I would just like to say

My favourite Wind-Sculpture has snapped in half overnight (rotted through).
But remembering I had some leftover 22mm rebar at the bottom of the garden I have remade it into something a lot sturdier and less likely to rot through.
Picture to follow when the paint has dried and I can resurrect it.

My Old Landy said:

I went to a comprehensive school. It was rough and the pupils and teachers were all hard. If you didn't get caned then you were a swat and got beaten up. I hated school and all teachers. I do have a skewed view of the teaching profession. It made me who I am though, I got all my qualifications after school through night school and college courses etc. If it would do any good and they were still alive, I would have some of them sent down! Those who advocate corporal punishment obviously didn't get the beatings we did.

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Sort of the same here. Got moved from one All Grammar school to a mixed/merged Grammar/Secondary Modern school partway through the 3rd year. DISASTER!! All friendships had already been made and I was an outsider.

From Mortar-Boards and capes to tweed jackets and polo-neck shirts (the teachers).

School was plagued with Skin-head gang culture.

Like a flaming Zoo! Hated it, got bullied a bit so started working to put on muscle. Took on the a-holes when I needed to and they then left me alone. Awful place Fryerns in Basildon.

DanClarke said:

For my mate @Hippo because he needs some training. ;-)

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Thas brilliant. Internet ses yer can keep live meal wurms in yer fridge and feed em. Will last a few weeks. When eye tried before it were with deadded meal wurms.

My Old Landy said:

I went to a comprehensive school. It was rough and the pupils and teachers were all hard. If you didn't get caned then you were a swat and got beaten up. I hated school and all teachers. I do have a skewed view of the teaching profession. It made me who I am though, I got all my qualifications after school through night school and college courses etc. If it would do any good and they were still alive, I would have some of them sent down! Those who advocate corporal punishment obviously didn't get the beatings we did.

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It was a different world then. Bullying in a boarding school is the worst you can get as no one can run home to mummy at the end of the day. We all went through it. Some poor sods left, as they couldn't take it. So the physical assaults were all boy on boy. Apart from this PE teacher. It tended to be the lads in the year above who carried it out, so you banded together. Or it was lads from different houses.
I too took 4 years of work and evening classes before I could go to uni.
And your story surprises me a little cos I know you are a bit younger than me.
Comps in leafy suburbs are fine, but inner city ones are and were tougher.
Swats are now called "boffs" and still get the treatment!

Stanleysteamer said:

It was a different world then. Bullying in a boarding school is the worst you can get as no one can run home to mummy at the end of the day. We all went through it. Some poor sods left, as they couldn't take it. So the physical assaults were all boy on boy. Apart from this PE teacher. It tended to be the lads in the year above who carried it out, so you banded together. Or it was lads from different houses.
I too took 4 years of work and evening classes before I could go to uni.
And your story surprises me a little cos I know you are a bit younger than me.
Comps in leafy suburbs are fine, but inner city ones are and were tougher.
Swats are now called "boffs" and still get the treatment!

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Yep I am 57 but is was still legal for teachers to beat you. Cowards the lot of them. Anyone can beat up someone half their height and weight. Sadistic bunch of tossers. It is simple to hold your own with others of your age etc but a teacher in his 30's to 40's against a 12 year old is hardly bragging rights.

Stanleysteamer said:

If you can't control 'em you can't teach 'em.
And if you try to control 'em their parents come down on you like a ton of horse manure, or worse.

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My geogreferrari teacher once controlled me by slamming me on the top of my head with a couple of dozen exercise books stacked together, multiple times. Probably damaged my brain permanently - may be why I like Fenders now?

Wimblowdriver said:

My geogreferrari teacher once controlled me by slamming me on the top of my head with a couple of dozen exercise books stacked together, multiple times. Probably damaged my brain permanently - may be why I like Fenders now?

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Sounds like you went to a similar school to me. The woodwork teacher used the 'push stick' from the circular saw to beat me around the head.

My Old Landy said:

Yep I am 57 but is was still legal for teachers to beat you. Cowards the lot of them. Anyone can beat up someone half their height and weight. Sadistic bunch of tossers. It is simple to hold your own with others of your age etc but a teacher in his 30's to 40's against a 12 year old is hardly bragging rights.

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Beating was still legal when I started teaching in 1981.
But it never happened in my school.
The closest it came was when on the odd Friday afternoon a deputy head would walk the corridors with a cane in his hand. That was enough.
But I was in France with a guy who had qualified to teach in a school in Glasgow. He said that teachers there walked around with the tawse hanging over their shoulder and he knew he'd have to beat up the toughest kid in any class in order to gain their "respect" and be able to teach them. He was dreading it. He was only about 8 stone soaking wet. But he'd been brought up in the Gorbals so had his own kind of toughness.
I have never heard of any teacher bragging about beating kids.
So I am very sorry you witnessed it or had it hapen to you.
But all this does explain why i get so much stick simply for having been a teacher.
Not my fault - honest!!

Wimblowdriver said:

My geogreferrari teacher once controlled me by slamming me on the top of my head with a couple of dozen exercise books stacked together, multiple times. Probably damaged my brain permanently - may be why I like Fenders now?

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In my school, the one I went to, prep was taken by the boys in the 6th form. If a kid talked he had to stand up. If he persisted he had to "put his books up" which meant hold his hands at arm's length while the prep taker put as many books as he felt was good on top of them. The kid then had to hold them like that for as long as the preptaker saw fit.
I never needed to do that.
But I did once tell a kid to stand up, looked up after and said "Oi I told you to stand up!"
He then stood away from behind his chair, he was such a short-ass he was no taller standing than sitting!
Dai Herbert, born on the 1st of March. No wonder he was thus named!! (We had tons of Welsh kids in that school!)

Nearly all my teachers were good, still use stuff I was taught today. Only the one real bully, the one wot whacked me over the head. Knocked me senseless. I imagine he had a tiny knob -----

'Tis a sad day at Wimblowdriver Towers. Just sold my best mobike. We have been together for 16 years. Still, its gone to a good home. Nice wedge in me back pocket and a bit of space in the garage to work on my two remaining mobikes.

...that here is the resurrected wind-sculpture.

The blurring is because it is moving as it should.

DanClarke said:

...that here is the resurrected wind-sculpture.

The blurring is because it is moving as it should.

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Nice! All fixed

DanClarke said:

...that here is the resurrected wind-sculpture.

The blurring is because it is moving as it should.

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Very nice!

Just weeded around the pool. Took 2 hours as opposed to the two weeks it took last year. (Dodgy back dint help!)
The jointing sand has not been an unqualified success and where the weeds grew doesn't seem to bear much relation to where the JS worked.

But the bleach seems to have done a fairly good job.
I will Percy Vear!
Gone very grey and humid, sound of thunder in the distance.
Still have to go and clear up as W shouted me in cos the "dogs were driving her mad". They is now fed and I am consuming beer before heading out to clear tools away, water the veg, check on the hens and take the eggs before cooking Pork Stroganoff.. Yum yum!!
Enjoy the evening folks!!

@kevstar this is not to gainsay the jointing sand. Had I been able to use it when the slabs went down it would have been consistent and good. But it does have limits on the gaps it can work with and where the lads put the slabs down too close together it was very difficult to give it a chance.

Took the Mitzy out for a test drive and everything works as it should with no leaks
It is ready for tomorrow which is why they worked on it and not the 90

My Old Landy said:

Took the Mitzy out for a test drive and everything works as it should with no leaks
It is ready for tomorrow which is why they worked on it and not the 90

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Great news!

Yer can buy a microwave fishermans pie from sainsburys. They taste nice. Last week eye bort the salmon one. Never again. Eye has come to the conclusion eye dun't like salmon. It weren't that strong but eye can still taste if. Me fish cakes un chips has just finished in me air fryer. That should sort it.

Edgar has just shouted "rain". Eye looked oot and we is brewing up ferra storm. Wevva app shows lightening going over and we is on the edge of rain clouds.