Early Risers.

[pH]

3 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

26th January - Australia Day. We get a day off just for living here!

Just one day??? 🤣

Edited January 25, 2023 by pH

[monkeysarefun]

6 minutes ago, pH said:

A group of us, then in our 40s, we’re reminiscing over a few beers about the stoopid things we had done in our youth. One guy summed it up “If we were living now the way we lived then, we’d all be dead.”

I remember being in the back of a mates car speeding along some dark road after seeing a band when I hear a tap on the window beside me. I look out to see the upside down  face of the guy who'd been sitting on the other side of the back seat. He'd opened his car window, climbed out and across the roof and was now leering in at me from his positioning lying on the top of the car all at 100kmh.

Everyone says modern movies cause kids today to do dumb things but  I reckon all those silent Buster Keaton  movies are just as bad. 

Edited January 25, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. No chance of star gazing here at the moment, its raining. I'm not now getting any trouble from the eczema now and its also 'dry'.

6 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

26th January - Australia Day. We get a day off just for living here!

Only one day?

[Tony_S]

4 hours ago, polybear said:

If a certain Bear were to be marooned on a Desert Island my choice of food would be.......

LDC?  Nope

Pizza?  Nope

Mince Pies?  Nope

F/E?  Nope

Toast & Marmite?  Oh yes, without a doubt.  If I had a quid for every slice I'd scoffed......

Aditi has organised a holiday in June in France. She chose the hotel and my only request was that it had parking. Anyway I was looking at the pictures of the food on the hotel website (we have chosen half board) and it appears to be one of those places where there is a lot of plate visible with the food artfully displayed. I thought about Mr Bear and wondered what he would do.  There are plenty of other eateries within walking distance for filling food at lunchtime, some of them sell pizza. 

[polybear]

Bear here.....

....who has just noticed a 1" long tear in one kneecap on the Beary Jeans.  Turdycurses.

They were bought new with some of the £200 "hot weather clothing allowance" money paid for going to Italy for 2+ weeks in July/Aug 1987.  Does nothing last nowadays?  Poo.

 

In other news......

No plans as yet for tomorrow - I very much suspect it'll be MIUABGAD.

 

And finally.....

A life insurance firm has defended using serial killer Harold Shipman in an advert after it was labelled "beyond despicable" by other industry leaders.

DeadHappy used the image to promote its services with the tagline: "Life Insurance. Because you never know who your doctor might be."

Nice.

[monkeysarefun]

5 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

 

Only one day?

One day of this is enough for anybody! 

 

Edited January 25, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[polybear]

6 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

I remember being in the back of a mates car speeding along some dark road after seeing a band when I hear a tap on the window beside me. I look out to see the upside down  face of the guy who'd been sitting on the other side of the back seat. He'd opened his car window, climbed out and across the roof and was now leering in at me from his positioning lying on the top of the car all at 100kmh.

Everyone says modern movies cause kids today to do dumb things but  I reckon all those silent Buster Keaton  movies are just as bad. 

 

Many years ago I heard a similar story - a minibus full of early 20's driving home in the dark from something or other, all "slightly the worse for wear" (I suspect the driver may not have passed a blow test either).  Anyway, one of them managed to get out the rear door whilst the bus was bombing along - he went up the ladder on the back, over the roof rack and all of a sudden the driver was presented with an upside down face staring at him thru' the windscreen; by all accounts the swerve was something else.....

[monkeysarefun]

[jamie92208]

13 hours ago, Tony_S said:

When I was I the sixth form we had to do a biochemistry module as part of our A level chemistry course. One of the experiments required drops of bile to be added to some other chemicals. One student managed when filling a pipette to get some in his mouth. It wasn’t a pleasant experience for him. 

I once accidentally  pipetted some caustic soda into my mouth.  It didn't taste nice and didn't do much harm but did instantly cure a troublesome mouth ulcer, how I know not.

11 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Four Doctors, 32 "Others".  Bluddy Hell.  The wages bill must be interesting.

Parkinsons  law in action.

 

As to daft things yes, been there done that and am still here to tell the tale. As young bobbies in South Leeds in the mid 70's we all thought we were immortal.    

 

Jamie

Edited January 26, 2023 by jamie92208

[figworthy]

56 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Although putting Marmite on toast is not the best way of eating it, I don't think it is that bad. It isn't to be compared with the Marmite sandwich using thick slices of granary bread, which is yummy.

 

Dave

 

From time to time, our local butcher does a rather scrumptious pork and marmite sausage.

 

Adrian

[PeterBB]

@PupCam and @monkeysarefun 

I have looked up at stars but only ever on one occasion - over 30 years ago on a very clear night sky - have I ever recognised any of these constellations.  Hayleys Comet was seen for a few nights but ... its all a mystery for me. @Physicsman.  has some fantastic shots  but for me his moon pictures are really fascinating.

[PhilJ W]

I remember on a visit to Malta about 45 years ago looking up at the Milky Way in all its glory.

Edited January 25, 2023 by PhilJ W

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well I’ve spent most of today in the office, transferring files etc from the old computer to the new one. All the files I want to keep have now been transferred, I now at the stage of downloading various software packages that I couldn’t copy over. Windows 11 is very different to Vista which the old computer used and is going to take a bit of time to get used to, but I’ll get there eventually. 
 

Goodnight all

[Winslow Boy]

52 minutes ago, PeterBB said:

@PupCam and @monkeysarefun 

I have looked up at stars but only ever on one occasion - over 30 years ago on a very clear night sky - have I ever recognised any of these constellations.  Hayleys Comet was seen for a few nights but ... its all a mystery for me. @Physicsman.  has some fantastic shots  but for me his moon pictures are really fascinating.

 

I do concur with the above statement they are, to coin a pun, out of this world. But having seen his set up and he has an 'observatory' as well you can see why.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

26th January - Australia Day. We get a day off just for living here!

According to an email from mum,

Quote

... more and more people are saying “Invasion Day” instead of "Australia Day"

I don't know whether this has real currency or is a function of her news sources.

 

At least it represents a significant historical event regarding what would become Australia.

 

Far better than the "Columbus Day" US Federal holiday. The Genoan navigator Cristoforo Colombo (aka Cristóbal Colón) never encountered any of the North American continent and the commemoration was promoted by Italian immigrants in the 20th century. (FDR made it a Federal holiday in 1937 as a result of lobbying by the "Knights of Columbus" organization.) The day is concurrently commemorated as "Indigenous People's Day" in many places.

 

The term "Columbia" did have currency prior to that, evident in "District of" and the city in Ohio*. Locally the river, and ultimately the Canadian province were named for the US-owned ship Columbia Rediviva that entered the river in 1792.

 

* Named in 1812 for obscure reasons.

 

[monkeysarefun]

10 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

According to an email from mum,

more and more people are saying “Invasion Day” instead of "Australia Day"

10 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I don't know whether this has real currency or is a function of her news sources.

 

At least it represents a significant historical event regarding what would become Australia.

 

Far better than the "Columbus Day" US Federal holiday. The Genoan navigator Cristoforo Colombo (aka Cristóbal Colón) never encountered any of the North American continent and the commemoration was promoted by Italian immigrants in the 20th century. (FDR made it a Federal holiday in 1937 as a result of lobbying by the "Knights of Columbus" organization.) The day is concurrently commemorated as "Indigenous People's Day" in many places.

 

The term "Columbia" did have currency prior to that, evident in "District of" and the city in Ohio*. Locally the river, and ultimately the Canadian province were named for the US-owned ship Columbia Rediviva that entered the river in 1792.

 

* Named in 1812 for obscure reasons.

 

 

 

It is a bit of a fine line to negotiate, on the one hand it's a day off in the middle of summer (34c  and cloudless today!), those who work get twice the pay, the police get to  fine us twice the usual demerit points for traffic infringements, there's something good for everyone! 

 

Onthe other hand it brings out some bad stuff, the 2005 Cronulla race riots for example, and every bigoted media personality or blogger be-crying the "wokeness" of calling it invasion day.

 

At the end of the day, it's an event that happened 235 years ago, from it resulted a lot of things to be sorry for as a country, but also a lot of things to be thankful for right now especially considering the state of many other places in the world.

 

Plan for a bit later today is to be sitting on a Wollongong beach in the sun, watching the sapphire blue waters of the Sth Pacific curling on to the white sand, hopefully  surrounded by girls in Australian flag bikinis, what's not to like! 

[PhilJ W]

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a chilly Charente.  I'm not sure what the day will be filled with yet.  It dependscon the temperature.  If it's above freezing the some concrete mixing and pouring for the next set of water butt stands. If freezing then the ironing awaits.  Only time will tell.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

Couldn't get to sleep again, only about 4.5 hours sleep, though I might try for more shortly.

 

There's a reason high teens / low twenties are sent to war, they think they are immortal, the older of us say ****** that for a game of soldiers and keep our heads down.

 

The well known constellations I can recognise, as most of my life I've lived out in the countryside , and they're fairly easy to see.

Though this mornings patrol, was to late for stars and the clouds are proceeding rapidly east to west.

Chilly northerly out there today, accompanied in the distance by the beep beep beep, rumble rumble rumble of sugar beet harvesting. This means the much delayed harvest around us won't be far behind.

 

Ben the playtime Collie, found another ball out there, and again just wanted to play. 

 

Of noises, yesterday, there were lots of sirens and a flash of blue about 2 miles away on a road I can just see across the marshlands, 4 sets initially, one following up. Nothing has appeared on the local paper website though.

 

Marmite is a definite no from me.

 

Plans for today,

Sanding rudder,

Fibreglassing the centre console.

Sewing sail , I might extend the luff wire as well.

Note, yesterday, once the initial fumes had evaporated, I brought both of the above into the house, to harden off properly, it's been just to cold out there for a solid set.

 

Time I got a muggacoffee.

 

[BR traction instructor]

Mornin’,

Modern technology can be amazing but getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and accidentally knocking my phone down the back of the cupboard led to it deciding to make a random phone call from my directory. I could hear the dialling and ring tone at the other end but couldn’t reach it. It took around a very long minute to retrieve the phone and stop it dialling/ringing, what might now be a former friend.

 

Conversely, being able to message a wagon modelling group asking for information (as I’d gotten into bed) on a real needle in a haystack issue, only to receive a 1980 image of exactly what I needed to see within minutes had me wondering how I’d ever managed without one.

 

BeRTIe

Edited January 26, 2023 by BR traction instructor

[Winslow Boy]

42 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Good moaning from a chilly Charente.  I'm not sure what the day will be filled with yet.  It dependscon the temperature.  If it's above freezing the some concrete mixing and pouring for the next set of water butt stands. If freezing then the ironing awaits.  Only time will tell.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

 

Oh a bit of a dilemma there Jamie. If its too cold you get to stay inside listening to music doing the odd bit of ironing - one shirt every 2 minutes?, and its warm or if it isn't your outside working up a sweat. I know which one I'd be hoping for and it isn't the 2 minute one.

[TheQ]

Hmm, the MRC has just had to confirm to the authorities, we don't have a TV .....

Most of us go there to escape the TV...

[polybear]

Bear here......

MIUABGAD methinks, which will no doubt include some planning for the next stage of a M.E. Club project I have on the go at the moment; I'm about to finish one project (a steel base that clamps onto a Taig Lathe Headstock so a mag mount can be clamped to it - useful for checking alignment using a dial gauge) and the second project is "on-going" - that one is a filing rest for the same Lathe.

 

In other news......

If the claims made in the following article are accurate then it's beyond belief (if you see what I mean):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64406295

 

"On that day, over the course of a few hours, three different times - three times - school administration was warned by concerned teachers and employees that the boy had a gun on him at school and was threatening people," said attorney Diane Toscano."

 

"According to Ms Toscano, a teacher at Richneck Elementary School told an official she believed the young boy had put the gun in his pocket before he went out for break.

The official allegedly responded: "Well, he has little pockets."

 

"Later on Wednesday, the school board convened to sack the district superintendent, Mr Parker. The assistant principal of Richneck Elementary School also resigned from that position on Wednesday.

Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones thanked the outgoing superintendent........."

 

"The superintendent's salary was over $250,000 (£200,000) per year, according to local news outlets. He will continue to receive full salary and benefits until June 2024 because he was fired without cause."

 

FFS.

 

And finally.......

Criminal Damage?  Theft?  Mugging little old Ladies?  Drug Offences?  Beating someone to a pulp?  Death by careless driving?  Don't worry, there's a sporting chance that the Judge will let you walk.  But Perverting the Course of Justice?  Oh no sirree......definitely not.....that's takin' the p1ss out of Judges, that is - and they really, really take that one very personally; you're definitely going down:

 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/disgraced-west-yorkshire-police-officer-jailed-after-he-persuaded-his-wife-to-take-speeding-points/ar-AA16KhWq?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=28e1bf87e18d4bea91955f038bd3d767

 

Yes, I realise that being a Plod probably didn't help his case - but there's been plenty of similar cases where those convicted weren't "in the job".

For the record, Bear agrees with the sentence - or perhaps as Prisons are so overcrowded then banning the pair of the them from driving for ten years would've been better; at least then we perhaps wouldn't be releasing nutcases from Prison even though they were (wrongly) described as being "Medium" Risk (Google "Jordan McSweeney" for that case).

 

Is that a Rant?  I do believe it is....

 

Bear gone.

 

[Barry O]

59 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Shame the Russians no longer use T62.. or T64 for that money.. and I don't think they have any concerns about Leo 2

 

Baz