Early Risers.

[Barry O]

Umpiring in Beverly complete. Absolutley frozen from the weather. Time for bed to try and get warmed up.

 

Sleep well  all!

 

Baz

[PhilJ W]

I haven't seen @BSW01 posting lately, I hope everythings OK.

[The Lurker]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Hang in there Bunny.....we're here....

 

 

Other sites are available...

Is there a particular "product" that Puppers has desires on?

 

Bear here.....

A reasonably productive day today - setting up the Saw Table was achieved without incident, as was cutting the architrave to width (not always an easy task cos' the length of the architrave far exceeds the length of the cutting fence on the saw table, meaning it's all too easy to get the item being cut slightly "on the p1ss" at some point during proceedings and end up with a wonky cut ).  Fortunately all went well - and Bear's paws remained "unmodified" as well.  Tick.

Buddy over the road visited for an hour after din dins to relieve Bear of a couple of boxes of frozen chicken nuggets (purchased as a part of the freezer deals the Co-op often have - the other four items capable of keeping Bear more than happy).  Then it was time to fit a couple of bits of skirting and dado rail (all fully painted etc.) to the landing - all went well.  Another Tick.  I've still to cut, paint and fit a couple of lengths of beading to tidy up a corner architrave, as well as add a few squirts of splurge here & there in order to finish off the Landing.

I also received an email to tell me that the glass panels for closing off the area below the Bannister Hand Rail are soon to be delivered - though the selected day isn't ideal; it seems they'll deliver to a neighbour if Bear isn't home so all is not lost.  I took in a big parcel** for NNNND today - so brownie points were earned and hopefully will be redeemed in kind.

 

(**A Gazebo, apparently - they were called Tents when Bear was a Cub).

 

In other news....

A rather nice young lady called at Bear Towers today 😁 to ask if I was interested in having the windows in Bear Castle cleaned on a regular basis (not by her, sadly...).  When I asked how much she replied that front & back would be twenty five notes** - but when Bear said it'd only be the front (expecting half price) she said it'd probably be fifteen notes....

 

(**But if they've not been cleaned for a long time/or it's the first visit then it may well be a double charge.....yeah, right.....).

 

Now Bear's last Window Cleaner (just before Covid) was doing the front of the house for something like 7 or 8 quid;  at the prices mentioned today I reckon I'll stay with the "weathered finish" - but thanks all the same.  I reckon a decent Window Cleaner can easily do 3 houses in an hour without trying too hard, so at twenty five quid a time that's a nice little earner. 

 

BG

In sunny Sidcup we pay Lee £8.50 for the front of a 5 bed semi. He tried to put the price up about 10 years ago but we pointed out he was charging our friends on Station Road less for front and back so he kept the price the same. Mind you he never collects unless chased. I’ve not paid him this year for sure- we keep an envelope in the drawer with cash to pay him - I mean who carries cash these days?

 

he doesn’t do a great job but seeing as I generally CBA to get up on a ladder, he wins in my book!

[TheSignalEngineer]

38 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Umpiring in Beverly complete. Absolutley frozen from the weather. Time for bed to try and get warmed up.

Cricket watching has certainly been a chilly task this year so far. Last week I was on Grandad duty minding Thomas at a match on top of a hill near Disley. I was in two coats with the picnic blanket rigged up to form a windbreak. One of the mothers who was sitting next to me was wearing an ankle length quilted coat with hood.

[TheSignalEngineer]

23 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

How many of those things will get tested and workshopped extensively for every eventuality prior to release? Many variations on the old "will your driverless car crash into the tree and kill you rather than run into the errant pedestrian?" question could spring  up across all walks of life.

Back in the 1980s one of my colleagues spent 18 months verifying that BR's Solid State Interlocking would work as intended in all imaginable scenarios.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Finally tonight I am drinking a toast to my Dad who was 19 at the time of the Normandy Landings. Having just completed a crash course after volunteering for transfer to the Military Police he spent the run up to D-Day and a couple of days after marshalling men and transport onto vessels at a south coast location then went over to Sword Beach. His first task over there was riding a motorbike guiding convoys resupplying front line troops. He was at Caen, Bayeux and the Falaise Gap before moving up country. He was then involved in Operation Market Garden. Following the onset of bad weather he was based near Eindhoven before being transferred to India for two years. 

 

[pH]

1 hour ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Back in the 1980s one of my colleagues spent 18 months verifying that BR's Solid State Interlocking would work as intended in all imaginable scenarios.

I would guarantee he missed one.

[monkeysarefun]

On 06/06/2023 at 07:02, pH said:

Pierre Berton’s book “Vimy” contains a direct reference to such things. British Army officers attached to the Canadian Army were far stricter disciplinarians than Canadian officers. He writes:

 

”Such officers did not last long in the Canadian lines: those who weren’t sent back to the British Army were shot in the back by their own men.”

 

 

Disdain at  British Army discipline seems to be shared amongst the colonials!

 

(from greatwar.nl) 

At a  camp in Strazeele (Belgium)  Australians were encamped on the other side of the road from the 10th Royal Fusiliers. The Tommies were simultaneously shocked and impressed by the Aussies' casual attitude to war - or at least to the Army. It could hardly be right for Aussie privates to address their commanding officer as 'Jack', but the Fusiliers heard them do so with their own ears.

 

For their part, the Australian 'Diggers' as they were often called, were equally disapproving of certain rites observed by the Fusiliers. As private C. Miles of the 10th Btn. Royal Fusiliers recalled:

"The Colonel decided that he would have a full dress parade of the guard mounting. Well, the Aussies looked over at us amazed. The band was playing, we were all smartened up, spit and polish, on parade, and that happened every morning. We marched up and down, up and down.
The Aussies couldn't get over it, and when we were off duty we naturally used to talk to them, go over and have a smoke with them, or meet them when we were hanging about the road or having a stroll. They kept asking us: 'Do you like this sort of thing? All these parades, do you want to do it?' Of course we said, 'No, of course we don't. We're supposed to be on rest, and all the time we've got goes to posh up and turn out on parade.' So they looked at us a bit strangely and said, 'OK, cobbers, we'll soon alter that for you'.
The Australians didn't approve of it because they never polished or did anything. They had a band, but their brass instruments were all filthy. Still, they knew how to play them.
The next evening, our Sergeant-Major was taking the parade. Sergeant-Major Rowbotham, a nice man, but a stickler for discipline. He was just getting ready to bawl us all out when the Australians started with their band. They marched up and down the road outside the field, playing any old thing. There was no tune you could recognise, they were just blowing as loud as they could on their instruments. It sounded like a million cat-calls.
And poor old Sergeant Rowbotham, he couldn't make his voice heard. It was an absolute fiasco. They never tried to mount another parade, because they could see the Aussies watching us from across the road, just ready to step in and sabotage the whole thing. So they decided that parades for mounting the guards should be washed out, and after that they just posted the guards in the ordinary way as if we were in the line."

 

To the Australian troops it seemed that the British Army was obsessed by discipline.  On several occasions Australian soldiers sabotaged First Field Punishment British soldiers were sentenced to ( for instance when Tommy had been found drunk or had been wearing dirty clothes when off duty  ).

First Field Punishment meant that the soldier first had to parade in full pack. Then he had to take the pack off and Military Policemen strapped him up against a wooden cross, often one in a wagon wheel. It looked like he was crucified. This happened twice a day, an hour in the morning and an hour at night, and for as many days as the soldier was sentenced to.

It happened that Australian troops, incensed by the sight of a man undergoing Field Punishment, cut the man loose again, and again, and threatening the MP's - with loaded rifles, daring them to truss poor Tommy up again.

 

The British Army Staff did not very well know what to do with these and other Australian crimes. The mutinies in the French Army made some high-ranking officers nervous. They feared that the casual and highly independent attitude of the ANZAC troops would have a deleterious effect on the  British troops under their command. "Independent thinking is not to be encouraged in a professional Army. It is a form of mutiny. Obedience is the supreme virtue", the British Prime Minister Lloyd George warned.

In the British assessment the reputedly high crime rate of the Australians also played a significant role. A rather high number of Aussies were put behind bars for some time. In the winter of 1918 an average of 9 per 1,000 Australian soldiers resided in prison. Canadians, New Zealanders and South Africans had an average of 1.6 per 1,000 men behind bars.

Some punishments however were not forced  on Australian troops. Though liable to be executed for mutiny, desertion in the face of  the enemy or treachery, the 129 Australians (including 119 deserters) that were sentenced to death during the war (117 in France) were not shot.

The 1903 Australian Defence Act stipulated that the Governor General of Australia had to confirm all sentences passed by courts-martial - and he never endorsed death sentences. Although Haig made strong representations for power to inflict the extreme penalty upon Australian soldiers, the sanction was continually denied.

A major consideration was the Australian soldier's status as a volunteer, and that as such, these men should not be subject to the extreme penalty.

More than 61.000 Australians died in this war, mostly on the Western Front.

Australia's casualty rate was, relatively, the highest of all allied nations.

 

 

[Adam88]

14 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

Disdain at  British Army discipline seems to be shared amongst the colonials!

 

(from greatwar.nl) 

At a  camp in Strazeele (Belgium)  Australians were encamped on the other side of the road from the 10th Royal Fusiliers. The Tommies were simultaneously shocked and impressed by the Aussies' casual attitude to war - or at least to the Army. It could hardly be right for Aussie privates to address their commanding officer as 'Jack', but the Fusiliers heard them do so with their own ears.

 

For their part, the Australian 'Diggers' as they were often called, were equally disapproving of certain rites observed by the Fusiliers. As private C. Miles of the 10th Btn. Royal Fusiliers recalled:

"The Colonel decided that he would have a full dress parade of the guard mounting. Well, the Aussies looked over at us amazed. The band was playing, we were all smartened up, spit and polish, on parade, and that happened every morning. We marched up and down, up and down.
The Aussies couldn't get over it, and when we were off duty we naturally used to talk to them, go over and have a smoke with them, or meet them when we were hanging about the road or having a stroll. They kept asking us: 'Do you like this sort of thing? All these parades, do you want to do it?' Of course we said, 'No, of course we don't. We're supposed to be on rest, and all the time we've got goes to posh up and turn out on parade.' So they looked at us a bit strangely and said, 'OK, cobbers, we'll soon alter that for you'.
The Australians didn't approve of it because they never polished or did anything. They had a band, but their brass instruments were all filthy. Still, they knew how to play them.
The next evening, our Sergeant-Major was taking the parade. Sergeant-Major Rowbotham, a nice man, but a stickler for discipline. He was just getting ready to bawl us all out when the Australians started with their band. They marched up and down the road outside the field, playing any old thing. There was no tune you could recognise, they were just blowing as loud as they could on their instruments. It sounded like a million cat-calls.
And poor old Sergeant Rowbotham, he couldn't make his voice heard. It was an absolute fiasco. They never tried to mount another parade, because they could see the Aussies watching us from across the road, just ready to step in and sabotage the whole thing. So they decided that parades for mounting the guards should be washed out, and after that they just posted the guards in the ordinary way as if we were in the line."

 

To the Australian troops it seemed that the British Army was obsessed by discipline.  On several occasions Australian soldiers sabotaged First Field Punishment British soldiers were sentenced to ( for instance when Tommy had been found drunk or had been wearing dirty clothes when off duty  ).

First Field Punishment meant that the soldier first had to parade in full pack. Then he had to take the pack off and Military Policemen strapped him up against a wooden cross, often one in a wagon wheel. It looked like he was crucified. This happened twice a day, an hour in the morning and an hour at night, and for as many days as the soldier was sentenced to.

It happened that Australian troops, incensed by the sight of a man undergoing Field Punishment, cut the man loose again, and again, and threatening the MP's - with loaded rifles, daring them to truss poor Tommy up again.

 

The British Army Staff did not very well know what to do with these and other Australian crimes. The mutinies in the French Army made some high-ranking officers nervous. They feared that the casual and highly independent attitude of the ANZAC troops would have a deleterious effect on the  British troops under their command. "Independent thinking is not to be encouraged in a professional Army. It is a form of mutiny. Obedience is the supreme virtue", the British Prime Minister Lloyd George warned.

In the British assessment the reputedly high crime rate of the Australians also played a significant role. A rather high number of Aussies were put behind bars for some time. In the winter of 1918 an average of 9 per 1,000 Australian soldiers resided in prison. Canadians, New Zealanders and South Africans had an average of 1.6 per 1,000 men behind bars.

Some punishments however were not forced  on Australian troops. Though liable to be executed for mutiny, desertion in the face of  the enemy or treachery, the 129 Australians (including 119 deserters) that were sentenced to death during the war (117 in France) were not shot.

The 1903 Australian Defence Act stipulated that the Governor General of Australia had to confirm all sentences passed by courts-martial - and he never endorsed death sentences. Although Haig made strong representations for power to inflict the extreme penalty upon Australian soldiers, the sanction was continually denied.

A major consideration was the Australian soldier's status as a volunteer, and that as such, these men should not be subject to the extreme penalty.

More than 61.000 Australians died in this war, mostly on the Western Front.

Australia's casualty rate was, relatively, the highest of all allied nations.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

23 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Australia's casualty rate was, relatively, the highest of all allied nations.

I'm wondering if that is determined by casualties per enlistment (and I'm presuming "casualties" is injuries, not just fatalities).

 

The death tolls for all nations in the first world war were shocking - then and now. There's a bit of mythologizing that Australia suffered "more" than other nations but on a per-capita of population basis, the Australian fatality rate was lower than other combatant nations.

 

Given that they were volunteers, fighting what was essentially someone else's war for "King and Empire", the sacrifice was substantial.

 

By the end of the war, Gallipoli (8,700 Australian deaths) was a small part of the total (60,000 Australian deaths) but I wonder what might have happened if the ANZACs had been landed somewhere more strategic than what would be called ANZAC Cove.

[TheQ]

Yep total British casualties at Gallipoli or come to that during WW2 at Tobruk where my grandfather was, were higher than Australia, but lower as a percentage of population.

 

Mooring Awl,

A poor nights sleep, several wake up and turn overs in the first 2.5 hours. Followed by three more wake up and turn overs in the next 3 hours.. forepaws complaining for the first time as we finally move to being under the high air pressure rather than the edge.

 

As it is the forecast temperature will increase from the 12C of yesterday to a huge 14C today.

 

Plans for today,

Put a second coat of paint on the loom where required.

Sort the MRC laptop.

Try to access the MRC bank account.

 

But first Ben the I want out Collie has arrived

Time to get up.

 

 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a nice and warm Charente.  It sounds as if I better pack some winter woollies for coming to the UK next week.  Our sun heated pool is keeping at a steady 32 degrees. It's a hard life. 

 

I got the various tasks done yesterday morning.  Ironing then cutting up dead tree branches and adding usable stuff to the log pile.  Then some grass cutting.  All that activity meant that Beth and I could spend an hour or so in the pooi in the afternoon.  She thenwent to her French class and I cooked chicken in home made honey and mustard sauce.  No emulsifiers etc.  It was well received.

 

Chemist's first thing tody and then trainspotting this afternoon.  Not a bad day in prospect. 

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

The forecast says it's sunny, it isn't, dull grey, easterly, which reminds me I'd better have the bone fire before the wind direction changes.

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I'm wondering if that is determined by casualties per enlistment (and I'm presuming "casualties" is injuries, not just fatalities).

 

The death tolls for all nations in the first world war were shocking - then and now. There's a bit of mythologizing that Australia suffered "more" than other nations but on a per-capita of population basis, the Australian fatality rate was lower than other combatant nations.

 

I took it that the oft-quoted statistic includes killed and wounded.  Its a little hard to find direct comparison tables which include all casualties rather than just  deaths, and many that do lump all British troops together, however from the Australian War Memorial site - 416,809 men volunteered (38.7% of the 18 - 44 male population). Of these,  215,417  were killed or wounded. 

Edited June 7, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Now thawed out.. pah!

 

Got to collect some dry cleaning, trim two hedges, do a bitbof shark wielding etc today. On tope of that a lit more cricket admin is required...Pah!

 

I found one of the family's "death in service" medals from World War 1 recently. He was a Stoker in a destroyer. It was hit by a torpedo..  it didn't sink but it hit in the same place as he was working. 

 

Time to...

 

Drink my tea and kick Wednesday into life.

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

[polybear]

8 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

No but I'm a sucker for an unmutilated P2 for example .

 

8 hours ago, TheQ said:

Mentioned I was setting up a computer at home to do all the treasurers duties, and a voice piped up....

Why not use the club one! What club one? says several people.

The one on the shelf donated before COVID...

Then said person goes fetches.

An hour and a half charging and it was still running an hour and a half unplugged.

Its a Dell laptop running XP, weighs a ton, with a metal casing, so I guess it's a "ruggedized" one. Anyway I've brought it home to investigate and see if it will run the required software.

 

 

Hopefully this'll involve ditching XP - it's not had security updates for years so would be less than ideal for a Treasurer's Duties....

 

7 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Back in the 1980s one of my colleagues spent 18 months verifying that BR's Solid State Interlocking would work as intended in all imaginable scenarios.

 

It seems that the recent train crash in India may well have something to do with interlocking:

 

India’s railways minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said on Sunday that the accident had occurred “due to a change in electronic interlocking” and that an investigation would show “who was responsible for that mistake.”

 

India's railway ministry has recommended that the country's top detective agency should investigate the deadly crash that killed 275 people.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced the decision but did not give more details.

 

Bear here.....

Another silly o'clock day - but could quite easily have become a very silly o'clock day (oh four something) without too much trouble.

Today sees Bear working on the length of architrave beading mentioned yesterday - the fitting of which "may be fun" as it'll meet up with the top edge of the skirting and lower edge of the dado rail (both these edges are narrower than the beading so making it look "right" could be interesting).  A second length will meet the top edge of the dado rail but as that's a lot wider I shouldn't have the same issues.

After that it'll be onto temporarily fitting the architraves around the door frames in the hallway - at least one of which falls into the "could be fun (though not in a nice way)" category.  Then they'll be removed for painting (I find it much easier that way).

That should be enough to keep Bear amused for much of the day methinks.

 

BG

[polybear]

9 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

No but I'm a sucker for an unmutilated P2 for example .

 

There's always Tin Plate......

 

http://www.fitzroylocoworks.com/the-cock-o-the-north/cock-o-the-north-prototype-model-gallery/

 

Jeez, that's Tin Plate?  Come on a bit since the Hornby stuff of many moons ago.  Price?  Well it seems that the first run has sold out, but more are promised.....Cynical Bear suspects that if you have to ask etc. etc.

 

And finally.....

VSBT's to the family of the Spanish Rider killed in the TT yesterday, as well as all those affected** by the flooding in Ukraine.

 

(** Being predicted as being as many as 40,000 having to leave their homes)

 

BG

 

 

[DaveF]

Once again I woke early, made a cuppa and read, I'm now breakfasted, kitchen cleaned and have worked out what I want to achieve today.

 

It's still dull and cool so the list to do does not involve going out to take photos!  The first job is to have a look to see if I have bathroom/kitchen sealant and if not to go and buy some.

 

Yesterday someone mentioned the cost of window cleaners - mine charges £4 to do front and back windows and wipe the frames about every 8 weeks.

 

David

[jamie92208]

Time for a rant. I:ve just wasted 2 hours of my life trying to make sense of the migration of our UK phones from Virgito O2   This will only work in the UK and either company will take responsibility for rescheduling the update for next week.  2 overseas call centres both say to contact the other. The computer keeps saying. NO. Why can't someone do something as simple as writi g down 2 phone numbers and then putting them into the schedule next week.  Our Numbers are necessary in case we have to contact the NHS forKanything when we are in the UK. 

 

Pah, Pah and double Pah.  Hopefully a few hours trackside this afternoon will kepp my blood pressure within lmits. 

 

Jamie

[TheSignalEngineer]

8 hours ago, pH said:

I would guarantee he missed one.

He may have done. There was at least one mistake in the Leamington clone panel used for testing when it resided in the Engineering School at Derby but that was in the train simulator software which hadn't gone through the same process.

[TheSignalEngineer]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

9 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Back in the 1980s one of my colleagues spent 18 months verifying that BR's Solid State Interlocking would work as intended in all imaginable scenarios.

 

It seems that the recent train crash in India may well have something to do with interlocking

Early reports I'm getting seem to indicate a Clapham style scenario during engineering work rather than an inherent fault in the interlocking but not seen anything official yet.

Edited June 7, 2023 by TheSignalEngineer

[woodenhead]

Well I awoke early, too early 4am, couldn't get back to sleep so now I am late for woooork.

 

My day is sorted courtesy of a file format change that I hoped would do nothing but as in fact done something and now I need to figure out how the change affects things and fix it.

 

And it makes me think it's brother (or sister) file might also be broken but not telling me.....

 

Ah well, it keeps me busy I suppose.

[The White Rabbit]

7 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I'm wondering if that is determined by casualties per enlistment (and I'm presuming "casualties" is injuries, not just fatalities)... 

 

3 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

I took it that the oft-quoted statistic includes killed and wounded. ...

 

I presume it would depend on the statistics themselves - somewhere in the small print should be some text saying what is and isn't included. But I think a common one which hasn't been mentioned is 'missing'. Not just Baz's stoker but those who were quite literally lost at the likes of the Third battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) in all the mud and water.  

 

Some stats may also include PoWs. But I would hope whatever criteria are used, the author/person quoting would say what they are so the reader can get a sense of what happened. To make a sweeping generalisation: 50 thousand casualties - sounds bad. Ten dead, 40 wounded, none missing and 49,950 PoWs - probably not quite so bad. (And very indicative of the nature of the battle outcome, morale and suchlike). 

[jamie92208]

12 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

 

 

I presume it would depend on the statistics themselves - somewhere in the small print should be some text saying what is and isn't included. But I think a common one which hasn't been mentioned is 'missing'. Not just Baz's stoker but those who were quite literally lost at the likes of the Third battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) in all the mud and water.  

 

Some stats may also include PoWs. But I would hope whatever criteria are used, the author/person quoting would say what they are so the reader can get a sense of what happened. To make a sweeping generalisation: 50 thousand casualties - sounds bad. Ten dead, 40 wounded, none missing and 49,950 PoWs - probably not quite so bad. (And very indicative of the nature of the battle outcome, morale and suchlike). 

Yes,statistics need to be looked at with care. Many people quote the 60'000 casualties on the first day of the Somme as if they were all killed.  It was actually  20,000 dead. Still high but not as devastating as some think.  It also brought about a revolution in infantry tactics training that paid off later on. 

 

Jamie