Vic Patterson

Hope your having a good day Monsta!

Upper cylinder lubricant , I still have my Red-X vacuum gauge!

How are you supposed know that the cat is going to be stupid when you get it? What are the odds at the next one also being stupid ?

I don't think we should start getting rid of "stupid" ....

8 hours ago, AbsoluteOptimist said:

My personal bias is that the UK does not need the EU, and that the UK should decide to regain its former dignity and wrest control from political henchmen.

My sentiments also.

Happy birthday Bret, enjoy your day.

4 hours ago, Monsta® said:

Could be good as long as they can compete with morrisons and lidl when it opens

Service and produce will be the decider!

We stayed in the Pelican motel there Brian!

When you are just sitting around with a bunch of friends the conversation tends to drift a bit, who,s round is it?

I agree Brian, but then I just tend to jump in and add my pennyworth, without looking at the topic.

Hows the barbie season?

just changing the topic....

No ring mains or switched, fused shuttered sockets here! lights and plugs on the same circuit (in the same room!) plug pins thin and bendy (quite femer!) light bulb sockets neutral (ouch!) but only 120v...

I get very annoyed when I hear the exaggerations “the town is reeling in shock, stunned or everyone is devastated etc” No we aren't, we may be annoyed or surprised etc but the use of the exaggerated words to imply everyone is almost incapacitated when in fact not everyone knows or cares of incident.

I never could understand the “rules” of our language but I recognise they are needed so we are all on the same page. I find it very annoying when the people who use our language for a living, like the newspapers use it so badly and to having to read headline over and over to try understand what they are saying.

It used to annoy me how the Americans change (use, abuse) our language (and spelling) but then it is always changing and as long as it is effectively communicating is it all that bad! But politicians seem to have their own language!

6 hours ago, Canny lass said:

Thanks Vic! Is the term 'sprag' still used in mining today or has it been totally replaced by pit prop? I mean, when you say HPW set them only" when he first started working" do you mean that  it's an old mining term or that this is/was a job for an inexperienced young man or an apprentice?

Also, can it have any other meaning? The explanation I found went on at length about wheels and inclines but I didn't understand a word of it.

Hi Canny lass, Pit Props are/ were usually called timbers, and it was usually the young rookies job hauling and setting the timbers, placing them in areas needing support, quite the job for a young 15 year old, thats were they learned mining and miners! nothing like hard work for the old timers teaching the youngsters to be be humble.

HPW would know a lot more about the wooden timbers, today (at least over here) I think they mainly use steel arches and hydraulic rams etc but wood has a bit more "give" in it.

1.a simple brake on a vehicle, especially a stout stick or bar inserted between the spokes of a wheel to check its motion.

I had heard the expression spagging the wheels but just thought it meant using a piece of the timber to wedge the coal tub wheel, but it was a bit more than that, this would explain the "wheels and inclines."

I know it as a pit prop, keeps the roof up or (floor down!) A Spragger would be HPW setting them.... (but only when forst started workin)

Happy birthday Brian, hope your having a good one. 

Thank you Pete and Malcolm, only a skiff last night it keeps the place nice and bright and the cars all clarty, we didn't get a lot this year I think our Eastern Provinces got most of it.

Pete the Oilers like Newcastle lost! " rebuilding"I bet you've heard that a few times, there is always next year, at least in hockey we don't have the relegation threat.

Canny lass your cat is the double of our Lippy! but he's strictly an indoor cat (sorry Eggy) lost too many to the coyotes etc

Thanks Foxy, it's snowing again, but I'm not going to shovel it, spent the afternoon watching Newcastle, they deserved at draw, now to watch my Oilers hockey game in an hour. Yes life is good.

I see it's a pea super in Bedlington tonight

Maggie I'd make sure they know why I'm going elsware and hope they find their next job answering phone calls more satisfying than dealing with real people! Thank for the birthday wishes.

A few years ago getting ready for retiring we re did our house decoration, wood floors and our kids convinced us to paint the walls, lots of paper stripping and wall preparation then painting, shortly after we re papered! Yes expensive and it all came from Cramlington! Pre battered... No borrowing a batter table and mixing the paste, it was even pre edged, (how many hours with the big scissors) almost as bad as holding the hanks of wool when mam wound into balls! 

Thank you for the kind wishes, not MUCH snow shovelling just spreading it to help it melt, +3c and t shirt weather.  

I hear you Maggie, but that is often the way today, I have a friend who does carpentry mostly kitchens, he spends many hours designing and costing giving alternative suggestions, give the customer the quote who then shops around using his work only to be undercut! By a few cents, and often returns to be helped out when the cowboy has collected his money.

Sad but it seems to be the way some unscrupulous people operate! I'd go back and give your opinion and use there service even if it costs a bit more to stay local.

Okay here!

Happy birthday, hope your having a great day!

Yes, she certainly was, Elsie was seen pushing a shopping cart with a tv in it, she was asked by the manager what she was doing, "oh I got it for the Sunderland team" yer was ripped off he said!

Met the chimps when we opened Woolco at Washington, (along with Else Tanner and Sunderland FC.) 

Sorry canny lass that my attempted sarcasm that was directed at Eggy offended you, I agree with you 100% I wasn't being serious. Just annoyed.