PhilJ W

Outside of the larger towns and cities most British fire brigades are manned by volunteers. The recent and current intensely dry conditions were and are exceptional. Climate change is the culprit and changes will have to be made to cope with it.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. A couple of packets arrived today, one from the UK and one from Hong Kong. Both were purchases from E-bay. The postage on the packet from Hong Kong was £2 but the UK postage was £3. I might add that the UK package was only posted last night.

It might not be possible to identify the individual wagon but it might be possible to identify which diagram it is.

I don't think impotent is the right word.

I always preferred the S type over the Mk. II.

Or like 007's Aston Martin, oil and smoke dispensers and if thats not enough machine guns.

There's not only the 14xx that appeared in the film. There's the GWR cattle wagon, the steam roller and the squires bullnose Morris car. The latter two are still in existence as possibly there are preserved examples of the cattle wagon.

Indeed, The member of the royal family who was put forward as a suspect, Prince Albert Victor was easily eliminated by examining royal records that clearly gives him an alibi. As a 'senior' royal (Queen Victoria's grandson and second in line to the throne) his movements are a matter of record. The American, H H Holmes was a notorious serial killer in Chicago at the same time as JTR but is highly unlikely to be JTR. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Holmes

I have an interest in Jack the Ripper and if your looking for conspiracy theories it is fertile ground, and thats without some of the crazier theories as to who he was or even who his victims were. I have my own theory but it goes against the accepted mantra even though it is more probable than some theories put forward.

There is (or was) a market for pre-loved and pre-stained mattresses. There was a gang who obtained such mattresses and simply replaced the covering. It came to light when a purchaser had a nasty smell coming from her 'new' cheap mattress. It turned out that the previous owner of the mattress had died in bed and hadn't been found for a couple of weeks.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Just after I got out of the bath this morning Si Attica made a surprise attack. He hung around all day despite application of Nurofen. I managed to make it to the hairdressers to have my ears lowered but afterwards I had an eyelid inspection and he'd gone when I awoke.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Nice and comfortable this morning with a slight breeze but likely to warm up later. Off to have my ears lowered this afternoon but first a dip in the bath before it gets too hot.

Goodnight all.

Quite likely ash from the fires at Wennington. My car was also covered in a grey ash that was lighter than its colour of charcoal grey. We have just had a short sharp shower that cleared the air for a while but now its turning muggy.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I felt so cream crackered that I skipped Farcebook last night so I'd better get on with it.

The houses burning 0:22 to 0:25 are those in Dagenham. From 0:25 to 0:32 Wennington, then back to Dagenham about 0:32.

IIRC there was more than one 14xx used in the film and one was in GWR green with the outline of GWR on the side tanks.

When investigating my family tree I traced one branch of the family back to generations of quarrymen on Portland Bill dating back to the turn of the 18th and 19th century. Back in those days Chesil bank did not exist except at very low tides making Portland Bill an island. As an island the islanders were notorious for inbreeding, indeed in my family tree there are instances of marriage between first cousins. The family surname was Anthony and even today members of the family, including myself have a resemblance that comes through that branch of the family. Even my nephew has the same family resemblance and thats seven generations after Anthony's left Portland Bill.

On the subject of in-breeding the aristocracy are the worst and the higher up the tree the worse it becomes. The prime example was the Spanish Hapsburgs the last of whom, Charles II was a slobbering impotent idiot. The ancient Egyptian Pharaohs were even worse. DNA evidence suggests that Tutankhamen's parents were at least half siblings and it was known that they married brother and sister for generations to keep the bloodline 'pure'.

One ruined tyre that possibly could have been repaired and possibly a replacement wheel. An expensive mistake if its an alloy wheel.

It was only about five miles in a WSW direction from me. Last night I could smell the charred wood on the breeze. The houses destroyed in Dagenham, only a few miles further into London, are also familiar to me being on my route to work before I retired. They are rather unusual in being built on a steel frame and panels being bolted on. They were referred to as pre-fabs, which although technically correct they were more substantial than the single storey buildings many of us are familiar with although dating from the same time (mid/late 40's). About 30-40 years ago they had problems with the chimneys which were basically a mild steel box that corroded. This was dealt with by fitting a stainless steel liner. From the news reports some appear to have the steel frames distorted and are likely to be written off. In both cases the grass fires that started off the sequence of events began on what is marshland that is normally well watered.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. It might not be as hot as the last couple of days but the humidity is making it feel worse. Not much evidence of rain here either. They were talking about manure heaps spontaneously combusting. The internal temperature of a manure heap can reach 140F/60C depending on what they contain. Apparently the fir tree that fell across the WCML bringing down the overhead also spontaneously combusted. I read somewhere that such trees which contain a lot of resin so when heated exude a flammable vapour which makes controlling fir tree forest fires so difficult. Perhaps the tree in question was giving of vapour and it was just waiting for something to ignite it.

Dyson vacuum cleaners do suck, but not in the way expected of them.

There is still planned obsolescence to contend with, and not always with the cheapest items.

Sounds like a good place for a meet, ER's or NM's. I looked it up and its a short walk from from Holloway Road Station, first stop south of Finsbury Park.