Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Gwiwer]

"Red sky at night, sailors delight.

Red sky in the morning, sailors warning."

This the Hull version from the days when we had a very large trawler fleet, sailing into the far north, White Sea and all that.

There is a country version involving farmers and the like.

Also the Newlyn version I learned as a little tacker and known from most Cornish places where boats are kept.  Not so many sheep in the Royal Duchy and Shepherds was a station (a junction no less) on the Perranporth line rather than being an occupation which included sky colour-checking

 

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Sorry to hear the news about your FiL John, at least he's in the best place. I looked up the level crossing accident as reported by Rick. The police are now saying that the car didn't go round the barriers but stopped (stalled?) on the crossing and the barriers came down behind it, the occupants were two elderly ladies in their 70's. Still hot and sticky at the moment but the forecast is that the rain will be here in 24 hours. Thats it, goodnight all.

Equally sorry to hear of John's FiL health concerns.

Update on the Surrey Hills incident - the police and Metro trains are now suggesting that the vehicle had stopped within the level crossing and the boom gate had lowered onto its roof.  Opinion pending investigation is that traffic ahead was banked up and this vehicle stopped because the crossing exit wasn't clear.  When the boom lowered the car was trapped, made an effort to go forwards and then reversed which may have given the impression that it weaved around the lowered boom.  Two elderly female occupants died instantly in the impact.  Counselling is being offered to the many witnesses and to friends and family of the deceased.  No rail staff were injured though several were obliged to remain in full view of everything for some considerable time.  We may never know why the vehicle entered the level crossing if it was not clear to exit ..... 

 

Our landline phone has caller ID but being lazy I have also programmed it to play a jolly calypso tune when MiL rings so I can call out to Aditi to let her know her Mum is calling.

My mobile has ring tones, all being suitable snippets of music, set according to caller.  Family and friends are assigned one tune and a few individuals known to be in need of support or a listening ear are assigned another which always be answered unless I'm driving or otherwise incapable of speaking.  Unknown callers and work-related numbers are assigned a tune which will not be answered.  It's simple and it works.  The land line was disconnected when we were obliged to have the "upgrade" (which is actually a downgrade) to National Broadband Network recently though if we plug it in it now functions as a VOIP service.

 

 

 

After supplying next door's fencing contractor 

 

I'm struggling to keep up with all the posts,

 

 

There's a joke in there somewhere but if I posted someone would rail against it.

 

Slowly reading through the past several days' content.  The roof man is here and it's actually sunny.  Next door is having their driveway concreted.  Happy POETS Day.  I can feel some microferroequinology coming on.

[Gwiwer]

FIL update - slightly better - not out of woods yet by any means but not deteriorating. He is 90, after all.

 

Many thanks for all your concern and support - means a lot.

Good news.  Same from father as it happens.  Been taking a few steps with his frame and has had a "walk" down the road in his newly-provided wheelchair.  Aged 88 and being pushed by mother, aged 90.  

 

A friend used to get cross if anyone said brew in connection with tea!

He was from Derby and said tea was mashed not brewed. Brewed was for beer! We just make a cup of tea.

Make or brew is southern.  Mash is northern.  We reckoned the dividing line was the Watford Gap Parallel

Dilmah is the choice of tea here.  We can get something called "Yorkshire Tea" but I have yet to locate the plantation in said county.  Living in a city famed for its coffee I still enjoy a cuppa (tea) every morning and often at night.  If you ask for tea in a cafe you'll get the ingredients - a cup and saucer, a pot of hot water, a tea bag (not usually in the pot), teaspoon and small jug of milk.  

 

Accents. Big son (the Paramedic in Cornwall) frequently lapses in to a Cornish accent.

 

 

I've been accused of the same.  Now when I'm home I apparently speak in the local dialect with a cross between Cornish and Australian accents!  Out here in the colonies most people hear the "British accent" though I am very careful to not use Cornish dialect.  It would be misinterpreted here if I were to refer to anyone as "My cock", "My lover" or "My beauty" though "My duck", "My ansum" and "My dear" would probably just generate blank stares.  I had to explain myself when I referred to this week's weather as "tez enting down".  They don't even understand "Stair-rods" here.  

[railsquid]

 

Challenging, I would say.  It is to the CEFR level B1 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages)

 

I have done the mock test and some of the questions are quite subtle - you need to really understand to get the answer right.

 

The test itself is an all day affair (takes place on a Saturday) and has a reading and listening comprehension part, a grammar part, a written part and an oral part.

 

To be honest, I am more worried about this test, than the citizenship test.  I have been told by quite a few people that it shouldn't be a problem with my German at the level it is - but you don't really know until you have the piece of paper in your hand!

 

 

Not directly - After the citizenship test, the language test, and the paperwork, I can submit an application.  There is no guarantee that it will be accepted.

 

My best case scenario is that I will be granted dual citizenship - but Germany only allows dual citizenship for countries within the European Union.  As far as the information goes at present, that should be Ok provided the dual citizenship is granted before the UK officially and finally leaves the union.  However, nobody knows for sure due to a complete lack of clarity on the issues of Brexit.

 

 

I dithered with the idea of getting citizenship while still in Germany (after about 15 years there), but by the time I started thinking seriously, circumstances brought me to Japan, safe in the knowledge that as an EU citizen I could return easily enough.

 

Grrrr. Please excuse me while I toddle off to more political locales to vent some frustration.

[Kelly]

Morning all. Back pain woke me up far earlier than wanted. But at least it is lessened compared to Wednesday night. The combination of morphine, heat and naproxen seems to be working at least. Fingers crossed I'll manage expoem north ok. Though if I'm not quite up to driving it can at least be shared with Natalie, one of the reasons we tend to go to shows together as it shares the burden and the costs. Quite looking forward to that show as last year was amongst the best we attended.

 

On the subject of tea, growing up in south London, it was always just asked in the sense of 'a cup' or 'cuppa?'. Was never described as being mashed, that's for potatoes! However I have a lot of Northern side of the family, so it was different whenever we would visit them in Southport /Liverpool, especially as my gran was from Northern Ireland and grandfather from Wales, but my memory escapes me as to what they'd call it, probably similar to at home as it was usually my mum asking people if they wanted a cup of tea. Coffee was never offered as only my dad liked the stuff, myself finding it revolting stuff!

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It looks like it is going to be a reasonable day here - but isn't forecast to get as warm (which can only be a good thing!)

 

I am not in the office today, as I am off to the British Army's Church House in Lübbecke for a meeting.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[emt_911]

Morning all. It appears that it was a tad wet while I was sleeping. If there was any thunder and lightning, I knew nothing of it.

 

It's good to hear of some good news on the relatives front from John and Rick. Long may it continue

 

Depending on who I'm talking to depends if I refer to tea or coffee as a cuppa, brew, char etc

 

Time to head off into the wet for a few hours

 

Have a good day everyone

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all!  A few 'matters arising' today.

 

I had forgotten that Question Time is back.  Normally it is relayed on Radio 5Live and helps to send me to sleep but last night that channel was occupied by commentary on the Paralympics.  Oh, how I wanted to type 'paralytics' just then.

 

Gwiwer mentions programmable ring tones.  I have never worked out how to do this but when I was at work one of my workmates brought in a new phone given to her by her husband who was a farmer.  Imagine the mirth around the office when Anne's mobile mooed.  Such a jolly jape would have been worthy of one of Ricky Gervais's creations in 'The Office' but they do say that truth is stranger than fiction.

 

The episode of 'Yes Minister' shown yesterday, about a costly blunder committed by Sir Humphrey early in his career, jerked a few memories.  The morning after its first transmission in 1982, which is itself scary, my room-mate walked in visibly ashen and said that something similar had happened to him not three weeks previously.  IIRC I don't think he resorted to emptying the file of incriminating papers though.

 

Tomorrow I am off to ExpoEM North in Greater Manchester.  This involves a horribly early start which may not allow me time to post before I go.  Feel for me, gentle reader: a 'brisk' walk to the bus station as there are no buses going that way for at least another hour, a trip on the X5 including a wait at MK Coachway for connections that never materialise and time at MK Central to extract the tickets for a later journey from the self-service machine.  Then comes the Pendolino experience, where I have opted for an aisle seat because there must be an aisle.  The same cannot be said for a window.  Whatever the drawbacks, it must be better than the M6.  I must include survival rations in the fodder run today.

 

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

 

Chris

[Gwiwer]

 

 

Gwiwer mentions programmable ring tones.  I have never worked out how to do this

 

It may vary by phone but in general terms:

 

Go to your Contact List (not Settings) in phone mode;

There will be a default ring tone pre-set on the phone.  To change the tone for an individual select their name from the contact list then use the Edit button;

On my iPhone 4S I have to scroll down the screen displayed until I reach the option for Ringtone which is pre-set to the default one.  Tapping the > beside Default will produce a menu of installed options.  Select that which you require and hey presto.

 

You can also download pre-recorded tones which will be added to your list.

 

To truly customise you can also create your own.  There used to be a chap on my regular train home who always received a call just before alighting with the device announcing "It's the Wife" in a very loud whisper!  One or two enthusiasts I know of have their favourite locomotive engine, horn or whistle sounds.  To create your own you will need to follow specific advice for your phone but I use this:

 

http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/iphone/how-set-any-song-as-iphone-ringtone-new-3635061/

 

Everything I use on the phone is already paid for as a download on iTunes so I don't consider there is any breach of copyright in creating a ringtone from them.

[NHY 581]

Morning a. Not the best of kips. Very hot here. Appears to have had some rain during the night and is cloudy here now.

 

Mittens the kitten is rather lively this morning and the toy mouse is getting a damn good thrashing.

 

Just sitting down with a cuppa and may well play trains for a bit until the family emerges.

 

All good.

 

Rob

[Barry O]

Apparently it is going to be raining heavily here in exactly 5 minutes time....

 

I shall partake of my morning tea (Tetleys at the moment but Yorkshire tea preferred), about and then off to moreasons to do some shopping.

 

May I wish you all a great POETS day, Rick have a great evening!

 

Baz

[JohnDMJ]

Happy POTS day all!

 

Sounds like heavy rain  so an interesting walk to the station.

 

Will probably be asleep by lunchtime as I have several more Preiser figures (no doubt including sheep!) to count and check in.

 

Roll on 17:00 and home for the weekend! (Nothing Early about Fridays round here)

Edited September 17, 2016 by JohnDMJ

[trisonic]

After many years of purchasing PG Tips we changed our tea brand. I think it may have been due to the PG Tips teabags not composting fully. However I do like the taste of the new tea we have as it can be strong without being bitter.

 

I thought their “pyramidal” (sic) shape rather daft..... There was a time when I lived by myself in North Carolina that I refused visitors from the UK unless they bought decent tea with them and lots of it.

 

I remember collecting commercial airplane cards from tea in the sixties but cannot recollect which brand it was (loose tea, though - no tea bags back then).

 

Best, Pete.

Edited September 16, 2016 by trisonic

[roundhouse]

Used up our last Lipton's tea bag back in July whilst in the USA.

 

Most hotels will give you just one English breakfast tea bag with the rest being herbal or flavoured teas. So a few years ago we went into a corner shop in Santa Barbara and bought the smallest box of individually wrapped tea bags that we could and emptied them in to a plastic bag just for our USA trips (very few hotels in mainland Europe have any hot drinks facilities in the rooms).

Just before our last trip we bought a smaller box of tea bags here in the UK to top up what was left. We will often drink it black in the USA unless we have been able to raid the Amtrak half and half little containers when purchasing tea on the trains.

 

By the side I recently found out that the Amtrak travel mugs that we bought onboard many years ago that offers free tea if the mug was presented at the buffet are still being honoured and are actually worth quite a bit second hand due to this as they ar no longer sold on Amtrak. We have Coast Starlight, Empire Builder and I think Sunset ones. Must remember to take them along next trip.

 

 

Last night the rain really came down overflowing the gutters. Next door the water was landing on their wheely bins white hard at we could hear it in our bedroom. I eventually got to sleep around midnight as even the painkillers that I took for my really painful groin didn't kick in for some time.

 

Feel better this morning but we may postpone our day trip tomorrow as Icstill have quite a bit to do to Fort Myers before next weekends Freemo trip.

 

A surprise is that most of our trains are actually running afte the heavy rain thunder and lightning (a few cancelled due to driver or stock shortage). Not so god for computers into Liverpoool Street or viaxNewbury.

 

Looks like we at getting a cut in services once the LBG rebuilding is complete. Service levels posted on our local rial users pages. It's wound me up so much that I have blocked various topics on here to save me getting wound up even more and having arguments with peopl. Two years decide if we get the hell out of this area.

 

Oh and I know what the Governments £20m to sort out Southerns problems is being spent on. Handing out leaflets every day saying how much better the service it'll be with all the train reductions being restored next week.what utter b******ks

Happy POTS day all!

 

Sounds like heavy rain so an interesting walk to the station.

 

Will probably be asleep by lunchtime as I have several more Preiser figures (no doubt including sheep!) to count and chack in.

 

Roll on 17:00 and home for the weekend! (Nothing Early about Fridays round here)

Better than counting HO scale sheep?? Edited September 16, 2016 by roundhouse

[Donw]

Finally, some progress on the shed by Rob The Builder.

 

1-DSCN3006.JPG

 

This is what's called a "pole building" in these parts. I don't think it has anything to do with Poland. More likely is because of the bloomin' great poles that get concreted into the ground rocks. One of the guys told me he actually found some dirt when he was digging the holes. Just about enough for a small flower-pot.

 

Such building techniques have a long history. Time team were often finding evidence of post holes when I watched the program.

 

Don

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

There was some rain last night. Nothing as severe as elsewhere. I could hear some thunder rumbling in the distance.

We are heading to the Midlands today, near Kettering for lunch and then Solihull for a couple of days.

Tony

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone.

 

It appears to have rained here too, but I was not aware of until I looked out of the kitchen window. Once again a dull start to the day and my travels will take me to Salmesbury, to a rather large brewery another of which I won't drink their beer. For the fourth time this week I've only one job planned for the day, so hopefully it'll be POETS day too.

 

Back later.

 

Edit for typos.

Edited September 16, 2016 by BSW01

[AndrewC]

Good moaning all from the boring borough. TFIF.

 

John, good to hear that FiL is doing better.

 

B*gger all happening here. Just killing time today until 4pm when I can unplug from the corporate Borg for 64 hours. For those that find company email overload a scourge. Just wait. I've seen the future. It sucks. Some companies are embracing instant messaging as the way to "interconnect resources in geographically diverse environments". (ooo look at the fancy corporate speak) The trouble is the people resources are overusing it to the n'th degree already. Every 5 minutes it seems some cockwomble is pinging me and next thing I've got their smiling face on my screen with their desktop shared and live video & sound. "Oh just a fast question".  20 minutes later with them flipping all over their tiny unreadable screen share........ Multiply this by 3 as I'm also connected with Citrix windows to 2 other client's systems at the same time. Argh. You see that brown lump that just swirled away? That was what was left of my productivity. At one point yesterday I had 5 of these bloody conversations going at once. Its a good thing my company laptop is designated as secure. It means the camera and microphone have been physically disabled. They can't hear my responses, see my reactions, or gestures. Bunch of w*nkpuffins.

 

Enough corporate ranting. Only 7 hours and 34 minutes left in my day.

 

Have a great day everyone and enjoy your weekend.

[RhBBob]

After many years of purchasing PG Tips we changed our tea brand. I think it may have been due to the PG Tips teabags not composting fully. 

 

We just 'dunk' ours in water and drink it.......

[Shedman5]

Morning, sun has started shining here, back later after my cup of Yorkshire Tea, and I remember collecting cards from tea packets years ago!

[Tony_S]

Good moaning all from the boring borough. TFIF.

 

John, good to hear that FiL is doing better.

 

B*gger all happening here. Just killing time today until 4pm when I can unplug from the corporate Borg for 64 hours. For those that find company email overload a scourge. Just wait. I've seen the future. It sucks. Some companies are embracing instant messaging as the way to "interconnect resources in geographically diverse environments". (ooo look at the fancy corporate speak) The trouble is the people resources are overusing it to the n'th degree already. Every 5 minutes it seems some cockwomble is pinging me and next thing I've got their smiling face on my screen with their desktop shared and live video & sound. "Oh just a fast question".  20 minutes later with them flipping all over their tiny unreadable screen share........ Multiply this by 3 as I'm also connected with Citrix windows to 2 other client's systems at the same time. Argh. You see that brown lump that just swirled away? That was what was left of my productivity. At one point yesterday I had 5 of these bloody conversations going at once. Its a good thing my company laptop is designated as secure. It means the camera and microphone have been physically disabled. They can't hear my responses, see my reactions, or gestures. Bunch of w*nkpuffins.

 

Enough corporate ranting. Only 7 hours and 34 minutes left in my day.

 

Have a great day everyone and enjoy your weekend.

Perhaps you could get an Amazon Echo for each client. " Hello Alexa, can you help me with update 27.31?"

[roundhouse]

Perhaps you could get an Amazon Echo for each client. " Hello Alexa, can you help me with update 27.31?"

Just ordered one of those as today is the last day you can pre order with 50 quid off.

[BSW01]

I hadn't even got to the car when the heavens opened up, I had to turn round and go back in n for my jacket. But here in Samlesbury it's quite sunny!

 

Kettles on, then it's off to work for me.

 

Back later.

 

PG Tips used to have cards in them.

[laurenceb]

The card were also in Brook Bond Dividend Tea ( the brand my mother used to buy)

Morning all

[The Lurker]

Morning all

 

I don't drink tea. Can't stand it. Black coffee for me, please.

 

Programmable phones - Mrs Lurker had a work colleague whose phone made a warning siren noise followed by "Warning, Wife Calling".

 

It started raining in Sidcup about 20 past 6. It's raining now at London Bridge. I'm glad it's the weekend ahead.

 

Good to hear good news re John's FiL, and best wishes to all