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Post by nob on Apr 30, 2021 12:28:55 GMT
Its Buzzard that seem to have made a comeback here, the only time we saw Red Kites was at Harewood house, they did a breeding programme and released them into the wild and then gamekeepers started shooting them.
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Post by banjo on Apr 30, 2021 13:17:43 GMT
We had a sparrow hawk in the garden a few years ago, it was perched on the awning frame which I never take down. I did get a snap of it. A neighbour three doors down complained to the council about a xnother neighbour (good friend) four doors down because he was feeding the pigeons. Best Beloved is ready for that if they rock up here- she doesn't feed the pigeons, and she says if they tell her not to encourage the pigeons she'll enquire as to when the council will get off the ar5e5 and do something about them. It's a shame really because they're such gentle creatures and don't threaten any other birds. They are what they are.
e&oe ...
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Post by nob on Apr 30, 2021 15:07:44 GMT
We get wood pigeons that's all one nested in a tree we have it was only about 5 foot off the ground and had two squabs, the feral ones are in town my old man used to race racing pigeons and any that came back late didn't get anther chance.
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Post by nob on May 1, 2021 15:55:33 GMT
Watching the local news last night they have found Joe Duddingtons grave and are going to honour the guy with a headstone as its unmarked. In 1938 him and his fireman Tommy Bray drove mallard. www.fohpc.org.uk/duddington/
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Post by duyuthinkysaurus on May 1, 2021 16:47:22 GMT
We have bird feeders up, it would be nice to see a few garden birds around as we did before we moved, but then it might have something to do with living on a building site. The only birds around are "shyteawks" normally called seagulls, just seems not appropriate as we are well inland.
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Post by banjo on May 1, 2021 18:20:37 GMT
I really don't like sh1tehawks either Dinks, and some species grow so flippin' large that they're really intimidating, but watching how they feather and trim their wings and fly for vast distances with barely a flap is fascinating. I've watched an eagle go up and down the Straights of Riggingdale in Cumbria covering probably 6-8 miles without a single flap, and whilst that's amazing, it doesn't compare to the dynamics of seagull flight. "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" goes into it in quite some depth (if you can live with the subliminal message that is, but I have no difficulty ignoring vested interests.)
e&oe ...
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Post by banjo on May 10, 2021 9:36:56 GMT
Pandemonium at Château Hippy. "They" are replacing the gas mains all around this network of streets with plastic pipes in readiness for turning us into little Hindenbergs. There's this brain dead git tearing up and down our road on a dumper and they haven't even started on our road yet. Our road is like the eye of the hurricane. I have no idea where all the cars from the neighbouring streets are parked. All the surrounding roads are peppered with gaping holes. The sh1te for brains bar stewards clocked off last week and failed to leave a plate over a hole in front of a friend's drive in the next road. He was locked in overnight and had a hospital appointment the next morning so I took him instead. On top of that, they turned off his gas while he was boiling an egg without even so much as knocking on his door. Moreover, no one checked whether any gas has been left on prior to reconnection. Absolute shysters. What really grates on my nerves is that all these jack hammer merchants earn way more than I ever did in engineering.
According to said friend, the machinery they are using to cut the patchwork of holes rapidly is shaking these Victorian houses right down to their minimal three stepped-out bricks "foundations". Even worse is that we'll end up paying for this so that Transco shareholders won't have their dividends impacted overtly, in turn so they won't sell their shares and jump ship. There's something very wrong with this so-called wonderful cutting edge vanguard seeking country of ours.
To add insult to injury, Best-Beloved's Nissan has cr4pp3d out half way over the pavement where I was trying to jumper it from the VW. We were on the way to get it serviced and MOT'd as well! Now it won't even get out of "Park" so I can push it back a couple of feet into the drive.
I telephoned for RAC but guess what? due to pandemic you have to register a breakdown on-line. Used to be they were facing delays due to the pandemic. Now it turns out that they're facing delays due to relaxation of restrictions! Is it just me or is that total and utter c4rp? We have an alleged ninety munutes wait, all going well etc, and no further updates possible, so just "Sit and wait you pleb".
A good day then :<D
e&oe ...
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Post by nob on May 10, 2021 11:12:28 GMT
does you good to have a rant Steve, I use the AA app and you can book a breakdown through that not that I've needed one. Touch wood. The last time they dug the main road up it was to lay a big blue water main, to be fair thy were good and snagged everything as they went along. As for gas, it was Press gas conversion who changed to natural gas in my old mans house and took out the gas bob meter.
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Post by banjo on May 10, 2021 13:42:11 GMT
Well hands up and admit when you're wrong- the RAC guy was here well within the predicted arrival and got me started with a whack on the starter motor, something that I would have done if I could have at least glimpsed the blasted thing! I gave him a jacks for a drink. The Nissan is now at the garage.
I've always gone with The RAC Nob, and the reason is because (historically at least) the AA used to operate a zoned recovery system. This meant you may have been picked up and dropped off 3 or 4 times to get you home (for argument's sake) from The Lakes with all the attendant waiting times at transit locations. That would turn a damn nuisance into a right royal PITA, whereas the RAC used to claim that they would recover you to your door in one journey. Maybe that's changed nowadays, certainly you can't rely upon The RAC to be the actual recovery truck becsuse they farm out the work.
For quite some years now I have stuck with The RAC because you can get membership for 1/3rd the price using the otherwise relatively useless Tesco Clubcard points, ergo- £70 worth of points as opposed to £210 direct.
I suppose that annual service+ticket+starter+labour+Soonyack's unearned rake off and I'll be looking at around £500? More that the old wreck is worth TBH ... Ah the joys of second class motoring compared to first class walking!
e&oe ...
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Post by nob on May 10, 2021 13:54:30 GMT
The main reason I stick with the AA is they cover the person and the RAC cover the car, or that's how it was. Green flag I don't know about but its owned be direct line. It looks like the brushes need changing on the starter motor Steve. That was a quick fix at work when a brushed motor stopped.
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Post by banjo on May 10, 2021 14:47:39 GMT
Unless it's the commutator of course. The slip rings went on a 14 months old Paris-Rhone alternator on BB's VW Polo back in the 1980s. The five quid scrap yard Bosch one I replaced it with went on for twenty years with similar wear patterns evident when I first installed it (an amusing anecdote too!)
The RAC covers us for any vehicle we happen to be travelling in. Seems sufficient cover to me.
e&oe ...
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Post by nob on May 11, 2021 7:12:10 GMT
Same as the AA then Steve, they must have changed it to compete.
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Post by banjo on May 11, 2021 8:43:45 GMT
Interesting to note that in a "let's bury the bad news" exercise, the RAC (like every other organisation without exception) claimed that due to Covid yada yada, they were under the cosh, now as BoJo is lifting restrictions, there is extra traffic and yep- you guessed it, they're under the cosh. I haven't noticed any change in the density of traffic since they lifted restrictions after the very first lockdown last year.
For those six of seven weeks last year it was like another world. Reminded me a bit of the 1970s when I passed my test. Happy days driving a J4 van up to London with the slide doors open in the sweltering heat of 1976.
e&oe ...
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Post by nob on May 11, 2021 12:32:22 GMT
It was nice and hot in 76, my eldest Royal Navy submariner lad was born in that year. I'm insured for travel with a yearly subscription with staysure, it suited but the last couple of years we've been nowhere, they gave us six month for gratis but it doesn't look like a holiday abroad for another year and its one big rip off in this country and the weathers crap. The Mrs reckons a week in Benny to test the waters next Easter we'll see.
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Post by banjo on May 11, 2021 18:25:39 GMT
I used to be with Flysure courtesy of my sister who was a BA trolley dolly until laid off last year. It was a very favourable rate indeed but over time I let it slip. I rejoined when we went to Cuba about four years ago now. It was an annual policy and when the renewal came in they had exponentially raised the premium so of course I queried. Turns out that when I aged from 60 to 61, I suddenly became a mega risky proposition. I'm normally more polite believing that you don't get anywhere by being rude over the 'phone, but that intransigence was rewarded with a go forth and multiply. Sometimes you have to make that call.
e&oe ...
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