Oztalgian
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Posts posted by Oztalgian
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Just attempted to watch the third? episode of the new Top Gear show on free to air TV here down under, gave up after ten minutes
I was prepared to cut the show a bit of slack, given that it was a new team, but the only non swear word that comes to mind is pathetic.
It was never going to work as it was trying to follow the old format which had been honed by Clarkson, Captain Slow and The Hamster.
Unless the BEEB completely revamp the format then it is inevitably bound for failure. I will not be watching any more - utter rubbish.
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Some comments about stuff on cars that you don't see any more.
"Club" locks on steering wheels
Wire "pingers" fitted to the wheel arches to help stop you hitting the kerb with your tyres.
Earth straps hanging on the back of the car to earth static electricity and to supposedly help reduce travel sickness
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Ayupmeducks #6
There are many that would have said that in the seventies Port Kembla was the end of the earth with its steelworks, coal loader and zinc and copper smelter and coal mines along the escarpment.
If you remember the 198 metre chimney at Electrolytic Refinery and Smelting Company, It was demolished in February 2014. The air is much cleaner in the area now.
Having lived in the area previously I have to say that the beaches from Stanwell Park to South 'gong and again south of Kembla are some of the best in the world. .
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Brassed Off,
So many great scenes and having played in a colliery band I can put a name to everyone in that film but one scene that makes me laugh is the one where the band is in one of the rehearsal rooms waiting to be called on stage and the announcer stumbles over the word colliery and Jim says "I bet they're glad they closed the bugger"
Danny's speech at the end was an evocative epitaph for an industry and communities like the one I was born into and brought up in
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With all the comments about the Lada I am surprised that no-one has come up with the old joke -
Why does a Lada have a heated rear screen - So your hands do not get cold when you are pushing it.
For all its' mentions we went all over the UK following the Forest in a Hillman Imp sport (with the bag of cement in the front) and the only problem we had was a broken accelerator cable whilst going down the M1 near Trowell services. A quick roadside repair by tying the throttle open with a shoe lace got us to the AA point at Trowell with the engine screaming its guts out. The AA man pulled enough loose cable through to rejoin it with a solderless nipple which still left the throttle partly open so it was revving quite highly all the time. We made it to the game and home again until we could get a new cable and fit it. Had an Imp in OZ as a cheap second car and provided you used the right coolant and got underneath now and again to tighten the linkage to the gear lever had no problems with it, a great little car to take stuff to the tip with the rear seat folded down.
Also had a MKII Cortina which was slowly converting to rust in the top of the wings. Just before we left for OZ I fitted the reinforcing kits to the top of the strut towers and sold it cheap to a mate who had a similar model.
In most areas down under we do not need to use salt on the roads so rust is not so much a problem from that source but dust sealing and dust lodging underneath and then becoming wet turned many a sill or door bottom into ferrous oxide.
One of my first company cars in OZ was the late lamented Leyland P76 prone to many faults not least of which was the drivers side window disappearing into the door if you hit a large pothole. Its' real claim to fame was the ability to get a 44 gallon drum in the boot. Surviving ones are worth a small fortune.
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Lighting 321's and waiting 'til they fizzed then dropping them down the nearest manhole hoping they would float down the sewer and find a pocket of methane. If you were successful then there would be an almighty bang and it would lift all the manhole covers in the street.
Winter warmers - Baked bean or jam tins with holes around the bottom and long wire handles, filled with hot coals which you swung around in the air to get the new coals going. Great for roasting chestnuts.
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Just got back from a break in warmer climes to find that our local Saturday paper (The Advertiser) the only one I buy had increased from $2.50 to $3.00.
The bl**dy cheek. It is no better than a comic no worthwhile news or analysis. It is the last time I will buy one.
Like TBI #5 I will now get all my news off 't interweb.
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Rockin' Goose and Red River Valley by Johnnie and the Hurricanes whilst spinning round on the "Whiplash" at the Goose Fair in the early sixties
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At our school we always had a choice of custard
Lumps or slices
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From Nottingham to Hull
I bet you had "keep on going round by Goole". Words from the Humber Bridge song.
Generally regarded as the only song with Goole in the words.
A great version by the Ripley Wayfarers is available here
youtube.com/watch?v=zvuQJNVDJYk
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The only Shippos' I ever liked was the little man with the rattle on the scoreboard at the kop end of the City Ground when the Forest got a goal.
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Those photos in post 1 and many others posted on this site brought to mind some words from Emrys Bryson circa mid 60's about what Nottingham is
"This city is so many things to so many people. For a tourist, it's the Castle and Robin Hood. A toilet roll holder with the city's coat of arms on it. For the motorist, its a lot of big roundabouts (with flowers on them) and dead keen traffic wardens (with no flies on them)
It's where you can see a Test Match. It's where - if you happen to be a brass-bandsman - you come to play "Poet and Peasant" on your cornet or trombone in the Albert Hall.
If you make bicycle wheels better than anybody else, you'll get a job easily.
If you happen to be an Indian or West Indian, it might be a bit more difficult
Nottingham is the Byron country, the Lawrence country, the "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" country
It's sometimes the end of a pilgrimage, sometimes the start.
It's the end of a long trip from Jamaica or the beginning of a long one to Australia.
It's the greasy fish-and-chip papers blowing in the gutter down Ilkeston Road.
It's an elegant house in the Park.
It's a bus to a bedsitter in Carlton Road.
It's the lights of the Goose Fair.
It's the mist along the river.
It's good; bad; indifferent; exciting; filthy; Queen of the Midlands.
It's dead, lively, dreary, muddled, enlightened, moral, puritan.
A rat-race. A home.
It's ........
Well, it's Nottingham
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Good link Catfan I had missed that one.
The picture of Crocus Street in the Meadows reminds me of the announcer on "Housewives' Choice", some time in the 1960's : "Now we have a request from a lady in Nottingham. Her address conjures up an idyllic picture. She writes from Crocus Street, The Meadows ........"
​Strange how the picture from the words and reality are a long way apart. I suppose at sometime in the past before the houses were built there were meadows and wild flowers in the area.
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poohbear - unless you have a really weird numbering system in your street they were not even close!
I wouldn't wont them working on something safety related if they can't get the right bl**dy house number
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I see that England play Iceland in the next round at the Euros
Ron Hodgson says that if they are good enough to win they will then go on and play either Tesco or Sainsbury's
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Good one Catfan
Because of classification changes it is always difficult to do comparisons, however, a couple of references can be made. Using a purchasing power calculation the following occurs.
1964 Parks half a million 2015 adjusted figure should be around 9 million actual 3 million
1964 Children and Old people half a million 2015 adjusted figure again around 9 million actual 89 million, not including the 44 million spent on protecting children.
I wonder what has happened to society? It appears that the largest part of the budget is being spent on social issues.
Interestingly the average rates of a house in Nottingham in 1964 were 56 quid if we extrapolate this to today then this is equal to 1023 pounds.(sorry I can't get my computer to do a pound sign on this forum, we only have $ on our keyboards downunder.)
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In the early sixties Nottingham Corporation spent the following (all amounts in pounds)
Education - 8.75 million
Police and Fire - 1.75 million
Highways and Lighting - 1 million
Health - 1 Million
House refuse, Sewers and Sewage Disposal - 1 million
Children and old people - .5 million
Parks - .5 million
Other services (Libraries, Baths, Housing, etc.) - 3 million
It had a population of 310,380
The latest estimate of population is 314,400 not that much different.
I wonder what the spend on the above is today? (after adjustment)
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Bl**dy websites that jump all over the screen when loading and just when you think they have finished and go to click on something they give one more jump and you find you have clicked on one of their useless adverts or some completely useless news item that you are not interested in. I am sure the barstewards do it on purpose.
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barrettkellar #3
Certainly not you usual house names and I must admit to having to look up a couple of them and, as is often the case, left this site with much more knowledge than I had before.
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Did the school that you went to have "Houses"
Don't know how they selected pupils for houses but it seemed to me that pupils that were similar were put in the same houses, by design or accident? Did the house masters match the houses that they were in?
The houses at my school were based on local areas and from memory -
Newstead - always came last at sports related events e.g. athletics, swimming etc.
Welbeck - won all the sports events
Rufford - best at stuff like chess, quizzes
Clumber - good at arts related activities
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Some time in the sixties?
Quote from a flustered prisoner at Nottingham Guildhall on being simply put on probation:
"I would like to thank you from the heart of my bottom, Poptin Catpiss......."
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Simply the Greatest, R.I.P. Muhammad Ali
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It really pi**es me off when trying to watch something interesting like this I get a message that says "Content Unavailable. This video is not authorised for your location (au)" FFS why???
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Catfan #6
Thanks for the offer but no thanks. A twenty foot container from the UK to OZ is around 4000 quid Can buy one here in OZ for 1500 to 2250 quid with a 1.6 litre VTEC motor.
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To christen or not to christen?
in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !
Posted
Interestingly It is census night here in OZ tomorrow night and the question about religion has been reframed with religions placed in this order on the form. It is an optional question
No religion
Catholic
Angligan (Church of England)
Uniting Church
Presbyterian
Buddhism
Islam
Greek Orthodox
Baptist
Hinduism
Other (please specify)
Judaism does not get its own box??
With the 'No religion" being placed at the top it is estimated that the number of Australians reporting no religion will rise from 22% in the last census to around 40% this time round. It is inevitable that baptisms and other "religious" rites such as confirmation, marriage, funeral services will all decline.
I'm with philmayfield, #13, none of our kids were baptised, they could choose for themselves when older, none did, but that is bye the bye, each to their own.