Early Risers.

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

I didn't realise that Network Rail were playing at Old Trafford today.

 

That can't be Network Rail.  Look how well kept the vegetation is  

[simontaylor484]

Evening all

 

The new doggy fence has been constructed doggy happy with it youngest also happy with it be helped.to build it it's only Cost a  handful screws as.It is all scrap deck.boards hopefully it will last a while . 

 

Being housebound by mental illness I have had to rely on eBay and Amazon for.stuff delivering. Amazon prime especially for urgent stuff. The trouble with ordering stuff from stores is the delivery charges can be a bit steep. Wickes is quite reasonable a fiver under 75 quid for non bulky items. Though I d o want a couple of large planters for the olive trees for some reason I can't add them to the delivery of deckboards that comes Tuesday even though a courier goes to the store and picks the order up

[leopardml2341]

Evenin'all.

 

Despite my worries earlier I've actually achieved quite a lot today.

 

Mucky and kn@ckered now, time for a shower - back later

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Looks like its going to be a hot and sticky night. The toy fair today was quite well attended and speaking to some of the traders they were quite happy. However the really big local toy fair at Brentwood is no more. The company that ran the Brentwood Centre where it was held went bust and the centre is closed for the foreseeable future.

[jonny777]

2 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

I refuse to buy anything from robbing, scheming bunch of...........(insert expletive here) I would rather pay more elsewhere.

 

Exactly, but it is the legitimate USA business model. 

 

When the competition becomes awkward and refuses to die, the multinationals get their rich mates in a private equity fund to buy out the opposition with borrowed money, transfer the loans to the company they have just bought, and then sell off the well known brand names for millions and get out asap. 

 

Either the government (ie taxpayer) picks up the pieces, or thousands are made redundant, but the multinationals will be long gone. 

 

Amazon had designs on Ocado, mainly for the distribution network - but this was rebuffed. Now the private equity revenge is going to take place in order to bankrupt the opposition while the UK sleepwalks into a US take over. 

 

At the moment it is Morrisons which is about to be asset stripped. Asda has already been done. Tesco is probably too big, and so I suspect Sainsbury will be next. 

 

Once that is complete, then Amazon will probably team up with more private equity to buy up Tesco, complete with their delivery network and the (almost) private monopoly will be complete. UK people love cheap food, and there will be no shortage of that in the future (as long as you turn a blind eye to the added growth hormones, regular antibiotic injections, inhumane animal rearing conditions, and filthy bacteria infested slaughterhouses); plus cakes and pastries filled with palm oil and cane sugar from cleared rainforests. 

 

We may not suffer too much, but our grandchildren will. 

Edited July 25, 2021 by jonny777

[southern42]

Toot on the flute performed muddled through little and often.

Bike ride on the terrace upped to 30mins. Got a threat of going out on't road so thought I better get in shape!  Comfy cushioning from thick gloves on handle bars and folded up towel on seat put away. There's determination... 

And no doggy chorus!

 

Lunch out on terrace and still no doggy chorus.  The odd coo from the wood pigeons and that was about it.

 

After lunch the body shut down and I only managed a few mugadecafs, the odd toot on the flute, and the beginnings of an email to a friend about meeting up for a coffee for the first time since before lockdowns.

 

Time to put kettle on. I'm not called Polly for nothing, you know! 

 

There is the other one, of course, who spends a lot of time among the cinders... My last job of the day on the Conwy Valley Railway is raking the stuff out of the firebox, and in winter I have been known to keep my toes close by!

Oops! Better go before the Awl strikes... 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2021 by southern42
word missing!

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[southern42]

' night all and nos da.

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[Barry O]

Match played ( and, as with most women's and girls games, in very good spirit.)

 

Youngest Herbert and girlfriend called in..he reck9ns the umpires yesterday were very bad.. so did his captain who has spent today producing a report to go with some low marks.

 

Time for some sleep so..

 

Goodnight all!

 

Baz

[Ozexpatriate]

We seem to be back in action - now after midnight BST.

 

Very strange website behaviour - working around 8:00pm BST on Sunday, then some time later only permitting a "like" (no other responses) to posts, not permitting new posts and not displaying posted images before , eventually, the site was down. I've noticed a lot of variable performance issues since the last upgrade.

 

Today is warm (perhaps hot, if 32°C is hot) with cloudless sunny skies but I haven't felt motivated to do much of anything and sat in my air conditioned cocoon, feeling anxious about something, just what, I'm just not sure exactly.

 

Have a good week everyone.

[TheSignalEngineer]

4 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

That can't be Network Rail.  Look how well kept the vegetation is  

The outfield was over-watered and slow. We've had hardly any rain in weeks but some of the bowlers were using towels to dry the ball.

The wicket was dire. It was the same one used for England - Pakistan last Tuesday, specially prepared for Adil Rashid to bowl on. It was already dusting up during that game. It was then used for the women's match this afternoon.

The groundstaff couldn't wait to rush onto the pitch with hoses as soon as the winning shot crossed the boundary. The were flooding the square before the players had left the field. Probably trying to destroy the evidence. Had it been a county championship match the Lords Pitch Inspector would have been there for a look at it tomorrow.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[Coombe Barton]

... and maybe some gigantic chickens ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/07/25/postcards-from-the-periphery-2021-02-sunday-afternoons/

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

There was a little gem on BBC4 last night.  At the end of a programme featuring soloists of many kinds, even an exponent of the sitar, was an item described by Radio Times in its most deadpan manner.  The late great Dudley Moore played what was described as the Colonel Bogey March with all the vigour and flamboyance that one would expect from a concert pianist in full and headlong flow.  Somewhere I have an EP with a recording of the same piece, entitled “And the same to you”.  Like the clip shown last night, there is an audience which is duly and predictably most amused.  Without the pictures the facial antics of the musician can only be imagined, but be assured that they were just as one would expect from the gentleman in question.  I expected a pleasure and was not disappointed.

 

The various comments made about Amazon yesterday reflect my own unease at the activities of this company.  A certain friend of mine works for the outfit in an executive capacity.  He insists that he enjoys the work and is paid handsomely for it.  That is fine if you have time to enjoy the fruits of your labours.  Maybe he is made of sterner stuff than I am but I would not enjoy five or even six shifts a week of 12 hours each working at/from home.  I fear for his health.   

 

Meanwhile, preparations continue for my little holiday.  Packing took a small step nearer to completion when I remembered that my favourite Sidmouth T shirt was not in the suitcase.  It is now, but not before an almost frantic search of what had been ironed but not yet put away.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris   

Edited July 26, 2021 by chrisf
typo

[polybear]

13 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

I refuse to buy anything from robbing, scheming bunch of...........(insert expletive here) I would rather pay more elsewhere.

 

Bear can understand your view entirely, but sadly if I want wide choice, sensible price, delivery, no aggro chasing around shops that may be miles away, parking aggro, rabid cockwombles etc. etc. then Amazon (or similar) it is.  Many moons ago now, before the Internet is what it is, many shopkeepers were doing rather nicely thank you very much by fleecing the customers with big mark-ups.  So I don't get too upset, though I would much rather see thriving town centres than boarded up ones - but admittedly don't "do my bit" to assist their survival cos' if I can get someone else to do my shopping for me and deliver it, thus meaning I don't waste several hours of my day traipsing around Tesco's, only to discover that some kn*b has dented the Bearmobile in the car park.  And until shop rents drop significantly (maybe they will now?) then small shops are becoming un-viable anyway - and were so even before C-19.

It's the specialist shops that'll be missed though, such as certain hobby shops - and how many "decent" hardware shops are left?

 

In other news:

Bear plans to attack the final area of cornice today, which I'm hoping will be much quicker and easier to do because (a) I've done it once already, so know (kinda) what I'm doing this time, and (b) the dimensions of the cupboards onto which the cornice is being attached are different - and easier - this time.  As to whether or not the cornice knows all this remains to be seen.....

Edited July 26, 2021 by polybear

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a slightly damp Charente.  We had a great day yesterday.  Our friend deposited us in the next village at 11.50 znd picked us up at 18.30. In betwern we were the only 2 Anglos among 124 French. We were made welcone, and the afternoon was one of good food and several different types of fermented liquid. We discovered that roast wild boar is delicious, the horses douvres was varioys other parts of the porcine in paté and dried and sliced. A seafood plaater was one course and the sorbet after it was covered in Pineau.  All served very well in a marquee. A semblance of social distancing was observed and no one was allowed in without either a gaccination certificate or a negative lateral flow test administered at the door.  We spoke French to our neighbours all the time and a bit if Emglish to each other. Our French definitely  improved as the afternoon wore on. All in all a good afternoon.

 

We went back to our friends house for another couple of glasses and eventually got home about 9pm.  No sore head this morning.

 

After heading up to the silo to buy some chicken feed I'm off to Limoges to collect another friend from the airport.  Not a lot else to report though.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Andrew P]

Gosh, Its moan day again, BUT you'll hear NO MOANS from me, I'm up, I'm breathing and I'm adding another day to my dairy.

 

I'm off for a walk as its quite bright at the moment and still warm ish.

 

So, Hi Ho, Hi Ho, its off to the shower I go, and I'll be back and see you all in a mo.

 

Have a good day one and all, stay safe and keep well.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Bright and sunny this morning.

 

I don't use Amazon but we do buy direct from some of their suppliers if we can. They have a very strange business model designed to fund a very rich individual on his quest for world domination.

 

In other news, looks like the eediot next door is starting his build programme today . He stripped half of our hedge out yesterday.. never said a word to us.. perhaps he is heading for a fall? He has not fonished any of his footballers wives garden "improvements" so far including his pebbledashed shed.. designed so that rain water goes into his heighbours garden over wis 8ft high fence.

 

Have a good week! Stay safe!

Baz

[New Haven Neil]

Morning.  Well I think it is - I was so tired I didn't hear Mrs NHN leave for work, and my head is mush.  Slow day to be had I think.

 

Dull outside too, 16, overcast but dry, seems odd after two weeks of scorchio.

 

Amazon...well it has its uses for island dwellers, but I try to avoid it if possible.  We do however, have a proper old fashioned hardware shop in the bright lights of Ramsey, very useful place.

 

OK, off to get this head in working order.

 

 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

It seems that I was not alone in being unable to log on to the RMweb last night, I tried several times but each time all I got was the error 504 timeout message! So I gave up and went to bed. 

 

Anyway, below is what I would have posted last night. 

 

Yesterday’s task of re-fitting the lights in the cellar has been successful compared, the lighting circuit has been temporarily altered to become a one way circuit, as the second switch is mounted on a wall that has yet to be plastered. I also remembered to remove the only socket as well. I have run an extension lead to the safe side of the inner door and the stereo is plugged into that, but on the office side of the door. 

 

After dinner I repaired the large paint brush that Ian uses when plastering, as the head fell off on Friday. I then dismantled the temporary lighting stands I made last week, as they are now no longer required, this will give Ian a little bit more room to move about whilst he does his magic. 

 

After tea I got a dust sheet out and laid it on the carpet outside the boiler ‘room’ ready for when the service engineer turns up this morning. 

 

Now for today’s post. 

 

The boiler engineer is due anytime after 8:30 and Ian and Ava are due around 9 o’clock. So I got up a little earlier than usual to ensure that I was fed and watered before everyone gets here. Once the boiler engineer has finished and has left for his next job, I shall head off to the big orange DIY shed for another bag of plaster, as Ian thinks he will need one more to finish the job. He is hoping to get 2 walls finished today and thinks he has enough plaster for that, but it is better to look at it than look for it as far as I am concerned. I will discuss with Ian later today to find out when he can finish the last 2 walls. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. @chrisf's remarks about Dudley More bought to mind another great comedian who was a dab hand on the piano and who is no longer with us, Les Dawson. It took an expert pianist to deliberately play badly and a comedy genius to get an audience to go along with the joke knowing full well whats coming next. I avoid Amazon as much as possible and if President Biden has his way the multinationals are going to find it difficult because Biden's cabinet is stuffed with those opposed to multinationals*.

*From the New York Times morning briefing https://www.nytimes.com/series/europe-morning-briefing

[jonny777]

Dry and sunny here in North Somerset. Not much to do today, but I might find something useful out in the G. 

 

I had a length of plastic spikes in the garage. This was left over from my installation of them on the biggest water butt, where there is also a 'ground' bird feeder covered in a mesh 'cage' (old freezer basket placed upside-down). Unfortunately, wood pigeons decided this was a great place to stand for hours hoping that the pigeon god would magic some bird food from inside the cage, because they could only stretch their necks so far between the bars. Result? No smaller birds dared go near the food tray until the wood pigeons were not there, which seemed to be about 2 minutes every hour. 

 

I glued and taped long strips of spikes around the mesh cage and the pigeons couldn't land nearby, but what they could do was land on top of the feeder pole and then fly at any small bird which dared go near their private food non-supply; and so they did.

 

Yesterday, I cut the spare spike into four equal lengths and secured them to the tops of the four curved seed feeder pole with wire. It looks a bit Heath-Robinson (as does every botch job I dream up), but it seems to  have worked so far. 

 

I understand the old retail business of ripping off customers and poor quality produce, which the supermarkets put paid to; but I am worried that we are now in danger of going too far the other way. Instead of rosy cheeked butchers, greengrocers and bakers raking in the profits from overcharging customers, we are going to have global multinationals doing the same in the future. 

 

Anyway, I'm rambling - and had better do something of my own choosing before SWMBO finds me something that she has chosen. 

[tigerburnie]

Morning, overcast and still nice and cool at 18 degrees centigrade(yes I know), online shopping has been our main way to buy over the past 18 months, from clothing to Scrumpy from a Devon farm, I just won't use Amazon on principle, ebay, no problem, buying meat direct from farmers all delivered by courier. We have been to a farmers market once and we do go to the chemists in the big village, not been into a town since last March(2020) and our world is actually just fine, apparently most of the businesses are still flourishing locally, just a couple of big national chain shops that have vanished. We get most of our food from supermarkets, which is a change, before we used local independent shops, but as the covid numbers are again very high round here, we will have to just get what we can get delivered.