Flops' Friday mini blog

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks for the comments all

TriplexDread: Your link looked to be hopeful but I'm a member of an audio forum and I posted this over there and a very nice American fellow gave me this link:

http://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/catalog/part_detail.asp?PNumberBase=M2

I've placed an order for 4, just waiting now for the supplier to give me a total cost including shipping USA to UK.

Looks hopeful, we shall see.

Apparently this turntable is a Garrard RC.90 from 1950 and at the time was something of an 'audiophile' upgrade for the popular Garrard RC.80 turntable. Well I never.

 

[floppybootstomp]

When I was 18 years old I worked in Fleet Street in central London and lived in a place named Downham which is a sort of no mans land between Catford and Bromley on the outskirts of SE London.

To reach work I had to commute between Grove Park and Charing Cross railway stations and sometimes I had to make this journey before 09:00 hours. During one such journey, standing up and crammed into an overcrowded railway carriage I vowed that as long as I live I'll never take on a long term job that involves commuting into the centre of town again.

Several months later I kept my promise to myself and secured a job based at Crystal Palace, in SE London but easier and less stressful to travel to.

This morning I was reminded of those days when I had to travel from Greenwich to the top of Tottenham Court Road near Warren Street during the morning rush hour. There I was, standing up, crowded in and swaying with the train motion wondering where I went wrong. And just to rub salt in the wound I have a poxy cold.

The reason I was making this journey was to meet a fella on an empty shop premises in Tottenham Court Road that he proposed to make into a gym. My brief was to price up a music system to blast the hard working gym attendees as they flexed their pecs.

It occurred to me that when I arrived that may be the only time anybody has managed to get me into a gym.

However, the visit did not materialise. I had travelled as far as Canary Wharf when I received a text message from my prospective customer-to-be informing me the premises could not be accessed that morning. So I texted him back wishing him a pox and a pestilence and a barren marriage as I recalled how earlier I had forced myself out of bed at an unearthly hour to make this appointment.

That last part is not strictly true.

I've now been home awhile, nowt to do today really, but life is full of surprises is it not?

 

[nivrip]

, but life is full of surprises is it not?

Yes, but do you have a further appointment with him?

 

[Becky]

Sorry to hear that @floppybootstomp, that must have been incredibly frustrating! I'm with you re commuting - it's a special kind of hell, and I'm glad I've never really had to do it. The worst I've had was when I was living and working in Manchester city centre, but had to spend one day a week at the Liverpool office - not a massively long drive, but it would be horrendous in traffic. I used to try and get there before 8am to miss the worst of it, and it was great being there so early because of the peace and quiet

Anyway, shame about your wasted trip.

On a completely different note, have you had one of the new £5 notes yet? Just wondering if you've seen what they can do on record player...?!

 

[bootneck02]

Yes got the £5 ok if you have a record deck with no needle but do not like the feel of them also if they get crumpled difficult to straighten them out.
I used to work for the RAC at Dover Docks and Newhaven and to assist our members we had a little office onboard the ferries. When there were gales and we were stuck out in the channel sometimes for hours and hours it was horrendous with all those land lubbers being sick literately all over the place in the toilets, over the seats, in the corridors, in the restaurants in fact in all the passenger areas. I used to shut the office and go down to the crew's quarters and hide up.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Haven't had a re-scheduled survey appointment from Mr Would-be Gym entrepreneur yet.

Whilst agreeing that in the majority of cases commuting is a pain in the rump, when I made my vow back in 1969 not to commute I did specifically mean on trains. Driving to work is a relative luxury, there's lots of things you can do in a motor that wouldn't look too clever in a crowded train carriage.

Like.... pick your nose, pass wind, talk to oneself, scratch a body's nether regions with impunity and of course listen to whatever music or chat radio you want to, though I suppose that last one is doable on public transport since Mr Sony invented the Walkman way back then.

Seasickness has never bothered me but once when I was 13 coming back on the ferry from a school journey to Ostende the weather was very stormy. On the deck one second you were viewing the sky, the next staring down at the waves, up and down, side to side - the decks were awash with vomit. It was so stormy, in fact, that our crossing was the last one for three days as the weather was thought to be dangerous to shipping.

 

[Taffycat]

I am sorry to hear about the Gym guy letting you down @floppybootstomp, particularly after your sardine-tin travel experience! Ugh, and with a cold too, that must have felt very uncomfortable, to say the least.

Yes, the car has definite advantages over public transport. There is nothing quite like being in your own little environment. I sometimes would take a bus to work, but mostly preferred to walk the couple of miles - I got less bruises that way! lol Some of those double-decker drivers could be such jerks. Slamming on the brakes, sending the standing passengers teetering to the front, only to all be sent teetering back again as he drove forward again. The joys of travel.

 

[muckshifter]

Slamming on the brakes, sending the standing passengers teetering to the front, only to all be sent teetering back again as he drove forward again.

oh, I remember that 'game' it was something to do on a boring journey.

I did a stint 'on the busses' here in Southport, was how I got my driving licence.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I visited a few shops at Woolwich today. There was only one fight as far as I could see, outside the railway station, helluva lotta blood.

After walking round a few stores I really want to cause mischief and I think this little chart should be nailed to the foreheads of shop area supervisors:

 

[floppybootstomp]

Hello everybody peeps innit (who remembers Stavros?).

I'm now seeing a cardiology nurse once a month at the local hospital, I get regular reports telling me certain aspects of the old ticker aren't performing 100% but I'm still here. There will be a certain irony involved if, having survived two bouts with cancer, I keel over brown bread from an iffy heart. Still, Que Sera Sera, as they say.

When a fellow reaches a certain age the UK's NHS, as it is now, subjects him to a series of tests. This is generally recognised as a good thing. One of these tests, for bowel cancer, involves laying a sheet of polythene on the ground (an old carrier bag from Iceland nicely suits this purpose) and pooping on it.

Having carried out stage one the next step is to take one of the lolly sticks the NHS send you for the purpose then, putting up with the considerable pong emitting from what you've so carefully produced, scoop up a dollop of it, wrap it up in an envelope and post it off.

At the end of it's journey your lolly stick and the contents upon it will be diagnosed by some unfortunate soul in a laboratory somewhere. Imagine having to that all day for a living, would you ever fancy that sandwich you brought to work with you?

I must confess this is one test I haven't yet mustered up the courage to carry out. Silly, I know, but there you go.

The test I had today, however, is much more pleasurable. This test involved an attractive young Asian girl rubbing a gel like substance all over my chest and belly. 'This could get interesting' I thought to myself. Sorry, just can't help it, I am a male of the species after all.

But all she did was run an ultrasound scan probe all over the show. This determined that I had no aneurysms in my Aortic artery and is known as the 'AAA Test'. I thought they were batteries. The Aortic artery is a big one that runs top to bottom the entire length of ones' torso and if it develops an aneurysm (a bit like one of those swellings that sometimes develops in an inner tube) and bursts it will probably kill you.

Probe Girl assured me after the test that mine was fine and there was no risk of it being a threat for the rest of my conceivable life. Phew.

So I walked home again from New Cross passing lots of little landmarks that triggered lots of memories, some good, some bad.

Life goes on

 

[bootneck02]

I have to agree with you about the bowel test haven't done it ether. I am glad the Aortic proved negative and you are OK in that department, so it is upwards and upwards then young man, which is good news after all the medical problems of the past.

 

[Becky]

I'm pleased to hear the test went well

Have you got your new phone yet?

 

[nivrip]

One of these tests, for bowel cancer,

Yup, I've done it (not quite the way described) and found it fairly straightforward.

A negative result is very reassuring, although, like all medical tests, not a 100% guarantee.

 

[muckshifter]

I've had two of them 'test' kits and a bloody camera stuffed up the wrong end ... all clear, I'm happy to say.

roll on 2018 for another 'test' kit.

 

[bootneck02]

Good to hear Mr Mucks glad all is well

 

[Abarbarian]

I'm with the rest of the real men here an have done the test twice. Negative so far, roll on next year.

Sorry to hear about the ticker Flops. Gives you a good excuse to have a daily blood thinning tot of whiskey though.

 

[Taffycat]

Very glad to hear that your heart tests went well and were okay. There is nothing like hearing some reassuring results, for putting a spring in one's step. I hope yours will continue to be ever-more bouncy Sir Flopps!

 

[floppybootstomp]

I'm pleased to hear the test went well

Have you got your new phone yet?

Nope, no new phone yet, it's not a priority with me and I am somewhat impecunious atm. Next decent bit of work that comes in = new phone.

Thanks for the feedback folks

Several years ago my Mum was taken into a care home as she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Late October this year she went to bed and refused to eat anything and on November 4th she passed on. She was 86.

Today we went to her funeral. All my daughters and their boyfriends attended and I saw some relatives, aunts and uncles and cousins, I hadn't seen for some time.

Goodbye Mum.

 

[muckshifter]

Goodbye Mum.

 

[Becky]

Oh I'm really sorry to hear that, hope you're all doing ok. Must have been nice to see family you haven't see for a while, but shame about the circumstances