Early Risers.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dry sunny start and should stay that way all day.

I think there's some sort of telepathy going on around here. I've just read about Pete spotting weeds and "She who must" pipes up with "We ought to do some gardening this morning - the flower beds are covered in weeds!"  Would all ER members please keep thoughts of physical labour to themselves when Chris is in the room!  

Have a good one,

Bob.

[Barry O]

Morning!

Great nights sleep, now for a cup of tea, breakfast, ablutions then umpiring.

 

And its a very sunny morning! Hope everyone has a good day.

 

Baz

[NGT6 1315]

Morning all. Sleepy at LHR. Where's me coffee?

[AndyB]

Morning all,

So for tea last night I had to eat my words. The lad from the recruitment company phoned on his day off as he hadn't had time to finish making all his calls before CoP on Friday. 

He didn't have an update but just wanted to apologise for not having phoned when he said he would. 

 

Off to Shropshire later today then most likely back down here again one day in the week, then back up to Shropshire, side trip to Cromford for research for my layout, then a drive up to Deeside split over two days, A lot of driving this week! MiL's home isn't noted for it's internet connectivity and our place up in Scotland has similar issues. So, I may be able to read your posts for the next week or so but possibly not reply easily. 

 

The Little House Beseiger kept up his campaign of seeking out playmates to the point where my children were even hiding! No doubt with us away and my neighbour and his family returning today his attention will focus elsewhere. My neighbour is likely to be a little more, erm, outspoken (?) if his doorbell rings every 20 minutes.  

 

Have a nice week everyone. Andy

[Happy Hippo]

 

Off to Shropshire later today then most likely back down here again one day in the week, then back up to Shropshire, side trip to Cromford for research for my layout, then a drive up to Deeside split over two days, 

 

 

Run run flee

 

Watch out for AndyB

 

I shall not run, merely cower in the Obergrumpenfuher Bunker  (Don't worry Gordon, it's not part of a new golf course)

[Donw]

It was a good show at Minehead yesterday. Looks like more Hedge cutting today if the day continues dry. Oh and there was mention of digging a pond out.

 

Don

[trisonic]

I agree with sentiments re Mike Smith.  I always enjoyed his banter, but had forgotten his time in Touring Cars.  Was that the time of the Volvo Estates and Alfas or earlier?  Thinking about it, that must have been the mid 90's, so much later.

 

I'm guessing the biggest crowds at a UK football match were pre H & S times.  Hampden Park in Glasgow had crowds of 145,000 from memory in the 30's and then there was the 1923 'White Horse' Cup Final at Wembley which I think was 125,000.  Of course those figures can't happen now with all seater stadiums.

 

Ian, the Triplex was a retirement gift from the girls in my Canadian Office.  It seemed much more fitting than the usual retirement gifts so has real sentimental value.  I had a couple of Fleischmann locos from Germany and the Czech Republic and they have the same sentimental value.

My memory is now awful! I have the feeling that Mike Smith was driving a “private” Ford Cosworth at the time.

 

The Triplex is being re-issued!

 

The figure of 109K attending the match at the U of M were all seated.....

 

Best, Pete.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Quite pleasant here this morning. 

So far all we have done is drink tea and book excursions for our holiday. I thought the one involving a train was a bit expensive but Aditi assured me it wasn't!

I don't have any plans other than going down to the park with Robbie today. Something sent him into "intruder alert" at about 4am. I suspect it was a cat in the garden. While Robbie has been away we have had felines visiting the garden at ground level.

Tony

[DDolfelin]

"we have had felines visiting the garden at ground level"

Best place for them.

Once you get infested with flying cats they are difficult to eradicate.

[travelintrev]

Good morning all,  

 

Dull overcast & dismal...(and thats just me!) weather is pretty much the same.!  Not sure yet what I'll get up to...... maybe a trip to the local supermarket is in order.  

 

What ever you're up to lets hope it's a successful day, 

 

 

Trev.

[DonBradley]

Greetings. It's still overcast, cloudy and cooler at 16C today.

 

Thanks for the reply Gordon. I looked up the Merc 63E Estate. A very good looking vehicle.

Station Wagons are very commodious.I had a Chrysler Valiant Station Wagon in the 70s.

The record was 11 Boy Scouts plus their ruck sacks. 

On a trip from the Scout Hall out to a mountain camp site after the Friday night Scout meeting (after 10 :00 pm) we were stopped at a police road-block. My heart dropped as I thought of being charged with over loading and possible immediate consequences i.e.  not being permitted to proceed. We were required to dismount and unload whilst the police searched the vehicle, but all was well. It was during the oil crisis era and they were just checking that we were not carrying additional petrol.

 

Phil - I had the same occurrence and phoned my GP at some inconvenient time of night. He assured me it was a minor problem which would rectify itself shortly over time. It did.

 

Happy Sunday all.

. 

Edited August 3, 2014 by DonBradley

[PhilJ W]

Thanks for the good wishes from everyone, still feeling a bit sore down below but I'll be making an appointment with my GP in the morning.

[Pete 75C]

A beautiful day today. Perfect weather to be stuck on the airless top floor building some baseboards. The English can be really daft sometimes...

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all.

 

Proper job breakfast just consumed and here's hoping the telepathy about garden tasks doesn't extend to or little bit of the Thames Valley where the recent rains have made just about everything grow rapidly but especially the weeds.  But on a brighter note dinner last night included 100% home grown veg and some very nice (not home grown) lamb.H

 

Have a good day one & all.

[southern42]

Morning all

 

Hoping George is still plugging and purring away, Andrew.

 

Good to hear Phil has been reassured.

 

Having noticed Gordon's thread about disposing of US models here (well, the UK) I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that he has a Triplex. Not really that eerie.

 

Mike Smith? I am a bit out of touch with his recent career, but it was he who rang my friend/colleague re the regularly-cancelled 08.14 Barnehurst to Blackfriars, circa 1980. Colleague told him - and the listening Capital Radio audience - something along the lines (sorry) of "I've not had no advice that it's cancelled this morning." Undoubtedly it was Mike Smith's fascination with this ill-starred train that led to Jackie Challoner making the record. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBPahAoVUyQ

 

A fairly decent night's sleep, but the weather remains unsettled, with a chance of showers over the next few days, maybe storms again this morning.

 

Hope your day of rest delivers!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

 

 

So, if you don't know it, here's the Bangor version - it seems quite tame in comparison.

 

Do a day trip to Bangor on Carnival Day now and you're likely to experience something like this.

 

However, the waterfront is changing.  Gone, to the other side of the bay to the port, is the boatyard.  In its place, rows of 3-storey buildings (holiday flats?).  No comparison.

 

My day trips to the seaside as a kid were to the South Coast.  The one with the youth club in my teens was to Brighton and, yes, the preferred day trip drink seems to have been Cider.  I remember some partakers experienced a few unpleasant side effects on the way home.  Great day out, by the way.

 

Polly

 

[pH]

Manchester United beat Real Madrid 3-1.

What is really interesting is that the match was played in the University of Michigan’s stadium and attracted the biggest crowd ever in the history of football in the USA of 109,318 people. Amazing!

That must be close to the biggest attendance in the UK to a single football match?

 

Best, Pete.

Not even close, Pete. As GordonS has said, Hampden had official crowds of between 147,000 and 150,000 twice in the 1930s. Personally, I've been in Hampden in official attendances of 132,000 and 134,000. I've also been there in an official crowd of 120,000, but with forged tickets, 'liftovers' and a couple of gates broken, the actual number of people inside was reckoned to be about 145,000 - an absolute stunning experience! (I do note your later point about the ManU-Real crowd being all seated.)

[Happy Hippo]

I managed to get some photos:

 

The first is me walking Merryn up the aisle at St Peter's Church, Earley:

 

 

Finally:

 

'After I have re annexed Cornwall into it's obviously Welsh roots, I will have no more territorial gains':

Edited August 3, 2014 by Happy Hippo

[Jock67B]

Morning all from Clacton where, unusually, it's still sunny!

Peter (Trisonic), I learnt of Peter Smith's demise on the BTCC web site whilst checking on the current series. They've got him down as campaigning in an Escort RS Turbo in '85, A Sierra in '87 with the peak of his career being 5th overall in the Group B championship in a Pro-Drive run BMW! I agree, 59 is too young to go - I remember he was fast and feisty but a little reckless.

Phil, glad to hear good news on the water-works front, just hope we now get similar news from AndrewC on the cat front!

John(Coombe Barton), did you see anything of the action at RNAS Culdrose Air Day on July 31st? Went on the 'West Briton' web site yesterday and there was a video of a most superb piece of flying ending with a crash landing! ( Anyone that's interested, go to the web site and type 'videos' in the search box and it should appear in the list!). The penultimate flight of the day was the RN historic Hawker T20 Sea Fury, one of Sydney Camm's (designer of the Hurricane) finest designs which entered service c.1945 as one of the worlds fastest piston driven single engined fighters. Smoke started to pour from the engine bay and the pilot radioed that he had to land immediately but as he turned into line up with the run-way, the under-carriage failed to deploy, suggesting that the smoke came from a hydraulic leak, and he had to pan-cake land. This obviously caused a lot of damage with the prop digging in though I'm not sure if a radial engine suffers as much as an in-line one where the crank-shaft normally gets totalled! It really was a classy bit of flying and I only hope that the engineers at Yelverton, where it's based, can rebuild it.

Glad to hear that modelling has started again Pete (75C), great therapy with all you've had to carry on your shoulders lately. I found yesterday that weeding was also therapeutic but back breaking as well. Bl**dy great briar on the railway embankment, although contained behind 6 feet of fence and an 18 inch trellis, still seems to seed all over the place - probably a result of bird droppings after the autumn fruiting? Even the tiny seedlings carry thorns to be wary of as I can testify!

Enjoy your summer holiday tomorrow, those of you that live in Scotland and the Irish Republic. I'll be remembering the start of the horror that was WW1 between 10 and 11 as I'm sure there will be a service on TV.

Hope Sunday goes well for everyone, I'm off to see if I can cross a couple of items off the chores list,

Kind regards,

Jock.

PS Richard, just seen the pics. What a lovely girl! I do hope that you all weld into a happy and harmonious family unit. Best of luck,

Jock.

Edited August 3, 2014 by Jock67B

[gordon s]

Scary stuff indeed, but well done to the pilot...

 

http://youtu.be/x_sf9OK8P6k

[Rugd1022]

There's a thread about the Fury over on the Pistonheads forum Gordon - at this stage it appears the engine failure just before the crash landing would have meant the hydraulics were lost, thus not allowing the landing gear to lock in place in time.

 

Glad the pilot managed to walk away unharmed.

Edited August 3, 2014 by Rugd1022

[45156]

Scary stuff indeed, but well done to the pilot...

 

It's a good landing if you walk away from it, they say - good flying though....

 

Afternoon All

 

Good to see that the gang's all here (again) and that the cyber-support that is normal is still flowing freely.  Mine is freely added. 

 

Went off to the local "antiques" centre as I got a heads up from a neighbour who knows of my love of railways that there were some railway books on some of the stalls there - no such luck - AND I had to pay for admission (but I said I'm a pensioner and got in half price).  So home again, and with my forward planning head on, got the chicken out for dinner, so that I can make a Korma tomorrow.

 

It's been a pretty miserable day weatherwise here, and any thoughts of car booting were dispelled by the rain falling from about six onwards.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

Edited August 3, 2014 by 45156

[Robert]

Afternoon All,

 

Greetings from the South Coast!  I haven't been on for a few days, due to being on holiday and having the urge to avoid using computers in any form for a little while.

 

I have logged on this afternoon to do a spot of work for my Dad (getting some of his old DOS applications over to Linux) and so I am back on-line.

 

We thought about going to the Spa valley diesel gala yesterday, but didn't make it after all.  I looked at the list of visiting locos, and there were no "must sees" so we decided to be lazy instead!

 

Have a good day everyone...

[Tony_S]

We seem to be shopping in Basildon.

 

[AngryMeerkat]

I've relegated myself to the man-cave today, people have put me in a foul mood and my mental state has been bouncing a bit lately so probably safer for everyone if I'm locked away for a few hours!

 

First there was the old guy who parks his pickup truck outside the shop just in front of me. He totally ignored the white lines and instead parked across 3 spaces, meaning I couldn't park. I shouted out of my window asking if he could park properly so other people could also park, and was greeted with a tirade of foul-mouthed abuse about him being disabled and needing space to get his crutches out, and that I should mind my own business and be thankfull I can still walk. Keeping calm I pointed out the empty disabled spaces less than 10ft away from where he parked, and again received a load of abuse. All this from a 'man' in his 70s!! I dumped the car and did my 5 minutes worth of shopping, and came out to more abuse from him. Some human beings just disgust me.

 

Now there is kick-offs about our wedding, nothing to do with me but it's still aggravating me.

 

So the man-cave it is, the joys of PTSD and mental problems and horrible people mean I have to miss such a beautiful day so I don't cause anyone harm for upsetting me further. The modern world is a great place!

 

Mark

[Smiffy2]

Just had a Facetime with youngest grandson (6 months) who is now sporting his cranial helmet - and handsome he looks, too! He seemed happy enough. With any luck the deformation will be gone in 6 months.

 

Just wanted to share that, because it made me happy!