Early Risers.

[BoD]

Evening all. (Am I allowed to say that on ERs?)

 

I have spent most of the last couple of days trying to find a paint match for West Highland stations without much success.

 

I have also purchased some tickets for an event for Mrs BoD and daughter. The rogues charged me an extra fee for the privilege of printing the tickets out myself. I just don't believe it - but I have no option other than paying stupid postage prices.

 

The bins don't have to go out until Tuesday so I can relax tonight.

 

Have a great time in Cork, Tony.

[JohnDMJ]

Good evening all,

 

Wet start but brightened up during the day.

 

Some advice re awkward managers/supervisors. Keep a diary - don't leave it at work and don't use electronic office systems to record it. It has worked wonders for me in  the past.

 

Good advice too, Baz; I certainly did on my home computer. Also, ask to see your personnel file; they can not refuse! They did refuse photocopies, so I wrote the relevant points out longhand, took them home and scanned them into the diary. As a line manager had to be present, I made sure his time was best used to my advantage!

 

Belated birthday greetings to both and wishes, etc. to all as required

[DDolfelin]

Hope I'm not trying to teach any grandmothers to suck eggs but I've just learned a useful tip which did wonders for me.

 

Two N locos I use on my exhibition layouts were showing signs of doddering along.

I was advised by a dealer to give them a blast with an airline.

As I've just bought a powerful hand held mains vacuum (which also blows) I tried that and ... they ran smoothly for two days!

[Barry O]

We went to a restaurant 10 minutes walk away for a birthday meal for her indoors.  And youngest Herbert paid!! woop woop!

 

Sleep well!

 

 

Baz

[Kelly]

Evening all,

 

The day wasn't too bad. Got over to my flat as needed to go to slimming world meeting (unsurprisingly with the weekend and extra use of morphine for my back I'd gained, but was happy it wasn't more than it was. Need to get back on track and back to the 5.5 stone lost mark and carry forward from there (about half a stone away)).

 

Neighbour had kindly taken in a few parcels (Lord Nelson, printer cartridges and a magazine) for me and found a letter with details for booking hearing test. Neighbour is going to be holding a few parcels for me over next few days as gone a little silly on eBay, oops!

 

Rest of the week and next week should be fairly stress free and rest will be the aim with Richard (who is working nights until Saturday morning).

 

Then Wednesday collect Natalie and head back to mine before going to Gaydon the Friday to help operate a layout there, should be fun.

 

Heads up. BBC4 8:00 pm new series 'Railways, the making of a nation'.

Will look for it on iplayer. Thanks for heads up.

[Tony_S]

Hello from Cork. We got the hire car and found a scratch not marked on the scratch record. The bulb warning panel suggested the rear light was faulty so we got the hire car receptionist to have a look. This delayed us just enough getting to the hotel to not make driving into Cork for a meal with Matthew sensible. We will pick him up tomorrow lunch time after he completes his interviews. Then off to somewhere west of Killarney for the weekend. The "similar to" Ford Fiesta turned out to be a Skoda. Seems fine though.

Andrew's wife's booking leave experiences reminded me of Aditi's leave difficulties in her last couple of years. She at least authorised everyone she was responsible for even though she had been told not too. I don't think Aditi's final couple of leave applications ever got signed off. She may have signed her own. She was retiring anyway so I suppose what could they do?

[emt_911]

An evening of doing nothing has left me shattered.

 

Night all

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone.

 

It's been a long day, but at least I now have some work that I can occupy myself with, well for tomorrow at least, then it's a week off. Oh I can't wait.

 

This evening we went to Costco (we live the high life here)! We usually go about very 6 -8 weeks or so and whilst there I spotted an infuser teapot, it's somehow found its way into our shopping trolley! It's now washed and ready for use tomorrow, when I'll have a cup of loose leaf Earl Grey!

 

Roundhouse and AndrewC. As a former Union Rep, I must agree with what The Stationmaster, Dutch_Master and Barry O have suggested, in that detailed diaries should be kept, (with times and names where possible) and that emails are filed and if you can get supporting witnesses to back you up all the better.

 

It's late, I'm tired, so it's off to bed now, goodnight all.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[laurenceb]

Night all

[newbryford]

Happy birthday to the two Mrs ERs.

 

I seem to have acquired three rinkside seats for a game of ice hockey in the USoA without involving the added extras of ticketmaster (other online ticket agencies are available). Simply with a couple of emails direct to the team!

 

We're visiting the US in a few weeks for the wedding of a friend of Mrs NB's. It would be rude not to take in one of the major spectator sports in our spare time whilst there. It'll be the first time Junior has seen a game outside the UK and she's really looking forward to it, but I'm sure it's likely to cost me a team shirt.......

 I'm also looking at suitable trainspotting railfanning sites whilst Mrs & Junior NB go off on a food trail. There was a faint possibility that we would be visiting Roanoke, VA, which is a major railroad site,  but that's not going to happen. Their new ice hockey team is called the Roanake Rail Yard Dawgs. A shirt would have been on my shopping list!

 

Another commute tomorrow that may also involve a bit of DCC jiggery-pokery.

 

Very little chance of a POETS, but not bothered. Hope others can though.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[trisonic]

There’s a decent Museum (or there was ) at Roanoke, I climbed into the cab of a Pennsylvania GG-1 and they had one of those beautiful vast VIRGINIAN electrics (for coal hauling) but I think the GG-1 has been moved to Harrisburg PA for a full restoration..

 

 

Best, Pete.

[tender]

Decided to sweep the chimney today before lighting the Multi Fuel burner for the winter in a few weeks time. A job that only normally takes 1/2 an hour or so.

Three hours later and two bin bags full of soot, twigs, feathers and a dead Jackdaw.......... No wonder the fire wasn't drawing very well towards the end of last season.

[newbryford]

There’s a decent Museum (or there was ) at Roanoke, I climbed into the cab of a Pennsylvania GG-1 and they had one of those beautiful vast VIRGINIAN electrics (for coal hauling) but I think the GG-1 has been moved to Harrisburg PA for a full restoration..

 

 

Best, Pete.

 

We passed through Roanoke quite a few years ago. Only managed a couple of hours at the museum - it's still there - www.vmt.org

What I really missed out on was the O. Winston Link photographic display that was a few hundred yards up the road from our hotel. Which is partly why I was trying to persuade Mrs NB to include Roanoke - but to no avail. We did however stay in the Hotel Roanoke for one night, originally built by the Norfolk and Western RR.

 

Another excuse to visit in the future though!

 

Cheers,

Mick

Edited September 29, 2016 by newbryford

[trisonic]

Three dead now.

 

We rode the train to next stop and back again a few years ago. Lovely terminal station.

 

It’s the old Lackawanna Terminus and it is back to one dead - who wasn’t on the train but was struck by a falling roof section on the concourse - 108 injured on the train.

 

This particular train, whilst a NJT unit, started it’s run in Spring Valley NY. Hoboken serves mostly northern New Jersey and the section of New York State on the west bank of the Hudson River.

I understand that the main line to Penn Station, Manhattan,  is running a normal service tonight, though I believe Secaucus Junction is closed.

 

Best, Pete.

Edited September 29, 2016 by trisonic

[trisonic]

 

 

Another excuse to visit in the future though!

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

Me and the Senior Counsel / Senior Vice President of Business Affairs at EMI Music spent a happy afternoon at the museum sitting in a N&W caboose watching the N&S mainline. It runs right next to the museum siding complex.

He was very interested in the American Taxi Cab collection as he collected Taxis too.

 

Good times, as they say. Pete.

Edited September 29, 2016 by trisonic

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Two_sugars]

I'm still about, Baz . . Just mooching. . . Head's still a bit of a shed, but otherwise O.K.

 

Thanks for the concern.

 

Goodnight everyone..

 

John

[AndyID]

Probably of little or no interest to anyone other than Pete and Ian, but the US Social Security Administration has finally spoken:

 

To wit, thou shalt cough up 29.2 % of the ill-gotten gains you obtain from the UK, forthwith.

 

It's not that bad really. At least they are letting us keep a good chunk of it. Of course, what they actually do is reduce the US payment accordingly. Unfortunately, because we received a backdated payment from the UK, the US is clawing back a percentage of that too. On the other hand it's maybe just as well we did take the lump sum because we received the funds before the Pound got a Brexit crew-cut.

[Smiffy2]

It's been a long day - no real chance to read through, again.

 

Up at 7 to finish packing the car and see the plumber about the falling water heater at 8:30. He eventually arrived at 9, having visited our neighbour (a rather attractive blonde with many tasteful tattoos) and sent a while chatting to her.

 

He's seen it all before, and he can fix it without a problem, a day's work. He tells me that he's seen it before, where English builders underestimate the weight of a full chauffe-eau (must be 300kg) and the weakness of some internal walls. Yup. He reckons they need a wooden structure to spread the load...

 

Then on the road. It's about a 275 mile drive (in France) and we take it easy, even so we were at the tunnel by 2:20 and got a train two hours earlier than we had booked. Home by 4:30, saw the grand-daughters and home to open all the parcels! Some coaches for the AM&SPHR and hardware.

 

Fish and chip supper (at 7) and then crashed out in front of the TV, only to awake about 1 and can't get back to sleep. So I've bought some more presents for Daisy (an Attenborough DVD on Darwin) and signed up for Liber-T, the radio-doofer that allows me to sail through toll booths on French motorways. We've got to go back in a few weeks to see to the new shutters being fitted, so that will be handy.

 

Julie has a habit of trying to pay the tolls with shrapnel, and it's extremely frustrating to stop driving at 130kph, wait whilst she gets her bag, unzips it, gets out her glasses case, puts on her glasses, puts away the glasses case, gets out her purse, finds change (whilst squinting and complaining she can't see how many cents this little coin is) and then counting it out, handing it to the person in the booth who then counts it again before I can drive on...

Now I just have to rock up in the appropriate lane and slow down to 50kph.

 

So, happy birthdays where appropriate, best wishes to Debs, hope everyone has a good Friday.

[Gwiwer]

Two T20s scored.... just need to computerise these for sending data off to school.

 

Visited the LMRS tonight - lots of pre-exhibition preparation going on.

 

Its her indoors birthday tomorrow. Just got to remember where I hid her card.......

 

I managed to brush a plant leaf against my leg when in Sydney Botanical Gardens - it is still causing teh odd pain now after 2 years... its not just the animals that are venomous in Oz!

 

Sleep well al!  - and have a great day Rick!

 

Baz

 

 

Thank you kindly Baz.

 

Today is a public holiday here.  It is "Grand Final Eve" which would equate perhaps to having a bank holiday in England the day before the FA Cup Final.  Last night at the Palace was crazy.  The city workforce strung out the evening peak until around 9pm as many stayed back for "Friday" drinks (on Thursday) while the incoming partyforce were arriving in droves.  I called for police assistance on four occasions in a six-hour shift.  Two fights broke out, one gang tried to kick their way in through the barriers and just as we were locking up we found a cubicle in the gents occupied by a person with a needle stuck in one arm and a broken bottle in the other.  As we are not trained nor expected to manage such situations we handed that over to the emergency services with some relief.  Oh, and we had a trespasser on the tracks which caused all services to be stopped for half an hour while she was removed - complete with slashed wrists.  A crazy night.

 

SWMBO comments with regard to the plant that Sydney Botanic Gardens has upwards of 100,000 plants; those very few which are known to be particularly toxic are not in public areas.  Without a photo it is not possible to identify the plant and the potential issue but it is quite common for people to have mild allergic reactions to even the slightest contact and which can sometimes go on for a long time.  If you can ID the plant with a photo then Sydney will offer appropriate support.

 

Generic greetings to one and all.  Still hoping to catch up soon.  

[Wigan Wallgate OO Gauge]

Getting nice and sunny here in NZ

[AndyID]

I was curious about how the US Soc Sec determines the exchange rate for recipients of foreign pensions. After a bit of digging I discovered that it seems to be locked-in at the exchange rate when the foreign pension is first received. Long-term that may not be so good for us because that rate was May of 2015, and definitely pre-Brexit. On the other hand the lump sum was pre-Brexit too.

 

Then it occurred to me that it may not be such a bad hedge. Brexit may have diminished our income to some extent, but the contribution from our UK pensions may assume a ballistic upward trajectory on the exchange rate between the GBP and the US$ if a certain Lewismon wins an election.
 

(My first cousin married a Lewismon - I'm probably related by marriage. Aaaarrrrggggghhhhh!)

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

Two more days of antibiotics but something new - a combined antibiotic and steroid cream to rub on my leg instead of cetraben [same as E45 only different].  I'm feeling rather biodegradable and may be forced to rely on my theory that alcohol is a preservative.

 

Poorly Pal enjoyed his lunch and we both enjoyed the talk in the evening.  I got a bit of m*d*ll*ng done which was not entirely trouble free.  Sometime during the day there had been a brief power cut at home which knocked out the digi box.  Thank heavens for BBC i-player.

 

Probably a fodder run this morning.  I know I need milk but I'm not sure what else at the moment.

 

Also lots'n'lots more RMweb to read before bathtime.  Look at that: hardly a sentence in the whole post.  It was Mr Cousins who taught me most memorably about sentences.  "King Alfred gave me a burnt offering" was the example that we all dutifully wrote in our English books.

 

Enough, you say.  Best wishes to all travellers and to the ailing, recovering, supporting, grieving, missing and depressed.

 

Chris  

[emt_911]

Morning all. An excellent nights sleep without the normal side effect of feeling carp in the morning.

 

A day of report writing which shouldn't be too taxing but vast quantities of coffee will be required.

 

Have a good day everyone