Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

7 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

I don't recall a recent episodic US murder series since Angela Lansbury hung up her detective gear. 

Cabot Cove was at least as deadly as Midsomer.

 

What the US does have is an awful lot of "naval crime" requiring investigation by NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Services) in LA, Hawaii, New Orleans etc. You'd think it would mostly happen where there are actual naval bases* like San Diego or Newport News.

 

* OK there is a big naval base in Hawaii - but that was the most recent spin-off.

 

There is actually a television show** (for children) based on Postal Inspectors (USPIS or US Postal Inspection Service whose jurisdiction is mail fraud). Funnily enough they actually have some pretty dramatic real-life take-downs - like the arrest (offshore) of an associate of a former president on the yacht of a Chinese billionaire. It's pretty funny that the person in question was arrested by the Post Office.

 

** The Inspectors  

[PeterBB]

Belated happy anniversary to Ian and Mrs Abel.

 

 

[Gwiwer]

10 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

... Porth Kidney, a bay between St Ives and the Hayle Estuary. Golden sands – check – lots of it – check – blue sky – errrrm …

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2022/08/01/postcards-from-the-periphery-2022-11/ 

I know it well. A less-than-busy safe paddling / sunbathing beach (but stay clear of the river channel) and one where it is alleged that if you whistle in the dunes above a dozen heads will pop up. Attached to less-than-clothed elderly men on the occasions I have walked through the area. 
 

Reference to the Tyringham family recalls nights (usually well into early mornings) at the Tyringham Arms pub on the coach road. A darned long walk back to home in Hayle but we did it often enough. 

[Gwiwer]

8 minutes ago, PeterBB said:

Belated happy anniversary to Ian and Mrs Abel.

 

 

Echoed here. Congratulations. 

[TheQ]

At the moorings Awl,

Yesterday ..

Ah I hear the lesser spotted bottle bank collector @ 06:06.  Crash!!!!!, the village tourist big bins are just the other side of the club's car park. I'm glad I'm not living the other side of the road in the houses there.

 

Anyway, yesterday, was good and bad, BM has had terrible trouble getting round one corner of the river, it's only this morning I've realised why, out of habit I've been sailing the same distance from the bank in BM, as I used to do in a Yeoman, but she slows tremendously there.. This morning the brain thought.... BM is 4 ft wide a Yeoman is 6 ft 8in wide, so the keel is 16inches closer to the bank... So BMs keel is really in amongst the weed if not the soft mud....

 

Of Yeoman one came back from a race yesterday with a large hole in its side haven't found out why yet...

 

That's the first flight of the morning out of Norwich airport just gone past...

 

The forecast just now 18 to 30 mph winds the club's anenometer says 10mph, during sailing it's supposed to average 20mph, all south Westerly, with a high of 27C. Low tide is 10:20, just about the start of the second series of racing...

 

The first hire boats of the day have just gone past, both belonging to yards in the direction they are going. So they'll get there at around 08:00, about earliest hand in time.

 

Time for muggacoffee number two, then get the rescue boats out...

 

 

[iL Dottore]

Good morning all,

 

Another almost unbearably hot day awaits – fortunately I am not working so I can avoid the attic office for the moment.

 

Ian Abel’s comment about  Murder in Provence being “slow“ is perhaps an interesting reflection on the sort of pacing in film and television we have come to expect after years of Marvel Comic spinoffs, programmes and films aimed at the young male demographic.  I think that by today’s standard, classic films as diverse as Alien, Ice Cold in Alex, and Cool Hand Luke would be considered “slow”.

The current cultural landscape – which seems to be ever more frenetically paced, vacuous, enthralled to “the politically favoured minority of the week” and absent of introspection - I would argue is turning into a barren wasteland.  You don’t have to be a Jean-Paul Sartre to conclude that so much of our cultural heritage that so heavily influenced and was reflected in film, theatre, literature and art of the past has been dumped. Back then even “lightweight“ comedy – such as Morecambe and Wise – assumed that the audience would know who Wordsworth was or how Grieg’s Piano Concerto should be played - a shared cultural heritage.

 

But nowadays, it seems that even if the literati do grudgingly acknowledge “the male, pale and stale” writers and artists of the past – such as William Shakespeare – the work has to be “updated“, “made relevant“ and “decolonialised“. An approach which is destroying culture for the masses. Why would anyone who likes Shakespeare, Verdi or any one of a myriad other much loved playwrights and composers, willingly spend good money and go to the theatre not to be entertained but to be preached at? And as for anachronisms - don’t get me started…. We’ve gone far beyond the amusing faux-pas of wristwatches on Roman Soldiers to the absurdities of forcing representations of historical events (or historical drama) into today’s cultural and political landscape’s straightjacket.

 

Yes, that is a rant!

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Raining here this morning. Pah!

 

Not a happy bunny as I plugged something in incorrectly and 16v ac went the wrong way. A puff of smoke then followed.. pah!

 

Hay-fever this morning is not good at all. New tablets are not working..

 

Time to drown my sorrows with a mugatea.

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I would argue is turning into a barren wasteland.

You are channeling Mr. Newton Minow there, from 1961 no less, though he called it a "vast wasteland".

 

It is ever thus.

[iL Dottore]

6 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

You are channeling Mr. Newton Minow there, from 1961 no less, though he called it a "vast wasteland".

 

It is ever thus.

Truly a prophet!

And he wasn’t wrong, was he?

(although my rant does cover more than TV, Oz, the rot is everywhere!)

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, iL Dottore said:

And he wasn’t wrong, was he?

He found variety shows by Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby praiseworthy, so I'm not so sure.

 

Tastes may change. The purpose of entertainment is to entertain, unless we're going down the "DRINK VICTORY GIN, IT'S DOUBLE PLUS GOOD" brainwashing of the proles, rathole (which I'd rather not).

[monkeysarefun]

27 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I think that by today’s standard, classic films as diverse as Alien, Ice Cold in Alex, and Cool Hand Luke would be considered “slow”

On the other hand, Breaking Bad took 5 series and 5 years to get from go to woah,

 

  Better Call Saul is down to the last 3 episodes  of 7 years worth  that it has taken to play out the story....

Edited August 2, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[jamie92208]

Good moaning, just a very quick scan of posts. Off to get my ears lowered, then the supermarket, then sn afternoo evening expedition to Tours to look at trains.

 

Ttfn.

 

Jamie

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

The sun is peeking through the clouds and it's currently 19°C possibly rising to 29°C.  A dry, breezy day with lots of sunshine expected later.

Sounds like I will be staying mainly in the shade with the fans running although we might go for a walk after breakfast before it gets too hot.

Flightradar 24 tells me that grandchildren and their Dad are at 30000 feet over the Channel en route to Gibraltar and thence Spain.  Flight took off only 11 minutes late which is not bad.  Not long after they return Gemma will be getting her A level results and hoping for her preferred university.  Joe will be heading off to Canada in September to the University of British Columbia for a year.  Abbie will be going back to Crete for another month and will then return to her "proper" job in the Big City.  It's going to be even quieter around here for a while.

Sounds like The Boss is on the march so I expect to be disturbed very shortly.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by grandadbob

[Winslow Boy]

29 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

Good morning all,

The sun is peeking through the clouds and it's currently 19°C possibly rising to 29°C.  A dry, breezy day with lots of sunshine expected later.

Sounds like I will be staying mainly in the shade with the fans running although we might go for a walk after breakfast before it gets too hot.

Flightradar 24 tells me that grandchildren and their Dad are at 30000 feet over the Channel en route to Gibraltar and thence Spain.  Flight took off only 11 minutes late which is not bad.  Not long after they return Gemma will be getting her A level results and hoping for her preferred university.  Joe will be heading off to Canada in September to the University of British Columbia for a year.  Abbie will be going back to Crete for another month and will then return to her "proper" job in the Big City.  It's going to be even quieter around here for a while.

Sounds like The Boss is on the march so I expect to be disturbed very shortly.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

 

How about having some liquid sunshine to cool you down. We've got plenty here in what the pine cone twirlers are euthiastically saying are showers. I think the phrase is Paah.

[polybear]

10 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Forgot to add McDonald and Dodds to my list of detective shows 

 

 

For Bear it'd probably be Inspector George Gently; Judge John Deed was pretty good too - though by all accounts "The Establishment" were less than keen cos' Joe Public wanted to know why scrotes couldn't be sentenced like JJD would do.

 

9 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I don’t really like the ones where you speak to a robot and end up going round in circles. A nice man at one of the banks said just remain silent and you will get transferred to a human. Perhaps pressing no numbers has the same effect!

 

Tis' true - push no buttons and you'll often get something along the lines of "You seem to be having difficulty - so I'll put you thru' to a real person" kinda message.

 

Bear here....

Wickes visited - Bear is now clutching the correct shelving parts.  Tick

The next mission of the day is a dose of ear lowering, which is kinda useful as I wanted to get it sorted.

Bear gone.

 

p.s. It seems that POTUS has taken out a Scrote at long last - I hope the b'sterd died screaming in agony.  I've a feeling it'll create a big of a sh1tstorm though and won't end there.

[AndrewC]

Greetings all from the boring borough. Things are fairly quiet. 

 

We are both fans of the mystery drama. Shame the CBC dumped Private Eyes and Frankie Drake last year. 2 really enjoyable ones. On the other hand I think I'm now the only Canadian citizen who hasn't appeared in an episode of Murdoch. Unlike Ian, I quite like the old Citroen in Provence.  There is a chap nearby to us with a bright green one that we see on occasion. I could just spew out a list of what we've watched but I won't. However, if you haven't seen it before there is the Aussie series My Life is Murder, which is part whodunnit and part Melbourne Visitor's Bureau promotion. 😃  Season 2 starts tomorrow on Alibi. We're still debating on whether to add more services and dump Sky or trim out the streams and hope anything interesting eventually shows up on one of the channels. 

 

I used to enjoy the NCIS series and spin offs. The original should have been retired about 5 series back, LA is now poor, and the only still decent one "New Orleans" has ended. Don't think I'll bother with Hawaii. 

 

On that note, time for me to murder a coffee. Enjoy the day. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A bit breezy this morning which made it quite comfortable with the fanlights open front and back having a fresh breeze blowing through the house. Luckily there is no sign of hay fever, perhaps its too dry? On that subject we've had a few showers overnight but not last night but far to little.

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

…The purpose of entertainment is to entertain, unless we're going down the "DRINK VICTORY GIN, IT'S DOUBLE PLUS GOOD" brainwashing of the proles, rathole (which I'd rather not).

Well, that’s my point. Too often today what passes for entertainment today is nothing more than a thinly disguised proselytisation for whatever “cause du jour” is fashionable amongst the self-appointed arbiters of entertainment content and standards  (and if you don’t buy in, then you are a “bigot” or a this-ist or a that-ist).

Nothing wrong with art or entertainment addressing  difficult issues - but great art and great entertainment doesn’t sledge-hammer in the message nor denigrate you if you don’t “buy in”

 

(another rant? Well, it is “Two Rant Tuesday”)

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Well, I’m glad I did the gardening yesterday, ‘cause it’s absolutely hissing it down here. So a day in the workshop beckons. With a bit of luck, I should get another 4 or 5 delay circuit ps built and tested by the end of today. As for what is today classed as entertainment, well as far as Sheila and I are concerned there bloody well wrong. All this reality TV sh!te is exactly what it says in the tin SH!TE and should be dumped forthwith. Talk about dumbing down, if it gets any lower the IQ of those who watch will get into minus figures. 

 

WAGs is an acronym not for wives and girl, but wasters and gobsh!tes.

 

Back later. 

 

Brian

Edited August 2, 2022 by BSW01

[New Haven Neil]

Morning from a rock that manages to be 21C despite being very windy, raining and earlier, a two hour thunderstorm raging.  Sunny minutes in between showers currently.

 

Mrs NHN watches the new incarnation of Hawaii 5-0, which always, but always ends with masses of machine-gunning from both goodies and baddies.  Also the lead characters always 'go in' in little in the way of PPE, usually a vest (as in white underwear, not bullet-proof) but all the supporting police are protectively armoured up to the gills.  I truly hate the programme. - RM Web time!

 

I always enjoyed Inspector Morse Morose and Lewis (why aye man) as they seemed to involve at least a little thinking, and in the case of Morose, usually some attractive ladies.  Endeavour just never did it for me, and as for Grantchester...even with a Geordie in it (used to work with his cousin) is dire. Nice bike though.

Edited August 2, 2022 by New Haven Neil

[grandadbob]

A brief walk of about a mile has been undertaken.  One circuit of our little local recreation ground where The Boss had a minor panic attack when 3 dogs came bounding up to her from different directions.  (She doesn't do dogs after having been bitten as a child).  They were all friendly enough and one in fact belongs to a friend so we had a natter with her.  We only did one lap as The Boss's knee is playing up at the moment whilst for once I was OK with the usual suspects keeping quiet.  Herself is off out again shortly but only to the next road to visit an old friend.  I'm staying here as I didn't quite finish cleaning the BBQ yesterday.

Edited August 2, 2022 by grandadbob

[Coombe Barton]

4 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

and one where it is alleged that if you whistle in the dunes above a dozen heads will pop up. Attached to less-than-clothed elderly men on the occasions I have walked through the area. 

And the story of the passengers on the train getting a view of the full action 'movie' that was being shot at that location.

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by Coombe Barton

[The White Rabbit]

Morning all,

 

A belated happy anniversary wishes to Ian Abel - my apologies for the lateness, yesterday was a day of getting sidetracked and plenty of interruptions. No disasters but activity certainly exceeded achievement... 

 

I also have been told the simplest (and sometimes quickest) way to speak to a person when you call a large organisation is to remain silent. I've tried it a few times, of course you never know what doing something else would have achieved but going on previous performances, it certainly seemed to give faster results. 

 

Best not think about ism-s or I will also succumb to a rant.

 

At the moment our sunshine is of the dry variety, despite insistences from various sources it's piddling down. 

 

The first of today's interruptions beckons - hope to be back later.

[jamie92208]

Ears lowered, shopping done, sandwiches made and coffee and brioche being consumed.  Lunch soon then off to Tours on my tod.  Andy's knees can't cope with standing on a bridge for several hours. I'll do my best not to end up at A and E (Urgence) this year.  It could be warm.  33 forecast here, 36 tomorrow.  We've got one set of shutters in the lounge part shut which does keep the temp down.  Sadly being able to see them it looks as if I will be making a new pair this winter. Something insect like is reducing parts of them to a balso wood like consistency inside.

 

Ttfn.

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It is rather overcast and somewhat breezy here so far. It looks as if it could rain but probably won’t.  
Moving both cars off the drive last week for the cherry picker truck revealed the full grubbiness of the drive, so I power washed it. Aditi asked if I could clean up the bird bath too. I did so and also levelled it up. It has been slightly askew for years. 
I don’t really have any plans for today. 
Tony