Chulla

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Posts posted by Chulla

  4. Most Members On Line

    in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !

    Posted

    This subject has drifted from its original thread (Meet-up). People cannot be forced to attend meetings, particularly if they are not well or live too far away; but as Lizzie says, there are plenty who live local and could have supported the event. We almost had the room to ourselves, with only two couples dining in there besides us. A glance at my photograph does not convey the image of a society celebrating its tenth anniversary.

    I have attended three now and note that it almost always the same people that attend. It is high time that we had some fresh faces at the meetings. Regard this message as a conscience-pricker.

    • Upvote 4

  11. The English Language

    in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !

    Posted

    Lough is Irish for lake, and is in the Oxford Pocket Dictionary. I believe it is also Scottish for loch. I say this because the two Loughead brothers went to America and foundered an aircraft company. Because the Americans could not come to terms with the name being pronounced Lockheed, the brothers renamed themselves to the phonetic pronunciation.

  12. Poundland

    in General Chat about Nottingham

    Posted

    The phenomenal rise of budget stores has to be taken seriously. I go into Poundland for stick-jaw, batteries and photo print paper. The other week we went to the local Aldi to see what it was like. Mrs Chulla did her usual food shop and then compared the prices with her last Sainsbury bill. Taking like-for-like at same amounts and weights, but not same brands in all cases; for 12 or just over items the saving was over five pounds. We are talking serious money here.

    Is there any wonder that all of the big supermarkets are making losses. Store closures are next on the agenda. Tesco has completed the build of two new stores, but is not going to open them. I read that B&Q and Homebase are going to close one in four of their stores. As the song says - Times, they are a changing.

  13. The English Language

    in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !

    Posted

    I am starting this thread as a receptacle for items concerning our language (keep it clean!). The English language is populated with spelling, grammar, idioms, etc, that hardly make sense, and yet we say and write them without query. Take the example of the name Loughborough, mentioned in a recent posting; it has that awkward combination of letters spelling 'ough'. It has them twice, both phonetically different from the other.

    I have heard that during the war, when they arrested German Fifth Columnists, who obviously spoke decent English, MI.5 or whoever, would ask them to read a sentence that had a number of examples of words with ough in their spelling, all pronounced differently. Virtually guaranteed, I would have thought, to catch-out the spy.

    By my reckoning there are eight different ways of pronouncing ough - tell me if you know of another. These are, with examples of words, preceded by their phonetic sound:

    OU - bough, Slough

    OH - though, dough

    OO - through

    OFF - trough, cough, Gough

    OR - ought, fought, nought

    UFF - rough, tough, slough, enough, Hough

    ER - thorough, borough

    OCK - lough

    So, the spy might have been given the sentence 'A man named Gough, from Slough, fought off a thoroughly rough cough through eating too much dough whilst sitting beside a lough'.

    • Upvote 5

  14. Make do and Mend

    in General Chat about Nottingham

    Posted

    At the Rise Park Association's 1940's 'do' yesterday (it was excellent) there were some of the old wartime posters on display, one of which was Make do and Mend. Being of a certain age this reminded me of the days when this was a common, everyday mantra, during the war years and for some time after. It was nothing like today's throw-away society where practically nothing gets mended - often costs more to mend than to replace. During the 1940s there was often no choice; it had to be mended, a replacement didn't exist. This was relatively easy when it came to clothes, which could also be altered to a different fit or re-modelled.

    During the war I lived with my grandparents and remember grandma making rugs. These were made from strips of cloth material (virtually anything would suffice), about half an inch wide, pulled through a hessian base. They looked lovely when completed but quickly became flattened and the retainer of much dirt and dust.

    There were shortages of just about everything during the war; razor blades were one such commodity. Granddad used to revive the edge on his 7 O'clock blades. He would put a few drops of water into a tumbler and then push the blade on to the inside surface of the tumbler with his thumb and rub it to and fro. How this restored an edge to the blade I'll never know. One of my workmates told that he sometimes had to take a jam jar to the pub at night because there was a shortage of beer glasses.

    Electrical equipment was very robust; if the wireless broke down it was usually put right by the fitment of a new Mullard valve.

    Post-war and into the 1950s and 1960s there were still many pre-war cars and motorbikes on the road. These required lots of work to keep them going. Parts, if they could be found, were in car junkyards, or, in the case of the latter at such wonderful places as Gaggs and Bob's Spares. The introduction of the MOT test put paid to much of this routine. As for me, I was just the same, and still am. If I can mend it I will. Only if it is beyond by skill will I give up.

    Anyone else got any stories of how their family used to make do?

    Darkazana (below). I remember those mushroom-shaped things that you pushed inside the sock to hold it firmly while it was darned. Another fairly common sight was a hobbling iron, to mend shoes with. Some people would cut old bike tyres up to nail on to the soles.

    • Upvote 1

  15. Iron railings in the war

    in pre 50's Nottingham

    Posted

    I have heard the stories that the scrap collected during the war was never used. Tripe! Of course it was; but not necessarily for the reason stated. The aluminium pans were not of the correct grade for aircraft manufacture, but aluminium was used in many other things. There were local Aluminium Boards that made sure that it went to the factories that need it, and in the right quantities - it was, in effect, rationed as there was only so much of it available at any one time - no bauxite coming from France to manufacture it.

    As for the iron railings; these could be used for low-grade items, such as bomb casings, artillery and cannon shell warheads, ship and tank construction, and a thousand other reasons. Some of the ships in the Atlantic convoys carried iron filings in bulk from USA and Canada. Do people think that the iron railings were discarded when scrap from three thousand miles away was being imported - at, I might say, a very great cost in lives.

    I have always thought that some railings, perhaps discovered after the war, for what ever reason, never got melted down and some people thought that none of them were.

    • Upvote 2

  16. virgin on the ridiculous

    in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !

    Posted

    #21 & 22, Barclaycon and Lizzie.

    Talking about Concorde. I worked with a chap (Sid) who's son worked for British Airways. Free travel was available to family members, so Sid and his wife used to take advantage of this, but they had to travel on stand-by - ie, only if there was a seat available. One trip took them to Los Angeles and on returning to the BA desk at LAX they were told that there were no seats on any return flights to LHR. They hung around until eventually the BA man said 'I can get you to New York, but then you are on your own'. New York was half way to London so they took up his offer.

    At JFK they reported to the BA desk, only to be told that there were no seats on London flights. However, they might have something, if they would check a little later in the day. When they did they were told that there was a flight going to London. It was Concorde. The aircraft had had an engine failure and been marooned at JFK for a few days until a spare engine had been flown out. The aircraft was now going to return empty to LHR. Handfuls of peanuts, snacks and drinks were quickly snatched from a BA 747 Jumbo and off they went - the only passengers. They got the royal treatment and all the souvenir goodies as well. How's that for an experience.

    • Upvote 8

  19. Trainspotting

    in Pete's Nottingham Transport Forum

    Posted

    Yes, the Farnborough accident was 1952. I remember it like it happened yesterday. We were quite close to where the engine hit the crowd. Dad said 'stay here' and went for a look. he came back and said ' come on, were are going'. He didn't think that the show would continue. I can still see the aircraft breaking up and the two engines arcing their way towards us. Minutes later there was a very long stream of ambulances snaking its way through the crowd to get to where the casualties were. We hung around for a bit longer and they decided to continue the flying display.

    We went on train that day also, because I remember reading about the accident, in a newspaper on the way back to Waterloo, and was surprised how quick it had got published. We were not white as ghosts, as mam said. Dad and I went to every Farnborough show from 1950 to when he died.

    You, katyjay, are responsible for us attending the worst display there. You tactlessly got married on Farnborough Saturday! We had to go on Sunday, the next day, and the weather was atrocious - never seen so much rain there. Only a handful of aircraft flew; after 4 o'clock.

    • Upvote 1

  20. Trainspotting

    in Pete's Nottingham Transport Forum

    Posted

    Further memories of those great days. Travel to other places in the late 1940s / early 1950s wasn't so easy - lack of money had something to do with it. As a consequence, the engines we spotted were very often the same ones, based at Nottingham, Colwick or Annesley. A trip out was really a wonderful experience. By Gash's bus to Newark or from Victoria Station to Grantham, the sense of adventure was electric. Where else was I going to see engines with blinkers, or streamlined Gresleys travelling at speeds well above engines that passed through Basford/Bulwell/Cinder Hill.

    Another red letter spotting experience was when dad took me to the Farnborough Air Shows in 1950 and 1951. Our journey began with the midnight train from the Midland Station to Derby, where we caught a slow train to St Pancras (absolutely packed at that time of night - no seats left) that arrived at five in the morning. From there we walked to Waterloo Station - the Underground wasn't running that early - where we caught a Southern region train to Farnborough. Looking around the station area I well remember King Arthur at the buffers. Its carriages were being pulled away by leaving train after which King Arthur accelerated super quick in reverse. The sharp, and very loud crack of the 'chuff' I remember to this day. Also around the station yard were Bullied pacifics with their 21C numbers - some had not yet been named, and one of those peculiar Q1 class locos with the stepped boiler. The odd tender still had SOUTHERN on it, not BRITISH RAILWAYS. There also was a GWR saddle-tank in the red colours of London Transport. The return fare was 32/6, if I remember correctly. Nothing gets the nostalgia genes more active than remembering those days - and the raw grit-invaded eyes from hanging out of the window.

    • Upvote 1

  23. Puzzles

    in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !

    Posted

    Big head me got in less than one minute. Believe it or not, a Frenchman once wrote a novel in French without once using the letter E. Not to be outdone, and Englishman translated it into English, again without using the letter E.