HEM

My mother used to do that - she was a WREN on the Mumbles (Swansea) during part of WWII.

I believe that if you type an ampersand followed by a username that person is notified by e-mail viz: @JennyMorgan At least that works on another forum which appears to use the same or similar software.

I've had car hire firms in the UK try that one on me when I have come with an all-costs-covered hire contract from within Germany. Try to take advantage of people not able to defend themselves in the English language. Failed in this particular case. Hertz in Seattle tried it once as well.

Some time ago I read an article about the difficulties family members have removing the deceased's various accounts (even supposing they are aware that such accounts exist). The suggestion was to maintain a list with login details and keep somewhere safe. Good idea I thought - but there must only be a small handful. Currently at 1 1/2 pages of an A4 document. Depressing I suppose.

I grew up only a few miles away from Woodford aerodrome (Cheshire) where the Vulcan & others were built. Many times when walking home from school in the 60's I'd hear the sound of a Vulcan departing after maintenance and see the delta at the head of a column of smoke. Woodford used to have the largest 1-day airshow in the country - had to walk there as the roads in all Cheshire snarled up. Concord 002 appeared only 4 weeks after its first flight. From home also occasionally saw a glider on a winch launch, do a few circles & land thinking "whats the point". Approx 50 years later I have over 1200 hours on high-performance sailplanes!

After various pets my wife/daughter found a Yorkshire Terrier in the Hamburg animal rescue place. Claimed to have "been found on the street" which cannot be true as he runs in front of every car. Said to be "about 10 years old". We have him now for just over 3 1/2 years. Behaves perfectly at home (does not beg at table,) & sleeps a lot but good for fairly long walks. OK with everyone except very small children (bad experience?). Photo taken shortly after he came to us:

Also... avoiding (probably won't succeed) watching Dinner for One. A sketch in English recorded in 1963 in Hamburg before a German audience that belongs to tradition here & is still virtually unknown in the UK.

Sat listening to the rain drumming on the window - together with fireworks going off. It really erupts at midnight here. We have none due to (a) believing the weather forecast which turned out to be true and (b) we'll be walking to the nearby stables where "our" horse** is to help the owners calm all the nags down - they don't like the noise you know. **Horse is owned by the wife; ridden daily by daughter who mostly finances the running costs.

Schempp-Hirth have only got as far a building a Nimbus 4....

I challenge anyone to do what John Profumo did after his fall. From Wikipedia:

I can't really match that (started Computer Science undergrad course at Manchester University in 1970). Just coming up to retirement. Remember ATLAS or even Mercury? I had my fun with the HMRC site (for my UK state pension). Its set up to allow a non-UK mobile phone number but the special PIN just doesn't arrive. Only way out - enter my brother's mobile phone number in the UK, check hes available & then he resends me the PIN. Only the other day my wife was saying that her handwriting had deteriorated due to just not writing any more. I can't spell properly either but I blame that partially on being outside the UK for so long (intention was "one year").

This is the Föhn effect as sometimes experienced in the Munich area (said to cause headaches etc.) When I visited the Denver area they talked about the Chinook Wind which is the same thing (the URL I give here has a reasonable piccy of how it works). Certainly on the East side of their mountains the temperatures can vary wildly within a short period of time.

Of course I am aware of that - back in my days it used to be one of the exam questions!. Where I fly we are not allowed into clouds (in fact we are supposed to keep 1000' / 300m vertical separation from clouds) & hence only the dry adiabatic lapse rate was quoted.

At times (eg Springtime) its advisable to wear thermal undies (plus suitable trousers) as it can be damned cold up there (1 degree C per 100m cooler). Thus if its +10C on the ground & you get to 2000m altitude its around -10 C. Since there should be some sunshine (at least part of the time) this can partially mitigate the cold... Flying through a snow shower just causes a hissing sound - in a rain shower its as if being machine-gunned. I've experienced both.

Thats what I & my flying friends hope for but little chance around here until late March at the earliest...

IIRC Red Barbara did not have a driving license (which is of course irrelevant to this thread).

Right at the beginning of the book the author writes that he was told in his early days that Prisoners, Property and Prostitutes were the 3 things that could get a policeman into trouble - but I don't think he was in Clacton! One scene involves recruits visiting the local forensic medicine department. My daughter works in the toxialogical lab of the forensic medicine department of the major Hamburg university clinic & says that they also have the police recruits visiting. I suspect they don't play tricks though...

Frankly a boat like that should be spending the Summer in the Med - like achored off Formentera hosting a few scantily un-clad maidens... Disclaimer: I've never been to Formentera (Ibiza 13 times, Menorca twice & Mallorca 3 times).

Its well worth reading. Rather cleverly the book starts & ends with the same story - but from different points of view...

The term "pond life" reminds me of when I read this book written by a policeman from Cheshire: I read it whilst on Summer holiday some years ago - enthralling to read, some passages sad (=real life); others uproarious. Had my wife wondering why I was collapsing with laughter. It was only some years later when I learnt the author's real name that I realised that I sort of knew him - he is the brother of a school friend of my brother...

SInce we operate gliders from a grass airfield we have significant issues with moles... After the Winter break our runway can look like its turned into the alps. Here (I dunno about the UK) the damn** moles are a protected species! However an exemption is granted to "remove" them from operation areas such as our runway - which is over 100m wide & 1km long. Our mole expert uses gadgets that have a gas cartridge inserted. When it goes off it turns the mole into gulash. Does the trick - could play croquet on the runway this Summer!

My mother was a WREN. Served at Tilbury & The Mumbles...

Me too (I've been flying since Pontius was a Pilot).

Well it was a horibly dull & damp day here to the North-West of Hamburg. After standing around at the launch point for several hours we decided that it wasn't going to get better (visinility was getting worse) so we packed. in. Apart from getting the planes wet it was a futile exercise (getting planes wet isn't a good idea anyway). Trouble is - this is scheduled to be our last weekend of the season (& a crap second half of the season it has been).

She is German & since I live in Germany the glider has a "D" registration. SInce pure gliders in Germany have numeric registrations e.g. D-1234 the fact that this one starts off with a "K" after the "D-" indicates that its a motoglider i.e. has an auxilliary engine that folds back into the fuselage behind the solar panels you can just see. This one is capable of self-launching which adds to the flexibility (& price).