You know you're middle aged when

[Kim]

I'm still annoyed that my grandfather's slide rule (which he gave me when I didn't really know enough maths to use it properly) wasn't amongst the things I liberated from my parents' house.  He had one of those Sinclair calculators too, but I suspect that got binned after he died, because nobody had really cottoned onto the idea of Sir Clive's creations ever being collectable classics.

[SteveC]

I have my father's 5-figure logarithm book somewhere.
And I'm sufficiently old that, in the sixth form I was more accurate and faster than the calculators then available.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I'm still annoyed that my grandfather's slide rule (which he gave me when I didn't really know enough maths to use it properly) wasn't amongst the things I liberated from my parents' house.  He had one of those Sinclair calculators too, but I suspect that got binned after he died, because nobody had really cottoned onto the idea of Sir Clive's creations ever being collectable classics.

If you'd just like a slide rule, I might be able to bring one to Long Itch. If you want one with memories, then obviously I can't.

[Kim]

Thanks, but it's mostly the memories.  It's a bit late to turn up to a maths exam with one for comedy value, which is the main application I can think of for one.

[tiermat]

... The people you went to school with start dying, of natural causes...

First one that I am aware of, today.

[ElyDave]

I still have my circular slide rule from when I was learning to fly light aircraft.

[Phil W]

I have my father's 5-figure logarithm book somewhere.
And I'm sufficiently old that, in the sixth form I was more accurate and faster than the calculators then available.

Did both my O level and A level maths exams with log books.  I forgot my calculator both times.

[Torslanda]

... The people you went to school with start dying, of natural causes...

First one that I am aware of, today.

Yeah, that's happened a few times (but then I am <mumble> years older) and it sucks.

Sympathies. I would offer to make you a coffee but you're waaaayyyy better at it than I am...

[tiermat]

... The people you went to school with start dying, of natural causes...

First one that I am aware of, today.

Yeah, that's happened a few times (but then I am <mumble> years older) and it sucks.

Sympathies. I would offer to make you a coffee but you're waaaayyyy better at it than I am...

Thanks, T.

Spent the evening drinking beer and reminiscing. I had lost touch with Nigel, only just getting back in touch, via FB, a couple of months ago. Remind me, the next time we meet up, to tell you the pigeon story, remembering it, last night, made me smile!

[Torslanda]

As much as the level crossing 6 years ago?   

SIX YEARS! We're way overdue another silly bike adventure . . .

[Giraffe]

I have my father's 5-figure logarithm book somewhere.
And I'm sufficiently old that, in the sixth form I was more accurate and faster than the calculators then available.

I have an old logarithm/trig. function book (that I can't find atm), a slide rule that I used at work in the mid-60s and also a 120-year calendar that ran out 2 years ago! It was published in '57.

[Basil]

Surely that was a 60 year calendar then?

[TheLurker]

From The Lurker Archive, second shelf from the top, left hand bookcase, just above all the programming and algorithm reference books.  The 1941 reprint of the 1930 edition.  It still impresses me that in the middle of a war that it was possible to print books on decent quality paper.  I have a 1979/80 paperback edition of 4 figure log tables and the paper in that started disintegrating 10 or more years ago.

This set of tables intended for Navigators.  Includes traverse tables and copious notes on using trig. for navigational purposes.







Bigger pictures here  : https://www.flickr.com/photos/41392773@N02/sets/72157696185250635

[Jakob W]

Impressive; most of the wartime books I've got are printed to 'war standard', which meant cheap paper and bindings. Most of them have held up OK, mind - better than most of the 50s/60s paperbacks I've got (though obviously paperbacks are more fragile).

[Giraffe]

Surely that was a 60 year calendar then?

It's from an insurance company, so it could be for start/finish dates of policies - some of those are 60-years+.

[mllePB]

You local heritage railway is running trains of your childhood, not steam

[arabella]

... with doors that you can open from the inside
iirc a slidey thing so not accidentally openable when crowded

[Polar Bear]

Nah.  mllePB is a professional train spotter.  That is, she gets paid for doing things railways related.  She was just out looking for rolling stock for the project that she's working on at the moment.        

[hellymedic]

.. former schoolmate posts a profile picture on Facebook and looks like a witch.
You come to the realisation that you probably also look like a witch!

[T42]

There's a boggart in our bathroom mirror.

[Jakob W]

You local heritage railway is running trains of your childhood, not steam

I know distance lends enchantment and all that, but that is a rather handsome livery.

[mllePB]

Nah - that's just the colour of a vehicle that's lovingly hand-washed prior to day's outing, rather than the original 1970s grime colour.

[ian]

I flew back from Berlin yesterday and the as usual, and while the pilot fidgeted in the cockpit (presumably trying to find the switch that turns the foglights off) the first officer was charged with the usual say goodbye to the deplaning passengers duty. No issues with that, but I swear she didn't look old enough to have passed her driving test.

[Oscar's dad]

I flew back from Berlin yesterday and the as usual, and while the pilot fidgeted in the cockpit (presumably trying to find the switch that turns the foglights off) the first officer was charged with the usual say goodbye to the deplaning passengers duty. No issues with that, but I swear she didn't look old enough to have passed her driving test.

Regrettably, even in 2018, female commercial pilots seem to be in the minority although I gather numbers are increasing    I was getting off a plane sometime ago, when female pilots really were rare and a female pilot was doing goodbye duty.  A bloke in front of me couldn't help himself, "Nice parking love!"     was offered as he went through the door.  To her credit she just smiled.

[ian]

I suspect there's some rule about punching passengers no matter how well deserved that punch might be.