firbeck
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Posts posted by firbeck
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was thinking more of the falseness of supermarkets with vast displays of flowers, teddy bears etc and tv adverts plus presenters telling us what we should do, I don't need telling how I should feel towards my mother plus I have to ask why just one day per year?
Sorry Ashley, I know what you really mean. It used to be called 'Mothering Sunday' and extended to little more than the old man giving mum a cup of tea in bed and me making a card and knicking some daffodils out the garden. It's just gone the way of American in your face over commercialisation with the hint that it is to be ignored at your peril.
I was surprised to read that Mothering Sunday is an old European pagan festival going back to Roman times, whereas Mothers Day is an American festival in May, created to celebrate mothers who suffered in the Civil War. It was mainly created in it's modern form by a woman called Anna Jarvis in the early part of the last century, being subsequently made a public holiday by Woodrow Wilson.
Jarvis herself was arrested in 1948 for protesting against the over commercialisation of the event, saying that she wished she'd never promoted it, they obviously didn't take any notice.
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35 years ago ,during one of my first visits to Cornwall , I fell in love with some Troika pottery at St Ives. (4 pieces for a fiver.)
Mother "Wouldn't give it house room" even though I begged her to let me spend my birthday money on them.
My missus has just passed out at the thought of 4 bits of Troika for a fiver.
Ashley
As my mother is still alive I don't see that there's owt wrong in sending her a card or taking her out for a meal on Mothers Day, isn't that what your'e suggesting, or on another day so it's not classed as a rip-off.
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Mind you the vase should last longer.
Was it a Moorcroft, if so I'll look forward to seeing her on 'Cash in the Attic' soon.
It's the first time for several years that I haven't been up for Mothers Day, last year it snowed. She's reluctantly gone to my brothers to be pestered and tormented by their hideous grandchildren, I expect blood will flow, I'm waiting for the phone call to say she couldn't bear it and came home on the bus, she may be 93 in two weeks but she's all there, she won't take any cr@p, bless her.
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I hope you haven't all forgotten.
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I had an interesting experience yesterday.
I was taking the dog for a walk when I bumped into our local Bocking and Blackwater Association wildlife ranger, complete with in-house sweat shirt, telescope on tripod, bins and camera. What a nutcase, he reminded me of a ginger haired Elvis Costello on acid, he was frantically running up and down the river bank in search of a little egret.
He nearly passed out when I told him of my last few days observations, I now have to report in to their website, oh dear. Mind you he told me that the two predators that I had taken to be Sparrow Hawks this week were actually Goshawks and that my previously mentioned Buzzards had taken up residence down the river near Bocking Church.
I did manage to get a dig at his association by telling him what species had dissapeared due to their incompetent management of the area, but it went over his head, still it looks like I've got a foothold in there so I'll see what happens, it could be of benefit, if I can bear it.
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Oh no, didn't you see any flying then, don't tell me that you missed that amazing streamed take off by 11 Lightnings, the nine ship flyby and the Mach .97 pass by the singleton in a cloud of condensation or the Shackleton that lost his way taxiing in and ended up in the middle of the crowd, rule number one, never leave an airshow early, something always happens.
Apart from the F-5 Aggressor from Alconbury, can you remember the F-100 Super Sabre from Flight Refuelling Inc that was parked in the display line.
The Aggressors from Alconbury were an odd bunch, apparently the pilots even wore Russian flying gear, lived in crew rooms decorated with pictures of Lenin and spoke Russian in the air at all times.
Apart from the example at Binbrook, I only ever saw one flying once and that was at low level down a valley in Wales. Believe it or not, 20 years after the squadron disbanded, they still have an example on the gate at Alconbury, I'll attempt to take a picture of it on my way up to the Aviation Day, if I don't turn up, you'll know I'm in the guardhouse.
Alconbury Aggressors:-
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I reckon it's the Kop End, are you sure it wasn't taken after that infamous Man Utd match in the 1970's, I think it's the only time I've ever left a match before it finished.
Up at my mothers house, stuck in a scrapbook are several articles cut from the Evening Post about the bombing, including a map showing where all the individual bombs fell. I promise to find it and scan it in here the next time I go up there which should be in a couple of weeks time.
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Feel free to use my picture of the bag, on second thoughts, it's not very good, I'll try and get a better picture for you.
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Most impressive piece of kit Beefsteak, unfortunately I ain't that flush, unless something happens between now and thursday, actually I think my brother has one that he rarely uses, perhaps a bit of friendly persuasion might be in order.
Talking of Lightnings and Binbrook, I found this in the shed if it's of any interest to anyone.
One of the worst airshows for bad weather that I ever went to, was anyone else there.
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Thanks Fynger, nobody seems to get it right, I've been told a different day for a week, I've only just found out when Easter is this morning.
Another arrival as of 8:00 am, a Willow Warbler has just been singing in one of the trees at the bottom of the garden, I can see him flitting about, but can't get a good sighting. He'll be impressed to find that the local council in their wisdom have cut down all the willows and his nesting site along the river. They call it coppicing to stop flooding, lying pillocks, I call it destruction so their members get a nice view of the river.
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First official day of Spring today, apparently, and another lovely day, though it started with fog.
At last, I heard my first Chiff Chaff at 12:30 today when I took Scooby for a walk down the river, not the first warbler though, as we had a Blackcap on the bird table at 7:00 this morning, I know that they winter in Southern England, but not in East Anglia, he was a fat old thing as well, lovely grey colour and very black head.
To my astonishment our Nectarine tree has come into it's pretty pink blossom today, usually the Hawthorns are the first thing to blossom, but apart from one or two, not a lot happening there.
Anybody seen anything else yet, apart from pubs.
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The display Typhoon has been practicing for the last few weeks but not over Coningsby, it's been up to Binbrook
Rog
Binbrook!!
Have you seen the state of that place, it's very sad, there are a couple of Lightnings still lurking, one in bits, I just like to think of it when I went to the 'Last, Last Lightning Show' in 1987, a memorable day, despite the weather, I wish I could show you my slides from that day.
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firbeck,
B35, is that the one the Americans called the Washington?
Rog
Sorry mate, my mistake, my brain hurts this morning, the Canberra variant in USAF parlance was the Martin B-57, built under licence, the YB-35 was the Northrop 'Flying Wing' ( see the 'War of the Worlds', first Hollywood version).
The Washington was the RAF's name for the B-29 that was taken on by them as the nuclear deterent in the early 50's as a stopgap until the 'V' bombers came into service, imagine those things trying to penetrate Russian airspace at that time and having to face Mig-15's instead of what they were originally designed for, ie the Zero's that literally fell out of the sky trying to intercept them at high altitude over Tokyo.
Talking of building under licence, and back to the Harrier, did you know that the current generation of RAF Harriers, the GR9's, are more or less an American design because BaE allowed the patent to lapse and McDonnell Douglas took advantage of this to improve the design. It was simply another disaster stemming from the defence cuts of the 60's that saw us lose the TSR-2. The original Harrier concept as a service aircraft was really meant to be the all singing and dancing, bigger, more capable, supersonic Kestrel, but like so many things, it came to nowt because of government disinterest or understanding.
If you want to feel sick, look up the history of the British Miles M52, see it's similarity to the later Bell X-1 and wonder why the British government of the day cancelled it's development in mysterious circumstances, still fully unexplained.
Oops sorry, I was doing this between phone calls and missed your posting.
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The RAF operates 2 Hawker Hunters, ZZ190 and ZZ191, as Hunters first appeared in 1954, they could well be the oldest operated type by the RAF, not counting the BBMF of course. These two examples are believe it or not ex-Swiss airforce machines renovated at Scampton and leased back to the RAF for weapons trials work, initially from St Mawgan, but probably now from Boscombe Down.
The B-52A first entered service with the USAF in 1955 after a 3 year test programme, the C-130 first flew with the USAF in December 1956.
Incidentally, it's interesting to note a subsonic type such as the Hunter in use with the RAF on weapons trials. Not having the ability to perform high speed manouvres is not a disadvantage in a dog fight, any aircraft type with a skilled pilot and tight turning circle can out perform anything within it's own flight envelope.
During the Indonesian/Malayan incursions in the early 60's, the IAF operated P-51 Mustangs as it's principle fighter, the RAF, Lightnings. Trials were carried out in this country pitching a Lightning against one of the BBMF's Spitfire XIX's. It was found that if the Spitfire persuaded the Lightning to take part in a traditional dogfight, the Lightning lost, the tactic evolved by the Lightning was to stand off then attempt a high speed vertical pass from underneath, hoping to get off a shot in the meantime, fortunately this method was never put to the test.
Oh, just thought of another type, the Martin B-35, based on the Canberra, is still in use as a high altitude research aircraft by NASA, one of these appeared at Mildenhall a couple of years ago, but by the time I found out about it, it had gone back to Edwards AFB.
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I've got to nip out now, so I have'nt time to reply properly, but the Harrier useless as a fighter, cr@p, read Sharkey Wards book, subsonic air to air combat is the bees knees to that aircraft, and it can dictate this pace, twice I've personally seen them take part in combat exercises where they've used their viffing ability, I can assure you, it's awsome, even by todays standards.
''I'll put on the brakes and they'll fly right by, yeehah''.
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I'm quite impressed with Typhoons, but give me a Lightning any day, no frills, just aim and go for it. I bet they didn't have to work out a display routine, entrance over the back of the crowd as fast and noisy as possible, attempt a few turns in public view, fast passes in reheat and a vertical climb to 30,000 feet that can just about be equalled today by an F-15, those were the days, you have to go to South Africa to see it now.
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I just thought you may be interested to know that the Typhoon display aircraft from Coningsby started it's practice for the season last Monday, it's booked in every weekday for half an hour at 8:00 to 8:30 in the morning and 13:00 to 13:30 at lunchtime, continuing through to May.
They haven't released the display details yet but it's due to appear at the Duxford Spring airshow on 17th May.
The BBMF's first display is on 19th April at Pollington, but there are no times for their practice sessions, assuming they need any.
I also note that there are a lot of bookings for low flying areas by the Coningsby aircraft on the 8th April, so it looks like a busy day.
I can't find out much about Waddo, most of their site information appears to be 2 years out of date!!
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I assume that you've covered up those knees and picked that book up of the floor Ashley, I haven't a clue, I assume it was in either 1888 or 1927.
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How about one of the dismal teams:-
Mick Rose
Geoff Ball
Keith Smith
Alex Gibson
Dave Needham
Ron Farmer
Keith Pring
Stan Marshall
Jack Smith
Brian Bates
Eric Weaver
My apologies to Geoff Ball, who was probably distraught at having been off loaded by Forest and Dave Needham who was probably the only real talent in that line up, but young and inexperienced.
Stan Marshall could turn it on if he could be bothered, which wasn't very often, he always looked very pale and pretty unfit to me and too busy looking at the clock.
Eric Weaver was a star, as I recall looking like a mini Brian Adams wth an acne problem. He would run the full length of the pitch, but reaching the edge of the box, assuming Stan or Jack had noticed an attack was happening for once, he would be too knackered to cross it and either put it in the crowd or allowed it to trickle over the line in frustration.
Some of the others were so old that they probably got more from their pensions than the County wage office, I was thinking of suggesting George Smith in goal, he looked like a relic from prewar days, a real character from Barnstoneworth and 'Golden Gordon', his jersey tucked into his voluminous shorts, in fact in some ways the whole team were like that, along with the ancient and prehistoric ground.
My late father and uncle were diehard County fans, they used to go and see them without fail, rain or snow. Myself, I admit to jumping on the band wagon and supporting Forest in 66-67, well, seeing all the great players like Greaves and Bestie was no contest to having to endure a small crowd in that dilapidated stadium, watching the park standard goal rush against a team of similar no hopers, or was it really like that.
We had a County fan at school who persuaded us to go to one of their matches one evening, yes we went along to take the p@ss, but it wasn't like that, it was real football, no glitz, underpaid 'proffesionals' struggling against adversity, the real nitty gritty, and I enjoyed it, it was the real stuff, real football, genuine, sincere people in the ground as well.
Since then, I've always been happy to go and see both teams, perhaps thats a bit strange, but I've always considered either one on their particular merits.
My best moment, County beating Forest at the City Ground in Division 2, causing the Forest directors to get their backsides into gear and bringing Clough in as manager, thanks for that Notts, you put the City on the map, Bradd and Carter the scorers, am I right.
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Nice pics Beefsteak, you're getting dangerous with that lens.
They look very tight already, perhaps they don't really need to go all the way to Cyprus for more practice at our expense. Only joking, in my book the Reds are sacrosanct, any talk of chopping them, even in times of financial crisis, would be a disaster for the country, though I expect many would disagree.
A couple of years ago, at this time of the season, I was up at Lakenheath watching the Eagles when something unusual in the airliner route caught my eye, a mass of contrails mixed up with the 747's heading for the continent. Looking through the bins you could make out the Reds, no doubt off to Cyprus for a bit of practice in the sun, it must have looked incredible from the point of view of a passenger in one of the airliners.
In 1992 I went off to Cyprus for a week at Easter when the Reds were out practising, I occasionally glimpsed them leaving coloured smoke trails off the coast, but their official first public display was timed on the day I was leaving, I kept looking out of the window of the BM 737 but saw nowt, the only activity that holiday was the daily PR Canberra flying along the border.
So whats the reccuring theme, I can't work it out.
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The Alpha jets are based at Boscombe Down, the UK's answer to Area 51, they also operate some Hunters from there too.
What they do, I couldn't tell you, it just seems a bit odd, and expensive, operating these types when there are plenty of Hawk airframes stashed away at St Athan.
I think that the prop plane is an SN-J Texan, not sure where it's based, my computers gone barmy this morning and I can't get on any sites apart from this, I think my youth must have downloaded a virus last night, I'm not impressed.
Thanks for the PM, by the way.
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Sounds a bit of a wheeze, cough, cough.
I shall apply to my local hospital for this position immediately, the chance of confiscating all those fags and making myself a bit of money by selling them off cheaply outside our local JobCentre sounds a good idea to me.
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Nice one Plantfitt, sad to see all those intrusive lineside signs, and the loss of all those lovely semaphores and signal boxes that were so much part of the Lincoln scene.
The plaque on the side is apparently a post restoration thing commemorating it being the fastest post war steam loco, 23rd May 1958, 112mph.
Here's a picture of it passing through Wollaton watched by my brother and I sometime in the mid 50's, a slightly smaller version though.
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I woke up to a stunning morning today, so fantastic that I took the Jack Russell out for a walk at 7:00 to take it all in. The woodpeckers were bashing hell out of the trees and all the ducks on the river are pairing up, the moorhens are already building nests along the river bank.
In our garden, all the dafs are out and the tulips look as if they are about ready to flower very soon.
We have a pair of Robins frantically lining their nesting box with horsehair and the blue tits are doing the same next door, for some reason they won't go in the box in my garden. A pair of blackbirds are building a nest behind the shed as well. In addition the pond is full of frogs that were really making themselves heard last night, there are loads of Bumble bees around as well.
Yesterday we saw a pair of Buzzards heading north, they don't inhabit this area so we assume that they may have come off the continent and were heading for their hunting grounds, they are the first migrants we have seen, apart from a family of Poles stuffed into a people carrier with all their belongings yesterday.
It won't be long before the first chiff chaffs arrive, a matter of days I reckon and then it's only a few weeks before we can expect the first influx of Martins and Swallows, the earliest arrival of these I ever saw was at Melbourne in Derbyshire a few years ago when I saw large mixed flocks over the lake in late March.
Has anyone seen much activity in their area yet.
Long Gone Railways
in Pete's Nottingham Transport Forum
Posted
This was mentioned earlier when I got it wrong as well, the GCR mainline went over the road and the rathole was the GNR Derby line.
Interestingly, Geoffry Kingscott has a website relating to Trent Station about which he has written a book, he has been in contact with me requesting any pictures that I have relating to the station, which were'nt as many as I thought, if you have any pictures or personal recollections as well, he would be pleased to hear from you.