philmayfield

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Posts posted by philmayfield

  1. All of three watches are 'pilot's' watches. I love all the knobs and dials. They're totally useless for flying though. For that I had a larger Breitling mechanical stop watch which fitted to my navigational chart board. I still use it for last minute bids on Ebay! My 'best' watch is an Omega Speedmaster Professional. Certified by NASA to be used on the moon. I've never flown that far though!

  2. My father did watch repairs as a sideline in the post war years. He was an aircraft instrument  engineer in the RAF. There was a constant flow of watch repair customers beating a path to his door where he would also sell them eggs or whole birds from the fowls he kept in the garden!

  3. The keen watch people go for the expensive Swiss timepieces which have a mechanical movement but can never keep precise time. Additionally they require a service every few years at a cost of around £500. My Japanese watches, which are considerably cheaper,  keep time to the exact second and require no attention.I have never even changed the battery on my 10 year old Seiko. I do have a posh watch which I don't wear for fear of scratching! I have a collection of oldish wall clocks which I have restored but I've put most of them in store as they were becoming a pain to wind each week. I even put an electric movement into the old brass Smith's kitchen clock!

  4. I always refer to a sundial. It gives me reassurance that my everyday watch which is powered by light and requires no batteries and gets two daily radio time signal updates from an atomic clock in Germany, is keeping good time. You can’t beat old technology!

  5. My mother’s parents used to live on Greenwood Rd. Those prewar council houses were nicely designed and had large gardens. Theirs used to back onto allotments and I remember there was an Anderson shelter right at the very top of the garden which was arranged in three levels being on the side of a steep hill. It was only a short walk up the road and you were in open countryside with Colwick Woods stretched out in front of you. I’ve not been up there since the 50’s. It would be interesting to have a drive up there just to see how things have changed.

  6. Belvoir Castle you certainly can. Not sure about Lincoln Cathedral. You would need powerful binoculars as it’s about 40 miles away to the northeast. Having said that you can see both Lincoln Cathedral and Southwell Minster from High Cross hill above Bleasby. Apparently it’s the only place in the UK where you can see two Anglican Cathedrals. I can vouch for it as it was a very clear day yesterday and I stopped to look for the first time in many years. 

  7. So called 'bad language' is much more prevalent these days. In real terms they are only words that cause offence solely when directed at a person. I'm sure many of us use expletives as a norm when annoyed. I know I do but my wife never does. Perhaps after being on the factory floor for 25 years it just becomes part of normal conversation. My wife was a teacher so was not subjected to hearing regular swearing and had to put an immediate stop to it when she did.

  8. I started at Mellish in 1954 and stayed on to do A levels in the 6th form as did most of my year. I also took 7 a-levels and then 3 A levels in the sciences. Initially I became chartered accountant but subsequently reverted to engineering, amongst many other things, when I ran a manufacturing company for my final 25 years.

     

    T

  9. When I was at Mellish in 50’s/60’s I caught the train from Daybrook to Basford North. Some mornings we would walk from the station via what we called the ‘Cutler Way’. We followed a path from the station that came out up some steps onto Park Rd. That joined up with St.Alban’s Rd. where we could see the Master Cutler as it came through the bridge over Kersall Drive. It was a long way round but we just managed to get to  school before the bell rang.

  10. The Day Brook would seem to start from the top of Mapperley Plains. It does emerge along the playground beside Arno Vale Rd. but then is ducted underground at Arno Vale School and remains underground under Thackery’s  Lane emerging once again onto Valley Rd. Rec. I think ultimately it runs into the River Leen  in Basford. I’m sure it can be followed on Google Earth. I remember it well from childhood days when we lived in Woodthorpe. We used to play under the bridge by the Five Ways pub.

  11. As Brew says. It’s up to the individual and the employer to assess the risk. There’s no right or wrong in this matter, it’s just a question of sensible judgement. It’s impossible for the Government to judge the risk for every possible situation. A degree of common sense has to be applied. If in doubt - don’t!

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  12. But the problem is that no one in the Government has got ‘the final solution’. Everyone has got their own ideas and it’s impossible to condense these into a firm policy. At the moment there can be no firm plan because nobody knows which way things will swing. The ‘lock down’ policy does seem to be having an effect but the public need a bit of morale boosting from time to time as well.

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  13. The full 50 page ‘roadmap’ is due to be published today. Let’s see what that has to say before we brand people as incompetent. 
    The Tories won the election with a landslide. That was the democratic will of the people. Labour didn’t stand a chance as they showed themselves to be dithering and incompetent and the people didn’t want a hard left wing government. No matter how much you shout Boris down he’s here to stay for duration of this parliament. As I’ve said, the guy’s in a no win situation. All he can do is to try and keep up the morale.

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  14. The guy’s in an impossible no win situation. He’s got to give people some hope without opening the flood gates. It’s so easy to criticise him but nobody seems to come up with a solution that will keep everyone happy.

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