Brilliant! Or not!! ANOTHER thunderstorm of monstrous dimensions, and I drove right into it on a bus... that is, until the bus had to stop due to a flooded underpass, cars abandoned, fire brigade momentarily helpless, as the rain was pouring down faster than they could have done anything for relief...!
Dramatic - the bendy bus had to back up a few dozen metres, attempting another route, with one passenger at the rear window, and me and others relaying forward to the driver what he could see from the back. We tried another underpass, but that was flooded as well. Bus driver in an adventurous mood, says, let's see if when I raise the suspension to the max we can get through - and indeed we could, ... albeit the bus floor got absolutely drenched, water gashing in under the doors!
To reach our destination, we needed to do yet another underpass, but that of course was flooded too - by which time a chap from the fire brigade came to the bus, checking on the radio if there was any route, anywhere nearby (or not!) that wasn't flooded. There wasn't!
Another bus arrived, and we all changed into that one as the bendy bus was bound for its return trip (without ever having reach its terminus...). Finally, after waiting for a good 15 minutes in bus no. 2, we noticed the waters in one underpass receding, and after checking with the fire brigade the bus made its way through. At my destination, the railway station, we found that the underpass to the other platform was flooded too - 70cm this time; a few weeks ago, it was a mere 40cm!!
I got changed into waterproof gear and my new big wellies, and made my way out again to stop people from rushing across the tracks! (Heavy rail traffic at that time!) Police arrived, transport police too and then the fire brigade, and I had a nice chat with some of them who knew me from other occasions when I had to ring them up. Finally, left everything to the professionals, who thanked me warmly for my assistance, and retreated to my fairly dry first floor flat.
The firefighters told me that oen of them actually had to SWIM to a car in one of the flooded roads whose roof was barely visible, as they had received news of someone trapped in the car, but luckily there wasn't!
Now - here endeth the lessson, flash floods clearly getting more frequent and worse in the past few weeks and months, in this 'ere Continental WesShire. Over and out!
Just beware the vindaloo in Kirkwall - nothing worse than having Ring of Brodgar the next morning!
On a (very, very slightly) more serious note, there's a plaque on the wall of the curryhouse in Kirkwall recording that Sir Walter Scott once stayed there. But there's no mention of what he chose off the menu! Come on, plaquemakers, inquiring minds need to know!
Yes, I didn't realise North Bridge was quite so buggered until we were coming up from town this morning. We'd gone in via Lothian Rd to pick up some antibiotics at the west end of Rose st. We then walked east, fondly thinking we'd find a coffee shop, but it's all pubs, takeaways and restaurants. We tried the Costa on the corner of Hanover St, but they demanded a track'n'trace - tried to do that via the website but, despite having iPhone12 no go because no JavaScript enabled. At this point we got a bus home.
We spent the day sightseeing yesterday - acropolis etc - very very hot at 36°, so today is a chill day visiting Anuka’s other granny (she calls her Bebo). 🙂
@Curiosity killed and in my bit of the world the number of runners on my commuting walks have dropped considerably again. Just the handful of hard-core pre-pandemic ones now who know how to share pavement space safely.
I'm yet to brave the prettier walks around my way as they won't have dried out properly yet.
However, the numbers of e-scooter users have risen sharply and I'm currently avoiding what was a regularly frequented shopping area as it's a hub for the legal council sponsored ones.
@Piglet sympathies on the messed-up commute. My commuting hour's walk is currently messed up by pavement works and the aforementioned e-scooters, but that, on the whole, just means crossing the road.
Eek @Wesley J , they could turn that into a film. I hope that's the last of the storms for a while.
I've got my first slot volunteering in my new charity bookshop today. I want to totally re-organise their children's section, but I guess I'll have to do it tactfully. Looking forward to getting out and doing something, the last few weeks have felt a bit like a holiday. We've also arranged our landscape gardening neighbour to come round on Saturday to discuss plans for making our garden more interesting.
ETA - I've misread the question, haven't I? I read it as CUR ate (clergyperson) but it was probably intended to be cur ATE as in to select items for a collection.
Pretty sure that that, in itself, makes it a bad name for a brand. Besides which, neither the noun nor the verb even remotely suggests anything to do with a range of paint.
ALL Shipmates in the UK are required to celebrate One Britain, One Nation Day tomorrow by singing the wonderful song recommended by our dear Education Secretary, and, of course, our Beloved Leader.
I believe, from another post, that your Bilges are somewhat at the moment ... but perhaps you could find space?
This will Not Go Down In Wales (or the other peripheral UK nations which lie beyond the M25).
Yes, the bilges are a trifle damp, but I was thinking more (God forgive me) of certain parts of Beloved Leader's anatomy. Brain bleach is available on demand, free of charge.
As you say, The New Song won't go down well in Wales, and AIUI schools will mostly be closed for summer holidays in Scotland anyway. As for NI being part of *Great Britain*, who knew?
Remember the refrain - *STRONG BRITAIN, GREAT NATION*, repeated four times...not two, not three, but four...
Oh dear.
I have to quote Michael Flanders here, don't I?
...And we didn't go around saying how marvelous we were: everybody knew that! Any more than we bothered to put our names on our stamps.
It's a tossup between that and the well-known fact that countries who feel the need to put words like "democratic" and "people's" in their name tend not to be much in favour of either democracy or their people for which is the more appropriate response to this embarrassingly twee little ditty.
The chief proponent of this idea, a Mr. Kash Singh, was a policeman in Bradford, so I'm not sure you can blame this on "inside the M25". And I've spent the last couple of decades living in the US, where millions of entirely normal people are unselfconsciously patriotic, and fly flags, stand and sing the national anthem at sporting events, and so on. So I don't necessarily get the "Dear Leader" vibe from Mr. Singh's campaign for more patriotism.
Looking at the music version of the song one finds some non-standard hyphenation as well as some words new to me: "gre - at", "pa - rt" and "sa - me" (all specified to be sung as TWO syllables).
I find it rather naff as well, but I read that Mr Singh said he was quite hurt by the reaction to his idea, that he had wanted to give something back, and it made me feel a bit of a heel.
I find it rather naff as well, but I read that Mr Singh said he was quite hurt by the reaction to his idea, that he had wanted to give something back, and it made me feel a bit of a heel.
Several posters have commented on this thread that if the UK is to continue to exist as a country, then British people need to think of themselves as British - as UK citizens - as well as Scots, or English, or Welsh, or Irish. And it's not like the sentiments expressed by the song are bad sentiments - all that stuff about celebrating our diversity and people of all different backgrounds coming together as one wider community is a perfectly reasonable hope - it just seems inescapably twee to sing about it (especially with such awful scansion).
Mind you, given that "Gloria" as sung in many standard Christian hymns, has a variable number of syllables between two-and-a-bit and about fifty, I'm not sure we can complain too much about great being sung with two.
And the prize for Understatement of the Week goes to ...
MMM!
I think it's a terrible idea, creepily reminiscent of the fascist regimes of the 1930s. However, any further comments I might want to make require a rather hotter climate.
I'm almost embarrassed to admit that David and a friend of ours used to sing the Flanders and Swann song at church fetes - admittedly with tongue very firmly in cheek!
Talking of climate, it's been a rather muggy, headache-inducing sort of day here, and just as I left the office it started to rain. I'm deeply grateful to H., one of the midwives in the other team with whom we share an office, for insisting on giving me a lift home (she lives about ten minutes from Linlithgow).
The morning commute wasn't too bad: I got off at Haymarket, and my only problem was that although I knew which bus stop I was looking for, I didn't actually know where it was. Now that I do though, I think it might be a more sensible way of doing things anyway, assuming that (unlike today) I can get a bus that will accept a Ridacard.
Yes it was an odd day in Embra. I went to a local shop to buy up a last few bedders to replant a couple of pots. I also dug out a climbing rose which was not doing at all well where it was (too much shade). I don't really have an alternative site, so I've put it in a pot and stuck it next the hedge. If it survives it might scramble through it like the grapevine does.
All of that was totter-making exhausting, so not surprised the weather broke.
Made rogan josh for dinner - bit of a free hand with the chilli powder, but I also made lassi, so hopefully that will soothe any side effects.
Mr F is on antibiotics which absolutely must not be mixed with alcohol (he's even to avoid hand sanitiser), so it will be spicy foods week.
I find it rather naff as well, but I read that Mr Singh said he was quite hurt by the reaction to his idea, that he had wanted to give something back, and it made me feel a bit of a heel.
Several posters have commented on this thread that if the UK is to continue to exist as a country, then British people need to think of themselves as British - as UK citizens - as well as Scots, or English, or Welsh, or Irish. And it's not like the sentiments expressed by the song are bad sentiments - all that stuff about celebrating our diversity and people of all different backgrounds coming together as one wider community is a perfectly reasonable hope - it just seems inescapably twee to sing about it (especially with such awful scansion).
Perhaps Mr Singh could have considered the resonance of repeated use of the 'One Nation One Britain' phrase with certain German phrases from the 1930s, repeating the number 'one' in that language...
With a key football match for Wales on Saturday, the FA of Wales has asked schools in Wales to sing 'Hen Wlad fy Nhadau' on Friday morning. This is apparently to encourage Tîm Cymru in their battle against the Danes. Any apparent clash with the 'One Britain' stupidity is entirely coincidental, wrth gwrs.
Why do I suspect the One Britain song won't be quite so stirring as the Marseillaise?
Many French people, self included, have issues with the words of the Marseillaise. However it has such a good tune that I reckon it's still the market leader in "belt it out and feel good about your country" songs.
Why do I suspect the One Britain song won't be quite so stirring as the Marseillaise?
Many French people, self included, have issues with the words of the Marseillaise. However it has such a good tune that I reckon it's still the market leader in "belt it out and feel good about your country" songs.
Because nothing is as stirring as the Marseillaise - except for Hen Wlad fy Nhadau, which wins every time.
Just listened to the One Britain song ( shudder). Unfortunately, it’s a bit of an ear worm, isn’t it?
I agree with Rev per Minute- it’s not one like Hen Wlad fy Nhadau, where you can really belt out the last bit - Gwlad, Gwlad!*
.... Mr F is on antibiotics which absolutely must not be mixed with alcohol (he's even to avoid hand sanitiser) ...
You do know you're not supposed to drink it, don't you?
Seriously though, that's a bit tough - hope they work, and he doesn't need a second round!
It's the licking it off does it.
The pills are to tamp down an infected tooth until the surgeon can get to it in August.
Meanwhile I have got a bottle of 'J&T' which claims to mimic G&T. We shall see (I retain the option to add actual gin to mine).
Mr S found - on Hot UK Deals, a website to which he is seriously addicted - an offer of 4 cans of not-G&T for £1. Given that they normally cost £2 each in supermarkets he bought me 20, and they are really very good. But I just jib at paying that sort of money* for non-alcoholic drinks <miser>
Anything sung by 80 000 Welsh people is going to sound better than sung by anyone else. Les Bleus belted the Marseillaise lustily at the match the other night, but let's be honest: there's a reason why they make a living playing football and not being musicians. (OTOH, the Portuguese team sang their anthem even more off key than the French, which is saying something )
[/quote]Several posters have commented on this thread that if the UK is to continue to exist as a country, then British people need to think of themselves as British - as UK citizens - as well as Scots, or English, or Welsh, or Irish. And it's not like the sentiments expressed by the song are bad sentiments - all that stuff about celebrating our diversity and people of all different backgrounds coming together as one wider community is a perfectly reasonable hope - it just seems inescapably twee to sing about it (especially with such awful scansion).
[/quote]
My main issue is that many definitions of "British" either seem to be tautologous - being British means having a British passport - or include cultural references which don't apply to me.
I like the words "We've opened our doors, and widened our island’s shores
We celebrate our differences with love in our hearts" but it's not true is it? Brexit involved Union Jacks, a rejection of "opening our doors and no "celebration of differences."
I have to say that I feel a bit sorry for Mr Singh (the originator of the idea) here - especially as I can think of a great many "indigenous" Britons that I'd much less prefer to share my country with than people like him who have come here with good intentions, and spent their lives as public servants. Sadly, I fear that trying to unite this country (pick which bits you feel are/aren't included) is going to take far more than a song - though maybe if the kids believe, twenty, thirty years down the line...
The pills are to tamp down an infected tooth until the surgeon can get to it in August.
Meanwhile I have got a bottle of 'J&T' which claims to mimic G&T. We shall see (I retain the option to add actual gin to mine).
I hope he feels better soon.
In my opinion the best alcohol-free gin substitute is Cedar's Classic but it costs as much as a bottle of gin. I often drink flavoured tonic on alcohol free days and Fevertree's Aromatic is a good replacement.
It's been a mostly cloudy, and rather cooler day here, although I was probably generating my own micro-climate rushing about the office making sure things were done before I went on holiday.
Then more rushing around the shops buying things like small shampoo and toothpaste so I don't have to carry too much in my new compact suitcase.
I'm trying to decide on a sensible holiday wardrobe: I want clothes that are easy to pack and comfortable, but I like to look as if I've made an effort when I'm flying - you always see such effortlessly smart people at airports!
It's not helped by the fact that the day I leave it's going to be 20° in Edinburgh and presumably rather less than that in Orkney.
@Piglet Lightweight layers and at least one thermal top would be my advice, and gloves.
And a Hat, perhaps woolly...
You say that, but the last time I went to Scotland, I nearly got sunstroke in Edinburgh and went paddling on the beach on the Isle of Lewis - it was very surreal.
Comments
Dramatic - the bendy bus had to back up a few dozen metres, attempting another route, with one passenger at the rear window, and me and others relaying forward to the driver what he could see from the back. We tried another underpass, but that was flooded as well. Bus driver in an adventurous mood, says, let's see if when I raise the suspension to the max we can get through - and indeed we could, ... albeit the bus floor got absolutely drenched, water gashing in under the doors!
To reach our destination, we needed to do yet another underpass, but that of course was flooded too - by which time a chap from the fire brigade came to the bus, checking on the radio if there was any route, anywhere nearby (or not!) that wasn't flooded. There wasn't!
Another bus arrived, and we all changed into that one as the bendy bus was bound for its return trip (without ever having reach its terminus...). Finally, after waiting for a good 15 minutes in bus no. 2, we noticed the waters in one underpass receding, and after checking with the fire brigade the bus made its way through. At my destination, the railway station, we found that the underpass to the other platform was flooded too - 70cm this time; a few weeks ago, it was a mere 40cm!!
I got changed into waterproof gear and my new big wellies, and made my way out again to stop people from rushing across the tracks! (Heavy rail traffic at that time!) Police arrived, transport police too and then the fire brigade, and I had a nice chat with some of them who knew me from other occasions when I had to ring them up. Finally, left everything to the professionals, who thanked me warmly for my assistance, and retreated to my fairly dry first floor flat.
The firefighters told me that oen of them actually had to SWIM to a car in one of the flooded roads whose roof was barely visible, as they had received news of someone trapped in the car, but luckily there wasn't!
Now - here endeth the lessson, flash floods clearly getting more frequent and worse in the past few weeks and months, in this 'ere Continental WesShire. Over and out!
On a (very, very slightly) more serious note, there's a plaque on the wall of the curryhouse in Kirkwall recording that Sir Walter Scott once stayed there. But there's no mention of what he chose off the menu! Come on, plaquemakers, inquiring minds need to know!
I can't, because I thought they only ever did different versions of off-white and bluey grey
I'm yet to brave the prettier walks around my way as they won't have dried out properly yet.
However, the numbers of e-scooter users have risen sharply and I'm currently avoiding what was a regularly frequented shopping area as it's a hub for the legal council sponsored ones.
@Piglet sympathies on the messed-up commute. My commuting hour's walk is currently messed up by pavement works and the aforementioned e-scooters, but that, on the whole, just means crossing the road.
I've got my first slot volunteering in my new charity bookshop today. I want to totally re-organise their children's section, but I guess I'll have to do it tactfully. Looking forward to getting out and doing something, the last few weeks have felt a bit like a holiday. We've also arranged our landscape gardening neighbour to come round on Saturday to discuss plans for making our garden more interesting.
Pretty sure that that, in itself, makes it a bad name for a brand. Besides which, neither the noun nor the verb even remotely suggests anything to do with a range of paint.
ALL Shipmates in the UK are required to celebrate One Britain, One Nation Day tomorrow by singing the wonderful song recommended by our dear Education Secretary, and, of course, our Beloved Leader.
https://theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/23/uk-education-secretary-mocked-for-one-britain-one-nation-day-song
Remember the refrain - *STRONG BRITAIN, GREAT NATION*, repeated four times...not two, not three, but four...
Names of those NOT singing will be taken down, and reported to Beloved Leader.
This was a Public Information Broadcast on behalf of Global Britain.
(For the avoidance of any doubt, this is all an attempt at whimsy and irony. I wasn't sure where to put it, though I know where I'd like to put it).
This will Not Go Down In Wales (or the other peripheral UK nations which lie beyond the M25).
I wasn't the first to think this.
Yes, the bilges are a trifle damp, but I was thinking more (God forgive me) of certain parts of Beloved Leader's anatomy. Brain bleach is available on demand, free of charge.
As you say, The New Song won't go down well in Wales, and AIUI schools will mostly be closed for summer holidays in Scotland anyway. As for NI being part of *Great Britain*, who knew?
Oh dear.
I have to quote Michael Flanders here, don't I?
It's a tossup between that and the well-known fact that countries who feel the need to put words like "democratic" and "people's" in their name tend not to be much in favour of either democracy or their people for which is the more appropriate response to this embarrassingly twee little ditty.
The chief proponent of this idea, a Mr. Kash Singh, was a policeman in Bradford, so I'm not sure you can blame this on "inside the M25". And I've spent the last couple of decades living in the US, where millions of entirely normal people are unselfconsciously patriotic, and fly flags, stand and sing the national anthem at sporting events, and so on. So I don't necessarily get the "Dear Leader" vibe from Mr. Singh's campaign for more patriotism.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=1vh-wEXvdW8
(Though the bit quoted by @Leorning Cniht seems to be missing from this clip).
Looking at the music version of the song one finds some non-standard hyphenation as well as some words new to me: "gre - at", "pa - rt" and "sa - me" (all specified to be sung as TWO syllables).
Perhaps I should have posted on the TICTH thread!
MMM
Several posters have commented on this thread that if the UK is to continue to exist as a country, then British people need to think of themselves as British - as UK citizens - as well as Scots, or English, or Welsh, or Irish. And it's not like the sentiments expressed by the song are bad sentiments - all that stuff about celebrating our diversity and people of all different backgrounds coming together as one wider community is a perfectly reasonable hope - it just seems inescapably twee to sing about it (especially with such awful scansion).
Mind you, given that "Gloria" as sung in many standard Christian hymns, has a variable number of syllables between two-and-a-bit and about fifty, I'm not sure we can complain too much about great being sung with two.
MMM!
I think it's a terrible idea, creepily reminiscent of the fascist regimes of the 1930s. However, any further comments I might want to make require a rather hotter climate.
I'm almost embarrassed to admit that David and a friend of ours used to sing the Flanders and Swann song at church fetes - admittedly with tongue very firmly in cheek!
Talking of climate, it's been a rather muggy, headache-inducing sort of day here, and just as I left the office it started to rain. I'm deeply grateful to H., one of the midwives in the other team with whom we share an office, for insisting on giving me a lift home (she lives about ten minutes from Linlithgow).
The morning commute wasn't too bad: I got off at Haymarket, and my only problem was that although I knew which bus stop I was looking for, I didn't actually know where it was. Now that I do though, I think it might be a more sensible way of doing things anyway, assuming that (unlike today) I can get a bus that will accept a Ridacard.
All of that was totter-making exhausting, so not surprised the weather broke.
Made rogan josh for dinner - bit of a free hand with the chilli powder, but I also made lassi, so hopefully that will soothe any side effects.
Mr F is on antibiotics which absolutely must not be mixed with alcohol (he's even to avoid hand sanitiser), so it will be spicy foods week.
Perhaps Mr Singh could have considered the resonance of repeated use of the 'One Nation One Britain' phrase with certain German phrases from the 1930s, repeating the number 'one' in that language...
With a key football match for Wales on Saturday, the FA of Wales has asked schools in Wales to sing 'Hen Wlad fy Nhadau' on Friday morning. This is apparently to encourage Tîm Cymru in their battle against the Danes. Any apparent clash with the 'One Britain' stupidity is entirely coincidental, wrth gwrs.
Many French people, self included, have issues with the words of the Marseillaise. However it has such a good tune that I reckon it's still the market leader in "belt it out and feel good about your country" songs.
Because nothing is as stirring as the Marseillaise - except for Hen Wlad fy Nhadau, which wins every time.
Seriously though, that's a bit tough - hope they work, and he doesn't need a second round!
It's the licking it off does it.
The pills are to tamp down an infected tooth until the surgeon can get to it in August.
Meanwhile I have got a bottle of 'J&T' which claims to mimic G&T. We shall see (I retain the option to add actual gin to mine).
I agree with Rev per Minute- it’s not one like Hen Wlad fy Nhadau, where you can really belt out the last bit - Gwlad, Gwlad!*
*Gwlad - land or country
Mr S found - on Hot UK Deals, a website to which he is seriously addicted - an offer of 4 cans of not-G&T for £1. Given that they normally cost £2 each in supermarkets he bought me 20, and they are really very good. But I just jib at paying that sort of money* for non-alcoholic drinks <miser>
* £2 per can, not 25p, for the avoidance of doubt
Especially if sung by 80,000 rugby fans in the Principality Stadium.
[/quote]
My main issue is that many definitions of "British" either seem to be tautologous - being British means having a British passport - or include cultural references which don't apply to me.
I like the words "We've opened our doors, and widened our island’s shores
We celebrate our differences with love in our hearts" but it's not true is it? Brexit involved Union Jacks, a rejection of "opening our doors and no "celebration of differences."
It's the same when They get a crowd of kids waving Union Jacks at an Old Lady Getting Out Of A Car...
I think we all need cheering up.
In my opinion the best alcohol-free gin substitute is Cedar's Classic but it costs as much as a bottle of gin. I often drink flavoured tonic on alcohol free days and Fevertree's Aromatic is a good replacement.
🤣
Cloudy but warm here in Arkland. BEER is to hand, and there are Fish Fingers (from happy British fish, of course) for tea.
Then more rushing around the shops buying things like small shampoo and toothpaste so I don't have to carry too much in my new compact suitcase.
I'm trying to decide on a sensible holiday wardrobe: I want clothes that are easy to pack and comfortable, but I like to look as if I've made an effort when I'm flying - you always see such effortlessly smart people at airports!
It's not helped by the fact that the day I leave it's going to be 20° in Edinburgh and presumably rather less than that in Orkney.
https://theguardian.com/travel/2021/jun/25/leave-your-knickers-at-home-guardian-readers-top-holiday-packing-hacks
I'll see meself to the door...
That thought did occur itself to me, but the article (despite the tongue-in-cheek title) does have some useful suggestions...
And a Hat, perhaps woolly...
You say that, but the last time I went to Scotland, I nearly got sunstroke in Edinburgh and went paddling on the beach on the Isle of Lewis - it was very surreal.