S-Westerly

Fig rolls are the Devil's faecal matter.

My chief mate (Latvian) used to have a business until the Latvians had a major falling out with the Russians around 2000 when the Russians banned Latvians from doing some kinds of business in Russia. He used to travel to remote villages in the boonies and reckoned it was like time travel. Once you left the main roads they were not much better than tracks. Many of the farms still shared the home buildings with livestock. Outside loos were common. This is where the Russians get a lot of their troops so homes with modern stuff are like a sweet shop for kids and no limits. The BBC has an article about a Russian regiment that got mauled with a list of named dead. They are from a small city but those mentioned by name are disproportionately officers, WO's and NCO's so either they are being fragged by their own troops or they need a lot of pushing to do anything making leaders vulnerable.

Don't like sweet alcohol so dipping jaffa cakes in Southern Comfort is a definite no. Each to their own.

According to my non-Russian Eastern Europeans the Russian military is so corrupt that out of every 10 tanks they were supposed to have only 2 or 3 were actually serviceable as essential parts had been stripped off and sold. Where they have "withdrawn" they've stripped everything they could steal and wrecked the rest. Pretty 19th century. They are building up a huge store of hatred among there neighbours which is going to take decades to pass. More evidence of atrocities are coming to light as well which is bad all round. So far the Ukrainians have been treating prisoners reasonably well on the whole but if atrocities start mounting up that's likely to change particularly in militia units. On the whole the Ukrainian regulars seem to be much more disciplined (and effective) than the Russians.

Scottish Power are dreadful. They tried to double bill us for a year. Apparently we had 2 meters? Then took another year for them to accept we didn't actually owe them money and a final year to get back what they owed us after we dumped them at the end of the 2 year contract period. Really lousy people to deal with and the customer services are lower than whale shit.

April fool methinks.

Sophisticated April fool from SBS.

Open roads that used to be NSL but are often reduced to 50 mph I don't get too aerated over folks speeding, might even be tempted myself. But in built up areas where kids and pets can be running around or older folks crossing roads I think speed limits are useful and should be enforced. The road I live on is a narrow road just wide enough for a lane in each direction. It's a steep hill with a series of sharp bends and a number of even smaller roads joining it. The posted limit is 20 mph which is fair enough. Most drivers more or less comply. A few knobbers don't and although no kids have been hurt every year pets get killed. The worst offenders though are cyclists coming down the hill as its one of the known local bike routes. They come down at pretty high speeds and you don't hear them coming.

My bike lives most of its time outdoors under a cover and its no more decrepit for its mileage than one kept garaged. Depends how much TLC you expend on it.

Well at least you aren't in a position to invade your neighbours unlike Vlad the Mad.

Chocolate Hobnobs all day, any day.

Surprised how often folks pull out on the Multistrada as it's not exactly a small bike. I tend to weave a bit if conditions permit in an effort to make myself more obvious. As others have said - expect the worst then you'll only be pleasantly surprised.

P&O Ferries are NOT owned by Carnival Cruises. They were spilt off from P&O Cruises 20(?) years ago. P&O Ferries are basically owned by Sheikh Al Makhtoum, Emir of Dubai who is the principal owner of DP World who actually owns P&O Ferries. They also own a lot of ports / terminals around the world as well as major shipyards. Totally different organisations.

Rather have warm hands than no usable hands!

Makes total sense. Nearly all my "near misses" have been vehicles pulling out at junctions. My one notable accident years ago was me failing to negotiate a bend.

P & O now owned by Dubai only want to slash wages to increase their already significant profits. They made a loss in 2020/2021 but that was during Covid so not exactly a surprise. They still managed to pay out a £270 million dividend to shareholders. Regardless of the legality or otherwise of what they've done it is morally reprehensible imo.

I'm a Tory and I don't have a particular desire to sack people but if a company (and not P&O in this case) needs to let people go what are they supposed to do? Keep everybody and go bust or let some go and survive? I've been made redundant 3 times and just got on with it. And the companies I worked for weren't British so I didn't get a brass farthing in compensation.

P&O boss now says they may have broken the law but its alright as they'll pay compensation? Pretty sure that's not how the law generally works. You can't arbitrarily decide to break one and then say it doesn't matter cos you'll pay compensation to whoever is the victim of your transgression. Where do you draw the line?

Dogging in the land of the midnight sun.

The only time I ever felt the need to get my helmet off really quickly was when I was sharing it with a wasp.

Probably pulling back so they can use some WMD of their choice without killing too many of their own, not that its bothered them much so far. Really can see why the Ukrainians call them orcs.

Never realised that beekeeping was so bloodthirsty! There's a few folks round my way who keep bees which I quite like as it means my fruit trees have a good chance of being pollinated.

Too true. We used to call "our" union (now NUMAST) the ferryman Union because they were the only ones who seemed to get any benefit from it. See some of the guys being laid off are in line for £100 K pay off. Soften the blow a bit.

I'm not sure about that. Deliberately making civilians suffer for military ends has been going on since the beginning of recorded history. First rule of siege warfare seemed to be give in now or we'll kill everyone within the walls.

When the deep sea fleet got butchered in the 70's and 80's the union did absolutely sweet fa for us. Even the redundancy payments were legal minimum - I saw guys with 30 years in get less payout than a Liverpool docker. It was a joke. I dropped out of the union then and only rejoined in the 90's when I went master and that is for the legal cover in the event of any incident ending up in court. My line of work was never a closed shop although it was pushed for but never got traction.