WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Big Kev]

Two parlours in Barlick now Stanley, there must be mileage somewhere. Perceived fashion and what constitutes "the body beautiful" is a strange thing isn't it?

Not my "cup of tea". I am, however, impressed by how well Lee Pickles parlour, on Rainhall Rod, blends in with the other shops. Very subtle job.

[Bodger]

Stanley, females and tatoos, there a bit like icebergs most of them are underneath, and in the most strangest positions,!!. I recall going to the cicus to see "The Tatooed Lady", how times change

[Tardis]

I must have missed the sign in the library that said the alarms were being tested.

Not very pleasant

[Tardis]

Just wondering if the man in the co-op car park with the sprayer was working for Pendle, and prompted by my contact.

I did grub out the ragwort that I saw

[Stanley]

Mark, our street sweeper regularly picks the litter in the car park and on the steps to Cooperative Street. He also swept the gutter that the mechanical sweeper couldn't get at last week and shovelled the rubbish up. He does a good job considering he's just one man against the litter droppers.
I think it was the size of the tattoo on the leg that put me off. A small butterfly can be quite tasteful in the right place. Saw a young lady yesterday who has evidently spent a fortune on tanning, she was dark coffee coloured. I did wonder how she'd react if she was racially abused...... I'm a fan of what they call 'a farmer's tan' in Minnesota. Face, hands and forearms!

[EileenDavid]

Stanley's legs in his shorts need some tanning before subjecting them to Barlick I think. Dave's with you on tanning except he likes his shorts would wear them all the time if he could. Eileen

[Tizer]

There's an interesting comparison on the BBC web site between what's happening now with the probable break up of the eurozone and what happened about 1600 years ago with the break up of Roman rule in Western Europe.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18159752

[Thomo]

Its Barlick at its best. The sun is shining and I am having a bit of "me time" in the garden with a glass o wine and a rollup, and this came along:-



and this:-

and then this, the driver had stopped to put the hood up as the wind was playing havoc with the lovely brides hair do!

[Tardis]

Operation Dynamo anniversary

[Stanley]

The man who drowned saving two children being dragged out to sea in an inflatable rubber ring. A sad story....
Talked to Margaret in Perth, we are hotter than they are. Noted that it was only 21C in Monaco for the Grand Prix.

[Stanley]

I watched a recording I had made of a BBC4 programme about the Antikythera mechanism. (LINK) I knew about it but the programme about the research project was wonderful. What made it more immediate for me was the fact that one of the researchers who made a replica of the mechanism was a man called Michael Wright. I worked with him when he was Keeper of Mechanical Engineering at the Science Museum and was in charge of the steaming of the Siberia engine in the East Hall. I knew he was a good man but didn't know just how good he was, his work on the mechanism was brilliant. Nice to have been associated with him.

[Tizer]

More on the Antikythera mechanism here and the suggestion that the astronomical theories were Babylonian rather than Greek.
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101124/ ... 8496a.html

[Stanley]

The death of the 93 year old lady who was savagely beaten as she lay in bed. There are some very strange people out there.... Police are puzzled by the fact that nothing was taken.

[Tardis]

Lancashire Police (meeting yesterday) are alarmed at the number of people currently being prosecuted for shoplifting food

Otherwise crime down 3%

[Tardis]

At a meeting yesterday where many examples were given of private buyers having mortgages of over £56,000 on properties that were now worth less than £28,000 in Pendle

Gordon Brown's legacy, and the BoE folly brought home brutally to people who tried "to do the right thing"

[Bruff]

Back from a week in Northern Ireland. An excellent break, a lovely place and we shall return. Lots of Guinness and marvellous seafood and shellfish - oysters 30p a pop to shuck yourself from the oysterman round the back

We had a day in Belfast and we took a 'political tour' by taxi. I would recommend any visitor to Belfast should take a tour to learn about and more to the point understand, the reality of the Troubles from someone who lived through those times. Our driver took us on the Falls and Shankill tour, but there are many others he can arrange covering different aspects and we fully intend when we return to increase our understanding though one of these. The drivers have sympathies on either side and may have been ex-Paramilitaries, or prisoners. We were taken round the murals on the Shankill Estate, on foot. The locals were building the bonfires for the 12th. The tour cumulated with an illustrated discussion of the chronology of the Troubles under the mural depicting Bobby Sands just off the Falls Road. Using contemporary cuttings from the media, we were taken through from the civil rights marches and demands to the current day. The photograph of the Falls road and Divis flats during the dark days of the 70s, with gunfire, street debris and tear gas contrasted with the scene today (the flats stand just as they were), was as devastating as it was sobering.

Richard Broughton

[Bodger]

Bruff,interesting, what took you to N I, relations or curiousity ?, i & my family moved to S I in 1968, the start of the "recent troubles", we are a Protestant family and the only time we had a problem was in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday, we have lived here for over 40 years enjoying the country , culture, and it's people, with friends from both sides of the border.
The one thing that first struck me on our arrival was that i had total lack of Irish/British history,and that it had been totally ignored in my schooldays, i was given plenty of the Empire, the war victories, and industrial expansion, but not a word of the Irish problems in the past.
I now have knowledge of both sides of the coin, and whilst there is an Irish thought that the "Brits" were brutal to them, back in England we still had 6/7 year old children in coal mines, mills etc. in Ireland, an agricultural society, eviction etc appeared harsh, but times in England were harder, if not worse, but we had endured it and accepted it, where in Ireland they rebelled against it, hence giving them the rebellious Irish tag

[Stanley]

The list of mistakes that the English made in Ireland going back 500 years is breathtaking, the shorthand description 'repressive and exploitative colonialism' is probably the most accurate. Add in religion used as social control and you have a Devil's Brew. I watched the second programme on Afghanistan last night and in essence that is the same story since Alexander with the same results. We can't condone brutality on either side but like Richard, we can at least try to understand. Just one episode would give sufficient reason for rebellion, the use of the Black and Tans. Don't read the history unless you have a strong stomach.
The parents of the six children killed in the house fire have been re-arrested and charged with murder. If the police have got it right it doesn't bear thinking about.

[Tizer]

Why Spain's regions owe so much money...
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18277681

[Tardis]

1 year ago, average delivery driver salary in China $100 (US) per month

this year, same position, $400 (US)

[Stanley]

How tired I was after yesterday's funeral. Slept for almost nine hours, very unusual for me. Reality must be faced, I am not as young as I used to be. Now there's a surprise!
The parents of the six children burned to death in the house fire have been remanded in custody. The police must think they have a strong case. Doesn't bear thinking about.
I've always had a healthy respect for the damage fire can do and I remember helping Thomo to refurbish the interior of a canal boat that had been on fire. It wasn't actual charring and destruction but the effects of smoke and heat build-up that had destroyed the interior. Imagine being in there and exposed to those conditions with no way of escape. Put an efficient fire extinguisher in the kitchen today! Could be the best investment you ever make. Remember my frying pan fire?

[Thomo]

That must have been the boat only partly damaged, we had another one burnt out by vandals near Gargrave, it was towed back to Barlick and Paul Harold and I stripped it out for refit, both of us now have chest trouble. I also had the terrible job of removing the body of a young Sailor from his gutted cabin at HMS Sultan, we had bio suits for that and breathing apparatus, the toxic aftermath of such an event is highly dangerous.

[Thomo]

I am not in the habit of looking at the public diatribe attached to news items on the net, but after reading about HMS Diamonds salute to the Queen at Portsmouth I took a look and posted a response:-

Time some of you forgot your grievances for a day or two, enjoy whatever it is that you like to do and let the rest of us celebrate a part of this countries history without your petty and tiresome insults.
Thomo. Ex Royal Navy.

When you take a look at some of the comments made it is easier to understand some of the problems that this country faces!!!!!!

[Big Kev]

The town square is shaping up nicely for the FREE live music sessions over the coming weekend. I'll catch a bit of it but, unfortunately for me, I have to work for a lot of it. Someone has to keep the lights on...

[Thomo]

Then good luck to you Kev, I am sure that yourself and lots of others will enjoy it. One of Barlicks redeeming features is that its inhabitants are able to enjoy what is available without the aggravating the community or the nation.