WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

Here's another for you Cathy.....



Two delightful young people. (They leave for at least two years in Australia shortly and so I doubt if I will ever see them again.....)

[Cathy]

. They will have pics and memories of you Stanley.

[Stanley]

[PanBiker]

Twenty years ago today I was making my way down to our Dan's in Lemington Spa on the motorbike, where he shared a house with Jim one of his former uni mates. I had the pirate ferry from the remotest end of Dover Ferry Terminal booked for the following day for the bike, rider and pillion passenger. All booked online for the magnificent price of £29.99 for a crossing to Boulogne. P&O price for the same but to Callais was £150.00!

We were off to the 60th anniversary of D Day and I had three camp sites booked as well with Eurocamp behind the 70 milefront of the invasion beaches. All the other accommodation in Normandy including coastal camp sites were fully booked since January so our nearest inland site was 50 miles from the coast and the furthest 70 miles. No real worries on the motorbike as it was only an hours commute each day to get the the sections we were visiting. We covered the entire 70 miles of invasion beaches over the four days that we were there. We started at Pegasus Bridge and the Café Gondrée at Bénouville which was the first house liberated in France just after midnight on the the 6th of June.

We visited the British and Canadian beaches Sword, Gold and Juno on the first day along with the Mervillle Gun Battery which had to be subdued as it's range of fire covered the British and Canadian beaches.

Second and third days we visited Omaha and Utah and visited a lot of the Cemeteries for those that lost their lives during the invasion. We also ventured out into the Bocage around Saint-Lô and visited Sainte Mare Eglise at the Western end of the invasion area behind Utah beach.

Fourth day was the journey back along the coastal road via Colleville-sur-Mar and Arromanches. We stuck as near as we could to the coast all the way back to Ouistreham before making our way back up to Boulogne via the main roads and the ferry back to the UK.

It was an event I will never forget.

[Stanley]

I saw THIS in the news....
The Post Office’s most senior in-house lawyer when it fought the landmark case brought by Alan Bates and other sub-postmasters has been challenged by BBC News in Australia, after she refused to appear before the public inquiry into the Horizon scandal. A BBC team questioned Jane MacLeod, who was the Post Office’s General Counsel between 2015 and 2019, while she was walking her dog outside her home in Sydney. She replied with “no comment” when asked why she wasn’t attending. She had been due to give evidence this week. “It’s unsurprising, but it speaks volumes,” says Jo Hamilton, one of the wrongly convicted former sub-postmasters. “If she was determined to help the inquiry, she’d be there,” she added.
I wondered what effect something like this has on a person's life. She knows what she did and has to live with it but it seems a shame to me that she can't be dragged back kicking and screaming to be interrogated.

[Tizer]

Now it's the turn of Japanese car makers to be shown up as unreliable...
`Toyota raided as safety testing scandal grows' LINK
Japan's transport ministry raided the headquarters of motor giant Toyota on Tuesday, as a scandal over faulty safety data escalated. The world's largest carmaker has apologised for providing incorrect or manipulated data for safety certification tests. The scandal has shaken the Japanese car industry, with rivals Honda, Mazda and Suzuki also admitting to submitting faulty data...

[Cathy]

That’s so arrogant of those companies, putting people’s lives at risk, while making zillions of profit.

[Stanley]

It raises the question can we trust anything they say?

[Stanley]

I overslept this morning and have kicked the shed into touch. I must have needed eight hours unbroken sleep....

[Stanley]

Margaret and Mick dropped in and took me to Town Square so that they could carry my shopping for me. A big help. We were all struck by the Chinese carrots and Mick told me that even at our elevated prices, our vegetables are still cheap compared with Australia.

[Stanley]

See THIS report from China.....
A controversy over a waterfall has cascaded into a social media storm in China, even prompting an explanation from the water body itself. A hiker posted a video that showed the flow of water from Yuntai Mountain Waterfall - billed as China's tallest uninterrupted waterfall - was coming from a pipe built high into the rock face. The clip has been liked more than 70,000 times since it was first posted on Monday. Operators of the Yuntai tourism park said that they made the "small enhancement" during the dry season so visitors would feel that their trip had been worthwhile. "The one about how I went through all the hardship to the source of Yuntai Waterfall only to see a pipe," the caption of the video, external posted by user "Farisvov" reads.
Am I alone in thinking that this is a metaphor for much of modern life. The customer is king and mustn't be disappointed even if it means making his/her experience totally artificial.

[Tizer]

Yes, `a metaphor for much of modern life' - bang on target!

This 20 second video had me in emotional tears - two men, 80 years apart, both saving the western world from Nazis and Russian NeoNazis...
`Zelensky and D-Day veteran call each other 'hero'' BBC

[Stanley]

You're right Peter..... a wonderful moment. Compare and contrast with Sunak's behaviour.....

[Tizer]

You're right Peter..... a wonderful moment. Compare and contrast with Sunak's behaviour.....

Yes, and Zelensky was there even though he's permanently in danger from Putin's assassins and has a present war to deal with. Lord West was damning about Sunak on Radio 4 at lunchtime and noted that the PM has highly paid advisors who should have been able see it would be an own goal (or what the advisors would probably call `bad optics'). The BBC interviewed a man whose father had been one of those soldiers first on the D-Day beach and he said "Eighty years ago my father would have liked to be able to go home early but he didn't have the option".

[Stanley]

I heard Lord West Peter and agreed with him. Unbelievably crass.
I heard someone ask the question about whether this gaff would be remembered in the campaign..... I don't think Sunak's enemies will let us forget!

[Tripps]

After the D Day 'going home early' fiasco' It's hard to work out why Rishi Sunak's minders allowed him within a mile of a village fete attraction called 'slap a rat. Bear in mind he bears a passing resemblance to one 'Roland' of that ilk - and use of the name as a nick name is far from unknown.
What could possibly go wrong? One can only assume that they have given up.

sunak.jpg

[Stanley]

Unbelievable David. Now you mention it he does have a passing resemblance! The theory I heard yesterday for why his minders are so lax is that they may be frightened of Sunak. They are certainly inexperienced......

[Tizer]

Not identified yet but this has just appeared on the BBC News site...
`Body found in search for presenter Michael Mosley' BBC

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What primary school teachers have to put up with now...
`Toilet training and high anxiety - how schools are changing' LINK

[Cathy]

Tize - Thanks for the Michael Mosley link. Sadly it doesn’t look good for him.
.
Have just read a report saying that the body of Michael Mosley has been found.
It appears that he fell down a steep slope, stopping against a fence.

[Big Kev]

Butts clinic demolition in progress.

FB_IMG_1718011403324.jpg

[PanBiker]

We saw the asbestos clearing contractors the other week who were at work on the building. As far as I am aware its going to be a car park for Carlsons rather than a perfect site for a proper new health centre.

[Stanley]

"rather than a perfect site for a proper new health centre"
Spot on Ian. A short sighted penny pinching decision which leaves a town of 11,000 inhabitants without a basic level of primary health care services. Some accountant somewhere saw the chance of a quick buck and grabbed it and bugger the Barlickers, they can catch the bus to Colne.
I used to spend a lot of time in Northfield, MN. A town comparable in size to Barlick. They had a full range of autonomous services including a small hospital. Under our system we have bugger all!
Tell me, where did we go wrong?

[Tripps]

They had a full range of autonomous services including a small hospital.

Was everything totally free of charge at the hospital?

[Stanley]

I don't know how it was funded David but everything isn't free in the NHS. We pay through the government.
I know that one source of revenue for the hospital was the local liquor store, very big and busy and the only one allowed in town. Run by the local Council.
I think my point is that there was the will to do it and so it happened. Barlick had a fever hospital at one time and a proposal to set up a Cottage Hospital in Bank House which never got off the ground. So that will once existed. As Ian pointed out yesterday we can't even support a clinic now.

[Cathy]

The Site Is Very Slow. It’s taking 12 seconds to go from Topic to Topic and 7 seconds to Reply after pressing Post.