Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

Words fail me, Baz.  I am disgusted but unfortunately not that surprised....

[Tony_S]

Aditi’s sister is going on holiday in a couple of weeks.  She had been making all the arrangements for MiL’s carer visits for that time. She has been sorting out when Aditi and or her brother can visit. We will we doing some hospital appointments in addition to social visits. Anyway Aditi’s sister asked me to do the camera checking for the ones Mil has installed.  If she falls, the alarm people ask for a camera check in case she has pressed it accidentally.  Anyway I did get the system to work on my phone though it isnt as straightforward as our home security camera system. My phone did a security update so I thought I would just check MiLs camera to see if it still worked. From her kitchen, there is a step up to French doors out to the terrace/patio. There is a booster step to make it easier for her. She has said she won’t go out after falling over earlier this year. Well , as I joined the video she was standing sideways on the ledge trying to put her feet in her sandals. This is a person who normally walks with a frame. She fell over backwards. I phoned Punam(Aditi’s sister) who immediately set off. She couldn’t lift her Mum so sent for someone from the people who deal with alarm calls. 

[Coombe Barton]

... timetables is becoming a significant swear word ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/09/06/up-more-sharply-and-ostrich-mentality/

[Tony_S]

15 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

timetables is becoming a significant swear word ...

Before computer timetable systems there were various methods employed. At the first school I worked at the deputy heads who did the timetable had a huge board divided up in rooms and lesson periods. There were multi-coloured drawing pins for each teacher. One weekend someone broke into the school offices. The only thing really vandalised was the timetable board was pulled off the wall. There were remarks that only an aggrieved teacher would have targeted the timetable. I suggested a really aggrieved teacher would have removed a few pins and moved some around or even worse removed the paint marking the pins. . That would have really annoyed the senior management. 

[DaveF]

11 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Before computer timetable systems there were various methods employed. At the first school I worked at the deputy heads who did the timetable had a huge board divided up in rooms and lesson periods. There were multi-coloured drawing pins for each teacher. One weekend someone broke into the school offices. The only thing really vandalised was the timetable board was pulled off the wall. There were remarks that only an aggrieved teacher would have targeted the timetable. I suggested a really aggrieved teacher would have removed a few pins and moved some around or even worse removed the paint marking the pins. . That would have really annoyed the senior management. 

 

I spent nearly 20 years writing school timetables as part of my job, first as a teacher then as a consultant.  Fortunately it was all done on a computer by the time I started, but a computer could only get about 85-90% of the lessons fitted, the rest had to be done by hand which usually involved undoing much of the computer's work.

 

In my first week of teaching, over 50 years ago, I found a mistake in the timetable and worked out how to correct it, to the great surprise of the school's timetabler.  I can remember in the late 70s and throughout the 80s helping timetablers with the pegboard system - it worked well sometimes.

 

Computer timetabling has been around a very long time, Mum was using Nottinghamshire's mainframe for timetabling, with punched cards and running the software overnight by around 1973 when she was a deputy head of a comprehensive.  Most schools started using computers once PCs became fast enough and powerful enough - in my school it was around the early 90s.  The early software wasn't too good though.

 

David

[PhilJ W]

Someone mentioned the wildlife when I mentioned the garden being paved next door. They are more than welcome in my garden and I can create opposite environments within a few feet of each other. My garden is L shaped with the house and a six foot high brick wall making the base of the L, the wall continuing round to form the toe. The 'interior' of the L is formed by the block of brick built garages. Also next doors extension makes up the heel of the L. As the back of the house faces due south this creates a veritable sun trap with its own micro climate. The south facing wall is where I intend to place the bee hotel and to that end the planter at the foot of the wall has been seeded with wildflower and pollen plants. A few feet away and opposite is the end wall of the garages. This ground is always in the shade and damp, even in the current hot weather. Here I intent to place a few stones and rocks and a woodpile to attract things like grass snakes and slow worms.

[Tim Dubya]

The 3rd floor of the 1 West Building won today's competition for the best (most comfortable/comforting) air conditioning.  I have to service a machine in a corridor by the swimming pool (Olympic Sized 😉) tomorrow, it's a boiling spot even in the depths of winter.  I guess I best do it last o'clock and go for a cold one straight after....

 

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Tim Dubya
jibba jabba

[polybear]

51 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

......to attract things like grass snakes......

 

HUH??

😲

[tigerburnie]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Someone mentioned the wildlife when I mentioned the garden being paved next door. They are more than welcome in my garden and I can create opposite environments within a few feet of each other. My garden is L shaped with the house and a six foot high brick wall making the base of the L, the wall continuing round to form the toe. The 'interior' of the L is formed by the block of brick built garages. Also next doors extension makes up the heel of the L. As the back of the house faces due south this creates a veritable sun trap with its own micro climate. The south facing wall is where I intend to place the bee hotel and to that end the planter at the foot of the wall has been seeded with wildflower and pollen plants. A few feet away and opposite is the end wall of the garages. This ground is always in the shade and damp, even in the current hot weather. Here I intent to place a few stones and rocks and a woodpile to attract things like grass snakes and slow worms.

Not sure Slow worms and Grass Snakes can scale 6 foot high brick walls, what they really like is a pond and a compost heap.

[PhilJ W]

3 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

Not sure Slow worms and Grass Snakes can scale 6 foot high brick walls, what they really like is a pond and a compost heap.

I have a compost bin in another part of the garden where the slow worms like to hang out and there are a few garden ponds in the vicinity. The leg of the L is surrounded by wooden fences with plenty of gaps that even muntjac deer can get through.

[New Haven Neil]

In the 70's the shipping company I worked for (crikey - feeling old) had a huge board in the office, column for each ship (26 then) with officer ranks and wooden name boards with the officers name and relief dates, and on leave ones at the bottom to be allocated to the ship when appropriate on it all resting on little wooden rails.  One day a cleaner knocked a load off - put back what they could and left a note for the office staff to let them know.  Office staff sorted it all out.....bar one....lucky git.....who fell behind the radiator and was on leave, on full pay, for a year before someone said, 'Hey where's Alan X'? He was legendary in the company.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I was planning to have a bath this evening but decided to put it off until morning when it's going to be slightly cooler. Now to tackle Farcebook.

[Hroth]

I've got two multi-occupancy bug boxes hanging on my s h e d, as sort of sacrificial anodes to encourage them to reside there rather than inside the s h e d....

 

You never know!

 

[figworthy]

On 05/09/2023 at 04:29, monkeysarefun said:

 

Rocket Scientists are made of sterner stuff.

 

Here's a  bunch of Brit boffins in big baggy pants blowing things up in our backyard.  No cowering in the shady bits for them!

 

Bonus - features a who's who of 1950's RAF paraphernalia

 

 

 

Given the prevailing attitudes at the time, I was interested to note how many women were employed.

 

Adrian

[Gwiwer]

Evening all.  Several pages unread owing to pressures on time.  

 

It has been warm Upon the Hill of Strawberries; at the House of Fun the return-to-school season has begun with some in full uniform, some in suitably-summery attire and others clearly still taking leave and heading for beaches, shops or parks.  

 

There are just 12 days remaining at the House of Fun.  Those will pass very quickly.  I have made a number of "Business cards" to offer among those who I consider friends with ongoing contact details.  

 

In other news I am also making a determined attempt to have travelled over every London bus route before leaving the area.  It is an achievable target; there are only two routes I have never travelled on at all and just a tiny handful of bits here and there that have yet to receive my attention.  Most of those are one-way systems where I have not travelled in both directions, or are short stretches of recently-introduced or altered route where the version I used has changed.  

 

To complete that would be an achievement of some sort.  A couple of tiny bits (Old Kent Road flyover and Albany Road) are scheduled for Saturday before or after the Brains Trust meets.  

[Tony_S]

2 minutes ago, Hroth said:

I've got two multi-occupancy bug boxes hanging on my s h e d, as sort of sacrificial anodes to encourage them to reside there rather than inside the s h e d....

 

You never know!

 

There is quite a large spider inside my car at the moment. I did try to give it a chance to  leave but it preferred to hide once the engine started. I wonder if it was one of those living in the mirror housings. 

[AndyID]

5 hours ago, Barry O said:

so  het indoors was sent an email from Jimmys (St James Hospital Leeds)  asking for feedback on her treatment...

 

STUPID CONSULTANTS...  after firing 2 HESH (High Explosive, Squash Head) rounds she has been guaranteed someone will contact her in the next 2 days.. If its not the insultants secretary booking an appointment they better be prepared to take a CHARM3 (DU round) somewhere personal! 

 

She cannot get comfortable and is now even larger (10+ months pregnant size) than last week....

 

Apparently the strike isn't about more pay .. the insultants want to se the NHS to be "safer" in other words they want to screw it over even more than they do now.....

 

Two faced or what?

 

 

Ranging Baz

 

Baz, that all seems unbelievably disgusting.

 

I strongly (and that's putting it mildly) suggest you immediately try to find an independent consultant in the UK or in any country that your wife might still be able to fly to. Max out the credit cards if that's what it takes. Now is not the time to worry about anything other than getting her the best possible diagnosis and treatment just as soon as possible.

 

I am a cancer survivor. I had an abnormal growth 40 years ago and had it not been for early detection and diagnosis it's unlikely I'd be posting this message today.

 

Andy

 

 

[Dave Hunt]

We've got a spider living in the conservatory that is either black or dark brown and about 2 inches span with a bulbous body. I've tried to establish where it hides out but so far to no avail and there don't seem to be any webs so maybe it's one of the huntsman types. Since it moved in I'm sure that there are fewer insects in there so it's welcome to stay. 

 

Dave

[Winslow Boy]

58 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

There is quite a large spider inside my car at the moment. I did try to give it a chance to  leave but it preferred to hide once the engine started. I wonder if it was one of those living in the mirror housings. 

Perhaps it's a time sharer?

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, figworthy said:

 

Given the prevailing attitudes at the time, I was interested to note how many women were employed.

 

Adrian

 

Yes I spotted that as well. What was also interesting was the way everyone was dressed. Females in good/pricey dresses and blokes with ties and everything. There was also a bit of a slip up when they were counting down to the launch of the skyflash - I think? and one of the chaps responded with 'yes we're alright here Sheila' when the others had all said it more formally.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

We’ve had quite an enjoyable day at Dunham Massey. We arrived there at about 10:45, but as the house doesn’t open until 12pm, we decided to have a look around the visitor centre first and then walked around the formal gardens. We then went for a bite to eat and then toured the house around 1pm. After that we started to take a walk around the park, we’d only gone a short distance, when Sheila said her shoes were rubbing her, she took one off and found she had blisters, so we then headed back to the car and came home a little earlier than planned. Despite the blisters Sheila got, we had a nice time and enjoyed the sunshine, even spotting a deer whilst walking about in the grounds. 

[Dave Hunt]

22 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

There was also a bit of a slip up when they were counting down to the launch of the skyflash - I think? 

I was under the impression that since Skyflash was developed from the Sparrow  all the initial testing was at China Lake. The film also appeared a bit early for Skyflash as I was involved in some of the early firings at Aberporth and that wasn’t until the ‘80s.

 

Dave

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[Two_sugars]

Evening all . . 

 

Grass cut . . .takes longer every time. . . .it used to take about 20 mins, but today was about 45 . . . . . but  , , to be fair to mesell . . . . I've never let it get this long

 

it's been a warm day, only made bearable by the on-shore breeze . . . very pleasant . . . apart from the above.

 

Anyways . . bed is calling, so goodnight all. . . sleep well

 

John