OneGuyFromBarlick

Big Kev wrote:Low or no water pressure affecting some of Barlick this morning. Unofficial "word on the street" is a broken main on Kelbrook Rd...

from the Yorkshire Water website-

Burst or leak: Kelbrook Road/Manchester Road, BB18
Affected areas: Barnoldswick
Time of incident: 06:36 25/08/2012
A water pipe has burst and customers in the affected area may be experiencing no water or low pressure.
Read our advice
We are on-site dealing with the problem.
Last updated:
06:36 25/08/2012

Good to know, I thought my new pressure regulator had a problem

Excellent service from U-Refill Toner Ltd with the delivery of my toner refill today for my Brother multifunction laser printer. I ordered it yesterday at 3.15pm and it came this morning at 10.30am.

What is it with all these bodies not getting back for months. I am still awaiting a reply from my MP on State Pensions. Also Ian did you mean Will's and Kate I think Andrew is past his best now? I think Harry should choose his friends more wisely. Eileen

Aye that will be it Eileen, not properly up to scratch with my royals

The Royal children all have a common problem, whatever they do will not please all, this is also a problem common to all of us.

No water probs in East Hill Area. One large clap of thunder at about 1pm yesterday. Jack didn't like it!

No thunder here in Radcliffe Eileen

A few weeks ago one of my ladies told me that " Old age isn't for cissies!" I hadn't heard it before and agree entirely. I heard a question on 'Quote, unquote' and the answer gave me one of those splendid little known facts that brighten the day. Bette Davis used to take a cushion with her wherever she went and the saying was embroidered on it. That's real esoteric knowledge!
How nice it was that as I went to sleep I was looking forward to the next day, getting in the shed and reading my current book. How can anyone be bored?

I've been neglecting my duties and haven't posted much on here in recent weeks. My time has all been spent painting internally and externally the house that my father previously lived in and which we'd been planning to demolish and rebuild as a modern energy-efficient house. Perhaps some of you remember my tale of how the planners had scuppered our plans due to finding some droppings of a Brown Long-Eared Bat (but no actual bat) in the loft? They demanded that we build a `bat house' (bigger than a detached garage) and that it be occupied by the bats before we would be given permission to demolish. Besides the fact that there isn't space on the plot to build even an ordinary detached garage, our bat surveyor said that we couldn't be confident it would be inhabited by Brown Long-Eared Bats if we could build it! We withdrew the application and wrote various letters which aroused much concern, especially at the Parish Council who are concerned that the demand sets a precedent which could prevent building, converting or improving houses in this and other local villages (many of the houses here, even recent ones, will have bats visiting the roof). The chairman of the planning committee read my letter and declared the planner's demand to be `ridiculous' and got the planning boss to review it. The planners wanted us to come back for a meeting with them to discuss the issue and look for a solution - in effect they have dug themselves into a deep hole and want us to get them out of it. After discussion with our agent and examination of all options and likely outcomes we concluded that there is nothing the planners can offer that is feasible and we declined the invitation to a meeting. Let them stew and scrabble to find their own way out.

Another potential problem is yet more fees being imposed by planners. The fees were originally meant to be charged to builders of housing estates such as Wimpy and Barratts but these companies have almost stopped building houses in the recession so the planners have looked for other sources of cash. They hit on the idea of charging self-builders and so it began with Section 106 charges, then came Community Infrastructure Levy and now it's Affordable Housing contributions. Any or all of these are being demanded from self-builders and typically each fee will be ten thousand pounds or more (in upmarket areas each can be over £100,000). Self-builders work to a very strict budget, often set by what they can get on a self-build mortgage, but now they find themselves suddenly asked for 20 or 30 thousand pounds by the planners. And if you don't pay, you don't get permission to build, so self-builders are aborting their projects. All this at a time when the government is crying out for more houses to be built.

What a tale of woe Tiz. Before I opened the topic my post was in my head, the fact that I can detect no good news at the moment. Your post reinforces this, I shall curl up in a corner.... It's a cliché I know, but this country is going to the dogs!!

Keeping up with the family member who is ill but balanced by the news that my great grandson is kicking inside his mother like a footballer!

At the Scrutiny Meeting last night:

Barnoldswick Town Council's website has allowed those not 'accredited' by the system to advertise on it, and as a result the rest of the UK visitor system will not link into it.

The result is, an event like the Beach, would be flagged on the Barnoldswick website and automatically linked up through Pendle/Lancashire/England/UK, but because of the 'against the rules' bit Barnoldswick is actually isolated. It was mooted that advice was available if it had been called upon.

Plus anyone advertising an event on these sites would automatically be picked up by Police/Fire Brigade/Licence people etc so that relevant advice and guidance would be forthcoming for their event as the people would contact the organisers directly

Also emerged that Barnoldswick Town Council hadn't even told the Visit Pendle people about The Beach so that they could host their own bit. Not the only time that this had happened, and was pointed out the system was there to be used as it was already paid for

Cllr Gaskell wondered which hat she wore I think, but blustered her way through some quite scathing comments

It was also suggested that Pendle should not be involved in events organisation, and Town and Parish Councils should look at ways of encouraging community involvement instead of doing it themselves because they weren't event managers

There is a British Sign language course advertised on the community Notice Board

There appears to be no news from Barnoldswick in the Craven Herald (some from Earby all about vandalism and theft)

Some store keepers in the town didn't know that this site existed (a conversation yesterday)

The #paralympics have begun, let it bring understanding

A big headline in the BET announcing a 'vibrant plan for regenerating Nelson Town Centre'. Now where have I heard that one before? One thing that strikes me is that Nelson is a new town formed by the amalgamation of a few villages when the steam textile industry hit the area. Since the death of the mills it has been looking for a reason to exist. Perhaps the reason why getting the design of the town right over the years has failed so often is that it was a bad idea in the first place!

Anybody remember the ready reckoner, before the days of calculators, they could also tell you much more !!
http://books.google.ie/books?id=41MDAAA ... er&f=false

Looking through that ready reckoner reminds me of what an unholy botch the imperial system of weights and measures was in it's heyday. Even the common items like the pound varied by who you talked to. A standard calculator would be next to useless even for money, hmmm, lets see, 123 items at £1 17/6 and 3 farthings a piece. The obsolete measures deserved their fate in my opinion. A tod of wool was either 28 or 30 pounds depending on who you bought it from. I'll be glad to see the back of engines being rated in horse power, especially when linked to something like a generator which is measured in kW (or kVA for AC). And I don't mourn the passing of buying gas in therms and electricity in kWh which wasn't very long ago.

I still blame decimalisation for the rise in inflation.

Pound - English monetary unit, equaling 240 pence or 20 shillings. Using this system the pound could be exactly divided into halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths, eighths, tenths, twelfths, fifteenths, sixteenths, twentieths, twenty-fourths, thirtieths, fortieths, forty-eightieths, sixtieths, eightieths, and one-hundred-and-twentieths.

Guinea could also be divided exactly into many different amounts - halves, thirds, quarters, sixths, sevenths, ninths, fourteenths, twenty-firsts, twenty-eighths, thirty-sixths, forty-seconds, sixty-thirds, eighty-fourths, and one-hundred-and-twenty-sixths. One useful factor was that a third of a guinea was exactly seven shillings

The decimal system, instituted by Britain in 1971, allows only halves, quarters, fifths, tenths, twentieths, twenty-fifths, and fiftieths.

In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, the young Pip is subject to endless mental arithmetic tests by Mr Pumblechook. One of them involves money.

"First (to get our thoughts in order) : Forty-three pence?"

I calculated the consequences of replying "Four Hundred Pounds," and, finding them against me, went as near the answer as I could -- which was about eightpence off. Mr. Pumblechook then put me through my pence-table from "twelve pence make one shilling," up to "forty pence make three and fourpence," and then triumphantly demanded, as if he had done for me, "Now! How much is forty-three pence?" To which I replied, after a long interval of reflection, "I don't know." And I was so aggravated that I almost doubt if I did know.

Mr. Pumblechook worked his head like a screw to screw it out of me, and said, "Is forty-three pence seven and sixpence three fardens, for instance?"

"Yes!" said I. And although my sister instantly boxed my ears, it was highly gratifying to me to see that the answer spoilt his joke, and brought him to a dead stop.
(Great Expectations, chapter IX) [ Forty-three pence is,three shillings and sevenpence. And a 'farden' is a farthing ]

From Dickens's Bleak House where the total price of a meal for three people is rapidly assessed by one of the diners for the benefit of the waitress, Polly.

Mr. Smallweed, compelling the attendance of the waitress with one hitch of his eyelash, instantly replies as follows: "Four veals and hams is three, and four potatoes is three and four, and one summer cabbage is three and six, and three marrows is four and six, and six breads is five, and three Cheshires is five and three, and four half-pints of half-and-half is six and three, and four small rums is eight and three, and three Pollys is eight and six. Eight and six in half a sovereign, Polly, and eighteenpence out!"

- For an explanation of , and with thanks to see Paul Lewis from 10April2008 - http://www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/cur ... ecimal.htm

Someone is setting up West Craven Radio

Initially on the web, but maybe later out on FM

They are looking for volunteers

Will apparently take place out of the room above the Earby Council Shop

All other info at this time is on Facebook, according to someone I just met (news to me, but then I don't facebook)

From a Google Search:

West Craven Radio

Whyperion wrote: I still blame decimalisation for the rise in inflation.

Pound - English monetary unit, equaling 240 pence or 20 shillings. Using this system the pound could be exactly divided into halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths, eighths, tenths, twelfths, fifteenths, sixteenths, twentieths, twenty-fourths, thirtieths, fortieths, forty-eightieths, sixtieths, eightieths, and one-hundred-and-twentieths.

The only one missing, is the one that matters. (hundredths)

Any one think of a use for these fractions of a pound ?

thirds, sixths, eighths, twelfths, fifteenths, sixteenths, twenty-fourths, thirtieths, fortieths, forty-eightieths, sixtieths, eightieths, one-hundred-and-twentieth.

No doubt decimalisation caused a one off rise in inflation, but inflation existed long before 1971 and continues to this day when over half the population doesn't know a time before a hundred pence in a pound. I'm at the younger end of those who do remember and I'm an old git to most people.

It was a numb system and belongs in the past along with tods, therms and one day horsepower.

Plugs, don't dismiss the Imperial System too quickly. There were some very useful relationships inside the system, one example is the fact that the price of a hundredweight in shillings equalled the price of a ton in pounds. If you were reared with it you soon found there were many short cuts like this which made mental calculation easy, it wasn't as random as it looked. There is also the related subject of the vulgar fraction which, unlike metric calculation was absolutely precise. Try working out the division of a circle into a number of divisions that is a recurring decimal and you'll soon see that the old system had major advantages.
Grand Prix is back today.....

How busy Ian (Panbiker) is dealing with the current onslaught on the site by trolls and spammers. Give a thought to the street cleaners, they are doing a good job!

Go into a shop that sells any thing loose you will still hear old measurements, "a pound of stewing steak", " a dozen eggs" , a "pint of milk", and how may people refer to the car doing " x miles per gallon", also, can you buy a set of metric "bones" dominoes ?, how many arrows would you have in a game of darts if it went metric ?, and would'nt it spoil the mental scoring whilst youre chucking.

I still remember how pleased I was when I found that the US was still on Imperial and using the equivalent of Whitworth and BSF threads. Funny thing is that so many goods sold using metric are still Imperial sizes like my milk, 3.408 litres.... 6 Pints actually....

All TV channels apear to be down. having just been asked if ours was working, I checked, nothing on channels 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. weak or no signal is what I am getting.