Early Risers.

[The Lurker]

Once again the "shack across the sea" has fulfilled my expectations. Ordered 15.35 yesterday - delivered at 13.45 today.

Do they have stealth delivery mode so that new deliveries swoop in under the "enemy's" radar?

[Tony_S]

Do they have stealth delivery mode so that new deliveries swoop in under the "enemy's" radar?

They do come with a "safe to fly" sticker!

[DDolfelin]

"Physio excercises have to be done four times a day and then it will just be gentle exercise for another 4 weeks.  No running or jumping, for some time yet."

 

What about the dog, Gordon?

 

Seriously - it's grand when a family member returns to the fold.

Well done all around.

[Smiffy2]

In front of the kids too?

 

Yes. It was part of our ethos that learning is a partnership, and that the people involved were actual people, and in the endeavour they were partners.

It may amaze some, but it worked very well.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

 All the best to those enduring health problems and treatments, and any mourning recent deaths. I was round visiting a recently bereaved neighbour early this afternoon, and she cannot decide whether it was best that he just 'departed' in his sleep with no warning (aged 87, in apparently fine health, autopsy result inconclusive, he just stopped living). They were halfway through discussing how to revise their will following the birth of twin grandchildren, and she knew he had some definite ideas. 'Do as you now see fit' she accepts as reasonable, but it feels unsatisfactory.

Yes. It was part of our ethos that learning is a partnership, and that the people involved were actual people, and in the endeavour they were partners.

It may amaze some, but it worked very well.

 I suppose it's horses for courses. Educated in a secondary school where staff were regularly assaulted by pupils, I suspect the only teachers for whom the partner concept might have worked would have been martial arts instructors. (When your old man's in the Scrubs on a seven to ten stretch for peter jobs and has the trade name 'Nutter' or similar; a different value system probably operates in your social milieu.) It certainly was an education, as I had been relatively gently reared up to that point and had no idea of the interesting career choices that some made.

[The Stationmaster]

Once again the "shack across the sea" has fulfilled my expectations. Ordered 15.35 yesterday - delivered at 13.45 today.

I can just imagine the conversation going on in a small Manx town/episcopal seat.

 

'Hey Neil, we've just had that bloke from Sutton on the 'phone again, you know - the one you know on that nutty web forum.  He says his drag missus is out at work 'til 4 tomorrow so we've got to get this one out quick and tip off the postal blokes to get it down to the airport pdq' 

 

Am I right or am I right?

[Smiffy2]

We were an inner-city comprehensive school in Wandsworth, and our belief was that the antidote to a violent society where kids were at risk was to make school a friendly and welcoming place where we would keep them safe and treat them as people. The end result is that I've got almost 400 Facebook friends who are ex-pupils, some now in their fifties.

[Jock67B]

Afternoon all,

Just waited ages for iOS9 to load on the iPad, and already I've found the upgrade to be better - ratings seem to be applied much quicker, and just signing in to RMweb seemed easier. Time will tell, and soon I might work out what all the new symbols on the keyboard are for!

Thanks once more for all the good wishes, my nocturnal dose of morphine took about 20 minutes to work sufficiently to allow me to get back to sleep until just after 7am.

Great news on the grandson Matthew - he is mending well, and it is hoped that they might move him back to Colchester General for the rest of his recuperation. This will make the visiting logistics a lot easier for the family and friends.

I've now had a chance to read back through a fair number of recent posts, so I thought I'd type something now as the tiredness gets to me in mid-evening at the moment. I have to say that they did make it clear that there would be a lot of discomfort for anything up to two weeks after treatment - I'd simply forgotten just how much!

AndyB, I was terribly sad to hear that the job situation had turned sour enough that you had to leave. I'm sure that I'm not the only ER to keep fingers crossed that something comes up soon.

Pete(trisonic), the Telegraph carried an obituary yesterday on Gary Richrath, guitarist with 'REO Speedwagon' whose hero and influence was Jeff Beck. I never really liked any of their output, but his playing did stand out. Another loss to excess at only 65 years of age. On the subject of waste, I think your comments on colon cancer were very true and the input from others like Gordon and Stewart underline the fact that it is survivable, but only if diagnosed early. We must take every test offered as Pete pointed out, the common symptoms don't always show, and I can certainly confirm this with my kidney cancer - most people have difficulty with passing urine, and indeed show blood in the stream. The first I knew about mine was the pain from the secondary bone cancers it had caused, by which time it was too late.

Gordon, sorry to hear about the loss of your friend but you must be truly cheered by Archie's survival following such a serious incident. Good luck to you both with the nursing task now in hand.

Robert, thanks for the geology comments, what a small world this sometimes appears to be - I went down Geevor Tin Mine (as well as South Crofty, Wheal Jane and many old closed ones!) several times and have heard the scary sound of the rocks moving in the surf overhead! Camborne School of Mines was a marvellous place as they allowed me access to their library when I showed an interest in industrial archaeology. It is incredible to think of the influence a small Cornish town like Camborne had on world mining, not just the school which provided mining engineers in every continent, but also the famous Holman company who produced the compressed air rock drills that for many years saw service in almost every mine in the world!

Rick also showing it to be a 'small world', driving tourists to our mine - I was there from late 1975 to July 1980 by the way.

Sherry, as others have already said, things can only get better for you and your family - thinking of you.

martin1, I have to agree about the tiring effect of full time school. Our great grandson has shown the same signs, and now also has a better night time sleep pattern.

Nice that we've had some good news on our convalescent members - Mal mending enough to be allowed out, Simon apparently avoiding infection, Stewart doing too much by his own admission, and John(Two_sugars) with news that his daughter is recovering well enough to go home. All it needs now is for Stewart to get his medications sorted out! It would be interesting to read Flávio's views on the drugs you mentioned, and I wonder what he thinks of the scandal in the US where a different company has taken over a drug and raised the price out of reach of all but the wealthiest!

Polly, I loved the pics of the NG Tanks, but I think that Ogwen is likely to need a lot of internal refurbishment before it can steam again. Big Jim, very best of luck with the training tests, I look forward to more excellent images on your thread.

Lovely to be able to post again, but I'm not sure when the next one will be. Meanwhile, good health to all, and I leave you with the hope that Ian(OD) manages to resist the temptation to post any 'up the kilt images' should the 'skinny postwoman' succeed in her stated aim!

Kind regards,

Jock.

[Barry O]

psst Jock... some engines for you...

 

 

Duchess of Montrose...

 

 

spearmint....

 

baz

 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I just discovered that there was a fatal accident yesterday on the A13 near the Pitsea flyover, not long after I had left the nearby Tesco store. It involved a farm tractor, a heavy lorry and a van, the tractor driver was the fatality and it appears that he was thrown from the cab. The truck driver has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving but I think that slow moving vehicles should be banned from such 'fast' roads.

[Tony_S]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I just discovered that there was a fatal accident yesterday on the A13 near the Pitsea flyover, not long after I had left the nearby Tesco store. It involved a farm tractor, a heavy lorry and a van, the tractor driver was the fatality and it appears that he was thrown from the cab. The truck driver has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving but I think that slow moving vehicles should be banned from such 'fast' roads.

Aditi was delayed by the tailback from that last night. The eastbound traffic was diverted off the flyover. She said once back on to the main road after the accident the driving was of a lunatic nature considering the conditions.

[New Haven Neil]

They do come with a "safe to fly" sticker!

 

 

Our secret in prompt delivery is in that sticker, Tony.  Our mail flies from here, although it's not 'air mail' per se, that's just normal post cost for us - in fact Isle of Man Post is cheaper than Royal Mail in the UK.  Our mail plane is the first one in to the distribution hub in the UK when it opens, so our mail gets sorted first and on it's way before anyone else's! Of course, we have to do our bit in Trackshack, by getting all the lovely train orders packed before our post collection.  We try very hard to get anything ordered before 4pm out that (working) day - which we manage 99.9% of the time.

[New Haven Neil]

Oh Baz - 60100 is 'my' A3!!  Toram Beg's regular loco of course.

 

All the photos I have of her with Witte smoke deflectors show her with a coal rail tender though.

[Barry O]

Oh Baz - 60100 is 'my' A3!!  Toram Beg's regular loco of course.

 

All the photos I have of her with Witte smoke deflectors show her with a coal rail tender though.

 

NHN that may be the one on Sir Visto.. never very good with tender/loco combinations...

 

[New Haven Neil]

I'm not saying she didn't run with one Baz, just haven't  hadn't seen a shot - I have just been sent one by a lurker but can't post it!  Life.....

 

I still prefer the GN tender, not sure why!

 

edit   https://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/RAILWAYS/BRITISH-STEAM-LOCOMOTIVES/LOCOMOTIVES-OF-BRITISH/17607390_g8hKkm/1445682942_bL4xzDs#!i=1445682942&k=bL4xzDs

 

edit edit - there's loads, I just didn't look very well!  I have quite a few in books and prints, all with GN tender.  Must all have been taken at the same time!

Edited September 22, 2015 by New Haven Neil

[emt_911]

A rather boring day for me but it appears not for others.

 

My mum has been improving to a level where they have been able to fit a pacemaker.

 

Gordon - Great to see that Archie is home. Really sorry to hear of your friend.

 

Polly - I hope that you recover quickly and the dishwasher is either repaired or replaced soon.

 

Jock - Excellent news about Matthew. If he's moved, it will make life for the whole family easier. I hope that your pain eases soon.

 

Sherry - I seriously hope that life improves for you soon.

 

For all ER's that I've missed, I hope that recovery is as swift and painless as possible.

[45156]

Pleasant surprise with the bill which was £4700 and certainly less than the initial estimates.  £1500 for the MRI and £2500 for the surgery, with most of it covered by insurance.

 

That's pretty reasonable for the level of care and skill you received, and I'm delighted that he's home where he can recover in a loving environment.

 

Just a quick check in before another early night.  I think that now that I'm on more familiar ground with the pain relief, I can self-manage a bit better,  I am always a bit wary of drugs that I've not had before as I'm never sure how to vary the dose if needed to get the balance between pain relief and unwanted effects.

 

Online shopping has arrived again, and I've got to say I'm mightily impressed my Morrisons' online operation.  All the stuff is fresh - perhaps even fresher than in store, and a delivery charge of £1 is a lot less than the petrol cost of getting to the shop, and none of the supermarket psychological selling to contend with at the end of every aisle.

 

Night night all

Stewart

Edited September 22, 2015 by 45156

[iL Dottore]

Evening all,

Glad to hear positive news about our various invalids (canine and human). I haven't spent much time on RMWeb as of late for three very good reasons: i) Mrs iD has "things for me to do" - the current one being the stock taking and organisation of our dried, tinned and bottled stores, ii) I have started work on a new modelling project and for a change I'm getting some work done on it rather than faffing around, and iii) I am suffering from considerable fatigue. I simply have no energy at all. I have the desire, the means, the motive and the opportunity to do things, but just no energy. I suspect I'm on a rebound from the weeks spent gambolling across "Planet Stoned" (I just completed my last medication regimen a week ago). It should be temporary.

...It would be interesting to read Flávio's views on the drugs you mentioned, and I wonder what he thinks of the scandal in the US where a different company has taken over a drug and raised the price out of reach of all but the wealthiest! ....Jock.

I'll revisit the post and review the drugs and maybe post a thought or two. As for the second question: There is NO excuse for such a price rise, it's use in such a narrow therapeutic setting would mean that the drugs could be considered an "orphan drug" which has several benefits, including faster time to market, less development costs and longer patent protection. And if the drug has marketing approval by the FDA (as seems to be the case) then there is - in my view - no justifiable reason for such a gigantic price increase. In this situation it would not be hard to consider the person behind the obscene price increase as an immoral, greedy, disgusting, poor imitation of a human being (and what has been reported in the media about this person would incline one to think that way).

 

What's worse, is this unjustified increase may just cause a backlash against ALL high drug prices and - unfortunately - some important and very expensive drugs have cost hundreds of millions of pounds to develop and have a limited time of patent protection after approval to allow the drug to "earn its keep". By unjustifiably charging very high prices, this moron may have just made it impossible to charge justifiably high prices for important drugs that have cost a hell of a lot to develop. Quite frankly, this individual merits the opprobrium he has brought upon himself.

 

Off to bed now. G'night all.

[45156]

I'd appreciate your thoughts on the drugs I was prescribed, Flavio - thanks.

[emt_911]

Night all

[Barry O]

Sleep well everyone!

 

Nos da Polly

 

Up yer kilt Tex!

 

and - can you play us some nice calming music Pete as Sunderland managed to lose 1-4 at home tonight...shocking!

 

Baz

[laurenceb]

Night all

[trisonic]

 

 

and - can you play us some nice calming music Pete as Sunderland managed to lose 1-4 at home tonight...shocking!

 

Baz

Baz, Howzabout a soothing video of my colonoscopy (in color) - where you can watch two polyps being zapped by laser (actually one pinched off; the other zapped)?

 

Oh, hang on, can’t load it right now - I’ll do it during the night so you’ll have it waiting for you first thing for over breakfast viewing...........

 

Best, Pete.

[Gwiwer]

They do come with a "safe to fly" sticker!

 

Which is more than can be said for some of the human cargo I have had to spend many hours encapsulated with in transit!

 

 

 

It is incredible to think of the influence a small Cornish town like Camborne had on world mining

 

Camborne is to mining what Sheffield is to steel.  It has been well said that you cannot call your hole in the ground a mine unless you have a Cornishman at the bottom.  If you do he's been through the Camborne School of Mines which is now part of the vast Cornwall College complex that has grown up in recent years almost opposite South Crofty.  I had my chance to study there.  It felt too close to some still sore wounds at the time.  Father was made redundant from Holmans and suffered from the great Cornish disease of unemployment forcing us to move up-country.  In the end he secured work at Shoreham Airport (recently mentioned here in another context) and the family moved to Sussex.  I was thus closer to London than Cornwall and with all the lack of resources a sixth-former has I opted to study in London and initially live at home.  The alternative would have been to move back into the area which had caused the family so much heartache not many years before and have to set myself up with "digs" rather farther from home.  I think I made the right decision for me; graduating and then working in London allowed me to later buy the place in Hayle after I had met someone there and was ready to go back.

 

​Camborne is still a town with a global reputation.  Currently it's for little numbered and wheeled items of interest to us all

 

Morning all.  Woden's Day has dawned bright, slightly sunny, cold and with wet ground suggesting rain has occurred overnight.  Don't worry - be happy.

[Jock67B]

Evening all,

Tired but amazingly still awake here!

Baz, many thanks for the images, I believe the first Hornby three rail Duchess I had was 'Montrose', so that brought back some lovely memories.

Neil (NHN), how lovely to see 'Toram Beg' (Gaelic for 'were Norman' for the uninitiated!) mentioned, the pseudonym of famous driver Norman McKillip of Haymarket shed. I read his book, 'Engineman Elite' in my father's collection years ago and remember thinking that it was a wonderful first hand account of the way a driver came up through the different disciplines. My father followed that path, although he was 'fast tracked' by the war, and then by selection to train for the projected switch to diesels. Norman's theory that a specific locomotive should be matched to a driver was never tried at Hurlford as far as I know, but I was often told by the men of the engineering department, how much they appreciated the way that my father treated 'their' locomotives. Driver McKillip was equally thought of over in Edinburgh. Norman was a committed Union man and was passionate about the welfare of railwaymen in general. I believe he wrote the official history of ASLEF. Many thanks Neil, more wonderful memories brought to life by an RMwebber!

Flávio, I knew I could rely on you to give us informed comment on the US drugs scandal - the drug is sixty-three years old, and used primarily to help AIDS sufferers and so I thought that your description of the CEO responsible was quite restrained!

Duncan, sorry that I didn't include your mum in my earlier post about health improvement - can't explain how I missed that but I am nonetheless delighted for you. I lost mine early, almost twenty five years ago and still miss her.

I'm now going to try to get to sleep as I expect I may be awake again before long. Hope the rest of the week is kind to you all,

Kind regards,

Jock.

G'night all!