Early Risers.

[Erichill16]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

 

 

What is better than the sound of a Rolls Royce Merlin* ?      Four Rolls Royce Merlins .....

 

 

A Bezza on full throttle?

 

It flew over our house a few years ago, I think on the way to Derwent reservoir for some celebration.

I think it was on that occasion BofB Memorial Flights C47 few over our house and I dashed in to get my camera  but missed the photo opportunity. I took the camera back in and just as I came out the Lancaster arrived, flanked by two Spitfires.

Tyrdycurses.

[polybear]

7 minutes ago, Hroth said:

At one point I had to make a phone call to HMRC* (?) to get a magic number to make the payment.  Getting through took three days.  Eventually I got the number and made the payment.  The new pension forecast took 6 weeks to get onto the system, but at least it was A. Correct and B. my state pension was maxed out.

 

Book, Play, Film, T-shirt.....

No Cake though.  Turdycurses.

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

Lovely!

 

What is better than the sound of a Rolls Royce Merlin* ?      Four Rolls Royce Merlins .....

 

Better: 4 Merlins on the Lank plus as many Spitfires and Hurricanes in formation as can be mustered!

 

I saw the last Vulcan at an air display before she was grounded. 4 howling Olympus engines make a big impression too!

 

[Ian Abel]

ARRGHHHH....

To quote Monty Python/Holy Grail "...I'm not dead yet..."

 

Been stupidly busy with work issues and haven't made time to post <sigh>

Nothing really to report anyway, other than the above.

 

Weekend is a 3-day here, Memorial Day.

Be nice to end Sunday and STILL have another day off.

Nothing definitive planned for the most part other than dinner with Brendans parents tomorrow - some nice restaurant everyone wants to check out, reports will be forthcoming. His parents are in town for a few days over the holiday weekend and we usually get together when they're here. Someone, usual them or Brendan/Jemma have some flash place they want to try, one that usually requires advanced booking, so expectations are higher than a "regular" evening out!

 

Weather has been very welcoming here, though I hesitate to say we could use a LITTLE rain.

Lovely days, sunny and 22-24 temps, cooler evenings.

 

Today, 12c first thing, sunny, 24c the expected high, no rain in the forecast all weekend. Being touted as one of the FEW really nice/exceptiona Memorial weekends in a while. THAT should put the kibosh on it  🤪

 

Enjoy the start of the weekend.

 

[AndyID]

11 hours ago, TheQ said:

Funs going to be getting SWMBO'S state pension checked and if necessary topped up. She's not worked for many years, has no credit / bill history, she only has her driving license issued 20+ years ago.

 

No bother at all for us, even from here. And MrsID had not worked in the UK for 35 years.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Been studying the books that I acquired at last nights SEERS meeting. All I know of their origin is that they came from a deceased estate. They reeked of tobacco so before I read them any further they will be left in the spare room until the smell dissipates.

[The Lurker]

Greetings from a Sidcup which although breezy is bathed in early evening sun.

 

it continues to be extremely busy at work but I have a few days off next week (alto am sure my boss still hasn’t noticed she gave me the time off!)

 

I managed a walk in Foots Cray meadows at lunchtime today- it was nice down by the river near where the Watercress beds used to be 120 years ago - not that there is any sign of that now. However some of the capability Brown landscape survives. 
 

A coupled of shots 

[45156]

Evening All

 

Today, the Painting word was uttered - we wanted the front door a slightly duller green, and bought some duller green paint, mixed up to be a close match to the sage green that we wanted - got it while at B&Q for something else.  They couldn't quite match it with their scanner - but suggested a good alternative, so £31 later, we were the proud owners of a nice tin of near sage green paint.

 

Got the front door prepped, and then opened said tin - only to find that it had no smell at all - it was water based, and the front door is already done in a pine green oil based gloss, which was going to act as the undercoat once roughened - NOT.  So it was off to Huws Gray who mixed us up a litre of oil based paint in the exact shade that we'd originally planned - and it was £2 less - moral - don't bother with B&Q and buy locally.  Then we remembered that all the major DIY sheds only sell water based gloss now - again the message is to avoid them if at all possible.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[Ozexpatriate]

9 hours ago, Grizz said:

Recently we had to vote in local elections, which now requires I.D. to be provided to prove who you and where you live, with photo I.D. Not and unreasonable request if it will help to reduce voting fraud.

 

... Despite all this, apparently this was not considered sufficient by the polling station Herberts and it was refused as proof of who I was and where I lived.

Many of the attempts to address so-called "voter fraud" result in the disenfranchisement of eligible voters. Sometimes this comes under the law of unintended consequences and sometimes it is deliberate.

 

EDIT: Hadn't noticed this when I posted, but it is exactly the sort of thing I refer to.

5 hours ago, Tony_S said:

The voting ID thing has deprived far more people entitled to vote than the number of voter fraud convictions. 

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[jamie92208]

As far as I am aware there is historically very little voter fraud at polling stations in the mainland UK.  I have heard that Personation as it's called certainly used to be rife in Northern Ireland where the motto was vote early and vote often.  There is some evidence of more fraud in the postal voting system since it was made easier to obtain a postal vote.  No one appears to want to do anything g about that. 

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

I haven’t done much today. I did re-fit a loo seat that I replaced the hinges on recently. It became wobbly again so I reinstalled it with Loctite on threaded bits that were not meant to undo. Hopefully it will be ok. The instructions on the Loctite packaging were in French and Dutch but I only needed to know the bit about how long for maximum strength. 
Aditi needed to visit a post office so we went in my car and while she was returning more unwanted items I went and got some petrol. I didn’t look how much it was but that garage is usually competitive on price and I can’t be bothered going elsewhere to save fractions  of pence. My petrol company app did appreciate my brand loyalty by knocking £1.20 off the total for making 10 visits to Shell garages though. I only filled the car tank up as we are going to Enfield tomorrow. When we met Aditi’s brother last weekend he said he and his family would be in Enfield this  coming Saturday and would we be there too. We said we didn’t know anything about his visit. We have been asked over since! Yesterday we were at the Chelsea Flower Show. While there we were getting loads of calls lasting seconds, either private number or number withheld, which usually means BiL in Enfield. Mobile reception in the flower show was very patchy, so many people there, not surprisining if there was over capacity. Also when we finally managed to sit it was near the bandstand and couldn’t have heard a call anyway. These attempted calls were on my phone and Aditi’s. Hardly anyone rings me so we began to wonder if there was some sort of family problem. It wasn’t really as when we discovered when we finally exited the show, went somewhere quiet and phoned back. 
Tony

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

... the books that I acquired at last nights SEERS meeting ... reeked of tobacco

In the earlish days of Amazon (when they mostly sold books) I bought a second hand book of George Vancouver's voyage, which (of course) was long out of print. It was quite yellowed and stank of tobacco.

 

I did read it and haven't opened it since. It probably still smells.

[AndyID]

18 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Many of the attempts to address so-called "voter fraud" result in the disenfranchisement of eligible voters. Sometimes this comes under the law of unintended consequences and sometimes it is deliberate.

 

 

Based on actual convictions (in the US) the great majority of them were by people who could legitimately vote but who attempted fraud (like voting multiple times). I'm pretty sure it's highly unlikely any illegal immigrant is going to risk deportation by casting an illegal vote. The whole thing is just a gigantic political "dog whistle" but sadly many fall for it.

[Tony_S]

8 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

am aware there is historically very little voter fraud at polling stations in the mainland UK.

Someone got 6 months suspended for electoral fraud locally. However it wasn’t a voter but one of the candidates and involved signatures on nomination papers. 

[Ozexpatriate]

14 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Northern Ireland where the motto was vote early and vote often.

An expression long associated with elections in Chicago.

 

14 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

There is some evidence of more fraud in the postal voting system since it was made easier to obtain a postal vote. 

I am of the impression that the opposite is true here. Oregon has been 100% postal vote for many years, along with several other (mostly Western) states. It works exceptionally well and provides a nice paper trail for audit purposes (preemptively addressing those who stoke fear regarding electronic voting machines).

 

There are other opinions of course. An out-of-state colleague bent my ear (for far longer than I wanted to patiently listen) on how 'corrupted' voting is in these states and how they always return a result for a particular party (overlooking the fact that in one of these states the other major party enjoys the lions share of returns). 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

5 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Switzerland has a very efficient referendum process. Something the Swiss government and Swiss government agencies are very very much aware of..
 

You p1ss off enough Swiss, the next thing you know the necessary number of signatures will be collected, and then you’ll be looking at the wrong end (or the sharp end) of a legally binding referendum.

About half of the US states also have a citizen ballot initiative / referendum process variably called "propositions" or "measures" that can result in citizen-enacted law. While there are always unintended consequences of such things* I see them as useful and good.

 

* One being the ballot initiative corollary of Newton's third law: "For every ballot initiative there is an equal and opposite ballot initiative" resulting in much confusion created by counter-measure advertising.

 

Democracy being messy and politics being what it is, the process here is now mired in maneuvering to thwart new laws when citizens enact new measures. For avoidance of politics I shan't go into specifics, but it's a bit of a shame and diminishes an otherwise good exemplar of real democracy.

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by Ozexpatriate
Redundancy

[DaveF]

 

As expected I got some gardening done today, in all about 80 plants are now in the ground, most of them summer bedding (african marigold, antirrhinum and lobelia) along with some pelargoniums and fuchsias.  The bed by the back door and most of the tubs should now look OK all summer.  I have about 6 perennials to plant once the honesty and Winter/Spring bedding is removed and the bulb foliage cut back.  Then I have to find place to stand some smallish tubs of dahlias and 3 fuchsias.  The long term is to have fewer tubs as they are getting heavier as the years pass - nothing to do with me getting older of course.

 

I only had one minor mishap, while I was planting a clematis by the fence I moved in the wrong direction and was attacked by a climbing rose.  It was only a superficial scalp wound and was quickly cleaned up but I couldn't actually see it so took a photo to make sure there wasn't an embedded thorn.

 

Then coffee, reading, and a light salad lunch.  Light as I am losing weight gradually, according to the scales about 8lb gone so far.  Next was a 20 minute walk during which I noticed how well the wild flowers planted in the verges in the road into the estate are doing.  At 4.30 I had an appointment with the podiatrist so I had to venture out in the busy traffic as he is about 6 miles away in the next town.  It took me nearly 20 minutes to get there but just under 15 minutes coming back.  As usual I was able to park outside his premises.  I suspect what I think of as busy traffic would be very quiet to many of you reading this.  He checked my damaged toe and thinks the nail will recover and has told me to  ring him if there are any problems and he'll see me the same day.

 

I was back in nice time to get my tea, the greenhouse has been watered and shut up for the night and now I am going to listen to music with TV later on.

 

David

[Tony_S]

As for age related ID Matthew was off to,Southend by train one Saturday. He showed his card (Essex official show your age card) showing his age of 15 and asked the ticket seller for the reduced price fare. The ticket seller said he looked 16 and should pay the adult fare. Matthew said he wasn’t 16 for a fortnight. The seller then said he should get used to paying the higher fare now then. So Matthew said he wasn’t going to.  At this point the supervisor came over, asked the ticket person to go away, apologised to Matthew and sold him the correct ticket. This odd behaviour was most unusual for our local station. Any staff ( and their aren’t many now) are always pleasant and helpful. 

Edited May 26, 2023 by Tony_S

[Ozexpatriate]

5 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

At this point the supervisor came over, asked the ticket person to go away,

It is curious how a uniform and 'authority' can turn some people into real jobsworths - particularly when their role is intended to be "helpful". Fortunately not all are so affected.

[Ozexpatriate]

Another 'viral' happy doggie story, this one from BC. (From the silly pages)

 

CNN: See swim-crazy dog's reaction to new indoor pool

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Finally got everything put away, a couple of years ago it would only have taken a couple of hours but now it takes half a day. Got to get things ready for tomorrow, visiting the Billericay exhibition. Not a big exhibition but usually very good.

[Coombe Barton]

... I gave you the answers in the lecture in week 12. And have told you so four or five times ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/05/26/wobbling-still-people-in-hospital-comparisons-and-asimov/

[polybear]

A tad ambitious:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-65729775

 

 

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Not much to report BUT I have made a start on the bookwork!

As one of the  nephews is here I’ve been relegated to the spare bedroom which is fine by me.

An early night beckons as I need the sleep. I’ve noticed today that I appear to have a bit of backache but it’s really more the top of one of my hips that hurts. Uncomfortable but no more at the minute but with a return journey down the smoke on Monday I’d like to get it cleared up ASAP. No pink pills for me, I’m allergic to them!

Goodnight.

Edited May 27, 2023 by Erichill16
Spelling

[Andy Hayter]

For those of you who have had problems proving your identity with DVLA, HMRC or other government bodies, you have my sympathy but let me let you that this is as nought to the issues in working with the financial bodies in the UK - aka *ankers.

 

 

As a consequence of the big B, another big B decided that it no longer wanted to have accounts from customers in the UK.  As a consequence I received a letter from Barclays last August telling me that they intended to close my UK account (after only 53 years of banking with them).  Consequently I looked to find an alternative UK bank to provide simple UK banking facilities and it seemed the only bank "willing" to take on EU resident accounts was HSBC.

 

I applied and was accepted on line but had to provide proof of identity and proof of address.  That I think is all OK and would probably be the same in the UK.  So off to the town hall, with copy of passport and a recent utilities bill bill with my address.  All stamped and confirmed and sent off to HSBC UK.  No response.  Chase up.  Sorry we cannot confirm the authenticity of the signatures confirming your application.   [This from a bank that does have branches throughout France and really should be able to confirm such details.]  We need a notary to confirm the address and authenticity of your passport.  

 

So off on a 22km round trip to a notaire - closest equivalent to a notary in France - to conform my address and my passport photo.  20€ Kerching  - sent back to HSBC and still waiting for a reply from the *ankers to confirm my account.

 

At distance this is all taking time and despite calls to both Barclays and HSBC to move things along, months pass.  5 months later I write to Barclays to request information about all direct debits.  No response.  I then ask them on closure of the account to transfer all monies to OH's UK account.

 

Still no response from HSBC.

 

Barclays announce my account will be closed on 23rd January.  

 

I make all provisions making cheque payments against direct debits etc before the account is closed - life assurance for example.

 

No response form Barclays on either issue but a letter telling me my account is closed and what to do to recoup my money.  Still no response from HSBC about my application..

 

Complaint sent to Barclays about poor - zero - response to my requests. CEO passes me on to Dr No (aka customer service agent - service? you must be kidding - who refuses to accept anything and by the way we did not get your letters.  To lose one letter might just happen  but to lose two smacks of complete incompetence.  

 

I hope you are not getting bored with this tedious tirade

Now for the good bits:

 

Although requested to transfer my balance to OHs account, because (they claim) they have not got the letter, I now have to request this transfer post closure with proof of identity and address (It's the same F***ing address you have used for years and for the same person you have been happy with for 53! years cretins!).  Back to the notaire.  20€ Kerching.

 

Then the insurance company won't accept the cheque because it is in someone else's account.  Guess what?  proof of identity and address - thankfully not certified this time.

 

So current status:

 

UK account closed with Barclays

UK account application with HSBC in a state of limbo awaiting a comment from them - I need to poke the lion with my stick - beware says Albert.

UK insurance now paid for.

 

All of this however caused me to think about the security of all of these measures designed to protect YOU and me from fraud.

 

The passport verification is fine.  I supply a copy of the passport and it is authenticated by the notary.

 

The address however is another matter.  I provide the notary with a copy of my phone (fixed line) bill.  It has me address on it.  I changed this address recently when we were allocated a street name and house number.   Before we just lived as part of our commune.  The phone company  just accepted this.  They send their invoices by email so the address is immaterial to them. The notaire does not know me from Adam and so does not know if the address is correct or not; but to back up the address I carry a copy of my income tax demand from the tax office.  And how does the tax office know my address?  I filled in the new address on my tax return.

 

So where does this long litany lead?  UK banks demand proof of identity based on an authenticated  passport photo - fair enough - and an address that is eventually down to the fact that tolf people what it is and authenticated by someone who cannot actually know.

 

And I am still awaiting HSBC *ankers to confirm my account details - 9 month and counting!!