[Bob Williams]

Thanks Nolan!!!!!

Bookmarked, watched and listened to a couple already. Timeless humour.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Calm down Nolan, 😙 hope you get a good result from this.

I will be in the same position tomorrow after the scans finish, but at home freaking out for ages waiting for the results. they have already had my pre-scan blood tests, hope Louth hospital remembered to send them to Grimsby. I told the Path Lab twice to look at the rear of the blood pack. Fingers crossed.

Missus and I get worried because of things that happen with our medical appointments: she has been rotated between Grimsby, Louth and Boston to try to diagnose a lower spine problem. Last time was Boston, they told her to await a letter, 3 months ago. Last week we went to Louth hospital and the consultant there said that Boston should have told her to contact her GP and ask for another appointment. OR Boston should have sent a letter to her GP.

Hello Left Hand, this is Right Hand: have we ever met?

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

How does one join, JayCeeDee?😊😆

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

I remember Quatermass with fondness Ed, great programme and one of my introductions into SciFi, the other being the late great Arthur C. Clarke. If you had never seen it, or anything like it before, it was ‘behind the sofa’ stuff. In after years, during Army service, I learned that the portrayal of certain Army officers was quite realistic!

I have recently been following a FB page “Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s” which is interesting but does tend to get mawkish in parts. One discussion was about radio and TV programmes, quite a bit about old comedy shows such as “The Navy Lark”. I posted about “Journey Into Space” and “The Goon Show”, which kicked off another interminable ‘Marmite’ type debate. I used to listen to those two prog’s with my dad every Monday night during the years he was working permanent Night Shifts at the local pit. My old dad was 40 when I was born, but used to love those shows as much as I did; laughed like a drain at the Goons.

Happy days…

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Yes thanks from me too ryan, can’t have enough info!

I know the feeling Nolan!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

It’s serendipitous when your medical people know each other, Nolan! Two of my oncology consultants: the surgeon who carried out my pancreatectomy and splenectomy last year, and the Chemotherapy ward consultant, were golfing buddies, working out of Hull and Grimsby hospitals respectively. The GP who began all the original scares after my initial Prostate troubles, sending me for MRI and CT scans in December ’17, had trained and worked under the Hull consultant before leaving medicine, then returning as a GP, part time, when her children grew older. And she is also a good friend of my teacher daughter: our granddaughter is a big pal of her daughter’s. They are in all the same classes at the local Grammar and last night I picked up said granddaughter from the GP’s house. Wheels within wheels! I have further scans on Tuesday next.

My rheumatoid has only very recently caused skin splitting in my LH middle finger. It began with an unusual pain at the finger end, similar to a paper cut. Now it is a small crack. In my left wrist I have had a ganglion for about 15 years. My GP advised me to have it drained only if it causes pain in my wrist and affects movement. Atm it has shrunk, although it was painful until about a month ago, when it began to shrink. The worst effect of my Rheumatoid is tremors in my hands, which are bad today. I hope they improve later, as it is my youngest grandson’s 21st party and I don’t want to chuck my meal all over the table!

I hope you find a solution to your present problems Nolan, you do have it rough lately. I followed your links, very interesting and I found a few matches to my own problems.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

That cropped up in the documents I read, Ed. Probably a case of “misery loves company” for Adolf and the one-time King.

The history of my family, going back through my grandfather to Wales, is one of Socialism and republican, anti-monarchist sentiment. The Socialism I left behind as irrelevant today, but I still hold the view that a sovereign is an even more irrelevant anachronism in the 21st century. That is one reason why I seriously considered writing the story, before realising that it would have achieved nothing but pain and possible ridicule, for all concerned.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Not arguing with any of that BL. I had a pretty rough childhood, left home at 13, returned by police, went to sea at 16, pit at 18, Army at 19. At 8 I was working paper rounds, by 11 I had 3 rounds and a butcher shop delivery job, with sometimes a Sunday cleaning the shop. I used to say that my first ‘proper’ job (at sea) meant a pay cut!

But today’s kids are mostly not subject to that kind of background, not many have to work as kids. Except my lad, now 51 and my daughter, 49. He biked it to his uncle’s smallholding at 12 every weekend to work, often in summer holidays. He was and is dyslexic and his mum was told at a parents’ evening that he would never amount to anything. I met that teacher at the supermarket and told her the fault was with the educator, not the educated. Daughter was a supervisor in a dry cleaning, workwear and hotel linen cleaning business at 18: hot, hard work. Now her brother is head of ‘Janitorial Services’ (Caretaking) at an Academy that controls 3 schools. His sister is a “one to one” teacher to problem children and a good one, judging by the gifts she gets from parents and home made cards from her children. She has been attacked by kids in class, the same ones now greet her in the street.

My youngest grandson is also dyslexic, even more than his dad. He is 21 now, but at 13 he was taking Work Experience at an engineering company one, then two days a week. He wanted to be an Electrician and worked his butt off at Grimsby Institute for 3 years. 2 months before he was due to pass, the government (Gove) decided all Further Education kids would have to pass English and maths exams at GCSE standard. Maths he does in his trick brain, English he cannot write although he can read well and types well. His tutor kept putting him in for exam retakes, but the system stopped that. So a lad who would have been a good leccy is now working at Fantasy Island in Skeg, maintaining the rides. Or rather, he was, until FI stopped for the season. can someone explain how that does him or the country any good whatsoever? From your own post:

” For me education has been used by successive governments as a statistical tool to brag about educational advances and to keep the dole numbers down. ” You hit that nail squarely on the head, mate. Every bloody government has to poke education with a sharp stick every single year, just to see if it is still alive. Public schoolboys who get pushed through their qualifications and never have to pay back a penny in tuition fees, wtf do they know? It makes me angry, as you can probably tell.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Many of us here are parents and grandparents with young people either in work or at University. We are exposed to the views of those young people and I suggest that we are all at least fairly intelligent and caring enough about their future, to make sure that they get the best advice in order to let their intelligence and judgement flourish.

I am aware that Commie Corbyn is launching this manifesto in order to appeal to a young audience, but I think he has misjudged the young. Most of them will be intelligent and concerned enough to see through the attempts to grab from business and give to what Corbyn sees as the poor and disadvantaged.

I just consider two young people here: my eldest grandson (25) and his sister (14). He had every expectation of making it to Uni, but his Asperger’s was then so severe that he would not have been happy there. Aston accepted him, but he decided to stick with his college and a tutor who took him through all Microsoft and Cisco qualifications there, with just two students. He made it, was accepted by a very good local company and is now, after 7 years, No.2 to the boss. That post and working out on various sites, has given him confidence that Uni would have possibly killed at birth. His sister is a little different: just as intelligent, but no Asperger’s, therefore socialises well. Tutored by big brother in IT but not yet certain of her path between several subjects. Knows that she wants to go to Uni, in whatever path she takes I believe she will gain a place and achieve something great. A’s and A*’s in everything at her Grammar school.

Grandson thinks Corbyn is a dangerous idiot who does not realise that ‘the best businesses in Britain are the ones that produce wealth and progress for the nation’. (His own words) His sister thinks both Corbyn and Johnson are idiots, likes Jo Swinson “a bit” and thinks Brexit was “just plain daft”. Nigel Farage is “another idiot, always has a pint in his hand, talks like someone in the Muppet’s Christmas movie” Yes, she is 14, but has her own views and in 4 years she will vote, but what will be left for her and her friends?

Never, ever, disregard and disrespect the intelligence of the young. That has been happening for far too long. Whatever comes from this election, I hope they get the better future that they deserve.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

I have a story about the second King Edward, Ed (let’s not get confused with too many Ed’s, lol.)

When the abdicating, Nazi-friendly  KE VIII was merely the Prince of Wales, he had a similar zipper problem, although I believe Bertie,  KE VII, would have used buttons to retain his tackle, as the zipper did not actually make it to trousers until 1937:    https://tinyurl.com/yy7g4wcp

After retirement on health grounds from Legal Services of a County Council, I was about to begin work as a designer/printer. Having had several stories and some poetry published, I was telephoned by a solicitor with a proposition to write the biography of his lady client. I agreed to meet at the solicitor’s home, a location which alerted me: why not his office? I agreed, took his name and phoned a very good friend from Legal Services, to give me information about this guy. It cost me a meal and a few bevvies, but I found out that the ‘solicitor’ had been disbarred a few months previously.

The client was an elderly lady, obviously a beauty in her youth. She informed me that she was the illegitimate daughter of KE VIII after a liaison with her mother in KE’s younger, pre-sovereign days. I was asked to write the story after she gave me several thick folders of mixed handwritten and typed documents, to read. I gave them back without opening the folders and asked the solicitor why we were meeting in his house and not his office. He blustered a bit and I told him that I knew  the reason why and that he was taking money under false pretences. Then I told the lady the truth about him. She asked me to take her home, read the folder and give my opinion. I gave it a week of close scrutiny and it did appear that she may have a case, but asked what she hoped to gain by exposing the story. She was looking for big bucks from the Royals, of course. She wanted the story published in order to pressure the Royals into comparing their DNA with hers.

I gave her the truth: that nothing would be accomplished by this, that the Royals would never submit to a DNA comparison, the science then was in its infancy anyway. That her own DNA sample and blood sample would probably ‘disappear’. That if by some mischance it was discovered that she was indeed the daughter of a King, her life would never be the same; she would be hounded by the media, would expect to tell her story to a media outlet and would find that the story was prevented from publication. “Can you write this, are you even capable of writing it?” She asked.

“Yes”, I replied, ” but I am not going to do that. You have been royally ripped off in more than one way and that ‘solicitor’ cannot legally use any record of this. You need to consign this to history and carry on with your life. And I suggest you report the so-called solicitor to the police, especially if you gave him any money.”

A very long story, but the result was, I hope, that she gave up the struggle. Certainly I never heard from her, nor any mention of the story, again. From what I read of the folder, with names, dates, people and scenarios I checked to the best of my ability, she appeared to have a very good case. Proving it was, IMO, not possible. I had a great deal of sympathy for the lady, but I believed then and I believe now that I advised her correctly.

Today, as Prince Andrew is discovering daily, would have perhaps been different. Until a consideration of the time since the ‘events’. That lady was perhaps 20+ years older than me then, so would be long passed away. I find it so sad that she allowed her mother’s claims about her parenthood to obsess her for life.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

How many more carrots are we going to be offered? Now Boris is offering cuts to National Insurance contributions (for some). LibDems’ carrot is a £50billion ‘benefit’ from another referendum and a vote to remain in the EU. Labour has so many carrots on offer that the donkeys are salivating.

Where will all this money come from? Your guess is as good as theirs!

Keith, WWI and WWII caused the eventual bankruptcy of this country. The Second World War was of course  just a continuation of the First, which was brought about by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Interconnected treaties and jingoistic patriotism meant that one after another European nations became involved. One result was the balkanisation of Europe and the division of  the Middle East along artificial borders. Another was the descent into poverty of Germany, caused by the excessive reparations demanded by France and to a lesser extent, Britain. That led to the rise of Hitler, German rearmament and WWII. Trouble in the Balkans and the Middle East from 1945 to the present, can be traced back directly to WWI.

Those are the causes of more and higher taxation, to pay for a humongous National Debt and wars since the end of the British Empire, in which we should not have been involved. Neither should we have been involved in WWI. Just consider for a moment what the state of the world would be, if in 1914 the then most powerful nation (GB) had remained neutral.

*No WWII.

*No lost British generation: almost 1 million service personnel and 886,000 civilians died in both Wars. The Empire would not have survived anyway, IMO. The Commonwealth may have been created in some form, but Empire and Dominion citizens would not have felt obliged to go to war alongside Britain. Many of them were already struggling for independence well before 1914.

*A healthy labour market, created by British industry booming to feed markets devastated by war. Very little immigration from the Empire or a hypothetical Commonwealth.

*If Pearl Harbour actually happened during these hypothetical events, remember that at the time, America was isolationist and largely anti-British. We may not have gone to war with Japan, unless Japan attacked our Empire possessions. If that happened, we would have gone to war with Japan and America would have a powerful ally with just one theatre of war to fight. The Japanese would surely have reconsidered a war against the world’s two most powerful nations.

*Britain could have been picking up the pieces of a broken Europe. It is not inconceivable that Britain could have considered the creation of some form of a United Europe, under British leadership, with the HQ in Britain.

Just chucking it all out there: make up your own “What If’s”to match.

 

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Adding my voice to Tippon‘s Richard. If you are reading this and can reply, please give us a quick note to say you are OK. Your input is missed.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

I have said before that I speak to many young people, as each of my grandchildren have loads of mates and we are sometimes host to them, the bungalow is packed at times. I like talking with them, as opposed to talking at them. They say that too many older people, in particular my age group, don’t listen to them, but dismiss whatever they say. Common theme seems to be “You won’t think that/vote that way/have that opinion when you’re older.” Well they know that I do listen and they know I respect their opinions, even if I may not sometimes agree with them. Often, points that us oldies fail to realise are: the world is a different place for them, they face a more uncertain future than we did, work and education is very different to what I certainly grew up with. I like to talk to them about my granddad, a founder member of the original Independent Labour party, and my big brother’s struggle as a Labour councillor during the Miner’s Strike, when he liaised with Tory councillors to get things done in the village. I speak about those events in order to make them realise that things can be changed, by them if they wish.

Something that has to be taken into account, is that there are a lot of young people in Universities and they are, as Dave says, organising. I don’t have a clue how they will vote, as none of the young people I know are in Uni. But they are a mixed bunch: there is a minority who will not vote for the “Big Two” under any circumstances, but have no idea who to vote for. They asked my advice and it was “I will never tell you how to vote, I cannot do that and should not do that. Think for yourselves, study the issues and the people involved, then make a decision. Are any of you not voting?” That produced a storm of answers, all definite that they will vote, with the last one from my No.2 gson, 21 today, mostly quiet but thoughtful: “But you told me granddad that a dog wearing a blue rosette could be elected in (this constituency) – can we change that?”

“Of course you can,” I replied, ” but only if enough of your generation decide it would be best for you to *vote for a candidate from a party other than the Conservative. Now talk about that amongst yourselves while I put the kettle on”

Most decided upon the LibDems. I did not comment. I think a quiet revolution is happening amongst the young. Might not be what their parents or grandparents like, but hey, it’s their future. They will have to deal with the results of what the current crop of political screwups have made of things.

*I emphasised that.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

BL that last bit:  “… b*ggering the socket by forcing the micro usb in the wrong way …”   resonates with me. My Lenovo Tab3 socket is quite loose due to {someone’s} impatience at trying to cram it in without checking that it was upside down. “I only wanted to check the BBC weather…”    “OH Bowlocks! Look out of the window! It’s raining!”

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Good spot Graham. Might explain some of the trouble I had trying to take (non-HD) stuff from my Humax by USB.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Yes I am waiting for certain bodies to become aware of this. If MSE get wind of it, the usual anti and pro – Beeb idiots will demonstrate their obsessions and argue the issues. I sometimes get some slight amusement from these people, they get so worked up.

Can’t see anything but benefits for both Sky and BBC. I know they are separate commercial bodies, but I often wonder why more broadcasting companies don’t collaborate on certain things. Maybe ITV, BBC, Ch.4, 5, w.h.y. showing some sport. Maybe Championship, which is actually the third most viewed football internationally*, or the whole of the EFL? I know 5 takes EFL highlights, but why not collaborate? Probably the British genius for failing to agree on anything, and put own interests first, never mind viewer choice.

That’s my mini-rant today. *After PL and the Bundesliga, apparently.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Graham I came to that same conclusion when I rebuilt this desktop. 1 on floor, 2 at top, 2 fronts, 2 at side, 1 rear. I got down to 2x front (140mm), 1x top (120mm), 1x rear (120mm)

Kept taking out fans, running system to warm, checking with CPUID Hardware Monitor.  Took a long time, but I finally wound up with optimum. I think that mounting too many fans can lead to what I christen “crosswind conflicts” in the case. Wind shear is another description, borrowed from aircraft and rifle days. At different heights, winds can blow at different speeds and directions. Can play havoc with aircraft and distance shooting, has to be calculated. In aircraft that’s done by computers (not always correctly, hello Boeing!) but a sniper has to study ground, air temp, look for bird flight, cloud movement, vegetation movement, etc. I am told that this is done by a device now. Cheating! I can still look at a bird at height and judge if the wind up there is blowing in a different direction to me down here. IF I have the right specs on, lol!

All I know is that my system temps are OK with my fan setup. Nothing goes over 29ºc.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

John, when you originally bought that drive yourself, was it bought new by you? or was it used?

I ask because if it was bought second hand by you, the data that the seller describes could belong to someone else entirely. This bit worries me:

” The data was said to be letters, invoices, bank details, credit card details. Details of login ID and passwords, list of names. ”

If you are sure that you never put any of that data onto that Hdd, then this guy is trying something on. Although you have to think about the fact that it was a backup drive: did you ever backup any of that data?

This is why I never resell my hard drives. If I am finished with them, it’s because I suspect they are near the end of useful life, so I destroy them. (The 160 GB I sent you had been wiped, for example, but was hardly used anyway). If I am taking them to WEE heaven at the dump, I wipe them with something like this:

https://tinyurl.com/y6967m7w

My son’s Hdd was so badly damaged that I couldn’t even get it to boot and couldn’t get my PC to see it. So I gave it some 4lb. lump hammer and smashed the platters.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

I get that pain and swelling Nolan, never found anything to prevent it. I get blue vein spots in my finger joints, which is ‘advance warning’ and later it feels like needles in the finger joints and knuckles. Later still come the foot cramps, which were worse at bedtime until I started wearing bedsocks. Only need a nightcap to look like Scrooge! All my toes try to wrap themselves around each other, then try to curl up.

I have a lot of sympathy for you, as I had osteo for years, but did not start to suffer Rheumatoid before I got past about 68. To suffer it when relatively young, must be a trial.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

On the subject of fans: I have a boxful of the damned things, legacy of my hoarders brain, never could chuck stuff away until recently. 120’s and 140’s: anyone wants one I’ll make a list. P&P only wanted. Lots of mounting screws, 4 with every fan.

I’m a Magpie!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Author]

Posts