Early Risers.

[Hroth]

I just realised, there's only a fortnight to go before its all over. The day after, we'll realise what we have done, one way or another....

 

Then there's the Summer-Of-Sport to endure.

 

When will it ever end????

 

 

[jjb1970]

I think that helicopter is a Seahawk, not an MRH90. A supposition supported by the fact it managed to fly to the landing field.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A better night last night than the one before but still the odd protest from the arthritis. The (recycling) bin men arrived just as I was struggling with the two massive recycling bags. The driver of the bin wagon jumped out of the cab and helped me. He also informed me that the council are considering replacing the recycling bags with a wheelie bin which can't come soon enough. I will have to call the surgery later to see if my prescription is ready.

[Hroth]

ION

 

Bought a replacement "Bird Feeding Station" from Aldi this morning for £9.99, to replace one that is barely two years old, that was powder coated. This did not stop it rusting like a 1980s Morris Ital.

 

Installed the new one, transferred the hanging feeders and removed the old one, which will eventually be taken to the council tip.

 

I had barely got indoors when the feeder was swamped by little brown jobbies who must have been watching me, thinking "gettamoveon!".

 

Time for some more coffee!

 

[monkeysarefun]

26 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

I think that helicopter is a Seahawk, not an MRH90. A supposition supported by the fact it managed to fly to the landing field.

 

 

Yes you are right, I knew it was a Seahawk but I got the MH-60R and the 90 nomenclature backwards.

 

The 90 is called the Taipan here and was retired from service by the RAN in 2022 and the Army in 2023 following two separate crashes that grounded the aircraft. Prior to these incidents the plan had been to keep them in service until 2037.

 

The ADF tried selling them off but no one wants them so they will be all scrapped....

Edited June 20 by monkeysarefun

[jjb1970]

I have heard a lot of comments from naval officers of navies which operate the NH90 that it's a great helicopter  'when it works', that particular qualification is never a positive sign.

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

The little airfield at work got a visitor today, a visiting RAN MRH-90.

 

 

 

It’s not BLACK! ☹️

 

Oh, b****r, that’s another one of my pet conspiracy theories down the toilet…😢

[monkeysarefun]

28 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

I have heard a lot of comments from naval officers of navies which operate the NH90 that it's a great helicopter  'when it works', that particular qualification is never a positive sign.

They've been grounded almost as often as they've been operational so  the ADF is happy to see the back of them. They'll be replaced by 40 additional Seahawks and Blackhawks which is what they should have spent the money on in the first place.

 

The ADF invested about $3.5 billion over two decades in the project.

Edited June 20 by monkeysarefun

[petethemole]

13 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Nope, the punishment should be simple, easy to apply and two-fold:

1. The guilty party's own property should be defaced, damaged or destroyed [as appropriate - depending on what they did] to the amount of the value of what the guilty party defaced, damaged or destroyed and/or
2. The guilty party is placed in the stocks to face the judgment of the populace (very democratic: one man, one rotten tomato!)

Bring back the Wicker Man*.  Don't set fire to it, just park them on the level beneath the sheep/pigs/cattle.

 

* yes, I know it was anti Druid propaganda by Julius Caesar, and yes I know the Ancient British Druids had nothing to do with Stonehenge.  I just like the idea.

[iL Dottore]

I see that the eco-zealots have once again broken the law, caused criminal damage and self-righteously awaited the arrival of authorities, smugly confident that all they’ll get is a slap on the wrist. They even arrogantly filmed themselves breaking in and doing the damage*

 

This time it was spray painting private aircraft at Stansted. Which also raises the concern that if Eco-Nutters can get in to do that**, so can others with less (ahem) “noble” intentions.

 

I just don’t get it, what’s the point of destroying or vandalising things and creating a negative backlash towards the cause they are espousing. Do these people actually think things through? It seems not.

 

If they want to get the spotlight of publicity for their cause, there are plenty of things they could do which would both amuse the public without causing anything more than a minor - and tolerable - disruption and draw something other than negative attention to their cause.

 

Something like a “Strip for Nature” campaign, whereby protesters completely disrobe in the public space in front of their chosen target and as soon as one gets arrested for public indecency, another disrobes. With a suitable choice of disrobers (i.e. reasonably pleasant looking) and a few phone calls to some of the more salacious media outlets, that’s the evening news headlines sorted….

 

 

* as a follow-on to their Stonehenge stunt, it seems that their spray paint shenanigans has damaged some quite rare lichens found on the stones. How wonderfully ironic, destroying the Nature they are purporting to save.

** according to an acquaintance who is a member of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary tasked to protect the UK’s nuclear assets, any eco-zealot trying that on their patch would in all likelihood be thoroughly tazed or even shot dead (these lads don’t mess around)

[Hroth]

"Strip For Nature" would definitely have legs (pause for thought) especially if it were live-streamed too...

 

I don't think the majority of ER habituees should attempt it.  We'd never hear the end of comments about catching a chill from doing it!

 

 

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

It’s not BLACK! ☹️

 

Oh, b****r, that’s another one of my pet conspiracy theories down the toilet…😢

 

 

Its not a helicopter, but I have a black aircraft story  and it has a Swiss theme.

 

 

On my honeymoon in the late eighties we went to Dunk Island, which at the time was an expensive (by Australian standards but nothing outlandish) tropical island resort just off Cairns.

 

At the time it had just been "discovered" by the worlds jet set looking for a new trendy place,  they could brag about going to an "undiscovered"  tropical island   which at that time was unknown to the world at large. So apart from about 50% Australians, the rest of the guests that we met while staying there included a theatre critic and his partner from the New York Times or something, a record producer who had worked with Fleetwood Mac, and this Swiss "industrialist" who had flown in in his own executive jet. We'd spotted it on the landing strip one morning, it was completely black, all black windows, no insignia or anything.

 

At dinner times you could choose to sit at  a table for two, or join a larger table for 12 or so and take pot luck with who you'd be dining with. We'd alternate between the two  and one night we got to sit with  the Swiss industrialist  and his pilot. He (the pilot)  turned out to be a 20 something bloke with bleached permed hair and the tightest tiniest 80's flouro shorts that have ever existed. The way the industrialist kept stroking his hair I don't think he was just the pilot, but anyway. they were a great couple and huge fun.

 

All up it was a terrific week, and the fun thing was was that all these rich foreigners assumed that because we were there we must be rich too, and as Australians we have no concept of class so we just treated them as our equals and everyone got along fine.

 

There was a bloke doing some drainage work on the island  using his backhoe that he'd have got ferried across from the mainland. One night he was on our table too and an upperclass English couple ( who were very nice but needed to know what everyone did rather than just take people at face value) at our table asked him "so what do you do?" . He said that he owned a construction company, which he did - but his company was a backhoe and a bulldozer based in the suburbs of Cairns.  . In their mind though he was probably some kind of huge property developer so they happily chatted away, though he did tend to swear a bit which got them a bit flustered.

 

 

Dunk Island, along with almost all the resort islands on the Great Barrier Reef and Whitsundays fell on hard times about 15 or so years ago. First it was cheap flights to Bali and Thailand that cost them patrons, then a series of cyclones wreaked havoc. The resort today is a sad place.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 20 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

51 minutes ago, petethemole said:

Bring back the Wicker Man*.  Don't set fire to it, just park them on the level beneath the sheep/pigs/cattle.

 

* yes, I know it was anti Druid propaganda by Julius Caesar, and yes I know the Ancient British Druids had nothing to do with Stonehenge.  I just like the idea.

 

 

Stage 2 of the punishment -  once they've  come down with something nasty due to stage 1 -   would be to have @PupCam lead them through the process of booking a GP appointment to get it seen to.

Edited June 20 by monkeysarefun

[Hroth]

The Post Office scandal goes from bad to worse.

(If that's possible...)

 

BBC News headline: "Post Office accidentally leaks sub-postmaster data"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd110nl7dppo

 

 

Edited June 20 by Hroth

[monkeysarefun]

22 minutes ago, Hroth said:

The Post Office scandal goes from bad to worse.

(If that's possible...)

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd110nl7dppo

 

 

 

 

 

Makes me  almost glad to live in a country where the equivalent  headline is "Photo captures 'horrifying' moment spider devours snake"

 

 

[Hroth]

3 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

 

Makes me  almost glad to live in a country where the equivalent  headline is "Photo captures 'horrifying' moment spider devours snake"

 

 

 

A PB nightmare, snakes AND spiders!!!

 

[monkeysarefun]

13 minutes ago, Hroth said:

A PB nightmare, snakes AND spiders!!!

 

 

 

On the plus side that he should consider however - we  seem to largely  lack  his hated "Scrotes" on the scale that infect the UK (going by the posts here)  so maybe the snakes and spiders keep them down. 

 

 

Looking ahead though, based on a report I read today, the "Scrotes" there are getting shorter and fatter, so presumably will be increasingly easier to catch and   then disable by simply bopping them on the now  easy-to-reach  top of the head with a novelty mallet. 

 

https://wholefoodearth.com/wholesome/british-kids-are-shorter-and-fatter-due-to-poor-diet-and-poverty-new-report-finds

 

 

 

 

Edited June 20 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Will be heading out shortly to pick up my prescription, hopefully it will be third time lucky. Apparently the stop oil protesters were hoping to attack Taylor Swift's personal jet but she's not using it on the current tour. However I wonder if the damage to the aircraft will be treated the same as that to Stonehenge, cynical moi?

[monkeysarefun]

48 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

 she's not using it on the current tour.

 

 

I am going to have to pull you up there on a probably unintended inaccurate statement, my good fellow!

 

By "not using it on the current tour" you possibly mean that shes not using it on the UK leg of her current tour.

 

 

 

 

 She was definitely flying around Australia in it on that part of her "Eras" tour  earlier this year.  Here she is in Sydney about to board her big plane.

 

 

I'm not a fan of her music I've got to say, but she does seem to have a social conscience and anyone who gets the insane orange idiot clown  - that  half of the US apparently still  thinks is presidential material  - annoyed,  is alright by me. 

Edited June 20 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

half of the US apparently still  thinks is presidential material

Probably more like 30%. Half of likely voters is probably accurate.

[monkeysarefun]

 

 

If you've got a spare 17 minutes or so and you're at a loose end wondering how you'll spend it, can I please  just suggest you give this little film a go? It is especially enlightening for those who think refugees should be drowned at sea or if they manage to get to land they have nothing  to offer  the community and so should be shipped off to somewhere else because they are a burden. 

 

Its about a refugee family from  Eritrea(?) or maybe the Sudan, but anyway they ended up in Melbourne and one of their sons - who was born in a Sudanese refugee camp - went on to play professional AFL for Collingwood. His older brother had been  spotted earlier as an  AFL potential and last weekend played his 50th game for Hawthorn . This film covers his debut match and how the team  embrace him and his family. 

 

The  matchshown here was last weekend against North Melbourne  -  at half time Collingwood were something like 50 points down, but (spoiler alert!!!!!!) went on to win by one point. 

 

If you are Nigel Farage you will hate it, and not watch it, but if you have the time to spare, its worth the investment if only to see  how willing refugees are to embrace the culture they find themselves in, no matter how strange some of the elements are. 

 

You need to neither know about or like anything about AFL to appreciate the video, but sometimes sport , even the modern day version with its corporate greed and commercial over- emphasis,  can  still do good things. 

 

 

 

 

 

[monkeysarefun]

9 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Probably more like 30%. Half of likely voters is probably accurate.

I hope you're right! I'm a glass half empty kind of guy and see too much Fox News that gets sent to me by youtube for some reason. 

Edited June 20 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

4 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

see too much Fox News

Best avoided.

 

Lachlan's in charge now. His dad got remarried at 93 the other day - to a 67 year-old Russian. (His fifth.)

[monkeysarefun]

16 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Best avoided.

 

Lachlan's in charge now. His dad got remarried at 93 the other day - to a 67 year-old Russian. (His fifth.)

 

 

Lachlan is a bigger danger than his dad. In 2020 he spouted anti-vax propaganda to the US  via Fox while in the meantime he'd moved his family back to Australia because we were COVID free at the time.

Edited June 20 by monkeysarefun

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

Morning at the MRC, clearing an alcove of spare wood, shelving unit to be put in another day, meanwhile another shelf, was being installed in the kitchen. Some scrap bits have come home for the fire.

 

A poor picture of the SWO supervising Jankers. Well there was supposed to be, but RMWeb is showing an error. I've processed it to be smaller still the same.

 

Been sorting a load of kits for unmentionables, not mine but the MRCs, some time ago I sorted a pile of plastic into bagged kits, 4.25 cardboard fruit trays full...

Unfortunately the rats have broken into the muddling shed again, and guess where they made their nest..

 

So I'm in the process of cleaning bags, some have been binned and bags replaced. Those at the bottom just needed a wipe ( hot water and disinfectant cleaner) about half done so far.

By chance the box of those I'd decided to buy myself a few years ago was not touched, probably because the higher sides of the much smaller box sealed to the shelf above.

 

Just noticed there's a thread on this picture up!road problem..

Edited June 20 by TheQ