Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Gwiwer]

Morning all.

 

I was once stopped by the Ossifers of the Lore whilst driving a fully-laden bus along the single-track road which was its scheduled route.  Their car came up behind with blues and twos and, as I came to a stand, another approached head-on trapping me in a classic pincer move.  Not that there was any option with six-foot hedges brushing both mirrors.  Senior Plod approaches my driver's window and asks "What do you know about badgers? ..............  "

My fully professional reply was that they were black and white nocturnal creatures living hereabouts and that my employer had chosen to paint cartoon ones on its vehicles.  The reason I was stopped, it seems, is that there was a badger cull in progress to which a large number of people were objecting and attempting to cause disruption.  Quite why they thought a bus-load of schoolchildren displaying its route number and destination and with the statutory driver's duty card available for inspection might in any way be related to interference with badger traps still defies my comprehension.

 

As an incidental those little cartoon badgers which my employer applied to the rear of its vehicles for a few years attracted other attention.  One American tourist was wont to enquire why we "Had skunks humping the back wheels" of our buses!

 

Avagoodun.

[pH]

I got stopped in an XJ6 when I was 22 by a Police Transit Van on the old A12 just out of Chelmsford heading towards Brentwood.

 

...

 

So I pulled over  and a constable came up to me - I said, I have no idea why you pulled me over? He said because I looked too young to drive a Jag.

 

Two of my cousins managed to buy an XK140 when they were 20 and 17. The 17 year old's record was 6 police stops in a single evening for "driving a Jag while too young".

[emt_911]

Morning all. A planned short day in preparation for my escape to the South West.

 

Depending on the time I get to my final destination of the day, I may be off line until some time tomorrow when I can sort out internet access.

 

Time for another coffee.

 

Have a good day everyone.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Just getting light outside but dry and some sunshine is forecast along with some cloud.

D-Day Plus 3:

The smaller target code named WC has now been mostly overcome with just a little mopping up required. Further assaults will begin later today on the main target. It is expected that it will take a further two days to reach our objective.  Casualties are still light apart from a troublesome knee and a sore finger. (nope, haven't a clue how that happened)

 

First task today before all that will be to put out bins various and then await excitedly to see if they will be collected on time and where they will then be strewn.

After that I have to meet The Boss at Sainsbury's for further re-provisioning of our stores prior to an invasion of family & friends on Sunday.

 

I was regularly stopped by police when I was 17 and driving my Dad's new 3.3 litre Vauxhall Cresta.* It amazed me at the time that he let me borrow it which I had to do fairly regularly whilst me and my mate Dave were "fixing" something on my own 1947 Morris 10. I never got stopped driving the Morris.

 

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

 

*Edit:  Because I "looked too young to have a nice car like that" and not for any traffic offences.

Edited April 13, 2017 by grandadbob

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

Talk of stoppage by the police reminds me of a friend who was pulled over for alleged speeding.  "But officer, this is a Metro!" he protested. "On your way!" said the feds.

 

The doors of the bank should not have been closed at 09.15 yesterday but they were.  Before I could begin to fear a calamity befalling Barclays a teller, on crutches, who was standing outside proclaimed apologetically that all systems were down.  "Our branch in Kempston is open" quoth he.  I was about to wait until the bus pass was valid before heading off to Kempston when I remembered that one can extract ones own money from other banks' holes in the wall.  Santander's machine gave me the choice between English and Espanol and a hard time touching the screen [a fist appeared at one point] before yielding the dosh, all in 20s.  I laundered one of them by using the self-service device in WHSmiths to pay for two magazines and another by purchasing three [more] CDs at The Stables.  Feast of Fiddles were very good - six fiddles, melodeon, keyboard, sax, guitar, bass guitar and drums.  This is as good a wall of sound as one could desire.

 

There was no weeding yesterday but I did get rid of the ironing and went for a blood test ahead of the next appointment with Sister Diabetes.  Today there will be more laundry and a fodder run.  Tomorrow is Good Friday and will see a slightly indirect route to Pendon.

 

Warm thoughts to all in distress.  May the latter not be caused by a surfeit of chocolate eggs.

 

Chris

[DDolfelin]

Hope the power is more settled today - we are all electric and it was off most of yesterday.

The worst thing, apart from being off, was that it was intermittent.

This means that it would come on, I'd power up the computers, start a task and then everything would go off again.

Very irritating.

Camping gas stove for hot drinks (not that I'd consider going camping).

Turns out the 'whistling' kettle doesn't.

Today is another day - onwards with rural living.

[DDolfelin]

... and it was nearly the end of rural living for one bikewomble yesterday.

Rounding a bend in a narrow lane, I came across (almost literally) a cyclist, on a 'phone approaching in the middle of the road.

As he was also wearing sound muffs he was totally unaware of my car and continued to pedal until my horn got his attention and he nearly fell off with the shock.

Will definitely be getting a dash cam.

[Barry O]

Hey up from a slightly overcast Robin Hoods Bay.

I have to buy a weekly parking ticket by 9am hence I am still a holiday early riser.

 

It has been decided that we are going to Scarborough today before meeting up with some friends for a curry tonight.

 

Have a good time today everyone.

 

Baz

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is a rather fresh morning with broken cloud.  By all accounts the weather isn't going to be all that good over the Easter weekend, which is a bit of a shame but we do need the rain.  The short shower we had this morning is the first rain for several weeks.

 

Oh well - I had better get on.  There is quite a lot to do!

 

Have a good day everyone...

[TheQ]

Morning Awl,

Getting home last night I was "invited" to do some gardening, mostly to do with moving Daffodils. That I managed to avoid until I'd been on the net and found out how to at this time of year, but some ground clearance followed . (since been on the net, move as a clump complete with leaves, take a lot of soil with the clump to reduce disturbance, plant again immediately)

We are simplifying the garden in some areas as the previous owners had planted daffs everywhere, meaning if you leave them to go over you are left with 2ft of grass to cut though to turn it back to lawn. So WE have decided this year to move them before the disappear for the summer.

I've also been informed we are going to Great Yarmouth on Saturday,     GY, a Saturday, Holiday time, I hope it's not sunny there will be cockwombles enough with out extras..

 

This morning in my waiting times between measurements I will take my graph paper notebook to sketch up how to build a Type 80 radar in 2mm scale......

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

I shall be mainly making coffee today. The central heating work should be complete today.

Tony

[roundhouse]

Morning from a sunny Surrey.

 

The trains thatvarived heading to London this morning whilst waiting for o its were all quite early. Shows what can be done but also shows how much make up them is built into the timetable which quit often that are even later.

 

One thing that happened this morning is that made me chuckle, a girl whilst looking at her mobile phone stepped onto the train then stopped and then stepped back off whilst still looking at her mobile, as she looked up to get back on the doors were shut so she missed this train. Seen this happen quite a few times where the mobile phone important than getting the tran!!

 

Can't wait for POETF later.

Edited April 13, 2017 by roundhouse

[ikks]

Good morning all,

Just getting light outside but dry and some sunshine is forecast along with some cloud.

D-Day Plus 3:

The smaller target code named WC has now been mostly overcome with just a little mopping up required. Further assaults will begin later today on the main target. It is expected that it will take a further two days to reach our objective.  Casualties are still light apart from a troublesome knee and a sore finger. (nope, haven't a clue how that happened)

 

First task today before all that will be to put out bins various and then await excitedly to see if they will be collected on time and where they will then be strewn.

After that I have to meet The Boss at Sainsbury's for further re-provisioning of our stores prior to an invasion of family & friends on Sunday.

 

I was regularly stopped by police when I was 17 and driving my Dad's new 3.3 litre Vauxhall Cresta. It amazed me at the time that he let me borrow it which I had to do fairly regularly whilst me and my mate Dave were "fixing" something on my own 1947 Morris 10. I never got stopped driving the Morris.

 

Have a good one,

Bob.

My first car was a Ford Anglia van, one very early morning(about 2am) my mate and I set off for Swarkestone canal to go fishing. At the bottom of our street was a shop with a fag machine and we stopped to buy a packet(Players Gold Leaf as I recall..that's what I used to smoke), as we got our fags a policeman on a motor bike went past in the opposite direction. We went back to the van and set off, minutes later, said policeman was behind me and pulled me over. We jumped out of the van and went up to him, he got off his bike and led us back the van, What followed was......can I see your licence.........err, don't have one....to Kev(my mate) what about you, Kev duly showed him his licence, policeman said I see your road tax is out of date, any insurance?.......err, no sir, L plates.........err! haven't put them on sir. He then asked to see inside the van and was confronted with our fishing gear. Where are you going? Swarkestone sir (about two and a half miles down the road), he then said off you go, hope you catch some fish but if I ever see this van on the road after today, I will throw the bloody book at you!...........don't make 'em like that anymore! The last trip that van made a few months late was to the scrappers, I got eleven quid for it.

Happy days............Mike

[AndrewC]

And they all play banjoes

That must be harder with 6 fingers on each hand. 

 

Morning all from the borough that knows no excitement. Dutiful husband duty in meeting up with SWMBO's old work mate. A good time and several beers were had. Should be a quiet day today. I will be finished this bit of work well before noon so POETF is planned. 

 

Little else to say except, enjoy the day and have a hoppy Easter. 

[Smiffy2]

Morning all.

 

Stopped by the law: I once got pulled over late at night in Surrey for no apparent reason (there were 3 cars and seven coppers) and the sergeant said it was because a blue Ford Escort had been seen 'behaving oddly'. Which was strange as I was driving a brown Volvo. They all milled around, didn't really ask any questions or look in the boot, then jiggered off.

 

A police acquaintance told me that the Surrey police, when bored, play 'car snooker'. That is they stop cars of the appropriate colour to make a break. There aren't that many brown cars, so...

 

Now I need help!

I made some bones and teeth for a neolithic necklace with Daisy yesterday and some of the Milliput hasn't set properly - I've read that I can speed-harden it in the oven for an hour at low setting - has anyone ever done that, and does it work? If not, we're back making bits today, which is a bit of a pain.

 

Have a nice day, all. The sun is shining, the birds is riz etc etc.

[Happy Hippo]

 

 

Talk of stoppage by the police reminds me of a friend who was pulled over for alleged speeding.  "But officer, this is a Metro!" he protested. "On your way!" said the feds.

 

 

A similar thing happened to me many years back.

 

I was stopped driving a VW Beetle; 55+ in a 50 mph restriction.

 

Are you aware of the speed limit? 

 

Yes, I am, but in mitigation do you realise how long it has taken me to get up to the speed I was travelling at?

 

Mmmmm, I see your point.  I suggest that you are a little lighter on the throttle pedal in future............

 

Traffic policemen in those days were a lot more flexible in their approach and were able to use their discretion in how they dealt with offences.

[jamie92208]

Morning all from the village, quite bright outside but cool. Some shopping to do this morning and then this afternoon I've got to pick some friends up from the airport.  In between jobs I may even get some more work done on a control panel.    SWMBO returns tomorrow shortly before I set off for two days helping on Overlord at York. I will probably do some domestic chores later.  

 

My WW1 researches have continued.   Not only have I found out some more about my family but I learned how to decipher a grid reference on a WW1 Trench map.   Life is full of such little bits of knowledge.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

 

 

Now I need help!

I made some bones and teeth for a neolithic necklace with Daisy yesterday and some of the Milliput hasn't set properly - I've read that I can speed-harden it in the oven for an hour at low setting - has anyone ever done that, and does it work? If not, we're back making bits today, which is a bit of a pain.

 

 

An idiot who is sitting very close to me at the moment one tried the following:

 

Putting a painted brass body shell into the oven to accelerate the drying process:  The solder melted leaving a nicely painted kit of parts, which all had to be stripped back before reassembly and repainting.

 

Using a hot air gun on a low heat setting to accelerate the setting of 2 pack epoxy adhesive: and was able to watch it turn totally liquid and run all over the work being repaired.

 

He's never tried a milliput type material, so with his vast experience in the heating items to accelerate their setting time, would suggest using the technique on a control item before committing to making a total arse of yourself

[jamie92208]

All this mention about traffic stops, perhaps I can add a couple of stories from the other side.

 

My first experience of traffic duty was at Wetherby Races.  My instructions from the old Sgt when I was taken to my post were "Do your best lad, if you get in a mess, come to attention and march smartly to the side of the road to let the B****rs sort themselves out".   It was a warm sunny morning and the race goers were all good humoured.  I soon developed a system.   When deciding when to let the other road move I looked for any open topped car with a good looking young lady in it, then stopped that car.......

 

A friend of mine was asked to investigate a car parked in a school car park one lunchtime.  The couple in it were engaged in a bit of afternoon delight.  He knocked on the window and the driver said "What's the problem officer we're only necking"   My mates reply was "Well put your neck away and show me your driving licence."

 

I once went to check on an isolated hotel that was being renovated and there had been lots of thefts of materials.  A car was parked near the woods so I checked it.  An older man and his much younger 'secretary' were busily engaged.  My approach brought things to a halt so I told the driver why I was checking.   I then asked to look in the boot of the car to see if there was any stolen stuff there.  He adjusted his dress, then opened the boot, inside was a good collection of top shelf magazines, several of which had the advert for cream cakes on the back cover with the strapline "naughty but nice".   I turned to the driver and said "That sums up your situation quite well doesn't it sir"   He was not amused but I was.

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

 

As an incidental those little cartoon badgers which my employer applied to the rear of its vehicles for a few years attracted other attention.  One American tourist was wont to enquire why we "Had skunks humping the back wheels" of our buses!

 

 

Rick, that's brilliant!

 

So much so that I feel that the term 'Cockwomble' ought to be replaced by 'Skunkhumper'.

Edited April 13, 2017 by Happy Hippo

[Tony_S]

I was going to suggest a blob of mixed Milliput to see what happens. I have used other two part epoxy putty products and have found the setting time to be a bit variable but they do eventually. Baking in the oven wasn't appropriate due to size for the things I have recently repaired with epoxy putty but I often baked Matthew's Warhammer metal figures at about 40C to speed up putty setting. I never heated anything fixed with superglue though, well not after the first time.

[andyram]

Morning all. Good to hear that Chris enjoyed the concert. All of these stories of encounters with the boys in blue make me think that, between us, we could probably write a book! During my holidays in North Yorkshire a few years ago, I bought a series of very readable books by Mike Pannett, a Yorkshire police officer. These serialised his memories of working in the North Yorkshire force and are well worth a read. Our "memories from the other side" could be just as entertaining.

I notice that Barry O is currently holidaying in that part of the world. Robin Hood's Bay is a beautiful place. I do hope you have an enjoyable holiday sir. I must say I was a bit jealous to read of Barry's location. The North Yorkshire Moors are my favourite part of the country. If I ever won the lottery I would buy a property up there in a heartbeat (pun intended!). Earlier in the week I saw an advert for a last minute cancellation for a holiday let in Levisham for next week. I was very tempted. If I had the money and did not have to sort out cat accommodation I would have booked it. I certainly feel time away would be very welcome. Although away from school at present I can still feel the stress levels bubbling away beneath the surface. A change of scenery may have helped.

Returning to the subject of encounters with the law, I confess to a very different type of encounter. Many years ago I received a visit from Leicestershire CID who questioned me at home about an arson attack on a farm near to the Great Central Railway. Of course I had been nowhere near the GCR on the day in question. In fact at the time of the attack I was visiting my then girlfriend. She was able to back up the story, as were her parents. The reason for my implication was the discovery of my old lineside permit pass at the location. This was a pass I had dropped some two years previous whilst photographing the railway. Despite a long search I could not find the pass at the location, but the officers managed it.

Back to the present day. Yesterday's trip to MacArthur Glen passed off relatively quickly. Amber's school shoes and trainers duely purchased from Clarkes and she spent her money in the Build a Bear outlet. The advantage of going early showed up later in the day when passing both shops and seeing queues all the way around both of them. A landmark was reached yesterday with Amber losing her first tooth. It finally came out in her Subway lunch! The tooth fairy duely visited last night although sadly I missed out on that duty due to being out on a wild goose chase trying to deliver Avon orders.

Today we are off into Derby centre so that Sarah can visit the bank to pay some money in. I believe there are a few shops she "has" to visit. I may pop into WH Smiths to pick up the new Railway Modeller. My Hornby Magazine arrived yesterday and I have read most of it already.

This evening we are due to be going out for a meal with the inlaws. Sarah and Amber are due to staying at there house tonight ahead of Nottingham Forest's game tomorrow. If we finish the meal early enough I may drop into the pub for a pint with an old friend. However Amber had suggested she may stay with me instead. If so it will be straight home, put Amber to bed, then maybe a Daddy and daughter trip to the GCR tomorrow.

 

Enjoy the day whatever you do.

[Tony_S]

Aditi has had a few conversations with traffic police officers over the years but she has always commented on how kind and lovely they were.

Tony

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Making a start on clearing out the shed ready for repainting and found a couple of unopened tins of white emulsion that had been forgotten. Does paint have a shelf life? if not it will save me a trip to B&Q. Theres still a lot to clear out, a local charity shop is going to be quite happy, the bin men less so. I'd better get on now with it, be back later.