Early Risers.

[BoD]

Hull, an interesting place to say the least, as with anywhere some nice parts others not so nice.

 

 

With a decent model railway club too ........ or so rumour has it.

 

I wonder if they will be asked to do anything cultural for 2017.

[DDolfelin]

Leaving soon - just waiting for a Hail storm to pass over.

Thick covering of 1cm icy lumps outside.

 

Thanks for all the support and clicks folks.

It all helps.

[AndyB]

I don't think the Swiss are mentally capable of grasping the concept of the "wrong type of snow". Snow is something you drive or plow through, or - if really no alternative - dig under.

 

 

 

Years ago when I was a lab rat I occasionally worked with an Arctic (and Antarctic) explorer. Naming no names, but it was the one with the funny quadruple-barreled name; lovely chap. Anyway, returning from one of his aborted expeditions he mentioned that the snow was the "wrong kind". "Wrong kind?", we queried.

"It was too cold. We rely on the snow/ice to be warm enough to melt under our skis and sledges to reduce the friction, thereby allowing the skis/sledge to move more easily. It didn't melt so we struggled all the way!" With all this global warming I'm guessing it'd be easier still these days!     although it might count as a long distance swim?

Andy

[Adams442T]

Cold, wet and miserably grey outside, but..........................Postie's just knocked to give me my L&Y 2-4-2 from Locomotion and a parcel of tools from Eileen's Emporium!

 

Result!!!

[Oldddudders]

Morning all

 

Hope DD can bear up under the ongoing strain - he does seem to get clobbered more than most of us.

 

Polly's pics seem to have garnered a very respectable number of likes, so I'm sure they must be up to snuff.

 

Cold here, with frosted windscreen at 0900 GMT, albeit in shade. Roads are dry and safe.

 

Never quite known what a "City of Culture" tag implied about a place. I know Hull used to have a private telephone exchange - hence, no doubt, Debs's observation re white boxes. Hull seems to have beaten off challenges from other inspiring places like Leicester, where I think the cultural heritage has changed dramatically since Africanisation drove many people of Indian origin out of that Continent, and the place also stopped being such a major centre for shoe manufacture.

 

Post-person has just delivered a box from the US, and unusually I've had to pay some sort of tax. It really does depend upon who sends it. Several heavy On30 locos recently each arrived with no charge. This is a much lighter box with a building kit in it. All in it's cost me £150, the same as two of the locos put together. I hope I make a success of it! I do intend to run a thread on the build process. Bring yer knitting, 'cos it won't be exciting.

 

Keep warm and dry!

[truffy]

I LAFF WITH SKORN at stories of you Britishers battening down the hatches when you get 2mm of snow.

So do I. And I'm British English.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Hope things don't go too badly for DD et all today.

 

Ah, the city of Kingston-Upon-Hull, not a bad little model railway exhibition but a pig to get to on public transport so I haven't been for several years, the 'city' centre isn't much but there are soem interesting parts to the place if you're interested in the sea so I'm told and alas Bielefeld doesn't stand a chance in the twinning stakes as the place is already twinned with various slightly dubious seaports such as Szczecin (which turned out to be very dubious when I was there back in the 1970s).

 

Weather here is very 'ull like, i.e. dismal and damp, at present although we had an overnight frost.  Sammy decided not to keep us awake with yowling all night last night, hope that's a new trait which will continue.  I understand we're off to Tesco again today then it's composing correspondence on behalf of son to a bunch of legalised spivs who deal with penalty fares and are based in Portsmouth, right crooks it seems so I shall quote the Conditions of Carriage at them.

 

Have a good day one & all.

[petethemole]

Here, the charging of customs/VAT on purchases from outside UK seems to vary according to what's on the declaration. I bought some rather tatty and very second-hand kit built coaches from Canada, which were labelled "model trains" and were charged. If "used" or "s/h" were added perhaps they wouldn't have been. A rare and pricey Lego set from a US dealer was labelled "gift" and wasn't charged. Unfortunately the Royal Mail also charge you an extra fee for the act of collecting the money for HMRC.

Pete

[Barry O]

Hell, Hull and Halifax, Good Lord deliver me!" - my eldest herbert has been in Hull for 6 and a half years at University there . Until he went I only ever went to Hull to:

 

1 Go the Model railway Show - always had a good time there

2 Go to the ferry fro the Continent - always rushing to get somewhere or get back from somewhere

 

You can get some excellent bacon and egg pies from next to the Herberts' flat...

 

There are some very nice bits of Hull  but they want to buy HMS Illustrious and turn it into part of the City of Culture...

[beast66606]

Safe journey DD.

 

Morning all from a very wet and cold Norfolk - I was out at 08:15 this morning photographing ... a 153 (I was expecting a 37 + coach, well I got the coach part I suppose) - the monkeys were looking for welders, first time this year.

 

It's still raining at the moment.

 

Work is slowly getting more organised, they key being slowly.

 

Have a good day all.

[southern42]

Morning all,

 

First of all we'd better clear up the confusion about Christmas - which is clearly linked to God's Wonderful Railway as it involves three Kings following a Star, so they obviously started out from Swindon.

 

And a bright sunny day here aided by a bit of news late last night that all is not lost on some prototype research I was doing earlier this year - all will become clearer before too long I now understand but I'm still off Danish pastries for now. And a more mundane front I'm told we're off to Tesco at sometime today although we'll all probably sleep whenever we can after Sammy having an extremely yowling night for no apparent reason (and teh vet was quite happy with him yesterday).

 

Off now to wander round RMweb, have a good day folks and best of techno luck to Dave - may all your passwords actually work.

 

And heading for Bethlehem

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2249010/Post-Office-tiny-Welsh-village-BETHLEHEM-besieged-customers-wanting-Christmas-postmark.html

Edited November 20, 2013 by southern42

[New Haven Neil]

Sunny start has been replaced with horrid torrential rain showers, horizontal mostly.  It feels decidedly wintery outside, so I'm not going out for my lunchtime walk, and have something inappropriate delivered for lunch instead!

[southern42]

Let's put this canard to rest - the GWR had no involvement whatsoever in the nativity. Had it done so there would have been a Manger Class of 4-6-0s

 

There was no room in the Manor.

But there was the GWR cattle wagon which, later, miraculously turned into Ale.

[AndyB]

Afternoon all.

Well, the half ton of gravel is now in situ and looks great. A lot better than the view of mud earlier in the week. Hail stopped play for a while so I came in an watched my next door neighbour depart from Gatwick to sunnier climes using Flightradar24.com. Apparently his first holiday in 20 years sans enfants. 

With the graveling complete I popped to the garden centre and bought a black-slanted planter to sit in the corner and plant up with some ornamental grass - at present trying to decide if it looks like a litter bin! I await swmbo's opinion. 

Next job - decorate the bathroom. Does it ever end? 

Andy

[Debs.]

Sunny start has been replaced with horrid torrential rain showers, horizontal mostly.  It feels decidedly wintery outside..........

 

IOMSP sailings suspended; England`s cut off!

[Gruffalo]

IOMSP sailings suspended; England`s cut off!

A local Farmers' Market offered Isle of Man lamb, poor "local" trader will be short of income for Christmas if this weather persists!

[Two_sugars]

Do Isle of man sheep have 3 legs?

[45156]

Afternoon All

 

Odd how NHN posts so often about high winds, cancelled sailings, and the like, when at the other end of the sea route, (Heysham) the weather is so totally different - we had no really high winds in Lancaster today,  though we had a frost last night, and then things warmed up considerably with heavy rain which was accompanied by wind, but not of the Force 9 variety.  

 

Other than that, not a great deal happening to me here, though I've caught up, and send generic commiserations, congratulations, etc to those who have posted over the last few days.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[gordon s]

Me and my big mouth...

 

T'was dry until I went over t'other side of the Hogs Back whereupon the rain fell.  Started in a drizzle, so cold and wet which was OK, but standing on a fairway with an umbrella up when thunder and lightning suddenly appeared was not the place to be.  Klaxon went and we all left the course for safety.  Warm and refreshed after coffee, no one wanted to go back out again, but as it was a league match we had to.  Sadly we went from one up to one down and lost…:-(

 

Disappointing, but that's the way it goes.  Still breathing, so not the end of the world…:-)

 

Batten down the hatches up north.

[AndyB]

Do Isle of man sheep have 3 legs?

Depends how long they've been at the abattoir?

[shortliner]

Here in the Land of Haggis - it has chucked it down with 10 minute breaks all day- At Lunchtime the wind got up and it is blowing a hoolie - the seaweed fingerers got it right as they are forecasting gusts up to 70 mph - a bit further south they have had more snow - rather them than me!

Edited November 20, 2013 by shortliner

[Tony_S]

Depends how long they've been at the abattoir?

If they are like the cats they may have to wait in retail premises.

[BoD]

Enjoying thunder and lightning at he moment.

The last flash was very close, almost at exactly the same time as the thunder which set various bits and pieces rattling.

I love a good electric storm.

[Ashcombe]

Good news: Alice should have been released from hospital today! She still has a gastric upset but her oxygen levels had stabilised around 92 for most of last night.

 

Hope you are all well and warm!

[Kelly]

No snow in Coventry thankfully. Not that I have much issue with driving in it, it's more the idiots wwho drive too fast i'd worry about! Though walking as I do with a walking stick in the snow/ice is somewhat... interesting, especially when you go forwards and the stick goes sideways!

 

I have fond memories of driving a HA Viva in snow several years back on crossplies, easy and effortless to drive. A year or so later it was less so with a HC Viva, pirouetting on a roundabout was... 'fun'

 

Yesterday was spent having words with the Dealer about the exhuast on the car falling off. Sadly to no avail, they refused to do anything about it. Took it to National Tyres for a quote, got quoted £200 to fix it. Though later speaking with a friend revealed a friend of a friend who could get a good deal at considerbly less most likely.

 

Thankfully the psychology appointment that afternoon went well and helped me calm down a bit at least.