Yes, More Yarking About Parking
At least that's what it felt like on the 83 bus into Oldham this morning, as we hit a tailback that was even longer than yesteryon yesteryon's. O how we crawled along. No, I didn't take a photo, a queue of traffic is as dull and boring as those people who delight in showing you photos of what they had for breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper and their midnight snack. Let's veer far, far off the very idea of a slowly moving mass of cars. Art!
 |
| The only kind of Traffic jam Conrad enjoys |
This time the traffic lights at Wynsor's World Of Shoes - don't mock, they've been there for decades so they are doing something right - were back in working order, except Droylesden Road had been closed off. Purely to inconvenience motorist, one presumes. Your Humble Scribe observed that a JCB ('backhoe' to our South Canadian friends) was in action on day #2 of the Giant Traffic Clot, and for your elucidation I snapped a photo. Art!
 |
| If a machine could look smug, this would be it |
Once past this choke point, we rapidly encountered another, because at the Moston junction a manhole squarely in the middle of the inner lane had been barriered and coned off, since the mortar around it had been chiselled away. One presumes this is going to be replaced in a week or two. I mean, what's the hurry? Sorry, no photo, I didn't realise there were roadworks until too late.
HOWEVER! I did get an evidentiary record at the Central Park bus stop. You recall that I theorised that this is where Metrolink passengers debark from the tram in order to catch the bus? Art!
I would estimate there were about fifty people, trying to get onto an already full single-decker bus. What do you mean? Of course - obviously! - it was a single-decker! You don't think First Bus are going to actually accommodate scummy passengers, do you?
"O whiny great pudding, where does this mention of 'Thunder' come in?" I hear you quail. Well - Art!
Here is the rather eerie sight of Victoria's Metrolink station silent as the grave, with static trams on the platforms and none inbound. Conrad had an illuminating chat with one of the gate guards, who said that a lightning-strike on Sunday evening during the thunder storm had hit the cabling to the north of Victoria and fried it for a couple of lengths. There was so much damage inflicted on complex technical equipment that Metrolink are having to bring in specialist outside contractors, which of course takes time. They hope (fingers and toes crossed!) to have things up and running again for Thursday morning.
Conrad rather suspects that some guerrilla film-makers are going to sneak in there and get a few establishing shots of the empty and immobile station, which they could sell to studios as part of a montage showing, O I dunno - the collapse of Western civilisation? Art!
 |
| Perhaps not |
There's no denying this transport disruption has been a severe pain in the bottom, although in compensation it does generate nice fresh blog content.
A Waspish Quote
I am nearly 60% through Robert Asprey's "German Strategy In The Great War", thanks to having lots of reading time on laggardly buses. I especially like his citric commentary when he punctures punctilious Prussian pride and pompousness. Here's one quote from Edward House, President Wilson's personal envoy to Europe, of King George V.
"His idea seemed to be that the best way to obtain permanent peace was to knock the fight out of the Germans, and stamp on them for a while until they wanted peace and more of it than any other nation."
It made me smile. Contemporary echoes? No idea what you're talking about. Art!
 |
| Kingy. Go on, insult it, I dare you |
More Of The Economic Chronic
I doubt that The Fun-Sized Foot Fiddler* is going to hear any of what follows, apparently he now flies into a rage when informed of bad news, so is only being told fairy tales about cuddly bunnies and rainbows. Really, his resemblance to Herr Schickelgruber increases by the day, even t
ANYWAY I am appending here some of Joe Blog's insightful analysis of the Ruffian oil situation. To say it is bad is to reach British levels of understatement. Art!
The tranquil sight of a Ruffian oil refinery not working
The Ruffians can only sell their crude at a substantial discount, $20 per barrel, meaning it sells at $55 per barrel. They are exporting 9 million barrels a day - a million barrels a day down on this time last year - so this discount is costing them $180 million PER DAY. Looked at over a year's duration, this comes to a staggering $65 billion.
Ruffian oil was selling at $35 per barrel higher this time last year, so in comparison they have lost $315 million per day since the $90 per barrel boom times. This loss, per annum, comes in at a staggering $115 billion, which is about 10% of their GDP. Art!
But wait! There's more! Ruffian economists were making their predictions and calculations for 2023 on the basis of oil being sold at $70 per barrel. It's now 21% less than that and not recovering.
This is, of course, all part of the plan.
"City In The Sky"
The bean-counters who want to halt the Human Salvation Project have walked into a nasty surprise.
That’s utter nonsense!’ added a suit with
a carefully shaven head, still wearing his sunglasses indoors. ‘There’s nobody up there.’
‘We started sending up live bodies eight months ago. They’ve been shaking down the sphere, seeding
plants, pumping water, generally getting it ready and ironing out any
problems.’
‘You’re lying. We’d have known
about anyone flying up there,’ added another suit, a narrow-faced man who still
wore his driving gloves.
Harris made a dismissive sound with his tongue and sucked his
teeth. The Black Knight aerospatial
flights had been going on for so long that nobody bothered about them any
more. They were boring and mundane and
forgettable.
‘Hide in plain sight,’ he replied.
‘If you’d bothered to check up on the status of Arcology One instead of
taking it for granted as a financial sink-hole, you’d have discovered personnel
going up there. We still send up the
impedimenta, but now we send up people, too.’
In front of him they went into a huddle, whispering to each other. Doubtless discussing how this latest
revelation didn’t change their intent.
Ha! Take that, accountants!
Ooops. Again.
Darth Marmalade is in the news again, for all the wrong reasons. His arrest in Miami was attended by at most a couple of hundred people, many of whom were protesters, and it was entirely peaceful. This may give DJ Tango a bit of a pause for thought, if he is given to such things. His arrest in New York brought very few people to protest on his behalf, and he may have soothed his ego by saying that all New Yorkers hate him anyway. Art!
Floridians, however, are supposed to love love love him. Maybe not as much as he supposed, if this is all that turned out. Also, note that he didn't say a single word in court, because bloviating in front of a judge always ends up very badly. Pay attention to what he vents about on Truth Social, because he can shout it to the heavens there with no legal punisment.
Plus, E. Jean Carroll is seeking to double her payment from the defamation and battery case she won, because the Tribble-Topped Beer Barrel In A Suit went on public television and repeated the canards he'd already been found guilty of. So he's going to have to fork over $10 million when his delaying tactics run out the clock.
Finally -
Blimey, the evening is nearly over, and I've got to peruse "The Daily Beast" yet, and Jake Broe's put up another video, nor have I even peeked at Quora today and I need a shave. Which I'd better go do. Chin chin!
* His shoes are grotesquely built-up to give him several inches in extra height.
No comments:
Post a Comment