Recent content by Ostrich

In similar vein, can we ban politicians and celebs using the word "ter" instead of "to"? It is not the Queen's English. Innit.

National Express West Midlands certainly had them when I lived in Birmingham 2000-2015. The north-bound stops at 6 Ways Erdington were frequently used as a location for on-board inspections, and I'm pretty sure a drug sniffer dog would occassionally embark on a quick tour of both decks ...

I've had a letter today from BT confirming a rise of CPI + 3.9%, which in my case works out at just under £6/month. I've also had an email from a mobile phone provider (I won't name to save their blushes) telling me the increase was going to be just 4.9%, rapidly followed by an "Oops, sorry, we...

Apologies if it's already been mentioned, but Sainsbury's have started trialling something called Freedom Case, which is a locked, self service unit housing spirits which you can (currently) only access via a touch screen. Other more stringent security measures can be built into the feature...

A local, free-house country pub which we've used every couple of months or so for lunch for years suddenly introduced a service charge just after the Covid restrictions lifted, and Yorkie, there was absolutely no mention of it anywhere on their website (I subsequently checked) or on their menus...

That is a very good description of what went down! :lol: All sorts of incomprehensible error code messages came up on the display. It's happened to me on more than one occassion in that store. And the galling thing is I then go straight into Iceland or Asda and the cards work just fine.

And then there's attempting to pay using some payment card which does not work first time and locks the checkout, requiring it to be unlocked by a harrassed staff member, which then does not work a second time, requiring it to be unlocked again by a harrassed staff member, which then does not...

Unfortunately, things change. 50 years is a good innings, but the old format presumably doesn't appeal to today's viewers and the new format doesn't appeal to yesterday's viewers. (I can't pontificate any further on A Question of Sport 'cos, to be honest, I've never ever watched it!)...

Deferment - the art of shaving a cat.

A few years back, I started to garage our car overnight following an increasing trend of catalytic converter thefts in the area. The garage is just about big enough to house the car and a permanent load of storage boxes down one side of it - I have to be a bit careful driving the car in, mind!

As any avid reader of Simon Scarrow's long-running Roman legionary Cato and Macro series will tell you, decimation was the punishment meted out in the legions for rank cowardice in battle - it meant every 10th man of the cohort had to be selected for execution by their fellow legionaries. So a...

Football club raffles. They say they'll draw the winning ticket at halftime - but then a wall of silence. No I haven't forgotten. I've still got the ticket in my pocket. And this season, rampant inflation, they've gone up from £1 to £2 each ....

Thanks, both. 313 is a daytime shot - the destination blind is indistinct but could just be displaying Exeter. It's nigh on impossible to tell. 317 is a nighttime shot - it doesn't look like the vestibule lights are on, but from the lit cab and the headlights, it's due to be heading west...

Two pictures have emerged on our local FB page of class 155 2-car sprinters 155313 and 155317 in Gillingham (Dorset) station, dating from (?) late 1980's / early 1990's. It's not clear if they were in service or not. Can anyone recall if class 155s were seriously trialled in some way for the...

Yes - our scaffolding cost, itemised separately, was just under £400 - we're a bungalow, so just a single "storey" was needed. Just out of interest, what are folks' experiences of solar thermal systems (roof-mounted tubular array which heats your water tank by pumping glycol round a closed system)?