Early Risers.

[Sidecar Racer]

Good morning all ,

 

there must have been a sunrise here as it's shining as I type , but I most certainly

was'nt there to see it . What do you think I am , a Druid or similar ?

 

Birthday greetings to Aditi .

 

Sympathy to those who have been rounding up errant animals , and to those that are working .

 

Now to decide what to do with the day , I'll probably go into the loft and retrieve the suitcase to

wipe over ready to start packing for the holiday . After that I better check what clothes are clean

enough to pack .

 

Well off we go then , have a fun filled day .

[AndrewC]

Can I insult anyone else this morning.

In one of my many former offices, there was a South African gent who had a rather twisted streak. He referred to the French as "wine guzzling, cheese eating, surrender monkeys". The company's token Frenchman got his revenge by setting up the SA's laptop so that every sound it made, was the Spitting Image song " I've Never Met a Nice South African". He then locked down the machine's policies so it couldn't be turned off.

[The Stationmaster]

G'day all - just missed the 'Good morning' having a read through!

 

Flavio seems to understand Henry quite well although he hasn't got the insecurity bit as those pics don't convey it all - he does need to be loved (when he wants to be of course). Anyway to more mundane things - currently it's just above freezing but it was a big job of car defrosting before taking MRsS to Reading to take train to Plymouth for a day visit; enroute lots of headlight flashing from cars coming towards us but no it wasn't the mobile speed camera but a result of someone not following an S bend and demolishing a couple of road signs - the signs that showed there was a bend. No doubt it'll be blamed on 'the weather'.

 

Bit of wood shifting to do today plus chop some more kindling and check run my 'Director' which arrived this morning from the NRM - complete with an overlong ejector pipe to sort (do I cut it short or do I drill a hole in the cab front - decisions, decisions?).

 

Have a nice day.

[Debs.]

In one of my many former offices, there was a South African gent who had a rather twisted streak. He referred to the French as "wine guzzling, cheese eating, surrender monkeys". The company's token Frenchman got his revenge by setting up the SA's laptop so that every sound it made, was the Spitting Image song " I've Never Met a Nice South African". He then locked down the machine's policies so it couldn't be turned off.

 

Joking aside.........

 

This takes me back to my time in the mid 70`s on B.R: there was a guard (a lovely, ever-cheerful chap; whom happened to be from Jamaica) whom nearly-everyone at the depot seemed to address as 'Masambula' ......and on the maintenance side there was a chap (originally) from South Africa, whom always referred to the guard as: 'G*d d*mmned K*ffir' ........That was the first time I`d ever witnessed ignorant prejudice. I was only-young, but I remember how sad and 'empty' it made me feel to see/hear otherwise kind people reduced to shallow, baseless, hurtful judgements and outlook.

[beast66606]

He then locked down the machine's policies so it couldn't be turned off.

 

I would overwrite the .wav file with the "I f@rt in your general direction you silly Eng-lish K-nig-its" sound bite in that case, unless the wav was also secured it would be an easy work around, I'd then revoke Admin privileges to the file and hide it - all easy to overcome but a ###### to find.

 

 

W8 -> W7 not going well, the media is missing from my laptop, the supplier is putting it up on a site for me to download.

[Debs.]

W8 -> W7 not going well, the media is missing from my laptop..........

 

Oh my!

[TomE]

Being at work for 06:45 does have its advantages sometimes:

 

 

Some lovely skies at this time of year!

 

Tom.

[skipepsi]

Dare not let the cats in the snake bedroom never mind bringing the rabbits in from outside. The escaped snake was bad tempered because he was shedding his skin, once or twice I felt I was being sized up as potenial food source. Dave the dwarf reticulated python might not be 10ft long yet but he is as thick as my upper arm for most of his length and very strong. If Matt was not squeamish he could be eating guinea pigs by now so the dwarf cat we have would be a nice snack.

[Happy Hippo]

Mick,

 

I've always been fascinated by snakes used to go out of my way to see them in their natural habitat.

 

I've seen Timber Rattlesnakes on the Canadian plains, Black Mamba and Puff Adders in in Kenya, and even Adders in the UK

 

Snake spotting was good fun, and although I appreciated that snakes were definitely wild and unpredicatable, I assumed that if you left them alone they would leave you alone.

 

That was until few of us went out for an early morning run in Belize.

 

We were running down the centre of quite a wide track, when suddenly there was a blur from the brush a few yards ahead of me and the lad there let out a yell and collapsed, holding his leg.

 

We thought he'd pulled a muscle, until we saw the puncture wounds. Apart from the blur, nobody actually saw the snake.

 

We ran down the centre of the track to avoid just this happening, the local vipers usually having a short strike range, and the noise we made usually frightened them off long before we arrived.

 

Not this time we later worked out that judging by the distance it had to strike he must have been bitten by a Bushmaster a rather large and decidedly bad tempered snake who was one of the kings of sudden ambush.

 

We managed to put on a restrictive bandage to slow the blood flow down and made a stretcher from our rifles and shirts.

 

Whilst this was going on, our fastest runner was despatched back to camp to warn them what had happened.

 

The victim did survive, but despite being pumped full of anti vemon and being casevaced to Miami asap, he lost his right leg from just below the groin due to the necrosis caused by the effects of the venom.

 

After that, being brave rough and tough soliders, we avoided that area like the plague, and nobody ever went out on their own after that.

 

Men who learn to run away, live to run another day.

 

I still like snakes tho'

 

Regards

 

Richard

[The Stationmaster]

Joking aside.........

 

This takes me back to my time in the mid 70`s on B.R: there was a guard (a lovely, ever-cheerful chap; whom happened to be from Jamaica) whom nearly-everyone at the depot seemed to address as 'Masambula' ......and on the maintenance side there was a chap (originally) from South Africa, whom always referred to the guard as: 'G*d d*mmned K*ffir' ........That was the first time I`d ever witnessed ignorant prejudice. I was only-young, but I remember how sad and 'empty' it made me feel to see/hear otherwise kind people reduced to shallow, baseless, hurtful judgements and outlook.

In the West Country we had a Chargeman who lots of folk referred to as Masambula although he was Somerset born & bred (a result of wartime Anglo-American co-operation as it happened) but I think it was all done in fairly good heart as he was a pretty good bloke and generally well thought of by most people although - like others - he occasionally did daft things (including one of the most inexplicable derailments I have ever seen - involving a 45ton bitumen tank car).

 

His biggest disappointment was when he went to the USA in the late 1970s looking for his father - he managed to find him without too much difficulty but was totally rejected by his dad who wanted absolutely nothing to do with him and barely acknowledged him as his son, because he was English, had a strange accent, and was not truly dark skinned. That hit him pretty hard but he got over it (as best anyone could in such circumstances (and made quite a good career for himself getting a Station Supervisor's job at Reading although unfortunately he suffered an early death due to heart failure before he'd reached 50).

[DDolfelin]

I doubt if anyone posting on here is a Racist.

However, I find it irritating that speech is now governed by law - even between consenting adults of different origin.

 

I have a friend whose skin colour is different from mine.

This difference is the subject of much humour between us.

 

He is quite capable of dropping his BBC English accent and affecting what he calls his Grass Hut style of speech.

In public, I expect we'd both be arrested.

[Debs.]

I doubt if anyone posting on here is a Racist.

 

Just to clarify: I certainly did not intend to infer any such thing with my post.

[DDolfelin]

Nobody thought that, Debs.

 

Just making the point that, while foul racist chanting and the like is abhorrent, words spoken and understood as in jest should not be subject to the law.

Belittling someone for their skin colour, stature, health, education etc., is the work of a cad anyway.

[Happy Hippo]

Having seen the first picture of his lordship, I now know where Mike got the idea of his beard from!

 

Regards

 

Richard

[The Stationmaster]

Having seen the first picture of his lordship, I now know where Mike got the idea of his beard from!

Regards

Richard

Henry might well be getting on a bit Richard but he definitely isn't that old - my beard pre-dates him by several decades (and was a result of adult chickenpox and not being able to comfortably shave for several weeks). We found Henry living under a hedge back in 1997 and invited him in (he tends to be polite and need to be invited in!) and we think he was about 2 years old then as he was certainly an adult cat.

[Tony_S]

Belittling someone for their skin colour, stature, health, education etc., is the work of a cad anyway.

 

Or they haven't read the appropriate policy document.

In infant school Matthew was taunted with racist chants by a group of other infants. The school made some interesting comments.

1) They had a anti bullying policy that included racist abuse,

and the strange one, 2) The boy leading the taunting was the son of a police officer "so of course they couldn't do anything".

[eldavo]

Evening All, Late on parade today as the schedule was thrown out of the window after a really sh*t day yesterday.

 

Archie the pup decided at 2 o'clock yesterday he would do a runner through a hedge while out walking and was hit by a car. He spotted something of interest and made a beeline for it. I recalled him and he stopped and looked round then decided he would keep on going, out throuhg the fence, hedge and onto the main road. The driver didn't even slow down let alone stop!

 

I scooped him up off the road squealing his little head off and ran for home (100yds away) and by the time I got there he had gone ominously quiet. Thankfully he had just gone into shock and partial shutdown. Proved Porsche's acceleration times correct leaving copious rubber on the road and got him round to our local vet who was on the case in less than a minute.

 

He spent the night at the vets where they managed to stabilise him and do x-rays etc. Today he was deemed fit enough for me to take him down to Ringwood to a specialist vet practice to have two broken back legs plated and pinned this afternoon. They think he may be OK to come home on Thursday as, thankfully, there don't appear to be any other serious problems. We shall see...

 

Now if I could just get rid of that continuous video replay (with soundtrack) out of my head...

 

Cheers

Dave

[Debs.]

Now if I could just get rid of that continuous video replay (with soundtrack) out of my head...

 

I can but imagine!

 

'We' send Archie (and you) our best wishes of support and sympathy.

[gordon s]

Jeez Dave, what a nightmare! I'm sure the little lad will get all the love in the world when he gets home on Thursday.

 

Sadly the only place out Archie is let off the lead these days is West Wittering beach. One situation where he ran away and ended up chasing a Volvo down a country path put an end to his freedom. It frightened the hell out of Jack and I so I can imagine how you must be feeling....

 

Edit: Just realised it must be the name....

Edited November 6, 2012 by gordon s

[Tony_S]

Dave, our neighbours Jack Russell got run over on the way back from a trip to the post box to send off her insurance premium. She needed both legs pinning and something done to her hip. She made a full recovery.

Tony

[Sidecar Racer]

Here's hoping he makes a full recovery Dave , and you too .

[45156]

Evening All

 

Dave - what an ordeal poor Archie, I'm rooting for him, but if the specialist vet is half as good as the one that I use at St Helens, then he's in good hands and I've seen some quite remarkable recoveries coming out of their surgeries - many plate and pin operations like the one you're describing - so there's a lot of positive hope there. Is he named after my dad?

 

Mike I think I met the supervisor that you mentioned a few times at Reading, and he was one of the good guys on the railway, if he's the person that I'm thinking of.

 

Now then, I've been following even though I've not been posting, and hope that I've not missed on commenting on anything relevant, but if I have, abject apologies.

 

Yesterday, it was out with the de-icer and scrapers, and when I took Lily out for her evening walk frightening exposure to multifarious bangs and crackles, it was totally freezing, with frost in the ground, so I got out the cover - and when I was up at two with the puppy, I was pleased that I had as it was down to about minus 2 - only to discover it hanging damply over the car as it was raining, and the temperature had come up to about plus seven over a three hour period.

 

Oh yes, and my copy of Each A Glimpse arrived today, having been left on the doorstep in the rain by the most excellent delivery service offered by Yodel - if Amazon keep using them, I'll soon be closing my account.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[PhilH]

Crikey Dave, poor little fella. Glad that he has a good prognosis, he's a crackin' little pooch.

[Guest Max Stafford]

Or they haven't read the appropriate policy document.

In infant school Matthew was taunted with racist chants by a group of other infants. The school made some interesting comments.

1) They had a anti bullying policy that included racist abuse,

and the strange one, 2) The boy leading the taunting was the son of a police officer "so of course they couldn't do anything".

 

I think that's what's known as a 'cop out' Tony.

Can't stand racism, xenophobia or any weak-minded, intellectually stunted stuff like that.

On the other hand, I see no problem with a bit of banter between close mates like Dd and his buddy although these days you really have to exercise care and 'know your audience'. Like the old poster used to say; " You never know who's listening"!

 

 

Dave; all the best to Archie from Abi and me - I can imagine only too well the horror of that action replay. Just temper it with the fact that he's survived more or less intact due in no small way to the prompt actions of you and your vet.

I can't help but feel it personally when a dog, especially a Staffie, has a mishap like this!

 

In other news, I collected my B*** P****** today!

 

Dave.

Edited November 6, 2012 by Max Stafford

[NGT6 1315]

Here's hoping he makes a full recovery Dave , and you too .

 

I certainly second that! That must have been a nightmare indeed...