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My son and partner lost their holiday not long ago when the airline folded, but thankfully they got all their money back. As expected a lot of flights and holiday destinations upped their prices making it difficult for people on a tight budget to find alternatives.  They found a caravan holiday just outside Newquay Cornwall for a week, and a flight. The bit that amazes me is that they left Birmingham at 7am and just 40mins later arrived at Newquay. I didn't even have time for a second cup of tea while I was tracking them. Brilliant.  Started my day happy.:biggrin:

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Just got back from QMC again........the last eight days have been a bit Traumatic to say the least,,...blood tests,,X-rays,,and today a visit to a Consultant........cut a long story short......problem

Result........CT Scans all clear......just got letter..been sweating for a fortnight......

Two years ago today..........my life changed forever,,,about this time i was on my way down to the operating theatre for what turned out to be a ten hour operation...........its been life changing in

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Yesterday I decided to go for a walk up the hill, but by a different route to normal. 

So, I walked in an ever decreasing circle.  Uphill to the top of the village and left along through a little hamlet called Longshaw Common  and big views over to Winter Hill, Rivington Pike etc., to the north.  After a mile or so, left again and uphill past a local pub called the Holt Arms, but known to locals as 'the Foot of the Causeway', the 'Foot'... or the 'Fewt'. Despite the proximity to Liverpool and more than a few refugee 'Scousers' residing locally, the predominant accent is pure Lancashire.  Legend has it that this pub is at the 'foot' of an old pack horse trail (causeway) from Liverpool direction.  On uphill for another half mile or so then as the houses peter out, ..left into the fields and into the bottom of 'Billinge Plantation'... known locally as 'the plants'. 

 

In common with almost all woods in the area, it's not all that old and is basically an overgrown 19th C stone quarry.  If the farmers could be in there ploughing, they would.  Still.. apart from rather too many Sycamores and far too many kids making mountain bike trails and churning up the woodland floor.. it's not a bad wood.  Plenty of Oak, Beech, Birch and Horse Chestnut.  Oddly, despite a lot of recent rain.. there were virtually no fungi to be seen.  I've been going in there long enough now to have a 'handle' on the usual sequence of fungi growth, and not even the 'Blackening Russula', which usually appears early and doesn't rot away quickly like most fungi, hasn't made an appearance.  Absolutely nothing in the small area where I can usually find a few Cepes (Boletus Edulis), usually accompanied by various Russula species, and the odd Amanita Rubescens ( 'The Blusher')

 

I can't work out what's going on.  Some years are definitely better than others for fungi, but this is odd.  Maybe everything came up early and I missed it all in the August rain.. maybe it's not too late yet.  But once we get a few frosts, that will pretty much be it apart from a couple of uncommon species and the usual crop of Wood Blewitts.. (usually in hedgerows rather than woods.)

 

So.. onwards.. still uphill through the woods and emerging onto the last steep slope up to the top of 'The Hill', from the north side rather than my usual southern route.   

 

Plenty to see, as visibility is usually better when the skies are watery.  When it's 'clear', the resulting haze makes at hard to see distant features clearly.  Manchester under some very dark clouds.. Liverpool a bit less so.  Jodrell Bank telescope clearly visible on the far horizon, with its dish pointed straight up, the unmistakable curve of the Runcorn Bridge superstructure etc.

 

Was getting a bit tired though, so after the knee killiing descent of the steepest part of the hill,bI was onto the gentle downward slope towards home.  I was certaly 'cream crackered' by the time I stepped off the fields at the bottom of our street.  My phone told me I'd done 10098 steps.  About 4000 more than my usual daily target, but still only about 6 or 7 K.  A long way short of the 10-15 miles I used to do regularly.  Joys of ageing eh?

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I've never been in that area, but as you described the walk, I was there!!  Thank you, Col

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Early into Bulwell this morning,,,,had my feet done with Svetlana my Russian lady up the Alley at 9am,,,feel like dancing now,,,.

                Then sat with some old friends in Wetherspoons,,,,, who   i'd not seen for over a year,,,,but they knew about my health issue......Col.360 had told em,,,thanks Col,,i spoke to Brian,,,he told me they had seen you,,,so had a nice catch up with them,,,then sat at another table with some more people from the past,,when i was leaving one of them said,,,,,,'''dont go yet Ben,,,the Shoplifter will be in soon with some John West Salmon'' at £1 per tin''''   anyway made me laugh,,, Bulwell don't change.........lol,,,

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1 hour ago, DJ360 said:

  A long way short of the 10-15 miles I used to do regularly.  Joys of ageing eh?

The distance is irrelevant. The walk sounded perfect - views and weather and a feeling of satisfaction.

Sound a peaceful place to live - the glums and mtbs apart!

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As oldphil says the distance is irrelevant, and your walk sounds so lovely, with your description it is so easy to imagine your view. On these dry days we manage to get our cycle rides every day, just home from one. Our routes don't vary much, but just to do a route in a reversed order can give the feeling of being a totally different area.

 

To day we rode part of the  Staffs and Worc, out and across the A449 up towards the prisons, Brinsford/Oakwood/forgot the name of the third one, around the prisons and back down to the A449, down the lanes back onto the towpaths again, and along to Autherley junction.

 

Decided to stand on the bridge for a while watching some poor souls, standing up to their wastes in dirty canal water, trying to recover a trailer from the murky depths. On our outward journey they were trying to put a motor boat on a trailer built for something the size of a small yacht, it looked as if the trailer had broken and sunk! 

 

Like you Col, our trips these days are a lot shorter and gentler around 6/8mph and we are out about 2hrs, still love it. Just hope the knees can hold out a bit longer?

Other prison Featherstone?

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Bottoms up PP., would you be able to PM me a picture post of what a scratter looks like? I would be interested to see what one looks and to see if it would be viable to decorate one, or if it would be too big a task. Hobbin irons  and flat irons, no problem. B.

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We are now in Nottingham after speNding a pleasant afternoon at a friend's house near Leicester (Groby). It was a 60th Wedding Anniversary party arranged by their daughter, who used to be a little playmate to our 3 kids when we lived nearly next door to each other in Leicester.   We really enjoyed seeing them all again.

SatNav directed us to our hotel (Mansfield Road) via Gregory Boulevard so it took a long time as it was heaving with people trying to cross the road to get to the fair and cars were bumper to bumper for much of the way.  I think we'll go and have a wander round the fair tomorrow.... we're too tired to walk there tonight and Paul's watching Athletics on TV anyway (at least he WAS watching but he's  dropped off to sleep now!)

 Feeling a bit sleepy myself. .......zzzzzzz

 

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Close by then Margie!  We’ve just been in Doctors Orders for an hour or so.   Even though the Fair is only about half a mile away from us we really couldn’t be bothered going this year, must be getting too old for it.

EDIT: The athletics were worth watching, much better than that very tired offering on BBC1. 

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Margie, don't  forget to get yourself some mushy peas,  ( then you can have a bubble bath later). A pot of them and then a ride on the waltzer. Last time we went was about 7 years ago.

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Goose Fair for me was more about the sounds and the smells rather than the rides

The sound and oily smells coming from the diesel generators that powered the rides and the lights. The sounds of Johnny and the Hurricanes Red River Valley and Rockin' Goose belting out from the speakers on the Waltzer.

The aroma of the onions for the hot dogs, the smell of vinegar on cockles and mint sauce on mushy peas, the sweet smell of candy floss and brandy snaps. Is it still like that? or have tastes and technology moved on.

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From where i lived we could walk to the fair, which from Sunday to Thursday my friends, Wendy, Doris, and Pam all of us being 13 would look around to see if any boy;s were free. Never did find any, but if we had "you never know myself and friends" could all be Roman's by now.

Just a bit of use-less information.

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Not Romans Mary, that's  a different kettle of fish. I believe  the phrase is, Romanys, although a lot of the lads who worked on there were local boys who used to go down before it opened to see if they could get jobs. The perk being chatting up unattached ladies. A couple of lads I  knew left and moved off with fair. Never to be seen again.

 

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Reminded me of this song.  We used to sing it in Henry Whipple and I can see the school hall in my mind.  Bare walls except for a couple of pictures of bewigged old composers like Bach and Handel.

 

 

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Going to the fair this afternoon, haven’t been for over 40 years so am looking forward to it. Candy floss and mushy peas here I come! Wonder if the music will still be the same, Del Shannon, Billy Fury (I did have a crush on him) etc. Won’t be going on any rides, never did like the waltzers always made me queasy, but might go on the cape or is it cake walk if it is still there. Are the big steam baskets still there, always found them terrifying to watch, wasn’t there a big galleon that use to swing almost vertical as well? 

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We've just got back from the fair so might have seen you there SG, but don't know what you look like!   

I decided the only things I'd be happy going on we're the Gallopers and the Ghost Train, but we only went for a look.anyway.  Bought some peanut brittle, nougat and cinder toffee though.... feeling a bit sick now. :(

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Did you not get a ' Cock on stick' Margie? Last time we went we found the little stall and the bloke told us that he would be retiring soon and he was the only one who made them anymore. As for riding the gallopers, would have thought you could nip over to Thursford. A permanent ride there.

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I heard the ‘Cock on a stick’ chap interviewed on Radio Nottingham the other morning.  He’s still there at the age of 89, but is discussing retirement soon.  

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So the stall holder has been retiring for at least seven years that I  know of.

Not be enough room in that stall for Ben and his lady helpers.

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Raining , breezy.. overcast and miserable..  Today I shall make Hummus.. for consumption with thinly sliced bits of carrot.. for lunch.  I'm due an 'alternate days' session on the weights a bit later.  Then I think I'll spend the rest of the day 'ripping' vinyl to digital and adding it to the music store on my music server.  Much as I actually love listening to vinyl on my posh record player.. it is so much more convenient to be able to just pick a few tunes from the server and listen on headphones while the boss is nodding off in front of the telly.

If it stops raining between now and December.. I'll try to get the rest of the bulbs into the garden.

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Just finished my housework for the day. I loathe housework, never seems any point as it is there again the next day as if it had never been done. If I ever win the lottery after getting a house by the sea with a wood (with an oak tree), pond (with a weeping willow, newts and sticklebacks),  field, more dogs, a donkey, goat etc the next thing on the list is a cleaner. Sure I can find more important and interesting things to do than housework.
Anyway sorry I digress, decided to have a coffee and (dunkable) nice biscuits. Had a play on a game on my phone. Normally the adverts are annoying, but this time there were some very interesting ones.

The first was a light pen which you can draw pictures with on a special board. Quite intriguing. The second was a screen you unfolded to put in front of your phone so if you watching things on your phone (I don’t it’s a phone) it magnifies the picture onto the screen. Quite a nifty idea really I suppose. 
The third was a paint roller which you put paint in and then use. Doesn’t drip apparently and judging by the advert you can do a wall very very quickly and the paint doesn’t look streaky. Also has some gadgets (I love gadgets) for doing corners and up to the ceiling without getting paint on it. I am very tempted by this, could save having to get a decorator in and the cost. As with most houses when you move into them the colour scheme isn’t what I would have, my kitchen is blood red and black! Will google it and see what I can find out about it. Only thing is I would have to go up a ladder, not my favourite thing to do, or perhaps I could erect scaffolding?

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17 hours ago, Brew said:

Well we all wish you well mate and hope you make it in December.

Does that include me too Brew?

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Just had a fascinating hour with an old 'Photo Album,,,,showing my 1st cousin twice removed (thanks again Brew) photos of old relations who she didnt ever see,,,,even her Great and Great Great Granddads,,,sat on a Motorbike in Skegness in 1948,,,then lots of Pictures of her Great Aunts including my Mother,who she also never met,,,i enjoyed showing her and explaining who everyone was.

 

                        It was only by chance that she met my Granddaughter whilst working for Airline company's,,,they got talking and realised they were related,,,.       Also i did'nt realise iv'e still got many relatives on Bestwood estate.

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