Early Risers.

[grandadbob]

It's OK Ian,  it's here! 😁 Cheerful driver placed it in the porch took photo and asked for my year of birth as expected.

Edited December 20, 2023 by grandadbob

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The sciatica has gone away now and there's only an occasional twinge from the arthritis to trouble me. Not much to do now except put the bins out for the morning.

[Sidecar Racer]

6 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Someone show him a Terrier, it'd CRUSH that heap of tin!

 

 

 Even comes in yellow . 

 

[Gwiwer]

Evening all, 

 

A fairly quiet day mostly at the keyboard before lunch.  Books don't write themselves.  After being refuelled with a pasty I set off for those dreaded initials MRC.  It being cold, damp and with early darkness not too many folk were there and I left having done little more than stick a piece of wood to a sheet of foam-board after 90 minutes.  

 

Vegetabilia was topped up from the farm shop on the way home.  Because their stuff is good and cheaper than any local supermarket.  And because it was more or less on the route anyway.  

 

Reaching the Pigsarse Penzance by-pass at 16.45 I expected to encounter some traffic.  What I didn't really expect was a cavalcade of oncoming tractors, headlights and searchlights blazing, blinding me and probably others and casting into deep (i.e. not visible) shadow the large picking cages they had attached and which were wider by some amount than the tractors themselves.  A few very near misses were observed.  

 

And then I was stuck behind 30mph man.  Or woman.  The road home twists and turns over the moors and isn't a fast one at the best of times.  45 - 50 mph at best with several bends and one village where 30mph is about all you can safely manage.  But not 30mph for 8 miles.  Weaving from white line to hedge as well.  I suspected someone had been on the loopy juice.  There is a straight bit towards home through a dip just long enough to get past safely if nothing comes the other way.  Nothing was coming the other way.  I went for it.  30mph man went for it.  Having trundled along at a steady rate for the past 7 miles the car i went to overtake suddenly accelerated and paced me.  For just long enough to spook its driver who abruptly braked and got a flash of headlights from the car now very close behind for their trouble.  I had in those moments safely completed the overtake and was off and away home.  I had seen enough.  

 

I should not need to make use of the road tomorrow beyond a walk into town.  That takes all of two minutes.  Dr. SWMBO has plans to get up early to see the Solstice sun rise but the seaweed-wranglers are only offering greyness and sky-wee so she's on her own there!  

 

One more cuppa and a little more attention to the book now before bed-time.  I'm wide awake so there's no point trying to turn in just yet.   

[Hroth]

52 minutes ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 Even comes in yellow . 

 

 

But coloured paint is more expensive....

 

You know what they say, "Penny plain, tuppence coloured..."

 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[southern42]

8 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Someone show him a Terrier, it'd CRUSH that heap of tin!

 

 

49 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Even comes in yellow . 

 

You can have it in camouflage colours, too!

 

 

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by southern42

[southern42]

' night all and nos da from red dragon land.

😴

 

[BR60103]

We did go to Stratford for the lights today.  Starting mid afternoon, found that SWMBO didn't have her keys.  Got farther the second attempt and her cell phone (with navigation app) couldn't be located. A long search and it finally turned up on the car floor in front of her seat, camouflaged in black. 

At one interchange I misjudged the lanes and found the one I wanted was full. Headed off the other way to turn at the first opportunity. There was the results of a collision at the top of the ramp, attended by assorted police cars and tow trucks. But I did manage the turn around.

In Stratford, we found that the lights are on Thursday to Sunday.  She bought a couple of books at the bookstore; it was open late while the coffee shops were closed by 4 or 5. No problems except heavy traffic on the way home.

 

 

[Erichill16]

Awake at silly o’clock.

I think my body clock had just about got back to normal but yesterday’s early start has confused things. Arrived home at lunchtime but just as I was about to have 40 winks the phone rang and I had to go back to work. Arrived home again at 4ish to find we had a ‘welcomed’ visitor who stoped for a couple of hours after which it was time for the nephew to have their tea. Anyway didn’t get to bed until 9 but awake again by 2 and the hoolie outside isn’t helping. 
Just had breakfast and think I’d better try for some sleep.

Oh did I tell you the palaver I had getting by van MOTed, no, we’ll never mind, it’s not important now.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Blowing a reet hoolie outside. Pah! I have to go over to Didsbury (on the M62) this am.could be very interesting..

 

@polybear and @tigerburnieare both missing.. hope they are OK.

 

Time to gerrowirrit!

 

TTFN.

 

Baz

Edited December 21, 2023 by Barry O

[iL Dottore]

20 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

It's good to be back in the land of good food, I hesitate to say this as it may give some people nightmares, but you can't get pickled onion monster munch, XL cheese crisps or Fry's raspberry creme bars in Singapore. It's a bleak and desolate place.

Oh dear me, it sounds like JJB needs to be involuntarily committed to a gourmet asylum for his own good!

 

And think of poor Mrs JJB, from hubby appreciating Laksa to this! She must be incredibly distraught.

[Ozexpatriate]

14 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

a lame catchphrase in the 80's or 90's "white men cant jump" - I think it was a movie or some bullcrap about basket ballers and how high they can jump or whatever.

You do know that was a comedy don't you. (1992)

 

Do you know what Roy Cazaly's 'vertical leap' was?  Special yardsticks with flippers to measure it are pretty standard basketball gym equipment. (Vertical jump tester).

 

The average NBA player has a 28" vertical leap (standing start) - and an average height of 6'6". Of course they're not allowed to climb up someone's back with cleats/spikes/stops etc.

[Hroth]

The wind is blowing up and its recycling bin day today.

I can hear stuff being blown down the road already...

 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all.

Still dark and it's blowing a bit outside but it is dry for now.  Outbreaks of rain forecast however it may brighten up later and will remain windy.  11°C now rising to 13°C.

No Sainsbury's delivery today, this week it's coming on Saturday so that means we have to go shopping today because we've run out of a couple of items.

Later on this morning a couple of old friends from the  South coast are popping in as they're visiting family in the area.  Brian is one of my oldest friends, known each other for 63 years , blimey.  We were at school together and worked for the same firm for a while, went to each other's weddings etc etc.  Only see one another 3/4 times year now but often chat on the phone. One thing never changes when they visit and that's the volume of laughter.

The Boss is already champing at the bit, I think she wants to get to the shop early so I bettergettamoveon.

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited December 21, 2023 by grandadbob

[jjb1970]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Oh dear me, it sounds like JJB needs to be involuntarily committed to a gourmet asylum for his own good!

 

And think of poor Mrs JJB, from hubby appreciating Laksa to this! She must be incredibly distraught.

 

I met a quite splendid chap called Darth Vader who told me he was here to sit out a bit of unpleasantness happening in a galaxy far far away who persuaded me of the virtues of the dark side. Embrace the pickled onion monster munch, use the force!

[jjb1970]

I've just reminded myself of why I switched off watching the UK news and reading papers many years ago, the gleeful miserabilism and superciliousness of it all is just awful. 

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

5 hours sleep, long awake, 1.5 hours sleep.

 

Ben the I'd like to go out Collie took me on patrol, somewhat breezy gusting 44mph at the moment, with more to come. There was a big crash during the night, but the only thing I can find wrong is the bins have been blown out of their alcove, which is odd as that's into the wind..

 

 It's north westerly at the moment,  the original forecasts were for it to go northerly which would have caused a storm surge of the north sea, but now it's forecast to go westerly which will blow the sea away from the UK coast.

 

Dull, grey , ground still soggy.

 

There are a couple of people I have known intermittently for 43 years at the sailing club, but with my itinerant life, none beyond that, and few in the past 23 years since i got shunted into a siding here.

 

Some electric string should arrive later, needed to connect up an unmentionable, that will keep me working over Christmas, as I still haven't found the missing container of bits of metal, and transverse bits of copper clad fibreglass.

 

Plans for today.

Visit orange shed on the way to the Christmas dinner.

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by TheQ

[iL Dottore]

29 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

I've just reminded myself of why I switched off watching the UK news and reading papers many years ago, the gleeful miserabilism and superciliousness of it all is just awful. 

There is something rather unappealing about the “gleeful miserabilism” seen in today’s news programmes and in the political arena.

 

I’m no naïve pollyanna and certainly there are many problems to address (some of our own making) but for the vast majority of people life is certainly “adequate” or better. I think people fail to recognise how much better life is today (problems notwithstanding) than in previous centuries where - as Hobbes put it - (for most people) “the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”.

[jjb1970]

I know I've said this before, but I realized how important most news was when I was at sea. That was before ships had inrnet access (it was before most people were online, let alone ships) and we still relied on the local agents bringing a bag of newspapers when we were in port. So I tended to lose touch with all but the really big stories, like the Gulf War when Iraq invaded Kuwait. I'd come home after 3 - 4 months and Carlisle was invariably the same, Britain was the same, the world was still turning and things were running along as previously, yet I knew that every day there would have been a new crisis of the moment filling the news and news readers and talking heads talking utter nonsense round the clock, almost all of which was forgotten almost as soon as it was reported. Yes, there are significant stories, but there really aren't that many and most news is basically filler material, click bait, fear porn and outrage fodder. Not that I'm cynical or anything.

[NGT6 1315]

Cheers all. Lurgy getting better, thankfully!

 

Stormy today, as the below map indicates. The front is called Zoltan here. I gather ferry services to the North Sea islands will be largely suspended. Mountainous areas such as the Harz and the Alps also have persistent rain warnings in effect.

 

 

 

Stay safe and keep those hatches battened down…

 

 

[Gwiwer]

27 minutes ago, TheQ said:

forecast to go westerly which will blow the sea away from the UK coast.

If you happen to live on the leeward side. 
 

G’day, Happy Solstice, Welcome. The shortest period of less-than-nocturnal gloom is with us. There’s not enough of it to call “daylight” and there’s a gale blowing in off the Atlantic.  Seas will be up and blown against the cliffs here.  Gulls trying to make progress beak-first are being blown backwards. 
 

Dr. SWMBO has today and tomorrow at her desk - from which the sea can be seen - and then a two-week break. I have a few small errands to run locally. And then we can look forward to our first C*******s in the Distant (Signal) West. 
 

We are away on Moanday with friends. I have to find Lostwithiel. When I discover it should I rename it Foundwithiel?  We may stay over. The option is there and we can decide on the day according to how we feel. 
 

Muggertea the First is here. Avagoodun. And if the weather affects you then keep heads down, wigs firmly tied on and stow broomsticks! 
 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, was out and about early doors for my annual diabetic check - still alive, apparently.  Nothing much changed, slightly lighter so no too much telling off, cholesterol still higher than it might be, but not taking statins for the sake of it - which is what they tell me they 'recommend' now, for all diabetics to take them as a matter of course - really?  The term bolleaux come to mind.  I see the vet tomorrow about my liver, which is much more worrying, it's on the fritz but I don't really drink, as they agreed today as the other things that would show that are OK.

 

Still waiting for Mrs NHN's results - much, much more worrying.

 

The hoolie is here, so no ferry and the UK cut off as predicted, although Faceache Manx Crabs assure me the 'old boats' would have sailed. No, they wouldn't, and most of the whiners aren't old enough to remember them anyway.

 

 

 

[Lochgorm]

18 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

If you happen to live on the leeward side. 
 

G’day, Happy Solstice, Welcome. The shortest period of less-than-nocturnal gloom is with us. There’s not enough of it to call “daylight” and there’s a gale blowing in off the Atlantic.  Seas will be up and blown against the cliffs here.  Gulls trying to make progress beak-first are being blown backwards.  
 

 

Solstice is not actually until tomorrow!