Early Risers.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dry start today and we have clear blue skies.  Bright spells to start with but cloud building later bringing showers, possibly heavy and the chance of some hail.  It's a bit cooler at 4°C, might reach 9°C.

I don't  normally have a problem waking up in the morning and although I set an alarm, I almost always wake up about 10 minutes before it's due to go off, whatever time I set it for.  Weird thing, the body clock.  Is it just me or does that happen to others?

Another day of nothing planned and like Bear MIUAIGA.  Walking? Shopping? Sharking? Muddling? Quite possibly.

Firstly though I will have some breakfast which as usual for a winter weekday will be porridge.

Have a good one,

Bob. 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Slept in until 05:55.. lummy!

 

A day of muddling and walking lays ahead.. hopefully.

 

I need to ho to the butchers and then....over to me!

 

Her indoors had twin boys turn up for music lessons every week.. a colleague said to her  "watch out the shared brain cell seems to m9ve from one to the other..  quite randomly"

 

She could tell which one had the brain cell.. he had remembered his recorder!

 

Chuckinitdarn again here..pah! 

 

Time for my tea and off to the butchers.. 

 

Stay safe! Positivevthoughts to all ERs but especiallynournpoorly and missing ones.

 

Baz

[NGT6 1315]

Cheers all. A bit windy since the middle of the night but all the same, I do feel like there’s the first traces of spring out there. Crocuses are blooming all over the neighbourhood in any case.

 

I seem to be past the worst of the lurgy but there are still some persistent remnants. I‘ll give work a try tomorrow, though.

 

Stay safe and sound, everyone…

[Grizz]

Morning All

 

You're never going to believe this…but it has actually stopped raining here in the Deep South of Sussex. (probs not all day though).
 

Perhaps more worrying is this strange bright glow in the sky, although I do have to admit to seemingly having a vague recollection that I have seen it before, somewhere in the dim and distant past. 
 

Nevertheless it is a beautiful day so far, with some very happy and very chatty chooks this morning. 

Solar (on the left) is busy examining something) and Bunty (on the right) has posed for the camera. 

Front is Solar, behind Babs, and Bunty on the right….still posing for the camera. 

 

Happy chooks who have laid these lovely eggies for my breakfast.
 

Not sure which one laid the tomato, although Bunty’s eyes do look to be open slightly wider this morning. 
 

 

Have a great day all ERers.

 

ATB Grizz

Off to do some muddling. 
 

 

[TheQ]

Our crocuses may have drowned, they certainly haven't made an appearance and there home is under water this morning.

 

Mooring Awl,

1/2 hours sleep, 1.5 hours sleep, 3 hours sleep, noted the Bears posting at stupid o'clock, 2 hours sleep. A good total.

 

Ben was a good Collie not asking out till I awoke properly. We went on patrol, splash splash splash, well and truly awash today.  Semi blue welkin, patches of cloud.

Another bunch of Daffs is starting to flower.

 

Never seen a mobile home transported here without an escort, and I can see 30 plus from the house and there are thousands more up and down the coast. Normally see around one being moved at least once a month.

 

Just committed myself to guardship duties for the 3 Rivers Race,  the volunteer request email came through, it goes to the previous volunteers first, then they know how many new ones to con into doing the duty.

 

Must work out my availability for the RADAR museum, , this year I'll be doing some Saturdays, but not when swmbo has something on, or I do, aka visiting parallel bits of metal in a big hall...

 

Time to put on overalls, off to dig for that pipe again.

 

 

 

[iL Dottore]

14 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

I don't think I hid from the Daleks, but I certainly hid from the cybermen.

Daleks? Cybermen? Nah, the real stuff of school nightmares were the Yeti* from the story “The Web of Fear” Even now, 56 years on, I can still clearly hear the menacing beeps as the Yeti approached through the Underground’s tunnels. And still today, watching what remains of the story (just before the explosion of home videos The Beeb wiped countless videotapes of material that would now earn them a fortune nowadays) is a little unsettling.

 

The staging of The Web of Fear was utterly perfect, in fact so realistic were the sets that London Transport (remember them?) wrote a very nasty letter to the Beeb accusing them of trespassing on LT property and illegally filming on the Underground. Many red faces were to be had at 55 Broadway when the Beeb pointed out that everything was shot in a studio
 

From what I recall** of my yoof, no-one wanted to be a playground Yeti - although we had plenty of playground Daleks*** and Cybermen. However, when The Web of Fear appeared I was going on 12 and thus was becoming more much more interested in Deborah Watling (who played Victoria) than trying to be an (ersatz) TV Yeti.

Deborah Watling! Sigh, the first of what would be many Dr Who Actresses who were to be beacons of unobtainable like (I was too young for “desire” or “lust”) during my early teenage years. Wendy Padbury…. Nicola Bryant…. Lalla Ward…. (To be curmudgeonly, stories are not the only very weak areas in the current Dr Who - it’s companions as well. The show needs more of companions like Ace [smart, tough, with more than a hint of allure] than Yaz [pathetic is the kindest thing you can say about that character])

 

So, boys and girls, which of The Doctor’s companion would you want to travel in time and space with?

 

* not Yeti really, but Yeti shaped killer robots. This 1968 Dr Who story I think has never been bettered; equalled - yes, but never bettered.

** my memory has been privatised - so it gives poor service and is expensive to maintain.

*** to become a playground Dalek, all you had to do is put your cap on backwards, stick out your right hand and stiffen your arm whilst bellowing in a gravelly voice “exterminate, exterminate”

[Gwiwer]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. No more blood in my pee but It was never in my pee in the first place. It seems to be coming from a lesion on my , also one of my testicles is swollen. I'll be calling 111 in the morning to get it checked out.

Act fast. Blood is always “wrong”. Any suggestion that it has emerged from the socially-popular regions is also cause for immediate action. 
 

ERs may recall my own speedy response to what felt like a grain of sand where it shouldn’t have been. That was a developing cancer by the time the urologist saw it. And that wasn’t many days later. 
 

It was weeping the red stuff slightly but visibly before the surgeon got to it only a couple of weeks later. 

[roundhouse]

Its certainly a good morning here with bright blue sky making such a change to the very wet last few days. Current view out of the shed.

 

So much so that listening to this song is very apt especially as we had a good night out in Reigate meeting an ex work colleague and then bumping into a nieghbour who has jus got back from touring Brewdog pubs up north and in Holland - he has quite a few shares in them.

 

[Gwiwer]

4 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Daleks? Cybermen? Nah, the real stuff of school nightmares were the Yeti

For Dr. SWMBO it is the Weeping Angels who have turned up a couple of times now. 
 

For me it was the original Cybermen who only (if my memory serves) hissed menacingly by way of communication. The fact that they were infinitely more scary - as in hide behind the sofa scary - than their recent counterparts may be a factor of my age. 
 

6 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

to become a playground Dalek, all you had to do is put your cap on backwards, stick out your right hand and stiffen your arm whilst bellowing in a gravelly voice “exterminate, exterminate”

Hands up anyone of that generation who did not, at some point, do this.
 

Of Whovian companions Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) would be my preferred choice. Whilst of the “friendly aliens” the Ood stand leagues above the rest. Why can we not adopt a system where only the one holding the light may speak?  

[iL Dottore]

9 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. No more blood in my pee but It was never in my pee in the first place. It seems to be coming from a lesion on my , also one of my testicles is swollen. I'll be calling 111 in the morning to get it checked out.

If you have a lesion on your BLANK then it certainly does need evaluation*

 

Blood in urine can have a number of origins (often the prostate is the culprit), but it only takes a little blood to discolour the urine. As anyone in front line healthcare can tell you, a little blood goes a long, long way..
 

However, as @Gwiwer has pointed out, blood in urine always needs to be evaluated. It can be minor or not. Only a proper work-up and examination can determine that.

Having said that,  If you start passing blood clots in the urine then immediate attention is needed (it suggests that [a] the bleeding is significant and [b} the problem could be high up in the urinary tract [e.g. renal involvement).

 

Good luck (and don’t be shy about being explicit when calling 111 - they‘ve heard it all before [and worse]). Avoiding euphemisms (e.g. saying “passing water” instead of “urinating”) is also helpful.

 

* I wonder what BLANK actually is (although I can make a good guess) The censoring software they insist on using here makes the most uptight and prudish Victorian matron seem like a wanton libertine in comparison.

 

Edited February 23 by iL Dottore
Clarification and update

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

The sun was shining when I got up an hour ago, it’s chuckinitdarn now, pah! I’m going to have to time my walk to the butcher’s carefully this morning! Upon my return, WE are once again going to the Trafford Centre, as Sheila wants a look round, this could potentially be very expensive. After that, there are no firm plans, although I do plan to make a cheesecake after dinner. 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian

[polybear]

25 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Daleks? Cybermen? Nah, the real stuff of school nightmares were the Yeti* from the story “The Web of Fear”

 

Planet of the Spiders.....

 

25 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Deborah Watling! Sigh, the first of what would be many Dr Who Actresses who were to be beacons of unobtainable like (I was too young for “desire” or “lust”) during my early teenage years. 

 

No longer with us, sadly; she died in 2017 (the Big C), aged just 69.

 

25 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

So, boys and girls, which of The Doctor’s companion would you want to travel in time and space with?

 

Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane) would be an excellent start.....

...but definitely NOT Bonnie (I'll scream n' scream n' scream and make myself sick) Langford....

 

 

[Gwiwer]

11 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

* I wonder what BLANK actually is (although I can make a good guess) The censoring software they insist on using here makes the most uptight and prudish Victorian matron seem like a wanton libertine in comparison.

Indeed. 
 

There is no need for profanity in here but computers do not understand the difference between an abbreviated form of “Richard” and a slang term for a male body part. As just one example.
 

A hard call to make when setting filters.
 

I find the same as I have admin control over a Farceboop group for those interested in walking the South West Coast Path.  As one of three admins I can choose which words will trigger an alert and “hold” a post for approval. But it has to be specific. Including “hiker” will allow “Hiker” with a capital H to slip through. 
 

Machines cannot yet fully supplant the human brain. 

[polybear]

Bear here....

Mission accomplished - Bear's hind paws hit the water at 0610am, closely followed by the rest of Bear.  30 Laps** completed (0.6miles - or 1Km if you prefer funny munny).  @PupCam Puppers was notable by his absence - again.  Lightweight.

Bear is now back at Bear Towers - still breathing as well, which is kinda useful.  Knackered though.  First mission is to make the Beary Pit; after that it's MIUABGA.

 

**It might have been 32 Laps - I lost count part way thru' cos' I started dreaming of the Co-op cake aisle......😢

[southern42]

' morning all from red dragon land. 

Faint light streaming from the yellow ball behind the cloud behind us: land northwards bathed in golden light. A bit cold out 4.2C.

 

Finishing off breakfast. Mr Suvvern gone to collect groceries - no afternoon slots left to book for today due to late booking! Wet weather, appointments, and school half-term down on parallel bits of metal (drawing Ray out for extra days driving) have generally upset the balance of doing things lately.

 

Breakfast done. Time to get ready for stashing the goods away into the cupboards.

Back later...

 

Take care. Be good. Don't Panic!

Polly

 

Edited February 23 by southern42
Deletion of apostrophe by word-editing gremlins

[southern42]

Falling downstairs. First time was top to bottom about seven years old. Not an ache or bruise anywhere that I remember. Just got up and went to school as usual.

Second time, I was on lunch in Marx and Sparx shopping with a couple of other teachers when I fell down a few steps of the staircase. A&E was next stop! Arm wrapped up in a sling, the sling was removed as soon as I entered the school gate. No way was I going to embarrass myself in front of my seven six olds. Third time, some years later, down a side stairwell in Woolies. The scariest was at home when I was expecting. Fortunately, I was ok. If you ever see me on a stairwell and I am not grabbing a handrail - let me know!

[DaveF]

A bright morning, much cooler at about 3°C after a bit of rain overnight.  During the night I woke with a feeling of something not quite right.  Putting on the light revealed that the padded dressing had come loose, a bit of the sticky stuff had decided to get caught on a very sensitive organ.  After a lot of fiddling about the whole dressing came off so now I just have the "real" wound dressing.  As the district nurse is calling tomorrow I will let her check the dressing but to my eyes it looks well stuck down and secure.

 

The actual padded bit, now I've removed the tape, is being kept to place over the other dressing as a cushion when I feel I need to protect it.

 

There are no real plans for today, hopefully one of the neighbours is getting me some more milk which is all I need at the moment - the shop is about 10 minutes too far away  to walk to right now.

 

Last night did involve TV using Talking Pictures TV Encore streaming service to watch some old black and white comedy films which I'd never heard of but which kept me amused until bedtime..

 

David

Edited February 23 by DaveF

[monkeysarefun]

In Australia   "You're a f(#$&*@en d1ckhead, mate!" covers pretty much  everything.

Edited February 23 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

Chuckinitdarn again here..pah! 

 

 

Forecast here following a day in the high 30's was for thunderstorms with large hailstones. Main concern going by the media coverage was not damage to cars, houses or whatever, but it might disrupt the Taylor Swift concert going on as I type this. 

 

 

I have checked the live update blog thingy that the Sydney Morning Herald has running to cover the event , and praise the lord, no hailstones so far.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/music/taylor-swift-eras-tour-sydney-live-updates-us-pop-star-set-to-continue-australian-tour-at-accor-stadium-20240222-p5f73w.html

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Never seen a mobile home transported here without an escort, and I can see 30 plus from the house and there are thousands more up and down the coast. Normally see around one being moved at least once a month.

 

 

 

Queenslanders  for some reason love nothing more than  buying old wooden houses from the outback and relocating them to the city. They are insane loads to follow (which I had to from Ipswich to Brisbane one time)

 

Heres a couple to try out on your country lanes!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 23 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

So, boys and girls, which of The Doctor’s companion would you want to travel in time and space with?

 

 

 

That cavewoman sheila.   

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

If you have a lesion on your BLANK then it certainly does need evaluation*

 

Blood in urine can have a number of origins (often the prostate is the culprit), but it only takes a little blood to discolour the urine. As anyone in front line healthcare can tell you, a little blood goes a long, long way..
 

However, as @Gwiwer has pointed out, blood in urine always needs to be evaluated. It can be minor or not. Only a proper work-up and examination can determine that.

Having said that,  If you start passing blood clots in the urine then immediate attention is needed (it suggests that [a] the bleeding is significant and [b} the problem could be high up in the urinary tract [e.g. renal involvement).

 

Good luck (and don’t be shy about being explicit when calling 111 - they‘ve heard it all before [and worse]). Avoiding euphemisms (e.g. saying “passing water” instead of “urinating”) is also helpful.

 

* I wonder what BLANK actually is (although I can make a good guess) The censoring software they insist on using here makes the most uptight and prudish Victorian matron seem like a wanton libertine in comparison.

 

I have dialed 111 and they told me to contact my GP in the next two hours.

[Grizz]

23 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Indeed. 
 

There is no need for profanity in here but computers do not understand the difference between an abbreviated form of “Richard” and a slang term for a male body part. As just one example.
 

A hard call to make when setting filters.
 

I find the same as I have admin control over a Farceboop group for those interested in walking the South West Coast Path.  As one of three admins I can choose which words will trigger an alert and “hold” a post for approval. But it has to be specific. Including “hiker” will allow “Hiker” with a capital H to slip through. 
 

Machines cannot yet fully supplant the human brain. 

 

It’s not just swear words, profanity or bad language. 
 

The over sensitive filters (or actually the group of people responsible for setting policy and policing them) of London’s premier transport provider got my whole account suspended, as I was deemed to be a potential terrorist threat, when all I was doing was preparing for carrying out an audit. 
 

As an Assurance Engineer I had prep for an audit of a safety critical area of the business, something that I did on a regular basis, but on this particular occasion it was for permanent way maintenance and specifically rail lubrication.
 

As part of the research into the subject I had to look up the equipment used by the maintenance gangs. One item was listed in one of the work instructions as quote ‘A Grease Gun’…….a fairly innocuous everyday name for a tool for a job. I needed to check that the make and model was compliant to the latest safety standard and our external supply chain. 

 

The overall organisation’s total paranoia and associated view point political mania, listed any word search that had the word ‘gun’ anywhere in the search as a red flag…potential terrorist threat. 
 

So all of a sudden my account was suspended, although all I knew at my end at the time was that everything froze. 
Various reboots failed and various calls to colleagues to see if they had any similar problems raised the inevitable ‘nope’….

 

Calls to I.T. Support were greeted with a pre trained “I am sorry I cannot discuss your account issues with you whilst there is an on going investigation…..goodbye”….which I initially thought was a joke but following several calls with the same result I then suddenly became very worried. 

 

Finally my boss (V.P. of Assurance) rolled in around lunch, following a busy morning squabbling at high level meetings and far from in the best of moods. 
 

He politely enquired as to the status of the draft audit proposal and would I ping it over to him. 
I then informed him that I had had my account suspended and I was under investigation, but that I couldn’t find out why. 
 

My boss was a very intelligent, kind, polite and fairly religious man. Up to that point I hadn’t ever heard him even raise his voice, let alone swear. 
He was silent and slowly went puce. I thought that he was going to explode.
 

Then he picked up the phone to the head of I.T. and proceeded to have a spontaneous outbreak of Touretts. Leaving the head of I.T. with a very clear understanding of his future should he and his little minions interfere with an audit again. He shouted phrases like ‘Left Wing junta’ and political ideology and internal racial profiling of staff……he really snapped. 
 

As a result my account had the permissions and controls removed within minutes. They did the same for our department as apparently we weren’t seen as the architects of the coming revolution after all.
But the experience did make me think about large organisations, who exactly they put into positions of power and who they are answerable to. more importantly their motivation behind some decisions….especially political motivations.
 

I get the need to be careful and to be fair in this case it probably stems back to the day that the UK tabloid press revealed that the same Premier Transport Provider had employed Abu Hamza’s son, a convicted terrorist, as a labourer in restricted areas on the track.

 

https://www.building.co.uk/news/abu-hamzas-son-worked-on-london-underground/3076297.article

I so do not miss working there. But curiously I have noticed that my general level of bad language has increased in recent years. Perhaps it was all those years of it being repressed. 🤔

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

There is no need for profanity in here

As an Australian this is a contravention of my patriotic duty!

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

For me it was the original Cybermen

 

 

 

Mine was the one with the doll made of plastic that came alive when heated and tried to attack some bloke who'd brought it home and stuck it near the heater , I have no idea where this sits in the Dr Who universe but I think it was related to the shop dummies who came alive and had drop down hands with guns inside that shot people. This  was was early 70's  Jon Pertwee Dr Who, not the later Rose Tyler period where that plot was resuscitated. 

 

Actually,  for a kids show shown  at 6pm there was a lot of killing people going on in those days, especially the British army who just stood their  uselessly shooting the daleks etc and got turned into glowing skeletons one by one. These days after two episodes  of that we'd all be in therapy and our parents would have sued the BBC.

Edited February 23 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, southern42 said:

Falling downstairs. First time was top to bottom about seven years old. Not an ache or bruise anywhere that I remember

 

 

I got hit by a car while crossing a zebra crossing on a dark rainy night in 1989. The bloke was very  apologetic when he got out and I didnt feel too damaged so he went "Sorry mate!" and I went "No worries mate!" and we went on our way.  I limped home where my  other half at the time insisted on taking me to the hospital where I found out I'd fractured my Tib and Fib and torn my ACL.

 

If I'd known that at the time I'd have asked him for his license details, I  got fixed up no worries and I'm good as gold now and as a bonus  I've got a fun anecdote out of it and a scar that looks like a shark had a go at me which impresses the ladies.

Edited February 23 by monkeysarefun