Castle Aching

[joppyuk1]

13 hours ago, brianusa said:

Surely everyone must have bought all the toilet paper and Earl Grey that is needed by now so how much longer must this shopping saga last?

         Brian.

I can now better understand my late mother's habit of having a store cupboard full of extra tinned food, flour, sugar etc., of course she had lived through four or five years of wartime rationing and shortages. She never stockpiled loo paper though!

[runs as required]

16 minutes ago, jcredfer said:

I feel sorry for the dogs.  In one case they get eaten by viscous  creatures, or in the other case they get to have to eat the revolting things!

Actually as a teacher for 26 years, I love the little dears, really - I just could never eat a whole one!

 

I have a bad habit of skim reading never reaching the end of a sentence ...

I thought you’d said “I just could never eat a whole lot!

dh

[jcredfer]

43 minutes ago, runs as required said:

 

I have a bad habit of skim reading never reaching the end of a sentence ...

I thought you’d said “I just could never eat a whole lot!

dh

 

BLEEUUUUUGH!!    

 

J

 

[jcredfer]

48 minutes ago, joppyuk1 said:

I can now better understand my late mother's habit of having a store cupboard full of extra tinned food, flour, sugar etc., of course she had lived through four or five years of wartime rationing and shortages. She never stockpiled loo paper though!

 

My mother was just the same, but as for toilet paper, they just used whatever paper wrapping / bags food was bought in....

 

and...

 

... 'cause - the bought stuff was IZAL!!!!!

 

Julian

 

[Schooner]

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

...where gainful employment is probably limited to riding shotgun on Ocado vans.

 

Wasn't ready. Rinsed keyboard with tea. Thank you

 

Thanks also, parishioners all, for keeping this thread a perpetual source of Good Things. Ideal

[Regularity]

No comment:

 

[Donw]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Ouch, wonky numberplate. The corner plate at the RH end could have done with a bit more careful rounding. Hopefully the brake side looks better. The 3-links are Slaters, which have a finer hook than Smiths and so consequently harder to couple up - if you're usinging Smiths or similar, I won't be offended if you change them. No interior detail on this one, IIRC, or weighting, so a coal load - North Warwickshire's finest - would be in order.

 

Re. comparisons with B.S. Johnson - you've explained how unprepared you were; this confirms how unprepared he always is.

 

Slightly puzzled by you comments. I find thicker hooks more of a problem as the uncoupling hook then gets caught between the link and the side of the hook pulling the link off when trying to extract the hook. I generally use a file to shape the top of the hook to more of a point and slightly round the edges. Seems to help. SLaters and most other 7mm hook seems to be almost sharp edged.

 

I also find a bit of the steel wire in tube crimped into a piece of the tube makes a good uncoupling hook as it can be finer than brass wire while retaining the hook shape.

 

Nice Wagon BTW

 

Don

[Compound2632]

53 minutes ago, Donw said:

 

Slightly puzzled by you comments. I find thicker hooks more of a problem as the uncoupling hook then gets caught between the link and the side of the hook pulling the link off when trying to extract the hook. I generally use a file to shape the top of the hook to more of a point and slightly round the edges. Seems to help. SLaters and most other 7mm hook seems to be almost sharp edged.

 

 

This is 4 mm/ft. The Slaters hook is pretty much scale size; the Smiths hook is about 50% over scale which has the big advantage that there's a larger target to aim for!

[runs as required]

I've just delighted in listening to you James - you got a good long bite of the apple there in Jenny's back garden shed in Bolton.

 

Yes, its true, I could hear a slight trace of Boris somewhere in there as you spieled away to her.

It must be about Oxbridge having to talk to the man on the Clapham omnibus. 

Might your offspring have a trace of Dominic Wotsit in adopting a future Teeside/Durham accent?

 

It is indeed very shocking seeing and hearing yourself:

I once had an opportunity of starring on EU Erasmus night time TV. I'd watched the chap who organised it at the outset (0100- 0300h GMT transmitted free) from a studio in Newcastle.

He'd prepared a script to play safe, but all anyone could see were blue/white flashes from his bald head as he read woodenly looking down at his typescript on the table.

"I can do way better than that" I said to myself - but I couldn't.

A couple of hours (with a half-time break) of rambling repetitive estuary English as I tried to draw my way expansively through about 8 (previously rehearsed  Magic Marker diagrams communicating Patrick Geddes's 'Evolution of Settlements' across some large screens. 

 

None of our total of six 2 hour teaching videos made it into being canned.

 dh

[Edwardian]

57 minutes ago, runs as required said:

I've just delighted in listening to you James - you got a good long bite of the apple there in Jenny's back garden shed in Bolton.

 

 dh

 

Yes, the secret of my early success at the Bar: Talk until the Judge loses the will to live.

 

Sorry, Jenny, it was your show after all!

[jcredfer]

I've stood in front of [far to many !!] classes, only to have the same result.....

 

.....   the behaviour of the audience is dynamically rather different!!    

 

Julian

 

Edited March 22, 2020 by jcredfer
Poor language skills

[Edwardian]

3 minutes ago, jcredfer said:

I've stood in front of [far to many !!] classes, only to have the same result.....

 

.....   the effect on the audience is dynamically rather different!!    

 

Julian

 

 

I've stood in front of far too many bars, come to that .....

 

... and seldom remember anything I said.

[jcredfer]

I had a rather strange experience, similar  in nature to yours, having spent too long at a rather different bar, on the previous evening.  First lesson of the day was gymnastics with some yr 8s and the internal effects of the previous excesses were very evident.  The other PE staff were sat feet-up, with mugs of coffee in hand, smiling quietly, having shared the same bar, on the previous evening.  They had no first period lessons.  As I entered the sports hall, I decided that there were only two ways to survive the assembled mob; either throw yourself on their combined mercy and tell them your state, asking them to go easy on you [works wonders. really does - which probably speaks volumes for their home life!], or take a big breathe and shout "Right then, let's go, time to get the hearts a'pumpin'!  Everyone to the far end, GO!!".....  and continue in the same vein, with any activity you can think of.  I went for the latter, but like your good self had not the slightest recollection of a single moment of those 50 minutes.

 

I wandered into the staff-room, to be faced with 3 PE teachers, looking at me with "Wow, what a fantastic lesson! That was amazing!"

 

I really wish I could recall even a few small glimpses of what had occurred, but I am, eternally, grateful for the result.      

 

Julian

 

PS, If that's what it takes for a really good lesson - Ofsted are even further off beam than most teachers think.

Edited March 22, 2020 by jcredfer

[CF MRC]

James, I’m afraid that you do talk in a similar manner to BJ. You talk rapidly, with ‘ums’ and stutters between words and then emphasising certain words at the expense of others.  Your voice is a little higher in pitch.  Perfectly understandable and plausible - useful for a lawyer?

 

Tim

 

PS. You must have extraordinary powers: as soon as I hit send on this piece, my iPad crashed...

Edited March 23, 2020 by CF MRC
See PS.

[Nearholmer]

BJ punctuates his sentences very strangely, though.

 

He will speak through ......where a full stop should be But then pause in ........ the middle of what should be a ....... sentence Then start on something ........ else without pausing.

 

He also massively de-emphasises, by speaking quickly and quietly, anything he’d rather not have to say. Listen to him announce school closures to hear a stark example.

[runs as required]

i wonder whether frequent use of a 'phone' voice recorder rehearsing and re-winding a short 5 minute presentation would be a useful way of ironing out unfortunate mannerisms.

I used to do this years ago with my 21st birthday present of a reel-to-reel Grundig.  It was really helpful for rehearsing key presentations - eventually  it got stolen in Zambia when I was in my thirties.

When teaching I used to pull students up (invariably women architects) for starting an oral presentation with an apology.  Ugh!

And students were always much more brutal critics of one-another than staff ever dared to be!

dh

[Orion]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

BJ punctuates his sentences very strangely, though.

 

He will speak through ......where a full stop should be But then pause in ........ the middle of what should be a ....... sentence Then start on something ........ else without pausing.

 

He also massively de-emphasises, by speaking quickly and quietly, anything he’d rather not have to say. Listen to him announce school closures to hear a stark example.

 

[Nearholmer]

There is a very good book called “Claptrap”, which analyses how ‘great’ speakers package and deliver speeches, and it turns out that basic structures are quite formulaic, although thankfully not obviously so, because of differing styles, intonation etc.

 

BJ doesn’t use the classic structures (I wonder if he is consciously trying not to ‘come the Churchill’ right now, for fear of ridicule), and as a result his messaging isn’t all that clear ....... the classic structures are just that because they work as communication tools.

 

Banging home a message, ending with a contrasting pair, and letting it ‘hang in the air’ is good ...... he doesn’t.

[Edwardian]

"everyone stay in the hoose and look out the windies", excellent! 

[Edwardian]

Yes, well, I've never done anything like the Jenny Kirk thing before, and I was horrified at the result.  Perhaps to be avoided in future, but if I do find myself thrust again into the limelight, perhaps, as suggested, some ironing out of the hesitant verbal mannerisms in advance would be a good thing.  Quite what I do about my absurd accent I'm none too sure. 

[Hroth]

14 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Yes, well, I've never done anything like the Jenny Kirk thing before, and I was horrified at the result.  Perhaps to be avoided in future, but if I do find myself thrust again into the limelight, perhaps, as suggested, some ironing out of the hesitant verbal mannerisms in advance would be a good thing.  Quite what I do about my absurd accent I'm none too sure. 

 

It wasn't that bad, apart from the slight resemblance in manner.  Your  comments were informative and without windy repetition or hesitation. It was interesting  to listen to.

 

As for accent, most people think their  voices are horrible  when they hear a recording played back, that's  what  I feel when I listen to MINE!

 

On another tack, I went down to my bank this morning and it's  shut  until  Wednesday. Are they expecting panic withdrawals?

 

[CKPR]

I actually did the dreaded 'media training' in a previous job and found it to be very practical. Our tutors were ex-ITN and Reuters journalists who coached us in unscripted live interviewing in which we had to convey the gist of a complex clinical or professional issue in less than 30s. We did practice  interviews in real-time in replica TV and radio studios as a part of a mock 'live' news programme. I'd definitely recommend this sort of training (and not just because they said I did very well).

Edited March 23, 2020 by CKPR

[Compound2632]

22 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Quite what I do about my absurd accent I'm none too sure. 

 

Ignore it. As a teacher, I've been accused by pupils of "sounding posh". My standard reply is that I'm from Birmingham, I speak with a short "a" (grass) and to me their southern long "a" (grarss) sounds posh.

 

Long a's posh, innit?

[St Enodoc]

4 minutes ago, CKPR said:

I actually did the dreaded 'media training' in a previous job and found it to be very practical. Our tutors were ex-ITN and Reuters journalists who coached us in unscripted live interviewing in which we had to convey the gist of a complex clinical or professional issue in less than 30s and we did practice  interviews in real time in replica TV and radio studios as a part of a mock 'live' news programme. I'd definitely recommend this sort of training.

Takes me back! The worst was the "down the line" TV interview where all you could see was the camera in front of you and all you could hear was the disembodied voice of the interviewer. Most disconcerting.

[St Enodoc]

6 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Long a's posh, innit?

Yah.