RMweb Premium skipepsi Posted October 25, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 25, 2015 Kipling handbags been there now DD2 has one too, you just reminded me must wake MrsB up after I have made her a coffee. It is dry outside and there is a ray of sunshine must pick up leaves must pick up leaves Have a good day all. 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Happy Hippo Posted October 25, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 25, 2015 The coal tank will be at Warley this year as the large scale exhibit. Might get a chance to have a look see during build up! They are building a full sized coal tank for Warley? I'm all a quiver at the thought! Seriously, it will be interesting to see, as I'm able to confirm my attendance on the Saturday, albeit as helping to man the EMGS stand. 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two_sugars Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 (edited) I'm in attendance today too. If you could both wear a red carnation I'll make a point of saying 'blimey' and moving quickly to the other end of the building. Morning all. Sorry mate . . fresh out of carnations, and no red dye for the dandylions. . . Edit to say. . .We could always put out a call over the Tannoy to meet in't caff. Edited October 25, 2015 by Two_sugars 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted October 25, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 25, 2015 White Stiletto’s, perhaps? Best, Pete Today's shoe shopping will be for something fairly sensible, suitable for walking round foreign museums. Aditi did mention she might buy a new handbag. She likes the ones with the little dog tag. Tony 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted October 25, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 25, 2015 Morning all, Ian's remark about 'taking the old route from Aachen' made me chuckle as the first time I travelled over it much of the route was new, and newly electrified, and there were loads of dumped Class 23s on the steam shed at Aachen (oh heck, 50 years ago this year - but it was a school exchange trip). Oddly a lot of what was new then has now gone including the flyover which had been built on the border to provide an unobstructed change from left hand to right hand running (it's now left hand all the way into Aachen according to my spy). However the entire old route is a very pleasant and interesting ride but it's hard to believe that part of it was once akin to the Black Country/Sheffield with masses of heavy industry. Aachen I believe is still a gare commutable which is also amusing as you can run in to some platforms on Belgian dc voltage and out on DB ac, or vice versa - all clever stuff. Odd patches of sunlight outside this morning so the 'G' word might get a mention - we shall see. Oh and I see Ian's is 5.5 inches bigger than mine - I'm not jealous as with one my size I can at least open the cupboard above wherein lurk a number of diecast road vehicles - among other things. Have a good day one and all 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted October 25, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 25, 2015 Aditi had never heard of Kipling bags.I can confirm I am not needed on this shopping trip. We stayed in Aachen for a couple of days last time we drove to Austria. I usually cut that corner of the drive by going through Luxembourg but Aditi and Matthew wanted to go the Aachen route. I don't recall why now. If we had gone to Austria as planned this summer we were going to try the route through France, crossing into Germany near St Avold. However we didn't go due to needing to be around home for Matthew. We did have nice week in Bled though so Aditi did get her need to see lakes and mountains urge satisfied. Tony 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jock67B Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Jock just to give you an idea of the Peugeot place (part of the Charters group and no longer handling new vehicle sales) every time I have been in the Service Manager has been a different person as have the folk on the service reception desk, high staff turnover tells its own story I find. In fact the service staff seemed to turnover even faster than the sales staff! The guy who took on my GS (and the all subsequent Citroens then my first Peugeot was excellent). Although he originally operated in a back street premises - literally - he was fully Citroen approved and trained plus all the necessary specialist tools and his regular mechanic, who was there or years, had also been on factory training courses. He later took on a second mechanic who was also fully trained up and he finally moved to a new industrial unit out near reading West Junction - a right s*d of a place to get to & fro as it was a nice healthy walk to the nearest 'bus stop! Unfortunately Bob developed the big C and had to step back from the business and subsequently sold it to one of the mechanics and the woman who he'd taken on to do all the office work and the last time I used them - over 10 years back - they were doing a great job. the business is still there under Bob's name and I know he was still keeping a watchful eye after the sale. The main dealer vanished completely a long time back and another firm took over the Citroen dealership for the area (my ZX came from them) but I see they have moved on to another marque in the past 6 - 9 months so I don't even know if Citroen still have a dealership presence in the immediate area. Times change I suppose. G'night all. Morning Mike, Over many years in the motor trade, I developed a theory about groups. I was lucky enough to win dealer holidays for nine years or more with the Renault franchise. On these trips, one had plenty of time to evaluate the calibre of the other dealers. Once drink took a hold, it seemed that most of the silliness came from staff who worked for the large groups. The dealer principals and owners in the party always seemed to conduct themselves with more dignity. It occurred to me to question why, and research such as studying customer satisfaction returns showed that they achieved their success principally by shifting large numbers of vehicles. I eventually came to the conclusion that there was a 'dumbing' down effect in the big group staff selection process. I had actual proof of this when I was 'head hunted' by the Co-operative Motor Group on the recommendation of Renault. I didn't stay long as I couldn't take the infighting and bitching between staff and branches, having only worked in privately owned garages before (including being MD of the family one!). The process is quite simple as the senior management devolve responsibility to regional managers, who then do the same to dealership managers, who in turn hire departmental managers. At each level, the natural tendency is to resist hiring anyone 'better' than yourself, who could threaten your position. By the time this attitude percolated down to the shop floor, you had reached a fairly low standard! There was also an apparent lack of trust in these group situations where 'big brother' tactics were employed to constantly check up on everyone. In the family run scenario, like the last place I was at, we all worked to a common end, doing one another's jobs during absence for instance and putting the customer first. The manufacturers are guilty of supporting the big groups, paying lip service to customer care, whilst all the time rewarding volume sales, you the customer being fairly poorly considered. This is a weird attitude, because every successful motor business I know, had a very high customer retention percentage which had to be earned. I was really proud of our performance at Holland on Sea, as I was often delivering my fifth or sixth vehicle to the same family in the sixteen years I was there. I would be interested to know whether you saw similar processes at work in the railways? Apologies to everyone for climbing on my soap box! Kind regards, Jock. 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightengine Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Good Morning. Greetings from a sunny South Essex. No plans for today. Aditi is possibly going to buy some shoes but I don't think I am required to accompany her. Tony I have long thought shops that women visit to buy attire would be much better attended by men if, 1. They had chairs for husbands to sit and read newspapers and be able to put heavy bags down. 2. They had a tv for husbands to watch Football Focus etc 3. They had free tea or coffee. One shop, JBC, in my wifes hometown in Belgium has a play centre in the middle of it for children to sit and play etc. 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 It may be somewhat surprising but 3 out of 5 dealerships near me here in the ‘States are still family owned. The big dealership for Chysler/Dodge in Manhattan is also family owned (because I know one of the daughters - who gets a new vehicle every three months). Best, Pete. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted October 25, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 25, 2015 Jock. When I first started buying cars ,at the cheap end of the market, salesmen seemed quite keen on selling something to me. We were very happy with a Ford we purchased at the then main dealer. However we felt badly let down when they changed their warranty work site to a field in Hullbridge and basically didn't honour warranty stuff properly. So we went to a large Vauxhall dealer that knew how to sell and service. We were then given a Volvo. Service for that seemed very disorganised , but no quibbles about quality of work , just when will it be ready. That ended up at a local garage on an industrial estate run by people who seemed very keen on cars. When the Volvo died Aditi wanted a Renault Clio. I think this must have been in the time where the sales executive had been selling double glazing and would be off to a job selling mobile phones soon. It was worth putting up with the effort to purchase the vehicle as I knew the service was good there. Then it wasn't. When I replaced my Renault Scenic I tried to have an open mind and went to look at every possible replacement. I was amazed at how many dealers just couldn't be bothered, some seemed quite depressed. Volkswagen and Land Rover dealers were keen. The Land Rover sales and service experience has been excellent ( Now on my second!). Ford locally have really got their act together. The salesman found exactly what Aditi wanted and their aftercare is superb. My neighbours have been looking for a new car to replace their 10 year old Lexus. They were not impressed by the Jaguar dealer who didn't treat them as serious buyers. The salesman asked Ted if he had ever owned a Jaguar before and clearly didn't believe his answer of "last one was an E type". They ended up buying a Range Rover from the Land Rover dealer I go to! Tony Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Londontram Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Good afternoon every one what date do the clocks go back? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDolfelin Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Good afternoon every one what date do the clocks go back? Next year about this time. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon G Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Well the extra hour this morning was a waste of time. I had planned to lie in, but Mrs G had forgotten about the time change and her bedside alarm thus went off at 5.30am. Now awake, she decides to get up & shower, so I nod off, only to be woken again when she returns and dries her hair with a very noisy hair-dryer. Again I try to nod off, but she is now busy in the kitchen, with the radio on loud, so I eventually give up and get up! I have completed the dismantling and size reduction of an old armchair, with most of the wood from it ready to use on the wood burner, but I have recycled some of the wood and foam into a loco servicing cradle. I have been meaning to make one for ages, so that is another little job sorted. Picture of said cradle: 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killybegs Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 (edited) Tony, I agree with you about Ford, as far as the dealer we use is concerned. They are the main Ford dealers for County Donegal, are a family run business and the service and friendliness is excellent. We are now on our third new car from there. When I was collecting the new car, the salesman commented that, although we seem to clock up an exceptionally high mileage (getting on for 40,000km per annum), our first car is still going strong eight years after we traded it in, he even knew the registration number. The only down side is that it is 50 miles away. On the other hand, we have a Ford dealership just down the road. They are really Mazda dealers but the parent company has a large Ford franchise in Dublin, so they sell and 'service' Fords as well . Marks for service, competence and friendliness, 0 out of 10. Amazingly, people still go there. Edited October 25, 2015 by Killybegs 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 I have long thought shops that women visit to buy attire would be much better attended by men if, 1. They had chairs for husbands to sit and read newspapers and be able to put heavy bags down. 2. They had a tv for husbands to watch Football Focus etc 3. They had free tea or coffee. One shop, JBC, in my wifes hometown in Belgium has a play centre in the middle of it for children to sit and play etc. You're defining the Bloke Park. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Next year about this time. Ah, but a week later Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted October 25, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 25, 2015 Very interesting Jock and what you say doesn't surprise me in some respects. I don't know about Ian (OD) but I never really came across anyone on the railway avoiding selecting people because they thought they were brighter than them but there was undoubtedly sometimes selection based on whether or not your face fitted and there was equally considerable effort - in my later experience - in making sure appointees would not only be up to the job (or even better than) and they would fit in with the team on a personal basis. My final big railway job I got entirely on the basis of knowledge and skills and my predecessor paid a big role in the selection as he wanted someone with the right knowledge and ability to succeed him - my Director didn't seem to mind in the least that I knew far more about the job than he did and in fact often made use of that (as he should have) as well as the fact that I often worked closely with the Deputy MD. The job immediately before was offered to me on the basis of knowledge and known for not being prepared to stand for any nonsense or anything that would drive costs sky high while the one before that was based almost entirely on knowledge and management skills - and that was with a boss who knew far less about the work than I did and who was based nearly 170 miles away so clearly trusted me to manage my own little empire. Meanwhile the chap who was responsible to me for immediately managing my outbase 80 miles away knew far more about the local detail than I ever would so apart from policy matters and occasional direction he was trusted to run the team there. I think I always selected on ability, known record, and personality (to fit in the team) and I always made a point of telling the unsuccessful applicants why they didn't get the job (interestingly one of them who is a member of RMweb PM'd me a while back to thank me for that and my suggesting that he should not take his career in a particular direction; he didn't and set off very successfully on another course). Coincidentally a number of people who worked for me or in my organisation at various times during my career are also members of RMweb - small world as we come across each other. 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightengine Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 As with ODD further along the coast at Babbacombe, we in sunny Teignmouth are bathed in sunshine today. A large amount of long tailed tits are flitting through the bushes and a smaller number of blue tits are out using next doors feeders. Must get into the garden and do some work if I can muster up any energy. Anyone know how to stop cats defecating on my garden? I have used packeted Lion pooh, green crystal stuff and just last week I put some spiky rose bush cuttings down. Cat just apparently ignores the cuttings and poohs straight on top of one. Wife is reluctant for me to act more strongly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Anyone know how to stop cats defecating on my garden?. Having dogs seems to work for us. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon G Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Anyone know how to stop cats defecating on my garden? I have used packeted Lion pooh, green crystal stuff and just last week I put some spiky rose bush cuttings down. Cat just apparently ignores the cuttings and poohs straight on top of one. Wife is reluctant for me to act more strongly. I have exactly the same issue. Two cats seem to use our garden as their territory, and I am loathe to take the stronger action. I do scare them off if I see them, but that has only a very temporary effect. The only saving grace is that they do discourage the pigeons and doves which otherwise drive me nuts! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted October 25, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 25, 2015 (edited) Good morning from Estuary-Land. No problems with the clocks going back as everything in the house and car is done automatically. After yesterdays exertions I needed the extra hour anyway. I purchased my current car new from a local company who was at the time was the local Hyundia dealer which is a family firm. After about 3 years the franchise was given to a national network and I received a deluge of letters asking me to take my car to them for servicing, I decided to stick with the family firm and by all accounts that was the right decision as the servicing costs from the new company are 20-25% higher. I have always found the original company to be more than satisfactory so why change? UP train derailed by flooding from Hurricane Patricia in Texas:http://www.cnn.com/videos/weather/2015/10/24/train-derailment-texas-flood-newday.cnn(Notice the wheelsets.) I clicked on that and my computer froze, the only way to 'unfreeze' it was to switch off power. It then ran an ad then froze again, I clicked on the 'X' to delete it, still nothing happened so I switched off again and when I switched on it had disappeared. I should not have had the ad as I have Adblock which is only disabled on RMweb and another 'free' site that relies on ads for revenue. I have just checked and the Adblock has disappered completely! Edited October 25, 2015 by PhilJ W Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbishop Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Anyone know how to stop cats defecating on my garden? Catapult? Bill 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted October 25, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 25, 2015 Some dogs (naming no names) will eat the cat poo. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted October 25, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 25, 2015 As with ODD further along the coast at Babbacombe, we in sunny Teignmouth are bathed in sunshine today. A large amount of long tailed tits are flitting through the bushes and a smaller number of blue tits are out using next doors feeders. Must get into the garden and do some work if I can muster up any energy. Anyone know how to stop cats defecating on my garden? I have used packeted Lion pooh, green crystal stuff and just last week I put some spiky rose bush cuttings down. Cat just apparently ignores the cuttings and poohs straight on top of one. Wife is reluctant for me to act more strongly. I have exactly the same issue. Two cats seem to use our garden as their territory, and I am loathe to take the stronger action. I do scare them off if I see them, but that has only a very temporary effect. The only saving grace is that they do discourage the pigeons and doves which otherwise drive me nuts! I discovered a way to keep some cats away from the garden quite by accident, a hosepipe, a squirt of cold water can be very effective. The only problem is they do come back after a few weeks and you have to get the hosepipe out again. Berberris cuttings are far more effective than rose cuttings, more spikes and they're longer and thinner. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightengine Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 I discovered a way to keep some cats away from the garden quite by accident, a hosepipe, a squirt of cold water can be very effective. The only problem is they do come back after a few weeks and you have to get the hosepipe out again. Berberris cuttings are far more effective than rose cuttings, more spikes and they're longer and thinner. I have a pump action water pistol, like a bike pump. Trouble is the cats hearing is acute and can hear the door/window opening at 400 paces. Sadly I cut the berberis back harshly last year, but will bear that in mind when it grows. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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