Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

So the Star Wars-y battlecruiser thing was an SEP for while - then suddenly appeared in my vision!

[skipepsi]

Equally concerning is seeing a child wearing this on her tee shirt:

 

"If you think I'm a b***h, you should see my mother. "

In my life usually a statement of fact...

[PhilH]

In my life usually a statement of fact...

 

Been there, done that......umm......got the........... 

[New Haven Neil]

Earlier moaning successful, it is now sunny 11c and the sun feels warm on my back, at last!

[skipepsi]

Why not draft the report from home Neil? Just do it on the rainy day and play trains on the sunny one.

[BoD]

This old back of mine ain't up to gloss painting skirting boards the way it used to be.

[trisonic]

I'll have 3 pints of what he's drinking please.

 

Best, Pete.

 

PS Andrew, Here's a Branson Story. Remember the Pete and Dud "Derek & Clive" series of recordings? After the first two for Island Records they moved them to Virgin Records. So Virgin booked them some recording time at an El Cheapo studio.

For a jape Branson booked 4 actors to dress as the old bill and raid the studio during the session. They did so and were shocked to find that although Pete and Dud looked "shifty" (what's the worse job you've ever had?) all they were doing were drinking cups of tea in swift succession (made by the harried engineer).....

Edited April 10, 2014 by trisonic

[NGT6 1315]

"It was a slow day / And the sun was beating on the soldiers by the side of the road..."

 

[DDolfelin]

Hoorah!

Problems with BT have (for the time being) been resolved and they are giving me £110 'consideration' by transfer into my bank.

As it wasn't about charges, just problems with e-mail etc., I thought this was quite generous and not something for which I'd asked.

[grandadbob]

Just seen a beautiful loco with a chime whistle on the Dawlish webcam!

[Ian Hargrave]

A sense of proportion ? Just been to the local post office (yes,they still exist) to post two cards to Long Island USA. Cost for each £1.28.Distance to be travelled= about 3500 miles. Yesterday received appointment at local hospital,cost £0.50. Distance travelled 3 miles.....and the logic in the pricing structure ? Never mind "business reasons", just apply the Ancient Greek stuff.

Having a break from the stormy waters of the P2 thread,where the use of that phrase sent my Meldrew hormones into orbit a couple of days ago ,followed by a joust with a couple of LNER types trained in interrogation techniques by the Assad regime.Vowed "don't go there" to myself.I remember an Australian lady talking of "the murky world of model railways" in a thread hastily locked by Andy Y a couple of years ago..I now have an appreciation of her sentiments.

So...to calmer climes. Thursday being Elizabeth's morning in Fitness League....aka ladies who sometimes lunch....to the loft to test my recently acquired Hornby Black 5 in LMS guise....a sweetly attractive well mannered model..looks to my eyes better than BR versions.

Then out into the garden and a wonderful surprise in the form of a healthy number of bees buzzing around Pulmonaria and blue Rhododendrons..Next to deal with a crop of Dandelions and Valerian which grow in inaccessible cracks in paths and walling joints and paved areas.A job for the gas canister fuelled flame gun. A great tool this but they can go wrong.Two years ago,whilst using one,the control valve came apart in use and set alight.I fortunately dropped it before immolating myself.It fell into the pond,where it burned under water for some time with catastrophic results for the resident frog.......boiled alive,poor thing! Felt guilty. But then as they say it was him or me.

Take care wherever you are and stay safe. .....Ian

[Tony_S]

   "the murky world of model railways" ...

 

...with catastrophic results for the resident frog.......boiled alive,poor thing! Felt guilty. But then as they say it was him or me.

Take care wherever you are and stay safe. .....Ian

There was some aggro developing on a thread about LEDs over the last few days. Much waving of credentials!

 

The first school I taught in had a big tank of African Clawed Toads. I think these were survivors of the former use of such amphibians in pregnancy testing. Anyway on her first day as a lab technician our new colleague's first task was to clean their tank. Unfortunately this was after the thermostat had stuck over the weekend and the poor creatures had been boiled and turned to soup. The lab-tech said this wasn't what she had envisaged when told she would be working with animals.

[PhilJ W]

Thought for the morning: What do you make of someone with a badge on his jacket which has the following written on it?

 

"A**hole. Not just a word - a lifestyle."

 

With proper letters in place of the asterisks, I should add.

 

 

Equally concerning is seeing a child wearing this on her tee shirt:

 

"If you think I'm a b***h, you should see my mother. "

 

 

My three tee-shirt tales, which may have been posted previously:

 

Deb, most out of character, had bought a tee which had, in funny bobbly letters "This tee-shirt is in braille. Please read gently", which was a bit of an invitation, especially on a seriously bosomy torso. I think it came from a restaurant in London SW, called something like Borscht & Tears?

 

My least favourite young carriage cleaner at Dartford "I am a virgin - but this is an old tee-shirt". Her demeanour suggested it must have been very old.

 

A French girl, maybe 13, maybe not "Canadian girls kick ass!". Other nations' sexual preferences are not best announced by one so young.

I have a T-shirt that reads 'Original Grumpy Old Man', Women keep asking me where they can get one for their husbands.

[BoD]

There was some aggro developing on a thread about LEDs over the last few days. Much waving of credentials!

I once caused an LED to go 'pop' rather loudly.

That must make me suitably qualified.

Edited April 10, 2014 by BoD

[Simon G]

I have a T-shirt that reads 'Original Grumpy Old Man', Women keep asking me where they can get one for their husbands.

I think I need one too!  Yesteray's rant on roofers has now been displaced by today's on a well known global computer company - D*ll.  My son's laptop breaks down, so he orders a new one from them, as he urgently needs it for Uni.  Delivery date promised, then he is told that they dont have any in stock and delivery will now be 4 weeks later.  After he has a rant at them (family trait?), one miraculously becomes available and duly arrived on Monday.  Two days later, the screen dies without warning and for no reason.  Now they want £150 to fix it (a £330 laptop two days old!).  More ranting and that is reduced to £75.  Now I plan to have a good rant on his behalf to quash the £75.  My usual method is to go direct to the top, so I will try an email to Michael D*ll and see what happens.

[AndrewC]

Simon. I once worked with a rather charming and sweet young Vietnamese girl. Our supplier of choice was mr D*ll. she would burst into fits of laughter when ever the manufacturer was mentioned. Eventually we managed to extract from her the reason. Dell in Vietnamese = f**k.

Simon. I once worked with a rather charming and sweet young Vietnamese girl. Our supplier of choice was mr D*ll. she would burst into fits of laughter when ever the manufacturer was mentioned. Eventually we managed to extract from her the reason. Dell in Vietnamese = f**k.

[AndrewC]

Deja feck. The feeling your post got dubble borked when posting. :-(

[Oldddudders]

There was the story of the motor race in, I think, Portugal, where the car sponsored by Cona, the coffee machine makers, got a lot of laughs. Apparently it means the same as a well-known but unprintable English 4-letter word, also beginning with C.

[Motters]

 

 taH pagh taHbe'!

 

So 1216 025... do tell... Trekkie or Shakespeare Lover?

 

Motters

[Ian Abel]

Merde department - specifically regards to;

 

1) bin day, which it is/was. "Is" in that the garbage has yet to be collected, "was" in that the Recycle (every other week) HAS been collected and we were RED CARDED and the majority of that placed out there left curbside!!!

We have a MOUNTAIN of cardboard from the IKEA cabinets/kitchen project, 90% of which is from doors, flat-pack cabinets, side panels etc., and therefore basically flat and all quite uniform/similar in size. According to the recycle bin nazis collector/company they can only be taken if broken down and placed IN the bin - we'd thoughtfully placed ALL the items together in one LARGE cardboard box, beside the bin! Apparently flat and broken down are not the same thing. So, I'll be armed with a utility knife and shred re-size the LOT before next collection day. If I had plenty of time on my hands I'd shred it all into postage stamp sized pieces, but the irony wouldn't be seen except by me... <sigh>

 

2) F!@#!@$!$@k!@!@#$ing COMCAST, the local internet provider. So far today I've had to reset/restart the cable modem THREE times as the service as gone tits belly up!!!

 

Sans Merde department;

 

1) It hit 23 yesterday late afternoon and saw me into shorts and a tee shirt for the first time since last SEPTEMBER around here! Same attire today - gotta love working from home

 

2) 12, clear and sunny heading for 16 today.

 

3) With the imminent arrival of my  "Winston Churchill" and the need for a decoder by the time the loco arrives, I paniced, broke down and ordered a TCS M1, in spite of great help/recommendations from all here. All I have is TCS decoders and they have seemed exceptional, so rather than chance my arm on something else I went with the known quantity. Thanks all for the help and recommendations.

[shortliner]

I think I need one too!  Yesteray's rant on roofers has now been displaced by today's on a well known global computer company - D*ll.  My son's laptop breaks down, so he orders a new one from them, as he urgently needs it for Uni.  Delivery date promised, then he is told that they dont have any in stock and delivery will now be 4 weeks later.  After he has a rant at them (family trait?), one miraculously becomes available and duly arrived on Monday.  Two days later, the screen dies without warning and for no reason.  Now they want £150 to fix it (a £330 laptop two days old!).  More ranting and that is reduced to £75.  Now I plan to have a good rant on his behalf to quash the £75.  My usual method is to go direct to the top, so I will try an email to Michael D*ll and see what happens.

Surely this is covered under the sale of goods act - unfit for purpose, and also warranty

[Barry O]

So I promised some wild life..... as seen at Puffing Billy one of those noisy Australians!

 

 

but then - at the start of the trip while waiting for our train at Melbourne Southern cross thiss rolled in from Sydney..

 

 

still wandering the rails.. but apparently not for much longer...

 

 

[Donw]

This old back of mine ain't up to gloss painting skirting boards the way it used to be.

I leave that job to Marion. Then I suggested she could paint them first and I would fix them will no nails or similar so just a little touching up would be needed. It works ok with the MDF ones as they bend easy.

Don

[New Haven Neil]

Why not draft the report from home Neil? Just do it on the rainy day and play trains on the sunny one.

 

Sunny ONE is the operative word!

 

It's tomorrow by all accounts, so I have taken the day off to boil water under pressure and use it to turn wheels.....

[Happy Hippo]

There was the story of the motor race in, I think, Portugal, where the car sponsored by Cona, the coffee machine makers, got a lot of laughs. Apparently it means the same as a well-known but unprintable English 4-letter word, also beginning with C.

Similar thing in Belgium whilst parachuting.

 

Hanging out of the door of a Cessna 206 over Wechelderzande, decided that was the exit point, pulled myself back into the aircraft , smiled sweetly and then called 'Cut'.' This was a polite request for the pilot to pull back on the power before we exited.

 

The rest of the jumpers, including some ladies looked at me rather stunned, including the pilot who was so surprised that he lost the aircraft heading!

 

Apparently I had just uttered the unprintable word at the top of my voice in a confined space.

 

Now I know why the ladies on the staff at the officers mess always had a fit of the giggles when they were asked for a packet of Silk Cut