Leisurely Scribbles (part 5) (Part 1)

Hobbies & Pastimes Hobbies & Pastimes: Chat / Discussions
15922

I’m glad you got a bit of sunshine today Solo, it was dull and overcast all day here and very cold.:wink:

I see on the news that alternatives to toilet rolls are blocking the sewers now, I’m honest, I love saying ‘I told you so’, so does everyone else but all they will say is “I hate to say I told you so”, no they don’t , they love telling you so, if they hated telling you so they wouldn’t bother to mention it at all.:smiley:
As I suggested here, the sponge on a stick is your only man, just wipe and wash, reusable and no blocking anything, mark my words there won’t be a sponge to be got this time next week. :slight_smile:
The news from Hollywood is that Sponge Bob Square Pants has gone into hiding, he says he doesn’t want to be ‘no end of an ass’ and who could blame him, poor little chap.
Surely if the sponge was good enough for Roman emperors, Kings and Queens for hundreds of years it’s good enough for any old bum, or are we above them? who do we think we are…Gods?:smiley:

The wife had her medicines delivered to her from the chemist today she was worried about getting it and didn’t want to burden the daughter with more messages, but now she’s a happy bunny. I’m lucky that way and don’t take any medication at all, ‘cept the odd drop of port and the Guinness. I hope they continue to deliver the medicines to everyone who needs them, that can cause anxiety especially with the old folks.

When today’s generation are pensioners they will be saying to their grandkids “Oh well do I remember 2020, the year the Summer was stolen from us by tiny bugs” and they will shake their little heads in disbelief “Your are joking again grandad”
These tiny invisible to the naked eye bugs were first to be on this earth and it looks like they’re going to be the last, the little buggers keep coming back twice as strong, they are now in space on the ISS, taken there by humans, can you imagine what that would mean if humans landed on a new earth like virgin planet? :shock:

“The scientists found that the ISS has developed a stable population of some 55 different types of microorganisms. But, despite the lack of gravity, these bacteria, fungi, moulds, protozoa and viruses have adapted well to their surroundings. These metal munching microbes are known as technophiles and, as with Mir, could pose a long-term risk to space station systems. In the long run, this might result in difficulties with the proper and safe management of the space station.”
See the full article on BBC news online “How do you keep a space station clean”
Dear Lord take them away and I promise you I’ll never stamp on an ant nor swat another fly as long as I live.;-):smiley:

15923

Yes Jem, time has been afforded to think about our ant-ics.:wink:

15924

I have had a mostly unused not needed mini step exercisor for years which has now been dug out and is being gasped over each day as per the instruction manual and whilst it does keeps the old legs etc in relative aching top up it doesn’t beat the amount of walking that I normally do…so had my usual self distancing trot around the block last night.

As I have always disliked Supermarkets with a vengeance this takes me past my little local shop that I have always used for bits and pieces and last night the lady who runs it knocked on the window holding up a packet of liquorice allsorts…no charge… just a little treat for me and in a packet that can be wiped clean as well. Even though I am not really a sweet eater I do occasionall like these and the kid in me grinned all the way home because I used to play stacking them though not very successfully as they got eaten before I became a grand master…or should that be a liquorice black belt.:-D:-D:-D

15925

Any alien in it’s right mind wouldn’t come near us Spitty, and that proves to me there is intelligent life out there, very intelligent life that knows what’s good for it. ;-):slight_smile:

Oh I do love liquorice all sorts, and I’m a sucker for fruit pastels too.:slight_smile:

I feel sorry for all the folks and families who made holiday and other such plans for the coming Summer, so much disappointment, and the young children don’t know or understand what’s going on.:frowning:
I’m glad now that I was never one for planning, just the odd break when it suits us, for who knows when one of life’s banana skins will land underfoot.

No Grand National this year, so be it, a wise decision.
I’m reminded of the 1993 Grand National that never was, when that poor jockey completed the entire 4 and a half miles to past the post first, only be told that the race was void, a bomb scare or something like that, the sad face of winning jockey Joe White was one of the most pitiful sights I have ever seen, but not as sad as the face on the wife that day, she had two quid each way on the horse that ‘won’ “Esha Ness”, she was like a bull all day after that.:smiley:

15926

First time in 30 years, won’t be going to the RAF Cosford Airshow, its ironic, this would have been the first year we would have benefitted from the FIL’s blue badge, so, would have had a prime slot.:frowning:

15927

Shame about the Airshow spitty but it was inevitable under the circumstances…though I have to admit after seeing the Hunter crash I still shudder at the memory.

The 1993 was an absolute shambles from start to finish and for those watching …was quite unbelievable and like most we had a flutter but luckily got our money back :frowning:

At the time we could not understand why those jockeys who then continued the race ignored the stewards who were waving for them to stop…but they thought it was demonstrators trying to stop them :shock:

15928

Truly sorry to hear about your air show Spitty, I know how much you look forward to that every year. :frowning:

I haven’t had a bet in over two weeks and the strange thing is I don’t really miss it, the only thing i miss badly is the companionship of the other old gits up in the local, I miss them moaning about their daily aches and pains, their hard luck stories, their solutions to the World’s problems, and most of all their dry wit. There is no substitute for ‘live’ company in my opinion, even with all it’s moans and groans.:slight_smile:

Notice how all the other news disappears when there’s a health crisis, no more riots in Hong Kong, no yellow vests in France, and what’s happening in Syria, Yemen, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, etc., peace everywhere it seems, not a bad thing that, pity we all have to be at deaths door before we stop fighting each other, what a strange creature the human being is.:confused:

And now lets all heed our leaders warnings and sing together, but “From a Distance” ;-):slight_smile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=/KCzORgC1NpM

15929

At an unprecedented time like this all the other troubles world wide that you have mentioned are taking a back seat Jem. The fact that continous over kill has caused such mayhem and panic here is unfortunately how things are done today and us humans with our thoughts…actions…and deeds all take such different routes and all handle problems so differently. :frowning:

Some defy…some hide…some moan…some question… some accept…some cry…some don’t… and as they say “it’s the way of the world and was always so”.

Keeping 6ft apart is far better than being 6 ft under…and just think of all the horror stories of living with er or im you will be able to spin next time yer in yer pub aving the craic…and believe me there will be some tales to tell on that score. You’ll probably die from the laughing than from the virus.;-):wink:

Us loners only have our selves to please and that can be a blessing at a time like this and calling yourself a daft b****r or such like upsets nobody nor causes offence to no one but yourself. Usually makes me laugh at myself for doing something stupid.

Keep smiling :-D:-D:-D

15930

“Keeping 6ft apart is far better than being 6ft under” Oh I love that one Solo, you clever girl you.;-):smiley:
Yes you are right, there will be many tales to be told when we’re in the clear again, I just hope all the old devils survive to tell them.

The Son was on the phone to me yesterday, I think he’s worried about my mental health during this lockup, foolish boy, it’s far too late for that now. :lol:
He’s a decent enough painter, on canvas not houses, I tried painting but I was a dead loss at it, just couldn’t master it at all, anyway, he was telling me that I should take up modern art, he knows how much I hate abstract art and I though he was just having a laugh, but he rang the doorbell this morning and when I answered it he pointed to the little table in the porch where sat a box of artists paints, he was smiling at me and shouted (from a distance) “Get cracking Da”. And off he went.

I admit I do have some fantastic dreams with beautiful colours and strange shapes so I’m going to have a go at getting them down in paint. I will have a bit of fun naming them and explaining to the observer what they mean. I’ll probably start off in the Picasso style as that seems the easiest stuff to do, you know an ear hanging off a square head, or a female breast at the apex of a pyramid.
I will of course show you one or even two of my efforts in due course, then again I might just get pissed off with the whole thing and produce nothing, but I can at least tell the Son that I tried.:slight_smile:

I’m sure you’ve all heard the expression “A blind mans sees through his ears” well this would be the ideal Picasso type project for me, my piece de la resistance, or whatever they say for the ultimate in modern art. I have it already mapped out in my mind, a spring for a head so his eye can twist around to get into his ear and so on, but you’ll just have to be patient and wait for it to materialise.:slight_smile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=/0VEyjuAx4jQ

15931

Painting can be rewarding whilst also being frustrating and depressing…look at what Van Gogh ended up doing…the fact he was a crap painter hadn’t occured to him or maybe it had so when a painting was not turning out well he went and cut off his ear’…and Gauguin didn’t try to stop him which showed he must have been a bit of a weirdo too.:wink:

These are tetchy times and if your feeling a bit tetchy… it seems painting can bring out severe tetchiness…look at Munch (The Scream)… and Goya fared no better (Satan devouring his son) as he went doolally at a mere 46.:shock:

Just saying Jem and whatever you do if you do try to copy the Picassos style… resist the temptation to use your good lady as the model as once she sees what you have done to her likeness she may not be so good and lord knows what she would be tempted to cut off.:-D:-D:-D

I have given up watching these reports on COvid as I can’t believe what a Nanny state we have become. Whilst there are hurdles to face for many… all these questions of " what about me…what am I going to do…how do I cope with this… and how do I do that" questions just indicates that people seem no longer able to think for themselves and have become used to being molly coddled. I have yet to hear or see a pensioner ask some of the obvious questions we too face. Made of sterner stuff comes to mind.

Enjoy and I would forget Picasso ;-):smiley:

15932

Good video that, so he was a real painter just acting the maggot. He reminded me of a young Jim Carrey.
I heard about Van Gogh slicing off his ear, and how the poor demented devil had to wear an earwig for the rest of his life.:smiley:

Yes I think I’ll leave the painting off off a while Solo, one has to be in the correct mood for it, anyway I have something else to do, I cut a stout branch off the rambling rose tree and want to make a walking stick out of it, decorate it with engraved silver bands and the knob with Celtic scrolls, that’ll take me a while as I’ll have to melt the silver and hammer it out to plate form, but I’ll do that while the stick is seasoning otherwise it could crack right down the middle. I’ll enjoy doing it. :wink:
Phyllis had asked me to cut back on the tree as it was getting a bit out of hand and I noticed this lovely thick straight branch with a beautiful curve at the thicker end, I’ll give it time to season in the weather outside then smooth it down and clear varnish it to show up the natural colour of the wood. The knob or handle is in the shape of a shillelagh so I can leave it by my bedside to double as a burglar basher.:lol:

https://i.postimg.cc/4dh715yt/IMG-2156-copy.jpg

15933

Glad to hear you have ditched Picasso…he was just another crap painter who didn’t know his a**e from his elbow and had the cheek to put it down on canvas.:wink:

That’s a good looking piece of wood to be working with and as you have not said what tree it was it will be interesting to see what colours show when you have finished smoothing it down. Look forward to seeing it develope. :smiley:

I too have been using this good weather to chop back and it’s only when you have mad spurts like these that you realise your muscles were not in tune with your thinking and are not backwards in coming forwards to let you know they deeply resent your actions…what do they say “Aging is not for wimps” :frowning:

Living by the sea I get plenty of opportunity to wander along the beach looking for interesting stones and have found some lovely ones. The fascination for me is seeing what looks like an ordinary bit of stone that has been polished come alive so beautifully. For me it is yet another gift the waves wash our way. There are a few that collect drift wood to make into various things like picture frames and so on …but it’s stones or sea glass for me. :smiley:

15934

That wood is from a rose tree Solo, I don’t know me woods very well, would that then be rosewood? anyway we’ll see how it turns out.:wink:

I’m getting pains in muscles I never even knew I had. When I was a youth I was a thin lad and I never pulled a muscle because I couldn’t find one to pull.:smiley:

I use a similar tumbler for polishing awkward articles, instead of using grit in the barrel I use 2 and 3 mm steel ball bearings and a soapy compound called Mersel, does a great job after tumbling for 6/7 hours.

I heard a song coming over the radio today and the bloody thing won’t go out of my head.
The old lad and his wife two houses away were out enjoying the sun as was the missus and myself, it was donkeys years since I heard this old song and I hated it then just as much as I hate it now, he had it blasting away.
“Nymphs and Shepherds” is the song I’m talking about, more of a hymn than an ordinary song to my mind and I never liked hymns ever since I was forced to sing “Faith of our Fathers” in front of the whole class as a nervous shy schoolboy, mortified was I.:frowning:
What have nymphs and shepherds got in common anyway, should not the shepherds be watching their flocks by night and not galavanting about chasing nymphs? randy buggers, That reminds me of that old chestnut, what did one shepherd say to the other shepherd when he saw a thunderstorm coming? “Let’s get the flock outta here”:slight_smile:

Errol Flynn had a name for that Hollywood gossip writer Hedda Hopper, she had the goods on most most of the big names and they were all terrified of her, they licked up to all the time to keep in her good books, Flynn called her “The Nympho with the Info”, he must have had some inside info about her sexual encounters. She had tried acting herself but never got very far, so she took to what a lot of women are brilliant at… gossiping.;-):slight_smile:
In the 40’s her annual income was $250,000 and she lived in a mansion which she referred to as “The house that fear built”

Hedda Hopper quote:
“I got around a lot, and lot of people talked to me, I salted down stories by the barrel load”

I like this one of hers “She looks like she combed her hair with an egg beater” Women can be very cruel to each other where looks are concerned.
But that’s nothin’ Hedda, my wife once combed my hair with a rolling pin, boy did that hurt.:smiley:

And now for all those with nothing to do, try counting flowers on the wall.:wink:

https://youtu.behttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=/1s8nRL2bPCU

15935

Ahhh Hedda Hopper…but more on er later…at the moment I am all for this Nymphs and Shepherds thingy…Dig for Victory and back to the land I say and why not with many having nowt to do all day. It worked back then and it would work again putting food on the table.:wink:

Just think of the fun that can be had …mucking out…putting yer ands up a sheeps bum… turnip gathering in the sun…finding out that milk comes from a cows udder and not a plastic carton…these new experiences could be life changing in so many ways :-D:-D:-D

15936

Them’s fine strapping women working on the land in that video, fit as fiddles and strong as horses, neither paint nor powder and their figure is all their own, crisis was just another word to those fine lassies God bless ‘em, marry one of them and you’d be on the pigs back for life, grub and happy wise that is, alas they are almost all gone now, off to that big sprawling farm in the sky.:frowning:

How well I remember my old country sweetheart Josie Molloy from the lovely county Leitrim, happy days they were too, wonder what’s she’s doing now, staying indoors would drive her nuts, she was the real outdoor type, the outlaw Josie Wales had nothing on her.:slight_smile:

A country girl that I once knew
A very long time ago
Asked me down to her daddy’s farm
To show me what she could do.

She groomed the horses and fed the pigs
In her usual joyful manner
And before we mounted the tractor
She fixed it with her spanner.

A fine all rounded she turned out to be
She certainly knew her stuff
And when she had a bath that evening
I saw her in the buff.

And then when darkness fell
We strolled where the lazy cows lay
We ended up in her daddy’s barn
Rolling in the hay.:slight_smile:

Josey Wales quote: “Around here, we got something known as a Missouri boat ride”

Well it certainly wasn’t Missouri, and we hadn’t got a boat.;-):slight_smile:

15937

Now doesn’t that little poem show the highs and lows (if you’ll excuse the pun) of past loves. :wink:

Whilst we are still in the ‘country’ Those clever shepherds oop North used to tally their flocks using a 20 numbering system. They’d count a score of sheep using the words…

Yan, tan, tether, mether, pip,
Azer, sayzer, acka, konta, dick,
Yanna dick, tanna dick, tethera dick, methera dick, bumfit,
Yanna bum, tanna bum, tethera bum, methera bum, jigget

and here’s the clever bit…having counted the twenty they would use a stone… mark the ground or score a stick before commencing the next count.

Good hey…mind you a bet it was a bit of a b****r trying to remember that poem after a few bevvies.:-D:-D:-D

Funny how past loves always seem to pop into our thoughts for better or for worse …especially our first loves:-D

15938

“Yan, tan, tether, mether, pip,
Azer, sayzer, acka, konta, dick,
Yanna dick, tanna dick, tethera dick, methera dick, bumfit,
Yanna bum, tanna bum, tethera bum, methera bum, jigget”

:lol: I love that, reminds me of the Goons yin tang song.

I do try to avoid talking about the virus thing if at all possible, but it’s becoming harder everyday as the rules keep changing, both of us in our house are over 70 so we are officially “Cocooning” together, what a terrible word, isn’t that what worms and maggots do?:shock:

The wife is unusually cranky today with all this cocooning she’s doing, it was a sunny day sure enough but there was no cocooning down the river on a Sunday afternoon for us two cocoons, the wind was fierce and very cold so sitting out or even working in the garden was not on, she was on edge, usually at this time of year herself and the daughter invade the garden centres seeking out all types of plants, but they are closed now on account of the extra safety measures introduced last night, and rightly so, I’ll go along with anything they come up with to contain this dreadful virus, we just have to grin and bear it. :wink:
I feel so sorry for my daughter in law, her parents are in a nursing home in Rome and we all know how bad things are in Italy, their health is not the best and I pray they will come through this OK.:frowning:

We were listening to the news earlier and they were saying to cough into one’s elbow if one hadn’t a hankie handy, I asked herself a simple question and she nearly went through me for a short cut, I asked her was it possible to catch this virus from a fart, say you were in a lift and a carrier farted, a simple locical honest question.
“It’s not funny, there are thousands dying from this”
I hadn’t intended it to be funny, I was just medically curious that’s all, honest to God.:confused:

Hey diddle diddle
She can’t go to Lidl
Because we’re in a cocoon
Our little dog laughed
At the wife’s long face
And he got a whack of the spoon. ;-):slight_smile:

No particular reason for playing this song, other than it always cheers me up, hadn’t Cass Elliot got a lovely voice God rest her soul.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=/YZuUHIaHc28

15939

So young, so always been on the fringe
This being the case, never forget the smell of the singe.

15940

Good to know you are OK spitty and that you are still smoking hot with your one …and two liners.;-):smiley:

Jem…with little else on the news but Covid19 it’s bound to pop up into any conversation ’ now and again’… …did I really type that !!!.

I am sure the impact would be far greater if they had 3 daily main news sessions with just the facts pertaining to the Covid crisis and not all the blethering scare mongering tripe that we are being bombarded with rather than spend time putting some decent up to date programmes/films on to cheer us all up.

We will all cope with this in our own way with it’s highs and low points and what would normally pass over our heads will no doubt irritate the life out of us at times like this…So if your loved one wants to whack you with a spoon…grin and bear it and think ‘I am helping to relieve her stress levels’ :-D:-D:-D

In answer to your fart question…but there again would you trust anything coming out of China these days :-D:-D:-D

In a lengthy and seemingly humorous yet serious article on its WeChat account, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of Tongzhou district in Beijing clarified that farts, normally, do not constitute another transmission route of COVID-19, unless someone takes a good and rather close sniff of gas from a pantless patient.

Being whacked with a spoon is hopefully the least of your problems ;-):smiley:

15941

:smiley: Very funny that pair.
Thank you for that info and those encouraging words Solo.;-):slight_smile:

Singeing, that reminded me of old Harry the barber.

When I worked in a shop in Temple Bar in the 60’s there was an old barber shop next door, Harry the owner was a decent old skin but he wasn’t great at spelling, he had painstakingly made a colourful sign and placed it in the window, it said “Singing Promotes the Growth your Hair” Nobody had the heart to correct him.
I was working away at my bench one Saturday early afternoon when the air was filled with the tune “I’m gonna wash that man right outta my hair” when I opened the window and looked down there were these two bald lads singing and laughing to the top of their voices, they were Welsh Rugby fans and had just come out of the pub to head over to Lansdowne Road for the match and had seen Harry’s sign.:smiley:
Harry also had, presumably as a back up if the singeing didn’t work, a small back room where men were discretly fitted for wigs.

“A singe is a treatment available at a barber’s.[1] A lit taper (candle) or other device is used to lightly burn and shrivel the hair. The practice of singeing was popular approximately a century ago; it was believed that hair had “fluid” in it and singeing would trap the fluid in. Singeing is supposed to have beneficial effects – sealing cut ends, closing up the follicles, preventing the hair from bleeding (a belief that has since been debunked)[2] and encouraging it to grow.[3] Singeing is still sometimes used to bond natural hair to hair extensions.[4]
Primitive cultures have also used singeing as a means to trim scalp or body hair, as a part of normal grooming or during ritual activity.[5][6]
Sir Francis Drake was famously said to have figuratively “singed the King of Spain’s beard” when he raided Cadiz and burnt the Spanish fleet” Wiki.

https://i.postimg.cc/rwCdTdT4/1924-antique-barber-shop-sign-hair-1-c2c8f6167d245810fb88e87aa97.jpg