Early Risers.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

It is the unofficial end of summer

The unofficial start to spring seems to have arrived because the pair of Magpies that are regulars here and who happily co-exist with the other birds all the rest of the year have started swooping them so I guess they are nesting in my gum tree again.

They've got rid of the Butcherbirds and just now a cockatoo landed on the railing to get instantly knocked off by a high-speed maggie from the branches above.

 

Only the Crested Pigeons  and the Honeyeaters  are left alone.

Edited August 24 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

58 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

... the pair of Magpies ... have started swooping them

Wear a hat outside. 😉

[monkeysarefun]

7 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Wear a hat outside. 😉

 

I've had this pair nesting here for 4 years and they haven't swooped me yet!

 

In fact the opposite, each year they've brought their fledglings to my deck when I've been out there,  as if to introduce them to me, or me to them.

 

Actually I'm watching the male (I assume) now tearing backwards and forwards at full speed, I guess chasing off everything in sight, but he was happy to sit on the railing earlier  and watch me as I walked under the gum tree to get to my shed.

[The Lurker]

3 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Did you go to the match then, if so you should have said and we could have had a swift half before the match.

Quite an enjoyable match, think we had more of the play but your boys were more effective with the ball.

The five players from last season who played the most number of games have all have left my club on expiration of their contract. Devante Cole, the league’s second highest goal scorer left but few tears were shed.

I noticed the Cobblers had two  Barnsley ‘rejects’ in the team, Cameron McGeehan and Will Hondermark.

Anyway good luck for the season.

BTW, my eldest niece applied for a job with the Reds last week as some sort of statistion. 

 

No, it’s the best part of 25 years since I lived there and saw them very frequently (except when I was playing cricket) but I still keep an eye on their results and see them occasionally. Last year, Younger Lurker declared them his “official “ second team. I suppose they are mine too. 

[The Lurker]

4 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

There are brown bears at Sitka. The polar bears are in the extreme north of Alaska - mostly above the arctic circle (66°34'N) and the Bering Strait region.

 

We managed to exterminate ours a thousand and more years ago.

EDIT - dates vary as some theories posit Bronze Age extermination and later bones the result of imports for bear baiting- certainly the most recent (Norman) were from London and definitely not wild but some claims from Scotland are as late as the 17th century. I assume that Bearsted near Maidstone does not draw its name from  the animal.

Edited August 24 by The Lurker

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a cool Charente.  Definitely cooler nights and the hens are now all abed by 21.30.  It's still warm on an afternoon though. 

 

Much hacki g of new growth was done yesterday to reduce the invasive weed trees, the staghorn or Rhus Typhina from next door. I had made the mistake of leaving some trunks at fence level last year. They were over 12' high. As well as the tree loppers the chainsaw came out and the were reduced to 6" stumps.  Part of the barbed wire fence had been grown over so that had to be snipped and a temporary repair using od clothes line made.  All good fun.  I now need to work out how to kill the stumps. 

 

Today is market day then not a lot day. 

 

Ttfn. 

 

Jamie

[Coombe Barton]

Won't be a very warm day here - but will perk up again in the week after the bank holiday. A stroll up to the Farmers' Market may happen.

[polybear]

7 hours ago, The Lurker said:

We managed to exterminate ours a thousand and more years ago.

 

Most definitely not our finest moment.

 

7 hours ago, The Lurker said:

......and later bones the result of imports for bear baiting......

 

.....followed by rubbing salt in the wound.  I could very happily spend some very "entertaining moments" testing a flame-thrower on such people.

(Sadly it STILL goes on in the UK, though not with Bears).

 

As for those who partake in "Dancing Bears"......🤬🤬🤬**

Fortunately most countries have made this illegal, though Siberia and Pakistan apparently still have them; you may also see them in very small numbers in Nepal and India.

 

(**Have a quick Google as to the methods used by those who "train" Bears to do such things....downright f.cruel doesn't even come close.....)

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

I have now been told who I need to talk to about my patients notes.. and I will be doing that tomorrow. If only doctors and support staff could think in a logical way... Good job most engineers can..

 

Decorating completed. I have a few jobs to do then all of my books need to be sorted and put back into order..

 

Yes h'way the lads!  Most supporters are in awe.. as, despite employing no particular person who can regularly put the round football into the correct net we seem to be foing ok..

 

Time to drink my tea and wander off in search of breakfast..Stayvsafe!

 

Baz

[DaveF]

A lovely late August sunny morning but with a distinct chill in the air, 11°C at 07.00.  It really feels as though summer is running out of steam, though it is supposed to get warmer again during the week.  During the summer I usually have the vertical blinds across the windows but open just to keep the heat out on warm days.  They are now all pulled right back so I can properly through the windows.

 

I'm not going to church today, visits to the loo are still a bit unpredictable but things are slowly improving .  The big plan is to not do very much, the garden can wait a few days.  I might sort out the modelling tools or I might just catch up on some reading.  

 

Yesterday I found a small pile of DVDs which had somehow got behind a pile of kits on a shelf, I may watch them sometime.

 

David

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Good moaning from a cool Charente.  Definitely cooler nights and the hens are now all abed by 21.30.  It's still warm on an afternoon though. 

 

Much hacki g of new growth was done yesterday to reduce the invasive weed trees, the staghorn or Rhus Typhina from next door. I had made the mistake of leaving some trunks at fence level last year. They were over 12' high. As well as the tree loppers the chainsaw came out and the were reduced to 6" stumps.  Part of the barbed wire fence had been grown over so that had to be snipped and a temporary repair using od clothes line made.  All good fun.  I now need to work out how to kill the stumps. 

 

Today is market day then not a lot day. 

 

Ttfn. 

 

Jamie

Not certain you're still allowed it in France Jamie but about the only thing left here is glyphosate. I think the EU banned it's use because of cancer risks.

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

Ey up!

 

I have now been told who I need to talk to about my patients notes.. and I will be doing that tomorrow. If only doctors and support staff could think in a logical way... Good job most engineers can..

 

Decorating completed. I have a few jobs to do then all of my books need to be sorted and put back into order..

 

Yes h'way the lads!  Most supporters are in awe.. as, despite employing no particular person who can regularly put the round football into the correct net we seem to be foing ok..

 

Time to drink my tea and wander off in search of breakfast..Stayvsafe!

 

Baz

Don't tell me the Marie Celeste opens on a Bank holiday Monday. I'm stunned.

[Gwiwer]

Good morning all. 
 

Dr SWMBO is out at her weekly seat-warming. Neither a communicant nor a believer but she is in church weekly for the music and friendship. 
 

Meanwhile reviving a lapsed theme here is “shirt of the day” for this Ban Collar Day weekend. 
 

[Sidecar Racer]

17 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Theft, of a lawnmower or any other property has carried seven years for a long time. It used to be ten years. 

 

Jamie

 

 Time to add to Australia's population , bring back transportation to the colonies .   😎

[polybear]

21 minutes ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 Time to add to Australia's population , bring back transportation to the colonies .   😎

 

I reckon Siberia might be more appropriate - or Afghanistan - or Iran - or..... 

 

 

[Hroth]

50 minutes ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 Time to add to Australia's population , bring back transportation to the colonies .   😎

 

Perhaps we could rejig Rishis Rwanda scheme....

 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Arthur Itis couldn't make up his mind last night but I managed to get a good nights sleep and laying in until eight. I will have to go and have a word with my GP practice about a letter I received yesterday. It was a letter from the hospital addressed to my GP concerning my prostate treatment. It was two sheets of paper stapled together. Someone, I presume in the GP practice had opened it, folded the sheets in such a way that my name and address which was on the second sheet were now on the first sheet. It was then put back in the same (already opened) window envelope with my name and address showing and put in the post. The post office thankfully for some reason didn't charge excess postage.

 

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

Not certain you're still allowed it in France Jamie but about the only thing left here is glyphosate. I think the EU banned it's use because of cancer risks.

Thanks.  By some strange quirk some Glyphophate has made it to here from the UK. I plan to drill into the stumps and pour some in. 

 

Jamie

[iL Dottore]

18 hours ago, polybear said:

 

The new law treats kitties & woofums as sentient beings -

I can tell you that they’re a damn sight more sentient than some of the “human” (supposedly) patients I’ve seen.

 

As for animal cruelty and abuse, punishment should be threefold: a custodial sentence, a mammoth fine (no release from prison until paid) and a Biblical “eye for an eye” punishment. If the scrote kicked tiddles around the room, so the scrote gets kicked around the room.

 

And, unlike with the new animal protection laws in Spain, NO exemptions for “working animals” (e,g. gun dogs) or farm animals. 

[Tony_S]

6 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Someone, I presume in the GP practice had opened it, folded the sheets in such a way that my name and address which was on the second sheet were now on the first sheet. It was then put back in the same (already opened) window envelope with my name and address showing and put in the post. The post office thankfully for some reason didn't charge excess postage.

If it was from Basildon Hospital, they usually post one copy to the GP and one to the patient. It is the same letter. Most likely scenario is that the envelope hadn't sealed properly. You probably won't get any more. Now letters from Basildon are online as well. So I would expect letters to disappear completely. 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I've been following both the PO Horizon Inquiry and the US Presidential Election.

Two thoughts strike me:
1. Management and governance in the PO have been extremely poor, and may be a reflection of other areas of the UK business economy which hold us back.

2. I'm beginning to feel sorry for members of the GOP in the US; their party seems to have been hijacked by a personality cult. 

[Grizz]

15 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 

As for animal cruelty and abuse, punishment should be threefold: a custodial sentence, a mammoth fine (no release from prison until paid) and a Biblical “eye for an eye” punishment. If the scrote kicked tiddles around the room, so the scrote gets kicked around the room.

 

May I just add a suggestion to your eminent sentencing solution @iL Dottore….please could we make it pay for view.

 

It’d make a fortune down the pub on Friday and Saturday nights, All of which could be ploughed back into animal welfare good causes. 

 

You could even add a voting system whereby the populous could text in their most favoured method, footwear and person to carry out justice. 
 

My vote would be a 20 stone rugby player with steel toe capped boots. 

 

 

[Hroth]

Speaking of the US Presidential election, I got an email from Joe Biden this morning, endorsing Kamala Harris as the next President. 

 

Not a clue WHY!

 

This morning, another email soliciting my vote from Harris herself.  Its not as if I'm even entitled to vote in their elections!

 

Edited August 26 by Hroth
Update...

[iL Dottore]

3 hours ago, Barry O said:

If only doctors and support staff could think in a logical way...

It’s not that they can’t, but patients are anything else but logical (as in “I’ve just been treated for lung cancer so now I really need a cigarette and I’m going to have one” logical).

 

And don’t underestimate the number of Homeopathic Employees, “ideology of the month” tickbox form creators and the like that get in the way of actually dealing with patients.

 

One other thing: if many of those so dismissive of patients were to have their continued employment at their jobs directly dependent on patient satisfaction, you would have a top tier health service (and not one that skulks at the back of the classroom on far too many measures).

 

Right now, providing you aren’t guilty of some of the -isms the NHS is currently obsessed with, whether you are helpful and supportive of patients or just do the barest minimum will have no impact on your employment

[jamie92208]

36 minutes ago, Grizz said:

May I just add a suggestion to your eminent sentencing solution @iL Dottore….please could we make it pay for view.

 

It’d make a fortune down the pub on Friday and Saturday nights, All of which could be ploughed back into animal welfare good causes. 

 

You could even add a voting system whereby the populous could text in their most favoured method, footwear and person to carry out justice. 
 

My vote would be a 20 stone rugby player with steel toe capped boots. 

 

 

It happened in the late 70's only it was hungry miners in their pit boots.  One Donald Nielson (Nee Nappy) aka The Black Panther had hijacked a police car and it pulled up opposite a busy chip shop. The shotgun was discharged in the car and Nappy and the two PC's fell out of the car kicking and fighting.  the miners decided that it was their job to kick policemen in Nottinghamshire so joined in. My Nappy was somewhat subdued and compliant when he was booked into custody. He also had a pistol and knives on him.

 

After what he had done to the poor girl, Leslie Whittle IIRC, in the sewer that was the least punishment he should have endured.  He did die in prison.

 

Jamie