WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

Well done Wendy and Colin. Thanks Kev, I would have missed that!
Eight emails from Polly this morning but I think she is now connected.
How well I feel! Surely it can't be the new pills. Quite disturbing really, you get to mistrust good news at my age!

[Wendyf]

Thank you Kev and Stanley!

[Stanley]

Don't hit the gin too early!

[Cathy]

Congrats Wendy and Colin
How many years?

[Big Kev]

I reckon it's 6 more than me

[Wendyf]

Congrats Wendy and Colin
How many years?

48 years Cathy, a long time!

[Cathy]

[Tripps]

I followed a lorry from a company called Madingley Mulch this afternoon.

The vehicle was heavily sign written with information about their products, and included on the back the legend "bags of well rotted horse sh manure.

Made me smile. . .

[Stanley]

Yep, someone had a sense of humour.... We could do with more of it these days!

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on Murray's exit from this year's Wimbledon.
I have news for the world, some of us are a bit fed up with Murray-mania. and couldn't care less whether he tries again or not. He was beaten by a better player, there's a message in there somewhere.

[Tizer]

I have news for the world, some of us are a bit fed up with Murray-mania...

Yes, and likewise for cricket. Yesterday evening I was out doing some tidying in the front garden and back garden. It was 24C, sunny and calm. but there was no sound to be heard, nobody to be seen, no children out playing. Like I was the only person left in the world. One RAF Boeing Globemaster flew over on its usual taxi service to the training grounds in Devon carrying Ukrainian solders. A wonderful aeroplane but a reminder that all the tennis and cricket doesn't completely mask the fact that we are at war.

On a lighter note...
`Watch: Australians set new world record with Tina Turner dance' LINK

[Cathy]

Ah yes Tize, at The Bash. Always a mad lot every year.
We’ve had lots of groups, companies, govt. departments etc doing Tina Turner’s Nutbush. We invented the dance.
Good on them, I say.

[Stanley]

Never heard of it, how quaint!

[Big Kev]

1688906830565.jpg

[Tizer]

The driver probably has a second job of looking after the cemetery or crematorium gardens!

[Stanley]

I can't see being boiled in lye in a pressure cooker and then flushed down the sewers ever becoming popular.

[Stanley]

I just had a courier at the door. I was puzzled because I hadn't bought anything but then it dawned on me, It could only be the gift David was sending me. And so it proved to be, The Complete Verse of Rudyard Kipling, 700 pages of it. I didn't realise he had written so much!
Thank you David. This is going to be permanently within reach of the rocking chair. What better dip-in book for a bloke of my age.....

Later.... I have had to force myself to put it down but not before I found this in Epitaphs of War.
'Common form'
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
His son John had very bad eyesight and failed the medical for the army but Kipling used his influence to get him a commission. He was killed almost as soon as he arrived at the front. I think it was at Loos.

[Tripps]

Thanks for that- it's very pleasing. My hunch was right - and just four days from ordering the book to having it in your hand is amazing.

It is enormous, and a lot of it is hard to comprehend, but I'm sure you'll find a lot more that is 'quote worthy '.

(Might even start a 'Kipling Korner' thread - no that would be fanciful. . . .)

A spontaneous dip finds this - for India read China but still relevant.

SUCH as in Ships and brittle Barks
Into the Seas descend
Shall learn how wholly on those Arks
Our Victuals do depend.
For, when a Man would bite or sup,
Or buy him Goods or Gear,
He needs must call the Oceans up,
And move an Hemisphere.

[Stanley]

He was very good on marine matters..... Must have a look at my Kipling library again, I need to read 'The ship that found herself' again....
Thanks again David, An inspired choice.

[Tizer]

This is a 30-second video close up of the latest erupting lava in Iceland...
`Volcano erupts 20 miles from Iceland's largest airport' Volcano

...but I couldn't resist posting this 2021 link which was on the same page. Geologists at play!...
`Iceland volcano: Scientists studying eruption cook sausages on lava' LINK

[Big Kev]

It's Amazon Prime Day so I bought new mobile phones for me and P, a saving of £80. The ever decreasing battery life of our current phones prompted the purchase, they're nearly 5 years old and the battery replacement requires melting glue to get in to it. I still have the original boxes so will be heading into Burnley to sell them to the used phone shop once the new ones arrive tomorrow

[Big Kev]

This is a 30-second video close up of the latest erupting lava in Iceland...
`Volcano erupts 20 miles from Iceland's largest airport' Volcano

...but I couldn't resist posting this 2021 link which was on the same page. Geologists at play!...
`Iceland volcano: Scientists studying eruption cook sausages on lava' LINK

That's quite something.

Loving the sausages too

[Stanley]

I'm glad we don't have eruptions like that near Barlick! It would frighten me to death.

[Stanley]

See THIS report about the GDP figures for May.
The UK economy has went into reverse in May as GDP fell by 0.1% fter growth of 0.2% in April. Economists have pointed to the extra bank holiday for the King’s Coronation for the economy shrinking, but at the broader picture, GDP has shown no growth in the three months to May 2023. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that production output fell by 0.6% in May after a fall of 0.2% in April. The construction sector fell by a further 0.2% in May 2023 following a fall of 0.9% in April. Services output showed no growth in May 2023 following growth of 0.3% in April.

Not good news for Sunak and his promise to 'get the economy moving'. It's moving all right but downhill.

[Big Kev]

It's Amazon Prime Day so I bought new mobile phones for me and P, a saving of £80. The ever decreasing battery life of our current phones prompted the purchase, they're nearly 5 years old and the battery replacement requires melting glue to get in to it. I still have the original boxes so will be heading into Burnley to sell them to the used phone shop once the new ones arrive tomorrow

The transfer of data from the old to the new was pain free, Google utilised the NFC connection and, apart from the passwords and sensitive banking data, copied it all over seamlessly. Passwords were then retrieved from a password manager and then I re-registered the banking apps. All done in 30 minutes.
Got £80 for the old phones, the new ones were £89 each so not too heavy on the wallet.