Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[TheSignalEngineer]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

My dad also had a last and I remember him repairing the families shoes

I still have a last which I used for shoe repairs in my younger days. It came to me from my grandfather, who said it belonged to someone in my grandmother's family who were in the shoe trade. 

 

50 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I remember watching my dad, who had been an RAF drill instructor at one time, using real ‘spit and polish’ to shine up shoes.

My Dad used the spit and polish method, working the mixture into the leather with the warmed handle of a tablespoon when first building up the shine. He had been in the Military Police during the war and then the Fire Brigade. 

When I joined the Cadet Force at school he did the toecaps of my boots. The CO accused me of varnishing them. 

[monkeysarefun]

9 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

 

Weather here has been mild-ish (for this part of the country!) but summed up today best by a picture;

 

That's not dust on the lens, whopping snow flakes, and forecast to get 6-8+ inches time it ends tomorrow morning.

Jemma is due to drive to the airport in this carp to do a 3-day trip!! 🤯

 

-5c first thing and wasn't snowing then high of +1c possibly.

 

Tally ho.

 

What amazes me most about that picture is that  still you thought "what I really need is a wine chiller!"

 

4 hours ago, polybear said:

 

 

 

 @PupCam  the skid marks were impressive (the ones on the road were pretty good too.....🤣) and lasted for weeks......

 

 For impressive skidmarks the Stuart Highway between Darwin and Katherine is the place to go, you'll often come across what looks like the aftermath of a burnout competition but is actually the result of a road train locking up it's 84 wheels due probably to some tourist pulling out from a rest stop and not seeing one of the hugest trucks in the world barreling down on them at 130kmh.

 

 

4 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Probably akin to the ones I produced around 6am one morning at Watford Gap. There was a Policeman running up the other side of the barrier towards me waving frantically. He had seen a lorry come out of the Northbound slip road and sideswipe a lorry passing at speed. That one had veered across the carriageway and gone on its side with the trailer resting on top of the Armco overhanging my lane. 

 

This is a bit of an iconic picture here, the result of a ship taking out one of the supports of Hobarts Tasman Bridge one night in the mid 1970s. The driver of the left hand car only hit the brakes because his wife screamed when the taillights of the cars up ahead just disappeared.

 

The car is still owned by the same guy, makes appearances at car shows and lives in a   museum  due to its fame, and  the fact that it's a 1974 Holden Monaro V8, which makes it totally  awesome and museumworthy in itself.

 

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

 

[pH]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

… due probably to some tourist pulling out from a rest stop and not seeing one of the hugest trucks in the world barreling down on them at 130kmh.

Or seeing it and not understanding that it can’t pull up in anything less than many multiples of the stopping distance of a passenger car moving at the same speed.

 

I did a lot of hitching around the UK and in a few European countries in the 1960s/70s. As a result of that, and some of the situations I saw, I think (if it was possible) that all learner drivers should have to do a trip as a passenger in the cab of a large transport truck. The experience certainly made me a lot more considerate/wary of large commercial vehicles.

[Erichill16]

Morning All,

Early breakfast here, due mainly to the eyelid inspection yesterday afternoon. 
Another reason I try to avoid daytime snoozing.

Hovis is very restless tonight.

Anyway, back to the sack.

 

[AndyID]

10 minutes ago, pH said:

I think (if it was possible) that all learner drivers should have to do a trip as a passenger in the cab of a large transport truck. The experience certainly made me a lot more considerate/wary of large commercial vehicles.

 

That is a great idea. I'll push for it here.

[iL Dottore]

10 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

"Fruit cake", (particularly at the holidays) is considered a joke here.

 

People here have lost touch with the tradition of baking their own Christmas fruit cake, so when people in the US talk about "fruit cake" it is usually something manufactured - dense and made months ahead of sale. They are largely considered as "a gift of last resort that no one wants" - hence the elaborate means of disposal.

 

Traditional Christmas pudding (steamed fruit 'cake') is even rarer.

 

Stollen, on the other hand, is common. I remain partial to all manner of fruit cake.

 

While not unheard of, the whole family of tea cakes / fruit or date loaves are uncommon (most people are unfamiliar with them), with the exception of "coffee cake" which is very crumbly and usually coated in cinnamon and sugar.

 

Regionally at this time of year you can find King cake (essentially a cake-sized, iced, hot cross bun, sans cross and fruit and often decorated with, or encasing, a baby Jesus figurine) originally an Epiphany tradition. Danish Kringles (usually a large circular Danish pastry) are also a seasonal treat for some. A company in Wisconsin ships them all over the US.

 

I’ve had some really amazing food in the US. Really good steaks, gumbo, jambalaya, fresh crab and lobster (at a Fisherman’s Collective Café somewhere on the coast of N California), chicken fried steak, Tex-Mex, “biscuits and gravy”*, sausage biscuit**, great onion rings, hush puppies, really, really good steaks….

 

But for some reason I’ve found the US to be very poor at making puddings (desserts) and patisserie. Apart from the excellent New York Cheesecake, most cakes and desserts in the US I find to be incredibly, even sickly, sweet.
 

My impression is also that since I lived in the us (74-83) fast food chain food has become saltier and even more sugary. On one recent business trip to the US, I decided to treat myself to a Hardee’s chicken fried steak biscuit (very much an indulgent treat when I was a impoverished student) and I found the offering to be incredibly salty. And, on the same trip, treating myself to a Krispy Kreme doughnut (always a welcome energy boost with a cup of coffee when on duty as a paramedic), was like mainlining pure sugar.

Fortunately, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth; apart from a penchant for dark chocolate digestives (the king of biscuits), I can happily live without sweetmeats and the like. So, when I’m in the US I make a beeline to a Morton’s of Chicago (or local equivalent) where I most definitely indulge with a starter of fried calamari, followed by a decent sized grilled steak*** (medium rare, of course!), a baked potato with sour cream and chives, a side order of creamed spinach, all washed down by a decent Californian Cabernet Sauvignon or a local craft beer. The fact that after that I have no space for pudding bothers me not a jot.

 

Finally, I find the US has the most amazing local cuisines - each with at least one or two standout dishes; but strangely enough the one American cuisine style I just cannot abide is Italo American. (perhaps it’s because I have been spoiled by eating real Italian food in Italy). At best, Italo American food is a poor imitation of Southern Italian cooking - which in itself is not a patch on the food served in Northern Italy (although I say that as an intensely partisan Bolognese****)

 

 

* basically a savoury scone covered in a flour thickened gravy of ham and pan juices - in the right hands delicious (and NOT good for the waistline)

** savoury scone

*** a good steak has to be large enough to hang over the sides of the plate 😀

**** as in citizen of Bologna

Edited January 4, 2023 by iL Dottore
Typo

[iL Dottore]

8 hours ago, polybear said:

Hey, Puppers @PupCam - don't look now but Bear's become a Social Media "Influencer"........🤣

You mean that you’ve become one of those purple-haired, pierced and tattooed wierdos that espouse all kinds of bizarre, divorced-from-reality conspiracy theories?*
 

Or are you one of those surgically enhanced, pneumatically boosted, photo-shopped influencers peddling obscure cosmetic products?**

 

* e.g. LDC is being deliberately removed from shop shelves and replaced by cream buns by the underhand actions of the Milk Marketing Board.

** the idea of the Bear being pneumatically enhanced is too terrible to countenance…

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Still dark but it looks like there's been some rain and more due shortly just arrived although a mainly dry and breezy day is forecast.  Very mild at 12°C.

I've had the same set of shoe brushes for over 40 years and they're still quite serviceable.  Always got a tin of Kiwi but doesn't get used very often as shoes only worn on special occasions these days and most of the time I'm in trainers.  No spit but some water in the tin lid to dampen the cloth and away we go.

We will shortly be heading to Sainsbury's and later this morning going to say farewell to Joe. He'll be back at the end of April I believe.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

 

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from a dark Sidcup, where I am up and working although I can't find much enthusiasm yet for actually doing any work!

 

I find most of the savoury food in the US sweeter than its UK equivalent, particularly Italian-style food, where judging by American cookery shows* it seems to be de rigeur to add sugar to the tomatoes. But I do enjoy a good jambalaya or Gumbo. Like JJB I found getting andoiulle sausage impossible. The recipe recommendations were to get hold of a French sausage reflets de something or other (it's no longer available at Waitrose so the name has slipped from memory) but it is not the same (although gave a better result than chorizo)

 

My Dad was also good at working up a real shine on shoes and although the task now falls to me, the results are not as good. Perhaps it is because there was nothing else to do in the olden days😜

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Ok, Triple D

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from a rock that has found the UK cut off once more, due to the draught.  Windy it is, but 10c is warm.

 

The 'Bluetits' are a big thing here, with several groups freezing themselves daily in different towns.  The Royal Ramsey group are certainly active just down the road from here, and a ex-work colleague freezes her bits in the bustling city of Douglas beach.  Mad.

 

I think Baz can be credited with Pah! too, as another influencer.  Must be monetised as he's off on walkabout.

 

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by New Haven Neil
speelink

[jjb1970]

A tradition in Singapore is the lunar new year display in China town (yes, even Chinese cities have China towns) based on the animal of the new year. This time it is the turn of the rabbit it, it's become the subject of a lot of jokes as many think it looks like a group of rabbits squatting to take a dump....I couldn't possibly comment.

 

[polybear]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I still have the box full of shoe cleaning paraphernalia that was used when I was at junior school, some of the brushes must be older than me. I seem to recall throwing out the tins of polish when it was discovered that they had dried out. 

 

Bear sometimes discovers that the polish has cracked and is in numerous bits in the tin - I fire up a small camping stove in the back garden and put the polish on top of that to melt then re-solidify; it seems to work pretty well.

 

5 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

Now is it Bear, or would that exhibit look better if the car was heading the same way as the one in the photo?

 

Bear here......

First job of the day will be to haggle with Plusnet regarding the next contract price - if it's carp then they can keep it and I'll jump ship; I've spent the last few months changing to an alternative email address so that's no great issue - I'll still ask to keep my old email address as that's now do-able and free, apparently.

 

After that there's a small amount of sanding to do on the Newel Post, followed by a ponder regarding paint schemes; I'm still undecided about woodwork colour, which is the big question mark at the moment.  I also need to plan the next project for the M.E. Group Evening - not sure what that'll be yet.

 

The next H/S/L job will be to box in the radiator pipework coming thru' the ceiling and down the wall - I'll need some timber for that; with luck I have enough plasterboard stashed away to do the job.

 

In other news......

Does anyone happen to know if it's still possible to be able to release the handbrake on one of those strange cars that has a switch for a handbrake (rather than a lever) if the ignition switch is totally off?

 

Bear gone....

[jjb1970]

I ended up growing to like electronic handbrakes, much to my chagrin after ranting about how awful they were. I don't think you can do anything without power, but once I got used to it on the Golf and the A6 they worked extremely well, they both had anti-roll functions for hill starts and applied automatically when switching the car off if you forgot.

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

Very tight on the mooring ropes it is, as a strong 45mph south Westerly is trying to blow us into Norway.

4.5 hours broken sleep,  sofa, 1 hours sleep..

 

Ben the alarm clock Collie tried to get me up for work, I put him off for an hour. But he was getting insistent.. Although it's not too dark out there, he didn't seem that happy, I think mostly due to the wind roaring through the trees.

Warm ish, dry above, soggy below.

 

I can do a parade ground polish to boots and shoes, but don't do it for my gardening, Collie walking, workshop rigger boots, for obvious reasons. I also didn't do it for my RAF rigger boots I wore to work, because a couple of times a day I'd have to go down onto hands and knees to the computer at the bottom of each rack to reset or to plug in USB, Ethernet or I.E.E.E. cables. That would destroy fully bulled toe caps.

My shoes are new, and do have toecaps. I've not done anything but a quick surface polish yet as I prefer to break them in a bit first. If you bull polish them straight away, there's a chance it will flake off as soon as you wear them.

 

 I only wear trainers when sailing in the summer, they're a lot cheaper than deck shoes, to the same effect as not marking decks with black rubber soles or hard soles denting the wood or canvas deck.

 

BLT eaten, muggacoffee drunk.

 

Time to get some overalls on.

 

 

[BoD]

Good morning all.

 

I can understand why Kiwi say their sales are diminishing. Like GDB, since retiring, I only have one pair of shoes that require ‘a proper spit and polish’.  Nowadays that pair of shoes usually only comes out for funerals.

 

 

[jjb1970]

40 minutes ago, BoD said:

Good morning all.

 

I can understand why Kiwi say their sales are diminishing. Like GDB, since retiring, I only have one pair of shoes that require ‘a proper spit and polish’.  Nowadays that pair of shoes usually only comes out for funerals.

 

 

 

I have a nice pair of brogues but wear casual shoes to work (it's polo shirt or casual shirt without tie and chinos at the office here).

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Blowing a hooly out there at the moment but the rain has stopped for now. Good news is that the PSA test has come out clear. I'm now waiting for a scan to check out the kidney stone which is the prime suspect for the spot of blood in my pee over Christmas, kidney function has also come out OK. Strange thing is I've not noticed any pain but that may have been masked by the arthritis and sciatica. 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Once again, the overnight rain has stopped, but the skies are still grey and it looks as though it will chuckinitdarn at any minute. There’s also a bit of a breeze and with todays temperature at 10C, it’s a bit warmer than yesterday. Today’s task is to get all the Christmas decorations put back into storage, thus clearing the cellar considerably, although there are still a few boxes to sort out, which will hopefully get done today as well. If the rain holds off, I’d like to also get the DH Tiger Moth decals varnished and possibly another coat of primer on my 1/2 scale signal arm. 

 

Anyway, best get cracking, back later. 

 

Brian 

[Barry O]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Morning, from a rock that has found the UK cut off once more, due to the draught.  Windy it is, but 10c is warm.

 

The 'Bluetits' are a big thing here, with several groups freezing themselves daily in different towns.  The Royal Ramsey group are certainly active just down the road from here, and a ex-work colleague freezes her bits in the bustling city of Douglas beach.  Mad.

 

I think Baz can be credited with Pah! too, as another influencer.  Must be monetised as he's off on walkabout.

 

 

Darnations! @New Haven Neilhas let slip my new found money source..Pah!!

 

Baz

[Barry O]

This walkabout malarkey is tiring.. forced marches every minute of every day.. her indoors has a lot to answer for!

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

Edited January 4, 2023 by Barry O

[The White Rabbit]

12 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

... As to Good Moaning, twas the late lamented Andrew c and his alter ego of Officer Crabtree who introduced that one.  I just adopted it.

 

Jamie

 

A few years ago, one of the drivers at work used to say it. Presumably from Officer Crabtree's lines. Or did Andrew devise it and Officer Crabtree copy it?  (🤔) Anyway, it was nice to see it again when I started reading ERs. 

 

3 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

... I think Baz can be credited with Pah! too, as another influencer.  Must be monetised as he's off on walkabout.

 

I agree, 'Pah!' has to be a 'Baz-ism'. An onomatopoeic one. With my IPR hat on, monetising could require some inventive thinking. Perhaps we'll just go for an honesty box? 

 

2 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

A tradition in Singapore is the lunar new year display in China town (yes, even Chinese cities have China towns) based on the animal of the new year. This time it is the turn of the rabbit it, it's become the subject of a lot of jokes as many think it looks like a group of rabbits squatting to take a dump....I couldn't possibly comment.

 

 

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear... You know, in any family, there's always some which embarrass the rest of you. I might mention 'black sheep' but that could just confuse the issue... 

 

 

Good moaning all. A very windy one and with some fierce showers. I used to wear 'good' shoes to work, pre-'ruddy virus'. Not many of my colleagues did but I thought it appropriate. The polish was probably only up to civilian standard, certainly not to the services (or police) satisfaction but I got a bit of a shine out of them. I did have a couple of tins in the cupboard, haven't seen them for three years as the shoes have been having a very extended holiday. Anyway, one new TV to wrestle with, so time to unpack and scowl at. I may be some time... 

 

[DaveF]

It's sunny and very windy here this morning so I have postponed my walk in the hope the wind drops - but I don't think it will.  I shall be glad when I get to tea time, while I was having breakfast I had a phone call from SSE about Mum's gas and elec bill - so I explained again that she had died. The I was put through to bereavement, but they hadn't opened.  I rang them a few minutes later, all is in order, they have no idea why I received a phone call - the suggestion is that the person who rang me hadn't read the account details and just thought the bill was overdue.  I got a very nice apology and a promise of the cheque in a few days. 

 

This afternoon I am looking forward (not) to a phone call from a pharmacist at the surgery to discuss possible cholesterol medication.  If statins are suggested there will be a blunt answer.  I might consider something else but only once the IBS/IBD investigation is completed in case I need medication for that.    Then I have to go to the surgery a little later for a blood test and to collect a kit for testing faecal samples in relation to the IBS/IBD.  If I haven't had a walk before then I'll have one after that.

 

Yesterday was more pleasant.  I went out for a walk on the beach, it was very dull with the temperature hovering around 0 and a cold breeze.  I walked as far as the harbour pier and then onto it to have a look at the harbour, Thor the walrus had gone.  Apparently he had arrived on Monday afternoon and left at 06.45 yesterday (Tuesday) morning.  In other words he had come for afternoon tea, dinner, bed and breakfast.

 

I always wonder how sea mammals find suitable harbours to go into as Thor has done, they obviously do not have maps/charts so how do they do it?  It seems to be thought that walruses this far south are vary rare, or is it that they are not rare but that very few go into harbours and get seen?  Perhaps most just find a secluded bit of beach at night if they want a rest ashore.

 

During the day I did a bit of modelling and started to tidy the drawers which contain adhesives, spare tools, "useful bits" and so on.  I think the task might take several days to complete as I found a number of things I had forgotten about.

 

In the evening I watched a DVD I was given at Christmas - "The Railway Children Return".  I'm sure a lot of you have seen it so there is no need for me to give a detailed review.  I quite enjoyed it and will watch it again one day.  I thought there was a bit of sloppy editing in places.

 

David

[jamie92208]

Good moaning , just, from Crabtree land where Mrs Banks is Madame Bonks.  As a retired Gendarme it seems to fit.  Anyway i gotbour friend to Niort, ans saw a train or two before doing the shopping on the way home.  Then Beth told me that a load of decking timber that I've bought second hand was ready for collection.  Turdycurses, the local cash machine has been closed so this morning I was off 10 miles to Aulnay at Sparrow windbreak.  Then it was home  hitch up the trailer and head off to collect the decking.  50 sq m of the stuff is now neatly stacked near the shed.  New it's €27 per sq m so €250 for the lot looks like a bargain.    It's now muggacoffee time.

 

Not a lot else on the agenda today so time for some more marking up of French Train numbers in the new book.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie