The Night Mail

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

acquisitions of rolling stock will suddenly have become chintz curtains (or some similar SWMBO purchase).

I know Aditi is planning major expenditure but it isn’t curtains. They wouldn’t be as expensive as air sourced heat pumps. When we hadn’t got much money and were permanently transferring balances on credit cards we discussed all expenditure.  Most major expenses are replacement items now. Aditi’s idea if shopping is to look on the John Lewis website, read the reviews, and invariably choose the most expensive item. My job is to suggest perhaps we wouldn’t use the features on the most expensive item and perhaps we should consider the next model down the price list. 

[SM42]

In all honesty, Mrs  SM42 doesn't mind too much along as the house doesn't fall down around us and things are kept in good order ( including her) 

 

It's probably me that feels a bit guilty sometimes and with one eye on the future have reigned things in of late  

 

We don't get out here often enough for my liking so I tend to splurge a little when we are here but not just on models, also on things that have a more transient sense of satisfaction  like cake and basically enjoying ourselves  while we can 

 

Andy

[Happy Hippo]

17 hours ago, SM42 said:

For some odd reason, all this talk of Sqdn Leader DH providing cake aid, reminded me of  The African Queen 

 

" Can you fly a Hercules Mr Hunt? "

 

To paraphrase a line from the film.

Well yes he can, followed by no he wouldn't!

 

It's not the flying bit that is difficult, but you have to be on top of the procedures to keep it in the air and expedite a safe recovery when things go very pear shaped.

[Dave Hunt]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

 Aditi’s idea if shopping is to look on the John Lewis website, read the reviews, and invariably choose the most expensive item.

 

It's obviously a woman thing. The quickest way to identify the most expensive item of a particular line in a shop is to ask Jill which one she wants/would like; invariably it turns out to be the dearest. My role is quite simple - I pay for it.

 

Fortunately, administration of all the household accounts is left to me and the state of play with my modelling is not something that Jill is really well aware of so covering up the distribution of a few modelling tokens is usually not a problem providing that a.) it does not result in my having to place restrictions on other domestic spending and b.) whatever is obtained is not glaringly obvious to the untrained eye. That is not to say that errors have not been made in the past but I shall draw a veil over the ramifications in deference to readers' sensibilities.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

46 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

It's not the flying bit that is difficult, but you have to be on top of the procedures to keep it in the air and expedite a safe recovery when things go very pear shaped.

 

Quite so HH. It is fairly well established that flying per se hardly ever does anyone significant harm; it is poor or unexpected returns to earth that generally do the damage.

 

Dave

[SM42]

The bicycle has returned from its service with upgraded saddle and handlebar  stems, so they should stay put now. 

 

The worn chain and rear gear set have also been replaced.

 

Total cost 250PLN.  Around £45 

 

Cycle training to start up again

 

Andy

[Northroader]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Quite so HH. It is fairly well established that flying per se hardly ever does anyone significant harm; it is poor or unexpected returns to earth that generally do the damage.

 

Dave

And then skirting a path through anything that’s in the way...?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-62424848

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Northroader said:

And then skirting a path through anything that’s in the way...?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-62424848

Was the Prince of Wales flying?

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7472903/Moment-Prince-Charles-crashed-Queens-Flight-jet-1m-smash.html

 

I believe the pilot had his RAF instructor pilot rating revoked.

 

Kemble used to be home to the Red Arrows, so it doesn't have particularly short runways the asphalt ones are a tad over 2000m long, with a shorter parallel grass strip.  There are a lot of B747 aircraft either in storage or being scrapped which shows there's plenty of room.  Looking at Bing maps and the reported stopping point, I would suggest he was using the longer of the runways, as the 'short' grass strip is much further away from the airfield perimeter and the A429.

 

I suspect the pilot  at Kemble decided he wanted to land first time and was too stubborn to initiate a timely missed approach until he was on the runway and didn't have any flying speed left.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Happy Hippo

[Northmoor]

4 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Quite so HH. It is fairly well established that flying per se hardly ever does anyone significant harm; it is poor or unexpected returns to earth that generally do the damage.

Hence the saying that it is silly to be afraid of heights, it's the fear of falling and hitting the ground very fast you should be afraid of.

 

On model railway expenditure, I am fortunate that I bought virtually everything I ever wanted rolling stock-wise between about 1985-2000, so only very rarely buy anything costing enough to need to declare.  Yes there are newer and better versions of most of them that I could buy to replace them (at enormous expense) but most have a sentimental value.   Since 2000, I have acquired quite a lot more "that will come in useful" through a ring-fenced trading fund - buy job lots, keep what's wanted, tidy up and sell on the rest - but haven't even done any of that for about five years.  I really do have far more stock and "projects" than I will ever need but don't seem to be getting any closer to having a layout to operate them on.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Northmoor
typos

[newbryford]

14 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

The oldest trick in the book is " I bought it before I met you dearest". 44 years later  that's wearing a bit thin for me.

 

Jamie

 

I can play the  "I've brought it home from work to test it" card.

 

 

But the edges of said card are exceedingly frayed by now.

[newbryford]

11 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

the middle finger is probably going to require some professional manipulation.

 

 

Is that a euphemism?

 

🖕

[SM42]

Day pass tomorrow.👍

 

Well till around 3pm

 

We are due to go to an open air concert to tomorrow night, with the in  laws, in Chodziez, about 45  minutes away.

 

However to tomorrow is forecast for 36C and possible storms in the evening, so we may end up at the cinema instead. 

 

I am planning a tour of my regular haunts during the day, hopefully finding some shade in the process.

 

Andy

[Winslow Boy]

Whilst out this morning supervising cough assisting cough cough alright providing transportation for DD I came across this character.

 

Now for the life of me I can't recall where I've seen him before.

 

Donk moonlighting to get a few extra pennies?'

[AndyID]

4 hours ago, SM42 said:

The bicycle has returned from its service with upgraded saddle and handlebar  stems, so they should stay put now. 

 

The worn chain and rear gear set have also been replaced.

 

Total cost 250PLN.  Around £45 

 

Cycle training to start up again

 

Andy

 

Yipee! My 18 speed is back in action. Zero cost (apart from the 20 or so hours I spent on it 😀)

 

It would have taken a lot less time if I had known how it was put together.

[Dave Hunt]

4 hours ago, Northroader said:

And then skirting a path through anything that’s in the way...?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-62424848

 

That comes under the heading of a poor return to earth.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

Whilst out this morning supervising cough assisting cough cough alright providing transportation for DD I came across this character.

 

For those familiar with the works of T. Pratchett, it would seem that the Donk tribe are assuming some of the characteristics of the Nac Mac Feegle, i. e., they are small, blue and are turning up in all sorts of places quite unexpectedly.

 

Dave

Edited August 4, 2022 by Dave Hunt

[BR60103]

Dayle was once convinced by either a salesperson or a relative that adding more features to the basic model was just adding more things to go wrong.  Any appliances in our house that have extras were installed before we bought it.

 

("Bought it"  I mean the house.)

 

Edited August 6, 2022 by BR60103
clarification

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, BR60103 said:

Dayle was once convinced by either a salesperson or a relative that adding more features to the basic model was just adding more things to go wrong.  Any appliances in our house that have extras were installed before we bought it.

 

A very wise view. I quickly learned that having an electric motor fitted as standard to a microwave oven/washing machine/tumble drier/dish washer/cooling fan was much better than an aftermarket bolt on.

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, BR60103 said:

Dayle was once convinced by either a salesperson or a relative that adding more features to the basic model was just adding more things to go wrong.  Any appliances in our house that have extras were installed before we bought it.

 

(My italics)

As a keen amateur Chef I only have one question to ask when buying new kit for the kitchen: would these features be found on the professional version? If the answer is “No” then I look for another model/manufacturer.

 

Professional gear is designed to do one (or a few) thing(s), do it well and do it well thousands of times.

 

The latest not-found-on-professional-gear wheeze for extracting money (if not the urine) from customers is the WiFi equipped oven that allows the victim, sorry Customer, the ability to control the oven from their smart phone. A feature I’ve failed to find on any of the professional ovens I’ve looked at lately…

 

Oh, and it adds about (at least?) £850 onto the base price of the oven (which is why it seems manufacturers love this feature. Of one Swiss manufacturer’s of range of oven models, only about three of twenty different models were without this feature)

[SM42]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

 

The latest not-found-on-professional-gear wheeze for extracting money (if not the urine) from customers is the WiFi equipped oven that allows the victim, sorry Customer, the ability to control the oven from their smart phone. A feature I’ve failed to find on any of the professional ovens I’ve looked at lately…

 

Oh, and it adds about (at least?) £850 onto the base price of the oven ...

 

I fail to see why any household appliances need WiFi, unless course youi intend to use them to overload the Internet.

 

Perhaps you could ask your fridge to put the joint in the oven you have turned on whilst the other appliances prepare the veg, so that when you cone home your WiFi connected dining room table has  dinner waiting

 

Unless you want to preheat the oven whilst you are on the commute there's no point. 

 

It seems that the fact that you need  to be there for any of this to be any use ( and hence can just turn it on msnually)  has been overlooked. 

 

Like cars, manufacturers are caught in a "look how clever we are for adding useless gimmicks" arms race.

 

The only possible things that maybe of use to control remotely are your lights. Then you can look like your in when you are not, or turn the outside light on for when you get home on a dark evening. 

 

But then again there are things called timers and PIR sensors. 

 

Andy

[SM42]

I have occasion when feeling a little bored to try some of the national newspapers ( I use the word cautiously) clickbait. 

I do this for a laugh or more likely to wonder in exasperation what on earth people are being paid to write and what ever happened to proper journalism. 

 

Today's outing was from the Express

 

" Why you should never wear trainers to the airport"

 

I was expecting something to do with security profiling or some sort of emergency evacuation, melting whilst exiting a burning aeroplane type of thing, but no

 

You should never wear trainers because if you have to take them of at security, then you have to tie the laces when you put them back on and you could get all flustered and it delays you ( by about 30 seconds I suppose). 

 

Why just trainers?

 

Holding up your trousers whilst your belt is scanned is just as bad, but they don't say never wear trousers.

 

Having said that, the trouser/belt situation has a real security benefit as it is harder to run away whilst holding up your trousers.

 

Andy

Wondering what the world is coming to

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, SM42 said:

I fail to see why any household appliances need WiFi, unless course youi intend to use them to overload the Internet.

 

There was a children's film about this some years ago, in which a black ops force of gerbils defeated an internet-enabled uprising of household appliances.

[SM42]

1 minute ago, Compound2632 said:

 

There was a children's film about this some years ago, in which a black ops force of gerbils defeated an internet-enabled uprising of household appliances.

 

 Did the black ops gerbils really exist or were they only a figment of the wife's / partner's imagination and therefore could be denied in any situation  where one is confronted about a secret, ninja gerbil budget

 

Andy

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Did the black ops gerbils really exist or were they only a figment of the wife's / partner's imagination and therefore could be denied in any situation  where one is confronted about a secret, ninja gerbil budget

 

They were about to have their budget cut, so a successful operation was critical. It was a general uprising, masterminded by the usual sort of super-villain, not confined to a single household.

 

G-Force. Guinea pigs not gerbils, my mistake.

Edited August 5, 2022 by Compound2632

[SM42]

Ninja Guinea pigs are worse. 

 

They'll eat everything in their path.

 

Finish the mission 5 times bigger than when they started. 

 

Ninja gerbils would just get trapped in  the wall cavity or behind the cooker

 

Could be worse I suppose. 

Ninja hippos

 

Wouldn't want them in your wall cavities 

 

 

Andy