Me living in the Allotment, it would tend to be. Usually it would be used in the sense of "I say, old chap, that's really neither cricket nor an appropriate price".
Today, it means exactly what it says, since I have found a couple of pictures that show Tandle Hill. I wanted to get these earlier, because an illustration about how steep the hill is would have helped underline my sense of disbelief at those people who choose to run up and down it. Even as I got off the bus this afternoon, there was a runner in an orange top, pounding up towards Gravel Pit. Art?
That's from the Royton side, looking to the top from the bottom. You can get a better sense of how big it is from a distance, and I found a snap from earlier this summer. Art?
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Okay, time to put the motley on a treadmill, backwards, and see how long till it falls off!
"The Rockford Files" - Season 3
Aha! We are now at the point where your honest scribe remembers actually seeing these episodes, first time around. Last night it was "The Trees, Bees and T.T. Flowers" and I particularly remember Strother Martin being kept in a ward, doped up on LSD to make him sound like a nutter. Art?
"The Rockford Files" - Season 3
Aha! We are now at the point where your honest scribe remembers actually seeing these episodes, first time around. Last night it was "The Trees, Bees and T.T. Flowers" and I particularly remember Strother Martin being kept in a ward, doped up on LSD to make him sound like a nutter. Art?
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| Strother sitting down |
All part of a convoluted plot to steal his land. Seeing him as a sympathetic protagonist is quite a surprise, as he usually played the villain, or - just to avoid typecasting - the slimy villain. Career peak probably "The Wild Bunch". Art?
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| Slimy, villainous and deeply creepy |
Switching direction immediately, let us now talk about - cooking!
More Sticky Stuff
I hope you aren't going to carp and declare that a skewer is not a stick, because I shall poke you with one if you do.
More Sticky Stuff
I hope you aren't going to carp and declare that a skewer is not a stick, because I shall poke you with one if you do.
Anyway, last night I made kebabs again, since the ones from Saturday were so good (I know, I know, tooting my own trumpet, I'm a terrible person) and if Art can put down his plate of coal - what's that, Art? It's coke, not coal? I do apologise!
That's button mushrooms, yellow pepper, halloumi cheese, courgette and a beefburger chopped up and rolled into meatballs. Jolly nice, and gone within minutes.
Of course, anything being cooked in the kitchen, especially if it involves meat, always attracts an eager audience of either one or two. Art?
That's Edna, patiently waiting in case the food suddenly attacks me or becomes dangerously explosive. Nice try, Edders.*
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| Thus |
Of course, anything being cooked in the kitchen, especially if it involves meat, always attracts an eager audience of either one or two. Art?
 |
| Edna the eager audience |
Enough of boring domestic tranquility! Let us whiz backwards in time to the Second Unpleasantness and -
"Deadly Magic" By Edward Van Der Rhoer
No! Nothing to do with Harry Potter or wizards - well, not the spell-casting type of wizards, anyway. Art?
"Communications Intelligence in World War II in the Pacific" is the not quite as catchy subtitle. "MAGIC" was the codename for the intelligence information derived from breaking and reading the Nipponese 'Purple' cipher machines; like the Teutons, the Nipponese were convinced that this code was unbreakable, unreadable and therefore utterly reliable.
Except not!
Ol' Ed was part of GZ 20, who decrypted transmissions from one Nipponese station to another; this kind of information was utterly priceless during the early years of the Pacific War**, where outnumbered South Canadian forces needed every advantage they could get. By reading their opposite number's messages, the Allies could concentrate forces where they needed to be.
I think we shall return to this topic, it's an interesting one. Well, it interests me, which is what matters. Again, whose blog is it?
Improvised AFVs
That's 'Armoured Fighting Vehicles' to you, and no, we're not going to look at any Kurdish Peshmerga vehicles today; rather, we are going to look at some of the bizarre vehicles that Perfidious Albion bodged up in the aftermath of Dunkirk, when an invasion was expected any day, and improvisation was the thing. Art?
Note the twin machine guns at rear, which look like Vicker's K guns. And that big 'gun' on top is actually a flamethrower, with a range of a hundred yards, firing thickened diesel and tar. Art?
Author Nevil Shute, a Royal Navy captain at the time, described various visiting bigwigs seeing it in action and being 'appalled and horrified'. Quite. As for those on the receiving end ...
* She got exactly nothing.
** An oxymoron if ever there was one
No! Nothing to do with Harry Potter or wizards - well, not the spell-casting type of wizards, anyway. Art?
"Communications Intelligence in World War II in the Pacific" is the not quite as catchy subtitle. "MAGIC" was the codename for the intelligence information derived from breaking and reading the Nipponese 'Purple' cipher machines; like the Teutons, the Nipponese were convinced that this code was unbreakable, unreadable and therefore utterly reliable.
Except not!
 |
| Reverse-engineered South Canadian version of a Type 97 |
Ol' Ed was part of GZ 20, who decrypted transmissions from one Nipponese station to another; this kind of information was utterly priceless during the early years of the Pacific War**, where outnumbered South Canadian forces needed every advantage they could get. By reading their opposite number's messages, the Allies could concentrate forces where they needed to be.
I think we shall return to this topic, it's an interesting one. Well, it interests me, which is what matters. Again, whose blog is it?
 |
| MINE! |
Improvised AFVs
That's 'Armoured Fighting Vehicles' to you, and no, we're not going to look at any Kurdish Peshmerga vehicles today; rather, we are going to look at some of the bizarre vehicles that Perfidious Albion bodged up in the aftermath of Dunkirk, when an invasion was expected any day, and improvisation was the thing. Art?
 |
| A Heavy Cockatrice |
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| Photoshopped, but it gives the general idea. |
Author Nevil Shute, a Royal Navy captain at the time, described various visiting bigwigs seeing it in action and being 'appalled and horrified'. Quite. As for those on the receiving end ...
* She got exactly nothing.
** An oxymoron if ever there was one
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