WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

Yes Peter but how slim are the chances of happening to see one doing it.....

[Tripps]

Indulge me (again)

I came across this particularly well made video tonight. It's an aerial view of Whitworth. One click led to another and I found other videos with commentary, which spoke the name. All pronounced both the 'w's. I've passed through the place a few times, and remember going to a party there once, but I never heard the second 'w ' spoken. Always pronounced like Whit'orth. Has it changed, lost the dialect , and got posher? Does anyone who perhaps lives nearby know?

Words soon change - the common meaning of drone, not so many years ago, used to indicate aerial photography, but it's soon changed, and now your first thought is a weapon of war.

[Stanley]

All I can tell you David is that I always pronounce the second W when I use the word. I use it more to describe the thread system and the engineer of that name than the town....
As for drone, the first meaning that comes to my mind is the male bee.
THIS grabbed me yesterday although of course I was not affected...
Sainsbury's has apologised to customers after most online grocery deliveries could not be fulfilled on Saturday due to technical issues. The supermarket giant said an overnight software update was to blame and the issues had now been resolved. Contactless payments were affected for a time but are now up and running. Unrelated technical issues forced Tesco to cancel a "small number" of orders. It also apologised and said most deliveries had been carried out.
I also heard reports that some store branches were only accepting cash.
There appears to have been more than one cause and it makes you realise how finely balanced our food distribution system is and how important it is to have a viable system of small shops that are not reliant on the major stores' IT systems.
Paying cash in Town Square could be a good defence.

[Tizer]

Talking of supermarkets, when staff arrived to open the front doors of their supermarket in a small town in Hampshire yesterday they were shocked to find the ground in front of the doors strewn with dead hares. One door handle had a dead barn owl impaled on it and the other had a different bird. Nobody knows the reason for it and residents are rushing to express their anger and distress at the unknown perpetrator.

[Stanley]

Whoever did that Peter was a very sick individual. As I understand it, the fear is that if someone gets satisfaction from something like that they tend to move on to even more shocking behaviour. It's a form of attention seeking.
All I ask is that they keep away from me!
On a more normal note..... What is getting my attention is the small evidences that the year is turning. My CH isn't on all the time, my radiators can be cold and yet the house is still comfortable. it is light earlier in the morning and later in the evening. That video of the cows having a run out posted by David this morning reminded me that we might have survived winter again. And yes he's right, now we will get a bit of Dr Green.

[Stanley]

Being accosted by Cllr. Whipp as I went about my business. He has a query connected with naming a new road after Edie Barlow a well-known midwife in the town. He started to ask me but then realised he was late chairing a meeting and said he'd email me..... So I am left in suspense.....
Not for the first time it struck me that David is one of the most rotund people I have ever come across!

[Cathy]

Eadie Barlow was the Midwife for 4 out of 6 of us kids.
I am told that our Mother spoke very highly of her.
Be nice to see something in her name.

[PanBiker]

Brought me into the world as well Cathy. She used to live on Chapel Street in the cottage with the monkey puzzle tree in the small front garden. Some later Philistine occupier cut that down. She delivered over 3,000 babies during her career.

[Stanley]

Chapel Street in 1982. The monkey puzzle tree is in Edie Barlow's front garden, the famous Barlick midwife.

[Tizer]

Were those cottages for handloom weavers? They've got the big windows.
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I suppose it's not surprising now that many of their staff never come into the office...
`HMRC will close tax helpline for half the year' LINK

[Stanley]

Not really Peter. There were still a few HLW left when they were built but I think they would have been described as 'Artisan's Cottages'.
HMRC talk about the needs of clients changing and them using on-line more than the telephone but this is just a substitute for admitting they have cut staff so much they can't cope. This was before working from home, it was the bid to save money by cutting down on employees because the new systems using computers were so efficient they didn't need as many clerks as before. Then numbers were cut even more by Austerity.
The result is that customer services have never been worse.

[Stanley]

How bright and sunny it is! I shall have a hot drink and then do useful things.....

[Stanley]

Grand daughter Jess is visiting for lunch and I have just had word that Great Grandson Alex in Perth is in hospital waiting to be operated on for appendicitis..... I know it's fairly routine these days but the sooner he's out the better!
Later..... news from Oz he is booked in for surgery at about 09:00 our time....

[Stanley]

No news from Oz yet. Jess visited with Kahara and Lily. They tried to destroy the house of course. Jess and I had a good chat. She brought me a meat pie and a salad buttie for dinner and then we changed the duvet covers so it was a good visit! I have almost finished washing the bedding on a hot wash. I know, it's expensive but I do like to know the bedding has had the full monty!

[Tripps]

Can we stop worrying about the Chicken Pox now? I do hope so.

[Stanley]

I have David. Jess told me that Lily had it quite badly and Kahara had a dose as well. I never thought about it yesterday and in the course of our interaction touched them both several times. I picked Lily up at one point but soon put her down she weighs a ton! Jess and I agree that she is either going to be a criminal mastermind or Prime Minister.
Alex has had a good night after his operation and if he is pain-free will be allowed home this morning. Mind you, his step mum is a nurse so that might have a bearing on it.

[Mags]

I video called Alex this afternoon, he looked well but a little apprehensive. The cannula in his hand was hurting him whilst having another dose of antibiotics. He was looking forward to going home to his own bed. Grandad and I will visit later in the week possibly with easter eggs.......

[Stanley]

Good Lass Margaret..... Give him my love when you see him please.....
(Lovely knowing you are there and looking out for him. Thanks and a big hug!. )
Not long until May now!

[Stanley]

See THIS for another consequence of Brexit.
Holidaymakers are being warned not to get caught out by the "passport 10 year rule" which can ruin EU travel plans. UK travellers used to be able to carry up to nine months from an old passport over onto a new one. But post-Brexit, EU countries will not accept passports issued more than 10 years ago. Home Office data suggests 32 million people had applied for passports that if granted would be over 10 years old. Among them is Nathan Barnes who was refused boarding on a flight to France. Mr Barnes, a 31-year-old paramedic from Norwich, was on his way to Limoges with his fiancé to visit family. Despite checking in for the flight online, and going through security and passport control, he was stopped at the departure gate.

[PanBiker]

How about this for daftness. Sally is going to meet Ruby from the train up from Stratford in Leeds. As usual she booked her tickets and for times that would get her there before Ruby arrived. We have a couple of deliveries scheduled for this morning that cant be changed so I couldn't run her to Skipton. Her Leeds train was at 10.50 so the 10.18 bus from Barlick to Skipton would be cutting it a bit fine even if it did turn up on time which can't be guaranteed. She went on the earlier bus at 9.18 and then found there was an earlier train that she could get from Skipton which she went for but was not allowed to take despite having "all day" tickets. If she got to Leeds earlier there is more going on than at Skipton Station, that was the idea but not to be. The train wasn't full, in fact it was virtually empty so what's the problem? Obviously "all day" tickets don't actually do what they say on the tin.

[Wendyf]

I came across that problem the last time I went to Devon. I had pre booked tickets from Skipton but the Leeds train was delayed, another earlier Leeds train arrived but I was told I couldn't get on it as my tickets were for the delayed train. If they were booked seats you could understand but they aren't so I almost missed my connecting train in Leeds.

[Stanley]

Every report I hear about rail ticketing these days is a complaint. What happened to the days when you bought a ticket and got on a train? Is it because nowadays it is digitally recorded and is so complicated it can't be changed to make it acceptable?

[Cathy]

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE
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[Stanley]

[Stanley]

The site throwing up a 502 error, bad gateway for most of the morning. It seems to have healed up now.....