OneGuyFromBarlick

Something I see time and time again these days is what to me is over-reaction by people. Think of things like the death of Diana and the hysterical applause on TV. I have always said that I don't do enthusiasm.... I put it down to the fact that over the years I have learned to keep my cool whatever is happening, good or bad. Nowadays you are seen as a cold fish but this is far from the truth, I can get as emotional as anyone but keep it to myself. When we were sitting in the Andersen Shelter listening to the bombs falling round us there wasn't a lot of point in panicking.... I wonder if today's kids would learn this approach.....

Almost an extension of my previous post on hysteria. I pay great care to the way I handle ordinary household waste. Everything is bagged in either used carrier bags or bin liners before it goes in the general waste Grey bin. It's a big bin and takes a long time to fill as I don't make much waste. I don't put the bin out until it is full, no point in making unnecessary work for the bin men. I think it must be well over three months since I put it out and there is no offensive smell.
What does this say about the people Eric Pickles was pandering to when he opined that the weekly bin collection was 'an inalienable right'? Perhaps they ought to look to their own habits rather than blame the council if their bin is offensive!

The problem with a less than weekly bin collection is if you miss it - due to being away, or ill or whatever, then its two weeks before the next, and while most stuff can be recycled, when one is having a large christmas, birthday, household clearout whatever it can build up. The present bin pile here - at mums is effectively baby nappies , which fill a bag a week, at home its cat litter. Most plastic goes in the Sainsbury's bins for either bags or the hard packing stuff, but not every supermarket is offering full recycling services. ( I always forget to take my canvas shopping bags out with me, but at least I can get on-line deliveries now without bags, which helps.

The bottom line on waste is that we are a throw-away society and much of it can be avoided. I am considering putting my bin out in a fortnight when the next collection is due.....

chinatyke wrote:A modern Chinese equivalent of the Flatley Dryer. I haven't tried it with wet clothes in yet so I don't know if it works well, but it certainly looks as though it should.

It is a fan heater and fabric walls versus the old tin box with a ribbon element in the bottom. Forced heating versus convection.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... -iron.html

Now where have we seen that before? OGFB leads the way, - 2 years ahead of the Daily Mail...

Lovely post China! Takes us back to the genesis of the thread many years ago. I'll bet many people puzzle over the title... Wasn't it on here that we had the fascinating discussion about boils and carbuncles? Perhaps we should bring it back from the dead!
Have a look at THIS for a good description and illustration of the original Flatley Dryer.....

When I was a Lad...... (Brace yourselves!) boils and carbuncles were common. (A carbuncle as well as being a semi-precious stone is a nest of boils and believe me, you don't ever want to have one!) A boil is a 'focus of infection' and is a direct result of the body's defence systems. When we are invaded by microbes or viruses that the body knows are dangerous it acts to defend us by destroying them but there are some elements that can't be destroyed and so a different tactic is used. They are transported to a suitable location, I think it is in the lymph system close to the skin, where an impermeable sac is created and the organisms are put in it. As the quantity increases the sac grows and exerts pressure on the surrounding tissues. The line of least resistance is out through the skin and ideally the sac bursts through to the surface and is expelled intact with its load of suppurating pus, the offending material. Sometimes the sac bursts internally, the pus is absorbed and transported to another site where the defence systems have another crack at the problem. This is why, if a boil bursts naturally and is expelled or is lanced and cleaned out there is no recurrence. However if it is absorbed you'll get another one. The pain comes from the pressure. not too bad if it is in an area where there is loose tissue like the underarm but in places like the back of the neck (a favourite location for some reason) where there is no room they can be agonising and in extreme cases I have been told that pressure on the spinal column can actually kill if not treated. A carbuncle or nest is obviously worse. Zits and pimples are small examples of this process.
I think that the infections which led to this phenomenon were more common in those days and so boils were very common. They were easy to recognise because as they rose and were inflamed by the blood circulation round them they were red, hot and very painful.

In the 1950s I had a carbuncle episode. I went to the doctor and he gave me antibiotics and it vanished only to pop up again in a different place, my body wanted shut of it. This went on for weeks and I was thoroughly miserable. I tried everything to draw it, Soap and sugar, kaolin poultices and a white concoction from the chemist but nothing worked. I was dosed with yeast and Armenian Boll by sympathetic farmer's wives but still no joy.
I used to deliver groceries to Old Mother Hanson who lived in a small outbuilding at her son's farm, John Hanson at Moorcock Farm. She decided to doctor me and I let her, any port in a storm. She told me to strip off, tore a long strip of the bottom of one of her long cotton petticoats and produced what looked like a white candle, she called it 'Diathrum'. She warmed the candle in front to the coal fire, spread it on the end of the bandage and clapped it on the carbuncle which was under my arm. It was red hot and nearly put me out! She told me not to touch it, she'd have a look the following week. The process was repeated the next week and she said it was working. Later that week it felt different so I got my dad to have a look at it and to cut a long story short, he pronounced it 'ripe' and persuaded me to let him grab it with a pair of pliers. I was past caring and wonder of wonders, he pulled it out, roots and all, disinfected the open wound with Dettol and bandaged me up again. The next week Mrs Hanson pronounced me cured and told me to stop drinking stout in my black and tan, use King's Ale instead. I didn't have one again until many years later. I found out later that what she had used was Diatherm, a horse medicine made by Day and Sons at Crewe.

Many years later I got confirmation of the 'focus of infection' theory. One of the lovely things about working with Richard Drinkall and his man John Henry Pickles was the rannge of new knowledge I learned. John and I were pretty good at treating normal ailments but occasionally we were stumped.

There were times when we had something on our hands that was too serious for us and the vet was called. I remember one cow in particular which developed a bad case of felon while we had it, ‘Felon’ was the common name for mastitis. This particular beast must have had it bad when we bought it but it hadn’t showed up in the udder. This could happen if a hard quarter was treated with antibiotics and ‘cured’ when in fact the condition had been left too long and the infection had got into the cow’s system. This was the problem in this case and it soon showed up in a general loss of condition, going off food and swellings in the joints of the legs. We got the vet in but he wasn’t very hopeful about the beast, he gave it a ‘shotgun’ injection of several antibiotics mixed together and left it to see what happened. There was no improvement and it became obvious to us that this one was a likely candidate for ‘Jerusalem’ which was the knackers yard we sent casualties to near Bradford.
While we were coming to this conclusion we had a visit one Wednesday from one of our oldest customers, Wilf Bargh who farmed Backridge at Waddington. Richard eventually bought this farm off him and lives there now in 1999. Wilf had come to buy a couple of beasts but noticed this beast and commented that it looked in a poor way. John and I agreed and told him the story. He had a look at the cow and said that he thought there was a chance of curing it. He asked if there was any ‘felon grass’ on the farm. I told him that if he told me what it was I’d find some as neither I nor John Henry had ever heard of it. He described it as flaggy grass that grew in wet places and had a saw tooth edge to the leaf which could cut your hand if you tried to pull it up and your hand slipped. I knew where there was some in a boggy patch in Harry’s Field so I went off to get some. When I got back he told me to use my knife to cut a hole through the loose fold of flesh on the cow’s chest or brisket. I pulled the skin out and cut the slit right through it. Then Wilf told me to thread the twitch of felon grass through the slit and leave it hanging there. He told John to dislodge it every day to keep the wound open and wait and see what developed.
I didn’t see the beast again until a week later when John and I were doing our usual Wednesday task of getting cattle ready for the market on Thursday at Gisburn. I asked John how it was going on and he showed me what was happening, the wound was still open and it was leaking pus on to the floor. John said he’d never seen as much muck come out of a wound but he thought the beast was mending a bit and it was certainly eating better. Wilf came again that day and he told John that as soon as the pus stopped flowing he should replace the grass with a bunch of cotton thread soaked in disinfectant and keep the wound open with this until he thought it was clean. Then he could take the threads out and let the wound heal up. I called in at one of the local mills and got some thrums, the weavers name for a bunch of cotton threads used to repair broken ends.
John did all this and by the following week the wound was healing and while the cow wasn’t 100%, it was a lot better and definitely on the mend. We farmed it out to Hargy Howarth at Blackburn for him to care for it while it convalesced. John Henry said the vet had been in on another job and when he saw the cow assumed that his injection had cured it. John told him what had actually happened and the vet was very interested because he had heard of this treatment before but had never seen it done. He reckoned that what we did when we made the wound and kept it open was create a ‘focus of infection’ like a boil. The cows natural defences had seen this as a way to get the infection out of the system and it had all gathered in the wound and come out as pus. I’m not qualified to comment one way or another on the theory but what I do know is that the cow was dying and three weeks later it was well on the way to recovery.

Under the sale rules in force at the auctions in Scotland once the hammer fell on a sale the buyer or his representative was allowed to 'vet' the beast to look for faults. I used to do this for Richard. I looked at their teeth for condition and age, smelled their breath, it was surprising what you could tell from this, if they had a touch of slow fever there were ketones on their breath and a healthy cow has lovely sweet smelling breath. We drew each teat to test for hard quarters or faults in the milk that denoted mastitis. It was a responsible job and I enjoyed doing it. I remember once faulting a beast for hard quarter and it was from one of his best customers, Jim Baird from Lurdenlaw near Kelso. This was not good! It was even worse when I found another of Jim's heifers at fault the following week!
You never forget these things, I could still vet a cow today....

In the horse auctions I think they do it the opposite way round. The horses are all stabled nearby, and you can vet whichever one you wish to before the sale.
Anyway - it's Tattersalls October Yearling Sales in Newmarket this week, and I fancy going for a look round. I'm assuming you can just go in and mingle with the billionaires, but we shall see. I've watched on the internet before. I like horses, and I like auctions - so lets try it .

Leave your wallet at home and don't do any waving or nodding!

I Have an idea you are right David. Here's an extract from Volume Two of me memoirs about sale conditions at Scottish markets. [A 'three wheeler' is a beast with one defective quarter in the udder, usually a result of untreated mastitis]

"Our main Scottish markets were Lanark and Ayr. Lanark was the biggest market in south west Scotland, it attracted the dealers from England and those from Aberdeen and Inverness as well. There was great competition for the cattle and usually a good trade. This attracted good cattle and therefore ensured continued interest by the dealers. I’ve already described how Lanark conformed to the usual system of cattle being the responsibility of the vendor until vetted and approved by the buyer but this wasn’t always the case, at one time Lanark used to operate under what is known as ‘farm sale’ conditions. Under this system ownership is transferred on the fall of the auctioneer’s hammer, there are no comebacks even if the beast is found to be faulty.
John Harrison’s Uncle Ralph had a big farm at Dumfries called Fontainebleau and bought a lot of cattle in Lanark. At one time he found he was getting caught with one or two ‘three wheelers’ a week and had no comeback against the vendors because of the terms of sale. He and other dealers had been complaining to the directors of the market for many months but nothing was done about it. Uncle Ralph decided to take unilateral action. At that time he had a man called John McPhail buying cattle for him in the Dumfries area and he instructed him to buy all the three teated cattle he could find. These were all entered for sale at Lanark and sold, Uncle Ralph then went in the office and told the directors that he had changed his mind about the sale conditions and that Lanark must be the best market in Scotland, he had just sold a load of incorrect cattle and got away with it, he would be fetching some more the following week! The rules changed within a fortnight and ‘farm sale’ conditions were a thing of the past."

Funnily enough, some three wheelers were very productive beasts, the remaining three quarters made up the deficit....

How complicated life is nowadays. I look back at my life and realise that in those early days things were so much more simple. You got a gas bill, took it down to the gas showroom on Church Street and paid it, that was it. Today, with all the advantages of access to the web and smart meters I don't understand my latest bill which gives me two totally opposing balances. All I can do is wait for the next statement.... Is it me? Or is it the system?

When I was a lad, my best mate's dad Mr Rae, was a clerk at the Calico Printer's Association in Manchester. His job was to update ledgers by hand with pen and ink. They recorded every transaction with members. He did the same job for over 40 years, a Bob Cratchitt. The banks and all other businesses operated in the same way. Then came the computers.... What happened to all those jobs and the security that went with them? Personally I would hate a job like that but if it was your whole life would you see it differently? His job bought a large house and supported a family. They were never well off but I suspect they never felt the level of insecurity so many have to accept today. I think of workers being sacked by text message and similar occurrences. Is what we have to report and improvement?

If you have a look at Steam Engines and Waterwheels you'll see I was commenting on the accidents of life that have swept me along. It struck me this morning how different my experience was from Bill's father, Mr Rae. I suppose it's a reflection of how things have changed in the last 100 years. Some things are better even with all our problems. My only comment is that I have never had a change of job that wasn't a step forward and I enjoyed every change I ever made.... Opportunity is still there if you grab it when you see it!

Companies (and jobs in them) come and go fast these days. Look at the solar panel fitters, I think they said that 900 jobs were at risk from one company that's now going under.

I agree Tiz. In an increasingly competitive business environment and tight budgets relying on government subsidies the biggest loss to my mind is the security of the workers. We had it rough but never had to worry about having a job.
I've been having a correspondence with a friend of mine about a mutual acquaintance who has badly blotted his copybook. I think my mate was getting a bit worried that he might be being too harsh on him but I have reassured him he is not alone in his opinions which are well-founded. It struck me that we often get into this position and if we are at heart, good guys, we always suspect our own judgement and motives. I remember confessing to the curator of a large institution that I had incredible difficulties with one of his colleagues and was ashamed of it. He said don't worry, join the club, I have exactly the same problem! Such a relief when you find it isn't just you......

I thought these observations may fit in here best. I found them on Doc's Facebook site, he shared them from another user called Scott Waters, who I assume is from the USA. Not sure if they are his original thoughts but amusing anyway:

I was in England again a few weeks ago, mostly in small towns, but here's some of what I noticed:

* Almost everyone is very polite
* The food is generally outstanding
* There are no guns
* There are too many narrow stairs
* Everything is just a little bit different
* The pubs close too early
* The reason they drive on the left is because all their cars are built backwards
* Pubs are not bars, they are community living rooms.
* You'd better like peas, potatoes and sausage
* Refrigerators and washing machines are very small
* Everything is generally older, smaller and shorter
* People don't seem to be afraid of their neighbors or the government
* Their paper money makes sense, the coins don't
* Everyone has a washing machine but driers are rare
* Hot and cold water faucets. Remember them?
* Pants are called "trousers", underwear are "pants" and sweaters are "jumpers"
* The bathroom light is a string hanging from the ceiling
* "Fanny" is a naughty word, as is "shag"
* All the signs are well designed with beautiful typography and written in full sentences with proper grammar.
* There's no dress code
* Doors close by themselves, but they don't always open
* They eat with their forks upside down
* The English are as crazy about their gardens as Americans are about cars
* They don't seem to use facecloths or napkins or maybe they’re just less messy than we are
* The wall outlets all have switches, some don't do anything
* There are hardly any cops or police cars
* 5,000 year ago, someone arranged a lot of rocks all over, but no one is sure why
* When you do see police they seem to be in male & female pairs and often smiling
* Black people are just people: they didn't quite do slavery here
* Everything comes with chips, which are French Fries. You put vinegar on them
* Cookies are "biscuits" and potato chips are "crisps"
* HP sauce is better then catsup
* Obama is considered a hero, Bush is considered an idiot.
* After fish and chips, curry is the most popular food
* The water controls in showers need detailed instructions
* They will boil anything
* Folks don't always lock their bikes
* It's not unusual to see people dressed different and speaking different languages
* Your electronic devices will work fine with just a plug adapter
* Nearly everyone is better educated then we are
* If someone buys you a drink you must do the same
* There are no guns
* Look right, walk left. Again; look right, walk left. You're welcome.
* Avoid British wine and French beer
* It's not that hard to eat with the fork in your left hand with a little practice. If you don't, everyone knows you're an American
* Many of the roads are the size of our sidewalks
* There's no AC
* Instead of turning the heat up, you put on a jumper
* Gas is "petrol", it costs about $6 a gallon and is sold by the liter
* If you speed on a motorway, you get a ticket. Period. Always
* You don't have to tip, really!
* Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Cornwall really are different countries
* Only 14% of Americans have a passport, almost everyone in the UK does
* You pay the price marked on products because the taxes (VAT) are built in
* Walking is the national pastime
* Their TV looks and sounds much better then ours
* They took the street signs down during WWII, but haven't put them all back up yet
* Everyone enjoys a good joke
* There are no guns
* Dogs are very well behaved and welcome everywhere
* There are no window screens
* You can get on a bus and end up in Paris
* Everyone knows more about our history then we do
* Radio is still a big deal. The BBC is quite good
* The newspapers can be awful
* Everything costs the same but our money is worth less so you have to add 50% to the price to figure what you're paying
* Beer comes in large, completely filled, actual pint glasses and the closer the brewery the better the beer
* Butter and eggs aren't refrigerated
* The beer isn't warm, each style is served at the proper temperature
* Cider (alcoholic) is quite good.
* Excess cider consumption can be very painful.
* The universal greeting is "Cheers" (pronounced "cheeahz" unless you are from Cornwall, in which case it's "chairz")
* The money is easy to understand: 1-2-5-10-20-50 pence, £1-£2 coins and £5-£10, etc bills. There are no quarters.
* Their cash makes ours look like Monopoly money
* Cars don't have bumper stickers
* Many doorknobs, buildings and tools are older than America
* By law, there are no crappy, old cars
* When the sign says something was built in 456, they didn't lose the "1"
* Cake is is pudding, ice cream is pudding, anything served for desert is pudding, even pudding
* BBC 4 is NPR
* Everything closes by 1800 (6pm)
* Very few people smoke, those who do often roll their own
* You're defined by your accent
* No one in Cornwall knows what the hell a Cornish Game Hen is
* Football is a religion, religion is a sport
* Europeans dress better then the British, we dress worse
* The trains work: a three minute delay is regrettable
* Drinks don't come with ice
* There are far fewer fat English people
* There are a lot of healthy old folks around participating in life instead of hiding at home watching tv
* If you're over 60, you get free tv and bus and rail passes.
* They don't use Bose anything anywhere
* Displaying your political or religious affiliation is considered very bad taste
* Every pub seems to have a pet drunk
* Their healthcare works, but they still bitch about it
* Cake is one of the major food groups
* Their coffee is mediocre but the tea is wonderful
* There are still no guns
* Towel warmers!
* Cheers

George Bernard Shaw observed that UK and US are two nations divided by a common language. There is a reason for this. American usage is based on 17th century English and has evolved separately from there. You find the same syndrome in the French used by the Quebecois. When I am teaching US students I always point out the difference. The two instances that amuse them most are that we have a pudding called Spotted Dick and that in England it is permissible to knock a lady up first thing in the morning.....
We have odd hangovers from 17th century usage in our dialect. 'It's a thing of purpose' is a good example. The confusion between 'while' and 'until' is another example. The difference between US and UK meanings of 'momentarily' may be another example of this. In the US it means 'in a moment' in UK it means 'for a short while'. Complicated stuff language.....

I like the way that he keeps reiterating, "there are no guns".

I noticed that as well. The NRA and the mythical 'right to bear arms' in the US has a lot to answer for. (and the westerns....) Perhaps the CIA should do a 'FIFA' on the NRA....

PE noticed the Facebook posting by Scott Waters detailing his recent holiday in Britain. They also noted that every paper that enthused about it deleted the comment 'The newspapers can be awful'.
Eighty years ago my dad always got a morning paper, in those days it was the Daily Express during the week and the Empire News on Sunday, when I started to take notice he had switched to the Manchester Guardian. I never heard anything from him that indicated he didn't trust the news they were giving him. I suspect that the readership was more naïve in those days. (Tip. If you like the proper accents on your words, deliberately put a typo in and the spell check almost always gives you the correct accent) Of course today, with hindsight we know how terribly manipulative some of the great proprietors were, Rothermere and Beaverbrook spring to mind, but they seem to have largely got away with it. Today, we quite rightly question everything and one of my favourite reads in PE is the commentary on the latest scuttlebutt in 'Street of Shame'. It seems to be a different world but the proprietors have largely changed. The Rothermere interest survives and has been joined by Dirty Desmond and the Barclay Brothers.....

Speaking of newspapers - I rarely buy one now, relying on the web and TV for my news. However I was under a three line whip to buy the Guardian yesterday, since my son had his photo in it. I did my duty, and it cost £1.80. That's more than £10 per week. I once had a mortgage that was less than that. I told him to aim for the Mail next time.