Early Risers.

[southern42]

' Evening all from red dragon land and congratulations to Dom and Elise.

 

Trip to the Archives this morning to arrange the Bangor Postcard display in one of the Library Rooms.  There are a few things still to do, plus the model to finish, so the cabinet is covered over for now. 

 

I then took a bus ride to Llanfairfechan for lunch and arranged to meet OH on his return from West Shore.  When the rain stopped we went for a walk but seeing Mr and Mrs Swan down at the box room nest, we wandered over to see them. 

 

46 seconds of nest building!  Mr chose to pick up stray strands one at a time and throw them towards the nest.  Mrs took billful after billful.and piled it up around her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By then, we realised the Holyhead to Euston 10 car train was due so we nipped over to the station and took a few pics for Jones the Steam.  I think he appreciated them!

 

It is now early morning so ' night all and nos da,

 

 

[laurenceb]

Night all

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[pH]

That house we had was quite an age. When it was built in 1869 the G&SWR had just acquired the canal that ran along the bottom of the garden. It was subsequently converted into a railway line.

A very twisty railway line. Perhaps it would have been better if it had been built as a narrow gauge line. Just think, if that had happened, and they had followed the Ffestiniog model, you would have been able to say "There are Fairlies at the bottom of our garden!".

 

(Please excuse me. I've been laying laminate flooring all afternoon. I'm bored out my mind, my back is killing me and I have to go back to it.)

[BR60103]

How about a 19% mortgage interest rate with no tax relief? That's what we faced when we bought our first house in Canada in 1982. Add in a house market that was falling. We came here with the experience of a UK house market which hadn't seen significant price falls since the 1930s, and so bought almost as soon as we arrived. In retrospect, we were in a really strong position - money in the bank, no chain, people desperate to sell houses worth less than the mortgage, but we'd never experienced that before. So - we paid 19% interest on a depreciating asset.

We bought our first house in '77 with a reasonable interest rate. The 5-year mortgage had to be renewed in '82 at 18%. We took a year and then bought a new house (within walking distance of the railway station) where they had some sort of deal with the bank for a lower rate and bought our old house from us.

Things have been calmer since then.

[AndyID]

A very twisty railway line. Perhaps it would have been better if it had been built as a narrow gauge line. Just think, if that had happened, and they had followed the Ffestiniog model, you would have been able to say "There are Fairlies at the bottom of our garden!".

 

(Please excuse me. I've been laying laminate flooring all afternoon. I'm bored out my mind, my back is killing me and I have to go back to it.)

 

Twisty indeed. I was brought up in a house near the really twisty bit to the east of Paisley Canal. The Coronation Pacifics made quite a commotion as they ground away the check rails. A really nice gent called Mr Dunn lived in the BR owned property at the end of our street. He was the stationmaster for Gilmour Street and Canal. My mum talked him into getting me a footplate visit.

[emt_911]

Morning all.

 

Time for another coffee before starting my journey to Watford.

 

Have a good day everyone

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

Poorly Pal is making sandwiches for us both today.  What goes between the slices of bread will depend on what is on special offer at Waitrose but it will be garnished with some chutney that I found on the WI stall in Bedford market.  Tonight Paul Chancellor of Colour-Rail is speaking so that should be good.

 

Somewhere between here and Bletchley is a snotty handkerchief that should have been in my trouser pocket when I got home.  It is just as well that I tend to get hankies for my birthday, which may be one good reason for not celebrating birthdays.  Perhaps it is in the car or in the road between here and the car.  Who knows?  Who cares?  Gentle reader, you have more to concern you than such piffle.

 

The talk on the last couple of pages abut mortgages brings back memories.  In 1974 I bought a leasehold flat.  The building society as it then was declined my request for a mortgage and I felt poorly rewarded for saving £10 a month.  The council came to the rescue with a municipal mortgage at 14.875%.  Ouch.  When the time came to move on it took me six months to sell it.  From deciding to sell the flat to moving into the house that I now own took 56 weeks and among other things led to my then girlfriend chucking me out for being untidy.  Not a lot has changed except that the girlfriend has been married to someone else for many, many years.

 

On that happy note, happy families to Dom and Elise and warm thoughts to all

 

Chris 

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

We have a slightly cloudy morning today.  I also have rather a lot of work on my desk!

 

Congratulations, Dom and Elise - You have a fun time ahead of you!

 

Time for a coffee.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[TheQ]

Morning Awl,

 

Discovered last night BTs online spam box has been hiding important Emails for me, eventually found a way of turning it off so it sends all the Emails to me,...

 

 Another Awlful nights sleep, and I woke with the sniffles. Added to the depression on that, as I watched the news, I realised we've now got 2 years of every day updates on BREXIT, 99% of which will be them repeating what they said the week before and with very little new News till it happens. Lots of reporters will get lots of money for standing outside empty buildings in London / Brussels / Paris / Berlin, saying what the person on the desk in London said 30 seconds before.

 

Drove in today with the radiowomble complaining about her lack of sleep due to her husband coughing and spluttering all night... there is  a lot of it around.

It was a nice drive in though roads dry, no cockwombles about and just the glimmer of dawn when I started out, to full dawn as I arrived at work.

 

Time to inspect the company spam, then the results of the last 3 days calibrations, and hand the equipment back if it passes...

[AndyID]

Well, there's a few hours down the ethereal plughole that I won't be seeing again. We bought Lorna a Brother wifi laser printer the other day. Nice, well engineered, little machine and really good price at an establishment with a big W at the front. Unfortunately I think the installation software was written by one of Joe Brown's bruvvers.

 

What a stinking pile of festering dog poop! Not one of the many "lets make it easy to connect to your network" options worked. Eventually I found a way to make it find our network through the three button "user interface" and even that was a complete fluke because the documentation bore no resemblance to the actual menu structure.

 

Sigh.

[andyram]

Morning all. A quick check in before heading out for another day in the hell hole. Boss did not pop in yesterday so I expect to see him this morning with notebook in hand finding more faults. I am shattered this morning. A busy morning in the classroom was followed by my non-contact afternoon. I attended to a couple of jobs at work before departing around 2pm. The laptop went on as soon as I arrived in the door and, apart from a brief stop for food around 5.30, it remained on until gone 11pm. That time was spent all on admin tasks such as compiling the class report cards and data for a progress meeting next week. The books were marked from 11-11.30pm and I collapsed into bed at 12.10 before waking at 5.30am.

Despite being at home I did not get to listen to my daughter read, bath her or put her to bed. That is now the norm. There was no time to complete the other job application either. That has to be submitted by noon tomorrow so it has to be tonight's job. Tomorrow I have another school visit set up to discuss another vacancy.

 

Have a good day all, and finally congrats to Dom. Great news.

Edited March 30, 2017 by andyram

[Coombe Barton]

Congratulations Dom.

 

Early up because of a building user group meeting before teaching.

 

Sometimes the excitement is nearly overwhelming.

 

This is not one of those times.

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a somewhat cloudy village. I managed to get quite a lot done yesterday and there is only one layout crate left at the church plus some boxes of stock/buildings etc. I had been rather stunned by an email in the morning telling me that our club chairman had had a heart attack and was in hospital having stents fitted. He and I are almost exactly the same age and he did not look like a candidate for such a problem. As a club we are trying to help his family as much as we can.

 

Today will start with the ironing then some tidying of the modelling room then no doubt some unspecified pottering.

 

Dom and Elise, congratulations and I hope that things go smoothly.

 

The mortgage chat is interesting. I bought my first house in 1975 for £6,600. My parents helped with the deposit and my mortgage was £56 per month on a monthly wage of £104 take home, pre MIRAS. Though I had no phone, car or TV it was one of the best things I ever did as I ended up with £5K free equity when I got married 4 years later and we had a large enough deposit to buy a 3 bedroom detached that we still live in.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

Edited March 30, 2017 by jamie92208

[Smiffy2]

Morning everybody.

 

In the absence of GDB a weather report from the Greener Borough.

 

Fab day here in Carshalton-sur-Mer, the sky is blue and the smally birds are risen, the chemtrails are decorating the sky, so no doubt I shall feel my mind being controlled in a bit.  The whelkmen are, alas, still abed, as today is one of their Holy Days, the feast of St Chickenberga. I'm sure you'll remember her, she was terribly assaulted by some hungry, marauding vandals in 610AD, and defended herself by threatening them with a couple of oversized baps and a bottle of Wow-Wow Sauce. The vandals fled, and she was forever fêted by the local people, and the baps became a local folkloric legend, now joined by a Filet-o'-Chook with Wow-Wow sauce and a side order of schadenfreude. 

 

In other news, there is no other news, except for That News which I am avoiding.

 

Much Monty. A loco body arrived from Smallbrook Studio yesterday, amongst other stuff, and I'm getting on with that this am as I have the morning off, apart from popping in next door to countersign the photos for Young Beth's passport. As she's not 1 yet I shall fudge the bit about knowing her for two years. I am also planning to tidy my shed workshop as it is full of wood. Not good wood, old reclaimed wood which is of dubious value. Firewood I suspect. Are we the only people who create firewood in England and then drive it to France? Probably not. The answer is another shed workshop, for which plans are advancing! That means I will have four sheds in England and three outbuildings in France - I will be thoroughly shedded workshopped.

 

And so to the future. A pleasant one for Dom and Elise, I hope. It's a good business, parenthood. Sometimes...

We have Daisy and Rose this arbo, that'll be fun. I tried to explain to Rose the other day that the toddler portion for digestive biscuits was a half. She ran off with one in each hand shouting 'no!'. She'll go far that girl. Especially for a biscuit.

 

Oh - we got our new recycling bins. It seems to have the potential for a shambles, as the 'plastic and glass' bin is far too small for 2 weeks' worth, no problem with the food waste (except in high summer, I suspect) but the green bin situation looks iffy. I'd like to have two big bins, as we often fill a 240 litre bin with paper and card and could half fill it with plastics and glass. The landfill bin is huge, so no problem. It's the triage in a relatively small kitchen that will be the issue. All to increase Veoilia's profits. I spoke with the bloke in charge at the council yesterday and he said that calls were up over 100% since they started delivering the bins, and almost all were saying that the p&g bins were too small, but as the service is outsourced he has no influence over that. I don't envy him the next few weeks.

 

Madness.

 

Have a Triffic Thursday, all.

[Donw]

Congratulations to Dom and Elise

 

I think best to ignore the news today. Notable how many seem unable to speak well often misusing words.

Despite the local weather reports saying it would be fine today is is currently p*ssing down.

 

 Hornby Magazine are coming down at the weekend to photograph some of the club layouts.

 

Don

[DDolfelin]

We bought Lorna a Brother wifi laser printer the other day. Nice, well engineered, little machine and really good price at an establishment with a big W at the front.

 

Woolworths?

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

It's a bit brighter today and I'm hoping it doesn't rain. Today my travels will take me to St Michael's on the Wyre, (the job I postponed yesterday), Farington, Wrightington and Chorley, so that I'm working a little closer to home than I was yesterday. It should be a nice little run, which will,hopefully get me home just after lunch, or maybe be in time for lunch.

 

Best get started, back later.

Edited March 30, 2017 by BSW01

[Barry O]

Morning to most from a slightly damp North West Leeds highlands.

 

Good talk on 3D design and printing at the club. It has been used a lot for bridges etc etc N the Club layout.

 

Congratulations Dom and Elise. A junior ER is always welcome. Wonder how squidlet is doing?

 

Jamie..please pass on our regards to your Chairman.

 

The Q..how did you turn their spam box off please as I am having problems with emails on BT at the moment?

Have a great day and Rick, hope the day hasn't been too arduous.

 

Baz

[AndrewC]

Today, for your epicurean pleasure we 'ave le boeuf haché, or, as we would say in Scotland, mince.

 

It's probably well known to all you culinary experts that you have to brown the beef first, but I only discovered recently that to get the best flavor, it really needs to be browned, as in seared like a steak.

 

DSCN3213.JPG

 

I do it in a cast iron skillet. Takes a bit of work as you have to keep moving it around to prevent it burning. After that it's into the electric pressure cooker with a chopped onion and some beef bouillon for 25 mins. Le yum!

 

Chefs and chemists know this as the maillard reaction. Essentially its the breakdown of amino acids and sugars in the meat, which releases the best flavours. The same is true for breads as the best flavour is in the crust. And you thought BBQ was all about not getting rained on and ruining sausages. Incidentally, I've been turned on to the best way to cook steak. Its the reverse sear. Slowly cook the meat until the inside reaches about 45 (rare) or 60 (ruined) Celsius. This can be done either sous vid (boil in bag essentially) or on the bbq at a very low temp. Once the temp has been reached throw the steak either directly on the coals (dirty) or on a stupidly hot grill. This sears the meat quickly keeping in the moisture and developing a maillard reaction to the outer layers. Don't try this with a thin bit of shoe leather though. It has to be at least 3cm thick cut. You end up with a juicy steak that is perfect on the outside and not raw in the middle but cooked to exactly how you want it.

 

Morning all from master ba err chef. A quiet and stress free day expected as I'm being left alone to clean up some project issues. Bliss.

 

MiL continues to clean up her mum's place with the help of cousins and other relatives that have come out of the woodwork to help. She's still feeling a bit shell shocked. SWMBO is taking it well but still has her teary moments.

 

That's about all from the sunny tropical climes of the boring borough. Enjoy your day.

[Barry O]

As I am now hungry can you send some of that steak up here please seeing as the whelkmen seem to be on holiday all the time?o

 

Baz

[TheQ]

Morning to most from a slightly damp North West Leeds highlands.

 

Good talk on 3D design and printing at the club. It has been used a lot for bridges etc etc N the Club layout.

 

Congratulations Dom and Elise. A junior ER is always welcome. Wonder how squidlet is doing?

 

Jamie..please pass on our regards to your Chairman.

 

The Q..how did you turn their spam box off please as I am having problems with emails on BT at the moment?

Have a great day and Rick, hope the day hasn't been too arduous.

 

Baz

Not being at the home computer at the moment I can't go through it and remember what I did exactly.

I do remember going though the online spam box and clicking on the settings  and there was a tick box to change from "place it in the spam box" and "to just mark it as spam" and send it on. 

 

If I remember, I'll try to look at it again tonight, In the meantime have you seen this page?  http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/53113/c/7339/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xNDkwODU4NzQ5L3NpZC9ZemgqUFBlbg%3D%3D

[AndyID]

Woolworths?

 

Might as well have been, although they seem to have disappeared over here. No, 'twas Wallmart.

[Barry O]

Just wasted some of my life reading the London show thread....cripes...I think some modellers need to get a life.

 

Disgruntled of Leeds.

[The Lurker]

Morning all

 

blue skies are emerging here at London Bridge. My last day of the week at work as I have to use the last day of last year's holiday allowance by the end of the month or lose it. The boss is doing similar!

 

Congratulations to Dom and Elise.

 

My first house as bought in 1989 just before prices fell. Mortgage was fixed at 12.5% for two years which turned out to be a good deal as the standard variable was higher for most of those two years, falling back down again later. Sadly the house price never recovered, and I sold for about £10k less than it cost 10 years later.

 

Since then I have done a little better. I moved shortly before the end of 5 year fixed rate mortgage and got stung on a penalty charge but the house had nearly doubled in value. I'm still in the third house and the best mortgage renewal deal I took was a lifetime tracker at base rate +0.5%. The mortgage adviser had done exactly the same and it changed my mind from renewing with another 2 year fixed. Base rates stayed low but mortgage rates climbed rapidly - I had the tracker for 8 years and the combined rate never went back above 0.99%. Now I have no mortgage but can afford the boiler and double glazing work.....