Early Risers.

[Kingzance]

Good morning from a grey, cool NEHerts.
 

When commanded by The Bladder to arise just before 4am, I took a circuitous route back to my pit / scratcher / bed that involved me looking out of a south facing window. There in the heavens was a bright conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn and (not visible to the human eye) Pluto. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I found I CBA to get dressed and erect telescope and photographic equipment so went back to bed but then spend a long time considering the error of my ways before drifting off again for ninety minutes further sleep.

 

Responding to the discussions on various minority groupings pushing their agendas, we should not forget that last weekend we commemorated the end of The European phase of a huge conflict that had its roots in the behaviour of a small group of zealots, in their case opposed to another small religious grouping. We do not seem to learn from history! Our society as a whole remains very tolerant, even accepting the fact the small groups invariably exploit such tolerance as a form of weakness. We see today several small groupings pushing their own agendas under the guise of inequality or protecting the planet. As far as the food warriors go, may I point out that life expectancy has increased significantly over the past two centuries, in part but not wholly due to the availability of food to the wider part of society. That some find preparing and cooking too much of a PITA and choose to routinely gorge on pre-prepared foods no doubt accounts for some of the medical conditions around .that may result in a decline in life expectancy. The past two millennia at least have seen how our bodies have adapted to how we take in and process foodstuffs too. My tolerant view is that I am happy to let the Vegan followers continue down their own path but please, in exchange for my tolerance, stop shoving your agenda down the throats (pun intended) of the rest of us! Bacon sardines and egg banjos will remain in my diet.

 

We were part of a Zoom meeting last night involving nine couples. Whilst pleasant enough, it highlighted the fact that our group (and not just limited to that group) should show courtesy to anyone speaking and not butt in - when four people shout at the same time, nothing can be heard. We have another such session with our extended family this evening for a quiz and once more there will be much raising of voices. Dulcet tones, my a**e!

 

Onwards and upwards, lawn to deal with, decision on what we will eat tonight will be promulgated downwards no doubt at some time and then I will know more about my duties for the day. Now for some non-ersatz coffee in a small cup, sufficient to get my metabolism kick started.

 

Be good, stay safe and keep an eye out for stray lerts.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It doesn’t seem very warm here but occasional sunny spells have happened. 
 We had toast for breakfast. Most of my caffeine intake comes from tea rather than coffee.

Lots of vegetarians in Aditi’s family. Some eat eggs, cheese or fish, others don’t. One cousin’s wife is a Jain whose vegan diet isn’t a recent fad but originates from nearly 3000 years ago. In order not to be a nuisance when away from home she adopts a vegetarian diet. 

We won’t be heading to the seaside today, I won’t be leaving the house/garden at all. I am still advised to stay at home until the end of June. I expect that to be extended to October except for medical appointments. 
Tony

[Barry O]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Banjoes are specifically fried egg sarnies/butties, so called because of the similarity in looks to the main body of a banjo and a frying egg.

 

Never eat Shreddies

My favourite banjoe ( I stand corrected) was one made with Walls tinned Sausage , square. Lovely with a small dash of red sauce..

 

Baz

[Kingzance]

I worked in the food industry from 1980 to 2015, covering dairies, slaughterhouses, processing plants and vegetable packers in addition to brewing, distilling and soft drinks operators. For all the hysteria about Trump’s chlorinated chickens, may I inform you that the UK standard for final rinse water in a dairy bottling plant was a minimum of 0.5ppm of available chlorine, achieved by adding sodium hypochlorite (bleach). The UK’s chicken processors have for years used a 1-2ppm available chlorine solution for general washing of the equipment that carries carcasses and as a spray separating the “dirty” end (slaughtering, de-feathering - a process in itself using sodium hydroxide - and disembowelling) from cutting and packing. Salad and vegetable washers use water treated to contain 1-2ppm of a different “sanitiser”, hydrogen peroxide in the form of peroxyacetic acid. Hydrogen peroxide is of course known to many women as a hair bleach.
 

Much of the chicken used in fast food outlets or in processed foods is generally produced in the Far East, processed there and shipped over here. That is because it is simply cheaper to do that rather than use raw material produced to British and or EU standards and clearly that was and remains a legal way of doing business. Disinfection in the Far East involves washing everything in sodium hypochlorite although I am unsure about how the levels of free chlorine are either monitored or controlled. It is believed that Covid-19 first appeared in what are called “wet markets” in China, places where anything and everything is regarded as food and hygiene rules we expect simply don’t exist. Where poverty exists, you are unlikely to find a Food Standards Agency or a Health & Safety Executive. We  could of course address this by adopting the wider French way, where you buy the locally produced seasonal raw material in your market or shop and do the processing yourself!
 

Whilst it is very fashionable to blame Trump for everything wrong in the world today, our food industry is certainly NOT without fault and the numerous uninformed comments on that results in wild hypocrisy which simply isn’t addressing the shortcomings in the UK food chain. Washing carcasses in a mild sanitising solution is not as potentially damaging to our health as chemically curing meats - a process in which those chemicals remain in the final product offered for sale. Even salt, widely used In the food industry, is there as a preservative but comprises in part Chloride, derived from, you’ve guessed it, Chlorine!

[Barry O]

6 minutes ago, Kingzance said:

I worked in the food industry from 1980 to 2015, covering dairies, slaughterhouses, processing plants and vegetable packers in addition to brewing, distilling and soft drinks operators. For all the hysteria about Trump’s chlorinated chickens, may I inform you that the UK standard for final rinse water in a dairy bottling plant was a minimum of 0.5ppm of available chlorine, achieved by adding sodium hypochlorite (bleach). The UK’s chicken processors have for years used a 1-2ppm available chlorine solution for general washing of the equipment that carries carcasses and as a spray separating the “dirty” end (slaughtering, de-feathering - a process in itself using sodium hydroxide - and disembowelling) from cutting and packing. Salad and vegetable washers use water treated to contain 1-2ppm of a different “sanitiser”, hydrogen peroxide in the form of peroxyacetic acid. Hydrogen peroxide is of course known to many women as a hair bleach.
 

Much of the chicken used in fast food outlets or in processed foods is generally produced in the Far East, processed there and shipped over here. That is because it is simply cheaper to do that rather than use raw material produced to British and or EU standards and clearly that was and remains a legal way of doing business. Disinfection in the Far East involves washing everything in sodium hypochlorite although I am unsure about how the levels of free chlorine are either monitored or controlled. It is believed that Covid-19 first appeared in what are called “wet markets” in China, places where anything and everything is regarded as food and hygiene rules we expect simply don’t exist. Where poverty exists, you are unlikely to find a Food Standards Agency or a Health & Safety Executive. We  could of course address this by adopting the wider French way, where you buy the locally produced seasonal raw material in your market or shop and do the processing yourself!
 

Whilst it is very fashionable to blame Trump for everything wrong in the world today, our food industry is certainly NOT without fault and the numerous uninformed comments on that results in wild hypocrisy which simply isn’t addressing the shortcomings in the UK food chain. Washing carcasses in a mild sanitising solution is not as potentially damaging to our health as chemically curing meats - a process in which those chemicals remain in the final product offered for sale. Even salt, widely used In the food industry, is there as a preservative but comprises in part Chloride, derived from, you’ve guessed it, Chlorine!

but we have data which says the US has more salmonella cases per year per head of population than we do (by about 10 times) so we must be doing something they don't do..

 

Baz

[Chris116]

1 hour ago, grandadbob said:

Oh happy day!  I mentioned the talk of bacon sandwiches on here to The Boss and within minutes I had been presented with one.  She is obviously in a good mood.  Now thinking of what to mention next!   Something unmentionable perhaps? 

!

You could find the mood changes very quickly if you are not very careful. Thank her for the bacon sandwich and keep quiet is probably your best bet! 

[tigerburnie]

Morning, well this is a special day, as part of it being World Whisky Day, a local distillery(GlenCadam) ran a competition to take part in an online whisky tasting session. SWMBO entered me in for it and we won one of the 4 places. The 3 whisky miniatures have duly been delivered and we kick off later this afternoon...……………………..I may be gone for some time...………………. 

[grandadbob]

9 minutes ago, Chris116 said:

You could find the mood changes very quickly if you are not very careful. Thank her for the bacon sandwich and keep quiet is probably your best bet! 

 

Still OK at the moment. She's just asked me (again*) if there's anything in particular I'd like for our Golden Wedding Anniversary next month. 

 

*She asks almost every other day and doesn't really want to buy me anything railway related but has accepted that that is all I'm likely to ask for.

 

The time is probably nigh to mention something unmentionable!  

 

 

Edited May 16, 2020 by grandadbob

[Happy Hippo]

2 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

Morning, well this is a special day, as part of it being World Whisky Day, a local distillery(GlenCadam) ran a competition to take part in an online whisky tasting session. SWMBO entered me in for it and we won one of the 4 places. The 3 whisky miniatures have duly been delivered and we kick off later this afternoon...……………………..I may be gone for some time...………………. 

I look longingly at my emergency reserve of Welsh malts and continue to resist.

 

The same can be said for that last pack of OFMC buscuits.  I look longingly , but still resist.

 

What you probably don't want to know, World Hippo day is the 15 Feb!

 

Coincidentally, that's the same day as the Obergrumpenfuhrer's and our granddaughter's birthday.

 

And I'm sure that Dave Hunt and the Q are both aware that 09 Mar is National Crab Meat Day.

[Happy Hippo]

7 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

 

Still OK at the moment. She's just asked me (again*) if there's anything in particular I'd like for our Golden Wedding Anniversary next month. 

7.25" gauge battery electric GP38 would be a start.

 

Edited May 16, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[Chris116]

28 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

 

Still OK at the moment. She's just asked me (again*) if there's anything in particular I'd like for our Golden Wedding Anniversary next month. 

 

*She asks almost every other day and doesn't really want to buy me anything railway related but has accepted that that is all I'm likely to ask for.

 

The time is probably nigh to mention something unmentionable!  

 

 

She does not want to know what you want, what she is doing is making sure YOU don't forget to buy her something! 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

A dull, cool a breezy start to the day, I don't think I'll be leaving the workshop door open today. I've just made a muggertea to take with me so I can stay there until dinner time, when I shall head back for something to eat. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later 

[Happy Hippo]

Unable to visit the barbers, I have decided to try one of the finest known American hair styles:

 

 

Just need the pickup, and a hound (I got the guns) y'all.

[Coombe Barton]

4 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 

 

 

 

Could you please tell me the source of this information? It's something I can use.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Nice and sunny out there so i might venture to the garden later and wield the hedge trimmer on some very non-hedge trimming work (it's great on brambles).  For the record I do not like coffee because it is the most disappointing drink in the world (aside from some brands of tea sold in Australia).  the problem with coffee, especially the really good quality stuff, is that it smells nice but the taste never matches the expectation while the less than good stuff seems to lack any sort of interesting or attractive taste.  To go even further into food horrors I love eating meat - always have done, always will - and I'm no more harming the planet with my meat eating than I was half a century ago and in fact I'm probably eating less now that I was then.  The problem is not me eating meat but ever more people eating it than used to 40 or 50 years ago thus the planet is being despoiled in many places in order to produce it.   And yes I know where it comes from and no - most chicken no longer tastes half as good as it did when I used to be given the choice of which one would be getting its neck broken to start off its conversion into our Christmas dinner.

 

Now back to Covidiot land (sorry) but it seem our local rozzers are well up the leader board at nabbing Covidiots.  in the period 27 March to 11 May a total of 12,445 people in England were fined for alleged breach of lockdown guidance - the Met were at the top of the leader board with 906;  Thames Valley came in second with 866; then North Yorkshire with 843;  Devon & Cornwall 799;  West Yorkshire 758; Lancashire 736; all other forces were below 700.  Full table available should anyone be interested.

 

Now the interesting question of language and terminology or even aslamg used in various ways.  It is inevitable I think that within any relatively close knit organisation it own form of language is likely to develop and words will emerge which can sometimes be of very localised use.  I would be interested to know for example if army slang local terminology varied between regiments although it would obviously vary between different arms as the artillery were in a different position of internal  usage from, say, the infantry?  Often I have heard this sort of thing as being described as a sort of 'protective' means oif quickly knowing who is or isn't part of what might loosely be termed a 'brotherhood' or certainly a way of identifying others who share your trade or occupation.  Thus it is easy to equally identify those who don't 'belong' because they don't understand the patois so sometimes this sort of usage is regarded as not being 'inclusive' enough.    I definitely found in the railway that such terminology could vary considerably and sometimes over relatively short geographic distances, for example in a distance of less than 50 miles two completely different words were used to describe exactly the same thing and if you went another 50-60 miles you'd find a third term in use to describe it (and that was all within one BR Region, all former GWR, and the object in question was a 16ton mineral wagon - which as it happens was a term none of them used!).  I've long been fascinated by such differences within the railway and the way you could talk to another person in the same sort of role but not know some of the words he was using - the Scottish Region of BR was incidentally the one which was really different from all the rest - nothing to do with accents but simply different words for the same thing.

 

Anyway back to now and enjoy the rest of your day folks and stay safe.  But an interesting question - if you can catch a cold while social distancing how is that you can't catch Covid-19 when the virus is from the same basic family?

[BoD]

50 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

What you probably don't want to know, World Hippo day is the 15 Feb!

 

And I'm sure that Dave Hunt and the Q are both aware that 09 Mar is National Crab Meat Day.

I believe Friday was World Work From Home Day.
It didn’t seem to get much of a mention though.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Haven't ventured out yet but the sun is shining and it looks warm.

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

 

 

 

 

Vegetarianism has a long, storied and distinguished history and connects man with land; Veganism, on the other hand, is an artificial construct only made possible by modern technology. Furthermore (and here I am being serious), veganism is NOT environmentally friendly: the various food substitutes (such as almond or soy milk) require very large quantities of both energy and water to produce (I read that 100 litres of water are required to make 1 litre of soy milk), the huge amounts of palm oil needed for vegan products has led to tropical deforestation with the resulting palm oil tree plantations shrinking even further the Orang Utang (and other animal) Habitats, replacing leather with plastic is not exactly carbon-neutral, and so on.

 

So, if I may be very contentious here, I would like to offer the opinion that vegans are the Jihadi wing of the non-meat eater’s movement: extreme, intolerant, preachy and in pursuit of an unrealistic goal...  

 

 

 

Anyway, enjoy your carnivorous or herbivorous breakfast of choice.

 

Enjoy Sunday

 

iD

My take on vegitarianism is that we are omnivores and its perfectly natural to eat both meat and veg. Having said that the type of meat that we eat has changed over time. I was a great fan of Time Team (and other archeology programs). In many when ancient human remains the bones were tested and this revealed the diet of the individual. Quite often fish featured quite strongly with red meat rarely if ever. This was often backed up by the finding in rubbish pits of the food remains of shellfish and other fish remains. Add to that that a piscean diet is healthier even than a vegetarian diet, a vegan diet is actually the unhealthiest. This leads me to conclude that our ancestors diet was fish based rather than red meat. The taste for red meat probably comes from the Neanderthals, 12.5% of us has their genes and 60% of their diet was red meat.

5 hours ago, chrisf said:

 

Greetings one and all

 

 

 

  Once I had stopped doing this a delightful half-hour or so was spent on the phone with 88C putting the world to rights while my digi box was busy recording “Brief Encounter” from BBC2. 

 

Chris

At first I read 88C as BBC, if that was so I'd love to listen in on that conversation. Talking of the BBC, tonights offering was supposed to be the Eurovision Song Contest which I detest. So as a replacement they are putting on an ersatz version so I'll have to get painting so that I can watch it dry whilst its on. 

Edited May 16, 2020 by PhilJ W

[Gwiwer]

13 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

The fang mender was visited and two replacement fillings fitted in 20 minutes, no pain at all.

Morning Jamie - do you mind if I send SWMBO over?  She is wearing a job lot of dental putty over a badly broken molar because there is no service of any kind here.  The Gummint suggested they would set up emergency clinics with PPE precautions but only two seem to exist and both are only taking referrals from their own patient lists.  So - no tooth wrangling of any sort for the duration although there are suggestions that more urgent-treatment locations will open in June or July.  

[Sir TophamHatt]

Started watching The Vicar of Dibley again.

Forgot how funny this series is.  It's certainly of it's time though.

 

I wonder if stuff from the 90s hasn't aged well because we have moved on a lot?

Lost still looks like it could be set today and that was mid 2000s (so admittedly a bit newer).

[Gwiwer]

43 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Unable to visit the barbers, I have decided to try one of the finest known American hair styles:

 

 

Just need the pickup, and a hound (I got the guns) y'all.

 

Which roughly translated into Strine give you this where the text is as accurate as the image:

 

http://www.apalecanadian.com/australias-native-species-the-bogan/

 

[Happy Hippo]

42 minutes ago, BoD said:

I believe Friday was World Work From Home Day.
It didn’t seem to get much of a mention though.

Pray what is work?

 

In fact could you also explain the concept of a weekend?

[Coombe Barton]

2 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

In fact could you also explain the concept of a weekend?

There are seven weekend days per week, six Saturdays and a Sunday.

[Coombe Barton]

Just now, Coombe Barton said:

There are seven weekend days per week, six Saturdays and a Sunday.

Except that at the moment for some of us five of those Saturdays are interrupted by online meetings.

[Gwiwer]

5 hours ago, chrisf said:

Were it not for that ruddy virus I would have fancied breakfast out today but there are neither pubs nor supermarket cafes to satisfy that whim

Totally with you there Chris.  It has been too long without an option to breakfast out.  Or indeed anything out bar queuing for the shops.  

 

5 hours ago, chrisf said:

I’m convinced that we are now running on infinite improbability drive.  Until this week who would have expected a Secretary of State for Transport to advise against the use of public transport?

I know what you mean.  Notwithstanding the fact that commercial operators are largely between the rock and hard place of desperately needing income (fares) yet being obliged to uphold government advice .....  The railways are under the overall control of DfT for a few months to come as is TfL as of Monday when many of us will discover to our frustration that we have abruptly and without warning lost the freedom to use our "Freedom Pass" during peak hours.  I have no idea yet how that will be policed - will we be permitted to tap on at 15.59 and ride to the end of the route or will we be turfed off or made to pay at 16.00?  

 

The "avoid public transport" thing is the only way they have come up with so far of being seen to limit the numbers travelling.  People need to travel. Some people are choosing to travel.  Already we have seen clogged roads and complaints that "avoid public transport" advice is causing lengthy traffic jams.  The powers-that-be have to give some sort of message.  We await Monday morning to see how many people have come back to work and by what means they are travelling.  DfT is now insisting that TfL runs more tubes and buses as a condition of having their £1.6bn bailout.  And centre-entry on buses is gone meaning fares will apply once again with passengers boarding by the front door and touching in.  My gut feeling is that we are already seeing a steady drift back to the days of a significant morning and afternoon peak and with rather more off-peak use of public transport than before.  It is quite unreasonable to expect many in our major cities to walk or cycle to work.  Distance and trip time are against it.  It would take me perhaps 90 - 120 minutes each way, I would potentially arrive at work in need of a shower (a facility which is not provided neither could it be shared with others currently if it were available) so public transport is the only option.  The same applies for a very large number of others some of whom will return to work / school / other over coming days and weeks.  

[NGT6 1315]

10 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

There are seven weekend days per week, six Saturdays and a Sunday.

 

That, John, is a pattern I can support wholeheartedly!

 

Cheers all. Sunny and breezy, so a barbecue is in the cards indeed! Need a snack right now too, so, later...