It's a great life on the buses.

Remember that comedy show On the Buses, Reg Varney, Olive, and Blakey. What a laugh that was. Today I went to Sandtoft, the Trolley Bus Museum. Not many visitors today, it started off bright but the wind came and then it started raining. I left just after 2pm. These are the dates for 25 - 26, 

• 19 October 2025, 10:30 am: Isle of Axholme Running Day
• 1 November 2025, 11:30 am: Twilight Open Day
• 4 April 2026, 10:30 am: 1940s Weekend
• 5 April 2026, 10:30 am: 1940s Weekend
• 6 April 2026, 10:30 am: Open Day
• 7 April 2026, 10:30 am: Weekday Opening

Look at this beautiful bus. Inside it looks like an aircraft. Posh seats with steps up to a higher level at the back. I wonder if that's because of the bank of batteries underneath the seats. 

I didn't take any more photo's of buses, I have enough. Here are some photo's from August. 

A few custom cars were in attendance. This is a German trike. 

I have seen this man before. He was at Winterton Show in July. This was his trike then. He likes his toys. 

And now he has a red one. He will be getting a red trailer for it. This is his seventh trike. I think he is hooked on them. 

This is a cute little campervan. The owner was brewing a mug of tea, the kettle was boiling. The van is in pristine condition. 

If you are going to drive a Ford, make it a big one. 

I've been in this little house before. There are four rooms. I could happily live in it. More pictures of this in a previous post. 

It was getting chilly so I went in the cinema. 

Interesting memorabilia on display.

Remember the juke boxes? Putting your coin in the slot and choosing your favourite records. 

The old fashioned telephone exchange. 

I am not sure what this is, put a coin in the slot. 

And then I sat in the warm to watch some old bus films. The operator asked me what area I would like to see. I said Derby because I often used to ride the bus from Burton to Derby. Some of the Derby City Centre pictures I recognised. 

Smashing. Brought back some wonderful memories. 

When I came out the rain was starting and people were drifting away. I went to my friends house, she lives about a mile away. I mentioned her before, we were truckers at the same time, she joined The Lady Truckers Club. She was in so we had a catch up chat over a cuppa. We put the world to rights. We are basically on the same wave length.  

That's it for now. I need to eat. Thanks for popping in. Toodle pip.   ilona

Your carbon allowance.

 It's starting,food is being labelled with your daily carbon allowance information, just a few weeks after Digital ID was announced. Because everything will be linked to your Digital ID, including your carbon allowance. What happens at your allowance limit for the day/week/month?

Common sense tip - Make your own sandwiches at home. 😁😝😵

Toodle pip.   ilona

Toe the line, or else!

Good morning. A lot of Christmassy type events are planned for next weekend. it's going to be difficult to choose which one to visit. I have four marked on my calendar, within easy travelling distance from my home. A local Spooks event at the Park. An Artisan event at the Millennium Gallery Sheffield. Christmas Fair at Victoria Hall Saltaire. And this one at Newark Showground. There must be hundreds more dotted all around the country. All looking for their share of visitors. 

Notts Festive Gift & Food Show is at Newark Showground.

ARRIVAL TIME SLOTS RUNNING LOW

East Midlands BIGGEST Christmas Fair is back at the Newark Showground.

Our best arrival time slots are starting to run low, so don't miss out on guaranteed entry to the two-day festive shopping extravaganza

What to Expect:

Almost TWO HUNDRED exhibitors selling everything you need for the festive season

Gates open 10am - 4pm

Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th October

Newark Showground, NG24 2NY

FREE parking for all visitors

Book tickets online:

*Exclusive access from 9.30am is for Premium/Premium Plus ticket holders only. Standard entry is from 10am.

Arrival Time Slots filling up FAST

SAT 25TH – SUN 26TH OCTOBER 2025

Tickets for the Notts Festive Gift & Food Show 2025 are selling fast! 

Book early before the best arrival time slots are gone. Premium tickets running low! 

 Buy your tickets now

The reason I put this here is to highlight Their push for early bookings. It's indoors and outdoors, at a Showground. Plenty of car parking. Who decides what the best arrival time is? Best for them, or best for you? Don't miss out on guaranteed entry! So if you arrive at the wrong time you might not get in! That's a threat. It's fear porn, a sales pitch. If you don't toe the line we might not let you come in. BUY YOUR TICKET NOW

If you want to go, you decide what time you want to arrive. Use your common sense to avoid the busy times. Go with cash and pay at the gate. Take a picnic so you don't have to queue at the food vendors. Although there is good access to the showground the roads will be busy during certain times. Go early or go late. 

Thanks for popping in. Enjoy your Sunday. Toodle pip.   ilona

Colourful

How are you diddlin. That means the same as how are you doing. Did you have a good Saturday. The weather here has been miserable. Grey and overcast with no sign of a sun. 

I made a phone call with the new phone, that's after I found out to unlock it. The little instruction book that comes with it is useless, unless you want to learn any of the other 25 languages it is written in. Someone told me that when you get a new phone you have to play around with it to find out how it works. I might have to look at the web site for instructions. 

Progress report on the new artwork. I need to make a lot more of these spirals because I want it to be amazing. 

This afternoon I did a village walk and took my litter picking stick with me. I filled my bag three times and emptied it in the big litter bins. 

There was a rally today in London. This is important. If this digital ID thing goes through we are all stuffed. 

 Thanks for popping in. Enjoy your Sunday. Toodle pip.  ilona

Learning starts at birth

I was going to write a post about the current situation, until I saw this. 

I have never had a child, never wanted to be a mother, but I can see how very precious children are. 

This video sends out a clear message. 

Teach your child the skills you yourself already have. Whatever those life skills happen to be. Creativity has no boundaries. 

Have a wonderful Saturday. Toodle pip.   ilona

Out and about today.

Good evening. Another letter arrived from the TV Licensing Company today. I have got quite a collection now. Once again they are asking if I am watching the telly and if so, I need to get a licence. They say I must contact them before the end of October. I have phoned them before, and all you get is an automated recorded message, press 1 for this, and 2 for that, etc. I can't be bothered any more. 

I've been out and about today. Go to the Post Office and pay my Severn Trent water bill. £28.04. This is for surface water and highway drainage, for half a year. There will be another bill coming from Anglian Water who supplies the clean water. Again for half a year. It will be slightly more than this one. 

Then off I went to the phone shop in the big Tesco. They tell me 3g will soon be turned off, so I need a new phone which will receive 4g. The young man in there was ever so helpful.There were two cheap phones to choose from. I paid £32, which I thought was ok. It's got a few more features than my Nokia, but I shall ever only use it for calls and texts. He transferred all my numbers over to the new phone, and the price included a free £10 top up. So goodbye Nokia, you have served me well over a lot of years. 

I thought I might do a bit of shopping while I was there. I never go in Tesco now I don't need the yellow stickers. It was flippin freezing in there. The store is far too big, full of crap you don't need. The non food section is massive. I almost had a panic attack, let me out of here. I quickly grabbed some sliced chicken for the cats and I was gone. Not hanging around. 

Next I went to the Retail Park. The Range to get the cat food. Then Home Bargains for some more cat food and a few other things. 

I've just put the central heating on for an hour. Feeling a bit chilly. One hedgehog on the garden tonight, so far. It's a young one who prefers wet cat food. 

Thanks for popping in. Have a good weekend. Toodle pip.   ilona

For future reference

Aye up, I am half way through watching this, and will finish it later. Whitney Webb is a force to be reckoned with. She has a brain much sharper than any computer.  It's long, 1 hour 37 minutes so I will break it up into bitesize chunks. 

If you read the blurb underneath It lists key segments that you can choose from. You can also fast forward to the parts which interest you. 

0:00:01 – Introduction & The Great Reset, WEF, and Digital ID 0:10:54 – What is Digital ID? Surveillance, Predictive Policing, and Civil Liberties 0:17:06 – Digital Currency, Tokenization, and Public-Private Partnerships 0:25:29 – AI in Government, Perception Management, and the Post-Human Future 0:32:09 – Building Local Resilience, Analog Alternatives, and Parenting in a Digital Age 0:44:47 – Global Governance, Think Tanks, and Policy Synchronization 0:52:24 – Operation Gladio, Pre-Crime, and Predictive Policing in the US 0:59:33 – Palantir, Surveillance, and Intelligence Agency Ties 1:17:05 – The AI Arms Race: US vs. China and Societal Implications 1:23:02 – Jeffrey Epstein, Black Book, and Financial Networks 1:27:08 – Conspiracies, Critical Thinking, and Information Warfare 1:33:44 – Concerns for the Future: Children, Technology, and Virtualization

If you don't want to watch it that's fine. Maybe store it and dig it out a year later to see if she was right. And if history is anything to go by, her predictions are usually right. 

Thanks for popping in. Toodle pip.   ilona

Start the day with porridge, then go for a walk

Good evening. 

I recorded a short video this morning about what I put in my porridge . I mix it up in the Kenwood and store it in a plastic airtight tub. 

If you want to know what I put in it, all is explained in the video. 

Porridge is a healthy way to start the day. Today I added frozen strawberries and blueberries, and half a banana. 

I decided to get the earlier bus to town, and walk home. Mickey went straight back to bed after his breakfast and he was still there when I arrived back. He is doing really well for his 19 years. Since the vet visit a couple of months ago his appetite is back to normal. He is eating more food than ever now, and his coat is looking glossy. He did have some big clumps of fur on his back but they have gone now. Gradually I carefully trimmed bits off them. He is such a loving cat, and has settled in nicely with Oscar, though Mayze doesn't like either of the boys. 

I got the 11.30 bus to town. It was my lucky day, I found a £1 coin on the ground, so I put it towards the cost of a Magnum ice cream at the Arts Centre. 

On the way back I walked through the Industrial Estate for a change. There was litter everywhere, what a disgusting mess. I came across these two lorries, they had just unloaded at a factory. The project manager, Noah, was onsite so I had a chat with him. Colletts are the bees knees where heavy haulage is concerned. Take a look at the video on their web site. How to move a 145 ton load. 

My walk back took me through the turf fields again. I saw this strange contraption go in a dead straight line across the middle of two fields. When it got to the end it turned round and went back. I know you can get robots to mow the lawn but I don't think this was cutting the grass. They usually use tractors to do that job. Very strange. 

When I got back I took Billy for a walk. I couldn't let him down could I. He loves his walks. 

Now I have to stop typing to make room for Mayze who is waiting for a cuddle. 

Thanks for popping in. Toodle pip.   ilona

I remember it well

I've been looking at some old photo's from my trucking years. Three years in particular when I was at Leicester Heavy Haulage. Good memories of a job that I loved. 

Intercity rail carriages. Eight of these were coming into Felixstowe Docks from Italy, every two months. We had eight wagons down there, with trailers stretched to 60 feet. They were craned straight out of the boat and onto the trailers. Easy to fasten down because they had blocks of wood at each end. Two chains, front and back. There was a 10 feet overhang at the back. Overall length 95 feet. The police escorted us out of the docks, then let us go, and West Midlands police met us when we came off the motorway and escorted us to Metro Camel at Birmingham. 

Railway sleepers complete with tracks. I picked these up from Leicestershire and took them to a small railway somewhere in Dorset. Trailer stretched out to 60 feet. This load was overweight because there wasn't any weighing facilities onsite. The next time a similar load was picked up they loaded it to three high. 

Sometimes we didn't need a trailer because the load came with it's own wheels. We just hitched up to it and pulled it out of a quarry. This was heavy and low to the ground, with only one axle at the back. I had to go over a hump back bridge to get out of the quarry. There was a danger of it being grounded. Luckily I had some timbers with me. I ran one side up onto the pavement, and lay the timbers down on the other side to lift it. The bottom just cleared the bridge by a few inches. My vehicle was plated to 75 tonnes on special types. 

 

Another piece of machinery picked up from a quarry. The problem of getting out of a quarry with a heavy load like that is loss of traction on the drive wheels. Some of the units had a lift axle which helped. Sometimes a digger machine had to be summoned to attach a chain to the front of the cab and help pull it up a slippery slope. 

The biggest load I did, 20 feet high and 17 feet wide. Six of us pulled these out from a factory at Snetterton in Norfolk, and took them to Trafford Park in Manchester to a sugar refinery. It took six days with police escorts all the way. A lot of it was done at walking pace. British Telecom came as well to put up the telephone wires we pulled down. 

I can't remember where I picked this up or where I delivered it to. Loaded on a step frame trailer, chained back and front. 

This was a very dodgy load to carry. All the weight is at the top. I had to virtually stop at every junction and roundabout to turn a corner. It was a slow journey as I remember. 

Here I had a low loader trailer to pick up this all-wheel drive tipper demonstrator. With a low loader you can split the neck from the bed, drop it down to the ground, and drive on the vehicle you are picking up. Careful not to slip off the side, the two are exactly the same width. Ratchet straps around the wheels are enough to secure the load. 

And at the end of a days work, and you have a big load, you don't get to choose where you park up. The police drop you off, and send someone from the morning shift to come and pick you up. 

Best thing I ever did was to spend £250 on ten days training to get an HGV licence. It gave me 32 years of work. 

Thanks for popping in. Toodle pip.   ilona