WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Tizer]

That bin contains Britain's total 2016 steel output.

[Pluggy]

Steady on Maz you'll get Pluggy on your case if your not careful.

I don't own a Skoda anymore. I got rid in September. I now drive a Dacia Sandero. And since they are half the price of an equivalent Skoda maybe they are made out of old swarf.....

Its a long time since Jasper Carrot made his living telling Skoda jokes. They are just Volkswagons with a less pretentious badge nowadays.

[Stanley]

The swarf problem is solved. A few years ago the council frowned on putting swarf into the recycling bin even though it is clean valuable steel scrap. I rang them yesterday and they have changed their tune so the swarf is in the brown bin and will get munched on Monday. Wendy had volunteered and was coming down to help. What a wonderful woman!
Tiz, if you think that's a lot, watch shed matters, the two shafts I am on with now will produce a lot more than that!



I get a visit from Joan today......

[plaques]

The swarf problem is solved.

I once rang them up to ask if I could put a broken window pane in the brown bit. The answer was No , its sharp glass. Asked if it would be Ok if I broke it up into very small pieces would that be acceptable. Sorry No. We only accept glass jars and bottles. So what happens if a jar gets broken while its in the bin? Well we can't do anything about that. I ended the call before....

[Cathy]

We are told to wrap broken glass/china etc in newspaper and place it into our recycling bin.
A few weeks ago on bin night I just happened to look out of my front window and saw one of my neighbours placing some recycling into my household bin. He got a shock when I went out and confronted him and made him take it out and put it into a recycling bin, which incidentally was stood right next to my household bin. Idiot !! He got all flustered and said his partner just told him to it into a bin. Haha... He won't do that again.

[Tizer]

You'll probably find it was because their bin was full...and that it's full because they don't squash plastic bottles or cardboard boxes!

[plaques]

Ossie the cunning fox had well and truly caught Google rabbit in his jaws. "You can do anything you want but don't throw me into the tax loophole labyrinth" cried Google Rabbit. But Ossie the Fox was in his most sadistic mood. So after twisting his tail he flung him as far as he could into the labyrinth. "That'll teach him" cried Ossie "and let that be a lesson to everybody else". Google.

[Stanley]

And according to most commentators Google are laughing all the way to the bank. We lose £20billion a year because of defective tax laws and Ossie crows over one crumb thrown to him.... Pathetic.
Joan brought me an early birthday present, a Maasai Tee shirt.

[Marilyn]

( oh yes...birthday on the horizon Stanley)
Another few months and it will be perfect weather for your T-shirt.
I think I am going to throw all mine away at the end of Summer because I am sick of the sight of them.

[Stanley]

80th Maz..... I told you I was an Old Fart!
See THIS for a BBC report of a bit of a cock up in Cairo. King Tutankhamen's burial mask beard became detached somehow and the staff attempted to cover it up with a botched repair. It has been rectified by a German restoration team (of course!) and the mask is back on display. The guilty parties are being prosecuted. Super glue isn't the answer to everything!

[Marilyn]

Has the family got any plans regarding your birthday, Stanley?
I don't want to hear that the highlight of your 80th was that it was "butcher's day" and you got an out of date loaf/cream/tea cakes...id like to think your 80th was special.
Let's hope the weather cheers up for it too.

[Tizer]

It has been rectified by a German restoration team...

...but now emits copious amounts of CO2 and pollutants!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I notice the debate going on about how to get more youngsters to take up apprenticeships instead of all wanting to take university degrees. There was comment from some quarters that teachers ignore the apprenticeships. Maybe some do, but there's more to it than that. The UK building industry has a desperate shortage of brickies and a trained brickie can earn a very good salary but many kids don't want that kind of work now - outside in rain, or sweaty in a loft wearing a mask etc as opposed to being in the warm with a computer. If we can't change the attitude then we'll have to accept giving the jobs to immigrants. The young builder and plumber we use were both educated at a highly respected private school in the local county town but they went into building and plumbing and enjoy it. But they come from farming families with a background of outside, heavy work so haven't come to expect `office conditions'.

[Tripps]

There's a ladybird just walked across my screen. Then reappeared doing circuits of the rim of my mug of tea. I told her it's January, and too early for her to be about, but as always she didn't pay any attention. It's more entertaining than the TV though.
Early ladybird

Ladybird, ladybird,
Fly away home,
Your house is on fire
And your children all gone;
All except one
And that's little Ann,
And she has crept under
The warming pan.

[Stanley]

Maz, a very perceptive question..... Nobody has said a word and that leads me to suspect that something is being planned..... Very interesting being kept in the dark. All I can say is that if they aren't I shall be really really pissed off! No doubt all will become clear. It falls on a Sunday so no butcher....
Tiz, I suspect you're right. It's our fault, we have reared them to believe that dirt is nasty...... We used to have the concept of 'honest dirt' which was a noble condition.

[LizG]

Maz, a very perceptive question..... Nobody has said a word and that leads me to suspect that something is being planned..... Very interesting being kept in the dark. All I can say is that if they aren't I shall be really really pissed off! No doubt all will become clear. It falls on a Sunday so no butcher....

You sound a bit like me Stanley. I like to know what's being planned so I can be prepared. Glad to hear it's not a butcher's visit you're planning for yourself though.

[PanBiker]

Got my invigilators guidelines through today and the timetable for my sessions in the forthcoming Year 11 mock exams in February.

[Tripps]

I noted that we have a new tennis heroine who has refused to make the usual exit in the first round of the Australian Open. I wondered why I'd never heard of her - then found that she is 24, was born in Sydney Australia, and has already represented Australia. Neither of her parents' names seems to be British.
Globalisation?

[PanBiker]

Just been on the news, Hungarian parents, she was born in Australia but came over here when she was 14, now Naturalised British citizen.

[Moh]

Anyone on cable with Virgin beware and email saying they cannot process your bill and to update details - it is a scam.

[Stanley]

The same applies to any approach like that Moh. The hook is that they use the fear that your service might be about to be stopped. Very powerful incentive to take notice of them. They are very clever and devious.... The sods....

[Cathy]

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Adelaide. This is our new Ambulance Bus (Ambus). It's to be used for large events and large emergencies.
It holds 12 patients -- 6 in stretcher beds and 6 in treatment seats. The Ambus will be in operation from late April.

[Tripps]

That's a bit puzzling - it looks amazing, but isn't it better to use more smaller ambulances, and get the casualty to hospital quickly. The 'golden hour' and all that. I'm assuming there won't be scanners, x-ray machines, and blood analysis equipment on board.

[Cathy]

I don't know what equipment is on the Ambus, the article just said that a team of specially trained paramedics and drivers will operate the bus. It's to be used for schoolies, bushfires and multiple car crashes etc.
(Our opposition government has described it as 'rack, pack and stack'.)

[Stanley]

Denmark threatening to take possessions off asylum seekers above a certain level. Sounds like a bit of an own goal to me. I agree with the UN, shades of what happened under Nazism.

[Tizer]

Video of bridge in Pennsylvania demolished in controlled explosion: LINK