Early Risers.

[Winslow Boy]

47 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

Good morning all,

Staining readily here and has been for some time.  It should become drier this afternoon but will probably remain cloudy.  13°C and might reach 19°C.

Migration of phones and broadband from BT to EE is a complete clusterf#ck.  Still no SIM card for my mobile, no new equipment, changeover date cancelled and now waiting for a new date.  Multiple calls and rants to various people made and all I've got so far is apology after apology.  Two phone calls have been promised for today but I won't hold my breath.

Good news is that after much eating and drinking on the cruise last week my weight has remained the same (although still a bit too high).  We managed to walk an average of about 2.8 miles a day (ashore and onboard ship) which is not bad for us so that helped burn off some calories.

Nothing planned today apart from waiting for the aforementioned phone calls so I may visit The Shed and play with some toys.

Have a good one,

Bob.

How much do you want to bet that they'll ring whilst you a) in the shed b) on the Khazi c) walking between shed and house and d) other.

 

It is my understanding that Customer Services operate under the following - an apology costs nothing whilst doing something is expensive. To date I can probably count on one hand the number of them that have disproved this.

Edited May 14 by Winslow Boy

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

I don’t think I’ll be doing any window cleaning today as it’s raining, pah! however, every cloud does have a silver lining! As there are no firm plans and no orders have been posted, the plan for today will be spent most of it in the workshop. 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I woke up twice last night for no apparent reason but soon went back to sleep again, REM pattern? While I was awake I did make use of the bathroom but there was no urgency. Shopping day today and I urgently need my ears lowering but thats all for this afternoon when they reckon the rain should stop.

[Coombe Barton]

Car is in the garage for a few days - not going to take that long - I just said they could have it and fit other jobs round it. Currently marking (well, will be when I've typed this). The bum is on the sofa.

[southern42]

' morning all from red dragon land.

Dense cloud bank starting to move away eastwards opening up access to blue sky and sunshine.

Temp. drop to 12.9C.

 

Still recovering from cold bug leftovers so constantly feeling drained even though symptoms have declined a lot: playing havoc on my mojo to get things done. I will not be to worried about the G word, though, as it is quite wet out after yesterday's and last night's rain. Apart from my TOTF 🎶

not a lot done apart from listening to a range of music and doing some "easy" (er hum?) online crosswords.

 

Wotsapp pinging on my 'phone at 7am this morning (ahead of my alarm!!!!):

Don't know if you watched Doctor Who at the weekend, but when he said he had "no job, no boss, just fun," it sounded to me like he's claiming Whoniversal  Credit!

 

Take care. Be good. Keep your spirits up.

Polly

[tigerburnie]

12 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I haven’t seen any bats hunting so far this year but there are loads of insects waiting for them. 

We get Pips and Soprano Pips and Daubentons over the local river, I have a detector that makes the calls audible, keeps me amused and mostly out of trouble, though you need more than just the khz reading to positively identify the wee beasties.

[southern42]

12 hours ago, Hroth said:

Raining here already, if there was going to be a Northern Lights display, it'll be on the other side of the clouds....

 

Never mind, this'll do as a replacement service!

 

 

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm  Annie.....

 

 

Love the flute part. Yes, I did notice! 😁

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Which rather begs the question as to whether those African nations would have engaged in large-scale slave trading had there not been the demand for slaves in the Americas?

Yes.

 

According to Wiki (and other sources) Slavery was prevalent in many parts of Africa for many centuries before the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade. Millions of enslaved people from some parts of Africa were exported to states in Africa, Europe, and Asia prior to the European colonization of the Americas. The Trans-Saharan slave trade across the Sahara had functioned since antiquity, and continued to do so up until the 20th-century.

 

That sounds like large-scale slave trading to me.

 

All the transatlantic slave trade did was provide new (and regular) wholesale customers for the African slave trading nations.

[jjb1970]

The owner of this one may ring a bell of recognition, it's a China Navigation Co ship, China Navigation is the shipping company of the Swire Group of Cathay Pacific airlines and HK real estate etc fame. One of the old HK trading houses from the colonial era.

 

[jjb1970]

Oops, wrong thread!

 

[Hroth]

13 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Oops, wrong thread!

 

 

That's ok, its a bit different and doesn't run on parallel strips of metal!

 

[Tony_S]

15 minutes ago, Hroth said:

and doesn't run on parallel strips of metal!

Perhaps I  should make model boats. The not sufficiently parallel strips  of metal really caused much frustration here yesterday. 

[Erichill16]

5 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Scoff all you want, my dear Permanently Piqued Punk Pharmacist, but knowing how to shop is a worthwhile skill most men do not possess.

 

@DaveF may have been domestically oriented (more of which anon) but at least he is practicing his hunter-gatherer skills. It’s all about selecting the prey - something that meets your needs but is also huntable (i.e. affordable), tracking it, trapping it and bringing it down.
 

Most men, having become fat and complacent by turning “The Shop” over to SWMBO, will never never know the thrill of carefully tracking your prey through the wild emporia, the excitement of spotting your target and the euphoria of having “bagged” your fine specimen.

 

And as for the more domestically oriented “shop” - those men who dismiss this highly specialised hunt and leave it in the hands of SWMBO will be forever condemned to a life constrained and restrained by chintz, “only for best”, fripperies and the impracticability if not surrealism of female logic…

 

Conjures  up images of cave man dragging home a wild boar and some large palm leave to use as curtains. Oh, wait a minute, i don't think caves have windows. 
Anyway, at Fox Valley and it looks sounds like I’m missing all the fun as the rest of the tribe, swmbo and mil, are pillaging at Aldi, Home Bargains etc. 

I’ll have to sit in the car and waste my time on here. 
 

[Hroth]

Of course, the Ancient Greeks built a ship "railway" across the Isthmus of Corinth...

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diolkos

 

[Hroth]

5 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

Conjures  up images of cave man dragging home a wild boar and some large palm leave to use as curtains. Oh, wait a minute, i don't think caves have windows. 
Anyway, at Fox Valley and it looks sounds like I’m missing all the fun as the rest of the tribe, swmbo and mil, are pillaging at Aldi, Home Bargains etc. 

I’ll have to sit in the car and waste my time on here. 
 

 

Aldi and Home Bargains often have useful muddling items on offer. Just make sure you're not in either at the same time as the pillagers!

 

[Tony_S]

1 minute ago, Hroth said:

Of course, the Ancient Greeks built a ship "railway" across the Isthmus of Corinth...

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diolkos

 

There was a much shorter one on some Scottish island (can’t remember which one) that Viking traders used when going to Iceland.  Mitochondrial DNA analysis suggests quite a few Scottish women went off to Iceland too. 

[Erichill16]

Just now, Hroth said:

 

Aldi and Home Bargains often have useful muddling items on offer. Just make sure you're not in either at the same time as the pillagers!

 

Its time and motivation i need and i think they’re out of stock!  

[Hroth]

7 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

There was a much shorter one on some Scottish island (can’t remember which one) that Viking traders used when going to Iceland.  Mitochondrial DNA analysis suggests quite a few Scottish women went off to Iceland too. 

 

As they say in the advert, "Mums gone to Iceland"...

 

[New Haven Neil]

Late.   But not as in 'the late NHN', thankfully. Just had a pal around early doors for chat about those unmentionable things for the morning.

 

Off to the GP's this PM with Mrs NHN to try to get information about what ails her, so far getting the hospital to communicate with us has ground to a halt.  As it may be something nasty, this is causing some stress as you might imagine.  I predict fireworks....she's not backward in coming forward.

[polybear]

4 hours ago, DaveF said:

I had a poor night's sleep probably becasue tomorrow it will be 2 years since Mum died and for some reason yesterday evening I remembered her last few days in the palliative care ward at the hospital. 

I still get it 14 years on; it can strike me without warning as well

[Tony_S]

I think Aditi’s Mum (age 96) is convinced her 97th birthday will be her last as no one on her side of the family lives beyond 97.She doesn’t seem in any way upset or depressed by this. Her health is well controlled but I think her greatest danger would be from a fall. 

[PhilJ W]

28 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I think Aditi’s Mum (age 96) is convinced her 97th birthday will be her last as no one on her side of the family lives beyond 97.She doesn’t seem in any way upset or depressed by this. Her health is well controlled but I think her greatest danger would be from a fall. 

In a months time I will be at the same age as my brother when he died. Fortunately I do not have the serious health issues that he had so hopefully I have a few years left.

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, southern42 said:

 

Love the flute part. Yes, I did notice! 😁

Noticed as well.  I actually have a single of that song. 

Bon Apres midi from a rather wet Charente.  Shopping was shopped this morning. All this talk of mothers is odd.  It's 30 years since mine died and at the end of strange dream her face appeared at our bedroom window looking in.  

The cottage pie was enjoyed last night and will be finished off tonight once I collect Beth from her French class. 

 

Ttfn, 

 

Jamie

[The Lurker]

21 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Actually I think people often assume I am more capable than I am so when I can’t do something they think I am being “difficult”. If I don’t understand  something, I will ask. This seems to be quite annoying to some people. 

Aditi knows to be specific in the gardening tasks, after I once pruned the wrong clematis. My task today was quite simple, to put all the tools away. Aditi was rushing in after being bitten by mosquitos. She seems to be more susceptible each year. When we first moved to Essex the mosquitos caused unpleasant reactions but I am less bothered now.

Tony

Essex was I believe the last place in the UK where malaria carrying mosquitos were endemic - the Blackwater marshes. Long since eradicated, but maybe Aditi has met some of their more troublesome  descendants!

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

As to the highlighted text, that’s a bit disingenuous.

There was nothing 'disingenuous' in my use of wording. Call an "accomplice" a "partner in crime" if you like. It means exactly the same thing.

 

It matters not and it's not confined to Britain. All the European colonizers used African slaves and most of them went to the Caribbean or South America.

 

According to one search hit, 90% of African slaves went to the Caribbean and South America and 6% went directly to British North America.

 

The Portuguese sent very large numbers to Brazil. Britain was the second largest exporter of slaves from Africa.

 

From here: (1501 - 1866)

 

Portugal / Brazil 5.8m

Britain 3.3m

France 1.4m

Spain / Uruguay 1.1m

Netherlands 0.6m

USA 0.3m

Denmark / Baltic 0.1m

 

(Numbers are rounded)

 

The Dutch did not abolish slavery in their colonies until 1863 - around the same time as the Emancipation Proclamation. The US stopped importing slaves in 1808 - though of course slavery would continue for another 55 years.

 

In the 18th century only 25% of immigrants to the 13 colonies were 'free'. 50% were enslaved Africans and the other 25% were a combination of transported convicts and indentured servants.