Rich

I saw it... crappy little blob, really underwhelming

You had a ganglion on your ärse finger? Bummer.  

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

I have a ganglion in my right hand, just underneath my little fingers.  It used to flare up when I (an electrician) rewired properties and used my SDS hammer drill to chisel out chases in brick for cables.  I would get pain up my arm for several days afterwards and it would stop me sleeping.

Most of my work these days involves inspection and testing, with a lot less 'house bashing' so now it's not noticeable but its not gone away.

Hope you recover from your surgery quickly.

Seems like most people are clear after 5 days or so. Fingers crossed.

I know someone that waited the best part of 2 years to finally get away with his girlfriend, a couple of days after landing, she got food poisoning and they had to come home early.

He's saved you a fortune.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/maldives/entry-requirements

Negative PCR test no greater than 96 hours before arrival

@Rumple oh blimey, I hope you like it!  

Ingredients seem to differ, the one I went for is:

Black Pepper, Cloves, Cardamom, Saffron, Black Lime, Bay Leaves, Nutmeg.

Should be nice.

Sounds broadly similar to mine. The cloves, cardamom and nutmeg are incredibly aromatic. Mine has turmeric rather than saffron.

Ideal for playing on four Fenders, friend!

At least you didn’t do a Grohl and end up in plaster. Or damage your bass (I hope).

Back in 2006, when I was in a death metal band, our drummer stage dived ... and noone caught him. We spent the rest of the night in A&E

I think she's alright actually, as far as they go on that station.  Plays some good tunes too.

We obviously have a different interpretation of "good"   

The Thursday morning quiz is the only thing I like about her show.

Thurs morning quiz is good, but I find ZB a tad overly excitable for a morning show, which is strange as I liked Chris Evans when he did the morning show and he`s no sloth in those areas. But imo Radio 2s gems are Ken Bruce & Sara Cox (and used to really enjoy the late night shows with Huey Morgan and Ana Matronic on the way home from gigs).

I think Daz hit the nail on the head, reform wherever possible has to be the aim, but sometimes society just needs a break from some types - as famously put to Messrs Kray a few years back.

@Rich I'm 100% with you mate, in fact I would go further and actually offer to kick the sht out of them.

One wonders how the people in Liverpool who were throwing bricks at the prison van transporting the then 10 years old Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, would have viewed an adult who killed them?

...and everything was going perfectly till it started working again. 

He's really superb, isn't he? I think I must've caught one of the very last dates on that tour before it got called off!

Get him a mask and a bottle of oxygen and play wirelessly from the car park. 🎸🎸

Could have been worse, could have been the bass player!

Empty space? I leapt on a TC C300 going cheap the other day. Bargain and brilliant! 

No rest for the wicked...😈😈

Map looks familiar

I'm sure he would do you a basschat discount @Rich and knock £200 or so off the asking price? 

...and the benefit of paying the extra money for a pro players former bass is that you'll automatically be as good as them...

Jah im tole me ta buy dis hat.

My dad had one vaguely similar, made of yak wool, from visiting Bhutan.  The locks are to direct rain away from the body, I think.

That`s awesome Rich, really like that

I looked up the Heights of Abraham earlier... guess what, they closed for the year on Sunday too

Today, had a lovely walk round the Derwent reservoirs. Tomorrow, it's off to Manchester on the train to visit the Science and Industry Museum.

Starting to think I'm cursed 

Ok, so we took a trip to the MoSI today... I particularly wanted to see the old station & goods shed, and the aerospace building. 

Yup, you guessed it. Both exhibits are closed.

FFS.

Lovely spot Rich, I'm only 40 minutes away but rarely go.  Try and take in Chatsworth if you've not been before

...and spring water coming out of the tap.

Stayed not too far in the summer, while I was grafting for a week in Jon Shuker's workshop! Nice part of the country.

He sent me an email:

Grant Shapps MP <[email protected]>

To: mick

Fri, 8 Oct at 17:25

Dear Michael,

I hope you and your loved ones are doing well.

Given the events on our roads and at the petrol pumps recently, I thought you might appreciate an update on the measures we’re taking to both stop the protesters and alleviate fuel and other distribution strains post-Covid.

First, the Insulate Britain protests. As you will have seen protesters have been walking onto motorways, gluing themselves to carriageways, and blocking traffic on vital roads. Targets have included the M25, the Port of Dover, and the A1M in Welwyn Hatfield.

These protests are reckless and disruptive, as well as being counterproductive when it comes to pollution. The UK has the most ambitious plan to decarbonise transport of any major economy, but preventing people from travelling to work, delivering supplies and, in some cases, trying to get to hospital is simply unacceptable.

As Transport Secretary, I directed National Highways to take out injunctions against these protesters. Now if they attempt to block traffic again, they will be in contempt of court. This can result in up to six months in prison and unlimited fines.

Next, fuel supply and logistics more widely:

Countries from the USA to Europe and beyond are suffering a temporary Covid-related lorry driver shortage. With our excellent vaccine programme having released us from lockdown quicker than elsewhere – the UK economy is growing faster than any G7 (major) economy.

During the lockdowns we were unable to provide HGV licence testing which should have brought 30,000 new truck drivers onto the road. However, since the spring we have been working to get more HGV tests done. And have so far taken more than 24 measures which has hugely expanded capacity.

Even with this Coronavirus-related shortage of 300 tanker drivers, fuel pumps continued as usual for months. However, once the story was widely reported, demand inevitably grew, resulting in the queues for petrol that we recently saw. It is worth saying that at no point was there an actual shortage of fuel at any of the 6 refineries and 47 storage centres in the UK.

Which takes me to a wider point…

Lorry drivers are essential to our economy. They do an incredible job day and night. Yet unfortunately their pay and conditions has been poor for years. Free movement whilst we were in the EU meant that many equally hardworking European drivers were attracted to drive here. A lower cost of living back home meant that lorry driving wages here were suppressed and job retention became a problem. To put numbers on it; 99% of UK lorry drivers are male and the average age is 55. In short, new recruits were not forthcoming because salaries were too low.

Better remuneration means that nearly a thousand HGV provisional licences are being applied for every day. At this rate we will be able to fix the historic shortage of lorry drivers once and for all and in the short-term the country is grateful to dozens of men and women from the army for stepping in to fill up the gap.

As ever, if you have any queries about what’s happening, or anything else that’s on your mind, feel free to reply to this email or call my constituency on 01707 262632.

With warm wishes,

Grant.

P.S. You can view the list of 24 measures I’ve taken to resolve the long-term lorry driver shortage by clicking this link.

You were lucky to get anything. Liam Werrity Fox only ever responds to praise. I'm still waiting for a reply to 2 emails I sent him concerning Dominic Cummings in May 2020.

P.S. You can view the list of 24 measures I’ve taken to resolve the long-term lorry driver shortage by clicking this link.

🤣

And how many have worked?

None!

As I get older, I get fewer and fewer colds, and they get worse and worse.  Get well soon!

Now the kids are back at school we're getting the lurgies: youngest (not at school) has chickenpox, and youngest daughter who started in Reception last week is off with a bad cold.

Sorry to hear that. I'm afraid this is just going to be part of our lives for a while now.

Sadly I fear you are correct. Things will never be completely the same again for live music. A few of the places that were regular gigs of ours before The Event have disappeared permanently from our calendar.

Blimey, what couriers are still delivering at 11pm Saturday, even Amazon stops at 10 pm here..??

Whoops. I did of course mean 11am.

Ah!!! Easily done!! I think strings direct are based near Southend, not far from me, they've always been my first port of call for strings too 👍👍