Early Risers.

[Ian Abel]

Morning everyone.

Particularly slow and boring day yesterday - the Long Island client only raising their heads around 4Pm with some odd problems/requests, so managed to work mostly un-cockwombled.

 

Managed the unthinkable last evening - some MODELLING!! A few more point motors installed. Some of the hard to reach (poor planning by yours truly) ones being worked on now and a severe reminder that the sort of under baseboard work being undertaken is better accomplished by someone half my age OR YOUNGER - ouch my aching back and arms.

 

Today in the US it's "National Night Out" (day!!).

There'll be a block party this evening in our secluded neighborhood with plenty of food, music and banter. Usually quite an enjoyable get-together as the neighborhood is quite a friendly place.

 

Back to work now, let me see, ah yes, more emails with requests...

 

Currently 24 and cloudy, expecting 31 for a high. Unfortunately 60% chance of thunderstorms much of the afternoon, so may put a damper on the block party.

 

Have a good Tuesday all.

[NGT6 1315]

A'noon all. Gee, what a day…

 

Remember how we once touched upon motorists hitting trams broadsides after failing to observe right of way? Exactly that happened to me right this morning, thankfully not leading to any injuries or worse. The car in question will be a write-off, though…

 

Still feeling wobbly, however, so I suppose staying off work till the weekend as recommended by the physician I just consulted will be safer. I'm sure everything will be fine once the scare ebbs off…

 

Best wishes to you all!

[Danemouth]

A'noon all. Gee, what a day…

 

Remember how we once touched upon motorists hitting trams broadsides after failing to observe right of way? Exactly that happened to me right this morning, thankfully not leading to any injuries or worse. The car in question will be a write-off, though…

 

Still feeling wobbly, however, so I suppose staying off work till the weekend as recommended by the physician I just consulted will be safer. I'm sure everything will be fine once the scare ebbs off…

 

Best wishes to you all!

Oh b*gger!

 

Hope you are not too badly shaken Dom - look after yourself.

 

Warmest regards,

 

Dave

[Judge Dread]

Seagulls are NOT very much popular at the moment in the area where I live. There has been a nest on a roof top just about opposite my house for a few weeks now. The hatching of eggs has brought forth much noise from about 5 am every day.

On the subject of culling these birds which I do realise it is legally not possible, however I am reminded of a story from days gone by on the fish dock in Hull. In the days when we had one!

Evidently small pieces of dry ice, would be thrown up into the air for the gulls to take. Having taken the bait, the gull would explode as the ice expanded with in it.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_ice

I wish it to be known that I never took part in such a cruel practice and have never approved of it, or ever will.

Edited August 2, 2016 by Judge Dread

[NGT6 1315]

Thanks, Dave. As I said, I suppose having a couple of days for calming down will be the wise thing to do, especially as this was the first substantial accident I was involved in. And in addition, I found our accident support crew to be very helpful and supportive as well.

 

It also was fairly impressive (for lack of a better descriptive) to see how little massive vehicles such as trams are affected by a collision which will total a car. I did take a number of photos before our traffic director arrived for documenting the incident (including taking photos himself, but I thought having as much evidence available as possible cannot hurt) but I suppose it would not be proper to post them here, even though they really show "only" a badly mangled car.

Edited August 2, 2016 by NGT6 1315

[Happy Hippo]

If you are standing, please sit down.

 

If you are drinking or eating, empty your mouth.

 

Terminate any phone call you are conducting

 

If you are indulging in that procreational stuff, then please carry on, because you won't (you should be concentrating elsewhere) be reading this.

 

The South Horton Irrigation Tramway is pleased to announce that with nearly six yards of track laid, levelled and ballasted, this afternoon has seen the first locomotive powered works train make it's way over the curved bridge and down the newly laid line.

 

The Ruston loco, on hire from Wrekin Havock Ltd, then propelled it's 2 wagon train back from whence it came and a celebratory Mini Magnum ice cream was consumed along with a cup of Paned Cymraeg.

 

You may now carry on.

[Happy Hippo]

But, other than perhaps woodpigeons, why would you?  Rooks, crows, jays, magpies and especially lesser black-back gulls would surely be gristly and the latter very salty as well.  Think I'll nip down Tesco's and grab a pack of cheap sausages.  They're surely better.

 

 

As someone who used to work for a proper butcher, and made proper sausages, I can assure you that if you saw what went into cheap supermarket sausages, you'd never eat another one.

 

I think the bit about not selling them was to stop the less scrupulous pest controllers selling their proceeds off as something they were not.

 

From a health angle, I believe you are discouraged from eating anything that feeds mainly on carrion or meat.  Although that does not seem to discourage those from other parts of the world who eat dogs.

[bbishop]

Dom,

 

There is a stretch of the Croydon Tramlink that can be used by several forms of wheeled vehicles. When it opened, the standard complaint was that "the tram didn't swerve to avoid me".

 

Shopping, other than once a month, is done by bike and loaded into a rucksack. Methodology: take one basket, place helmet in basket, fill basket, contents will fit into a rucksack but bananas and tomatoes are better in the side pockets.

 

Bill

[AndrewC]

Dom. Take care of yourself. A good friend of mine used to drive trams. Well, glorified trams really. Siemens Du-wag U2 on Calgary's LRT system. One day a large Ford pickup dodged the barriers and Ian's tram T' boned it. Made a right mess of both the truck and his cab. Off injured for 6 months and never drove one again.

 

Shopping around here has been reduced to a weekly/bi-weekly fruit and veg delivery from a local family run outfit. Anything we miss we can pick up from them on a Saturday when they set up their stall in the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. Most of our meat and fish comes from an online place in Hampshire. All the cat food is delivered from a company called Zooplus. That leaves a monthly schlep to the Sainsbury's in Greenwich and the odd top up at either Morrisons or one of the many farmers markets in the area.

[Ohmisterporter]

Daughter and SiL have booked a Jet2 package holiday to the Canaries. She thought everything was covered but received an email saying that if they wanted to sit together on the plane for the five hour flight they should pre-book seats, at an extra thirty-one pounds each. Surely only one of them needed to do this as the other one would automatically be sat next to them. Am I missing something?

[Tony_S]

More of our shopping is coming from Waitrose now as we click and collect stuff from John Lewis. Since Aditi had retired I go shopping less, perhaps shopping alleviated boredom.

Robbie's calcium levels have dropped a bit. The vet thinks he can come home tonight and return tomorrow for another day of monitoring. He is more likely tomorrow to have problems it seems.

Matthew rang from the airport. It was a proper phonecall as his android phone was refusing to connect to an unsecured wifi network.

Then he got Skype working on his laptop so,we had a chat.

Tony

[NGT6 1315]

Thanks for your supportive messages, folks. I think I'll make good use of the time off I have, and it's also good to know whom I may turn to in the company if I should need a sounding board locally.

 

 

All the cat food is delivered from a company called Zooplus. 

 

 

Oh, I didn't know they have a UK presence, too. We usually order cat food and toilet litter from them as well.

[AndrewC]

Thanks for your supportive messages, folks. I think I'll make good use of the time off I have, and it's also good to know whom I may turn to in the company if I should need a sounding board locally.

 

 

 

 

Oh, I didn't know they have a UK presence, too. We usually order cat food and toilet litter from them as well.

They are somewhere in the Bedford area. At least their office is. We get the litter and cat food as well. I think Yodel hates us as 2 bags of litter in one order weighs in around 40kg. I think their stuff is sourced in Germany and shipped to a UK warehouse as everything we get is in German.

[Donw]

But, other than perhaps woodpigeons, why would you?  Rooks, crows, jays, magpies and especially lesser black-back gulls would surely be gristly and the latter very salty as well.  Think I'll nip down Tesco's and grab a pack of cheap sausages.  They're surely better.

 

 

 

I suspect Tesco's have ground up the gristle in the sausages making it easier to chew.

Don

[Tony_S]

They are somewhere in the Bedford area. At least their office is. We get the litter and cat food as well. I think Yodel hates us as 2 bags of litter in one order weighs in around 40kg. I think their stuff is sourced in Germany and shipped to a UK warehouse as everything we get is in German.

They don't do Robbie's food in the sizes we can cope with. His food is made in the UK and is available in petstores but not supermarkets. Fortunately poo bags are not as bulky as cat litter.

[roundhouse]

Talking of shopping. I did a little online today. Found the banana plug sockets needed for one end of the layout for the Freemo connections on modular set up. I then sent my other half to collect it at a Maplins close to her work. I will have to buy here a beer or two in the awake tomorrow evening.

[lightengine]

Its been ages since wevisited the pub in Bosham. Think the last itme was in our friends tiny bathtub like boat.

Do you mean the Crown & Anchor at Dell Quay? Great pub!

 

EDIT. just read Ians reply to your post. Dell Quay is opposite the water from Bosham.

Edited August 2, 2016 by lightengine

[shortliner]

Daughter and SiL have booked a Jet2 package holiday to the Canaries. She thought everything was covered but received an email saying that if they wanted to sit together on the plane for the five hour flight they should pre-book seats, at an extra thirty-one pounds each. Surely only one of them needed to do this as the other one would automatically be sat next to them. Am I missing something?

 

Nope - they are just trying to get an extra £31.00 out of you - crafty Bu99ers!

[grandadbob]

Happy kid grandad with new toy here.

[Coombe Barton]

Happy kid grandad with new toy here.

 

 

More believable

[peanuts]

so a day of battling with the dwp via web and phone finnaly gets our claim off the ground meanwhile quick run out to hyde to help a friend in need who was having an anxiety attack in the local park gets us a bloody good drenching but who cares thats what friends are for 

 

 tesco jalfaizi & tikka family curry in  a box consumed now just kicking back and relaxing van morrison  into the mystic live  on youtube  whilst my lady has a bath 

 

 hope everyone else has  a suitably relaxed evening 

[Tony_S]

Daughter and SiL have booked a Jet2 package holiday to the Canaries. She thought everything was covered but received an email saying that if they wanted to sit together on the plane for the five hour flight they should pre-book seats, at an extra thirty-one pounds each. Surely only one of them needed to do this as the other one would automatically be sat next to them. Am I missing something?

Aditi's kind administration person in her last job used to try and book her boss into a separate carriage so Aditi could have a break at the end of a day away at conferences.

[New Haven Neil]

Evening all.  Miss that....like a hole in the head.

 

Dom, sorry to hear of your fright.  Are you SURE you didn't swerve into the car?    Take care, my friend.

 

Great to hear of Richards success in once again running trains.  The SHI...  er, South Horton Irrigation Tramway and Wrekin Havoc were very inspirational railways for me.  He's a bit famous in garden railway circles, our Hippo.

 

A dull day here has just turned into a wet one, the garden won't complain as the lawns look a bit, well, a lot, patchy.

 

Shopping, ah well, we have a new policy.  We live in a one shop, one bobby, one pub village, and find buying from that shop at higher prices saves us money compared to going to supermarkets in Ramsey, 5 miles away.  Reason?  No impulse buys - we only buy what we need.

[lightengine]

The Common Gull is actually remarkably uncommon in many areas

Others you might find if you're lucky are the Black-headed Gull, Glaucous Gull, Sabine's Gull, Iceland Gull, Little Gull, Mediterranean Gull and Kittiwake (which is a gull).  The Yellow-legged Gull is now recognised as a species distinct from the Herring Gull by most authorities.

 

Guillemots, Puffins, Razorbills, Auks, Gannets, Fulmars and Terns are not gulls though are common on many shorelines and sometimes mistaken for them, or mistakenly described as gulls.

I imagine an awful lot of alcohol would have to pass my lips before I ever confused a puffin or a Gannet with a gull. Whilst working on the ships I loved watching gannets sweeping majestically over the peaks and troughs of the waves.

Mind you, I would love to see a puffin dive off of WH Smiths building in Teignmouth and take someones chips from the fish & chip shop customers nearby.

[newbryford]

As someone who used to work for a proper butcher, and made proper sausages, I can assure you that if you saw what went into cheap supermarket sausages, you'd never eat another one.

 

 

I once installed a sausage wrapping machine at a supplier to a very well known supermarket chain. The machine would take 6 or 8 nicely stacked sausages and wrap plastic around them and then quickly heat seal the joint.

 

They had 10 lines, each packing approximately 1 tonne of sausages per hour. There was a non-stop parade of fork trucks tipping the raw materials into the sausage making machine on each line.

Basically, pigs came in and out went sausages, heads and trotters.

It took me about 3 years to recover enough to start eating sausages again.

 

Quite amusing that the staff canteen had veggie burgers on the menu, but the gammon steaks were HUGE!

 

Cheers,

Mick