Early Risers.

[DDolfelin]

 

A scenic drive to the seaside is on the cards for today...given the superb weather conditions....via Ellesmere (coffee stop), Oswestry and Lake Vyrnwy to Dolgellau for the pretty former railway walk to Morfa Mawddach...then fish & chips in Barmouth. Is has put the swimming things in for the beach...should help to burn the calories.

 

 

That's quite a long trip.

Don't forget Fairbourne and Tywyn.

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

...some things for another day DD....we did look at staying over at the Lake Vyrnwy hotel last night but decided to economise with a day trip instead.

 

Dave

[AndrewC]

Morning all from the boring borough. Bright and sunny. Tempted to hobble out to the patio with laptop for a couple of hours. My kind of office.

 

Back is slowly starting to get better. I managed to shuffle into head office yesterday for another "team meeting" <euphemism for complete waste of time> The whole 2 hours could have been condensed into a 6 slide PowerPoint presentation and WebEx call, instead of gathering everybody into 3 offices around the SE for a live video conference. The upside was a bit of train geekery and a rather nice evening @ the Pelt Trader. Decided to take the circle line from Cannon St to Baker St instead of the usual London Bridge + Jubilee line route. That let me try out the new S7 stock. The return to CST was a bit circuitous in that some of my colleagues needed to depart from St Pancras. So I got to ride an FCC 377 to Blackfriars, and another S7 to CST. One of the disadvantages of working from home is I don't get out much. Doesn't take a lot to amuse me anymore.

 

First time in ages that both my trains were on time. Shock Horror. Maybe Southeastern are trying to cut the overcrowding by giving their passengers heart attacks from surprising the hell out of them. I waved at Mr Lurker as the train went through Borough on the way to Cannon St, but he didn't wave back.

 

Have a good one all.

[The Lurker]

Morning all from Borough Market Junction, where it is sunny and blue skies, although there was a distinct nip to the air as I walked down the road from the Fold in the Hill to the station.

 

I can confirm that I didn't wave to Andrew as I had taken advantage of the trains being on time and gone home! I would have thought the most interesting part of a journey from St Pancras would have been to catch the train to London Bridge (assuming there was one available at the time) and view the Thameslink progress. I like the Pelt Trader, usually a good selection of beers and it is over the road (and named in honour of) the livery company that owned the land and buildings of my alma mater. The Skinners Company funds a number of schools including Judd in Tonbridge, which, when I went there, was regarded as "semi-independent". I think that meant that the Skinners Company owned the land but funding for teaching staff etc came from the local Education Authority. It was a good school for me, because I was expected to work hard; and being naturally lazy and content to achieve average results, this meant I fulfilled a bit more potential (though I say so myself!).

[45156]

Morning All

 

Currently trying to get my email account sorted after BT migrated it to the new platform, jumped through all the hoops and now been on hold for ten minutes - back later as theyve just answered

[AndyB]

Morning all,  

 

.... Ended up at Harrison lake,  but did manage to snap one  ****n!

 

Trev

 

Condition RED! 

 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Bright start to the day and should remain that way.

DD Sleeping on the left side certainly helps me when I get indigestion after over indulging in food & drink - particularly red wine! Apparently it is also recommended if you are pregnant. (I'm not - as far as I know!)

 

http://sleep.lovetoknow.com/Sleep_on_the_Left_Side

 

Great time had with the grandchildren yesterday after school - the noise levels went up!

 

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited September 10, 2014 by grandadbob

[45156]

Morning All

 

Back again, and I now agree with everybody else who has had problems with the BT Mail migration to the new platform - tried to login, and jumped through all the hoops that were presented including a password reset (or three).  Got to the BT home page and it just went round and round back to the home page.  Technical were reasonably good, though I was a bit surprised by their solution, which was to download a new browser - they suggested Chrome "in case your version of Firefox doesn't work".  The BT pages actually suggested that I use Firefox.  Advice all seemed to centre on a new browser, so I got Chrome (horrible) and accessed my mails from there instead.  Oddly enough, after that, when I went back to try again in Firefox. I was taken to the login pages, and it worked.  Most odd, but we got there in the end.

 

More fencing to be sorted out again today, so now that I'm back on the air for my mails, I guess I'd better get on.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[Jock67B]

Morning all,

Gordon, both pilot's books are on my bookshelves and I've just found and relocated them to the 'read again' section (you may not have read before that I'm a collector with around 4500 tomes which I now have to consider disposing of!). They are both heroes of mine but an even bigger one is the character Archie McIndoe. I was lucky enough to help my grand daughter Ella do homework research on him some years ago; an absolutely fascinating character who was responsible for giving countless people help to get back to 'normal' again after horrendous burns. A lot of plastic surgery techniques used today are based on his findings while the subject was still in its infancy! Quite interesting to read about the 'Guinea Pigs', a group of early patients who banded together for mutual support - well worth a bit of research by anyone interested, thanks once again to an ER for awakening a dormant memory!

Ian, I agree on the Schumi thing but the price of the family's relative silence, and that of his spokeswoman that you mentioned, has fired up the rumour mill. Pete (Trisonic) is almost certainly correct in that we shall probably never know the full story. One thing seems certain, he'll never be the same again which is very sad and something you wouldn't wish on anyone whether you like them or not! Not that many months since he was racing a super bike in Germany!

MickB and Pete75C, strange coincidence that as I read the first of your posts, I consciously noticed a siren in the background! Clacton ambulance station is on the other side of the railway line that runs by the bottom of our garden, and although a fair distance by road, is only a couple of hundred yards away if you're a crow. Must confess that, like the passing trains, we barely notice them after so many years here - you might guess its a busy station, surrounded as it is by one of 'God's waiting rooms' as it is known locally!

Good luck with the BT migration Stewart, some time ago I was lucky to spot a scam where some clever hackers were using the BT upgrade as cover for a phishing exercise. If you have any doubts whatsoever, involve the BT internet security team whom I found very helpful. No trouble since (he says touching forehead!).

Have a good hump day all,

Kind regards,

Jock.

[Barry O]

Morning all,

Gordon, both pilot's books are on my bookshelves and I've just found and relocated them to the 'read again' section (you may not have read before that I'm a collector with around 4500 tomes which I now have to consider disposing of!). They are both heroes of mine but an even bigger one is the character Archie McIndoe. I was lucky enough to help my grand daughter Ella do homework research on him some years ago; an absolutely fascinating character who was responsible for giving countless people help to get back to 'normal' again after horrendous burns. A lot of plastic surgery techniques used today are based on his findings while the subject was still in its infancy! Quite interesting to read about the 'Guinea Pigs', a group of early patients who banded together for mutual support - well worth a bit of research by anyone interested, thanks once again to an ER for awakening a dormant memory!

 

Jock.

I was lucky to meet one of my school friends father who had been a McIndoe "Guinea Pig"  -- for some reason we got on famously and , while the rest of the group were offered cooking whisky I always was given a malt!  Great guy and he had a lot of stories to tell about Mac.  

 

Baz

[Oldddudders]

a nip in the air

ISTR John Betjeman published a volume of this name - subtitled "Not about a Japanese aviator"!

 

Grandadbob - glad to hear you aren't preggers. When Sherry texted her kids to tell 'em about the ring, her friendly daughter in Oz asked "You're not pregnant, are you?"!

[45156]

Good luck with the BT migration Stewart, some time ago I was lucky to spot a scam where some clever hackers were using the BT upgrade as cover for a phishing exercise. If you have any doubts whatsoever, involve the BT internet security team whom I found very helpful. No trouble since (he says touching forehead!).

Have a good hump day all,

Kind regards,

Jock.

Thanks Jock - BT techical come in for some stick sometimes, but I actually have yet to have any serious problems with them, and they've resolved things pretty quickly, like setting up my new TV service and today.  I suspect that this time not al the settings were correct after the migration and while I was playing with Chrome she was quietly sorting out the problem with FIrefox in the background.

 

I am ex BT staff, having done nearly 20 years on the phones and on complaint handling before parting of the ways due to a major disagreement with a manager who won the argument.  So I am pretty good on identifying when a contact from BT is genuine - in this case, I didn't get an e-mail but when I tried to login to my mails today, I was diverted to the new setup pages - once I was able to view my mails again, I found that a migration e-mail was sent this morning at about 04.00.

 

All seems to be sorted now, except that when I tried to print off my mails from the new platform, I had to wait while a new printer driver was downloaded?

 

I'd best get on now, as Lily needs a walk, and the fences won't mend and paint themselves, more's the pity.

[Killybegs]

Morning All

 

Currently trying to get my email account sorted after BT migrated it to the new platform, jumped through all the hoops and now been on hold for ten minutes - back later as theyve just answered

My hosting service upgraded to a new platform a few weeks ago. They were very efficient and sent out all the instructions as to what I had to do well in advance. Despite following them to the letter, I lost my email connections and access to my website. We eventually got it sorted out after they changed some of the settings that they had sent out previously! In the meantime I was, of course, tearing my hair out with the frustration of it all.

 

John

[PhilJ W]

Talking of ambulances, I live close to Basildon hospital so I am used to the sirens, but my house is directly beneath the flight path used by the air ambulance and I cant help thinking that some poor devil is in a very bad way every time it flies over. On a lighter note more on the chocolate teapot >>

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-29126161

A chocolate coffee pot would be better methinks. 

[SouthernRegionSteam]

Can I just say thank you to the person who sent a PM this morning, you know who you are - I will respond a bit later.

I'm gearing up to tell my workplace where they can stuff their job tomorrow... of course I'll try and word it nicer, but no promises! 

As Mark Knopfler put it "Punish the monkey, let the organ-grinder go".

I've been listening to a lot of MK - and he will always be my inspiration in life - what a marvellous and talented chap.

 

Later 

[AndrewC]

The Lurker, on 10 Sept 2014 - 09:01, said:The Lurker, on 10 Sept 2014 - 09:01, said:The Lurker, on 10 Sept 2014 - 09:01, said:

Morning all from Borough Market Junction, where it is sunny and blue skies, although there was a distinct nip to the air as I walked down the road from the Fold in the Hill to the station.

 

I can confirm that I didn't wave to Andrew as I had taken advantage of the trains being on time and gone home! I would have thought the most interesting part of a journey from St Pancras would have been to catch the train to London Bridge (assuming there was one available at the time) and view the Thameslink progress. I like the Pelt Trader, usually a good selection of beers and it is over the road (and named in honour of) the livery company that owned the land and buildings of my alma mater. The Skinners Company funds a number of schools including Judd in Tonbridge, which, when I went there, was regarded as "semi-independent". I think that meant that the Skinners Company owned the land but funding for teaching staff etc came from the local Education Authority. It was a good school for me, because I was expected to work hard; and being naturally lazy and content to achieve average results, this meant I fulfilled a bit more potential (though I say so myself!).

You snuck home at 12:30??? (waved on my way in)

 

Was thinking about going via London Bridge then walking back but I was already running late and my destination at the time was the Pelt Trader. The FCC I caught was going via the Elephant anyway. Wish we could have 375 or 377 on our services instead of the clapped out 465/466 and the Marquis de Sade designed 376. I feel a Southeastern rant coming on. Useless bunch of mother f#####g s##t ##### ##### ##### assclown d-bagged ##### trumpet ######### holes. Zero capacity increase since they got the franchise. Promised all sorts of improvements that haven't appeared. If not for some creative jiggery pokery with the timetables and statistics they'd have worse reliability figures than Connex did. No wonder they were voted worst ToC in the country. (more like in the galaxy) I think it was suffering through their incompetence that finally turned me off modelling UK trains and turning to the dark side.

 

In the distant past there were a lot of tanning businesses along the Fleet near where Ludgate Circus is today. Sort of all fits together along that stretch of the river. If you haven't, try the Pelt's pizzas, you need to.

 

Back starting to bug me again. Out comes the Naproxen. Damn!

 

For those who think I'm already on drugs, the Pelt Trader is a small taproom style bar under the Cannon St station arches along Dowgate Hill. 4 cask ales, and 12 kegs (including ciders). Excellent pizzas and meat plates.

 

 

edit: for Jam

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzGoDtmTllg

Edited September 10, 2014 by AndrewC

[Tony_S]

Matthew appears to be in South Island, NZ now. Latest beer review," Made of lies and deceit, tastes like a sub standard lager".

[PhilJ W]

I popped into Tesco's last evening for a bit of last minute shopping. I was surprised to see a woman walking about breast feeding her baby.  I know its only natural and if a baby needs feeding it needs feeding but a little discretion I think is called for. Some other parents with school age children were clearly embarrassed.

[Tony_S]

 

In the distant past there were a lot of tanning businesses along the Fleet near where Ludgate Circus is today. 

I think they all moved to Brentwood,

[AndrewC]

Tony_S, on 10 Sept 2014 - 12:09, said:

I think they all moved to Brentwood,

  :laugh:        

 

Always tempted to ask an Essex girl what Cuprinol shade she is. I'd like to match it for my fence stain.

[45156]

I've just used Wilkos dark oak myself - but "regrettably" the tin has run out now - also some of the lengths that I obtained to repair the fence are barely 6 feet, so I need to cut some batons as well, so that can wait for another day - so paint has run out, need more wood, and both batteries on the cordless drill are now flat - so I think I have several good excuses to quit the job.

[AndyB]

  :laugh:        

 

Always tempted to ask an Essex girl what Cuprinol shade she is. I'd like to match it for my fence stain.

 

It's actually "Woad-inol".  

[skipepsi]

Jam there are only two things to say it is easier to move from job to job and don't burn any bridges in case you meet them again. Good Luck!

[byron]

I popped into Tesco's last evening for a bit of last minute shopping. I was surprised to see a woman walking about breast feeding her baby.  I know its only natural and if a baby needs feeding it needs feeding but a little discretion I think is called for. Some other parents with school age children were clearly embarrassed.

A good time to gently bring in a "birds & bees" chat perhaps.

 

Mike

[AndrewC]

skipepsi, on 10 Sept 2014 - 12:51, said:

Jam there are only two things to say it is easier to move from job to job and don't burn any bridges in case you meet them again. Good Luck!

Jam. Write 2 letters. One outlining exactly how you feel, where you'd like to insert the office furniture, etc. Pull no punches and let it all out. Then write a second letter. Polite and to the point. Send them the second letter. Keep the first one as a reminder.

 

As Mick says you never know whether or not you'll run into them again. Once upon a time my former employer had a chap leave and made his feelings known in the most graphic way. 6 months later he appeared representing another firm that was trying to bid for a piece of work on a project we were managing on behalf of the client. Needless to say he was given the bum's rush and it cost his new employer over half a million. Last week a young lady left SWMBO's company. At her leaving party she decided to not just burn her bridges but totally nuke them. She told her managers exactly what she though of them and where to go. Yesterday her soon to be new employer called one of those very same managers for a reference. Oops. The reply was along the lines of confirming that she did work there from x date to y. When asked about performance, etc the reply was "no comment". One wonders whether she called a Podiatrist or Dental Surgeon to remove the foot from her mouth.