General Chat

The woman across the road rang the other night to ask if OH would help her shift some coal the next day. She had ordered a ton from a company in London that deliver it on a pallet four £200 less than it would cost to have it delivered by the company that now has the monopoly of coal deliveries in the area.

It was to be delivered in the morning and she knew the driver would not back all the way down the yard.

About ten to twelve, she rang to say that it was still not here and would OH still be available if it came later.

At two, she rang again to say that she had called the company and that the pallet of coal had been ...............................................................LOST.

Easy done, easy done. You never know with a ton of coal!

Looks like it is coming on Tuesday now, all being equal.

Does she?

She needs to get her coal.

It's just as well Sharron's neighbour is stockpiling then! :-D :-D :-D


Here's an extract from an article about the use of wood and coal in January 2019 (link to full article at the bottom)

"To deal with domestic burning, the government will ban the sale of the most polluting fuels and ensure that only the cleanest stoves are available for sale by 2022.

They are also consulting on phasing out the sale of traditional house coal and on limiting the sale of wet wood, the type found on garage forecourts. The government's plan for these fuels is expected within months."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46823440

To be honest, I don't really care about what options my neighbour has, that is her lookout.

I, and she, just found it quite amusing that anybody could lose a ton of coal.

Oh leave it alone.

This thread is not about you, nor is it about pollution.

It is about the loss of a ton of something.

It's old news anyway - and here's why it is.

In the early-1960s when the caretaker at my place of employment died in his 50s, I was the youngest there at the time.

One very clever older female colleague said his early death could well have been due to the coke he handled in the cellars every day when he stoked up the central heating. She went on to enlighten us about the dangers of both coal and coke.

I got a good education in many ways from my older colleagues but it took me a few years to realise it.

Gosh, how interesting.

Sharron.....

A huguenot in the 19th Century!
Surely, by that time, a century after the last arrival, they were just Protestants!

" Mum, the huguenot's here. He say do you want any this week?"

Mr P Dantic rides again.

Here's a funny story but a true one too.

When my OH and I first moved to this town the house we lived in still had a coal fire and a wonderful coal-powered boiler.

One cold wintry morning when the snow was on the ground our coal was delivered. I opened the door to see the young lad with a sack of coal on his back jump (yes, jump) from the back of the lorry on to a cold, snowy road.

You can imagine the outcome. Lad lying flat on his back in the snow, coal all over the road , his boss shouting at him and me ..... I had to go back into the lounge as I was doubled over with laughter.

Sounds bad, but why did he want to entertain me in that way? Cos I just can't help myself ..... ;-) :-0 :-D

With no thought to the danger he was causing to the health of others, especially children, at one time, while I was paying no attention at primary, Fred was a coalman.

Of course, there is a knack to the job, how you hoist the sack on to your back from the lorry and tip it over your shoulder, into the bunker and Fred had the knack after a short time.

He came home fuming one night. A young man was sent out with him and he had no idea, would take the sack off his back and tip it in slowly over the bunker, spilling coal on the ground and being very slow.

While Fred was at the wagon, picking up his third sack, Sonny-Jim was still tipping in his first amid a sea of nutty slack. To Fred's disgust, the lady of the house came out and thanked him for working carefully and not making a mess!

My brother used to talk about people buying stuff that had fallen off the back of a lorry ;-)

I wonder who got a load of coal, extra cheap :-D

Completely off-subject, well not quite as the topic has veered towards things falling of the back of lorries, I remember an incident I was involved in in late 1976.

That was the year of a quite serious drought and OH and myself had taken my very young son to a rather large park in Lincolnshire so that we could go for a walk.

My son was in a pram at the time. At one point a tractor trailer combination trundled past us spewing potatoes over the rough road.

We immediately turned and followed said tractor, picking up all the fallen potatoes and put them in the pram.

At one stage we very nearly had to make a decision as to whether we stopped collecting potatoes or stash our son somewhere and come back for him later.

Due to the drought, potatoes were in short supply! :-D

Enterprising, Allan - and 'saving' those potatoes from waste! :-D

My son does not know how close he became to being traded for another few pounds of potatoes.

Mind you, a few weeks after he was born we very nearly left him on a Norwegian ship that was a regular visitor to Grimsby :-S

Joys of new parenthood....LOL

Bob, the Captain of the ship was very philosophical, being himself a grandfather, and said "I'd have brought him back in a month or two having taught him to speak Norwegian"

To the OP yes quite how can you lose a mass of coal like that!!

Allan there's many a parent over the years that would have traded a child or three for anything at times.

As to what we all breath in....I'd rather someone was at least heating their home with the coal rather than me breathing in goodness knows what because someone is having a little sit outside on a cool evening; or even worse on a hot evening; and wants the ambiance of a countryside evening camping all whilst in the middle of a city with neighbours smelling more of the smoke inside their house than the party-goers
do.