Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

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So I spent a quite wonderful hour at Tom's (Red-Dog) place yesterday, & enjoyed a cuppa with he & Mrs Red. I was thoroughly hacked off with some blonde forum hoohah, & I just wanted a break from the hassle, so Tom was burdened by me. When the Forum kicks off, it gets much wider than often realised, because I'm usually pals with whoever is involved, so there's PM's & e-Mails, high-octane slanging matches over the 'phone & texts galore. I loathe every moment of these things, it's time stolen from my life. (This of course applies to all the Mods,as well, some of whom get more abuse than I do).

So a visit to Tom was just the job, & I'll be boring you with stories about it for days. (You don't have to read it, after all).

So we are sat in his field, outside his caravan, totally quiet, no "human" noise whatsoever. heaven. I've endured "muzak" everywhere I go recently, Vegas hotels, The G-Casino in Luton, taxis, shops, trains, bloody everywhere. It's not that I object to music, it's that a) I prefer to choose what I listen to, when, & at what volume, & b), as I'm in possession of a mind, small though it may be, I hate & violently resist having anything imposed upon me.

So there we were, sat there in perfect peace, when I looked up & saw a huge bird, & Mrs Red says, all matter of fact, "oh, that's the heron". "Oh that's the heron". WHAT? I've only ever seen one Heron "in nature" before, it was a huge thrill for me. They are magnificent - grey, & very big. In flight, the legs are tucked together behind them, arrow straight, & the wings flap oh so gently. When they land, they land as softly as a butterfly, quite the opposite to the albatross, which lands via a sort of controilled crash & does two somersaults. Or swans, who have to land at speed, & graceful as swans are, their landings, on land or water, are far from graceful although very comic.







Any chance of getting reds address, he could open up his little peace of heaven to us all.   For some reason I keep reading this and it gives me an unreal sense of peace.

Hi Paula,

It's.....

The Field,

Leicestershire.

Honestly, it's paradise on earth. No noise at all. Grass, trees, a brook, bushes, birds, as far as the eye can see. Kizzy, & the pony. No sense of time there, at all. And Mrs Red's Tea, in a china mug. I wish I felt able or couild find the time to visit more often, but I don't like to impose upon people. He may not be there much longer - it's just possible - but that's another story, & will have to wait a bit.

[tikay]

Sorry Paula, I forgot to ask - how is your Daughter toiday - & indeed you?

[RED-DOG]

Saddened to hear that Phil Drabble died today. He must have been very old, 90 or more.

About 25 years ago, I was stopping at Appleby in Westmoreland. I was there for the horse fair, but I had arrived a few days early and there were only 20 o 30 other caravans on the hill.

One morning I decided to take a walk along the river Eden with my Labrador Ben, as an afterthought I also took a little telescopic fishing rod and a couple of "Mepp" spinners. I used to do a lot of trout fishing at the time, decent trout fishing is usually "Private, members only" so whether I was spinning, ledgering or tickling, most of the time I was poaching. 

This particular morning, I was on a private stretch of the Eden, so I put my Labrador Ben at the top of a small rise and told him to say there while I fished the river below. Ben would see anyone approaching ages before they saw me, so as long as I glanced at the dog every couple of minutes, I would be safe.

The fishing was good and within a quarter of an hour or so I had two nice brown trout of around a pound each. Just then, I glanced at Ben and saw that he was watching someone approach. I slipped the trout into a plastic carrier bag and and dropped them, along with the now telescoped rod down inside the lining of my coat through a slit that I had cut for the purpose.

A few minutes later, a middle aged man came strolling into view. "That’s a well behaved dog,” he said, nodding toward Ben, who was still sitting on the hill. "Yes, he is, thank you" I replied. "Have you caught many?" He asked suddenly. I looked at him carefully, he seemed strangely familiar. "Do I know you?" I queried. "You could do" He replied with a conspirital sort of smile. "Are you a farmer, Have I bought some scrap off you or something?" I pressed. "Something like that" He conceded. He told me to be careful if I did decide to fish here, he said that the bailiff would stop and search me before I made it back to common land. "How do I know that you're not the bailiff?" I asked. "You don't" he replied, his face splitting into a huge grin.

At that moment, I knew I could trust him. I retrieved the fish and the rod from my coat lining and at his suggestion I gave them to him to carry and he slipped them in to the pocket of his Barbour. Together with my dog Ben we walked back to the village. We did pass a rather stern looking individual coming the other way, but we were allowed to proceed unchallenged. I thanked my benefactor profusely and offered him one of my fish but he politely refused

A few days later, when the fair was in full swing, there was a country pursuits day. Hunting shooting and fishing stands, and also a sheep dog trail. When the announcer passed the microphone to the commentator, I was amazed to see it was the same familiar looking farmer type that I had seen by the river. "Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Phil Drabble".

[tikay]

That is a lovely story Tom, & a fitting tribute to Mr Drabble. Thank you.

[The_nun]

Appleby Tom,

Do you still go, Darren's life long friend Bez has gone there for years, he has a trap, crazy lad, best man at our wedding and was late arriving as he had to weigh his scrap in before the yard closed. He actually arrived just in the nic of time, after me.

[pffa]

We are coping it appears the nhs is not.  We have to go back tomorrow.  Thank you for asking

[RED-DOG]

Appleby Tom,

Do you still go, Darren's life long friend Bez has gone there for years, he has a trap, crazy lad, best man at our wedding and was late arriving as he had to weigh his scrap in before the yard closed. He actually arrived just in the nic of time, after me.

Sounds like a dray not a trap Maureen, does it have two wheels or four?

Yes, I still go to keep an eye the trade and to see the fights. Happy days.

[The_nun]

Two Tom.

[RED-DOG]

Two Tom.

Does it have sides or is it like a flat-bed?

[The_nun]

From what I recall small sides where you sit, just a two seater jobby

[RED-DOG]

From what I recall small sides where you sit, just a two seater jobby

OK, Now it sounds loke a trap, lol, sry.

[The_nun]

NP..I wasn't too sure.

[tikay]

For maths geeks only.

Listened to a truly awesome programme on Radio 4 yesterday, "A further five numbers". It was narrated by Simon Singh, who wrote "Fermat's Last Theorem", in itself a magnificent read, though quite short. (He also penned "The Code Book"). Paul "dotcom" Phillips, the American millionaire gave it to me as a gift in Dublin some years ago. Paul pretty much retired from Poker when daughter Ivey was born, & is now big into, wait for it, scrabble", & his quite splendid blog is called "extempore".

In Fermat's Last Theorem, there is a wealth of mind boggling facts, which seem ludicrous, but are in fact true.

Rivers, for example, twist & turn. (For good reason). But on average, (on average....) you can calculate the length of ANY "major" river on earth simply by measuring the "as the crow flies" distance from start to finish, & then multiplying it by pi. (3.14159 etc). Impossible I thought, but it's true. It's a maths thing.

Or there is an insect which only emeges or pupates every 17 years. WTF has THAT gotta do with Maths? Wel it's strongly connected via a numerical equation, as evolution has taken it to  point where 17 yearly cycles are the only way it can survive. (Prime numbers are weird & wonderful things, believe me).

Anyway, back to yesterday's programme.

The first of a series of 5, it explained some oddities of the number "1", which is the only number which when multiplied by itself equals itself.

So, what percentage of ALL numbers begin with 1? If it were symmetrical, it would be about 11%, with some variance for size. In fact, it's around 30%. 30%!

There are a million ways (one million?...........)to establish this, but try this easy one for starters.

Take all numbers between 1 & 100 & double them. How many will then start with 1? Surprisingly, about half......

The series 5 to 9, when doubled,  all start with a 1.

Ditto 50 to 99.

Scale it up, 500 to 999, 5,000 to 9,999, etc. Neat, eh?

Try it by finding the square kilometres (individually) of EVERY country in the world, the height of every mountain, or test it another way - look at a logarithm table, & see what pages are most thumbed!

It's called "Benford's Law". Look it up on wikipidea or google.

Oops, you've fallen asleep, sorry. Is "should I raise UTG with 7-7?" any better?

[Robert HM]

Or there is an insect which only emeges or pupates every 17 years. WTF has THAT gotta do with Maths? Wel it's strongly connected via a numerical equation, as evolution has taken it to  point where 17 yearly cycles are the only way it can survive. (Prime numbers are weird & wonderful things, believe me).

I caught a snippet of a program about Prime Numbers, it mentioned these insects. Apparently by emerging once every 17 years it avoids meeting its main predator, that and your post was fascinating. Food for a hungry mind.

[tikay]

Or there is an insect which only emeges or pupates every 17 years. WTF has THAT gotta do with Maths? Wel it's strongly connected via a numerical equation, as evolution has taken it to  point where 17 yearly cycles are the only way it can survive. (Prime numbers are weird & wonderful things, believe me).

I caught a snippet of a program about Prime Numbers, it mentioned these insects. Apparently by emerging once every 17 years it avoids meeting its main predator, that and your post was fascinating. Food for a hungry mind.

Exactly that! And how long did that insect live? About a day, I seem to recall.

Don't start me off on Prime Numbers they are my favouriteistest thing of all time.

Many years ago, I'm ashamed to admit I played a lot of roulette, fool that I was. I still recall my numbers to this day, 30 years on, all of them prime - 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31. I did "the football pools" (anyone remember them?) by the same theory as well. Never won a bean at either.......