Hi

[David Whipp]

Hi,

I'm suffering from enforced leisure time over the next few weeks and have decided to spend some time surfing t'interweb.

As long as my blood pressure allows, I'll take part in this community''s discussions.

Looking at some of the entries, it looks like I already feature in some of your threads!

David

[Tripps]

Welcome to the site Councillor. I've seen many mentions of you, and it will be good to get to know you better, and get your input directly. I don't think there's much risk to your B/P - we are not too contentious. I wish you a good and swift recovery . The site leader Doc would be a good role model in that respect.

[Pluggy]

Does this mean we can't talk disparagingly about you in the third person any more ?

Welcome to the site David.

[Stanley]

Welcome to the site David. You'll get a good insight into Barlick from a different perspective I'm sure. If you want to chalk up an opening credit please consider donating, it's dead easy and you can find the route on the portal page. It can cost as little as £1 and shows a willingness to participate fully.
Oh bugger, we'll have to be polite now... How about Poor Bones and the town well at Gisburn Road School?

[David Whipp]

Thanks folk.

I know a lot of the guys that live locally 'in the flesh' as it were (and they know me).

Prior to op, I typically worked a 12 to 14 hour day, so restricted activities at the moment give me a chance to spend time doing new things (inc OGFB). Will have to see how energy levels and intrusion of normal life allow me to spend time on the site as I recuperate. By the by, I'm on here as David Whipp - not as a councillor (esp not a Capital C Councillor!). And I won't be peddling politicis. That doesn't stop people using the forum to flag up issues that need dealing with, though.

Pluggy, I've spent quite a few hours recently reading posts on the site - I don't think YOU have been talking disparagingly behind my back. (But someone else certainly has - and seems to have his knife in to me - even when someone else has got their knife into me, if you get my drift!) Reading the site rules, it looks like such activity could get people suspended or even banned, so I'm content to let the moderators do their job.

Stanley, the site doesn't appear to take credit card payments, and I don't have Paypal. If Doc or someone wants to pop round our place, I'll happily give them a few quid. (For the site folks - this isn't an invitation for every Tom, Dick and Harry panhandler!) Poor Bones: I couldn't persuade the last town council to take it on - the majority view was that it would just be a liability. Since then, there's been elections, so a different set of people. I'll get it considered afresh. With a new head at Gisburn Road, the time may be ripe to make a fresh approach about opening up the well as well. Again, will put in hand to ask the question.

Anyhow, missus wanting to give me a good shower and dress me with sexy stockings now, so will have to go.

See you soon!

David

[Stanley]

David, if you look at the PayPal route you'll find there is an easy non-member way to do it. I am not in Pay Pal either but it is easy simple and works for me. If I remember rightly you have to go down the route as though you were a member and take the non-member option when it pops up.
As for moderation, we take a fairly relaxed view of opinion and only step in when we think that it has gone too far. As for your comments about one member, I agree with you but then he doesn't seem to be in favour of anything! Believe me, when a storm breaks we do something about it. That's why certain ex-members call us the Mafia! However, they all have themselves to blame, we have a well-behaved site and intend to keep it that way.

[David Whipp]

Thanks Stanley.

Will give this a whirl.

[David Whipp]

OK... Now I've got an issue of principle with making a donation.

The form requires me to choose a county.

As we all know, Barnoldswick is in the historic West Riding of Yorkshire.

If I want to complete a valid form, I probably have to click on Lancashire...

Since we got our own delivery office and postcode, I tend to leave 'county' unstated on post etc. I've always thought it funny that when we were in the administrative West Riding, our post was via Colne, Lancs. Now administered by Lancashire (note, not 'in' it) with a Barnoldswick delivery office people can describe their county how they wish.

It all goes to underline the wonderfully quirky nature of our town!

It gives us great opportunities to say lots about Barnoldswick to people asking where it is. Once heard of, never forgotten?

Now I've got that off my chest, I'll get a clothes peg and complete the form.

[Pluggy]

Pluggy, I've spent quite a few hours recently reading posts on the site - I don't think YOU have been talking disparagingly behind my back. (But someone else certainly has - and seems to have his knife in to me - even when someone else has got their knife into me, if you get my drift!) Reading the site rules, it looks like such activity could get people suspended or even banned, so I'm content to let the moderators do their job.

I'm not a political animal, I tend to hide away in the threads with a technical aspect. But I know that some (OK, one) do. I don't even have an opinion on which county Barlick is in even though I'm old enough to remember Barlick being in the West Riding. Barlick is in Lancashire, I just accept it. I'm slightly more opinionated about whether Barlick has a 'k' I believe it does, unlike a well known sandwich establishment.

I'm Administrator in an emergency aspect. Doc is actually the 'One Guy from Barlick' , but the decision was taken that OGFB should survive should anything happen to Doc and me being an IT specialist (Self Employed computer repairs) I got volunteered. I'm low key, I leave the modding to our very capable mod team, I have been known to tweak odd settings when Doc isn't around.

[PanBiker]

Hi David and welcome to the site, glad you are on the mend. I think you will probably find some niches to comment in, we can get some very good rag chews going on from time to time. We like putting the world to right as well but that is only human nature I suppose. If you donate you will turn orange to match your colours, now there's an incentive!

[David Whipp]

I've chucked a couple of bob in the kitty, and look forward to getting the orange look!

Can't let the Red Rose thing go tho. Pluggy say's Barlick is in Lancashire! Nowt like a fresh battle in the Wars of the Roses!

I say we get the best of both worlds. For instance, we get our fresh water from Yorkshire and send all our sewage down the River Ribble into Lancashire. (That should get folk going...).

Let's face it, boundaries are very blurred in Barnoldswick. We're on all sorts of watersheds: the one between Irish and North Seas, between Granada and Yorkshire TV (Yorkshire winning hands down until the advent of digital). Even our geology includes the watershed (the Craven Fault) between the honey coloured sandstone in the south of town and the grey limestones in the north of Barlick. Historically, Barnoldswick manufactured wool and cotton (the former being superceded by the latter). Colleague Ken Hartley has coined the phrase 'Twixt Town' to describe the transitional nature of Barlick.

Our electricity comes from Yorkshire, we have our Yorkshire Bank, we have York Street. Let the Lancastrians beat that!

(Getting the Council Tax Bill from Lancashire is an own goal if you ask me.)

And, might I ask, where do you find the roadside county boundary signs?

I love telling the tale of the Barlick Clock. When it was designed back at the Millenium, the original design was for a larger Red Rose surrounding a smaller white one.

Mugs commissioned in Colne were made to this specification.

However, when we ordered the clock proper it was made by a Leeds based clock maker (NB original clock on Nutters still going strong - more recent clocks on Station Road shelter a bit dodgy time wise... (Lancashire made?)).

The Leeds based clock maker refused to make it with the Red Rose bigger than the White Rose - we have the design we see today on Albert Road.

All good fun, and what makes Barlick so interesting for folk.

There's no getting away from it, Barlick is in Yorkshire!

[Whyperion]

and Barnoldswick administered under Lancashire. [ I understand from reading bits of history that the Barnoldswick area has been appended by leaders from the areas of both present day counties over a couple of thousand years (or more) ] .

As a Londoner I am used to administrative boundary changes , and one accepts them for the inconvenience or improvement to life, but reading some of Lancashires more recent local laws I am inclined to think that Yorkshire takes a more entrepreneurial view of some things which Lancashire would seek to restrict.

[Big Kev]

Good o see you on the mend, David. Enjoy the site.

[PostmanPete]

I've chucked a couple of bob in the kitty, and look forward to getting the orange look!

It might take a while David - I chucked a couple of bob in in the middle of August and i'm still blue......!

[PanBiker]

Doc needs to flick the switch.

[Tizer]

For your information David, I pop up on OGFB quite often but I'm not in or from Barlick. I was born and brought up in Blackburn and now live in Somerset but I find this forum is the nearest and best that I can find to fit in with my northern roots. If you hear me rant about councillors on here it will be referring to my local ones in Somerset!

[PanBiker]

Aha, Tizer's played his get out of jail free card! Nice move, makes you bullet proof

[David Whipp]

Tizer, reading some of your travails at the hands of local government, I'm not surprised if you have a jaundiced view of the genus!

Perhaps your experience might have been different if you'd been dealing with the particular species we have round here? Or maybe, it's the local government ecosystem that's the problem.

Postman, given the week old open heart surgery, if I remain blue there could be a considerable problem! Wouldn't want Doc to have to become Doc by nature and resume the life support! Panbiker's referring to my OGFB appearance matching the tail feathers of my species...

Thanks Kev. OGFB is currently giving me an extra little window on the world from someone not used to such a sedentary seat.

In common with lots of other recipients, I understand Docs Cabbage has led to a major life change. If he's bobbing about on the ocean blue, who'll bank the bobs and flick the switches?

Whyperion, I make the flippant remark about water from Yorkshire and sewage into Lancashire as an example of the best of both worlds which I believe Barnoldswick has in much more meaningful ways. I regularly use 'Pennine' as an adjective to help define Barnoldswick's place.

We could be considered a bypassed backwater, but I bet we punch well over our weight when it comes to folk from further afield knowing about us. Indeed regular War of the Roses stories featuring Barlick get onto regional TV on both sides of the Pennines.

Administratively, a lot was lost when small urban districts were swept away in the name of efficiency in 1974. (I was too young to care much about it at the time, I hasten to add!). Whether our town looks east or west, we're at the end of the line when it comes to so many services and remote from the centres of power. Making sure folk in the corridors of power know you exist is important whatever the colour of the county. Being distinct (paid up member of the awkward squad if need be) is an important part of the strategy to keep towns like Barnoldswick in the mind's eye.

Anyroad, if it hadn't been for the recuperation, I'd be running cinema up at the Rainhall Centre this evening; Cary Grant in Hitchcock's North by Northwest. Fantastic film with superb scenes from the master moviemaker. My better half and lad have gone to help/watch whilst I get to chew the cud with you lot (and listen to some very easy Simon and Garfunkel). Maybe this 'me time' thing has something going for it?

[Big Kev]

A forced sedentary life, even for a short period of time, can provide a completely different view on things. We're all rushing about, with either work or just a busy homelife, we often just take things at face value with a cursory glance.

Take full advantage of your recuperation...

[Stanley]

That's good advice Kev. Let's not be too hard on Doc. It's not only marine matters that are claiming his attention. Apart from flitting and renovating a house he has had to go to the rescue of a member of the familiy taken seriously ill abroad. I'm sure he'll surface when he can. One thing is certain, he's lost weight!

[David Whipp]

Am certainly enjoying recuperation, Kev.

A couple of hours last night with daughter Lucy listening to mutually acceptable music, reading and googling.

This morning, it was off to the the Eagles' Hotel California, now it's Woodstock - beginning with Santana on very loud. The kids loved my air guitar and drums... Probably get meself some more Hendrix before going classical. Everyone now left for school/work, so day to fill with whatever I like. Will probably be naughty and start dealing with email backlog from having break.

Looks like Doc has had his fair share of crises...

[Stanley]

I see David has turned orange.... Good to have Doc on the job again. He doesn't realise how much he's missed when he is forced to go AWOL. Too bloody modest!

[David Whipp]

Thank god I'm saved from blueness...

1812 Overture for breakfast whilst passionately reading the Wikipedia entry on the Patriotic War to Tom and Lucy.

Tom asked if that was when they built the Berlin Wall...!

Suggested to Tom that he try Fosters Hornblower for further reading - getting seriously worried about the time he spends on Xbox live.