Castle Aching

[Edwardian]

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Would have been more fun if they'd kept it the name of the bloke who first settled there, in 1835..

 

 

 

 

Bruce and, presumably, Sheila, Wayne?

 

Though I do like the idea of the Bat Corks round the Bat Hat.

[Regularity]

19 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Same number of wheels.

Very differently arranged, though…

[monkeysarefun]

10 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Bruce and, presumably, Sheila, Wayne?

 

Though I do like the idea of the Bat Corks round the Bat Hat.

 

 

Quick Robin, to the Bat Ute!

 

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[rocor]

6 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Bruce and, presumably, Sheila, Wayne?

 

Though I do like the idea of the Bat Corks round the Bat Hat.

 

Then there are his deadly adversaries, such as:

 

Bilby boy.

The great Galah.

Goanna Girl.

Humphry Humphead Wrasse.

Nancy Numbat.

Tasman the Devil Dancer.

Wallaroo Woman.

 

 

[Compound2632]

Just a little something to remind us of West Norfolk:

 

 

[Embedded link to photo on the NNR website.]

Edited March 18, 2022 by Compound2632

[MrWolf]

9 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I hadn’t previously realised quite how peculiar that costume is. Somehow rather disquieting to see a chap dressed in Lycra body suit and what look like black silk underpants and gloves. Note how suspect it sounds when written down.

 

There were other things about that show which clouded the mind and prevented such questions being asked at the time...

 

[rockershovel]

9 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I hadn’t previously realised quite how peculiar that costume is. Somehow rather disquieting to see a chap dressed in Lycra body suit and what look like black silk underpants and gloves. Note how suspect it sounds when written down.

Particularly that "dance belts" don't appear to have been allowed for in the budget. 

 

Mind you his "young ward" wasn't much better...

[Flying Fox 34F]

When I still lived in the UK, I was approximately 24 miles from Gotham and 30 miles from New York. Also don’t forget Boston!!!!

 

Paul

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

Just a little something to remind us of West Norfolk:

 

 

[Embedded link to photo on the NNR website.]

 

Only took several goes over 11 minutes to see the picture you'd selected.

 

Still, signed the new tenancy yesterday and spoke to a very nice lady from BT today. Just 10 working days to full fibre installation at the new gaff, so I'm told. Can't wait!

 

Keith the Shed Man is coming on Tuesday.  Soon we will know the dimensions of CA's new home.

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Only took several goes over 11 minutes to see the picture you'd selected.

 

Still, signed the new tenancy yesterday and spoke to a very nice lady from BT today. Just 10 working days to full fibre installation at the new gaff, so I'm told. Can't wait!

 

Keith the Shed Man is coming on Tuesday.  Soon we will know the dimensions of CA's new home.

 

You building a shed? Jeez here if you rent strictly speaking you cant even put a picture hook into a wall. 

 

On the other hand the landlord is responsible for every single item of maintenance so you can call up the manging agency when your bathroom sink starts dripping.

[Edwardian]

Can put up a shed (on previous tenant's chicken run) and as many picture hooks as I like provided I make good.

 

The problem with renting in the UK is that you need the luck of a decent landlord. Hopefully that is what I now have.

 

Anyway, I'm not building a shed. Keith is building a shed.

 

Actually, possibly two!

 

 

 

 

[Nearholmer]

Heavily depends on the exact form of tenancy. I hired a furnished (down to the teaspoons) flat for a few weeks while sorting out a house move and that was on mega-tight terms, the landlord’s agent even conducted spot audits to check the place was being kept immaculate! A lot of the tenants there were Indian guys over on short-term IT contracts and they organised a cricket match, with homemade catering, on the green outside every evening - very civilised.

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

 

 

 

 

Guess what my surname is!

 

 

Edited March 18, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

Guess what my surname is!

 

 

Shed?

[Tom Burnham]

On 17/03/2022 at 07:28, Nearholmer said:

I was looking at a possible bike ride route the other day, over to Thetford Forest, and was surprised that it included Euston, which I was hitherto firmly convinced was the station in London that I commuted to for donkey’s years, rather than a tiny village and unfeasibly large mansion in Suffolk.

 

 

I believe Euston Road in London was built on land owned by the Duke of Grafton, whose little place in the country was Euston Hall. My great grandfather was estate carpenter at Euston Hall until he got fed up with it and moved to the burgeoning London suburbs. One of his gripes was that if you wanted to get married you had to wait until an estate cottage fell vacant.

[Northroader]

Psst! After a shed, did I hear, guvnor??

[Nearholmer]

It’s hard to convey how blooming huge this chap’s sheds are. He’s 15+ miles from us, and by going to the top of a nearby hill, I can see them on a clear day.

 

 

Apparently, they contain mostly old jam-jars filled with miscellaneous screws, unfinished fretwork projects, and broken hoovers that he’ll get round to fixing one day. His  neighbours says the sheds are becoming an intrusion and that if he puts up another one they will speak to the council about it.

 

 

Edited March 19, 2022 by Nearholmer

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, Nearholmer said:

It’s hard to convey how blooming huge this chap’s sheds are. 

 

Ah, so that's where Heaton Lodge Junction lives!

[alastairq]

The only real drawback to renting is insecurity.  [After the first 6 months]

The 'owner' of one of NE england's largest rental companies, used to rent himself [By that, I meant, used to live in a rented house...not, renting himself out..just in case]...in preference to 'owning'....

There was a TV documentary about his lifestyle, and the problems he found when renting.

His main gripe was the lack of 'political' enthusiasm that would encourage, on a statutory level, landlords entering into long-term tenancy agreements.

Unlike the situation in places like Germany...where long term tenancies were the norm, rather than the exception.

In the UK there is no such encouragement.

 

Which I suppose fits well with the Thatcherite social policies of turning us all into so-called 'property owners?'

[Which all pre-supposes we all follow the accepted social norm, and don't get divorced, suffer life-changing health issues, endure such trivia as redundancies, income failures, etc.....or other such social esoterica that can result in not fulfilling our sides of the bargain vis a vis mortgages....Which is, in m my eyes, renting, under a more acceptable title? Unless all goes well with our pre-planned lives? Default, for whatever reason, and the financial world will grab back everything we thought was ours.

[Unless one is switched on enough to petition personal bankruptcy..thereby using one of the the financial establishment's major weapons, against itself....which they don't like one bit, being hoist by their own petards. 

Incidentally, one of the last bastions of  blatant discrimination by the Establishment!

 

[One can abuse children, batter spouses, etc with impunity as far as the establishment is concerned,,,,,but beat them at their own game financially, and one becomes one of the world's worst in their eyes.]

 

Anyway, back to renting.....the fella I mentioned above, rented a rather large rambling mansion & estate....with landlord's consent, spent many tens of thousands on installing a new kitchen.

As he pointed out, despite ''only'' renting, the kitchen was his lifestyle choice.  For his benefit....despite it seeming to be 'lost' money. [Think about how many items we all actually throw our money away on??]

Then he wanted to spend thousands on improving the grounds of the estate.

But before he did that, he wanted to enter into a long term leasing agreement with the landlord.

But there lay the difficulty. There Being no advantage, legally or financially, for the landlord to agree. On the contrary, Landlords are encouraged only to enter into relatively short term leasing agreements. In the UK!!

So, the fella ceased renting. His landlord lost a lot of income as a result as well...

 

I rent!

More by dint of age, following, essentially, life changing events.

But I am lucky, I have a private landlord, no agencies involved.    I started out in 'life' renting [bedsit in Brockley Rise, Lunnon], before climbing onto the property ladder, in the days when one went cap in hand to a building society manager for a mortgage. Unlike later on, when they fell over themselves to provide me with cheap finance .

 

Although I asked first, I purchased and had installed, a rather nifty car port, and created a 'driveway' underneath it.  Although, theoretically, I could dismantle it and 'take it with me' when eventually I have to leave....I shall not probably find somewhere where I can conveniently re-erect it...so it will stay.

 

I do adopt the 'renters' attitudes towards carpets and furniture....all my bookcases and furniture which normally one would butt up against the walls, have blocks of polystyrene taped behind, so as not to mark the wall plaster.

My landlord hasn't 'inspected' my home for two years now...yet is only too pleased to rush out and fix if something more major does crop up.

 

I do actually dread untoward events happening to him as well..since what affects him, might affect his attitude towards his property investment.

There being no legal compulsion for him to remain as a landlord, or to respect his tenant's security of tenure.

He is lucky in many ways, I am in my 8th year here....so he has had security of income form my rent...here's hoping he doesn't try to raise the rent beyond my limited income's ability to pay?  At the moment, with the cost of living rises, I am about on my limits...With no prospect of assistance from local authorities either...my income being only just outside their statutory limits for  ''benefits'' of any kind.

 

But, this place really does suit me to a tee....Rural, with the ability to be relatively self sufficient [unlike town  or estate dwellers], loads of driveway for my penchant for things old, automotively speaking...and loads of room for stuff model railway-like. Even a double portacabin as a workshop, plus a large-ish garden. Good neighbours too...no street lights, not a lot of crime [any more]...help always at hand, and folk know they can come to me for help, in whatever way I can too...without making things formal, and going onto  lists.  Often find a dozen fresh eggs on my front doorstep..even if a lot of them are blue! Field full of spring lambs just over the road.....Just the sort of environment to spend one's older age enjoying.

I hope it lasts as long as I do, tis all....

 

But, sod this darned bedroom tax!!!

[Edwardian]

On 17/03/2022 at 07:28, Nearholmer said:

I was looking at a possible bike ride route the other day, over to Thetford Forest, and was surprised that it included Euston, which I was hitherto firmly convinced was the station in London that I commuted to for donkey’s years, rather than a tiny village and unfeasibly large mansion in Suffolk.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately the WNR Bury Extension lies to the west of Euston.

 

Having said that, aristocrats have been know both to oppose and to sponsor branch lines. I don't know what the Duke of Grafton* or the Directors would think of a branch to Euston, but, Euston Station on the WNR! Has to be done, right?

 

Either this could be a WNR branch, an estate branch (Lord Wiilougby's Edenham branch comes to mind), or, WNR as far as Barnham and private thereafter.

 

Why his Grace would want to connect at all (Euston being a short carriage ride from GER at Barnham or Thetford), let alone via the WNR is a mystery for the moment. 

 

The WNR Norwich extension was a thing of the early '80s, so I had assumed the Bury Extension came a bit earlier, perhaps late '70s.  Unfortunately, my books are all packed up, but I believe the line from Thetford to Bury was opened in 1876, so it is possible that the WNR got to Bury before that. However, Thetford has been on the railway since 1845, a good decade before the WNR began, so unless the Duke tired of the drive to Thetford or fell out with the GER, I'm not sure why he'd consider a branch from the WNR to Euston a sensible idea!

 

* The incumbent would either have been the 6th Duke or the 7th Duke, his younger bro.  The changeover year was 1882, the year, IIRC, the WNR was racing to get to Norwich before the Lynn & Fakenham (MGN). So the Bury Extension could be around the same time or a little before, with a Euston branch a little after, or we could go for a late '60s-early '70s push for Bury by the WNR, in which case it's certainly the 6th Duke.  

 

[rocor]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

It’s hard to convey how blooming huge this chap’s sheds are. He’s 15+ miles from us, and by going to the top of a nearby hill, I can see them on a clear day.

 

 

Apparently, they contain mostly old jam-jars filled with miscellaneous screws, unfinished fretwork projects, and broken hoovers that he’ll get round to fixing one day. His  neighbours says the sheds are becoming an intrusion and that if he puts up another one they will speak to the council about it.

 

 

 

You would need this hot air, space heater to keep those sheds warm on cold days.

 

Science Museum Group

© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

[alastairq]

Would it not have the habit of blowing the doors off? 

[Edwardian]

2 minutes ago, alastairq said:

Would it not have the habit of blowing the doors off? 

 

 

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, alastairq said:

Unlike the situation in places like Germany...where long term tenancies were the norm, rather than the exception.

In the UK there is no such encouragement.

 

Which I suppose fits well with the Thatcherite social policies of turning us all into so-called 'property owners?'

I remember visiting Germany on a school exchange trip in 1980 - a very enjoyable visit, and I went back again a year later - and one of our teachers point out to me that the long-term tenancies meant lower rents (as increases were locked into tracking inflation, and at any point in time, only a small percentage of agreements were being renegotiated so prices remained stable. In turn this meant that there was more money in circulation in the economy, which led to better saving habits as well as more spending on products, which improved the economic performance but also meant a much higher quality of life and standard of living.

Right to buy, along with the deregulation of the mortgage market*, did nothing but increase the cost of property, but since the “market value” or property was used to define wealth (rather than something more useful, such as disposable income and quality of life) then it was seen as a positive.

 

* It was difficult if not impossible to get a mortgage on a house which fronted directly onto a street, which kept the market value of these houses down, and created a useful starting point for savers as the houses were typically the price on the annual average salary. A friend worked as a croupier during the seventies, and saved enough to buy such a house just before this all kicked off. His £4,000 house was useful 10 years later when he sold it for £75,000 and bought a house with his wife, who also sold a flat in London on a similar basis. Result: nice house with no mortgage! The introduction of higher loan to value ratios, plus the inclusion of secondary incomes(usually “the wife”) did nothing more than increase the average house price by the average second income…

 

Consequently, there aren’t enough sheds around!

 

[Edwardian]

26 minutes ago, Regularity said:

 

Consequently, there aren’t enough sheds around!

 

 

Except perhaps, here:

 

 

 

Most famous, of course, for inspiring the barely literate (so I'm informed) erotic novel, Fifty Sheds of Grey, and, of course, that classic fantasy role-play games, Dungeness and Dragons.