Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

The UK bus pass for seniors is country-specific. If you live in England it can only be used in England etc.  

 

There are very limited concessions where bus routes cross borders but there are also cases where you cannot travel free across the border. 

You created a completely irreverent image of Welsh border guards (you know they're Welsh cos of the leeks on their berets) stopping motorists at the Welsh equivalent of Check-Point Charlie (Check Point Cledwyn perhaps?), AK47s cradled in their arms, barking out Papurau allan i'w harchwilio, nawr!; asking in heavily accented English, "what brings you to Cymru, boyo?"

[PupCam]

31 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

A "passport-style" photograph is required.  It may help if you have, as I do, an existing photo on file with either the DVLA (or what ever "Swansea" is called this week) or the Passport Office (ditto). 

 

No and No

 

Which is why I say it is a form of discrimination because that very fact prevents me from gaining access to HMG's interweb portal for interacting with HM's official departments. Only trivial stuff like the DW&P,   HMRC etc   because they've "Outsourced" applicant verification to the DVLA and the Passport office!   

 

Rightly or wrongly I thought the country vetoed the idea of an Identity Card some years ago.    Doesn't seem like it now.

 

[Gwiwer]

16 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

You created a completely irreverent image of Welsh border guards (you know they're Welsh cos of the leeks on their berets) stopping motorists at the Welsh equivalent of Check-Point Charlie (Check Point Cledwyn perhaps?), AK47s cradled in their arms, barking out Papurau allan i'w harchwilio, nawr!; asking in heavily accented English, "what brings you to Cymru, boyo?"

Or the Jock MacSporran Highlanders checking passes at Gretna Green

 

”Ye’ll nay be married hier wi’oot a Scots pass laddie”. 

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

Much digging done in well/ fig tree area.

Found under six inches of soil the remains of a concretery,  that's a rockery made mostly of lumps of concrete, brick, stone and the odd bit of iron . There's a nail a foot long and about 3/4 inch thick, it is of course bent!!

 

In the brick, rubble was a piece of terracotta six inches by 3 with a sun emblem moulded into it. That and various other moulded brick, terracotta and concrete pieces found over the years leads me to believe the old pub formerly on this site must have been something to see..

 

Three slabs, each 2ft square now laid in a level position next to the old well, the soil dug out has been piled up beyond that to form a raised bed.

The sides of the raised bed will be sections of a former green plastic compost bin which lock together and I think will look quite good.

Three more slabs to be laid the other side of the well, before another raised bed. 

 

When I looked into getting more panels, I find the cheap compost bin we bought many years ago is now two Deltics!!!  At that point SWMBO went into full Yorkshire mode.

The rear of the raised bed, out of sight of visitors, and most of the time us, will be made from...

 

 

A cut up, up and over garage door!!!

 

Then Ben I want my walk Collie, intervened, he took me for his full maximum length long walk, which was quite pleasant, except my right ankle was complaining.

 

I've been invited to lunch at the officers mess Cranwell.. 

Well, not just me, it's an organised trip for the museum volunteers and includes a trip round various historical sites etc at the base.

 

Last time I was actually at Cranwell was at stupid o clock in the morning , having driven from RAF Neatishead with an important piece of equipment, meanwhile someone had driven down from RAF Staxton Wold, to collect it. I was there early enough to get a cupotea in the guardroom, before getting signatures and heading back. 

 

Time, to go put those compost units roughly in position the see what more digging is required.

 

[woodenhead]

Esure Car Insurance - stunningly incompetent and unapologetic.

 

So I will keep this simple, new car being picked up tomorrow - brand new so not on any system yet to allow us to alter the insurance online, have to ring insurance.

 

Tuesday: ring insurance - when will the car be registered (we don't know but Friday at latest), ok when was it built - what?  Ok we will speak to garage and come back

Wednesday: ring insurance - sort out insurance, update my job on their records, will start Friday 10am - great.  Docs come through, my job is totally wrong - wrong type, wrong industry and nothing like what we told them and hold on where did they double our excesses!  Ring back, nothing they can do about the excess, it is what it is and corrected role so £2 refund + £20 for incovenience.  Realise after ending call, one of our excesses is voluntary so we could remove that and also notice the certificate of insurance has now disappeared leaving only the one that expires with the old car.

Thursday: ring again, sort out certificate of insurance which arrives.  Hold on, they have moved the start time to the afternoon, so if we pick up the car as agreed then we will be driving without insurance now.  Onto complaints.......

 

Not sure if this is even resolved yet, Mrs W is not happy and is giving it big style on the phone when I last heard.

 

This is not all the detail either, there was the little problem of even finding the right model as their list bore no resemblance to the model as described in our docs. 

 

The world has reached a point where if you cannot do it online and have to deal with a person then you are going to be in for a rough ride whilst they try and do something so simple it should have taken no more than 5 minutes.

 

And I've not mentioned my recent banking experiences, shocking.

[New Haven Neil]

A'noon. 18c and currant bunny, at last.

 

The new 'Manxman' ferry was built in Korea, and is making its way to Fraggle Rock via several ports - it's not made for long sea journeys and wouldn't carry sufficient bunkers to do so.  I read of a couple of niggles which is why it hung around Singers for a few days, something to do with fuel contamination.  It looks like a nice job though, we'd be waiting forever for a UK built one, and then it would break down.  We're looking at entry into service the end of July IIRC, there is some remaining minor fitting out to be done in the UK first, catering equipment I think.  The interior photies look good.

 

https://www.steam-packet.com/blog/manxman-a-look-inside-the-new-flagship/?fbclid=IwAR2f_g7c92kOAiw-ps3c7GpFwkxTPHFUpq9EP97FFwpr0RVAaHLupTNdUl4

 

The 'Manx Crabs' aka local moaners ( a speciality here) are already predicting gloom and doom, they have no idea.  The SPC are to keep the old 'Ben my Chree',= ('Girl of my Heart') for busy times and to charter out, I'm sure CalMac could do with it at the moment!  She's a bit big for many of their services though.

[Hroth]

53 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

You created a completely irreverent image of Welsh border guards (you know they're Welsh cos of the leeks on their berets) stopping motorists at the Welsh equivalent of Check-Point Charlie (Check Point Cledwyn perhaps?), AK47s cradled in their arms, barking out Papurau allan i'w harchwilio, nawr!; asking in heavily accented English, "what brings you to Cymru, boyo?"

 

They have an automated system already, banks of "speed" cameras on all major roads leading into Wales, set to prioritise English registration numbers.  It was a bad day when the DVLA was transferred to Swansea...

 

The "Papers please" mob do spot checks on the minor roads, so don't try sneaking in!

 

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by Hroth

[polybear]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

I'm 99.9999% certain that not even county boundaries will be breached by me on a bus.  You may infer gentle reader that I'm unlikely to be doing any bus trips when you learn that there is such a border passing through the village.   Coupled to the fact that you probably need a valid "Passport" or "Driving Licence" photograph to apply for one in the first place.  If true, Puppers finds the latter of those two in particular quite ironic.   Anyway, it's discrimination I tell you!

 

Both of which incur the spending of obscene amounts of Deltic Tokens.....

 

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

........as a result of numerous 5 minute power failures occurring every 15 minutes  from 10:pm until 1:00am the following day.   What was particularly irritating was that every time the power came on a neighbours alarm siren went off for the regulation 10(?) minutes.    Unfortunately they weren't at home to turn the B thing off.      Got me thinking that that's not a very bright configuration as it sort of repeatedly advertisers that the property is devoid of inhabitants ........

 

Sounds to this Bear like their alarm panel is in dire need of a new back-up battery, and/or the panel needs connecting to the mains supply via a surge n' spike arrester.

 

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

Finished the Beeza mod yesterday and was thinking I might go down to the local Wednesday evening bike meet.    Started the engine on the drive when a tremendous racket gushed forth from what seemed to be the gearbox region.   Maybe my diagnosis of the problem the other day was incomplete.    Mega mega TCs!

 

 

Looking on the bright side, it (a) happened at home and not ten miles away, and (b) not at 40mph....

 

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

 

How many times do people have to be told not to just go where the GPS tells them to without thinking about it, it's a miracle the ship didn't get stuck on a railway level crossing.

 

Apparently the RN and Imperial College London are playing with Navigation Systems using Quantum Accelerometers rather than GPS, as the latter is far too reliant on other countries' Satellites and for the likes of Russia and other similar scrotes not to go messin' with GPS signals.

 

Bear managed to bust the cutting disc which came with the new Proxxon saw - without even cutting anything either.  Turdycurses.  In Bear's defence they're only 0.5mm thick so anything more than a gentle stare in the wrong direction will fubar them faster than a Hippo in a Cake Shop.  Fortunately replacements are under two quid.

 

In other news....

It seems the Climate Protest lot have been at it yet again - this time by chucking orange paint over a garden at the CFS.  Wnakers.  Apparently one was heard to shout "What use is a garden if you can't eat it".  Huh?

 

BG

[jjb1970]

56 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

A'noon. 18c and currant bunny, at last.

 

The new 'Manxman' ferry was built in Korea, and is making its way to Fraggle Rock via several ports - it's not made for long sea journeys and wouldn't carry sufficient bunkers to do so.  I read of a couple of niggles which is why it hung around Singers for a few days, something to do with fuel contamination.  It looks like a nice job though, we'd be waiting forever for a UK built one, and then it would break down.  We're looking at entry into service the end of July IIRC, there is some remaining minor fitting out to be done in the UK first, catering equipment I think.  The interior photies look good.

 

https://www.steam-packet.com/blog/manxman-a-look-inside-the-new-flagship/?fbclid=IwAR2f_g7c92kOAiw-ps3c7GpFwkxTPHFUpq9EP97FFwpr0RVAaHLupTNdUl4

 

The 'Manx Crabs' aka local moaners ( a speciality here) are already predicting gloom and doom, they have no idea.  The SPC are to keep the old 'Ben my Chree',= ('Girl of my Heart') for busy times and to charter out, I'm sure CalMac could do with it at the moment!  She's a bit big for many of their services though.

 

They should've gone to Ferguson 😳🤣 The two CalMac LNG ferries provide a splendid textbook example of how not to build ships, oh dear.....

 

I hope they provided a boat service for the crew, to get ashore. They're anchored off Marina South Pier, meaning they will have a splendid view of the famous Marina Bay Sands and the financial district. It'd be a real you know what to be sat looking to shore and be stuck on-board.

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

 

No and No

 

Which is why I say it is a form of discrimination because that very fact prevents me from gaining access to HMG's interweb portal for interacting with HM's official departments. Only trivial stuff like the DW&P,   HMRC etc   because they've "Outsourced" applicant verification to the DVLA and the Passport office!   

 

Rightly or wrongly I thought the country vetoed the idea of an Identity Card some years ago.    Doesn't seem like it now.

 

 

Certain factions in the US have been attempting to institute that for some time. It will be impossible to get on a plane without a passport or a "Real ID" driving license (which is supposed to prove you are authorised to be in the US.)

 

Its introduction has been pushed back several times and it is still two years out. Basically it's turning the states' driver license departments into extensions of Immigration.

[DaveF]

A very belated Happy Birthday to Hroth.

 

As planned I went to church and managed to read the right lesson, it didn't contain any tongue twisters unlike some passages.  After the service while I had coffee I checked through the order of service for Sunday which is different as it is Pentecost.  It means that I only have to do a reading not the Collect as well, that is elsewhere in the service.  It has also been realised that they need another member of the congregation involved as there are three readings not the usual two.

 

Fairly soon after I got home the plumber called to have a look at the flush unit inside the toilet cistern.  She has decided I need a new one so it will be arranged, possibly on the same day as the boiler service.  It still works so there is no panic (yet).

 

After a light lunch I did some general tidying in the garden and took out more of the honesty as it is over.  After a look at a magazine which came in the post I went to Lidl to buy a few items I had forgotten to put on the grocery order, I also stocked up with some things they have at good prices which will keep.

 

When I returned home I realised that a year ago today was Mum's funeral which brough back some sad memories of the day for a while but then I thought about some of the good things with Mum before she became very weak which cheered me up.

 

It has now clouded over and feels much cooler, I am glad I decided not to go out to visit anywhere this afternoon.

 

Davidf

[tigerburnie]

The good news is, it's not the wheel bearings trashed, so that saves me around £500, the not so good news is it's my brake pads and discs, look like ploughed fields, so that's £250 back on the bill, plus new fan belt and service just how much is one these 'ere English Electric engines exactly, I need to know the exchange rate.

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, woodenhead said:

will be driving without insurance now. 

Probably why garages often provide a weeks free insurance for a vehicle you purchase. It does make it easier though I usually have had my proper insurance sorted by pick up date. 

[TheQ]

16 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

The good news is, it's not the wheel bearings trashed, so that saves me around £500, the not so good news is it's my brake pads and discs, look like ploughed fields, so that's £250 back on the bill, plus new fan belt and service just how much is one these 'ere English Electric engines exactly, I need to know the exchange rate.

Look up Accurascale Deltic, the normal deltic price quoted is without sound unless otherwise mentioned.

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

seems the Climate Protest lot have been at it yet again - this time by chucking orange paint over a garden at the CFS.  Wnakers.  Apparently one was heard to shout "What use is a garden if you can't eat it".  Huh?

We didn’t know anything about it and saw the affected garden later, it hadn’t suffered. Environmental issues were dealt with very well on other exhibits.  For instance, the bumble bee society stand was very good.

Edited May 25, 2023 by Tony_S

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

It seems the Climate Protest lot have been at it yet again - this time by chucking orange paint over a garden at the CFS.

 

 

In this case I cannot agree with their methods but I'm glad at least some people are jumping up and down about Global Warming. Seems to me the human race is happily repeating the "boil a frog" experiment on itself.

[woodenhead]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

Probably why garages often provide a weeks free insurance for a vehicle you purchase. It does make it easier though I usually have had my proper insurance sorted by pick up date. 

Don’t think it’s free this time.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Visited Tess Coes this afternoon and spent the cost of a Deltic. As far as I am aware I haven't forgotten anything (thats a first), in fact I spotted something that I need and didn't know that they stocked. Out to a talk at SEERS this evening on the S&C.

[iL Dottore]

I really don’t know why the Brits and the Yanks get all bent out of shape about ID cards. I have had a Swiss ID card since I became a Swiss citizen a few decades ago and I certainly haven’t been stopped by the Polizei on a regular basis - in fact the only time I’ve been stopped by the Police and asked for documents was on a routine traffic stop and even then they just wanted to see my driver’s licence and car documents (proving I owned the car and that it was insured). And traffic stops are few and far between

 

I discovered a week or ago that my ID card had expired in 2022 (oops), so I toddled down to the Gemeinde last Wednesday, paid SFr 10 (£8.90) for a nifty digital portrait and forked over SFr 80 (£71.60) for a new ID card*. On Tuesday of this week, the postie delivered the new cards (they had to be signed for). And we had a National Holiday (Thursday - Pfingsten) plus a Weekend between ordering and receiving the ID card…..

 

Apart from when travelling to the UK, the US or Japan, I never take my passport when I go abroad - the ID is sufficient for all the Euro destinations I regularly go to.

 

I find that having a Swiss ID card has many benefits (and I certainly don’t feel “oppressed” or “under surveillance” by the state….),

 

*Yes, you do pay for Swiss bureaucracy - but it works efficiently, effectively and fast - even at the national level (though, admittedly, the various Bundesamt are somewhat slower than the Kantons - understandably given the much larger volumes they have to deal with)

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by iL Dottore
Typo

[AndyID]

4 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I really don’t know why the Brits and the Yanks get all bent out of shape about ID cards. I have had a Swiss ID card since I became a Swiss citizen a few decades ago and I certainly haven’t been stopped by the Polizei on a regular basis - in fact the only time I’ve been stopped by the Police and asked for documents was on a routine traffic stop and even then they just wanted to see my driver’s licence and car documents (proving I owned the car and that it was insured). And traffic stops are few and far between

 

I discovered a week or ago that my ID card had expired in 2022 (oops), so I toddled down to the Gemeinde last Wednesday, paid SFr 10 (£8.90) for a nifty digital portrait and forked over SFr 80 (£71.60) for a new ID card*. On Tuesday of this week, the postie delivered the new cards (they had to be signed for). And we had a National Holiday (Thursday - Pfingsten) plus a Weekend between ordering and receiving the ID card…..

 

Apart from when travelling to the UK, the US or Japan, I never take my passport when I go abroad - the ID is sufficient for all the Euro destinations I regularly go to.

 

I find that having a Swiss ID card has many benefits (and I certainly don’t feel “oppressed” or “under surveillance” by the state….),

 

*Yes, you do pay for Swiss bureaucracy - but it works efficiently, effectively and fast - even at the national level (though, admittedly, the various Bundesamt are some what slower than the Kantons - understandably given the much larger volumes they have to deal with)

 

 

I would really prefer that you do not refer to me as a "Yank". It's really quite offensive.

[Erichill16]

Probably a good time for the Good Doctor @iL Dottore to ‘make way’  and take his well deserved trip to Japan.😉

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65709834

[iL Dottore]

7 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

I would really prefer that you do not refer to me as a "Yank". It's really quite offensive.

Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend, but why is the commonly used term “Yanks” offensive to you? The term “Yanks” seems to be in wide circulation in the UK and I lived for quite a few years in the southern states of the US where “yankees” (the longer form) was also used in wide circulation.

[Ozexpatriate]

5 hours ago, PupCam said:

I have yet to come across a product that has been improved or even as good-as by going green.

Might I suggest LED lighting?

 

Far superior in almost every aspect when compared with twisted wire incandescent filaments, or the ghastly fluorescent tubes.

[Andy Hayter]

32 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 

 

 And we had a National Holiday (Thursday - Pfingsten) plus a Weekend between ordering and receiving the ID card…..

 

 

Er um.

 

I think you will find that this weekend is Pfingsten and that last Thursday was Christi Himmelfahrt. 

 

But I agree that having an ID card is no issue and does actually help prove who you are and so help reduce the opportunities for low life to impersonate you.  

[Ozexpatriate]

19 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

in the southern states of the US where “yankees” (the longer form) was also used in wide circulation.

As a pejorative, and usually in the form of 'damn Yankees' which I think you well understand.

 

*Some* New Englanders (to whom the term specifically applies) are happy to self-identify as "Yankees" but within the US it really is a regional term. It also gets confused by being the name of a much loved/hated New York baseball team. Most Bostonians (despite being New Englanders) won't identify as "Yankees" because the Boston Red Sox are the Yankees biggest rival on the diamond.