Seen in the News

[Tizer]

My Uncle George was invalided out of Burma by the RAF late in WW2. He had malaria which troubled him for the rest of his life.

[Stanley]

I knew a man at Summerseat ,Bill Robertshaw, a farmer. He was a prisoner in Changi and apart from recurrent malaria he was deaf in one ear and blind in one eye. What that man endured with no complaint.

[Tizer]

I hadn't realised until reading a story recently that the initial attack by the Japanese on Singapore (bombing of RAF bases) occurred on the same day as they attacked Pearl Harbour.

This comes as all California endures extreme heat...
'Highest temperature on Earth' as Death Valley, US hits 54.4C' LINK

[Stanley]

Meanwhile, and not in the news, we have a normal Maritime Climate Summer. Not spectacular but a lot easier to live with.
I once experienced the direct sun of the Mojave desert when a greyhound bus broke down. The AC stopped working and the driver stopped to see what was the matter. It was broken drive belts. I persuaded him that I was an English refrigeration expert and told him the best thing to do was open all the windows and drive as fast as he could to the next town. (It was one of the older buses that still had windows that opened). He demurred saying that it was against Greyhound regulations. I pointed out that so was frying passengers. The temperature inside the bus was climbing and was over 130F. He saw the light and we had an uncomfortable ride 30 miles to the next town.
I've experienced over 50C in the Australian outback, interesting but not recommended!

[Tizer]

Summer here in Somerset is not normal. We were predicted about 7 consecutive days of thunder & lightning. We didn't hear hear a single thunderclap but instead suffered torrential rains and some floods. Yesterday we ventured out to the garden centre but a rainstorm suddenly started on our way back and we had to sit in the car outside our house until it passed. We had anoraks but the rain was like a monsoon and we couldn't do the 5 metres to the front door without ending up like drowned rats. The heavy rain was accompanied by strong gusts of wind and streams were running down both sides of the street.

I still have reservations about the introduction of `driverless' cars so soon. For example this article states `The technology could be given the go ahead for speeds of up to 70mph'. On motorways most traffic breaks the 70 speed limit by a wide margin so there's going to be a mis-match between driverless and other vehicles. This would be the ideal time to introduce new laws ensuring strict obeyance with the speed limits.
`Hands-free driving could be on UK roads by spring' LINK

[plaques]

Most vehicles are now fitted with cruise control and some other bells and whistles for white line drift etc: Personally I find my usual stretch of M65 motorway driving more like entering a fairground dodgem car venue. Vehicle weaving in and out sticks of cars entering into the main stream at the wrong speeds. Being overtaken on 70mph as though I'm stood still. Mrs P shouting "did you see that!" Never get chance to us the cruise control the grim reaper seems to be too near for comfort. And now they are proposing driverless cars, what could go wrong?

[PanBiker]

The current wait for lane shutdown on a smart motorway is about 16 minutes. So if your car fails on one of those, that 16 minutes may become your own and any passengers total life expectancy. They would be much better off expanding the autonomy into the the lane management of the current death traps without hard shoulders. There is only one short section of the M25 that has the cameras fully linked into the lane control gantries. Still most of our major motorways are being converted to smart. We don't need driverless cars to kill people the smart tech already in existence is already excellent at that!

[Tizer]

Had a visitor today with a new Skoda Fabia. She's very pleased with it and it looks a grand car, not full of bells & whistles but has what a car needs and looks good.

[Wendyf]

We have had Fabia Estates for a long time now, they are great cars.

[Big Kev]

No2 son had a Fabia for a while, great little car. Cheap as chips and very reliable.

[Stanley]

Fabia estate..... Just what I have been banging on about, most modern cars chase sales advantage by assuming we all want more Gizmos. That might be a mistake.
I had cruise control on the Chrysler rocket ship I drove from LA to St Louis up Route 66 and it was very good and effective on the free-ways but that was because the traffic density was so low on those long stretches between junctions and towns. It seems to me that this is the key. The dangers in this country come from the fact that our roads are all running at such relatively high densities. Nose to tail at 60mph plus is always going to be dangerous and all the bells and whistles in the world aren't going to cure that. Eventually the bullet is going to have to be bitten, car use will have to be lessened and perhaps even restricted.
Lest we forget.... The original intention of the motorway system was to aid freight traffic and get it out of towns and narrow roads. We may have to move towards that.
There is also the associated problem of parking, not only in centres where people travel to but overnight at home. Looked at objectively, it is ridiculous how we have cluttered our streets up.
Many years ago Ivan Illich talked about the tyranny of road transport. He gave the example of all the hours wasted by people waiting to cross a road they were paying for with their taxes and asked what rights the pedestrian had. That's still a valid question today.

[Tizer]

We'd better empty our piggy banks and club together to buy one of these...
`Three Portsmouth island forts go on sale for £9m' LINK

[Stanley]

Include me out Peter. I suppose a wealthy survivalist might find them attractive. Are they Covid Free? I suppose they could be the ultimate form of self isolation....

[Tizer]

Maz, jump into your van and get out there quick! Here's your chance, you might strike lucky!...
`Two gold nuggets worth $350,000 found in Australia' LINK

[Cathy]

Marilyn, pick me up on your way!
Oh I’ve just remembered, we aren’t allowed to go across the border into Victoria.
Damn!... Just our luck.

[Marilyn]

It is tempting.
Cazza, you would be welcome, but only 2 beds in our camper. Would you be ok on the floor in a sleeping bag?
( overnight temperatures are not drawing us away at present)

[Cathy]

Nah, not tempting enough. Good luck tho.

[Marilyn]

We will have great meals and plenty of wine. Are you sure you can’t handle the sleeping bag offer? We would love your company.

[Stanley]

My ancestors in Oz first got there attracted by the gold diggings.... I'll pass on it.
See THIS news which has just broken. Crossrail is delayed yet again and needs another £450,000. Does anyone believe this promise? Shades of HS2. Blamed on Covid of course. A good time to get bad news out?

[Cathy]

Maybe I could handle the mattress on the floor, just so I could enjoy your cooking. And you would have to come with me to the loo’s during the night.
It would be fun tho

[Wendyf]

Maybe I could handle the mattress on the floor, just so I could enjoy your cooking. And you would have to come with me to the loo’s during the night.
It would be fun tho

Who will be doing the digging?

[Tizer]

Maybe I could handle the mattress on the floor, just so I could enjoy your cooking. And you would have to come with me to the loo’s during the night.
It would be fun tho

Who will be doing the digging?

Is that for the loos or the gold?

[Marilyn]

No digging...I fancy panning and Dave wants a detector (but knowing his patience level, I doubt it will go well ).
What mattress Cazza?
I meant a sleeping bag, directly on the floor! But, we can do the layers of newspaper as an insulating base....
I don’t mind taking you to the loo in the night.

[Tizer]

I had an odd feeling when I looked at the report on the gold nuggets. A couple of months ago I dreamt I was in Austrlalia, in the desert somewhere and digging in a rocky gully hoping to find gold (they say people are having strange dreams during lockdown). But perhaps it's not so surprising - when we're on holiday in Cornwall I'm always poking about in the streams hoping to find a tiny sliver of gold (but it hasn't happened - yet!).

[Stanley]

My dad told me a story about when he and a mate were on walkabout in his younger days. An old man they helped told them where there was a bed of Opal and they went looking for it. They found what they were looking for and took it to be assayed. The expert examined it and told them they were right, they'd found opal. The only problem was they were a few years too early. It was 'Potch' which is Opal in one of the early stages of development. I wonder whether that was a true story, you never know with my dad!