Early Risers.

[polybear]

And this is in the news at the moment - and guess what:

 

Mr Masum was bailed by magistrates in November after being charged with assaulting and threatening to kill Ms Akter, offences which he had denied.

Court documents show Mr Masum, who is from Oldham, was charged with threatening to kill Ms Akter on 24 November and assaulting her on 23 November. Both offences were alleged to have happened in Manchester.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-68769197

 

[Grizz]

11 minutes ago, polybear said:

I know of a Bear that could very easily getintoratheralottatrouble if placed in the same situation.....

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-68732879

 

🤬🤬

Getintoratheralottatrouble? …..A lot of Trub sumink after this fashion my dear Bear?

 

 

 

[DaveF]

26 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

A Cynical Bear might even think that someone on the Council was receiving plain brown envelopes.....

 

 

Many years ago I was told of a school which got a quote from a local dealer for a new minibus.  They were then told they could only buy it through the council, funnily enough it would have come from the same dealer at a much higher price.

 

The school then said that it would be interesting if the two quotes accidently got sent to the local newspaper.  The council backed down.

 

After I retired I did some consultancy work for a school which was having new buildings built as a PFI contract.  The Governors were not happy with some of the ongoing costs in the contract so they engaged their own solicitors and managed to improve the services and get them for a lower cost.  The council was not happy but there was nothing they could do to stop it.  It meant that the school was open from 07.00 until 21.00 at a slightly lower cost than the original contract for 08.00 until 17.00 and pay extra for evening hours.  Several other terms were amended.

 

David

Edited April 9 by DaveF

[monkeysarefun]

20 hours ago, polybear said:

loads of dross that required the services of Mickey the Miele to clean up. 

 

 

For some reason "I Want To Break Free" by Queen has got stuck in my head.

 

[Ohmisterporter]

Yesterday I went to bring Kath home after her operation. We were in the "departure lounge" waiting for her medication to be delivered from the pharmacists when she suffered a small TIA. Luckily a smart nurse was present who recognised it right away and called a doctor in. A ct scan quickly followed. Longer story but the upshot was that Kath has to remain in hospital for further tests. Really fortunate that it happened in hospital and not in the car on the way home. There have been several of these what they called small TIAs but never in a place where there is someone with medical knowledge to witness it. There is a lot more to this story but I won't bore you with it.

 

Stay safe all.

[Gwiwer]

G'morning all.

 

Still here despite the weather's attempts at relocating the Distant (Signal) West.  Saturday night's storm was rough; last night's was off the scale of ferocious.  I recovered the bin this morning from three streets away; the elecktrickery people are out in force restoring service as fast as the chain-saw folk can cut up the fallen trees to allow it.  

 

I am reminded of a chap I once worked with whose English was learned a long way from these shores.  "Ferocious" was pronounced "Fur-OSS-ee-us" for example.  As indeed one can argue that it should be here.  

 

A trip into the Big Bright Lights City is called for after lunch in order to deal with some banking which cannot be achieved online.  I might also treat myself to a reasonable muggercoffy while I'm there.  

 

In other news my assessment for Watch-keeping is on Thursday morning.  I shall either leave the watch with my epaulettes as a qualified watch-keeper or be referred for a few more supervised sessions.  Either or.  

 

Dr. SWMBO had an interesting trip to London yesterday.  Hers was the last train to leave Penzance before the sea piled over the wall (and the defensive rocks) and prevented further movements.  It passed Dawlish without incident whilst I watched on the live webcam to see how it was there.  At Exeter they were all turfed out.  And everyone from a train arriving from London was also turfed out.  Two nominally identical trains were swapped over, hundreds - if not thousands - of passengers were inconvenienced and most lost their reserved seats making do with what ever they could then get.  Dr. SWMBO did at least get a seat onwards to London though many were standing.  I wonder how the Pullman diners fared; her train offers full dining from Plymouth so they would just have been seated for their meals and probably served the first course when the order came to change trains!  

 

No reason and no apology was given.  The swap resulted in a train which had arrived punctually at Exeter being 36 minutes late into London.  And resulted in her lodging a Delay Repay claim for the 37th time in 42 trips.  

[Sidecar Racer]

6 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Good moaning from the Charente. Ears to be lowered later then shopping.   This afternoon some G work.

 

Here it is definitely getting warmer and spring has sprung.  The grass is growing very fast and we don't need the heating  much.   

 

One thing is that some red and black insects have come out of their hiding places.   At this time of the year they are often attached in pairs.   This they are known locally as Gendarmes.

 

However I don't know how this collection would be categorised.

Jamie

 

 Task Force .   

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

A Cynical Bear might even think that someone on the Council was receiving plain brown envelopes.....

 

I worked in a London Borough’s Educational Computer Centre. The centre bulk purchased all the BBC/Acorn and Research Machines computers. Any bulk purchase discounts were used to fund the technician support. Despite supplying software packages for those attending courses, and classroom support some schools wanted all that and the discount too. Everything was audited and available to see. However certain school managers were known to state suspicions about bribery “only joking ha ha”. Once of course the Local Management of Schools came in, the centres budget was distributed amongst the schools and the centre had to bid for support contracts. Most secondary schools kept the money, and in my opinion set IT provision back by many years. I moved to a job in a local college. The management there didn’t buy into the local centre. The principal had a pc at home so considered himself an expert. They spent a lot more on consultants than supporting a borough service. 

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Guess how EonNext insist on paying me for the electricity I sell to them…

Not only by cheque but an “unsigned “ cheque which the bank phone app doesn’t recognise, requiring a trip to the bank, which have all closed in Benfleet. Fortunately the Post Office counter in the Coop still has cheque paying in facilities. 

I have yet to receive any income from all the electricity I'm generating. If I don't get something soon I'm thinking of asking for it back and seeing anyone else would like it.

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

A Cynical Bear might even think that someone on the Council was receiving plain brown envelopes.....

 

No just couldn't care less. 

[woodenhead]

When I worked for a bank I had to purchase a couple of projectors for meetings in the office.

 

We had preferred suppliers so I obtained a list from procurement and set up a meeting with one in Northampton whom I visited and was given a thorough demonstration of several models.  A model was chosen, a price agreed and back to work I went to put in the order.

 

A couple of weeks later a call came from the supplier, where was the order?  I don't know I answered and I made enquiries only to find that the procurement team decided to place the order with another 'preferred supplier' for more than the cost I had been quoted.   We had to pull rank on the procurement team to get the order back with the people who'd actually invested time in us.

[Grizz]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

For some reason "I Want To Break Free" by Queen has got stuck in my head.

 

Ahhhhhhhhhhh my eyes……my eyes…….😫

 

er no offence….

[Tony_S]

1 minute ago, Winslow Boy said:

I have yet to receive any income from all the electricity I'm generating. If I don't get something soon I'm thinking of asking for it back and seeing anyone else would like it.

I had quite a faff getting an export contract but even though my smart meter transmits the export data I have to send a photo of the reading to an email address at eonnext!

Adding an extra battery recently has of course reduced our export but has significantly reduced even our cheap rate consumption. We had decided we needed an extra battery and by coincidence our supplier contacted us to say they thought we would benefit from more storage. It must have been the easiest sales call ever, as I just asked when they could come and fit it. 

[Winslow Boy]

4 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I had quite a faff getting an export contract but even though my smart meter transmits the export data I have to send a photo of the reading to an email address at eonnext!

Adding an extra battery recently has of course reduced our export but has significantly reduced even our cheap rate consumption. We had decided we needed an extra battery and by coincidence our supplier contacted us to say they thought we would benefit from more storage. It must have been the easiest sales call ever, as I just asked when they could come and fit it. 

When I was considering getting the system I specifically asked for three batteries rather than just the one they proposed. I figured that if something went awry it just be with one of them and I'd still have two to use.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Ohmisterporter said:

Yesterday I went to bring Kath home after her operation. We were in the "departure lounge" waiting for her medication to be delivered from the pharmacists when she suffered a small TIA. Luckily a smart nurse was present who recognised it right away and called a doctor in. A ct scan quickly followed. Longer story but the upshot was that Kath has to remain in hospital for further tests. Really fortunate that it happened in hospital and not in the car on the way home. There have been several of these what they called small TIAs but never in a place where there is someone with medical knowledge to witness it. There is a lot more to this story but I won't bore you with it.

 

Stay safe all.

 

 

That sounds a very scary situation, even though you were in probably the luckiest place for it to happen in. Hopefully you can get some positive and productive news and have comfort in the knowledge that she is getting the best treatment.

Edited April 9 by monkeysarefun

[iL Dottore]

@polybear was at first very skeptical about being "volunteered" to be a <citizen judge>, until he learned that he could apply the law as he saw fit...

 

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

I know of a Bear that could very easily getintoratheralottatrouble if placed in the same situation.....

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-68732879

 

🤬🤬

We had just returned home from Ireland and the bill from the funeral director who had organised Matthew’s funeral arrived. So I completed all the online stuff for an international payment. Then I got a call from the bank saying they had blocked the payment as it didn’t match our “account profile”. I said hopefully paying for a son’s funeral didn’t match too many profiles. She wouldn’t send a code to our registered phone either. She seemed keen on freezing the account. Then another call came in on my mobile from the banks security department who also said we had a payment halted. She said to end the other call and proceeded to clear everything and was very helpful and apologised for her colleague. I had been getting rather angry with the intransigence of the first person. 

[monkeysarefun]

15 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

@polybear was at first very skeptical about being "volunteered" to be a <citizen judge>, until he learned that he could apply the law as he saw fit...

 

 

 

I'm sure there are  rules about putting the black thing on your head AFTER the jury verdict, not when the defendant first enters the courtroom., @polybear!

 

In the early days of the colony here in Sydney  there was a pious reverend - the Reverend Marsden, known as the Flogging Parson ,  who acted as a magistrate in cases brought to him regarding convicts -  he was not shy in handing out 50, 100, 250 lashes.  Perhaps his descendants and @polybearshould do one of those ancestry.com DNA thingies.

Edited April 9 by monkeysarefun

[iL Dottore]

Just now, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

I'm sure there are  rules about putting the black thing on your head AFTER the jury verdict, not when the defendant first enters the courtroom. 

Probably saves both time AND money....

[monkeysarefun]

25 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Probably saves both time AND money....

 

 

A pity that he is alive 200 years too late. If he'd been born in 1800 this could have been the prototype of a young @polybear 's model railway, the convict tramway in Port Arthur, Tasmania.

 

 

 

 

 

"Waaah!!! Why doesnt my DCC decoder  have the Cat Of Nine Tails sound?!!!" 

 

 

 

Edited April 9 by monkeysarefun

[iL Dottore]

Judge @polybear's mobile "wall to stand in front of whilst blindfolded and having a quiet ciggie" was considered a major and significant advance in British Jurisprudence.

Edited April 9 by iL Dottore

[polybear]

2 hours ago, Grizz said:

Getintoratheralottatrouble? …..A lot of Trub sumink after this fashion my dear Bear?

 

 

 

Oh @Grizz, I had you down as being a Bear of some sofystikayshun and finness…..

Far too quick, that…. at least let a Poly enjoy the moment…..

 

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 

I am reminded of a chap I once worked with whose English was learned a long way from these shores.  "Ferocious" was pronounced "Fur-OSS-ee-us" for example.  

Bear once saw a GP who said I had “Attritis”

Somewhat confused, I asked if that was anything like Arthritis.

”Same thing” he says…..

 

43 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

@polybear was at first very skeptical about being "volunteered" to be a <citizen judge>, until he learned that he could apply the law as he saw fit...

 

 

Where do I sign up?
 

34 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

I'm sure there are  rules about putting the black thing on your head AFTER the jury verdict, not when the defendant first enters the courtroom., @polybear!

 

 
Jury?  What Jury??

Don’t want one of those - all they do is make things more expensive by wantin’ travel expenses and then after six weeks listenin’ to Lawyer cr@p they go and do something dumb like find them innocent 😡

[monkeysarefun]

Many of our early newspapers have been digitised and are free to view on trove.com.au. I guess the UK has the same free service but despite our less depth of historical perspective trove  still brings up some gems. Like this one in our local paper from 1890 or so, an old timer is recording his memories of when he was young here in the early 1800's when convicts were everywhere.   From the "Some things never change!" department he is bemoaning that miscreants of 1890 are treated very leniently compared to those he saw in 1815.

 

From the @polybear "Those were the Days!" section.....

 

 

In 1809 I was born in Parramatta, and three years afterwards came with my parents to the property (a grant to my father) at Narellan now in my possession, where I have resided ever since. The prisoner population was very large in the early days, and worked in gangs. When reading of the scoundrelism of the larrikin element in some parts of Sydney today  I could not help noticing how differently prisoners were punished in 1815 compared with to-day. In 1815, for the most trifling offence, men were often flogged tilI the flesh dropped off their backs. These days the  larrikins often commit the most abominable and heinous crimes, yet escape with little or no punishment. In days long past I have often seen the men flogged, and pitied them when they were under the control of tyrants.

 

And this one, where the police arrest someone on the basis of a dream he had. Would make an interesting plot device for Father Brown, Mrs Marbles, The two other blokes, the guy in the  Bahamas or something, and all the other English crime mysteries!

 

 

In 1827 there was a policeman named John Higgins. Higgins' father had a grant at Elderslie.

A robbery was committed in the neighborhood while. Higgins was stationed there, and the constable had been out during the day looking for the robbers, and in the course

of the night following he said he had a dream that two men in the road party working close by had committed the robbery. He gave a description of their dress and appearance. He went to the camp next day, and had the men mustered. He picked out the two men who, he said, answered the description of his dream. He took them into custody, and put them in the lockup until court time. Whn the men were brought before the court there was plenty of evidence to prove that they were not absent from their camp on the night of the robbery. They were discharged. I wonder if

such a case came up now what would be said"

 

Edited April 9 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I subscribe to several magazines and as I was bagging up some old papers I came across a renewal notice for one of them. It was printed on the back of the name and address slip that came in the bag with the magazine. In previous years they have sent a separate letter but I nearly missed this one. Just as well that the last one was the April edition and the renewal starts with the May edition which is not published until next week.

[New Haven Neil]

4 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

so Alkenes and alkynes albecame Alkanes. 

 

Ah, yes, as they are aal kiyn's of things.....mixing your carbon and hydrogen is so diverse!