Broithe

People tend to like competition when they are winning, but not when they are not - then, being better or cheaper is seen as cheating. Where I worked, we had a cartoonist who would often sum up the reality of these sunset economies. One of his classics, in the late 1970s, was "The GEC Digital Watch". This was a chap walking along, struggling to hold up a pallet with an array of 100 watt bulbs on it, whilst dragging a trolley carrying a stack of car batteries and a grandfather clock with wires running from the dial to the pallet display. Later, after a ludicrous failed attempt to get into mobile phones, starting a decade too late and expecting to do it for almost zero expenditure, there was a similar one with the chap driving a fork truck with a phone box on the forks and a trolley of car batteries trailing behind, and an aerial being held aloft by a kite. These were emblematic of the attitude - everybody else should stay in their rightful place and not cheat by doing things better and/or cheaper. Lots of other UK industries were run by the same sort of deluded management - cars, motorbikes, aircraft, shipbuilding, electronics, etc. - they all stopped going forwards and expected the rest of the world to stop, too. I am constantly reminded by the fact that I drive a Korean car - I am old enough to remember when, if told that that was the future, it would have seemed as unlikely as being told, today, that you will be driving a Nigerian* car in a few year's time... * Other countries are available.

I was reminded of this post when I saw all these cattle facing the same way on Wednesday.

Portlaoise Fitzmaurice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fitzmaurice

Perfect! Waterford Doonican?

Bono? Arkle? Daniel O'Donnell? Ted Crilly?

MDF will be a bit 'quieter' than plywood.

The art of the deal....

The product remains the same price, the extra payment required for the privilege of purchasing a product from outside the country is a penalty imposed on the purchaser by their own elected government. Few suppliers are going to drop their income sufficiently to subsidise a foreign customer to shield them from their own government's tax rises.

Just sit back and wait for the usual suspects to do it. There'll be plenty mortar come yet.

We all knew this was coming - bang on course!

https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/news/freight-wagon-contract?

I was reminded of this picture that I took many years ago, it remains a favourite. Not actually along the railway, but from the bank of the Manifold, after the routes diverge southwards. A rabbit's eye view... If you do have a possibility of venturing up there on a decent day, then it is a pleasant area. The paths are really quite good and the farm community generally realise that making things reasonable for walkers greatly reduces that wandering about that happens in the more obstructed regions, and is then used to justify the obstruction, ad infinitum. I did the Staffordshire Way once and it turned into an Escape and Evasion exercise. I got talking to a bloke at a blood donation session - he turned out to be employed to negotiate with the more difficult farmers, who were not in short supply. He had been on a course that day - at the Police headquarters - it was essentially on how to deal with people threatening you with a firearm...

My usual practice is to park at Weag's Bridge. You are fairly central by doing that and it is the least popular parking along the line, as well as the most spacious. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.0851664,-1.8526989,241m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDQzMC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D These are walks that I replicated this time. https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1pSxyPvk8K2a9O1zxTlGkjnaz1y_PIB0&usp=sharing https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1W-CfOYU3OXNzIBEjpN0So7BQjLoXigo&usp=sharing There is plenty to see there, including the disappearing/reappearing river phenomenon.

Crikey! I have a few books on it - I must check them out - the time of not returning here again is approaching I fear, and hope... I have walked almost every field around the Manifold and Hamps rivers - a much pleasanter area than the nearby, but much more popular Dovedale, in my estimation.

Currently on the Big Island, I made an attempt to replicate some walks around the Manifold Valley, that I used to frequent over many years. For logistical reasons, and despite my better judgement, I made an attempt to retrace a route from the past last Saturday. This resulted in me giving up, as a result of the standard of 'weekend people' that I could no longer endure. I made a second and much more successful, attempt on Thursday - around 10 - 15% of the number of people and no idiots, who seemed to be half the people on the Saturday attempt. The railway ran from Waterhouses to Hulme End. I did the northern half, some of which is open to motor traffic, including the tunnel - be extremely careful with that on a nonworking day - in the week it's not a real problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leek_and_Manifold_Valley_Light_Railway At the terminus at Hulme End, the buildings largely survive and have been repurposed sympathetically - the engine shed is a decent café, handy, as I forgot my food... Thor's Cave Station, looking up at the cave itself. the foundations of the wooden structure still visible. And looking down from above the cave. Swainsley Tunnel - open to motor traffic, but with refuges, if necessary. Ecton Station, for the mine. And Hulme End terminus itself. The food replacement from the café. A few token sleepers remain. In the old station building is a nice, but hard to photograph, model, illustrating the old days very well. It's a nice walk on a nice day, with nice people. but there are behaviour issues, especially at the weekend, and seriously then, with motorist behaviour in the 'technically shared' tunnel. From Hulme End, I came back via a parallel route through the hills, last done forty years ago - despite fearing I was wrong a few times, I did follow it exactly. Some nice, non-railway, bits along there. Etc.... Many years ago, I started trying to recreate the current view against those past photographs from books about the railway, whilst it was still running, before WW2. I did get about halfway through that project and I might find the pictures during my current domestic archaeology process in the 'forty years of stuff' in my house there...