Saturday 4 February: Energy customers confronted with bills that bear no relation to reality

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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532 thoughts on “Saturday 4 February: Energy customers confronted with bills that bear no relation to reality”

  1. Good Morrow, Gentlefolk. Here is today’s story:

    The Shovel

    I woke for the toilet in the middle of the night and noticed a Muslim sneaking through next door’s garden.

    Suddenly my neighbour came from nowhere and smacked him over the head with a shovel killing him instantly.

    He then began to dig a grave with the shovel. Astonished, I got back into bed.

    My wife said, ‘Darling, you’re shaking, what is it?

    “You’ll never believe what I’ve just seen” I said, “That Bastard next door has still got my shovel”

  7. SNP minister heckled on Question Time over ‘excruciating’ trans comments. 4 February 2023.

    An SNP politician was heckled by the Question Time audience after she followed Nicola Sturgeon’s lead by refusing to say if a transgender rapist is a man or a woman.

    Jenny Gilruth, a transport minister at Holyrood, provoked groans from the Glasgow audience at the BBC programme after she repeatedly dodged questions over the sex of Isla Bryson, previously Adam Graham, who was initially placed in a female jail after being convicted of two rapes.

    Gilruth is herself gay!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/03/watch-snp-minister-heckled-question-time-excruciating-trans/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. She doesn’t look terribly happy in the film.
      Remind me about Scots and rays of sunshine.

    2. Morning Minty and all.

      You would have thought by now that Politicians and the general public at large would have learned from the tale of ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’. The politicians not to disregard the bollocks and the public by refusing to participate in the nonsense.

      1. Morning Oberst. Well in some ways it does excuse her attitude which is more than one can say for Starmers!

      2. Well, (takes deep breath) I would say because her ‘gayness’ is all part of the Marxist campaign to destroy the family, the nation and Western culture. Homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, trans, paedophilia, abortion, save-the-planet-induced disincentives to reproduce all fit in very nicely to an overall anti-procreation agenda. Peoples who don’t procreate at replacement level will disappear.

    1. I sent the Matt cartoon to a friend who trains midwives. She said she couldn’t put it on her website because her audience is so woke!

  9. SIR – Last year I paid British Gas £378 monthly by direct debit, and the cost of my energy consumption over three months was £577.

    When I received my statement, however, the direct debit had been increased to £472 (“Energy firms hoard £9 bn of customer cash”, report, February 3). The statement suggested that I had paid nothing, which was completely untrue, and I am currently about £1,000 in credit.

    When I eventually managed to contact a company official, I was told that everything would become clear at the end of the contract in April. This accounting system is inexplicable.

    Dr Daphne Pearson
    Monmouth

    Perhaps people will understand why I refuse payment by Direct Debit. I insist upon a Standing (Banker’s) Order. That way I retain control of my bank account.

    1. Morning all. Dr Pearson needs to wake up and put up. Where is her sense? If she knows and can prove she is in credit then she should demand her money back now. How very feeble of her.

  10. Online misogyny set to be outlawed. 4 February 2023.

    Misogynistic abuse should be banned online, the Government believes.

    Michelle Donelan, the Culture Secretary, is understood to believe the Online Safety Bill has the power to stamp out attacks on women on the internet.

    The plans to crack down on online misogyny come as leading Tory peers including Baroness Morgan, a former culture secretary, are pushing for the law to go further to include a legally-enforced code of practice requiring social media firms to prevent online violence and abuse against women and girls.

    Yes if you hurt anyone’s (provided they are not White, Male and Heterosexual that is) feelings from now on we are going to send you to prison!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/03/online-misogyny-set-outlawed/

      3. That is called “internalised mysoginy”. It is still men’s fault.

        Seriously.
        When I was at university and wondering about the fabric of reality someone came up with the question:
        If a man is alone in a forest with no-one to hear him, is he still wrong?

        The obvious answer is, – of course he’s bloody wrong! What the hell is he doing in a forest when there’s stuff to do at home. The lawn won’t mow itself.

        Men.

        1. Wrong, but content.
          Standing there alone in the forest, camouflaged, equipped with something suitable from Oberstleutnant’s armoury, just waiting for a dear.

      1. I must have trapped a nerve or something, I had a painful stiff neck with it spreading across the shoulder down the arm.
        Old age doesn’t come alone, we need it to come with painkillers every now and again which are starting to kick in.

          1. I don’t think so, but anything is possible.
            I used to say my body is a temple, now it is like those you find on top of hills in the Greek Isles, ruins!

          2. I find that angina attacks can be stopped with a small neat whisky.

            Opens up the smallest veins.

          5. You’ll know it’s angina, when you get pains in and around the heart, that are not life-threatening, unless left untreated.

        3. Sounds like one of the discs in your neck. I have had similar. Including the arm pain. Slowly move your head from side to side. As in right ear to right shoulder and left ear to left shoulder. Works for me.

  12. Morning, all Y’all. Beautiful sunrise, shining pink and orange on the hill across the valley, really lighting up the snow.

  13. Morning all,

    I was listening to Farming Today earlier and it was so depressing I turned it off.
    Good news though – Countryfile reporter goes down a deep mine five miles under the North Sea and finds them digging low energy produced fertilizer. They just mine it, crush it, sieve it, bag it and sell it!

    It’ll be featured in tomorrow’s Countryfile.

      3. It’s got name but I couldn’t spell it from how it was spoken.
        Countryfile tomorrow might show shots of it.

    2. About 10 years ago, Farming Today went from being an interesting programme on farming which I looked forward to listening to, to being an “environmental” programme railing against everything a farmer did. We rechristened it “Anti-Farming Today” and eventually stopped listening. But I gave up listening to all radio 4 in 2016.

    3. Is that the Potash mine near Whitby which was a locally supported project before being taken over by a large company?

    4. There are fifty miles of tunnels there, mainly under the sea, and the product is called polyhalite (K2MgCa2(SO4)4·2H2O). The old part of the mine produces potash. There is an important laboratory nearly a mile underground which was used in the 50s in research for neutrinos. If you want to know more go to Boulby Mine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulby_Mine

    3. Commiserations – after 10 days of a nasty cough and cold (think aching rib cage muscles from constant coughing) thank goodness my cold is finally on the way out!

  15. 370721+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Saturday 4 February: Energy customers confronted with bills that bear no relation to reality

    Should read,

    Saturday 4 February: Energy customers confronted with bills and bully boys seemingly that bear no relation to reality currently within the United Kingdom, but is more likened to the
    extortion / protection rackets run by the Mafia.

    Can any current member tell me how long they intend supporting this lab/lib/con/current ukip seriously harmful to the health of both Nation & peoples coalition into the future ?

    These political overseers have, ( with hopefully misguided support ) tailored plague & pestilence to be used in an individual mass kettling manner, divide & conquer whilst lining wallets.

    They have in point of fact seriously maimed peoples, after the fact compensation is paid but a seed of fear lingers.

    1. Since the cartel jacked up wholesale prices and therefore untaxed profits sixfold, any competition in the retail sector in Britain has been terminated.

      Since British Gas took over my account from the defunct Zebra Power, I have been told that there are huge penalties taking my custom elsewhere, and that Uswitch advises me that the best deals available is the variable deal that I am already on, since it comes under Ofgem. Standing charges have doubled. Centrica needs the money more than their customers do.

      I have no idea what my bill is, since BG insists I log onto their website to see it and their website doesn’t work on my laptop. I can only find Customer Service smart help by logging on their website.

      I am anticipating some heavy kicking down my door at some time.

      They call this the Free Market, and a vast improvement on the old electricity boards.

  16. G’morning all,

    Cloudy at McPhee Towers, a light air and 6℃. Need to pop to the market this morning to visit the artisan baker for some of his excellent seeded rye loaves.

    You’ve got to hand it to James Delingpole. He can usually be relied upon to see through much of what is going on around the world and in our own little corner in particular. He’s not much impressed by the revelations about the 77th spying on dissidents:

    https://delingpole.substack.com/p/dont-be-fooled-by-that-77th-brigade

    1. They would have a bit of trouble on this site. We have got good at how to spot them.

      Good morning.

  17. Well, well, well.
    It seems that onshore wind turbine orders have plummeted, while costs have increased.
    In completely unrelated news, last week the German government announced that Bavaria does not have enough wind turbines, and must Do Its Duty and install more!
    That will go down like a bucket of cold sick in Bavaria, I can tell you. They are very attached to their beloved landscape and mountain views.
    https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1621158534028357634

      2. And for the creation of a new Mad King Ludwig to replace the EU apparatchiks . I was surprised to find that his apparently old castle was pretty new and build of iron girders like a skyscraper.

    2. We lived in Bavaria for 4 years – building wind turbines there would be a sin against humanity – I hope the locals rebel!

    1. Another waste of time and space pm.
      The same “call me Dave” who cared so much about other people, he left his little daughter alone in a pub. And had to go back to collect her.
      Disingenuous Dave.

      1. Easily done, ask anyone who has taken a school trip anywhere. Everyone assumes that she is in one of the other vehicles, result is she was in none of them.

        2. Supervising children on a school trip is like herding cats. 3rd year trip from Manchester Pic to London, 3 teachers and lots of girls; we lost 2 of them on the train. Went looking and found them 2 carriages down chatting up 2 soldiers. God, they hated us for telling the chaps that they were only in the 3rd year. Soldiers faces a mixture of relief and horror.

          2. I heard a story of a London trip from a Derbyshire school where 2 girls went missing more or less on arrival at St. Pancras.
            The police found them a couple of hours later in that area between St. Pancras and King’s Cross.

          3. It was a nightmare. They had been excused school uniform and these 2 girls had plastered on the make up and dressed in fancy frocks. It was a History trip and I was roped in as I was a Londoner and they assumed I would know where to go etc.
            They ate their lunches as the train was leaving Pic and ate steadily afterwards.
            The journey home was hell; throwing up, one girl had a massive nosebleed- looked as though a pig had been slaughtered.
            I have never had such a headache in my life and I said to the head of History, never, ever ask me to do that again.
            Happy days :-((

        3. I was left behind at my niece’s Christening in Oxford when I was ten and when I was eight at a Sherborne Girls’ School speech day in one of my sister’s final years at the school.

          My sisters left my mother behind when Caroline and I got married in Lyme Regis but fortunately one of my ushers had taken a minibus to the church to pick up any stray guests to take them to the reception at Rousdon 4 miles away.

          1. My mother left my brother in his pram outside Braintree Woolworth.
            She realised when she got home and scooted back to the town centre at the speed of light.
            In 1949, you could make such mistakes in relative safety.

      2. At least he gave her a packet of pork scratchings at the pub to ward off potential predators.

      3. TBF – that is easily done, especially if several families are involved.
        A few day’s back, my 19 year old granddaughter decided she would travel in the Noddy car rather than her father’s ginormous whatever-it-is on wheels.
        If she were, 9 confusion could have easily arisen.

    2. Cameron is known to be a committed atheist which is why he appointed Welby as Archpillock of Canterbury.

    1. Johnson would love to take credit for taking us both out of the EU and back in again.

      He suffers from a Duke of York complex. Marching us up the hill and then down again doing the hoky-koky – in, out, in, out, shake it all about.

      Since he has finally realised that he cannot match Churchill who ended the War he has decided to end the World in a nuclear war instead. He is a dangerous incompetent buffoon.

      1. 370721+ up ticks,

        Morning R,

        Old bunter must have been continental kissing farage then in 2019 and picked up the anti democracy marching malady.

  23. Bit more Saturday Wail before I starting shifting boxes and compile ever more manic ‘to do’ lists to lose by Monday morning.
    Joan Collins on this occasion.
    Incidentally, for me “Mississippi Burning” did for pick-up trucks what “Psycho” did for plastic shower curtains.

    “Why do so many films need to be so dismal? I yearn for light, brightness; I crave escapism, entertainment and distraction.
    Movies are meant to take you away from your daily troubles. To exalt your mood or move you in some way, to make you feel good or, if not, at least reflective or educated. Not suicidal.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11711497/JOAN-COLLINS-asks-todays-movies-depressing-confusing-interminably-boring.html

    1. Mr.Hobbs Takes a Vacation was on Talking Pictures one day this week; Jimmy Stewart and Maureen O’Hara. Light hearted and funny.
      The Enchanted April is still on You Tube- full movie. Lovely and heart warming.
      We won’t watch gloomy stuff anymore- our life is too full of it.

  24. From a letter in today’s Gatesograph about the state of wokery in the RAF:

    “SIR – In the argument over diversity in the RAF, it seems to have been forgotten that, during the Second World War, many of its personnel were people of colour.

    Most were ground crew, but a significant number were officers. Among these was Flight Lieutenant John Smythe from Sierra Leone, who served as a navigator. After 26 bombing missions, he was shot down in 1943 and spent the rest of the conflict as a prisoner of war.

    When one of his German captors asked why he fought for Britain he replied: “Sierra Leone is part of the British Empire and I am fighting for my King.” He also said of his time in the RAF: “It wasn’t until I looked in the mirror that I remembered I was black.”

    After the war, acting for the Colonial Office, this remarkable man accompanied ex-RAF personnel to the West Indies to help them secure local employment. Many who were unable to find work returned to Britain on the Empire Windrush, hoping for a better life. Smythe was still with them when the ship docked at Tilbury.

    Smythe was appointed solely on merit, his skin colour being totally irrelevant. Today’s RAF should take note.”

    During my own service I came across a small number of non-white pilots and can attest to the truth of this. No-one thought about race at all. No-one noticed. I won’t name names but one of them even went happily by the nickname ‘Roots’.

    1. That’s the way it is. His nickname wasn’t racist. It was appropriate. I have an ex RN friend who for his entire service was called Shirley. Even by more senior officers. His surname is Crabtree.

      1. When I was a boy my best friend’s mother always called me Spencer.

        At at university my friends called me Freeze. I thought it was because they thought I was pretty cool but the truth was that my nickname was Rastus C. Tastey.

        1. He’s always been stocky. But you need that brawn when working on the engines. Tool box containing spanner extra large x 1. Hammer extra large x 1.

          1. Engine & Airframe fitters toolkit:

            Large GS (General Service Screwdriver)
            French Letter
            Scrubbing brush

            (Fix it, fcuk it, or scrub round it.)

      1. We had two on 85 Sqdn, One lighter than t’other. The darkest was nicknamed ‘Midnight’, t’other one ’23:59′

        They both took it in good part. This was the early 60s.

      1. A good point. ‘Some’ or even ‘a few’ would be more accurate. The millions of photographs are evidence.

  25. From a letter in today’s Gatesograph about the state of wokery in the RAF:

    “SIR – In the argument over diversity in the RAF, it seems to have been forgotten that, during the Second World War, many of its personnel were people of colour.

    Most were ground crew, but a significant number were officers. Among these was Flight Lieutenant John Smythe from Sierra Leone, who served as a navigator. After 26 bombing missions, he was shot down in 1943 and spent the rest of the conflict as a prisoner of war.

    When one of his German captors asked why he fought for Britain he replied: “Sierra Leone is part of the British Empire and I am fighting for my King.” He also said of his time in the RAF: “It wasn’t until I looked in the mirror that I remembered I was black.”

    After the war, acting for the Colonial Office, this remarkable man accompanied ex-RAF personnel to the West Indies to help them secure local employment. Many who were unable to find work returned to Britain on the Empire Windrush, hoping for a better life. Smythe was still with them when the ship docked at Tilbury.

    Smythe was appointed solely on merit, his skin colour being totally irrelevant. Today’s RAF should take note.”

    During my own service I came across a small number of non-white pilots and can attest to the truth of this. No-one thought about race at all. no-one noticed. I won’t name names but one of them even went happily by the nickname ‘Roots’.

  26. From a letter in today’s Gatesograph about the state of wokery in the RAF:

    “SIR – In the argument over diversity in the RAF, it seems to have been forgotten that, during the Second World War, many of its personnel were people of colour.

    Most were ground crew, but a significant number were officers. Among these was Flight Lieutenant John Smythe from Sierra Leone, who served as a navigator. After 26 bombing missions, he was shot down in 1943 and spent the rest of the conflict as a prisoner of war.

    When one of his German captors asked why he fought for Britain he replied: “Sierra Leone is part of the British Empire and I am fighting for my King.” He also said of his time in the RAF: “It wasn’t until I looked in the mirror that I remembered I was black.”

    After the war, acting for the Colonial Office, this remarkable man accompanied ex-RAF personnel to the West Indies to help them secure local employment. Many who were unable to find work returned to Britain on the Empire Windrush, hoping for a better life. Smythe was still with them when the ship docked at Tilbury.

    Smythe was appointed solely on merit, his skin colour being totally irrelevant. Today’s RAF should take note.”

    During my own service I came across a small number of non-white pilots and can attest to the truth of this. No-one thought about race at all. no-one noticed. I won’t name names but one of them even went happily by the nickname ‘Roots’.

  27. 370721+up ticks,

    Dt,
    Online misogyny set to be outlawed
    Government will use new Bill to crack down on abuse of women and girls on the internet

    Could this be extended to “on the streets” in regards to
    rape & abuse paedophilia fashion as in rotherham and is now become another plague issue countrywide, an offshoot of mass illegal immigration.

    The importation of paedophile practitioners can be witnessed daily at DOVER on the current political overseers / RNLi watch.

  28. Weegie paper reports today that the Defence Minister has ordered 50 Leopard 2 tanks from Germany, cost about 2 billion quid. The top military man has said this is not a good use of money and advised in his professional capacity as Chief of the Defence Staff against it.
    The mere act of being elected makes the politician more knowledgeable than a man whose entire working life has been in the military, so he is clearly stupid and is overruled.
    Doncha just love politicians?

  29. Morning all 😉 😊
    Yes it seems we are being forced to pay for more the never ending government ‘errors’. Pay up or freeze. Meanwhile politicians claim back their extra costs on expenses. Hundreds of millions between them.
    Shell announce more than double profits, next will be the energy companies. It’s a stinking and horrible trick they have played to make us all pay for the cost of the illegal invaders.
    Of course tax will be gathered from the profits. But it’s the public who supplied the money for the huge profits.
    And still not a single word of explanation as to why these thousands of, surplus to our requirements, people have been allowed to enter.

    1. Beginning of October to the end of March I take Cod Liver Oil capsules and a daily dose of multivitamins.
      This is something I have done for the past 30 years, it seems to ward off the worse of winter’s ailments, perhaps there is a case of vitamin D as well.

      1. Oofff, it Reminds me of my childhood my mother use to spoon it into me and my two sisters everyday.

        1. My mother kept 2 teaspoons for Cod Liver Oil, nightly administration of to my brother and me. The smell permeated the metal so the spoons could not be used for anything else.

        3. I used to projectile vomit at the taste, I may have been allergic to it.
          At school a joker was handing out dog treats that looked like chocolate drops but were heavy with cod liver oil.
          He was wasn’t impressed when I threw up over him although others who had been tricked thought it was hilarious.

      1. A good one from Dr John Campbell as well from a couple of days ago. I’ve taken 4000iu vit D & 1000mg Vit C since autumn 2020. I stop during the summer, and the only infection I’ve had since January 2020 was a sore throat last August. I also eat fruit, salmon, etc and good food generally.

          1. We went to South Africa in 2013 – stayed three weeks in the north of the country. Also went to the Kruger for a three day trip. It’s a beautiful country but I don’t want to go there again. The majority of the wildlife is farmed, for hunting.

      1. 370721+ up ticks,

        Afternoon VW,

        That is one reason the politico,s are pushing the fear program, to give
        longevity to the pharmaceutical dependency program.

    1. I’ll be popping down the pub to view. First time this year, hope they remember me. The curse of not viewing livestream tv at home. Roll with the blows.

    1. I blame you for this Bob. I’ve scraped, sanded and scrubbed the bathroom ceiling to get a coat of paint on the patchy bits.

      No doubt more will be needed tomorrow as one bit is flaking around the edges.

  34. This morning poorly Elizabeth couldn’t present the Breakfast Programme (or ‘show’ as she is wont to call it) on Radio 3.
    One Shari Vahl stood in. What a joy to hear such clear enunciation of words as she introduced the music!

    1. Not all of them used to kneel, even when it was ‘in fashion’. I was at Twickenham once when some of them knelt, and I expressed my displeasure by booing.

    1. To the Right of the letters page, there are Articles under the heading More Stories and have been there, unchanged for over a year

      Post it on one of those!

    2. Old favourite time; at a party pre-DNA, I met a businessman who had recently served on a jury.
      His fellow jurors were all cluelessly talking ‘not guilty’, so he had to explain tactfully why the well-dressed accused were guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Something to do with finger prints linking them to the crime scene, and the astonishing coincidence that the Police had been able to rapidly arrest the alleged perpetrators, which hinted that the men may possibly have had previous convictions. And yes, it was a gang of career criminals.

    2. Well, brain dead people govern all our public institutions. The trans humans writing this stuff clearly haven’t had spell check properly installed in their dead brains.

      1. Either that, or we are slowly being taken over by hordes of wannabe Yanks and their asinine spelling abilities. Americanese slang is slowly supplanting proper standard English everywhere.

    3. Well, brain dead people govern all our public institutions. The trans humans writing this stuff clearly haven’t had spell check properly installed in their dead brains.

  39. What does BTL stand for. What is the correct one.

    BTLBattleBTLBottleBTLBeyond the Limit (band)BTLBelow The Line (advertising)BTLBetween the LinesBTLBuy To LetBTLBattle Creek (Amtrak station code; Battle Creek, MI)BTLBehind the Lens (various locations)BTLBataillon (German: Battalion)BTLBiomass-to-LiquidsBTLBlaster TeletypeBTLBit Timing LogicBTLBiomass to LiquidsBTLBelize Telemedia LimitedBTLBolsa de Turismo de Lisboa (Portuguese tourism exhibition)BTLBridge-Tied Load (amplifier)BTLBetween the Lions (PBS children’s TV show)BTLBilateral Tubal LigationBTLBell Telephone LaboratoriesBTLBuild-Transfer-LeaseBTLBroadway Theatre League (various locations)BTLBuilt-To-LastBTLBACnet Testing LaboratoriesBTLBeyond the LimitsBTLBubba the Love SpongeBTLBusiness Team Leader (various companies)BTLBurn to Learn (fire training)BTLBetter-Than-LifeBTLBiomass to Liquid FuelBTLBackplane Transceiver LogicBTLBetween the LegsBTLBanque Tuniso-Libyenne (French: Tunisian-Libyan Bank; Tunisia)BTLBusiness Technology LabBTLBlood Transfusion Laboratory (various locations)BTLBoystown Live (Internet radio station)BTLBuoy Turret Loading (mooring)BTLBuild-to-Line (property construction; various locations)BTLBorn Too Late (band)BTLBusiness Term LoanBTLBowel Tolerance LevelBTLBuilding Tightness Limit (building air exchange)BTLBranching Temporal LogicBTLBlue Trunk LibraryBTLBend Tarp and Liner (Prineville, OR)BTLBatlagundu (parish)BTLBike Tow LeashBTLBipolar-Transistor LogicBTLBig Time LoserBTLBasic Termination LiabilityBTLBirla Technologies LimitedBTLBrian Thomas Littrell (singer)BTLBritish Telecommunications LaboratoriesBTLBaltimore Tank Lines, Inc. (trucking company)BTLBachelor of Talmudic LawBTLBattle LossBTLBlack Tea Lemonade (Starbucks)BTLBegining TAPR LabelBTLBilling Term Liability (Sprint)BTLBout That LifeBTLBible Translation & Literacy of East Africa

        1. Toast, crispy bacon, lettuce leaf and thinly sliced tomato with mayo on the toast. A very delicious sandwich.

  40. Morning again al

    The reason why running an EV is impractical compared with running an internal combustion engine (ICE) car is explained in this video showing how a Spitfire MkV with a 12 volt external socket (like EVs with 250v socket) is not intended to be started again until it returns to base (or another Spitfire airfield with a big 12 volt starter battery).

    Link: https://youtu.be/WnPVD8FhDxE
    Look out for the Trolley Acc (Accumulator) and where to plug it in.
    In an EV, Just like a Spitfire, you must either land back at base to plug in, land at a refuelling station and plug in the Trolley Acc, or use the inboard engine starter which gives you a very limited number of engine starts.
    The Spitfire was designed as a one trip aircraft with limited means of getting home if you ran out of fuel.

    Here is my electrical parallel in this equivalent circuit of an EV starting current model: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6b55e7cccc45722b7c0c01f4653b088e1a2e1f92d512a23366f9c6cbd3b6b6f1.jpg

    2. Iam just not clever enough to have an EV, i can though strip and re-build RR Spey, Gnome and Nimbus ‘jet’ engines

    3. The standard RAF starter trolley IIRC was 24v and could be plugged into any aircraft with the appropriate socket. The big Houchin trolleys had 110v too which was needed for the Lightning. The wartime ones could well have been 12v though.

    5. For aircraft design, the key is to add lightness. That’s why they don’t lug huge lead-acid batteries around in Spitfires.Takes a fair amount of turning to start a big Merlin or Gryphon engine.

      1. Good point, Obers,

        That is the reason why the Hyundai Kona Electric is the Spitfire of the road – it has so much acceleration that owners wish Hyundai had put better grip tyrea on for traction to stop wheel spin.

        Every effort has been made in the Kona to make it as light as possible but the weight of the 64kWh battery slung underneath is enormous.
        This however turns out to be an advantage because there’s plenty of energy (like the Trolley Acc. in the Spitfire) to top up the auxiliary battery needed to get thr traction motor engaged with the wheels through a contactor.

        Here lies the problem in that the Kona (as with all other EVs) must deliver power in a timely fashion to the auxiliaty battery so that it sufficient charge close the contactor.

  41. Just walked down for the paper – and found it’s gone up another 50p to £4.00! Daylight robbery. I had £3.50 in cash in my pocket – good job I had a tenner as well from the cash machine yesterday.

  42. Phew!
    2 x Chainsaws duly sharpened and the large diameter logs all sawn and lugged up to the saw horse for further sawing and all ready for splitting. About 30 bits of between 5″ up to 12″ diameter.
    Petrol saw still has a bit of a bias to one side so probably needs a bit more attention from the file. Electric saw is cutting straight. Now in for a mug of tea!

    1. The web says that the cause could be left-handed wood.

      Seriously, the bar groove and its shoulders may have worn, or the chain and bar are substandard.
      Solution: new bar, new chain, from a reputable brand.
      Cost: irrelevant, just avoid a potential injury.

  43. Ugg. Minus 27 outside this morning.

    Small consolation is that it is better than Ottawa at minus 29.

  44. Afternoon All

    Medley Time

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/387ae2dc0211da7308324239de6abfd9e5952307479aaa23ad9ba89d896675d1.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/90161e7af2cf594c39ff5a7ce4454243917f52f66bec6a9c4d87a6d371a329cb.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2a4f1e99e5beb23756db4bc05590301f513fd11256e0b0afca273a5fa3a46b6d.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/496fd4ff7550513df8c86194f512f77ffe1b42d15b98e9df72eb1b787197555c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/28dbab7231453865d472486bd9138d124f975af46ddec086ab1f56d9d9608217.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7d000b81675546ddd11ca988ba212575987a500f3e3e9307d3a90e6ea51a1ad3.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dea43246060cebd28f949d4fa16ee067008e372b924dbe46ddf31cedfed9b6f0.gif

    2. I rather like the one about the white couple surviving. It’s all too apt, however in that environment the white folk would have moved away as the rest of the dross in the building would have made their lives a misery.

      1. When the terrible and tragic fire at Grenfell happened. Before they started blaming the fire brigade and cladding companies. It was mentioned that quite a few of the landings were blocked by rubbish bags because the chutes were blocked and not working. Also the flat where the fire started. If I remember correctly, number 16 on the 6th floor was where the Egyptian taxi driver lived. When his fridge caught fire that night. His wife and children were staying elsewhere. That was lucky.
        But of course the investigation wasn’t carried out along those lines.

        1. No, he was not Egyptian IIRC. He was also subletting to a pair of midnight princesses. I doubt that his fridge was the initial source of the flames, and suspect that he could have been storing diesel or petrol fuel, and that the vapour ignited. The combustible cladding only served to reduce windchill as there was a free flowing air gap between the foam and the building’s structure. Like most stuff emanating from modern bureaucracy, it was a con.
          Additionally, I used to know someone who worked on those towers back in the 1970s, and he reckoned that the metal framework (for the insulation) would have been wrongly installed, because one of the finishing details is tricky to insert. He also had nothing good to say about the occupants (I exclude the children).

          1. Not sure that’s right about the taxi driver, photographs of him drinking a pint in a pub with friends were also featured in the media.
            Storing fuel that ignited. Strange there was No mention of any of that during the investigation.

  46. Ha, ha, ha,…(breathe)…ain’t that pukka (sorry for all his neighbours)

    Britain’s BIGGEST prison is being built near Jamie Oliver’s £6M mansion: TV chef’s life will be ‘turned upside down’ by new ‘mega jail’ for 3,430 inmates in England’s most photographed village
    The prison would be built on former RAF Wethersfield in the Essex countryside
    It would be miles from Finchingfield where homes go for £425,000 on average
    Campaigners have branded it ‘almost the worst place you could find a prison’

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/01/31/15/67168271-11697199-image-a-1_1675179632117.jpg

      1. “Stop being a vegan and start enjoying what you eat.”
        — Jamie Oliver

        “The future is about a plant-based diet.”
        — Jamie Oliver

    2. If prison worked, why do we need more of them?

      Also, for the bored – statistics are showing that the majority of crime is now being committed by immigrants. We need to close the border and remove them immediately.

    3. But why gloat about this? Has Jamie Oliver done you some harm or something? I expect we’d all feel a bit upset if it happened to us. Or perhaps I’ve misunderstood you?

      1. Jamie Oliver claws back £2.4m from restaurant empire collapse

        Celebrity chef pockets cash pile – while suppliers are still owed millions

        By Hannah Boland 28 May 2022 • 4:00pm

        Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has clawed back £2.4m from the collapse of his Italian restaurant empire, company filings reveal, as suppliers to the chain are forced to swallow tens of millions of pounds worth of losses.

        Documents published by Interpath as the administration process wraps up show that Mr Oliver’s holding company received a further £580,000 payment in the period between last November and this month. This takes the total which has been paid out to Jamie Oliver Holdings, a business majority owned by Mr Oliver, to £2.4m.

        Interpath said it was a “significant shortfall” to the amount that had been owed to Mr Oliver, who spent £25m trying to save the Italian chain in 2019.

        However, suppliers to the chain have borne the brunt of the losses. Jamie’s Italian had owed around £85m when it went bust, which included £21m in debts to a group of creditors including food producers and UK councils.

        Jamie Oliver Holdings was classed as a secured creditor, unlike those other businesses, and so was guaranteed to receive part of the debts owed to it.

        The unsecured creditors, which include the suppliers and councils, received just £520,000 of the £21m they were owed.

        One of its suppliers, Direct Meats, previously described feeling “hugely let down by the businesses falling into administration”. Filings from last July, before Interpath had called for creditors to set out their requests, had suggested at least one food supplier was owed almost £800,000.

        Jamie Oliver Group declined to comment.
        *
        *
        *
        BTL:

        John Baker
        MAY 28, 2022
        Remember this article the next time Oliver tries to convince you he’s a working class lad with socialist principles.

        126

        A Allan
        MAY 28, 2022
        Quite frankly, Oliver should never be allowed to own or run a business ever again.
        An £85 million loss on a chain of restaurants suggests a serious lack of business nous.

        97

        john Charles
        MAY 28, 2022
        Jamie Oliver the Richard Branson of the cooking world.
        Really cannot stand the man

        79

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/05/28/jamie-oliver-claws-back-24m-restaurant-empire-collapse/

          1. Don’t pay any attention to what that A Allan chappie says – he’s known to be off his rocker.{:^))

      1. Celebrities from London trespassing on a Lancashire farmers land,

        Where ‘ s the Greengrocer?

    1. Have you not worked out this si why the Left are so desperate to re-write history?

      It exposes all their past malice. It warns people of who they are and what’s coming. It scares the Left as they try to paint themselves as heroes when really they are the root of evil.

      1. 370721+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,

        Worked out long ago on joining the genuine UKIP party not to be confused with the graven image party now in existence.

    2. Ironically, a certain Naftaly Aronovich Frenkel is credited with the plan to link work output with calorific input.

  50. My claim to fame is that I know the Dutch lady who is the subject of the Saturday interview in the main paper. I can report she and her family are lovely.

  51. Wordle bogey 5 today. Try 4 made answer 5 obvious of course, letters 3 and 5 being the wrong way round.

    Wordle 595 5/6

    ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
    🟨🟩⬜🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟨⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟨🟩🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Par Four for me.

      Wordle 595 4/6
      ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
      ⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜
      🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  52. Zelensky vows to fight off Putin’s troops from ‘fortress’ Bakhmut. 4 February 2023.

    President Volodymyr Zelensky said today that Ukraine would fight to hold on to the eastern “fortress” city of Bakhmut for as long as it could, and urged the West to supply long-range weapons to help Kyiv push Russian forces out of the Donbas region.

    “Nobody will give away Bakhmut. We will fight for as long as we can. We consider Bakhmut our fortress,” Zelenskiy told a news conference with top European Union officials following a summit in Kyiv.

    “Ukraine would be able to hold Bakhmut and liberate occupied Donbas if it received long-range weapons,” he said.

    These are strange words from someone who is supposedly winning!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-putin-nuclear-weapons-germany-leopard-tanks-b2275669.html

    1. No evidence that Russia blew up the Nord Stream pipelines German investigators have found no evidence that Russia was behind the supposed sabotage against the two Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

      Hmmm.That’s rather remiss of them, I thought that they would have planted some by now. We know who blew it up. It was the Americans to ensure Germany joined the War!

      https://www.nrk.no/nyheter/gassrorledningen-nord-stream-1.13828304

    2. No evidence that Russia blew up the Nord Stream pipelines German investigators have found no evidence that Russia was behind the supposed sabotage against the two Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

      Hmmm.That’s rather remiss of them, I thought that they would have planted some by now. We know who blew it up. It was the Amercans to ensure Germany joined the War!

    3. No evidence that Russia blew up the Nord Stream pipelines German investigators have found no evidence that Russia was behind the supposed sabotage against the two Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

      Hmmm.That’s rather remiss of them, I thought that they would have planted some by now. We know who blew it up. It was the Amercans to ensure Germany joined the War!

  55. Oh, Lord.
    A 16-year old girl, jetskiing with friends, jumped into the sea to swim with a pod of dolphins in the mouth of the Swan River, Perth, WA, and was taken by a shark and died of her injuries.
    Terrible.First shark-related death in Oz since a diver was killed in 1960, near Sydney.

    1. I think he’s too optimistic.
      It was never in the plan to launch the digital ids immediately – the software isn’t ready, for one thing.
      They only have to make it mandatory to register with a digital id to access all government services like submitting a tax return, applying for a driving licence etc, and everyone will just do it.

      1. Whether something is ready or not isn’t relevant. EVs are not ready. Smart meters don’t work. Windmills are pointless. The state doesn’t care. It just wants control. It will do anything to get that power.

        1. It is true that politicians are that stupid.
          But they’ve got to have at least version 1.0 of the software ready to roll out.
          Perhaps they were hoping to start vaxx passports with the app that they already had, and transition it over to the full digital id later, in which case, they have certainly failed.

          I think it is true too, that in their hubris, they tend to overlook their own mistakes. For example, they under-estimate opposition from the despised masses, and they have also scored an own goal by killing some of the most obedient citizens and waking many of the rest up.

      2. I am just pleased that all is not going to plan and that Tony “I’m-a-pretty-straight-kinda-guy is not having things going his way. I’m not looking too far into the future at this time in my life. One day at a time.

  58. ‘My forefathers did something horribly wrong’: British slave owners’ family to apologise and pay reparations. 4 February 2023.

    A £100,000 fund, donated by the New York-based BBC correspondent Laura Trevelyan, will be formally launched in Grenada on 27 February by Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of the Caricom Reparations Commission, and Trevelyan family members. Caricom, or Caribbean Community, is a group of 15 countries in the region.

    Nicole Phillip-Dowe, vice-chair of the Grenada National Reparations Commission, said: “It’s absolutely fascinating that I am seeing history being made. It takes a leap of faith for a family to say, ‘my forefathers did something horribly wrong and I think we should take some responsibility for it’. It is commendable that the Trevelyan family has taken this step and I hope it will be followed by others.”

    They want their heads examining!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/04/british-slave-owners-family-apologise-reparations-trevelyans

    1. I flipping well hope it will not be followed by others! Where is all this going to end? It sounds like the thinnest edge of a very wide wedge to me. I see a certain taxation hoving into site over the horizon.

    2. FFS! Soon they will be expecting us to contribute if our ancestors ate sugar or owned a mahogany table.

    3. As long as it’s private money it’s theirs to spend as they want. I don’t care. They’re not having a penny of mine!

    5. After the ‘Grenada National Reparations Commission’ has accepted the £100,000, they will come back to the Trevelyans and say “Thanks for the advance. Now let’s talk about the balance…”.

      1. I used to drive past Harewood House, twice a week in the early 1970s, on my way to and from Pannal Ash near Harrogate.

      1. Yup – the Trevelyans are my mother’s family’s rabidly pinko cousins. We enjoy being a great source of embarrassment to them.

  60. That’s me for the day.
    All the large diameter logs sawn, split & stacked, 6 large builder’s buckets full and the current woodstack is about 3/4 full.
    A bit sad in one way, the elm is well seasoned without a lot of insect or fungus damage which means the thick ends, up to 14 or 25″ diameter, are VERY hard wood indeed. A pity I don’t know anyone who could make use of some of it.

    I’ve now a load of smaller diameter branches etc of 4″ or so downwards to saw & stack tomorrow with a small amount of splitting as I go.

    I’ve just lit my fire and am now off for a bath!

    1. You’re clearly not a “dirty old man” as in Albert Steptoe, BoB. From recent posts, you seem to be having a bath daily. I never have one at all. (Some years ago I had my upstairs bathroom converted to a shower room and toilet only!) Lol.

      1. I bloody need it after a day’s graft up the “garden”!
        My tee shirt yesterday, after logging one of the fallen elms was soaking wet with sweat.

      2. Nor do I Elsie. I much prefer a shower but my husband loves a bath and we don’t have one. He’s working on it.

    2. Elm is traditionally used for the hub of a cartwheel because it is so hard. The spokes and rim are usually of Ash for its flexural strength.

      I have a number of Windsor chairs made by Stewart Linford of High Wycombe (no longer in business) which make use of Wych Elm for the seats and Yew for the backs, spindles, legs and stretchers. My Refectory Table has a Burr Elm top and Yew framing.

      I was taught that Elm is ‘obnoxious to vermin’ and that Teak or Tectona Grandis is ‘the wood that Architects use’.

    3. Elm is traditionally used for the hub of a cartwheel because it is so hard. The spokes and rim are usually of Ash for its flexural strength.

      I have a number of Windsor chairs made by Stewart Linford of High Wycombe (no longer in business) which make use of Wych Elm for the seats and Yew for the backs, spindles, legs and stretchers. My Refectory Table has a Burr Elm top and Yew framing.

      I was taught that Elm is ‘obnoxious to vermin’ and that Teak or Tectona Grandis is ‘the wood that Architects use’.

    1. Macabre death joke: From the Kennedy book on Fauci, apparently nurses in the US christened the drug Remdesivir that was pushed on patients as a “covid cure” “Run death is near,” because so many patients died after taking it.
      It did cost 3K dollars a course though, profits to the usual suspects.
      You can’t fool the nurses.

  64. Well – WHAT a treat. Just back from a service at St Margaret’s King’s Lynn (now called, for some fatuous reason “King’s Lynn Minister”).

    It was Evensong to mark the 650th anniversary of the birth in KL on Margery Kempe – in the church where she worshipped. At the end a sculpture was unveiled. (Think something your grandchild would bring home from primary school…) The unveiliing was by Gereral Dannatt (whose daughter the MR taught.)

    The service was preceded by a 20 minute peel of the 10 bells. There was an organ – BCP Evening Prayer – the proper Bible. And a church full of people properly turned out in suits and ties and polished shoes and ladies in appropriate outfits. The great and good of West Norfolk at prayer….I felt really uplifted by the whole thing – though the Bishop Of Narridge could have spoken up when he praught!

    The only downside was having to walk through the filthy streets of King’s Lynn where every other person was fat, and gangs of feral children ran amok through the town – extremely intimidating.

    As I began – WHAT a treat.

    1. The church has interesting carpenter marks on the roof timbers. The joists are numbered sequentially not by chopping Roman numerals but by chopping shapes using a 2” chisel. The third joist has a triangle, the fourth a square, the fifth a septagon, sixth two triangles side by side, seventh a square and triangle side by side, eight two squares side by side and so on.

      I surveyed the church in 1995.

          1. So is the scaffolding and they’d rather employ 50 women to carry materials up to the top, than hire a hoist.

            This I saw in both Singapore and Malaysia.

      2. Hi, John. While I was in East Anglia, I was churchwarden/choirmaster/organist at St Peter, Brandon.

        It was part of the United Benefice of Brandon, Santon Downham and Elveden. I met a few Guinness’s at the latter. Was literally chased down the aisle after a service by Miranda Guinness, Countess of Iveagh.

        2. When I played darts for the Bridge Inn (no longer there) in Thetford a lot of our matches were in Brandon’s excellent pubs

          2. Change of use years ago. I went there in the late 80s and it was a house I think. It was on the way out of Thetford to Diss, on the right just before the ring road. When I left Thetford in 1980 it was a thriving pub

          3. Hi, Alec. Don’t remember a Bridge Inn in Thetford. There’s one in Brandon, though. Most of the pubs in Thetford were.. meh… I worked in Bury St Edmunds for a while, and enjoyed the Dog and Partridge (although Lovejoy was never there) and the Linden Tree on your average Friday lunchtime…

            Greene King IPA at the D&P was great. By the time it reached Thetford, it hadn’t travelled well. It wasn’t the same. Which is why I generally avoid GK pubs in these parts…

            The only Bridge Inn I’m aware of is in Topsham, Devon. And it has the distinction of being the only pub ever visited by her late Majesty Queen Elisabeth II…

          4. I lived for a short while in B.St.Eds in St Andrews St North before buying a house in Thetford. I was working in Bury on the Western Way Ind Est for 6 years after I came out of the RAF. I used to go in the Nutshell (smallest pub in England), the Bushel and the Woolpack in Fornham St Martin. I remember the Linden Tree too

          5. Blimey, Alec. Laing Eastern’s office was in Lower Baxter Street. More importantly, we had a compound with several Portakabins, at the end of Thingoe Hill, where several of us QS’s were working on final accounts. Except on Friday lunchtimes / afternoons, obviously…

          2. Actually, she asked about the organ in ‘her’ church.

            I said that the instrument was mostly in good order, but it was a nightmare to play. From the console, what one heard was roughly two seconds delayed from the keyboard. If one listened, one would grind to a halt…

        4. When working on the repairs to the tower of Norwich Cathedral I was often assigned to advise a team of two surveyors on architectural matters back in those days when the practice prepared quinquennial inspections on over two hundred Norfolk churches.

          I had been seconded from the small London office to assist the late Keith Darby an associate like me but who was the Surveyor to the Fabric. This post had been passed from Sir Bernard Feilden to his partner David Mawson and next to Keith Darby. Keith was a great man and a pleasure to work with, I discovered that he was dying, Hepatitis C, and I was left to do the survey work at height from external scaffolds and to help Keith formulate repair strategies.

          After Keith died I was shoved aside by Sir Bernard’s nephew Hugh Feilden a fellow I disliked but I noticed he sadly died unexpectedly a few years ago. Hugh and I were almost exact contemporaries but he had the family connections and that is life.

          I have to get back to writing my book on Architecture.

        5. When working on the repairs to the tower of Norwich Cathedral I was often assigned to advise a team of two surveyors on architectural matters back in those days when the practice prepared quinquennial inspections on over two hundred Norfolk churches.

          I had been seconded from the small London office to assist the late Keith Darby an associate like me but who was the Surveyor to the Fabric. This post had been passed from Sir Bernard Feilden to his partner David Mawson and next to Keith Darby. Keith was a great man and a pleasure to work with, I discovered that he was dying, Hepatitis C, and I was left to do the survey work at height from external scaffolds and to help Keith formulate repair strategies.

          After Keith died I was shoved aside by Sir Bernard’s nephew Hugh Feilden a fellow I disliked but I noticed he sadly died unexpectedly a few years ago. Hugh and I were almost exact contemporaries but he had the family connections and that is life.

          I have to get back to writing my book on Architecture.

        1. My friend the late Keith Darby wrote a small article in ASCHB, Association for Studies in Conservation of Historic Buildings on our findings. Keith Darby thought the markings to have been the work of a Middle Eastern carpenter and someone unacquainted with the Roman numerals we would otherwise expect to see on mediaeval carpentry.

          My own house which has as its origins a petite Hall House of circa 1430 has Roman numeral markings on most of the studs in the visible framing.

          I have recorded many possibly Masonic markings on several buildings both in external and stonework and internal features.

          This is an area of research that has yet to be undertaken as far as I am aware.

          I can point to the more obvious examples from my own personal experience. Over the entrance to the Norfolk Fire Assurance Offices in Surrey Street Norwich you will see the ‘clasped hands’. In addition, internally in the vestibule and Marble Hall there are Masonic signs set in blue ovals of Lapis Lazuli.

          The Clasped Hands Society was an early C18 buildings insurance society formed to insure London churches such as Christ Church Spitalfields, on which I worked, on the restoration of the interiors in 2000-2002. The Clasped Hands Society was eventually acquired by Norwich Union and morphed into what is now AVIVA.

          1. I only suggested it because the triangle is a mason’s mark restricted to Mark Masters; those who have not attained this status need to use other signs – squares, octagons and the like – to mark their work.

    3. My abiding memory of King’s Lynn was a trip there with a number of colleagues from a building site at RAF Marham. The lights changed to red. So I stopped. Unlike the stoopid woman behind. My company Orion was remodelled into a Fiesta…

      The only saving grace was that the CD player in the boot wasn’t squashed…

    1. If it turns out that the vaccines are as harmful as suspected I hope these toads are imprisoned for a very long time.

      1. You live in a dream world, mon vieux. Nothing – repeat nothing – will ever be done to bring anyone to justice. cf: Bliar, Bush, Cameron …and serious wars …

        1. Edit for missing word

          Quite, and sadly so.

          I would certainly be looking for revenge if a child of mine was forcibly vaccinated and died.
          Jo Cox would look like a lucky escape.

        2. Allelujah!! He hath arisen!!! Hope you’re feeling better or did you get out of bed because it’s time for your medicine?

          1. Not much better – but decided to put brave face on very serious illness (aka a Cold)…{:¬))

          2. We always knew you to be a real trouper when needed. Hope you sneezed over everybody in KL Minster

    4. 370721+ up ticks,

      Evening Rik,

      Reform = reshuffle, will suit many a hard core
      tory ([no) party ,member.

      It was tainted at birth as the brexit party by good old nige,

  67. I just watched a short talk by an American who is in Turkey, and was describing how people are handling the very high inflation there. He says that as soon as they get their salaries, they convert them to something that doesn’t lose value as fast as the Turkish lira, i.e. gold, euros or dollars. But mostly € or $ because people don’t have much money to spare for saving.
    He made the very good point that if the same levels of inflation hit Europe or the US, what would people be able to use as alternative currency, when the euro and the dollar aren’t available to them?
    Same goes for the UK, of course.
    He doesn’t really answer the question. I suspect that Britain isn’t yet ready to use a possible gold-backed Russian or Chinese currency! But it might yet come to that.

    1. Same thing here in Argentina. Dollars in high demand – they’re not allowed to change pesos for dollars. When I asked my tango teacher why every front door has to be locked and unlocked with a key – fire risk – he explained that the risk of burglary was so much higher, because everyone has stashes of dollars under their mattresses, that they don’t care about the fire risk.

      1. I told him that if I had anything to stash, I’d put it in the cleaning cupboard on the premise that most burglars are men and therefore wouldn’t be able to see said cupboard…

        I was quite proud of getting that out in Spanish! 🤣🤣

  68. That’s me for tonight. Dread to think what might happen in the Calcutta Cup… Did they kneel??

    Have a jolly evening – “Cosi fan tutti” on beeboid R3 at 6.30

    A demain- I hope.

      1. Mainly to ensure it is more difficult for the opponents to get the ball away again quickly. It’s a trade off between holding the man up and hopefully getting a scrum and stopping further forward progress.

    3. Note the ‘maybe’; they never have the guts to come out and be positive about anything.

      That’s the ‘woke snowflake’ culture. Always assume that your expectations are always right.

  72. Great win at Principality Stadium, today.

    Ireland beat Wales in two and a half minutes . . .

    4. Just a birdie for me.
      Wordle 595 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      🟨⬜⬜🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  79. A man who has not been identified has been arrested in Belper today in connection with explosives. I guess that vague statement rules out extreme right wing crazed white methodists.

          1. NO! I will not go quietly into that goodnight. To paraphrase Dylan Thomas.
            You are younger than I, little Bro’.

          2. Indeed, but statistically, having jettisoned my lower limbs, I should be long gone, Big Sis…

            But I can’t go, while there are organs to play each Sunday, a weekly newsletter to print, and a website to refresh every morning by 7 am….

          3. Put yourself in the Hero class.
            I think we all suffer in some way- my poor husband, although improving, is not doing all that well. Too much hurts which is not good.

          5. I’m no hero, Ann. I calculated that life sans pied gauche would be preferable to weekly trips to the Diabetic Foot Clinic. When – a week before that was supposed to happen – the ‘good foot’ came out in sympathy, it seemed logical to seek a BOGOF deal…

            Wishing YH a speedy recovery.

          6. Sorry to hear that, Lottie. Just keep smiling for your husband and give him plenty of hugs…

          8. The good news GG is that you stand to make a small fortune playing the organ and the forthcoming Nottl Funerals!!

          9. But does he know ” Look on the Bright Side of Life?” Bet he does. My little Bro’ is a musical maestro.

          10. First time I was asked for that, I used the unexpurgated version. Somehow, the words ‘Life’s a piece of shit’ seemed inappropriate as the mourners quietly filed out…

          11. I rather hoped that the “pandemic” would have had that effect. Truth is that no-one in the parish was wiped out by Covid. Plenty have had it, but all were boostered. Go figure…

          12. I had slightly hoped that the pandemic would have that money-raising effect. It wasn’t to be. In a parish encompassing four villages, I’m not aware of a single Covid death*.

            Having said that, I’ve observed that all the congregation who proudly publicise their latest booster, invariably go down ‘with Covid’ shortly thereafter. It’s the same living in a group of retirement bungalows.

            But they all pretend not to notice…

            *The only Covid death I know of personally was friend Dianne’s ex-husband. And I think he was killed by ventilation, rather than Covid.

      2. Meet you at the door of the Pearly Gates( assuming they let me in) with a bottle or several of Pinot and you bring your fave;-) Then we can party.

      3. Yup.
        Even the Son of God couldn’t dodge that one.
        My Vicar friend doesn’t like me saying that. He gets all pompous about sin and so on – but my point is, the one person you might expect God to show favouritism to, God didn’t.

    3. I’ve got that LP and many other oldies in a drawer in our garage.
      I gave my Beatles albums away before I went to SA late 60s probably worth a fortune now.

    5. I visited a fictional 1973 in the cop show ‘Life on Mars’ but this brings me to the real 1973, sitting in the Students Union Common Room at Brooklands Technical College at a 17-year-old observing people invisible and learning how society ticks.

      I wonder if by having these memories brought to life, they will now be erased forever from my consciousness as I drift into senility and period history is lost.

  82. Earlier I watched a brilliant programme by Lucy Worsley about the black death. And how it spread around the whole of the UK. And wiped out two thirds of the population. The intricate details regarding the then pandemic, were so reminiscent to what has been going on today.
    Please try watch this.
    Oh dear I’ve just sneezed 7 times and I’m not even Joe King.

    1. Was that the 14th century version? That was one hell of a century for those poor sods then.

      1. She had reams of paper work laid out on a table all regarding land ownership and how the plague change so many different ways of life.

    2. “In the year 1318 and 1319 there was a great mortality of humans and pestilence of animals through the kingdom of England, to such a degree that the remaining humans did not have the where with all to cultivate or sow their lands and daily as many as possible were buried in any cemetery whatsoever; and this pestilence lasted for two years and consequently both from this and from the Scottish enemy a great ruin seized the English people everywhere.”

      This coincided with the Wolf Solar Minimum.

      1. And the punishment for dying was severe. Those in charge stole their animals. And still it goes on. Die and the disgusting effing government steals your money.

    4. Curious that the standard work on the Black Death was first published in 1969, and its author Philip Ziegler is still with us, aged 93.

    5. Lucy Worsley is better for remaining in her own clothes and not dressing up as some facsimile of an historic person. The plague was of course ended by the achievement of natural immunity in the surviving population. She is from that stable of Curators from Historic Royal Palaces who cut their teeth on the same old, same old tales of Henry VIII and his wives.

      I worked with Simon Thurley on projects at Hampton Court throughout the nineties so I know of what I speak. As an aside, I was the actual Architect of the scheme for resurfacing Base Court, not the goons I saw on TV in hard hats who took an award and credit for my research and work. The project had been delayed or postponed, after I had taken the project to tender documents, because funds were diverted to the concurrent Crown Jewels representation at the Tower of London costs for which had overrun.

      The programme proved yet another lesson for the pro- vaccine Covidians but most are too thick to make the connection.

  83. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk. I’m tired and hope that I sleep for a reasonable time. Goodnight,

    2. Good night, Tom. I share your wishes for a good night’s sleep myself.

      And good night to all on here. Sleep well.

  84. I’m just snuggling in my self.
    I had to walk 50 yards up a steep hill today.
    30 years ago we lived at the top of it. Now we live at the bottom. It’s half a mile to the top of a steep slope. 45 degrees.
    Those were the days eh.
    Night all.
    Oh, a word of warning, this morning the weather presenter told about North America and the temperatures including the the wind chill factor. Minus 72 centigrade.
    Holy shonet. Brass monkey weather. 🐒
    Glow Ball warming eh.

      1. Maple syrup harvest should be good this year though. I’ve been putting off my next order until the sap starts flowing,

    1. President Trump has stated that he would stop the Ukraine conflict in a day.

      Despite the posturing of the clown puppet Zelensky the Russians have already achievd their objectives (as explained by President Putin from the outset) and have encircled the few areas where Ukrainian troops are hiding.

      The Russians wished to clear their former territories, those populated by Russian speakers, oppressed for years by the Ukrainian Nazi Azov soldiers, to expose the US funded Bio-Weapons laboratories and reimpose state boundaries.

      There are already indications that the US has accepted that the retaking of Crimea by Ukraine would take years and that current levels of funding for the war will be unsupportable given changes in Washington with a majority Republican Congress.

      Unfortunately the current US government is a sham, the end result of having installed a President who is suffering from dementia and unable to string a sentence together. It indicates that Obama and Clinton are running the show and they hate America.

      From a UK perspective I am ashamed that Bunter and now Sunak have gone along with this shit. Trump offered Bunter an accelerated British Trade Deal whereas we are still waiting under the decrepit Biden administration. Our useless politicians have yet again backed the wrong horse and frittered away our wealth and advantage.

  86. Am heading to bed. So tired. Remembered to buy the detergent finally!
    Please take care Y’all and sleep well.

  87. Off to bed soon myself. My pain has gone but I just don’t feel 100%. Looking forward to a good nights sleep.

    Goodnight all.

  88. Evening, all.Energy bills would be considerably lower if the government didn’t tinker with the tariffs to subsidise the useless and unreliable renewables.

    1. I’m a bit worried about also subsidising those who will not/can not pay their bills. Those who get extra help, over and above what the rest of us get (which will stop in April). I have no problem with pre payment meters.

    2. I wonder though. Renewables are intermittent, but maybe the :every little helps’ is a way of supplementing something that has been in short supply since we turned the taps off Russia? If it weren;t in short supply, then how come prices have gone through the roof?

      1. The grid can’t cope with intermittent supply, so “every little helps” doesn’t actually apply. They have to have back up (usually in the form of very un-green diesel generators). Might as well go for a reliable steady supply in the first place.

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