Early Risers.

[pH]

The Gobbler's Knob prognosticator has declared 6 more weeks of winter. NPR has a nice piece, that includes Staten Island Chuck (who is apparently more accurate) and Shubenacadie Sam from our New Scottish provincial brethren.

 

Wiarton Willie is feeling left out!

[Ozexpatriate]

Wiarton Willie is feeling left out!

Never fear Ontarians, Wikipedia has him covered, even with his own page.

 

One wonders whether rather than seeing his shadow, the test for six more weeks of winter is "will wee Willie wee?"

Edited February 2, 2017 by Ozexpatriate

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[Tony_S]

I think Robbie disagreed with the American weather rodents. He threw himself in the brook today. It must be the beginning of spring.

Edited February 2, 2017 by Tony_S

[BSW01]

Note to self - there's one in every crowd

There's a saying in these parts:-

 

Your guaranteed to get at least one prick in a bunch of roses.

Edited February 3, 2017 by BSW01

[jamie92208]

One of the Funny names that I liked was on Dudley Hubbard's garden railway where he had a factory in the garage section with the owners name 'Seldoman Rarely Works' so wonderfully victorian sounding.

Don

 

The late David Jenkinson's Kendal Castle layout had an engineering works near the station throat.  Heath and Robinson engineers to the Great Western Railway.

 

Jamie

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

After much umming and arring, it was finally d cited that we would go out to the Trafford Centre, we left at about 7:15 and were ba k home for 8:30. Whilst we were there I just happened to call in WHSmiths and a copy of BRM just happened to find its way into my bag, I've got something to read now tomorrow methinks.

 

The wind is really starting to pick up now and strong winds are forecast over night.

 

Time for bed, goodnight all n

[Horsetan]

....I have observed the workings of a few lawyers, and never felt pangs of compassion. Denton Hall, Freshfields, Clifford Chance - even the young ladies of Hollingworth Bissell - but Ivan has melted me! May your desk be cleared more easily than you fear! ....

I'm giving a glimpse as to how it is for everyday High Street Solicitors. There are just the two of us in this Firm. We are not high-earning City robots with no social life whose every working moment is plagued by management, billing targets, and meaningless appraisals, not necessarily in that order.

 

Every client is a story, and a great many bring baggage of their own. My senior colleague has enough material from her clients to write a book; if she ever does so, I've got a great idea for a title. Apart from a stonking VAT bill, she has the nightmare aftermath of a divorce case that just refuses to be put to bed, with a child in the middle of the maelstrom, whose warring divorced parents have managed to royally annoy even the Judge who imposed the Order governing access to said child.

 

Of the cases I've seen, there's the client who came to this country as a young man, worked hard and put down roots here. The stories he told me about his (grasping) relatives, months before he died, made me realise why none of them were in his Will, and why he didn't want anyone apart from the Firm to act as Executors. Do you have relatives as greedy as this? Or another whose errant father led a double life, only to expire in an executive hotel room after inhaling too much laughing gas, leaving a mess that his student daughter is struggling to mop up whilst dealing with health problems of her own. His Estate is a jigsaw puzzle and I fear many pieces are missing.

 

So, when you're doing your Will, pay particular attention to those who you are excluding. They are often the dangerous ones. Will they cause havoc and mount a challenge when the time comes? Or will you attempt to head them off at the pass from beyond the grave by inserting a clause saying why they're getting zilch out of you?

[lightengine]

Good evening all!

 

 

As I recall, the original comment was about chasing the MALE nurse! I respect that I hardly know you ...

 

 

That HAS to be one of those tasks that you must make the time to do. You and your health come first here!

Bearing in mind it can be done on line.  Simples!

[newbryford]

The late David Jenkinson's Kendal Castle layout had an engineering works near the station throat.  Heath and Robinson engineers to the Great Western Railway.

 

Jamie

 

The Rassbottom Brow gang had a couple of PO wagons painted up as "Flannel Merchants". They were always proudly displayed on their modelling demo benches at exhibitions.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[newbryford]

Best wishes to all those that need/require them. I hope all is as well as it can be in your world.

 

For the past few evenings, I have been putting together my layout control panel, mainly using components of my new employer [*].... (obviously)

 

There's still a bit of work to finish it off, but it is literally two wire supply in, two wire DCC accessory bus out.

Initial testing away from the layout has been successful. It will be a few days before I can hook it up to the layout to fully test.

 

Catch up tomorrow.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[*] some of you already know and OD had spotted my mugshot in the February RM, but as of Feb 1st, I am now a full-time employee of DCC Concepts at their UK base in Settle, North Yorks. My official role is technical support. I have been part-time, gradually doing more hours as a sub-contractor for  the past 3 months or so. The driving instruction has virtually finished, but I have a coupe of pupils with tests still to do - they will be done on my rostered days off. I will be working some/all weekends at DCC C, but that's good for me and Mrs NB.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Horsetan]

....I am now a full-time employee of DCC Concepts at their UK base in Settle, North Yorks. .....

Does this mean you'll be Sleepless in Settle?

[newbryford]

Does this mean you'll be Sleepless in Settle?

 

Not quite, but I am settling in to my new job.

 

And there's a model shop about 3 minutes walk from the office that offers very good prices! So much so, that pre-orders at a well known box shifter have been cancelled in favour of the shop.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Gwiwer]

Morning all.  

 

Bright sunny day.  27 of your Celsius degrees are promised.  Awoken at 7am by sounds of large truck reversing in the court.  Think a nine-house cul-de-sac for those playing at home needing a sense of scale.  One semi-trailer with 40-foot container and one flat-bed truck used as an access ramp are currently parked at the neighbours' and loading their worldly goods for removal to a small town in the Never Lands near Amsterdam.  Educational watching all this take place and thinking in a few weeks it will be repeated here.  

 

Todays tasks completed include: changing home and contents insurance to home landlord's insurance (no contents), obtaining certificate of insurance from the car insurers proving 10+ years of no claims entitlement, advising termination date of cover for car policies, confirming end dates for utility supplies, booking the cat for annual shot, rabies shot and international paperwork, booking doctor's appointment to obtain letter confirming my medical history and medications over the past ten years, making and consuming coffee and toast, cleaning the house, cleaning the railway in advance of tomorrow's open day.

 

Phew.  And still time to make brews for the neighbour as and when required.  Though breakfast in town did get cancelled due to lack of awakening by Sharon

 

G'night all.  Sleep well.

[Gwiwer]

Rick, which town near Amsterdam. There's a few

 

Oss.

 

Not sure quite how close that is but it's a small country and these people are used to Australian distances where "close" means "you can drive there in less than a day"

[AndyID]

So, when you're doing your Will, pay particular attention to those who you are excluding. They are often the dangerous ones. Will they cause havoc and mount a challenge when the time comes? Or will you attempt to head them off at the pass from beyond the grave by inserting a clause saying why they're getting zilch out of you?

 

Funnily enough I was considering this point the other day. In this 'ere state if you don't specifically mention family members that are excluded, a court might conclude that you just forgot to mention them and allow them to make a claim.

[trisonic]

I just read the BBC headlines.

Only comment is: Who eats “Iceberg” lettuce nowadays? Very little nutrition in those things.......

 

Best, Pete.

[trisonic]

Someone was a bit heavy handed with the oranges and produced the famous molten electronics smoke.

 

 

 

With guitar amps (which are usually still made using Valve technology ) - we call it “letting the Magic Smoke out”!

 

Best, Pete.

[Gwiwer]

 

 

They'll be shocked about how crowded this country is

I'm sure they have their eyes wide open.  They are a Dutch couple who moved here 21 years ago and had their family here.  All four are fully bilingual and have made increasingly frequent trips "back home" in recent times.  The springboard was daughter leaving home for university at much the same time as father being offered a job through his brother who never left their home country.  The container has just left on its long journey north.  

 

We are meeting in London during June and have tentative plans for a holiday together in Cornwall during the Autumn subject to us all getting the required leave.

[BR60103]

Having morning coffee next to the large bookstore, we noticed a large clear area. They are having a redesign. Later search showed that most of the railway magazines had disappeared in a compression -- left were 3 North American model mags.  MRJ 251 has not yet appeared in that shop and now may not. The clerk that showed me around was also surprised as she said that they sell quite a few from the railway section.

 

This is the chain whose owner stopped carrying Mein Kampf (many years ago) and then rebuilt with all the comfy chairs gone.  A letter to the paper observed "Not only has she removed Mein Kampf; she has now removed mein sofa."

[NGT6 1315]

Mawnin' awl. Heck, why did I opt for earlier shifts for the next couple of days? I do have the weekend off, though, and then a few days of leave coming by Friday next week. 

 

Anyway, having managed only a cursory backread (sorry…), I gather Sherry is on the mend and Dick has had good news, so my thoughts shall again go out to those ailing and recovering in particular. 

 

Enjoy what you're up to!

[pH]

We have tried, and failed miserably, to buy a new writing pad. You know, the kind with blank pages, and a loose page with lines that you insert behind each blank page as you write on it. Lots of individual notelets, a few lined writing pads, but none of the kind we want. OK, we didn't use up the last pad too quickly, but it can't be more than two years since we bought it, and I don't remember it being difficult to find. Surely people still write an odd real letter in addition to all the e-mails?

[Gwiwer]

Yesterday's visit by the arborists provided a large stack of logs for future firewood.  Today it was my job to move that lot from the footpath outside the front around to the log pile at the back of the house.  I counted 56 trips with mostly 2 logs at a time though a few were larger and carried singly and a few smaller and could be managed three-at-a-time.  Out of interest I weighted one load - two average sized logs - and found them to each be 11kgs.  So 56x22kgs (on average) 1232kgs of logs carried and stacked.  Or something above a tonne.  That's a fair amount of carrying and stacking in 27C.  I have awarded myself a glass of ice-cold Chardonnay with some cheesen bikkies.  

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is a dark and wet morning here - but fairly mild.

 

As far as Tony's Mixer is concerned, it may not be the fault of the oranges but more to do with the motor technology.  As much is built down to a price these days, thinner motor windings are used which, of course, means they get warmer in operation.  The warmth causes the windings to break down over time, and eventually short, causing the motor to draw too much current and burn out (with the characteristic smell of burning enamel - the fumes of which are toxic)

 

As for valve amps - they often let go with a bang!  The high HT voltages involved can make for some spectacular pyrotechnics.

 

Still, at least spare parts are available.  This is by no means a given.

 

Have a good day everyone...

Edited February 3, 2017 by Robert