Pete TrumanIt’s building up for nastiness outside, I’ve just brought in all the bedding out the tent, I hate thunderstorms as do the dogs, they’ve both come in and hidden under my sons bed, which is a bad omen, dogs know everything, I think I’ll retire to the cupboard under the stairs.
AG
I expect you used to drink warm milk as well.
Pete TrumanCertainly not. It would interfere with Evelyn Glennie’s practising :rolleyes:
Moggy
Wouldn’t make any difference as she’s deaf.
Pete TrumanThe gorgeous and awesomely mad Julie who I would run off with tommorrow has just anounced on Look East news that it will be rather pleasant on sunday with a bit of cloud and temps in the region of 22C.
It’s so hot today that we think that the local primary school that was built in 1874 and has no insulation has sent all the kids home, as all the neighbouring trampolines are fully at work, somewhat defeating the object, I would have thought.
I’ve just watched a news item about how you must keep your dogs inside, my 2 b###### are lying outside and won’t come in, they sense a hedgehog me thinks, silly sods, you touch them and they burn, but they don’t seem to care.
Pete TrumanWith the demise of the example at Cosford, is this the only one left in this country, apart from the derivatives at Mildenhall and Waddo of course.
Up until a few years ago you would still see 707 and DC-8 freighters flying into Stansted leaving a trail of brown smoke over the village, thinking about it, I’m sure I saw a DC-8 a few months ago, would that be correct?
Wasn’t the Southend 707 bought in California, I have a story from a friend who was sent out there to check it out and he thought it was in such bad condition, that he refused to go up in it. I was told that the test pilot arrived complete with cowboy hat and took off on 2 engines, but proceeded to barrell roll it over the airfield to prove it was a good deal, not sure about that story.
Pete TrumanThe Marshalls question has been raised before, Alconbury looking as a possibility, but who knows.
The mention of the closure of a few, other small bases gets me worried about Wethersfield, I reckon it could be on the cards in view of a few other things mentioned on here previously.
Pete TrumanSaturday looks real good 😉 😀
I can’t go on saturday, it’s madams birthday and she wants to have a trip to the coast with the dogs followed by a genuine Hungarian goulash party at her old mans house, yes it will be cooked in a big cast iron pot over a wood fire in the garden.
I have been reliably informed that the best weather forecast site is BBC Look East, and of course presented by that delectable lunatic Julie.
They are forecasting fine weather for saturday with slightly lower temperatures, sundays forecast will be out tommorrow.
The problem with the DX flightline is that you are always looking into the sun which doesn’t do a lot for your eyes or photography, the only venue I can think of where the sun is behind is at OW, trying to think of anymore from past years, RIAT at Cottesmore and Fairford, thats about it.
Pete TrumanYeh, but who wants to be staring into the sun in this weather. I’m 20+ miles from Duxford and today has really got to me, if it’s like this I won’t even bother getting up, apparantely it’s 40C on Wimbledon centre court today, I’m going to crash at the bottom of the garden where it’s cooler. It’s so hot here that we’ve actually put up a tent at the bottom of the garden where it’s pretty cool, I’m off there now.
Anyway, I’m always the weather forecaster, don’t steal my thunder, even my dogs won’t go outside and madam is on the point of drowning herself in a cold bath.
Pete TrumanPete, have you never been to Brentwood? Btw the Thermos (flask) factory was just off the high st now a Sainsburys) not sure if it was going during the first world war, but one can understand the military significance ,of denying the population ,a hot cup of char whilst picnicing !!
Have been to Brentwood many times, mainly in conjunction with the Scout camp at the back of the housing estate over the railway bridge, did you know that a massive and quite savage turtle lives in the lake there, I’ve seen it and trying to get a group of 10 year olds to build rafts is quite a daunting experience, fortunately non of our lot ever got attacked.
I didn’t realise that the Thermos factory was based in the town, would the German crew have known this or was intelligence info in WW1 non existant.
Pete TrumanPete,
I looked it up in that treasury of all things ‘Zepp raiding’ ‘The Air Defence of Britain 1914-1918’ by Christopher Cole and E.F. Cheeseman (Putnams 1984) and it says in there it was a raid by Zeppelin L14 (Strasser) on the night of March 31st/April 1st 1916.L14 crossed the coast at Sea Palling in Norfolk and flew south dropping bombs on Sudbury, Braintree and Brentwood between 21.05 hrs and 23.40 hrs.
The Zepp then turned north and dropped 14 bombs on Thameshaven before re-crossing the coast near Aldeburgh at 02.50 hrs.
The Captain claimed in his report to have bombed Tower Bridge!!!–You find much exageration in Zeppelin combat reports.Hope this helps.
Andy
Interesting, Sea Palling is so far away from the target areas that you would have thought it might have been easier to have a go at nearby Norwich and then get out pretty quickly back over the North Sea, I can’t think of any military significance in bombing Sudbury or Brentwood, but Braintree was an industrial town, Courtaulds and Crittalls in particular, until everything was shut down, demolished and turned into housing.
Pete TrumanThe state of Dunwich concerns me, the amount of erosion of the cliffs seems to get worse everytime I go, the old cemetery has finally disappeared, no more bones sticking out of the cliffs or gravestones left and the footpath up the top is not there anymore, I recall that there used to be a camp site up the track from the pub, I can’t believe now that it was ever there.
I remember the good old days when the Yanks were still at Bentwaters and you could sit on the beach and see all sorts of stuff flying over, Delta Darts, Phantoms, and of course the A-10’s, never saw a Zeppelin though, not even the Goodyear airship, what happened to that?
Anyway, stick to Adnams Regatta, best pint going.
Pete TrumanMy parents used to have a ‘van on Cakes & Ale so I’ve been past Theberton church dozens, if not hundreds, of times. I never knew there was anything there or I would have called in.
Some of the Leiston technical site used to still be there in the woods, to the right on the lane that chopped the end off the main runway. There was still a fair bit of the runways left when I first started going there in 1977. By the time Mum sold the van in around 1990 they’d virtually all gone.
Did you used to play on the ‘sunken ship’ in the sandpit and be kept awake at night by the sound of Sizewell humming away down the road and wondering at the level of radioactivity you were suffering.
Happy days.
There were quite a few buildings on the other side of the lane which we tried to get into once, they were all locked up and seemed to be full of farm equipment, I don’t know whether they are still there, the only building that I know is surviving is at the entrance to the camp site.
I have to say that this area is one of my favourite spots in the whole country, apart from the blot on the landscape called Sizewell, which you have to pretend doesn’t exist. Last October I took Lizzies old man up there for a day trip and he was knocked out by the place, especially the mysteries of Dunwich and the ability to park at the side of a road and watch marsh harriers hunting nearby
I looked up AG’s reference and noticed that a Zep had attacked Braintree killing 4 people. As my nearest town for 30 years I can’t remember knowing anything about this despite having been to the local museum, the problem with googling about zeppelins is that you are inevitably referred to the Led variety, so I’ve given up, anyone know much about the Braintree attack, the Great War forum doesn’t seem to know much.
Lets also have a moments contemplation today about the horrific events happening on the Somme 90 years ago to the day, when 20000 British troops were killed, but my grandfather survived, otherwise I would’nt be here today.
Pete TrumanVery nice and low Chippy flying south about 20 mins ago, even Michael Ballack looked up.
Pete TrumanYes James, I accept that IWM Lambeth is probably the best museum on The Great War, it’s a shame therefore that they don’t take the Harry Tate there and display it in some sort of environment where it has context, instead of a meaningless space filler in Air/Space or whatever it’s called.
In fact if the Biff and the RE8 and the CMB could be re-located, it’d save me the need to ever visit Duxford again.Andy
Quite agree, the only problem I have with Lambeth though is that every time I go through that trench I keep expecting to find Blackadder, Baldrick et al preparing to go over the top, it makes me smile, even though I thought that it was one of the greatest and most moving scenes ever to finish a comedy series, it gets me upset everytime I see it.
If it’s knock museums time, the one I really hate is the Armouries at Leeds, couldn’t stand it, I found it utter boredom, apart from the live enactments, which was the only bit I liked. Once again it was devoted to the whims of architecture.
And talking of warfare, I forgot it was Germany v Argentina, I’m out of here.
Pete TrumanWell, the bullet wasn’t sent with a ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and presume that on board the Zep there was a ‘Communication Breakdown’ leading to them becoming ‘Dazed and Confused’ so it had to ‘Ramble On’ until the majority of the crew took ‘The Stairway to Heaven’ and ended up in ‘The Houses of the Holy’ which is when for the British it became ‘Celebration Day’ and presumably it took place ‘In the Evening’, perhaps one of the local residents running to the scene had a ‘Black Dog’ and had to be careful not to be ‘Trampled Underfoot’.
Sorry to be so flippant about the deaths of brave men, whatever their nationality, but I didn’t start it 😀
What sort of speed did these things travel at, ok I know it could be affected by a tail or headwind, but it’s 20 miles from Martlesham to Theberton which gave the crew plenty of time to bring the thing down if it was on fire and subsequently save themselves.
Pete TrumanNoisy, silver thing went past heading north about an hour ago, just flown back and I think it was a Yak, did a nice bank over the village, in between time a bright yellow Pitts went by heading north, saw 2 buzzards the other day, wheeling high over the garden, now that is a rarity in these parts, never seen them here before.
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