Early Risers.

[railsquid]

Transport of convicts took place between 1803-1853, during this time some 67,000 convicts, both men, women and children were sent to our shores. These were a mixed bunch charged with various crimes consisting of Lawyers, Bankers, Architects, Stone masons, Carpenters, Shipwrights, Blacksmiths, Farmers and petty thieves.

 

So things really were better in the olden days (Apologies to any lawyers or bankers present).

 

I have searched and searched for what do you call a baby squid, most of the best dictionary's just have unknown, Has Squidgette been used? 

 

"Squidlet" is the term that seems to have found widest adoption. "Squidgette" sounds utterly cute and squee, just the thing for a baby daughter.

[NGT6 1315]

Morning troops...

 

Not much to say as of yet due to lack of wakefulness. Brekkie and coffee needed...

 

Have a good one...

[Barry O]

Good morning from a misty RHB!

 

A day of doing not a lot beckons.

Youngest Herbert's new job is local to Leeds. So he has the opportunity to visit Derby, Leicester, Melton mowbray, Lincoln and Grimsby. Geography isn't the same as when I was young.

 

Have a great day and hope you are feeling better jock and I an.

Baz

[Tassie Tex]

I only just found this in my poetry papers, so I'll post it now.        I sentence you to transportation, but to what I do not know.  Perhaps to storm and shipwrecks.   Perhaps to infectious disorders.   Perhaps to famine.     Perhaps to be devoured by wild beasts.          Away-take your chance, perish or prosper, suffer or enjoy, I rid myself the sight of you.       (unknown English Judge. 1804

[Tassie Tex]

Yes, the good old days

[emt_911]

Morning all. Looks like another decent day.

 

Ian - Hopefully you are fit to be discharged in the next day or so.

 

Jock - Hope you feel better. I am concerned though that your concern for others may be part of the reason that you are frequently under the weather.

 

John - Safe jourmey and I hope that everything goes to plan

 

Baz - Enjoy the break , you deserve it and we can only hope that there is an answer to you problems when you get back

 

Tex - Please keep the information coming. This is one part of the world that I really don't have a clue about its history

 

Localish job today so hopefully a fairly early finish. Have a good day everyone

[roundhouse]

A bad nights sleep last night. Dont know why but kept waking up so now feeling tired.


I suppose that we had a good day yesterday with no delays commuting so this morning is msking up for it.

A broken down engineers train between Ford and Barnham plus problems in the carriage sidings at Horshsm have delayed / cancelled all our trains even Thameslink which comes up from Brighton due to congestion at Three Bridges.

The LBG is that late, it is likely to get cancelled (run fast avoiding Redhill) or terminated short.

So we are on the delayed Thameslink via Elephant and Castle.

At least my boss isn't back from New York till tomorrow!!!

 

UPDATE

 

A new roof in the place of the old train shed at Crystal Palace is currently being erected although its the clear bouuncy castle blow up type (similar to that going in at Manchester Victoria)  that has to be constantly topped up by a small pump. Installed one of these in London ten years ago.

 

I was 20 late in this morning in the end as the Thameslink got later and later then let another Thameslink go in fornt of us at Herne Hill. Dont know what happened ot the Southern LBG service

Edited April 8, 2015 by roundhouse

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is another nice sunny morning here - still cold (1°C) but there are definite signs that Spring is on the way.

 

I avoided driving over the bridge this morning, by dropping the little guy in the next village, so that he could catch the bus over to "the other side".

 

Oh well - time for a coffee!

 

By the way, has anyone heard from Trev yet?  He hasn't visited since the beginning of February - which given his last few posts is slightly worrying.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dry and milder at 8^oC. There will be sunshine & clouds today apparently.

Just been tracking a Royal Mail Special Delivery Parcel and website said it will be later than planned as it has been redirected and sent back to Croydon...........then the door bell rang and there it was!

Apart from waiting for that nothing special planned for today. No grandchildren about as they are on holiday from school and doing things with parents and friends.

Perhaps I'll   do some housework or gardening.........run some trains! 

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited April 8, 2015 by grandadbob

[leopardml2341]

Mornin' all !

 

Half way through the week, but it's gonna be a bit of a shock this week as I normally work only Mon - Thur, but as this week had a bank holiday Monday I have the choice of taking a days holiday or working Friday.

 

Mmmm...... I wonder which I will choose ?

 

Have a good day folks.

[NGT6 1315]

plus problems in the carriage sidings at Horshsm

 

Now why did I initially read that as "carnage"… 

[Guest]

Morning all.

Spooked by some rather strange noises from inside the old desktop PC that I use day-to-day, combined with some rather bizarre happenings during startup, spent a pleasant nostalgic hour or two last night backing up some photos onto CD, everything from family holidays through to model railway stuff. Prompted by Andy's shot of his "sports" tractor, below is the only known shot of me in charge of one, taken a year or two ago down at Qinetic near Bournemouth Airport. A great week was had playing around in the dirt. As you can see from the first shot, I never did get the hang of ploughing... We had a brief chance to play around with the tracked Defender too. My biggest regret is that they wouldn't let me take it round Asda's car park in Poole. "I'll see your Chelsea Tractor and raise you one of these"... mind you, getting there from Bournemouth would have been a pain, I think it was good for about 18mph. Anything over that and the tracks threatened to come off and it was impossible to steer...

Now all I need to do is keep the stack of CDs in a safe place assuming the PC will go "pop" at some point. May abandon the desktop altogether and get a decent laptop.

Have a great day.

 

 

Another guy on the course was a chap called Mark, a former SAA co-pilot. Seen here demonstrating the suspension travel of a Defender. We eventually just walked away and left him there when he got truly stuck...

 

 

[Tassie Tex]

I've just noticed Ian (OD) must be reading catch-up, Good to see your return Ian and hope all is going well. Tex

[Oldddudders]

Morning all from the man in bed 305P

 

Life isn't really too bad, you know. 305 has 2 beds, P & F. That's porte & fenetre, or door & window to you & me, reflecting which side of the room they are. There hasn't been anyone in 305F since Saturday, so room to myself. Breakfast was at 8 today. Then I rang Sherry, now I'm on ERs. Will shower shortly, then have a stroll round the car park in the sunshine, before stopping off at the cafe for a coffee.

 

Dr Piussan called in again last night, apologised but recommended I keep the catheter in until Thursday morning, then see how I do during the day with a view to leaving that evening. Can't fault that, frankly.

 

One worries that being ill leaves you weak. Realised I can still walk up three flights, two steps at a time, without really noticing. Stuff the lift!

 

Hope your day is as easy as mine!

Edited April 8, 2015 by Oldddudders

[Guest]

A stroll in the sunshine followed by coffee at the cafe? Are you sure you're in hospital? Certainly sounds like a pleasant way to pass an hour or so! Continued good health and hopefully you'll be back home soon.

[AndyB]

Morning all from the man in bed 305P

 

 

 

Sounds quite aspirational, bearing in mind what you're in for !

 

Glad you're up and about and on the mend.  

[Happy Hippo]

I have searched and searched for what do you call a baby squid, most of the best dictionary's just have unknown, Has Squidgette been used? 

I thought they were called Squits.

 

That is certainly what they do in abundance!

[edcayton]

What does one do with one's catheter whilst strolling around said car park please?

 

Ed

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from a cloudy Estuary-Land but the sun is trying to break through. I mentioned the trout/salmon fillets I got from Tesco's reduced from £4 to 80p on Saturday where I still got the £1 off for buying two packs, well I've just got one out of the freezer and I noticed that if you purchased three you got £3 off, so if I'd purchased three Tesco's would have paid me 60p to take them away! Just as well really as space in my freezer is a bit tight at present. Great pics Tex, hopefully the current series of 'Coast' will include Tasmania, I will have to keep my eyes peeled. Commiserations and congratulations where neccessary and have a great day all.

[Happy Hippo]

What does one do with one's catheter whilst strolling around said car park please?

 

Ed

Try doing this, but remember not to suck!

 

Edited April 8, 2015 by Happy Hippo

[skipepsi]

Morning all, tuck it carefully into your trousers is the answer Ed. Bright sunny day again and lots to do as my holiday disappears. Tea to drink thoughts to think and things to do. Have a good day all.

[AndyB]

What does one do with one's catheter whilst strolling around said car park please?

 

Ed

 

Avoid tripping over it!

 

In a similar vein I was once doing a lab experiment, testing out the effects of wearing full protective clothing whilst exercising in European summer temperatures. 

Exercise (workload) was increased by doing a series of 15 minute sessions on an exercise bike.

I got the rectal thermometer caught in the crank. Luckily I had my headset mic turned off at the time.

 

Edit: I should mention we used to tape the thermometer lead to the inner thigh with liberal amounts of sticky tape. Youch! 

Edited April 8, 2015 by AndyB

[Ashcombe]

Sounds quite aspirational, bearing in mind what you're in for !

 

 

 

..... 04AP would be even more apt ....... !

[grandadbob]

When I had my knee replacement about 5 years ago I had the dubious pleasure of a catheter. After the operation the physiotherapist arrived to get me out of bed, got tangled up with the tube so it pulled apart and sprayed the surrounding area. He was not a popular lad for a brief time!

[The Stationmaster]

Clacton fishermen rescued from £9 homemade boat - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-32201995

Nothing like the above happens in this bit of Essex!

It was reported on R4 news that the problem had been their oars/paddles - which had broken leading to them drifting out to sea, seemingly their unique form of boat construction had been sound - until the Lifeboat crew 'dismantled' it once they'd returned them to terra firma.

I'm sitting here because I tried to load some photos into iPhoto about six hours ago and crashed it completely. Unrecoverably so. There's a beta of Yosemite 10.10.3 available, so I've loaded and installed that, and then the new iPhoto replacement, Photos. And now I'm trying to recover a library of 14000 photos...

 

I may be here all night.

 

Sweet dreams, amigos.

 

Hard luck Dick - that is not my idea of fun.  Mind you I have to say at this juncture that I avoid iPhoto like the plague as I find it most unhelpful when it comes to organising pictures.  While it has some disadvantages I simply store mine in folders contained within 'Documents' - nice & simple I think.

where about are the roadworks?

 

We are travelling down to Melksham this weekend and have a choice of A303 to Stonehenge (preferred route) or the M4 (not so enjoyable but slightly quicker).

 

I realise we're starting from different places but (assuming the 'hard landscaping' allows) my usual route is M4 to the Hungerford turn-off, then to Hungerford, onto the A4, then A361 from the Avebury junction, through Devizes staying on the A361 then onto the A365 at the lights controlled junction a mile or so beyond the bottom of the big hill you go down as you leave Devizes (it's the straight on road at the junction).  The A 365 takes you into the right end of Melksham completely avoiding the centre and is effectively the same route, I presume, as you would be on if you leave the A303 at the turning onto the A360 west of Stonehenge.  Unless you're unlucky this is generally a fast route - you can get hung-up with traffic in Marlborough although there is a useful road which avoids the town centre (but can be littered with parked cars) and sometimes Devizes can take a while to thread through but the open stretches of road almost all the way are good to keep up a decent average speed

 

Judging by the queues we have come across at the end of the dual carriageway immediately east of Stonehenge (on weekdays during school holidays)  I wonder if a better route might be to turn off the A303 at the Amesbury roundabout and go via Upavon?  However I don't know either of these obvious routes from the A303 to Devizes.    

 

And after all that - Good morning all.

 

Smashing pics Tex and I wonder if the drama series (called 'Banished') about the early Aussie convict days stands any chance of being bought by any of the Australian networks as in many respects it bears about as much resemblance to reality as Start Trek.  When I was out in Aus many of the ferries on which I travelled to & from work/across to the centre of Sydney were named after ships in the First Fleet and of course I was travelling to & from the site of the original first convict settlement at Sydney Cove - now Circular Quay - so I did quite a bit of delving into the history, all very interesting but not much like the story portrayed on the tv programme.

 

Good to hear Dudders is up and about - I somehow get teh feeling that a French hospital cafe might be rather different from an English one.  And take it easy Jock - don't go overdoing it.

 

Have a good day one & all.

Edited April 8, 2015 by The Stationmaster