Early Risers.

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

Drilling holes in mountains is nowhere near as hard to organise as buying up parcels of land from individuals.. then getting through planning etc..  

 

Baz

 

And then throwing it all up in the air, saying "To hell with it, we won't bother." and using money earmarked for the scheme as feelgood bribes in the run up to a general election...

 

Potholes? Really???

 

[Gwiwer]

3 hours ago, Barry O said:

the devious cheese and chocolate making yodellers even have the temerity to have a cunning (and underhand) communist plan for the future of Swiss transport

Aha. 
 

Captain Cynical and his Merry Men* are exposed, leotards whipped off and their plans laid bare. 
 

* other descriptors are available. 

[PhilJ W]

I've spoken to a young lady in Mumbai re. the house insurance and the old policy will be cancelled from the first of Feb. Strangely they accepted the cancellation without demur, I thought they would at least have tried to make a better offer but no.

[Andy Hayter]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

On the costs of high speed rail, it's just another example of how we have managed to make major infrastructure unaffordable. Painful bureaucratic processes (planning and consent is a nightmare) is a part of it, as is a skills shortage and the silly stop-go disjointed nature of government programs. There's a culture of bidding low knowing prices will spiral upwards and the variation orders will be like confetti. And the fact that key decision makers in government are clueless doesn't help. I have been involved with projects where vendors have highlighted problems with specifications and basically been dismissed because Whitehall knows best. The whole system is a dysfunctional shambles but I can't see it improving as the issues are structural and systemic, we can change political parties in government but little will change. We squandered untold billions over the last 25 years, have been accumulating debt (a question few ask is why we went into the 2008 financial crisis with already high debts after a decade long economic 'boom' in which our genius chancellor apparently eliminated the concept of economic cycles). 

 

And a great part of the planning and consent issues centre around NIMBYism.  Objections being put in front of projects that have to be refuted - often at great expense with detailed independent investigations followed by amelioration steps if some hint of substance is established.

[Winslow Boy]

21 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

And then throwing it all up in the air, saying "To hell with it, we won't bother." and using money earmarked for the scheme as feelgood bribes in the run up to a general election...

 

Potholes? Really???

 

I thought that as the entire population of London was now working from home why do they need 'high speed' Choo Chu's to get there.

 

Anyway our potholes up nor' are bigger than yours as we've not had as much money spent on them.

[Gwiwer]

Here is the news. RBG Kew announces their scientists have identified a previously unknown orchid in Madagascar. 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67930823

 

Dr SWMBO has a large part in presenting the annual Orchid Festival at Kew each year. And guess what?  This year the feature is Madagascan orchids. 

https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/whats-on/kew-orchid-festival

 

It may already be sold out. It’s always popular. The new orchid has been known for some months. The research team who went out to Madagascar last year to prepare the groundwork for this festival found it. Dr SWMBO has a good friend and former Covid “maximum of two” walking partner who is a part of that team. 
 

She has spent a lot of the past year actively engaging with the Madagascan Embassy and others to ensure the stories presented are correct, respect tradition and values, and use correct Malagasy language and culture. 
 

She won’t tell anyone about the awards and accolades she wins for that work which is almost entirely unknown and unseen by the visiting public. 
 

If you do happen to go take note of all the interpretive signage. It’s all her work from design through sourcing images and researching text to style and positioning of the signs. 

 

[TheQ]

22 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

I thought that as the entire population of London was now working from home why do they need 'high speed' Choo Chu's to get there.

 

Anyway our potholes up nor' are bigger than yours as we've not had as much money spent on them.

Because HS 2 started so long ago there was a labour government in power, working from home ( aka the golf course) was for senior management only then .

 

Mean while there are road works all over the place here , so some money obviously came this way.

 

[tigerburnie]

16 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Because HS 2 started so long ago there was a labour government in power, working from home ( aka the golf course) was for senior management only then .

 

Mean while there are road works all over the place here , so some money obviously came this way.

 

End of year budget has to be spent and is usually thrown at ill thought out, hastily arranged road works, the way councils get money is that if they don't spend all of it that comes from Westminster, then they get a deduction next year. So instead of planning how to spend the money wisely, earlier in the year, like when the weather is suitable, they sit on it, just in case, then have to blow it before 1st of April. Civil service in action at it's finest, almost straight from "Yes Minister".

[PhilJ W]

20 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Meanwhile there are roadworks all over the place here , so some money obviously came this way.

 

3 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

End of year budget has to be spent and is usually thrown at ill thought out, hastily arranged road works, the way councils get money is that if they don't spend all of it that comes from Westminster, then they get a deduction next year. So instead of planning how to spend the money wisely, earlier in the year, like when the weather is suitable, they sit on it, just in case, then have to blow it before 1st of April. Civil service in action at it's finest, almost straight from "Yes Minister".

Like wot 'e sez.

[Hroth]

57 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Aha. 
 

Captain Cynical and his Merry Men* are exposed, leotards whipped off and their plans laid bare. 
 

* other descriptors are available. 

 

I've just amended it to reveal the secret code.

Its not a pretty sight...

 

46 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Anyway our potholes up nor' are bigger than yours as we've not had as much money spent on them.

 

Of course, The Beatles knew all about the pothole situation "'oop North" over 55 years ago...

 

Quote

I read the news today, oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall

 

A Day in the Life:  Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967

 

 

 

[iL Dottore]

4 hours ago, Barry O said:

Drilling holes in mountains is nowhere near as hard to organise as buying up parcels of land from individuals.. then getting through planning etc..  

 

Baz

1) don't you have compulsory purchase?

2) surely the government (any government) has the right to overrule local planning decisions?

 

I wonder how much the totals are for "legal fees" and "consultants fees"?

[Gwiwer]

2 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

4 hours ago, Barry O said:

Drilling holes in mountains is nowhere near as hard to organise as buying up parcels of land from individuals.. then getting through planning etc..  

 

Baz

1) don't you have compulsory purchase?

I seem to recall (I have a long memory!) that Napoleon had a plan drawn up to tunnel beneath the “English Channel” and invade.  
 

He didn’t have the compulsory purchasing power over Neptunus Rex. 

[Hroth]

8 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

I seem to recall (I have a long memory!) that Napoleon had a plan drawn up to tunnel beneath the “English Channel” and invade.  
 

He didn’t have the compulsory purchasing power over Neptunus Rex. 

 

TBH I don't think he had the technology either.  Look how long* it took the Brunels to dig their tunnel under the Thames a few years later!

 

* 1825 - 1843, and they had the tunnelling shield that Marc Isambard Brunel invented.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Tunnel

 

Edited January 11 by Hroth
Fact checking...

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

It was frosty earlier and there are still one or two icy patches on the pavements but the sun is shining.  It will cloud over this afternoon but it should remain dry and breezy.  3°C now and might reach 7°C.

Late on parade although I've been up since 07.45 which is quite a bit later than usual but I was making up for Tuesday night's lack of sleep.  Had quite a good night despite waking up a couple of times.  No pain from the operation site which is A GOOD THING.  The dressing can be removed 48 hours after the op so I can have a look at yet another scar on this old ravaged body! 😂  

Not so good was Sainsbury's failing to deliver a couple of items although they charged us for them so "words of advice" have been given and a refund has been issued.  A major change in shopping policy has been made here as for the next couple of weeks we are trying a different supplier because lately there have been several instances of poor service and a drop in quality of some food stuffs.   Bearing in mind that The Boss has got "Sainsbury's" stamped all through her like a stick of rock after working for them for 38 years and she still gets a "veteran's discount" this represents a seismic shift.  We're going for Ocado/M&S first and will see how that goes.  We have had the odd order from them in the past and had no problems whatsoever.

Also not so good is that the front door handle has gone all floppy and an examination has revealed the little washer and spring set inside has broken so a replacement has been ordered from Amazon so I've swallowed the extra £1.99 same day delivery charge on Prime and it should be here by 10.00 tonight.  

A walk to Asda has been undertaken to get the missing items and some other stuff as well and a mile and a quarter was managed without any ill effect. 

KBO Bob KBO.

Time for another muggacoffee,

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited January 11 by grandadbob

[petethemole]

3 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

On the costs of high speed rail, it's just another example of how we have managed to make major infrastructure unaffordable. Painful bureaucratic processes (planning and consent is a nightmare) is a part of it, as is a skills shortage and the silly stop-go disjointed nature of government programs. There's a culture of bidding low knowing prices will spiral upwards and the variation orders will be like confetti. And the fact that key decision makers in government are clueless doesn't help. I have been involved with projects where vendors have highlighted problems with specifications and basically been dismissed because Whitehall knows best. The whole system is a dysfunctional shambles but I can't see it improving as the issues are structural and systemic, we can change political parties in government but little will change. We squandered untold billions over the last 25 years, have been accumulating debt (a question few ask is why we went into the 2008 financial crisis with already high debts after a decade long economic 'boom' in which our genius chancellor apparently eliminated the concept of economic cycles). 

Apparently it's all the archaeologists' fault.

[BSW01]

Good afternoon everyone 

 

Very late on parade today, due in part to having to do the Trafford Centre shopping a day early due to hospital visits for Sheila this afternoon and me tomorrow afternoon. Sheila is still struggling a little with putting the eye drops in herself, but she is getting there. This afternoon she will be seeing the surgeon who performed her transplant last week, this is the first time she’s gone out since getting back home last week. She’s a little nervous, but I think unnecessarily so, as to my u trained eye (no pun intended) her eye looks to have healed very well. 
 

Yesterday, I phoned my oncologist’s secretary to see if my consultation should be rescheduled, as one of the scans wasn’t until after the consultation itself. The oncologist agreed and so my consultation has been put back a week, which seems to make perfect sense to me. 
 

Anyway, time for an early dinner, back later. 
 

Brian

[jjb1970]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

End of year budget has to be spent and is usually thrown at ill thought out, hastily arranged road works, the way councils get money is that if they don't spend all of it that comes from Westminster, then they get a deduction next year. So instead of planning how to spend the money wisely, earlier in the year, like when the weather is suitable, they sit on it, just in case, then have to blow it before 1st of April. Civil service in action at it's finest, almost straight from "Yes Minister".

 

I hated that, public sector bodies would live like misers for three quarters then just waste money on stupid stuff just to make sure it was spent in Q4.

Edited January 11 by jjb1970

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. It's come over a bit dark and cloudy but no rain fortunately. I'm going out shopping this afternoon as with a busy weekend coming up I won't have much time for shopping.

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Much skipping of late due various things but hope everyone is at least ‘managing’.  
@grandadbob dont get too comfortable, the Shark will be waved in your direction sooner or later.

Goodnight.

sorry for late arrival of post only just seen its not been posted! Better late than never. (?)

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

TBH I don't think he had the technology either. 

The reference I used has an image of a large trench being dug apparently using coffer dams and the sea-bed back-filled rather as a cut-and-cover tunnel is built.  But beneath the sea. 

 

 

[Gwiwer]

In other news the LED lights to replace the halogens we have fitted arrived in the past hour.  The kitchen ones are a straight one-for-one swap-out but the bedroom ones, which emit fewer lumens and are designed for such use, are a smaller diameter and don't fit the holders.  Turdycurses.  

[Andy Hayter]

A morning spent shovelling snow so that we can safely walk between our two buildings.  

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

Teeth inspected, and given a polish. That water they use was cold!!!

 

On the way there, 3 across the road puddles still in existence, but previously flooded field now just has puddles.

One road said "road closed ahead" had we turned round it would be nearly an hour from that point to turn round and cross by the next bridge up.

Luckily they hadn't started yet, so we got through. We parked on the road between railway cottage and railway house, on the road that is the former track bed. We came back the other way using more of that line.

 

On return I've modified the new mast step. After several trials it now fits, I'll paint it tomorrow.

 

I was just going to say we await phone call about "little red driving machine"© Gwiwer, but they've just phoned.. time to go and spend some muddling tokens.

[iL Dottore]

16 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

Then it probably easier getting it compared to asking the Swiss for it. Remember the fuss they kicked up when one of there banks was found to be 'hiding' some money from various businesses.

An important point of order: the Swiss banks weren't breaking any Swiss laws.

 

If other jurisdictions can't prevent their duly-owed tax revenues from (ahem) "going on holiday", why is that Switzerland's problem?

 

The Zürich police aren't going after any British drivers who broke ULEZ laws (laws???) in London. Why should they? Not their circus, not their monkey!

 

Applying your own laws IN other countries is not a good idea (an interesting FYI: ever since the US decided it would apply the same IRS rules, regulations and laws to ALL Americans - no matter where they live and no matter how long they've been away from the USA, Americans are finding it increasingly hard to get financial services (and jobs) in their adopted countries)

[Coombe Barton]

... We have a new sport here – extreme buck-passing ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/01/11/covid-and-influenza-data-both-show-decrease-and-how-competent-do-you-have-to-be-in-the-post-office/