The Night Mail

[AndyID]

56 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

The padding on seats in the early Leeds teams was taken out as the cushions became a breeding ground for fleas and other such like that came off the passengers. 

 

Jamie

 

Where's that TMI button?😀

[pH]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

The padding on seats in the early Leeds teams …

Are you saying United players were lardar5e5?

[jamie92208]

8 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Where's that TMI button?😀

I've now corrected the typo as it was trams that I was talking about.  Funnily enough when we restored the horse tram, one guy tried to tell us that we should have fitted cushions as he found the slatted seats too hard.  I pointed out to him that we were restoring it to it's original condition. 

 

Jamie

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

The treatment of TomTom owners seems to be on a par with that meted out by the Epson printer scrotes. A few years ago I had a perfectly serviceable Epson inkjet printer that suddenly stopped working and when I looked up the error code it said that it was life expired. I (finally) contacted Epson and was told that this was to 'protect the user' (?????) by prompting a service whereupon the machine would be reset. It turned out that the nearest licenced Epson service facility was about forty miles away and that the service would cost something like fifty quid.

 

Tos$ers

 

I bought a new HP printer for 35 quid instead.

 

Dave

 

I gave up and switched to laser printers only. Only print black of course but the cartridges go for ever and never clog or anything. I've had a little HP laser printer for yonks. My HP scanner still works great after twenty plus years.

[John Isherwood]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

The treatment of TomTom owners seems to be on a par with that meted out by the Epson printer scrotes. A few years ago I had a perfectly serviceable Epson inkjet printer that suddenly stopped working and when I looked up the error code it said that it was life expired. I (finally) contacted Epson and was told that this was to 'protect the user' (?????) by prompting a service whereupon the machine would be reset. It turned out that the nearest licenced Epson service facility was about forty miles away and that the service would cost something like fifty quid.

 

Tos$ers

 

I bought a new HP printer for 35 quid instead.

 

Dave

 

Ahh - had you searched Google for a get-around, you would have found a very simple key sequence that resets the Epson print counter to zero.

 

The printer thinks that it is brand new again - and away we go...... !

 

CJI.

[SM42]

Tom Tom life time updates last the lifetime of the device, not yours. 

 

Rather like Vauxhall's life time warranty from a few years back. 

 

Ran out at 100k

 

Andy 

[Northmoor]

3 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

but I don’t think there’s many “Little Chefs” left to stop at along the way these days…

With good reason.  They tried to do supply their "product" down to a price rather than as all their competitors did, up to a standard.  Unfortunately they weren't exactly cheap either, certainly not enough to compensate for the quality of the food.

 

Like all the big names that have vanished from our high street over the last 10-15 years, you have to sympathise with all the staff who lost their jobs after years of work, while the directors continued to be well-rewarded until the final day when they had finally managed their businesses into extinction.

[polybear]

4 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

With good reason.  They tried to do supply their "product" down to a price rather than as all their competitors did, up to a standard.  Unfortunately they weren't exactly cheap either, certainly not enough to compensate for the quality of the food.

 

Like all the big names that have vanished from our high street over the last 10-15 years, you have to sympathise with all the staff who lost their jobs after years of work, while the directors continued to be well-rewarded until the final day when they had finally managed their businesses into extinction.

 

Bear really misses the Olympic Brekkies (though the G.E. would usually be picking up the tab); IIRC a Buddy at work knew who the guy was that owned the Empire (a Grade A Kn*b by all accounts) - by all accounts the business was actually making a profit but I guess he thought that sacking everyone and flogging off the sites to the likes of Starbucks was a much better idea.

 

 

[SM42]

A lot of Liittle Chefs on the A1 and the east of the country appear to have a new life as adult stores. 

 

The Olympic breakfast was a regular on exhibition barrier collecting trips. 

 

One Friday, one Monday. 

 

I'm not a fan of beans and asked to swap them out for a couple of hash browns once. 

 

I was told it was only one item for one item  

 

" But there are lots of beans in a spoonful" I replied. 

 

It always used to pay to get off the motorway and avoid the branches at services. 

 

The one at Sandbach, a couple of miles off the M6,  was much better  than the one at the services of that name. 

 

Over the years we got to know the best sites to visit.

The quality was so variable for what was a standard menu item.

 

Andy

[SM42]

The 4 Little Chefs nearest to SM42 Towers are now an Indian restaurant, a car park, an office building and a cafe. 

 

So at least two are still doing what they were designed for

 

Andy

[Rugd1022]

16 minutes ago, SM42 said:

A lot of Liittle Chefs on the A1 and the east of the country appear to have a new life as adult stores. 

 

The Olympic breakfast was a regular on exhibition barrier collecting trips. 

 

One Friday, one Monday. 

 

I'm not a fan of beans and asked to swap them out for a couple of hash browns once. 

 

I was told it was only one item for one item  

 

" But there are lots of beans in a spoonful" I replied. 

 

It always used to pay to get off the motorway and avoid the branches at services. 

 

The one at Sandbach, a couple of miles off the M6,  was much better  than the one at the services of that name. 

 

Over the years we got to know the best sites to visit.

The quality was so variable for what was a standard menu item.

 

Andy

Many, many years ago there was a tiny model shop on Hammersmith Broadway, a couple of years ago I went back while I was in the area to have a look and it’s now a (very) adult shop. I was tempted to go in and ask if they had any Dapol Westerns, but thought better of it in case they called me a raving pervert 😁

[SM42]

On our way out this morning we passed an accident on the opposite side of the motorway.

A truck and a van looking very sorry for themselves, both in the central barrier. The van head on, the truck at a more gentle angle and about 60ft of barrier damaged. 

 

Outer lane closed whilst someone scratched their chin wondering how to get the truck out of there. 

 

Our side open, all lanes, at line speed (120 kph)

 

Coming back in the afternoon, all gone but central barrier still on its side.

 

No lane closures, no speed limits. 

 

In the UK both carriageways would probably be closed for hours for recovery, a 50mph limit imposed and outside lane closed both directions for the next 6 months until the barrier is repaired.   

 

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the barrier is repaired with an 80kph limit in place and a lane closure just big enough to cover the site

 

Andy

[Dave Hunt]

2 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

I gave up and switched to laser printers only. Only print black of course but the cartridges go for ever and never clog or anything. I've had a little HP laser printer for yonks. My HP scanner still works great after twenty plus years.

 

I went over to a HP laser printer too but since one of the things I wanted it for was printing transfers I bought a colour one. Even though the capital cost was a lot more as are the toners, the amount of printing you get out of the cartridges is remarkable and as you say there is no problem with print heads clogging. The only thing to watch out for is that since the paper gets quite hot, you have to be careful printing on the transfer paper and let things cool down after each print or there is a danger of the transfer film starting to melt and jamming the works.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

2 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

Ahh - had you searched Google for a get-around, you would have found a very simple key sequence that resets the Epson print counter to zero.

 

The printer thinks that it is brand new again - and away we go...... !

 

CJI.

 

Rats!

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

1 hour ago, SM42 said:

I'm not a fan of beans and asked to swap them out for a couple of hash browns.... 

 

I was told it was only one item for one item  

 

" But there are lots of beans in a spoonful" I replied. 

 

So, it's your fault they went bust.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

21 minutes ago, SM42 said:

On our way out this morning we passed an accident on the opposite side of the motorway.

A truck and a van looking very sorry for themselves, both in the central barrier. The van head on, the truck at a more gentle angle and about 60ft of barrier damaged. 

 

Outer lane closed whilst someone scratched their chin wondering how to get the truck out of there. 

 

Our side open, all lanes, at line speed (120 kph)....

 

No lane closures, no speed limits. 

 

In the UK both carriageways would probably be closed for hours for recovery, a 50mph limit imposed and outside lane closed both directions for the next 6 months until the barrier is repaired.   

 

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the barrier is repaired with an 80kph limit in place and a lane closure just big enough to cover the site

 

 

Last October we were on the Spanish coastal autostrada near Nerja and a car had caught fire on the hard shoulder, which had set the tinder dry undergrowth alongside the road alight and the fire had spread quite a way into the hills. There were water bombing helicopters dipping their buckets into the sea then crossing the road at fairly low level to fight the fire but no traffic restrictions at all - just a couple of bored looking policemen with their patrol car standing by the burning (but nearly burned out) car. One of them was even smoking a cigarette. I think that in the UK both carriageways would have been closed for miles around.

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

29 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

So, it's your fault they went bust.

 

Dave

No our late and lamented friend Chris might have been a contributor.  He was a great Little Chef fan. 

 

Jamie

[SM42]

This evening we have been to a short open air concert by a band consisting of a drum set, a double base, a trombone, banjo, trumpet and clarinet 

 

As you can probably guess this was Louis Armstrong et al style music and very good they were too. 

 

The plan was to go with the SiL and BiL by bicycle as its only about 4 miles away and fairly flat. 

 

At 1722hrs, Mrs SM42 announced they would meet us at a petrol station about a mile away at half past. 

 

Now that is a reasonable pace at the best of times for an unfit pair such as we, but even more so when fishing  the bikes out of the garage hasn't begun to speculate about crossing your mind. 

 

Two minutes before Mrs SM42 had announced they were still eating dinner, so I was quite relaxed about timings.

 

As it was, we told them to carry on without us and we got there 10 minutes late, not helped by Google Maps pointing us in the wrong direction. 

 

The blue dot with your location is fine, but the blue diverging mist like feature that appears to indicate which way you are looking,  was in fact showing where we had been. 

 

After a couple of experiments riding along with phone in hand and we  worked out we had missed by almost a mile. 

 

I'm now officially worn out after my relaxing evening.

 

Andy

[br2975]

23 hours ago, br2975 said:

Off to Llantwit Major tomorrow

.

Accompanying my RAF Cadet grandsons to a parade, and fly past, marking the withdrawal of the Royal Air Force from St. Athan.

.

The end of another era. 

.

So the march past took place today, to mark the end of the Royal Air Force presence at RAF St. Athan.

.

I was advised the event would commence at 13:10 and be finished by 13:50, culminating in a fly past.

.

The fly past failed to materialise - but at 14:48, an hour later than advertised, a pair of Hawk trainers buzzed my car as I was driving home through Groes Faen.

.

Amusingly, we were moved from our vantage point, by a diminutive W.O. with the world's largest swagger stick (?) as our vantage point was to be the saluting dias, for the attending brass and dignitaries. 

Twas only when we took up our new position that the backdrop to the dias became amusingly apparent.

.

In reality, a sad occasion when one considers the one time size and importance of RAF St. Athan - two railway stations, and an internal rail system.

.

My abiding memory was in the early 80s undertaking (riot) shield and PSU (Police Support Unit) training  at Eglwys Brewis (part of the camp) under the wings of Vulcan bombers that were awaiting their fate.

.

Now a private contractor scraps commercial aircraft at the site.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[AndyID]

9 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

If she's anything like Lorna it's not going to last.

 

Lorna was a nurse and nurses are notorious for their lack of sympathy towards their partners. I become really worried when she does actually show concern for my wellbeing. 

😄

 

While there might have been an element of truth there it's really quite unfair. Lorna is (was I suppose now) a really good nurse - a natural I think. (She was a nurse at the Southern General in Govan during the Ibrox Disaster.)  While I was walking Shona this morning a young boy fell off a jungle gym in the lot across the street. The good news is I heard him crying.

 

I asked Lorna if she could take a look at him and she was more than happy to do that. He had clonked the back of his head but fortunately he landed on fairly soft turf. Lorna checked him out and she knew exactly what to look for. Fortunately there were no indications of anything sinister but, of course, she did tell his parents to take him to Emergency if there was anything that didn't seem quite right. Not only that but her manner with the young lad and his parents was perfect.

 

I better do something quite good for our upcoming 51st 😄

[AndyID]

I'm posting this for no other reason than to wind-up Polybear 😆

 

 

Which isn't easy to do 🤣

 

[AndyID]

Speaking of which, Monday is the inaugural meeting of the North Idaho chapter of Fiat Spider owners club. Both of us are meeting down the pub half a mile hence. There might even be photos 😄

[iL Dottore]

12 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

If she's anything like Lorna it's not going to last.

 

Lorna was a nurse and nurses are notorious for their lack of sympathy towards their partners. I become really worried when she does actually show concern for my wellbeing. 

😄

And Doctors make bloody awful patients (don’t ask how I know that I’m in that particular category…)

[polybear]

3 hours ago, AndyID said:

I'm posting this for no other reason than to wind-up Polybear 😆

 

 

Which isn't easy to do 🤣