WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

Tiz, and Gaia doesn't even let us enter her calculations..... Very selfish but logical. A mass extinction is just a blip on the geological time scale....
P. I think at the moment even the markets are puzzled. The Lords of the Universe are beginning to entertain the fact that what's happening at the moment isn't a self correcting swing but something more fundamental. Exactly what Piketty proposed as one scenario for the 21st century.
How painless and rewarding giving my latest engine away was..... 6 months of my life but the reward was not the engine but getting there.

[LizG]

I've been married for 42 years today.

[Stanley]

To the same bloke? Best I could manage was 18 years and then it all fell to pieces..... Still, things could be worse, we used our time well. Three wonderful daughters.....

[chinatyke]

I've been married for 42 years today.

Well done Liz. Have a great day.

I've been very unlucky with my wives, previous one died and this one won't.

[Wendyf]

Happy Anniversary Liz

[PanBiker]

Congratulations Liz, Happy Anniversary.

[Tizer]

Happy Anniversary Liz. Mrs Tiz and me have served an approximately similar length of sentence to you and neither of us has escaped yet!

[Marilyn]

Ours was last week, Liz (20 years).
I asked him to promise me another 20.

[Stanley]

I had a form of post natal depression yesterday after finishing the latest engine and only had a short spell in the shed. I slept for four hours in the afternoon, most unusual! I feel great today and think that it was just my brain and body doing what was best for them....
The fact that despite having the latest smart meter technology my energy bill is even more opaque and in parts unintelligible. You'd think that now they have meter readings every 30 minutes it would get more simple and straightforward... Evidently not the modern way!
The fact that a large serving spoon makes such an efficient back scratcher! I scratch Jack's back for him where he can't reach but he never returns the favour....

[Tripps]

There is to be an attempt in Parliament today to try to introduce an English national anthem. As usual among the suggestions is Blake's Jerusalem. Any reference to it reminds me of the letter to the Times from a vicar who said - the answers to the questions are no, no, no, no, and go and get them yourself.

[Bruff]

Posted this on the anthem in the Politics thingy Tripps:

''A plea from me. No religion, and no odes to families. Nothing named after a foreign city. Perhaps then just a tune, like Spain’s. But a rousing tune, enabling the summoning of cliffs and seas, watermeadows and moors, trout streams and rolling hills etc. All the things that make me think of England……''

It would be odd for a 'National' anthem to be titled after a Middle East city, but then as our Saint was a Palestinian (I think), perhaps not....

I like the vicar's letter!

Richard Broughton

[Tripps]

" cliffs and seas, watermeadows and moors, trout streams and rolling hills etc"

Yes - I saw that. My immediate reaction was to wonder what impact it would make on Jeremy Kyle's guests.

[Bruff]

Hmmmmm. Quite……

None I imagine. What a hopelessly pastoral snob I am……

Richard Broughton

[plaques]

To appease Jeremy Kyle's guests. How about something based on a military Tattoo.
Etymology of Tattoo. Drummers from the garrison were sent out into the towns at 21:30 hrs (9:30PM) each evening to inform the soldiers that it was time to return to barracks. The process was known as doe den tap toe (Dutch for "turn off the tap"), an instruction to innkeepers to stop serving beer and send the soldiers home for the night.
For soldiers read guests.

[Stanley]

What a wonderful site this is.... I've always liked the Marseillaise, I was once at a gathering where someone had a bright idea and got the different delegations to sing their national anthems. The French contingent were most impressed by the fact I knew the words. The Canadian delegates didn't even know the tune to theirs.... What struck me was that when the EU chose their anthem they made a good on in 'Ode to Joy' but rejected the words which I would have thought were appropriate. Have you ever looked closely at the words to ours.... High time it was scrapped!

[LizG]

This made me think of Cathy

For Cathy.jpg

[Marilyn]

Yes...it is Cathy's saying.
( and I always enjoy my visits to "her world")
We laugh a lot, And set the world to rights, don't we Cazza?

[PanBiker]

It beggars belief that it should take until May to repair the subsidence to the A591 in the Lakes. This is a main arterial route for the area and should be reinstated as a matter of urgency. It's clear from the aerial photographs of the subsidence that the vast majority of the slip is only on one side of the road. There is already a walkway in place for pedestrian traffic. Now I am no road engineer but how long would it actually take to install interlocked steel pilings down the side then back fill with graded rubble and reinstate the carriageway. It's a rural A road, no lighting or other street furniture required so what's the big problem?

[Stanley]

I'll bet the 'big problem' is something to do with water and shear planes... These things aren't always as simple as they look. Then there is the added complication that safety matters will be allowed to set what could be impossibly high standards on any repair...
What struck me was the comment on the oil price and pump prices for fuel that it was more expensive to buy bottled water. We are so lucky here that our tap water is probably the best you can get and I took its temperature this morning, it's coming out of the tap at 8C. Just imagine how popular that would be with Maz, Cathy and my kids when the temperature was close to 40C!

[Marilyn]

I prefer water straight from the tap...I don't like cold drinks at all...

[Tizer]

Ian, all the civil engineering work takes ages now, some of it due, like Stanley says, to H&S. The flood defence roadworks here are taking years to complete. I'm always reminded of Jackie Fisher, First Sea Lord in about 1905, being told it would take 5 years to build a dreadnought. He told them to do it in a year, no more. It was done in a year.

[PanBiker]

I appreciate the H&S but this is an an emergency situation with a main arterial route, albeit a rural A road. Five months to effect a repair that would at least make the road passable is not acceptable in my book. About 10 years ago one time when in France I witnessed a team over there resurface 20 miles of a major dual carriageway over a single weekend with a fully coordinated team effort.

The MP pointed out that when the supporting substructure to the coastal railway line collapsed at Dawlish with the railway line suspended in mid air, it took a lot less time to put that back into service. That involved re-instating coastline, so saying it will take 5 months to repair 100 meters of rural road smacks more of a case of perceived importance to me.

Locally, motorway maintenance has replaced all the central steel barriers with concrete from Colne to the other side of Burnley in less time than they are proposing for the Lakes fix and that's about 4 miles worth, working on a live motorway with around 18,000 cars a day arriving at the Colne end.

[Stanley]

Going to the post office instead of the sorting office to collect a parcel that needs signing for. Ah well, at least I got the extra exercise! I'll get the parcel this morning.....
How nice it is to have a new oilskin liner for my old tobacco pouch made for me by a friend over 30 years ago... She did good, not a stitch on it broken.



Amazing how long lasting good leather is. I think this is deerhide.

See THIS for a report in the independent of the latest developments in what has seemed to me to be a long history of official cover ups at Deepcut Barracks. I'm glad someone is still digging. This affair has troubled me ever since the first deaths.... Let's hope they get to the bottom of it this time round!

[Tizer]

I appreciate the H&S but this is an an emergency situation with a main arterial route, albeit a rural A road. Five months to effect a repair that would at least make the road passable is not acceptable in my book.

I agree with you Ian. Your description of `a main arterial route, albeit a rural A road' exactly fits two of our local roads. One is having the flood defence works done and has been closed for two periods each of several months and it isn't finished yet. The other floods every few years and all that's been done is to put flood gates on to stop people using it when under water. But that's the road that takes a lot of redirected traffic from the M5 after an accident like happened a week or two ago and it's a critical route for ambulances between major hospitals. The County council says it would cost too much to do anything more.
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If you have a Nissan Quashqai or know someone who owns one tell them to be careful when opening the hatch, the handle (part of the boot trim) is too fragile and can easily break. If you look at these vehicles you may see ones going around with the plastic handle stuck on with duct tape. This is because a replacement costs £250. I know because one of my relatives recently bought a Quashqai and the handle broke and she has seen others like it. The Nissan garage quoted £250 and wouldn't accept her claim that it should be replaced free of charge and she has been driving it with duct tape on. She's not one to take no for an answer and got on to Nissan UK and made a formal complaint. Now they've backed down and phoned to say they'll replace it without charge. If more people would stand up for their rights and persist with a claim then the manufacturers and retailers would behave better. Americans wouldn't stand for what we put up with!
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The following government web site is for checking that your car is taxed. Now that we no longer have tax disks I suppose it could be used to check if any other car is taxed, such as if you see a suspicious car hanging around. Check if a vehicle is taxed I see that since they did away with tax disks the number of untaxed cars on the road has risen. The checking is now supposed to be done by police cameras photographing the registration numbers of cars on the road. Yet I see many cars with their reg plates hidden under a layer of dirt. I guess the number of untaxed cars will rise even further.

[Marilyn]

The Tour Down Under is in my town on Friday.
You might see us waving!