The Lurker

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.

I got hailed on when walking home after dropping the car off for Mrs Lurker to use on the afternoon school run. I didn't see but think I heard the skylarks so maybe they will manage to nest in among the sheep and cows. at least there is now less risk of a dog disturbing them.

Speaking of cars, mine is "Portimao blue". It's surprisingly good at hiding the dirt. It too has a lane change control that actually steers you back into the lane if you have not indicated. This is irritating if you have to move around an obstacle on a normal road (like a parked car), or a bus stop, where indicating might be confused with wanting to turn right. I could turn it off but have chosen not to. Thus it is a BMW that has working indicators....

17 hours ago, Tony_S said:

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?

There’s one who hovers near the small wine section in our local Waitrose. He shuffles nearer if you pick up a bottle to read the back label.

10 hours ago, BoD said:

 

It is only ever ER’s where this happens.

 

Is our allocated share of server space full?   (of ******)?

Have the admins shifted us to 64Mb dial up to save the rest of RMweb?

Do the computer generated images offend the computer generated guardians of bandwidth usage?

 

Have we overstayed our welcome?

 

Or has the Awl detected too much forbidden  info and decided that Enough is Enough?

14 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

... It was probably wishful thinking, but I thought I heard a skylark from the field at the top of the road ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/04/07/enquiry-restarts-this-week-in-northern-ireland-st-pirans-hermit-crab-skylarks/

Which reminds me I must go to the one area in this part of the Boring Borough where I have seen and heard skylarks. It was on a farm which had been used for gravel extraction in the 70’s but which had been left as scrubland since. However last year the farmer fenced off his land apart from the footpath through the middle and now has cattle on one side and sheep on the other. I fear the skylarks may not stay long there this year.

One positive for Jamie Oliver recipes is that they tend to work; not all TV chef recipes do - the Hairy Bikers ones need more adaptation. And if you’re not too worried about total authenticity but want something tasty, then they’re handy . Better still, a lot are freely available online from his website so no need to buy his books!

Not quite our garden but one of the local parks - the Glades, Lamorbey. I think this is an Egyptian Goose and chicks this morning 

this looks a good idea.

https://www.urban-transport-magazine.com/en/south-africa-the-franschhoek-wine-tram/

When global warming has taken hold, will we have winetram lines through the wine country of the Kentish weald (miraculously re-utilising the track bed of the Hawkhurst branch)? OK so the latter part of that is very unlikely....

Best wishes to Dave Hunt

10 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

One of the reasons “The Church” (aka The Catholic Church) was so successful is that it is basically press-ganged local deities into its structure.

 

There you are, a happy little heathen worshipping Banba – goddess of the land, agriculture, and fertility, then along come the Christian missionaries, up goes the ecclesiastical scaffolding and a short while later Banba has a new name - say St Barbara,  a shiny new place of worship and a new PR firm, but otherwise same old, same old.

 

One of Western Europe’s favourite religious holidays is Christmas - which started out (more or less) as a co-opting Saturnalia before moving over the centuries to a (mostly) Christian religious festival. However, nowadays with the sky-high commercialisation and commoditisation of what was once a religious festival, surely it’s time to return Christmas to its religious roots and resurrect Saturnalia for the fun and games?

 

Not only would we be able to enjoy self-indulgent behaviour (eating, drinking and spending too much) without the niggles of conscience about misusing a holy festival, but the food would be better too.

 

An authentic Saturnalia celebration would feature roasted pig and sausages, winter root vegetables fried in oil, fresh fruits, nuts and all sorts of booze and plenty of it. Hmmm, roast pig, sausages and parsnip chips or tired, dry turkey and Brussel Sprouts - no contest really.

Not just Christianity either- the Romans did it too, and some strands of Islam too. And I am sure there are other examples too.

I have been busy at work and no real time to post here; but I did manage to find time to go to Akoko, a Michelin starred West African restaurant.

i have never really had West African cuisine and I doubt you could say this was typical of Nigeria and Senegal but a lot if it was delicious- a real spicy theme running through it.

not cheap but definitely fancy,

hete ate the first two courses of the seven or eight from the tasting menu; on the left was some kind of fermented rice with chicken skin and on the right an oyster in a spicy soup

The wine was from Crete- another first

Parakeets investigate the bird feeder this morning:

50 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Too many UK supermarkets don’t even have a staffed checkout. It’s self-serve or nothing. 
 

If I have to shop in one of those - or if I am caught unaware by being somewhere different - I always do something to ensure a staff member has to come and help. 
 

Like deliberately placing my stuff in the wrong spot and triggering the “unexpected item in the bagging area” warning. 
 

When our (then local) M&S food hall removed their staffed tills I made a point of asking the manager what their policy was on serving disabled customers. The response was uninspiring. “If they’re blind they’ll have someone with them and if they’re deaf they can still see the instructions on the self-service tills”. When asked about autistic customers whose needs - including relying on the familiar - might not be immediately apparent the response was “artistic customers are always welcome so long as it’s not graffiti art”.  
 

A letter was sent to M&S Head Office. Five years later I still await a reply. 
 

I will never use a self-serve checkout when there is a staffed one. I am not paid to do their job, I do not receive a discount or any other benefit for doing their job for them and we need jobs, not bums forced by machines to fatten on sofas whilst getting state handouts, in this country. 

I always use self service because it is generally miles quicker- there’s always someone who wants to painfully count out cash - I mean, who uses that these days?

slightly tongue in cheek of course because my main shop is delivered to the door by Ocado and I use supermarkets for odds and ends.

10 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Why isn’t the ace of spades the ace of shovels?

Spade = sword or spear IIRC. But you probably knew that anyway!

but on the plus side I saw some good photos that I would not otherwise have seen!

I hadn't realised Casey Jones was a TF brand. A visit to the one in Charing Cross was a treat to my self on days when I used to come up to town as a teenager to spend birthday cash etc at places like Virgin records or Games Workshop....!