The Lurker

Someone had parked their Time Machine outside the office when I went home earlier…

When they closed the Black Horse, a 17th century pub on SIdcup High Street with a listed facade, it was sold to developers who were to build a travelodge, flats and retail. They "accidentally" demolished the facade but were made to replace it. The facade has a vague nod to the old one, but you'd never think of it as old in any way.

Are you sure?

The Ponte de April 25. , the date being the commemoration of the end of the Salazar regime. Tony will have had a better view than these - if he was awake! From Belem with the monument to the Navigators From Terriero de Paco

'fraid you did, Bear, when you expressed shock at me storing wheelie bins in the garage of Chez Lurker. Excitingly the bin men have just been and I will no doubt be returning the bins to said garage in the near future!

When I first lived in Northampton our local was a Banks and Taylor pub that served Shefford bitter. It wasn’t a busy pub much of the time which is a shame as the landlord and his missus were friendly and the beer was good. Sadly the pub closed and they split up.

still watching the little blue circle whirl round. It hasn't timed me out this time....but it's nearly tea time and that will be that!

Anyone else have a Dart Charge account? If so, have you succeeded in re-validating your card following the recent changes?

They were in the morning rush - viewing the phalanx of commuters on Tonbridge platform as we schoolboys tried to get off is a vivid memory even now 40+ years later. They weren't keen on letting us through even though it slowed them down getting on...!

It's better than seeing them (and smelling them) out the front window. Besides they'd get in the way of the car.... 🙄

Happy Birthday to DaveF.

We have four wheelie bins and a small food waste bin. I stick them in the garage. The car doesn't fit anyway, especially not with the lawnmower, gardening tools, spare dining room table and chairs, folding chairs, bikes, second freezer, wine rack, beer store, karcher pressure washer, tool box, cobwebs, spiders.... I did think about putting a layout in there years ago - but who wants to spend time with the bins?!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c10z76m1mg0o Whoops! EDIT - I see Puppers has beaten me to posting this link. That shows what happens when you don't have time to catch up properly!!

According to Right Move, one up the road from us is 126.3m^2 (-1359 sq ft). Three bed semi plus conservatory. Ours is somewhat bigger because it was extended to the back of and over the top of the garage, giving a utility room and two more bedrooms

good job it is not this week - the place is full of people for the International Youth "day" and for the Pope's visit. The last few days we were there, lying by the pool we were serenaded by what sounded like music for the coronation, and then lots of choruses from the Edward VII park.

yes, all Lisbon, where i have been for a week. Not too many of the original 28 lines left but a lot of the trackwork remains in the road. There's a more modern tram (articulated cars) to Belem, where you can get one of the original pasteis de Belem (pasteis de nata), beloved of Grizz https://pasteisdebelem.pt/en/ They're not LDC but I imagine Bear could cope. they are however wasted on me

I found some trams for your service

Not sure that your comments on personal tax allowances are quite right; the personal allowance for a single person in 1982 was £1565 and today is over £12,000. - and is gradually eroded for higher earners so that they pay tax at a marginal rate of around 60%. What I do agree with is that the non-dom rules should be abolished; if you’re UK resident you should pay tax on your worldwide earnings just like us UK domiciled individuals with relief given for any overseas taxes paid. the withholding tax rules you suggest would be a PITA to operate for the UK company utilising the devices; it works in certain areas (non resident landlords for example) but service providers would (just as banks already do) insist on gross ups; ie if you agree to pay them 100, that’s what you pay them and so you end up paying even more in tax; fine if you can buy the service or goods here but not if you can’t.

Definitely another set of “Oh Ferrari” moments today. Leclerc’s pit lane speeding and then a wheel nut remover failure. And not letting Sainz past Leclerc to maximise the soft tyre speed. Zhou had a disastrous start and took both Alpines out into the bargain. Norris had better pace than Piastri. and Verstappen imperious again. Only mechanical failure will stop him for the rest of the season; it seems only Red Bull have understood fully the underfloor affect so far.

Malacca - that’s awoken memories of a holiday with parent’s’ friends and their children just under 50 years ago! All I can really remember are the chalets around a swimming pool - but we were probably there a week! I don’t remember any of the food sadly but it wasn’t the holiday where i embarrassed my parents by deciding I only wanted English food- that was Pangkor and the restaurant staff put up a curtain to hide us. They then served something I didn’t like so it was back to the local food after all!!

I find mint goes extremely well with some of the spices (ras el hanout, turmeric, cinnamon, cumin) and the honey and preserved lemons I use in one of my tagine recipes. The addition of entirely non-authentic pomegranate molasses adds to the sweet/sour tang, but the mint and fresh parsley lift the flavours quite considerably

that's it, I'm leaving the country!

And here it is from the summer of 2019

Happy Birthday Baz and fingers crossed for Rick that the move completes smoothly.

I remember those mechanical calculators from primary school - what is called year 5 these days but was 3rd year Juniors.