Tango

3 minutes ago, XTreme said:

Is that normal there this time of the year Bob?

We got early thirties and dry all week.

September can get very wet, Pete. I keep getting adverts on Facebook from the government giving advice on what to do and how to prepare for flooding, so I'm guessing that we're in for some pretty wild weather coming up.

Went to the beach today, but unfortunately no bikes involved. Weather is looking a bit shit for the next week or so, so runs on the bike may be limited then too!

Love me a bit of Motorhead.

On 02/09/2021 at 09:52, Tango said:

My biggest gripe at the moment is concerning the transfer of the private pension fund from my last employer. I've been retired for a year now and they're still fucking me about! First it was the pension administrators who took forever to respond to my Independent Financial Adviser and then put up as many obstacles as they could. Once we got around that they then said that they've passed it on to the pension trustees, who are ignoring everyone! I've even got my old manager at the company to put pressure on the payroll manager to get things sorted, but nothing!

Fortunately I've got other private pensions that are paying out, so I'm not skint, but I'm fully expecting the chancellor of the exchequer to start looking at ways to get his hands on some of the money in private pensions soon and I'd rather get all the money transferred to my overseas fund than see a big chunk get grabbed by those bastards!

Anyway, that's what's gripping my shit at the moment!

It works!!!!!!

Had a message from my Independent Financial Adviser this morning to say that he has been informed that the transfer of my pension funds is going ahead! 

So, the power of this thread is not to be underestimated!

There was a lad that I did my apprenticeship with called Micky. His knickname was Desperate, after Desperate Dan the comic character who ate cow pies. So, Milky was a big lad, 6'3" at least and probably around 18 stone. On the rare occasions that he shaved before work he'd have a really dark 6 o'clock shadow by lunchtime. He also had the thickest NHS glasses that I'd ever seen and his eyesight was still shocking. He used to ride a CZ 250.

Anyway, he went on holiday from Kent, where he lived, to Norfolk broads with his mum and brother. Because his mum's car was a bit small for them all to fit into along with their luggage Micky volunteered to follow his mum's car up there on his bike.

When they got to Dartford tunnel his mum stopped at the toll barrier to pay, but Micky didn't and ran straight into the back of the car and ended up on the roof! 

They had hired a boat on the broads for a week, but because of his shocking eyesight, he hit a bridge and took all the windows out down one side of it within a couple of days. 

I think that Micky's CZ had the forks bent more often than they were straight!

11 minutes ago, Mawsley said:

Did you have to wait till it went soft?

I had to use the toilet on a transatlantic flight one time for a shit. I flushed the toilet and the little flap dropped down and there were the usual sucking and whooshing noises ( you'll know what I mean if you've used an airplane bog) and the flap swung back up with my turd still firmly attached! I tried a couple more flushes, but it wasn't letting go! In the end I had to wrap some bog roll around my hand and give it a nudge whilst flushing, which did the trick, but by this time there was a reasonable queue outside waiting to use the bog. I tried not to make eye contact with anyone as I made my way back to my seat!

Another thing about Frank that used to make us laugh was that every now and then he'd get sent to a job in Essex.  So Frank would drive up from his home and through the Dartford tunnel to get to the job. That was all ok, but on the way back he'd drive into London and go through Blackwall tunnel to get home, which was the long way back. Frank was an ex paratrooper, but he was afraid of heights, so he wouldn't drive back over the QEII bridge at Dartford because it was too high!

4 minutes ago, XTreme said:

I worked with a guy who had been everywhere, done everything, knew everything......you know the type.

It was in a motor factors in Swansea in the late 70's......I was about 24/25.......he was mid thirties and originally from London.

I remember one time I asked him if he was in the Swinging Sixties London scene.......and he came out with all this shit about kipping at Hendrix's flat, being in the studio when "All you need is Love" was recorded, out drinking with Keith Moon etc. 

So I asked him was it true with the Mick Jagger - Marianne Faithful Mars Bar story?

He turned to me, and said absolutely emphatically......"Too bleedin right it's true.......cos Mick used my Mars Bar to do it".

Quality!

15 minutes ago, Catteeclan said:

Tune.

Good album too.

Agreed, not a bad song on the album.

I was thinking earlier about some of the characters that I've worked with over the years and some of the things they've done or we've done. One story that I remembered had me laughing to myself:

In my last company there was an engineer that was originally from South London, but he now lives on the south coast.

Frank was in the paratroopers for a while before he had a career change. He was a couple of years older than me. Frank isn't that tall, but he is as broad as he is tall and there doesn't seem to be a discernible neck attaching his shaved head to his body! 

Anyway, Frank used to occasionally get sent from his home at the seaside to jobs in London, which he absolutely hated. He'd get the train up to the city, get the job done as quickly as possible and head back to his haven.

One day he had a job in St Thomas' Hospital on the South Bank, opposite the houses of Parliament.  It didn't go well and he was there all day and into the evening. When he left the hospital he was in an absolutely foul mood and tramped back towards Waterloo Station to get the train home. On the walk back he was approached by a young guy who pulled a knife and demanded Frank's wallet. Frank squared up to the youth, glowering at him and snarled "do I look like a fucking victim to you?!!" The lad stared at Frank for a second, with his mouth open, then turned around and ran away!

Frank was a lovely guy, but you didn't want to get on the wrong side of him!

So as not to keep hijacking Yen's Stories thread I thought that I'd start a kind of parallel thread for people's funny stories. Many of us have been around for a good long time and seen and heard all sorts of funny stuff. 

So, to lighten the mood, let's hear your stories and anecdotes. 

7 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

Does this count as a photo from the cockpit you can see it i was just further back 

What phone mount are you using and would you recommend it?

24 minutes ago, XTreme said:

Just use GMail.......nothing beats it!

I've used yahoo mail for years and had no bother with it.........so far! 

3 minutes ago, Cupid Stunt said:

The Great Nebula in Orion and Running Man Nebula, very common targets

Awesome.

The late, great Terry Pratchett.

11 minutes ago, Cupid Stunt said:

In this case I want pin sharp stars so used a more complicated method than is required
All you need is any DSLR and a wide angle lens such as a Samyang 12mm f/2.8/Tokina 11-16mm etc a fast aperture is preferable as you need to gather as much light as you can in a fairly short period, the focal length determines the maximum exposure time you can get without having visible trailing stars, the 500 rule is most commonly used and that is that you divide 500 by the focal length of the lens (assuming it's a full frame camera) that will give the max duration the shutter should be open
So for example on a Sony A7RII full frame camera with a 20mm lens the longest shutter speed would be 25 seconds, if you're using a crop sensor camera (APS-C/DX or Micro 4/3rds) you need to calculate the equivalent focal length first, i.e. a 20mm lens on an APS-C camera is actually 30mm equivalent as APS-C has a 1.5x crop factor, Micro 4/3rds has a 2x crop factor

An ISO of 3200 is usually best but you can adjust this according to light gathering requirements, higher levels will introduce more noise and generally speaking smaller sensors are noisier than larger one's
If noise is a major issue then you cane take multiple high ISO exposures and stack them in post production using a median blend mode (as the noise is random it will be smoothed out but leaving constants like the stars intact)

But back to this shot
It was taken with my Fujifilm X-T2 mounted on a Skywatcher Star Adventurer (star tracker) one 2 minute exposure for the stars and another of 8 minutes (with long exposure noise reduction switched on in camera) for the foreground, the two then composited together

Typical settings for an APS-C camera would be ISO-3200, 25 sec, f/2.8 with a 12mm lens for a single shot

So, my phone camera won't hack it then!

But, seriously, thanks for your comprehensive answer. I used to see posts on Facebook from a group that concentrate on photography of the Milky Way and some of their photos of the Pillars of Creation and the various Nebulae were amazing, but it took some really serious kit to get those photos. Unfortunately I don't see their posts in my feed anymore, but I'm loving your shots of the Milky Way.

I dedicate this one to @Swagman 

58 minutes ago, boboneleg said:

My only gripe at the moment is DVLA and how long it's taking them to process the registration of my new (to me ) car.  I can't drive it or even insure it until they give me a UK registration number

There's a lot of industrial action going on at the DVLA at the moment and lots of expats here are inundating them with requests for Certificates of Conformity so that they can exchange their driving licences for French ones.

1 hour ago, Tym said:

You could see this mess coming a mile away. 

There was a certain inevitability about it. It seems that over-promising and under-delivering is a bit of a genetic trait here. Most people I've met here have been lovely, so I guess it's their desire to please that just blows up in their faces on many occasions. And hiding from the fall-out is the other trait.

5 hours ago, Cupid Stunt said:

The Milky Way core over Three Cliffs Bay

 

Love these Milky Way pics. What gear do you use to capture them? Obviously my phone camera or 10 year old Lumix would not be up to the job!

Missus got her car back, but the rear light cluster hasn't been replaced and the passenger door mirror won't adjust properly now. And the dealer is ignoring her messages! She says that she's going to set one of her colleagues onto them later if she hears nothing back soon!

4 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

Stuff I can't pull open easily any more, plastic covered items etc. More and more I have to go looking for scissors after a fruitless few attempts.

People who are so busy faffing about in their cars doing other stuff they miss a green light and go at the last minute just as the red comes back on.

Things you have to do at work that you know are just a box ticking exercise and makes no difference what so ever but take up your time anyway.

Police cars obeying speed limits in front of you when you are in a hurry and there is no alternative route.

Olives.

Prawns, they look at you.

Noncey tea.

 

Wow Yen, you need to talk, mate!