Category Archives: Uncategorized

Librivox is still ace

I’m enormously chuffed that my reading of The Invisible Man is on the list published today of Librivox Readers’ Favourites.

I read it aloud to my computer nearly four years ago – horrifying thought – and it’s still popular all this time later. I know that it is, because I get a steady stream of highly flattering emails from people who have enjoyed it.

Was saying only last night how I really must find time to record something else. Many of the things I made a little list of how now been well recorded by other people, so I am open to suggestions for a summer project.

Two charming press-releases from Notts Fire and Rescue

One of my roles is as a member of the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Authority, and as part of that, I receive many of their press releases.  Lots of them are important – fire safety, don’t set fire to yourself at a barbecue this summer, we’re closing this hotel because we think it’s horribly dangerous, that sort of thing.

But this pair are just nice human interest stories, so I am bringing them to you in full.  They sort of have “… And finally…” all over them.

BUILDERS DIG UP PIECE OF FIRE SERVICE HISTORY

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service is hoping to track down a mystery firefighter who buried his own time capsule in the foundations of Bulwell Fire Station more than 60 years ago. The fire station on Cinderhill Road was built in 1944 but was replaced by Stockhill Fire Station in 1966.

Last year the building was torn down and, as work was being carried out on the foundations, builders discovered a rusted metal tin. The tin contained a National Fire Service button and a hand written note stating it had been buried on 21 September 1948 by Fireman Booth of the Nottingham City Fire Brigade.

The National Fire Service (NFS) was the single fire service created in August 1941 during the Second World War. The service was the result of the amalgamation of the wartime national Auxiliary Fire Service and the local authority fire brigades. It existed until 1948, when it was split by the Fire Services Act 1947, with fire services reverting to local authority control.

The builders who discovered Firefighter Booth’s time capsule handed it over to staff at Stockhill Fire Station but so far details about his life have remained a mystery. Community Safety Advocate Michael Ellis, who is based at Stockhill, is hopeful that more can be found out about him. “It’s such an intriguing story and it’s strange to think the tin and its contents have been buried for more than 60 years,” said Michael.

“Because the NFS was only around for such a short period of time, it’s really nice to have found this piece of history. It would be brilliant if we could find Firefighter Booth, if he is still alive, or even members of his family. It’s such an interesting time in the history of the fire service and it would be great to be able to hear stories about life as a firefighter in the 1940s.”

And the happy conclusion to the enquiry

MYSTERY FIREFIGHTER COMES FORWARD

A former firefighter has been reunited with a time capsule he buried in Bulwell Fire Station more than 60 years ago. Jim Booth, who now lives in Ratcliffe-on-Trent, buried a tin containing a National Fire Service (NFS) button and a hand-written note stating it was buried on 21 September 1948. The tin was dug up last year, when the Cinderhill Road site was torn down and, after local media interest, Jim has now been tracked down.

After serving in the Army during the Second World War, Jim started his career as a firefighter at Central Fire Station before transferring to Bulwell. The station had been built in 1944 and in 1948 Jim and a colleague had been asked to build a fireplace by the officer in charge. Said 89-year-old Jim: “We were filling in a space at the back of the fireplace with rubble and, on a whim, I just decided to put something in there. I found the tin and wanted to put a newspaper in, but didn’t have one to hand so I wrote a note on a piece of paper, put the button in and then chucked it in there. It wasn’t something I’d planned to do and I only did it on the spur of the moment. I’ve not thought about it for 60 years and I certainly didn’t expect to see it again.”

The builders who discovered the time capsule handed it over to staff at Stockhill Fire Station where it raised a great deal of interest due to the unusual NFS button. The NFS was the single fire service created in the UK in August 1941 during the Second World War. The service was the result of the amalgamation of the wartime national Auxiliary Fire Service and the local authority fire brigades. It existed until 1948, when it was split by the Fire Services Act 1947, with fire services reverting to local authority control.

Jim said he was surprised by the ‘kafuffle’ the discovery of the tin caused and his wife, Betty, said the rest of the family were more excited by it than he was. She said: “One of our sons saw it in the paper and phoned us to tell us what had happened. A couple of days later our youngest son saw the story on the television. He phoned up and said ‘mum, daddy’s famous at last!’”

Jim has kindly donated the time capsule and its contents to Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service and it will now be displayed at the Service’s museum at Mansfield Fire Station.

What I was doing last time it snowed this much

I’ve seen a number of reports that this is the worst winter in 30 years – including this from the Scotsman:

BRITAIN was in the grip of the worst winter weather for nearly 30 years last night, with widespread disruption and warnings that temperatures are expected to plummet as low as –20C by the weekend.

Up to 16in (40cm) of snow was forecast for southern England, while both rail lines and two major roads to the Highlands were among the key transport links blocked.

Supermarkets reported panic buying by shoppers hoping to stock up on comfort food and anti-freeze. Salt and cat litter were also being snapped up to clear paths.

One in ten people stayed off work yesterday because of the conditions, sparking concern from business groups that it would cost the economy £60 million.

And there were fears Britain could run short of gas after the National Grid warned major users for only the second time in 30 years to cut consumption, as demand rocketed by nearly a third

So, in honour of the occasion, I thought I’d post some photos of how I celebrated the last cold snowy snap in 1980 or 1981 (we’re not entirely sure)

Snow 1980/1

Snow 1980/1

(With thanks to my mum (pictured) for scanning a whole wodge of baby photos for my 30th birthday last year)

A decade is a long ole time, no?

With this change of decade as well as a change in year, the friends I see the new year in with both in person and on Twitter have been meditating about what they were doing in decades past and in decades future.

I can only really remember celebrating one decade before, and that was 1999. I was only one in 1979.

1989, the year I started secondary school, I have no recollection of New Year’s Eve. I would doubtless have been in bed before midnight. It might have been the year when we all went to my Grandad’s, and the parents promised to wake me when the clock struck 12. In the end, they weren’t able to, because Grandad had a drink or two and dropped off, blocking the door out of the sitting room.

1999 was a different ball game. I was a less happy person back then, and I was not in a good mood. I partied with a big bunch of people, and made a huge jug of margarita cocktails out of half of bottle of Cointreau and half of tequila, plus the juice of 15 limes. Then didn’t share it.

By midnight, we all walked into Nottingham’s Market Square to hear the Council House strike midnight, and the square was heaving. I was drunk, and unpleasant, and not really prepared to talk niceties to similarly drunk strangers. My friends got me out of there and my memories really end. New Year’s Day was spent horribly hangover sitting in a sleeping bag on a sofa with a Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon on DVD… and the decade just got better from there.

I’ve had New Year’s Eve with broadly the same group of friends since then. The parties have grown more sedate into dinner parties and murder mystery parties, and we no longer make the journey into the centre of town at all. Three years into, my partner, and now fiancé, P joined the crowd and felt much at home. This year we heated up a raclette and played boardgames and tried to keep small children and babies happy as well. Next year there will be still more children to entertain.

But the next time we change decades is a really scary prospect. One of those tiny toddlers will be in secondary school, as will my nephew. Some of us will even be worrying about turning 50.

Still, that’s a long way off. For now, let’s just celebrate the new year!

Christmas cards

Every year I pledge to myself that this year will not be the mad dash to get cards written and in the post at the very last minute. I like to use Private Eye’s comedy Christmas cards (as do at least some of my friends, leading to us exchanging pretty much the same card for the last five years, which I personally think is hilarious, not sure what they think). So I think I’ll buy them in October when they’re ready, write them out in good time, prepare a mini-newsletter, and get them to the post long before Last Posting.

Never happens.

Didn’t happen this year either. I got the last ones out to the post at 4am two days after last posting – and that includes all the Euro ones, which were covered in 5p and 2p stamps from the back of my filing cabinet in order to get them to some approximation of the right postage for a 40g Airmail letter.

Still, for posterity, here’s the “nilesletter” I included with my cards this year.

Three new jargon words

One of the things that tickles me in the round of Council committee meetings I participate in each month is the plethora of different professions I am exposed to. Although my key interests on the council are on the transport / infrastructure side of things, I have made all sorts of forays into other bits. And every part of the council has its own special languages. Some of the words they use in reporting their work to councillors make me chuckle. Here are three recent examples

1 – “Dayburn”

Dayburn is how street lighting engineers refer to streetlights being on in the day. Street lighting is one small area of the Council that most people take for granted, until the light outside your house fails, flickers or is on in the day. At this time of year, hardworking councillors are out touring the streets in the dark noting down the numbers of failed lights.

If you live in Nottingham City and a light isn’t working – use this handy web form to report it to the Council. In my experience the emails you get from the website as a result of doing that are a little difficult to understand – but it does result in the light getting fixed within a few days. Don’t rely on other people to report it for you – some lights are out for weeks just because no-one reports it.

Nottingham is about to get a massive investment in streetlighting through a very long running PFI. Every street light will be replaced. The new ones will be much more energy efficient, resulting in more light for less power. They are changing the types of bulbs for ones which produce a whiter light, rather than the sodium orange we are all used to. The columns will all have the facility to be remotely controlled and remotely monitored, which should make “dayburn” a thing of the past. And it should be possible to dim them remotely and run them at less than 100% – although that facility will be used very carefully to make sure there are no knockon effects on crime.

2 – Sparge

Sparging is a fancy engineering word for cleaning, and when I first heard this word in a meeting about the district heating scheme, it nearly made me burst out laughing straight away. The person who said it dropped it into a sentence as if was the most ordinary word in the world and it was all I could do not to butt in and say, scuse me, did you just say “sparge” ? As it was, I made a note in a corner of a piece of paper and went home to look it up.

Nottingham has the largest district heating scheme in the UK, taking waste heat and steam from the incinerator and using it to heat thousands of homes in the St Anns area, as well as a huge number of municipal buildings and centres, including the Victoria Centre, the Broadmarsh centre, the Royal Centre and the Ice Arena. Steam is also supplied directly to Bio City where it runs the autoclaves and sterilising processes, and surplus steam is used to directly generate electricity. The scheme contributes to Nottingham’s success in generating its own energy.

But it’s not without controversy. The scheme has lost a lot of money in recent years, and the very idea of waste incineration is anathema to many environmental campaigners. My somewhat pragmatic view is that since the incinerator is there already, it’s much better to make use of the steam than not to. Tearing out the scheme and proving replacement heating systems for all the thousands of users would itself be an expensive thing to do that’s not in Nottingham’s interest.

3 – Dirty MRF (pronounced Merf to rhyme with smurf)

Waste management, one of the key roles for councils – in fact, bin collection is about the only completely universal service a council offers – has plenty of its own jargon, and key amongst those are the MRFs. It’s a phrase used so often that it’s now pronounceable as a word in its own right. A MRF is a materials recycling facility. If you have the sort of recycling bin where you mix up different types of recyclables, like card, glass and tins, the contents have to be taken to a MRF to sort them out. Clean MRFs sort out pre-sorted waste, but Dirty MRFs take a wider mix of waste, including kitchen and food waste, and sort out the reusable elements.

In Nottingham, our recycling bins are taken to a plant off the Colwick Loop Road where the lorries are emptied into huge piles which are shoveled onto a conveyor belt. The waste is sorted in a mix of automatic and manual ways – tins are removed and sorted magnetically, and then a small team of people hand sort the different sorts of plastic and paper. The tins are recycled into more tins. Some of the plastics are reused – milk bottles can easily become new milk bottles – but it is harder to find further uses for some other sorts of plastic. Some plastics are even recycled as fleecey coats! The paper and cardboard is taken a plant in the Netherlands where it is recycled as heavy board – the sort of board boardgames are made of, as well as the insides of lever arch files and the like.

Ah, politicians will use any excuse to get into a costume

I went on a trip to see the MRF at Colwick a few years ago and took a lot of photos I’ve never used or uploaded. I’ll pop ’em on Flickr and return to this topic another day.