Where is Tuesday?

[Toast]

How much do we think something like that would cost?

[Morganna]

A knackered pot and a mum-painting sound like they will be very 'unusual', Toast . Enjoy them.

Mr M and I were talking about the rescue junkies* on the way to BB. He thinks they should be fines, but I have mixed feelings, as it's not about the money. Coastguards and mountain rescue people's lives are at risk, and if offenders have to pay the cost of the operations, it could become a transaction, in which those with lots of money can do moronic things and those without can't. The trouble then, though, is what to do with them. Jailing them seems draconian, and would cost a fortune anyway. In the end, I decided that we should reintroduce the stocks, and was only half joking :toot: .

* there was a report yesterday of some idiot who kept trying to get from somewhere in the South (Kent?) to Scotland with his dog in a bathtub. He had had several tries, and each time he got as far as the harbour before the coastguard had to rescue him. In the end, they smashed up his bath, so he couldn't do it again, but what a waste of time and resources, not to mention the inconvenience to the volunteers.

[rosy]

The rescue? https://www.scottishmountainrescue.org/ ... s-it-cost/ reckons about £2500. So I think each of those four people should either pay or fundraise that amount, because they were stupid and unprepared.

[Morganna]

I agree up to a point, but some people can just put their hands in their pockets and get out £2500, whilst to others it would be ruinous. I'm not a fan of financial penalties for that reason (ditto poll charges). I know that thinking of alternative deterrents is difficult, though.

[Marth]

I saw Charles & Camilla rather than Kate & William. Got very close to Charles though and he seemed nice.

He made me miss my train once. Wanker. Did you think he was really short? I did.

My food shopping was cancelled due to some system error, so I am eating basmati rice with roasted carrots and harissa. It's actually pretty bloody nice.
My face is falling off due to the being outside a lot in the cold thing.

[smalex]

I have sympathy for people when they're ill prepared in the summer months and get caught out (although, there's enough warnings about that really), but in February, during one of the worst spells of weather this winter, I am very short of it.

[emma_p]

That sounds a bit like an Ottolenghi recipe I like, Marth

I'm making Alison Roman's #TheStew which has finished off my Brexit coconut milk/chickpea stockpile and nearly all my turmeric! I'm really going for moving minimal stuff next (and last!) time so am not replacing anything that I can get away with.

[smalex]

Ooh, I'm on the dregs of using up the pantry post-Christmas and have quite a lot of chickpeas and coconut milk, will I find the recipe if I google Alison Roman's The Stew?

[rosy]

I agree up to a point, but some people can just put their hands in their pockets and get out £2500, whilst to others it would be ruinous. I'm not a fan of financial penalties for that reason (ditto poll charges). I know that thinking of alternative deterrents is difficult, though.

You make a good point. The stocks it is! I'll bring the squashy tomatoes.

Some kind of community requirement that can't just be bought out, maybe?

[emma_p]

Yes! It's all over the internet but originally from the NY Times site which you can access but only a certain number of times a month: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/101 ... d-turmeric Just google if you can't see it there - a billion bloggers have posted it too. It so good. I use 2 cans of chickpeas but only one of coconut milk and just add a bit more veggie stock.

[Marth]

BTW I have no idea when half term is here. Oh SB2 has told me it's next week.

[smalex]

Thanks!
Any bright ideas for yellow split peas?! I've done dahls and put them in soups loads of times.

[ParisGal]

I think it's in Freakonomics that they talk about introducing a fine for parents who are late picking up their children from nursery. They found that whereas before people tried their best not to be late, and were ashamed when they were, once a cost was attached they felt it was another service they could pay for, and people were late much more frequently.

[Pippedydeadeye]

I saw Charles & Camilla rather than Kate & William. Got very close to Charles though and he seemed nice.

He made me miss my train once. Wanker. Did you think he was really short? I did.

He didn't seem particularly short, but on reflection, he wasn't massively tall.

The woman who shook his hand gave me a filthy look when I said to my companion that they weren't the two I was hoping for.

[Bat Macdui]

Lochaber MRT made a statement:

Thanks to everyone for their messages of support to the Team - very much appreciated. The incident has created a huge amount of media/public/government and international interest and comment.
The casualties admit that they made a significant error of judgement and are extremely sorry for the results of their actions. The guys were just members of the public who perhaps were unaware of what they were getting into. Not being from the UK and with very limited English, a lot of the information available to mountaineers and hill walkers would not have been accessible to them, so perhaps there is an element of mitigation in respect of their actions, clothing and lack of equipment.
At present money from the Scottish Government is channeled, via Sportscotland, quite rightly so, into the Avalanche Information Service and for training and education through centers like Glenmore Lodge and agencies such as Mountaineering Scotland. Most of this will be targeted at people who are either engaged in the sport or have an interest in taking it up. Perhaps more thought needs to be given into how to inform the general public/casual tourist about how dangerous our small mountains are and how severe our weather can get and how it will catch-out the unwary and uninformed at any time of the year.
Unfortunately it takes incidents like yesterdays to raise the profile in the media and the message has definitely got out. So there is a positive from the incident. Therefore, let us just cut the guys a little bit of slack. For those who call for charging and insurance for mountaineers/hill walkers, be careful for what ask for, as where do you stop, insurance for fishing, rugby, football all of which have more incidents and injuries than mountaineering.
Mountain rescuers are all mountaineers who volunteer their services at absolutely minimal cost to the public purse. Insurance would lead to a professional service, which, for yesterdays incident would have required about 30 full time paid people on one single shift plus equipment etc to have been able carry out and then you have the admin, health and safety, bean counter et al - all funded by tax payer. Leave as is, as we have a world class voluntary mountain rescue service which delivers via public donations.
To ensure it is sufficiently funded, we need public donations so please give to a mountain rescue team. Not all mountain rescue is about mountains and many teams outwith the Highlands, and even those in the Highlands, do provide resilience cover at times of severe weather/flooding and when the full time agencies cannot cope with scale of an incident. This is also significantly funded by donations for mountain rescue but we are sure our supporters would not grudge some of their money going back to the communities which we live in and allow access to our mountains and countryside.
Finally, we would like to thank the guys from yesterday's rescue for making the donation shown in the picture attached. These were very young guys who without any prompting made a very generous gesture which is very much appreciated. Not everyone rescued appreciates that we are not full time or not paid to be at their beck and call.
Stay safe.

The major problem with charging for MRT services *after* the fact is who judges what is charged for, and what is unfortunate accident by well prepared people? Experienced, excellent climbers will always want to push boundaries, achieve harder climbs and to do so will put them at risk. A lot of the climbers doing this are MRT members.... Hill walkers have to start somewhere - you don't start with experience. Who arbitrates whether the risk a single person took was daft or not?

[smalex]

You also run the risk that people hold off trying to ask for help because they're afraid of being charged, making an eventual rescue impossible or much more dangerous.

I still have limited sympathy for them, mind you. It's a mountain, in the tail end of a storm, in the middle of winter. I think their making a generous and heartfelt donation is a decent thing to do and better than a system where MRT try to charge people afterwards.

[Loralei]

That's a very generous (and informative) statement.

[sally maclennane]

Yeah, that sounds very measured and positive. I don't agree with charging for MRT, as Morgs points out, it would lead to people feeling that they could just pay their way out of a situation, and Smal makes a good point about people possibly delaying asking for help because of potential costs.

Those folk are still eejits though.

[Bat Macdui]

I also suspect that whenever you get something like this, the corresponding spike in donations gets them a new landy.

[Smunder Woman]

I haven't got an immediate deadline right now, can you tell?

SMUN. I think you're in an amber and a yellow now. Go home. *Bat Meteorological Service*

I missed this informative message, thank you. Can I still go home?