WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[David Whipp]

Thanks Wendy.

(I like it, but it's a bit of a failure really; I was trying to snap a bee - or whatever it was - on one of the central flowers. Little B... buzzed off by the time I'd pressed the button!)

[Stanley]

Maz sent me this......
News that while Susan and I are having our day out on Wednesday next week my daughters have arranged for four cleaners to come in and spend the day doing a deep clean of my house.... That will be an interesting homecoming!
Micktoon sent me this video. Brilliant and well worth watching.... LINK

[Marilyn]

It was quite a shock to find THAT one in my bag of carrots!
Haven't doctored the pic in any way...what you see is what I got. ( perhaps I could have found a different way to photograph it instead of jamming it between my knees...with my red pinny on...)

Yes..we ate it. It went into my fried rice last night.

[David Whipp]

Maz, "jamming it between your knees..." there are other sites probably more suitable for those interests!

[Marilyn]

Exactly!
I did creep upstairs with it and slip it quietly around the open study door, centimetre by centimetre, while hubby was deeply engrossed on the computer...hubby caught movement out of the corner of his eye and heard me chuckling I think.
So we had our fun that way...before it went in the fried rice.
Amazing what nature comes up with sometimes.

[David Whipp]

So we had our fun that way...

Well I never!

[Stanley]

Quite! I think we both have earthy minds David.... It reminded me of this grave monument I found in Canada in a churchyard near the Lac de Deux Montagnes near Montreal.

[chinatyke]

Good job he didn't have my name or they would have been putting lights on it as well! G Lowcock

[David Whipp]

Wicked, wicked people... you're getting worse and worse.

Did it start with the stuck in a vagina story?

[Stanley]

More likely to be bragging widows.....

[plaques]

Besides being a very upstanding man I wonder whether it symbolizes the Jewish Torah scrolls.

[Pluggy]

I'm in two minds whether I should ban the lot of you......

[Thomo]

A large body of Cyclists have just passed here with a motorcycle escort, the flag out front got a big cheer.

[Stanley]

The Italian authorities are almost ready to raise the Concordia....

[Tripps]

I'm amazed at the size of the crowd for the tour de France in Leeds. Shouldn't be I suppose - my lad has gone up for the weekend, and has already ridden round the stage.
This made me smile Tour de France meets Yorkshire

[David Whipp]

A negative, unfortunately.



Two of the glass walls in the Station Road bus shelter were smashed sometime last night. This would have taken considerable force, as the glass is extra thick to resist breakage. (The moron(s) that did it must be extra thick, too. The b*st*rds.)

If we can work out when the damage was done, it'll help the police search CCTV for the culprits.

Town Council chairman, Claire Teall cleared up the smashed glass with bloom brush and shovel.

[Thomo]

It truly beggars belief David, but it is not the first is it? Most of the bus shelters in this Town have at some time been vandalised. Yes we still have our share of morons, we have one on our patch that will be dealt with soon.

[chinatyke]

Windle & Bowker in the background, my first full time workplace, 50 years ago! Mr Bowker was alive then. Tempus fugit.

[Stanley]

China, again there is a connection. You must have been working there when they were my accountants from 1959 to 2000. Mr petty did my books, a real character, Yorkshire Cricket mad and told me many stories about the old players. The firm was originally R Slater Windle and Sons.
As for the bus shelter.... Their brains must be wired up different than most of us....
I heard a piece on R4 yesterday about fasting during Ramadan. One man commented that the worst place to be at the moment was in Iceland where the day is still more than 21 hours... A longer fast than most!

[Thomo]

Le Tour, in case anyone wonders if a Barlick lad has ever ridden in the Tour de France, the answer is yes. Derek Pickles, born 1925 on Clarence Street took part after returning from Burma post WW2. At that time the family had moved to Blackpool, his bike was a Claud Butler, I used this bike during our holidays with his family in the 1950's.

[PanBiker]

Sticking on the Tour de France theme, Sally's picture of yesterdays peloton as witnessed in Silsden has just been featured on BBC Northwest Tonight



We had decamped over to our daughter Carla's in Silsden on Saturday night. Grandchildren ensured an early start round about 7.00am. On the right side of bacon butties for breakfast we hit the streets of Sisden at just after 10am. The town was filling up nicely by this time. The main roads into the town had been shut for hours so the only way in or out was via the back roads to those in the know. Definitely no access to the tour route from Addingham through to the bypass and onward to Keighley. We took up pavement residence on the Addingham road into town.

First showing at about 11.00am was a few helicopters ferrying the VIP's from York to the stage finish in Sheffield. Shortly after 11.15am the first Police motorcycle outriders came into town from then on and for the next one and a half hours the traffic caravan gradually built up with sponsors vehicles and the French organising contingent out in force. Many had music playing with plenty of vehicles throwing free merchandise to the crowds along the route. French police were out in force. Probably not quite as many motorcycle police as ours but the Gendarme equivalents got a very warm welcome, many stopping to allow photo opportunities. They would park up their machines and let the young kids sit on them for mums and dads to take pictures.

We had a resident policeman on our stretch who had been pulled in from his normal patch in Leeds. Carnival atmosphere in the spectators jollied on by the constant vehicle caravan passing in waves so nothing for him to do other than liaise with the crowds. Lots of our police motorcylists were "high fiving" the spectators with an offered hand as they passed. Police authorities were in attandance from all areas that the tour passed through so all the different regions of Yorkshire and a contingent from Derbyshire plus the extras pulled in, our friendly officer on the street said that many had volunteered for the duty.

As a rough guess I would estimate that along with the Gendarme contingent and press photographers their would have been about 300-400 motorcycles passed in the caravan ahead of the cyclists. First showing of the cyclists was preceded by the arrival of the three eye in the sky helicopters and an official French announcement vehicle about 5 minutes before the leaders of the pack who were out at the front going for the sprint section. About 6 in the pack who passed at about 35mph on the hill down into town, we were at the 5000 meter to sprint banner, a few more support vehicles during the two minutes or so lead that they had and then the main out runner vehicles in front of the peloton which passed in about 45 seconds, another short gap and then the tail end of the field.

Crowds were asked to stay out of the road until the support vehicles had come through. That took about another 20 minutes, each team having enough vehicles to carry about 5 bikes for each of the 200 competitive riders. A clearance vehicle with police escort followed shortly afterwards and the road was then clear for crowd dispersal. The route remained closed to vehicular traffic for some time after the race had passed although it was open to cyclists at all times apart from when the race was actually occupying the road. There were a lot of club and leisure cyclists following the race route and many who had cycled into the area to their vantage points.

We returned to Carla's house for a barbecue, garden was trimmed up in yellow bunting and we were treated to a low pass of BBMF Dakota ZN947 who was transiting up the line of the bypass. We got quite a good view as it banked up towards Keighley. I think it was probably in transit from the Ingleton 1940's event which was on over the weekend.

[Tripps]

My son got a VIP access all areas ticket for the start at Cambridge - thanks to buying a Skoda earlier in the year. He was in the race village from 9.00am chatting, and photos with the riders, and even speaking to the race director M. Christian Prudhomme. He went back to the village after the start to attack the buffet again, but just in just 15 minutes it had all been cleared up, and after thirty minutes the village had gone.

[Stanley]

Spend 4 minutes with this video on the Tour LINK

[PanBiker]

[Big Kev]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/28188083
Seems to have gone down rather well.