WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Wendyf]

and next Tuesday I go to arrange my funeral! I think this is hilarious and Susan and I will really enjoy a trip out to Skipton on the top deck of the Witch Way bus to do it..... Could it be that I have a warped sense of humour?

Explanation please!!

[chinatyke]

Don't give up just yet, Stanley. I've had my obituary published twice and I'm still around and laughing!

[Stanley]

I'm not giving up, it's all part of the preparations I have been making for the daughters to make it easier for them when I shuffle off, it will happen some day! We have the Lasting Powers of Attorney set up and registered so this is the next logical step. Part of the probate of daughter Janet's will has come through and that means I have access to a Trust set up for me so I'm buying a funeral and arranging it so all they have to do is make a phone call and send the invites out. We are going to make a day out of it! I think it's a hoot.....
PS Wendy, that legal doc and the provenance are cluttering up my kitchen......

[Wendyf]

I'll pop round this morning before 10 if that's OK with you. I need to visit the recycling centre as well.

[PanBiker]

The site outage around lunchtime. I think it was down for about 45 minutes. No FTP access either when I first noticed it. 1&1 hosting site did not have any warnings when I logged on to check our domains.

[Stanley]

I thought there was something, I caught the back end of it when I posted Bob's Bit for the day. I just did the usual IA, brewed up and let it sort itself out!
Wendy called round and picked up her loot. Nice to see her and she brought me veggies! She looks well.....
Later.... As Admiral Jellicoe said at the battle of Jutland, "Something seems to be wrong with our ships". That could be said about our navy as well at the moment but see THIS report of a collision this morning off Singapore. The destroyer John S McCain is reported as being damaged and ten of her crew are unaccounted for.
The total eclipse of the sun which will be visible in large swathes of the US. See THIS for the partial eclipse visible in the UK.

[Tripps]

I read last week that the next terrorist tactic would be the derailment of trains. I now read in the press today -
Travellers were left stranded after a train came off the tracks as it left Paddington, heading for Penzance, yesterday morning. Platform two was closed as a result of the incident, with delays expected to continue throughout today.

This was the second time in under a week that a train derailed in a major central London station, with a carriage coming off the tracks at Waterloo last Tuesday. A train came off the tracks as it left Paddington, heading for Penzance, yesterday morning.


Last week a large goods train derailed between Ely and Peterborough, and the line was closed for most of the week for recovery. I do hope these incidents were all accidental.

[Stanley]

No point speculating about it David. For over a thousand years years we have antagonised so many people that reprisals are almost certain and we are vulnerable in so many ways. The only possible defence is levels of security that would make life a misery. My advice is keep calm and carry on!
My trip to the undertaker's this morning to arrange my funeral! There will be no conventional funeral, just a waste disposal job, the equivalent of high class bin-men. But I have plans for a fun day out for anyone who enjoys a good wake! In essence, this is what Janet did.....

[plaques]

Most chapel services let you pick your own music and in my brothers case the soundtrack from 'The Three Yorkshiremen'. If they ever let you do a video clip you could possibly have a mill engine that finished up disintegrating on overspeed together with a boiler explosion. Now that would be different.

[Marilyn]

there is no option for "soundtrack" in a Direct Funeral, Plaques!
They may have the radio on as you go from A to B...

We feel Direct Funeral will suit us too. Kids might be a bit shocked...tough! It's our choice!

[PanBiker]

Found this link over in Facebook land this morning:

Future of East Lancashire's largest steam engine hangs in the balance over highways drainage charges

[Stanley]

I've known about the problem for a while now but the Trust asked me to keep a low profile as they handle it. It's a ridiculous and unnecessary situation and I shall do what I can.....
A direct funeral is one third of the cost of a conventional one. Successful trip to Skipton yesterday and most important the Kids are delighted!

[Stanley]

I mailed the secretary of the Bancroft Trust yesterday and we are meeting tomorrow. Mainly to arrange the commemorative steaming when I die but also to get the latest position on the water problem.
See THIS for a Guardian report on the 150th anniversary of the BBC shipping forecast. Apart from being a wonderful example of the benefits of public service broadcasting it is incredibly popular even amongst landlubbers. I never miss it at just after 05:20 in the morning....
Rumour has it that HM submarines are told that if ever it is missing from the air waves it is a sure sign that something catastrophic has happened and they are on war alert!

[plaques]

Mainly to arrange the commemorative steaming when I die

Stanley, are you sure a coffin will fit through the boiler box opening.

P9140169.JPG

[plaques]

I mailed the secretary of the Bancroft Trust yesterday and we are meeting tomorrow.

Would some of the other 'grant' givers be interested in helping out?

P9140136AC.jpg

[PanBiker]

It should be the utility companies that could make exceptions for charities and heritage trusts and the like. It's a drop in the ocean so to speak but probably not on their radar as they are all profit rather than service driven organisations.

[Stanley]

P, by the time I arrive at Bancroft I shall be in a cardboard tube about 2 litres capacity. As for funding, I shall be exploring possible avenues with the secretary when I meet him today.
Ian, quite right. I shall make sure they realise that screwing £1,100 per annum out of the trust is going to be bad publicity while letting them off will be cheap PR.
I see there is a proposal to test convoys of wireless controlled wagons with one driver controlling the lot. I have a suggestion, instead of making this leap into the dark, why not license three trailer road trains, a tried and tested strategy with only one engine. Motorway services could be used for groupage, single trailers going there as normal but leaving with one tractor unit hauling them all. Takes up less space on the motorways and has all the advantages of the convoy with the added benefit that no wireless technology is needed and the driver has complete mechanical control.

[Stanley]

Maz sent me this pic.....



As far as I know Maz we haven't got them.....

[Marilyn]

It is alive! It is a stick insect, and it has sat like that for a few hours now. Amazing things really...

[Wendyf]

P, by the time I arrive at Bancroft I shall be in a cardboard tube about 2 litres capacity. As for funding, I shall be exploring possible avenues with the secretary when I meet him today.

Brilliant Stanley, I do hope I'm around to enjoy it!!

[Marilyn]

Funding for what exactly???

[plaques]

I shall be in a cardboard tube about 2 litres capacity.

Well I suppose that's one way of getting up everyone's nose.

[Wendyf]

I think the possibility of funding will be related to this Maz:
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/ne ... rice_hike/
It's Stanley's "send off" plans that sound wonderful though.

[Marilyn]

What will happen with the tube of your remains, Stanley?

We have a country path that we both like...(and have discussed)

[PanBiker]

You never really discuss up front, (and why would you) what you would do if you lost a child, and so it was with our Dan. It had to be the family that he left behind that made the decisions. Currently our lad's remains are interred in Stratford and down a Gill in Barlick, he is with both of his sets of grandparents again at Gill and Carleton churchyards and has been given the summits of Weet's and Penyghent. I reckon our Dan would be quite taken on with being in six places at once.