Early Risers.

[TheQ]

That motorcyclist was incredibly lucky not to come off and hit the hard stuff.

[PhilJ W]

That motorcyclist was incredibly lucky not to come off and hit the hard stuff.

By the looks of it the mattress 'rolled' under his front wheel and when he put his foot down to steady himself it landed squarely on the mattress.

[lightengine]

A bright sunny morning has dawned (some time ago) in sunny Teignmouth. A little bit of wind, but not too much.

Easter eggs bought yesterday for the grandkids visit next week. This is the 1st time we have bought them eggs. It is also the 1st time we have seen them at Easter. We dont send eggs as anything we could send is bettered in Belgium. I think my wife is looking forward to doing an easter egg hunt, even though they are 32, 34 and 37 (no not really, 6, 8 and 10).

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Currently bright and sunny so the Good Doctor is out weeding - until her back informs her that it's time to stop (it now has) although some exercise is good for it after her industrial injury put her 'on the sick' last week (cockwomble customer bashed into her with a trolley resulting in considerable pain and a nasty looking bruise so the Doctor signed her off for a week).  Lack of sunshine forecast for later but no wet stuff promised.

 

Fortunately I intend to proceed to Corsham by train/free 'bus on Saturday so little risk of damaging BR's wing mirrors (I hope) - I shall no doubt spend time looking at his brother's layout if I can work out from the guide where to find it and which name it happens to be using this week (as it's now on its third name according to to 'Toddle Rail').

 

Have a good day one and trust that those with injuries, various, are making progress.

[Gwiwer]

Neither Good Morning nor Good Night but Happy Lunchtime.

[roundhouse]

A nice day here in Surrey. Been to the doctors this morning so a late morning departure to work.

 

A 12 car new Thameslink train pulled into Redhill heading South whilst waiting for the train.

[grandadbob]

Well the paint has been bought and to my great surprise The Boss paid for it. It has now been stored safely out of the way in the cupboard under the stairs so as not to constitute a trip hazard. Of course I forgot that the low doorways to said cupboard constitute a head bump hazard and I was sans hardhat! 

I really have to hand it to myself, I am the epitome of consistency.  

Edited April 5, 2017 by grandadbob

[Donw]

Yeah - but will it fly?

 

In your dreams

 

Don

[AndyB]

AndyB, why not offer the mattress to GDB so that he can place it below his stepladder?

 

I've prefer it to be an anonymous gift.  

Not sure how he'd react if he caught me dumping in his front garden though.   

Actually, I've a fair idea how he'd react. 

[BoD]

He'd trip over it.

[newbryford]

 

 

BTW Screwfix do good quality safety harnesses, hard hats and bump mats. 

 

But do they do padded rooms......?

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Ian Abel]

Ah, HUMP day.

 

Pretty much insignifica yesterday, however a short tale to tell, hopefully to provide some amusement for the audience.

 

Preface:

The tale shall be read as if it includes  at regular intervals to adjust ones mentality/sanity accordingly...

 

The Tale:

Part of the "business intelligence" (OXYMORON) dashboard offerings I'm creating are for about 200+ staff - remember the ones I've trained several times already!! - most of whom work on the hospital floors and their day is mostly consumed with actual PATIENTS, therefore they aren't desk-jockeys and not all are very PC literate, that's OK, not everyone needs to be.

 

i) Arrival of consultant Monday morning with bright idea (ME  ) - I'll actually DOCUMENT in an illustrated PDF, a dirty word in most places, how to use and navigate the dashboard and reports for these poor souls.

ii) Further bright idea, place the document in PDF form (therefore directly displays/readable) as a CLICKABLE item at the HEAD of the items on their dashboard.

iii) Utilize a prior feature (bright idea?!?!) that of a LARGE STATUS MESSAGE ATOP THE DASHBOARD to inform them the document is there, RIGHT THERE, FIRST ITEM, READ PLEASE if you need help!

 

First draft created and published, dashboard message installed - everything operational - RESULT.

 

Not quite   - apparently I am pretty much immediately asked if I can send a copy to someone so they can PRINT IT OUT???

Um;

FIRST - YOU can print it, right there, see where the PDF reader SHOWS YOU the PRINTER ICON, and you can also SAVE IT AND READ IT ON YOUR PC???

SECOND - the POINT of all this is you can look at it ONLINE whilst you simultaneously navigate the BLOODY DASHBOARD!!!!

 

Afterword:

Consultant eyes window he now sits next to, on sixth floor of building, and considers how large a dent he'll make in his rental car right below in parking lot! You truly can't make this sh!t up!

 

So ends the tale of dragging people into the 20th century, they'll never understand if I says it's already the 21st.

 

 

+5 and another foggy morning here, 1/2 mile visibility reported at JFK and La Guardia, meaning flustercuck central again. Expecting 13 for a high and partly sunny when the fog lifts.

 

Heading on over the hump to POE day...

He'd trip over it.

Nah, he'd put the ladder ON it and topple the whole thing as he's climbing up it!

Edited April 5, 2017 by Ian Abel

[Tony_S]

When I moved to work in Havering in 1985 I, like most people really liked that our official information sources and communications were online. One colleague consistently did the " I respond so much better to paper" and made a point of failing to read emails. He believed if something were really important he would be phoned or spoken too. Finally our boss had enough. One day she dumped about a foot high of two part paper on his desk. It was a printout of every unread email. She said one copy for his files and the other for his written reply to be appended and returned to her that evening. No shouting, no threats but message received!

Tony

[AndyB]

One professor I worked with a year or so back seemed to ignore most emails. 

So I asked him the best way of getting his attention. 

"Mark every email up in RED" that you want me to read and action." 

So I did. 

Then I told everyone that was the best way to get his attention. 

A post-doc was assigned to the project within 24 hours. 

[Horsetan]

My late friend worked for Cubic Transportation (the people who designed the ticketing systems for TfL) in Park Royal, and he absolutely loathed the internal e-mails that landed in his Inbox as he considered them a waste of time and a distraction from his work.

 

Returning from one of his habitual holidays in Switzerland, he was met by an inbox containing around 100 internal e-mails, most of which he had been copied-into. He clicked "Select All", then "Delete", and then spent the rest of that afternoon dozing at his desk!

[81C]

But do they do padded rooms......?

 

Cheers,

Mick

Yep all you have to do is nail the bump mats to the wall.     simples. 

[New Haven Neil]

A' noon. 

 

Been out since early, Mrs NHN had 'things to do'  so I had to sit in the car like a good lad to get taken for a coffee and later a nice lunch!  She's back at work tomorrow, so I get a lie in!

 

Like IanA, I had a colleague who liked paper versions of things.  A very senior nurse, the second highest grade in nursing, who did a lot of on-line research and was reasonably PC literate with applications, but would also print EVERYTHING that was of passing interest.  Upon their retirement no less than 13 filing cabinet drawers were liberated from the de-forestation programme! The person was of course, just about useless.....thankfully the salary didn't come out of my budget, nor did I have to directly manage them, thank crunchie.  I resigned three years ago gone Monday, Faceache tells me - that was a good decision!

[Ian Abel]

Newsflash, especially for those who experience commuting "issues" like our own roundhouse - this one takes the proverbial biscuit...

 

Following a minor derailment (THEIR WORDS!!) Monday on a switch/point in the Penn Station approaches in NYC, the resultant switch motor damage has rendered, at last account, EIGHT of the TWENTY ONE tracks at Penn station unusable!

 

Starting yesterday several of the services that provide commuter transit into/out of NYC, including the Long Island Railroad, NJ Transit, PATH and Amtrak were warning of long delays and cancellations, for the foreseeable future - again their words via news sources.

Amtrak who own/maintain the tracks have indicated it will be several days before the lines can be repaired!

Penn Flustercuck Central Station indeed  

[45156]

Afternoon All

 

Late on parade today, and AWOL yesterday.  Sorry and all that.  All posts read and rated.  Welcome back GDB.  Generic greetngs to everybody else.

 

I was too busy yesterday as we start decorating the dining room tomorrow, and the first step was to get everything boxed up for safety.  Main problem being a lack of boxes.  Car boot stock is already packed in them, and in the garage.  So much of the spare china and crockery is now packed into the log baskets and stacked in the porch.

 

A few days ago, I was invited to attend a health centre some miles away for an abdominal aortic screening.  Now as a ruptured aorta was the thing that killed my dad, I thought that it might jut be a good thing if I attended.  Got there to find a huge queue, and was due to be seen at half past twelve, but the clinic was running late due to not having all the technicians on today.  When my details were taken, I was asked if I would like to come back another day - not bloomin' likely, as I had driven quite a way to attend, and also with my family history.  So anyhows, I was done at about quarter past one, and the sister said that given my family history, it was as well that I had waited.  Result was all clear.  However, I do think that if anybody gets an NHS invite for this test, it is worth going for it.  DIdn't hurt too much, though I would recommend going on a fairly empty tum, as the pressure on the abdomen is quite heavy.

 

May get back tomorrow, may not, and if I don't, I won't be back til Monday, as I have a long weekend break in Scotland to do a bit of family visiting.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[Ozexpatriate]

When I was young our Canadian relatives sent us gifts at Christmas. I particularly remember a particular sweet, a nutty/toffee base covered in chocolate. They were round with five little blobs of chocolate and were supposed to look like turtles. We used to adore these and each year looked forward to them arriving almost as much as Christmas itself. After Christmas I always allowed myself just one every few days to make them last. They came in a pink and white, or was it grey, striped box and were actually called Turtles.

Sadly, as we grew older so did our relatives and these treats eventually ceased. That was many years ago now although I sometimes wonder if they are still made.

Turtles (the chocolate ones) are alive and well in North America.

 

As is often the case with confectionery and corporate mergers and acquisitions the product and the company that makes them is subject to change. 

 

In Canada, the "Turtles' brand is apparently made under a Nestlé label.  I'm sure our Canadian friends can confirm whether these are readily available.

Edited April 5, 2017 by Ozexpatriate

[TheQ]

A bad day at work, much lost work due to a broken wire, and a partially failing piece of test equipment.

Then when i get home SWMBO, is coming out of the back door to meet me, which is never good news. One company doing some work for us has pulled out only partially completing the work. They did however leave us the number of another company who can complete the work, that company have been phoned and they are coming for a site inspection tomorrow.

 

Rats again, SWMBO was clearing an area of the shed for me to work on this weekend. While in there she hears rustling coming from a cardboard box she was about to move And therefore leaves the shed rapidly. I inspect the box and it stinks of rats. So it's evicted outside luckily it only contained spare polystyrene bubbles from packing materials.

On moving the box i find two more holes in the shed floor Eaten through by rats. That's now temporarily blocked up.

 

Then she shows me the outside wall of the mobile home, another hole, Eaten through the cedar planks by the outside tap. That hole was not there yesterday!!! After checking from the inside they had not got into the mobile home itself but into the boiler cupboard. None in residence so a big pile of bricks were placed in the way till i can cut a spare piece to replace it.

 

Well other than going to the Norwich model railway show on saturday, i think the rest of the weekend will be anti rat measures...

[New Haven Neil]

R-A-T, he said R-A-T #whistles#

[jamie92208]

A few days ago, I was invited to attend a health centre some miles away for an abdominal aortic screening.  Now as a ruptured aorta was the thing that killed my dad, I thought that it might jut be a good thing if I attended.  Got there to find a huge queue, and was due to be seen at half past twelve, but the clinic was running late due to not having all the technicians on today.  When my details were taken, I was asked if I would like to come back another day - not bloomin' likely, as I had driven quite a way to attend, and also with my family history.  So anyhows, I was done at about quarter past one, and the sister said that given my family history, it was as well that I had waited.  Result was all clear.  However, I do think that if anybody gets an NHS invite for this test, it is worth going for it.  DIdn't hurt too much, though I would recommend going on a fairly empty tum, as the pressure on the abdomen is quite heavy.

I'm glad you went for the test Stewart. The same thing did for my Mum and 5 of her siblings. My brother and I were tested every 3 years after we were 50 but funding cuts stopped that. Hopefully I'll get another chance soon.

 

Glad that you are OK.

 

Jamie

[AndyID]

A bad day at work, much lost work due to a broken wire, and a partially failing piece of test equipment.

Then when i get home SWMBO, is coming out of the back door to meet me, which is never good news. One company doing some work for us has pulled out only partially completing the work. They did however leave us the number of another company who can complete the work, that company have been phoned and they are coming for a site inspection tomorrow.

 

Rats again, SWMBO was clearing an area of the shed for me to work on this weekend. While in there she hears rustling coming from a cardboard box she was about to move And therefore leaves the shed rapidly. I inspect the box and it stinks of rats. So it's evicted outside luckily it only contained spare polystyrene bubbles from packing materials.

On moving the box i find two more holes in the shed floor Eaten through by rats. That's now temporarily blocked up.

 

Then she shows me the outside wall of the mobile home, another hole, Eaten through the cedar planks by the outside tap. That hole was not there yesterday!!! After checking from the inside they had not got into the mobile home itself but into the boiler cupboard. None in residence so a big pile of bricks were placed in the way till i can cut a spare piece to replace it.

 

Well other than going to the Norwich model railway show on saturday, i think the rest of the weekend will be anti rat measures...

 

These characters have volunteered to address your rodent infestation. I'm confident they'll fix it PDQ too.

 

[Purley Oaks]

Good evening

 

Windy, sunny and overcast here today; had a good long walk on Portobello beach this morning with a friend and her dog.

 

Good news for walkers in Scotland - it's ok to go for a walk in the country and have a pee if you're caught short. A retired female social worker was out walking along the dunes near 45's new course in Aberdeenshire when she was caught short. She found a convenient dune, hunkered down and peed. However, people from the course filmed her and tried to prosecte. Their bid failed, but neither did the woman succeed in obtaining damages. The filmers were told that filming anyone urinating in similar circumstances may lead to prosecution as voyeurs.

 

There are plenty of places in Scotland where you may need to pee alfresco.

 

So it goes.

 

Have a good evening

 

Mal