Early Risers.

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

Apologies for absence yesterday.  I set off for Wells at 05.15 and made it there in a shade over three hours, which surprised me pleasantly.  The return trip took a little over four hours, including a pit stop at Leigh Delamere which was extended by the sudden need of the staff in one of the catering enclaves to find some more chips PDQ.  To be asked 25p for a petite blister of ketchup is, I think, a tad grasping.  Perhaps I should get myself a travel pack of this essential condiment and produce it from the side pocket of my new backpack as if by magic.  The cough behaved itself for most of the day, suppressed by some Lockets.  Aaah, menthol.  It was a good show with lots of chums, a few cups of tea and some shopping.

 

Today it's back to reality.  After a faultless record lasting three weeks the delivery brat responsible for spreading Bedfordshire On Sunday among the deserving has defaulted again so that's another trip into town, to collect it, that I would have preferred not to make.  Then there is a modest pile of ironing and some triffid control, the latter a priority task as tomorrow is collection day for the green bin.   Later in the week is the Area Group meeting in Harpenden.  Oh how I love the M1!  I could use the train but it's 25 minutes walk to the station at this end and around 15 minutes at the other, with the performance of Thameslink being an even bigger unknown than that of the motorway.  Why don't you have the meeting in Bedford, Chris?   Funny you should ask.  There are tentative plans for the next one to be held more locally but I need to check out the venue before Wednesday.

 

Best wishes to the ailing, supporting, recovering, grieving, missing and depressed.

 

Chris

[roundhouse]

Morning from a sunny Surrey

 

Had a greet weekend using GWR services. Our train from St Austell was over ten late but considering they had to swap HSTs atvPenzance due to a fault they did well. We still had twenty minutes connection at Reading.

 

Plenty of cancelled a Southern trains yesterday . This morning there have been cancelled and delays trains first thing but so far, ours seem OK.

 

Another full week of work ahead

Edited August 15, 2016 by roundhouse

[Donw]

Morning all 

Up on the roof the other evening I heard someone speeding by followed by a screech of brakes then some odd noises. Walking the dogs yesterday evening I discovered the cause of the noise. Just coming out of the bend there is a stretch of fence demolished with some bits of police tape around. Hopefully the police tape suggests the driver may be prosecuted for dangerous driving. It is in a 40mph zone for a start.

 

Don

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Back home after a trip to Stansted. Matthew was there at about 6.05 so only has a couple of hours before his flight to Wroclaw departs.

I don't imagine I will be doing a great deal today. I don't think I am expected to do anything either, though Robbie will need a walk. He was bounding round the garden like a much younger dog yesterday. Fortunately our vet didn't write off his recent symptoms as just due to age.

Hope everyone has a good day.

Tony

Edited August 15, 2016 by Tony_S

[Oldddudders]

Assumption Day. A national holiday here. It is also Deb's mother's 94th birthday. I long ago gave up on the weekly phonecalls, and of course Deb refused to speak to her for the last 6 months of her life, so I will not be ringing her.

 

She rang me after the Nice atrocity, to confirm I was ok. And asked me if Deb was dead. I confirmed she died in September 2012. Getting old really does have a price, doesn't it?

 

It is hot and will get hotter by Wednesday. Alison, on hol in the Dordogne, has already seen 38 degrees. Mercifully it isn't likely to be quite that bad here.

 

I hope your week goes well. Pleased to hear Karen is back home already, and hope this time all is successful.

[AndrewC]

Morning all from the borough of boring. A "work" from home day as I'm awaiting a new project to start. The work I was supposed to be doing for the next few days seems to have vanished while I was on leave. No great loss there. A bit of reading is planned to be able to put my time down to training. SWMBO's usual train is cancelled today so she's out the door to catch the earlier service to CHX. <sarcasm> can't wait for the big change over at LB in 2 weeks. </sarcasm>  That's about it from me.

 

Good to hear that Karen is home and doing well. Hope that Ian's schlep down the I90 is uneventful. To anyone I've missed, congratulations and commiserations as appropriate.

 

Enjoy your day.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Sunny here and a fine day is forecast.

What is not so fine is that we have no water as there appears to be a problem with the water main in the road adjoining ours. Water company website says it will be back on by 9.00 but a neighbour has just told me he phoned them and they now say noon. My mate next door has just returned from supermarket with large bottles of drinking water for the aged and infirm amongst the neighbours. He's given us one!

Another ebay purchase made last night and and a green dcc fitted T9 will shortly be on it's way to the local Argos for me to collect at my leisure. (ie when I can sneak it past Hawkeye The Boss. It's not really necessary to do that as she suggested I treat myself the other day but if she doesn't know about this one then there may be a further opportunity.   Oh what a tangled web I weave.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[southern42]

' Morning all from red dragon land.

 

Sunneeeeeeeeeee!.

 

Great news Karen and Mick

 

John Best of Luck with the ramp we have never had much success with a ramp as none of our dogs would trust it. Fortunately the current pair are somewhat lighter. Monty is definitely get a bit cronky If I try to pick him up he will often jump up anyway. If I leave him to it he will wait to be picked up. Holly who tore her crucite ligament a couple of years back seems to have finally got back to full strength. She is back to jumping up to see what is being put into her bowl.

 

Polly you do seem to put in a lot of effort on these various lines

 

Regards All

Don

 

Just play time.  Having so many accessible and different types of railway on your doorstep is a dream.  To be able to be a part of any of it is just amazing.

 

Enjoy your day everyone. Time to do breakfast.

[Barry O]

Hey up!

Having ng watched the tennis last night more eyelid resting is required but her indoors has other plans apparently.

Have a great day/evening everybody.

Baz

[New Haven Neil]

Morning.  Rather tired after a long day at Grumble Glen yesterday.  It was or free 'Clifftop Concerts' day, pay for the train and the music is free.  We were very busy, as I was Guard a lot of running about ensued.

 

Astonished to see GB second in the medals table - /cynical mode or that because no-one is cheating with drugs this year? \cynical mode

[28XX]

Good morning from West Borsetshire. Breakfast in a cool but sunny garden is being enjoyed. The repair / bodge of dads garage roof was completed yesterday, a four day job.

 

While we are all basking in the reflected glory of our Olympians, can I ask you to spare a thought for a 10 year old girl of my acquaintance, whose gymnastics career ended last month, due to injury.

 

I don't blame pushy parents, the motivation to try too hard too soon was all from within. But it strikes me that for every medalist, there must be many who fall by the wayside, at a very young age, who, despite family reassurance, must go forward into teenage with feelings of failure.

[grandadbob]

Nice man from water board just been round putting cards through doors apologising. Apparently problem is a large broken valve and water will be back on once replacement arrives and fitted - approx 3 hours. I won't hold my breath but will live in hope.

[AndrewC]

Good morning from West Borsetshire. Breakfast in a cool but sunny garden is being enjoyed. The repair / bodge of dads garage roof was completed yesterday, a four day job.

 

While we are all basking in the reflected glory of our Olympians, can I ask you to spare a thought for a 10 year old girl of my acquaintance, whose gymnastics career ended last month, due to injury.

 

I don't blame pushy parents, the motivation to try too hard too soon was all from within. But it strikes me that for every medalist, there must be many who fall by the wayside, at a very young age, who, despite family reassurance, must go forward into teenage with feelings of failure.

Not sure its always down to the parents. There is a lot of pressure from coaches to find the next best thing. There is extreme pressure from one's self too to succeed against your peers at that age.

 

Believe it or not when I was young and fit I used to run the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay in high school. We are talking 38 years ago. I think of the daily work involved in training, fitness, etc for our school's team. The 250+ teenagers that gave up their late afternoons and most of their weekends for months on end. Out of our lot only a select few were invited to become members of one of the city's 4 track clubs. Out of those few hundred only maybe a dozen were selected for Olympic tryouts. Injuries, pain, permanent damage, and disappointment for all but one or two out of several thousand. Repeat this across every town and city. In my case injury came at the end of the grade 10 season in 78. A starting block that hadn't been fixed down properly. Gun goes off, the majority of my weight and thrust goes back through my left leg and launches the block backwards instead of me going forwards. The spikes in my track shoes catch the rubberised track and I'm on the ground with my foot broken in 3 places. Thus endeth my running, football, hockey, and basketball. My foot problems continue to this day. Last week (and still not 100% today) my foot flared up again. The symptoms are almost identical to gout but the real cause is when I over do things and my foot swells. This puts pressure on the tissue around the bone spurs and calcification at the breaks. The result is a lot of pain and me not being able to walk very well for sometimes a day, sometimes up to a week.

 

So not sure about the UK but in Canada for every Olympic athletics team member there are at least 5000 who didn't make it.

[Purley Oaks]

Morning all

 

A beautifully sunny day here, and should be in most of Britain, I think.

 

Great to hear that Karen's home.

 

Chris Packham was really good at the bookfest yesterday; Gabe (Mrs PO) managed to embarrass him at the book signing afterwards by telling him that he was even more handsome in the flesh. I hurried away. 

 

The saga of the missing golden eagles on grouse moors deepens; each was satellite tracked and being investigated by police. The satellite tracking is accurate to within 20 yards and at the location of the last signal no birds have been found, which indicates poisoning or shooting. The satellite tracking devices have not been located, which indicates their destruction, possibly by gamekeepers. Apparently gamekeepers are trying to eradicate mountain hares on the grouse moors, too.

 

Astonished at the UK's tally of olympic medals - this will make the choice of BBC Sports Personality of the Year extremely difficult! How do you choose between tennis and gymnastics and rowing and cycling and athletics? Shame that England's (and Scotland's) footy teams are so cr@p.

 

Hope that your day goes well and that you're able to enjoy the heatwave if you can

 

Mal

Edited August 15, 2016 by Purley Oaks

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I suppose I will have to make a start on painting the rendered part of the front of the house. Not as onerous as it sounds as its only about ten square metres and ground floor only so no ladders involved. It will have to be done as I plan some planting in front of it as soon as we have some rain to soften the concrete soil. Thats it for now, be back later.

[AndyB]

Morning all,

Wending our way back to the south and currently in Shropshire for a couple of days after an overnighter in the Lakes.

The scenery was as fantastic as ever but the tidal wave of humanity there (including ourselves!) was quite a shock after the isolation of the Highlands. 

On reflection Bowness, whilst convenient, was not the best choice, perhaps. 

 

For those interested the Piacasso did about 53mpg over the week with about £42 of fuel used driving from Shropshire to Deeside, a week of side trips, and back part of the way to Blairgowrie. 

 

Highlight of the week may have been doing a walk on a sporting estate near Braemar, equipped with a leaflet map picked up at the tourist info centre. We came across a group of young ladies doing the DoE, kitted out in all the hiking gear and pouring over an OS map.

"We're lost", they admitted. 

"I wouldn't say that too loudly, the DoE is only over that hill having his lunch in yon castle."

Comparing our tourist leaflet with their OS map we put them back on track, although after having walked some considerable distance they still had all their planned route to accomplish. 

'twas a lovely day though and I shall post some photos when I get home.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Bright & sunny, I'm at 'wait order' status - the front hedge might be (self) nominated as a target now the nesting season is over and the oak is succumbing to its seasonal disease attack.

 

Have a  good day one & all

[Jol Wilkinson]

The sunshine and blue skies have departed from Suffolk. I do wonder about the forecasts. Yesterday was supposed to be overcast over London but turned out rather brighter for my wife trip over the capital by helicopter. This was the last of her birthday celebrations - dating back to March - and I hope she doesn't expect to do the same next year.

 

Annoyingly my Panasonic Lumix G6 camera failed on Saturday so we had to fall back on the Canon G11 for the flight. Over the years I have only bought three "expensive" cameras - Minolta 7000, Canon G11 and the Lumix. Two of the three failed after about 18 months - fortunately the Lumix has a John Lewis two year warranty - while the Canon has a minor but annoying software defect that Canon can't/aren't interested in fixing. So much for Japanese product reliability.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone.

 

I loaded the car up with carp that was the last remains of the old shed, it was then taken to the tip and dumped. After that a quick phone call to Walton's revealed that they only had 1 complete set of the new Maunsell coaches left, so I went straight there from the tip and picked them up this morning instead of waiting until Thursday, I've now got a BIG smiley face! :-)

 

Cuppa has now been consumed so I'm off outside now, I may be some time.

[jamie92208]

A slightly delayed good morning awl from a sunny village just north of the daily traffic jam that is the M62. We did Asda early so I've now had time to finish the Sudoku and have a 2nd cup of coffee. Yesterday we had a good time with the various outlaws and rabble. FiL retired to the sitting room after the pudding, for peace and quiet, leaving the two 30 something sna two 20 somethings to chatter round the table.  I then had a pleasant evening watching the Olympics but wimped out after the cycling finished so didn't see the end of the tennis.  I even found interest in watching the last couple of holes of the golf, which is a rarity for me as I normally think it's like watching paint dry.  

 

The washing is now to be hung out then the back bedroom tidied and bed made as No 1 son and girlfriend are coming to stay tonight.  I've got the job of getting them to Manchester Airport for 05.30 tomorrow.   I will however hope to spend a good evening at the clubrooms.

 

Mick, glad that Karen is home and hope that her recovery continues.

Rick, I don't envy you in resolving your dilemma, just hope that the horns don't inflict a permanent injury.

Regards to al the others.

 

Jamie

[DDolfelin]

 

 We came across a group of young ladies doing the DoE, kitted out in all the hiking gear and pouring over an OS map.

"We're lost", they admitted. 

 

Sounds like the same group (of 30!) I found in the garden.

They also brandished a map.

I advised that, if they couldn't read the No Entry sign they were unlikely to be able to understand a map.

[DDolfelin]

A delightful Station Mistress.

 

[lightengine]

I saw a Chris Packham show many years ago in Worthing. Most entertaining. He showed some amazing photographs and stood chatting whilst he signed things afterwards. He asked for questions at one stage and an elderly woman stood up and in a voice similar to that of a Hollywood style crazed witch, loudly asked "Chris, how old are you?" I guess it was one of those, you had to be there moments, but it brought the house down.

 

It looks like the sun is going to put in another full days appearance here in sunny Teignmouth although there seems to be a gentle breeze today.

 

Somebody has left an office chair on the pavement opposite. It will be interesting to see how long it remains there. It appears to have one of the 5 castors missing. I can only presume that fell off on its journey.

 

I love watching Olympic athletics and I appreciate Bolt is a superior athlete but the Bolt hype just makes me ignore his races. An ego to match Mourinho and Ibrahimavitch.

 

Mo Farah must surely be a Weeble after the way he bounced back up off the track.

[Tony_S]

Sounds like the same group (of 30!) I found in the garden.

They also brandished a map.

I advised that, if they couldn't read the No Entry sign they were unlikely to be able to understand a map.

Rather like the German mature cyclists that Aditi helped some years ago in France. They were riding round and round the centre of Neuf Brisach which is very symmetrical. They didn't know which exit to take for Germany. They were attempting to question some French people who kept saying they knew nothing, they were from the Loire and had only stopped to empty their motorhome lavatory. Realising that one group was lost and the other didn't know, Aditi offered to translate. The German immediately said "how can you possibly help, you are English". So she told him in German that the French tourists weren't local, she told the French people that the loo disposal must be in the men's lavatory as there wasn't anything like that in the ladies, and then demanded the German groups map. She said go that way, turn left at the end of of the road, and when you cross the river you are in Germany. They still seemed a bit doubtful but later in the afternoon we overtook them and they were heading for the Rhine as instructed.

Tony

[Donw]

Nice man from water board just been round putting cards through doors apologising. Apparently problem is a large broken valve and water will be back on once replacement arrives and fitted - approx 3 hours. I won't hold my breath but will live in hope.

 

Just cards where's the water! In this heat it would be cruel to the dogs not to have water available. They really should provide some.

 

Don

Edited August 15, 2016 by Donw