The Night Mail

[AndyID]

22 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Darling Daughter or Direct Debit. Take yer pick. 

 

Is there a difference?

[Happy Hippo]

32 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Is there a difference?

When my daughter was living at home, I was also known as the petrol fairy.

[Winslow Boy]

No I will not go there. It was bad enough imagining HH all greased up and spouting tea. So I'm not imaging a fairy Hippo. No stop it. To late. Oh dear this is not going to end well.

 

Edited June 20, 2022 by Winslow Boy
Not enough is's

[Winslow Boy]

3 hours ago, Tony_S said:

On many social media sites “DD” is an abbreviation for,”dear daughter”. But fortunately I did notice your original explanation of your use of the term. 

 

I will post a picture of her, that's Devil Dog not Darling Daughter or a direct debit by the way.

[Winslow Boy]

3 hours ago, SM42 said:

Walls  well one, has come down today. 

Windows going in tomorrow. Might even get the patio door in, but no glass for it yet. 

Heating alterations continue tomorrow too.  Once the walls are plasterboarded the new boiler can go on the wall and connected up, ready for final connection to water and gas. 

 

Modelling activity seems a distant memory. 

 

Andy

 

Well that's a new one on me, erecting the plaster board first, then building the wall. But live and let live as they say who am I to stand in the way of progress. 

 

Could we have a photo of this new way of building please. As a picture is worth a thousand words.

[Dave Hunt]

Jill and I went to a very nice strawberry tea this afternoon, which put me in a reasonably happy frame of mind for a while but when we got home I spent over 45 minutes trying to speak to someone from the hospital ward where Dad is - 25 minutes of, "Unfortunately the extension you have dialled is engaged. Please try again later," followed by 20 minutes of the extension ringing but no-one answering. When I eventually got through I made an appointment to see one of the doctors tomorrow afternoon in the hope that someone can tell me what is going on. That was the end of my good mood but once again Jill told me to go down to the railway room where I spent a couple of hours followed an hour ago by a bacon butty and now surfing TNM to improve things. The process is being fortified by a wee drop of some highland happy water that my mate Crimson Rambler donated when he stayed on Friday night.

 

TTFN

 

Dave   

[New Haven Neil]

Difficult time, Dave - thinking of you all.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Afternoon all,

 

More progress has been accomplished somewhat  amazingly on Hull No 3. This morning I had more energy than usual and engaged myself in staining the deckhouses which came out very nice, I think they are Douglas Fir oddly enough. I also cut the masts to a very approximate length and started work on squaring up the solid ivory engine room skylight. 
 

The funnel was also cut to length and the binnacle and ships telegraph were turned. The telegraph is two separate pieces soldered together, too much solder was used but you cant win them all.

 

 

 

Re dreams: I often have bad ones about school along with most people my age, although thankfully I don’t act them out, or at least as far as I know I don’t. 
 

I do often find myself visiting places in my dreams that don’t exist except in my dreams, and this happens multiple times over many years. Very odd, anybody else have this happen? 
 

Douglas

Edited June 21, 2022 by Florence Locomotive Works

[Winslow Boy]

46 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Jill and I went to a very nice strawberry tea this afternoon, which put me in a reasonably happy frame of mind for a while but when we got home I spent over 45 minutes trying to speak to someone from the hospital ward where Dad is - 25 minutes of, "Unfortunately the extension you have dialled is engaged. Please try again later," followed by 20 minutes of the extension ringing but no-one answering. When I eventually got through I made an appointment to see one of the doctors tomorrow afternoon in the hope that someone can tell me what is going on. That was the end of my good mood but once again Jill told me to go down to the railway room where I spent a couple of hours followed an hour ago by a bacon butty and now surfing TNM to improve things. The process is being fortified by a wee drop of some highland happy water that my mate Crimson Rambler donated when he stayed on Friday night.

 

TTFN

 

Dave   

 

Chin up Dave. Difficult times but you'll get through them 

[Canal Digger]

22 hours ago, AndyID said:

We are meeting two of our children and their children for a bit of camping shortly although MrsID and I will be "glamping" in our caravan. We'll be near Anacortes on the Washington coast. Weather permitting the plan is to return via the North Cascades Highway which cuts across the the Cascade Range and ascends to 1,669m. The scenery is spectacular. It's open now but it gets so much snow in the Winter they have to shut it down.

By accident we found The Shenandoah Trail (aka Skyline Drive) in VA, we thought it spectacular. so much so that having taken our hired RV along trail in one direction we turned around and headed back again. 

[PhilJ W]

2 minutes ago, Canal Digger said:

By accident we found The Shenandoah Trail (aka Skyline Drive) in VA, we thought it spectacular. so much so that having taken our hired RV along trail in one direction we turned around and headed back again. 

I travelled the Shenandoah Trail 43 years ago, fantastic country.

[J. S. Bach]

24 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Afternoon all,

 

More progress has been accomplished somewhat  amazingly on Hull No 3. This morning I had more energy than usual and engaged myself in staining the deckhouses which came out very nice, I think they are Douglas Fur oddly enough. I also cut the masts to a very approximate length and started work on squaring up the solid ivory engine room skylight. 
 

The funnel was also cut to length and the binnacle and ships telegraph were turned. The telegraph is two separate pieces soldered together, too much solder was used but you cant win them all.

 

...snip...

Douglas

Fir; the tree is spelled with an "i":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_fir

 

On the steamer's bow, is more shaping to be done? I am curious as it does not look streamlined enough for the engines (or sail for that matter) to shove it through the water.

 

 

24 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Afternoon all,

...snip... 

Re dreams: I often have bad ones about school along with most people my age, although thankfully I don’t act them out, or at least as far as I know I don’t.

I do often find myself visiting places in my dreams that don’t exist except in my dreams, and this happens multiple times over many years. Very odd, anybody else have this happen?

Douglas

I do not remember much now about any school-related dreams anymore, just some memories of that time. As far as visiting non-existent places in my dreams; oh yes, quite a bit, I will not say nightly but very frequently. I suspect that it is quite normal for most of us. One thing that I can say about my visiting non-existent places is that they are technically correct; buildings, roads, colors, all the details that make up a daily life. I will admit that some of the "scenes" might be combinations of imagination and places that I have either been or seen pictures of. An example: A while back you posted a photo of a street scene where you were eating at a sidewalk cafe. That building diagonally across the street might end up plopped down somewhere else and an aircraft carrier parked alongside; the only problem with that whole scene? It is a few degrees south of the North Pole! Did I forge the trolleys serving the location? So rest assured, there is nothing wrong with fantasy dreams.

 

 

Edited June 20, 2022 by J. S. Bach
To complete the post.

[J. S. Bach]

23 minutes ago, Canal Digger said:

By accident we found The Shenandoah Trail (aka Skyline Drive) in VA, we thought it spectacular. so much so that having taken our hired RV along trail in one direction we turned around and headed back again. 

 

18 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I travelled the Shenandoah Trail 43 years ago, fantastic country.

Do the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive; a couple of days driving but well worth it.

[newbryford]

9 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

 

Do the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive; a couple of days driving but well worth it.

 

Don't do it with a 10 year old...

"Are we there yet?" got a bit repetitive at 45mph......

[SM42]

2 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Well that's a new one on me, erecting the plaster board first, then building the wall. But live and let live as they say who am I to stand in the way of progress. 

 

Could we have a photo of this new way of building please. As a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

Only one wall came down

 

There are 3 others  plus the one beyond the now demolished one.

 

In terms of dreams  I dreamt of a really big railway room but it isn't as big as I dreamed. Still bigger than the room I've got now though.

 

Other dreams tend to be very abstract takes on some element of my everyday and others are a very plausible reality and I find myself wondering if something really happened or if I dreamt it. 

 

It's a strange world in my head sometimes 

 

Andy the one less wall than this morning

[Florence Locomotive Works]

38 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

On the steamer's bow, is more shaping to be done? I am curious as it does not look streamlined enoug

The lighting is pretty terrible in that photo and with the staining of the hull it looks very flat and slab sided but in reality it’s pretty well shaped for its era.

[SM42]

Ok so now I am really stressed. 

 

I have come up against Polish bureaucracy coupled with Mrs SM42 thinking  that I am fluent and only translating every 20th word. 

 

Somehow we have to respond to a mandatory  government environmental survey by the end of the month by creating a profile, logging in and submitting the survey. 

 

It keeps asking for a password  the creation of which was not part of setting up the profile and we have got stuck in an Internet loop. 

 

Add to this that any Poles completing this survey couldn't possibly live abroad and therefore must have a Polish mobile number ( no option for non Polish mobile numbers) for pass codes to be sent to  means it is almost impossible to complete the survey.  

 

Aaaaaarrrrgghhh 

 

Andy the stressed

[Tony_S]

8 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Add to this that any Poles completing this survey couldn't possibly live abroad and therefore must have a Polish mobile number ( no option for non Polish mobile numbers) for pass codes to be sent to  means it is almost impossible to complete the survey.  

Is there a friendly relative in Poland who can receive the passcode for you and WhatsApp or text it to you? Or does it have to be a mobile registered to you?

[zarniwhoop]

On dreams - although I was made redundant nearly 19 years ago, and spent most of my (part-time) previous two years "studying" (browsing or connecting to my machine at home to read list email) while occasionly preparing data for transfer to the client's new owners or answering questions from the client or the new people, I still sometimes get work-related dreams  about things we did before that. Other times, my parents are alive in my dreams. I'd much prefer the occasional dreams where I was cycling - I still miss that - but overall I think that for all of us our dreams only rarely have any relation to current reality.

 

I also sometimes think that I'm dreaming again about things that never really happened, but which have happened in the past in my dreams. Fortunately, I rarely get dreams which frighten me and so far I haven't tried to jump out of bed, probably because I don't think I could :)

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

Fir; the tree is spelled with an "i":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_fir

 

 And it's not even a true fir tree 😀

 

They grow like weeds here. In fact virtually all of them are weeds.

[SM42]

38 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Is there a friendly relative in Poland who can receive the passcode for you and WhatsApp or text it to you? Or does it have to be a mobile registered to you?

 

This is the problem.

 

Mrs SM42 put down the FiL's number  forgetting it's an hour later over there and that he makes Mr Magoo look like someone with 2020 vision 

 

He has been plagued by unsolicited SMS pass codes and is getting them all mixed up.

 

Add this stress to the stress of renovations, work stresses, sorting out covid tests for relatives who have just turned 12, getting tyres done on two cars on the same day, arranging trips for visiting in laws, balancing the finances, a barky dog and Mrs SM42 expecting me to be fluent in the mother tongue and I'm a bit frazzled 

 

Beer o clock. Lots of beer o'clock 

 

Andy the needs more hours in the day. 

Edited June 20, 2022 by SM42

[SM42]

On the bright side, I found diesel at less than £ 1.90 today.

 

Shame I filled up yesterday at 7p/l more

 

Andy no garage

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

This is the problem.

 

Mrs SM42 put down the FiL's number  forgetting it's an hour later over there and that he makes Mr Magoo look like someone with 2020 vision 

 

He has been plagued by unsolicited SMS pass codes and is getting them all mixed up.

 

Add this stress to the stress of renovations, work stresses, sorting out covid tests for relatives who have just turned 12, getting tyres done on two cars on the same day, arranging trips for visiting in laws, balancing the finances and Mrs SM42 expecting me to be fluent in the mother tongue and I'm a bit frazzled 

 

Beer o clock. Lots of beer o'clock 

 

Andy the needs more hours in the day. 

What will happen if you don’t provide the information?
MiL once tried to close a bank account In India. The other joint account holders were deceased. They kept asking for more and more information. MiL tried to sort it out whenever she went to India to visit relatives. Eventually the bank threatened to close the account and open her security box. As it was empty she just told them to go ahead. 

[SM42]

I have no idea. 

 

Probably some financial penalty cos they don't know if we have a gas boiler or coal fire. 

 

I suspect there is an imperative at the moment to get a view of how much gas they might need this winter.

 

Meanwhile in Birmingham, demolition of the gas holders near Aston continues. 

 

Andy

[Florence Locomotive Works]

2 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

 

On the steamer's bow, is more shaping to be done? I am curious as it does not look streamlined enough for the engines (or sail for that matter) to shove it through the water

Actually Dave, yes more shaping should be done to add a gentle curve to the underside of the bow but from experience this is very hard to replicate so I leave it pretty much flat. The hydrodynamics on this scale don't really matter except on the stern where you can have problems with hull wake messing with the effectiveness of the rudder. 

 

I based much of the hull design on this model of Agamemnon in the Royal Museums Greenwich: https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-66013

 

And looking at that closer it looks like I need to add more taper to the sides of the hull coming down towards the keel.

Edited June 21, 2022 by Florence Locomotive Works