Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Fluffy danglers?

 

 

He looks rather unhappy.....

 

Diddums!

 

[polybear]

7 hours ago, TheQ said:

Fluffy danglers?

 

 

Nottahappy Cubby......😢

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from the Charente.  It rained very hard and even hailed yesterday.  A storm on Monday night had damaged a lot of trees.  Apparently the overturned chairs in our garden were my fault as I'd slept through it. The Volvo got taken for it's service and we had another storm when a friend took me to pick it up.  However it is back home now and as a bonus, all the water tanks are full.  

 

There is absolutely no chance of cutting the weed patches, the weeds are so wet.  

 

Today it's time to take Beth for more physio, that is going well and she seems to be getting a good range of movement in her replaced shoulder.  Later the Volvo goes in for it's Control Technique, aka Mot. 

 

Jjamie

[iL Dottore]

11 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I haven’t got fluffy dice or a tax disc…

Or a banner at the top of the windscreen that reads (from driver’s side) “TONE” and “ADI”?
 

…and what about the aftermarket spoiler, the sporty exhaust and the “go-faster” stripes???

[iL Dottore]

9 hours ago, TheQ said:

 

 

 

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Nottahappy Cubby......😢

But isn’t that what Mummy Bears used to get their cubs to eat their veggies? As in “if you don’t eat all your kale/broccoli/brussels sprouts/spinach, you’ll end up like Charlie here?

[jjb1970]

9 hours ago, BoD said:

What the …. ? *

 

* on so many levels.

 

I dunno, a room full of men standing to attention to pay their respects to some hot crumpet seems quite civilised🤣

[Hroth]

4 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

 

I dunno, a room full of men standing to attention to pay their respects to some hot crumpet seems quite civilised🤣

 

I almost misunderstood the "standing to attention" bit...

 

[iL Dottore]

9 hours ago, BoD said:

What the …. ? *

 

* on so many levels.

Deeply ironic the choice of song, n'est-ce pas?

[Hroth]

6 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Deeply ironic the choice of song, n'est-ce pas?

 

Especially as Kim "Haircut 100" was in the audience.  I'm surprised he didn't have the lot taken out and disappeared afterwards.

 

Perhaps he did...

 

 

[jjb1970]

It's amazing how many people latch onto (or criticise) songs seemingly without listening to the words or thinking about.

 

I remember in the 80's the Springsteen song 'Born in the USA' was adopted by some as a chest thumping anthem for the USA rah rah rah world view while others despised it because it was a chest thumping USA rah rah rah anthem. Neither group appear to have paid much attention to the lyrics. Neil Young's 'Rocking in the free world' is another.

 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Cricket was umpired... NO RAIN!

 

Busy railway line at South Wingfield by the cricket ground.. lots of EMR trains and some vintage trains as well. Me.. I was watching the game.. honest gov!

 

Nice tea as well. Got back to Leeds to be told it had rained all day.

 

Time for a shark deployment...

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

[Gwiwer]

37 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Busy railway line at South Wingfield by the cricket ground.. lots of EMR trains and some vintage trains as well. Me.. I was watching the game.. honest gov!

“How many carriages was that one?”

 

”Six!!!” (Raises arms to indicate same) 

[Gwiwer]

Which reminds me. 
 

During the leaner days of the Panda-Mick those of us Key Workers who remained on duty developed some interesting means of passing the time between passengers. Those had become few and far between although initially the train service was much the same. 
 

Bench seats were used for exercise “bench presses” in lieu of waiting passengers and open gymnasia. 
 

Dispatch bats became golf clubs, tennis racquets, snooker cues and cricket bats as we played “air sports” with balls as invisible as passengers. 
 

During one such shift “dispatch cricket” was invented. It went on to enjoy a brief popularity as things started returning to normal.  Similarities to real life are intended. 
 

Train arrives = ball 

Train dispatched (i.e. "batted") = ball played

Dwell time up to 59 seconds = no run

Every complete minute of dwell time = 1 run (maximum 6)

Train departing without latecomers attempting to board as it moves off = 4 runs

Train departing strikes dispatcher's bat before clearing the platform = 5 runs

Train failing to stop when scheduled (i.e. stop cancelled) = 6 runs

View of steam train blocked by other trains passing = bowled

Late-comer manages to board train by forcing the closing doors = caught

Dispatcher and driver both wave to each other = LBW

Out-of-breath customer asks why you didn't hold the train for them = Run out

Platform change = Wide

Train cancelled or terminated in platform = no ball

[Compound2632]

11 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

“How many carriages was that one?”

 

”Six!!!” (Raises arms to indicate same) 

 

I've mentioned this before but I'll bore you with it again. I was always among the last to be picked for a team in sports lessons. For football, put in defence, for cricket, right out on the boundary. That was fine, as the sports field was next to our goods-only railway line. The nadir of my popularity was reached when the ball was heaved in my direction just as a train was passing. 'Was it a four or a six?" All I knew was that it was a 25.

[Winslow Boy]

Well this week did not start well. On Sunday, yes I know that's technically last week but for me it all merges into one.

 

Anyway where was I are yes went the start well.

 

Well no it didn't because some scrote, other descriptions are available, decided to nick,steal,acquire etc etc some timber that had been donated to a church. The church was going to use it to make borders to grow veg for the community.

 

What particularly irked me was the fact that no one from the church had realised that it had gone and your not talking about the odd piece but rather forty to fifty 2.4 m long ones. So quite a bit.

 

This 'discovery' was compounded by me damaging a tyre and having to fork out a quarter of a deltic to get it replaced.

 

So to say I'm 'somewhat' upset is a bit of an understatement.

 

Anyway off to walk the Boss and I'm wearing shorts so if it rains it's my fault.

Edited June 19 by Winslow Boy

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

I’m not doing any DIY or hobby stuff today, as we are meeting up with my cousin and his wife for dinner. We’re not meeting until about 12:30, but as it’s about an hours drive from here, there doesn’t seem much point in doing anything this morning, as I’d have to pack up almost as soon as I’d started to give me enough time to get washed and changed. I’m not adverse to sitting about, as I can do a bit of reading or research etc. 

 

Back later. 
 

Brian 

[DaveF]

I woke early, turned over and went back to sleep again until 08.30 so I am a bit behind today.  I think the good sleep was a reaction to having at last got the photos dealt with.  Now I can go back to doing things with my own photos which is more enjoyable, most of the time.

 

Not much is planned for today except to go and see a Spanish Galeon (their spelling) which is moored at the Quayside.  I don't think there is a time warp, it is a replica.

 

Then I might catch up on things I've not done while working on the photos or I might go out somewhere.

 

David

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Deeply ironic the choice of song, n'est-ce pas?

 

 

Here's an actual song this time ,   hot off the presses . They all seem very happy - definitely happier than if they were under the thumb of "Hang Em all High and let the crows sort them out  @polybear".

 

I've worked for the Australian Defence Force for almost 30 years and I've never seen  it at anytime break out in joyful singing and dancing like the Nth  Korean one does.

 

(And they've got some lookers serving!)

 

 

 

Edited June 19 by monkeysarefun

[southern42]

' morning all from red dragon land.

Sunny. 14C. Washing machine on!

 

Yesterday, I think it was yesterday, I did a pre-order for a mugatea box - Lyons that is - that runs on parallel bits of metal to run (from Greenford) to Brentford dock* - when the line has been built of course 🤣.  It is advised that the price could rise so it could be some time - another pre-order was originally ordered for a *C*mas present, then deferred to Easter/later...and I still do not know when it will appear...this coming *C*mas present, maybe? Maybe some track can be laid in the meantime?????? 🤣

 

*Whether any did do that or not is no matter - motive power was supplied from the local loco lodge between the two so is good enough for me, and the little box will join a variety of other similar items of local interest - biscuit, rubber, chocolate and sosage factories, etc.

 

I am thinking of going for a walk later but may end up just having a mugadecaf in the garden. I will see once I have got the washing out.

 

Take care. Be good. Make it up as you go along.

Polly

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A terrible night last night, Arthur Itis was celebrating something or the other and making sure I was aware of that fact. I will have to chase up my prescription today which means a call into the surgery to find out which pharmacist they sent it to. I need to visit Tess Coes as yesterday they'd ran out of my favourite bread and I used the last of it for breakfast.

[tigerburnie]

Well the good news is that after losing over a stone in weight, I am no longer type 2 diabetic and back in the pre diabetic range, so carry on dieting(I don't remember that film was Bernie Bresslaw in that one?) and I won't need any treatment, big tick me thinks.

[iL Dottore]

Is anyone else having problems with insect incursions into the house?

We are getting a lot of grey black moths turning up inside the house (usually after whenever we let the dogs out into the garden). We also have the occasional fly and blue bottle, many small house spiders and - every so often - large garden spiders turn up inside the house. With the small house spiders we basically leave them to get on with “doing their own thing“, whilst the big garden spiders are trapped, and then released back into the wild*.  Fortunately, more dangerous insects like Hornets and wasps are very seldom seen and usually neither bother us or come into the house.
 

We also seem to be having, at least in the last couple of days, an explosion of snails and slugs. I wonder if this may not be due to the fact that because of the large amount of construction work going on around here (new apartment buildings, et cetera)  our hedgehog population is steering clear of their usual haunts 

 

Anyway, back to the moths: they seem to be, according to our cleaning lady, a common problem around here as of late and I’ve seen recently seen many of these moths - on the outside walls, on the fly screens and once or twice dead on a window ledge. I think it might be the result of having a wet but not terribly cold winter. 
 

Fortunately the moths, being black, when at rest on our white walls and ceilings are easy to spot and a quick squirt of insecticide will take them out; they are also very slow flying, which means you can usually kill them by clapping your hands around them. What is interesting is compared to squashing a fly of comparable size, a squashed moth does not leave foul looking ichor and blood all over the spot it was squashed at.

 

* a few of the larger and more adventurous garden spiders are also given directions to Bear Towers before they are released. 🤣😁🤭

[Hroth]

The Slug explosion was a news item on the BBC news yesterday.

I think it was used as an antidote to all the depressing national and global political news. Perhaps Farage could be tasked on repelling the "slug invasion problem"....

 

The worst moths are the house/clothes moths that come into the house looking for natural fibres to lay their eggs on and their larvae to feast upon.  I've been spotting one or two a day, fluttering around in their obscene manner, abdomen dangling as they beat the air.  At least if you manage to squash them there is a brown smear of dust from their wings that dusts off, and if you swat them with one of those electrocuting fly swat bats, there's a smell of burning dust as they sparkle on the grid.

 

One thing I've noticed is that they have an evasive action, if a failed attempt is made on them, they do a crash dive of several feet and try to flutter away, especially if they've been resting on a wall.  Its easy to catch them when they do this, I poke them with a ruler and they drop. Right onto the electric bat I'm holding below them.

 

Crackle-crackle, dead.

 

I'm not fond of insecticides in a domestic environment, insecticides might also harm the spiders...

 

Edited June 19 by Hroth
Thort about insecticides

[monkeysarefun]

38 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 

 

Anyway, back to the moths: they seem to be, according to our cleaning lady, a common problem around here as of late and I’ve seen recently seen many of these moths - on the outside walls, on the fly screens and once or twice dead on a window ledge. I think it might be the result of having a wet but not terribly cold winter. 

 

 

Didnt you get some wasps a while back to deal with moths? Arethey still around or have they escaped into the Swiss countryside and turned feral  cane-toad style and are now wrecking picnics everywhere - floating in the fondue, hiding between the little mountain peaks in the Toblerones......*

 

 

No worries though, the Huntsman spider is the perfect natural answer to moths. They are very clean, they don't weave webs but  are nomadic so roam around and  sneak up on prey before grabbing  it with lightning speed. They also tend to just hang around high up on your walls or ceiling so you won't accidentally step on them and injure them.

 

They are easy to catch if you want any -  for instance here's one I caught and sent off to @polybear  for Valentines Day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*I've never had a toblerone but they had a reputation here for being fancy if you wanted to impress a special lady on a date. I remember going to the drive-in with my mates back when we were 17 or so. We went to the food kiosk and we found ourselves lined up behind 2 or 3 very classy  looking  lasses (ie they had shoes on).

 

One of my mates  thought he'd put on the posh act to win them over and when they got to the front of the queue and were about to put their order in, he leaned across the counter and said in his best Rich Eastern Suburbs Property Developer accent "Give  these lovely ladies a Tobleron-ee  each!" 

Edited June 19 by monkeysarefun