The Night Mail

[AndyID]

20 minutes ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

As the original loco worked in Swansea Docks, one of the functions includes the sounds of seagulls . . . . . . . . 

 

 

Yes, but does that include them "functioning" all over the cab and boiler? 😀

[Happy Hippo]

59 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Yes, but does that include them "functioning" all over the cab and boiler? 😀

Funnily enough, the Bee Gees made a song about these creatures:

 

Shy Talkin'.

 

It refers to both the noise they make and their NATO identification/classification.

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, AndyID said:

 

Yes, but does that include them "functioning" all over the cab and boiler? 😀

Universal Function (or FU) controls the cloacal orifice 

 

The Ark Function (or FARK) controls quantity, viscosity and stain-ability of the emissions. 

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

Just now, Gwiwer said:

Universal Function (or FU) controls the cloacal orifice 

 

The Ark Function (or FARK) controls quantity, viscosity and stain-ability of the emissions. 

 

 

There writes a man with much first hand experience of the subject.

[Oldddudders]

9 hours ago, AndyID said:

That's because it was a B25 (the type used in the '42 Tokyo Raid) on a commemorative Armistice/Veterans Day flight. 

Mitchell? Back in the '70s one sat at Shoreham Airport for some years.

[Tony_S]

18 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Mitchell? Back in the '70s one sat at Shoreham Airport for some years.

Southend Airport has a Vulcan. It can move about on the ground.

[jamie92208]

10 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

Not unlike the amount of skirting I've still got to paint

 

Andy

Why does that make me think of these immortal lines by Tom Lehrer

 

It was I who stepped on your dress, la la la.

The skirts all came off I confess la la la,

Revealing for all the assembled  to see

Just what it was that endeared you to me.

 

 

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Mitchell? Back in the '70s one sat at Shoreham Airport for some years.

By the way, Happy Birthday Ian and best wishes to Sherry.

 

Jamie

Edited November 12, 2022 by jamie92208

[pH]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

Mitchell? Back in the '70s one sat at Shoreham Airport for some years.

A Mitchell was used as the main camera plane for filming the flying scenes in the movie ‘Battle of Britain’. I saw it in the air, leading a group of (pseudo) Me109s over Ramsey in Cambridgeshire in September 1968.

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

Mitchell? Back in the '70s one sat at Shoreham Airport for some years.

Maybe because back in the 70s it was often not possible to take off or land there. 
 

Plans for a hard runway to overcome the problems of having an airport on riverside flood-plain which was often saturated were rejected multiple times. There was concern over Shoreham being unsuitable for the sort of use seen at the likes of Southend or Lympne; smaller cross-Channel comnercial flights and even small jets where hitherto the largest aircraft normally using the facility were the locally-built Beagle Pup, the Isle of Wight native Britten-Norman Islander and the inevitable array of small Cessnas. 
 

The only road access involves passing beneath the railway (at the site of Bungalow Town, otherwise Shoreham Airport, Halt) using a single-lane height-restricted bridge which always flooded after heavy rains. Or using the “top gate” onto the A27 (the site of the recent tragic air-show crash) which led into faster-moving traffic and was unsafe when making right turns. For many years the route involved crossing the narrow and weight-restricted wooden toll bridge making it impossible for large or heavy vehicles to access the airport by any route other than the westbound A27. 
 

Now they have their runway.  After years of intermittent planning investigations. It was eventually approved not as a “hard runway” but as an “all-weather landing strip”. Which turns out to be exactly the same thing in this case. 

[Gwiwer]

31 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

By the way, Happy Burthday Ian and best wishes to Sherry.

 

Sentiments echoed here. 

[Oldddudders]

Thanks for the birthday wishes! My day has been made by the fact that Sherry, sometimes on my arm, walked all the way to the church for the coffee morning, and all the way back. This, as they say, is huge, a much longer distance than any since her op, only 12 days ago. 

 

While there, we sat with a most attractive young woman, who surprised us by saying she has been married for 25 years - and is a pharmacist at Torbay Hospital, where we had had such Rolls-Royce service in A&E a week ago. We left her in no doubt about the positive impression that service had left upon us.

 

Indirectly connected with my birthday, I had ordered a few model items yesterday from a well-known shop - and DPD delivered just after 11, so well done all. But the address label had me in stitches, since the first line gives my name, then "the legend"! My infamy goes far and wide!

[Tony_S]

@Oldddudders Wishing you a very happy birthday. Thank you for the updates on Sherry’s recovery. Aditi asks me every day for an update and I pass on your news. 
I did smile at the 25 years married comment. A few people were convinced that Aditi and I would only be together for a year! The ones who did say that have conveniently forgotten what they said. It was, after all a long time ago now.

[iL Dottore]

On 11/11/2022 at 11:07, Northmoor said:

….when the law prevents the governing party from hanging on to power any longer, we have a general election and they are replaced by a new government, formed of members of a different party, most of whom studied PPE at Oxford University.

True words: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/feb/23/ppe-oxford-university-degree-that-rules-britain

 

I don’t think Britain could be a “Banana Republic“, apart from not producing bananas, it doesn’t have the right sort of weather.
 

You really need sunny weather to effectively grind the hopes, aspirations and freedoms of the people under the heels of your steel toed jackboots. In the sort of wet and cold weather Britain is infamous for, the Elite Presidential Guard is probably more likely to bunk off for a quick ciggy and a hot cuppa than ruthlessly gun down innocent men, women and children whilst sweating heavily in their elegant, but impractical, Elite Guard uniforms 

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

Sentiments echoed here. 

Me too! (I missed the birthday announcement)

[Tony_S]

After all the shed clearing, rodent eviction and compost moving I thought today’s task of repainting the compost bin would be easy. I found my tin of Cuprinol Purple Pansy, and a suitable brush. I opened the tin to give it a stir and paint started pouring out of a hole in the bottom of the can. Fortunately I was near the compost bin so placed the can on the bin lid and ran for a paint kettle. So before starting the painting I had to wash down the garden path as Purple Pansy isn’t a good look for the slabs. I have ordered another tin as I suspect another coat of paint will be required. I haven’t had a hole appear in a tin of paint before. I don’t think there were mice in that shed.

Tony

[BoD]

Many happy returns, Ian.

[petethemole]

1 hour ago, pH said:

A Mitchell was used as the main camera plane for filming the flying scenes in the movie ‘Battle of Britain’. I saw it in the air, leading a group of (pseudo) Me109s over Ramsey in Cambridgeshire in September 1968.

I saw it over Southend at about the same time and wondered about the colour scheme, not knowing about the film.  I thought it might have been painted as a formation leader like the B17s and B24s that were used for bomber groups to form up on.  They didn't take part in the missions as older, less fit aircraft were used for the role.

[SM42]

37 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

After all the shed clearing, rodent eviction and compost moving I thought today’s task of repainting the compost bin would be easy. I found my tin of Cuprinol Purple Pansy, and a suitable brush. I opened the tin to give it a stir and paint started pouring out of a hole in the bottom of the can. Fortunately I was near the compost bin so placed the can on the bin lid and ran for a paint kettle. So before starting the painting I had to wash down the garden path as Purple Pansy isn’t a good look for the slabs. I have ordered another tin as I suspect another coat of paint will be required. I haven’t had a hole appear in a tin of paint before. I don’t think there were mice in that shed.

Tony

 

If the paint does that to the tin, I dread to think what it will do to the compost bin

 

Andy

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

After all the shed clearing, rodent eviction and compost moving I thought today’s task of repainting the compost bin would be easy. I found my tin of Cuprinol Purple Pansy..........

 

Purple Pansy?  PURPLE PANSY??  That'll be Aditi's choice then.....

 

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

..........and a suitable brush. I opened the tin to give it a stir and paint started pouring out of a hole in the bottom of the can. Fortunately I was near the compost bin so placed the can on the bin lid and ran for a paint kettle.

 

Uncle Psycho Bear did that very same thing (though not with Purple Pansy....) many, many moons ago - only he picked the can up and proceeded to run around the garden shouting "What'll I do, what'll I do?"

For some strange reason Auntie Polybear soon terminated his employment in anything remotely decorating related - much to his relief.

 

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

I have ordered another tin as I suspect another coat of paint will be required. I haven’t had a hole appear in a tin of paint before. I don’t think there were mice in that shed.

Tony

 

A polite snottogram sent to Cuprinol - with a photo of the old tin showing the hole might just result in a voucher; either the tin is made of monkey metal or the plating is duff.

Edited November 12, 2022 by polybear

[Tony_S]

27 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

A polite snottogram sent to Cuprinol - with a photo of the old tin showing the hole might just result in a voucher; either the tin is made of monkey metal or the plating is duff.

It has been in the shed for quite a long time. Until I evicted them there were giant slugs up in the roof. Perhaps Essex wildlife is becoming Australian.  I bet they have a can opening mollusc or tin boring spider. 

[Tony_S]

47 minutes ago, polybear said:

Purple Pansy?  PURPLE PANSY??  That'll be Aditi's choice then..

Well, sort of. As supplied it was a bluish grey shade called lavender.  Aditi wanted something a bit brighter when we repainted it. Looking at the colour chart , I said something like “how about that colour then?”  At which point she decided that would be nice. I don’t think I would like the summerhouse, fences or sheds to be Purple Pansy but it looks quite nice on the compost bin. 

Edited November 12, 2022 by Tony_S
Include photo of bin.

[SM42]

Could be worse 

 

It could be magnolia, Fresh Flour

 

Andy

[Tony_S]

10 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Could be worse 

 

It could be magnolia, Fresh Flour

 

Andy

Paint inside the house is magnolia. We need something different to let us know we are out in the garden.

[PhilJ W]

3 hours ago, Tony_S said:

It has been in the shed for quite a long time. Until I evicted them there were giant slugs up in the roof. Perhaps Essex wildlife is becoming Australian.  I bet they have a can opening mollusc or tin boring spider. 

If you want giant slugs Barbados is the place, I holidayed there way back in 1979. They were up to a foot long and about three inches in diameter. The hotel where I stayed had an enormous garden and the rooms were actually cabins spread through the garden. The actual hotel part had only about six rooms, the dining area and reception. What attracted the slugs was the air conditioning, the rooms/cabins were nice and cool.

[PhilJ W]

8 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Mitchell? Back in the '70s one sat at Shoreham Airport for some years.

 

6 hours ago, pH said:

A Mitchell was used as the main camera plane for filming the flying scenes in the movie ‘Battle of Britain’. I saw it in the air, leading a group of (pseudo) Me109s over Ramsey in Cambridgeshire in September 1968.

One and the same aircraft. A few years after it was used as a camera ship in the film it was restored to wartime condition and IIRC is now in Germany.