WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

The flight was delayed by 30 minutes but I've just watched them take off and they are heading East out over the North Sea.

[Stanley]

I got up this morning to find them out over the Indian Ocean a third of the way to Perth. They are scheduled to land there at 10:30 our time, BST

[Stanley]

Landed on time, they are home safe and sound.
Just seen "Pubic hair loss in menopause" in the list of subjects for Woman's Hour. Essential listening.....

[Tripps]

Wasn't sure where to put this so searched for LFHHS. My goodness - lots of hits mainly back to 2012. What a site this is for varied content! Anyway - back to the tale.

i considered not renewing my membership this year for the Lancashire Family History and Heraldry Society (LFHHS) - the articles no longer caught my attention and some were frankly boring. I kept it going though - things can't have been easy during the plague and good people had done a lot of work - and it's cheap.

Glad I did. Today's copy had an article from Rex Watson the guy I bought a lot of old Ben Brierley books from a few years ago, after a tip off from Gloria.

The article was about his ancestor from Burnley and another chap with a many similar features in his life - both born in 1868. Splendid article and well written, so of course I emailed him to say so. He started the piece by mentioning coincidence, and being a retired Cambridge maths teacher who specialised in probability, I didn't feel qualified to argue. I felt however I'd be failing in my duty to this site if I didn't mention our version of it all - 'spooky'. I gave the example that we both lived in a street called Woodlands and what about that for spooky? I don't think he's convinced, and is sticking with the maths.

I gave OGFB a good plug, and he tells me he pops in from time to time, but his main interest is the Briercliffe Forum. No offence - but in comparison to this site, it's nearly comatose.

He signed of with

"Hope you are well. I'm ok, revving up for a knee replacement. Pity they don't do full bodies."

- a sentiment with which many can agree.

[Stanley]

There must be hundreds like him who pop in band browse but never join. Nice to know, thanks David....
Margaret must still be on UK time she beat me to our morning handshake today, a very rare event. Nice to know she is back home and settling in. Next social event is my grand daughter Holly's wedding, must get them to remind me of the date. And no, I shan't be going......

[Wendyf]

Tripps, the Pendle branch of the LFHHS seems to be coming to any end, there has been no activity since Covid restrictions ended. Their monthly family history morning in Colne Library hasn't been revived. The group of people who ran it aren't able to keep doing that and no one else is prepared to take responsibility.
On a positive note, Lancashire Libraries have admitted that removing local history from their remit was a bad move and they mean to revive it. Sadly the knowledgeable librarians have gone and its the volunteers who are being asked to meet with management to discuss resources and how to use them.

[Stanley]

Re. the libraries and local history. What a short-sighted decision in the first place Wendy. One wonders at times whether libraries are seen as of any value or just an expensive luxury. It's very sad and unfortunately common these days. I wonder what Andrew Carnegie would have made of it all.

[plaques]

Colne library was always buzzing with activity with a bigger footfall than the main library in Nelson. It would appear to boost Nelson's ego they transferred most of the staff from Colne to Nelson along with all the maps and viewing equipment. It was obvious it wouldn't work and it didn't. I'm not saying the staff at Colne don't care, far from it, they are very helpful but that local knowledge has gone. The place is more like a morgue now and the range of new books is minimal. Its come to something when you ask for a book and they say "NO" but we will order one for you and let your know in two weeks time when its arrived,, My normal response it to say "Ill have a look in the Samaritans shop and see what they have got".

[Wendyf]

The maps are still in the library it's just that non of the staff (except Alison, who is due to retire) know where they are. There is little enthusiasm for change and that, I'm afraid to say, is due to the person in charge.

[Gloria]

Only been to Colne library a couple of times quite a few years ago. It was to do with my family history, and they couldn’t have been more helpful.

[Tizer]

We're lucky. the Library here in Taunton is very good, they've got masses of books for loan and reference, lots of computers to use, a coffee shop, a meeting room used for all sorts of courses and interest groups, and helpful librarians who rescue me when the automatic machines confuse me. I also use its web site to regularly find and borrow books from across several local counties at £1 a book. It also gives me access to older books in their archives so I can get ones that aren't on the open shelves these days because the Wokites object to them. When Mrs Tiz visited Lithuania she found their libraries went a step further - they had rooms set up for people to learn hobbies and even provided laser printers to use!

[Stanley]

Wendy will remind me of the name of the Lady at Colne library who was so good to me in the days when I was at Pendle Heritage. (Christine ????) She and Doreen Crowther were my main assets in so many ways. She was a mine of information on the area.

[Wendyf]

Christine Bradley, she spent all her working life at Colne Library.

[Stanley]

That's the lady! She was brilliant and very kind to me... Never let me down.

[Tripps]

The message about my grandson was a bit slow to arrive - just enough to start worrying, but -

"Passed all his GCSEs with flying colours,
He’s going to do A levels in Spanish, Politics and Philosophy"

I never realised he had ambitions to be a Latin American dictator.

[Stanley]

The right qualifications!
Funny how a break in routine like the butcher being closed this week disturbs the tenor of the day. I am a creature of habit......
Later.... Remember the CO2 crisis when the government stepped in to subsidise the last fertilizer plant in Britain? See THIS BBC report about the CF plant at Billingham shuts down because they can no longer afford to make ammonia, the process which generates the CO2.
Just one more consequence of the fuel crisis....

[plaques]

See THIS BBC report about the CF plant at Billingham shuts down because they can no longer afford to make ammonia, the process which generates the CO2.

Wasn't one of the big problems that there wasn't enough carbon dioxide to stun pigs prior slaughter. Another kick in the bullocks for the pig farmers. At the moment CO2 is used as a calming measure prior slaughter. Frowned upon by various authorities but nothing less stressful has been developed.

[Tizer]

We saw this car recently and couldn't identify it until I looked on the web for its DVLA info which shows it as a Daihatsu first registered in 2006. I've now traced it to this: Daihatsu Copen It's the early model and was identical to the yellow car (same colour too!) in the second photo.

[Stanley]

Yes Ken, sorry I should have flagged that up. A commanding height of the economy that nobody recognised until it got into trouble.... Felixstowe could be another.....

[Tripps]

Wake up at the back there- it's too quiet on here . . . .


On a lighter note - Ein Prosit Ein prosit - Gemutlicheit. Why wait until Oktober?

Everyone drinking - no one drunk, everyone happy. Never mind we've got the Notting Hill Carnival instead.


Puerto

Someone reminded me on the radio this morning that about twenty years ago - pensioners used to go to Benidorm for three of four months in the winter, for little money, and dodge the high fuel bills in UK.
I'm sure things have changed, but not the energy bills, and it might be a good time to do the sums again.

[Stanley]

Wake up at the back.... Shades of Jimmy Edwards, that shows how old I am!
In the days when I spent part of the winter in California I realised why rich people go away in winter, it makes it shorter. I also found out that even taking into account the cost of the ticket, I saved on heating bills and food costs. Mind you, I was staying with friends who were looking after me.
I don't think it takes a lot of calculating David, with gas at the level it is now compared to the cost of flights I am sure I would be better off hopping on an Emirates flight and trolling off to WA to stay with Margaret. That's what everyone else is doing because we have a wedding out there shortly. I shan't go because I doubt if I could stand the flight.....

[Big Kev]

The 'outrage' on social media brought about by a planning application to build a new farm, on farmland, in Foulridge. A lot of people appear very upset about it.
https://publicaccess.pendle.gov.uk/onli ... 1aygJT4rvw

[Stanley]

Funny thing to be doing in the present climate, establishing a new farm. The last one I saw was Sid Demain in the old tannery opposite Bancroft Shed in the 1970s. Perhaps it's someone using the acreage clause and agricultural worker's accommodation as a sneaky way of building a new house in a good location.

[Stanley]

Much mention of the province of Sindh in connection with the floods in Pakistan. This reminds me of the story about General Sir Charles James Napier, Commander-in-Chief in India and Governor of Bombay Presidency who is reported as sending a one word message to the foreign Office, 'Peccavi'. See THIS article for a full explanation.

[Tizer]

Better check our stocks!...
`Spain's olive oil producers devastated by worst ever drought' LINK