WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[PanBiker]

Yes, Gus put one of Daniels links from Vimeo up on the Barlick Now and Then FB site. I mentioned it on here in another thread. Tripps asked for more info which I supplied and you also commented at the time Stanley. It was only 7 -10 days ago I reckon. All of Daniels story montages are on Vimeo. Search on name of contributor, there is more than one Daniel Meadows on there though.

[Stanley]

Yes but the lady said it was a young me and Newton together so that isn't one of Daniel's.

[Big Kev]

Yes but the lady said it was a young me and Newton together so that isn't one of Daniel's.

You aware of any film of you and Newton?

[chinatyke]

Stanley on here at the same time as me, 10 am here and I'm just getting up, 3 (?) am there.

[Stanley]

Yes, BBC North did one at the closure of the mill and cut a lot of Newton out because they said his dialect was too broad to be understood!
It works for Oz as well China.

[Stanley]

About 15 years ago, my son in law Mick Porter gave me a pair of Hogg dealer boots that he had bought but couldn't get on with. They fitted me perfectly and have served me well, I have done a lot of miles in them. However, over the last few weeks I became aware that the right hand boot was leaking when I walked in wet grass. I managed that and carried on but in the last couple of days I have been aware that they were suddenly getting much worse so I had a close look. If you look at the right foot you'll see that there is a gap between the upper at the toecap and the rest of the sole. The uppers have parted company with the sole and because of the way they are made this is terminal. I have decided that there isn't much point wearing defective boots just to wear the sole out when I have plenty of good boots and shoes so today they are going to bite the dust.
Boots get to be old friends and it's not easy to bin them but I have reached that point. I have sent a message to Mick and let him know they have died!

[Tizer]

Amazing photos of the effects of the typhoon in Japan...especially the great pile of cars caused by the winds.
`Typhoon Jebi leaves trail of destruction across Japan' LINK

[Stanley]

And after the hottest weather on record. Climate change? What climate change.......
And news coming in of an earthquake in the North......

[Stanley]

I did the deed, the Hogg Dealers have gone to the boot cemetery in the sky and these Regent Brogues are a complete answer to the problem, they are waterproof! I shall probably alternate them with a pair of Tricker boots..... That investment 40 years ago is paying off.

[Stanley]

I gave the Trickers a test flight and they won. It gives me quite an absurd sense of pleasure knowing that I have a pair of boots on that bought today would cost £425. I paid £14 in 1978........ My feet will be dry.......

[Stanley]

The tyranny of writing a weekly article! Nice to have a platform to inform but every now and then they take over my life! Today is such a day.......

[Tizer]

I'm reading an old (1960s?) booklet on the history of the gun trade in Birmingham and finding it fascinating, the descriptions of the different ways of making the barrels, the types of locks and the way in which gun development influenced history. For instance the invention of the gun lock for cannon. It allowed the gun to be fired by lanyard instead of the old stick and linen. With the lanyard the man firing the cannon could stand a safe distance behind the gun and thus aim it while the ship rolled. Our ships had this method at the Battle of Trafalgar whereas the French ships didn't.

[Tripps]

I have a pair of boots on that bought today would cost £425.

Indeed - I just looked at their website - sadly they don't do any with velcro fasteners for the 'hard of bending'. and I doubt I'd get the full benefit from such a long lasting shoe.

I've got a pair of almost pristine Loakes brogues, impossible for me to wear, but too good to throw away.

[Tripps]

Have you seen what's happened to Toblerone? I've been a regular buyer of the small size (not for myself you understand), and they weighed 150g and cost £1. I thought they represented very good value for the size and quality.

They then announced that they were no longer making this size, and they became unavailable for a while. Today they have come back in stock at Tesco - but now they weigh 100g, and cost £1.40. At that rate 150g would cost £2.10. That's an increase of 110%. Wonga would be proud.

Can't even blame Brexit since they are made in Switzerland.

Someone start a petition please.

[Stanley]

Tiz, Doc gave me a book by Greener, he of the shotgun fame. It's called 'The Gun and its development' and is full of stuff like that which I find fascinating. A good 850 page read!
David, commiserations, that's a pity because Loakes are good shoes. I have a pair of black funeral shoes made by them..... Wearing the Trickers is a delight and the leather in the uppers has now relaxed, they're as comfortable as a pair of slippers.
Another of those texts telling me that there is an 'urgent message' for me at the surgery. I'm seeing the diabetes nurse tomorrow and will ask her to have a word with Hassan. I suspect it's about the trace of blood in my urine. These tests are good but they can be a tyranny!

[Tizer]

That's an increase of 110%. Wonga would be proud.

The Toblerone shareholders will be proud too. You ought to repeat the story on Facebook or Twitter. You'd get lots of likes and everyone would start calling the Toblerones `Wonga bars'.

Stanley, tell them you've been eating beetroot!

Here's a different sort of news story
`Bude supermarket tunnel tops TripAdvisor ratings' LINK
Mrs Tiz and I know that tunnel well. I'm surprised so many people like it - I don't like it because it's the only way in to the supermarket from the car park at the rear. It runs all the way along the side of the building to the doors at the front, which face on to the road. Why didn't they put the doors at the back or the car park at the front? The supermarket is on the edge of town and most folk will be using their car to visit it. Now, if they had been rating the supermarket itself I'd have given it 5 stars - it stand on the cliff above Bude beach, has a great open aspect over green fields and the sea and you can leave your shopping in the car and walk down to the beach.

[Tripps]

You ought to repeat the story on Facebook or Twitter.

I don't do either, but I predict we will hear lot more in the national press shortly, when they catch up with One Guy from Barlick.

A few moments research shows this is all planned Toblerone

I shall now boycott the product - they will soon see the error of their ways.

[Tizer]

I expect it will turn out to be due to a shortage of triangular cocoa beans!

[Stanley]

"Stanley, tell them you've been eating beetroot!" I have already thought about it Tiz. Actually, it's my fault. Claire, the nurse who took my blood (phlebotomist?) did ask if I was taking Warfarin and I simply said no. I had forgotten the anti-coagulant properties of Cod Liver Oil. Remember my nose bleeds? I will tell the Diabetes Nurse this morning and I suspect that will allay any fears they have.
Actually this all goes back to something I raised a while back, a good articles by an older lady ranting against the tyranny of small tests and procedures instigated by the medical profession once you are on their books. They don't realise how disruptive they can be to the normal tenor of a healthy retirement! I shall suggest it is raised at a practice meeting....
David, I shall now boycott the product - they will soon see the error of their ways. Reminds me of a copy of the spoof paper, The Daily Liar that used to be sold on the Golden Mile at Blackpool. My mate had one with the headline "David Moore goes TT. Brewers panic!"
On another matter.... I like my morning pint of good coffee and my usual choice is Machu Pichu Organic but the other day I tried a change and got an expensive single growth Colombian coffee. Big disappointment, no taste at all. The following morning I tried using 50% more coffee and a higher temperature. That makes it a nice brew but more expensive! Worth trying but I shall not repeat the experiment.

[Tripps]

The Daily Liar that used to be sold on the Golden Mile at Blackpool.

I checked it out -
My favourite headline from memory 'Leek in the Mersey Tunnel - Welshman arrested'.

It was Billy's Weekly Liar, and it seems that far from weekly, I read that they only had two versions which they rotated on a fortnightly basis. Must surely have been the origin of the name of one of my favourite films - 'Billy Liar' written by Keith Waterhouse.
Shadrack and Duxbury.

[Stanley]

That's right David, Billy's Weekly Liar.
Not sure if they swallowed my Cod Liver Oil ploy at the surgery, mutterings about it being a possible sign of bladder cancer. Did they have to tell me that? I wait to hear from Hassan the GP..... I've told the kids to dust off the Will and the LPAs just in case.....
Expecting my Bob Woodward book today.......

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on live Calf exports from Scotland. I heard the story on this morning's Farming Today. This trade, both domestic and export always troubled me when I was cattle wagon driving. We never touched it but I saw it in full flow. Perhaps it's time for me to post the story again..... [From Stanley's Story Volume two]

"The bobby or killing calf trade was an entirely different kettle of fish. I’ve touched on it before but it’s time we had a closer look. If there was one aspect of the cattle trade that disturbed me it was trading in calves only a few days old. Officially, you weren’t allowed to present a calf for sale if the navel was still wet, in other words, under a day or two old but we often saw them being sold in this condition. These calves were condemned to death as soon as they were taken from their mother because they hadn’t had enough time on ‘beast milk’ or colostrum, the first milk the cow gives which is loaded with natural anti-bodies and nutrients, to give them a proper start in life. This didn’t matter because their destination was slaughter anyway. In those days they ended up with the big canning firms like Heinz and Crosse & Blackwell where they were slaughtered and rendered down for stock for baby and geriatric foods.
There was a coterie of dealers who specialised in this trade and they could be seen at Ayr and Lanark gathered in the ring in a solid bunch for the ‘killing calf’ sale which was immediately after the rearers had been sold. The calves would be pushed between their legs and they would bid for them. To an unenlightened observer this could be seen as market forces at play but in effect it was anything but a ‘market’, it was a ‘ring’. None of the dealers would pay much because there was no competition, they took turns to bid for the calves. After the sale they would gather and reckon up the average price of the calves and split them up between them, in this way they kept the prices low and gave themselves more profit when they sold them on. Everybody knew about this but it was very hard to prove, even harder to stop and basically nobody was very interested because the animals were disposable items anyway.
On the way up to Lanark one day, David told me to keep an eye on the killers if I had a chance because there was going to be a bit of an upset. In the course of his Cheshire dealings he had come across a bloke called John Denson who had seen an advertisement in the Farmer’s Weekly for a man to buy calves on commission. He almost ignored the advert because he knew it was a license to print money and was sure that there would be hundreds of applicants. The deal was that someone was wanted to go into the market and buy calves and for every pound he spent he would get a shilling commission, these might not have been the exact figures but you can see the idea. Eventually he decided he might as well apply as he had nothing better to do and to his amazement, got the job, he was the only qualified applicant!
The firm who had put the advert in was one of the major food manufacturers. They had a problem which was that their supply of calves had dried up because other manufacturers had penetrated the ring and persuaded them to sell to them exclusively. The calves were an essential part of the process so they had to be obtained and if it meant investing money to break the ring, so be it.
On this particular Monday, John Denson was starting his campaign in Lanark and as far as we were aware nobody knew he was going to be there. David and I lurked at the back of the ring as the dealers took up their customary places in the ring. David pointed the bloke out to me, he was sitting on the rail of the sale pen, not bothering to get into the crush of dealers but in a position where he had direct line of sight to the auctioneer’s eye. He had a fag in his mouth, he wore a ratting hat, a tweed jacket, a Tattersall check shirt and a tie-pin with a fox on it. Typical country gent, no threat to anyone!
The first calf was pushed into the forest of legs in the middle of the ring and got to about five bob (25p), the auctioneer didn’t waste time and was just going to knock it down when a bid of ten bob came from the back, John had struck the first blow. You could see all the shoulders in the ring hunch and then everyone turned to see where the bid had come from. As it was an unheard of price, the auctioneer dropped the hammer and it was Denson 1, Dealers 0. The next calf came in and the same price and result. After a couple more calves went down to Jack it became clear that the dealers were getting their act together, they drove the price of the calf up to thirty shillings but John still took it. They had another stab with the next one but when it got to three pounds, John let them have it. At this point he had taken every calf bar one and the price that had been paid for this one would have bought ten average calves a week earlier. The sale went on like this, John paid up to five pounds for a calf and dropped the dealers in for some at very nearly this price. As far as the dealers were concerned this was a disaster and they had no idea who the opposition was. Remember also that the markets weren’t naïve. A buyer acting outside the normal pattern like this wouldn’t have been entertained as a bidder unless the management were absolutely certain he was sound. David and I were sure that Jack had been in to see the auctioneers and persuaded them he was kosher before the sale, probably by putting a bond down.
The word had soon got round the market and farmers were coming down into the calf section to see the miracle that was taking place. Men who had ten calves in the sale and would have expected fifty bob were seeing their animals sold for over fifty quid! It was drinks all round time. Remember that the market was doing OK as well. If the price of calves rose 1000% so did their commission! The only people who weren’t happy were the dealers because they had no calves except for grossly expensive ones. No doubt they retired to the bar to think this one over, they weren’t daft and knew something serious was happening.
Next day at Ayr the same thing happened but this time the calves were better. Farmers had twigged what was happening and poor to average rearing calves were being sold as killers because they would make more money. By the end of the week John’s firm had a good supply of expensive calves but the opposition had nothing. End of round one.
This went on for about three weeks and during that time John was threatened with violence but in the end the dealers had to sit down with him and come to an agreement. I don’t know if they knew who was behind it but they didn’t need to, all they could see was that they were up against an opposition that had a deep pocket, was totally ruthless and would put them out of business unless some agreement was reached. The upshot was that John went back to his quiet life in Cheshire, lessons were learned and the division of available bobby calves went back on to a more equable footing. Our entertainment stopped but it had been instructive and interesting while it lasted!
This intervention cured the imbalance in calf distribution but did nothing to improve the trade. I have no evidence but common sense dictates that the expenses of getting the calves to slaughter would be kept as low as possible and it grieves me to think of what those poor little rejects went through during the next two or three days. It can be a cruel world and I often wonder what mothers would have thought as they fed their tots on Beef dinners if they had known what was going on. This of course is the reason why nobody ever talks about shameful trading practices like these."

[Stanley]

A piece on BBC this morning about Chamberlain. It reminded me of what he said when he returned to Downing Street with the Munich Agreement. He told the crowd "Go home to your beds, it is peace in our time". Well worth remembering just how wrong our leaders can be.
John Paul Junker gives his state of the union speech today and it is trailed that he is going to advocate the EU being 'a more active player' in world affairs and an EU/Africa trade deal, continent to continent. I wonder if he will reinforce this by going to Africa and dancing with the children......
On another matter..... BBC World service have commissioned a number of new signature themes for the station and have started to use them. Problem is they are using them mainly as the background for news and announcements and you can't appreciate either of them!

[Tizer]

`Victorian Society reveals top 10 buildings 'crying out' to be saved' LINK

[Stanley]

Always the case Tiz. Buildings have only one ambition, to fall down and eventually they do it if money isn't spent on maintenance. Nowadays we spend it on other things.....
How quickly my old Trickers wore in to Carpet slipper comfort. I have given that pair a good clean and swapped to the next pair of the three and they are at carpet-slipper level already. Nevertheless I shall give them a good spell with daily polishing before going onto the third and last pair. I should be all right for boots until I die!
What good paint my twenty year old tin of Humbroil black is. I painted the bed plate yesterday and it is a mirror finish.