Early Risers.

[BR60103]

Went yesterday to see my sister in a musical. (Catch me if you can) She had a part which was one scene and a song in the second act. Play had been abridged to make room for songs, so a lot of development wasn't there.

She had us back for supper before going out for the evening show. 1 1/2 hour drive there and same back. Crossing Toronto at 8:00 Saturday night, on the toll road, was between pleasant and lonely.

[trisonic]

At the moment if I don't make an effort I am sure I could sleep 20 hours a day.

 

I’m not sure whether you are “lucky” or not!

 

It comes and goes with me - I’m most happy if I sleep between  11:00pm and 5:00am (assuming I’m not working in the evening, that is). 6 hours is fine with my body and mind.

 

I’ve come to a mindset at my age that there is plenty of time for rest when I’m dead..... There is a real urgency to lay down a legacy of music whilst I can.

 

Best, Pete.

[emt_911]

Morning all. Yet again I've had a really good nights sleep and feel really carp. Maybe it's an age thing.

 

I'm going to try to keep todays work as short as possible to make up for Friday.

 

Time for another coffee.

 

Have a good day everyone.

[br2975]

Back to the grindstone, following a Severn Valley Railway "Murder Mystery" evening last Saturday.

.

Got the culprit - but, 30yrs experience dictates that following a legacy investigation and a retrial, the murderer will walk free and those involved in the investigation be subjected to a further ten years of IPCC intrusion.

.

Edited February 20, 2017 by br2975

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

32 years ago today my mother passed away suddenly.  Today I will visit the crematorium, which does tend to be rather bleak in February, and reflect whilst inspecting the memorial tablet and rose bush.  This will be followed by lunch with a kind and sympathetic friend.

 

Fortunately the week is set to get better.  Tomorrow my Polo is due to be returned on a low-loader all the way from Swindon.  Where it will be put once unloaded is a good question given that this street is a magnet for daytime parkers who have an aversion to car parks which cost money.  It is perhaps best not to tempt providence by surrendering the hire car before it arrives.  Having already retrieved a CD from the glove box of the latter I must not forget to uplift the de-icing fluid, which looks alarmingly like one of those alcopops to which trainee drinkers subject themselves except that it comes in a squirty container and not a bottle [teat optional].  Wednesday sees a meeting of the HMRS at Bletchley.  We are likely to discuss the possibility of making a cameo layout which would server to publicise the Society at shows.  The risk of designing a camel as well as a cameo is self-evident.  I am supposed to be visiting Poorly Pal on Thursday.  He reckons that he has gastritis, which may hinder plans for lunch.  I shall talk to him tomorrow.

 

As far as I know the expanded polystyrene is still in the skip.  I was engrossed in other things yesterday and did not realise until quite late on that the local paper had arrived.   That makes three weeks on the trot which, while not unprecedented, is remarkable by recent standards.

 

Best wishes to all on the sick list.  This should be interpreted widely.

 

Chris

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

I am back in the office after a fairly quiet weekend.  The weather is somewhat warmer today, so hopefully we have seen the last of the frosts, but I guess it is a little early to count on that!  We may even get some more snow before winter is finally over.

 

Time for a coffee!

 

Have a good day everyone...

[Barry O]

Played trains on Grantham yesterday, off to do some stock testing on Herculaneum Dock followed by an evening partaking in a "Safe Hands" course.

Baz

 

PS fingers crossed for NHN and I hope the sugar levels are back down Smiffy.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning. Last post was apres surgery should have made that clearer. Mighty sore now plus will need one or possibly two more operations. Have screws and wires in. Sherry is showing me up! I need a chair for a trip to the loo!

[TheQ]

Morning awl,

Another good night sleep of about 6 hours, this is getting too regular I must be due a complete failure of sleeping soon.

 

It's probably just as well I've had a good nights sleep, this week, I am attempting the calibration of 2 different new calibration systems. One is for a new product to be launched later this year. The other is a new test system for an old product that is still supported, but it's old test system had become unreliable, was made up of equipment no longer supported and so parts were getting unobtainable.

 

Coming to today sat at some traffic lights, I noticed there were actually no road works, there were 200 yards of road surrounded by the lights, the works are well into  a field one side of the road. but they've set up "camp" with a tin hut and parking space for the diggers the other side of the road. There is plenty of room in the field to have all the works one side of the road.

So for 16 hours of 24 we have lights protecting nothing and for the other 8  hours during the working day the odd person or digger  might cross the road.

 

At another set of road works finished on Friday ( as the initial signs said they would be ), the signs were still left up closing the road entirely, sometime over the week end, someone, I believe unofficially, has dumped the signs  of closure in the hedges. There are still diversion signs sending people off into the wilds, we'll see if they get round to removing them today.

 

Added to that it's just been announced they are closing the A47 Acle straight Norwich  Gt Yarmouth road from 20:00 to 06:00 every night for a fortnight for road repairs, that's an extra 5 miles diversion through several villages with the next possible alternative bing a 30 mile round trip. What often happens is the diverted traffic misses the turn to head back to Acle and then drives another 15 miles in my direction following that A149  then the A1151( you can't see the join) and back into norwich.

 

Now time to venture in to the electronic unknown....

Edited February 20, 2017 by TheQ

[RhBBob]

Morning all !  A warm night with the usual dry mouth and thumping head to wake up to !  Enjoyed a trip out yesterday to the model exhibition at Hubberts Bridge, Boston courtesy of Drinkallby Steve; four layouts, farm and fairground models, plus a 10 foot long model Zeppelin made to 1/72nd scale !

 

Today's promised bright sunshine and 14 degrees seems to have moderated to light or thick cloud and 13 degrees !  Oh the joys of weather forecasting !!

 

Have a good day everyone !

[br2975]

Oh ! and one other thing.

.

Yesterday's trip back from Bewdley involved a detour off the A449/M50 route at Pencraig / Goodrich  to "pay homage at Kerne Bridge" (someone must get the relevance ?) followed by a trip along the backroads to reach the Wye Valley Hotel at Tintern, and a slap up roast lamb lunch. 

.

Brian R

Edited February 20, 2017 by br2975

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

Well that's another weeks holiday over, where the hell did that go?

 

Straight back to the orifice this morning, but I think I'll take a detour via Hindley and call in to a site to collect some information. After the orifice, the plan is to escape around lunch on the premise of visiting yet another site.

 

Back later.

[jamie92208]

Morning all from  somewhat overcast village.   Beth has departed for Asda, I'm off to church shortly then it's ebay parcelling time. Hopefully some muddling this afternoon before the evening debut double act presentation at the club.

 

Neil, I hope that you recovery goes well and that the eventual outcome is pain free.

 

To all other sufferers I wish you a good day.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dry, dull and mild here with the prospect of some sunny spells followed later by cloud, rain and wind.

First task today is a walk to the chemist to pick up a prescription. I may go the long way round as I need the exercise. I only lost a pound last week but slowly getting to my initial target of losing a stone. Only 2lbs 6ozs to go. Once I reach that I may try for another 7lbs.

The oven has been inspected and there is no doubt that it needs a clean so it looks like my morning is already mapped out.

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited February 20, 2017 by grandadbob

[Shedman5]

Morning, dry but rain forecast for later, it seems we are off to order a couple of new blinds this morning.

 

Given they have been and given us a price not sure why we have to go to the shop rather than ring up  nor why my prescence is required.

 

Re cleaning ovens I do that job, just turn the Siemens oven to a certain setting press the button, door locks and then it self cleans takes about 2 hours quite happy having that task!

 

Hopefully time to play trains this afternoon.

 

Enjoy your day folks

[shortliner]

then this morning went for a great walk round Hartsholme Park.  After a stop for ice cream we got back to their house and they

 

Jamie

I used to live about 200 yards away from the lake whilst working at Waddo. Edited February 20, 2017 by shortliner

[iL Dottore]

Morning All,

 

A most interesting weekend....

• I got my lardarse onto the scales on Saturday to check if there was any progress on my project to shed the avoirdupois and to my surprise I'd lost 2.8Kg in a week (that's 6.2lb in old money). A combination of regular cycling combined with a modified Atkins diet (I mean seriously low carb) seems to be doing the trick. Ideally, I'll be at my target weight by May - if this progress continues.
• Being part Italian, like our very own Trisonic, I am saddened that I must give up pasta for the duration. However, having discovered Shirataki noodles (made from the konjac yam, they are largely composed of water and glucomannan and are very low in digestible carbohydrates and calories) I find that they make an acceptable replacement for the "real stuff"
• I took Schotty to the vet for his check up on Saturday. She removed the bandage and according to the Vet, the wound is granulating and healing nicely, although poor Schotty still has some discomfort. Notwithstanding the good vet assessment, he is giving a master class in how to be "a poor, hurting doggie". A performance, I assure you, were he human would garner him an Oscar, a BAFTA, A Golden Globe, A Tony, an Emmy, a Palm d'Or and a positive review by Will Gompertz.
• Yesterday, I watched the first episode of SS-GB, the Beebs adaptation of the book of the same name by Len Deighton (one of my favourites). Although (so far) it didn't stray too far from the book (although Det Inspector Archer's Secretary's - Sylvia - role was greatly amplified and the beginning with the Spitfire fabricated for the series). I think it was marred by two things: [1] stupid anachronistic errors (the Spitfire used in the film first went into production in 1943, the lorries used by the Germans are post war British Army) and [2] very poor casting. Sam Riley is far too young to be a Detective Superintendent - even with accelerated promotion due to wartime casualties amongst the police (Jamie92208, what do you think. Too young to be a Super?), Kellerman is nothing like the depiction in the book. The late Gert Fröbe would have made an ideal Gruppenführer Kellerman and the casting director should have looked for a contemporary German actor similar in build and comportment as Fröbe. Lars Eidinger as Standartenführer Huth was OK, but the role really needed someone with the intensity of a Rutger Hauer. Unfortunately, the pretty Kate Bosworth was.... well... forgettable and certainly miscast as a Barbara Barga (whose character, in the book, is one of a smart and tough young woman - and one who covered foreign wars for her newspaper owning father from an early age). Fortunately, so far, the series doesn't seem too dumbed down and the remaining four episodes will be worth watching.
• I haven't seen any posts from NHN - I hope that is going well with his assessment, diagnosis and treatment.

Well enough waffle from me. Off to do some totally unproductive job searching (I'm too old, too experienced and too expensive...)

 

Have a good start t'week

 

iD

• 
   

Edited February 20, 2017 by iL Dottore

[New Haven Neil]

See above. Id! Lesfrancs fracture surgery have 5 screws and some wires or plates.

[iL Dottore]

Sorry, NHN, I missed your post.

 

Insist on effective analgesia and get well soon.

 

Cheers

 

iD

 

p.s. It's amazing how much modelling can be done with one leg elevated/incpacitated (been there, done that, got the t-shirt)

[AndyB]

Morning all,

Waiting for some paint to dry, so filling in the time with a little coursework. 

I've set the alarm for 30 minutes as it really is dry reading. 

 

The course is online with about 20 sections and a handful of mini-lessons in each section. 

In theory you could listen to all of it in a day, but I'd put money on you not taking in much more than a few words. 

I have a suspicion that they are making it more complex than it need be just to make it complex enough to require specialists to teach others how to.....we used to call that a "self-licking lollipop". 

 

Meanwhile I a former colleague who just led a major procurement bid and is now managing the work - perfectly ably - has only just indicated Prince2 Foundation on his linkedin profile. Which leads me to think once you have a job the last thing you ever need is a qualification in how to do it! 

 

The youngest was up at the crack of dawn determined to watch every Star Wars film in a day. He got about 51 mins into the first film before deciding it might not be the best use of his time. 

 

Diets: I see that there is much evidence that once diets are "complete" it is 95%* inevitable that the weight creeps back on and generally you end up heavier than your pre-diet weight. My belief is that if you embark on one it is essentially for life; always aim to lose weight routinely and you won't be disappointed and most likely will stay at your target weight. 

 

* I didn't buck the trend. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. My street is one of the few hereabouts without speed bumps and as the far end enters a main road that is the exit of choice. The council wrote to residents asking for comments before the speed bumps were installed and I was one of only three to reply and AFAIK the only one to suggest an alternative. The reason for the speed bumps was one turning used as a rat run. I did point out that making a right turn ban at the start of the rat run would solve the problem but to no avail. NHN, I hope you will be up on your feet again soon, I suffered a similar accident over 40 years ago, fortunately nothing was broken just torn ligaments but then I was in my early 20's, being older didn't help in your case.

[PhilJ W]

See above. Id! Lesfrancs fracture surgery have 5 screws and some wires or plates.

Neil, I hope you don't intend to go through any airport security soon.

[Tony_S]

Morning.

Sunny here.

Not raining.

I don't believe we have any trips out other than to the park for Robbie. He has never had his claws trimmed so I assume he is getting appropriate exercise.

Have a good day.

Tony

[Horsetan]

....The youngest was up at the crack of dawn determined to watch every Star Wars film in a day. He got about 51 mins into the first film before deciding it might not be the best use of his time.....

I'd be interested to know what thought processes cause someone to think that wall-to-wall Star Wars films are a good idea....

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

 a little bit of sunshine currently lighting up the room, bet it won't last.  All the best for a comfortable recovery Neil although it does sound as if the shelves might be getting a bit bare at Screwfix - hope all the parts are stainless steel (and on reflection do Screwfix actually sell that sort of quality?).  

 

Now if a certain person doesn't (mis)behave in the same way as me in terms of misinformation on that particular site it would appear that ChrisF is in line for birthday greetings today - so happy birthday and hopefully your present from Swindon will arrive tomorrow as promised.

 

I understand that I am tasked with vacuuming cleaning this morning so I think I'd better get on with pondering how to clean a vacuum - must be less of it than an oven?  Have a good day one and all