S-Westerly

Forest of Dean is Gloucestershire I'll have you know! I'd be up for a jolly in happier times as I regularly head down to Portsmouth area or to Wells, Bruton, Salisbury, Shaftesbury, Dorchester etc. As we are planning family meet ups over the 5 days when covid goes on its holidays I'm under the cosh to not expose myself to the plague in case I pass it on.

Bike back from servicing early and having taken it for a bimble its in fine fettle. Fully ACF'd for the winter too. Usual frisson of fear on roundabouts where the pretty sheen of spilled diesel shines across the road.

Had a Mac for a few years and really liked it but for one thing. Sad individual that I am when I'm at sea one of my preferred entertainments is computer games and my Mac just couldn't cope with some of the then newer games. I passed it on to my daughter and its still in use 10 years on. It was bulletproof as well. Fell out of my backpack onto a concrete jetty and still working.

Just this last trip my young Russian ESO fiddled with the gas detection system which hadn't worked properly for 9(!) years and discovered that it had been wrong installed during construction. Bear in mind the damned thing was serviced by a manufacturer's rep every 12 months as well. Grrr.

More to remind myself that letting engineers loose on anything can sometimes have unexpected results. Sometimes good but not always.

This has been going around for a while, but it makes me laugh. For all the engineers here plus @fastbob I think.

Nope, and you don't need to be a major economy either - Syria and Rwanda for starters.

I don't think you have to chase it. Its more of a natural talent surely?

Get a more comfy bike? Or do you have aches and pains from the evils of your youth?

True though, as we still have 11 of the silver bits which get dug out of the loft every year along with all the other Christmas decorations. Apparently my wife's family have been doing this for yonks but only I had the crassness to actually eat one.

March 21st all going well, although I've got leave for another month on top of that.

Don't like board games. Miserable old git that's me. Cards though, thats another thing but not bloody Bridge.

Managed to get bike serviced. Due to plague dealers not offering loan bikes and as I didn’t fancy spending 8 hours in plague infested Bristol they came and collected it for free. Earliest I'll get it back is Saturday though.

Wot? Seems to be the day for cryptic posts.

Ummm. No? Or would you like f**k no?!

Wearing studded gloves.

Don't think there is any country anywhere that has no skeletons in its cupboard. Modern China though has a few more recent black marks than most.

Absolutely. I think people who drive uninsured should be punished more severely than is currently the case. So many horror stories about uninsured drivers killing innocents usually already under a driving ban etc.

I was being a bit tongue in cheek myself.

Pretty sure that Six will walk it as nobody else has the solid consistency of being such a twat. The rest of us have our moments and I'd give XT an honourable mention but he also occasionally talks sense and the desert wasteland in which he dwells has some redeeming features.

Temporarily.

Gloucestershire Police were trialling them last week in Stroud. Not only do they catch you speeding but also check if you are insured and taxed. Believe they nabbed about 10 people is a single afternoon.

My OH has small silver talismans that she bakes into mince pies. Apparently the talisman you get indicates your luck for the year. She marks the pies with them so she can warn innocents that they have lumps of metal in them. She inherited them from her mother and there were 12 now only 11. First Christmas at future mother in law saw the mince pies dished out. Now I can't stand the bloody things but being a polite boy I scarfed one down and washed it away with a slug of Scotch. Sadly the talisman went down too and nobody was that keen to try and recover it.

I was on a ship once back in the good old days when we had booze except this particular one was down to a case of Harveys Bristol Cream. One Sunday about 6 of us drank the lot. Spent about 12 hours straight tied to the loo. Horrible stuff.

Married at 21, still married at 63 and pretty darned happy. Probably helps I've been at sea for half that time. God help me when I retire.