Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

5 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Why anyone would give an Aspidistra to a fourteen year old girl h

We gave our son a vacuum cleaner as part of his 14th birthday present. He was very happy about it. He had wanted a pairs of rats to keep and we soon found out they liked kicking stuff out of their cage, so Matthew got his own vacuum to tidy up. 

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon from Lanzerot.  It's sunny with a nice breeze.  Sleezyjet got us here and the we had to wait an hour in the baggage reclaim till our bag arrived. Otherwise fine.  As to small airports our two kocal ones atcPoitiers and La Rochelle are very user friendly.  So is the next nearest at Limogex..yesterday we experienced Bordeaux for the first time and were not impressed.  They have named terminal C Billé, which I and many others thought was something to do with etickets.

 

Jamie

Edited February 19, 2023 by jamie92208

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

 Late on parade today. Because....

4.5 hours sleep followed by 3.75 hours sleep, an incredible total for me...

 

That left not much time before going sailing...

It was the postponed from last week,  Martin Dugdale trophy,  given over 20 years ago in Remembrance of "Tino", who felt Ill while out sailing / racing, he was being put into a car in our club car park to go home, when he collapsed and died.

 

Although all boats were in for the same event, we had two starts due to the number of boats.

 

Wind at most 15mph, sometimes down to not a lot, North westerly.

Tide incoming due to change at 12:00

9 laps listed. But were weren't going to achieve that.

Start time 10.45, shortened course hooter 12:30 or as near as possible to when the lead boat approaches the last buoy.

 

Race 1, started where we wanted to be, but a few seconds late to the line. As we crossed the buzzer went for two boats over the line. Much ribaldry to one boat over who was then swamped by the rest of the pack and therefore unable to turn round to restart for some time..

 

The second start of boats had a general recall and all had to start again. The problems of having the tide behind you.

 

Once the initial mess of boats sorted themselves out were were in 4th., We followed the up to buoy 4, on rounding the other three put spinnakers up and so we got slowly left behind though we were leaving the rest of the fleet behind us. On rounding the bend at buoy 3, it was a close call whether to hold on to spinnakers or not., So we caught up close to the three leaders, until the right hand corner by the club gave them full use of the spinnakers again.

We followed them down to buoy 1 which was a bit further down river than normal, then tacking back up to the club and buoy 2 to start lap 2.

 

Lap 2, mostly a repeat of lap 1, except after the bend at buoy 3 we actually caught up, and started to overtake, but the lead boat was able to pull up to windward causing us to go out into the middle in the strongest tide against us so we slowed. But were briefly up to 2nd, we held third till the corner by the club , then full spinnakers put us back to 4th. While tacking up river, we were close to the right hand bank and hit something on the bottom of the river. It slowed us a little but no damage. This was just down river from where someone is having a new quay heading installed, so it's probably a bit of waterlogged wood from the old quay heading that has escaped.

 

Lap 3, we were close behind all the way to buoy 4, and didn't lose much down to buoy 3 bend. This time the 3 spinnaker boats ahead, held on to them much too long and we got into first while they dropped them.

On rounding the corner of course they pulled them up again and swept past us. 

 

Lap 4, much the same again except on the trip from buoy 3 bend to the clubhouse corner we caught up with  the slowest boats from the second start, while facing the fastest boats from that start. We got forced way out into the river against the tide, and lost a lot of distance.

 

We rounded the corner to see a 4 abreast rounding of buoy 1, river about 80 ft wide not a lot of spare room. Three of our fleet and a slow boat from the second start.

That slowed the leaders, so we caught up quite a lot and we we're surprised to see the tailed ender of that group do a 360 for hitting the buoy.

 We rounded buoy 1 and came right up to their stern. A couple of tacks later and we could see them with the slow boat below them about to call for water off the bank. So we tacked early, got clear air, crossed the river and came back at both boats on starboard. That got us ahead, then we heard the shortened course signal. So we came in third.

 

At the prize giving afterwards, we were surprised to find out all three leading boats of our fleet beat the leading boats of the second fleet on handicapped time. So we got a third place coffee mug each..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[polybear]

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Southend is a commuter town for London. About 30000 people travel each day so considering that it is budget flights from there it isn’t really a hardship. Southend Airport is just getting going again after Covid. 

Hmmm!

 

I remember when Southend on Sea meant a day out to the seaside. And a day out that would not be complete without riding on the Southend pier train. And back then, it was a proper pier railway: double-tracked, two signal boxes, AC Cars Green and White Electric EMUs.

Happy Days

 

As it is now a commuter town for London, like Brighton, has it become desperately trendy, again like Brighton? Certainly, when I was a wee lad Southend was not a chi-chi or trendy place to be - at all. Trendy Cuisine being back then getting something other than Cod or Skate or Rock Salmon in your fish and chips (and some daring souls even had mayonnaise instead of malt vinegar with their chips!)

[jamie92208]

I had to skip a page or two has anyone heard from @Grizz since his hospital  visit.

 

Jamie

[polybear]

 

 

 

 

 

After having their 11th child, a Murphy and his missus decided that was enough, as they could not afford a larger  bed. So the Murphy went to his doctor and told him that he and his wife didn't want to have any more children.
The doctor told him there was a procedure called a vasectomy that would fix the problem but it was expensive. A less costly alternative was to go home, get a firework, light it, put it in a beer can, then hold the can up to his ear and count to 10.
Murphy said to the doctor, "I may not be the smartest guy in the world, but I don't see how putting a firework in a beer can next to my ear is going to help me."
"Trust me, it will do the job", said the doctor. So he went home, lit a banger and put it in a beer can. He held the can up to his ear and began to count: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5," at which point he paused, placed the beer can between his legs so he could continue counting on his other hand.
This procedure also works in Liverpool, Manchester, Mansfield, Sheffield, Rotherham and large parts of London.

 

I knocked on my neighbours door.
"There's dog mess all over my drive."
"Oh yeah, jump to conclusions again," he said, "What makes you think that my dog is responsible?"
"Because I'm pretty sure I recognised him just before he disappeared under the car."

 

I took my son out for his first pint.
Got him a Fosters. He didn't like it, so I drank it.
Then I got him Carlsberg. He didn't like it, so I had it.
It was the same with both Guinness and Cider.
By the time we got onto whisky, I could hardly push the pram.'

 

One Monday morning a postman is walking the neighbourhood on his usual route. As he approaches one of the homes he noticed that both cars  were in the driveway. His wonder was cut short by Bob, the homeowner, coming out with a load of empty beer and liquor bottles.
“Wow Bob, looks like you guys had one hell of a party last night.” the postman comments.
Bob in obvious pain replies, “Actually we had it Saturday night. This is the first I have felt like moving since 4:00 am Sunday morning. We had about fifteen couples from around the neighbourhood over for Christmas Cheer and it got a bit wild. Hell, we got so drunk around midnight that we started playing WHO AM I.” funny-
The postman thinks a moment and says, “How do you play that?”
“Well all the guys go in the bedroom and we come out one at a time with a sheet covering us and only our “privates” showing through a hole in the sheet. Then the women try to guess who it is.”
The postman laughs and says, “Damn, I’m sorry I missed that.”
Probably a good thing you did,” Bob responds. “Your name came up four or five times.”

 

 

[polybear]

Very sad news - but not unexpected:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-64697300

[Coombe Barton]

... Today has been domestics (some), writing (some), prevaricating, (a lot), and now needing to get my finger out and complete stuff. ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/02/19/tentative-decline/

 

[Gwiwer]

18 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Hmmm!

 

I remember when Southend on Sea meant a day out to the seaside. And a day out that would not be complete without riding on the Southend pier train. And back then, it was a proper pier railway: double-tracked, two signal boxes, AC Cars Green and White Electric EMUs.

Happy Days

 

As it is now a commuter town for London, like Brighton, has it become desperately trendy, again like Brighton? Certainly, when I was a wee lad Southend was not a chi-chi or trendy place to be - at all. Trendy Cuisine being back then getting something other than Cod or Skate or Rock Salmon in your fish and chips (and some daring souls even had mayonnaise instead of malt vinegar with their chips!)

Sarfend is not trendy.  

 

Unless you live in the eastern suburbs of London or nearby Essex.  In which case it remains a traditional seaside destination.  "Sea-side" being a bit of a misnomer because it is really "estuary-side" and the "sands" are estuarine mud except a the very top of the beach.  The reason the pier is so long is because of the very shallow dip of the estuary floor / sea bed.  It had to reach the deep water in order to service shipping.  Other estuary piers are quite long too but are not open to the public.  Those for discharge of oil at nearby Thames Haven for example.  

 

Quite how a field near Prittlewell became saddled with the appellation "London Southend Airport" must be hidden in the annals of bucket airline history.  It even has it sown station but that isn't called "London Southend Airport" any more than Luton Airport Parkway, Stansted Airport or Gatwick Airport have London in their names.  The airports do; the stations do not.  By contrast the Heathrow stations have neither "London" nor "Airport" in their names and are known simply by the terminal numbers they serve for example "Heathrow Terminal 5".  

 

Southend handles small aircraft on short-haul international flights and whilst the UK was within the EU it was an easy transit for most as only modest customs facilities were required.  That all changed a few years ago.  My former Australian neighbour, now resident in the Neverlands but still an Aussie passport holder flew in to Southend a few years ago.  She described it as "surprising" with next to nothing in the way of facilities.  She flew back via Gatwick which she described as "a proper airport" and - maybe surprisingly - as a better experience. 

 

Southend may have fewer of the jellied eel stalls and fish & chip joints than it once did but it still has something of the seaside vibe.  It doesn't have anything like the feel of Brighton to my mind.  Brighton is vibrant, multicultural, huge, packed, both glamorous and seedy though has only a steeply-shelving shingle beach; the waves roar and crash or slop gently onto the shingle or you can lose your fortune on the pier amusements and lose your ice-cream between the deck slats into the sea.  Southend is loud, brash, tacky, can be busy and has that flat sandy mud and a pier extending into the estuarine mist at times.  And the height of cuisine is probably still "rock, chips and a wally"  (Rock salmon, chips and a gherkin for those unfamiliar with the local terms) always smothered in salt and vinegar.  Brighton has all of that and a goodly number of mid and high-range restaurants including sone right on the beach.  Riddle & Finns is reliably good.  

 

I suspect our local correspondents might have other opinions but that's as I see it.  I have (mis-)spent many a night in Brighton and some in Southend.  I know where I would rather end up on the beach after missing the last train.  And it's not in Essex.  

[Tony_S]

25 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

now a commuter town for London, like Brighton, has it become desperately trendy, again like Brighton?

Not really. Southend could have been the Regency town that Brighton became. Before settling on Brighton the then Prince Regent had been to the south end of Prittlewell for a few holidays by the sea. 
Southend had really been a day trip resort. It is so close to London that it was so,easy to,get on a train from east or north London. It never had the predominantly B&B/hotel visitors of other seaside towns. It became a thriving office/commerce centre when Maplin Sands was planned but became very shabby when the airport didn’t happen and all the insurance companies moved away. The army left (Shoeburyness) too. It had taken a while to recover. We used to go shopping there but went to Lakeside when that opened. We would choose Chelmsford now.  Southend has cinemas, a couple of theatres, and loads of railway stations. It is a university town now, in fact it is now a city, still twinned with Sopot in Poland (it is a pier thing). 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

It even has it sown station but that isn't called "London Southend Airport

Southend Airport Train Station. 
I think the photo must have been taken from the entrance/exits of the arrivals /departures building. It is very close. 

[grandadbob]

Evenin' each from London Sutton CarShedport,

A very entertaining rugby match watched this afternoon and I'm sure that our friends @tigerburnie & @Dave Huntwould have enjoyed it.

Tonight's meal consisted of chicken, roast potatoes and veg and went down quite nicely assisted by some Côtes du Rhône.

The Boss is watching the skating programme and after that I'll join her in watching Vera.  I might be tempted to open the bottle of Vecchia Romagna that I got for Christmas and have been saving for a special occasion.  As there are no special occasions imminent I'm thinking "s#d it, life's too short, I'll open it anyway."   😜

Cheers.  🍷🍷

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, PeterBB said:

Interesting article on costs but it starts off with 90% of tomatoes in supermarkets come from abroad yet towards the end it states that a UK grower provides 40% of the tomatoes for supermarkets.  Someting does not quite fit.

It used to be daylight at this time a few weeks ago and I'd be dashing in and out feeding magpies cockatoos butcherbirds wonga pigeons and lorikeets before they smashed their way in but sunrise is still  35 minutes away and  I have nothing better to do so  I googled this..  The APS Group website says 

 

We are the UK's largest supplier of British tomatoes to the high street, responsible for approximately 30% of total UK production.

 

 

Re commuter towns - Newcastle is 160km from Sydney CBD but is deemed a not outrageous place to live and commute to and from  daily. Its about a two and a half hour journey each way and weekly train fare is about 28 pounds shillings and ounces equivalent.

Edited February 19, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[TheQ]

35 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Southend Airport Train Station. 
I think the photo must have been taken from the entrance/exits of the arrivals /departures building. It is very close. 

I wonder when they'll get a railway station? At the moment they appear to have a camel train. It's a dromedary.

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, PeterBB said:

Interesting article on costs but it starts off with 90% of tomatoes in supermarkets come from abroad yet towards the end it states that a UK grower provides 40% of the tomatoes for supermarkets.  Someting does not quite fit.

Not necessarily. Presuming that there are industrial food producers that tin foodstuffs involving tomatoes in the UK* then most of the imported tomatoes would go to the industrial users.

 

* Such as the tomato sauce that baked beans bathe in 😉

 

It is the industrial users (like Heinz) that are the most impacted by the California drought-induced tomato shortage in the US. The central valley of California is known for tomatoes. In season it is common to see big trucks hauling huge white plastic tubs (they are the size of dump truck trays) on the highway. The tubs have drainage holes and when the tubs are full the holes leak a nasty spray of tomato juice.

 

Good photograph of such a truck here.

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Ozexpatriate
Added Cali reference

[Ian Hargrave]

45 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

Evenin' each from London Sutton CarShedport,

A very entertaining rugby match watched this afternoon and I'm sure that our friends @tigerburnie & @Dave Huntwould have enjoyed it.

Tonight's meal consisted of chicken, roast potatoes and veg and went down quite nicely assisted by some Côtes du Rhône.

The Boss is watching the skating programme and after that I'll join her in watching Vera.  I might be tempted to open the bottle of Vecchia Romagna that I got for Christmas and have been saving for a special occasion.  As there are no special occasions imminent I'm thinking "s#d it, life's too short, I'll open it anyway."   😜

Cheers.  🍷🍷

Enjoy. For the best in romanticism watch La Boheme on BBC 4 currently playing.

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

I find the best airports to fly in/out of are small airports.

Yes. For many years PDX (Portland International) won awards for best airport in its category. It is presently undergoing a massive renovation so it will be interesting to see what it is like once finished.

 

I like small airports. Boise, ID (BOI) and Redmond, OR (RDM) are nice. I love the terminal at Quincy, IL (UIN)*. It is a classic piece of mid-century modernism style. The whole terminal was one open room. They struggled to implement a post-9/11 configuration.

 

* The least busy of the 12 commercial airports in Illinois. This is the main entrance to the airport.

 

The Charles M. Schultz-Sonoma County airport (STS) in Santa Rosa, CA is interesting. The Horizon Air (Alaska) terminal was in a prefabricated building. They let you check a case of local wine for free. Jetways? We don't need no stinkin' jetways.

 

For airports in European cities, Munich is quite nice. I like Helsinki and Barcelona.

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[The White Rabbit]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

Southend Airport Train Station. 
I think the photo must have been taken from the entrance/exits of the arrivals /departures building. It is very close. 

 

50 minutes ago, TheQ said:

I wonder when they'll get a railway station? At the moment they appear to have a camel train. It's a dromedary.

 

Railway vs 'train' station has been covered before. But it still grates with me - should any omnipotent being offer me an opportunity to indulge certain prejudices, then this is high on the list. No offence intended against Tony but I rather favour a summary method of dealing with such abominations, such as: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=monty+python+swallow+question&qpvt=monty+python+swallow+question&view=detail&mid=BE21BB68103CED44C4FDBE21BB68103CED44C4FD&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dmonty%2Bpython%2Bswallow%2Bquestion%26qpvt%3Dmonty%2Bpython%2Bswallow%2Bquestion%26FORM%3DVDRE 

 

 

[Coombe Barton]

Catching up with the Composer of the Week - Talliis. Couldn't face Chekhov and The Seagull on R3.
 

I'm old and set in my ways. Always have been, musically.

[Ozexpatriate]

9 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

Railway vs 'train' station has been covered before.

Indeed so.

9 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

But it still grates with me ...

Your prerogative.

 

It's 'tomayto, tomahto' as far as I'm concerned. So long as the meaning is clear it doesn't matter to me.

 

[monkeysarefun]

6 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Indeed so.

Your prerogative.

 

It's 'tomayto, tomahto' as far as I'm concerned. So long as the meaning is clear it doesn't matter to me.

 

Sydney is undergoing massive public infrastructure upgrades, as well as new roads,  huge amounts are being spent on  new lines, metro routes, , light rail etc.. if what one marketing PR presentation I saw is correct, stations are" Public Transport User Interfaces" or similar.

[Hroth]

3 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Sydney is undergoing massive public infrastructure upgrades, as well as new roads,  huge amounts are being spent on  new lines, metro routes, , light rail etc.. if what one marketing PR presentation I saw is correct, stations are" Public Transport User Interfaces" or similar.

 

They'll be "multi-modal user interchanges" next...

 

[Tony_S]

48 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Indeed so.

Your prerogative.

 

It's 'tomayto, tomahto' as far as I'm concerned. So long as the meaning is clear it doesn't matter to me.

 

I called it that because that is what it is called. All the other stations on the line up to Liverpool St are probably called railway stations. Most of the people getting off the planes probably want to know where the trains are. It always amuses me when I see the sign, I am sure there must be people so annoyed by it they walk into Southend instead. They will have a bit of a walk as local buses  don’t go into the airport. We have driven and parked before.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Tony_S

[Gwiwer]

44 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

Railway vs 'train' station has been covered before. But it still grates with me

As with me.  But I'll not re-ignite the argument.  I quite like it here and a ban would be very discombobulating.  

 

I tend to follow the lead of others when asked in a professional capacity.  "Is there a train station at ....... ?" will be answered in similar terms rather than using "Railway station".  

 

Tomato - Tomato.  And an acceptance of cultural differences.