Nice People Thread Part 9 - and so it continues

Generali

Poor woman. You see a lot of very poor driving as a cyclist and it must be even more frightening when a car guns past a few inches away when you're on a horse let alone hits you.

I don't know if the NSW bush fires are getting much coverage in the UK at the moment. Hundreds of houses have been lost and the Sydney sun was blocked out by the smoke haze from the Blue Mountains which are about 50 miles away this afternoon:



This is the rain radar from our Met Office:



The only thing is, the radar is confusing the smoke with rain. That is the smoke plume, perhaps 100kms long.

We've been watching the news change on the websites. As the wind got up and the temperature hit 30+C, more-and-more fires went from 'under control' to 'burst through containment lines' (they clear fire breaks and defend them with fire hoses) to 'burning out of control'. On a day like today, burning embers can travel 6km (4 miles) easily and start new fires. All the firies can do is try to defend property and keep themselves as safe as they can. The wind changed direction in late afternoon which is when it gets really dangerous for the firemen so I hope they're all ok. They're a brave bunch of blokes.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've not been on a horse - I'd like to go on a beach.... just along the surf's edge.... not daft like that silly girl that lost her pony as she took it in too deep and it started swimming.

They can't turn, so the pony had to keep swimming until it died.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-23431300

Horses often like to gallop on beaches, as its where they are often taken for a blast . Horses are creatures of habit....and a frisky one whose poorly displined riders make use of any open space to let him out will result on a horse that's a night mare on a beach or open bits of land. Its much nicer to start in a school and then on a safe boring hack up bridle paths!

Horses can swim, its a funny feeling. And they can turn and come back out. I've sat on them while they do it, not adeptly, they are not otters. And yea, you probably do steer them.

PasturesNew

Generali wrote: »

I don't know if the NSW bush fires are getting much coverage in the UK at the moment.

It's coming up in news feeds.

If I lived in those areas, with modern technology, I'd have rigged up a live webcam so that if I had to evacuate I could watch live, online, to see/check if my house had burnt or not.... I'd rather know and prepare than wait and drive back before I knew.

Nice little business opportunity there probably....

fc123

lostinrates wrote: »

Oh god how awful. . I hate hi vis ing up but its too stupid not too. I'm actually thinking of getting a synthetic bridle next time in hi viz for road work to save time and effort:o.

We're also trying to decide what to do for other measures ATM, I'd like people to put dog tags with contact details on bridles ( in case of separation, and on base of hi vis so any attending medic can see). We thought about getting ( bright) saddle cloths printed with address but everybody uses something different and not always compatible.


Not sure this link will work

https://www.facebook.com/BeVisible.SaveYourTail?ref=ts&fref=ts. I want these.

Edit....this link should work...http://tail-lights.com/

Not sure what's happen with the 'polite' hi vis things. By fa the best, and were endorsed by some local police forces then others were trying to ban them last year.....one client has them and the impact on cars when our with her is incredible. I was convinced,
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Equisafety-Polite-Adjustable-Waistcoat-EN1150/dp/B004ZKBAGO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381997586&sr=8-1&keywords=equisafety+polite

wow!

Spirit wrote: »

A farm near W has recently sold land to build the drs surgery on, and a small housing development. The farm shop has a new tea room and they also provide the venue for the W festival.

I posted last night that DD had agreed a new horse share. Text this morning that her friend she hacks out with was hit by a car on our road yesterday evening, her friend is in hospital and the horse had a broken back and was destroyed.:(

Friend is a woman in her 40's almost certainly in high vis to the max. Grrr

How awful.

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've not been on a horse - I'd like to go on a beach.... just along the surf's edge.... not daft like that silly girl that lost her pony as she took it in too deep and it started swimming.

They can't turn, so the pony had to keep swimming until it died.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-23431300

..that's so sad.

PasturesNew

Couple on telly, Britain's Empty Homes, renovated a house in London. Show said "with a shortage of affordable property in the capital, they decided to renovate an older building". He is a specialist in energy efficiency.

How much did this "affordable" property they were lucky enough to find and do up??? I missed the start/price they paid, but it won't have been cheap.

"Anybody can do this...." can spend 10% extra on eco uplift.

Spent: £100k on the renovation work

Yeah - shows where anybody with enough money can do things.....

I live in a world where an affordable property costs £100k in total, ready to move into .... not the doing up budget!

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

It's coming up in news feeds.

If I lived in those areas, with modern technology, I'd have rigged up a live webcam so that if I had to evacuate I could watch live, online, to see/check if my house had burnt or not.... I'd rather know and prepare than wait and drive back before I knew.

Nice little business opportunity there probably....

Building fire shelters is a good business I reckon. Hole in the ground with a decent steel lid. They're crazy place to be as the metal 'door' gets red hot.

This is a really interesting piece of advice on staying to protect your property:

www.dfes.wa.gov.au/safetyinformation/fire/bushfire/pages/preparebeforetheseason.aspx

For a start you need to have ready access to 20,000 litres of water (about 5,000 gallons) - that's a great excuse to have a swimming pool in the back yard! Then you need a generator and a pump that are protected from the fire and that can deliver 100l/minute of water.

The firemen tell you whether your house has been burned down or not before they reopen the area. Towns after the fires have been through are an amazing sight. You'll have a row of houses burned to the ground and the one untouched at the end: not even a scorch mark.

Generali

zagubov wrote: »

Short Space travel vid from 45 years ago that might appeal to gen. :beer:

My God, it's full of stars......

neverdespairgirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

Should have discrete little badges made up .....

When OH and I were eating our dinners before Call to the Bar, we had one evening when the American Bar Association, having its annual bean-feast in London for a change, was entertained at Middle Temple. In return for assisting with the entertaining, we got a free dinner.

The members of Middle Temple were given badges about the size of a matchbox, with "Miss J Smith" for women, and "J Smith" for men. Terribly discrete.

The Americans were wearing badges the size of a dinner plate, which said, "COMMON LAW.... COMMON BOND!" in huge letters, and underneath, "Hi, I'm JANE!"

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've said before - you and your car might be able to drive at that speed, but you never know what's round a blind corner; could be walkers, horses or a broken down tank, or even a combine harvester the full width of the road.

Yup - or sheep, deer, ducks, anything, really.

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've not been on a horse - I'd like to go on a beach.... just along the surf's edge.... not daft like that silly girl that lost her pony as she took it in too deep and it started swimming.

In the winter, my sisters sometimes take their horses down to Camber Sands. But they stick to the beach, they don't actually go into the sea, I think.

Generali wrote: »

On a day like today, burning embers can travel 6km (4 miles) easily and start new fires. All the firies can do is try to defend property and keep themselves as safe as they can. The wind changed direction in late afternoon which is when it gets really dangerous for the firemen so I hope they're all ok. They're a brave bunch of blokes.

That sounds absolutely terrifying, Gen. Are the baby gens OK? Not scared by it?

neverdespairgirl

I had fun on my way back from court. Feeling a tiny bit dizzy, I got the bus, instead of walking (it's only about a mile). Half-way, I had to get off in a hurry, because I knew I was about to be sick. Two charming elderly ladies at the bus stop decided to comment, loudly, how appalling it was to be drunk so early in the day!

If I said what I really thought of them, MSE would ***** it out. I contented myself with telling them that assuming I was drunk said more about them than it did about me.

Generali

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

That sounds absolutely terrifying, Gen. Are the baby gens OK? Not scared by it?

You get used to it and for them it's just normal.

They've barely touched me really. I think I might have put off a vague plan to take the Generalissimos to the mountains due to fire and we can't use the BBQ on total fire ban days. Sometimes you see a big plume of smoke from the highway.

When we lived with the in-laws you could smell the smoke from the fires in the mountains which was a bit off-putting as that was around the time of Black Saturday. We also used to get charred leaves landing on the yard which brought home how close the fires were. There was never any imminent danger though beyond a fire ban.

A good mate has a house in a place called Spencer that backs on to bush land. They'll get a burn up there at some point. He's pretty sensible and good at keeping the gutters clear and cleaning away scrub and fallen branches.

We're seriously considering a move to a bush town south of Sydney, in fact I'm going to look at a house on Saturday. Living there, bush fires would be something to be taken a lot more seriously. As much as anything, there's only one road in and out of the town we're looking at so you need to make an early decision whether to stay or go.

That decision sounds easy but if you go then there's fewer hands to defend the town and whether you're there or not people will try to defend your house, even as theirs burns.