Bad Tidings Of No Joy ...

 ... But First Some Answers to Quiz Time Number 1

1. The symbol for a roundabout is wrong. 

It should be a cicle of arrows.

2. As the junction in the full picture confirmed ...

... the symbol on the sign should be a cross (x) for crossroads.

3. It is a one way street ...

... with no admittance. So there should not be a bus stop. In the 1930s contraflow bus lanes had not been invented!

4. Another error round about roundabouts!

Traffic should gyrate in a clockwise direction.

5. The sign is for road narrows ...

... and it doesn't! Or maybe fbb has missed something else.

6. The side road is marked  NO ENTRY  ...

... but the dark coloured car has passed the sign.

7. On rhe "school" sign (the "torch of education") ...

... the red triangle is upside down.

8. This one strained the memory ...

... but some urban traffic lights were partially controlled by switches under rubber "mats" set in the road surface. The "mat" above is after the junction, so not much use!

9. The large sign would be at the top of a steep downhill section ...

...  not at the bottom for uphill traffic!

10. A correct crossroads sign ...

... but with the circle plus triangle topper from a "Halt, major road ahead" sign.

Bonus : It is amazing how stupid the elderly can be; fbb looked at this one for ages and could find nothing.

... but in the 1930s (and today!) traffic lights went ted, amber, green from the top to the bottom.

Big Bother At Baslow?

The tale begins just over a year ago when, in a move that shocked bus watchers, Alf Crofts (owner of Hulleys) took over GoCoach of Sevenoaks. Here are some extracts from the fbb blog at the time.

The boss of GoCoach stayed on as fleer manager of both companies which remained separate entities.

As 2024 began to come to a close, things did not look right at Hulleys. Here is a report from the Derbyshire Times of 17th December.

As late as 27th December notes were appearing every day on social media.

The rumour was that the difficulties were caused by a shortage of buses.

At the same time rumours were circulating amongst bus watchers in Sheffield that several vehicles in the fleet (or TWO vehicles or ONE vehicle, rumours vary as usual) had been repossessed by the Lessor as lease fees remained unpaid.

Rumours are never 100% reliable.

The conclusion reached was that Hulleys was in a bit of financial bother.

Then employees of GoCoach received this letter. 

It cannot be easily read on-screen as it is a picture not a PDF.

In essence, it reports that cash had been leeched away from GoCoach to fund Hulleys and the directors of GoCoach had regained control of their company.

Austin Blackburn would revert to his position as boss of GoCoach and sever the links with Hulleys.

The letter also apologised for the fact that there would be no Christmas Bonus for GoCoach employees this year because of the "problems".

So it does rather look like bad tidings of no joy for the Baslow operation.

It is known that Stagecoach wanted to buy Hulleys when Alf Crofts did his deal, so might we see Stagecoach buses trundling along the leafy lanes of Derbyshire later in the new year?

Hmmm?

==================

"NOT the Advent Calendar", but ...

     The      

  CHRIST -mas 

  Criss-muss  

   Confusion  

 Critique  29 

Always Missing From the Christmas Story

But it should be there!

As well as Anna, the aged prophetess, this man was lurking in the Temple when Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the ceremony of "Purification"

There he is with the bushy beard.

At that time there was a man named Simeon living in Jerusalem. He was a good, God-fearing man and was waiting for Israel to be saved. The Holy Spirit was with him and had assured him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's promised Messiah. Led by the Spirit, Simeon went into the Temple. When the parents brought the child Jesus into the Temple to do for him what the Law required, Simeon took the child ...

If that happened today, the police would be called!

But Simeon, convinced that this particular child was the one, had important things to say.

And they were very disturbing things for Joseph and Mary 

They were not pretty at all

To be concluded.

Please note : due to incompetence, the Advent non-Calendat started late. It will conclude on Twelfth Night, the official end of Christmas.

=========================

 Tales of a Tunnel blog : Mon 30th Dec 

It's Quiz Time - Number 3

 (Holiday mini-blog)

Transport Picture Puzzles

"Find The Fault"

Some of these are a bit obscure because legislation has changed since the 1930s! Some have stumped fbb completely like No 1!

  1 

 2 

 3 

 4 

 5 

 6 

 7 

Remember when bus fares were available at 3d?

 8 

 9 

 10 

 bonus 

For some, transport on skates is necessary.

==================

"NOT the Advent Calendar", but ...

     The      

  CHRIST -mas 

  Criss-muss  

   Confusion  

 Critique  28 

Always Missing From the Christmas Story

But it should be there!

She was incredibly old for the day 84! And she watched silently as just another baby came to the Temple for the ritual of "purification". Maybe she watched many such as the days passed by.

Gospel writer Luke had done his research and found out a bit about her.

There was a very old prophet, a widow named Anna, daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She had been married for only seven years and was now eighty-four years old. She never left the Temple; day and night she worshiped God, fasting and praying. 

Many people now, and way back then, would have tried to ignore her, as a rather sad old widow who had some strange ideas.

But she knew ...

That very same hour as Mary, Joseph and the baby, she arrived and gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were waiting for God to set Jerusalem free.

She knew that the child was much more than any "ordinary" child! But how did she know?

And he knew even more!

To be continued.

=========================

 Bad Tidings No Joy blog : Sun 29th Dec 

It's Quiz Time - Number 2

But First, An Investigation

Two of yesterday's "road sign" puzzle involved roundabouts. When the "Find The Fault" games were produced, these traffic management devices were very new.

In an outbreak of seasonal seredipitousness, this picture popped up in Pinterest on fbb's laptop.

Ir is of the very first roundabout installed in Southampton in 1938. So fbb decided to take a virtual look round about the roundabout to see if anything was recogniseable today. The location was "Six Dials", just off the city centre.

The project did not look at all hopeful based on the "today" picture which accompanied the 1938 version.

And that's because eveything has changed so much that the "new" is not where the "old" once was.

Open Street Map provides a plan of how things are today with a very different Six Dials junction shown top right on the above map extract. Southamptonians will be familiar with the parks, but fbb wants to take you closer to the upper right of the above map.

The new junction is off the top of the enlargement, the main A33 is to the left with the railway to Southampton station crossing from right to left; and off to the left you would find the platforms after a short tunnel. 

From Northam Road (once the main drag!) a white road runs southwards. That is St Marys Street,

The 1938 picture is looking across Northam Road and southwards down St Marys Street.

An the same view can be created today, approximately.

The 1938 building on the left has gone, but the former pub on the right can be identified behind the railings on the today shot. The small door between the ground floor windows is a big clue.

The low building to the left and behind the white car is the same.

Between the two is the railway line.

And there is no roundabout and the participating roads concerned have been either replaced or obliterated.

Once again, the site of the former roundabout is shown in enlarged form.

And Today's Picture Puzzles ...

... are of a very general nature as befits the Crissmuss recovery season! The challenge is to "find the fault'.

  1 

 2 

 3 

 4 

 5 

 6 

 7 

 8 

 9 

 10 

 bonus 

And a really silly one which took fbb absolutely ages to figure out! But then he is old and a bit slow-witted.

Answers soon ; tomorrow's selection will be transport related.

==================

"NOT the Advent Calendar", but ...

     The      

  CHRIST -mas 

  Criss-muss  

   Confusion  

 Critique  27 

Always Missing From the Christmas Story

But it should be there!

It should be there for two reasons. Firstly the narrative sits between the Nativity and the visit of the "Wise Men", a k a Magi, a k a Zoroastrian Astronomers, a k a Zoroastrian Astrologers but very much NOT k a Kings.

Secondly, it emphasises the real purpose of Christmas.

Luke's Gospel records the bit everyone (except your blogging author, if course) hardly knows or remembers, which happened about a week after the birth.

But surely it must be part of Christmas. Here is the opening of Luke's account:-

Jesus Is Presented in the Temple

The time came for Joseph and Mary to perform the ceremony of purification, as the Law of Moses commanded. So they took the child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord: “Every first-born male is to be dedicated to the Lord.” They also went to offer a sacrifice of a pair of doves or two young pigeons, as required by the law of the Lord.

We know from earlier in the Gospels that Joseph was "a devout man" and had to be very brave to stick with his pregnant but as yet unmarried Mary.

In the male dominated world of Bible times (don't knock it, that's the way it was and everybody accepted it!) every firstborn male child was "purified", i.e. offered to God for his protection. A sacrifice was also offered to say thank you for the safe delivery of the baby.

Very much like a Christening service today.

But weird things happened: not miraculous in activity but miraculous in their significance, almost weird.

Mary and Joseph were accosted by two people who were just hanging around in the Temple forecourt!

That would be through that door leading from the public colonnaded area into the temple itself!

She was incredibly old for the day - 84!

To be continued.

=========================

 Next Transport picture blog : Sat 28th Dec