Early Risers.

[polybear]

Bear here.....

 

Up at a much more sensible hour (0700) today; first mission was to replace a busted handle on the bathroom UPVC Window ("It just fell apart in my Paws....honest") which took a bit longer than it should've done but was easy all the same. 

Now it's not common knowledge (so don't go spreadin' it about now in case that bloke Attenborough gets wind of it) but Poly's have certain, well, Tufty-like tendencies and tend to squirrel away "useful stuff" just in case they come in, well, useful....and it just happened that Bear had a spare handle in Beamland (and I even managed to find it too).

 

After that?  Er, dross really.  Oops.

Post din-dins was a pitstop wander, followed by a visit to the Chemist to collect a prescription; as I approached the Co-op** there were three Co-op Staff (all young guys - maybe Head Office are learning at last?) outside - no idea what it was all about but at a guess it looked like a couple of young lads had tried their luck nickin' and got spotted by staff and "seen off".  It's a Jungle out there..... 

 

(** The one that's been robbed a couple of times in recent weeks - apparently the staff had some sort of argument with scrotes outside the shop a few days back as well) 

 

BG

[Tony_S]

25 minutes ago, polybear said:

It's a Jungle out there...

Some of the small supermarkets seem to have security in the evening. Though some of them don’t look very “secure”. There was one at the small Sainsbury once who clearly decided to tail me. It was so funny I went up and down the grocery aisle a few times while he attempted to be be stealthy. Do they get set exercises in following on security NVQ courses?

[TheQ]

MRC accounts done,

Laptop crashed twice during the work, not sure why, had to turn on again, transfer to a USB stick. Get back into the spreadsheets on another PC. Then having just done that an email came in via our secretary , one of our hall providers reckoned we hadn't paid a bill last August.. that would be because we prepaid and booked the hall the previous October...

 

Then in the next couple of days I need to order a credit card reader for our next show...

There are only two that would be economic, the functionally best, has a short battery life and if you let it go flat, it bricks, and they won't resuscitate it. It also doesn't like it not being used for some time...

The other is quite a bit more expensive to run due to charges.... final discussion about that at the MRC tonight..

 

Before that modifications were done to the loom stand so it exactly fits the loom.  It now needs sanding, but the sander arrived after I finished work on that for the day. Also arriving, were two jammers for sheets on BM,  not cheap, but they are the best for the job. Later more sanding pads are due to arrive.. 

Herpes and parcel farce have picked up the other items.

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

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 😡

Now, now, Bear. Justice must follow its inexorable path and reflect the will of the people.....

[polybear]

And whilst we're on the subject of Bear's wander......

 

Just who was the fellow ER'er who said to Bear a few weeks back that yes, it was ok to go walkin' in the rain??

 

 

C'mon, don't be shy now, Bear isn't upset......honest.....

 

 

 

[Dave Hunt]

I've had a couple of days absence due to a medical hiccup. All was well following my operation then on Saturday I felt a pain on the inside of my right thigh, which got worse over the weekend and felt as thought there was a very nobbly varicose vein underneath that was hard to the touch and the area was somewhat inflamed. On Monday morning I therefore called the hospital and one of the registrars told me to see my GP immediately. I did so and got an appointment within the hour at which blood tests were taken and the leg examined. The blood test results were in by 1800 and indicated that I could have a DVT so I was told to report to the duty GP doctors at Telford hospital to have an ultrasound scan as a matter of some urgency. After being examined yet again, though, I was told that there was no-one on duty at night who could do it so I was given an anti-coagulant injection and told to go this morning to another hospital unit for a scan. When I got to the hospital I was told to expect to be there for several hours and for starters went through the sort of rigmarole with blood pressure, etc. that is usually the precursor to an admission. After a lengthy wait I was a bit surprised when they then went through exactly the same examination and blood tests as had been done yesterday so I queried what was going on and when could I expect the ultrasound scan? The reply was that I was being assessed for eligibility to have one so I pointed out that yesterday no fewer than  three doctors had decided following examinations and blood tests that I definitely did need one so I was examined by yet another doctor and it was finally decided that yes, I did need an ultrasound scan but they were booked up until Thursday so I was given a prescription for some anticoagulants, sent home and told to report back on Thursday at 1145. You couldn't make it up.

 

Dave

[DaveF]

A very wet day so I've stayed at home.  The first part of the morning was spent working on the model church and catching up on e mails.  Leonie then came and did the housework.  While she did that I did a bit of a crossword.

 

After lunch I decided to tackle the family photo albums and start to throw out photos where I either have a digital copy on my PC or where I don't know any of the people.  To make the job easier I started by making sure I have copies of all  Mum's, Dad's and my photos easily accessible on hard drives.  Some tidying up and copying was needed.  There is a little more copying still to do.

 

I have so far got rid of a lot of photos of my cousins which my aunt must have sent to Mum.  I only keep in touch with three of them and have only seen one of them in 35 years.  I didn't recognise most people in the photos.  Then I sorted out some prints of photos taken in the north east in the last 40 years or so.  I have scans/files of them all so they are going in the bin.  As far as I can see no relatives will want them.

 

In due course I'll get on to the much older photos, where they are clearly captioned I will scan them, otherwise they will go.  I think it will take some time.

 

I've just been watching the local news.  The main road ( A189 spine road) which runs past my town is now closed by floodwater.  I don't think I'll be going anywhere in the near future.

 

David

[DaveF]

28 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

I've had a couple of days absence due to a medical hiccup. All was well following my operation then on Saturday I felt a pain on the inside of my right thigh, which got worse over the weekend and felt as thought there was a very nobbly varicose vein underneath that was hard to the touch and the area was somewhat inflamed. On Monday morning I therefore called the hospital and one of the registrars told me to see my GP immediately. I did so and got an appointment within the hour at which blood tests were taken and the leg examined. The blood test results were in by 1800 and indicated that I could have a DVT so I was told to report to the duty GP doctors at Telford hospital to have an ultrasound scan as a matter of some urgency. After being examined yet again, though, I was told that there was no-one on duty at night who could do it so I was given an anti-coagulant injection and told to go this morning to another hospital unit for a scan. When I got to the hospital I was told to expect to be there for several hours and for starters went through the sort of rigmarole with blood pressure, etc. that is usually the precursor to an admission. After a lengthy wait I was a bit surprised when they then went through exactly the same examination and blood tests as had been done yesterday so I queried what was going on and when could I expect the ultrasound scan? The reply was that I was being assessed for eligibility to have one so I pointed out that yesterday no fewer than  three doctors had decided following examinations and blood tests that I definitely did need one so I was examined by yet another doctor and it was finally decided that yes, I did need an ultrasound scan but they were booked up until Thursday so I was given a prescription for some anticoagulants, sent home and told to report back on Thursday at 1145. You couldn't make it up.

 

Dave

 

That is appalling.  I hope you manage to get a scan before Thursday  but it just seems so disorganised.

 

David

[woodenhead]

Wet and windy in Manchester, decided not to go to the gym today, seems to getting too easy to avoid the gym.

 

Spent the week so far reaquainting myself with web development, got to add some new functionality to a web application I developed 12 months ago.  Everything going to plan so far but I've yet to get to a point where an actual user has to test it and come up with 1000 other things it could do.

 

I am being fuelled though by a rather nice home done salt n pepper chicken fried rice (the rice comes from Aldi in a useful pack I just fry it after doing all the other ingredients).

 

 

Tis rather yum - onions, chilli, chicken, an egg, Aldi fried rice and soy sauce plus salt and pepper of course.

[Grizz]

We have had some visitors today and “Somebody has been drink my beer”…….

 

well actually I have had to….to ….share! 
 

Well a few……a few precious beers from the castle dungeons. 

 

Me in a sharing beer mood.

 

 

That’ll be the one I’m sharing, bottom right. 🤣

 

[polybear]

41 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

 

 

Jeez, don't eat that whatever you do - it's infested with Maggots......

 

24 minutes ago, Grizz said:

That’ll be the one I’m sharing, bottom right. 🤣

 

 

Seems overly generous there Grizz - couldn't they make do with a half?

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Now, now, Bear. Justice must follow its inexorable path and reflect the will of the people.....

I wonder where Bear sits in judgement.  That isn’t an English court scene. 

[New Haven Neil]

Well the rain stopped at 10 - after the wettest April day (9am yesterday to 9am today) on the rock, ever.  I know.... 🤧

 

It has been a sunny afternoon and evening, but the wind is still a bit wild, it was nuts last night and this morning, when the ferry risked a trip to Liverpool passengers couldn't get off as the waves were breaking over the ramp - in the Mersey!

[New Haven Neil]

3 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I wonder where Bear sits in judgement.  That isn’t an English court scene. 

 

Similar-ish a bit, but not the same as Fraggle Rock Magistrates.  I don't recall him on the bench when I was presenting naughty young people to them though. (No fancy get-up in juvenile court though).

[southern42]

19 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Back in 1975 Aditi spent ages making handouts with lovely maps or landform diagrams for her geography students. When I did my PGCE at Keele there were courses all about classroom technology , Banda copiers, stencil cutters and how to make clever ohp slides with overlays. Also how to use a video tape (not cassette) player and film projectors. Eventually all that lot were replaced by computers. They also had some weird teaching machines that someone somewhere reckoned would replace teachers. They didn’t. 

 

1990s. I had just completed a couple of art & design courses, when Mr Suvvern came home and said one of the uni professors wanted an oceanography drawing redone for publication and later other requests came from others such as for diagrams on ohp slides to be redrawn. The department had just lost their team of draughtsmen (pen and paper job - "old hat"!) and many academics were not at that time adept at using the computer. I started with Freelance Graphics which began a short career in computer aided design (CAD), eventually becoming a web authorer (programming in html, etc, and designing web pages and drawings, charts, etc for them) in several uni departments. "What's a webpage?" was my first question when asked to do the given job in the first department. By the time I retired, systems for doing the job were increasing and fast changing and I was glad to be out of it! Excellent while it lasted. I still do a bit of graphic design stuff but mainly for myself and family and, occasionally, on a voluntary basis for any of the groups I belong to. Designing Apps is all the rage, now, among other things. I only have to look at one of our offspring's CV to see that one! And, of course, you only have to look on here to see the take up on the latest craze illustrative packages, @iL Dottore and others in which I have been well and truly featured.  🎀 🎶

 

 

Edited April 9 by southern42

[Tony_S]

46 minutes ago, polybear said:

Jeez, don't eat that whatever you do - it's infested with Maggots.....

You will be appearing with Uncle Roger soon, critiquing British rice cooking?

[Tony_S]

37 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Similar-ish a bit, but not the same as Fraggle Rock Magistrates.  I don't recall him on the bench when I was presenting naughty young people to them though. (No fancy get-up in juvenile court though).

The gavel is the “not English “ item. 

[polybear]

54 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

The gavel is the “not English “ item. 

 

It certainly isn't the item Bear uses....

 

[polybear]

Bear here....

 

.....who was looking at BA Flights to Lisbon earlier....

Put in where you want to fly from (Gatwick) - and to (Lisbon).  Tick.

Bung in the dates.  Tick.

Choose what flight times you want.  Tick

And the magic dwarves do the rest.  Tick

Only......

When you look at the small print it seems the flights from Gatwick (LGW) magically somehow come back to Heathrow - despite you saying you want LGW....

 

Hey, that's really useful that is....Mickey's in the Long-Stay at LGW and you've brought me back to LHR....

I wonder how many have been caught out by that?

 

I think that could be a Rant.....

[Dave Hunt]

Maybe they transfer you by bus? Just what you'd need when trying to get home...

 

Dave

[polybear]

ION....

 

I watched some of the Post Office Scandal Enquiry on the magic moving piccy box earlier - Alan Bates was in the hot seat giving evidence; he estimates that he's worked 40+ hours a week for the last 20 years uncovering what those 'sterds have been up to.  I very much doubt it'll happen but in this Bear's Book it wouldn't be unreasonable to pay him a decent hourly rate for all those hours added to the Compo Payment.

And the more details I hear from him the more amazed (and disgusted) I am - the actions (or not) of the Gov. in particular are shocking.

 

I do hope that some of them get serious prison time - but I'm less than hopeful.

 

[Coombe Barton]

... and a pic of General de Gaulle in the bath ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/04/09/measles-now-an-outbreak-in-the-welsh-valleys-post-office-and-some-rants/

[New Haven Neil]

Peel prom, earlier today - by a retired bobby I used to work with, Mike Radcliffe.

 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I was watching an archaeology program this evening where they were excavating a Georgian cemetery that was in the way of HS2. The use of the cemetery ceased nearly two hundred years ago and because they had little room for graves they dug the paupers graves extra deep and placed them in there on top of each other. One grave was six metres (twenty feet) deep and stacked with twelve coffins. If you were on the bottom at least the resurrectionists* couldn't get you. *Was quite a problem 200 years ago and although they haven't found any empty coffins yet there were a few with evidence of attempted body snatching but the remains were still in situ.

[Tony_S]

23 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

... and a pic of General de Gaulle in the bath ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/04/09/measles-now-an-outbreak-in-the-welsh-valleys-post-office-and-some-rants/

Is there a “ not” missing from your sentence about children being given the MMR vaccine and getting measles?