Early Risers.

[PupCam]

4 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

I gave up wearing long sleeve shirts years ago - the sleeves just got in the way as I was forever rolling them up. And then they got wet if I didn't roll them up.

 

I mostly gave up wearing shirts at all 5 years ago.   Crikey, have I been retired 5 years already!   

 

 

[pH]

40 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

I've not even been to Skeggie...

Lucky you!

[DaveF]

I had a pleasing walk this morning at Plessey Woods country park, got the ticket for a free hour of parking and walked round part of the wood and a short way along the River Blyth, about 1.5 hilly miles in all.  I was very surprised when I was back at the car barely 40 minutes after I set out, about three months ago the same walkin the opposite direction took me over 50 minutes.  I must be getting a bit fitter but was still out of breath on the steep parts.  By going the "wrong" way round I noticed a couple of paths I've not been along before as well as some different locations for photos when there are autumn colours.

 

On the way home I saw a very rare BMW, it had working indicators and was able to keep to the speed limit.  Just beyond where he turned off there was a speed camera van, I was doing 40 as required.  It is a dual carriageway so many people speed but it has an awkward junction and pedestrians crossing to get to a village nearby.

 

I sorted out the photos and tried out my 18-200mm zoom lens which I haven't used since about this time last year when the developing hernia made it uncomfortably heavy to carry.  It still works and dosn't seem as heavy as it used to so I will try it.  I've put in the wooden posts and wires to support the raspberry canes and tied them in, did quite a bit of weeding and took out some dead annuals.

 

The short sleeved shirts have been put away, the temperature will omly get up to about 14°C here for the next week.  My GP doesn't like me wearing short sleeved shirts at all as she keeps reminding me that I have already had one suspect piece of skin dealt with so I should be careful.

 

And so another day of retirement passes.

 

In Plessey Woods by the car park

 

Stream in Plessey Woods

 

David

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

I possibly did, as that is exactly what I will be asking for!  As I said I have had plenty gory surgery in the last 10 years, but I was asleep (the foot hurt plenty enough once I awoke though!) - the prospect of seeing/knowing what was going on with eyes is more than my brain can cope with.  Anything else OK, not eyes.  Euuww.

Yep scares the bebjebers out of me as well Neil. Mum had to have injections into her eye, she only had one, and quite how she managed I have no idea. Me I would have been screaming the place down.

A rather off putting tale she told me was the time the 'doctor'- other terms are available, tried to inject her artificial eye.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

12 minutes ago, pH said:

Lucky you!

 

I meant this year.

When I was but a lad, Skeggie was where we went for our week's holiday. But it had one advantage as we went by train from Derby Friargate, so I must've traversed the "Back Line" around Nottm through Mapperley Tunnel. 

[Tony_S]

28 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

 

I meant this year.

When I was but a lad, Skeggie was where we went for our week's holiday. But it had one advantage as we went by train from Derby Friargate, so I must've traversed the "Back Line" around Nottm through Mapperley Tunnel. 

When I was young and we lived in Somerset at Clevedon we used to go to Birmingham for holidays but mainly relatives visited us. When we moved back to the Midlands we did have a couple of east coast holidays at Great Yarmouth but apart from those we always went to the west coast. 
Aditi had childhood day trips to Bridlington when she lived in Huddersfield, and Skegness or Mablethorpe after her family moved to Nottingham. They drove as her Dad got a car when he changed from being a hospital doctor to a GP . She said people from school had a week in Skegness or Mablethorpe as their main holiday. Her family didn’t go away for summer holidays. 

Edited Tuesday at 16:34 by Tony_S

[iL Dottore]

I am rather sanguine about watching surgery, including my own. During one keyhole meniscectomy  (spinal anesthesia and nerve block), the surgeon helpfully turned the video monitor towards me so I could see what he was doing and we had a good chat during the procedure. On the other hand I was disappointed that the hand surgeon draped the area so I couldn't see what was going on during my hand surgery*. However, I can't watch eye surgery and I am very skittish about having anything done to my eyes (unfortunately, as I have an incipient cataract in one eye - which will eventually need removal).

 

Otherwise, little fazes me - at least visually, olfactory insults are a bit harder to endure (the smell of a floater, of a bowel cancer patient being autopsied and so on).

 

* the hand surgery was quite Interesting. They gave me a superficial local anesthetic to numb the skin of the operation site, before injecting Anaesthetic deep into the hand: so a BIG needle, followed by a BIGGER needle - not a peep from me; they then started manipulating the surgical site - I couldn't feel any sensation, but I could feel the movement (tugging, pulling, dissecting) - again not a peep out of me; they then sutured the site and dressed it- still silence from my side; they then removed the drapes - part of which had been taped to my rather hirsute forearm, "Oww!" said I, as the surgical tape depilated my arm upon its removal - "that HURT!". The surgeon and nurses, for some reason, found this deviation from my previous soundless phlegmatic stoicism to be rather amusing.....

[Erichill16]

Afternoon All,

Bit squeamish but really, really hate eyes. Used to hate it when SWMBO was messing around with her contact lenses. 
On medication that could lead to cataracts so titrating dose carefully. 
Tales of animals in distress is also painful. 
On my way to ‘The Theatre of Dreams’ which may also be painful.

 

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

I have never been to Skegness but I did go to Dorset earlier this year. 

I went once.  It was far too cold to even be described as "bracing".  There was sleet in the air and an easterly blowing in off the North Sea.  The initials on the station frontage said it all.  BR.  Or even BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

 

In other news - a busy watch today with a yacht going aground and requiring five hours of the rescue services' attention.  Two persons on board are safe and reasonably well.  The vessel has a hole where there should not be one and is being towed into Penzance for assessment.  

 

Other than that it's been a very fine September day.  Calm, warm, sunny and with a goodly number of visitors still about.  I'll pop up to the pizza shop later because (a) I have earned one and (b) it's pension day! 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

... I have changed my LinkedIn Status to Retired - Apprentice Grumpy Old Fart. ...
 

 

As you are a fully paid-up, bona fide member of ER'ers I predict you will soon be selected for a fast-track career path....

 

13 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

Afternoon All,

Bit squeamish but really, really hate eyes. 

 

Bear carries a Donor Card; the only bits I've said Paws-Off to are the mincers.

[TheQ]

The nearest to skeggy I've been was 6 months stationed at RAF Staxton Wold on a hill above Scarborough.

From 1964 to 1970 our annual weeks holiday was on the south coast, Isle of Wight, Bournemouth, Poole, Weymouth.

We then moved to the Hebrides and my annual holiday 71-75 was just to go home from school in Inverness.

Since then holidays have been visiting relatives, as I'm doing this week, plus regatta week at my sailing club.

[DaveF]

Living in and around Nottingham when I was at school I sometimes visited Skegness but "real" holidays were usually Brighton or South Devon.  If we stayed at the east coast it was at Sandilands - when I was very little before the big flood in 1953.  I can just remember it and the beach hut we used to have while we were there.

 

David

[Barry O]

Nice drive to Locomotion..

Great museum.. Great set up..

 

 

Then tea at The Lambton Worm. A "Lite Bite"

 

 

Club Sandwich..far too much for me

 

Baz

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

I mostly gave up wearing shirts at all 5 years ago.   

 

I hope you have a good supply of clean vests.

[Coombe Barton]

Skegness.

Been once, passed through the vicinity a further twice.

 

First time Sandy and I were leading a trip to Gibraltar Point for Oceanography and celled in just to say we'd been.

The second time we led a trip to Gibraltar Point we avoided Skegness. You can probably guess the reason.

 

Third time we went further north to see the submerged forest on the coast. We avoided stopping in Skegness that time as well.

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, pH said:

Lucky you!

 

 

My rule of thumb  for any given UK location is that if there isn't a town down here named after it   then chances are that it is  a bit of a sh*thole.

Edited Tuesday at 18:28 by monkeysarefun

[pH]

2 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

My rule of thumb  for any given UK location is that if there isn't a town down here with  the same name  then chances are that it is  a bit of a sh*thole.

Surely the opposite? Places outside the British Isles named after places in the British Isles were usually named by people who moved from the British Isles. That would imply they had some reason for moving. If there is no “foreign” place named after a British Isles location, does it not imply that people were happy where they were and so didn’t move?

[monkeysarefun]

5 minutes ago, pH said:

Surely the opposite? Places outside the British Isles named after places in the British Isles were usually named by people who moved from the British Isles. That would imply they had some reason for moving. If there is no “foreign” place named after a British Isles location, does it not imply that people were happy where they were and so didn’t move?

Many  early settlers didn't get a say in moving here!

[pH]

12 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Many  early settlers didn't get a say in moving here!

Yes, I know - or to parts of Canada. I was referring to those who moved of their own accord.

Edited Tuesday at 18:54 by pH

[PhilJ W]

6 hours ago, polybear said:

OK, so it’s GB News (but the Telegraph run the same story):

 

https://www.gbnews.com/money/tax-widow-council-rise-discount#

 

Bear could have a REAL Rant if that does happen; I suspect several other ER’ers may join in…..

Yet if you have a second home you only pay 50%. If you can afford to buy a second home you can afford to pay the full council tax.

[Grizz]

Been out on a Line Block, inspecting a very poorly rail lubricator. I’ve somehow managed to get grease all down my best new bib and brace…..muttermuttermutter…….still it has helped to take my mind off of things. Thank you to you all for kind thoughts today. 
 

Our farmer neighbour saw us this evening. They were away on holiday and only one member of staff was on site and sound asleep across the far side of the farm. 
 

They lost over 70 pigs, with probs more likely to succumb. The East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service sent eight fire appliances to site. The first on site, within 5 minutes, was the retained unit from Barcombe, with number one cub’s very good friend on board. 
 

The cause is yet to be determined but not being treated as suspicious, the total burn time from start to finish was a maximum of 20 minutes. Which was amazing. 
 

Crews started leaving site at 07:30 but a few stayed to damp down. 
 

The son of the farmer got to site just as the first unit arrived and did his up most.
 

Had the fire got hold it may have reached fertiliser store…….which I am told would have had a major remodelling influence on the diesel fuel storage tanks, farm machinery, other animal barns, the house and most of the rest of the farm. 
 

Anyone….anyone…. Who thinks that fire and rescue services are not worth the money we pay for them should Foxtrot Oscar out of it. I am so grateful that they put themselves in harms way for us when we needed them. 
 

I am off to lean on my ear now but not before I have a medical Bowmore. 
 

Thank you all ERers, for your support today….and every day.

 

Kindest Regards

 

Your Friend Grizz…..
 

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 19:11 by Grizz
Spelling and Grandma

[monkeysarefun]

7 minutes ago, pH said:

Yes, I know - or to parts of Canada. I was referring to those who moved of their own accord.

 

 

I'd imagine the lure of a  grant of  free land of their own -  along with  several gold rushes -  were  pretty big incentives for even those living in the most jigsaw-puzzle worthy of UK locales.

Edited Tuesday at 19:00 by monkeysarefun

[New Haven Neil]

Holidays for us used to revolve around dad's leave - he was a Chief Engineer at sea - so often was at odd times of year!  Usually Scotland, just to make it colder, but sometimes to Devon where we also had family.  Never abroad, as he had had enough of that, we didn't get the choice.  Didn't go abroad until I was myself a sea-farer.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon/evening from Estuary-Land.  Done some shopping today, not as much as I intended as some items I wanted only had a best before date of tomorrow so I will get some fresher stuff in a couple of days time. When I got in I sat down in the chair and promptly nodded off, not long awake and the neck is protesting. Now for a late dinner.

[The White Rabbit]

54 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Yet if you have a second home you only pay 50%. If you can afford to buy a second home you can afford to pay the full council tax.

 

If it is a second home. Sometimes because of the rules on ownership and tax, people nominally own two houses - but the 'other' is very much not a second home. I've been in that situation - twice. Firstly, one house was home, the second was inherited, in a poor condition and empty. Until that sold, I was theoretically a second home owner. Because of the particular rules (which I won't go into as comments could turn very political) I didn't qualify for any exemptions. Secondly, house move - again, because of the particular circs, unable to move 'tidily' from home A to home B. (Some * let us down, rather than miss a good place, bridging finance arranged). In both cases, I/we were caught out by events rather than behaving like an aspirant Rockefeller.