OneGuyFromBarlick

How well you lot had got together to populate the site while Peter was off grid. It will be nice to have him back!
The on/off Hancock UN appointment. LINK. In her letter to Mr Hancock offering him the job, Ms Songwe of the UN said his "success" in handling the UK's pandemic response was a testament to the strengths he would bring to the role. In his reply, the MP said: "As we recover from the pandemic so we must take this moment to ensure Africa can prosper."
All very nice but later a source in the UN said the offer should never have been made. All very strange and embarrassing.

I noticed that The Rolling Stones have ‘retired’ a controversial hit - Brown Sugar - because the lyrics are racially insensitive.
The lyrics from the song centre around a slaver who whips enslaved black women at midnight.
The band have played the song every night since 1970, but Jagger says it’s time to take it out of the set list.

What grabbed my attention last week while staying in a little old country cottage in Cornwall was coming down stairs for breakfast and finding an unexpected visitor. Sitting on the doormat looking out the French doors was a lovely toad about two and a half inches long. It was just like a dog when it wants go for its morning walk! I persuaded it to walk into a jar then released it in a dark, damp part of the garden. It crawled off into the undergrowth. We hadn't left any doors open long enough for it to have entered the house so it must have got in during warmer weather when the French doors were open. It probably had been living under the sofa! I'll bet it was glad of the chance to find some food.

Oh that’s lovely, I love doing things like that.
One of the birds in my back garden has discovered my hanging basket liners and keeps visiting to fill it’s mouth with bits of liner (), obviously for a nest and I haven’t the heart to try and stop it.

Cathy wrote: ↑18 Oct 2021, 11:30 Oh that’s lovely, I love doing things like that.

Have I told you about the toad that crept into my gardening shoes that I left out for a while?

Not sure which got the biggest shock when I put them on - with him still in the shoe.

We both survived, and he was escorted to a safer place.

When we bought a Nissan Navarra pick up ages ago it had a personalised registration (N5PPY) which we retained when we sold the vehicle 5 years ago. Today I got it valued by a reputable company who say we could get £1000 after costs. Interesting!!

Wendyf wrote: ↑18 Oct 2021, 16:30 When we bought a Nissan Navarra pick up ages ago it had a personalised registration (N5PPY) which we retained when we sold the vehicle 5 years ago. Today I got it valued by a reputable company who say we could get £1000 after costs. Interesting!!

There's money in personalised number plates

In a similar vein, this story made me smile. A couple received a 'bus lane' fine after the camera picked up the logo on someone's jumper
https://metro.co.uk/2021/10/18/surrey-w ... 39916/amp/

Would this one be worth anything?

O'Callaghans have repaired the turf they damaged when paving the flag platform opposite the Bookies. Some re-turfed and some seeded. They couldn't have much better weather for it at this time of year.

Last weekend I had some firewood delivered....



Three days later we had a big storm blow through. A walk around the garden revealed this...



Oh well.

Sod's Law is evidently alive and well in Oklahoma! Get the chainsaw out before it snows Mick!

I had a small dispute on ebay today, which resulted in my getting a full refund and returning the item to the vendor. I said he hadn't sent me what he promised - he said he had. Stalemate. Anyway, no harm done - cost to me, one stamp. To get to the point - he sent me his real name and address, and from it, with very little effort I've seen every room in his house, and his full CV.

This disturbs me a bit - especially the house info. It would be helpful to a burglar for instance. I got to thinking - to whom does the property data belong? Can you ask property websites to delete all your data when the house is sold. Also if I can discover all that - what can someone who knows what they're doing obtain?

Estate agents have got into trouble for taking photos that allowed documents etc to be read. They're supposed to make sure all the photos are safe to use online.

I can understand that disturbing you David but I'm glad you got your refund.
55 years today since the coal tips slid down and devastated Aberfan. 116 children and 28 adults died when the foul slurry buried the school. The National Coal Board acted disgracefully in the immediate aftermath of the inquest but were forced eventually to admit responsibility. This didn't stop them charging the disaster fund with part of the costs for clearing the tips. This wasn't put right until Labour came back to power in 1997.

I mentioned earlier that my teenage relative doing her A level course at school had become unwell and tested positive for covid1-19. She's still feeling weak but hasn't got any worse. She's had both her covid vaccinations so they haven't prevented her getting infected but have probably prevented serious illness. The rest of the family seem to be managing to avoid getting her infection. Of course it's possible she's one of those 43,000 people in the west country who were wrongly told they were infected by the Wolverhampton lab.

The Flying Scotsman broke down at Hellifield this evening.

Oh dear! Red faces there I suspect.

I wonder if our Jacks mate and ex local lad Noel was driving?

`Road sign bungle sees Yorkshire sign erected in Lincolnshire' LINK
`Residents in a North Lincolnshire village have been left feeling a little disorientated after a road sign was erected welcoming people to Yorkshire. The mysterious sign, which can be seen by motorists entering Sandtoft, appeared earlier this week. One resident said it was about 150m (492ft) from the original Welcome to North Lincolnshire sign - on the same side of the road. Some have suggested it is the work of contractors unfamiliar with the area. The local authority, North Lincolnshire Council, said it was unaware of the sign, while the neighbouring authority, Doncaster Council, has yet to respond to a request for comment. Posting in a local Facebook group, one resident said it appeared the sign had been put up on the wrong side of the road and facing the wrong way.'..

Although I was born in Yorkshire my family roots are in Lincolnshire.

But I was out of the country when the aforementioned incident happened, m'lud.

Stanley wrote: ↑20 Oct 2021, 02:44 Sod's Law is evidently alive and well in Oklahoma! Get the chainsaw out before it snows Mick!

Some progress was made with the fallen tree this afternoon. Partially sawn into pieces I can chop up for the log pile.
It's a work in progress with my back

I had a bad back al;l my working life Mick and one of the worst episodes I ever had was after using a heavy chain saw. You have my sympathy....

I got mail from a friend....
An old drinking crony of mine, a Londoner, never been near Lancashire in his
life, has become obsessed with your accounts of the cotton industry and
consequently I've been dipping into your books again myself. You mention
the corn mill a lot, I lived in the house by the mill from about 1940 till I
left home to join the RAF in 1953. Just before I left there was some work
being done on the wagon road which leads up to the middle floor and at the
point where it joins the mill wall the stone of the supporting wall was
removed exposing the corner of the mill and I saw inscriptions chiselled
into the wall by a doorpost usually obscured. I made a rough sketch.

Don't know if this is of any interest but it seems to suggest that the
present building was there in the early 18th century.

By the way do you happen to know if the figure-8 tree still stands at the
top of Ghyll Brow?

Regards. Ray Jackson.

Thanks for that Ray. I'll post your comments and the pics on the site. The marks are interesting evidence of the early days of the mill. Very little is documented. As for the tree, that's the first I have ever heard about it. Best, S.

I've just left my car for its annual service. I told the garage man that it's only done about 1100 miles in the last year. He said that's no surprise they've got people coming in with cars that have done 200 or 300 miles in a year. I doubt the insurance companies will be giving us a refund!

When I got to that stage I sold mine Peter..... But then it made sense.
I have just spent half an hour watching a lot of expensive fire brigade equipment being very busy doing nothing in Town Square. God knows why but it passed half an hour on! A very expensive high reach vehicle and all it did was allow a fireman to have a conversation with a man on the roof. I have an idea they might have suspected a fire in the flue at the Thai Cafe.