Early Risers.

[AndrewC]

Good moaning all from the boring borough. Managed to wander to the local Tesco Metro. Picked clean but I did manage to get a bottle of Talisker Skye for £19. The local independent shop had more stock including some arse-wipe so we now have enough for about 6 weeks. I did panic buy a single small tin of spam, just for a giggle. Our weekly green grocer delivery arrived. Poor buqqer. It was supposed to be a part time semi-retired bit of work for Mike, but has now grown into a full time 2 van full time family business. They've been down to New Covent Garden market every morning at 3 am to source what he can no longer get from local small holdings. He has had to restrict new customers and long term clients like us get texts as to when he is opening the website for bookings. ie, preferential queue jumping window of opportunity. Next 2 weeks of orders sorted. 

 

Names and family history. All a bit strange on my Dad's side. Until a few years ago and a chance online meeting with someone who turned out to be a distant cousin, it was a total mystery. Turns out Dad was 1 of 3 but the only one to have children. His dad was one of 9, his mum one of 14. Very few reached adulthood and very few spawned. I was the first non-Robert first born in many generations. That tradition restarted with my son. Dad had no middle name on his birth certificate but all other records show him named after the town he was born in, but spelt totally differently. His sister's middle name was their mother's maiden name. Bizarre. Mum's side was a free for all and they spawned like rabbits. I've got more cousins than I can shake a stick at without getting a sore arm. No rhyme or reason to the naming either it seems, apart from my older half brother who has 2 middle names. One is paternal grandfather, and the other is the paternal grandmother's maiden name. 

 

Like Mr Roundhouse today is likely to be sans beer. Been decimating the bierkeller as of late and it is getting harder to get it restocked. Many places that were offering drive by pickup or delivery have now had to close down. 

 

Enjoy the day. 

 

At least they kept it simple with me. 

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

Acquaintances wanted to name their son Philip Ian Gibson (names changed to same initials.)

They realised in time.

 

55 minutes ago, Kingzance said:

Our surname begins with the fourth letter of the alphabet. When the second child was born male, I suggested to SWMBO that he should be named Simon Oliver. She said that those were nice names. The joke almost backfired when registering the birth as she was quite insistent. He was registered with the middle name of John!

There was a chap on the payroll were I worked with the surname Head. His parents obviously were not thinking when they named him Richard.

[Joseph_Pestell]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

Nope.. it was done after the marriage.. the marriage certificate has cummins on it...the next information has cummings (cummins) written in...

 

Baz

 

That does suggest to me that a spelling error had occurred and the two versions together on the document is an attempt to right that retrospectively.

 

My own surname is of French origin where it is spelled with only one L. My father's great-uncle, a photographer in Eastbourne, felt that it would be more "arty" to spell it the French way. I don't know if he had descendants who continued to spell it that way.

 

Having a double L causes confusion in France. Names concluding with LL are usually of Catalan origin.

[Barry O]

Thing is after that generation all of the children were baptised cummings. May be to do with the Scottish ancesrory.. swapping clans even inthe 1700s wasn't something you did for no reason. For similar reasons going further back is problematical unless I can go and visit some Kirks in the Highlands

Baz

[TheQ]

I worked with a guy forever known as Pod,   Paul  O'Donnell .

 

My initials meant that on an army base some thought I was claiming to be a Quarter Master... 

 

First mow done,  basically paths cut through the jungle,  some branches broken off in the gales have fallen in the  Alexander , they need clearing before the job can be completed. 

 

SWMBOs brother is still working,  but he's more hazmat protected than any corona nurse, he's a licensed asbestos stripper..  He's going to send me one of his face masks to use,  somewhat better quality than my dust masks .

 

That side of the family on the advert shown earlier, Rawlings had all sorts of variations on their name. 

Rawlins,  Rawlins,  Rawlings, Rawlins,  Rawlen,  Rowling, Rowlin, and versions of those with two "L"s 

[Tony_S]

When Aditi was at school in Yorkshire she felt left out that other girls had middle names so she created one. She told her teacher her middle name was Kumari. Her offers of places at grammar schools in Yorkshire include the middle name. When she moved to Nottingham she dropped the middle name from any documentation. She doesn’t have a birth certificate so she could do what she liked.  I asked MiL about the birth certificate. She said they were available in India but nobody bothered then, which is how she was known by a completely different first name until a passport was needed for the trip to the UK.

My mother was Joyce Marguerite but always known as Margaret. Her parents were not married so her birth certificate had the surname of her mother’s  first husband who was “missing believed dead” in WW1 but had in fact deserted and gone to Canada. Granddad crossed out the name and wrote his surname on, hence why Mum’s birth certificate had a hole in it. 
Tony

[bbishop]

Some railway societies continue to meet.  Bill

 

 

[Two_sugars]

It's a beautiful day on the Costa . . . Sun shining in a clear blue sky, the lightest of breezes, and warmer than it has been.

 

Bored to bits . . . .think I'll go back to sleep.

 

Have a good'un everyone.

 

John

[tigerburnie]

Morning, me and my brothers don't have middle names, but my kids have, my daughters initials before getting married was JAM, she had a load of stick at school for that. Doing my family tree there's lots of Francis for men and Frances for ladies and you wouldn't believe how many different spellings there are for Worsdall (mothers maiden name), though as of yet I have not found a direct link to T.W. or WIlson Worsdell despite all the family telling since the 1950's that we are related.

TheQ, I think Mafeking is a nice name mate...………………………………….

[BoD]

Morning all

 

Do be careful when discussing maternal family names on here or we’ll all be able to access your bank accounts.

Edited March 25, 2020 by BoD

[Simon G]

Morning all,

 

Another bright sunny day here, so gardening underway yet again.  As we are now stuck at home for 12 weeks, I tried to look into home delivery for groceries etc last night.  Tesco were fully booked up for the foreseeable, while Asda appeared to have plenty of delivery slots for late next week, but their website obviously was overloaded and so was extremely flaky, and threw me out in the end.  Fortunately we have friends who have offered to do shopping for us, but I don’t want to impose on them too much.

 

Well, coffee break is over, so it is back to, you’ve guessed, the gardening!

[polybear]

3 hours ago, Andrew P said:

On the subject of names, my late farther wanted to name me Trevor Charles Peters, but Mum quickly realised that I would have TCP on my school satchel, so Gran chose Andrew and dad's choice of Trevor was moved to the middle so now it's ATP.

 

Advanced Turbo Prop.  Could be worse.

 

I was involved in doing some propeller flight trials on it in the 1980's.  Being in it whilst the Pilot deliberately stalled it over the Irish Sea was great fun

[Coombe Barton]

Bright, sunny, currently in front of a computer. However the outdoors calls for a break, which may be a long one.

[grandadbob]

The ironing has been done and no damage to either clothes or myself. The sight was sufficient to perk The Boss up enough to take a photo and post it on Instagram.

Coffee break now and then I will venture out to the exterior and try to finish the weeding.

Edited March 25, 2020 by grandadbob

[Rugd1022]

22 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 

 

Those of us not yet in possession of letters of authority received them today.  If challenged we can prove we are key workers on legitimate business.  Non-essential staff were sent home this morning including some gateline and booking office staff.  All that's left on the station side are the safety-critical badge holders who dispatch trains, station managers, plus the Network Rail Trespass and Welfare Officers.  The latter have been advised to pay special attention to anyone near platform ends at this time.  Not only are many trains shorter so won't reach the ends but we are aware of the potential for inappropriate use of stations during a time of great stress and distress.  All retail outlets are closed including those which are food shops; vending machines will not be re-stocked for the time being.  

I

 

 

Passing through stations I'm making a point of giving the Trespass & Welfare folk a friendly toot-toot on the low horn, I wouldn't fancy their job and I like to think it breaks their long boring days up, if only a little.

 

The surrealness of it all may well become the norm for a while, but despite seeing large-ish gatherings here and there (mostly in and around London) it's heartwarming to see that most people are abiding by the good advice dished out to us all.

 

Her indoors doesn't drive and thankfully doesn't really need to go anywhere, but this morning I had to take her to a medical appointment in Stoneleigh where the '2m rule' was being properly observed with plenty of hand sanitisers in use. All's well on that score and she doesn't need another visit for at least six months. Anything we 'need' I'm managing to get locally on the way to of from work, thus saving extra trips out and fuel usage.

 

Beautiful day here in our corner of Warwickshire, when I'm done faffing about on the keyboard I'll be down the garage with the Minis and having a tidy up. Back to work tomorrow though, the Small Heath stone is running as normal and it's one of those jobs where aside from three run rounds and a spot of shunting the entire shift is spent in the same cab so no need to invade anyone else's space.

 

Stay safe and sane if you can.... I wonder if it'll all be over by Christmas...? 

[81C]

Morning All 

Big day for me my divorce hearing is today I'm hoping on good news for once in my life that is if the court is sitting. 

stay safe  I.L. Ivinope

Edited March 25, 2020 by 81C

[81C]

Duplicate post 

 

Edited March 25, 2020 by 81C

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Another nice sunny day sans contrails and either LHR has closed or the inbound flight path is bothering some other poor beggars.  

 

Two male Christian names in the family go back an extremely long way with one, John, that can be traced to 1230  although it seems to have vanished in the more recent generations (as far as we know).  The other name - Robert also goes back a very long way  although we don't know how far back  beyond 1677 - my paternal grandfather was Robert, my second name is Robert and the lad is Robert; my father's mother reportedly didn't want him to have it so his second name was Henry which is another one that cropped up every now and then as did Fredereick.  So far as I know we only ever had one Marmaduke, who died in 1873.

 

Yesterday's production of sticks was much appreciated by the giver of Brownie points as was the shortening of a buddleia which has given a bamboo a bit of breathing room (yes, I know - but I got a very nice cane out of it while doing the trimming).  Today has thus far been a peculiar mix of the awkward (the fridge has failed), the bad (paying for new one and, while online banking, finding out we have been charged twice for our travel insurance policy) and the good - read on.  So step the next was to contact Admiral and try to converse with a member of the lower deck - this involved a wait of a number of minutes but finally I was connected to a member of their staff who is working from home - they seem to have that well organised.  And even better organised he was basically doing exactly the same as he would in the office and could access all the relevant records, and what's more he even turned up an irrelevant(?) record from last year which revealed we had been charged twice then (their error) which us dumb oldies hadn't noticed.  As we are likely to travel no further than Tesco, if that far, in the foreseeable future I also added cancellation of a current policy to our discussion - so we are to be refunded three premiums - both current policies cancelled and refunded and last year's duplicate policy also refunded.  

 

Travel insurance for wrinklies isn't cheap - so the fridge purchase doesn't look quite so frightening any more.  Looks like even those non-existent clouds outside also have a silver lining 

 

A local development I came across yesterday evening is that various neighbours have started an evening meeting to have a chat - all at very considerable distances from each other so it is presumably legal?  One has heard that testing here is to begin short;y with a target of 500 tests daily.  Which sort of made me wonder if there happens to be a positive in the queue or being tested would that do more to spread infection than just add in a number of negative test results?

 

Enjoy the rest of your day one and all and stay safe.  Time soon to put on the rubber gloves and open today's post

[polybear]

Well it seems that Prince Charles has The Big V now.  Perhaps it'll make some of those who think they're invincible realise they're not...

[jamie92208]

4 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Acquaintances wanted to name their son Philip Ian Gibson (names changed to same initials.)

They realised in time.

We had an u fortunstevlad at school who had cerbal palsy, it was called spastic back then.  His parents had named him Simon Paul Anthony Sl......, and all his mail from home was addressed to Master S P A Sl......, words failed me at the time he was a good lad with a lot to put up with.

 

Anyway the fire is smouldering  nicely and no hedgehogs  have been harmed and the big pile has disappeared.  Now after a break it will be time for some shutter work.

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

My Mum told me that Dad changed my first and middle names round on the way to the Registrars. My brother was going to be called Colin but I said I didn’t like that name and he should be called Peter. He really dislikes his name. Not sure if even now he knows it is my fault. 

Edited March 25, 2020 by Tony_S

[JohnDMJ]

My parents concluded that the only name which could not be abbreviated was John. AFIK, the only official abbreviation is Jack although I do answer to 'J' in the right circumstances!

[Coombe Barton]

My mum chose John for me because it couldn't be shortened.

 

Then, when calling for me it became Jonny. I didn't like that so didn't answer. I explained that my name was John. I thought she was calling someone else. It was soon dropped. I was only three at the time.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I decided to go down to Tesco's this morning to get some more milk and bread and a few other bits before complete isolation from tomorrow. When I got there there was a very long queue as they were only allowing a limited number of persons in at any one time. I decided that I wasn't going to queue up for more than an hour and came away. I'll try the 'pensioners hour' in the next few days but I've enough bread for a couple of days and I can eke out the milk by using the almond milk. My forenames are easily explained, my mum was a royal fan and I was born only a few months before Prince Charles so I was named Phillip James. My mum guessed wrong as to what the royal names would be but a nice try.

[Simon G]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Well it seems that Prince Charles has The Big V now.  Perhaps it'll make some of those who think they're invincible realise they're not...

 

If the BBC lunchtime news is to believed, he travelled from London up to Balmoral despite having symptoms of the virus.  Although he travelled by private plane, he was sureLy putting others at risk, such as Camilla, plane crew and presumably a driver from Aberdeen airport to Balmoral.  I am not sure that I can put down in print what I think about all that or I may be arrested for treason!