Early Risers.

[Horsetan]

You can ask ....!

We will now draw a modest veil over the proceedings...

 

I'm not sure it's hairier, having been hit on the head, while sailing a Yeoman, by a dinghies mast that capsized alongside, I've seen other people knocked out as well. We had a sleeping police man in the river, no not a road hump but a policeman who was hit by a falling mast from his dinghy, which was knocked down by a large sailing boat going the other way. I've got a permanently broken toe from sailing and a damaged back and a damaged  left elbow. also it gets very crowded  dodging other boats and terrified tourists.

 

Mmm, but arguably you're not doing 30mph on board your equine partner, who has a mind of his/her own, surrounded by rivals who are equally independently-minded.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Horsetan

[Tony_S]

Now at Orsett minor injuries unit.

Aditi has given her name. Staff all seem very pleasant. Not as busy as the local A &E depts.

[Oldddudders]

Mmm, but arguably you're not doing 30mph on board your equine partner, who has a mind of his/her own, surrounded by rivals who are equally independently-minded.

 

Indeed. Often the abrupt nature of the divorce between rider and horse is such that the rider is described as being 'fired into the ground' at speed. Falling off this isn't, and at 30 mph even that takes some enduring. Then there are the hooves of the following steeds to consider. These guys earn their corn, and Sir Tony McCoy, with umpteen successive championships to his name, is a remarkable man. 

[Horsetan]

....Then there are the hooves of the following steeds to consider......

John Francome, retired NH Champion jock himself, tells a story about a minor race in which he and his horse fell. All the other horses following managed to avoid treading on him as they came over the fence so, convinced the coast was clear, he picked himself off the ground......and was almost immediately knocked down again by his own horse who had also got to his feet and decided to take off, riderless. He famously said that his horse could have chosen anywhere on the course to gallop off, but chose instead to come and gallop over him! 

[TheQ]

We will now draw a modest veil over the proceedings...

 

 

Mmm, but arguably you're not doing 30mph on board your equine partner, who has a mind of his/her own, surrounded by rivals who are equally independently-minded.

We are only dodging up to 150 boats going in all directions, on a small river and for added fun tourists who've never handled a 10 ton boat before coming through the fleet. At least water is softer to land on..  We don't have to avoid hooves but we do have to avoid bowsprits....

 

 

 

 

 

Yes I know attempting to sit around on the back of poor defenceless animals is dangerous

Edited December 5, 2016 by TheQ

[Horsetan]

^^

I suppose you do have the option of drowning, whereas our lot have the option of ending up in a wheelchair (see recent fall of Freddie Tylicki on the Flat) or dying. The agony of choice.

[grandadbob]

Think I'll stick to railway modelling, I can't possibly be in any danger doing that.........oh hang on a minute.       

[Oldddudders]

^^

I suppose you do have the option of drowning, whereas our lot have the option of ending up in a wheelchair (see recent fall of Freddie Tylicki on the Flat) or dying. The agony of choice.

 

I am reminded of a very promising rolling-stock engineer, career well-advanced, who died on the rugby field. 

[TheQ]

Sadly most sports / hobbies  ihave some sort of injury rate, although sailing is one of the safer ones, in simply deaths per year , you are more likely to drown in your car than sailing in the UK.

Edited December 5, 2016 by TheQ

[Purley Oaks]

Glad to hear that Mike is up and running again; nasty feeling at the time, though.

 

Good wishes to Tony for the op, and also to Bill.

 

And hope that Aditi recovers soon.

 

Good luck to Andy for the application. As Ian said, interview experience is alsways worthwhile.

 

Very chill here this morning, hardly above freezing, but sunrise at 8am was beautiful.

 

Listened to the England-Australia match on Radio 5 - would have preferred to watch but don't have Sky. England are currently a team possessed - they're formidable. The 6 Nations beckon in a few short weeks - be interesting if there was an upset!

 

Speaking of rugby apropos of Ian above, just a few months after we left school, a classmate was playing for the Old Boys, got knocked unconscious and died aged just 19. And they've only just started taking concussion really seriously.

 

Hope your Mondays go to plan

 

Mal

Edited December 5, 2016 by Purley Oaks

[jonny777]

Hello from a dull and cold Somerset.

 

Apologies for my lack of comments/posts recently, but I have been informed that my brother-in-law has been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and haven't been in any mood to partake of the internet; although my depression pales into insignificance compared to the horrors that he and his family are going through.

 

Life can be very cruel at times.

[The Stationmaster]

Now at Orsett minor injuries unit.

Aditi has given her name. Staff all seem very pleasant. Not as busy as the local A &E depts.

 

Oh dear, next I go to an opticians I think I'll have my eyes tested rather than drinking freebie red wine - I read that as Ossett and wondered why you'd had to go all that way.  But wherever - trust all works out well for Aditi.

[Robert]

We are only dodging up to 150 boats going in all directions, on a small river and for added fun tourists who've never handled a 10 ton boat before coming through the fleet.

 

It can always make for some fun.  I have some experience of handling 20 tonne narrow boats.  As can be imagined, they take quite a bit of stopping - which can make for fun when somebody cuts across your bows in a fibreglass dingy.

 

Just that happened when we were on the Severn a few years ago - thankfully not to me.  Both of the boat captains were inexperienced, and the narrowboat cut the dingy in two!

[Killybegs]

Wot, no postings for nearly three hours. Is this a record?

 

Best wishes to those having ops and I hope Aditi is OK.

 

Took advantage of the last of the fine weather, before the storms arrive tomorrow, to get out on the bike. 

 

Ah the joys of mountain biking. Looking back down over Killybegs. Hard work going up but great coming back down. From 1200 feet back down to sea level in under 5 minutes. Considerably longer coming up.

 

Just around the bend the track deteriorates into a boggy mess and is best left for summer outings.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Killybegs

[Horsetan]

Wot, no postings for nearly three hours. Is this a record?....

Some of us have been trying to solve probate puzzles.

[Ian Abel]

Tony, sorry to hear about Aditis fall - always best to be cautious at our ages, don't tell her I said THAT though, I know how my Mrs would react to such a description

 

Andy, go for the application and interview, one thing I ALWAYS reminded myself in the past is that even if you are lacking some specific expertise in a particular area, you have;

i) a lot of expertise in your field anyway, and

ii) EVERYONE started out with zero experience in every area until they acquired some. Most sensible employers don't simply focus on the candidate having EXACTLY the expertise required in all aspects of the position being filled.

 

Morning "you lot".

Rather more LR than ER for me today, at least in getting to RMWeb. Rather a lot of first thing items to attend to, completing expense reports and the like, which we're charged with getting into the home office by 8:30AM. Wouldn't seem to be a problem except that is 8:30AM Eastern time, meaning I'm an hour earlier than that and have to hustle to get them done.

 

Weekend was productive, at least for household activities, ZERO on the model front though <sigh>

Awoke Saturday morning to an inch or so of snow on the ground.

 

Laundry list of things to do on Saturday, then a very nice dinner with the 99 yr. old MiL and my family. She's still so alert, even if slow moving, that the restaurant staff could hardly believe she is 99!

 

Sunday I had a couple of simple tasks before modeling could take place, second of which was to obtain a wall mount for the flat-screen TV, and mount said item, to finally get it off the top of the grand piano. Simple, right! <BAH>!!!

 

i) Preferred wall mount actually NOT in stock at the store (said it was on the web site!) so spent probably 45+ minutes weighing the available options, before selecting one

ii) Discover that with several mounting hardware options supplied, suitable wall anchors for our plaster/lath walls NOT supplied, so had to go get them.

iii) Dang it! Laser level decided it'd not been used for so long the batteries were semi-corroded in it. Took and hour or more to clean and get that going.

iv) But wait, no AAA batteries in the house for the laser level, how is that even POSSIBLE, we seem to buy millions of them! Off to store to get some.

v) WAIT A MINUTE!!! How do they manage to provide mounting bolts for the bracket/TV that are WAY TOO LONG, and no spacers for adjustments - off to store for correct length bolts.

vi) Several hours later - pretty much ALL my available time for the day - spent simply hanging a TV on the wall

Too sodding tired now to crawl under the layout and start mounting a DOZEN point motors. Collapse on couch...

 

So there we are, another weekend p!ssed away spent on household/non-modeling activities.

 

-1 and overcast here this morning, struggling to get warmer although supposed to manage 5 for a high before settling in for colder weather all week. -5 projected for overnight.

 

Hope your Monday starts a good week, tally ho!

[AndyID]

Some of us have been trying to solve probate puzzles.

Byzantium could learn a thing or two from common law.

[Horsetan]

Byzantium could learn a thing or two from common law.

Dunno. Byzantium was the model adopted by local government, so it must have had something going for it.

[BSW01]

Rugby was very popular in our family, myself and my 2 younger brothers all played for the school team, my youngest brother being particularly gifted. He trial led for a local team and was even offered a trial for Lancashire under 16's. One of my cousins (my fathers, brothers son) was good enough to play semi professional rugby for Swinton. In February 1976 whilst he was playing for Swinton at Rochdale, he was in volved in a high tackle, which resulted in him sustaining a broken neck. He was taken by ambulance from Rochdale to Southport, which was the nearest hospital with a spinal injuries unit. The ambulance (there was no NW air ambulance service then) could only travel very slowly, but even with the aid of a huge police escort, the trip took several hours. After a couple of months, he seemed to be slowly improving, but he died 3 months later, he was only 23 and had recently married. The shock really affected my youngest brother very badly and never played again.

[andyram]

Evening awl. Just taking a few minutes at the end of another very testing day. I was all geared up for the team teaching session this morning only to arrive to find out the head had triple booked himself and had cancelled the session. Other dramas involving support staff meant that, despite rushing around like the fly with cold bum, I was barely ready for the session. It did seem to go well though. The rest of the day has remained a rush.

During part of the morning I met the head to discuss "pupil progress". This is a standard meeting, but it gave me a chance to discuss my plans. I think the head was surprised, but did admit he would support my application whilst stating he did not want me to leave. I have been promised a reference.

Tonight the doubts have set in a little, especially knowing how much I have to do on the application before tomorrow night. But the fact that I am "flying off the handle" at Amber over the small matter of trimming the tree shows how stressed I have become! If nothing else that should convince me I am attempting to do the right thing.

 

Anyway on more important matters my best wishes go to Aditi. I hope things are ok.

[Oldddudders]

Things I hear elsewhere say that Aditi has been plastered. Since I think we can discount the lady upending the gin bottle, we must assume that a fracture has been identified. Let's hope comfort can be secured, at least. 

 

In the heady days when the M25 was under construction, traffic-newsreaders delighted in telling their audience that there were delays at the Orsett Cock roundabout. My puerile sense of humour has held onto this nugget of a name. 

 

Sherry has seen her surgeon - a mere half hour before her appointment! - and she is due for surgery on 3rd January. A quick reference to Alison reveals that I can stay for the duration. We think three weeks of my aftercare should suffice - any longer and she'll be hitting me with the sticks! - and so I will be in the UK from 15th December until the last week of January. 

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

All tasks that had been planned for today have been completed, rubbish taken to the tip no parcels collected. I've even been able to remove the lights from 2 illuminated garlands that hang around the door frames of the dining and living rooms and replace them with LED lights. I've just got the hall decorations to put up, but that will now be done tomorrow, it's time to put my feet up.

[Purley Oaks]

 

 

In the heady days when the M25 was under construction, traffic-newsreaders delighted in telling their audience that there were delays at the Orsett Cock roundabout. My puerile sense of humour has held onto this nugget of a name. 

 

 - any longer and she'll be hitting me with the sticks! - and so I will be in the UK from 15th December until the last week of January. 

As in some other parts of the country, Scotland has beavers - and I'm sure those stories creep into Scotland Today (BBC local tv news) when there's a woman reading.

 

Is three weeks really long enough to tire of you, Ian?

 

Mal

[NGT6 1315]

Andy, don't doubt your move towards a new position. I believe it will eventually lead to lower stress levels for you and ultimately benefit your family too.

What you said, Vincent. At the end of the day, it doesn't serve anyone if you keep heading to work with the proverbial (it is that in Germany - go figure!) knife in the pocket, dreading what sort of ambush you might expect today. At least that was how it was for me, and though urban public transport certainly is a challenge of its own, having been able to turn my hobby into a living remains invaluable.

[Oldddudders]

 

Is three weeks really long enough to tire of you, Ian?

 

Mal

 

You are too kind! While Sherry and I have enjoyed each other's company immensely over more than 12 years, it has always been in short bursts (ooh!), and living together full-time has yet to be essayed. I think a full six weeks, as this will be, represents a record. We ache for each other when apart, it's true, but are both old enough and set in our ways to enjoy our independence, too. A fine balance.