Early Risers.

[figworthy]

1 hour ago, pH said:

I heard a rhyme yesterday which neatly sums up the recommended actions in ‘interactions’ with various types of bear:

 

If it’s brown, lie down (Grizzlies are territorial and react to challenges. Being submissive may save you.)

 

If it’s black, fight back (If a black bear attacks, it probably sees you as prey.)

 

If it’s white - goodnight! (Polar bears are not cuddly, LDC-eating softies, despite what you may read around here. They are very efficient, carnivorous hunters.)

 

P.S. There were no recommendations on what to do if encountering a pizzly or a grolar.

 

Presumably if it is a Peruvian Spectacled Bear, you wave a marmalade sandwich at it.

 

Adrian

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Never did English literature and the only poem I every learned was Evidently Chickentown.

https://johncooperclarke.com/poems/evidently-chickentown

Boiler still out of action and temperature dropped a bit despite using a couple of fan heater. Currently 13oC and tucked up in bed with a hot water bottle. Engineer coming tomorrow but I doubt it’ll be fixed then as he always seems have to order a part and come back the next day. It’s getting to be a PIA but at least We don’t have someone deliberately shelling our utilities.

Goodnight,

Robert

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

And @jamie92208 has a bigger choice with his venison living in France, truffles anyone?

We have a trufflecorchard fronwinter truffles at thectop of our garden.  Sadly André the owner has not yetvseen fit to offer us any of the harvest. Yet. We live in hope.

 

Jamie

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, pH said:

If it’s brown, lie down

There's no way my brain didn't immediately go to:

 

If it's yellow, let it mellow,

If it's brown, flush it down

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Apart from this mornings shopping trip, I've done bu99er all the rest of the day. 

 

Goodnight all 

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I could swear we did something by Isaac Bashevis Singer but none of his published works rings a bell, which is a bit of a head-scratcher. No Brontës though. No small amount of random poetry, (including, of course, some "bush poetry"*) but at this remove I couldn't give you a complete anthology.

 

* Like How M'Dougal Topped the Score

 

We got a heap of local literature, like "Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll", "Tree OF Man" by Patrick White, poems by Bruce Dawe, "The Club" by David Williamson, and my favourite, "Island Of Angry Ghosts" which is a true account of the wreck of the Dutch trading ship  Batavia off Western Australia in the 17th Century, and the 20th century archaeological dig at the site.  The shipwreck and subsequent mutiny on the island, the massacres and madness and finally the  torture and grizzly executions of the mutineers   makes "Lord Of The Flies" seem like a book about a  bunch of schoolkids - all up a ripping yarn when you are 14!

 

https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/wreck-of-the-batavia

Edited January 10, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[BR60103]

English was not an option for our graduation. Lit and Comp were the 2 required papers; then 7 others. (All languages were 2 parts.) 

The final year we had Hamlet, Wuthering Heights and Caesar & Cleopatra. Plus various poems and prose.  Our teacher was sure that there was going to be one massive question about revenge in the three main works. but there wasn't.

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

... poems by Bruce Dawe,

Yup - certainly "Flashing of Badges" and "And a Good Friday Was Had By All". Perhaps others.

 

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

... the wreck of the Dutch trading ship Batavia off Western Australia in the 17th Century

Pelsaert and the Batavia we covered in history, but without a lot of emphasis on the mutiny carnage. Most of the mutiny history involved Bill Bligh (HMS Bounty, Rum Rebellion, etc).

 

HMS Pandora (with Bounty mutineers aboard) is thought to have sailed past the shipwrecked survivors of La Lapérouse's expedition in the Solomons, shortly before wrecking on the Great Barrier Reef in 1791. Allegedly, Louis XVI went to the guillotine in 1793 asking "What news of La Lapérouse?". That La Lapérouse showed up in Botany Bay precisely on January 26, 1788 is a curious coincidence, but of course they were ordered to look in and see what the British were up to.

[jjb1970]

You can tell New Year is rapidly approaching here, quite aside from all the decorations and the shops having CNY stuff everywhere going to a bank is murder. The gifting tradition in China and related countries is to give red envelopes containing money, and banknotes should be new. So as new year approaches there are long queues at banks with people getting new bank notes for their red envelope gifts, going to a bank for anything else if it can't be done using the (excellent) on-line apps used by banks here can be frustrating at this time. Banks will generally have a member of staff who walks along the queue asking for people not there to get new bank notes, and in the afternoon it gets easier as they run out of notes so people go away. 

[Gwiwer]

7 hours ago, petethemole said:

According to the website the still is indeed named Jackson.

I believe it is normal to christen your stills 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning.  Still eatly here and I'm not sure if the sparrows have broken wind.  We arecoff to La Rochelle this morning for Beth to see an Orthopod about her knee and hip.  Much to do.

 

Ttfn.

 

Jamie

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Ha! I've picked the perfect morning for my first commute of the year. Absolutely hammering it down and the train is running 6 minutes late (a problem when you have 5 minutes to catch your connection after Southern in their infinite wisdom removed the last of the direct London Bridge services from our station last year).

 

At least they've fixed the station canopy so I'm not getting wet on the platform!

Edited January 10, 2023 by Claude_Dreyfus

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Walkabout going well. Some interesting animals have been seen, fed and touched!  Exotic foods have been tried and eaten...

 

Joints are happy due to the local weather conditions.

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

[polybear]

11 hours ago, PupCam said:

Advice to @polybear:  Make sure you are sitting down when you read the next bill and I'd have the Resus Unit number on Speed-dial if I were you.

 

After yesterday's excitement with EDF I did ponder taking immediate meter readings and plugging them into the Website, but then thought "Nah....they'll ask when they want them".........

 

I forgot to take account of Jonah Puppers @PupCam.....

 

EDF have taken it upon themselves to send out a Bill at 00:48 Hours this morning.  Turdycurses.

 

I'm wrestling with the idea of (a) opening it now - and risk being verypissedoff for the rest of the day, or (b) leave it until later and risk notgettin'anysleepcos'I'mtoofuggin'angry.

Decisions, decisions.

 

Today sees Bear draining the heating down so I can change the pipework in the hallway, ready for when a new radiator is fitted at *some point* in the future.

 

In other news.....

It seems that something went wrong in Cornwall last night - Bear suspects it'll cost an awful lotta Deltics.  Ouch.

 

Right,  time to open that Bill....

 

Bear gone.

[polybear]

Done it.....

 

Well it seems that in their infinite Wisdom 🤣 they estimated both G & E readings, despite Bear submitting readings on 15th Dec.  Were they close?  Er, not exactly.....

 

I'm pretty sure** they've overcharged the Leccy by 434KWh, whilst undercharging the Gas by 83KWh;  since Gas is a third of the price of Leccy then it looks like they've overcharged big-time.

 

Still, as the Bill is for a period of 164 Days and is a total of £460 then it looks like Bear can still afford the odd LDC on special occasions.  Hopefully.

 

First job of the day will be to read the meters and submit new readings in the hope 🤣 that they send a revised bill and charge accordingly.  I'm not terribly hopeful, however.

 

**I've a note dated 15th Nov 2022 with readings of 971KWh (E) and 158KWh (G) in the drawer; I've also got an un-dated scribbled note (that I suspect are the 15th Dec readings) of 1181KWh (E) & 221KWh (G) in the drawer.

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, 

3 hours sleep, 3 hours sleep, and that was it, I might try for more.

 

Ben the I want out Collie was acting very desperately, so I relented early and we've been on patrol.

He had a good wander around.

It's chilly out there, but nowhere near as bad as forecast, we appear to have 100% cloud cover.

 

Only English exams in Scotland, no separate lit, so as well as the local play , we did  some

 Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’ bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murdering pattle!

 

And other stuff by the drunken womaniser. It's coming up to Burns night, by the way , 25th Jan,  (born 1759) though our Sailing club dinner is on the 21st.

 

Which is as mysterious to those in the Highlands as it is to those in southern England. As it's written in an old version of the south western Scottish dialect of English.

For some reason we also did an American poem about a imminent nuclear atomic wipeout I seem to remember it mentioned valley forge.

You could do Gaelic ( learners) or Gaidhlig ( native speakers). I did neither.

 

Plans for today,

The new cupboard for the hallway is not only narrower but shorter. So I'm going to build a box / cupboard to go beneath to raise it to the height of the bookshelves. 

After that then is to build in the extra shelves between the cupboard and the current bookshelves.

I might sneek in some cutting out of the fore and aft panels of the centre console.

 

Shortly it will be time to go make breakfast

But first.

Time to ... Try for more sleep.

 

Edited January 10, 2023 by TheQ

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Wet and windy here at the moment but it may ease off this afternoon.  6°C rising to a maximum of 13°C.

Still waiting to hear if our delayed parcel from Amazon will arrive today and we don't want it left on the doorstep in this weather.  (or any other time come to that ) It's a bit of a nuisance waiting in as we are going to see Gemma  before she returns to Uni. tomorrow. I don't think the term actually starts until the 23rd but she's got "things to do."    The Boss always supplies a box of foodstuffs and goodies (for her and Joe when he's here) to take back at the beginning of the term.

Mention of meter readings reminds me that mine is due at the end of the week.  I've got an idea of how much the bill will be which is bad enough, I just hope I'm not too far out. 

Time for some brekkie.

Have a good'un.

Bob.

Edited January 10, 2023 by grandadbob

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

Ey up!

 

Walkabout going well. Some interesting animals have been seen, fed and touched!  Exotic foods have been tried and eaten...

 

Joints are happy due to the local weather conditions.

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

Try the baby spinach, man!

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Not much from Arthur Itis this morning thankfully. Not good news from Cornwall this morning. The rocket launch was going well until the final stage when it went belly up. Apparently it failed to reach orbit and is likely to burn up. I understand that the satellite payload is insured but it will take time to build and launch replacements.

[Erichill16]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

**I've a note dated 15th Nov 2022 with readings of 971KWh (E) and 158KWh (G) in the drawer; I've also got an un-dated scribbled note (that I suspect are the 15th Dec readings) of 1181KWh (E) & 221KWh (G) in the drawer.

I always take a picture of meter readings  with the mobile phone.

As I never delete pictures I’ve got a hard copy for reference and the photo is dated. 

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

Ey up!

 

Walkabout going well. Some interesting animals have been seen, fed and touched!  Exotic foods have been tried and eaten...

 

Joints are happy due to the local weather conditions.

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

 

Dear Uncle Baz I'm so pleased that you're enjoying your walk about. Mum says that's that a walk about is a bit like a safari where you see lots of different animals and get to eat them. I asked her if you have to shot them as well but she wasn't sure if had that big gun thingy with you. Anyway must go because we going to see a moving picture called Picnic at Hanging Rock starring Jenny Ageter.

 

Your nephew Little Baz.

[monkeysarefun]

Spoiler alert - those not wishing to know the result of the 2023 Canberra Summernats burnout competition should look away now..

For those eagerly awaiting the result the burnout competition was won by Jake Myers for the second time, in his retro Mustang.

Rick Fuller (winner of both Masters and Championship at 'Nats 33) came second in his new ride FULLONX, ahead of Michael Pratten.

"I'm so stoked! Thanks to Mum, Dad, Amy and everyone who helped get the car ready for Summernats," said Jake.

 

Summernats 35 was a big event for the Myers clan. Not only did they debut the Mustang's old-school look, but Jake's dad Gary was inducted into the John Peterson Burnout Hall of Fame, kicking off the event with an impressive skid prior to the start of the Last Chance Wildcard Shootout.

 

Here's footage of his gold medal performance, which justifiably  earned him the $20,000 first prize.

 

 

 

 

[Erichill16]

21 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

Here's footage of his gold medal performance, which justifiably  earned him the $20,000 first prize.

 

 

 

 

20,000 Dollars isn’t going to keep him in tyres!

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

A very wet day here in England’s northwest corner, absolutely chuckinitdarn it is. Sheila isn’t very happy about the weather as she due to have her bilateral Laser Capsulotomy done today! 12:30pm at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital is her appointed time and there’s a bit of a walk from the car park, she’ll need to take an umbrella with her, so that’s something else I’ll have to hang onto whilst I sit and wait. Still, once it’s been done and if all goes as well as planned, she should be able to see clearly by the end of the week. 

 

Back later. 

 

Brian