Early Risers.

[Killybegs]

 Another overseas show I love is 'Inspector Montalbano' from Italy, it's one of those programmes that seems to wash over you and get under your skin, even when it appears that there's not a lot going on. It's all very subtle and extremely well made.

 

 

 

If you like the TV series, you should try the books, they are even better (and in English). Available on Kindle, other ......... available, etc.

[Simon G]

Happy Birthday Bob, and many more of them!

 

The torrential rain of earlier this morning has subsided while I was out taking Mrs G to the Opticians.  I actually managed to start my Christmas shopping and got her present while she was having her eye test, so progress made this morning.  My stiff back is slowly easing, and the exercises & cod liver oil capsules are starting to have the desired effect. 

 

Now waiting for the postman to deliver an Iphone I bought on ebay recently.  I also managed to acquire a Hornby loco drive Princess Royal loco last night for a very reasonable sum, so am also looking forward to that arriving.

[lightengine]

If you like the TV series, you should try the books, they are even better (and in English). Available on Kindle, other ......... available, etc.

Its an excellent series and also has great scenery. Strange that they have not dubbed it.

 

We have been watching The Coroner, BBC1 at 14.15. Its a strange thing watching a programme where they are constructing one reality town from bits of real towns. The amalgam of their fictitious town is made up of scenes using buildings in Dartmouth, Kinsgwear, Totnes, Paignton, Teignmouth, beaches at various places and a small village on the Tamar above Plymouth. One minute they are walking into a building in High Street, Totnes as her courtroom and next she goes into her office in Dartmouth, whilst the harbour office scenes in episode 6 were shot in Teignmouth.

[PhilJ W]

Having taken on the dangerous pastime of researching family history, I discovered my paternal great grand mother was born in Romford. She was in the fish trade and came north to Hull when our trawlers were able to go further north with the newfangled steam power and business expanded .

I found a similar history concerning a 2X great aunt. She married the captain of a schooner and moved to Grimsby from Gravesend. Her husband was later working as an ordinary sailor on a steam vessel. I haven't been able to fill in the intervening details but her decendants now live in Australia. Incidently the birth may be recorded in Romford but it does not neccessarily mean that someone was born there, many of my relatives who are recorded as born in Romford were in fact born in Rainham, Romford was the local registration office.

[Jock67B]

Morning all,

After another poor night's sleep due o the usual problem, I had an early start today to see Joanna off to Colchester with No2 daughter for Christmas shopping. Sadly I've had to stay here to care for the dog! E-mails took a different turn this morning with PayPal introducing me to 'Giving Tuesday', several 'Cyber Monday' deals running all week and eBay with my Christmas present - 100 free listings by December 8th and 75% off final value fees so I must go soon and dig out some more rubbish! What really annoys me is that these special offers from people like 'Land's End' and 'Cotton Traders' appear to be similar to the ones they offer all year! I'll step off the soap box before a rant comes on.

Rick, welcome back my friend, your special brand of humour has been missed! I hope that you and Sharon are in good shape to receive the 'man in red' despite recent issues.

Bob(grandad), very Happy Birthday and as many more as you wish for. Have you had a look at John Flann's layout 'Hintock' - the GWR over in America, and AndyP's 'Pencarne Junction for Trewenn'? Both threads show that sometimes 'less is more' and both modellers seem to enjoy operating them.

Baz, very glad to hear that the medication appears to be winning.

Ian(OD), for Sherry's sake, turn her away from anything resembling an annuity unless she can be sure of living beyond 100 to be certain of getting all her investment(?) back. This written by one who was pushed in that direction in 2012 by the government, when they decided to abandon the 'opt out pension' scheme! I would have to live a further twenty-two years to recover all of mine and there is no provision for anyone who contracts cancer whilst in the scheme!

AndyID, that is simply superb craftsmanship, and I'm sure that many people better qualified than me will confirm that it looks truly prototypical. I suppose a real benefit of 'printing' your own is that you can choose 00, EM or P4 to suit. Are the tolerances tight enough to avoid any running problems? As a matter of interest, how did you go about soldering the frog without affecting the plastic? I look forward to your first double slip now!

DD, thank you very much for your kind words - I suppose that RMweb, and ERs in particular, have filled a sort of vacuum in my life, left when I was forced to retire from the garage on health grounds. I used to meet hundreds of people in a given month, and the variety of client was fantastic, ranging from domestic staff to archaeologists and scientists as well as a large number of retired servicemen. These included a few genuine decorated war heroes who are sadly appearing in the obituary column all too frequently! Lots of them would stop by my desk to chat, and the varied subjects could be extremely interesting. I purposefully decided to position my desk in the open plan showroom, where I could view the sales and after-sales departments, and greet anyone who came in. I reserved an upstairs office for more sensitive meetings, but I truly loved being in the centre of things. The clients also seemed to appreciate the approachability. I do miss it terribly, and given a choice, I would still be doing it now!

I will try to catch up later, but now I must mark off a few chores on the never ending list,

Kind regards,

Jock.

[Tony_S]

Simon's iPhone purchase reminded me that when we arrived home on Sunday from Enfield our neighbours had just got back from a meal in a restaurant. It was their daughters 11th birthday and she was very keen to show us her first phone which was in fact her Mum's old one. As she got it out of her bag, she exclaimed "oh no" and showed her Mum a very cracked screen. Fortunately this was just a cracked screen wallpaper the child had loaded to wind up her Mum. I though it was funny!

Edited December 1, 2015 by Tony_S

[Simon G]

Mine is a second hand one, so I certainly hope it doesn't have a cracked screen (or even cracked screen wallpaper for that matter).

[lightengine]

I found a similar history concerning a 2X great aunt. She married the captain of a schooner and moved to Grimsby from Gravesend. Her husband was later working as an ordinary sailor on a steam vessel. I haven't been able to fill in the intervening details but her decendants now live in Australia. Incidently the birth may be recorded in Romford but it does not neccessarily mean that someone was born there, many of my relatives who are recorded as born in Romford were in fact born in Rainham, Romford was the local registration office.

Phil,

I think the passenger lists from UK to Oz are pretty good. With some trawling through the records I am sure you can find them on the lists. If you can narrow down the years when they could have gone.

I had a letter written by a forebear who was shipwrecked on the way to Oz but eventually got there. Great story.

I also had a transportee and obtained loads of records from Oz regarding his transportation, his physical appearance etc.

Pete

Edited December 1, 2015 by lightengine

[Tony_S]

Aditi, her sister and mother arrived in England by boat. They travelled on P&O's Australia to UK service. They boarded it at Bombay. A few years ago one of the genealogy sites was allowing free access to landing records. It was interesting as they landed at Tilbury but some of the details were incorrect but a search also showed a record of their landing at Southampton some days later when they were actually already in Knaresborough.

[lightengine]

Aditi, her sister and mother arrived in England by boat. They travelled on P&O's Australia to UK service. They boarded it at Bombay. A few years ago one of the genealogy sites was allowing free access to landing records. It was interesting as they landed at Tilbury but some of the details were incorrect but a search also showed a record of their landing at Southampton some days later when they were actually already in Knaresborough.

Thanks for that Tony. That is a great tip to bear in mind to all family history researchers and many may not think of checking other ports of entry.

[Happy Hippo]

 

 

 

 generally my movements can hardly be described as 'hurricane'. 

A couple of cans of baked beans, a plate of sprouts and four pints of stout ought to sort that out for you.

Edited December 1, 2015 by Happy Hippo

[Rugd1022]

Its an excellent series and also has great scenery. Strange that they have not dubbed it.

 

 

I'm glad they haven't dubbed it, a quick scan of the subtitles is fine for me and I much prefer to hear the actors own voices anyway, I've even managed to pick up a few words of Italian in the process and I don't mean 'Alfa' or 'Romeo'! The theme music and the incidental score are beautiful too.

[Tony_S]

Matthew mentioned how he has developed a taste for sauerkraut while he has been in Utrecht. There doesn't seem to be enough time to make some before he comes home so knowing how keen ERs are on food has anyone tried any of the commercially UK available brands? I don't think it would be a permitted hand luggage item!

[The Lurker]

Greetings all.

 

Day two in the new office and plenty of work to keep me going

 

I can see the sun at present which makes a nice change.

 

I once read that the people with the purest Anglo Saxon blood are in Lowland Scotland. Not sure how true it is but it amused me.

 

The early history of the ecclesiastical organization of England is interesting - there was Pope Gregory's masterplan, for setting up dioceses in the two provinces (originally to be London and York) but with Kent being the starting point of the re-establishment of Roman Christianity (as opposed to Celtic), Canterbury being the seat of the Archbishop. In the north there were apparent power struggles that mirror the struggles between the Mercians and the Northumbrians (St Chad - for whom a church is named in Far Headingley) was I think the first bishop of Lichfield but before that was one of the rivals for the bishopric of York with St Wilfrid, who from afar seems a divisive figure - however it has to be said that our windows in to the past are the Venerable Bede and various hagiographies, including one of Wilfirid, none of which are truly reliable as historical documents and have to be viewed through the prism of the writers' intentions - Bede, the blueprint for an ideal Christian king, the hagiographer to glorify the saint, and so on.

 

I can't add too much re Rochester, save that St Andrew's Paddock Wood (founded in the 1850's and rebuilt on a new site following bomb damage in WW2) is in Rochester Deanery, but its trustees included at one stage the vicar of St John's Knutsford. (the first Mrs Lurker came from there and I met the vicar during the inevitable pre-marriage chat).

 

Anyway, I had best get on now as there is still work a plenty - however having booked a holiday I now have to change the insurance because the providers decided they wouldn't cover Younger Lurker against anaphylactic shock - and as that is the most likely need, we have had to obtain separate insurance so I need to amend the first lot.

[runs as required]

Phew! This is my first genuine Early Riser post.

 

Alarum set last night for 06.15 at ‘sleepover’ in son’s house (adjacent to old Heaton station, as both parents off on overnight work duties. On H&S duties, wor Dan was ‘off to Hull and Back’.

 

This morning grand daughter needed to be fettled by just after 07.30 to walk to Heaton Manor Comp (a mile) away, collecting friends along the way .

Pissing stair rods as she left – refused to be Mondeod to school or to consider a mac - ‘against the rules’ she claims. Eventually wife persuaded her to wear a light anorak.

 

At 08.30 grandson was ferried down to Hotspur Primary right alongside the WCML Ouseburn viaduct. Then followed a monumental clear-up before retreating thru the front door trying to keep our duvet dry. Each parent rang repeatedly from opp. ends of the country to check we were following protocols.   

 

Back home now, hugging our old Aga, drinking ‘whisky macs’ after ducking back to ‘tak a lend’ of wor Dan’s bottle of Scotch.

We may have a nap this afternoon after a tetchy sleep deprived night – are we too old to cope with other folk’s living patterns?

dh

[runs as required]

Phil,

I think the passenger lists from UK to Oz are pretty good. With some trawling through the records I am sure you can find them on the lists. If you can narrow down the years when they could have gone....

Pete

I think that good advice - remember there was a long interlude after Suez in '56, when all P&O and B.I. boats, as well as Shaw Saville etc. had to go the long way around Cape of Good Hope (Capetown and Durban) due to the canal being blocked.

I don't recall it re-opening until the 1970s. It played havoc with shipping schedules.

 

dh

Edited December 1, 2015 by runs as required

[sixoh8sixoh]

Afternoon all! 13 pages to catch up and I can safely say that's fairly unlikely in the present dearth of time!

 

Happy Birthday Bob! Hope you're recovering from the head injury.

 

Been a busy few days, a bit of tidying and baking on Friday. The Christmas cake for Thursday's Christmas dinner with friends is iced and decorated, just needs its ribbon around it now. And I taste-tested one of the mini Christmas puds last night, which was a success. Also had HN&T for St Andrew's Day with a nice whisky cream sauce. Between that, the brandy in the Christmas pud and the best part of a bottle of Hobgoblin, I was nicely toasted last night...

 

Talking of which, toaster needs to be replaced soon as it didn't automatically spring this morning, cremating my toast in the process and leaving the flat stinking of burnt toast.

 

Hope everyone's well!

[runs as required]

Nice to see Romford getting flagged up by Phil

1

Two of our local Geordie bell-ringers' tower hail from either end of the old 250 Epping-Hornchuch red T type petrol-engined single decker bus route.

We instantly identified one anothers' accents and still get teased about ringing the 'free' and the 'fower' by the home grown lot.

The Romford guy is regarded as a lot more use at fixing stuff than me, having been a Le Mans pit mechanic for years - I think with Ginettas.

2

My favourite Ian Dury line revealing intimate local knowledge is 'Home improvement expert Harold Hill / came home to find another fella's kippers in his grill'..

 

dh

 

Ed: omitted vital highlighted word!

Edited December 1, 2015 by runs as required

[Ian Abel]

Good morning all,

Dry at the moment but light rain or drizzle forecast with possibly some bright or sunny intervals later.

I spent a couple of hours in the railway room on the engine shed and goods yard yesterday and got nowhere. Once again my plan on paper isn't working. I know I'm trying to fit too much track in (again) so a rethink is needed.

Another year older today so later on children and grandchildren will be here to partake in a celebratory meal. There is a possibility that I may have a drink or three (ish)

My Google page looks like this today- never seen that before.

 

Have a good one,

Bob.

Happy Birthday Bob, wishing you many more.

 

Mal, hope everything goes well today.

 

 

So, some not so wonderful news for yesterday;

Weather kicked in and long story short, due to the crew inbound from Sioux Falls and delayed there, we left 3 hours late in a snow storm, got to the hotel at 1AM, in here at 8AM

 

Jemma faired poorly also, very bad weather driving north, had a brush with a tractor-trailer on icy freeway, no-one hurt, but her pride damaged and a scrape along the side of her car. She ended up having to stop in Fargo, nearly three hours short of her goal for the day/evening. Given it is expected to snow there ALL DAY today, she may sit tight and just return to Minneapolis on Wednesday. She's due to fly back in anyway Friday for her two day trip followed by 5 days in the recruiting office, so may just be simpler <sigh>

 

Very tired here this AM, and may not manage to work all day without nodding off <yawn>. At least the weather is "different" here, 8C driving in with overcast skies and some mild drizzle. Better than snowing like buggery and 4-8 inches on the ground.

 

Have a safe day everyone <yawn> <nods off>

[Judge Dread]

A couple of cans of baked beans, a plate of sprouts and four pints of stout ought to sort that out for you.

The wind will certainty be "backing" then!

[Judge Dread]

Matthew mentioned how he has developed a taste for sauerkraut while he has been in Utrecht. There doesn't seem to be enough time to make some before he comes home so knowing how keen ERs are on food has anyone tried any of the commercially UK available brands? I don't think it would be a permitted hand luggage item!

Try Morrison's (other food outlets are available)

I should have said that the product was so good I am now banned from getting anymore.

Edited December 1, 2015 by Judge Dread

[lightengine]

I'm glad they haven't dubbed it, a quick scan of the subtitles is fine for me and I much prefer to hear the actors own voices anyway, I've even managed to pick up a few words of Italian in the process and I don't

mean 'Alfa' or 'Romeo'! The theme music and the incidental score are beautiful too.

I quite agree with the fact of losing the original voice but the dubbing means I can multitask as I dont have to read.

Having watched dubbed US and British programmes in Belgium I always thought it a loss when you never got to hear great voices like Clint Eastwoods, James Stewart etc perhaps generations of foreigners would think that "Our Friends In The North" all had a French accent.

[Tony_S]

Nice to see Romford getting flagged up by Phil

1

Two of our local Geordie bell-ringers' tower hail from either end of the old 250 Epping-Hornchuch red T type petrol-engined single decker bus route.

We instantly identified one anothers' accents and still get teased about ringing the 'free' and the 'fower' by the home grown lot.

The Romford guy is regarded as a lot more use at fixing stuff than me, having been a Le Mans pit mechanic for years - I think with Ginettas.

2

My favourite Ian Dury line revealing intimate local knowledge is 'Home improvement expert Harold Hill / came home to find another fella's kippers in his grill'..

 

dh

 

Ed: omitted vital highlighted word!

When Matthew was at infant school his teacher was surprised that no one at his nursery had commented that he couldn't pronounce "th" sounds properly. I said he went to one in Hornchurch and they probably though it was an accent. His teacher offered to arrange speech therapy but I declined as he was already having treatment for other problems and I felt he needed a break. Having his teeth straightened as a teenager removed some of the th sounds problems just leaving a slight local glottal stop. That seemed to disappear when he went to Leicester University. The only remnants of his time in Canada reveal themselves if he pronounces a Canadian placename.

I don't criticise accents, I come from Birmingham!

[bluebottle]

... I watched the first half of the Vulcan program that I had recorded from Sunday...

 

 

Oh! - d'you get a decent signal from the 40 Eridani A solar system?

[bluebottle]

...     The other thing on the news is that Peter Sutcliffe might be transferred from Broadmoor to a mainstream prison.  I'm afraid that though I had no direct involvement in the investigation, other than certain observations at night, I have always believed him to be bad rather than mad.  Everyone I know who did know more reckoned that he was a very manipulative individual.  There was however one light moment during the period when he was active.    In those non PC days, one of the Senior Investigating Officers was heard to say about one of the unfortunate victims. "Everyone has a right to be ugly but she abused the privilege."   It brought a laugh to one rather gruesome briefing.

 

On that cheery note I'll wish you all a good day.

 

Jamie

 

That's an interesting example of professional black humour, Jamie. It made me wince, though of course I understand the psychological value of this to people who have to deal with such stressful circumstances.