The Night Mail

[Winslow Boy]

20 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Sleety showers are forecast here in about 30 minutes time. I am not going out to cut the grass though. That was done about 10 days ago. 

 

You see there's DEDICATION for you.

[br2975]

On 04/03/2023 at 18:42, The Johnster said:

 

It's the class system as well, pernicious all-pervasive evil little 'stard that it is.  Many of us peasants* feel subconciously that we have to be on our best, not to show oneself up as being ill-mannered or ungrateful among our 'betters', in restaurants and in similar situations, and you can't relax and enjoy anything if you are unwittingly being constantly goaded by your subconcious into being on your best.  As we used to say back in my hippie days, 'there is a policeman inside all of our heads.  HE MUST BE DESTROYED!!!'.  Having the temerity to complain in a restaurant takes more nerve than many of us who have been trying unsuccessfully to destroy our inner policemen for most of our lives can muster in an already unrelaxed and stressful situation.  You have to be British to understand this; Johnny Foreigner copes far better with it!

 

 

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I'd like to think I'm a man of at least average intellect John.

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But this latest diatribe has me struggling, and asking  myself " what has he been smoking ?"

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You'd best get shot of your 'inner policeman' as he'll end up executing  a 'Controlled Drugs Search Warrant" at Cwmdinbath and seizing your stash of mushrooms . 

[Dave Hunt]

Good evening after another hiatus from the Hunt Towers correspondent. I won't bore you with what has been happening since I last posted about Jill's medical upset a week last Friday but it is all largely behind us now and she has an appointment to see a cardiologist in ten days time - a private consultation as on the NHS it was likely not to be until August FFS. In the meantime we are going up to Saltburn for a couple of days tomorrow then to Haworth on Wednesday as I am giving a couple of talks at the K&WVR on Thursday providing we don't get snowed in somewhere en route.

 

Oh, and there's a bright spot to report - I've finally sold Dad's house and am within sight of the end of all the other bits and pieces of clearing up his estate. Will report back in a few days' time if not before.

 

Dave

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

Sleety showers are forecast here in about 30 minutes time. I am not going out to cut the grass though. That was done about 10 days ago. 

 

Now back in Nampa with MrsID and Shona. No snow here but it snowed all day yesterday and last night at Ketchum (Sun Valley). Took a bit of time to dig the truck out this morning. Didn't ski much yesterday. It was very difficult to "read" the snow. Of course there wasn't a cloud in the sky when I left this morning.

 

 

[PhilJ W]

21 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Good evening after another hiatus from the Hunt Towers correspondent. I won't bore you with what has been happening since I last posted about Jill's medical upset a week last Friday but it is all largely behind us now and she has an appointment to see a cardiologist in ten days time - a private consultation as on the NHS it was likely not to be until August FFS. In the meantime we are going up to Saltburn for a couple of days tomorrow then to Haworth on Wednesday as I am giving a couple of talks at the K&WVR on Thursday providing we don't get snowed in somewhere en route.

 

Oh, and there's a bright spot to report - I've finally sold Dad's house and am within sight of the end of all the other bits and pieces of clearing up his estate. Will report back in a few days' time if not before.

 

Dave

Glad to hear that Jill's getting better and that your dads house has been sold.

[Happy Hippo]

19 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

 It was very difficult to "read" the snow. 

 

 

I found it much easier to read when it was in yellow handwriting.

[The Johnster]

4 hours ago, br2975 said:

.

I'd like to think I'm a man of at least average intellect John.

.

But this latest diatribe has me struggling, and asking  myself " what has he been smoking ?"

.

You'd best get shot of your 'inner policeman' as he'll end up executing  a 'Controlled Drugs Search Warrant" at Cwmdinbath and seizing your stash of mushrooms . 

 Ah, but my  inner policeman is not quite the same as your sort of policeman, Brian.  Your sort of policeman, being ‘outer’ and actually existing in a physical sense, has rules to obey, at least if anyone’s watching, and procedures to follow, because if he doesn’t a defence lawyer will make mincemeat of him in court.  The hippie ‘inner policeman’ is in fact a metaphor (what’s a meta phor; measuring things, of course) for your subconscious mind.  This ‘stard has no rules or procedures to restrict him/her, and as he/she is an integral, albeit hidden, part of your own personality, he/she knows exactly which buttons to push in order to play with your head. 
 

This can take the form of anything from just undermining your confidence a bit up to and including reducing you to a gibbering suicidal wreck, as I know to my cost, and my advice on the matter of mental health issues  is not to have them...  Some of us are more susceptible than others, but your subconscious is, trust me, not your friend; it is your most deadly and implacable enemy. 
 

It is a policeman inside your head, enforcing laws of your own making that are unjust and unfair to yourself, and usually unworkable, and you need to be released from it’s pernicious tyranny.  Real policemen protect you from bad people and keep you in line, and society would fall apart without them, since human nature cannot be trusted to look after itself.  Your inner policeman does not protect you from anything, and if you can’t destroy it you must constantly work hard to protect yourself from it!   
 

He must be destroyed, but this is easier said than done; I’ve been consciously trying to get shot of mine since 1968, and sometimes I think I’ve managed it but the ‘stard keeps coming back…

 

He won’t find any ‘shrooms at Cwmdimbath, though; my mind is far too fragile for uncontrolled hallucinations and the resultant handing over of my mental processes to the very subconscious inner policeman I am trying to destroy.  And I gave up smoking on a whim, new year’s resolution 2000-2001 new years eve, about half past nine in the Rummer Tavern. You don’t want to be prone to lucies when there’s a Mari Llwyd about!

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a recently awakened former policeman in the Charente.   At least the house is now getting reasonably warm despite the crunchy grass outside.   The hens have started laying again so spring must be on it's way.

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

We are going out, to Bridgemere garden centre.

 

It is more a case of breaking the cabin fever that we have had during Nyda's period of recovering from her cold upon a cold.

 

fortunately there is a Hobbycraft store attached and I need a sheet of mounting board for a (non rail) project I am working.

[TheQ]

Funnily enough we've just this last minute been discussing mount board.

Daler and Rowney A1 mounting board , colour Pompadour ( aka the nearest to RAF Blue they do..)

 

[PhilJ W]

I use mounting board (charcoal grey) to represent tarmac road surfaces. Once its fixed in place it can be weathered* and items such as drains drawn in. *I use acrylic paints and the contents of the brush cleaning pot are ideal for weathering.

[bbishop]

That bl00dy second line is proving difficult to shift.

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, bbishop said:

That bl00dy second line is proving difficult to shift.

As the dealer said to the police officer 🤣

[br2975]

Did somebody say MOUNTING BOARD ?

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Which jogged my memory, I need several sheets of Foamboard.

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So earlier, I left home, drew out some modelling tokens and.................................. bought cake !

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Well "it's cake Jim, but not as we know it"......... none of your Tirimasu or Eton Mess hereabouts.

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As for the Foamboard ?

It's still on the shelf, and will remain so until I return from Lisboa next week.

[Happy Hippo]

I had high hope for a little more hot train action this afternoon after I got back from Bridgemere.

 

I did a low level pass that skirted around the back of Hunt Towers on our way back, but the weather was taking  a turn for the worse and it was raining quite hard when we got in.

 

Tea and biscuits was a far better (and warmer) option, so I have been assisting Nyda with preparation for her Ranger Guide meeting tomorrow.

 

'Do we have any rope I can use for knot tying?'

 

'How about this stuff?'

 

'Oh that's just what I need...where did you get it from?'

 

'The shed:  Do you remember that old ridge tent we threw out about 2 years ago?  Well the rope used to be the main guy ropes!' 

 

My hoarding has once again come up trumps!

[SM42]

I've hoarded the bricks the brickie discarded with the plan to use them to build a garden wall. 

He wouldn't entertain using them due to some minor imperfection. 

 

I still need another 200 odd and they are not the easiest to find and hence not the cheapest. 

 

Mrs SM42 did wonder at the time why I was skip diving. 

Also retrieved some useful bits of timber and insulation. 

 

Andy

Edited March 6, 2023 by SM42

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, SM42 said:

wouldn't entertain using them due to some minor imperfection. 

Our neighbour’s house is made with bricks described as “seconds”.  Apparently chosen for their look to fit in with the mock Tudor timber upstairs. Ours is the plainest house in the road, not mock Tudor or Georgian, plain bricks, no pargetting or fancy herringbone brick effects. 

[SM42]

Some of the rescued bricks quite literally have a 2mm square chip on a corner. I wouldn't see it if it wasn't pointed out by the brickie. 

 

Good enough for a garden wall if not for the house.  

 

I've rescued around 100 at a rough guess., or about £200 + VAT's worth. 

 

Andy

[PhilJ W]

2 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Some of the rescued bricks quite literally have a 2mm square chip on a corner. I wouldn't see it if it wasn't pointed out by the brickie. 

 

Good enough for a garden wall if not for the house.  

 

I've rescued around 100 at a rough guess., or about £200 + VAT's worth. 

 

Andy

Not long after I moved into this house 32 years ago the brick wall (32' X6') surrounding part of the garden fell down in a strong wind. It was rebuilt, on the insurance using new bricks. This left a pile of the old bricks only a few of which were damaged. I used many of them to construct a planter and still have a few perfectly good bricks left. They cleaned up easily as the mortar was rotten, which is why the wall colapsed in the first place.

[Northmoor]

18 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Some of the rescued bricks quite literally have a 2mm square chip on a corner. I wouldn't see it if it wasn't pointed out by the brickie. 

 

Good enough for a garden wall if not for the house.  

 

I've rescued around 100 at a rough guess., or about £200 + VAT's worth. 

 

Andy

My house is on an estate built in the 1970s and shows that "build 'em quick an' cheap has been normal amongst developers for many years.  The non-structural (well not much) walls around the garden have almost no mortar holding them together anymore, what minimal cement went in the mix washed out long ago.  I think the moss is holding the bricks together now.

In the roof is where the builder used the blocks he didn't want to waste, out of sight of most homeowners.  Never mind 2mm square, some of them have a few cubic inch of material missing off corners and no real effort at pointing.  When I started building a layout I found the 2' spaced rafters were actually 2' plus/minus a half-inch.  

As an engineer I am disgusted by what the building trade considers acceptable tolerances.

[J. S. Bach]

8 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

 ...snip... As an engineer I am disgusted by what the building trade considers acceptable tolerances.

More importantly, what the building "inspectors" allow them to get away with!

[Winslow Boy]

13 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

More importantly, what the building "inspectors" allow them to get away with!

 

Unless something is highlighted or perhaps pulled up perhaps by others buildings on large estates are very rarely subject to detailed inspections. Individual builds I can't comment on as never got involved but for l new large estates it is very much done off plan. I cant comment on what is done abroad on the UK and the last twenty odd years.

[pH]

For the several aficionados on here - in North America it's transported by the carload:

 

 

 

(The car is owned by Enkay Leasing, and leased to the Louis Dreyfus Company. Pictured at Walker on the CPR line into Vancouver this morning.)

[zarniwhoop]

Not on here much at the moment and generally skimming - I've got problems with my desktop systems - but just got this one booted with a 1024x768 display on what is actually a 1920x1200 monitor, and looking at a few things before trying memtest. Went to BBC local news, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-64865322 :

 

"On Wednesday, a yellow snow warning is also in place with up to 2cm (0.8in) possibly falling in parts of the region."

 

I think they probably meant a yellow (severity) warning of snow. 2cm of yellow snow sounds a lot 😄