I am very fond of Sydney Rock Oysters but they are quite expensive.
Fortunately I also like pippis too, whenever I am at the beach I wiggle my feet in the sand at the water line to see if there are any pippis
Once a year, the Thatcher’s cider factory in Sandford, Somerset, is turned over for about a month to process blackcurrants for Ribena.
One of the workers there told me it looks like a crime scene afterwards, and takes three weeks to clean up before production of cider can resume.
During filming of Full Metal Jacket, a Westland Wessex flew along a canal over the Norfolk Broads, UK. The aircraft was painted to look like a US Marines helicopter, and the scene required one of the actors to fire a heavy duty machine gun through the side door. Unfortunately, the local police forgot to warn local fisherpersons in advance, many of whom panicked because they thought they were under fire from the US military.
Full Metal Jacket was an outstanding movie! I may have to watch it again. I already rewatched Saving Private Ryan last year. Thanks for the interesting fact!
The longest railway station bench seat in the world is in Scarborough, England, It is approximately 139m long and can seat about 87 average sized people.
It was built in 1883, and is now a Grade 2 Listed item.
87 in 1883 probably 47 in 2024 
Or seventeen average sized Americans.
(None meant)
???
As in, “no offence meant.”
They are dreaming.
Although less used now, we have an expression in the UK used to describe somebody who is not too bright. “As dim as a Toc H lamp.”
Prior to the standardisation of the Nato phonetic alphabet during the 1950s, (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta etcetera), nations had different variations of phonetics as radio and telephone communications became more prevalent, and the consequences of mishearing a message became crucial.
During WW1, whilst the Royal Navy used a full phonetic alphabet, the British Army, (which included The Royal Flying Corps that later became The Royal Airforce) deemed it only necessary to assign phonetics to certain letters.
A = Ack (originally “Ak”)
B = Beer (or Bar)
C D E F G H I J K L
E = eMma
N O
P = Pip
Q R
S = eSses
Toc
U
Vic
W X Y Z.
Times of the day in twelve hour format would therefore be assigned Ack Emma or Pip Emma.
Neville Talbot was an army chaplain at the time of his brother Gilbert’s death during The Great War. In 1915, Neville, together with a fellow army chaplain ‘Tubby’ Clayton established a place of rest and relaxation for soldiers regardless of rank at an old town house in Poperinge, Belgium which they called Talbot House in Gilbert’s memory.
The abbreviation for Talbot House was of course, TH, and this in turn was often referred to by the army signal identification as Toc H.
One can only presume that the lamps within or without Talbot House were rather dim.
*Poperinge is not to be confused with the mythical place of Pepperinge Eye, the name of the village in the film, Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
Following on from the above, this is an extract from my Great Uncle Sam’s 1917 war diary. He was a signaller with The Sandpipers, a signals group within one of the Gloucestershire Regiments.
Writ in pencil over a hundred years ago, and what beautiful writing it is, the book is very rarely opened, but I went through it a while ago and photocopied the pages to preserve them for posterity.
Bees don’t just pick any flower.They can tell when another has been there before.
Flowers are electrically connected to the earth and pick up a negative charge through electrostatic induction. Bees pick up a positive charge as they fly through the air.
The bee’s body surface charge appears to facilitate pollination since flowers are negatively charged and bees are positively charged (Greggers et. al., 2013b). The attraction of pollen to bees due to their opposite polarity allows pollen to defy gravity, moving against the earth’s gravitational forces in order to stick to the surface of the bee and become lodged in its body hairs .
A bit like rubbing a balloon with nylon and sticking it to your jumper.
Thin plastic Penguin wrappers (the biscuit) stick to your fingers when ripping them off. I know this because I eat loads of them…
I still use that expression as I have since childhood but I also occasionally say “As thick as two short planks”
A very common statement in rural Yorkshire Bruce…
Yes,I did read somewhere you aren’t a 34 anymore
A controlled scientific experiment to demonstrate the attraction capabilities of a Penguin wrapper when rubbed on a human body creating an electrostatic charge and adhered to the fingers of a volunteer, as discussed in an earlier post…
.
Any questions?
Following on from our discussion on electrostatic charge, I thought some of you might be interested to learn about ‘Earthing’
Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth's Surface Electrons - PMC(also%20known%20as%20grounding,the%20ground%20into%20the%20body.
Quote:-
Environmental medicine generally addresses environmental factors with a negative impact on human health. However, emerging scientific research has revealed a surprisingly positive and overlooked environmental factor on health: direct physical contact with the vast supply of electrons on the surface of the Earth. Modern lifestyle separates humans from such contact. The research suggests that this disconnect may be a major contributor to physiological dysfunction and unwellness. Reconnection with the Earth’s electrons has been found to promote intriguing physiological changes and subjective reports of well-being. Earthing (or grounding) refers to the discovery of benefits—including better sleep and reduced pain—from walking barefoot outside or sitting, working, or sleeping indoors connected to conductive systems that transfer the Earth’s electrons from the ground into the body. This paper reviews the earthing research and the potential of earthing as a simple and easily accessed global modality of significant clinical importance.
So get yer kit off and go and walk on some damp grass…
