banjo48

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Posts posted by banjo48

  1. Not sure about english ants but here in oz we get infested with the buggers, the best cure is a bait which the workers take to the nest and it kills the queen, which in turn wipes out the nest.

    A simple bait is some peanut butter and honey with some borax powder mixed through, takes a few days but works.

    Can be put inside a bit of pipe or under a saucer to prevent pets from eating it.

     

    The nests you have now are all new colonies from when the flying ants turn into queens and start more colonies, every flying ant has the ability to start a new nest.

    Other option I used to do is boiling water down the nest, but that may kill bits of your lawn.

     

    Only other action is a pesticide.

  2. #811

    DJ360, had the cardiac CT scan last year, nothing to it really apart from you get a weird "I've wet myself" feeling when they inject the contrast, I did anyway and they did warn me about it.

     

    As for my other woes, my little forehead trapdoor seems to be finally healing and looking less like frankenstein than before.

    but they inform me it was successful and they managed to remove the nasty pretty well.

     

    So all good here at the moment.

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  3. Catfan

     

    The old post office building was originally  the mechanised parcel sorting office, I worked there on it's construction, and many times after it opened.

     

    The place is literally full of blue asbestos (crysidilite sp.) very nasty stuff indeed, we were there when it was found to be carcegenic and cause mesothelioma.

    We were told to have regular chest xrays and if affected we would be covered, whatever that means in todays age.

    It was literally boxed in to seal it away, with hundreds of sheets of plywood, it was supposedly fireproofing for the steel structural element of the building.

    Sorry to go OT.

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  4. Many happy memories of Skeggy, learn't to swim there on a day trip into Butlins with my great aunt, donuts, fish and chips all happy times.

    Then when I was a teenager I decided to go there on my pushbike with a mate and camp, camped on the sand hills somewhere to the north side and a bloody gale came in and blew the tent away in the middle of the night ! skidaddled back to home like a wet rat next morning.

    Still head to the east coast for a day trip, usually Cleethorpes first then head down to Mablethorpe and skeg and back to nottm, when I return to the uk for a holiday.

     

    Took our youngest daughter last trip and she was not impressed with the east coast, she was a baby when we emigrated so has no memory of England at all.

    She looked at the muddy coloured sea and gasped "god people are actually going in there !"

     

     

     

     

     

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  5. Bit of a follow up to my woes,  the good news is they say the graft has taken well, but every time I look at it to apply some special ointment I nearly pass out, and I can assure you I'm not normally squeamish !  the wife won't come near me without the dressing on as she can't look at it or she faints too !

     

    40 odd staples were painfully removed during the first dressing change after a week. To say yuk is an understatement but they assure me it's early days and it will get better.

     

    At least the pain has now subsided, the little man that was in my head hammering has obviously escaped via the 3" trapdoor on my left forehead !  :-o ((

  6. Just had probably one of the worst weeks of my adult life.

     

    Had a funny quick growing mole removed from my  left temple a few weeks ago, got the call back a couple of days later, not a melanoma but a very rare, very fast growing invasive nasty carcinoma so got to have more skin removed asap, problem, not enough skin on head to get a good boundary, so go to see a plastic surgeon quick time and went in last wednesday for a removal and split skin graft.

     

    Actual operation under general was no probs, but the pain afterwards, my god !  been on panedine forte and oxycontin for nearly a week, so hardly any sleep apart from a drugged stupor then hangover from the drugs.

     

    Also some nice theatre nurse thought it would be great fun to apply my donor site near my groin with a very liberal amount of gooey tape without shaving my pubes ! so every time I try to walk I end up defoliating half my goodies. Ended up removing that dressing myself and shaving what I had got left before re applying a new dressing, Think they took enough skin to do half my bloody body, maybe just in case !

     

    Got some big foam packing stapled to my skin across my left forehead about 3" square, and as said the pain is like a migraine on steroids, a  little man with a hammer has been trying to get out for 6 days !

     

    Anyway back tomorrow to get the dressings removed and changed and see if the graft has taken, bugger I've had enough of this old age thing.

     

    Oh and did I mention constipation due to drugs, now I've got grapes growing where the shouldn't and they bleed like buggery every time I try to go to the loo. (sorry for the description ladies) but I've had enough of this.

     

  7. Might add, when I first met my wife at Gedling miners welfare, I was actually with Ralph and Will, we were a well known trio at the time, we saw these 3 girls, and picked one each, Ralph picked Val, Will picked Bella and I got my future wife !

     

    Ha ha how amazing that we will celebrate our 50th anniversary this year and they all said it wouldn't last.

    Even my wife's elder sister tried to break us up as she said we were far too young to be in a serious relationship.

    But now I'm really going OT.

     

    As a follow up to your remark above, I love looking up my past, even if some times it gets a bit sad or disappointing, or not what we thought we'd remembered.

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  8. DJ360

    I knew Dawn well, and only last met her a few years ago on Westdale lane, she was visiting her mum in the sheltered accomadation about half way down on the right hand side.

     

    Small world isn't it ? I knew the family very well as the older brother, Mick, was my brothers best mate. There was quite a few kids in the family and one of the older sisters lived there with her husband.

    Will try and wrack my brain for the names.

     

    Another brother was Barry, another daughter Debbie but thats it for now, Oh the married daughter was Grace.

     

    Ralph had a serious accident on his Vespa scooter in his late teens, he came off on some ice on Haydn road and ended up with a damaged sciatic nerve in his leg causing the bad limp, which he never really came to terms with.

     

    After a many years he decided to try more surgery to improve the problem, and unfortunately died in the hospital due to complications.

    We were all devastated, as he was a lovely fella indeed, he came to my house to visit many times prior to his death.

     

    I think he worked at Luxfer in Colwick.

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  9. The photo of Baileys is a bit confusing as that corner area was always full of tables with displays of fruit and veg outside the shop, I went to school with the son who lived there, think his name was Andrew but may stand corrected.

     

    Some confusion may arise as in the early days, mid 50's there was some big houses with large front gardens abutting plains road around that area, one such house was my old school mate Will, his house was huge and had a stables/barn to the rear and side, it was straight across  almost, from the top of Breckhill road, some terraces were either side but on the road frontage.

    His mum and sister died tragically in a car accident near Gunthorpe bridge, and the house was sold and demolished and shops built on the land

    One such terrace on the left hand side of the old house was another school mate, Ralph Sim, he had around 4 or 5 sisters.

    (Now San Merino  Italian restaurant)

     

    That house was eventually sold and the front made into a shop which used to be a ladies hairdresser.

     

    Just looked on google maps and Diddyland is where my mates house was.

     

    See here:- https://www.google.com.au/maps/@52.9840451,-1.1219965,3a,75y,133.07h,78.4t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1seOamcauLH7b0KCG92aEGdQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

     

    Also to the left if you pan the image Baileys can be seen as I explained, with all the outside display.

     

     

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  10. From my distant memory, Mapperley tea gardens was on Haywood road, my mum used to go dancing there, I believe the area fronting it on the North side of Haywood, was open land all the way through to plains road (or Mapperley Tops as we called it. Somewhere near the now Co-op shop, the original co-op was at the top left corner of Gretton road.

     

    And yes Baileys have been there forever !

     

    I moved to Mapperley as a 4 year old in 1952-3,

  11. My wife failed her test in the uk ,  5 times due to being unable to reverse park !  she nearly gave up but I made her persist with another test, by now she was 6 months pregnant with our twin daughters !

     

    She did the test again and when she got to the reverse bit, she explained to the test inspector that her "bump" would not allow her to do it properly as she was hitting the steering wheel with it !

    Anyway he must have felt sorry for her as he let her off and passed her then.

     

    Might add in just over 30 years later, she still cannot reverse park and often drives round car parks looking for a space she can drive through to get out.

    But she has never had an accident or been done for any offence in all this time.

  12. My old dad did the pools religiously for years, then one Sat night he screamed "I've got 8 draws ! " the Sunday we were all running around in a daze wondering how we were going to spend it.

     

    On the Monday dad took the day off work and we all drove down to Leicester (Vernons I think) to get his winnings, in he went all happy then a while later came out all glum, there had been that many claims he only won a miserly amount, don't think it even covered his day off and petrol to get it.

    Poor old bugger was so disapointed but carried on doing them regardless even though he never won again.

  13. Had a pair of Wharfdale Kingsdales, big and ugly but boy they sounded good, think the front speakers were Lintons.

     

    Used to think I was hifi buff till an old acquaintance introduced me to his gear, he was quite a wealthy successful business man by then, he had some very nice uk made gear, cannot for the life of me remember but maybe Linn ? know the deck was a Linn sondeck  (sp)

     

    He never switched the deck off, it was always turning quietly away as he recond it was much better quality sound and no rumbles or whatever as it was warmed up !

    Always remember him putting on a Dire Straights album to demo it to me and it blew me away ! my old Pioneer amp was never the same after that experience.

     

    His company used to manufacture hifi speaker stands and other hifi equipment stands, they was called Fabriweld and started business in Colwick on Little Tennis St but moved to Harrimans lane dunkirk, I think they still manufacture top gear there now.

     

    Sorry to go OT Piano man but a soundbar is the way to go nowadays.

     

  14. Great story and memories John, welcome to the group.

     

    I too knew Stu in the very early years, posted somewhere in another thread here I think, I used to play with him on Caunton avenue near my great aunts house, when I used to stay there as probably a  9-10 year old (maybe a bit younger).

    I used to "steal" or borrow my great aunts sons air pistol and those dart things and we'd have a great time shooting them at an old gate with a makeshift target on it, think it was the top access gate to the Hungerhill allotments maybe.

    Our paths crossed again many times in later life and the last time was him and his wife running the beer-off on Westdale lane just before I emigrated in '89.

    I was  involved in martial arts and he was also, but a different style to our group, think another mate of his was also into it, a coloured guy called Kenny Johnson, nice bloke too.

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  15. Pellets can make a big difference on most air rifles, and usually there is one particular one that suits a gun best.

    When I bought my air rifle the gunsmith chronographed it with about 10 different brands and weights. I was then given the print out and a selection of the best performing in both accuracy and power.

     

    And I'll agree that my rifle is no good whatsoever in an enclosed shed or grain store, just too powerful, I have considered selling my 0.22lr and buying a .177 low power air rifle just for ratting or pigeons inside. Also simpler to store as no live ammunition to worry about.

     

    But nowadays I shoot far less than I did, so will think on it.

     

    Recently the dreaded myxomatosis has reappeared here after a wet winter and the rabbit population had declined rapidly, they will come back though, they always do and then usually in plague proportions.

  16. #94

    Maybe in the UK but here in Oz my Weihrauch HW100T is rated at 33ft/Ibs with a velocity of around 950ft/sec.

    My real rifle, a Bruno 0.22lr.

     

    I used to hunt feral animals, mainly rabbits and cats and more often choose my air rifle now, instead of the "real" one, it is super accurate up to around 100m. and cheap to operate.

     

    Both require a full firearms license and are both classified as firearms, and have to be stored accordingly.

     

     

  17. Here in Oz ticks are a fact of life when the weather warms up, especially in kangaroo populated areas.

     

    I have to use a flea and tick control on both my dogs full time, I tend to switch between Advocate and Frontline or whichever is on special at the time. Another problem here is heart-worm in dogs and cats, a very dangerous parasite that can eventually kill the animal by strangling their heart from the inside. We give a monthly chew which stops any infection but has to be used for life !  there's a yearly injection too but my springer spaniel has a bad reaction to it.

     

    I've had many ticks on me especially when working in overgrown bushy areas, currently helping a friend on his 5 acre block and it's alive with the nasty buggers, I always spray clothing with repellent before doing work but they still come on your clothes. 

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  18. 3 hours ago, MargieH said:

    banjo, the chemist's wife (I think!) you referred to, tested me on my First Aid badge for Girl Guides.  I remember going upstairs in the shop and she asked me various questions.  I passed!  

     

    Pleased I missed your bomb-making in the brickyard!  

     

    And what do you use a catapult for nowadays?

    Margie

    Nothing serious, mainly to scare away 28 parrots (that's what they are called 28's here in W Australia ) that tend to roost in trees near us and drive me crazy with their raucous cries at 4-30 am in a morning !

    A quick shot with some loose fine gravel soon moves them on to annoy somebody else.

     

  19. 6 hours ago, katyjay said:

    I think we called some marbles,  gallies?

    We actually called our catapults Gally's or Gallies.

     

    I actually still use a proper bought catapult sometimes still now, black widow I think it's called, uses round hollow rubber tube that is also used on spear fishing guns, and has a metal frame with wrist support.

     

     

     

  20. #13

    My local chemist at corner of Mapperley plains and Gretton road, can't remember his name, short tubby little fellow with frame less bottle bottom glasses, must have known what I was up to when I used to buy my salt peter, pemangamate of potash and other goodies for my childhood "bomb making " enterprises !

    We even used to make our own charcoal and grind it up !

    We then moved on to weedkiller and other sweet things that went bang !  I used to buy "Jetex" fuse from the model shop up past the Porchester pub, great stuff for our experimentation at the time, my brother had a little jetex car, powered by a small solid fuel jet motor, so I used to pinch his fuses also.

     

    Mapperley brickyard was our testing area, especially the clay bank bordering plains road. Had some lucky escapes but always good fun at the time.

     

    I think a catapult was always carried wherever we roamed, complete with small stones or if lucky some marbels  or ball bearings.

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