It wasn’t supposed to be as bad here, but it was/is worse.
The fun and games started at 18:00, I was at the drawing board when the lights went out followed by a shower of sparks from the pole mounted transformer at the bottom of the garden, then on again, then off and more sparks, then on, then the most enormous explosion, it really was spectactular, sparks and flames everywhere, it plunged a large area of Braintree, street lights, houses, traffic lights, into a complete blackout, not often you experience such an event at close quarters.
I rang EDP, who didn’t have a clue where it had happened, ‘We’ll be there at 19:00’.
By now, the neighbours were swarming about in the road, one idiot had phoned the police, another the fire brigade, can you believe it.
The fire brigade turned up and had to stay with it in case a fire broke out, give me strength, it’s in open countryside, apparently a tree had blown down on the transformer causing a short, a very small tree incidentally, meanwhile the sirens of emergency vehicles were heard racing everywhere.
Then of course, some neighbours didn’t even have torches, let alone candles, I ended up handing them out up and down the road, one neighbour didn’t even have anything to light them with, another one complained that she was going to miss ‘Hotel Babylon’, Britishness in the face of disaster, eh!!
My missus nipped up to the chip shop and we had a nice candlelit meal, great to relax, with no TV, CD player, computer and have a good old debate about serial killers instead, at least we had a gas fire to keep warm, though the dogs were a bit puzzled about what was happening.
I got out the camping stove and checked to see if some of the old dears were OK and needed a hot drink, they were the stalwart ones.
At 20:30, I went out the back hoping to find an army of engineers, instead there was a lovely bearded old boy with a very small van and a pair of stepladders and small torch.
‘No problem, I’ll just give HQ a ring and I reckon you’ll be back on shortly, or it could be nasty, then we’ll really be in trouble’.
At 20:53, Braintree lit up like a Christmas tree, shame really, we were having a very pleasant evening, then we were back to reality and CSI.

During the night the weather was atrocious, the wind and rain kept us awake and this morning our greenhouse had pulled itself away from it’s moorings and was threatening to fly to the town centre.
As I write this, I can see branches from other trees smashing themselves against the transformer, I’m just waiting for another firework display.

Is it just me or is tonight one of the quietest on the forum? It’s certainly the quietest I’ve seen it.

As far as I’m concerned, it may have had something to do with the tree that was blown on to our local transformer and detonated it, see storm thread for further details.

For a truly great band see:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywd3n4h84Qg
I’ve seen many legendary bands live, original Zep, Floyd, Stones etc etc, but this bands concert I was priveliged to be at on the South Parade Pier, Portsmouth 1970, just before it got burnt down during the making of Tommy. It was one of the most outragous, hilarious, p1’s taking gigs I’ve ever been to, enhanced by the fact that Viv made me stand up in front of the crowd and take applause from the band due to my extreme vocal attack on the hecklers that wanted the previous band, Idle Race, to come back on again.
The sight of Legs Larry Smith attempting to play the house Steinway with a couple of bricks was not to be forgotten, though unapreciated by the management, I hope it was lost in the fire.
Norm:-
My stepson liked HIM, I had the misfortune to take the youth to one of their concerts, believe me, if the same misfortune ever drops on you, pretend to be ill.
I think he is subsequently embarressed that he ever had an interest.

Hmmmmm, it’s going nowhere is it.
Agent Truman to have a think about this one.

Incidentally, how many of these things have survived elsewhere.

If you use Google Earth application, rather than Google maps, you can switch on information about the area.

Near the armored vehicles is says “MOD Tank testing Ground”.

Man! There are some really strange structures in that area….is that where they film Dr. Who? 😉

Tank destruction ground more like.

Dr Who is filmed in Wales.

Any ideas about the circle actually set in the mudflats?

I’ve been trying to find any evidence of a/c on the site, but I can’t. According to a bit of Googling there’s rumoured to be a Mig23, 3 Canberras, a Phantom and Sea Vixen, plus a few bits of Lightning. I was interested to read that the 3 Bristol 188 research aircraft ended their days there including the example now at Cosford, is this right.
Funny how this topic should emerge on the day that the planning application for Stansteds second runway is being submitted ( and I hope it gives the Uttlesford planners the worst headache of their lives ), don’t forget that Foulness was once considered as Londons third airport ahead of Stansted.

Makes me very angry this for i have friends who have been abused by the ‘small minority’ as the media put it.

Whats perhaps sadder is the media and Airforce refused to name who these minority are, there were hints dropped on the news all day long from viewers and only a few viewers went so far as to say who has been doing it, i’ll give you a guess, it wasn’t Buddhists, Sikhs or Christians…. as Rolf Harris would say, can you guess who it is yet?

The same thing happened on the debate during the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 yesterday lunchtime, everyone, including the Mayor of Peterborough, just pussyfooted around not naming names, until someone mentioned Asian youths, which incensed me, as you say, it wasn’t going to be Buddhists, Sikhs or Christians was it, why should all Asians get tarred with the same brush, so I e-mailed the programme and, what a coincidence, a very brave and honest Muslim kid came up with the truth, I take my hat off to him, I hope he was OK last night, as according to my stepson, who went to a rock concert in Peterborough last night, he was very aware of large gangs of ‘Asian’ youths roaming the streets.
So where does this lead to, with St Georges Day parades coming up, are the Cub Scout organisations going to be taunted, sworn and spat at, as happened to those ATC kids, are we to see police lining their traditional parades. What has this country come to, I wish I was still involved in the Scout movement, I’m sure we could have organised a few large Venture Scouts to organise the kickings these scumbags deserve.
On a positive note, did anyone watch BBC Look East last night, they really made a meal of what had been reported and devoted the whole programme to the great support of our armed forces, which they deserve, no negative, devious cr@p here. Stuart White presented the programme in the shadow of a very large MG armed Landrover and, my missus and I were in tears at the end of it, the whole programme should have gone out on the national network, it was a tribute to what can be done on TV, with no finger pointing or political bias either, brilliant programme, it should win an award.
Just to finish off, I hope you watched the opening programme of the White Working Class series on BBC2 last night, involving a working mens club in Bradford, no further comment needed.

I should say so, along with that funny salute and silly walks.

Seriously, this medal seems to have been established long before any Nazi involvement and appears to have become, well up untill 1945 at least, a part of the establishment, so where’s the problem. We winge about the loss of our established, traditional icons, so why shouldn’t they be allowed to ressurect theirs. Are we concerned that the Russians are now relating to their former glories in whatever form it took and we are now trying to deny the Germans their own history.
Nazism was evil, we all know that, but it happened and can’t be swept under the carpet. There are so many artifacts from that time hidden away, look at Fascist art, is it to be forever locked in the vaults, why are we so frightened of the past, I think it’s unlikely that introducing the Iron Cross will cause hordes to march across the Nuremburg Stadium, and what if they did, we have other cultures to worry about.
I remember watching the British led invasion of Kosovo on Sky and the great amount of publicity given to the German armoured division that supported them, it was compared to nervously watching the Afrika Korps move into position, thats what we were being told, bloody ridiculous, we have to move on, and medals from the history of this great nation, whatever it’s past ‘merits’ should be accepted wholeheartedly with respect to their past.
Incidentally, how many Germans have been involved in any firefights and have any been actually killed in any situation, I would be interested to know whether they have been let off the NATO leash.

Hang on a minute, hadn’t the BMW mini already been more or less designed and prototyped by Rover before BMW got their hands on the company, I seem to recall some early preview photos of a mock up that looked very much like the example we have now.
Wasn’t this the sole reason that BMW went after Rover in the first place, they knew they were on to a winner and Rover had done all the preliminary work, easy peasy, save all that expense on initial design and dump the rest of the company, good bit of Teutonic logic.
Me, my first car was an early 70’s, orange 850, gear lever sticking out from underneath the dashboard, top speed 65 downhill, noisy, draughty, no radio, rudimentary heater, but I loved it.
Fortunately, it never had a problem, well only once, my adventures with attempting to replace the speedo cable and having to remove the entire cooling system in order to do it was the stuff of legends.
Quite frankly, my current equivalent, a 1.1 Peugot 206, kicks the thing into touch in every way, bloody hell, it’s got aircon and a CD player for Gods sake.
I like the BMW mini, but it’s way over priced, even second hand, I saw the new estate version the other day and I think it looks really naff, a bit of timber framework on the side might have done the trick, tee hee.