Early Risers.

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a slightly damp but bright village.   Sad news about Chuck Berry​.

 

​​Good news for the outlaws yesterday.  Betty was allowed home in the afternoon and Beth took her dad to pick her up.    She insisted on walking out of the hospital but we hope that she will rest at home.   No caring duties today as her younger daughter is coming up from St Albans (the other one lives and works in Rome).   The care throughout has been top class and she is already booked in for various follow ups.

 

As for us, it's church this morning then I've been promised a nice lunch of pork fillet in cream and mustard.  Then later on I'm off up to the dales. The first task is to deliver some scratch built wagons to Long Preston.  These are some that my late friend Tony built for the Long Preston layout and his daughter has agreed to donate them to the village hall committee so that they can be placed on the remaining part of the layout that is displayed in the village hall.   I will no doubt get some tea and cake from the friends who I'm delivering them to.  Then a few miles further on to Giggleswick where I spent my childhood. The school, that I attended on a county scholarship is holding a recreation of our old end of term service in the school chapel at 7pm.   I haven't been to any Old Boys events at the school since I left in December 1970.  I had a bit of a love hate relationship with the place.  I hated the culture and bullying but appreciate the education and some of the inspiring teachers.  The service used to be held in the dark at 10pm as a war memorial. and we had to learn the hymns and psalm by heart.   The service will be at 7pm apparently H & S was now stopped having it in darkness but afterwards there is to be a supper in the school.   I'm looking forward to it, however the mark of it being a success will be that if I meet any of my old tormentors that I manage to leave without  slotting them.   I hope that the weather allows me some good vies of the dales.

 

Happy Anniversary to Mr and Mrs NB. I'll think of Mick as I drive through Settle.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Donw]

I used to have some 45s of Chuck Berry where did they go? Great music 

 

I assume Tony you have never kept a cat. The concept of doing what you want is somewhat alien to cats in my experience. Very independent minded your average moggie.

 

Don

[grandadbob]

Good morning all from a still breezy Land of Sutt.

Should stay that way most of the day, mainly dry with some bright periods and chance of patchy rain later.

We've been awake half the night because one of the neighbour's letterbox flap has been rattling like mad in the wind. Haven't yet figured out the culprit but when I do I will give "advice" about fixing the bl##dy thing. I ended up making tea for us at 4.00am. It's bad enough getting up then when Chris is going to work!  

<end of that particular rant>

 

Disappointing marathon rugby session yesterday. I didn't enjoy any of the games particularly the last one. All credit to Ireland, they certainly didn't surprise me and played out of their skins. In some ways I'm glad we didn't beat the All Blacks winning run record because those people who are claiming we're as good as them would have been unbearable. We're nowhere near that level at the moment and have a long way to go. Roll on the Lions tour!

 

Today we've been summoned to Steven's flat where he and his nieces and nephew are hosting an early Mother's day event for Chris and Nicki. They're doing it today as we'll be away next week.

From what I've heard of the menu there will be lots to eat and drink so it's another non diet day for me. I'm still 1lb shot of my initial target. When (if) I reach it I'm then going to try to lose another 7lbs. The forthcoming cruise will temporarily scupper that idea though.

 

Talking of diet a (light) cooked breakfast is on offer shortly. After that I will be attempting to fit the decoder that turned up yesterday (in a ridiculously large box) Wish me luck in that.

 

Have a good one,

 

Ham-fisted of Sutton.

Edited March 19, 2017 by grandadbob

[Happy Hippo]

I went to bed fairly early yesterday evening to lick my wounds after the France  v Wales match.

 

I think that after the penalty/penalty/penalty debacle at the end, there is going to ultimately call for a revision of the rules and that in future any penalty awarded must be taken by a kick.

 

Of course, as an ex front row forward, I am not a fan of the new style scrummage, especially when you see the overhead camera shot of the ball being put in using a blatant feed from the scrum half to his hooker's feet. This is still an offence, but seems to go unpunished by referees these days. 

 

I would suggest that if you are going to have an orchestrated assembly of a scrum, then getting the scrum to go down in rows rather than trying to get settled as two lumps falling together would be easier, quicker and would also allow the scrum to set higher.

 

Upon rising this morning I was able to put in a load of washing, do some tidying up in the kitchen and a modicum of cleaning, prior to the late arrival of the Obergrumpenfuhrer.

 

Woodworking should take up some of the day, as will getting sorted in the garage and garden.

Edited March 19, 2017 by Happy Hippo

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

I went over the road early this morning. Rosie the cat was in her basket. So I filled her food bowl. This didn't impress her much. As I wanted to come home for my breakfast I just put her on the floor next to her bowl. Fortunately she is very docile and didn't try to kill me. Anyway she is now out in her garden waiting for her usual staff to return at lunchtime.

Robbie just followed instructions as usual.

Our breakfast has been delayed as Matthew rang and talked for ages. He did get a replacement bike yesterday.

We met our new near neighbours yesterday. They seemed very nice. Family with children aged 2, 7 and 11 and resident Granny. They are moving get in next week when all the painting and decorating is finished. Much excitement apparently as the chap arrived and sacked the electricians. Some of our neighbours who work in construction have commented to me about the standard of work they have observed.

Tony

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A quick hello and goodbye this morning as I'm off out shortly, a model exhibition in Hornchurch but not model railways (though theres a probably one or two railway related items there).

[emt_911]

Morning all. Late on parade today thanks to my body requiring a bit more sleep.

 

Some washing and ironing to catch up on but otherwise not a lot is planned.

 

Richard - I totally agree about the France v Wales game and also about the new style scrums. As for feeding the ball, this is something that I believe needs to be addressed.

 

Have a good day everyone

[edcayton]

Good morning all.

 

I have been asked to look after cats on several occasions over the years. They tend to take one look at me and bu99er off for the duration! They don't really need looking after as such.

 

Best wishes

 

Ed

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Happy anniversary Mick and Mrs NB.

 

Cats are quite happy as long as they have some staff to carry out their every wish - commands however tend to come in advanced cat and can require translation into normal English or other human language.  And as both of ours are stone deaf they tend to make their requests extremely loudly - including 'feed me' at about 05.30 daily in the case of one of them.  they are however - like their predecessor - very human orientated and frequently require a person on whom to sleep or the correct sort of attention which if not offered results in you being batted by a paw (in a nice way, but still quite insistent).

 

Have a good reunion Jamie - shame you're not still in your previous profession as you could then pick up a few 'cold cases' from your school days and wheel the miscreants in 'for a chat' and overnight stay 'at the office'.

 

Have a good day one all.

[Oldddudders]

Morning all

 

Three cats here, each of whom is as independent as has been suggested, except when food is due, or might be due, or could just possibly be provided if we tell dad what a nice chap he is. Then they are all ears and paws and squeaks. Every mealtime is as if they haven't eaten in a fortnight. The news that Peter & Ivy have finally sold their house (and sleeps-seven gite) at the other end of the village to a couple with one son and twenty cats still gives me paws (sorry) for thought.

 

My taxi duties on Friday entitled me to a lunch at Alison's place, but prior to that she had helped me change the wheel on her Renault. With a car more than a decade old, the fact that the jack, wheelbrace etc were all in apple-pie order, as was the spare wheel, was a relief. I did feel rather pleased to get it done. Her lover had never deigned to take any interest, despite the car being within hailing distance of his farmhouse. Jeannine, mid-80s, owner of the hard-standing where Alison had left the car, came to watch us. Sadly, although the puncture was in the tread, it cannot be repaired. So two 205/55/16 tyres with a great deal of life left have to be replaced, by someone with no money. Tyres may only be bought in pairs in France. One might imagine that in these days of ABS and wheel sensors the different tread patterns among makes of tyre might not matter so much. After lunch we had to go to Vibraye to Alison's dentist, a bit of a trek, as she is finally having false molars fitted on both sides of the mouth where second teeth never appeared. A gel is used to take the gum impression, and at the first visit for the upper jaw this made her throw up over the dentist! This time was better, evidently.

 

I have allowed Varian out onto the lawn today, having not mowed that end of it, so there is plenty of grass. It must be nearly two years since I did that, yet the moment I started putting up electric fence-posts she knew what was about. For almost 36 she doesn't look too bad, I suppose. 

 

I have now put more than 500km on the new car, and if the gauge is to be believed economy is impressive. I might nip down to the filling station and top it up again just to find out. Compared to fuel consumption in my yoof, 50 mpg is brill for a petrol car, especially as the engine is no doubt a bit tight as yet, but that appears to be where we are heading. 

 

Congrats to the Bryans on their anniversary. Many more to follow, I hope!

[New Haven Neil]

When I was in hospital having my tonsils out (so on the ENT ward) there was an old bloke who apparently couldn't walk and couldn't use a bedpan, so he just held it in. For about a fortnight. Really.

 

Then, in the middle of the night it blew. It didn't smell of roses, so he lit a cigarette, but he was so relieved he immediately fell asleep. Setting fire to the bed. The bed full of crap. Which burned...

 

They sent him home the next morning. But none of us who were there in the Sunderland Royal Infirmary in January 1970 will ever forget the smell...

 

Wow.  I had my tonsils out...in that hospital....around that time!  It was a children's ward though, so no exploding old blokes!  I was 11 and didn't explode either, but I do recall the pre-med injection in my bum was the most painful thing I had experienced up until that point.

[New Haven Neil]

Ian, my 3 year old Flawed B-Max with a 1.4L petrol engine manages 45 mpg regularly, so I would agree!

[PeterBB]

I went to bed fairly early yesterday evening to lick my wounds after the France  v Wales match.

 

I think that after the penalty/penalty/penalty debacle at the end, there is going to ultimately call for a revision of the rules and that in future any penalty awarded must be taken by a kick.

 

Of course, as an ex front row forward, I am not a fan of the new style scrummage, especially when you see the overhead camera shot of the ball being put in using a blatant feed from the scrum half to his hooker's feet. This is still an offence, but seems to go unpunished by referees these days. 

 

I would suggest that if you are going to have an orchestrated assembly of a scrum, then getting the scrum to go down in rows rather than trying to get settled as two lumps falling together would be easier, quicker and would also allow the scrum to set higher.

 

Upon rising this morning I was able to put in a load of washing, do some tidying up in the kitchen and a modicum of cleaning, prior to the late arrival of the Obergrumpenfuhrer.

 

Woodworking should take up some of the day, as will getting sorted in the garage and garden.

 

I too did not like the penalty/penalty/penalty etc. etc and also do not like the way modern scrums go down and the push being the be-all and end-all.  For many years I was also loose-head prop but enjoyed the game more as a flanker later because I could tackle catch and run fast.  Obviously disappointed at the latter two games but pleased that Scotland did well.

 

Edit:  It would be unfair looking at my post here not to mention that Ireland played a blinder and deserved to win.

Edited March 20, 2017 by PeterBB

[newbryford]

ER cunning plan completed - many, many brownie points earned. [*]

 

I (and Junior NB) surprised Mrs NB at her Guide event this morning with a dozen red roses. The last time I did something similar was when my best man delivered a similar present on the morning before our wedding

 

Reward was a bacon butty at the hotel she was staying at before I had to return home and onto work. I will be meeting her later today after work as she expected.

 

[*] Strictly speaking guide points. The event is a country training event for Guide leaders from the County, so extra points were also earned from her colleagues for being a "smoothie". 

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Tony_S]

Ian, my 3 year old Flawed B-Max with a 1.4L petrol engine manages 45 mpg regularly, so I would agree!

I think Aditi's Fiesta is quite frugal. I won't comment on the Freelander, other than to say it is very comfortable and fortunately has a large fuel tank!

I took the Fiesta out yesterday. I filled its tank with petrol. I did remember the fuel filler was on the other side to my car. It is impossible to misfuel it (allegedly).

Edited March 19, 2017 by Tony_S

[Coombe Barton]

Having been up at 05:30 and leaving the house at 6:15, now back from taxi duties for the Coventry Half Marathon. His first, and did it in 2 1/4 hours.

 

Now reasonably cream crackered.

[Coombe Barton]

I have the Concise OED installed on my iPad. The lated update to that App gave me the option of learning a new word a day, which I mistakenly agreed to. I haven't bothered yet trying to fin how to turn out off.

 

However today's word of the day is - ethyl alcohol.

[Ohmisterporter]

I served my apprenticeship in a textile mill, most of you will never have been in a working weaving shed where the clatter of four hundred looms working is quite something. We employed some older men whose job was to oil the many moving parts of the looms. One particularly dirty old devil wore overalls that were never washed or changed, we used to joke that when he took them off at night they stood up on their own. One day he did his oiling round and went into the toilets to smoke his pipe. Somehow he managed to set fire to his oily overalls and, there being nobody else in the room, it was a while before anyone came in who could help put him out. He was still alive when the ambulance took him away but we never saw him back at work. That taught me a valuable lesson: don't wear oil soaked overalls longer that you have to. 

Stay safe all.

[petethemole]

My Dad taught me always to turn a blow torch down to a yellow flame when not actually in use, as it's more visible than the full on blue flame. His first job was in the office at a bicycle factory in Birmingham. Like many factory offices it overlooked the shop floor. One day a worker brazing frames put his blowtorch down in a patch of sunlight without turning it down. The flame was totally invisible and another man wearing oily overalls walked too close, with fatal results. Not that I've ever needed to use a blowtorch in adult life. Among other things he used to heat his soldering iron with it.

 

Stay safe!

 

Pete

[jamie92208]

Morning all,

 

 

Have a good reunion Jamie - shame you're not still in your previous profession as you could then pick up a few 'cold cases' from your school days and wheel the miscreants in 'for a chat' and overnight stay 'at the office'.

 

Have a good day one all.

I did once have to book in the elder brother of one of them.   I think for fraud.   Talk about Schadenfreude.  One of the main things that started bullying off was that us scholarship boys were from the village and had passed our 11 plus, the boarders were the rich kids from elsewhere.  Us day boys formed about 20% of the school but politics put an end to that after I left.  Weather is now fining up so I might well have a nice drive up.    The pork fillet has been consumed and was excellent. 

 

Jamie

Edited March 20, 2017 by jamie92208

[Tony_S]

In the days when schools could afford the gas bill we used to tell students to never leave a Bunsen burner on a blue flame, always the yellow flame. They probably have to turn them off now.

[Tony_S]

Pete mentioned never having had to use a blowtorch in adult life. I have and I don't mean the gas ones for a bit of plumbing. Our old house had white painted wood shiplap cladding on the upstairs exterior. It seemed to be a permanent job every year patching up the paintwork. People who could afford painters used to get it stripped, reprimed and painted. It seemed to last longer that way. Well at that time Aditi and I both used to get the full school simmer holidays. We weren't able to go away so decided to paint the house. I bought a paraffin blow lamp. It wasn't fun, it was hard work and due to the nature of the timber "interesting". Some bits were oozing resin and other bits had rot that just exploded when ignited.

We eventually were able to afford UPVC cladding which also made the house cheaper to heat as it had much better insulating properties.

Edited March 19, 2017 by Tony_S

[Tony_S]

When we were looking for what turned out to be this house 25 years ago I said I wanted brick, I didn't want cladding, wall tiles , half timber, or pargetting, just brick.

Edited March 19, 2017 by Tony_S

[AndrewC]

Afternoon all. Knackered after having a play with my new toy in the front garden. About 1/3 broken up and about half of that and the demolished (by a cockwomble before Christmas) front wall now in the hippo-bag.

 

I am now in pain.

 

Tony, as long as you don't pïss off the cat, it won't harm you.

[AndrewC]

Afternoon all. Knackered after having a play with my new toy in the front garden. About 1/3 broken up and about half of that and the demolished (by a cockwomble before Christmas) front wall now in the hippo-bag.

 

I am now in pain.

 

Tony, as long as you don't pïss off the cat, it won't harm you.