Early Risers.

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

At the start of the war the orders were military targets only and it was only changed after the Blitz.

 

At the very start of the war, the government only let the RAF drop leaflets over Germany...

 

[TheQ]

My boots arrived while Ben was taking me for a walk...

"Little Red Driving Machine" © Gwiwer collected, shown the fact the front left wheel is further back than it should be.

Sadly the secondhand sub frame had gone between him checking they had one and going back to order it with my permission.. As it is, the sub frame is not as expensive as I expected, it's a good bit less than than a Deltic. Neither is it an engine out job, it's drop the exhaust. Half a dozen bolts, remove and refit.

Do the tracking.

 

Booked in for Jan 11th with MOT, the MOT runs out on the 12th.

Edited December 14, 2023 by TheQ

[iL Dottore]

16 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Like this?

Nope,

 

More like this:

[Tony_S]

17 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Nope,

 

More like this:

A Pork Twizzler…

[DaveF]

I went to church as planned, all went well and there were mince pies with the coffee afterwards.  Then I had a walk on the promenade which was pleasant in the sun and a very light breeze.  I got back home in nice time to cook fishfingers and chips for lunch, naturally with tomato sauce.

 

After lunch I decided to go to the garden centre just north of Morpeth, it was not the best idea.  Of the three roads out of town only two head west, the other is along the coast to the south.  The northern of the two roads I could use had traffic lights and roadworks.  All three roads which lead to the southern of the two roads heading west had roadworks with traffic lights.  Not too well planned!  I chose the slightly quieter road of the three, I got to the lights, the one on the left hand side of the road was red, so I joined the queue of traffic.  The one on the right hand side of the road was green.  After some thought I realised it applied to the little road in front of the houses which are set back from the main road.

 

The leftt (i.e. right) one went green so I set off, got round the roundabout further on where the roads meet to make the only one and found  a big tailback.  The reason was soon apparent.  A very wide load was edging its way towards me, well over to my side of the road to avoid the lamposts on its left.  For it to get past we all had to go completely onto the verge.  I think it may have been a load going to the harbour for shipment.

 

Further on I reached the level crossing on the ECML at Stannington, just as I got there the barriers closed, nearly five minutes later an LNER 800 went by heading south.  The rest of the journey was easy, the section of the A1 I was going to use is dual carriageway, the first of the single carriageway sections starts just after I turned off.

 

I had a good look at the garden centre and ended buying a new pair of slippers, I didn't really want any plants today.

 

I came the long way round to get home, coming in to town from the south after a somewhat roundabout route via Seaton Delaval and Seaton Sluice.  The journey home was actually quicker even though it is several miles longer.

 

Next, as usual, is tea then later on in the evening an old film on BBC4 - Some Like it Hot.  I might watch the programme before it as well - about trains sets/model railways.

 

David

Edited December 14, 2023 by DaveF

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Nope,

 

More like this:

 

My god!

 

Its EXPLODED!!!

 

[pH]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

At the very start of the war, the government only let the RAF drop leaflets over Germany...

 

Correction - “At the very start of the war, the government instructed the RAF to drop only leaflets over Germany...”. I had an uncle who flew on those trips. Things other than leaflets were dropped, though AFAIK nothing that exploded.

 

And there is apparently more than one way to drop leaflets. They were loaded on to the aircraft on pallets carrying about a hundredweight each. The approved procedure was to remove the bindings and coverings from the pallets - this gave access to the contents, which were packets of leaflets bound by elastic bands. These packets were then to be fed down the aircraft’s flare chute, the slipstream stripped off the elastic band and the individual leaflets fluttered gently to earth.

 

Having flown several hundred miles in winter conditions, with fighters and flak around, crews were apparently not too interested in following approved procedure. An alternative procedure was often employed - the door was opened and complete pallets pushed out.

 

We had three leaflets from those raids in the house - two in German and one, interestingly, in French. The French one had been dropped behind German lines in northern France (or perhaps Belgium) after those areas had been occupied. Unfortunately, I don’t know where our samples went.

[DaveF]

A few minutes ago at 5.43p.m. my post came.  The posties work very odd hours round here at times but are always cheerful when I see them.

 

Perhaps the post had arrived at the local sorting office late today becasue of the roadworks!

 

David

[Barry O]

7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Not just IBM, Henry Ford was an Anti-Semite and was quite happy to keep his factories working for the Germans. The USAAF even refrained from bombing Ford's factories and other American owned factories.  NOPE they managed to bomb everywere.. their Norden bombsights were good but their aiming was poor... or at least that was the observations given to my father in recently "freed" parts of Europe...

As in . if it was silver  high in the air a long way up.. head for the bomb shelters..If its camouflaged and flying low.. stay and watch"

 

Baz

[polybear]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Not just IBM, Henry Ford was an Anti-Semite and was quite happy to keep his factories working for the Germans. The USAAF even refrained from bombing Ford's factories and other American owned factories.

 

Bear never knew that; I'll think hard before buying a Ford in the future.....

 

 

Bear here.......

 

An early dash out to get the ears lowered (I had the 9am slot booked); a new guy was working there and it turned out he was ex. Plod - he was in the Met. for a year but decided it wasn't for him.  As his patch was NW London (Brent) I'm not surprised - it's a shittole (his words).

After that a quick raid on the Co-op was in order as I'd forgotten Carrots yesterday (note to @iL Dottore:  real ones too - not even frozen....).  It actually turned out to be a rather good plan cos' the Freezer Deal included Bear's Favourite Pizza, along with posh oven chips, posh ice cream, garlic pizza and chicken nuggets.  A right result - so much so I doubled up and bought two sets.  Total Spend?  Eighteen Notes.  Total Saving?  Twenty Notes.  Huge tick.  Buddy over the road got the Chicken Nuggets and next door got one of the Garlic Pizza's cos' the Beary Freezer is now full....

Whilst in there I did note that the Fridges with meat joints in require the assistance of a shop assistant to access now - seems the thievin' has got that bad.....in a reasonably affluent village....  B'sterds.

I also saw a Neighbour that has her paw on the pulse when it comes to goings-on in the village - a large Commercial Nursery is due to become a housing estate apparently 🤬 - I can recall when it was farmland & they used to hold a classic car & traction engine rally there once a year.

 

Some months ago there was news that several reasonably high-up persons working at the local council had been arrested as a part of a corruption investigation by the NCA - but all was quiet apart from that.  Well it seems that at least one of those persons just happens to work in...........Planning.  Hey, wottasurprise........not........

 

Apart from that it's been yet more 'plottin.........

 

ION.........

 

Wottawaste.......😢

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-67712369

 

Style.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-41229459

 

BG

[jamie92208]

The day went well.  The tracking g on the car was sorted then I headed for the distillery to buy some presents for the kids.  I was met at the door by M.Balluet and had a glass of 20 Yr old Cognac put in my hand.  I was then told that it 's always Cognac time.  It would have been rude not to have a drink.  Three bottles were bought then I headed off a d had a good afternoon trainspotting and putting the world to rights with Andy.  Beth had contributed some freshly made mi cevpies and Anyd' s wife provided flap jack and home made Ecckes cakes.  When I got home Beth had made prawn linguine for tea.  Life is so hard. 

 

Jamie

[grandadbob]

Evenin' each,

Well the day was a pleasant surprise as everything went right and all deliveries etc were done when they should have been.   Most impressed with the furniture delivery, the tracking was regularly updated and it turned up exactly when it should have, at about 14.03.  The only slight hiccup with that was as the lorry pulled up outside the tracking map was actually showing it smack in the middle of the football pitches in our nearby park.  😂  We received a phone call about 45 minutes before they arrived and the two delivery guys were polite, friendly and efficient.  Oh and they were English!!!

Really pleased with the new furniture and it made us realise how uncomfortable and tatty the old stuff had become - mind you we've had about 25 years use out it so that wasn't bad.  Big bonus was that about an hour before the delivery Steve popped in for a visit so he humped the old stuff outside although I'm pretty sure the delivery guys would have it done it.  That's now sitting in the side alley waiting for collection on Monday.  Made me realise the sort of things I used to be able to do watching him get a large three seater sofa and armchairs out by himself.  Oldish age, bad back, knees, hip and hernia make that a bit of a no no these days.

A few phone calls were made from the comfort of the sofa and invitations extended to half a dozen friends to come in for drinks next week.  Doesn't seem to be anything for me to watch on the box tonight but I don't think The Boss plans to view anything either so I might watch some recorded stuff or dig out a DVD.   Whatever I do it will at least be in comfort so there's also the chance that an inspection of the insides of my eyelids might occur.  There's also a couple of bottles of Penderyn sitting in the cupboard so I might get one of those out just to check that it's fit for purpose.  Purely for research purposes of course and to ensure that it can be offered to friends next week.  😜

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by grandadbob

[Coombe Barton]

... home via Sainsbury’s and realising that I have eighteen days before work starts again. ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/12/14/sounds-of-the-season-2023-12-covid-up-again-second-week-running/

[polybear]

38 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

Big bonus was that about an hour before the delivery Steve popped in for a visit so he humped the old stuff outside ......Made me realise the sort of things I used to be able to do watching him get a large three seater sofa and armchairs out by himself.  Oldish age, bad back, knees, hip and hernia make that a bit of a no no these days.

 

 

And in a few years Steve will have a bad back, knees.....

Ask a Bear how he knows.....

(And none of us listened when the old 'uns said "you'll regret doing that in a few years....." did we?)

 

ION.....

 

The ceiling projection clock flipped out again last night for no reason.....the bluddy wee-wee Fairy visited at 1am - Bear thought "Jeez, is it only 1am?"  And then at 2am the alarm went off - and Alexa confirmed it was actually 6am.  Hmmm......

I also had a dream last night that I can remember (which is weird in itself) - some silly C0w smashed into the back of the Bearmobile; I can remember quite a lot of the details, right down to which road & where.  At least I hope it's a dream and not a premonition.....

 

BG

 

 

[Hroth]

Hmmmmmm....

 

I've had a run of strange dreams recently.  Are they catching? Are there a lot of them about?

 

Anyone else?

 

[Tony_S]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

a large Commercial Nursery is due to become a housing estate

Our house and the other 39 in the road are on the site of a former nursery. It was a very strange place run by odd people. . No plants ever seemed to be for sale. We once bought a bag of John Innes compost from them and all the plants  shrivelled amd died. 

[monkeysarefun]

Well the planned meteor shower viewing was a disappointment. It began well, when I went outside about 11 to choose the best position and set up the tripod the sky was dark and  cloudless and the stars were shining brightly. I managed to see 4 or 5 shooting stars in the few minutes I was out there and that  was before the shower was due to commence, so that was promising..

 

I set the alarm for 2:30 and when it went off I grabbed the camera and phone and went outside to be greeted with an almost starless sky, a light cloud covering had moved in.  Only the brightest stars were faintly visible through the haze.  Bummer.

 

As a slight consolation I noticed that I  DID manage to catch one by chance on the short time-lapse camera phone  video I did to test the field of view when I was out there earlier. Its just a brief right to left streak.  The two  lower objects are probably small clouds. Or UFOs. 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sXXHADm88aM

 

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[Tony_S]

37 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sXXHADm88aM

Video is private (or it is a black meteor  in a dark sky)

[monkeysarefun]

6 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Video is private (or it is a black meteor  in a dark sky)

Try again (I hadnt ticked the kiddie safe question...).

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

Our house and the other 39 in the road are on the site of a former nursery. It was a very strange place run by odd people. . No plants ever seemed to be for sale. We once bought a bag of John Innes compost from them and all the plants  shrivelled and died. 

Perhaps this is what they grew.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. A good evening was had by all at the SEERS meeting. My newest purchase trundled around the test track for an hour without any problems. I was intending to get the normal version without sound but I pressed the wrong button and I got the sound fitted one. I'm now glad I did as when you turn the knob on the controller the loco doesn't move until you get the sound of the regulator opening and as it pulls away you have the sound of the westinghouse pump, superb.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

This morning’s quick visit to Sainsbury’s was successful and we were able to have a bit of salad with our dinner today. Once back home, I completed the picture framing, resulting in a few brownie points earned there. This afternoon I was requested to keep out of the kitchen, so I headed downstairs and surfed the t’internet for the instructions for one of Mike’s old kits that had gotten lost. These were found and printed off, so Max will now be able to complete that car at some time in the future. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[zarniwhoop]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

Hmmmmmm....

 

I've had a run of strange dreams recently.  Are they catching? Are there a lot of them about?

 

Anyone else?

 

Only since I started reading this thread 🤣

 

Yes, I get a *lot* of strange dreams. The worst are when I'm half-asleep (typically on days I need to get up, and am reluctant to fall into deep sleep in case I sleep through the alarm) - I think I'm awake, then get thoughts out of nowhere, but the thoughts progress in nonsensical ways - I think of something and suddenly I'm thinking a non-sequitur, or else I cannot remember what the previous thought was.

 

On nights like that I would happily swear that I'd only slept momentarily, if it were not for occasional brief memories of dreams.

 

But I've never had a dream that I can remember in any detail after I've woken, although I seem to have recurring dreams from time to time, often months apart, e.g. walking through what I know is the town I used to work in (Worthing), except the physical layout is completely different. And now I cast my mind back I can recall that I in the dreams I sometimes walked a different route back to work - a road I knew well in real life, but in the dreams it passed a factory or warehouse with a narrow-gauge railway that eventually (in only a few miles) ended at one of the Porthmadog termini.

 

Hmm, bits of it are coming back to me - driving a car to shunt tracks or wagons at the factory or warehouse - I think it was some sort of Peugeot, but in the days when I could walk into Worthing from work I did drive a Peugeot.

 

The unconscious mind is a strange thing.