WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Big Kev]

The speed in which my insurance company have dealt with the claim I made this morning.

That's good service. I'm sure some will be interested in hearing which Insurance company and agent?

Aviva (was Norwich Union). Took me 10 minutes to submit the claim online, got a response within the hour. The approved repairers are coming to me on Thursday morning to assess the damage and the repair is provisionally booked for the 27th. The courtesy car will be delivered to my house the same time my car is picked up for repair.

Whole process took 2 hours and 3 phone calls, all made to me.

[PanBiker]

That's good Kev, better than my experience with them when they were Norwich Union. They refused my claim when I was run into by another driver whilst stationary, they accepted the other drivers claim that I drove into her despite all the damage being to the side of my vehicle and the front of hers. They would not accept my witness who was my son who was in the car with me at the time, they insisted I needed an independent witness (it was 7.30am) but accepted her version of events without a witness. I dumped them at the earliest opportunity.

[Big Kev]

I have a dashcam, front and rear

[PanBiker]

Unfortunately this was before that particular technology became available. Having said that I still don't have one now. Makes no odds as I seem to be doomed anyway. All the dinks and dents in my current vehicle (which was pristine when I got it) were provided by a single drunken individual with no licence, or insurance driving a vehicle that he had borrowed without consent. He had no fixed abode and no assets so redress for compensation was non existent.

Reporting this at the time but making no claim on my own insurance has come back to bite me with my current insurer who is charging me extra for non disclosure of a claim which is how my reporting call has been registered on the Insurance Claims Database. I have more or less given up and accepted that I will be shafted no matter what I do in relation to vehicle insurance.

[Marilyn]

I hope car insurance never gets that bad here.
Bought a brand new car recently ( and thought "Aye Up" bet the insurance will go up, as my last car was 7 years old).
Got a very pleasant surprise indeed. It went down ( due to the safety rating of the new car)...plus I get a brand new vehicle, if it gets written off, for the life of the car.
Beat that for £120 a year with a £200 excess on any claim.
( mind you, I've been with them for 40 years...and many vehicles...and have only ever made one claim...but it was a biggie!)

Got two free movie tickets too as we were leaving the office...

[Stanley]

I am reminded what a good move it was to give up driving.... Like having a second pension!
I finished my broach, made one square hole, polished the exterior up and put in the box where tools sit for years until they are called on. Interesting exercise but sheer masochism!
Another pic of Margaret from Laura. Lovely when the grandchildren keep me in the loop.

[Tizer]

What grabbed my attention yesterday was the starting up of a very loud noise as were walking past the local primary school. We couldn't see into the school grounds at that point and wondered why such a loud machine would be there. It sounded like a very big motor bike or sports car. When we worked our way around and could get a glimpse into the playing field we saw what was making the din....a Spitfire aeroplane! There it was, on a field no bigger than a football pitch, with lots of kids watching and the 4-bladed prop spinning. We couldn't get a full view of the plane due to the buildings and other obstructions but it was in the usual WW2 green & brown camouflage, with RAF roundels and a white prop spinner. It had the letters JE- and the last letter was most probably also J although I couldn't get a full view of it.

Returning home I searched the Web and found (1) the Spitfire Mk.IX,JE-J was Wing Commander Johnny Johnson's aircraft, (2) there are several replicas of that aircraft, and (3) the biggest surprise - one of the replicas lives here in Taunton and can be hired out, so it was almost certainly the one that we saw! The prop is driven by hydraulics and I assume the plane must fold up to be transported on a trailer. It attends air shows and re-enactments. Details are here: LINK

[Stanley]

Well done the school I say! Those kids will never forget the day they saw living history. This was the same argument I always advanced for educational visits to working steam engines. I loved seeing their faces when you set hundreds of tons of iron going, especially at Ellenroad. One of the most rewarding parts of the job.
What grabbed me first thing this morning was a recurrence of a small event I sometimes experience, loss of acute vision in my good eye that is just like distortion of the retina.... I know what that looks like of course. As usual it lasted only about 15 minutes and then cleared. A useful reminder that we live on a knife edge!
News that my old friend the saturation diver Alan is now in a care home with vascular dementia brought on by an AVM. Look it up on google. Life can be a bitch at times, and then you die! He's younger that I am....
More news that Muthomi is bringing his mother to see me today, she's visiting UK. I think she is checking out her future in-laws so I shall have to be on my best behaviour!

[Big Kev]

The speed in which my insurance company have dealt with the claim I made this morning. A vehicle pulled out of a side road, at 08:00 this morning, hitting the offside rear of my car. I have just had confirmation that it's booked in for repair next Monday (I chose the date) and a courtesy car will be available for the duration of the repair.

I have confirmation of third party liability and the repairer is coming to my house tomorrow morning to assess the amount of work required. The courtesy car has been described as 'prestige', not sure what that means, my car is an Audi A4

[Tizer]

Here's a 40 second BBC video clip of that Spitfire at the local school yesterday. The squeals of the kids when the engine started up are wonderful. Mind you, we were further away than they were and it gave us a shock! Spitfire

[Tripps]

Let's try this. . I haven't done this much, and it shows. Good fun though.

Sorry - didn't work. Tried to upload my Spitfire video, but it failed, and now 'it' won't let me delete the post.


Help. . . . .

[PanBiker]

How did you try to add it Tripps?

Where is the post that you cant delete?

The last Icon in the editor is for embedding footage from video sites such as Youtube.

You may not be able to add a stand alone video file depending on the extension type.

[Tripps]

I tried to attach it as a video file (it worked for a music file). It didn't work so I tried to delete the whole post but was denied. I've since uploaded it to youtube, that took over an hour, but for some reason it has rotated there through 90 degrees. I don't think it was meant to be. I'll give up like gentleman.

The link is Spitfire. Best take an Ibuprofen before watching.

[Big Kev]

A bit close to home...

Mam arrested under the Terrorism Act
Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Following the execution of two warrants by Lancashire Police and Counter Terrorism Policing officers, a man has been arrested in Nelson, Lancashire.

At around 11:15 this morning, Wednesday 22 November 2017, a 31-year-old man was arrested under section 40 (1) (b) of the Terrorism act 2000 – concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

The man is now in custody and will be interviewed by detectives later.

Two properties are currently being searched on Leonard Street in Nelson.

Assistant Chief Constable Tim Jacques said: “I recognise that events like this can cause people to worry and impact on wider public confidence. I want to reassure people that our information and intelligence lead us to believe that there is no immediate threat to local people.

“We will continue to engage with our local communities and keep you updated and as informed as we are able to given the sensitive nature of this investigation.

“People may see extra police activity in the area over the next few days and I would ask them to co-operate with us as we carry out the work that we need to do. We appreciate your patience and understanding. If anyone does have any concerns they should approach an officer or call 101.

“In relation to the threat posed by terrorism it is critical that the public work with us and remain vigilant. If you see anything that causes concern, then let us know immediately. Look out for anything that seems out of place, unusual or doesn’t seem to fit in with day-to-day life. It may be nothing, but if you see or hear anything that could be terrorist-related then trust your instinct and call us in confidence on 0800 789 321, or in an emergency 999.”

[Stanley]

I think I got away with it. Damaris is a lovely woman and we got on like a house on fire.....

Later, I have been doing a bit of digging and have discovered something that has surprised me.
You all recognise the phrase 'Lest we forget' from a poem by Kipling and always associated with remembering the fallen in war. Have a look at THIS. It turns out that the original context in his poem 'Recessional' was entirely different. In the poem, Kipling argues that boasting and jingoism, faults of which he was often accused, were inappropriate and vain in light of the permanence of God. The phrase refers to this and not the fallen.

[Tizer]

Tripps, an interesting video, even if it was sideways!

[PanBiker]

You can embed Youtube videos by inserting the video reference from the share tab in Youtube using the right most icon in the post editor as below:

[BBvideo=560,315]https://youtu.be/Tsy7SQBhn2g[/BBvideo]

[Tripps]

Not really important, since I'm not likely to repeat the exercise, but I can't find the 'share tab' in Youtube. I'm afraid that, for me, things need to be quite intuitive.

[PanBiker]

For the record, its directly under the video viewing window marked "share". This opens a drop down with the link highlighted and numerous Icons for popular social media and other sites than you can click to directly share the video to. You can also embed the video or send it via email.



You can also invoke the share options from within the videos inserted in posts. If you click on it in the video above it will offer you the options.

[Stanley]

My pint of high grown organic Arabica coffee from Machu Pichu always tastes wonderful but this morning it's even better after the BMJ article on the anti-oxidant and other properties it has!
The satisfaction of knocking off 2 of the 6 articles I need to take me through to 12 January 2018. No day is wasted when a thousand words has been written!

[Bodger]

Watch these guys work, track laying at a pace

[PanBiker]

In another thread, May I recommend, Tripps alludes to the fact that some threads are a lot more popular than others.

It has been mentioned before and I have been thinking about it as I amuse myself from time to time repopulating the image links in some of the ones that rely on the images to support the narrative that I might be flogging a dead horse with that particular effort. Ginnels, Alleys and Snickets that I did last night was very popular at one time and generated a lot of comment, It may well have run it's course, (last post in there was over 3 years ago).

From my observations each day it would seem that out of over 1,900 topics on the site we only contribute on a regular basis to about 25 of them. Granted there are a lot of reference topics and posts on the site but I think we could do a lot better than just visiting the same 25 or thereabouts each day.

I suppose it comes down to the choices of the regular contributing members who amount to about half of the number of topics refreshed each day.
On many days the bots on the site will exceed the number of registered users. I know we cant make people post but a dozen or so regulars from a membership of over 750 is depressing, (I should really prune all those who have never posted since registration), certainly up to a couple of years ago, on the up side this would have the added advantage of putting up the percentage of active users

Sorry to be so downbeat, I'm not depressed, but would welcome any comment.

[Wendyf]

I think some people pop in every now and then to have a look. Why prune anybody?

What attracted my attention today is the nice pile of sweet smelling hay bales now stacked in the barn. It is in very short supply this year. My ponies won't starve just yet....bring on the snow!!

[Pluggy]

I wouldn't worry about it. It is what it is. Every forum will be in the same boat I would imagine. Think distribution of wealth in Britain......

[Tizer]

I suppose it's a bit like survival of the fittest as far as the threads/topics are concerned. I sometimes post what I think might have general interest into a thread that seems most appropriate but then hardly anybody responds to it, so I'm likely instead to post such things into, say, the Attention thread. There it might stir up more interest but it means the narrower thread dies out. I wouldn't worry about it though, OG is still a mine of information and advice!