well any russian would:D Thats why I like ’em so much, really nice bunch of people when you get into “dinner” in russian kitchen

Anyway, certainly he will remain in the history, and perhaps the historians will now begin a new chapter in russian- rest of the world relations and co-extince

Could you please change your little picture, you remind me of Rasputin, or is that who the piccie is all about, and you love it.
I have met hardly any Russians, they are not very common over here.
The first time was a Soviet mission to my junior school in Nottingham in the 50’s, an attempt at east west relations that was very strained but as I recall, failed miserably, I attempted some sort of project involving the ‘Great War Of Liberation’, but it didn’t go down too well, totally contrived political visit.
My next meetings with Russians were as sad, ill clothed people wandering around Bishops Stortford as aircrew on dodgy Illuyshins in the 90’s, trying to cope with the real world, poor sods.
I went to Finningley to see the Russian Knights, I came upon an RAF pilot selling Russian items, badges etc, he said they hadn’t been paid for months and needed the money and was doing all he could to help.
At the RIAT display, they had one of their epic bombers, but all the crew in their cheapo uniforms were interested in was selling badges and offering trips round the plane for hard cash.
Then there was RIAT Cottesmore, we went round the Russian ‘Open Skies’ a/c but all they wanted to do was sell us vodka at inflated prices so they could afford to go to the aircrew disco that night.
The other half of my family is Hungarian, they have a real hatred of the Russians, my missus went on a school trip over there several years ago and was threatened with excommunication from the family. She found it a very strange place, was fed very sparsely and given vodka to take the pain of being there away.
Incidentally, many years ago I worked at Butlins, a British holiday camp, and had some really good mates from Finland, they were fantastic, we had a lot of adventures together, I’ve been told by my missus that the Hungarian and Finnish languages have a similar origin, can you verify this.

Now here’s a thing, I travelled up north for Mothers Day and decided to call in and see a friend at Long Bennington, just north of Grantham.
As I reported on another thread, I was going round the roundabout on the A1 just where all the services are, north of Grantham, when I saw this thing linked to an artic heading south, obviously it was on it’s way to Colsterworth, which is just down the road, looked more like a Comet than a Nimrod to me and looking at their website, it’s the same piece of kit that I saw.
Looked immaculate, it must be saved.
The guide price is ridiculous, scrap value must be next to nothing in comparison.
I’ll be prepared to make a donation, not a lot, can’t afford it, but if everyone could chuck something in to save what looked like an historic airframe, lets all go for it, how many people contribute to this site, I’m sure Bruce would like it at Salisbury Hall.

His epitaph will always be the way he took control when Gorby was kidnapped by the old guard, it may well have been political outflanking, as the two disliked each other intensly, but he showed great courage during the assault on Moscow. I bet he could have been a hell of character to share a bottle or 2 of vodka with.
Top bloke.

I haven’t bothered to read all this thread, but here’s an interesting one.
For a few nights, we’ve had a gang of kids sitting at the end of the road talking, they are not foul mouthed, abusive or causing any trouble, on the other hand, trying to get to sleep is a pain as they go on talking loudly till 1:00am.
So how do you deal with this, if I go out and try to have a reasonable conversation with them, how do I know that they are not going to take it the wrong way and pull out a weapon, knife or otherwise. The police around here are pathetic, but on the other hand, I don’t think that a police involvement will do any good anyway, as they could’nt be bothered.
So, what do I do, ignore it, wander down the road with my Lee Enfield and Masai sword down the back of my trousers, or accept the fact that they are not prepared to blow me away and are nice chaps really. It’s a hard decision, you don’t know what you are facing anymore, even the girls amongst them could have knives. The world is full of lunatics, possibly including me because I tend to stand up for myself, but at what price.

Pete, the Old Trip does indeed now sell Greene King ales. An improvement IMHO as I could never detect any discernable taste in Kimberley beers.

The Abbot was excellent about 3 weeks ago.

Traitor!!!!!!!!!!!

Further tadpole update.
They are doing extremely well and are getting quite large and feeding on natural algae, I still haven’t introduced any minnows or sticklebacks, but a few net drags down the river yesterday obtained some interesting stuff including dragonfly larvae. The water in the pond has remained exceptionally clear, but we need some rain for a top up. It’s interesting how water boatman have appeared without any assistance, unless their larvae were in the weed and plants that I introduced. Another thing, the dafnia have expanded out of all proportion, the water is full of them, I will have to get some natural fish soon to get the population down.
Just to be really sad, we’ve put some of those solar lights round the pond, they actually look quite good, so we stuck some more around the garden, my missus refers to them as landing lights, she has a point.
Incidentally, the cuckoos arived last week and have been going mental, always starting at 6:00am, they may sound fantastic, but you know that some poor species is going to suffer.
Who has seen a swallow yet, I’ve been keeping a diary on their appearances for 30 years and their average sightings as far as I’m concerned is the 16th of April, but I haven’t seen one yet, my missus has got them in residence up at her stables and I have spotted 3 house martins over here, but no swallows.

Only the top one. 23 feet 6 inches.

And the bridge doesn’t seem to be that much wider!

How would Health and Safety deal with the sheep nowdays.

My tickets for the event came through the post yesterday, luckily I was in and managed to stop the spaniel from eating them.
I thought that there may be some sort of timetable of events for the day enclosed with the tickets, the DX website has been giving out the same information for a while now, but presumably, until the Lanc is fully up and running, no-one can tell, could be a close run thing, it might have been better to have organised the event later on in the season when the inevitable gremlins were completely sorted out.
Presumably, if all goes to plan, the flying will be in the afternoon, it’s just that I’m taking 2 Hungarian old boys and possibly a rebelious teenager and I don’t want to get there too early and wear them all out, though I think that a bottle of Vodka will sort out the old boys, sigh, fond memories of the Russian aircrew and their amazing vodka at the Cottesmore RIAT, their a/c was packed with the stuff.
Incidentally, the Hungarians are beside themselves and are counting down the days to the event, never having experienced anything like it before.
Just out of interest, did Lancs ever bomb Budapest.