A 'bit' Carried Away

I’m known amongst my contempories as someone who loves computers, almost enough to qualify as a geek [not quite though as I’m far too old and completely the wrong sex], I’ve tinkered inside them, adding bits, cleaning bits, rearranging bits [while suitably earthed against static].

I’ve found that I talk a completely different language from most of my friends, I try not to but I can’t help it. Although I now use the proper and correct terminology [according to them] of ‘bottom bit’, ‘little green man’, ‘orange envelope’ etc.
There are times when I get glazed expressions directly after I’ve said ‘right click’, 'hover' or ‘taskbar’, even ‘desktop’ is foreign to one or two of them.

I still have to remember how three systems differ while giving ‘right click’ instructions over the phone or via Windows Live Messenger. We have thankfully, recently managed to drop Millennium Edition so I’ve deleted that from my hard drive forgotten the settings for it. But someone I know - of advanced years [by computer standards] - has jumped straight in at Windows 7, and now I’ve discovered that it’s no use saying ‘click on the little green man at the bottom right’, when explaining how to find out when her contacts are online. Windows 7 has stupidly ‘pinned’ stuff to ‘the bottom bit’ aka the taskbar [not on mine though as I've beaten it into submission and got my familiar quicklaunch back - yes I know it's a backwards step but I'm getting old, we don't like change].

Of course, all this time I've been thinking that I'm perfectly normal and it's all the others that are at odds with the world ... until now that is. Yes, I've discovered that it’s me that’s out of sync and not them, because the other day when my beautiful marquise cut champagne diamond ring was being admired I heard myself proudly announcing - somewhat breathlessly ... ‘Aren't I lucky? It's a whole MEGABYTE!’ …

Poor Sign

Alas it seems no-one wants the old GR TURNERS sign, it's just been cast aside amongst the heap of rubble. My neighbour, ahem, kindly suggested that we salvage it and turn it into a feature on my stairs wall as that is my next decorating job. I have passed through my 'turning every boring wall into a mural' stage ta very much! I suppose we could hang it in the entry - not.

What will the schoolchildren look at now all Langley Mill's industrial history has gone? I'll miss them each year pointing at our houses and saying 'workers' and 'terraced' in answer to the teacher's questions while I shout through the window 'peasants' and 'hovels' - well he shouldn't have been leaning on our car and annoying the hell out of me! ...

Done Sulking

Righto, as many of you may have guessed by now if you’ve read some of my previous posts. I’ve not actually been at home for most of the demolition of Heanor Haulage.

It's not often the grumpy old man puts his foot down with a firm hand, but himself decided that we were going to ‘the manor’ while the worst of the demolition was in progress. He was right of course, it was the sensible thing to do if you've got the option to escape, but it’s done absolutely nothing for my recently found nosiness. I’ve had to make do with keeping up with progress via Facebook, plus phone calls and texts from my neighbour - which I truly couldn’t have managed without.

My neighbour told me that all the time that demolition affected Bridge Street, there was someone watching for debris flying into the road and they stopped work to let people up and down in their cars. We noticed the latter ourselves while we were still at home when they were poking amongst the roofs, they only kept us waiting for as long as it took to move their equipment.

As work progressed it also became very obvious that the hoarding couldn’t have gone any closer to the buildings being demolished, as bricks were hitting the inside that would have come over had it been farther away from us.

I’ve noticed recently on Facebook that there’s a bit of a divide between the moaners and those in the ‘lets be realistic and get on with it’ camp. I come somewhere in the middle because I do moan [who me?] but I was always accepting of the fact that there would be huge but temporary disruption during demolition - lets face it, the buildings were close to us and very high. Safety had to be the highest consideration, not how well we could park our cars or turn them around.

So here comes my moan Asda - I am complaining because I've had to go to the seaside with all that awful fresh air and dreadful peace and quiet, now just how terrible is that?!! Can I get compensation for missing all the excitement?

My camera is working fine now it’s got a new SD card so photo’s will be taken of my new but temporary view - oooh trains! My neighbour has said that I can have copies of photo’s he’s taken during the demolition so I don’t feel I’ve missed out too much - yes I am that sad.

Oh, and joy of joys, my windows have been cleaned …

Being Lazy

I apologise to anyone visiting my blog for an update of the current happenings on the old Heanor Haulage site in Langley Mill only to find nothing new, but I'm having a few lazy days. I suggest you pop over to 'Asda Langley Mill' on Facebook where there is a fair bit of discussion and photo's of the demolition.

Normal service will be resumed - um, well, when I feel like it ...

Buildings Coming Down Now!

The metal buildings are being crunched at the bottom of the street. We've been told that the building with the 'GRTurners' sign on is to come down by the end of this week and the buildings across from us next week.

And ... I have read that we are going to get our windows cleaned twice FREE because of the huge amounts of dust we're going to be subjected to. The grumpy old man - who had cleaned his car yesterday [pointless] - would like to suggest that they clean the cars as well as the windows because ours was just as filthy again this morning. I can also - notoriously idle person that I am - live in hope that they'll offer to come in and do a bit of spring cleaning while they're at it.

What a time for my camera to pack up! I tried taking photo's this morning, all I got was 'file error' after 'file error', it's not a new problem, but definitely a more persistant one. I will try another new SD card before I go to the expense of buying a new - and obviously much more gadgety - camera ...

Asbestos Roof

Well, they've certainly been busy on the Heanor Haulage/Asda site this last week, although you can't tell by looking from this side. All that's happened here is about a third of the asbestos roof across from us has been removed.

Presumably the rest of the asbestos will come down after the bridge extension has been shut.

There are still some huge buildings to come down, some brick but most metal - plenty of scrap for someone to weigh in ...

Am I Sad Or What?

After waiting what seems like years for the demolition of the
buildings previously owned by Heanor Haulage [and several other companies]. I now find that I don't actually like to hear the distant sounds of the buildings coming down or the tinkling glass of the windows smashing.

I'm all for the idea of new projects - and of course shopping at Asda - but It's a bit sad that nearly all of Langley Mill's industrial history is now nothing more than a few memories and some dusty old photographs ...

Heanor Haulage Hoodies

For the first time since Heanor Haulage have been on the back of us [as well as the front] we saw five hooded dewdrops blatantly trespassing. Yes we've seen the odd teenager squeeze through from Queen Street recreation ground to allegedly retrieve a football, but this lot were on a mission of mischief.

First they tapped the diesel tank; presumably to see if there was anything in it, then one or two ran around poking at things, climbed into the cabs of the shunter and crane then congregated at the back of our wall where I smiled, waved and showed them my camera.

They made a hasty retreat back through the way they came. They were probably only on HH land for all of three minutes.

OK, it was now too late to do my civic duty of phoning the police - I did suggest it to the grumpy old man but he seemed to think that it would make us sitting targets as these teenagers knew where we lived and anyway by now they'd gone to do whatever stupid hoodies do best elsewhere.

What is it with this uniform that teenagers are wearing? because that's what wearing identical hooded tops amounts to. Don't the silly sods realise that? When I was a teenager [in days of yore but not before the war!] we all tried to be as individual as possible and couldn't wait to get out of our uniforms when we got home from school or work.

And my next question has got to be... Why are parents allowing their delightful offspring out wearing these hooded tops? Do they really think that 'Junior - bless him' wouldn't do any wrong? Get a grip PARENTS, why do you think they wear them? To keep their delicate necks warm!

So, seeing as we didn't phone the police but were worried in case little kids playing on the rec saw the hole, climbed through and got injured, we went in search of the HH security guard whom we'd always seen a lot of before. Aha! he wasn't there was he? RG group was somewhat in evidence with their temporary buildings.

We carried on down Wesley Street, I took a few more photo's ... it hadn't taken long for t**ts to start smashing windows in the partly demolished HH buildings - I've never understood the urge to smash the windows in derelict buildings, I know this behaviour is nothing new - hmm, I must have been a goody two shoes!

Oh look, four of the five hoodies [one went over the bridge to North Street] sat on the corner of Cromford Road drinking out of cans, leering and jeering at three, ahem, young ladies, standing in a leering position. If that was supposed to be early courtship then I'm glad I'm nearly old, it's not nice is it?

The GOM had another sortie around to HH yesterday while I was busy working. This time he found plenty of security there and Mr HH himself turned up. They knew about the break in and now, Mr HH would appreciate it if we phoned the police next time we see anyone trespassing - will he pay for our smashed windows and damaged car if we do? I think not.

It has been suggested that something may have been stolen, well if it was, it wasn't while I was watching them unless it was small enough to hide in their clothing. I'm not saying that they or other opportunists didn't have a rummage around the yard later but if they did, I honestly didn't see them ...

March 2010 Update From Asda

As per usual, every time we receive an interesting bit of mail from Asda regarding their Langley Mill store, we just happened to be away [on a crumbly mid-week break - to be blogged about when I’ve fully recovered!]

Anyway, the gist of the letter was confirming some rumours I may have mentioned before as now being facts.

1. Asda is aiming to be open by Christmas.
2. Heanor Haulage aren’t having their workshop and offices built - but should they change their minds in the future the planning permission still stands.

If they want to build anything else on that land, new plans will be submitted, until then it will be 'left in a clean and clear condition, and will be secured'. The letter went on to say that 'although the rumours had been in circulation for a while, we didn’t believe it would be fair to confirm the company’s position until we were absolutely clear on their intentions' – this I could probably have accepted with a little more grace if it hadn’t been for the fact that it was HH themselves circulating the rumours facts in the first place.

Now, I just happen to have read the council rules and regulations on times for the work to be done on our new Asda building site, and, ahem, they've already broken these rules on their very first week by working way after 1.00pm on Easter Saturday - unless RG Group, Asda and the council have stretched the rules [or advisory note] to suit of course.

14 Advisory Note in relation to condition 27a):

Operating hours are usually permitted only between 0800 and 1800 hours weekdays, and between 0800 and 1300 hours on Saturdays, and at no time on Sundays or Public Holidays.

This does not bode well, we already have more than enough disruption with the 'attractive' white and green trimmed hoarding being too close for comfort without 'out of hours' working. I warn you Asda and RG group, you can expect to receive complaints on this if it happens too often [not from me], and from the little light reading I've done in the last few minutes, I see that your workmen are already starting to annoy the natives ...