WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

Tiz, I find that my Lagavulin consumption has regulated itself. This bottle will last me till the end of the year! The thought of putting ginger ale in whisky appals me. I remember when I first started to spend a lot of time in Scotland I was surprised by the free lemonade on the bars for the whisky drinkers to dilute their drinks. Of course they were mainly on Bells and anything would improve that particular blend! All right, I'm a whisky snob, guilty as charged.
46 years ago today 116 kids and 5 teachers buried alive at Aberfan. Never forget that the NCB led by Robens denied responsibility at the inquest and got away with it. The NCB charged the Aberfan Appeal Fund for the clean-up. Later it transpired that they were responsible, they knew about the spring under the spoil heap but carried on tipping. When Labour government came in in 1997 they repaid the fund but didn't include any interest on the money. The Price of Coal.

[David Whipp]

The grainy images of searching futilely through the wrecked school are a vivid memory for me. As a schoolchild, I could easily put myself in the shoes of the disaster victims.

What caught my attention was the warmth (not) of my shower...

Whilst getting my own personal plumbing sorted out, back home, the boiler blew up (about a dozen years old, super efficient one from Graham Engineering at Nelson - the folk who make gear for the nuclear industry). Of course, the family kept it from me when I was in dock (they didn't tell me about the car breaking down either...).

Returned home to what felt like an ice cube to me. We're managing to warm bits of house with begged and borrowed electric heaters. Hot water has been off the back-up immersion heater - until now that is.

The immersion heater stat is tripping out.

Boiling kettles and pans on the stove is the next workround until everything's fixed or renewed... joy!

[Tizer]

The boiler gave up at my dad's house recently even though it has been serviced every year - it would run for about 10 minutes then lock out. The manual said to press a button to restart, which we did, but then it locked out again. This happened every time so we got the plumber in and he finally sorted it by replacing the control box and solenoid. A lot cheaper than a new boiler.

[Stanley]

Allegations by police officers that their statements were edited during the South Yorks coal strike, particularly the Orgreave confrontation. Tip of an iceberg springs to mind.
The BBC programme on the Saville affair tonight is going to be a 'must watch'.

[Big Kev]

a fat lip caught my attention this morning. It would appear I have an infection in my gum, hopefully the antibiotics will sort it over the next couple of days

[Stanley]

Lancing and cauterisation with a hot iron? Hard luck Kev, just imagine what the old treatment would have been like!
Saville charities at two hospitals have decided to close down and distribute their assets to other charities. They don't think the stigma of Saville can be erased by a name change. Sounds like a good decision to me.
Recorded the Panorama programme last night, wasn't going to let Saville interfere with my 10pm bedtime! Will watch it today.
Orgreave investigation will be kept separate from Hillsborough but is going ahead. Looks bad for South Yorks police and quite a few retired senior officers will be lying uneasy in their beds. Excellent! Remember that all 93 cases against miners and the Scargill witch hunt were all eventually thrown out because of bad evidence. Looks as though the justice system was on top of the case.....

[David Whipp]

More 'me', I'm afraid.

What attracted my attention was the length of the nights...

(Please advise when I approach the 'too much information' line...)

With body clock still all a bit to beggary, a 'good sleep' would be near nirvana.

With me being a good soldier obeying my last order to 'Drink Lots Of Water' and take the water pills, my 'sleep' is interrupted by maximum 2 hour apart trips to the loo for a pee. It seems that I've only just managed to scrunch into that perfect spot in my pillow pile before bladder calls for another display of Olympic Standard roll dismount on your shoulder landing on your feet via an arabesque avoiding a cartwheel over a cat with extra points for a front tuck but points deducted for a salto and achieving a stuck landing getting out of bed.

Shame their's no judges, and they wouldn't be able to see in the dark anyway... and it's not really fair to wake a knackered Alison so that I can demonstrate to her just how well I'm progressing in the discipline. (The cats just don't seem to appreciate the effort I'm making to entertain them, in fact, I'd say they be just getting a bit fed up of my clowning about in their essential sleep time, too.)

Last night, I abandoned bed for laptop for an hour or so - only to return to a worried Alison chiding me for being so long out of bed (at least she didn't come downstairs and give me a matronly rollicking...)

[Stanley]

No such thing as too much information on OG. We had a hilarious topic on boils on the old site.....

[Stanley]

I watched the Monday Panorama prog which I had recorded. Devastating revelations which leave nobody unscathed, not even Mr Entwistle. I see that Chris Patten is warning this morning that the scandal shouldn't be allowed to damage the BBC's independence. The law of unintended consequences has kicked in, a major charity dealing with child abuse reports that calls to its helpline have increased four-fold. There is more, many people who complained to the police in the past but were not believed and ignored are surfacing again as it becomes obvious that they were telling the truth. Another consequence is that apart from the net being spread wider as stones are turned over, another nine names are being investigated. Even further, the whole matter of low level sexual harassment in the workplaces is being looked at. About time, I have personal knowledge that the BBC wasn't the only place where this was happening. All very low-key and 'just banter' but over the years it has caused incredible angst in women subjected to it. I even saw it happening in Further Education courses operated by the LCC Education Department. This last was so serious I blew the whistle via David Moore at N&CC and got the matter addressed. It seems to me that if more people had done this and been listened to we would not be where we are now. A rather large can of worms.

[Stanley]

Have you heard about Jessica Stllwell's blog? She and her husband went on strike against her daughter's untidiness. See this LINK. I'll go and have a furtle to see if I can find the original blog.
I think I've found it, have a look at this LINK, well worth reading!

[David Whipp]

Carol at the Fountain posting details of her new accommodation on the visitbarnoldswick site http://www.visitbarnoldswick.co.uk/reta ... nessid=190 and her three day Fountain Festival of Beers in their 'barn' at the back http://www.visitbarnoldswick.co.uk/even ... ventid=437

Great stuff!

[EileenDavid]

Being home and catching up on OGFB Eileen

[Tardis]

the fact that I could write quite effortlessly for a couple of hours a narrative that took less than 30 minutes to deliver

[David Whipp]

Text from Barlick in Bloom team at Southport, saying Barnoldswick has won Gold Award again!

[Tizer]

Come and have a ride on my bus!...


Photo courtesy of the Quantock Motor services web site. For more pics of their vintage bus fleet see this page:
http://www.quantockmotorservices.co.uk/ ... index.html
(NB. If the thumbnails don't open full-size when you left-click them, try right-click and select Open in New Tab or New Window)

[Tripps]

The football on TV tonight is the match Liverpool v Anzhi Makhachkala – live!

No - me neither.

[Whyperion]

Could not find the picture refered to on another thread of the Town Square on the rightmove site.

Searching for recent Barnoldswick photos brought up a chaps blog : http://www.footballhopper.com/2012/10/holiday-jinx/ , dating back to Oct 13th 2012 and the abandoned home game Barnoldswick Town vs Maine Road . He goes on to say , as they were visiting the Pendle area for Football that him and his friends were able to get down to Colne to watch a 0-0 draw there.

[Big Kev]

a fat lip caught my attention this morning. It would appear I have an infection in my gum, hopefully the antibiotics will sort it over the next couple of days

A smear of anaesthetic gel, a small scalpel, a very gentle dentist and a lot of mouthwash. Almost instant relief. Hopefully that's sorted now, got a plane to catch on Saturday morning

[Stanley]

The number of Savile case whistle-blowers, 300 to press and also the fact that other 'celebrity names' have come up and are being investigated. Good, I hope they have sleepless nights if they are guilty.

[Thomo]

The first "gritters" of the season, 3 to be exact. Must keep the high speed link to the North and A59 open at all costs!!! No ice though. SLOW DOWN IDIOTS.

[Tizer]

The number of Savile case whistle-blowers, 300 to press and also the fact that other 'celebrity names' have come up and are being investigated. Good, I hope they have sleepless nights if they are guilty.

A number of police forces knew about allegations at the time they occurred but, as John Humphrys put it this morning, they failed to join up the dots. Where were all those people in places like the BBC who claimed to have `known' what Saville was up to? Saying nowt in order to protect their jobs I suppose. And where was our wonderful `free press', who claim to reveal all in `the public interest'? The police claim they couldn't proceed due to lack of people willing to give evidence in court but I've never known that to stop the News of the World and its like from pursuing a suspect. Was Saville being protected? It makes you wonder. In such situations the tabloid press would be willing to hand out big money to get information on a celeb who is up to tricks like those claimed about Saville - was someone else willing to hand out even bigger money to keep them quiet?

[Whyperion]

Another one for the Somerset based member (photographed in London )

[Stanley]

You're right Tiz. This can of worms isn't fully open yet and it's going to run and run.
Berlusconi found guilty and given what is effectively a year in gaol, if he ever gets round to serving it. Never mind, he's been publicly disgraced.
Malala Yousufzai is making a better than expected recovery. Well done the doctors and well done her, she's asked for her school books so she can catch up!
No news of poor little April. I think about what her family are going through.....

[Tizer]

Whippy, thanks for the second Tizer bus photo! I've kept copies of both photos and perhaps I'll have to start a collection!

[Tardis]

At the rather less well attended Asian Bazaar in the Rainhall Centre, was asked if I was tweeting, and had to say I'd just posted a picture

Nice idea, but maybe not in Eid