Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 28th March 2019, 6:48 AM

Never happens in my neighbourhood. Do get the occasional neighbour's cat jumping into my garden which I have to shoo with a loaded newspaper.

View original

We have our fair share of stabbings down 'ere. Also had a couple of shootings. Not always adults. Teenagers are getting more and more brass-necked and will just lure another kid somewhere in broad daylight, in a public place (park, graveyard etc.) and beat the shit out of them...to the point they need hospitalization. For fear of repercussions, there are very few who will actually report these crimes. They just suffer in silence...and a caution is the only punishment.

Sad really...considering I originally moved down from South London to avoid my kids growing up where I did and having to worry about the violence in our area. There just seems no actual reason, they just like to show how 'ard they are.

Moving on, I'm about to attempt to hack away at a very unruly pampas with a strimmer. This I shall do in spite of having a recently injured foot and nagging vertigo. Everyone's out, so obviously it's the best time to do it...when there's nobody here to help or call an ambulance if things go wrong! Now...this is living dangerously!...ish.

Quote: Old Lady Leg @ 30th March 2019, 4:35 PM

We have our fair share of stabbings down 'ere.

View original

I think perhaps the authorities have decided simply to leave them to it in the hope that, before too long, all those with a genetic or social predisposition to violent aggression will have stabbed, shot or otherwise disposed of each other.

It makes sense when you think about it and, as long as collateral damage remains within acceptable levels, I'm happy to let them get on with it.

Is there a trick cyclist on this forum, or maybe a pickyologist? (I refuse to Google words that are hard to spell )

I have installed the wall display cabinet I had for my birthday (my present to me, that I did mentch briefly somewhere ) and have arranged on the shelving the Dinkies and train sets of my childhood, and at this point you are probably saying so f**king what. (that's very rude, so I'll ignore it )

Well, sitting back and looking at them all I noticed that I had arranged all of them facing from right to left - is there a hidden meaning in that mayhap?

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 4th April 2019, 9:54 AM

I noticed that I had arranged all of them facing from right to left - is there a hidden meaning in that mayhap?

View original

As far as the cars are concerned, I have some immediate thoughts: from early childhood, people in Britain see greater significance in cars travelling from right to left than they do in cars travelling from left to right - simply because the vast majority of pedestrians struck by cars while attempting to cross the road are struck by cars coming from their right. Such cars are rightly seen as a far greater danger than the others and they, therefore, have greater significance to us - from early childhood onwards.

Secondly, most of the major motor racing tracks in Europe are designed for clockwise travel and so spectators see the cars travelling from right to left and this image is therefore in the memory of most people who have ever seen even a snippet of a European motor racing event.

Interestingly, passengers always board a plane on the port side so, on that basis, our image of planes may well be of travelling from right to left. Also, if I try to recall TV and film images of planes in flight, I immediately recall several flying from right to left but none flying from left to right. Those images of planes must, to some extent, influence our perception of vehicular travel in general.

Also, about 90% of the population is right-handed and will, therefore, tend to move a toy car, plane, train or anything else from right to left rather than in the opposite direction. That tendency added to countless visual memories may influence our overall perception of vehicular travel.

As far as the trains are concerned, our perception of travelling trains will almost certainly be influenced by our perceptions of vehicular travel in general. Also, it's entirely possible that you arranged the trains so they don't look as though they're about to crash into the cars.

I have just checked my own display. My Man from Uncle car, the Batmobile, James Bond's Aston Martin, the Saint's Jaguar, the Monkeemobile and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang I have indeed displayed from right to left without realising it.

The Avengers' Bentley & Lotus Elan and Lady Penelope's FAB1 are, however, displayed from left to right. But that's only because that's dictated by the way they fit on to the inserts in their boxes.

Never thought about it before.

Well the grenade launcher on my Johnny 7 gun that I have mounted over the fire goes off on its own whenever the word Brexit gets mentioned on the telly? What is it telling me and do I have to act on it?

Bill Re Lady Penelope's car, Parker parks that so its more an indication of his leanings rather than M'ladys. I only added that as I am a massive fan of her ladyship and as she is not here to defend herself I decided to step in (She is currently out trying to source a Styrofoam cup that looks like a reactor and some 00 gauge track that she can bastardise into an overhead monorail system. .

But every horse racing course (except one I know of) run left to right.
Ripon being the exception.
There once was a racehorse called Belper and it only had one eye so could only run at Ripon.
(It couldn't see the rail on other tracks)

Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ 4th April 2019, 3:20 PM

But every horse racing course (except one I know of) run left to right.
Ripon being the exception.

View original

Also exceptions are Ascot, Goodwood, Newmarket, Sandown Park, Kempton, Salisbury and various others including, in your neck of the woods, Beverley.

Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ 4th April 2019, 3:20 PM

There once was a racehorse called Belper and it only had one eye so could only run at Ripon.
(It couldn't see the rail on other tracks)

View original

I remember being at Epsom when Belper (trained locally to me by the late John Dunlop) won the 1974 City & Suburban Handicap. I also remember him winning at Brighton. Both of which, unlike Ripon, are left-handed courses.

At Exeter, Taunton, Folkestone, Goodwood, Kempton, Ludlow, Hamilton, Musselburgh, Newmarket (Rowley), Towcester, Wincanton, Sandown, Ascot, Huntingdon, Hereford, Salisbury (switchback), Leicester, Ripon, Beverley, Carlisle and Perth, the horses run clockwise.

That's about a third of the racecourses in Britain.

At Windsor, they run in a figure of eight.

Quote: Rood Eye @ 4th April 2019, 3:57 PM

At Exeter, Taunton, Folkestone, Goodwood, Kempton, Ludlow, Hamilton, Musselburgh, Newmarket (Rowley), Towcester, Wincanton, Sandown, Ascot, Huntingdon, Hereford, Salisbury (switchback), Leicester, Ripon, Beverley, Carlisle and Perth, the horses run clockwise.

That's about a third of the racecourses in Britain.

At Windsor, they run in a figure of eight.

View original

At Folkestone they no longer run in either direction as it closed 7 years ago.

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 4th April 2019, 4:04 PM

At Folkestone they no longer run in either direction as it closed 7 years ago.

View original

I do not wish to know that: kindly leave the stage!

Quote: Rood Eye @ 4th April 2019, 4:15 PM

I do not wish to know that: kindly leave the stage!

View original

Exit stage left or stage right?

Mr Google strikes again.

Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ 4th April 2019, 4:24 PM

Mr Google strikes again.

View original

Not in my case. With the exception of Beverley all the courses I mentioned I have visited many times. In fact I have a few days' break for Newmarket races the week after next. Staying in Thetford, where I aim to visit the Dad's Army Museum while there.

I will admit I checked my Timeform Racehorses volumes to confirm the exact year that Belper won the City & Suburban.

I didn't mean you Billy.
Someone likes to copy n paste swathes from Google to correct someone.