BAD TASTE ALERT Trips to Europe back in the Forties would have been in a Lancaster or Halifax Sensible. Have you ever played the Lancaster drinking game by the way? You get 11 participants: 7 crew sitting in their correct positions and 4 engines out on the wings whose job is to make the engine noise. Those roles are filled by 4 novice players while 7 experienced players who know how to fly the plane are the crew. The captain gives the orders, the gunners have to make machine gun noises if night-fighters are spotted and so on. There are various stages of the flight at which beer has to be drunk and glasses refilled. Very often - no always actually - the captain sees that one of the engines has been hit by flak and has caught fire The unfortunate engine has to make “on fire” noises while the other 3 have to re-double their engine noises to keep the plane in the air. Eventually, the flight engineer leads the crew in putting the fire out by throwing their beer over the damaged engine.
After the war you had the Bristol Brabazon...you could have played this game with 15 participants....seeing that it had 8 engines....now you would have been a really good beer chucker to reach those outer engines....assumed the inner engines would have been well soaked with beer and wouldn't have been to bothered how long it would have taken the outer engines fires to be extinguished......unfortunately they made only one of these before they scrapped the aircraft all together. Unfortunately this aircraft although having eight engines only had four visible engine housings....because each engine housing had twin propellers' mounted on it.....so I was fibbing about eight engines being visible.
That was the 1950's equivalent of HS2.... Just what the world didn't need: a giant propellor plane when there were jets...
Then the Turbo-propped Brittania came along.....I went to Aden on one (they'd only just stopped sea voyages' for trooping)....12 hr journey... still having to go around Egypt because of the Suez crises...stopping at Tripoli over night ....then Kano Nigeria...on to Nairobi Kenya before Khormakser Aden....all refuelling stops....12 hrs flying total......although it was a military flight we all had to be dressed in civvies to get around the rules (whatever they where). Then came along the jet engined Comet....and I flew back to Blighty nearly 2 years later on one of the first Comet 4's via Malta.....in a fraction of the time.
I've just been cruising through today's Times. News first, then sport, then "is there anything on TV worth watching". On that last leg, I passed inadvertently through the Gardening section, which usually doesn't get unfolded. I see the short gardening tips column is called "Weeders Digest". I wonder how long it took to come up with that.
Years gone by..before supplements. ...I always started at the rear (sport) and worked my way towards the front....it would only be then that I would discover that WW111 started last night.
I have always been drawn to news programmes....but now in my mid-eighties a depression tends to fall over me when I read what our leaders/politicians are doing to our country and this world. Our government and opposition seem to have no leadership or ideas on how to govern this country. 1.....Failed asylum seekers only need to pretend that they have converted to Christianity to dupe C of E clergy....and of course then protest that they will be endangered of persecution or even death if they go back to their country of origin. 2.....We as British are being made to feel that we owe the world for 250 years of industrial revolution and therefore of course starting the greenhouse gas effect that is destroying our world. 3.....Newer developing countries such as China, India & Brazil then complain that how dare we complain about their present industrial development that is endangering the climate now. 4.....Political correctness and wokism are changing the basic structures of our society and now white is becoming black or vice-versa just because they say so.....and hundreds of years of history is being threatened by being "corrected" by their flawed reasoning. 5.....The foundations of our history are being disregarded by the younger generation who live in a mobile induced bubble....with no regard to the basics that this nation was built on.....WW2, Churchill, Nelson, Victoria, every historical date unknown and uncared about...not knowing if Brighton or Blackpool is on the south coast or Irish sea, 6.....A society that is deciding that it need not work and the state will eventually look after them.....Employers looking abroad to employ staff because the unemployed locals are not worth trying because they can't be bothered to work. 7.....Foreign money buying and owning large chunks of the UK....we get our dustbins emptied and our nuclear power plant built by foreign companies....didn't we once lead the world in nuclear power....all history now....and most people don't care tuppence about any of it. 8.....Donald Trump will be ruling the western world again soon....his latest idea is that if NATO countries that don't pay their fare share of dues should be encouraged to be attacked by Putin. 9.....And with tongue in cheek....is it possible one day that with failed asylum seekers "converting" to Christianity so they cannot be returned to their own country....that they will out number true Anglicans one day in the Cof E. 10.....I thought that getting that load off my chest would make me feel better....but it don't.....maybe it might have something to do with Argyle being crushed in less than twenty second half minutes by Sunderland....the referee didn't help of course....but we do need another main striker....Hardie and Whittaker have both played 210 plus minutes in the last four days.....that cannot go on like that....tiredness and injury will take its toll....and then where will we be ?
I can't reply to all that Plym, some of which (foreign investment) has been spoken about before. On the issue of immigrants converting to Christianity, being Muslim (or anything else) should not count against anyone in this country in any sphere of activity. If NOT being Christian shouldn't count against you, then clearly BEING Christian should not count in your favour. Of course, the argument is that is not that, but rather that returning someone who's converted from Islam to Christianity to somewhere like Afghanistan is pretty much a death sentence. But then, we (the West) made the mess in Afghanistan, and didn't do much that's positive in Iraq, Syria or Libya, so we (the West) ought to be willing to take in those at genuine risk in those countries.
I could add that people of this Country invented most of the machines that are used around the World which are causing pollution so we are somewhat to blame. I could also add that this Country was built on World exploitation and the theft of other Countries resources and riches. A lot of people would perhaps rather forget our history than celebrate it as something to be proud of.
Rather embarrassing when our mighty Royal Navy cannot provide even one of its two £3billion aircraft carriers to lead NATO's largest exercise since the cold war. 1.....Aircraft Carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth had to withdraw last week because of an "issue" was found in final checks with the starboard propeller coupling. 2.....Aircraft Carrier HMS Prince of Wales was due to sail yesterday to lead the NATO exercise....but it didn't sail at the allotted time and after 20 minutes the hundreds of people that had congregated to see it sail started to disperse......the only thing said by a spokesman was that it will sail subject to suitable tide and weather conditions.....so lets hope it hasn't broken down yet again.
https://news.sky.com/story/senior-t...r-us-generals-criticism-of-uk-forces-12799032 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-armed-forces-budget-size-us-navy-b2485232.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...egarded-level-fighting-force-sources-say.html
Having praised the NHS a couple of weeks back on a very efficient appointment....today we reverted to type. Not directly NHS....but our local surgery (been there 50yrs) ....Mrs Plym wanted to book an appointment with the doctor that we have been dealing with regarding her Renal problems.....her arthritis was getting worse....and her medication just seemed to be not doing the job anymore and wanted to see the Doctor to show her what was happening with her thumb & fingers etc.....and could it be linked with the Kidney medication which is quite potent. The very officious receptionist basically disregarded the need to show the Doctor the problem....and gave Mrs Plym a 3hr window to be phoned by the Doctor between 9am & noon. on Friday 23rd February.....Mrs Plym at first thought that she had meant this coming Friday and said that that was the 16th....only to be corrected that it was the 23rd.....that is in eleven days time. The end result will inevitably be that..." I better see how bad it is and can you book an appointment".... at the appropriate 8am rush hour of course.....this morning she was 14th in the queue and that was just for this phone chat in eleven days time....so could be maybe Easter time before we actually see this Doctor.
The NHS costs around £190 billion per year, or around 10% of UK GDP. https://www.theguardian.com/society...d-into-death-of-woman-found-unconscious-in-ae
Yes I read that story...terrible outcome....after being triaged...I can quite understand how you can be "lost" in the system for 7hrs until a proper Doctor calls you. Mrs Plym waited 9hrs for a proper Doctor to be available....we where there for 7hrs until the nightshift came on and a Renal doctor came on duty....another 2hr wait after that.... and at 3am the next morning Mrs Plym got taken into the casualty ward and immediately put on a drip....and my son and I went home.
It is mainly because the GPs these days do not do what GPs used to do why A&E are at breaking point now. People generally do the right thing first then because they get nowhere they go to the Hospital and sit there till seen. I was lucky last week that I had a paramedic in attendance with me and he bypassed everything else and spoke to my GP. I did joke with him that he was lucky and his answer was they dare not ignore a paramedic in case of it looking like dereliction if it goes tits up. My man got his return call within 15 minutes. He organised a prescription to be picked up instantly and I got an appointment at the Surgery after 7 days which was due to medication taken not interfering with results of tests. I am in no doubt if I had tried to do any of that arranging myself it would have been a way different outcome.
Sadly not notdistant. Have improved a lot over the week but am not about to risk a cold evening and hike through the park just yet. I have decided not to do Saturday either but will get a ride to the Club and watch it on the tele. Will meet the gang after for a pint and debrief. Not being able to breath much was a scary thing so am going to make sure before I start running about again. Lets say will be there in spirit.
