Dave Hunt

Although I had planned to spend some time in the shed this afternoon, I had an attack of conscience when I looked at the garden pond so instead spent a few hours getting rid of some of the blanketweed and duckweed that has started its annual attempt at a takeover. Although we had plenty of frogspawn in the pond in March, it all suddenly disappeared at about the time when the first small tadpoles were beginning to emerge and I didn't know why. Today though I found quite a few crawling creatures living in the pond and when I looked them up in the garden pond book I have it turns out that they are dragonfly larvae that are well known and efficient killers of spawn and tadpoles. Bu**er. However, I was pleased to see that there are at least two frogs in the pond so maybe we'll be luckier next year. If so, I'll keep an eye out for these mass murderers and give them the bum's rush. Dave

I've just had a complete typed post disappear into thin air when I selected 'submit reply'. Has anyone else had that happen? Dave

Much sympathy for NHN - what a bummer. I must admit that I've always been leery about varnish coats over paintwork and generally try to do test pieces before committing to do the job on a model or trying the varnish on part of a model where a bad reaction won't be seen. For matt finishes I've used Testors Dullcoat for years but for some reason it isn't available in UK any longer and I'm down to the last dregs of my last can so I'll soon have to start looking for a substitute. Dave

A good thing you sent your NOTAM. I have now deactivated the local defence SAM system accordingly. Dave

A fine morning here in North Hipposhire. Without wishing to put the mokkers on things, it looks as though spring has actually arrived at last. We are shortly to go to the market followed by our wrinklies’ covid booster then visit a friend whose husband died recently. It’s all go I tell you. Dave

My Dad was a research and development chemist whose speciality was UV reactants, absorbents, etc. and was involved with developing a UV sensitive resin for use in repairing gas and oil pipelines in the Middle East. The repair material was resin soaked bandages that could simply be wrapped round the pipes and left to harden by the sun’s rays, which happened quite quickly once the bandages were removed from their packaging. He was called one day by one of the engineers involved who said that they were having a great deal of trouble with the system because the local operatives were wasting most of the material by taking all the bandages required for the day’s work out of their wrapping before starting. The result was that most of them ended up as solid blocks before they could be used and nothing the engineers could say would change the situation. Hence the system was discontinued. Dave

....and sit in Parliament. Dave

Well, I got the clothes drier sorted out for our friend much more easily than I anticipated as her son who visited at the weekend had dug a hole for the socket to go in so all I had to do was mix up a bit of concrete using some ready mix cement in a bag with gravel, put the socket in the hole and pack the concrete round it. The steel socket is powder coated so it should last for a good while. We then went out for lunch before taking her to look for a bookcase and found one that she liked that will be delivered on Thursday. It's a flatpack job though so I'll be back there on Friday to put it together. On the way home Jill started feeling icky so I've been administering some TLC and she's had a kip on the settee with a hot water bottle . That seems to have helped and she is now at the tea, toast and cake stage. All in all an eventful day. Dave

Jamie, Sorry not to have seen this before, but have you tried contacting the Vintage Carriage trust for details of L&Y interiors? I don't know how much material they would have but they restored a L&Y club car to run on the K&WVR. Dave

Our old farmhouse in Lincolnshire had a brick built septic tank. The rhubarb that grew above it was superb. Dave

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

A favourite lunch of ours that is surprisingly satisfying is a fairly large amount of baby leaf spinach mixed with chopped up avocado and crispy bacon lardons. Dave

Going to our friend’s new house near Oswestry to continue helping with getting things sorted for her. One of my jobs is to fix the ground socket for the garden clothes drier then we’ll be going out for lunch. After that I suspect that fitting a cat flap in the back door will be on the cards so I’m loading plenty of tools in the car. What’s the betting that I forget something necessary and have to go out to buy one? Dave

Agreed. One of the sarnies on my list of likes is extra mature cheddar cheese and strawberry jam. It’s something I picked up from an American colleague and to my taste is yummy. As Flávio states, though, it has to be good quality ingredients. Dave

You are dead right with that Puppers but I have to say that I am glad that someone from your neck of the woods thinks so as I always thought that butter on a bacon butty was something that defined the lack of taste of the southerner and is eschewed by right thinking northerners. Oh, and I absolutely detest unsalted butter anyway. Dave

An army major neighbour of ours in Germany had the cam belt on his Alfa Romeo break on an autobahn when doing about 95 mph (not his fault as the car had only done something like 15k miles) and he described the event as like being in an APC that was hit by a barrage of anti-tank rounds and then hit a rock face as everything locked up. He ended up in a smoking heap at the side of the road trying to calm his wife down as she was having hysterics. Dave Forgot to add that the car was a write-off.

Wasn't there a video clip that went viral some years ago of a woman putting a neighbour's cat into a wheelie bin? Dave

Just one fast jet guy that I know of but a few helo operators did. Dave

Before leaving the RAF you have a final medical examination to check whether there are any existing or pre-existing conditions that could be attributal to service life. I was noted as being partially high tone deaf and a few years earlier would have been eligible for a pension increase as a result bur so many retirees were found to be so afflicted (surprise, surprise!) and were getting enhanced pensions that the rules were changed and to qualify you had to be nearly stone deaf, which saved HMG a lot of cash. Well, the Senior Civil Service pay rises had to come from somewhere I guess. When I left I was asked whether I would like my civvy GP to have copies of all my service medical records, to which I agreed. Then when I started to fall apart, especially when my spinal trouble really set in, I did ask the consultant whether it could be because of my job, to which he said that it was certainly a possibility but not 100% guaranteed and since I has also played rugby, done a fair bit of hillwalking etc., the likelihood of persuading the powers that be to accept responsibility was about zero. To be honest I didn't expect anything but just asked the question out of curiosity as much as anything. At least I didn't suffer from Gulf War syndrome, which some guys I knew did and that really wasn't funny. Dave

It's similar here but after the questions they still have to see the marker pen arrow. And even when you are on a ward, when they come to give you medication they still have to ask you to confirm name and DOB and check them against your notes before handing over the happy pills. Dave

I quite agree; when you think of all the horrible things in France...... Dave

In all my orthopaedic operations at Oswestry (two knees, one hip, one foot and my spine - the day I left the RAF I started falling to bits) I had marker pen arrows indicating the bit of me that was to be worked on. On one occasion I was due to go to theatre early in the morning but due to emergencies was delayed until late afternoon, by which time the marker pen had worn off. When we got to the theatre, the nurse who accompanied me to ensure that everything was done 'by the book' wouldn't let the surgeon proceed until he had confirmed with my notes and from me verbally which hip was to be operated on and a fresh marker arrow applied. Dave

My Dad once had an insect bite on a little toe that turned septic and then black, a bit like the picture of the snake bite but not as bad. He was taken into hospital, though, and had a marker pen outline of the limit of the black discolouration applied so that the medics could keep track of how the intravenous antibiotic treatment was taking effect. Dave

Actually I would have liked to have made the Journey as have always found the EMGS shows interesting as well as having an additional reason to visit Reading but following my spinal operation I am still not allowed to drive for another couple of weeks and would need the car for transporting something. Dave

We get our bacon from a market trader who cures it herself and the meat comes from local free range animals. Our bread is multi seed or sometimes white cobs made by a local bakery. Cakes are nearly all made at home using what I would call ‘natural’ ingredients, I.e., butter, sugar, flour, milk etc. and not flavour enhancers, preservatives, stabilisers and so on. I’m pretty sure that our consumption of UPF is low as we very rarely have anything like ready meals, curly fries, shop bought cakes or other sweet stuff. We do eat cheeses various and dark chocolate and drink milk though so we’re not all goody goody. Next week some friends are coming to stay who are largely vegetarian, although they do eat fish and other seafood, and one of them is both gluten and dairy intolerant so catering can be a bit of a minefield. Dave