Delta's Twentea-Twentea Break

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

My late Dad had dementia, and as you say, although he wouldn’t be able to remember what he’d just eaten, he could look at old photos and have total recall. Horrible disease....

Indeed.

Mind you I have the same problem as you describe about remembering what meals I have had recently. I don't think it's dementia (yet) but more a lack of interest in the details of the meal once eaten.

Or at least I hope that's what it is ...

Knowing about the content of a particular photograph may not be the only important thing about it. The image, whether or not the contents are identified, can put one's own memory in action for the time when one discovered the picture or, perhaps, when one last looked at it on some memorable occasion.

For the cost of keeping them around it seems unwise to discard them too early. Those that follow can do that for me. There's not exactly a full warehouse to work through.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by gary396

A few years ago someone locally posted on the Freecycle site that they had hundreds of colour slides taken by her late aunt & uncle who were avid travellers / hikers around the UK and Europe many years ago. The slides were to be thrown away unless anyone wanted them for free.

I and two other people replied that we would like them (for fear of such a historical record being lost) and we each got a selection of them. Although some of them are of the couple and their family / friends, a lot are of landscape views, towns and villages from the UK & Europe. Luckily most of the slides are annotated with the location. In time I'm hoping to digitise them all - I made a start but need a better process.

Would eventually like to put them on the 'net' for anyone interested. They make for a fascinating glimpse 'back in time'. Some classic car scenes as well!

I have several boxes of slides taken by my Father (and a few by an aunt) mostly back in the late 50s, 60s and early 70s. They were originally set up as slide shows and once in a while - maybe a couple of times a year or at a family get together, the slide projector and screen would come out and we would sit through a coupe of hours of nostalgia.

As I grew older I came to recognise the conversations between the family members about the context or the content of the images. Could have been scripted. Of course this was usually colour on a screen before colour TVs became the norm. Added some interest.

Most of the slides have now lost one or more of the colour dyes, despite being stored in boxes and out of the light. Some of the films they used have lasted better than others. Even so the process of attempting to copy them seems to be challenging and the worst of them are not viable even in B&W.

That said whilst the quality is poor the background context and record of the time the shots were taken can be interesting at a personal level. Just not interesting enough to prepare for presentation to a wider audience.

I may find the odd one from time to time that is worth doing something with. The best option would seem to ba e slide copier fitted to a lens on a digital camera. In theory a relatively quick process (compared to scanning) but so far I have found it tricky to get the right level of control over lighting to get a good exposure. I have kit that should make it more than possible BUT ideally one would set it up and leave it ready to use when time allows. That requires space that can be left undisturbed and there is no part of the house where my management seems to be prepared to accept such a situation.

Maybe one day ...

Of course if the pics were of universally high quality for colour AND offered some especially interesting insights about people and places it might be a different matter but a quick look through them suggests this is not really the case.

I may find a few offering wider interest but not many.

[VIVA GT]

I have a scanner with my PC that also has a slide & negative scanning attachment. I've spent hours scanning all of my old slides and then trying to improve the colours & resolution using software. To be honest, most of them are rubbish (but seemed to look OK when blown up on the projector screen), maybe that's because general photographic quality has improved nowadays. I don't suppose I'll ever do anything with them, but as I took the pictures years ago, and have held on to the slides for so long, I didn't want to just throw them away!

[GORDON STREETER]

Luckily we never threw away any photos or slides that my wife or I have taken over the last 50/60 years especially the early ones from our village in Spain. From what was melon fields with goat herders and their flocks wandering about when we first went to what it is now has totally amazed the new expats on one of our local historic forums.

[delta]

Can’t find Zwartcops thread .Just back from track all the cars traveled well . Bit of practice tomorrow but nothing to strenuous .Very hot but I can feel the motor racing enthusiasm building . That’s all for now . Will send over photos when I can.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by delta

Can’t find Zwartcops thread .Just back from track all the cars traveled well . Bit of practice tomorrow but nothing to strenuous .Very hot but I can feel the motor racing enthusiasm building . That’s all for now . Will send over photos when I can.

Have a gresat time Iain and enjoy the sunshine.

[Peter Mallett]

Good luck Iain. Enjoy the trip.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by grantp

Have a gresat time Iain and enjoy the sunshine.

Right, who put that s in there?

Come on, own up.

Hmm.

Another thing about getting older is that one's hands don't seem to work at well coordinated speeds.

[Mike Bell]

Sad to hear that Norton (Motorcycles, not AV!) has gone into admin. After the success of the revived Triumph business, guess we all assumed that Norton would achieve the same....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51303905

[andy97]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

Sad to hear that Norton (Motorcycles, not AV!) has gone into admin. After the success of the revived Triumph business, guess we all assumed that Norton would achieve the same....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51303905

Lots of people in the village not surprised......

Priest House Hôtel also affected as owned by same person/ group.

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by andy97

Lots of people in the village not surprised......

Priest House Hôtel also affected as owned by same person/ group.

Mmm, makes you wonder at the quality / ability of the management.....

[Gerard C]

May be there's not place enough on the market for so many bikes. The marketing plan of the new Triumph was clear, using many Kawasaki suppliers and showing a new identity with powerful triples. And in the retro niche, you've already Royal Enfield making good looking products with an exotic touch

[andy97]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

Mmm, makes you wonder at the quality / ability of the management.....

I do think thats the key issue. I know one or two people that have worked there and there has always seemed to be a high staff turnover and suppliers being paid late and then demanding cash on delivery etc.

No one could understand how the owner managed to buy Donington Hall from British Airways (after they acquired British Midland) to use as the Norton HQ/ factory either. At the time they had a small factory at the race track which made much more sense. And where did buying the hotel fit in to the business plan?

At one point i am told they were making just 7 bikes a week.

I feel sorry for the staff of both Norton and the hotel. Somebody will buy the hotel I am sure but as for the future of Norton and Donington Hall....???

Hope they survive and prosper under new ownership but.....

[Peter Mallett]

What is it about Donington and "entrepeneurs"?

[VIVA GT]

I know someone who went to Norton to do an office job. She said that the working conditions were awful, the way staff were spoken to and what they were expected to do was almost Dickensian, she didn't go back for a second day...

[zefarelly]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

What is it about Donington and "entrepeneurs"?

Very good question. . .Akin to Politicicans and pledges

I have a lot of good photo's and slides, inc a projector from my late father, we haven't done a viewing for a while . . . they seem to be of ever decreasing interest to a small family. Although some of the motorsport ones are nice to see, being proper grass roots stuff from the late 60's to 2004. Spa 6hr being his last outing.

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

I know someone who went to Norton to do an office job. She said that the working conditions were awful, the way staff were spoken to and what they were expected to do was almost Dickensian, she didn't go back for a second day...

That’s sad, and probably goes a long way to explain the current situation!

[grantp]

The Priest House has always been an "interesting" proposition.

A couple of decades ago it was owned by one of those "boutique" style country house hotel groups.

It was prone to rather frequent flooding back then (not sure about now) and every other year had to close for a few months while they spent a million or so refurbishing.

I don't think Norton had any option but to move out of their Donington Park factory unit. The area was required for the development of the units where Formula E started out.

One has to wonder about the claim that the business failure was down to an unpaid 300k tax bill. By the time any assets have been realised will the tax authorities, on balance, recover any cash that they will not be paying out in benefits?

There has to be more to it than that.

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by grantp

The Priest House has always been an "interesting" proposition.

A couple of decades ago it was owned by one of those "boutique" style country house hotel groups.

It was prone to rather frequent flooding back then (not sure about now) and every other year had to close for a few months while they spent a million or so refurbishing.

I don't think Norton had any option but to move out of their Donington Park factory unit. The area was required for the development of the units where Formula E started out.

One has to wonder about the claim that the business failure was down to an unpaid 300k tax bill. By the time any assets have been realised will the tax authorities, on balance, recover any cash that they will not be paying out in benefits?

There has to be more to it than that.

In these situations Grant there usually is...

[Rudernst]

Originally Posted by grantp

The Priest House has always been an "interesting" proposition.

A couple of decades ago it was owned by one of those "boutique" style country house hotel groups.

It was prone to rather frequent flooding back then (not sure about now) and every other year had to close for a few months while they spent a million or so refurbishing.

I don't think Norton had any option but to move out of their Donington Park factory unit. The area was required for the development of the units where Formula E started out.

One has to wonder about the claim that the business failure was down to an unpaid 300k tax bill. By the time any assets have been realised will the tax authorities, on balance, recover any cash that they will not be paying out in benefits?

There has to be more to it than that.

I am a staunch Norton Fanboy, still own 3 Nortons.
Buuuut, i am very very glad that the current company has been put into administration.
They were in the habit of accepting oders and taking deposits without actually delivering anything worth and reliable enough to ride it around the car park, or just simply not delivering anything at all
This is all over certain biker groups on Facebook.
At least this stops unsuspeting punters from losing their money.
The bikes themselves look very nice but are still - after all these years - unreliable in the extreme.

A close friend of mine bought one and returned it to the dealer with incurable faults (they went through 3 instruments clusters on his bike). He got out lucky.
An appointed Norton dealer in Hamburg, when I approached him about a buying a new Norton bike 3 years ago, plain refused to sell me one as "not worth the trouble". I steered clear of the modern Nortons ever since.

If You leave them to idle longer than about a minute, both exhausts glow bright red, again dozens of pictures on Facebook

The "next" generations of Nortons was delayed because Chinese suppliers were not beeing paid.

The owner/manager is reputed to own a fleet of 4 Aston Martins.
He could have covered the shortfall of 165.000 pounds to cover the taxes owned but chose not to

Instead Nortons went on about their 30 million pound order book in their press release,
assuming that this is true (lets hope its not the case), the amount of deposits taken on this would have covered the unpaid taxes many times over

It certainly is not the fault of HM government that they went south, it was high time !

RuE

[Rudernst]

I went to the Norton showroom in 2019 on the Friday before the HSCC meeting, bought a T shirt and a fleece jacket
The jacket was great and I loved it
unfortunately, I managed to misplace it very quickly
The shirt is still with me.

After much deliberation :
I cant blame neither Nortons, nor HM tax authorities for the loss of my jacket.......

still a sad story, but in the context of that business venture one of the better ones

and my chances of buying another jacket during the 2020 HSCC Donington meeting look very very slim now.

RuE

[andy97]

Originally Posted by Rudernst

I am a staunch Norton Fanboy, still own 3 Nortons.
Buuuut, i am very very glad that the current company has been put into administration.
They were in the habit of accepting oders and taking deposits without actually delivering anything worth and reliable enough to ride it around the car park, or just simply not delivering anything at all
This is all over certain biker groups on Facebook.
At least this stops unsuspeting punters from losing their money.
The bikes themselves look very nice but are still - after all these years - unreliable in the extreme.

A close friend of mine bought one and returned it to the dealer with incurable faults (they went through 3 instruments clusters on his bike). He got out lucky.
An appointed Norton dealer in Hamburg, when I approached him about a buying a new Norton bike 3 years ago, plain refused to sell me one as "not worth the trouble". I steered clear of the modern Nortons ever since.

If You leave them to idle longer than about a minute, both exhausts glow bright red, again dozens of pictures on Facebook

The "next" generations of Nortons was delayed because Chinese suppliers were not beeing paid.

The owner/manager is reputed to own a fleet of 4 Aston Martins.
He could have covered the shortfall of 165.000 pounds to cover the taxes owned but chose not to

Instead Nortons went on about their 30 million pound order book in their press release,
assuming that this is true (lets hope its not the case), the amount of deposits taken on this would have covered the unpaid taxes many times over

It certainly is not the fault of HM government that they went south, it was high time !

RuE

The plot thickens:


https://www.ftadviser.com/pensions/2...itching-chaos/

Investigation by the pensions ombudsmen about to commence apparently:

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/n...chemes-3793444

What do we think? Using the pension money to prop up the company????

[grantp]

Originally Posted by andy97

The plot thickens:


https://www.ftadviser.com/pensions/2...itching-chaos/

Investigation by the pensions ombudsmen about to commence apparently:

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/n...chemes-3793444

What do we think? Using the pension money to prop up the company????

Hmm.

Very interesting - but only as an outsider.

If I were invested in the schemes I would be mightily upset I think.

How do things get into this sort of situation in what we are told is a well regulated Financial Industry? (Rhetorical question ...)

[Tel 911S]

Originally Posted by grantp

Hmm.

Very interesting - but only as an outsider.

If I were invested in the schemes I would be mightily upset I think.

How do things get into this sort of situation in what we are told is a well regulated Financial Industry? (Rhetorical question ...)

I think you are right about there being a lot more to it than has been said so far.
Have been told that there will be something on ITV News At Ten tonight . But how much will be revealed at this moment , is difficult to say .

[andy97]

Originally Posted by Tel 911S

I think you are right about there being a lot more to it than has been said so far.
Have been told that there will be something on ITV News At Ten tonight . But how much will be revealed at this moment , is difficult to say .

I think this is the basis for the ITV story:

https://www.theguardian.com/business...2ZhdXkiuVUCRwY