Early Risers.

[Coombe Barton]

The Taj Mahal in Penzance is run by Ghurkas. Absolutely excellent.

 

[simontaylor484]

Imagine finding him in your pool

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

The Taj Mahal in Penzance is run by Ghurkas. Absolutely excellent.

 

Some years ago I went to a Gurkha run restaurant on the high street in Aldershot. Very good, excellent  service. The curries were very creamy and not as hot as Indian ones.  

 

I once saw Gurkha soldiers described as pleasantly homicidal.  Apparently rumours of their presence in certain parts of the Falklands induced immediate surrender.  

 

Jamie

Edited April 21, 2021 by jamie92208

[simontaylor484]

I do believe the Argentineans believed they would get eaten by the Nepalese Gentlemen so they rushed to surrender

[PupCam]

11 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I couldn’t disagree more. A lot of the advances in medicine, advances we now take for granted, have come out of the various space programs.  Nonstick coatings, new types of plastic, ECG telemetry, advanced ceramics not to mention great advances made in materials technology,  all have their roots in the various space programs, scattered across the globe.

  Puppers is definitely a "+1" on this one!          

 

11 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I am sure that if someone nowadays would make a remake of James Burke’s “Connections“ they would be able to trace how putting a man on the moon lead to the iPhone (does anyone else remember the TV series “Connections“?

Yes, excellent programmes and worth another look via the Tube.   Here is the Starter for Ten

 

 

11 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

It was made back in the days when you actually did have intelligent and informative TV programmes, like Connections or The Ascent of Man or World At War [sadly, it seems like Dear Old David A is the only one still making that sort of program nowadays])

Indeed.  Invariably "Documentaries" (I use the term loosely) are dumbed down to sub-terrain levels these days using the  "Tell them what you going to say, tell them, then tell them what you've told them" all interspersed with a load of childish cartoon graphics formula  so no doubt they appeal to the mouthy, hard of thinking classes. 

 

And while we are on the subject, has anyone watched the SpaceX flights?  

 

Fantastic, real rocket science stuff BUT BUT BUT the inane drivel issuing from the over-excitable, sound like school boys,  "Presenters"  (another term used extremely loosely) is just too much to stomach.  How very old fashioned I must be .....

 

 

 

[jamie92208]

42 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

I do believe the Argentineans believed they would get eaten by the Nepalese Gentlemen so they rushed to surrender

They probably wanted to keep their ears attached to their heads. I'm not sure if the bounty for pairs of enemy ears is still paid.

 

Jamie

Edited April 21, 2021 by jamie92208

[Sidecar Racer]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

I do believe the Argentineans believed they would get eaten by the Nepalese Gentlemen so they rushed to surrender

 

A bit like this then .

 

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Sidecar Racer

[pH]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

Imagine finding him in your pool

Friend of ours found exactly that one hot summer day!

[Ian Abel]

HUMP day.

 

Yesterday a HUGE sigh of relief as the verdict was read. It's a major step in identifying that police CAN be held accountable.  We breathed a collective sigh of relief given we have many friends and family members who are prone to the "driving while black" syndrome. There's a significant difference between having a police force that's unarmed stopping you, no matter WHO YOU ARE, and an armed police stop.

 

Work ramped up as they have a lot of new departments courtesy of the "plague" and they're finally getting around to having me set up security for the department heads/managers and change reports to accommodate same.

 

-1 and partly sunny, headed for 6 later.

 

Stay safe and well.

[The Stationmaster]

I'm getting an unusual reaction to my second Covid jab but I have found that it can readily be dealt with.  No need to take any patent medicine - pork pies work a treat (which is hardly unusual as the reaction emerged as a strong urge to eat a pork pie).

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. My dad held the highest regard for the Gurkhas having served alongside them in Burma. He ended up at Imphal where the Japanese had surrounded the Allies. At night the Japanese tried to infiltrate the perimeter but that was protected by the Gurkhas who used to go into the jungle at sunset and come back in the morning with several pairs of ears each.

29 minutes ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

A bit like thin then .

 

 

That reminded me of a story I was told. Many Australian Aboriginals were also cannibals. There were also many Chinese labourers imported during the early years when Australia was opening up. It was said that the cannibals preferred the Chinese to the Europeans as their meat tasted sweeter.

Edited April 21, 2021 by PhilJ W

[Pacific231G]

Quiet day so far today. Weekly trip to Tesco in the car followed by going back on foot to return jar of Colman's seafood sauce with a fauilty lid meaning it had never been properly sealed. That formed the first 1200m of my usual 4K ish brisk walk and the stepometer app says I've done over 10 000 steps today so far.  I don't entirely believe it though.   

 

Yesterday I actually had a meal out (in both senses of out) with a good friend at a gastropub in Oxfordshire; the first such outing since October and only the third time I've been out of this corner of W. London since then. I was going to go today but, as the Met Office have been predicting, it's got a lot cooler. Yesterday was warm enough to sit outside and very pleasant it was with a pint of Hooky (Hook Norton Brewery) when the sun was shining. I don't think sitting outside today would have been much fun at all. 

 

I noticed today that road traffic has suddenly become incredibly heavy, even more so that yesterday so it can't just be the schools going back. The A40 into London was still crawling at 12.00. Yesterday was wite vans and HGVs galore both in London and on the M40 but this morning local roads were grid locking.   

 

 

[PupCam]

27 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

protected by the Gurkhas who used to go into the jungle at sunset and come back in the morning with several pairs of ears each.

You definitely need to be on the right side of the Gurkhas!

 

[The Stationmaster]

And now the good (?) news - my third pension is to be increased -  by £9.12 per annum (minus £1.82 tax of course). This will give me the grand sum of an extra 14p per week.     But I suppose that  if I save it all up for a year I would be able to buy a sausage roll at Harrods caff and still have £1.12 left over to put towards a a cup of tea to go with it - I won't bother.

[AndrewC]

Area around Plumstead SE London has a very high Nepalese population and many many retired Ghurkas. It goes without saying that also means a good selection of Nepalese restaurants. Sadly our favourite recently changed hands and is more traditional Indian now and they've taken my favourite Gurkhali Chicken and Holy Basin veg off the menu. <meh> So the search is on for a replacement. 

[PupCam]

2 hours ago, PupCam said:

Yes, excellent programmes and worth another look via the Tube.   Here is the Starter for Ten

 

And, according to Wikipedia, there's more ...

 

"In a May 2020 interview, Burke said that he was writing a new Connections book, which would be the basis for a new television series titled Connections 21, slated to air in January 2022"

 

My Popcorn is ready and waiting!

[TheSignalEngineer]

49 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

My dad held the highest regard for the Gurkhas having served alongside them in Burma.

My dad was also full of praise for them, having been in India during 1945-47 as a Military Policeman trying to keep order ahead of Partition. He said that the quickest way to clear the streets if trouble was brewing between the different factions was to turn up with a dozen Gurkhas. 

[Pacific231G]

50 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. My dad held the highest regard for the Gurkhas having served alongside them in Burma. He ended up at Imphal where the Japanese had surrounded the Allies. At night the Japanese tried to infiltrate the perimeter but that was protected by the Gurkhas who used to go into the jungle at sunset and come back in the morning with several pairs of ears each.

That reminded me of a story I was told. Many Australian Aboriginals were also cannibals. There were also many Chinese labourers imported during the early years when Australia was opening up. It was said that the cannibals preferred the Chinese to the Europeans as their meat tasted sweeter.

Hi Phil

 

I'd take such stories with a very large pinch of salt and a very close eye on who is claiming it.  There are actually very few accounts of canibalism for food in credible contemporary descriptions  of aboriginal cultures.

 

I did find a paper looking at relationships between Aboriginals, Europeans and Chinese in a part of Queensland where gold had been discovered. The Chinese were working the goldfields themselves rather than as imported labour. This is a short extract. When he helped to write and edit it in 1980, Norman Mitchell was one of the last remaining Kuku-Yalanji with direct experience of life on the Palmer River before World War II,

 

KUBARA: A KUKU-YALANJI VIEW OF THE CHINESE IN
NORTH QUEENSLAND*
Christopher Anderson and Norman Mitchell

The eating of human flesh probably did occur on the Palmer, but in very particular and limited situations. One of these was probably the ritual consumption of parts of a slain enemy — and after 1873 enemies would have been numerous. Apart from the probably rare actual incidents of human flesh consumption, the strong European belief in Aboriginal cannibalism in this area arose and persists today, I would argue, as an ideological defence mechanism: it states and reinforces the belief that Aborigines were less than human or at the very least were ‘uncivilized’ (if they ate other humans). This then justified their removal from the land and their extermination. The spectre of indigenous cannibalism has been used all over the world to justify colonial violence.

 

There are many other examples of this. For example, after the "discovery" of the Americas. Once Columbus and his ilk realised thagt gold would not be the bonanza they first thought, they turned their attention to slavery. However, Queen Isabella of Spain decreed that locals who did not practise cannibalism should be free from slavery and mistreatment. But those who did, she said, "may be captured and taken to these my Kingdoms and Domains and to other parts of and places and be sold".

The results were entirely predictable  with  saw many indigenous peoples labelled as cannibals, regardless of whether they practised it or not.

Similar accusations have been used in antisemitic propaganda from the middle ages right up to the Nazis.

 

 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. My dad held the highest regard for the Gurkhas having served alongside them in Burma. He ended up at Imphal where the Japanese had surrounded the Allies. At night the Japanese tried to infiltrate the perimeter but that was protected by the Gurkhas who used to go into the jungle at sunset and come back in the morning with several pairs of ears each.

 

 

Obviously Gurkhas are Shakespeare fans:

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears...."

 

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

You definitely need to be on the right side of the Gurkhas!

 

 

Tis' a pity that our own UK Parliament don't abide by that, having treated them so appallingly - their pension being just one example.

 

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

And now the good (?) news - my third pension is to be increased -  by £9.12 per annum (minus £1.82 tax of course). This will give me the grand sum of an extra 14p per week.     But I suppose that  if I save it all up for a year I would be able to buy a sausage roll at Harrods caff and still have £1.12 left over to put towards a a cup of tea to go with it - I won't bother.

 

A much wiser buy would be two LDC's - much, much nicer - and longer lasting*; you'll have £1-30 left over too

 

*Unless you're a Poly....

 

In other news:

A bit of a sort & relocation day for Bear - I need to clear the kitchen units in the Lounge that are currently being used for storage of  kitchen bits, food etc.  Not an easy task, since various hidey-holes were filled with other kitchen bits long ago.  The new kitchen units are due for delivery "from Monday 26th April" - it seems I get an email & text the day before, so the remaining units ideally need to be cleared and gone by Sunday to avoid a last minute rush.  Three of the four are on Freecyle etc. in the hope that a new home can be found (they'd be fine for garage/workshop/utility room use etc.) but sadly no takers as yet - I guess transport to collect them is the big issue for many).

 

Some never learn:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-56828306

 

Fortunately others show some sense at last:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56837107

 

Tomorrow sees a visit from Nurse Covid for another routine C-19 test as part of the ONS testing programme.  Yippee.

I may even get really reckless and do a bit of dusting in the lounge (there's not a lot to dust - most is either packed away or covered up) so not a difficult task on the grand scale of things.

 

[New Haven Neil]

What a daft post I made this morning - we now have 10 covid cases.  Pah.  There's a wabbit away though.....one poor soul is in ICU, but....if they weren't detected until yesterday how did they get that ill, that quickly?  My cynicism engages hard here, they must have known they weren't well several days previously....but chose not to get tested or mention it. Harumph.  The infections are centred on the primary school down the road in Ramsey (the bright lights).

 

Glad the hear from Ian that there has been no trouble in Minneapolis, knowing he has a diverse family, the behaviour of police must be a real concern.  

 

In other news, the lovely sunny day has become a lovely sunny evening - but it's freezing! Woodburner lit again.

 

 

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by New Haven Neil

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, polybear said:

 So some bright spark gives four day's notice before the drawbridge is raised

5 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I suspect most of the people travelling to the UK from India at the moment are British citizens or have right of residence so the main difference after Friday morning is that they will have to quarantine in an approved hotel rather than at home. 

5 hours ago, polybear said:

True - which surely is much better as there is very little chance of not abiding by the rules, which is a real risk when trusting people to "do the right thing" in their own home, surely?

This is a little déjà vu for what happened in the US more than a year ago. Airports were thronged cheek by jowl with Americans desperate to get home before the window closed - no masks, no social distancing. Once stateside there was no 'managed' quarantine either.

 

One wonders how many brought home a viral souvenir or their travel and airport experience and just how much this might have contributed to the initial deadly wave in places like New York?

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

4 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Imagine finding him in your pool

Rather a bear than a 'gator, or a snake - which is very common in Florida.

 

Of course neither is best.

[brianusa]

7 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Rather a bear than a 'gator, or a snake - which is very common in Florida.

 

Of course neither is best.

All we ever had at our pool in California were a couple of ducks!

     Brian.

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

That reminded me of a story I was told. Many Australian Aboriginals were also cannibals. There were also many Chinese labourers imported during the early years when Australia was opening up. It was said that the cannibals preferred the Chinese to the Europeans as their meat tasted sweeter.

Sounds very apocryphal.  People did say that about the highlanders of Papua New Guinea, but these days I'm not convinced of that either. I've never heard it reliably said about indigenous Australians.

 

Chinese 'indentured servants' were imported toward the end of transportation (probably because the flow of cheap British labour was reducing). More Chinese immigrants arrived for the gold rush in the 1850s much like they did in California. They were never welcomed. After transportation ended, Pacific Islanders (from Melanesia) were imported to work sugar cane fields.

 

EDIT:
Posted before I noticed David's excellent reply:

1 hour ago, Pacific231G said:

I'd take such stories with a very large pinch of salt and a very close eye on who is claiming it.

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

15 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I am sure that if someone nowadays would make a remake of James Burke’s “Connections“ they would be able to trace how putting a man on the moon lead to the iPhone (does anyone else remember the TV series “Connections“?

4 hours ago, PupCam said:

 Yes, excellent programmes and worth another look via the Tube. 

"Connections" was an excellent programme. There was a similar concept on US PBS a few years ago called "How we got to now". I remember enjoying the episode "Clean" on drinking water. It was apparently broadcast on BBC Two.

 

This programme (and others) featured how the contributions of actress Hedy Lamarr (whose life story is very compelling) connect with mobile telephony. During the second world war, Ms Lamarr proposed a method of frequency hopping to control torpedoes. Frequency hopping is essential in mobile telephony.

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Ozexpatriate