Early Risers.

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

Maybe the NHS Bosses should email those articles to all Docs & Nurses to persuade them it's not all roses down under after all......

 

Hey just  keep training our medics  for us, ok, otherwise we'll have to go to plan B -  and they talk funny!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/04/thousands-of-new-zealand-nurses-register-to-work-in-australia-seeking-better-pay

 

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Oh yes, and Bear has decided that a visit from King Charlie would be a rather fine idea....this one ideally:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-65396837

 

There's a very high chance he might not leave unscathed, however.....

Theres a glass and a half in the ears alone.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

I decided to spend the morning in the garden and the afternoon in the workshop. There wasn’t much to do in the garden as I am trying to keep on top of it, but even so it looks a little tidier now, especially the evergreen ferns, as I removed all of last year’s foliage. 

 

After dinner, I tackled the cupboards in the workshop. The small cupboard has been removed and the tall cupboard in the corner is now movable, although to actually get it out of the corner, I’ll need to move a couple of shelves.
 

Just as I was getting changed, I had a phone call from my oncologist’s secretary giving me prior notice of my up coming appointment. I’ll see him next Wednesday morning at 9:30, so it’s an early start that day. There’s a letter in the post confirming the appointment, but as it’s a bank holiday this weekend, she phoned me with the details, just in case the post was late arriving. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

Remember that Amazon Parcel that was delivered to Bear Towers yesterday (or was it Monday?) - right Village, wrong everything else.....

Well it must contain a Boomerang cos the bluddy thing has reappeared again - with the good 'ol Amazon Driver doin' a Mo Farah and leggin' it quick this time.  It shows signs of having been opened and re-sealed again so I reckon someone else has had it since and binned it back to them; it's now sat in the hallway and they can come get it if they want it.  T0ssers.

Go on, just open it!,  you know how you've been excitedly waiting for it to add to your loco....

 

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

As planned, visited the tulip festival with my son - blooms were much delayed this year, and they extended the viewing by a full week into May.

 

Under hazy skies but very pleasant early afternoon temperatures approaching 20°C with much in the way of this sort of view:

  

 

I enjoy the "standouts":

There's always a few.

 

[Ozexpatriate]

These (of many) were quite stunning:

[NGT6 1315]

Moaning awl. Too frellin' early!

 

I'm now on my tram refresher course, so things have gotten moving indeed at long last. All of this could have been avoided if some elements hadn't been as abusively minded as they have, of course...

 

Recaffeination still ongoing, so I'll leave it at that for now. Be safe, everyone.

 

Ta...

[Erichill16]

Morning All,

contemplating breakfast but even though I have an X-ray appointment at 8:10 I don’t need to get up this early.

Early morning sunlight always wakes me up and then find it difficult to get back to sleep. Much to contemplate which also doesn’t help. 
Robert

 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

AGM successfully negotiated last night. Minutes to be tidied today.

 

Busy day again today so I need to get myself going.

Stay safe!

 

Bas

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by Barry O

[polybear]

7 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Hey just  keep training our medics  for us, ok, otherwise we'll have to go to plan B -  and they talk funny!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/04/thousands-of-new-zealand-nurses-register-to-work-in-australia-seeking-better-pay

 

 

 

Just wait till they discover they've got snakes in Oz (there aren't any at all in NZ) along with a sh1t load more Spiders too (and very nasty ones at that, though NZ does have a couple of their own).

Cynical Bear wonders if the Nurses are playing a mind game with The Big House by registering in Oz in an attempt to scare the Gov. into giving them a pay rise, though of course some will jump ship anyway.

 

Bear here......

Still pondering......

Must change up from Ponder mode to "Get Little Furry Ar5e in Gear Mode"; there are a few fettlin' jobs I can do on the Bannister woodwork whilst this is underway though.

 

Bear gone.

 

 

 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from an overcast Charente.  It feels cool but is definitely warming up and the grass is growing at a record pace, at least the weeds are.  Various things got done yesterday and a friend came over for tea. A Shepherd's pie was eaten. 

 

I'm going to have a chat to my brother this morning.  Then a change of plan for this afternoon as it's the only afternoon in about 7 weeks that Andy and I can arrange an afternoon watching trains.  Not a bad day in prospect. 

 

Jamie

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

It's a bit overcast  and dry here but there does seem to be a much lighter shade of grey in the East.  However spells of showery rain, some heavy and thundery in places, are expected to move in later.  8°C rising to 15°C.

I've had a bad night with The Hip and Leg conspiring to keep me awake.  Just taken some Solpadeine and hope that that will work some magic shortly.

Thursday so bins (one lorry only) and Sainsbury's due in the next couple of hours.  Not heard yet whether we're getting everything we ordered. 

One pension has landed but only 2 weeks at the new increased rate, still some is better than none.  It'll help (a little a teeny bit) towards paying the credit card bill.

Time to take some tea up Her Bossness who by the sound of it is awake.

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited April 27, 2023 by grandadbob

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

A poor night, 3.5 hours sleep, pink pills as forepaws and ankle are seriously complaining, long awake before they took effect, 2 hours sleep.

 

That chocolatier has more skill sculpting than many professional sculptors I've seen. Some of the recent KC III statues being made for the event have been, who's that meant to be?

 

We have piles of ballister rails to reinsert., These are good originals and some copies I turned up due to broken ones found, when we removed the Barry Bucknell effects.  We had painted them red and white,  but the colour scheme is now cream and purple we must have ideas above our station. With the slopes of stairs and floors I doubt any are vertical.

 

It was noticeable yesterday afternoon around 15:00 ish the temperature suddenly dropped, the living room went down to 19C even though the fire and heating system are on.

Although we haven't had a winter of low extremes, but the TV reported England Wales have had the coolest max spring temperature in 46 years, where as Scotland was slightly warmer. Added to that Ben the I want out Collie has taken me on patrol. The surrounding cornfield is white with frost as is the exposed area of our garden. That won't last long as the sun is up and there are blue skies.

 

Early exercise of ankle does not give good indications, it's not happy. So plans for today are likely to be restricted. I am now ever informed we are swapping two beds over in the mobile home. It maybe I might wind up the mower again.

 

Time for breaky and a muggacoffee.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from a damp but not raining rock, 9c feels like a good bit less.

 

Errands to do this morning, then getting theraped this afternoon by a hip specialist physiotherapist.  I'm told (by the surgeon) I won't like it much.  If it helps, it helps.  If not, well at least I gave it a go, as nothing else has worked so far.

 

I'm a bit down on physiotherapists currently, as over-aggressive physio broke one of the screws in my foot which is now coming back to haunt me, causing the need for yet more surgery on it.  It hurts a lot, both the injury and the surgery.  Pah.

 

 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

It’s dull, very dull, but at least it isn’t raining, yet! The plans for today, once I’ve dropped Sheila off at the church hall for her Zumba class, are to remove the shelf in the workshop, that is impeding the removal of the tall cupboard as well as a bookcase, which, although isn’t in the way, it’s repositioning will make things a lot easier. Charlie is due round this afternoon, but like last week, he’s only dropping in for a chat, which means I don’t need to make the workshop habitable today. 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian

[TheQ]

The good news locally is the 1345AD  Potter Heigham bridge has reopened after several months closure. A hole had opened  in the road surface that went down to the foundations of a main pier. The road surface was removed, and more repairs were found to be needed. Lots of concrete was poured into the hole,  once divers had been down to block it from escaping.

The 7.5 ton limit has been extended to include buses which were exempt.

 

That will now mean about a mile less driving, and about 15 minutes time less tomorrow on the way to and from the chippy tomorrow. 

Also if nothing changes the 3 Rivers Race will go to it's full distance. As occasionally they were closing the river as well as the road.

 

https://www.herbertwoods.co.uk/norfolk-broads/webcam/

 

 

[grandadbob]

Bin men have been and replaced bins neatly on the drive.  They don't do that for everyone but I think it may be because if I'm out there that I actually say thank you with a smile*  that this occurs.

 

* Please note that smiles from GDB are rare sightings and the event should be treasured , remembered and written down for posterity!

Edited April 27, 2023 by grandadbob

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

an attempt to scare the Gov. into giving them a pay rise,

 

Let's just be clear that it's not an increase in pay in absolute terms that is being sought, rather, a partial reversal of their pay decrease relative to the cost of living over the past 15 years or so.

[DaveF]

Today started well, I woke after a reasonable nights sleep - though I woke briefly after an unpleasant dream but cannot now remember the details which is perhaps as well.  After breakfast I checked my e mails and found one from Radio Times saying that my direct debit has been cancelled, please can I ring them to renew the sub.  I had  alook at my bank account, after updating the phone app which took over ten minutes, it did show it as cancelled.

 

I have no recollection of cancelling it but did cancel one last autumn which used to pay for the copy I bought for Mum - that correctly shows as cancelled.  I rang the bank who said it is one of two things - either I cancelled them both by mistake or because I cancelled one their computer decided I meant both.  The correct one has now been reinstated.  

 

I then rang Radio Times to sort it out with them.  As the date has passed they will not use the direct debit this time, so I agreed to pay by card.  When the card payment subscrition expires (in November) they will write to me to ask if I want to pay by direct debit again.

 

By now I was a bit annoyed, but that changed when I was told how much have to pay for the next six months.  By card, as it is a special offer, I pay £40 less than by direct debit.  So I am now very pleased indeed.

 

I am hoping the rest of the day goes well.  I also hope everyone else's problems are small too.

 

David

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. The hips and knees were on fire this morning (arthritis/sciatica) but the Nurofen is working at it. I've got to get the details together for the SEERS visit to Ipswich in June ready for the AGM this evening. To make the trip viable we will have to fill the coach, even then were looking at £30 per head, £15 for the coach and £15 for *entry. It was quoted as £12 but has been raised due to costs.

Edited April 27, 2023 by PhilJ W

[iL Dottore]

Good Morning Minions (and “others”) Captain Cynical here.

 

CC is quite dumbfounded at the amount of revelatory personal information that gets posted on here. Were CC criminally inclined (perish the thought), there would be so much useful information on ER, that the “enhanced interrogation specialists” in CC’s employ would not need to look far for inspiration in order to get valuable intelligence assets to “share”. For example:

• a very hungry @polybear would be placed in a small room, another small room would contain a table groaning from the weight of cake upon it - and nothing but a short, narrow corridor teeming with Australian snakes and spiders between The Bear and Bliss.
• @New Haven Neil would be “encouraged” to energetically tap dance whilst wearing wooden clogs (followed by a Sumo massage of the feet)
• and so on…

As for CC’s “revelations”: how can you be sure it’s Captain Cynical who’s posting - it could be ChatGPT. Captain Cynical may be the pseudonym of a stage name or a regnal name. Or maybe Captain Cynical exists but iL Dottore doesn’t. Perhaps iL Dottore is an alias of @polybear - who uses it to cadge more than his allotted share of cake, or Captain Cynical is really @jamie92208 - who uses the moniker to “double dip”  for Cognac and Eccles Cakes.

 

Perhaps this post doesn’t actually exist OR is a modified facsimile of a real post?
 

CC out.

Edited April 27, 2023 by iL Dottore

[Hroth]

10 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Theres a glass and a half in the ears alone.

 

You're getting confused...   "glass and a half" is Cadburys, Charley has been built from Galaxy based chocolate which is an entirely different brand, which I wouldn't touch with a bargepole.

 

 

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

The good news locally is the 1345AD  Potter Heigham bridge has reopened after several months closure. A hole had opened  in the road surface that went down to the foundations of a main pier. The road surface was removed, and more repairs were found to be needed. Lots of concrete was poured into the hole,  once divers had been down to block it from escaping.

The 7.5 ton limit has been extended to include buses which were exempt.

 

That will now mean about a mile less driving, and about 15 minutes time less tomorrow on the way to and from the chippy tomorrow. 

Also if nothing changes the 3 Rivers Race will go to it's full distance. As occasionally they were closing the river as well as the road.

 

https://www.herbertwoods.co.uk/norfolk-broads/webcam/

 

 

 

Speaking of bargepoles, or quants, each time I see a picture of Potter Heigham bridge, it seems even smaller. I hope it isn't sinking into the river bed...

 

3 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Good Morning Minions (and “others”) Captain Cynical here.

 

CC is quite dumbfounded at the amount of revelatory personal information that gets posted on here. Were CC criminally inclined (perish the thought), there would be so much useful information on ER, that the “enhanced interrogation specialists” in CC’s employ would not need to look far for inspiration in order to get valuable intelligence assets to “share”. For example:

• a very hungry @polybear would be placed in a small room, another small room would contain a table groaning from the weight of cake upon it - and nothing but a short, narrow corridor teeming with Australian snakes and spiders between The Bear and Bliss.
• @New Haven Neil would be “encouraged” to energetically tap dance whilst wearing wooden clogs (followed by a Sumo massage of the feet)
• and so on…

As for CC’s “revelations”: how can you be sure it’s Captain Cynical who’s posting - it could be ChatGPT. Captain Cynical may be the pseudonym of a stage name or a regnal name. Or maybe Captain Cynical exists but iL Dottore doesn’t. Perhaps iL Dottore is an alias of @polybear - who uses it to cadge more than his allotted share of cake, or of @jamie92208 - who uses it to snaffle more Cognac and Eccles Cakes.

 

Perhaps this post doesn’t actually exist and is a modified facsimile of a real post?
 

CC out.

 

From that stream of consciousness, one wonders if Captain Cynical  is suffering an identity crisis...

 

[jjb1970]

I suspect I may end up more cynical even than Captain Cynical at this rate.

 

I'm in a meeting in which the governments of the self-appointed 'high-ambition' countries when it comes to saving the world have been pontificating on the urgent need to do something about a certain eco-issue, that something must be mandatory and done immediately. Well, fair enough, I'm all for saving the world and if we're going to save the world we may as well do it quickly. However, those same government are then making sure nothing will happen by just kicking the down the road.

 

At the same time they're letting opprobrium be heaped on other governments who are honest enough to admit they really don't give a you know what and see no need to do much. I find both positions quite reprehensible but at least there's an honesty in the second and a willingness to accept the opprobrium that comes with it rather than vacuous virtue signalling in public while being just as negative where it counts.