Symptoms

EVs are a brilliant idea ... until (as others here have said) you look at the vehicle charging infrastructure; I'd buy an plugin EV if I could be sure of decent range and loads of FAST charging stations. My observations when out and about is how scarce they are and when you see one that works there's usually a queue of cars waiting to get a connection. I currently drive a 'mild hybrid' - 3 litre diesel engine with a big battery under the floor for the leccy motors so don't plugin. They talk about fast home charging but most of the UK housing stock has limited electrical capacity - if you're lucky it'll be 100amps but more usually 80amps so good luck with getting a fast charger with that sort of 'crippled' supply even if you're lucky enough to have a driveway to park the motor; ditto the street lamp idea ... limited electrical capacity. So what about the hydrogen route ... makes sense for HGVs until you look at our old friend the infrastucture issue. There's an article in The Engineer magazine discussing the issue in the USA and the ENORMOUS cost of building it. https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/news/project-launched-to-advance-heavy-duty-hydrogen-refuelling-infrastructure So, SYM says, burn the diesel and to hell with polar bears.

HPW - perhaps there's someone near you and on here with a scanner; some of these have software that'll scan handwriting then convert it into text ... any mistakes could be picked up via you proof reading the results and making corrections. The fact that you're using a computer to access this place may mean that your PC may have voice to text software so all you need is a microphone to dictate into ... currently, this type of software is very accurate for 'normal' speech so I don't know how it'll cope with a dialect. You'll recall that we messaged each other previously when I advised you to maybe get an agent for your project ... these folk have loads of resources including contacts who may help with recording/transcribing your story. Also, don't forget that podcasts are huge these days and there may be an additional outlet there for your story. There will be an audience for it. Whatever you do keep writing the stuff and make sure that you leave instructions about what should happen to your archive when you're gone. Don't really worry about your tale being written in pen and ink ... some of our greatest writers used the method (and some still do).

As to polls ... when I was finishing as a student back in the dim and distant I got a short job with a polling company during the 1974 General Election. Our briefing was to go out to canvass the views of folks on the mean streets of London's West End about the worth of Labour/Tory/Libs (Wilson/Heath/Thorpe). However, we were told only to approach certain folks identified by the way of their appearance, i.e., well-dressed elegant women and affluent looking blokes; we were told not to approach poorer looking people or those with kids ... this was to more or less skew the findings. As a result I've never trusted polls or those who rely on them to build their arguments. Of course, I will always trust polls conducted for my beloved Guardian.

Indeed - Oh, what joy! The exit poll at 10 o'clock last night ensured Sym could enjoy his night of gorging on crisps and Broon whilst gloating on the results as they came in. Gone were ReeceSmog, PennyMortuary, GrantShats ... just a shame RushtiTushti & JeremyC*nt survived. Shame the grinning Frogface got in but with just a few of his swiveleyed scragends elected elsewhere he still deserves Sym's beach statue for f*cking up the Toryscum. Rejoice, Rejoice, and thrice Rejoice ... at least there's a chance (and it's only a chance) now for things to improve for the ordinary folks of Blighty.

Well, I'm very moist at the prospect of well-deserved Toryscum wipeout. Oh what joy!! For the first time in decades I'll be staying up all night to witness all those Portillo moments remembering all the hurt and cruelty inflicted by those corrupt shits. I also don't hold out much hope that things'll change much over the life of the next parliament for most of the folks in Blighty. The rich are always insulated from the effects of crap government whilst the lives of the majority stagnate and suffering is heaped on them. On the way to the Polling Station I hope folks remember the 14 years of fewer dentists, crumbling schools and hospitals, care workers and nurses expelled, teachers deserting in droves, pot holes everywhere, multi-million pound 'bungs' for Tory chums during Covid, insider betting on the election date, Tory sex scandals, Partygate, Grenfell, colluding with P&O to replace their staff with cheap foreign workers, allowing the Peelers to batter easy targets (black folk for example) but leaving environmental crackerjacks free to disrupt using glue and Hamas rapist/murderer apologists free to chuck red paint at Barclays and terrorise Jewish folk, a record tax burden, the hatred of 'dusky Johnnie foreigner' that seeps out of all Tory pores, Brexit blood dripping from their claws, the rotting lettuce wrecking the economy, Stop, Stop, Sym - the Bedder's server ain't big enough for all the Toryscum's crimes against the poor folk of Blighty to be listed. As for the grinning frog face - I agree he's a natural performer (just like Boris Kerfuffle Johnson and that Austrian fella with the moustache) and probably great company down the boozer in the 1970s when everybody's pissed or doing a turn at the late Bernard Manning's Embassy Club but he's a one trick pony (or phoney), a poor man's Enoch Powell, however, if he and his rabble contributes to the destruction of the Toryscum then we should erect a monument to him on the beach at Clacton next to the sewer outfall so it gets covered in shit twice a day when the tide comes in. Talking of that moustachioed Austrian and his infamous playbook ... we are beginning to see some of it being played out again by some sections of Reform - blame the Muslims (the Jews back in the 20s & 30s) for the Nation's ills, propose rounding them up into holding camps and then shipping them to the East (look what happened last time). Oh, and the signing of a Ribbentrop type pact of steel with that mad Yankee dictator. Well, at least will be able to look forward in five years time to torchlight parades and banners hung from every lamp post and building. I just hope that most folks will see sense and vote for common decency and for the party that might, just might, improve the lives of those who've been stiffed over the last 14 years. Vote Labour I say.

Oh! ... I have to have a go at this. 1. The most fragrant Kier will sweep into No10 having slaughtered the Tory scum by a monster margin - 500 seats to a rump of opposition parties. He will be singing Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice as he goes through the black door. 2. The glorious Labour Party will sweep all the crazy SNP out of office up in chillyjockoland. 3. The devine Angela will co-ordinate the rounding-up of all those corrupt and swivel eyed Tory/Reform/Brexit nutters and house them in re-settlement centers before shipping them off to Rwanda in cuffs ... this will be broadcast during prime time on the wonderful BBC. 4. An arrest warrant will be issued for Boris Kerfuffle Johnson for crimes against public decency. He'll be captured in some upstairs room in a Soho knocking shop. After a lengthy trial at the Old Bailey he'll be found guilty and sent down for a 10 stretch at the Scrubs where he'll become the 'plaything' of a brutal lifer. 5. Tony Blair should join Johnson at the Bailey but will instead spearhead Blighty's re-entry into membership of the EU. 6. Manchester City are found guilty of all that financial naughtiness and stripped of all their silverware and relegated to the Northern Counties Sunday League. The mighty Toon sweep all before them and cement their place as UK/Europe's top dogs. 7. The Yankees elect Trumpet in November and he declares war on China/Russia/North Korea and the World as we know it ends.

Thank you both for the helpful info. I'll do some editing of the school karting footage and then attempt to upload ... fingers crossed.

Is the old school building still standing? One of the posts above suggested it was going to be demolished but Google Street View dated 2023 shows it still standing. It would be great if a local could stick a camera around the gate post during the Easter holiday (no kids about!!!!) and then share with us expats what the place looks like now.

Is it possible to upload short video clips to the forum? I asked this question many years ago but didn't get an answer; maybe back then the technology didn't exist here to do it but maybe now the guy with the Forum's toolbox (is it one of the Gs?) has added this enhancement. I've got 1960s 8mm film (now digitized) taken by my late father of some Bedlington related stuff that it would be good to share, eg. school karting.

It’s that time of year again when thoughts of old friends emerge again and fond memories stir the soul. I hope everybody here is well. Wishing you all good time over the holidays and a safe happy New Year. Sym

Canny - I don't know for sure why he was carried home but my guess would be the pit owners didn't want to fork out; remember these were the guys who stiffed the miners in the 1920s AND during WW2 when they attempted to reduce wages. They clearly wanted to pass on the cost to the family. My Grandfather returned to work and lasted underground until just after Nationalisation when he had to quit due to getting pneumoconiosis, commonly known as 'black lung disease'; he died of it in 1950. The NUM (for our younger viewers - The National Union of Mineworkers) in late 1948 fought the newly formed NCB (again, for our younger viewers - The National Coal Board) for compensation and my Grandfather was the first miner in th UK to get a payout from the NCB; my Mum told me it was £500 (today worth about £22,000).

During WW2 my maternal Grandfather was working a double shift in the middle of the night (to help the war effort) when he was injured underground by a rock fall causing crush injuries to his legs and back. His mates dug him out, brought him to the surface and stretchered him the mile-and-a-half back to his home. The doctor was called, meds given and an ambulance was called to take him to hospital in Durham ... he worked at Sherburn Hill Colliery near Durham City. My Grandmother had to pay the Doctor for the home visit and for the ambulance - it cost her two shilling and six pence. You had to pay for all this stuff when the pits were privately owned and there was no NHS. He got plastered-up and was back at work a couple of months later.

It's The Guardian for me every day and The Observer on a Sunday. First started reading The Guardian in the school library when in the 6th Form and never stopped - 56 years and counting. When at Uni in London my Mum used to send me The Pink every week to keep up with Toon's news ... back then you could buy a brown paper postal wrap to roll the newspaper in. So, Sym has set himself up for incoming from the sneering right. Poo!!! As with all things Saxe-Coburg and Gotha I am critical of all their inherited wealth and privilage so switch off anything on the telly about them. Of course, H ain't really one of them - some say he's a product of that liason between his mum and 'Ginger' James Hewitt. His biggest crime as far as the loony right is concerned is taking up with a mixed-race woman.

Just found the photo in Gallery ... Geordie is 1st left back row. Kitted as an outfield player so my memory of him playing in goal was muddled. He was part of our group of lads from the 'West End' (the Hartlands, the Riggs and the Leaches Estate) who'd play football all day on 20 acres (a large grass area alongside Hartford Road). The goalie in the photo is Micky Routledge.

Heather - George (Geordie) Nesbitt was in my class at school; he'll be 72 now. I don't know if he's one of your Nesbitts. He lived in The Hartlands estate. He was a good footballer and played for the school teams as a goalkeeper - there's a school football photo of him in the gallery somewhere ... I look for it when I've a bit more time and post the link.