what I have learned today.

[Mr Larrington]

From the sound of it somewhere furry boots are needed to prevent one’s toes from turning blue and falling off.

Edit: if it’s any consolation it's raining in East Londonton too, but fortunately didn’t start until after I'd ridden back from Mr Sainsbury’s House of Toothy Comestibles.

[robgul]

That a) Eric Coates composed it, and b) the inspiration for "By the Sleepy Lagoon"*  came from looking across the sea from Selsey to Bognor.

* Desert Island Discs theme music

[Salvatore]

That in the 1938 Old Trafford Ashes test match, which because of rain was abandoned without a ball being bowled, one of the umpires was A Dolphin.

[Salvatore]

... and that matches in that series were scheduled to last 4 days, except the last one, which was a 'timeless' test, but which was nevertheless concluded in 4 days.

[Ham]

From the sound of it somewhere furry boots are needed to prevent one’s toes from turning blue and falling off.

Edit: if it’s any consolation it's raining in East Londonton too, but fortunately didn’t start until after I'd ridden back from Mr Sainsbury’s House of Toothy Comestibles.

I'll just note that the temperature on the Scottish border as we passed through yesterday at around 10:30 was 4 and one half of your finest Celsius degrees.

[Feanor]

From the sound of it somewhere furry boots are needed to prevent one’s toes from turning blue and falling off.

Edit: if it’s any consolation it's raining in East Londonton too, but fortunately didn’t start until after I'd ridden back from Mr Sainsbury’s House of Toothy Comestibles.

I'll just note that the temperature on the Scottish border as we passed through yesterday at around 10:30 was 4 and one half of your finest Celsius degrees.

Yes, the temperature profile on my 400k ABZ-EDI-ABZ the other day was fairly chilly.

Setting off at 6am, the air temperature was below 7 degrees and there was a bitingly cold wind. It did warm up after about 10am, but as the day grew old, the temperature went into terminal decline, falling steadily through the night.  It dropped below 10 degrees before sunset, and fell to 2 degrees overnight.

I was wearing all my kit by this point: Winter-weight longs, merino thermal, two winter-weight tops, and a full waterproof to keep the wind off me.
(I'd planned a drop-bag in Edinburgh and changed into the overnight kit there.)

[Mr Larrington]

"We have two seasons here; Winter and August" by Mr Larrington, on Flickr

September 1st, Chicken AK

[Mr Larrington]

Today I are learning that there is a band called Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, who clearly merit further investigation.

[Tim Hall]

Today I are learning that there is a band called Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, who clearly merit further investigation.

Wasn't he the bloke that crashed his ship, and several others, into the Isles of Scilly in Thee Olden Days?

[Mr Larrington]

Today I are learning that there is a band called Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, who clearly merit further investigation.

Wasn't he the bloke that crashed his ship, and several others, into the Isles of Scilly in Thee Olden Days?

He was, in 1707.  Aiming for Portsmouth, but missed.  That was where I knew the name from.

[T42]

Today I are learning that there is a band called Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, who clearly merit further investigation.

Wasn't he the bloke that crashed his ship, and several others, into the Isles of Scilly in Thee Olden Days?

He was, in 1707.  Aiming for Portsmouth, but missed.  That was where I knew the name from.

I remember him from one of Addison's essays:

"Sir Cloudesley Shovel's monument has very often given me great offence: instead of the plain rough English Admiral which was the distinguishing character of that plain gallant man, he is represented on his tomb by the figure of a beau, dressed in a long periwig, and reposing himself upon velvet cushions under a canopy of state. The inscription is answerable to the monument; for instead of celebrating the many remarkable actions he had performed in the service of his country, it acquaints us only with the manner of his death, in which it is impossible for him to reap any honour."

[TheLurker]

Today I are learning that there is a band called Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, who clearly merit further investigation.

Wasn't he the bloke that crashed his ship, and several others, into the Isles of Scilly in Thee Olden Days?

He was, in 1707.  Aiming for Portsmouth, but missed.  That was where I knew the name from.

And, *if* I remember the relevant passage in Dava Sobell's, "Longitude" correctly, a posthumous candidate for the super twat thread.  Having been most respectfully been advised by a lower deck oik that he was in danger of running the fleet onto the rocks he ignored said advice and (increasingly unreliable memory says) had the oik flogged (or hanged) for breaching a regulation prohibiting lower deck oiks from reckoning the ship's postion.  He then ran the fleet into the rocks.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I have learnt that there is a district of Toronto yklept with the wonderful name Cabbagetown.

[T42]

I have learnt that there is a district of Toronto yklept with the wonderful name Cabbagetown.

There's on near us called Krautwiller, which comes to much the same thing.  Kraut may also mean herb, though.

[Efrogwr]

Today I are learning that there is a band called Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, who clearly merit further investigation.

Wasn't he the bloke that crashed his ship, and several others, into the Isles of Scilly in Thee Olden Days?

He was, in 1707.  Aiming for Portsmouth, but missed.  That was where I knew the name from.

And, *if* I remember the relevant passage in Dava Sobell's, "Longitude" correctly, a posthumous candidate for the super twat thread.  Having been most respectfully been advised by a lower deck oik that he was in danger of running the fleet onto the rocks he ignored said advice and (increasingly unreliable memory says) had the oik flogged (or hanged) for breaching a regulation prohibiting lower deck oiks from reckoning the ship's postion.  He then ran the fleet into the rocks.

You do.

[Mr Larrington]

It transpires that Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell are a stoner met'l band from Hastings so I shall require Miss von Brandenburg to check them out once she’s moved down there, subject to surveys and Plague obv.

[Cudzoziemiec]

That Tiananmen Square tank man didn't get run over. In my memory the tank tried to swerve round him but failed and squashed him. In fact it seems it stopped, he climbed on top and tried to get in, and then was dragged away by soldiers coming out of the hatches. Possibly it got mixed up in my memory with another incident, possibly just wrong!

[Mr Larrington]

Today I are learning that if you RTFM of your Zippo lighter and trim the manky charred bits off the end of the wick it will burn Poundland lighter fuel just as readily as the pukka high-octane Zippo stuff at three times the price.

[Mrs Pingu]

Not today, but yesterday.
It's surprisingly difficult trying to paint a fence while being attacked by a fence adjacent shrubbery.

[Tim Hall]

After reading the Div thread and having my linguistic (Scottish division)  curiosity tweaked, what a dwang is.

[Ashaman42]

A dwang is a thing I've googled at least three times as a result of this place and forgotten by the next time it appears. Maybe this time it'll stick.

[Mr Larrington]

I am disappointed to learn that “dwang” is not actually anything smutty.

Edit: except for viewers in Swindon, obv.

[Wombat]

I worked with a fellow architectural technician who hailed from Oban, and he always annotated his drawings using Scots terminology, mainly to wind up our manager, who was a prick of the first order.  It was rife with dwangs, ingoes and halfits.

[Canardly]

That the UK agent for Exped (and several others) is Lyon Equipment based in Penrith. Most helpful.
https://www.lyon.co.uk/contact-lyon-equipment-ltd

[rafletcher]

The difference between a meteorite and a meteoroid (and that there was such a word as meteoroid).

And, yesterday, that the word "isochronous" actually does exist. I don't think it would translate well for our Japanese colleagues.