alastairq

Pie factory?

I think the hoomin equivalent is, wrapping you around their little finger???

This is what happens when one lets the kids sit down too heavily in the rear seat?

Some problems there........Firstly, they don't have to beg for my vote......They have had a significant majority here for decades...the constituency being full of wealthy landowners, forelock-tuggin' lower orders, pensioners who come here to die, in their little seaside bungalows....and precious few from the 'working class'.... Secondly, our sittin' MP [who is a classic /old car enthusiast who has some sort of support in view of my other interests....torn somewhat, I am/ was! :) ] has retired,replaced by a young upstart from what I presume to be a long standing , wealthy business owning [or, did own....Dewhirst, if that name means anything?] EY family? So won't give a figg for my views or votes , as I 'don't count'..... Besides, my constituency is being turned into two......I suppose the Cons are hoping that they can now get two con seats instead of one? [Which is why LA areas were divided up....to get more conservative councilors into the one LA?]

Whoever convinced you of that misunderstanding? Post-carb cars hide their solubility under plastic coverings.....placed there by manufacturers to deliberately deceive the gullible car buying public! Anyway, floors aren't essential.....just 'nice-to-haves'...

That puss has similar colourings to the wee lad that adopted me last summer...and is still here. Mind, I knew where my lad had come from.....next door! They have a habit of giving homes [shelter and some grub] to various unhomables from the Cat's Protection folk....Along with sheep, ducks, etc.....[all unwanted where they were before....a quite noisy back garden!] ''My'' lad was one of a couple who arrived next door last summer...a much older, huge bundle of fluff who really doesn't want to confront anybody, and is wary of hoomins...and Bloo, so called [by next door] for his pale blue eyes. Bloo spent almost a month simply sitting on the steps watching my back door [I already had a not--mi-cat from the previous year....] Then , once he had plucked up the courage, he came inside....not to go outside again except for essentials.. According to Cat's Protection, he was thought to have brain damage....[He is a can short of a six-pack]... Next door aren't too worried about it all....they understand that one doesn't actually 'own' cats....they pick choose where they want to be.... It is accepted that if one of 'their' feline acquisitions prefers to live at mine, then so be it! I haven't gone out of my way to acquire any cats....more the other way around. I draw the line when next door's hens come a-knocking on my back door, however.... As do my not-mi-cats...cos the hens have a habit of blocking the catflap! Anyway, Bloo has a ''grubby chin'' just like TT-pete's lad... The trouble all really started when I replaced the old broken cat flap, with one that worked both ways...Prior to that, all cats learnt to knock on my back door when they wanted to come in..

I'm wondering how many cars in these pix would make excellent , useful modes of low cost transport for auldfahrts today????

Given the propensity for guardians of the Lieu to wear masks to prevent their own identity, that should be interesting? Personally I thought this 'mask' wearing was a consideration towards small children and pensioners who might be watching, and may find the ugly faces too much to cope with? Will that also extend to news footage where faces are pixelated out? Perhaps the arrests will extend to all the conservative blue-rinse ladies who manage to daube so much makeup on their faces, that to see them 'in the raw', so to speak, can lead to PTSD in the poor, and complete failure of Facial Recognition AI 'softwear' to identify? A question I'd like to pose is, what can I say to any member of the Conservatives who knocks on my door, canvassing, when I live in a profoundly conservative area of the country? I'd prefer it if they ran away screaming, of course...but one cannot have everything, I suppose?

Not quite shippystuff, but I thought this was an interesting enlightenment

I did read that another reason for the preponderance of new SUVs is the actual weight of the cars due to the batteries? The SUV design being the only thing capable of hauling tons of flammable waste around... In any event, it is all rather an irrelevance to me, since I don't think I'll ever be in a financial position of being able to acquire a new{?} car....Or even a pre 2017 'new' car? I am looking to be left with the choice of something usable as a stiff old pensioner, that is well over the 40 year old mark....and for no more than a grand or so, if that? Cheap to run [fuel wise, gotta be petrol], zero VED rated [even pre 2017 comes into play there?}, cheap on tyres, cheap on spares, easy to mend [one doesn't 'mend' new cars, does one?}, easy to get access to....hopefully with some sort of heater, as I feel the cold these days [probably don't eat enough?}....No, I don't picnic by the roadside...not my scene! But I do tend to spend more time driving back lanes these days, so often take to the muddy grass verges to allow obese moderns to squeeze past... Might help if I didn't need to wash the thing every week, too....

Not any longer...flogged it last summer, to realise the 'investment' of a small pension lumpysum...Nowt lost, much pleasure gained, Dearest Daughter now married......But the Ex needed a 'new' car, with no money to buy one, so I stumped up the cash....[we share taxi duties for my son to attend Uni, without having to use public [and useless] transport. The joys of autism.... :) } If that hadn't occurred, I might have stumped up for a reasonable Morris Minor...cheap to run, cheap to repair, and a bit more upright for my aging unbending body. However, perhaps not to be..Oh well, such is life, and I still have the Dellow, and a Cannon in bits, and a FIAT 126 Bis in bits....plus lots to anno the family with when I kharkitt.

Well, I now know they sold at least one!!

What amazed me about the CSMA magazine...[and put me right off the CSMA as an organization altogether]....was the fact that their driving assertions, and responses to letters [as above]....all completely ignored the fact that the Civil Service possessed the largest single body of driving & vehicle experts in the country, if not globally....All Specialist Driver Instructors with the MoD [and DSA] were Civil Servants....yet their knowledge and expertise was totally ignored by the CSMA! It was as if the Civil Service actually found subject-matter-experts within their ranks to be an embarrassment [to the office wallahs?] Facts getting in the way of bar-room knowledge [or, FAcebook, these days of cheap supermarket booze?]....??

No, there won't be a ''world war three'' in the old, cold war sense. That is recognised as being counter productive to all concerned. But we will likely see an attempt by Russia, within the next few years, to challenge NATO's Article 5....That is Putin's [acknowledged, and proven] ambition, to see the collapse of NATO [and probably the EU too]...so that Russia can then interact with other countries on a bilateral basis. Russia has always known that they could never stand up to the combined resources of NATO..[which is why they chose to concentrate their military energies on air defence, EW, etc]..during the cold war. But once NATO is seen as a hollow entity [would countries really rush to the support of those whom Russia attacks? ], then Russia can interact with all the smaller countries from a position of power, based on size & resources. Putin genuinely believes the democratic west is on the decline. He's probably right in that respect. Any politician who thinks this is all bluster and rubbish, needs to take their heads out of the sand. Russia doesn't want escalation, so will chose to prod NATO somewhere where the likes of us in the UK won't care about. Somewhere where, if NATO does stand up for its beliefs, Russia can withdraw and say ''ooops, sorry, bit of a blunder there''..... We are no averse to dumping on less fortunate nationalities, as history has proved. Much will depend on how secure Putin sees his regime within Russia?

For political psychology [from an expert who advises the UK Govt......] try looking through this guy's videos? https://www.youtube.com/@VladVexlerChat/videos He explains exactly what Putin's real intentions are. It is dangerous to view Russian policy from UK eyes...

Folks, try a few of these Youtube Channelers? For the key takeaways.... On recruitment and retention , try

The problem is, the current inability to recruit & retain. However, this is not unique to the UK Armed Forces. Armed Forces pretty much the world over are having the same recruitment & retention problems. I think the real issue is a total lack of strategy to enable the Country as a whole to become resilient within a couple of years or so. We are so reliant on outside sources for all our current needs, as society dictates, that we are far too vulnerable as a country. It only takes a short bombardment [one day of sorties from north of Norway is sufficient] from Russian cruise missiles and the whole Country would be approaching the ''dark ages'....literally..So reliant are we on wind, Norwegian gas, etc..for our civilian needs. As civilians, we are not mentally or physically prepared for such hardships. As a society, as it stands at present, we'd fall apart in next to no time. We lack the gazumph that existed during 30's....We also lack a generation that hasn't endured the Cold War, or the fears that were generated. I'm not on about nuclear warfare...far from it, that is unnecessary in order to persuade out voting population that we really should not support NATO, or Europe, or anybody else, any more...Especially when it means our electric cars cannot be recharged, or we'd miss our sunny hols in Majorca! The USA may be heading that way too....Isolationism is very attractive if one is economically large enough to not be subdued by bilateral international dealings. I'd like to have a lot more faith in our institutions as well...But the current crop of politicians seem intent on breeding mistrust.

The big question has to be, how long will Article 5 stand up? Do we [or anybody else for that matter?] really want NATO to continue? Or will everybody's foreign policies be reduced to ''I'm all right, Jack, s#d you?'' Will the carriers actually end up off Norway? Would we [the UK's voting public?] be bothered about Finland? Truly? Patton was right [IIRC?],

Re- the UK insurance issue? Isn't that a good way of forcing Russia to waste a lot of money? After all, when I think about how many decades I've motored around making sure nobody can have a successful claim against me, must mean my insurers have made quite a tidy profit out of my driving? Probably why the Ukrainians [bless them, they have my unequivocal support...] decided to strike Russia's export facilities in the Baltic..rather than sink the tankers?

I personally believe the incidents were down to the unfortunate siting of the sign informing one of the railway station location? The side road ''Station Approach'' was immediately before the crossing [from the 'town' side]...and the side road, ''Station Avenue' was immediately after the crossing [on the old town side].. Both would have been signed showing the location of the railway station.... The crossings were of the lifting barrier type [not gates].... Another incident I recall witnessing, [as a bus driver] occurred when a cyclist rode to the front of the queue, inadvertently squeezing his front wheel between the verticals of the curtain barrier underneath the pole... Don't you all know that feeling when witnessing the advent of someone's impending doom, not being able, or willing, to do anything about it? Yup, the train passed, the barriers started to lift, the cyclist was deposited over his back wheel, and the pushbike sedately rose up to a considerable height, dangling by its front wheel. I perhaps recall a certain amount of uncertainty about proceeding. Maybe I wanted to see out the drama [bored?]? Maybe because I was driving a double decker, I wasn't too sure my roof would clear the dangling bicycle? [Imagine the insurance claim form? Especially when answering the question concerning whereabouts on the bus did the cycle hit? I don't think saying ''top deck front window'' would be taken as anything but me taking the wee wee?] In any event, I can only imagine the back & forth between the signalman and whoever went to tell him of the incident...and could he bring the barriers back down again, to retrieve the pushbike? Indeed, life ''on the buses'' was always full of these wee amusing events..often regaled later in the crew mess room.... Indeed, one of the conductors was, at the time, writing a journal of memoirs of a bus conductor, filled with accounts of all the amusing events that happened on an almost daily basis. A heady mix of general public, and traffic produces all sorts when out & about in it all, 24/7.

I recall witnessing such an event at Quay Road crossing, Bridlington, back in both the 70's and the later 80's....Both cars....I believe both got as far as the signal box, before suffering the inevitable abuse from the signalman [person]... I would have been driving a bus at the time, so couldn't hang around to see the outcome, but I believe no trains were harmed during either exercise...

I guess there are still some proper ''sailors'' in the Navy? [In my day the height of modern technology on the bridge [my usual workplace at sea]...was a Decca Navigator...which couldn't be relied upon entirely. LORAN wasn't available as the ships I sailed in were British ships, and we didn't entirely trust the yanks...} Bridge control of the injins????? A telegraph, a rev counter, and for emergencies, a telephone to 'down below'.....[Three rings of the telegraph meant ''effin' full astern!!''] Suez was shut the entire time I was ''at sea''.... A six month 'trip' meant three round trips, UK-Gulf.....Kharg Island at one end, Isle o Grain at the other...24 hours alongside at both ends..great!!! [I think not]....Luckily for me I spent more time in the Med, than going round the Cape....Syria /Lebanon one end, a few days later, Italy! A lot more than 24 hours in port as well....That's if a certain somebody didn't blow up one of the pipelines? Which happened on more than one occasion, if my old journals are anything to go by? Anyway, I take it, if there was a ''proper'' sailor on that bridge, they were taken ''all aback?'' [Flat aback?]

The smaller ship jumped into the way...

Re-the collision...I know little of modern ships' mechanical problems [having been a Navigation Cadet all very much in the era of the sextant]...but I do wonder, watching the video, whether there had been an issue with the control of the engines...and in which direction they went? Others who are professionally involved may know different, but I recall certain makes of ships main diesel engines actually having a trait of folk not being certain which way they'd turn [for sure?] when re-stating from 'engine stop?' The name 'Doxford' somehow springs to mind? My experience was solely with shtim and Burmeister & Wain...But I do recall having had the hammering home of '''when ringing down for full astern, confirm [make damned sure] the rev counter started swinging in the desired direction....'' Obviously those older folk on the bridge had suffered harrowing experiences in this direction?