The Night Mail

[Dave Hunt]

11 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

I hope the Junior Doctors' strike these three days doesn't affect Jill's appointment. Sherry's tests are typically conducted by techies, not medics. 

 

We're hoping not as her appointment on Wednesday is with a consultant and on Thursday the test samples are probably being taken by a phlebotomist and a nurse as well as imaging of some sort.

 

Dave

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[AndyID]

43 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Should that read 'was a staunch........'?

 

Dave (who having an Irish great grandfather is now a supporter of the green guys)

 

I was faced with a dilemma while watching a basketball game in a pub at Sun Valley. One team was from UCLA (U of Cal) and the other was from Michigan. Second daughter lives near Los Angeles and our son lives in Michigan. I opted for UCLA because the guy next to me was a big fan.

[pH]

9 minutes ago, AndyID said:

I opted for UCLA because the guy next to me was a big fan.

Wise move!

[Northmoor]

Born in England to an English father and Scottish mother.

Moved to Wales at aged two and stayed there until Poly at 18.

Holidayed in Italy several times.

Rugby allegiances are still TBD (although France is almost certainly not in the running).

[br2975]

Back from a long weekend in Lisbon.

.

My ulterior motive, some shots of the 'historic' trams.

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Best place to bag them in numbers, is Martim Moniz - but be warned, the overwhelming number of males frequenting the run-down placa could be intimidating to some.

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On the plane over, the four of us came by tickets for Sporting v Arsenal, and getting to the stadium was a challenge of great magnitude.

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Anyway, here are just a few of my tram shots. 

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Next stop, next month, Oporto

[jamie92208]

It's sunny here, probably more shovelling this afternoon. However I did play trains for an hour last night , which I enjoyed.  as to sporting allegiances.  I don't follow football but got a lot of money from Leeds United which was handy when the kids were young.  As to Rugby I might become a fan of La Rochelle as a lotbofbour friends in the village are big fans.

 

Jamie

[AndyID]

5 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

It's sunny here, probably more shovelling this afternoon. However I did play trains for an hour last night , which I enjoyed.  as to sporting allegiances.  I don't follow football but got a lot of money from Leeds United which was handy when the kids were young.  As to Rugby I might become a fan of La Rochelle as a lotbofbour friends in the village are big fans.

 

Jamie

 

Not a bad idea to go with the flow, even if you have no idea what they are on about 😄

[iL Dottore]

21 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Absolutely agree! I very much suspect the heart conditions that severely affected my grandmother and mother are the ones that in my case are effectively treated by procedures and medication nowadays. 

That’s true for a number of (most?) therapeutic areas.

For example, many cancers, all of which were invariably a death sentence when I started my career, are now eminently treatable and - for quite a few cancers - curable. But it’s not only a better understanding of how the body works and safer and more effective treatments, but also modern materials technology (which is often overlooked) and investigational analytics. 

You probably couldn’t pick a better time in history to become sick or injured. You might hanker after the simple life of a Georgian squire or vicar, but if you developed a popliteal or aortic aneurysm you would be well and truly ******! (In Georgian times, physicians could very accurately diagnose a popliteal or aortic aneurysm, but could do absolutely nothing about it…)

[Happy Hippo]

It's the BRMC AGM today, which also coincides with their monthly running session, so I'm off to play trains.

 

What should I take to run?

 

Making such a choice is worse than waiting for the female of the species to decide what she's going to wear for a day out!

[DenysW]

In sport, Team GB beat Columbia. Still no royals in attendance, although I believe one lives as close (to Arizona) as California and has a lot of Spare time.

[Winslow Boy]

28 minutes ago, DenysW said:

In sport, Team GB beat Columbia. Still no royals in attendance, although I believe one lives as close (to Arizona) as California and has a lot of Spare time.

 

All depends on whether his wife let's him out to play though.

[jamie92208]

Oh no, we're heading back to filling the rear corners of a Duchess' firebox.

 

Jamie

[Oldddudders]

Bums! I should, at this very moment, be in Paris, checking in for my Eurostar to London, and then a week with Sherry in Torquay. Instead, I am back home feeling flat. I had done all the right things I have to do when away, like turning the heating down, emptying most things out of the fridge, etc. And Alison had delivered me to the station - and after she'd gone, the penny dropped as I saw no-one on the platform awaiting the Paris train. A strike day.

 

Since it was only 08.00, and having called Alison back to pick me up, there appeared to be options. Drive to Paris was one, but Alison would then have to drive home, and she hasn't driven in Paris, and hates Autoroutes. But although she was bravely willing, bless her, how far would we get before we just got stuck in gridlock? Is the Metro running? The website was unhelpful. Never mind the cost - fly. Nearest airport is Tours, and the next flight to the UK appeared to be Friday. So drive to Caen and catch a ferry - not feasible today as they are also on strike, and no bookings available for tomorrow. 

 

Several WhatsApp calls w Sherry and we concluded we just need to forget it. As I say - bums! I have sent her some flowers. This is certainly putting each of us in touch with our feelings for each other. I am next due to go over on 13th April, and will be ultra-careful to check things first! 

[jamie92208]

Sorry to hear that sad tale Ian. I hope that next week iisn't strikebound for us.

 

 

 

Jamie

 

 

 

[newbryford]

12 hours ago, br2975 said:

Back from a long weekend in Lisbon.

.

My ulterior motive, some shots of the 'historic' trams.

.

Best place to bag them in numbers, is Martim Moniz - but be warned, the overwhelming number of males frequenting the run-down placa could be intimidating to some.

.

On the plane over, the four of us came by tickets for Sporting v Arsenal, and getting to the stadium was a challenge of great magnitude.

.

Anyway, here are just a few of my tram shots. 

.

Next stop, next month, Oporto

 

 

 

I was there the previous Sunday/Monday..

 

Also had a ride on the funicular. As it it captive to the system, it is left out on the street at night, so subject to vandalism by paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Winslow Boy]

24 minutes ago, newbryford said:

 

I was there the previous Sunday/Monday..

 

Also had a ride on the funicular. As it it captive to the system, it is left out on the street at night, so subject to vandalism by paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be honest I think it looks quite good. I think I need to get out more 

[SM42]

7 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

It's the BRMC AGM today, which also coincides with their monthly running session, so I'm off to play trains.

 

What should I take to run?

 

Making such a choice is worse than waiting for the female of the species to decide what she's going to wear for a day out!

 

You could of course follow the lead and just pack everything 

 

Andy

[Dave Hunt]

1 hour ago, SM42 said:

You could of course follow the lead and just pack everything

 

I've spent years trying to get Jill to travel with less than at least one large suitcase wherever and for how long we are going. It's not as though she wears half the stuff she takes away and often upon our return she'll say something like, "I didn't need a lot of the stuff I took after all," but if I then suggest that she therefore needn't take so much it gets the response, "But I never know whether I'll need it," or similar. The last time we went to Spain in October she declared that she would travel light and disappeared to pack, then, when I went to pack my small travel bag there she was with half the wardrobe laid out on the bed waiting to be stuffed into a suitcase. Apparently, travelling light means something like not actually needing an ISO container.

 

Dave 

[rockershovel]

As the general impoverishment of life continues, it occurred to me that I hadn't seen a can of mulligatawny soup in ages  .... provoking a protracted mooch around Waitrose and other point, eventually producing one. 

 

Anchovy prices are soaring. 

 

Stopped at the fuel station this morning to get some drinking water (as I'm back out on site again) ... shelves totally bare, no sandwiches, drinks, bread. Judging by two other drivers apparently on the same errand, not the only such place 

 

Got some in the village convenience shop, where they were engaged in spreading their stock about to disguise the fact that their stock delivery had failed to appear, no explanation given 

[Dave Hunt]

3 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

To be honest I think it looks quite good. I think I need to get out more 

 

I'm afraid that I'm enough of a dinosaur to abhor the graffiti that adorns most of many cities and their contents. I'd much prefer to see buildings, tramcars etc. in the decoration that they were built with rather than some Herbert's idea of 'art' from spray cans.

 

That could be the start of a rant I suppose.

 

Dave

[The Johnster]

I've got a bit of a fence up my *rse on that subject; like Dave, I don't like graffitti on things not designed to have it, but I can also appreciate the artistry and understand that, for some people, this is the only artistic outlet available to them bar rap, and frankly I'd rather the graffiti...   Rap is one of those art forms where the entry level bar is subterranean, any moron can participate and many do, though done properly to a high standard it is brilliant; that's pretty rare, though.  I used to say the same about Country, but that's improved greatly over the last decade or so.

Edited March 14, 2023 by The Johnster

[polybear]

14 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

I've got a bit of a fence up my *rse on that subject; like Dave, I don't like graffitti on things not designed to have it, but I can also appreciate the artistry and understand that, for some people, this is the only artistic outlet available to them bar rap, and frankly I'd rather the graffiti...   

 

What's wrong with using a bit of paper?  A 20m x 560mm roll of Lining Paper in Wickes is six quid....

 

[BoD]

22 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Dave (who having an Irish great grandfather is now a supporter of the green guys)

Probably eligible to play for them too should they require your services.

[Dave Hunt]

Feeling a bit sorry for myself at the moment. My sciatica has been giving me gyp recently so yesterday I went to an osteopath who pummeled, squeezed and stretched my back for half an hour or so in an attempt to make it less painful. It seemed to do the trick but as I was leaving she said, "It may actually get worse for the next couple of days but then it should get better." No sh!t, today I 've hardly been able to move but it's just starting to settle down a bit so I'm hoping that tomorrow will be better. 

 

Mind you, I shouldn't complain as tomorrow Jill has her appointment with the cardiologist and that's far more important. 

 

Dave