Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I wonder about a similar 'degrees of separation' for Nine-Eleven - which was very far from here on the west coast. I personally know two people who had plans to be at the World Trade Center that morning, but changed their minds at the last minute. The neighbour of a colleague was a victim.

A strange coincidence but my sister lost a close colleague in 9/11. He was the security officer for the company for which she worked and as soon as the first tower was hit he set about evacuating the staff, all of whom got out. He then went back into the tower to help evacuate others and that was the last time he was seen. A former colleague of mine was killed in the 7/7 bombings in London. He was on the circle line train and was actually standing alongside the bomber.

[Ozexpatriate]

5 minutes ago, polybear said:

ISTR reading that 9/11 continues to slowly claim victims due to the dust cloud created immediately following the event.

Yes. Without getting into the (lengthy) politics, funding for first responder heathcare (in particular the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund which was to expire in 2020)  was reauthorized after the original federal bill expired in 2015.

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Weird browser/internet provider behaviour today - clearly on my end. I got "address unreachable" errors from a slew of websites including the local television station weather page and John's WordPress blog but not RMweb

Similar here for a while but most cleared with a simple refresh.  RMW however refused to offer up anything other than a blank white screen for above an hour.  

 

I put it down to those Americans and their leaky documents.  

 

It's time I shouldn't be here.  The House of Fun awaits at a rather early hour prior to which I should attempt some sleepage.  Stay safe and well.  

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Despite the wet weather the arthritis and sciatica is holding off. Still blowing a hooley outside and the gate to the garden kept banging. The problem is that due to the lack of rain last summer the timber has warped and the bolt will not now hold as the gate has dropped about 1 mm. and the bolt will not shoot home properly. I've secured it with a couple of bricks but they can move if the wind is strong enough.

[polybear]

Bear's Easter Funnies...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Winslow Boy]

33 minutes ago, polybear said:

In other news......

Tomorrow sees the start of the Junior Doctor's Strike at 7am and lasting four days - so not a good time to need the services of a Hospital.

 

Might be a good time for a 'round of golf' though, as the course's should be fairly empty. 

[polybear]

42 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

A strange coincidence but my sister lost a close colleague in 9/11. He was the security officer for the company for which she worked and as soon as the first tower was hit he set about evacuating the staff, all of whom got out. He then went back into the tower to help evacuate others and that was the last time he was seen. 

 

Rick Rescorla by any chance - working for Morgan Stanley?  If so then a Top Bloke - he's attributed with saving thousands of lives that day; all but six (out of 2700) M.S. Employees made it out alive; Donald Trump posthumously awarded Rick the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second-highest civilian award.  There was a rather good TV programme dedicated to him several years ago.

 

https://www.history.co.uk/articles/rick-rescorla-the-cornish-hero-of-911

Edited April 10, 2023 by polybear

[PhilJ W]

12 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Rick Rescorla by any chance - working for Morgan Stanley?  If so then a Top Bloke - he's attributed with saving thousands of lives that day; all but six (out of 2700) M.S. Employees made it out alive; Donald Trump posthumously awarded Rick the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second-highest civilian award.  There was a rather good TV programme dedicated to him several years ago.

 

https://www.history.co.uk/articles/rick-rescorla-the-cornish-hero-of-911

Yes, thats the guy only I couldn't remember his name.  

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Which I find ironic. I find the Swedes (whose English is usually very good in a professional setting) have slightly stronger accents and more eccentric idioms (in English) than the Finns - but that's a bit of a generalization on my part.

 

I never made it as far north as Oulu, though many of my colleagues have. All my time in Finland was in Helsinki (and suburbs).

Matthew had offers from other Swedish universities but not the one he was interested in. Having a problem (later overcome) with GCSE examinations had some unfortunate consequences. The Dutch university staff definitely got him to help out with other student’s English. 

[NGT6 1315]

33 minutes ago, polybear said:

Bear's Easter Funnies...

 

 

Cheers all. I'll just leave this here… 🤭🤣

 

 

[The Lurker]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

A strange coincidence but my sister lost a close colleague in 9/11. He was the security officer for the company for which she worked and as soon as the first tower was hit he set about evacuating the staff, all of whom got out. He then went back into the tower to help evacuate others and that was the last time he was seen. A former colleague of mine was killed in the 7/7 bombings in London. He was on the circle line train and was actually standing alongside the bomber.

Mrs Lurker worked at Channel 4 with someone whose husband was killed in 9/11. She was very heavily pregnant and never could face returning to work- Channel 4 as befits a TV company had loads of screens everywhere so she saw it happen.

the woman later wrote a book although I can’t precisely recall the title and my search brings up loads of similar titled books

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

I spent another couple of hours on the computer this afternoon and a bit more progress has been made in getting used to using Inkscape. Some aspects are starting to sink in, but I’m not yet able to add textures to the buildings yet. But I’m quite enjoying it, hopefully I’ll get another couple of hours on it again tomorrow. 
 

 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[monkeysarefun]

6 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Another shooting is in the news.

Still not enough Good Guys With Guns.

Try harder.

Edited April 11, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[PupCam]

4 hours ago, polybear said:

A Garden Centre?  On an Easter B/H Monday?  Is Puppers mad???

The only possible saving grace is the cr@p weather may have limited all the other mad people.

Yes!

 

What on earth am I doing here at this time of day night?!

Must Google insomnia …..

 

Over and out!

[monkeysarefun]

20 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Yes!

 

What on earth am I doing here at this time of day night?!

Must Google insomnia …..

 

Over and out!

????? but the sun is shining and Im thinking about lunch.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

Still not enough Good Guys With Guns.

Try harder.

A police officer who responded* was shot in the head in an exchange of gunfire with the shooter. He graduated from the police academy and was sworn in as an officer ten days ago. He is in critical but stable condition.

 

* They arrived within three minutes of dispatch.

[monkeysarefun]

2 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

A police officer who responded* was shot in the head in an exchange of gunfire with the shooter. He graduated from the police academy and was sworn in as an officer ten days ago. He is in critical but stable condition.

 

* They arrived within three minutes of dispatch.

The problem with relying on responders as the solution  is that they can only respond.....

Edited April 11, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, monkeysarefun said:

The problem with relying on responders as the solution  is that they can only respond.....

I'm not going to discuss second amendment politics here. 

[AndyID]

7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

A strange coincidence but my sister lost a close colleague in 9/11. He was the security officer for the company for which she worked and as soon as the first tower was hit he set about evacuating the staff, all of whom got out. He then went back into the tower to help evacuate others and that was the last time he was seen. A former colleague of mine was killed in the 7/7 bombings in London. He was on the circle line train and was actually standing alongside the bomber.

 

Our first return trip to Scotland from Arizona was in December 1983. We had our three young children with us. We were in a cab heading for Euston and I wanted to stop at Harrods to pick up some presents for our folks but my wife said the children were too tired after the long flight.

 

We had not been at Euston very long when all hell broke loose. Harrods had just been bombed.

 

When we lived in New Jersey I worked close to the WTC. That was in 1993. My boss and I used to take the Path to the station under the WTC. My office shook quite a lot when that bomb went off and the Path station was a mess.

 

We were quite happy to move to Washington/Idaho after that.

 

 

 

Edited April 11, 2023 by AndyID
Clarification

[jamie92208]

14 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Which I find ironic. I find the Swedes (whose English is usually very good in a professional setting) have slightly stronger accents and more eccentric idioms (in English) than the Finns - but that's a bit of a generalization on my part.

 

I never made it as far north as Oulu, though many of my colleagues have. All my time in Finland was in Helsinki (and suburbs).

Funnily enough, I spent 4 days at a Lycee in Paris in 1967, in the English lesson I was told that my English reading was poor.  I think that Le professeur hadn't heard much English spoken with a northern accent. 

 

Anyway good moaning from a damp but getting brighter Charente. It's cool though so the fire is back on. Shopping to do this morning then possibly some veg planting. 

 

Ttfn. 

 

Jamie

Edited April 11, 2023 by jamie92208

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

Funnily enough, spent 4 days at a Lycee in Paris in 1967 in the English lesson I was told that my English reading was poor.  I think that Le professeur hadn't heard much English spoken with a northern accent.

 

I put "café au lait" in a French composition in O level French. The teacher (aka Drummy boy 🙂) told me there was no such thing. I had been to France several times whereas I doubt he ever had been 😄

[polybear]

9 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Yes, that's the guy only I couldn't remember his name.  

 

IIRC (the TV Programme was on some years ago) it's believed that Rick R. was haunted by the thoughts of the Guys under his Command that he was unable to bring back from Vietnam; as a result he wasn't prepared to see anyone in M.S. left behind during 9/11.

He actually warned the higher authorities that the WTC underground parking was particularly exposed and was largely ignored; not long after that a Truck Bomb exploded.  He also predicted that there would be a further attack at some point, and that attack would most likely come from the air as all other security weaknesses had now been covered. 

[polybear]

Bear here....

Danglin'....and washing......

Nuff sed.

 

In other news.....

Bear's Sobering Thought For The Day:

Across Ukraine , there are now thought to be 67,000 square miles which are contaminated by landmines.

It is an area of land larger than England, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.

 

Bear gone.