The Lurker

Happy Birthday Rick!

I have the double last page - first time for ages.

A good time last night - meeting some old colleagues for a beer or three. Slightly bittersweet as one of them died a few months back - the only one who was my age - the rest are at least 4 or 5 years older and some much older. But I did learn that GDPR doesn't apply to dead people....

2 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Ahh HUMP day...

 

Yesterday had the Mrs all over with her visits errands etc. Jemma showed briefly whilst out running errands, was her birthday and we had cards and a pressie for her.

 

Work full steam ahead again with new report(s) requested by the hospital layabouts management. Just amazes me that so many people can be sucking money out of the health-care system without doing a single thing to improve anyone's health. All they do is improve the bottom-line, which again seems ODD since they are supposed to be non-profit!!

 

Today, Bob is 17, he's trying to tell me we're wrong, he's MUCH younger than that 😅

 

In other news - I've finally had it with;

1) pigeons (around 8-12 at a time) descending on my bird feeders

2) Rabbits looking longingly at the flowers/roses in the front garden

3) Squirrels all over the bird feeders and scaring everything song bird away

 

So, I went GUN SHOPPING and I intend to convince all these various nuisance to leave my premises. The Mrs, kids and friends all think I'm crazy, but I've DONE IT!!!

I present to you my deterrent of choice...

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THAT WILL SORT THEM OUT - 30ft range and extended magazine capacity.

 

11c sunny and good air-quality first thing, expected to hit 21c later and some light rain arriving late evening.

 

Carry on.

I bought my Mum one of those a couple of years ago to squirt the squirrels - not sure how she has got on with it

Pearson was a first time BTCC winner at Brands. 

But it was interesting that Jade Edwards commented that the new rules were made for the likes of Turkington; a consistent accumulator of points.

We have busy robins and dunnocks, both nesting in or just next to the garden, with goldfinches flittering by. The last few days have seen a male blackbird about. I thought the crows had found the magpies' nest in the trees at the bottom like they did last year - one morning I heard the magpie alarm calls going and a crow cawing loudly. The magpies then disappeared but I did spot one yesterday evening, so may be they have just kept a low profile.

21 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Actually I think people often assume I am more capable than I am so when I can’t do something they think I am being “difficult”. If I don’t understand  something, I will ask. This seems to be quite annoying to some people. 

Aditi knows to be specific in the gardening tasks, after I once pruned the wrong clematis. My task today was quite simple, to put all the tools away. Aditi was rushing in after being bitten by mosquitos. She seems to be more susceptible each year. When we first moved to Essex the mosquitos caused unpleasant reactions but I am less bothered now.

Tony

Essex was I believe the last place in the UK where malaria carrying mosquitos were endemic - the Blackwater marshes. Long since eradicated, but maybe Aditi has met some of their more troublesome  descendants!

12 minutes ago, steve1 said:

Swifts are back here in North Yorkshire.

 

steve

I heard and then saw my first swift of the year this morning in Sidcup. Didn’t see any yesterday so it may well have arrived overnight.

I have read speculation in the past that if the Hawkhurst branch had survived a few years longer, then it might have been chosen as a heritage line, rather than the K&ESR. It had Col Stephens heritage (it was his first project as engineer) although it was always effectively owned and run by the SER and successors, and ran through picturesque countryside.

Thinking on this, it would perhaps have had headquarters at Hawkhurst where there was once a small engine shed and a reasonable amount of railway land. In theory there is a mainline link at Paddock Wood, although in reality BR continued to use the Hawkhurst bay platform as a siding well in to the 80s, and parked an EMU there to be a waiting room/booking office when the station building was rebuilt. If they'd been commercially minded they might have been able to justify a morning train to allow commuters and schoolchildren to travel, although the stations were not exactly convenient for most of the places they purported to serve.

I have only seen one snake in the UK that I can recall; it was a grass snake that was basking in Foots Cray Meadows a couple of years ago. We did, however, visit the snake temple in Penang when I was a child

Trip advisor link:

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g1193625-d454852-Reviews-Snake_Temple-Bayan_Lepas_Penang_Island_Penang.html

7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. As I have mentioned I do the NY Times *Wordl game every morning. This morning I got the word at the second attempt.😁😁😁

But most of the records were destroyed on Cromwells orders.

*In Wordl you have six attempts to find a five letter word. You have to guess the first word and if a letter from the word of the day is in your guess it lights up green if it is in the right place and yellow if it is in the word but not in the right place, letters that are not in the word show as grey. It is easier than it sounds.

I used to do wordle until they decided to require a login to access stats so I have stopped. I started with “route” every day and eventually came in 1st guess. I then switched to “orate” but that didn’t come in. 

20 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Yes it is a lot of fun, and sometimes embarrassing. When I started looking into my family tree I discovered one of my great grandmothers had the maiden name of Mogg. Being such an unusual surname I started tracing it back and got as far back as my 3X great grandfather a farmer living in Podimore, Somerset in the early 19th century. I was using Genes reunited through which you can compare family trees so I looked for the surname Mogg in the surrounding villages and contacted the owners of the family trees. One of the first I contacted replied that her 3X great grandfather was a brother of my 3X great grandfather and whats more she sent me a copy of the Mogg family tree dating back to Tudor times when the name was 'invented'. It was adopted by a father and son originally named Keen in the mid 1550's when Mary Tudor was on the throne.

I thought that you were going to say you found you were related to Jacob Rees-Mogg. That would have been embarrassing.

Mrs Lurker watches the Virgin River series, set in California but filmed around Vancouver. I am pretty certain I spotted the suspension bridge over Lynn Canyon in one episode.

Not sure what all this turning down of black pudding is...a fine ingredient for a full English!

Salt in foods - I don't put salt on any food - not even chips; they just need a good dose of malt vinegar.#

When cooking I put salt in the water I cook rice with and occasionally for pasta as well - depends whether I am feeling influenced by Gennaro Contaldo or not. Nothing else I can think of unless I am trying a new recipe - I try to follow it properly the first time and then adjust to our tastes if necessary.

I don't avoid salt deliberately but some things I do find far too salty for my taste - Mrs Lurker likes a salt and black pepper tiger stick from Morisons but they are too much for me. but I am partial to salumi and the Spanish equivalents....and crisps!

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

I’d like to see them treated the same as the poor innocent little animals that were horribly tortured for the sadistic scrotes’ sick pleasure. 
 

Dave

I wouldn't; I like to think I am better than them.

2 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

Just to cheer our Irish Sea correspondent up the sun is shining here in the vast metropolis of Manutopea.

 

That’s good; Kent are doing pretty well at Old Trafford. They could do with a win!

Well done Lando! Let’s hope the change in form continues for the season.

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

Despite it being rather grey and not that warm, there's an ICE CREAM VAN trolling about...

Yes, one came up our road earlier and stopped outside the house of our large neighbours- whom we rather snidely refer to as the Slobs.

they must have been out as the ice cream van moved off quite quickly.

ION it was obvious here that no-one thought that Sadiq Khan was going to be re-elected- so obvious that the anti ULEZ brigade and brought down a camera overnight outside a local school. At least this time they did not blow it up and get the road closed off - morons! 

On 28/04/2024 at 18:20, Michael Edge said:

In the Yorkshire coalfield we had a ton of coal at a time dumped on the pavement outside our gate, this had to be shovelled/barrowed round to our coal bunker - gave me something of an idea how hard a loco fireman had to work.

How long did a ton of coal last for domestic use? Say a 2 up 2 down or a 3 bed semi. As you can tell, I have never lived in a coal fired house, although my Grandma had a coal fire in her flat

that's my "commuting to school" experience a few years later, a couple of stops up the line - almost unremitting blue/grey  CEPs and BEPs and VEPs. At least Tonbridge had the Hastings units

On 23/04/2024 at 14:29, Deeps said:

 

Anyway, the rum ration had been stopped before I joined up and on a submarine there is no room to swing a lash! Other than that, I would say we never had a ‘quiet life’.

The company I work for supplied the rum for the daily tot from 1784 until its abolition in 1970.

https://www.edfman.com/royal-navy-rum-contract/

We have used Ocado since Mrs Lurker was pregnant with Younger Lurker - and he’s 15. We’ve not had any real problems- a couple of times where the substitution didn’t meet our desires and once where we fit a bag of someone else’s shopping in addition to our own. In all those years they have only once not been able to make their one hour slot and they rang to let us know so we could reschedule 

11 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

IIRC, the average European of today has something like 3 - 5% Neanderthal DNA.

 

Dave

Possibly some Denisovan DNA too but that is more often found in populations from Oceania and the Far East. Amazingly they have found a fossil that has DNA evidence that the interbreeding was one or at most two generations back.

Interestingly Ricciardo also hit Piastri in the same incident, damaging his diffuser - before Stroll hit him.

mainly prosaic sightings of robins and starlings, crows and magpies on my walk back through College Farm and Foots Cray Meadows, along with mallards, coots, moorhens in the river and lake. I did see a couple of Tufted Ducks, a first for me, and a swan earlier in the week, and a woodpecker staying low, its head just poking out of the long grass. Lots of song from other birds that stayed hidden. and parakeets!

Oh well, rain in the sprint shootout put out any fires...and gave us a bit of twist. Sky were just bigging uo Hamilton's lap when Norris' was reinstated! 

I for one knew nothing of water meadows (as opposed to flood plains and flood meadows) even though I suspect I lived opposite one in Northampton (although the narrow header stream was also used for mills - the area I lived in was a crazy derivation of something like the "south mill on the river").

The wikipedia page is quite interesting, as is this historic England pamphlet:

https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/conserving-historic-water-meadows/heag176-conserving-water-meadows/

and this one too but you have to download it:

https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/iha-water-meadows/heag237-water-meadows/

I was also looking to see if the meadows along the Cray had their origins as water meadows but I think Capability Brown and numerous paper mills long ago covered any traces.