is in favour of robust policing (and even more robust sentencing) so he might find the following from Terry Pratchett (which I paraphrase from memory) amusing:

Lord Vetinari  ruler of Ankh Mopork and Commander Vimes head of The Watch (police) are discussing apprehending a very nasty bit of work (a mega scrote if you will)

Vetinari: So it’s shoot first, ask questions later?
Vimes: There’s nothing I want to ask him.

 

And in regards to “robust sentencing” Mr Trooper, Lord Vetinari’s hangman, when asked whether or not hanging was a deterrent, replied that he didn’t know about that, but he did know that he only saw his “customers” once!

 

Terry Pratchett - definitely a great author (and so, so much better than many a Booker Prize winner) and an astute and dispassionate observer of life. A satirist beyond compare. Even after so many years (he died in 2015 - far too early), I still miss his regular publishings (two books, or more, per year without fail). When he died, I felt that I had lost a friend - a distant friend certainly, but a friend nonetheless (we had corresponded).

 

Many of his characters, despite being flawed humans, are the sort of people you wish were real. A Lord Vetenari to lead the government and a Commander Vimes to run the Police - things would only get better…. 
 

Two of Pratchett’s memorable comic characters are the veteran coppers Sergeant Colon and Corporal Nobbs and according to Pratchett, policemen he had chatted with have all said that every Police Station has a Colon and a Nobbs (mind you, we’d be better off with a Captain Carrot and a Captain Angua than with a Colon or Nobbs!)

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

1963 we were staying at my grandparents as they had medically discharged dad from the RAF and we had nowhere to live..

I opened the back door...

and was buried by a snow drift...

The house was L shaped due to added ground floor kitchen and bathroom, there was a substantial drift piled up in the corner..

 

2.5 hours , 3/4 hour, 1.5 hours 1.5 hours sleep, a good total but it would be nice to have it all in one lump..

 

Of snow drifts... we've got some a huge 1/4 inch at the sides of the roads in Norwich.

 

Ben the hurry up Collie was waiting by the back door, got half way round a full patrol when he stopped, head up in the air, looking north,  and then departed in a hurry back to the house.

I followed, let him in, then opened the gate, let the landrover out, closed the gate, got back in the landrover and before I'd got the seat belt on the heavens opened, big time... Good Timing Ben.!!!

There were enough ice crystals in the rain to form a line on the windscreen at the end of a sweep, but snow on the ground didn't appear till I reached the NDR.

 

A second system was handed back yesterday, though electronic noise appeared around 11:00 onwards,.

 

Time to go to the lab and do some reruns on this weeks system, on bits that failed due to the lab noise...

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, and an urgh 1c here. Very light with an almost full moon and no cloud cover at all.

 

The '63, I also recall mum opening the front door to a drift about five feet high.  Not much other recall of it other than watching it snow as I was only 4.

 

Nothing on the agenda today, may get a walk if it warms up a bit!

[New Haven Neil]

Oh, sentencing - P-Bear should be here.  One of the reasons this is a safe place to live, sentencing is considerably more harsh than UK Courts.  Other opinions are voiced, but no other proof has been offered.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Frosty here and it will be a dry and bright but chilly day.  Currently -2°C, may reach 3°C. 

Glad I no longer have to get up early to take The Boss to work at 05.00 .  It doesn't seem that long ago since she retired but it was actually 5 years ago today.

I was 15 in 1962/1963 and was at a party on Boxing Night when it started snowing.  My best mate got a bit drunk and I had to half carry him home through the snow about 1.00/2.00 in the morning.  Also remember getting let out of school early, just after lunch each day for a while.   Ron, our milkman, had to pull a small sledge to deliver his wares as he couldn't get the milk float through the snow and up the small hill at the end of our cul-de-sac.

ThursBinSainsday today.  Sainsbury's have already informed us that two items are not available so that means a visit to a shop at some time in the next day or two.

No major plans for today so I may well visit The Shed again.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

Edited December 9, 2022 by grandadbob

[NGT6 1315]

Moaning awl. Got an appointment later and will be back to rehab around noon. Still quite chilly outside!

 

A nationwide disaster alarm drill is scheduled for 11 am today. The last such drill in 2020 had highlighted various shortcomings in background systems, especially concerning alert messages being forwarded through civil defence phone apps. This is supposed to have been remedied by placing more emphasis on cell broadcast messages, which do not require any specific applications (though not all mobile phones support such messages either).

 

The 2020 drill had also identified a lack of public alarm sirens in numerous parts of the country. In fact, significant numbers of sirens have been withdrawn since the end of the Cold War, and in light of mobile devices having become ever more widely spread. Consequently, there are now initiatives for deploying new sirens to facilitate area warnings without having to rely on the availability of end user equipment, such as radios or phones.

 

Another major news story here is the following: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/07/german-police-raids-target-far-right-reich-citizens-movement

 

Authorities had long dismissed Reich Citizens on the whole as something of a fringe collection of crackpots, which but changed after a number of violent incidents in 2016, including a police raid where an officer was shot and killed by a Reich Citizen. Various regulations have been tightened as a result of these events, such as reviewing and revoking firearms permits previously issued to individuals identified as Reich Citizens.

 

Those certainly remain interesting times as per that Chinese curse we're living in, eh?

 

Stay safe, everyone...

[New Haven Neil]

Well the temperature has now soared....er...fallen to Zero C.  Absolutely dead still, but no frost, humidity must below. #checks - 57%.

 

Still no plan other than a bit of housework, the Dyson has finally met the end of its days, cost of a new battery now not worth it, as newer other brand machines are now so much better priced.  I will NOT be sad the see the back of it, sick of dismantling it to clean it out when it conks out yet again.  Househusband life!

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Another cold and frosty (currently-2C) start to the day here in the northwest corner of England. I shall shortly go out and defrost the car so that I can take Sheila to here Zumba class. Once she’s been dropped off at the church hall, I shall return home and potter about in the cellar. 

 

This afternoon Charlie is due to call round and if it hasn’t warmed up a bit, I may even have to put the heater on in the workshop! 

 

Back later. 

 

Brian

[polybear]

9 hours ago, Darlington_Shed said:

Only found out, as an adult, that my parents had to burn the tyres off my dad's motorbike to keep us warm that winter.

 

 

Jeez, that must've stunk like hell.

A buddy at the (old) house of fun bought a house in Barnet, which still had the old bomb shelter in the garden; this one was like a concrete blockhouse, however - the concrete walls and roof must've been a foot thick and steel reinforced.  He knocked it down by hand (as in club hammer and cold chisel) - it took months - as he couldn't afford a Man with a JCB.  I forget how many skips he had -seven or more IIRC; he'd almost fit the bits into the skips like a jigsaw puzzle, filling the gaps with the dust.  One driver had a job to lift one of them - the front wheels of the skip lorry went several feet into the air, despite having the jacks down.

He could've made the job a lot easier by filling the blockhouse with old car tyres then setting fire to them (the heat given off cracks the concrete apparently) but didn't think this would go down too well with the neighbours.....

 

Bear here.....

MIUABGAD - to include priming the MDF drilled yesterday, plus other small tasks; I've decided to lay off the H/S/L for a day or so cos' the paws seem to have several small cuts and are a bit on the sore side, despite using paw cream every night.  Hopefully they'll recover quickly so I can crack on.  Must start using that Barrier Cream I bought months ago.....

 

Gas Fire usage is intermittent - just an hour or so here and there; I've not failed completely and resorted to using the CH though - the Beary Pit has a heated leccy under blanket so I put that on an hour or so before beddy byes time and that works wonder, very cheaply.  I don't sleep with it on though - ISTR Googling it a year or so ago and there were "suggestions" that they may be linked with Cancer but this has yet to be proved.  To this Bear that sounds possible - lying on (or under) a Magnetic Field must surely have the potential for causing some issues - at least to this Bear's way of thinking.  Any thoughts @iL Dottore?

Bear gone. 

 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a rather cool Charente.  No snow here though.  I remember  the 62/63  winter well as a 10 year old.  The road over the front ell oppisite that went to Malham was blocked by 8' hight drifts. The Settle and Carlisle linecwas shut for a while and the Thames Clyde got snowed up somewhere near Dent.  No days off school tbough. It was a good walk to get there.

 

Anyway we are still waiting for the tyres.  Yesterday's  excuse was that either the delivery lorry or it's driver had broken down.

 

Meanwhile time to go to the magazine bank, that's next to the bottle bank and get rid of several weeks worth of junk mail.  We get a handful every Monday.

 

Jamie

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Expecting a parcel this morning from an emporium in Sheffield. Delivery time is 09.29 to 10.29, so my bath this morning will be a bit delayed. I want to get it today as tonight is SEERS tracknight, the last one this year. The sun will be streaming through the bathroom window which will warm up the bathroom nicely. The Harry and Megan saga goes on (yawn) they are complaining press intrusion now. I remember the winter of 62/63, our house backed on to a golf course with only a low chain link fence at the bottom of the garden to keep the wind out. The house also had a porch about 5' X 5' leading to the back door and this was packed with snow. A few weeks earlier my brother had obtained a 'rescue'* dog, a seven month old boxer bitch. Naturally she had never seen snow before but soon found diving into snowdrifts a lot of fun. *The original owners had neglected her, not through cruelty but ignorance and she had to be treated for mange straight away. Sadly we only had her for seven years as she contracted cancer.

Edited December 9, 2022 by PhilJ W

[jamie92208]

Been out for a walk to the paper bank. I even wore my gloves. Whilst walking round I remembered another memory of 62/63.  We visited my aunt in Keswick and she said that the road round the west end of the lake, the A66 , was snowed up so the Dr had driven his car across the ice on the lake to Portinscale.  After lunch we went down to the lake and walked across to  Portinscale.  The inhabitants of the big house on Derwent Isle were curling between the Island and the sheds for the launches.  Quite a memory.  I've got a photo somewhere that an Uncle took of the lake  frizen up.

 

Jamie

Edited December 8, 2022 by jamie92208

[NGT6 1315]

Just so you have seen it, one of the most widely used disaster information apps here is called NINA, which I’d render as Emergency Information and Messaging App in English:

 

 

To my knowledge, it can be set to a number of other languages, including English. Warnings can be received both for any current location and for preselected locations of interest.

 

Cell broadcast messages via the various carriers seem to have worked as well. At least both me and everyone else present for my appointment received them! I can’t comment on any other means, but electronic public information billboards and other obvious means such as radio and TV broadcasts were to be included as well.

[New Haven Neil]

Just had a short walk to the village shop, by crikey its cold.  There is frost, just about everywhere except our back garden - that the lounge look out on to.

 

Pond is frozen, NHN is now frozen too.  Day in prescribed.

 

My mate Geoff (the snowman from the other day) has covid.  So its still about on our rock too, but he's jabbed and isn't too ill thankfully.  He no doubt got it off someone crowding into the Santa Grotto on Saturday.

 

 

[DaveF]

A nice bright morning to start the day with the temperature at -1C.  I wonder how cold it is inland in the hills?  

 

Yesterday was quite busy, mainly with rather boring things to do with Mum's estate.  The garden waste bin was emptied for the last time until next Spring, so no more gardening for a while.  I woke with a sore toe but I couldn't bend my foot far enough round to look at the offending bit.  A friend across the road who is a retired nurse had a look at it to make sure it wasn't a splinter then we had a good natter and a cup of coffee.  I think I had got a piece of grit in my shoe and it had got under the toe.

 

I did the remaining Christmas cards which needed posting and despatched gifts - my relatives like to have gift tokens so they can buy things they really want.  Most of us agreed years ago not to exchange gifts so there are only a few to send.  I just have to organise a bottle of really nice gin for an old friend, she always sends me a bottle of good malt whisky.  We've known each other since we were children, I think our families wondered why we didn't get married!  We talk about it from time to time and don't think living together would have worked.

 

It took quite a long while to sort out the keys to the flat, I've ended up with one key which doesn't fit locks at the flat or my house.  I think it may have been for my previous front door.  They are going to the estate agents this afternoon (Thursday) to be given to the buyer.  The evening once again passed peacefully with a mix of TV and reading.

 

David