Early Risers.

[Jock67B]

Morning all,

 

Gordon ('bluebottle'), thanks for bringing the 700th anniversary of a famous battle to everyone's attention - being a Scot, the date 1314 was crammed into our minds at school! They were chasing independence then, but I'm not sure the tactics used by 'Robert the Bruce' would work as well for Alex Salmond! In case anyone is interested, I'm in the 'no' camp - proud of my heritage, but I can't see how diminishing the strength of the United Kingdom can help anyone.

 

Phil, the concentration of contrails at North Weald are caused by the proximity of a navigation beacon just up the road at Ongar. We also have one at Clacton (It can be clearly seen in a field near the Thorpe road and the railway line with its array of transponders emitting signals which are picked up by the aircraft, allowing accurate navigation). These devices define the air corridors shown on navigation maps. I believe they are principally used by smaller aircraft now as most airliners have computerised navigation. Most days here in Clacton, we hear or see large jets either over-flying the UK from the continent or starting their descent to Heathrow. Incredible the compressing effect they have in a humid atmosphere. Those you see from the airfield at a much lower altitude, are on the flight path over Buckhurst Hill and on to Heathrow. I was lucky enough to learn the basics of flying at North Weald - in an aircraft that was slower than my 350cc Honda racer! (Google have some images and description to suit 'anoraks' like me!)

 

Ian, be careful of the chicken-pox virus which I'm told can result in the extremely painful condition known as shingles! Old wives suggest that it is at its most catching before the symptoms show? Perhaps if iL Dottore is looking in, he could enlighten us! Good luck with the dentist - at least this time the pain should only be in your wallet!

 

I hope your week progresses well, off to do the next bit of holiday preparation deemed necessary by SWMBO!

 

Kind regards,

Jock.

Edited June 24, 2014 by Jock67B

[Happy Hippo]

I see what you mean. Perhaps purple would suit them better?

Ok I get it!

 

Anything to please the lady

 

Try this then:

 

[beast66606]

A lovely sunny morning at the moment, I've fed my the birds, my blue tit chicks are growing bigger daily, they are turning into adults and hopefully there will be more around next year.

 

I have two of those funny steamy things to photograph later, Union of South Africa and the Great Marquess have just passed Colton Junction (York) on their way down - they don't get here for another 6 hours or so though - and so does the rain ...

 

Have a good day all

[AndyB]

Morning all,

An overcast, warm start to the day here but it feels like the weather is building up to a storm. 

Could be an expensive day here as we have a plumber inbound who estimated the job could take "at least 3 hours". 

 

<Rant mode on....>

I could swing for some IT companies. We use BT for our email and for a while this morning it wouldn't let me log in, offered various anti-spam questions, ignored my attempts to answer those and then said the service wasn't available at all. Now it says they detected unusual behaviour on my account and I need to jump through hoops to log in, including....my real gripe...download their anti-virus software in order to proceed. I can't help wondering if the earlier problem and lack of service were an orchestrated attempt to fast track me into using more of their products!  

<Breath>

<Rant mode off>

[Adams442T]

Morning all! 

 

Back from an extended visit to Edinburgh, where the sun shone and we basked in 23 degrees.  Visited, I think, all the Art Galleries and Museums, which being Edinburgh are all uphill.  Or at least they always were where we started from!  The Parliament was interesting too.  The semi-circular forum seemed to cut down on the Yahoo exchanges that we see from the confrontational benches in Westminster.

 

I didn't take me long to get used to no computer / tablet / laptop.  I finished twitching by the second week, and Jane allowed me to post to Word Game in Wheeltappers from my HTC once a day if I was good........

 

Missed going on the Tramway or The White Elephant Transport Service as it is known.  All the time we were there we didn't see, even in rush hour, more than a handful of people dispersed along the carriages.  Apparently it went way over budget and only covers about a third of the intended proposed route, with little prospect at present of extending it.  Shame as it is a lovely looking bit of kit, with the sonorous clanking bell sound very reminiscent of San Francisco.

 

Back on the grid now and closer to Rapido's reveal and the Bachmann announcements.  Is it me or has the Froth gone a bit flat....................   

[Jock67B]

Morning all,

An overcast, warm start to the day here but it feels like the weather is building up to a storm.

Could be an expensive day here as we have a plumber inbound who estimated the job could take "at least 3 hours".

 

<Rant mode on....>

I could swing for some IT companies. We use BT for our email and for a while this morning it wouldn't let me log in, offered various anti-spam questions, ignored my attempts to answer those and then said the service wasn't available at all. Now it says they detected unusual behaviour on my account and I need to jump through hoops to log in, including....my real gripe...download their anti-virus software in order to proceed. I can't help wondering if the earlier problem and lack of service were an orchestrated attempt to fast track me into using more of their products!

<Breath>

<Rant mode off>

Andy,

I recently had my BT e-mail interfered with, a spurious 'sender' name appearing in my 'compose', screen. It seems some hacking may have occurred at the time of the split from Yahoo to the current version. I have to say that the Mumbai help team were fantastic in resolving my issues - actually working live on my PC to clear it. There are definitely some very clever and very nasty bar stewards out there!

Kind regards,

Jock.

Edited June 24, 2014 by Jock67B

[Tony_S]

BT are severing their link with Yahoo for mail and are being really slow about it and messing about. Ours haven't transferred yet but at the weekend Aditi's was very fussy about reading/sending. Had to login via login.yahoo.com and answer the "prove you are human" puzzle. This showed that the account was there and was working. However to get it to work I had to update her Windows Live Mail program that has worked perfectly for a few years.

[DDolfelin]

Desperately sorry to hear about Debs distress, she sent me a PM when she heard of my illness and it was beautifully phrased - just like the friendly/supportive rating was devised to describe her! DD, perhaps you could enlighten me further in a PM?

 

Jock.

 

Yes, she is a nice person.

Unfortunately I can't add anything to that already noted.

Maybe she will appear one day and we can ask her for better contact details!

[Jock67B]

BT are severing their link with Yahoo for mail and are being really slow about it and messing about. Ours haven't transferred yet but at the weekend Aditi's was very fussy about reading/sending. Had to login via login.yahoo.com and answer the "prove you are human" puzzle. This showed that the account was there and was working. However to get it to work I had to update her Windows Live Mail program that has worked perfectly for a few years.

Be very wary Tony because it appears likely that clever hackers are using the Yahoo devolvement debacle to disguise their activities. BT security were convinced that was how my little drama occurred!

Kind regards,

Jock.

Edited June 24, 2014 by Jock67B

[beast66606]

We use BT for our email and for a while this morning it wouldn't let me log in, offered various anti-spam questions, ignored my attempts to answer those and then said the service wasn't available at all. Now it says they detected unusual behaviour on my account and I need to jump through hoops to log in, including....my real gripe...download their anti-virus software in order to proceed. I can't help wondering if the earlier problem and lack of service were an orchestrated attempt to fast track me into using more of their products!  

 

Ah yes, BT, my second story from a couple of weeks back which I never posted so I'll paraphrase it now

 

Our Broadband was causing problems, dropping out on various devices, I investigated and established the hub was knackered. We rang tech support (20 minutes in the queue) and fair enough they sort of agreed but the problem had gone by then so they gave us a priority text number, send us a text and we''l get back to you within a few minutes so we can see the problem. The problem reoccurred within a couple of hours so we sent a text and waited..... and waited...  and waited.... and rang the tech support number again, and queued, again, and when we spoke to someone we were told the text was only monitored from 09:00 - 21:00 (it was 22:00 by now) - so why wasn't that explained ? Very sorry etc. etc.  but now a few checks are made, they get into the hub and tell me what devices we have connected to validate it's the correct one - errr, how did you do that as I've reset the password ? we have ways ... right.....

They agree the hub is beyond repair and, and I've cut this short, to get a new one we have to resign the contract (We already have one, but apparently it was only for 6 months and not 12 months and we would have to pay if we didn't - no, it didn't make sense to us either), so we do that, although not marvellous the service is probably as good as anyone else could provide.  It cannot be ordered by the engineer as it's a different company who deal with it, and we will have to wait until the morning to do so. So we renew, and the hub is ordered (remember we are  without BB as far as they know, I had kept an old hub so had managed to restore our service). So we ring in the morning and speak to ... BT - left hand, right hand ? So we order the hub "If we leave I have to pay for this ?" "Yes Sir" "So I'm buying the hub, it's mine?" "Yes Sir" "I want to know the back door you use to get into it, that's a breach of my security and I want it closing down?" "Err, Errr, Err, Err, well it's not actually yours until you've paid for a years service sir, so we can't do that" "Ok" (Google here I come) - the hub turned up 4 days later and, touch wood, has worked without issue.

[PhilJ W]

Ok I get it!

 

Anything to please the lady

 

Try this then:

 

 

[AndyB]

Well the symptoms are that my bt email address is allegedly compromised but some others aren't. Broadband is working but was quite slow for a while this morning.

I used to have Mcaffee on the machine but it was so dire I got rid and eventually managed to persuade it to stop popping up every 5 minutes telling me to switch it on!

This morning Mcaffee was back. Grrrr! I declined to switch it on. And shortly after that....

Hence my suspicion that it's rigged to fail if you choose not to use a partner product.   

[Tony_S]

Be very wary Tony because it appears likely that clever hackers are using the Yahoo devolvement debacle to disguise their activities. BT security were convinced that was how my little drama occurred!

Kind regards,

Jock.

Believe me I am wary, very wary! This drawn out divorce between BT and Yahoo must be an internet fraudsters gift. Stating that you will receive further instructions in a month (last November) may have been optimistic though.

Tony

[Tony_S]

Well the symptoms are that my bt email address is allegedly compromised but some others aren't. Broadband is working but was quite slow for a while this morning.

I used to have Mcaffee on the machine but it was so dire I got rid and eventually managed to persuade it to stop popping up every 5 minutes telling me to switch it on!

This morning Mcaffee was back. Grrrr! I declined to switch it on. And shortly after that....

Hence my suspicion that it's rigged to fail if you choose not to use a partner product.   

I don't use the BT "free" antivirus stuff. I found the "nagware" version of McAfee they originally supplied irritating. I use (because I like and I am familiar with the user interface) Norton on my Windows PCs and Sophos on my Mac. It always amuses me that people who haven't used Norton since it had Peter Norton's picture on the manual still criticise it for being slow, resource heavy etc. Anyone who uses it now and doesn't like it would be a fair comment though!

[Oldddudders]

Things degenerated when I got home and checked RMWeb and found more negative comments aimed at me on the Great Central exhibition thread. Apparently I am now negative and aggressive! This has left me very angry and considering whether I should bother posting on some parts of this site in the future. What is the point if you can't post a constructive piece of criticism alongside plenty of praise?? Has the Nanny state come to RMWeb?

It takes all sorts to make a forum, sadly, and RMweb is no different. I recently got lambasted on the (really, really important!) song lyric thread, because I dared to use the same line twice - a "mere" two weeks and several pages apart! I do not see myself wracking my brains on there in the near future.....

 

Dentist up to his usual astonishing standard, and conducted the removal of the temporary filling and creation of a new one with virtually no discomfort and without an injection. OTOH I have booked an inspection and "detartrage" (removing plaque) for next month, as time there is simply an investment in future comfort, I feel, and the net cost is trivial.

 

I had chicken pox at age 23. I caught it from someone I never met - she was in the sanatorium at the college where my then-girlfriend was resting after spraining an ankle or some such. Exactly the incubation period later - bingo. I generously passed it on to my colleague, who was twice my age, but we both survived. Sherry's best friend at skool had chicken pox twice, the second time as a teenager, then had shingles, which then turned to meningitis. She was lucky to survive, although it knackered her academic achievements, which should have been rather higher. Little Sammy, 5, was running around today outside. We did not come into close contact - although kids aren't "me" at the best of times! 

 

My skim read suggests the much-trumpeted Rapido model has been announced as the APT-E. I'm sure it will please a lot of people, but best described as "not my era". At least I got a paid ride on the APT in service.

[The Lurker]

I had German measles twice - the second was while I was a student at Leeds, and they were so impressed with my symptoms that they took photos for future medical students to diagnose. So sorry to anyone out there who's studied medicine at Leeds since the mid 80s.

 

The Doctor described my case as being like a Theakstons Old Peculiar compared "that old p***water, Tetley's".

 

It was so strong that I gave it to several people who'd had it before, including someone who was in quarantine like me, with chicken pox. I also gave it to my then gf who had dodged the rubella jab when she was 13 and thereafter. It had unfortunate side effects on her hearing which were of course all my fault. :roll

[The Stationmaster]

 

I had chicken pox at age 23. I caught it from someone I never met - she was in the sanatorium at the college where my then-girlfriend was resting after spraining an ankle or some such. Exactly the incubation period later - bingo. I generously passed it on to my colleague, who was twice my age, but we both survived. Sherry's best friend at skool had chicken pox twice, the second time as a teenager, then had shingles, which then turned to meningitis. She was lucky to survive, although it knackered her academic achievements, which should have been rather higher. Little Sammy, 5, was running around today outside. We did not come into close contact - although kids aren't "me" at the best of times! 

 

 

I was 27 when I caught chickenpox - after taking a party of schoolchildren round at work and several of them wanted to hold my hand (not an arrestable offence in those days).  Anyway I duly finished up feeling utterly ugh and then some spots started appearing so off I went to the GP the following weekend (you could see a Doctor on a Saturday back then) and then it rurned to comedy - one look at my face and he grabbed a torch but before telling me to drop my trousers he told me to take off my shirt, one look at teh rest of my upper torso and he put down teh torch and pronounced that I had chickenpox (and, without saying it, another sort of pox).

 

But it was 'orrible - all itchy, couldn't shave for several weeks, and felt like cr*p warmed up.  And that's how I came to grow a beard.

[Oldddudders]

Jane allowed me to post to Word Game in Wheeltappers from my HTC once a day if I was good........

 

 

Just imagine the privileges you might be afforded if, instead of being merely good, you became magnificent! Must try harder!

 

I meant to add that on returning from the dentist, there was Jon the builder in the drive having just unloaded my new garage door and a rather nice wooden personal/personnel door to go with it. He'll probably install early next week, and I'll leave the big door open initially so the birds can continue feeding and fledging their young unhindered. But this will be their last Spring/Summer in guano city!

[grandadbob]

Well the scaffolders eventually turned up at 11.30 and have now done their bit at the rear of the house.  Paul the painter has been striding around muttering under his breath about bl#I#dy scaffolders holding every one up and in the meantime the pebbledasher turned up at 10.00AM exactly on time and is attacking the front of the house where we had leaks during the storms.

It does seem that the plan is (gradually) coming together.  However the pessimist in me says don't count your chickens yet!

[Simon G]

<Rant mode on....>

I could swing for some IT companies. We use BT for our email and for a while this morning it wouldn't let me log in, offered various anti-spam questions, ignored my attempts to answer those and then said the service wasn't available at all. Now it says they detected unusual behaviour on my account and I need to jump through hoops to log in, including....my real gripe...download their anti-virus software in order to proceed. I can't help wondering if the earlier problem and lack of service were an orchestrated attempt to fast track me into using more of their products!  

<Breath>

<Rant mode off>

If it is any consolation, Talktalk arent any better.  I currently cant send email via my Talktalk email address due to problems within Talktalk (them having been blacklisted according to their own Community forum).  This is the second time this has happened recently, and I get no indication that the emails I have tried to send are not getting to their destinations, ie they disappear into the ether.  Talktalk's Help Support  phone line people havent got a clue and keep trying to get me to check my settings in Outlook, even though the problem is with them. 

 

I have now avoided this by setting up a hotmail account and this works perfectly, and I have linked it into Outlook, so I will gradually move my contacts off the Talktalk one.  When that is done, Talktalk will no longer have my business!

Edited June 24, 2014 by Simon G

[Gwiwer]

 

 

Our Broadband was causing problems, dropping out on various devices,

 

A right royal PITA.

 

The hub here has behaved itself more or less to my satisfaction for a couple of years now.  Before that it suddenly went down leaving us no service whatsoever without any advance warning.  Reverting to the land line (remember land lines?  A few of them still work ) I waited an hour on hold for "Customer Support" only to find the call then "timed out" and was automatically disconnected.  Seven times if I recall over a 48-hour period.  

 

Cue call to the office of the Ombudsperson.  No we haven't got a complaint logged with our service provider.  I can't get through to them ..........

 

Empathetic Ombudstaffperson then replies that they can't take it up as a formal complaint as we haven't gone through "Level 1" but as we have made more than a reasonable effort to do that then we have a valid issue concerning lack of response.

 

Next thing I know is an hour later when a service engineer knocks the door unannounced with a new box, a verbal apology, a comment about "It's always like this" and a big fat zero on the invoice after the dollar sign!

[NGT6 1315]

Afternoon all. Knackered after listening to the various presentations, so need a coffee now...

[Tony_S]

 ...

Many trees down, the Yarra River in Melbourne has burst its banks and there are floods in parts of the city.  Power lines down, cars and homes damaged, trains and trams came to a near-standstill and over 2500 emergency calls for assistance.

 

 ...

Matthew will be on his way to Melbourne (for July and August) this time next week. I told him about your weather report! He smiled. He will be an intern in a business whose dress code is "wear clothes" but I hope he will be sensible about appropriate winter wear! He survived a Calgary winter (allegedly the mildest one for years though) and he didn't want to be somewhere too warm so Melbourne seemed quite pleasant in his opinion.

Tony

[Ian Abel]

Morning all - Happy Anniversary Baz.

Andy - amazed at the response in the "thread from hell", my reading of your original post(s) is simply a sensible and objective reporting. I'd have read your post and pretty much said "hmm, interesting/informative/thanks"...seems better to avoid venturing out into the scary world of broader-RMWeb - shades of my lambasting in the "Hornby web site.." thread.

 

Seems there are many things in commmon for ERs;

Yesterday had an entire DAY of the next door neighbors house being re-roofed! Their house is an '80s quite modern (ours is a 1927 model)  and a simple sloping roof front and back. The crew showed up at 6:45AM and hammered their way non-stop into the early evening <sigh>

Had the six-month checkup at the dentist yesterday, need a crown on one tooth, otherwise a decent bill-of-health. Of course, the crown will be exactly that, a BILL for about $700!

 

We've avoided rain for a couple of days now, but the past weeks worth has and is causing havoc in the area with many roads being closed as the various rivers crest or are about to crest. The Twin-Cities, given it's way up the top of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers' "food-chain", have several smaller rivers that converge in the area to meet the two larger rivers. Net result, all above or reaching flood stage now and flooding/road closures are rampant.

 

Example:

This is the Union Station Railcam - about 1/4 mile from my office in downtown St. Paul (the one I visit once a week!!)

Taken 5/28, about a month ago - road between the tracks and the river is my "usual/preferred" route along the river and into downtown...

 

Taken today - now need a boat if I wanted to use that "road"...

 

Not quite the excellent comparison it could be as that freight has been stuck in the same position since midday yesterday, however you can see/compare the trees that lined the road as well as the bridge pillars, and it's not supposed to crest until Thursday!

 

Lovely day again here - 21 clear and sunny not a hint of humidity may reach 27 and very pleasant overnight with 14 predicted.

 

Have a great day everyone

 

 

[Donw]

On a campsite at Devils bridge there is free site wifi but only accessible close to the office and tearooms a good hike down from the touring area. It is nice hearing a proper train whilstling now and then while walking in the hills. Unfortunately when it cools down of an evening the midges come out to feast.

It seems all sorts of dire things are happening my comiserations to the affected.

Don