yen_powell

I've only ever actually seen one pub with sawdust on the floor, the Spotted Dog in Barking. Used to see it in butchers, but even that has stopped now. There are a few normal pubs with 'normal for London' regulars in east London, but not many. Most get converted into flats, demolished and replaced with glass fronted flats, become mosques or a very few get converted into trendy expensive pubs. I've just done a small paving job outside an old pub, they rebuilt it from the ground up, not intentionally, the old structure was meant to be refurbished but it was so bad they had to start from the foundations up with an exact replica of the bottom part but now with flats on top. I made them reverse an outward opening door before I gave them their change from my works as that is a big no no in the UK. They have still not managed to find anyone willing to take on the pub part and run it, no one is interested, they've done a really nice job as well. This is the original pub https://goo.gl/maps/PKcgWXBxVEQdfDgP6 This is how far down they had to demolish in the end https://goo.gl/maps/64z9hU1KrASL8CscA I'll dig out a picture of the replacement when I have access to my work files.

From a famous sci fi show when a wise alien was asked how to stop a disaster. The avalanche has begun.....it is too late for the pebbles to vote.

The pub that faced two different directions. Can't be many pubs where the front has swapped sides. Never been inside, but will try and get down there soon in case it does vanish. https://spitalfieldslife.com/2022/01/28/save-the-george-tavern/

Jesus Saves, Moses takes the kick off.

If all those around you are losing their heads, helicopter piloting is not for you.

He who smelt it hath dealt it. A dog is not just for Christmas, you can make sandwiches with it on Boxing day. If you kiss a thief, count your teeth! (Ranji Ram, Bearer to the Royal Artillery Concert Party, Deolali, India)

An old trail rider from Hertfordshire said these wise words to me. He who looks at the scenery whilst trail riding becomes the scenery.

A bit of sick came up into my mouth.

CZ, Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki. 5 manufacturers out of 17 bikes ever owned over a 38 year period. 3 of those 17 were second (trail) bikes, so only 14 main bikes in 38 years as my daily transport. Main bikes CZ250, CG125, XS250, CX500, GPz750, GPz750, FJ1200, XRV750, FJ1200. XRV750, XRV750, XLV1000, KLZ1000, XT1200 Trail bikes XL250R, DR350, DR350 I seem to own a bike for 2.7 years on average, but some of the above were for short periods like the CZ and the XS250 which were horrible.

Still got the album and the cover, an angry girlfriend ripped up and threw the inner sleeve away though. The same girl who lobbed my B52s cassette out the window of my car as we were driving. She's probably calmed down by now.

When Wogan retired from the weekly morning show I was gutted. I didn't realise they carried on reading them out on something at the weekend that he still did on the radio till that nearly finished. I also used to love the names the listeners came up with when signing their letters. Mick Sturbs, Anita Bush, Tudor Bush.

Not a joke, but plenty of knobs. If you get bored, fast forward to 9:25 and watch the Jeep nearly miss the ford altogether and end up in the river proper, followed a few minutes later by someone in a jacked up offroader killing his vehicle

That is known as Suffolk Pink....even in Essex. I have a friend who has a pink house (actually in Suffolk) and when she had it repainted the weather went wrong and only two sides got done. It starts off very bright dark pink and then fades to what people expect, so two out of three road facing walls looked a bit strange.

Don't mention the bell end, even that got abused.

There was a bloke on the late Terry Wogan's radio show called John Marsh, used to do the weather and also the shipping forecast as well. I think that when it was discovered his wife was called Janet, a listener started writing Janet and John stories, similar to early years reading books, but with a rude twist. It was all based around John being a badly dressed child-like pensioner with a weak bladder and a sticky beard and Janet being a domineering wife with a liking for extreme sports. The stories were read out live on air, no idea how they got away with it in the mornings, the crew were nearly wetting themselves when they heard the first part knowing what was coming. Sometimes I did when I heard them as well. The real Janet and John publishers tried to shut them down, but they were used to raise a lot of money for charity later on. There are loads of these, but here is one that tickled me. They are short, so don't panic if you have a Wogan phobia.

They asked my mate in street lighting to move a lamp column because the root was in the way of their drain run. I asked them 'what drain run?' and that's how I found out about it. I reported it then (November) to the people that are supposed to care about that sort of thing, nothing happened. Then when the hoarding came down I couldn't believe how many lids there were. I was in meetings all day on day 1, so by the time I got in to the borough the next day excavation had started which was when I called a halt to the work and reported it all over again to the same people as before who are rushing about now to sort it all out.

It's wicked isn't it. If I didn't look like a down and out I could rock up to the estate agent and demand a viewing. But if I did that they'd set the dogs on me.

Well the plans should have been looked at and approved by the Planning Dept and then by Building Control. And maybe they were and this was deemed to be okay. The investigation might throw some light on to this. This picture was sent to show me that some concrete was used when I asked about the surround, there are pipes emerging from the new building in quite a few places as you can see. I have no idea what they all are. I have no idea if what was put back to bring the levels back up to footway level have been layered and compacted properly either. Plus you can't dig up the Highway, even behind a hoarding, without all the necessary permits and permissions and I know for definite that hasn't happened. It's a clusterfuck as Mr Eastwood would say.

The lovely old abandoned house on the ford in Kersey (see top most post) was in the paper today. Lots of internal pictures of the dilapidation. Needs a lick of paint or what? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10435435/Grade-II-listed-home-dating-1490-goes-market-1-4million.html

Yes, they carry on behind where I was standing AND away into the distance behind the part still hoarded section. There will be more lid than footway if it is allowed to remain. I have a picture of one being built and the ground worker's nose is level with the footway level so they are reasonably deep as well. I also only noticed the balconies over the footway when I looked at the picture. Something else you can't do without an oversailing licence. My mate was standing under one when the resident was washing its floor with a mop and bucket. He got a head covered in bleachy water as it ran out of the corner drain.

My old next door neighbour used to be his colonel when he was colour co-cordinated like a gay hussar.

Apparently eels have come back after a long absence which is supposed to be a sign of cleaner water and there is a regular seal appearance, although they are probably lost.

I go mostly for the Mini Fat Boy!

He has his bike on his whatsapp pic. You may know exactly what it is, they all look the same to me. He's not supposed to ride a bike after a very serious spinal operation about 10 years ago. He had old injuries from his horse rolling on him when he was in the Royal Horse Artillery, plus various bike crash injuries on top. He says this one bike gives him a riding position that doesn't aggravate his spine surgery.