WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Big Kev]

Just for future reference, the Spar garage on Kelbrook Rd just along from the Memorial Gardens opens reasonably early on a Sunday.

[Marilyn]

I don't have any problems giving milk/bread/food/clothing/furniture...whatever! If you need it and I have it, it is yours! I do have a problem giving cash. We were on holiday and there were a lot of people looking as though they were living rough ( though they all had mobile phones, jewellery, expensive haircuts and expensive body art.) as we passed two men sitting against a shop window with their begging bowls out, one rang a friend up the street and told him to look out for a woman wearing a red top who had just given him $20. He described the woman in detail, said she was a soft touch and she should be coming his way any moment. We heard the guy on the other end saying he had spotted her.I hate being taken for a ride!
Don't get sucked in.

[Stanley]

Valuable local information Kev and I didn't know that..... I shall bear it in mind.....
I agree Maz but this lad was a genuine case and it was never in his head to beg the milk off me.....

[Bodger]

This may be in the wrong forum but interesting reading Stanley whilst you nurse Jack
https://undergroundhistories.wordpress.com/

[Stanley]

I've looked at it Bodge.....
Jack gets closer to normal every day. Wound in his throat has closed up and as air under skin is dispersing and re-absorbing, there is a good chance the hole in his trachea is starting to seal. His breathing is silent this morning.
All his activities apart from energy and length of walks are normal and last night he slept so well he never stirred off the sofa in the front room. Normally he wakes and comes up to my bed during the night. I'm not clapping hands yet but things are looking better! Vets tomorrow morning to see Gillian...... He's had his morning pee and is sleeping on the rocking chair as I write, normal activity.
Something entirely different! Have a look at THIS report from the New Musical Express. You are as old as you feel!

[Stanley]

The fact that I am getting more confident that Jack has survived, I go to see Gillian Marsh at the vets this morning and think this may be the last visit. We have finished the anti-inflammatory pills and have two days of ABs to go. I realise that there is going to be a long period of carefully managed recuperation but that's no problem. It's been hard and a learning curve but on the whole I think we have both done a good job.

[Stanley]

We've seen Gillian and she is very pleased with Jack. She says the trachea hasn't closed yet and until it does there is a danger of infection so another 14 days on antibiotics. It's going to be a long haul......

[Marilyn]

Back to your Nursing duties and the Scullery with you, Stanley! (.you might need to factor in a few more sausages in which to hide the wee lad's antibiotics)

[Stanley]

Dead right Maz, I bought extra supplies yesterday.......
How well Jack is recovering and the kindness of my neighbours, friend and family..... If you concentrate on these matters the world is quite a nice place......
Later..... I have just taken Jack out and for the second day his crap is light brown. I know this is too much information for some but it's important. For most of the week it has been black and I thought this was perhaps a result of the antibiotics. Gillian, our vet, told me it was almost certainly because of internal bleeding which was migrating into his stomach and bowel. So, the absence of it probably means that the bleeding has ceased. We live and learn and it is another good sign!

[Tizer]

I thought it sounded like internal bleeding (Maz probably thought so too) but I didn't want to worry you more and I knew Jack would be seeing the vet and she would know best. So I'm glad to hear that he's back to normal colour!

[Stanley]

Very thoughtful, thanks. Continued steady progress.... Just one small set back at teatime, he got very stroppy with me but it soon passed.... I reckon he's allowed a bit of bad temper!
What splendid things sausages are!

[Stanley]

The enquiry into the RC boarding schools at Ampleforth and Downside is expected to report today and will detail a horrific list of abuses. It's been reported on R4 but nothing on the web yet. Not reading for the faint hearted.....
Just heard another report and this finding is by the big CSA inquiry but no trace on the web.

[PanBiker]

Just been on live chat with my motor insurers (dialdirect) to ask for a pay monthly quote after receiving my renewal notice. Pleased to say that the online exchange resulted in a much lower quote for the same policy benefits and a change to monthly payments, £50.00 less than my original renewal quote which was in itself less than I paid last year, so all in all £70.0 better off for 5 minutes of chat.

I would recommend online chat facilities if available for any queries that you can sort via the internet. Beats the telephone carousel and generally inane music that you have to put up with hands down. Most of the .gov departments have the facility now and I have used that in the recent past also. If you have the technology, use it.

[Stanley]

The fact that daughter Susan and Mick fly to Nairobi today for the big wedding. Turns out that Mo's family own the university at Embri..... Grand daughter Jess appears to be marrying into Kenyan aristocracy!

[Tizer]

I would recommend online chat facilities if available for any queries that you can sort via the internet.

I agree, I prefer it to the phone. You can get down to the nitty gritty quickly and also there aren't problems with foreign accents. For oldies like me it also avoids hearing problems that can lead to misunderstandings. A tip - write what you want to say in a text editor first and paste it into the online chat window as a starter. You can also pre-write any long words, codes etc in the same way to have them ready. At the end of the chat session, look to see if there is a way to save the conversation.

[PanBiker]

I would think that the Christopher that I was chatting with may well not have been his given name. No matter, a quick resolution to my query. It is usual and I was asked to give feedback so I scored top marks and even took the time to put a comment in. At the bottom of the feedback pop up there was the option to have the transcript emailed, it was in my inbox within 5 minutes along with confirmation of what we had agreed.

I think with insurance companies you always need to contact one way or the other, there is always some wriggle room that can be obtained as they are keen to keep your custom. No added backhander from the Meerkats this year but the current offer is restaurant based (probably chain) and I would rather have the £70.00.

[Marilyn]

When I came into the kitchen this morning, it looked as if there had been some sort of battle between a Lemon and the Sugar Bowl ( pips, juice, flesh and sugar...spread about). It was hubby, making himself a Hot Lemon drink in the night!

[Stanley]

At least he is fending for himself.
Oversleeping two hours. No problems with this, I haven't got to go to work and it will have done us both good.Not rushing to catch up!

[Stanley]

Update on Jack..... He's making steady progress and I am doing all I can to keep him on this trajectory. I have taken to giving him a light meal of one sausage when we have had our walk and will continue this practice in future. 24 hours fast is good for a young dog but Jack is 11 years old now and deserves a slightly easier routine. I am giving him this sausage at the moment as a reward after submitting to my twice a day attention to his wounds with Dettol and warm water. He had some big scabs on these injuries and I have been valiantly resisting my natural urge to pick them off! The good news is that this morning the two largest ave dropped off and I realised that another one was only hanging on because it was embedded in hair so I was safe to pull that one off. This will be a relief for him as they have been annoying him and he's been scratching at them. One more small step forwards! he has another 11 days of ABs to go. I think on the evidence they are doing a good job.
I am not getting too excited but I am fairly certain that the air under his skin has almost all re-absorbed. This means that the hole in his windpipe is healing I think. The swelling that was worrying me under the main wound, the one into his trachea is subsiding I think. I am feeling much better as he improves......

[Stanley]

See THIS for some interesting conclusions after analysis of polls done by YouGov involving 15,000 respondents. Is something actually moving here or is it just part of the internal war in Westminster?

[Christian]

Lidar... Now I'm settled back in the spiritual home of Carleton, brain is finally untwisted and the dogs are happy mutts. I've decided to do something useful with my time instead of getting the local community groups backs up with saying what everyone is thinking but too damned scared to. Also threatened to a couple of locals get myself on the Parish Council, made a few chuckle at the thought!

After re-reading the Settlement in West Craven thread to refresh my memory I'm hoping to try join some dots up with what was going on down in Elslack and the moors up behind the house towards Colne/Lothersdale way. Just a shame Lidar coverage is somewhat sparse that way. Nevermind though, I took the day off on Friday and managed to teach myself how to get the Lidar files loaded up, 3D cross sections and overlay some old 1800's maps onto it. Its very strange when you first get them imported as they just show as dark murky blurs. Once you stick some height colour overlays on it does bring them to life. Early days though but slowly looking at each field along the way and already noticed some shapes which are not marked on any old maps.

Think I'll give it a few months mastering the actual software and take it down the local history group for them to disseminate. I reckon a purchase of a new laptop is in order as some of the imagery even on the works beast is a little to large for quick rendering.

One thing thats puzzled me though and after a little bit of googling I cant work out.. There's quite a lot of "Lathes" on the hills, "Lothersdale Lathe, Greawood Lathe" What were they about?

[PanBiker]

Interesting Christian, nice to hear from you, it will be good to have another Lidar interpreter on the site. Spiritual home of Carleton, I wonder what era and if you would know my wife Sally (nee Hutchinson), she's a Carleton girl, lived on West Road until I brought her to the metropolis.

[Stanley]

Christian, 'laithe' is the dialect word for a barn but you've spelt is differently. Something is nagging me suggesting it might be an administrative region like parish or hundred.
4 Pints of semi-skimmed appeared on my doorstep...... Faith was justified after all.
Nice young man called to remind me I had agreed to let him clean my gutters. I told him to piss off and find a different mark. It's a scam of course targeting 'old people' with bad memories. Don't tell me to report it to 101!

[Tizer]

Back in the days when the scams were all via telephone we used to get that sort of call claiming we'd contacted them first. If Mrs Tiz answered they'd usually say they wanted to speak to me but we had an agreement that she'd ask for their details and what the call was about. If they refused and still asked for me she'd say in that case I wouldn't want to speak to them and hung up. Sometimes they'd say it was about investment but she'd still tell them I didn't want to speak to them. Some were very pushy but they didn't stand a chance with Mrs Tiz!

This weekend we drove to my sister-in-law's house near Marlow to attend her big birthday party. The 150 mile trip over there via the A303 was at an average speed of 33mph but at least we were moving - the traffic going the other way was stationary most of the time. We returned via the M4/M5 and managed an average 45mph. Normally we don't travel far in the summer months because of the heavy traffic and the density of holidaymakers here in the south-west. After the weekend's travelling and partying we were glad to be home and relaxing. The Home Counties are too busy, noisy and many of the people too aggressive, especially on the road.

I've put a link in the Forgotten Corners thread to free online viewing of British geology maps and an image of the Barlick area.

[Stanley]

How good it was to get back into the full morning walk after a fortnight of short walks. Good for me as well!