Early Risers.

[AndyB]

You need something like an oil-filter wrench in a small size  - we have something that looks like a plastic handle with a rubber strap that fits into a slot in it that you place around the offending item and then tighten against the strap - works very well

EDIT - it is called a BOA CONSTRICTOR (seriously!)

 

Ta, got it sorted. The Boa Constrictor looks like a useful tool. I may treat myself.....

 

I mean buy one. Not....oh, never mind, grow up you lot!  

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

The sun is shining and the post has arrived early (i.e. before midday) including a letter advising me that my third pension is being increased from this week - by the grand sum of £14.76 ( that is the increase per annum should you be getting jealous).  So it works out to about 28p per week - before tax, so I'll be just over 20p per week better off once the taxman has snaffled his 20% cut.  Ah well it's almost enough to buy I'm not at all sure what; is there anything genuinely useful you can buy for less than 30p nowadays I wonder?

 

Enjoy your day, especially if it's as bright & sunny as ours is forecast to be. 

[TheQ]

I see She's called a general election for June the 8th, that'l keep Trump off of the television. Instead we've got 7 weeks of pundits talking about our politics, followed by another couple of what it all meant by our voting that way.....

 

Time for more MODELLING!!!!

[chrisf]

... that'l keep Trump off of the television.

 

You reckon?

 

Chris

[Horsetan]

I see She's called a general election for June the 8th, that'l keep Trump off of the television. ....

 

I fear that might be wishful thinking. There's a button out there, and I think he wants to press it.

[The Stationmaster]

Breaking News - totally unexpected by most observers and 'experts'

 

That got your attention (possibly) but a major event is occurring affecting the whole time/space continuum in our little world - the dining room table has just been cleared in less than 5 minutes (honest) and is being taken over for sewing machine berthing and as a sewing work table.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A bit late this morning, I blame the postman being a bit early. He delivered a magazine I subscribe to and the next 'World of Stobart' model so they have occupied the last hour or so. Although I pinned up the the hardboard ceiling of the shed it has started to sag again, I half expected it would so now it will have to be replaced. Fortunately I have some plasterboard but only enough to do about two thirds of the ceiling, I will need a piece about 85 X 85 cm hopefully the plasterer will be able to find a suitable piece. Talking of places to keep tools, I have a wooden box that started life as a desk drawer, I 'recovered' it when the desk was being broken up about 30 years ago. Its not a normal drawer but a double height one for hanging files. It is all wood and had two brass handles on the front which was decorated to look like a pair of conventional drawers, hence the two handles. I removed the lower handle and fixed it to the back for carrying it. the only slight problem was the front and sides of the drawer are solid wood, the front about an inch thick and the sides about a quarter of an inch. The sides and back are of very flimsy plywood however. To make it more useful I am going to fit a 12 mm ply 'dummy' back inside the existing back screwed and glued to the sides and then fix a new base underneath.

[AndrewC]

Morningish all. Another quiet day in the boring borough. Another schlep to the city for a visit to the chiropractor. Another hopefully quiet day. Loads of modelling accomplished on the weekend. Just letting the glue dry on the ballast and I'll be grass-blasting the first of 3 eventual extension modules for Millarville. 

 

All this talk about the 'cloud'. Basically all it means is someone else's computer. In many ways large corporate estates have been private cloud based for years. It makes sense to uncouple the bits & bytes from the tin. My employer runs several very large datacentres. Far more cost efficient to have a few shared buildings with large numbers of virtual servers running on fewer physical boxes then each company having to maintain the infrastructure.

 

The future of the cloud is happening now. That is SaaS, or Software as a Service. This is what I've been doing for the past 2 years now. The products I specialise in have follow the sun support. That means you get a real human in your timezone supporting your needs. It also means that it gets passed along and looked at 24/7 as needed. Nothing is perfect but I've been impressed so far. Cloud and SaaS means massive savings and eventual downsizing of corporate IT departments though. Basically corporate computing has come full circle from the mainframe days. Back to dumb terminals in many estates these days. No more local storage. Its all in one big (multiple replication) remote data centre. The big downside though is change management. Departments want their new fancy cloud applications to be exactly like what they are using. Loads of poor processes being mapped onto new ways of doing things. IT departments quietly putting they dampers on any proper analysis in order to keep their own little fiefdoms going. The next few years will be interesting to say the least. Well until the pendulum swings back the other way and distributed software and computing comes back into vogue. By then I hope to be retired. 

 

enjoy your day. 

[BSW01]

Well so far any attempt to escape has failed, but at least I have put in my mileage claim for the beginning of the month. April is always a pain as we have to split our claim due to the financial year ending/starting. It all seem rather stupid to me, as they don't pay us in 2 parts for this month, anyway it will be the last time I have to do it so that's another box ticked!

 

The only other thing I have managed to do is to print of some service sheets for the R-T-R locomotives that I currently have.

 

Time for lunch

[The Lurker]

greetings all from a chilly but bright London Bridge. A reasonably successful weekend filled with easter egg hunts and chocolate consumption (not an odd form of TB) and household chores. The Lurker boys and Mrs Lurker all went back to school with varying degrees of trepidation.

 

I have not had time to catch up particularly so congratulations and commiserations as due.

[AndyB]

Doh! 7 weeks of having to avoid people telling you why they feel more qualified to do a job than the people who are shouting just as loudly. 

One group seem to refer to us all as "Their (our) people". That level of presumption irritates me beyond belief.

I accept that the other group of people say equally irritating things to many.

 

And on that note, over to the local news..... 

 

Stump grinding is in progress next door.

Right next to the hedge they planted 3 days ago.

I wonder if whilst disposing of the tree stump remains the arborio specialists might take the partially burnt bonfire material away with them.  

Edited April 18, 2017 by AndyB

[Happy Hippo]

Ta, got it sorted. The Boa Constrictor looks like a useful tool. I may treat myself.....

 

I mean buy one. Not....oh, never mind, grow up you lot!

You could certainly choke the chicken with one of those!

[Tony_S]

I managed to register my water softener and arrange a post installation check (free, or I suppose included in the price) for after all the visitors depart. The woman on the service reception was so helpful. I hadn't any idea of the model or serial number. She told me to lift the lid and they would be there. I said I couldn't see them. She very kindly told me to put the lid down and look at where it had been. I think she may have had to explain this before!

Next it was phone the suppliers of our shower, to arrange a replacement pump and processor unit. That went well too. Really nice to deal with phone support people that know what they are doing.

Doggy walk soon.

Tony

[AndyB]

You could certainly choke the chicken with one of those!

 

"There's no answer to that!" 

               - Eric Morecambe

[bbishop]

Up early to Lewisham Hospital for phySio, then shopping, then home for THE NEWS.

 

Oh, sh1t. I suppose we have to keep off politics in ER!

 

Jamie, Ian, Smithy, if The Pen has her way, will you all be kicked out?

 

Bill

[shortliner]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A bit late this morning, I blame the postman being a bit early. He delivered a magazine I subscribe to and the next 'World of Stobart' model so they have occupied the last hour or so. Although I pinned up the the hardboard ceiling of the shed it has started to sag again, I half expected it would so now it will have to be replaced. Fortunately I have some plasterboard but only enough to do about two thirds of the ceiling, I will need a piece about 85 X 85 cm hopefully the plasterer will be able to find a suitable piece. Talking of places to keep tools, I have a wooden box that started life as a desk drawer, I 'recovered' it when the desk was being broken up about 30 years ago. Its not a normal drawer but a double height one for hanging files. It is all wood and had two brass handles on the front which was decorated to look like a pair of conventional drawers, hence the two handles. I removed the lower handle and fixed it to the back for carrying it. the only slight problem was the front and sides of the drawer are solid wood, the front about an inch thick and the sides about a quarter of an inch. The sides and back are of very flimsy plywood however. To make it more useful I am going to fit a 12 mm ply 'dummy' back inside the existing back screwed and glued to the sides and then fix a new base underneath.

Ahh! This sounds like a new version of Triggers Broom!  Five new heads and 3 new handles, and still working as well as the day it was bought 28 years ago

[Smiffy2]

Up early to Lewisham Hospital for phySio, then shopping, then home for THE NEWS.

 

Oh, sh1t. I suppose we have to keep off politics in ER!

 

Jamie, Ian, Smithy, if The Pen has her way, will you all be kicked out?

 

Bill

 

No idea. Probably OK as we are white and non-Muslim. I'm more worried about the post-election rise in racism, like after Brexit. Our mayor is pro-Brits, but the next village along is quite anti.

[jamie92208]

No idea. Probably OK as we are white and non-Muslim. I'm more worried about the post-election rise in racism, like after Brexit. Our mayor is pro-Brits, but the next village along is quite anti.

According to one our expat friends she wants all immigrants out but only time will tell.

 

Jamie

[Smiffy2]

I haven't met any of that - the last conversation I had with two farmers was very jolly and we chatted about Anglo-Norman history and how we were closely related. May be different this close to the channel.

[Horsetan]

.....Our mayor is pro-Brits, but the next village along is quite anti.

 

I have to say I find the lineup for the French Presidential Election quite fascinating. In previous campaigns, I've only ever seen the main establishment candidates reported on, but this year has presented the greatest range of wild cards so far, especially Mélenchon. He strikes me as a bit like Bernie Sanders.

Edited April 18, 2017 by Horsetan

[lightengine]

I fear that might be wishful thinking. There's a button out there, and I think he wants to press it.

according to his "locker room chat"

[lightengine]

Morning all,

 

The sun is shining and the post has arrived early (i.e. before midday) including a letter advising me that my third pension is being increased from this week - by the grand sum of £14.76 ( that is the increase per annum should you be getting jealous).  So it works out to about 28p per week - before tax, so I'll be just over 20p per week better off once the taxman has snaffled his 20% cut.  Ah well it's almost enough to buy I'm not at all sure what; is there anything genuinely useful you can buy for less than 30p

 

Mike, if you calculate that 30p into it's value when you commenced paying into the pension it will look better on paper. Plus back in those days we had 2 postal deliveries both before noon!

[Ohmisterporter]

I have to say I find the lineup for the French Presidential Election quite fascinating. In previous campaigns, I've only ever seen the main establishment candidates reported on, but this year has presented the greatest range of wild cards so far, especially Mélenchon. He strikes me as a bit like Bernie Sanders.

 

Is that the bloke with the fried chicken?

[AndrewC]

Ahh politics is in the air. Either that or the cat has the raging sh*ts again. 

[jamie92208]

I haven't met any of that - the last conversation I had with two farmers was very jolly and we chatted about Anglo-Norman history and how we were closely related. May be different this close to the channel.

Our neighbours are absolutely fine it's what Marine has been saying according to our friend who lives near Limoges. However some of our neighbours that I've talked to say that they would like to be out of the EU. I've kept well away from asking who they support in the presidential race.

 

Jamie