The really boring and totally pointless snippets thread IV

[OFSO]

We used to pay extra for Standard Premier because with every seat full on Standard it was claustrophobic. And on Standard, every seat was full on every trip and not enough room for luggage. So I'd guess 75% on Standard Premier and 100% on Standard. Every trip we took.

[Smeagol]

My family on my father's side were whalers, with my great grandfather leaving Norway under a cloud, for South West Africa and then Donkergat, Saldanha Bay, where he worked in the industry there. The whale slaughtering tradition ended with my grandfather who became a cabinet maker (albeit a bad one) and who then ended up working in the tobacco industry (another morally dubious place to be).

You wouldn't by any chance be related to a bloke who discovered that lead tetra-ethyl was a good anti-knock agent for petrol engines and then turned his attention to the use of chlorofluorocarbons as refrigerants, would you?

GG

The mention of tetra-ethyl lead brought back memories for me.

As a Senior Project Engineer working in the Bapco refinery, Bahrain, the TEL plant fell within my remit (it was off the main refinery site adjacent the storage facility) in the Oil Storage & Export section of the engineering department. Not a nice place to have to visit and perform modifications. TEL, and TML for that matter are particularly unpleasant compounds that require a great deal of respect. The plant may well have been removed by now as unleaded gasoline is the norm now.

[Alisoncc]

I guess the Channel Tunnel is a white elephant in the same way as Concorde was.

Wash your mouth out immediately. Concord was never a white elephant. At the time the frogs stuffed it all up Concord was making lots of profit/money for BA. Lots of wannabees, Yanks, regularly talk about building their own version; as recently as only last week.

[Alisoncc]

Got bit by a bug on my ankle yesterday. This morning 2:00am or thereabouts, itching like buggery, found tube of Dermocaine in bathroom drawer, and applied some. Stopped inching within minutes - success, back to bed. This morning looking at tube of goo, expiry date stamped into crimped end, Oct '98. Probably good for twenty five years.

[PHXPhlyer]

Alison:
It doesn't specify what century!

PP

[TheGreenGoblin]

I guess the Channel Tunnel is a white elephant in the same way as Concorde was.

Wash your mouth out immediately. Concord was never a white elephant. At the time the frogs stuffed it all up Concord was making lots of profit/money for BA. Lots of wannabees, Yanks, regularly talk about building their own version; as recently as only last week.

I was being somewhat ironic Alisoncc, I think that the tunnel is wonderful and that Concorde was wonderful too.

Concord was making lots of profit/money for BA

And we have an Australian to thank for its ultimate demise at BA...

Rod Eddington on the end of Concorde

Twas a murky decision and some felt very aggrieved at both the French and, ultimately, at people like Eddington (and others too).

THE BETRAYAL OF CONCORDE

[OFSO]

Morning all. Another hippo-free day here.... Looks reasonably dry out. Will be attacking the Sahara sand that came down yesterday. Made the slightly rusty terrace railings even redder. Washing the white car down it looked like blood running off.

[Ibbie]

Morning folks.

15c and bright. Thin cloud cover, but might only get up another degree or three during the day.

Had a hippo on the TV here last night, as BBC started reshowing The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin.

[Pontius Navigator]

And Yes Minister last night too, hope it is a rerun and not dip and pick.

Do we prefer it to today's celeb offers and soaps?

[TheGreenGoblin]

And Yes Minister last night too, hope it is a rerun and not dip and pick.

Do we prefer it to today's celeb offers and soaps?

No contest. Yes Minister is from the top-drawer. Nothing on at the moment comes close to the quality of the writing and humour.

All these so called celebrity morons make my bowels want to work! Utter drivel, fodder for morons!

[handsfree]

And a jolly good morning.
Mostly cloudy today. 13°C going on 16°C.
Outside chance of a bit of drizzle and light rain.

Very fond of crumpets or piklets as they insist on calling them around here.
Apparently there is a difference viz:

Difference between a crumpet and a pikelet is a pikelet contains no yeast as
a raising agent, using a thinner batter than a crumpet and being cooked
without a ring, giving a flatter result than a crumpet. In Stoke-on-Trent, pikelets
were once sold in the town's many oatcake shops.

They still are sold in oatcake shops or they were in Derby until the first lockdown.
Well the only remaining oatcake stall in the market.

If the rain keeps off I'm adventuring up onto the garage roof and applying some jallop
to try and cure an intermittent leak.

[Pontius Navigator]

HF, good luck with that. I had a second garage built on the side of the first and extended down the side of the house. There was a leak at the door between garages. The builder reroofed it. It still leaked. He did lots more work and never found the source.
When we sold it some years later it still leaked. The surveyors didn't spot the large wet patch on the ceiling. I mean, where do you look if you see someone staring intently? I certainly wasn't looking up

[Ibbie]

I'm adventuring up onto the garage roof

I trust you've done your H&S assessment and have your safety lines and associated equipment at the ready.

[Ex-Ascot]

Morning folks. We have every single episode of Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister on DVD here. Very difficult to judge which is the best. Do like the one where the new PM is shown the nuclear 'button'. What if I get pissed and press it by mistake? General says no one would know.

Looks like the facilitator for our last two robberies has turned informant. Think she is scared that she will go down if she doesn't 'help with inquiries'. Here it is the same sentence as the armed robbers' which could be life. It seems that she may not have volunteered the information to the leader but that it was beaten out of her. This surprises no one. The leader is pleading not guilty. The three others are saying guilty and that he was the leader. He claims that he was not here. Got him on CCTV. He is a very nasty piece of work. He must have been in some jail fights in the last 11 months.

We are quite impressed with the laboratory work. Mrs Ex-Ascot's blood identified on the dropped knife. Our DNA identified on the cables used to tie us up. Both of ours on the one used on me as Mrs Ex-Ascot untied me. Still not convinced of a decent sentence. We are the wrong colour.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Oh well two good pieces of news this morning. The airfield is opening again to the great unwashed on the 12th of April so I have a check flight at 12:00 hrs on the 13th. I am not superstitious. Yes, I know that is a long way away but a man needs something to hang onto!

The second is that Wes Anderson's new film will soon be out!

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ente ... 06255.html

I am going to be home alone today. Yipee! What villainy can I get up to?

Not his new film but, if you haven't seen any of Wes Anderson's films, one you should see!

[Wodrick]

Morning all,
approaching 13˚c with a target of 18˚c high haze and poor viz again.

Busy day is coming, wood again, which is heavy work, and the dogs have a joint appointment with Mrs Vet this afternoon.
She has missed a staple in Punto's wound and Henry ate one if those spiky buds and it's stuck in his tongue.

Hey ho

[Pontius Navigator]

I'm adventuring up onto the garage roof

I trust you've done your H&S assessment and have your safety lines and associated equipment at the ready.

We had British Gas engineers fit a new gas flue. They really went to town. They roped off the area. Drilled a hole in the wall (they didn't ask me), put in a eye bolt and roped a ladder to it. Man A donned a climbing harness and put a crawler ladder on the roof. This was hooked over the ridge and the base lashed to the ground ladder. A rope was attached from it and Man A ascended while Man B held the rope.

Very impressive. I wonder why they didn't insist on scaffolding and a walk way. Cost no object as they were paying

[OFSO]

Hope they put a plug in the hole! Sun is out here, as the rain from yesterday drains down the mountain side. People in a good mood. Man in PO corrected wrong postcode on my certificado letters instead of telling me to go off and rewrite the addresses. Lady in queue in Mercadonna (lovely bread and trivial prices) told me to go in front of her with my single item. Lovely young babe in DIY shop reached down with a smile and whipped it out, a 13w florescent tube, from behind her counter. A pleasure to go shopping today.

[4mastacker]

Lovely and warm outside. One is just about to convey Mrs 4ma to her hospital appointment at the great metropolis of Louth.

[CharlieOneSix]

.....Not his new film but, if you haven't seen any of Wes Anderson's films, one you should see!

+1 for The Grand Budapest Hotel - great film!

Almost like spring here at 11C. Pity about the 35mph wind. Went into town to post a letter and on the way back stopped at every huge pothole and photographed them. 14 of them on the 8 mile drive, all at least 100mm deep, all made worse by the recent snow. Now to post the details and photos on the Council website. They do react to postings - just a pity they aren't proactive and have Council vehicles that transit the road report any potholes.