pre decimal question

george i am confused . 

The Imperial system of measures was confusing. Pound was used for value and for weight. I have mixed the value and weight aspects and the result is confusion. There was some value in going metric. The trouble was it was cynically and dishonestly used to hike prices on a huge scale. Those of us of shopping age remember the hiking of prices and they never came down. We, the shoppers were well and truly DONE.

its 16oz to a pound in weight and 14lb to a stone .

36 inche to a yard and 39 to a metre 

 who remembers gils think iv spelt it right as a liquid measure  .

and the american stone differs from ours . as well thats why there dress size 10 is a british 14 and there size 8 is a 12 .

 

Gosh yes. The stuff we had to learn in primary school.

i could never get my head round fractions and division maths a really weak point for me .

RIGHT go to the top of the class . sorry with my aspergers i dont always get some humour .

Bravo Archemedes, you have your euika moment and sussed me out good and proper.

In the parts of Scotland I come from the pronunciation might be represented by thr'punce with the r rolled and the u very short. Regional and class variations are very interesting but very difficult to represent in writing.

Ah yes, rolling the 'R's', I've heard all about that.

In the part of the world that I come from we have no such singular dialectic refinements, as our flat caps and clogs preclude anything other than native grunts.

Och aye the noo....

Now you have heard why the haggis alway runs round the mountains in a clockwise direction. It is like this you see . . . .

i love all our verifacations of language and dialect i think its rich and interesting , i get very annoyed when people mistake the geordie accent for scottish if you listen its quite clearly differant .

leicester folk do not sound like derby folk although both in the midlands 

i think we should be proud of where we come from and embrace our rich language . and all its lovely sounds , i personaly love geordies, liverpool accents . 

I acquired a penchant for haggis, but most of all for smokies.

Truly a great country with great people, all living in England. 

I notice you did not mention our glorious Scottish weather and dark Winters. Yes, lots of refugees from the weather - like me.

I've never worried about the weather up in Scotland, as one can get the full gamut of it in the same day, which I think adds to the interest and diversity of the place.

However if it was me, the real incentive to leave would be the tenacious midges that follow you down the A74, making their final home in the highlands of Westmorland and Cumbria, reducing that hallowed turf also into a no-go area for much of the time.

No wonder the Romans were not too keen on invading Caledonia. 

Given that Roman military skirts were designed for protection against swords, spears and boots it is unlikely that they offered protection against midgies. They are totally unsupportable miseries.

One August we foolishly drove visitors to the Trosachs. Very beautiful they were. At last a beautiful sweep of Scotland lay before us. We stopped and alighted. 

Moments later we were scrambling back into the car as a black cloud of these tiny monsters gorged on us. The doors crashed shut. Then we were on our way back to Edinburgh where no midge dwells.

i am a marter to midges to a nigthmare . so if i go to scotland one day maybe ,i s hould visit edinburgh .

Ah but you have to admit that the Arbroath Smokies were worth it all, and the ones at Kingussie were not too bad either.

Yes, those were the days.

Hi Tiswas and Archemedes,

The East of Scotland tends to be free of midgies. 

Arbroath Smokies are a great feed. The Eu banned them for many years. Talk of ignorance.

Scotland is also the land of 'fish suppers' - haddock and chips rather than cod and chips.

i prefer haddock and chips .

Someone should have mentioned that to the midges, as I've found them right down the east coast from the Moray Firth to Carnoustie.

Maybe on that particular occasion they put-in a special appearance just for me?

Having said that they did suddenly disappear on entering Dundee, which made me think that they had sufficient to eat by that time.

You are perhaps more tasty than I. Spey Bay, Carnoustie, Small Glen, Forfar, Dalkeith, Fife, Moffat,  East Lothian, West Lothian. And of course Edinburgh and the Pentlandite hills. OK so I am not tasty until I get west of Stirling.

Humour aside, our difference in midge experience is interesting. Are there different varieties and I am immune from annoyance from some and not others. It is possible, I suppose.

I am no expert in the different species of midges in Great Britain, however I am only too aware of when they make a meal of me.

The worst experience ever was many years ago when I took my then youngish children  camping on the banks of Loch Lomond - I realise that this was in the west  and not the east coast, but the experience was a complete nightmare.

Yes, and just down the road from the Trossachs too. Did you tough it out until you were red as beetroot and no where that was not itching and for two full days after the last midge had taken its last bite. 

We were beaten hands down, and so we relocated our campsite to Aviemore.

I manned-out the effects of the now not-so-hungry midges, but the children really suffered for days afterwards.

That's why I concluded that Loch Lomand is a great place to visit - in a fast car with the windows shut.

And the heater on re circulation only. How can such small insects inflict such wounds? But they do.

A little like politicians, if you think about it?

I suppose you were referring the giant intellects and the quite staggering amounts of common sense they display.

George I find your wit staggering and in this case the overtones of cynicism totally in keeping with my own beliefs.

Or to put it another way, I think more fondly of cockroaches than I do of politicians - any of them.

Watch it Aarchemedes, that 30 minute standing ovation could go to your head.

The question is, will that standing ovation increase my pitiful hair growth - if not, I really do not care much for it thanks?

You know what they say, 'hair today, goon tomorrow', or was that Peter Sellars who said that?

It was certainly the punch line of a joke doing the rounds 1960-63. The emphasis then was on gone/goon. More recently my contemporaries have refurbished it with emphasis on hair/gone. 

Of of course I am very gratified that you have adopted my hair style. As they say "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." 

That  brings me round to another joke popular/unpopular from that era but of enduring use/misuse

Two fleas out for a walk on the road stopped to chat. The older said to the younger "when I were a lad this were just a footpath." 

Ah! Our ladies can be so cruel, can they not Archemedes?

Or if you like.............

"Bald Archie is so bald that he took a shower and got brain-washed".

and to answer your question, I really don't think our ladies  are cruel, it is just that they see things differently to us, that is if they really do see them at all.

 

has know one heard of telly savalus [kojak] or yul brener the actor sorry my speling isnt rigth ,these men had women drooling over them .

Yes, I think it must be a mixture of the boldness to shave the whole head and to have a nice shape of scull. But Inhave never found baldness to be a problem and I started to become bald at 14 and was bald on top with two tufts in front when I married at 22.

I wonder what Archemedes will put up in this I was baddest first competition?

my grandad lost all his hair by the time he was 30 just had a litle bit around the back and sides with a little tuft on top but then he was a ginger which is quite week hair and wearing a cap most of the time didnt help much i dont suppose . .but in them days they had more to concern them self with .and unlike this generation just got on with it .

same with teeth all out the same day new ones in the following week just hard cheese just life , he had pirohee teeth were perfect gums terriable .thanks grandad for giving me a special gift  hehehe . at least iv been able to keep my teeth .so far .

Long may you keep your teeth Tiswas. 

All the best grandads have shiny jobs. At least that is my theory and I am sticking to it.   welcome to the club Archimedes.

yes iv got a lot of fillings but my mum never took me to the  dentist when 

i got a check up seniors i got given a card to attend the dentist so i  went 

didnt need parents permission in them days. you just went.

in them days they got paid for the work they did ,so i think she saw a good opertunity to make some money and she said i needed 9 fillings , but i didnt even have a tooth ache .so i think she just did them for payment.

as long as i keep my hair and teeth  .loosing either for a woman must be be terriable but out of the two i would rather loose my hair .they have some great wigs these days.i think a nice moheken in red would suit me fine

When you say red I don't think you mean a deep auburn - Titian but the bright bright in fashion scarlet plus. That would make heads turn and tongues wag.  mMy yipeeeeeeeee ✨🌟💫

i sure do hun .i dont know if you were ever a fan of terry and june 

but  i remember an episode where terry was trying to recapture his youth

and driving june mad, so she played him at his own game to get thro to him 

so she came down dressed in a black pvc shinney mini skirt and jacket with fish net tights and a red mowheken wig ,and heavy make up chewing gum  ,and put on the latest punk album and terry finaly got it you cant go back only forward with attidude , mind you i thought june looked quite good in the outfit 

No Tiswas, not a fan. A good comedy plot making to a serious point.

it wasnt the best comedy of the time very bbc . prefered the good life ,myself margo used to make me laugh but if you watch it now you can see so much of what her charector used to say has come true . 

once you start lowering standereds then they just keep getting lower .

Yes, so that society ceases to care for the sick, the weak, the vulnerable and those who have fallen on hard times. The government essentially nationalised the caring charities and made them into the social services and NHS. This doesn't seem to suit any more but they haven't got round to privatising services back to various charities. So who suffer? The sick, the weak the vulnerable and those who have fallen on hard times.

be bringing back the poor house before long .as a punishment fo r falling on hard times or to ill to work.

that is just about right, dear Tiswas. Since the Government is backing out and I expect that will continue regardless of the election, Charities need to re-emerge. A nasty hiatus is likely at first.. 

Are you two still putting the world to rights then?

Well someone has to. It is either putting the world to rights or playing dominoes.

Dominoes are good, but just talking about the state of things today, well it's a mess isn't it?

A mess and going down the Shute. Of course talking is the means of reaching the point of action. Those of us who can need to be active in Caring charities and in supporting them financially.

tough on us and unfair . beat the poor and sick as they are to weak to put up much of a fight and victory will soon be yours.

Now I am retired this is precisely what I do.

How about you?

When I am a little more recovered from these side effects I need to rethink the situation. I need to bring my interest closer to home. It is absurd that UK gives aide to India. India is now a wealthy country. Time she looked after her own, just was we should look after our own. In 1948 I think it was the government stole/nationalised many of our charities. Those charities need to be reinstated. We need them working close to the community they serve.

what do you say Archemedes? And you too Tiswas, how do you see it?

india was part of our empire ,they wanted to be self governing and compasated for fighting for the british in ww2 .so we returned india back to them ,so let them support them selfs . 

 

India is not the only example of us giving generously to nations who can well afford to be without our aid.

I think what we do as a nation is still a left-over from the days when we believed we could gain influence and alter the views of radicalised nations through generosity.

It simply doesn't work - but now it has become a habit.

I fear a bad habit. We should care for our own needy.

Absolutely true.