Gwiwer

5 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

DaveF said:

A short time ago I had a very unpleasant experience while returning home from town.  I came to a road junction where the side street I was on meets the main road, less than a car's length along the main road is a light controlled crossing.  Coming up to the junction you can't see the lights, you have to be just starting to move forwards to really see the light.  The light changed to red just as I pulled out, fortunately I was able to stop just on the line.

We had one of those Upon the Hill of Strawberries. 
 

You approached the main road from a residential one at a staggered crossroads. The markings and signage are both “Give Way” not “Stop”. 
 

Turning right you were faced with traffic emerging from the almost-opposite residential road which - in that direction - was just ahead of you and would expect to turn ahead of you. 
 

But turn left and you were right on a light-controlled pedestrian crossing. I don’t mean a short distance from it - once you were committed to the turn you had passed the light!  There was no signage to indicate this existed on either of the side roads and no way to see the colour of the light at all. 
 

If traffic on the main road was stopped it was red. But unless some kind soul let you out when it changed you were stuck there. When traffic cleared you went not knowing whether the light was green or not. 
 

Coming the other way - making the right turn off the main road - you were obliged to stop and obstruct the crossing before you could complete the turn. The light might have turned red whilst you were astride the crossing. 
 

Very very poorly thought out. And under the control of TfL (Transport for London) who never replied to calls, emails or any other attempt to talk about it. 
 

At the top of the blue line. You can judge for yourselves the distance between side-turning and crossing and the angle one would be expected to see the lights from if entering the main road.  The light us on a pole which appears as a dirty smudge exactly where the wavy white line meets the solid stop line. 
 

Reviewing DaveF’s post it’s about the same distance. But you cannot see the traffic light

14 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

the ute started life in the 20's or 30's when a farmer's wife wrote a letter to Ford Australia asking if they could make a car that they could take the pigs to market in  on a Monday and go to church in on the Sunday. So someone or other  at Ford got tasked to design such a vehicle and the ute was born.

In the UK some public omnibuses began in much the same way.  A vehicle which could take livestock to and from market one day and shoppers to town the next.  In some cases they were swap-body chassis but others were genuine all-purpose, or utility, vehicles.  

As late as 1984 I was aboard the local bus from Port Isaac into Wadebridge - run by Prout's for those with local interest although it was a pensioned-off former Western National coach - when a local farmer and goat sought to board.  Never mind the less-than-able claiming difficulty getting themselves and their shopping trolleys up and down four or five steps at the door; this unlikely pair were admitted and the goat was eventually persuaded to sit in the aisle.  As I was near the front I was also able to confirm that the farmer paid his own fare but the goat was charged as for a dog.  Presumably there was no separate "goat" fare available.  They were off to market; farmer was expecting to return sans-goat "if 'ee were lucky" 

Fast-forward around 15 years and I was driving for Western National around St. Ives.  We had three standard pre-set fare levels with dogs charged at a standard 50p for any one-way trip.  Some adult fares were only 20p and many were less than 50p meaning a dog fare could be more than that for its owner!  We sometimes got asked what the big bold letters printed on our tickets stood for.  Easy ..... 

AS - Adult Single

AR - Adult Return

CS - Child Single 

CS - Child Return

SS - Seagull Single

SR - Seagull Return

..... which caused a few smiles at times.  The S-prefix of course meant Senior in the days before there was widespread free travel.  We also had a lot more combinations which could appear but in some cases seldom did so.  Some of those were AW - Adult Weekly, CD - Child Day, DG - Dog (or goat?), PA - Penwith Adult (a promotional open-jaw ticket supported by Penwith District Council which allowed outward travel from A to B and return from C to A), MW - Midweek Maximum (a company promotion which offered a maximum return fare of £2 on Wednesdays in winter), KW ("Key West" - a multi-operator weekly ticket valid on most buses across the south-west) and quite a few others.  

11 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

(Makes that sucking-air-through-teeth-when-undecided noise).... 

It's a pick-up.  

A ute should have a purely utilitarian tray on the back.  This may or may not be integral with the cab unit but to my mind it should not be stylised in the same manner.  Other opinions are available.  Especially from those who frequent ute-musters.  

@Dave Hunt - all the best

Of classical music - I'm not averse to some and hold my late father's 800-strong CD collection including a very wide range across the genre and somewhat beyond.  He was quite a fan of "earlier music" too.  I am slowly listening to them but at the rate of one or two a week I might not get through the mall.  I suspect he never did either as a few have turned up still in their sealed cellophane outers.  They are catalogued but listing composers and works means nothing to me if I haven't heard them.  

So the 3-2-1 goes like this 

Also-ran: Pictures at an Exhibition (specifically the Barry Douglas piano solo version or the electronic one by Isao Tomita)

Honourable Mention in Dispatches; Carmina Burana (which dad always insisted would bring about the end of the world if everyone on the planet simultaneously hit the strident D-major in "O fortuna")

3.  Rite of Spring 

2.  "Rach 2" piano concerto

1.  Saint-Saëns "Organ" Symphony with the volume turned up above 10.  

Good morning. Welcome to Tuesday-after-Easter. Easter Moanaday. Still a holiday in Tasmania. 

1 minute ago, iL Dottore said:

For Dinner? Beef Ribeye cooked sous-vide and finished on a griddle plus a small mixed salad. Dessert was a few “wee drams” of a single malt.

Dinner tonight was a roast leg of lamb.  Not the part-leg one often gets chez-supermarché but a full one.  Only because all the major supermarkets have been offering these at half price or less this past week and it was too good an offer to pass by.  That's around £15 for a perfectly good leg which (they claim) serves "7 - 8" and will most certainly do so albeit that is likely to be two of us four times over!  And with a further benefit of loyalty points offsetting future purchase costs.  

All rather nicely set off with roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots and halved brussels.  Plus steamed cauliflower florets and baby asparagus.   Thyme jus, thick gravy optional, mint sauce on the side.  

It's been a good day for the alimentary canals.  We enjoyed hot cross buns for breakfast - maybe the last for this season but who knows - then joined friends for lunch near Falmouth.  Not too far to drive and a pleasant little spot in the lanes near Constantine which offered a superb shakshuka (in my case) and other similarly-themed "brunch" items.  All six of us were well pleased with our chosen dishes.

And that was Easter.  Pask Lowen as we might say locally.  Dr. SWMBO ventured forth into the morning service which included a Christening leaving me to clean up indoors before we headed farther afield.  

Tomorrow is her birthday.  More food and surprises are planned.  

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

Today we mostly had been:-

 

 

 

I guess there are some "clever" plates there given the MAN suffix to some marks.  I recall when wer were teeny tiny critters that there were two bikes - don't ask me what sort because to barely school-age me they were just "Mobikes" - parked as a pair with plates HE 151 and RU 12.  He is one; are you one too?  

15 hours ago, 5944 said:

a 1950s council estate where only half the houses have driveways, yet most households have two cars.

Back in the 1950s however very few would have had even one car. The provision was adequate for the time as, in all likelihood, was the local bus service. 
 

Hertfordshire is one of the most supportive authorities of bus services outside London and Manchester but service provision is still far less than it was 50/60 years ago when Routemasters were among the types you could find trundling past fairly frequently. 
 

56 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

1 hour ago, AY Mod said:

 

I've only had one other report in 48 hours and not seen it at this end.

 

I've had it a couple of times too, and very slow page loading.  win 10, Edge.

Seen on an increasing number of occasions across the past week or so along with ever-slower loading times.  MacOS / Safari or on the iPhone - slower if anything on the phone.  

4 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Et tu  Singapore 😢 I never thought to see such blasphemy

 

Try this for size. 
 

Now 3 ½ hours late and threatening to arrive closer to 3am than the expected 11pm. 

6 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

the A270, although some did mention the A27 which is a looong road and at this point is the Brighton bypass. Of course, A270 matches the A27 substring.

The current A270 was the old A27. It still takes its time-honoured course from one end of the modern by-pass to the other through Hove and Brighton. 

10 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

I'll have you know we are the good folk of Portslade, not Hove! The boundary on the South side of the road is some way to the East (the Station Road I mentioned a few pages ago), and the first house in Hangleton ((which is part of Hove) is opposite that.

My grovelling apologies to all Portsladians! 
 

The only place I know where a major road has two names depending upon which side you are. Station Road (Portslade) is the same thoroughfare as Boundary Road (Hove) 

Just to add to the melée the full name for the railway station, which is on the Hove side of the road, was always Portslade and West Hove until Connex excised the Hoverians and fitted (smaller, cheaper) one-line name signs. 
 

Got that?

Good. Now let’s delve farther back into history and recall that the next two stations have also changed identities and the one beyond that no longer exists at all. 
 

Aldrington was built as D y k e Junction Halt (without the spaces and without a profanity filter to avoid) and Hove was opened as Cliftonville. Beyond there Holland Road Halt was closed way back at electrification in 1935 but its mortal remains can just still be seen. 
 

And then there is Brighton. About which I had best stay quiet lest I trouble the kickballing fans or awaken the ghosts of youthful nights long past! 

26 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

Not wanting to be Captain Obvious, but why cant they close it from 9PM until 6AM instead...?

 

Because the good folk of Hove like their beauty sleep and don't want to be kept awake by the sound of jack-hammers, excavators and other heavy equipment associated with major road works. 

13 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

On pronunciation, the most difficult I have found is Vietnamese

When working in Australia, where there are many such, one of the most difficult family names to pronounce to the satisfaction of the other party was Nguyen.  

Some preferred to go by a Western name but most preferred their own.  Approximately - given my Western tongue - the more common variations were "Win" "Nwin" and a very shortened version of "Know-when".  

How does one know which is which until they have introduced themselves? 

2 hours ago, Grizz said:

Any street UK…

Even in our humble and remotely-sited town of just 4800 souls there are more non-white faces than appear in that image 😉

G'morning all.  Welcome to Moan-day.  And for those of us at the Distant (Signal) West it is also BIN day.  

Dr. SWMBO has already ventured to the pool for her morning swim.  I have ventured as far as the kitchen for my morning muggertea with toast.  IT seems to be wet outside with a forecast of more wetness to come later.  Same old same old then.  

This weather does at least spare me the task of repainting the outside woodwork.  It needs some attention but there is no point attempting the task in pouring rain!  

Avagoodun.