zarniwhoop

On Cumbria, a quick browse of what is currently on wikipedia (yay, the begging has stopped for a day or two!) differs. In particular, it says that the domesday book included southern cumbria, it was only the northern part Carlisle mentioned specifically) not occupied by the Conqueror. And it appears that the British kingdom (Rheged) was overwhelmed long before that - without spending more time on it than I wish to at the moment, it is unclear whether Cumbria was part of England at the time of the conquest.

I (finally) caught up with an earlier Digging for Britain this evening - apart from the (sensible, IMHO) change to the terminology (you mean our knowledge of the past has increased in the last 60+ years ? - who would have thought it!) I was surprised to find out that the normans conquered Cumbria under William II - I'd never thought about when that was incorporated into England - I knew it was separate several hundred years before that, but I guess I'd never thought about what happened to it in the intervening period, and had assumed that saxons or vikings from the East coast had overrun it. Truly, my knowledge of history is not as comprehensive as I would like.

Now that I've finished watching my recordings of the fireworks on sky news, and then CNBU on BBC Alba (from Govan), I'm winding down and my house is at last quiet. So to 'na coin' [1] who have kept us amused and informed during the year, Happy New Year to Ben, Schotty and Lucy - may you have a good year and keep those who think they are your owners under control! 1. gàidhlig na h-alba, google translate from scots gaelic if you have to, not to be confused with the discworld sourcerer

Having come up to my PC to post on ERs, I will now go back downstairs, watch the Ceilidh I recorded from BBC Alba, and raise a glass of Jura[1]. Happy New Year to all on TNM, may your hopes and dreams be satisfied, or failing that - good luck with some modelling! 1. Did I read correctly that as a result of the B* freedoms, whisky now has to be sipped from a pint glass ?

Belated Happy New Year to all. I was watching BBC Scotland, first 'Queens of the Year' or something like that - well worth watching if you have iplayer, then Hogmanay. I heard, and saw, some fireworks somewhere in front of my house, then I heard some more from about 00:25 - came upstairs to post this and away from the TV I could hear a lot more bangs until a minute or two ago. Now to go back, top up my alcohol stream, and watch the ceilidh I've recorded from BBC Alba. hic! 🤣 Just heard another bang - dunno where they are, can't see any colours in the sky, but as a pet-free person I say - "let them enjoy the noise on this of all nights!"

If we get any very early fireworks here, I think I'll miss them - continuing problems with my hifi, so playing some scots / irish music on the PC through my headphones. Then I'll get to the pipe music. Happy Hogmanay!

At the risk of being political - Truss gets to give honours ? Must be a joke.

Mull wine ? I thought they distilled the wine (from barley) in those parts ? Seasonal Felicitations to all - I assume I will not be in a fit state to post in a few hours time 🤣

I've heard a story, which may or may not be true, about somebody playing silly beggars in front of a landrover. In the end, the landrover driver shunted the car off the road. Later, the police turned up at the landrover driver's house on suspicion of failing to stop after an accident, but there was not a mark on the landrover, so nothing to prove the allegation.

Forgot to add that I tried them, experienced my bad leg starting to fold up while in the supermarket - fortunately I was able to steady myself on a shelf. After discussion with my GP I reduced the amount, then stopped them and raised an adverse reaction report with the nhs. Ther were was another side effect which I have forgotten about, maybe the statins were what started by ongoing sleep problems, not sure. I will not be taking any again. That would be 17 or 18 years ago. But my diabetes consultant again mentioned them when I saw him earlier this year.

Yeah, as a Type 1 it has been like that for years (well, for over 50s). As you say, bolleaux.

Great news for those who will be alive decades from now (assuming, of course, that anyone is). Me, I'm still in the "if I wanted to go there, I wouldn't start from here" camp. Nothing against combatting global warming, but severely p155ed off by the musk fan bois (he was described re his destruction of another company as Xitler, with X pronounced as 'sh') and those who think that one size fits all, or who want to limit everyone's mobility. For myself, when I had a passport I could drive (in summer) from home, via the motorways, to the chunnel, and then either to Luxembourg or to Burgundy before I needed to fill up my diesel. But I have to stop every 2 hours to check my blood sugar (a condition of having a licence while being an insulin user). If I tried to combine that with electric chargers, probably every 200 miles, I would never go anywhere distant. The links to various Grauniad articles a few hours ago included one to a letter in Saturday's paper - from somebody who has a leccy car but suffers range anxiety because for a lot of chargers he has to pre-register with the company and by the sound of it make an initial payment and have other data recorded. And don't get me started on the needs for new HV cabling, or for charging points. In the californian gold rush the main winners were those who supplied the picks and shovels. For EVs, those who can provide the HV cables will probably be the ones who make money out of it.

Any chance we could persuade our own EV fans to sample the delights of all that available solar power ?

Interesting, but needs a warning for arachnophobes!

I looked out Wednesday night about 9pm, clear sky. Went out just before midnight (a bit early, I know), total cloud cover. This evening it's been cloudy. Still, I did get to see the perseids a few years ago, I expect they still look much the same.

Only since I started reading this thread 🤣 Yes, I get a *lot* of strange dreams. The worst are when I'm half-asleep (typically on days I need to get up, and am reluctant to fall into deep sleep in case I sleep through the alarm) - I think I'm awake, then get thoughts out of nowhere, but the thoughts progress in nonsensical ways - I think of something and suddenly I'm thinking a non-sequitur, or else I cannot remember what the previous thought was. On nights like that I would happily swear that I'd only slept momentarily, if it were not for occasional brief memories of dreams. But I've never had a dream that I can remember in any detail after I've woken, although I seem to have recurring dreams from time to time, often months apart, e.g. walking through what I know is the town I used to work in (Worthing), except the physical layout is completely different. And now I cast my mind back I can recall that I in the dreams I sometimes walked a different route back to work - a road I knew well in real life, but in the dreams it passed a factory or warehouse with a narrow-gauge railway that eventually (in only a few miles) ended at one of the Porthmadog termini. Hmm, bits of it are coming back to me - driving a car to shunt tracks or wagons at the factory or warehouse - I think it was some sort of Peugeot, but in the days when I could walk into Worthing from work I did drive a Peugeot. The unconscious mind is a strange thing.

Ah, I can remember years ago (perhaps nearly 30 years) when I first had a rear fog light (I guess probably only one at that time) - it was easy to turn on, with a nicely visible light as a reminder. Possibly it wasn't linked to sidelights at that time, not sure. But over the years the interlinking has got worse - on my current (2011) car fog lights require you to be using sidelights, no chance to put just the rear on when in heavy spray that needs wipers on full and where sidelights are useless.

Went for a (short) drive earlier, just to go somewhere different - turned off the London road towards Hurstpierpoint, but then left at the junction towards Shaves Thatch and then on towards Henfield - was going to take the cutoff to Small Dole instead of going to the edge of Henfield, but it was signed 'flood' so thought better of it (no signs for flood at what I think was the other end of that road as I got to Small Dole). I used to cycle those roads regularly, but I think I've only been along that part from the London road (A23) two or three times in the last 20 years now that I only drive. Then some food shopping, and got some Monsooned Malabar coffee beans - I used to get some every few months for 'best' espresso (rather than for 'wake me up' espresso) but until today I hadn't seen the beans since covid, although I've seen ground (for filters, etc) once or twice. So my coffee grinder is back in use - nowadays I mostly just drink Lavazza rosso. rahter than faff about grinding. But I'm puzzled by prices for fizz in Waitrose (lots of offers on fizz and wines at the moment). How come fairly ordinary English fizz (not necessarily the classic grape varieties) is dearer than champagne from recognizable names ?

Just catching up, so belated birthday wishes to GDB. Gwiwer's comments about a wood burner reminded me that if there had been problems with it, they could have sat around a candle. If it then got really cold, they could light the candle. Some say the old ones are the best, but others tell the truth.

Anyone else using natwest and having repeated problems logging in via computer ? This is now the third time it's happened to me - enter the customer number, key requested digits of the pin and requested letters or numbers from the password, get told something was incorrect and I'll lose access if I keep entering wrong items. Try again (sometimes I've had 2 repeated attempts), then give up. On each previous attempt it has worked when I tried again a day or two later.

On the one occasion I had flammekueche in Alsace the base was described as bread dough. I do not recall much about the base, but it certainly wasnit ultra-thin pastry. As a veggie I asked for the onion variety without lardons, and only had a few pieces to pick off.

If @iL Dottore has friends there, they would not be able to organise the proverbial in a brewery, so @polybear would have no worries. Dream on, with whatever work supplies you have been testing. 😄

Talking of phones - anyone got any recommendations for phones which work plugged into virgin media superhubs ?