Early Risers.

[roundhouse]

Morning all from the sun drenched paradise miserable grey rain-fest that is the boring borough.

 

Good to see Mal back and out of the hospital. (we need a smilie that does a happy dance)

A belated Happy Appearance day to Mick. Hope you enjoy your beers.

Also good to see the squidling growing and being a happy little cephalopod.

 

Jock, thinking of you and Matthew today. May the surgery be the most boring and routine the doc has ever performed. In other words no complications or other issues.

 

Swansea is finished. (see I do need a happy dancing smilie thing) A few quiet days then on to the next project. Today I shall be working from home as I managed to set my knee back again yesterday. Twas doing the mandated physio exercises when I heard 2 rather loud pops in quick succession from either side of the knee cap. Ouch. Now there is a whole lot of clicking going on when ever I bend or straighten it. Not too bad but not going to risk further injury until Friday's physio session.

 

Apologies to anyone I've missed. Its been a long few hours of catching up this morning.

 

Take care everyone and have a good day.

Will we be seeing you at the Seaboard Southern show this coming Saturday?

 

Ian

Edited September 15, 2015 by roundhouse

[big jim]

Was hoping for an easy day at home on call as im 'control orders' but ive had a call to go to washwood heath to collect 47739 and take it to doncaster

 

Can think of worse thing to have to do but tge trains to brum are delayed due to a signalling problem and the M6 has delays due to an accident so its going to be a ball ache before i even start, i think its going to be a long day!

[Killybegs]

Great to see you back Mal.

 

Thoughts are also with Jock and family.

 

Late birthday greetings for yesterday.

 

Now, Windows 10. The only times I have changed to a new operating system in the past have been when I have bought a new computer. I even delayed buying my current laptop until Windows 7 replaced Vista or whatever it was called. Why is there a rush to upgrade? Am I missing something?

 

Yours in ignorance,

 

Computerphobe of Donegal

[Happy Hippo]

 I was a little bit distracted watching 6 degrees of separation on BBC2 hosted by professor Brian Cox. Well worth watching.

 

 

Apart from the dire music at the end of every round. (I must be getting particularly old and grumpy now I have been informed I'm to be a grandfather)

[railsquid]

Congrats! Do Mothercare still do those delightful miniature mud hollows?

 

Now, Windows 10. The only times I have changed to a new operating system in the past have been when I have bought a new computer. I even delayed buying my current laptop until Windows 7 replaced Vista or whatever it was called. Why is there a rush to upgrade? Am I missing something?
 

 

New opportunities to have your data transported to far and distant parts, and help contribute in some way to Microsoft's bottom line by increased lock-in.

[The Lurker]

Morning all, there are grey clouds over Borough Market Junction but the earlier rain seems to have cleared for now.
 
Good to see Mal back - I hope his recovery continues apace.
 
Thoughts are with Jock and his family - hoping for a smooth and successful op and recovery
 
And I hope Andrew's knee pop is not too much of a set back.
 
Younger Lurker seems to be getting a bit more into school. yesterday morning saw a sore throat and some tears but it was "meet the teacher" after school and he proudly showed Mrs Lurker his desk, his peg, the pictures he'd made for it, and was pleased with the house points he'd got for doing his reading homework! No sore throat this morning and he wasn't at his most chipper, but little steps....He's looking forward to tomorrow. It's 11+ day (or Secondary Transfer Test in modern parlance), and the rest of the school - including those in year 6 opting not to take it - get a morning off. He's been promised a lie in and a trip to Costa for a gingerbread (his absolute favourite thing to eat!!)
 
 
I've got my appraisal later.
 
Which will be fun!

EDIT - congrats to Happy Hippo!
 
Have a good day all

Edited September 15, 2015 by The Lurker

[Happy Hippo]

 I know for sure is that Matthew's condition is likely to kill him if the valve with the abcess is not replaced, and he has elected to have a steel one which will hopefully last over twenty years.

A friend of mine had a new heart valve fitted.  I believe it was of 'composite construction'.

 

However, he was and still is a commercial helicopter pilot, so the medics at the aeromedical board were satisfied that he was fit and able enough to resume flying duties

[Ashcombe]

I'm conscious that it's been a while since I posted but I do look in from time to time.

 

Since arriving back in Torquay after eight weeks in France with Ian, it's been rather hectic, not least because my boiler wasn't working so I've been driving back to the house I still jointly own with my ex to use the facilities. That was interesting as I discovered an open window in the bathroom (near a flat roof!), an unemptied smelly kitchen bin and soiled nappies in the wheely bin. Ex is on honeymoon following recent nuptials at The Pale A**e Hotel in Paignton. Presumably guests used the house prior to the big day.

 

Our Little Theatre is hosting some of the Agatha Christie Festival events this year so that has involved me in extra Front of House duties.

 

I'd like to add to all the support for Jock's grandson as he faces his operation today. Thinking of you and your family and hoping for the best possible outcome.

[Oldddudders]

Morning all

 

Bright and sunny but will be showery later, so they say.

 

Great to see Mal back with us, and fingers crossed for surgical success in Basildon and Carlisle.

 

Win10 seems to be a freebie if downloaded now, but in less than 12 months I think it becomes a purchase. I do wonder whether Win8 was not stable enough, so offering Win10 free gets Microsoft out of a hole in terms of claims or whatever.

 

I wonder whether Jamie's hold-up was driven by fraud concerns or cuurency laundering issues? I feel 9/11 continues to haunt us all. Just think about airport security.

 

Great to hear Chris F's tale of getting his album signed. There is, maybe was, a very expensive US sportscar called a Saleen. Beautiful body, racetrack handling, Ford mechanicals. Deb took a liking and bought some Saleen merchandise by mail order, including a baseball cap. She was wearing it at Le Mans scrutineering one day, when I noticed a chap wearing the same thing. "Ooh" she said "That's Steve Saleen!" and rushed off to talk to him. So I now have a Saleen hat signed by the man!

 

Hope your day goes well.

[Happy Hippo]

I my boiler wasn't working 

We had a similar situation on Saturday evening with our central heating.

 

The Obergrumpenfuhrer despite fiddling at the control panel couldn't get it to start.

 

She complained so I took control:

 

Standing in the hallway, I adopted my best 'drill pig' tone.

 

'You half baked excuse for a effing condensing boiler you!'

 

'When I tell you to start, you'll start otherwise you'll find my pace stick stuck up your flue tube! Do I make myself clear?'

 

'Listen in  very carefully....Boiler stand easy..........'

 

'Boiler!  Boiler Start!' (And at the same time I subtly wound the thermostat on the hall wall from 0 to 35.)

 

Whoof!

 

'Boiler carry on'

 

Whereupon I executed a swift about turn, and marched back into the sitting room.

 

She still doesn't know how I did it

[Tony_S]

There are limits set by banks on how much you can transfer overseas. The online limits maybe lower than the "visit branch" limits. When Matthew first went to Canada I needed to send money to his Canadian bank account ("Dad, can you send me $10000 CDN please?"). I had no idea how to o do this so popped into the bank. £10000 daily online or more if I visited the bank the manager explained.

[AndrewC]

Will we be seeing you at the Seaboard Southern show this coming Saturday?

 

Ian

Sadly not this year. The next 2 Saturdays are booked with previous commitments.

[AndyB]

Morning all,

 

Youngest son was marched back to school this morning. But, but, I'm ill! A mopping pace was kept up for the first half of the walk. When this was seen not to work hyperventilation was tried. By the time he got to the school gate he knew it was game over and dashed in to see his friends. Elder child is responding to the medicines but is bringing some of them back up due to the taste. I've learnt to be on hand to catch them, pick them out of the resulting barf and feed them back in to her. 

 

Ah, the delights of the A13 and A127. Takes me back 30 years when I used to commute from Portsmouth to Leigh (weekends, not each day, I hasten to add). Can't say I miss it. For all its problems nowadays we perhaps forget the impact the M25 had. For a long time I used that route in its incomplete form, where one would have to dart off from motorway through small Kent villages, back onto motorway, then again crawl through towns on the A25... 

 

iD, et al thanks for the wishes re my job. We've given it a couple of weeks before I walk away. At this stage I'm not sure if my work to date will ever be paid or not. But as they say, no experience is wasted and hopefully it'll set me up for my next round of job hunting. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning All.

 

Tuesday here.  After a "late change" last night the temperature dropped from 25C to 13C in an hour or so and has remained there into this morning.  It's wet again.  The cat doesn't want to go outside and is insisting I bring his tray inside instead.  Not going to happen.

 

I remember the A13 though not fondly.  It cuts a swathe through east London and divides communities in places, defines their boundaries in others.  It's one of very few east-west routes and it takes a determined local to know how to avoid it effectively given that many local roads are now one-way, have turn bans or have fixed barriers to prevent through traffic using them unless equipped with blues, twos and a key to the gate.  The bus home used to be delayed for ages waiting to make its bus-only crossing at Victoria Dock Road.  Most crossing points now have under- or overpasses.  One major incident brings wide areas of east London to a grinding halt for hours.

 

As described by one Billy Bragg who entertained us more than once at the Spotted Dog in Barking in his younger days:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdVjtXkQuxQ

As has been mentioned there is now a slip road/underpass taking traffic from the A13 to the A130, taking you straight onto a smallish roundabout connecting to the A127. This is the cause of the traffic hold ups that I warned Jock about as traffic going south on the A130 has to turn right at this roundabout. Now in the evening rush most traffic towards Southend uses the A13 and then diverts here to the A127 so that at the roundabout traffic from the A130 has to wait for a gap in the traffic from the A13, which during the evening rush is not very often. Essex County Council is very fond of putting traffic lights on roundabouts so why not on this one?

Morning All,

 

It is a nice bright morning here, after a rather stormy night.

 

Ahhh - The A13.  Not a road that I miss driving particularly.  I suspect that things have changed a little since I lived in that part of the world.  I believe that there is now an underpass at the Saddlers Farm Magic Roundabout, and the A130 has been improved at Rettendon Turnpike.

 

However, does that riduculous "half a roundabout" still exist on the A127 at the Fortune o'War?

 

Oh well - it's time for tea now, so have a good day everyone!

The worst hold ups on the A13 occur when something goes wrong at the Dartford crossing. On the approach to the M25 there is 3 lanes, the inside one being marked out for traffic going across the river. If there is a problem the queue in this lane can be as long as a mile or more. The cockwombles don't want to queue up instead drive to the front of the queue and try to force their way in and in doing so obstruct the other two lanes.

A bit overcast here in Estuary-Land at the moment but according to the weather forecast it should brighten up later, keeping fingers etc. crossed. Hope everything goes well for your grandson Jock, I'll be thinking of him as will other ER's.

[NGT6 1315]

Good to see you back, Mal.

 

Congratulations, Richard!

 

And indeed, thinking of you and Matthew, Jock and wishing you well.

 

Gosh. It's turned out sunny outside!

[Tassie Tex]

Evening all from a cold very wet Tassie.
Seems like there's rain across the board today, typical weather down here, we can have four seasons in one day a lot like Wales so I've been told.

 

Congrates Richard on the news, yes, you know you're getting old when they start coming along.

 

Welcome back Mal and G'day I'm Tex.

 

Been keeping an eye out for news from Jock, Hope Matthews OP went without complications, as we all are of course.

Busy day about the house, of to the doctors again tomorrow morning so I'll have an early night.

So good evening and goodnight,

Tex.

[The Lurker]

The worst hold ups on the A13 occur when something goes wrong at the Dartford crossing. On the approach to the M25 there is 3 lanes, the inside one being marked out for traffic going across the river. If there is a problem the queue in this lane can be as long as a mile or more. The cockwombles don't want to queue up instead drive to the front of the queue and try to force their way in and in doing so obstruct the other two lanes.

This sort of driving irritates me too

 

Even more irritating is the recent study that suggests that waiting to the last possible moment to filter in actually improves  the traffic flow.

 

So now I too will sail past on the outside in my BMW!

[45156]

Morning All

 

Great to have Mal back with us, and best wishes for a speedy recovery - I too suffered from odd dreams and thoughts from the pain killers used after surgery - like you, it was oxycodon.

 

Congrats to RIchard.

 

Thinking of Jock and family as his grandson undergoes a much more serious surgery than anything so far experienced on ERs as far as I can remember.  PM exhange was very helpful and was a typical example of two way ER support. 

 

Good luck also for the lump removal Simon.

 

Generic greetings to everybody else who is ailing or celebrating - I can't remember if I Wished Mick a happy birthday for yesterday, and if I didn't, apologies for the oversight.

 

Late on parade today due to a pretty poor diabastrous night's sleep, as my sleep pattern is being disturbed by drug induced daytime drowsiness, and also by frequent night visits due to tummy pains from the iron suppement which I'm having to take.  After 30747 left for work, I started to order the online shopping, and just made it within the hour that is allowed to hold the delivery slot open due to dozing off at the keyboard.

 

Recovery is progressing, I hope, and I need to  have a dressing check and change tomorrow.  I was instructed to make an appointment at the GP practice nurse to have this done, but as my mobility is very limited, I was able to convince one of the Drs to arrange a home visit after calling them up as I was totally unable to get to the surgery under my own or anybody else's steam.  In that regard the NHS is really letting us down as a visit by the District Nurse used to be a matter of course.

 

Must go as I need to do some exercises.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[Ohmisterporter]

Afternoon all. Back from the doctors with the good news that the chest x-ray and blood test showed all clear for cancer. The doc now wants me to have a scope into the lungs examination to find out what is going on down there. Get this, I can book the appointment online and choose the time and date to suit myself. How cool is that?

 

Morning all. I wrote the above in a wave of optimism, fool that I was. I now find the booking system telling me that there are no appointment dates available. What? Forever? Between now and the end of the world? What do they know that the rest of us don't? 

 

Best stay safe all.

[45156]

Morning all. I wrote the above in a wave of optimism, fool that I was. I now find the booking system telling me that there are no appointment dates available. What? Forever? Between now and the end of the world? What do they know that the rest of us don't? 

 

Best stay safe all.

Geoff, if your GP practice uses EMIS, it may be that there is a problem with your registration.  I had a similar experience with my GP and I had to cancel and reregister before I could see appointments or order prescriptions. 

[AndrewC]

Morning all. I wrote the above in a wave of optimism, fool that I was. I now find the booking system telling me that there are no appointment dates available. What? Forever? Between now and the end of the world? What do they know that the rest of us don't? 

 

Best stay safe all.

I have the same issue with my GP's surgery and their use of VisionOnline. Half the time the practice doesn't load the appointment schedule into the system, the other half of the time they only upload a fraction of the available slots. When I asked them about why there never seemed to be any available appointments in their brand new all singing and dancing system, while I got a next day by phoning, the numpty at the desk declared they don't use it for most appointments as its not fair on people without the internet. WTAF!!!! The alternative is to walk in and wait at silly o clock, or to spend 45 minutes on average with the phone sweated to your ear. Then again half the time if you have an early appointment you end up waiting forever as the useless third of humanity that seem to inhabit the practice's office will push the walk in patients ahead of those with appointments. Needless to say we are now changing GPs.

 

edit: fix autocorrupt speeling feckup

Edited September 15, 2015 by AndrewC

[edcayton]

Morning Afternoon all. Been a bit dicky overnight so late posting. Wot a lot you miss in a few hours, so the usual etc.

 

Musically I've not been a great fan of Dolly Parton, but lusted over Linda Ronstadt in my youth and consider Emmylou Harris's voice to be one of the best ever. I bought the first "Trio" album with a little trepidation, but I need not have worried. A fine selection of songs and Dolly sings the most exquisite harmonies. Very close to musical perfection in my view. Go to You-tube and type "Trio" brings them up if you want to try them.

 

ER's brings its usual mix of emotions, but I go lightly into the kitchen with the image of rescuing pills from vomit causing what can only be described as a belly laugh.

 

Regards

 

Ed

[edcayton]

I have the same issue with my GP's surgery and their use of VisionOnline. Half the time the practice doesn't load the appointment schedule into the system, the other half of the time they only upload a fraction of the available slots. When I asked them about why there never seemed to be any available appointments in their brand new all singing and dancing system, while I got a next day by phoning, the numpty at the desk declared they don't use it for most appointments as its not fair on people without the internet. WTAF!!!! The alternative is to walk in and wait at silly o clock, or to spend 45 minutes on average with the phone sweated to your ear. Then again half the time if you have an early appointment you end up waiting forever as the useless third of humanity that seem to inhabit the practice's office will push the walk in patients ahead of those with appointments. Needless to say we are now changing GPs.

 

edit: fix autocorrupt speeling feckup

 

Pedant mode on/ they are two "alternatives" thus giving three choices /pedant mode off. I always found "walk in and wait" the best system, and often waited for less time than is often the case for "appointments". There are some numpties at the desk but most are someones wife/mother/daughter, and the ones at my practice are smashing (from a far-too-frequent user.

 

Ed

 

WTAF?

[grandadbob]

Ed  - totally agree about "Trio". I bought it when it was first released and love it.

[AndyB]

Afternoon all,

The Battle of Britain flypast was knocked back from noon till around 14:00. 

Just heard on the radio that one of the foour 2-seat Spits is unserviceable; Prince Harry was going to be riding in one of the Spits but has given up his place so the 3 others (all servicemen) can experience it. Decent chap. 

 

Like others, waiting for news from Jock.