Early Risers.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is very autumnal this morning.  I am starting to think about putting Winter Tyres on the car!

 

As far as 28XX's problem goes - difficult as it may be, there really is no option.  The safety of the child must come first.

 

Best wishes to everyone, and have a great day!

[Barry O]

Hey up.

Her indoors indoors off swimming so I am enjoying my early morning cup of tea.

Flu jab for me today.

Almost got our grass cut yesterday so a can of petrol is required to fill the mower to finish the job.

 

Have a great day/evening wherever you are.

Baz

[roundhouse]

Good morning from yet another sunny one.

 

Last night we visited mum swapped cars etc so not much time to work on HO locos but one did have LED lights fitted. A few more locos inspected this morning but their incandescent bulbs weren't causing or likely to cause any damage to the bodywork.

 

Now on our usual train and all appears OK so far.

 

More work on the layout tonight and tomorrow we load.

[AndrewC]

28XX, on 04 Oct 2016 - 22:06, said:

Question for ERs. Do we have the dog destroyed and hope my MiL never regains enough mental capacity to ask "Where is my dog?" ?

 

For what it is worth. A lot of this depends on the overall character of the dog. Was it provoked? Was it just playing? Is it just upset about missing its human? Either way if the animal isn't too old and is in good health it would be a shame to have it put down. I suggest contacting one of your local animal rescue places or Dog's Trust with a view to immediate rehoming.

 

chrisf, on 05 Oct 2016 - 06:13, said:

Good morning one and all

 

I have just had a slightly disturbing night.  Why on earth was I dreaming about Fleetwood?  We will never know.

 

Part of yesterday was irritating.  My bank statement revealed that a direct debit which I distinctly recalled cancelling had been used to subtract £14.76 from my account.  Volkswagen had somehow overlooked the minor detail that I had disposed of my old car and no longer needed the service contract which cost guess what, £14.76 a month.  

 

Fleetwood the town or Fleetwood Mac? Dreaming about Stevie Nicks is never a bad thing.   A bit of post horse and barn door but when cancelling a direct debit or when one runs out, I always make sure it is cancelled at the bank as well. My bank lets me do it on line with just a couple of clicks. Best of all they usually only need 3-4 banking days to ensure it isn't taken from your account.

 

 

Morning all from ye olde borough boring. Not a hell of a lot happening. Work is slow awaiting the official move to the client's other project. As far as I'm concerned they can take their time. Considering taking a lieu day today and spending it in the shed. If I do that I may also sneak off to the Rake tonight for a few beers providing Southeastern don't have another of their routine clusterf*cks this afternoon.

 

That's all from me. Latte time. Enjoy the day.

[DDolfelin]

For what it is worth. A lot of this depends on the overall character of the dog. Was it provoked? Was it just playing? Is it just upset about missing its human? Either way if the animal isn't too old and is in good health it would be a shame to have it put down. I suggest contacting one of your local animal rescue places or Dog's Trust with a view to immediate rehoming.

 

Closing jaws without causing injury doesn't sound like a bite.

My view is that the dog must be rehomed at least ... today.

[Tony_S]

Morning.

Quite sunny here. Aditi is preparing to departhe to Enfield to,see her Mum. She will be back this evening then return to Enfield for a few days from tomorrow. I thought Aditi's sister was going to Scotland but I was mistaken, she is going to Tübingen.

Tony

[Tony_S]

Closing jaws without causing injury doesn't sound like a bite.

My view is that the dog must be rehomed at least ... today.

When one of my uncles was admitted to hospital the rest of the family paid for his dog to go to kennels. My uncle died but he knew that as she had had time to think about taking on the dog my mother was going to do so.

[BSW01]

Good morning

 

It's not quite as sunny as yesterday but it does make its presence known every so often.

 

Today will be spent bring down some boxes from the attic, so that Mrs W can decide which of the ornaments contained within can be put back into the places that they used to occupy! These boxes are quite heavy and her arthritis makes it difficult for her to pick them up and hold them and as they were in an unoccupied room, they weren't in the way! I suspect they'll be a trip to a charity shop before the end of the week!

 

Back later

[Happy Hippo]

Saw a great photo of a handrier which had the following written on it

'Press button for short speech by Donald Trump'

Judging by the driers I use,these days, not even hot air anymore.

 

I also saw one many years ago labelled press button to experience the Monica Lewinsky sensation

[Happy Hippo]

I'm on stage in the Scottish play that week, culminating in two performances on Saturday, 12th November at The Little Theatre in Torquay:-

 

 

Will you be smoking a cigar whilst listening to the second movement of Johann Sebastian Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major? 

[PhilJ W]

Judging by the driers I use,these days, not even hot air anymore.

 

I also saw one many years ago labelled press button to experience the Monica Lewinsky sensation

Wasn't that a bidet?

[roundhouse]

Judging by the driers I use,these days, not even hot air anymore.

 

 

Would be quite apt if it had been written on the handrier that hasnt worked form day2 that it was installed in one of our favorite pubs gents

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Chris, did you not cancel the direct debit at your bank? When I cancel direct debits I also inform my bank, the Nationwide have always been very good where such things are concerned. I have on a few occasions received letters demanding payments I was no longer liable for as a result which I generally ignore. On one occasion they even threatened to take me to court so I sent them a copy of their letter confirming that I had nothing more to pay and I heard nothing else from the company concerned. Have a good HUMP day all, be back later.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Bright and sunny but a little cool so Mrs Stationmaster has set off cheerfully to do some community gardening in the middle of a roundabout - this poses some interesting questions - the first being how do you cross the road (which is busy) to get to the middle of the roundabout and the second being what tools or items one could take in order to 'modify' the atrocious wire sculpture that lives in the middle of said patch of garden.  As she will be working with others Mrs Stationmaster turned down my offer of pliers and I haven't got any bolt cutters anyway (it's quite heavy gauge wire).

 

Have a good day one & all.

[Happy Hippo]

28xx:  A difficult situation.

 

However, my experience with dogs is limited to working with Army dogs, my pets, and for many years working with a rescue centre for Staffordshire Bull Terriers.

 

A dog clamping, it's jaws around a human and not breaking skin is not a bite.  It usually indicates that the dog wants your attention/wants you to do something for it.

 

A dog that has been separated from it's owner and moving to a strange environment is going to be very unsettled, if it is not used to small children, or in the past has had one giving it pokes prods and pulling at it, then the grabbing may have been the dog saying 'enough!'.

 

So if you had a dog in a strange(new) house in a room  with relative strangers and kids of various sizes, then I'm not surprised the dog was upset or worried enough to clamp.

 

You mention the dog is psychotic, but I'll wager that the root cause is poor training when the dog was young.

 

Now comes the hard bit:

 

If your MiL has suffered a double stoke, which affects both sides of the brain, then she will be in bed and unable to do very much.  my grandmother suffered such and was confined to bed for the rest of her life. The stroke had  severely affected her mobility and her ability to speak and she was only able to go 'lalalalala' when she wanted to talk. However, her mental faculty was undamaged and you could sit for ages with her and tell her what you'd been doing.  communication back was 'lalala' and pulling or shaking of your hand.

 

When we put my newborn daughter into her arms she did a lot of 'lala' and she cried.  I think at that point she realized that she and my daughter were very similar in being totally helpless and at the mercy of others.

 

Your MiL is not going to be able to cope with a large GSD when if she leaves hospital ,especially if it's not well trained.  I'd also suggest that if she does come out of hospital and goes home then further pets are a complete no-no.  Boing on a guilt trip over getting rid of the big dog is no excuse to buy her the likes of a Yorkie or a cooking fat, which just creates a mobile trip hazard!

 

My advice would be to contact either a specialist dog rescue or speak to the Dog's Trust.

 

Be honest with them and let them know about the dog's behaviour (If you look at their rehoming pages, then you'll often see comment on behaviour, or recommendations of homes with no children).  No need to over emphasis or exaggerate the issue, they'll know!  They will take the dog into their care and if possible rehome it with a suitable family.

 

Over the years I've seen too many healthy dogs put down, when the reached the end of their working lives, simply because it was Army policy.

Edited October 5, 2016 by Happy Hippo

[Happy Hippo]

Wasn't that a bidet?

No it was a vacuum cleaner!

[chrisf]

. Chris, did you not cancel the direct debit at your bank? 

 

No, for this has caused untold grief in the past.  Were it not for the incident that I am about to describe I would probably have done so.  A year or so back I decided to stop my subscription to Practical Photography because I was finding that I did not have time to read it.  Between them the publishers and the bank made a complete hogsnorton of the process and I had to re-subscribe to three other magazines from the same publisher.  Quite what it was that made the bank revoke my direct debit for the subscription to Rail without my consent, authority and prior knowledge I still have no idea.  It took several months and a strongly worded written complaint to sort out and it cost the bank £25 as a "goodwill" payment.  I do hope that the trainee cretin who committed the blunder has been put on less damaging duties and that I never meet him/her/it.

 

Chris

[AndrewC]

No, for this has caused untold grief in the past.  Were it not for the incident that I am about to describe I would probably have done so.  A year or so back I decided to stop my subscription to Practical Photography because I was finding that I did not have time to read it.  Between them the publishers and the bank made a complete hogsnorton of the process and I had to re-subscribe to three other magazines from the same publisher.  Quite what it was that made the bank revoke my direct debit for the subscription to Rail without my consent, authority and prior knowledge I still have no idea.  It took several months and a strongly worded written complaint to sort out and it cost the bank £25 as a "goodwill" payment.  I do hope that the trainee cretin who committed the blunder has been put on less damaging duties and that I never meet him/her/it.

 

Chris

Which is why I manage my banking as much as possible online directly. If I screw up its my own damn fault. I don't know your situation but for most it is easy to bring up a list of all your direct debits, and simply click the cancel button next to each one you want to cancel. Which reminds me, I need to cancel my CAMRA membership before the end of the month and cancel the direct debit.

[Tony_S]

No, for this has caused untold grief in the past. Were it not for the incident that I am about to describe I would probably have done so. A year or so back I decided to stop my subscription to Practical Photography because I was finding that I did not have time to read it. Between them the publishers and the bank made a complete hogsnorton of the process and I had to re-subscribe to three other magazines from the same publisher. Quite what it was that made the bank revoke my direct debit for the subscription to Rail without my consent, authority and prior knowledge I still have no idea. It took several months and a strongly worded written complaint to sort out and it cost the bank £25 as a "goodwill" payment. I do hope that the trainee cretin who committed the blunder has been put on less damaging duties and that I never meet him/her/it.

 

Chris

Internet banking makes it so easy to cancel or amend payments.

Edit. I seem to be in agreement with Andrew. Not that I have a CAMRA subscription though.

Edited October 5, 2016 by Tony_S

[trisonic]

It would appear they don't have a proper file on you Pete.

 

In theory while employed in the UK (and possibly outside the UK but employed by a UK company) both you and your employer will have made National Insurance contributions - and Newcastle should have a  record of those so should know how many years credit you have got. What they might be trying to do establish what credits should be made for the years you were not contributing and I expect that only time spent in the UK would count for any sort of credit.  So for example, which applies in my case, I (like many others) was automatically credited for the 5 years from age 60 to age 65 as part of the equalisation of pensions between males and females but i was resident in the UK over that period of course.

 

The job history will be used to trace contributions even if your past employers have ceased to exist as they will have records that go back an awful long way.  I found when sorting out my state pension that when I nudged them about long past Graduated Pension contributions, back in the 1960s, they actually had all the details even though for almost my entire subsequent working life I had been Contracted Out.

 

I think you are right because on checking the reams of paper I received from them they have my birthdate wrong - right month, wrong day.     I didn’t spot it at first because it mentions that day when “your pension starts”. Funny thing is they specifically asked me NOT to send supporting documents like Birth Certificate.

 

I think I need a copy of ChrisF’s “strongly worded letter”  re DD’s - I’m not good at those...

 

I expect we’ll muddle through - I’m not expected to “peg out” before next year.

 

Best, Pete.

[Tony_S]

I assume I will get the pension letter inviting me to apply next year. I think it is sent out 6 months before my 65th birthday. The government seem to know I exist judging by the recent flurry of brown envelopes.

[jamie92208]

Morning all, yes it is just prior to noon.   I was up early and as the boss is away read some railway mags in bed before getting up at a reasonable hour.  Minnie the cat expressed her displeasure at this by pawing and headbutting my arm.   I eventually rose fed the cats and had breakfast, then a quick trip to Leeds to pick up a Power supply Unit.  Then it was up to the chicken shed to try and get my MERG shuttle unit commissioned.  This was a complete failure on my part but I did manage to get a loco running on a road that had gone dead.  I'm now at home about to make lunch and do some housework.  Then this afternoon will do a bit of work on our forthcoming exhibition.  The New Show Manager has asked for some assistance as his wife is poorly so I offered.  Then this evening we are meeting at the clubrooms to sort the hall plan out.  Not a bad day..

 

28xx I don't envy you and hope that the child is OK.

 

Jamie

[Horsetan]

Hmmm, I seem to be getting queries from high-powered lawyers based in Tanzania. I'd no idea the Firm had gone international like that. Nobody ever tells me anything.....

[Oldddudders]

 

 

I think I need a copy of ChrisF’s “strongly worded letter”  re DD’s - I’m not good at those...

 

 

 

A stiff letter can easily be achieved by simply printing it on cardboard!

[BoD]

For nearly a week now I have striven, spectacularly unsuccessfully, to find, or to mix, a particular shade of green paint required for a project of mine.

I have just noticed that the jar of white spirit that I have used for cleaning brushes after each failed experiment is now a perfect colour match for what I want.