The Rose & Crown

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

David Tennant!!

http://games.usvsth3m.com/2048-doctor-who-edition/

 

Addictive, isn’t it? 🙂

[Anonymous @]

@bluesqueakpip

Addictive and downright infuriating, especially when the arrow keys on my keyboard keep sticking 👿

My highest score so far is 3148 and I can’t get past McG. Aaagh!

Need coffee. Lot’s of 🙂

[Anonymous @]

3 hours and an obscene amount of coffee later…

Yay, got to Eccles – score: 5292

[Arbutus @arbutus]

I hate to say how much time I wasted on this last night: addictive to say the least! I too finally got as far as Eccleston, but it took ages. I had better success on my iPad, because the swiping forced me to slow down a bit. Dangerous activity, I probably wasted half a regeneration on it!   🙂

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

Everyone breathing a little easier now atmospheric dust seems to be diminishing?

The ironic thing is that my organisation has had to cancel programmed air monitoring works this week (to determine inhalable and. respirable particulates from industrial processes) because this dust had the potential to swamp the filters we use and make the results meaningless.

How we laughed. Well, it was more of a wheeze, actually.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@phaseshift

this dust had the potential to swamp the filters we use and make the results meaningless.

In the sense that the industrial processes just couldn’t compete? Huh. In my young days, we had proper pollution. Bloody foreign dust, coming over, swamping our native particulates. 😉

I’m still coughing – it seems to have irritated my throat quite a lot – but the air is visibly clearer today.

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

@bluesqueakpip

Yes – it’s been pretty unpleasant here in Yorkshire as well (although we had a cloudburst overnight Thursday – probably initiated by the dust, which helped ease it yesterday). I’m still not over that chest infection, so I don’t think that helped. Glad to hear it’s easing for you as well.

It’s been a bit of a source of hilarity over air monitoring. These days, the Environmental Action Level for most contaminants are firmly in the parts per billion range, so we have to pump an awful lot of air to get meaningful measurable quantities of anything. Although the UK faces European prosecution for not meeting air quality levels, it’s largely because the acceptable limits have been reduced substantially since “ye olden days” when you could get a good particulate sample in the West Midlands by taking your washing off the line.

I tell younger consultants my fond memories of navigating by sense of smell (Overpowering odour of TCP? – M1 between junction 28/29. Hot Weetabix mixed with eggy hydrogen sulphide? – Hello Wrexham!) but they don’t remember industrial activity on that scale. 😀

[Anonymous @]

@whisht @htpbdet @mini-htpbdets @pedant @juniperfish @wolfweed @pufferfish @arkleseizure @scaryb @bluesqueakpip @jimthefish @fatmaninabox

My Mum took me and my brother Triton to the vet’s the other day.

We LOVE going to the vet.  There’s always the chance of a Cat in A Cage in the waiting room to have a real barkingly extravagantly good, tail-wagging go at.  But this time there wasn’t any other people (or cats, or even dogs) around.

My brother went to sleep.  And he didn’t wake up.  Even though I sniffed his face all over.  Is my breath so bad?  (Mum, what was all that tooth-brushing all about, my entire freaking life?)

Yeah, I know, I pretended to hate his ugly mug.  For 11 1/2 sodding years.  That’s a long time to pretend to hate your brother – and it’s even more in Dog Years.

I already miss his stupid face (but I’m quite happy that I can FINALLY finish a ‘stick’ in my own sweet time without having to worry that The Stomach On Legs will try to snatch my treat).  There’s only one place on the internet that he’s immortalised, and that’s here (and that’s where he has a really stupid, green-eyed face, can I just say that?).

Mum says she’s had too many deaths recently.  I’ll take time out from wiping my paw across my face (just sleep-grit in my eye, you understand) to type this, since Mum is unreachable.  We’re trying to learn to live as a duo, instead of The Power of Three.  I’m wiggling as winningly as I can, but she’s still somewhere else lately.

So … Triton was marvellous (DON’T quote me on that).  He always let me prance around the riverbank, growling and dancing, when he was trying to get out of the river, and he always shouldered me away until he could get a good shimmy-shimmy-shake on.

He had tablets to take twice a day, to aid his remaining liver function, and those tablets were simply marvellous – Mum encased them in cheese (we LOVE cheese!) and she always gave me some cheese at the same time, too.

Mum doesn’t know what to do with the leftover cheese.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @pedant]

@ScoutTheAiredale

*Doffs cap*

[Pufferfish @pufferfish]

@ScoutTheAiredale Condolences to you and your lovely mum from me and Kenny Whippetlurcher.

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

@ScoutTheAiredale

[janetteB @janetteb]

@ScoutTheAirdale  Sorry that you have lost your brother. Give your Mum a hug from me.

Janette

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@ScoutTheAiredale

You and Mum hang in there.

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@Scouttheairedale

So sorry to hear about your brother.  I’m glad you all had some time together in the last few months and it’s good that you and your mum are there for each other.

You are both very much in my thoughts.

Hgs

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@wolfweed

Just gorgeous!

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@phaseshift and @bluesqueakpip and all the London and southern based forumers –

Hope you’re all breathing a bit easier now. I remember hearing tell of the pea-soupers London used to get in the 50s – not nice

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

@scaryb

Hey – I hope you’re not describing someone from Yorkshire as Southern!? 😉

Good to see you. I spent the first part of week anticipating travel with numerous “this is not your time” moments (with hilarious visits to airport), and then did a mad dash in aid of “jet-lagging fury” towards the end.

I feel like I’m in that in-between moment – “awake and asleep”. Ah, that’s it – hallucinating! The Mind Robber is there, if you want to comment. We had Hartnell the week before, twinkling in Time Meddler.

[Anonymous @]

@ScoutTheAiredale

So sorry to hear about Triton 🙁

[Anonymous @]

I’ve done it at last 🙂 🙂 🙂  [takes a bow then dances with joy]

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@Scouttheairedale

So sorry to hear about Triton. 🙁

 

You and your mum look after each other.

[Whisht @whisht]

@Scouttheairedale – awww, really sorry to hear this.

As others have said, you look after your Mum.

[FaeGrl @faegrl]

Hi everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve been here, I didn’t mean to disappear for so long… life just got caught up with me a bit. And I finished writing a science fiction novel that I plan to publish later this year. I’m doing well, but haven’t had a moment to finish my classic Who viewing list yet. I’m a procrastinator!

I hope everyone is well. I shall post a little in the music section and then probably fade off again. Take care. 🙂

[Whisht @whisht]

Hey @faegrl – great to see you again and well done on finishing the novel!

I’ve no idea if you’ve written one or twenty before now, but from everything I’ve read about novelists, each one seems to be a huge effort (unless you’re Barbara Cartland I s’pose…).

Hope you don’t fade away for too long!

[Arbutus @arbutus]

@faegrl   Welcome back and congratulations! As a writer with a variety of unfinished writings to my credit (including one novel that has been unfinished for 20 years!) I honour you.  🙂  I look forward to hearing how the publishing goes.

[FaeGrl @faegrl]

@whisht – Thanks for the warm welcome back! And yes, this would be the sixtieth novel I’ve written so far, but only the second one I’ve considered publishing. I’m a lot shy in sharing my work with others in general and lose confidence fast in taking that leap. However, his last novel I feel that I MUST publish because I put my heart and soul into it, with a tribute to the people I’ve lost in recent years within my family. It’s a sci-fi adventure with a real world message about lost and grief of a loved one, the end message that we are just space dust in the massive scale of the universe. Now I must do the daunting task of editing, which is never too much fun. Writing is easy, editing is hell. lol.

 

@arbutus – I very much respect you as a fellow writer! That’s way too cool and I’m the same way… I’ve been writing novels since age six, however I only self-published one. For the sake of conversation and not advertisement, this is the book I had felt confident enough to finally publish: True Shadows

It didn’t do too well on the market, which was disappointing, but it hasn’t halted my writing in the least. I wrote a six novel teen series, one crime thriller, and now this sci-fi novel afterwards. My advice to any writer is: Never stop writing! 🙂

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

Easter. I have always felt that Easter was like the Hancock radio episode, “Sunday Afternoon at Home”, only it lasted for four days! My relocation to dour Presbyterian Ontario where the Liquor Control Board has deemed that alcohol shall not be sold on Easter Sunday has, alas, only confirmed it. Like Hancock, I feel it is an awfully long time before the pubs open. So, I thought it only appropriate to share this. Enjoy.

 

 

[ScaryB @scaryb]

Just adding to the welcome back and congrats to @FarGrl on finishing the novel.  Will try to have a wee look since you’ve taken the trouble to write it! (I could occasionally get started, but middles and ends were always a problem. And plots!)

@whisht  And welcome back to you too – hope the holidays were fun, and eventful in the right ways.

@blenkinsopthebrave Bless you! Hancock is amazing! However this is the Rose and Crown (motto “We never close”) so I will pass you a bottle of nice red of your choice and say “slainge” my friend!

[Anonymous @]

@blenkinsopthebrave

No alcohol on Easter Sunday 😯

Still, it could be worse. An old by-law, introduced many, many years ago by the Quakers, forbids the sale of alcohol in Bournville (home of Cadbury’s). No pubs or off-licenses within it’s boundaries.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@fatmaninabox – yeah, the Cadburys were Temperance Quakers.

I have heard jokes about people asking if all Quakers are teetotal (no) when the Quaker in question has a pint of beer in front of him… 😉

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

http://blogtorwho.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/billie-piper-interview.html

She chatted about her new TV show Penny Dreadful, tattoos, Doctor Who and playing a prostitute whilst host Craig mentioned taking LSD with his good chum Peter Capaldi. Probably not one for younger viewers this.

[Anonymous @]

Oh dear, Hitler’s angry again. This time, Der Fuhrer is annoyed with Ian Levine (who isn’t? 🙂 )

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@fatmaninabox

Finally!

(Gawd help us if they ever update to Peter Capaldi)

[Anonymous @]

@bluesqueakpip – Well done 😀 and you’ve beaten my highest score as well 😥

One of my Twitter buddies got over 25000 though I suspect Photoshop may have lent a helping hand 😉

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

@fatmaninabox – The whole Omnirumour spat thang is quite scary…

[Rob @rob]

Good evening to everyone in this time zone good morning/afternoon/night to all others please delete as appropriate 🙂

Tomorrow morning at approximately 06:30 I am starting a 220 mile charity walk from Weymouth to Tewkesbury to raise money for eight charities. I am walking over the next seven Saturdays with a final eighth day on 10th July.

Why split the walk I hear you say, well stage II/III arthritis in my left ankle is why and doctors orders and even more importantly my darling wife’s orders.

Those with’ goggle maps’ are also raising a wry eyebrow at the mileage, well apart from our beloved Dr Who I also have another bonkers hobby. For the past 22 years I have put on armour picked up the nearest heavy weapon and wacked other suitably attired nutters, as I joined a Lancastrian group we usually have to die with honour.

Last year at Tewkesbury my group The British Plate Armour Society decided to knight me after the battle re-enactment ….. A real wow moment 😀

Even though it means nothing in the real world I was chuffed to bits and thought about what becoming a real pretend knight meant. In the olden days it was a reward for good deeds done for your lord so to move this to a modern setting I decided to try and raise some money for charities I identify with.

I’ve digressed back to 220 miles, well what happened was in 1471 Queen Margaret landed at Weymouth and meandered via Chard, Exeter, Bath and Bristol trying to raise troops money etc before a mad dash to try and get to Wales to link up with the Welsh Lancastrians (the Tudors)  meeting (well her army and son did) an unseemly end at Tewkesbury.

So those who have persevered this far what are the charities?

Arthritis Research UK
Battlefields Trust
Cancer Research UK
Childrens Heart Federation
Help for Heroes
Mind
Tewkesbury Battlefield Society
and
The Royal British Legion</span>

Please take the time to like our Facebook page The Arrival Campaign and share it with your friends, we also have a web page http://www.thearrivalcampaign.btck.co.uk

Fund raising to follow due to the sloooow unraveling of red tape

Thanks for reading

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

@rob

Good luck with the walk Rob, and you’re a hero for attempting it to be honest.

Shortly after I was born my mother was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (late 30s) and then combined (as it was called) with osteo, and it’s so easy to disregard the words “arthritis” with someone much older. The pain she suffered was incredible, and I can barely comprehend the effort this will take at Stage II/III. I think she became a bit paranoid about my health because of it. Largely because she was convinced she’d pass it to me, after seeing children in hospital diagnosed with it.

Therefore you had my wholehearted support at Arthritis Research UK in your list (the first one – I’m facile). Get those links to fundraising up, my man! And – if in pain, at least, try enjoy the scenery (as my mum used to say).

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@rob

You are a hero.

I suspect that there is more than one of us who frequent these boards that can identify in a personal way with your story, but less of us that do what you are doing tomorrow.

And as I notice that you have been knighted, I salute you, Sir Rob!

[Rob @rob]

@phaseshift Thank you I’m up and ready to hit the road (technically with one foot always hitting harder hehe) The scenery will be fantastic and I think one of the pictures we’ll take today at Cerne Abbas will be right upstanding (ohh er missus)

@blenkinsopthebrave I return your salute, my k-nighted name is Sir Robert Du Kledhevor which is Cornish for ‘the black amateur swordsman’ which sort of describes my style

I will keep spamming ooops I mean updating the board on progress

[janetteB @janetteb]

I salute you too Sir Rob (@rob)  What you are doing is noble.

I hope the sun shines upon you and the foot gives you no pain.

Will follow your progress

Cheers

Janette

 

[Anonymous @]

Good luck with the walk, Sir Rob. A truly noble undertaking….

[Rob @rob]

Well…… Day 1

The plan was Weymouth to Beaminster via Dorchester and Cerne Abbes about 30 miles

We got to Weymouth though it had rained (that word may crop up more than once in this post) most of the way but it had petered as we approached our start point, the old town pump. it was just after 06:30

Sporting my black and red hose (medieval joggies!) and white shirt, with Jammy Dodgers stashed in the boot of the support car, the journey began.

Alas an hour into the walk the rain began too, it rained and rained and rained.

Dorchester hove into view through the rain and the promise of coffee raised my spirits, alas the superstore didn’t have a cafe, so a quick change of clothes and we diverted a little off route in search of coffee and a toastie. More rain but a cafe was found and your damp (yup already) heroes drank hot beverages befo0re setting off again determinedly heading for Cerne Abbes.

It carried on raining, we carried on walking, repeat for 8 miles

Cerne Abbes hove into view and minor miracle it stopped raining becoming merely overcast with occasional drizzle 🙂 Another change of clothes was required.

The giant and his member were being grazed upon by sheep, the flock, at times, gave the scene a pornographic lilt. Obviously it was time to leave Cerne Abbes and head for Beaminster.

There now follows a short rant about how hills are never ever ever properly portrayed on maps, paper or digital!!!!! When you walk uphill for half a lifetime, or so it seems, come to the crest an another bugger looms into view it can be quite disheartening, almost enough to make a man eat a Jammy Dodger, but at least it wasn’t raining……

Top of the second bugger, that’s when it started raining again!

The route to Beaminster was rolling hill after rolling hill after rolling hill with light rain followed by heavy rain followed by cats dogs and many many other mammals that conjure up images of rain.

As 19:00 approached we’d been walking soaked to the skin for about 2 hours and with 2.8 miles to Beaminster it was time to call a sensible halt, my head knew it but my heart was yelling at me “it’s only a couple of miles!!!” by the time I’d got my last dry clothes I was starting to shiver I realised that it was exactly the right call.

So Day 1 was a success 😀

 

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@rob
A true knight indeed!
Maybe you should take a wetsuit and a spare pair of flippers for the next stage. Well done tho. Hope the jammy dodgers stayed dry and you had a well earned pint of caffeine at the end. Look forward to the next update (and post the fundraising link when it’s ready)

[Anonymous @]

@rob I second @scaryb – what a wonderful time -well, minus, wet jammy dodgers, the endless rain, the endless hills (I get you regarding them not being on maps of any kind!) . But you did it, you did it, by George, you did it! Kindest and good luck, purofilion.

[Whisht @whisht]

@rob – you’re doing a great thing for great charities.
Whatever you accomplish is exceptional.

Well done and don’t rust.

[Whisht @whisht]

btw, not sure if anyone saw this (or cares) but James McAvoy was on the Andrew Marr show this morning (Rob was out rusting for various charities so will have missed it).

He chats about why there are still 3D films (‘bumps up the DVD price’) as well as being asked about the Scottish referendum.

For me (a non-Scot) he gave a very cogent reply.
Don’t vote on what a politician (like actors, trained orators to win arguments) says will be better for voting a or b, but instead vote for what you believe in and that way, regardless of what happens, you’ll be happy (ie happy to be independent but suffering mishaps or happy to still be part of something ‘bigger’ and… suffering mishaps).
My abbreviation doesn’t do him justice.

His part from ~37mins. To skip the XMen/cinema stuff he’s asked about politics from ~41mins.

Maybe I’m out of the loop and he’s said loads on this, or what he says is cock and someone can say why, but I just thought it was an intelligent response to someone who could just bat the question away.

[Whisht @whisht]

[sigh]

I had to clean up my computer today (too full apparently) and thought I’d delete a folder of music as it was a duplicate and I had it backed up.

yep.

I ended up deleting all the music off me hard drive.

“Oh, but a sane man like you will have a backup” I hear you mumble.

Yes, but old and (seemingly) half the size, so I mustn’t have backed it up for maybe a year(?) and even then incomplete.
Lots missing it seems, so I’ll have to do some really dull looking at iTunes and thinking what’s missing. I’m gonna be away for a while methinks.

And then I noticed that the screen display was being weird, like its in some kinda over-bright-windows7-compatibility mode.

I’m getting a headache from it.

So, I guess what I’m saying is can I have a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster please?

Make it a double.

[Anonymous @]

@whisht – oh shite. That’s awful. It happened to me too. But let’s not talk about me. Well actually, ahem, when it did happen, I phoned a few friends who knew what I liked (as well as my bro) and they told me what was missing – in other words what I’d raved about (but they’d secretly hated). Other than that, I was on iTunes so much I was virtually an abuser but ev-ven-tually I found the missing stuff. This was a year ago when the computer went mufti without permission. So, you need a few damn good Black Russians:  something stronger than a Gargle Blaster and a good red. If the screen is expanding the words even on the Window 7 intro page -it’s not the Gargle, the whole thing needs another scrub

Goo luck an’ all. Kindest, puro

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@whisht

I feel for you, my friend. My advice is that the only recourse at this point is to dull the pain, and lose yourself in another’s misery.

For the first, I recommend a good bottle of red, and for the second, I recommend the following:

Both should be consumed at the same time.

 

[janetteB @janetteb]

Excellent recommendation @blenkinsopthebrave.

@whisht My advice to you is the same that I am continually giving my sons, back -up back-up and then back-up some more. I hope you are able to restore your music collection ASAP and maybe find some new favourites in the process.

Cheers

Janette

[ScaryB @scaryb]

OooooooH! Sympathies to @whisht Don’t worry about what you’ve lost – the good stuff and favourites will find you again! Best of luck. And motto of the day peeps – as @janetteb says – back up, back up, back up!

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