Wednesday, September 05, 2007

WaterSports Centre with WoW - 69F

En route to yesterday's NT committee meeting I went down Rosemary Street for a change. There was a new Fire Station and I quite liked the look of it. Somebody will probably tell me it has been there for over 10 years! It can be hard to keep up to date with changes to places.

Last Wednesday I tried to turn down a oneway street in Ashbourne because that was the way; only to be met by a chorus of "You've not been able to go that way for years" not without gain though because the aproved route now goes past Dr. Madge's old surgery which they have christened Madge's Corner. He would have liked that ! He also used to enjoy coming to our house, even for no reason, because my Gran always poured him a liberal whisky in a proper cut-glass on a silver tray with a little cut-glass carafe of water. For preference he had VAT 69 (my Dad told us it was the Pope's phone number and we all believed him). I don't know if you can still get it?

Today we went to The National WaterSports Centre at HolmePierrepont, where Y did her white water-rafting. The place was virtually deserted but we were met by this ridiculous notice prohibiting photography without the written permission of the duty manager. By what right do they utter such rubbish? The River Trent is a public place and I would imagine a bye-law would be necessary before anyone could enforce such a prohibition.

I rang the number shown and introduced myself by name and said we intended to ignore such tripe, but if the duty manager cared to come down and argue the point, I would be happy to meet him. No-one came ! All we wanted was some good water-shots, and we tried to capture blurry water (which I personally don't like). But it is harder than we thought and nobody caught a good example. We must try again !

Similar to Jill's comment about the absence of chairs in public places. Congratulations gal ! I'd love to see you sitting on the floor until a chair arrived, double quick. I once went into a shop where two assistants were engaged in a terribly important conversation about their weekend activities and oblivious of me as a customer. So I jumped up and sat on the counter ! The conversation ended immediately for some reason. I couldn't do it now though - No counters !

Glad Bungus's Armour trip went well but I can well understand how tiring it would be.

Picture 3 I think must capture the feel of the place. Indeed I hope so, because I would have been more than willing to use one of the others.

Re other 'comments'. I don't know why 'pictures' seem to vanish from 'posts'. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. When the absence of a recent one is apparent I have gone into 'edit' and put it back in.

I must visit the 'blogger' forum and see if others are having similar problems. Probably a 'google-glitch' which will sort itself out. I hope so because I think the pictures are important.

Y arrived promptly on the 4.20pm tram and it was lovely to see her. She was tired but happy and so pleased about the house-sale. Things are moving forward solicitor-wise and agent-wise I think we might dare to start looking at potential properties again. Thank you all for your good wishes and I will, of course, keep you up to date.

I think the stories about Ralph eating your sandwiches Bungus are hilarious, but when you and Sandra tuck into Ralph's tea, it is goind a bit far. I bet he was really looking forward to his sardines.

On our Wow outing today Roy announced that he was curious about where a particular lane led to. So today's quote is especially for him, from my igoogle homepage :-

"Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind."
Samuel Johnson

I hope that tomorrow will allow us to catch up wth ourselves. Y is off to Burton Joyce and it is our first EPS meeting. In Mike's absence I have offered to make the tea and must remember to take 2pts of milk with me. We are all looking forward to the new season.

As I mentioned, we are each taking prints for discussion, and I hope there aren't any ruffled feathers. Sleep tight and I'll catch you tomorrow - unless too tired.!


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only Fire station Website I could find speaks of the new fire station at Mansfield. I am pretty sure it was built a few years after Simon trained there in 1993. So, 7 to 10 years old? Architecturally I am not over impressed; a bit of a hotchpotch of (then) fashionable clichés, I would say - but no doubt others would disagree.

I like the VAT 69 story very much. I remember it being a popular brand in a nice shaped bottle with red stencilled 69 in large characters. But when? 1960s? I know it lost favour, as did Black & White and Johnny Walker. I always favoured Teachers if I couldn’t get John Begg’s Blue Cap, but fashions change. A lot of people I believe still have a strong allegiance to Bells although Famous Grouse lured some away. I haven’t drunk the stuff for 40 years or more.

Nice to hear of your Holme Pierrepoint protest. Keep the Red Flag Flying! Careful you don’t get arrested.
I was talking to an old friend yesterday (whose son is a detective). He (the father) had been pulled in by a police car on his way home from work and told that he had no insurance (apparently they can now log passing vehicles and find out the particulars within seconds). “Oh yes I have,” said Pat, “how else did I tax the car yesterday?“ The traffic cop asked for his insurance company. “You’re not going to phone them, are you?” said Pat, “because if you are we shall be here for another ******* hour.” But the constable phoned to Bombay and, having failed to make himself understood, was eventually transferred to a supervisor who confirmed no insurance. “I tell you what,” said Pat, “I only live just round the corner; follow me and I‘ll show you my documents.” “You’re not going to drive there are you?” “Why not?” “Because you’re not insured.” “*** ***** *****”. Pat drove home and the police car followed him. It transpired that the insurance company had got one licence plate number wrong. “If you can catch me as easily as that,” said Pat “why the **** can’t you catch all the ****** and ****** and other ******** people who really are driving about without tax or insurance?” “We can, but they just disappear, so it’s not worth bothering.”
I have paraphrased, and there may be slight errors, but the gist is correct.

Your picture of the horseman in Leeds Armoury is far better than the one I took! I’m sure it wasn’t as red as that. I’ll have to have another look at my Picasa now I can see the proper colours on the monitor provided by Dan.

To explain your remarks about Ralph and the sardines:
Sandra was called for a routine scan today at Kings Mill Hospital which is not far from the Sutton Lidl/Bargain Shop/Matalan complex.
In Lidl I spotted some sardines - boneless! (I always remove the bones from sardines but not fron tinned salmon, of which I think them the best bit). So I bought a tin to try (35p). Sandra then said Ralph needed something for his tea (ha-ha) so we also bought another tin WITH BONES (25p). When this was opened for Ralph they looked and smelt so good that Sandra tried a bit. She doesn't normally like them but thought they were lovely so I tried a bit too and I would say they are the best sardines I have ever tasted. Ralph also was allowed a taste (he customarily eats between four and five o'clock and it was now five-thirty and he had failed to spot the pot of butter I inadvertently left on the coffee table last night). The sardine brand is NIXE. We had them in tomato sauce but they are also available in oil. I think in future i shall save 10p and remove the bones myself.

Entering Lidl, I had a surrealistic flash.(of an Occupational Hazard)
ALL SHOPFITTERS WILL BE PROSTITUTED.

Anonymous said...

We had a somewhat similar to-do with a tv licence. Two men came round and said we didn't have one. I knew we had bought one a fortnight ago, but I could I find it? I found the counterfoil in the cheque book - they said I could have faked it....while I was arguing I remembered where I had put the licence. I produced it with a flourish, but no apology, just a grumpy 'goodnight'. Thank goodness now due to R's great age we get a free licence each year....

I must look out for those sardines, we like them too, but only in oil, and have found the Portuguese ones the best so far. Has Ralph tried those?