PhilJ W

I had the misfortune to be behind the ultimate henwomble a couple of days ago. The car was a flashy 17 reg. Mercedes coupe, almost certainly brand new. Despite being no other traffic at all she stopped at every road junction and mini roundabout, opened the drivers door and knocked the ash off of her cigarette. Obviously she didn't want to get the ashtrays of her brand new car dirty.

Just had a few spots of rain, but that has had little effect.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A lot cooler today, in fact I had shut some windows at 6 a.m. as it was feeling so cool. Despite being cooler its as sticky as it has been over the last week or so. Not a lot else to report so bye for now, be back later.

Goodnight all.

Certainly a TJ those rear windows are quite distinctive. Production of the TJ continued right up until the end of lorry production at Bedford, all went for export.

The new 'Borismaster' has finished production. No more will be built largely due to the extra 20% cost per bus.

The Routemaster predates the takeover of AEC by Leyland by about ten years. The Titan incorporated many features of the Routemaster but by then Leyland was in trouble and trying to keep their head above water by flogging off the factories in Southall and Park Royal. The Metrobus was not built by Leyland but suffered problems such as corrosion.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Temperature has risen a whole degree in the last half hour or so, its now 24.5 C. Fortunately the front of the house remains relatively cool as it faces due north. Anything and everything that requires any effort is on hold at the moment. Talking of bacon, I hope this doesn't put you off your bacon butties but in certain castles and religeous establishments in medieval France it was common practice to place a pigsty beneath the outlet of the garderobes, the pigs being fed exclusively on the 'products' of the said garderobe. It was said that pigs fed in this way produced the sweetest bacon. Bye for now, be back later.

Goodnight all.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Came across the ultimate henwomble this afternoon. She was driving a flashy Mercedes coupe (17 reg. possibly brand new). At every mini roundabout and/or road junction she stopped despite the road being clear, opened the drivers door and knocking the ash of her cigarette. I only wish I had the Suzuki Jeep with the bull bars I had 25 years ago, I would have been able to add a third car door to the score.

They have their own factory in China. This is why their prices are so competitive.

Routemasters, ex London Titans and Metrobuses operate or have operated in Malta and all of those are integral. What would be more of a concern would be the lack of ground clearance of modern low floor buses.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. It was so hot and sticky last night that I decided to leave my bath to this morning so I was up before seven. According to Carol it won't be as hot today but tomorrow, phew! The poppies are in full bloom and quite a few have bloomed already but theres still plenty more that haven't flowered yet. Thats it for now, be back later.

Like a previous generation of ex London buses sent to Malta. The SMS type AEC Swifts that went into service in Malta in the early 80's were at least six feet longer than the usual Maltese buses. I visited Malta at the time and I witnessed one of these buses having to shunt to and fro to negotiate a tight and narrow corner. They did however have less of a tendency for self immolation than the bendy-buses only one having done so AFAIK. Many survived in service, though much rebuilt until the Arriva take over.

Goodnight all.

From a modelling point of view it would seem that if you could have the sides laser cut it would be far cheaper than 3D printing.

Near to where I live there is a fairly busy road with a very sharp right turn. Quite often cars and vans fail to make the turn and end up in the bushes. It amused me one morning to see a Transit van that had failed to take the corner had a sign on the back. 'Well driven? ring 0800 ****.'

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Belated 40th anniversary greetings to Aditi and Tony. Sad news this morning from Finsbury Park, its been treated as a terrorist incident. One death though this may not be because of the attack but two people seriously injured during the attack and several others injured. The death was an elderly man who suffered a heart attack before the incident when a van was driven into the helpers and the crowd that had gathered around him. The capsicum powder has done its job and no sign of any ants now but keeping an eye out for them. Another of those collection charity bags dropped through the door this morning, no registered charity number so it will make a good rubbish bag. These bags are from private companies anyway who have paid the charities up front to use their name so whatever goes in those bags all procedes goes to the company coffers. Thats it for now, be back later.

Goodnight all

A missionary is sent to a village in Africa and when he gets there he discovers that the village is entirely occupied by men, there is not a woman to be seen anywhere. After a few days his curiousity gets the better of him and he asks the chief what the men did when they needed sex. The chief then showed him a donkey tied up behind one of the huts and told the missionary that this was for the men who felt the urge for sex. A few weeks later the missionary was feeling a bit frisky so he went to the donkey and started giving it a good rogering. Whilst he was doing so he looked up and saw the villagers watching him curiously. He then asked the chief isn't that what the villagers do, the chief answered "No, we get on the donkey and ride to the womens village."

Morning all from Estuary-Land. 25.5C here this morning and rising, so I won't be doing much today. I do need to pop down to Canvey this morning so I'm going shortly to avoid all the traffic. According to the news reports on the Grenfell disaster they now are giving the number of people missing as 58 which with the number of known casualties puts the death toll at almost 90.

Goodnight all.

A country girl goes to the big city to make her fortune. About a year later she comes home to visit her mum wearing a very expensive mink coat. Her mother asks 'Where did you get that mink coat?' 'I won it at bingo.' she replied. A few months later the girl paid another visit to her mother this time she arrived in a brand new and very expensive sports car. Her mother asked 'Where did you get that car?' to which the daughter replied 'I won it at bingo.' A further few months went by and the girl again visited her mother, this time festooned with diamonds and gold, her mother asked where they came from and received the same answer. Later that evening the mother offered to run a bath for the daughter and when the daughter was about to get into the bath she realised that there was only a quarter of an inch of water in the bath. She asked her mother 'Why is there only a quarter of an inch of water in the bath?' to which came the reply 'Well you don't want to get your bingo card wet do you?'

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Just spotted some flying ants emerging which usually means that a thunderstorm is likely. Capsicum powder applied liberally around from where they were emerging, a minute gap in the corner of the back door frame, time to get the sealant out. Hoping for the thunderstorm overnight to clear the air as despite the time the temperature is still a sweltering 26C.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. When I checked my Facebook messages this morning one of my friends was reminiscing about the works 'Beano', that pretty soon became a 'Bring back the beano' thread. The only misgiving I have about bringing back the beano is that with the same people today would require more P stops. You will always see a few of the extreme 'looney left' at most political/strike situations but far fewer than appears on TV and in the newspapers as much of the media goes out of their way to film and/or photograph them. At the other extreme some of the comments from the 'raving right' are sickening. IMHO the response of the authorities in the aftermath of this disaster was totally inadequate and there can be many reasons for that not all of them political. It looks like another scorcher today so I'm going to stay in the shade and do as little as possible.