Early Risers.

[andyram]

Well the sunshine has appeared this morning and the back garden does look quite inviting. We may only be here for another month before our new pad is ready, but I owe it my dear departed Grandad to keep his pride and joy looking presentable until such time as the bungalow is sold out of the family.

 

Sadly the mood in our household has not particularly improved. Sarah is off to visit a friend and new baby this morning. She took ages getting ready and left me with the breakfast to make and daughter to dress all before I sorted myself out. She then had the nerve to moan that her chaffeur (guess who!!) was not ready in time! This meant a very frosty journey to drop her off this morning! Guess which taxi service is off to collect her an hour and a half later???

 The mood was not helped by two letters arriving this morning. One containing the car insurance policy, the other containing premium cost and payment details. The latter should have arrived a couple of weeks ago but it seems our great old postal service messed up again. No wonder the initial envelope contained a shirty comment about my credit card details having expired! So after getting home from taxi run number one I spent ages on the telephone sorting it all out! At least they were kind enough to give me a discount so all turned out well in the end.

 

 The insurance mess reminded me that I have not changed the address details on the car registration or driving licence yet. With the car tax due I can't really leave it until we move again so I have just finished wrestling with the government's website to sort out the licence details!!

 

 The school planning is still not done and time is ticking. With the Tesco shopping being delivered later there is only a limited amount of time for us to go out today. Maybe I will get some peace and quiet to get it done this afternoon. I won't hold my breath!

 

Hopefully the mood in the house will improve before the evening as have babysitters booked so we can get out together for the first time since January 2nd. Looking forward to the Chinese resturant!!!

[southern42]

Happy Saint George's Day.  Rarely see a St George's flag flying this side of the border unless flown on visitors' cars during something like a World Cup. Never fail to see the Everton crest flying around here, though.

 

Some seaside pics from me, today.  Yesterday, nice and quiet after the Easter visitors had gone, we went for a short amble along the sea wall in Llanfairfechan after a coffee and lunch over a read of the mags and before another coffee and read of the mags in the beach cafe.  We leave anything approaching exciting / tough / hard slog to the kids these days.

 

Looking towards Anglesey.

 

Looking back towards the Great Orme and Llandudno.

 

And a notice from the Urban District Council.

 

Bit of a bright start but clouding over a little.

 

Front moss patch lawn is cut prior to the recyclers tomorrow, Back dandelion patch lawn still; to do.

 

So glad I'm now allowed to do something instead of having to take care as much.

 

That reminds me.  Next time Camel Quay is exhibited it may well have a Barbecue Party incinerator burning the remains of the Station Master's pride and joy old shed on his lineside allotment. Always take a camera out with you and crop the image right down to the centre of those long distance shots if need be. You never know when they might come in handy.  Not far off 4mm....

 

 

 

[Tony_S]

 

I got in some trouble on Facebook a few months ago. One of those silly quizzes to decide what animal you most resemble etc had returned a verdict of "beaver" on a friend, which she had proudly posted. When I commented that a friendly beaver is nice to find, daughters were up in arms, and we were accused of flirting - oh, the shame! Interestingly, another mature and happily married lady who I've never met thought it fun and "liked" my remark. Perhaps the younger generation are a bit puritanical  - at least where mum and dad are concerned!

 

Matthew decided that I shouldn't be his "friend" on Facebook. We can only see each other's public posting. Even the former students who have befriended me on FB are in their 40s! Until recently my youngest Facebook contact was my SiL (the one married to Aditi's brother). However one of Aditi's cousins in India has become my friend as another means of contact. She is hoping to come to university here this autumn and busy applying. I tell Aditi where her cousin is currently investigating so she can have all the info when phoned up for advice. I think her parents want her to study on a campus university in remote locations!

[New Haven Neil]

Beavers, teddies....we have 'Donk'.  He is a relation of Eeyore but is much happier.  He likes a drink, has a lot of fun and sometimes a little naughty.  He originally was a method of communication with Debs nephew, as the only person he would respond to in e mails....he was a MSc student (the nephew!).....ahem. Kids.

 

So, Donk....

Edited April 23, 2014 by New Haven Neil

[New Haven Neil]

Payback....

[NGT6 1315]

Afternoon all. As announced, here's the result of my photo trawl this morning: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/74/entry-13806-the-freight-of-spring/

 

...with Leipziger Eisenbahn's 250 137 having been a particular highlight:

 

[AndyB]

 

So I introduced myself and then asked of whom I had the pleasure of addressing.

 

'I', she said puffing herself up with pride, to even more gargantuan proportion, 'I, am Brown Beaver!'

 

'I'm sure you are' I replied

 

Then I turned away trying hard not to die laughing............as did quite a few other assembled parents.

 

 

Thanks, Richard I had to reach for my "blue puffer" after reading this.              

[AndrewC]

For those who like to bash Royal Mail. They ain't got nuffin' on Canada Post.

 

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/Better+late+than+never+Canada+Post+takes+years+deliver/9764689/story.html

 

To make it more relevant, we knew the family and used to live just around the corner from them.

[New Haven Neil]

Out on the pull....

 

[Ian Abel]

...I shall just drive and push the supermarket trolley as usual and try to see how many "goodies" I can slip in before we reach the checkout and they're noticed!...

You do that too, eh!!   I often also then take us through the Self-Service checkout (Mrs HATES using that option), which means I get to scan and bag the items, then, if I'm lucky, once we get home I can secrete them in hiding places as I help unpack, and "no-one" ever even knows it happened

 

7 and cloudy here with a chance of showers...

 

Humpday, also means "in the office" day for me - as usual, no-one else here, but gives me my weekly fix of having lunch with a long-time friend who works downtown and is my only real non-internet connection with a fellow train/modelling individual.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[Tony_S]

Aditi asked me to do one of the curries for tonight's meal. She hadn't left enough masala base for the amount of rongi (black eyed beans) so I made some. I may have used some of the incorrect spices, Aditi has a special tin with unlabelled compartments, so I just chucked some of each in and some chilli to disguise any errors. Looks good, smells authentic but has turned out somewhat "hotter" I suspect than is approved of here. Matthew will cope, I just hope he doesn't start poking fun at his Mum!

[Barry O]

had a nice day in Whitby and then on to Grosmont by NYMR steam/diesel train.

 

New platform at Whitby coming along well.

 

Newly finished Gresley all 3rd Teak in traffic for the first time today and looked really good as did the Black 5s (3 in steam ..lovely!) and Bittern was in good photogenic condition (so where are the photos... the camera is at home(!)

[New Haven Neil]

Evening.

 

No problem with hot curry here, Tony.  We find the restaurant curries here too mild, the average Manxman isn't much suited to spicy food so things are toned down.  We have to ask for more spice....always.  Geordies are weaned on curry of course.

[Tony_S]

I got away with the curry, it was "very nice, just a bit hot", fortunately there was yoghurt available.

Tony

[andyram]

After the less than auspicious start to the day things did improve a lot. After lunch the three of us headed over to Melbourne Pool so that Amber could feed the ducks. She certainly had a good time, although her desire to get close to the edge of the lake did nothing for Sarah's nerves!

 

Once home I tackled the constuction of the Minnie Mouse scooter, bought yesterday. What should have been a straight forward job became much more complicated by the lack of instructions in the box. But with a little bit of thought I managed to get it all together and it met with full approval. Thankfully it didn't fall apart when tested on a journey to my parent's house in the next street.

 

 With Amber safely at my parents we managed to get out for the Chinese meal in the evening. Some much needed time together. We have not had a night out with just the two of us since January 2nd. After the stresses and strains of moving into, and living in, the bungalow it was a very welcome and enjoyable time.

 

 As for the school planning - well that was at least started so there is a little less to do. I should really get stuck into it tomorrow. Sarah and Amber are spending the day at the inlaws. But I really need a day out so the Severn Valley is beckoning me. I will work in the evening when I get home.

[AndyB]

So, I decided to free up some space on my laptop by transferring several years of photos to a memory stick.

I though this would be just a simple "drag and drop".

How very wrong of me. The hi-tech memory stick decided that it should password protect anything stored and has been encrypting 32Gb of files since lunchtime.

Its earlier estimate of 8 hours to complete the task seems a tad optimistic and it will be more like 18 hours.

All  I really wanted to do was "move" the folders and files. Instead it seems to have taken it upon itself to encrypt each jpeg one-by-one and copy them across.

 

This makes me wonder. If I bought a terrabyte storage system, filled it up and had to migrate it, how long would that take? One day will storage systems be so large you can't afford to fill it because the time taken to migrate to the next size up will take an impossibly long time? I'm going to go and lie down now. 

 

But still a minor miracle - who remembers those floppy discs that could store a few kbytes from a Beeb micro. Now a bit of plastic half the size of my thumb can store  32Gb, or even 64Gb. How the world has moved on.

[Jock67B]

Had quite a good time with great grandson Freddie. We decided to load up the Westie guard dog Archie and take some bread to introduce them both to duck feeding. As luck would have it, we found a Mallard pair with 18 young who all feasted on the bread (I think Archie would have rather sampled the ducks!). When we took the little chap home he told his mum that he had seen 18 baby ducks whereupon, I told him they were called Ducklings. He said 'that is ridiculous Grumps! - bear in mind he isn't 3 until May 22nd!! Hope you all had a reasonable day, soon be the weekend, good night and kind regards,

Jock67B.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

Welcome to Donk - our newest ER!

 

It is a nice sunny morning here, but I have a day of testing ahead so it looks as if it is going to be quite busy.

 

Time for a coffee!

 

Have a good one everybody...

[DonBradley]

Cool is cool. 20C max today but the sky is clear, so it will be another perfect Autumn day. Overnight temp was 13C so I'm back to wearing Winter pyjamas, (Why does spellcheck object to pyjamas? Don't Americans wear them?

Have a good Thursday.

 

I echo Robert's welcome to Donk. He appears to be admirably qualified for membership.

Edited April 24, 2014 by DonBradley

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dry now after a damp night and 10^oC. Should be a fairly nice morning with sunny spells but there's a chance of showers later.

More shopping on the agenda when I collect Chris. She actually works for the supermarket and some of her colleagues think that as I'm there so often that I should too. Yeh right - there's as much chance of that as me flying to the moon. Even if I did I'd last about 2 minutes. There is no way I'd tolerate the rudeness shown to the staff by some of their customers. (and on occasions management) On a lighter note Chris was asked yesterday by a "dizzy" friend in which aisle she could find some "separated eggs" as she was baking a cake for the first time! I told her that she should have sent her to look for the divorced chickens.

I had my first go at weathering some wagons yesterday but not overjoyed with the results so will probably have another bash today.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[NGT6 1315]

Morning all. Foggy outside and I'll be off for a haircut within the hour. After that, it's back to some lesson planning. I long for the day when I will - hopefully - be able to do this with a few handwritten notes on my notepad!

[travelintrev]

Morning all, and Donk,  is he going to be come the official ER's mascot? 

 

Seeing the stocks reminds me of some my Grandfather made (to replace the originals) for the Festival of Briton. These were placed on the village green and for years mother would always threaten my brother & I  that we would end up in them if we misbehaved.  I'm not sure when they finally rotted away but it was well into the '80s .

Oh well only 365 days to go, (perhaps)

 

Try and survive the day,

 

Trev. 

[DDolfelin]

Our current mascot is in Gordon's shed.

Perhaps Donk can be our Assistant Mascot.

 

Pleased to see that our mountain is putting on Summer clothes.

[AndyB]

 

On a lighter note Chris was asked yesterday by a "dizzy" friend in which aisle she could find some "separated eggs" as she was baking a cake for the first time!  

 

 

They sell them at M&S and Waitrose branded up as the "Consciously Uncoupled" range. They're a lot further down the shelf from their "Happily Entangled" egg range and next to the "Hen-Pecked" range.  

[Debs.]

Testing to see if my parents are coulrophobic today, as I`ve bought them some tickets to Billy Smart`s Circus which has come to town for Easter.

They`re hardly to be considered 'regulars' as it`s been over 70 years since they last attended a circus..........mercifully the days of performing animal ignominy are long gone and the performances are assured to be 'all human' (including a not insubstantial live-music orchestra).

 

My attempt to joke with the Russian box office young-lady (also one of the acrobats) about the circus being organised by a 'bunch of clowns', fell on somewhat stony ground!