PhilJ W

Churchill said "Two great nations separated by a common language."

Don't worry, the orange one has got it all in hand.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Happy birthday Jamie. Just heard a bit of news this morning, I may have mentioned before about the toy fair at the Brentwood Centre, one of the biggest such fairs in the UK. The management company that ran the centre has gone into liquidation and consequently the centre may not reopen immediately once the Covid-19 crisis is over. I do hope that another management company or the council itself can take over but its not looking good for many toy fairs and exhibitions relying on similar premises.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Again time has disappeared, still got things to do, be back later.

Just to think if the Hovercraft had been invented twenty years earlier (late 30's) it could have made a great difference at Dunkirk, operating under the cover of darkness.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Belated best wishes to Tony, I live not quite close enough to the hospital to give him a wave. Been quite a bit going on over there this afternoon what with the air ambulance arriving about an hour and a half ago. For some reason it didn't use the hospital helipad but the golf course on the other side of the road. It left at about ten to four and at four o'clock the heavens opened with hail, thunder and lightning, hopefully the helicopter was well away from there by then. I met my friend in Tess Coes, he had his lad in tow, the first time I had seen the boy since the beginning of March and he's now a couple of inches taller. My friend also informed me that his brother, who lives in Leicester, has tested Covid-19 positive as has his daughter my friends niece. Chips with something for dinner tonight, found some in the freezer when making space for the C*******s stuff, they're well on the way to thawing out now.

I suspect some of it is deliberate by the native English speakers.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A real early riser thanks to some idiot blasting on his horn at five this morning, I couldn't get back to sleep so I got up. Apart from a newspaper round the only work I done before starting a 'proper' job was a traffic survey. Quite well paid for a 15/16 year old but mind numbingly boring as it involved just standing there counting cars and lorries going past for about fifteen hours. In fact from when I left school until I retired I was never out of work. Do you believe in ghosts? I never did and still do not but Carol's weather reports came from the Tower of London and the subject came up. However I have had a 'ghostly' experience that defies explanation. When I was living in Burnham-on-Crouch I was downstairs when I looked out of my back window and saw a young girl standing in the back yard, she had long blond hair and was wearing an old fashioned grey dress. I went out to investigate but there was no sign of her, and I didn't hear the back gate go and it was securely latched. I later asked my neighbour who shared the back entrance if it was a friend of her daughter who was about nine years old at the time, she said that her daughter didn't have a friend of that description (later confirmed by the daughter). A few days later I happened to be talking to one of the locals who's family had lived in the town for generations and I asked him about it. He said "You've seen little Susie then." he then explained that there had been an accident back in the 1890's at my house (built in 1863) where the ten year old daughter of the house had been sitting on the sill of the upstairs window cleaning the windows when she overbalanced and broke her neck in the fall, dying as a result.

Goodnight all.

What is that strange looking locomotive in pic # 6? It looks as if its fitted with some sort of winch.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Where I live the infection rate is just shy of 77 per 100,000 yet the next ward is 245 per 100,000. Ironically like most of the rest of Essex we are in Tier 2 the adjacent ward with the high infection rate is part of Thurrock which is still only Tier 1.