Early Risers.

[pH]

1 hour ago, The White Rabbit said:

Yes. Someone from work (Leeds) went to St Ives for a weekend. I don't think he grasped just how far it is from Yorkshire. 

 

But we were travelling to East Devon. St Ives (or your destination or Rick's place) - you get to Exeter and think you're nearly there? Oh no.... 

 

I worked with a young lady who was part of a group who would occasionally drive from Vancouver to Fort McMurray for the weekend - about 1050 miles each way!

 

A policeman from Lockerbie told me they had to deal with a type of accident on the A74 with common causes. Drivers had come from the south of England, often London, and were on their way to the Highlands. They crossed the border into Scotland, thought “That’s us almost there”, relaxed and lost concentration. (London to Gretna is 309 miles; Gretna to Inverness is 295 miles.)

Edited July 27 by pH

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Too bad cricket is not an Olympic sport for the current Olympiad. 😉

 

 

Hey if they stop the Olympics RIGHT NOW, we've won!

 

(We always ride high until the Swimming events are over...)

Edited July 27 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

Try increasing screen zoom ratio to over 100% , I use Firefox at 110% and don't see those bits , knock

it back to 100% and they reappear .

Resizing the browser window to be narrower than full width (Windows + Chrome) has the same effect. Only the posts are visible. Popular posts are at the bottom and you have to scroll all the way down to see them. 

 

Edited July 27 by Ozexpatriate
clarity

[Ozexpatriate]

6 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

we've won!

Won what?

[monkeysarefun]

1 minute ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Won what?

 

 

The Olympics, we've won the Olympics!

[The White Rabbit]

Evenin' all,

 

The weather held off for the village show, it was generally fine with sunny intervals and a bit of a breeze. Thankfully I didn't have far to travel, no Exe to Hayle or Eden to Firth marathons... It was one of my first trips out for [some time...] and I didn't last the whole schedule but managed to hold up long enough to see my friend's puppy dog mentioned a day or two ago win a rosette in the dog show. (Waggiest Tail if you're asking...). Some real characters seen, two other contestants and their human joined me under an oak tree in the shade when the sun was out and we spent a pleasant half an hour or so. One was placed in the Waggiest Tail - well deserved, long, plumy and waved about enough to cause a definite draft! 

[Ozexpatriate]

9 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

The Olympics, we've won the Olympics!

Do you get something for that? Do they put gold medals in the Vita Brits and Weet-Bix for everyone? A coupon for free Vegemite? A day off? Anything? 😉

 

Edited July 27 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

Had two of these on the go in different tabs earlier:

[Gwiwer]

9 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Then the traffic queue at Hayle

Use the local’s by-pass. Off at Camborne West, old road through Roseworthy to Loggans Roundabout, through Hayle, left in Foundry Square. Right down Water Lane. Left through St Erth village and the back road to either Marazion or Crowlas 

[Sidecar Racer]

20 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Resizing the browser window to be narrower than full width (Windows + Chrome) has the same effect. Only the posts are visible. Popular posts are at the bottom and you have to scroll all the way down to see them. 

 

 

 Same with Firefox .

[iL Dottore]

36 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

How many Japanese railway signs are posted in Romanji? (Or Chinese or Korean)?

 

All the signs in Japan were in the 3 Japanese syllabaries (Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana). Romaji was ubiquitous and in the big cities you also had signs and displays in English, Korean and Mandarin). The Tokyo and Osaka metro had trains with LED screens announcing the next stop in Japanese, English, Korean and Mandarin.

 

I can manage Hiragana and Katakana, but I've only been able to master just a few Kanji.
 

It's a fascinating language, Japanese. Linguistically it's pretty straightforward and easy to learn (phonetically at least) , but FOUR writing systems (if you include Romaji) are a real bu99er!

[Tony_S]

21 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Use the local’s by-pass. Off at Camborne West, old road through Roseworthy to Loggans Roundabout, through Hayle, left in Foundry Square. Right down Water Lane. Left through St Erth village and the back road to either Marazion or Crowlas 

Is that ok with a caravan?

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon/evening from Estuary-Land. I would have been writing this earlier if it hadn't been for Virgin Media. I have their cable TV as part of my package and at 7 I tuned in to BBC4 for the test cricket only to see a message that the channel was not available! So I tried to phone them as instructed on the screen but after ten minutes of pressing buttons 1, 2, 3 or 4 I got a message that the office was closed and I'll have to call back. So I watched the cricket on my computer via I-player. While I was doing that I couldn't use the computer for anything else. I did try again after the program had finished and then the channel was open again.

[Erichill16]

13 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

The music they could have had at the opening ceremony in Paris (and all 100% French as well)

 

 

 

Okay, the last piece from JMJ is a bit weird, but definitely in the "weird but interesting" category

Or this.

I known Plastic Bertrand is Belgian but the song is in French.

Ca Plane pour Moi

[Erichill16]

49 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Had two of these on the go in different tabs earlier:

Just had one myself and thought I’d lost my posting..

Running slow as well.

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Introduced by whom?

 

On the NBC broadcast I watched I don't recall the official audio announcement, but the DPRK boat was clearly signed as "DPRK". Of course the US broadcasters helpfully called it "North Korea" for US audiences. They talked about how this was the first DPRK Olympic delegation since the Pyongyang Winter Olympics where all Korean athletes marched as a unified team in the procession of athletes.

 

Having looked it up, ROK was 48 and DPRK was 128.  The NBC broadcast did not confuse the ROK contingent.

 

 

"Olympic organisers have issued a "deep apology" after South Korea's athletes were mistakenly introduced as North Korea at the opening ceremony in Paris.

As the excited, flag-waving team floated down the River Seine, both French and English announcers introduced them as the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" - the official name of North Korea.

The same name was then used - correctly - when North Korea's delegation sailed past."

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmj2r1403jpo

[polybear]

Canada have been naughty....

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/articles/ckdg0gqk4kqo

[Sidecar Racer]

8 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 When the ticket inspector came by, he informed the tourists that they should have gotten off at the last stop - the next stop being Bologna. When the tourist remonstrated that they saw no station signs for <Florence>, the ticket inspector gently pointed out that Florence station was indeed well sign posted - the name of the station being Firenze in Italian. At which point the tourists angrily remonstrated about the lack of English sign posts in Italy…

 

 

 

 To which the reply  should have been , how many Italian signposts are there in the USA ???

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

We had a lie in this morning, as Ava wasn’t coming round today, as she’s at her boyfriend’s mum’s birthday party. So, once we’d got dressed, eaten breakfast etc, I went straight outside to the garden tidying up. My first task was to have another go a squirrel proofing the fat ball bird feeder, as the little bar-steward had managed to not only get the lid open, but remove it completely and eat the contents! So, more modifications have been done, I altered the spike that holds the fat balls, so that:-

A) if he reaches inside, he can’t push the ball upwards until it falls off the spike, as it now hits the underside of the lid first! 

B) he can no longer open or remove the lid, as it’s now secured by twisting 1mm solid copper wire around the body and the lid in 2 places! 

C) I’ve altered the bracket from which the feeder hangs, so that he can’t rock it or swing on the feeder any more to loosen the fat balls and secured the feeder to the bracket with an 8mm screw and nut! He won’t be eating THAT nut! 

 

I then repaired a tiered hanging planter, which is basically, 3 small planters tied together giving something that resembles a rope ladder. The ropes had rotted, so they were replaced with new, synthetic rope. 

 

After dinner, now that the birds are no longer nesting, I decided to give the ivy hedge a trim on one side of the garden, as it was starting to look overgrown. An hour later I’d filled the wheelbarrow, twice, which has now filled the garden waste bin! 

[Hroth]

 

Apparently the French have incorporated a small fragment of the Eiffel Tower* into all the Olympic medals.  Eventually they'll rust....

 

* Recovered during renovation work, so not the highest quality metal!

 

[Ozexpatriate]

7 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Apparently the French have incorporated a small fragment of the Eiffel Tower* into all the Olympic medals.  Eventually they'll rust....

Yes they made a big fuss about this some months back.

 

Official details here.

 

Edited July 27 by Ozexpatriate

[Grizz]

If we ever hold the Olympics again, we could include a small fragment of one of our greatest monuments. And it is porcelain so it would not rust.

 

Numerous toilet bowls and urinals from the refurbishment of the toilets at Waterloo station….perfect.

Oooooo and I’ve even thought of a slogan…..British Railways taking the p@ss since 1997.

Edited July 27 by Grizz

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, Grizz said:

If we ever hold the Olympics again, we could include a small fragment of one of our greatest monuments. And it is porcelain so it would not rust.

Would recipients have to 'pay a penny' to receive their medal?

[Erichill16]

Evening,

Been given run around by bil and sil regarding arrangements for nephews sleepover.

Remind me not to accept any invitations for a party in a brewery.

Not been a completely wasted couple of day. Managed quite a few hours cleaning the driveway and even managed an hour doing a bit of the unmentionables. Hovis enjoyed her walk and the weather was pleasant and no rain. 
May have Syd tomorrow, depends how arrangements for for party at the brewery go.

Goodnight.

 

[Gwiwer]

3 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

3 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

St Ives (or your destination or Rick's place) - you get to Exeter and think you're nearly there? Oh no.... 

 

Exeter to St Ives is about 150km as the crow flies. Add in all the bendy and ;lumpy bits and ...

The bendy and lumpy bits are somewhat fewer since the Carland - Chiverton upgrade was finally opened a few weeks back.  That means the permitted speed is now "National Limit" all the way from the roundabout at Exeter Services to the western end of the Hayle by-pass.  70mph for cars until Camborne West where the dual-carriageway ends and then 60mph.  

 

It is spoiled more than somewhat by the traffic lights at St. Erth station.  Those are in a perfectly legitimate 30mph limit (through the village of Rose-an-Grouse in which the station is situated) but far more damage is done to traffic flow by the regular appearance of the red lights causing traffic to block back across the large "St. Erth" roundabout (as with the station not terribly close to that village) and back up the Hayle-by-pass.  On busy days there are also lengthy queues for the Loggans Roundabout at the end of the section from Camborne and just before Hayle.  So you might well go from a 70mph cruise to a 7mph crawl in a very short space of time and for around 5 miles.  Sometimes more if the queues go all the way to Penzance as they can do.  

 

That's why locals use the "by-pass" which is the back road through St. Erth village.

 

On the other hand given a clear run and with the new road now open saving around 5 minutes it is possible to drive at legal speed from Exeter Service to Penzancve in a fraction under 2 hours.  It used to be spot on 2 hours if there wasn't a single slow-down or delay.  When I drove down most recently, having been delayed by several hours east of Exeter, I then achieved Services to Home in 2 hours and 5 minutes against a previous best of 2 hours 15 minutes.  Toe down all the way but no speed higher than 72 and a few spots below 70mph as the Little Red Driving Box, being only 997cc, is a tad under-powered for the assault on Dartmoor and won't do any more than 56mph westbound over Whiddon Down nor 65mph at Sourton summit.  She also slows to 50mph on Highgate Hill unless I drop the gears down and really coax her up - foot hard to the floor - in third with the revs and fuel consumption sky high.  I tend not to do that and settle for fourth (of five) and a brief slowing to 50mph.  

 

We're off up-country for half of tomorrow.  Lunch is at the Logan Rock Inn at Midday followed by the 65-mile trek to Lostwithiel to enjoy a friend's band playing in the afternoon and some more company in the early evening.  And then home again!