yen_powell

I tried to keep the traditional dog poo out of the pictures. It's everywhere at the moment, people aren't picking up like they used to. And there are no stray dogs, all have a human walking with them.

That is the end of the water mill. The bit sticking out was for loading or unloading the waggons with the grain/flour. Essex waggons have very big wheels to cope with the state of the awful unsurfaced roads caused by the infamous Essex clay (like the cart in the famous painting The Hay Wain). The local clay is excellent for making bricks, not so good to get through mid winter. There is a small victorian 'hand made brick' place in the country side round here. When the leisure lockdown eases I'll take my bike up there and get some pictures, it's next to a green lane, but I think it should be fine for my current bike if I'm careful. I am going to take a trip to the big graveyard on the edge of town. My ex used to be friends with the caretaker's wife who lived in the house there, but I've never been inside, so I must explore. That's got to be a weird place to live, especially at night.

That's right, I had to get my Mum and Dad to run around handing out tickets to the people who were going as I was locked into a secure ward with all the other strokers!

I had one of those moments where I suddenly stood up and decided to go for a walk, no thinking first. I decided to cut through the park behind my estate, cross the river and walk up to have a look at the convent. Another place I ride past a lot never stopped to look properly. The park was busy with people, large areas of grass under a few inches of water, frozen in places so people werre looking for stones or rocks to throw at it to make it shatter. Got to the bridge and could see the water was high but it looked like the deck was out of the water from a distance. I was wrong! Water came up to my ankles, left boot shipped a little water and the bottom of my jeans were a bit soggy. The couple walking towards me with their dog decided to turn round after seeing me cross the bridge. The other side of the bridge is a concrete track that becomes Convent Lane. I wandered down and took a look at the convent itself. never seen a nun so either they aren't any there, or they walk about in mufti so you can't spot them. They have one of those little doors with a grill to talk through. A few yards from the convent is the town bridge over the river. The water was very high compared to usual. In old photographs I've seen this was one of those bridges that had a raided wooden walkway at the sides for when the water was above the road level. Never noticed this mill was next to the bridge or this weird plastered house before. There's a name for it, a local tradition called pargetting, I even used to know a bloke who did it to his council house on a side wall, what he done was really good, if a little out of place https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pargeting I decided to walk back through town, my left foot was starting to dry so didn't want to go wading over the park bridge again. I went past the leany house, god that thing is pissed. Nice knockers though. Pics below

It was an Everly Brothers song on my hard drive. Apparently Roy Orbison Inc or something similar decided I was distributing their music without a licence so they sent me a produce the licence or desist. I didn't even know it was there, some hooky collection of zillions of MP3s given to me by a neighbour. Shame, I likes a bit of Roy as well and the poor fucker had been dead a few years then.

Same reason I come on here, morbid curiosity.

I got a similar email from Napster.....remember them?

When I was in Ireland for a week, we had a single gorgeous sunny day. I saw an old grave yard in the village we were staying in and thought I'd have a walk through it. All peaceful, birdsong and butterflies it was. I walked round a large gravestone and nearly had a heart attack when I saw a bloke laid out on top of a stone slab a few feet away snoring his head off.

There is a legend about petticoat Lane market that says if you walk though it your wristwatch will be removed from your wrist in the first few feet, but you can buy it back before you get to the other end.

I rode to work and back this morning, it was like summer, warm enough to wear thin gloves and one less layer under my jacket, no need for heated grips. It was also overcast and windy but you can't have everything. Snow forecast over the weekend though, warmth is a temporary condition. Two nutters followed me along a closed road asking me questions today about the site we were on. Either there are more about than usual or they are deliberately seeking me out. I think one was telling me he loved council workers, his diction wasn't great so I'm not sure. This was right by the Watch House built in the 1800s to stop people stealing bodies from the grave yard and selling them to the anatomists at the local teaching hospital, proving that there is a long and fine tradition of thievery in the area. “A watch-house stands at the corner of the churchyard. Body-snatching reached its peak during the 1820s and most London graveyards have, or had, watch-houses dating from that period. The Anatomy Act of 1832 put body-snatchers out of business. before that doctors could legally have only corpses of criminals for dissection.”

I've never been a mad rider, I fear falling off too much, but I also only obey speed limits if I think there's a chance of getting caught, other than that I go at the speed I am happy that I won't (most importantly) hurt myself or hurt anyone else. I go less than the speed limit if I think it's a bit too iffy to go any quicker, I am always on the look out for what could get in my way or cause me problems ahead. Like a prophet of doom for that I am. On the other hand if I think it's safe and I won't get caught I'll go lots over the limit, especially in some places where local politicians have had it lowered because they think it will lower accidents. My own employer has a 20mph borough wide limit which is a joke, even the buses, the Police and the cyclists drive/ride more quickly than that. Outside a school or a park, fair enough, but on a 3 lane wide road with no houses and wide footways????? The silly thing is, it means I don't have to light up signs, put some road markings in or put as much anti skid surfacing before ped x-ings down because the prevailing limit is 20, despite everyone actually still doing 30/40 when they get a free run up. The fastest I ever went on a bike was only 140 and I only did that twice, once 2 up on the main A road between Plymouth and Exeter on my first FJ1200 and once on the A13 in Essex on my second FJ just to see if it felt like the first time. Wasn't that keen if I'm honest. Now I rarely go over 100 on the motorway.

My paper licence is a bit ragged round the edges, had the same one since 97 when I last moved, so when I got my speeding points in 2017 I thought that when I sent it off for endorsement they would make me have a photocard type which I have been avoiding. But no, they sent it back, they don't write on them any more it goes online now of course, so my paper copy is clean at least. Same happened for the 2019 points as well. When I have to produce it at work or for hiring a bike or car abroad I make sure they don't manhandle it too much, I'm not paying for a new one every 10 years, not when it is valid till 2035.

I had a permitting another rider without insurance (4 points), crossing double white lines (3 points), 58 in a 30 (3 points) back in 1986, 10 points in total, then a 37 in a 30 which would have got me a 6 month ban (taken me to 13 points) but the Police ballsed it up and I got away with it. Then nothing until 2015 when I got a 50 in a 30 and 2017 when I got a 90 in a 70, 6 points in total. I've had continuous motorcycle insurance with no claims for 38 years, but according to my insurance company I only have 9 years no claims because that is the maximum with them.

Oooh, not seen that one, I'll search it out. He's in a wheelchair if you see some of them, some sort of spinal problem. He speaks like many of the contractors I have worked with, he's quite close to the line where I start to miss some words when he speaks. I have a meeting on Thursday with a bloke from a developer called Brendan who I cannot understand at all. I try and take Jim my main contractor with me, his mother comes from the same part of Ireland as Brendan. At the end of the meeting Jim tells me what Brendan said if I am not sure, BUT even he has trouble understanding him. Our most famous contractor, Patsie, was never ever understood, even by other people from his own county in Ireland. He's close to retirement now, but about 10 years ago a posh lady who's house they worked outside said to the supervisor how nice the Bosnian man was who was doing the work. He has been known as Bosnian Patsie ever since.

I wouldn't do that to anyone just trying to earn a living, especially if he was offering a fixed price service.

Perimetral, that's the bit between your bollocks and your chocolate starfish aint it?

Couple of nails were for holding my torque wrenches between. They're still on the same bit of wood.

When I first had a garage I had all my most used sockets on a plastic wall board, really easy to get at and also to see if anything was missing. Think I bought them from Halfords in the mid 90s, they stopped doing them a little while after. I still have one with a few sockets on, then I started moving stuff about to get my ramp in and switched to more stuff in my tool boxes and decided to have a crack at the foam when lockdown started. It's easy to do, just cut round the tools and peel out how many layers you need for the right depth. My spanners were on cup hooks screwed into a long piece of random wood, with say two 8mms on the first hook, a couple of 10mms on the second hook etc up to 27mm. You occasionally need two spanners the same size up to about 17mm I have found. The piece of wood is still on the wall only now it has a few T bars hanging on it and a couple of IKEA LED anglepoise desk lamps, plugged in, which I can slot into the bike ramp on either side if I need extra light on the subject. I do have some of those hanging cabled or battery lights but they always seem to twist and shine the wrong way at a critical moment, usually right into my eyes. My work bench (which is mostly covered in crap) and half the cost of my compressor was bought with my 25 years long service money I got in 2011. If I had it as cash in my wages it was taxed at full rate, if I bought something and showed them the bill I didn't pay any tax and they transferred it into my bank account. Apparently you used to get a clock in the 50s but they changed it to cash later on. My long service certificate arrived unwrapped in a box with 4 others and it had been thrown about so was scratched to buggery, it has pride of place in my toilet!!! It is however signed by our first ever directly elected Mayor who later went on to get himself chucked out of office for electoral fraud. He's standing again this year, his ban is up. The 4 people who took him to court and won have never received any costs from him to this day, some may have lost their homes over a case that the government should have funded by rights.

Got a lot of drawers, they aren't all neat and tidy but at least I can usually find what I want. That's your feed line Pete.

There's all sorts. I have a socket butchered by an angle grinder that means I can use a torque wrench to set my head stock bearings that dates back to 95, A T-handled cross head screw driver stolen off my brother in the early 80s, the infamous cheap impact driver that I've had since I was 18, an odd socket drawer for those times when nothing will fit or reach, each one may only get used once or never at all. I've got some spanners from my Dad's old car tool box which must date back to the 50s. The toolbox itself is an old machine gun ammo box made of wood which he either bought from a surplus shop in the distant past or more likely stole from the RAF Police. I've got about 4 concrete paving blocks (100x200x80mm) that are brilliant for putting a rear wheel back in. By rolling the wheel onto one to get it to the right height, another one follows to keep it there and by tapping gently you can raise or lower the wheel, move it back and forth with no effort and push the axle through in your own time.

Whilst Pete's side stand is short, shrivelled and stumpy, mine is proud mean and long and needs at least half an inch removed from it. let's just swap stands.