THE FLATLEY DRYER

[PanBiker]

What next? Heated roads?

Perfectly normal in Reykjavik, they heat the roads and the pavements. It does help that the country sits on top of limitless geothermal energy though, the ground shakes violently around the boreholes that feed the power station. All the chippings in the car park near the boreholes dance like peas on a drum, very weird experience walking around. Super heated water drives the turbines and is then fed around council buildings and houses for central heating. It then goes through the pipes to keep the roads and pavements clear. There is still enough heat energy in the run off to heat the sea at an artificial beach that they installed near the harbour, (sand from Saudi Arabia swapped for a lot of fish), you can actually swim in the sea there, (to the 10M boom) its the only place in Iceland where you would last longer than about 2 minutes in the sea.

[Wendyf]

Didn't the M62 have a heated section over the moor or was that just a myth?

[Stanley]

Couldn't say Wendy but I have heard of short sections, often steep ramps, being heated for safety.
Listening to the various views being expressed about Castro in the news today reminds me of the way our opinions are manipulated by government and their minions in the media. We were pretty sure about Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo but views shifted on people like 'Uncle Joe' Stalin depending on whether we needed them or not. I can Remember when Saddam Hussein was flavour of the month with Thatcher. Tito was a hero when he was leading the partisans against the Nazis. The only remedy is to read history and make your own mind up......

[Tizer]

Even Mussolini, as a journalist, once worked for MI5 towards the end of WW1. Then later we colluded with him over Abyssinia. Mussolini and MI5

[plaques]

Quote "but history has not been kind to Hoare either, condemned as an appeaser of fascism alongside Neville Chamberlain." During the 30's most of the aristocracy (George V etc.) along with a good section of the government, Churchill was an exception, were leaning towards appeasement with Hitler. The background argument was that Hitler was keeping the Communists in Germany in check. Should Germany have joined with Russia then the whole British Empire would have been at risk. And we all know what happened to Czar Nicholas 11. Link.

[Stanley]

Dead right P. Fascism was deep rooted in our society in those days at all levels, not only the Establishment but lower down as well, see Mosley and the Blackshirts. Don't be complacent, it still exists now. There were some bright spots, see the International Brigade in Spain and puzzle why they were allied with the Communists but never amalgamated. Look at the ILP particularly in Nelson..... Then look at the link between membership of the International Brigade and conscientious objection. Nelson was known at one time as Little Moscow..... Fascinating history......

[Stanley]

I know I bang on about this but probably my greatest sadness about society today is the way that advertising has corrupted the way we measure worth. Today it is the ability to consume. If you can afford to join the club you are feeling fine but if you can't the old fashioned enemy of dissatisfaction and envy can creep in so easily. I can't alter it, it is the way our modern economies work, but I can tell you life was a lot more simple 80 years ago!

[Stanley]

It struck me yesterday that right up to when I went in the army, indeed, now I think, afterwards as well, we never saw litter on the streets beyond the occasional fag end in the gutter. There was no packaging industry and so there was no litter. There's some sort of lesson in there somewhere!

[Stanley]

A common sight in those days was a man with a large brush and a trolley with two dustbins on it. His job was to sweep the road gutters. Not the most demanding job in the would but it was ideal for workers who had no skills and were otherwise unlikely to get or hold down a job. Despite this, he had a wage and his dignity. Nowadays these jobs have largely vanished and left the men unemployed, ousted by mechanical street sweepers. There are of course honourable exceptions such as our town street sweeper Mark, who is a bright, intelligent and hard working lad. His job survives because his job includes maintaining the litter bins in the town and picking up litter that a mechanical sweeper would miss. There used to be many jobs like this but today they are long gone and the unskilled labourer is a drug on the market..... Is this progress? In my view no. It was a form of social care.

[Stanley]

It was interesting yesterday revisiting so many old roads from my past. So much has changed around the conurbations but in Derbyshire it's like a time warp but with bigger tipper wagons! Traffic is horrendous, I can see why we are the most congested country in Europe. Thank God I don't have to do it any more.
The other thing that grabbed me was Margaret's hire car. It had fully automated systems and at one point the fuel management system paused for a rethink and we were stuck on a narrow road blocking traffic. Bugger automatic systems! (And that woman on the sat nav is incompetent!)

[Stanley]

Still mulling over my experience of modern roads on Friday. I am so glad I chucked my Class one licence and ordinary driving licence out. I still aver that anyone over 70 should give driving some serious thought. We may think we are safe but in truth our reactions and ability are reduced. I couldn't handle today's conditions safely.

[Tripps]

I drove to Newcastle and back a couple of weekends ago. No problem at all. My experience does not tally with yours. Must say I was impressed by the many improvements on the A1 - no more holdups at roundabouts, and a lot of work bring done near Scotch Corner. Popped into Richmond (the original one of 57 in the world!) for lunch. I think Barlick may have a rival for 'best small town a bit off the beaten track'.

I'll be back.

[Stanley]

Each to his own David. I'm glad you can still enjoy it. I am content with my decision..... I suspect that my big accident when I wrote off Richard's new car has something to do with it. I came very close to curtains!

[Stanley]

We have looked at boils and carbuncles before on the site but worth mentioning that today we hardly ever see them. Difficult to remember that some carbuncles, particularly on the back of the neck where there was no loose flesh to accommodate them as they grew, were actually life-threatening. The only 'cure' was to lance them to relieve the pressure. This was always done without anaesthetic and usually at home. I've been there and all I can say is that I don't want to go there again!

[Tripps]

Don't forget styes - aka locally as powks . as well as your eyelids sticking together in the morning - another delight of the time. Any thoughts as why they are rare these days?
Better food, and less air pollution would be my guess.

I found this link styes / powkes.

I don't think Golden Eye Ointment exists today - I have a feeling it contained mercury or something.

[Tizer]

On the weekend we went to High Wycombe for my father-in-law's funeral and then back yesterday afternoon, both trips via A303, A34, M4, A404. The A303 was a good drive, the weather was OK and at this time of year there aren't the queues of holiday traffic. But driving in the Home Counties is a nightmare for us, everyone is in a mad hurry, they're aggressive and it's noisy. Some of the road junctions have become complex and only understandable by the locals. When we got to the hotel about 4.30pm we left the car and went for a walk for fresh air and a leg stretch but we couldn't cross the road due to so much fast traffic so we walked down one side for a way. In the end we headed back to get away from the sound of cars racing past. We're always very relieved when we point the car west and get onto the A303 and can get back into the Celtic fringe!

[Stanley]

David, I think you're right. Golden Eye Ointment, a tiny tube, used to be in everyone's medicine chest. I went for a furtle and a product with the same name is still available but it's antibiotic based. Not a mention of the original anywhere! I smell a rat, I think the pharmas would rather it dropped from sight. I am almost certain you are right!

[Tripps]

They can run - but they can't hide. See para 17. I think it is possible now to have anything unfavourable to your product removed from the w.w.cobweb, but the truth is out there.

Golden Eye

Isn't that the name of the house where Ian Fleming lived in the Caribbean? No connection.

PS.
David, I think you're right, I am almost certain you are right!
I shall put that in my 'cut out and keep' file. So rarely heard from my offspring these days.

[Tizer]

I see the article referring to Golden Eye Ointment was published in 1843 - Stanley must have a good memory!

[Stanley]

He has..... Well done David. Interesting that they say that it's an imitation of an earlier treatment.....
There used to be an old animal medicine called 'Green Salve' which contained high levels of mercury. I have used it as a dressing when castrating bullocks with a hot iron. It was also used for sores on horses legs and like the Golden Eye Ointment for syphilitic chancres. My dad's mate, Harry White' was in charge of horses in the Great War and he had a nice little thing going selling the mercury ointment to his mates. The MO came to him one day and told Harry that if he stopped treating his mates he'd promise not to doctor his horses. Harry protested that he was curing them and the doctor agreed but said he was also sterilising them.....
Some animal treatments were very strong. The treatment for foot rot in sheep was to pare away the diseased material and then drip concentrated acid on to cauterise the wound. I think it was Conc. Nitric Acid from the smell....

[Stanley]

One of the things that has changed most in my lifetime is medicine and in particular the profession of GP. An old doctor told me once that leaving aside vaccinations, the only really effective medicines they had were Epsom Salts and Scotch Whisky! The whisky was the standard treatment for high blood pressure, he told me that whisky is the only spirit that lowers BP because it has a dilatory effect on the arteries. I remember that the standard treatment for a woman who for some reason wanted to stop lactation after having a baby was a stiff dose of Epsom salts! John Pickard once told me that he relieved his children's teething pains by lancing the gum where the tooth was fighting to burst out but he daren't use it on his patients because it would get him in trouble!

[Stanley]

It struck me that One of the Barlick doctors stitched Margaret's eyelid up on the sofa in the front room when she fell through the glass panel in the bottom of the door to the stairs one night. I doubt if that could happen now...... That was in the 1960s.

[PanBiker]

Depends what company you keep Stanley. My son in law's best mate and mountain biking partner Sam is a doctor. He stitched Ant's busted open knee up on the kitchen table when he had a major falling off do. A lot quicker than going to A&E.

[Stanley]

I like it.... My mate Paul used to stitch his own cuts.... Not my bag!

[Tizer]

I once had to use tweezers to remove a fish bone that had stuck in the back of my throat. You have to keep a tight hold on the tweezers so that you don't end up qualifying for a job as a sword-swallower!