Early Risers.

[Hroth]

52 minutes ago, petethemole said:

Now you've done it!  I was very careful not suggest that.

 

But it HAD to be said!!!  😁

 

13 minutes ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

I had posted this elsewhere but thought some on here may like the idea. @polybear?

 

And its still silly to pay for an hour of exercise, then scoff coffee and cake immediately afterwards!  Especially if the "refreshments" are inclusive...

 

Perhaps the chat is along the lines of, "exercise and cake don't go together...".

 

[Tony_S]

43 minutes ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

I had posted this elsewhere but thought some on here may like the idea. @polybear?

I had to go to a new site for my recent blood test. Next door to the Health Centre was a Day Care Centre for the over 55s. Probably full of people remembering the old days when they were punk rockers. 

[TheQ]

Same happens in Cambridge..

Though sometimes it's a bit more dramatic.

[BoD]

Our sons’s dog lived with us when he worked strange, long shifts. We grew quite attached to him. He was well cared for and lived to a good age all be it with several and increasing  infirmities.  We had eventually reached to conclusion that he was suffering too much and when my son took him to the vets for what we thought would be the final time the vet said “yes, it’s time for him to go”.

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by BoD

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

Museum work went well,

 Shifting carpets to the skip, ,

The Mekon case to storage in the fire station.

The rest of the time mudding a T84 radar support frame in 1:1000 scale.

 

came home via the orange shed for gravel, and Tes and co's for more food for Ben .

 

dinner in 1/2 hours to be followed by the MRC.

 

 

[The Lurker]

PB is spotted at Invicta Models on a break while filming “Honey I Shrank the Bear’

[DaveF]

I had a trip to Lidl this morning, mainly for non food items but did get a couple of "treats" as well.  It was surprisingly quiet, I don't often go on a Tuesday morning.  I got back home for coffee and a read of a magazine after which I sorted out some photos until lunchtime.

 

This afternoon I spent some time deleting old e mails I had kept in case of need and making sure some software was up to date.  After that I went in the garden and tidied up the edges of the yew where the people who did some jobs for me earlier in the year had cut it almost flat, it now has slightly rounded edges at the top.  I now have to hope that the bare bits sprout - they should as yews normally grow back well when you cut into them.  If not it will have to have a more severe trim.  Then I tidied up more climbing roses, especially the one at the back of the garage, the top of it was well over 11' above ground so the long loppers had to be used.  It should be OK for the winter now, left unpruned at this time of years bits break off it when it gets windy.  Lastly I swept up some leaves from the path at the back of the house.

 

Back inside I read some more of my magazine , it is the one Beamish Museum produces, as a Friend I get a free copy each time.  It is always a fascinating read.  I hope visit it again soon, all being well before Christmas - as long as it is not icy/snowy, the roads round there can be difficult in very bad weather. I am looking forward to seeing the "new" 1950s houses which they have recently opened as well as all the other bits.

 

Next I got out some paint and did some model stuff, trying to get somewhere near the colour of fairly new but slightly dirty Swiss concrete.

 

In a short while it will be tea and reading, later it will be another episode of the French production of Maigret.  

 

It's cold here, 2C at the moment with sleet or snow forecast later.  I may not go very far tomorrow, even if it is fine it is going to be colder.

 

David

 

 

[southern42]

On 27/11/2023 at 14:14, polybear said:

Alexa:  "Hmmm, I don't know that one......"

 

🤣

[Gwiwer]

4 hours ago, Tony_S said:

He wasn’t at all happy about his back legs not working. Perhaps we should have taken him to the vets that night but we waited until the morning but clearly he hadn’t got better.

Our large white cat in Australia, who was only 12 when he became unwell, displayed something similar.  

 

We had for a few months noticed that he would hop up to the back of the armchair and ask for a lift (as in a ride on our shoulders) which we thought of as just "waiting for the bus" but with very little warning one day he was unable to stand at all.  He simply sat looking very sorry for himself and was able to get up onto his front legs and drag himself around.  

 

At that point we knew something was very wrong.  We gave him the day to see if there was any change and because he manifested no outward signs of pain.  There was no crying and not wincing or retreat when touched.  He didn't eat but did drink.  The next morning when he hadn't moved from the spot, had relieved himself where he was and was clearly and then visibly in distress we took him to the vet. 

 

The rest was history.  He had suffered multiple organ failures.  The vet suggested had he not been brought in he might not have lasted the day anyway.  It was the kindest thing to do and the hardest of goodbyes.  We think his uncommonly large size may have contributed to his earlier-than-expected departure but who knows?  He wasn't obese - he was simply a very large cat in the way that one sometimes meets uncommonly large (and small) humans and other species.  

[Gwiwer]

Some have doubted our claim that the Distant (Signal) West has a sea view because there is a line of cottages across the field and we are something like ¾ mile inland. 

 

Let doubts be cast aside.  Here was tonight's sky-show as photographed from the front window upstairs.  And photographed through the window because that particular sash is currently painted shut and needs freeing so the images are compromised by being captured through double-glazing.  

 

That's the sea clearly visible above the rooftops and below the golden light. 

 

 

 

[pH]

It’s getting closer - run!!!

[Tony_S]

Probably not as dangerous as various Australian creatures but dangerous enough to shut down a recycling centre. Not that far from where @PhilJ W does his shopping.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce5p2vnn24yo

 

[polybear]

2 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

I had posted this elsewhere but thought some on here may like the idea. @polybear?

 

A Tenner for a slice of cake??  Bear can get (nearly) three LDC's for that........

 

[The White Rabbit]

9 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Here we are:

I find them an enjoyable snack (or light meal with a salad). I find them preferable to pizza (that’s real pizza - not a frozen chemical factory looks-a-bit-like-food offerings). Pizza, even from a good pizzeria (and there’s damn few of those around) is rarely as good as what you can get in Naples - which is probably the only place in the world where the pizza is damn near perfect (as you’d expect as the Neapolitans invented pizza as a way for bakers to use up leftover bread dough after the daily bread bake).

 

Flammenküchen/tarte flambée is a speciality of the Alsace. As the Alsace has see-sawed between German and French ownership over the centuries, the Alsaciennes (according to my Basler friends [Basel abuts the Alsace as well as Germany]) tend to have all the negative aspects of the French and of the Germans - which is probably why no-one gets “creative” with Alsacienne recipes - no one wants to upset the Alsace 😁🤣😳 

 

I reckon anyone who dares splatter cheap baked beanz onto a flammenküche will find himself being rapidly introduced to that nice Mme Guillotine…

 

8 hours ago, polybear said:

Looks a bit, well, bland to this Bear - though I'd test it....purely in the interests of Science you understand.....

 

Like pizza, it's what you make of it. I'd recommend it, it's an opportunity to have something a bit different but (IMHO) just as tasty (if not more so?) as pizza. You can use some shortcuts (such as buying decent commercial pastry sheets) and the other ingredients are commonly available. Things are a bit busy right now but if someone doesn't beat me to it, I'll write out a recipe. 

 

8 hours ago, Tony_S said:

They used to sell them in Tesco but a quick search online shows that if you want a ready made one you will need to put in an Ocado order. 

 

This one: https://www.ocado.com/products/picard-flammekueche-tarte-flambee-352524011 ? In the past Waitrose has had them, though for the last few years I've made my own. 

 

[Hroth]

11 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

A Tenner for a slice of cake??  Bear can get (nearly) three LDC's for that........

 

 

But you do get some E X E R C I S E too...

 

And a muggacoffee!

[The White Rabbit]

Evening all,

 

A busy few days have been had, one problem has been the short-term loss of Internet access, so I have only just caught up on ERs. Hope nothing important was missed. 

 

One matter which has 'come to my attention' is another instance of Bear moonlighting as a model ... I've seen various 'poses', including Bear on a skateboard, surfboard, bicycle and scooter. Usually with a see-through box of 'goodies' in hand or wobbling on the back... pizza and cake feature heavily. One example: 

 

 

The firm is Reed Boardall - https://2.developmentservers.co.uk/reedboardall2/services/temperature-controlled-distribution/ - based in Boroughbridge, one of their lorries: 

 

 

[Hroth]

Bear also fronted Cresta, a soft drink, in his earlier years...

 

 

Its frothy, man!

 

[New Haven Neil]

43 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Bear also fronted Cresta, a soft drink, in his earlier years...

 

 

Its frothy, man!

 

 

Beat me to it!

[monkeysarefun]

On the opposite end of the Useful Public Transport spectrum was the Sydney Monorail.  Opened in 1988 as part of the Bicentennial year - apparently it was a gift to the people of Sydney who all instantly hated it and would have happily re-gifted it at Christmas to someone else, New Zealand for instance or perhaps  Leeds.

 

 

. It did a loop from the Darling Harbour tourist area to the middle of downtown Sydney  and back again, so basically went nowhere useful that those living in the city would ever need to get to,  but still  had to put up with every day.

 

The huge metal track snaking its way at awning height  through the streets, in front of building facades and spanning intersections and   spoiling the appearance of everything was spectacularly but depressingly ugly.

 

The columns holding it up took up useful parking spots on the street and made it hard for pedestrians to see traffic coming. The track shaded the footpath in winter and when it rained water would lie on top of it, to be pushed off  on both sides by the carriages in a  massive cascade onto all the people on the footpaths below. On wet days those in the know waiting in the crowd to cross the road at street corners would dash for cover on seeing a train coming in the distance. 

 

 

 

Once ridden  for curiosity value - to see the city from one-storey up was a novel perspective and revealed a lot of "interesting" businesses being conducted above the shops  in   the downtown area  -  one never used it again.  It was universally hated and just became a  money losing opportunity for various buyers until it finally got removed around 2013. 

 

The Simpsons "Monorail" episode could have been based on it and those who sold it to us.    The carriages were flogged off on Gumtree by the government for $3000 each

 

Now it is chiefly remembered as the escape device  used by Heath Ledger to get away from the bad guys in the 1999 movie "Two Hands",

 

0 stars.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[grandadbob]

Evenin' each.

All is well here at GDB Towers and I can report that the minor decorating repairs have been completed to the satisfaction of Management and multiple Brownie points have been awarded.   She even poured me a beer before cooking bangers and mash and a glass of Black Stump has been supped and another is ready and waiting.  

 

I saw a mention Alsace earlier.

10 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

no one wants to upset the Alsace 😁🤣😳 

 

Paternal great grandad Louis Kaufmann was born there.  Word was that you didn't mess with him.  Nor his son or his son's son.  The son of his son's son used to have a bit of a rep too and nor do you want to mess with the son of his son's son's son.  ( I think I've got that right)  We've all got Louis as our as second or third name.  Oh and Nicki's second name is Louise as is Abbie's.  They can certainly look after themselves and don't take any prisoners.

 

7 hours ago, Hroth said:

I've just done a census on a tub of Celebrations.  The good news is that the number of Bounties appears to be fewer than in previous years, a mere 7 'orrible wastes of space!

 

I shall incorporate them in a Bounty-lovers Christmas Stocking!

 I'll quite happily take them off your hands. 😁

Time to tend to that glass of wine.

Edited November 28, 2023 by grandadbob

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. A bit late on parade this afternoon. The reason is that I struck a pedestrian on the way back from Tess Coes. I had just left Tess Coes and heading home when just before the PDSA I saw a man walking towards me in the road. I quickly manoeuvred to avoid him but my door mirror struck him. I pulled up and went to find him but he was nowhere to be seen. It didn't help that he was wearing dark clothing and was actually walking in the road. I have informed the police and they surmised that he was probably the worse for drink. 

[Ian Abel]

Afternoon...

 

Bust weekend with various get togethers with friends/family, singing twice on Sunday resulted in me deciding a nap was in order Sunday evening!

 

Yesterday continued busy with the work reports lunacy, Jemma came over in the evening to pick up Whitney.

The moon was suitably photogenic as she was leaving so I took this;

 

Seems we DO qualify for a roof replacement on the rental house (yipee!), though it'll NOW have to wait until Spring as it's too cold <bah>

Asphalt roofing shingles of the type installed in most of the US require a decent temperature (4c - 26c) as roofing shingles have a thermally activated asphalt sealer that needs heat/sunlight to properly seal.

 

Weather currently 12c first thing and -1c the expected high. Looking at average of -3c overnight and 1c-2c for highs for the week, so no roofing happening.

 

Carry on.

Edited November 28, 2023 by Ian Abel

[polybear]

2 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

This one: https://www.ocado.com/products/picard-flammekueche-tarte-flambee-352524011 ? In the past Waitrose has had them, though for the last few years I've made my own. 

 

 

Whoa......hang on just one minute.......

 

"Typically Alsatian, flammekueche is a tart with very thin pastry and a light topping of crème fraîche, lardons and onions: a wonderful dish for winter evenings."

 

Now if you think I'm gettin' in Pupper's naughty book (again)........

[Hroth]

3 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Whoa......hang on just one minute.......

 

"Typically Alsatian, flammekueche is a tart with very thin pastry and a light topping of crème fraîche, lardons and onions: a wonderful dish for winter evenings."

 

Now if you think I'm gettin' in Pupper's naughty book (again)........

 

Typically Alsatian?

 

Barks loudly and grabs criminals by the arm....

 

[DaveF]

It's just been snowing here in Northumberland coast, there is a thin layer on the car but it didn't settle on the ground.  More is expected.

 

It's the first of this autumn/winter.

 

David