Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

Full 'packing' mode here for two weeks in Crete from the 18th.

Amazing how much extra work having a rest takes.

As the Baggage Handlers kindly smashed our suitcases last trip, new examples have been bought and suitably sign written with a DD message.

I will definitely NOT be on the Interweb.

Aditi asked if I needed any new clothes etc for our trip to Switzerland next month and if so I should get them now. I said I don't need anything extra. She has started shopping.

We have had some Samsonite suitcases for years. They are very robust but very heavy. We now have some ultralight Samsonite cases. P&O, Cunard and EasyJet haven't destroyed them yet. Though whatever required me to beat the frame back into shape with a mallet on the old ones would probably have destroyed the new ones.

Edited May 13, 2017 by Tony_S

[jamie92208]

A minor miracle has been achieved. I have found cleared and swept half the floor of my modelling room. Unfortunately the black hole with all the missing small pieces of kits was not found but I know that the entrance is somewhere near as there were a few such items scattered in the area.

 

Tea is now being made so I have decided that too much tidying may have bad results and will no doubt return to the fray sometime later.

 

I hope to hear some good news from panic land re a successful wedding.

 

Jamie

[Gwiwer]

Just dropping in to record a safe arrival in London by all parties.

 

Wednesday morning saw the cat collected by the specialist agency Jetpets. Wednesday afternoon I finally left an empty house, drove the car to a friend's house for storage until its fate us determined, then friend drove me to the airport. I was upgraded at check-in (done online two days previously) so enjoyed the delights of business class including copious serves of alcohol, restaurant-quality meals and a flat bed. It 's so good to not have your fellow passengers waking you on their way to and from the bathroom. It's even better to awake refreshed after eight hours solid sleep to be greeted with a request for your breakfast order.

 

I found a chauffeur awaiting me at Heathrow on Thursday, was quickly home and reunited with Sharon, then it was shower, dinner and back to the airport by Uber to collect the cat. Uber presented itself in the shape of an E-class Mercedes with a driver more than happy to wait and bring the cat back. Aftef a brief exchange of paperwork one cat was returned to our care in great shape dsspite his travels.

 

Since when we have all been settling together and quietly getting on with life. The container with our goods is due in July.

 

Best wishes to all. I shall endeavour to pop in more often in future.

[Rugd1022]

Did you know that Julie used to run The Yardbirds fan club?

 

Best, Pete.

 

I never knew that Pete, you learn something new on RMWeb every day! What's often forgotten about The Yardbirds is that as Jimmy Page was about to transform the last days of the group into Led Zep he was still doing session work for other artists, including Petula Clark of all people. Brian Jones once told the story that he and Keith Relf were often mistaken for each other in the nightclubs, going off on a tangent from this, a journalist somehow mistook Brian for Mick Jagger one night when he was mouthing off, telling anyone who'd listen about his own personal drug use. It was this conversation which led to the infamous Redlands bust in Feb' 67 where Mick and Keith were nicked by the old bill. Rumour has it (never confirmed as I understand it) that while the boys and girls in blue were loitering outside Redlands they waited for George Harrison and his wife Patti to leave before pouncing on the Stones' little get together.

 

 

 

 

 

* A whole paragraph and I didn't mention the Mars bar, am I doing this right...?

Edited May 13, 2017 by Rugd1022

[Tony_S]

I have been "told off" in the past for not panicking.

 

I had a nice chat with Aditi's brother earlier today. Lots of news about what the nieces have been doing this week. I asked if they will be doing anything fun tomorrow but he said he would be going in to work. He is a doctor and and as the senior partner in the practice is on holiday he felt perhaps he should go to work as the practice manager and IT person will be in. They had two systems go down with the ransom demands. However although these were only the terminals used by patients to check in they were advised to turn everything else off. He seemed confident that it will be sorted tomorrow.

Tony

Edited May 13, 2017 by Tony_S

[bbishop]

Jamie,

 

IA = 57 late (weekend?)

 

LGA - if you are borrowing the chapel from 27 August, don't forget that Telford is the following weekend. Höchstädt is out on 26 August only, but I'll need recovery time. I'm thinking of coming up on Bank Holiday Monday and returning Tuesday evening. Are you aware of any problems with the ECML?

 

Apologies to other ERs.

 

Bill

[JohnDMJ]

Just dropping in to record a safe arrival in London by all parties.

 

Wednesday morning saw the cat collected by the specialist agency Jetpets. Wednesday afternoon I finally left an empty house, drove the car to a friend's house for storage until its fate us determined, then friend drove me to the airport. I was upgraded at check-in (done online two days previously) so enjoyed the delights of business class including copious serves of alcohol, restaurant-quality meals and a flat bed. It 's so good to not have your fellow passengers waking you on their way to and from the bathroom. It's even better to awake refreshed after eight hours solid sleep to be greeted with a request for your breakfast order.

 

I found a chauffeur awaiting me at Heathrow on Thursday, was quickly home and reunited with Sharon, then it was shower, dinner and back to the airport by Uber to collect the cat. Uber presented itself in the shape of an E-class Mercedes with a driver more than happy to wait and bring the cat back. Aftef a brief exchange of paperwork one cat was returned to our care in great shape dsspite his travels.

 

Since when we have all been settling together and quietly getting on with life. The container with our goods is due in July.

 

Best wishes to all. I shall endeavour to pop in more often in future.

 

Welcome back to all, including cat!

[TheQ]

Just watched " The truth about sleep" most interesting, my symptoms described in the first five minutes. 27 years of shift work, I'm diabetic, Until the last ten years had irregular meal times.

Several things suggested to improve sleep, just ordered pre ( not pro) biotic powder for my first trial...

[Horsetan]

Blew the budget at ExpoEM.

[JohnDMJ]

Blew the budget at ExpoEM.

 

Whoops!

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

Very late on parade today, we've had our 2 youngest granddaughters here with us today, Evie stopped overnight and I went out for Ava first thing after breakfast. It's been a lovely day and we've had a grand time with them both. This morning we sat with them helping them with their activity sticker books, which Sheila picked up for them earlier in the week. After lunch we sat and watched a film with them. Today's choice was 'Percy Jackson and the Sea Of Monsters' which went down well with everyone.

 

However, this morning I had a bit of GDB moment. It had rained quite hard overnight and the ground was fairly wet. I'd gone to the workshop to make a die (dice), as both of the activity books had a board game which needed one and we didn't have one to hand. Now the steps that lead down to the cellar can be a little slippery when it's rained. However, I was returning with the completed die and was just starting to descend the cellar steps, Sheila, Ava and Evie were all stood at the french windows above the cellar door, waving to me as I did so, so I waved back at them and immediately slipped, sliding all the way down the steps (there's only 8) grazing my right elbow as well as the inside of my left arm, it also necessitated in a complete change of clothes! Luckily there was no serious injuries, but I think that it's now time to purchase a jet power washer, so that I can remove all the moss from the steps and give everywhere a good clean. Once that's done I will then purchase and apply some non-slip strips to the steps, so that I don't do it again.

 

CB. Hope the wedding goes/went ok.

 

DD. Enjoy your 2 weeks in Crete.

 

Rick. Glad to read that you (and the cat) have made it safely back to Blighty.

 

Now then, where's the wine?

[Horsetan]

Whoops!

Just got home to find a Premium Bonds £100 "win" warrant on the doormat. The holding it relates to was purchased back in 1990, and this is the first time I've ever won anything with it! Looks like I've got some of today's spending back

 

Actually, maybe not. £100 today is equivalent to £52.66 in 1990....

Edited May 13, 2017 by Horsetan

[Barry O]

Welcome back Rick - hope everything goes smoothly with regards to delivery of your container.

 

Another game safely umpired.  GSAL  beating Bradford Grammar School by 9 wickets with one of the GSAL openers scoring 101 not out. My colleague was a county cricket player some time ago.

 

Still got a thin wind round here .. was a bit  very chilly today!

 

Sausage sandwiches made and eaten so time to watch a bit more cricket.

 

Baz

[Oldddudders]

Panic? You want panic? Alison and Gerry have just left, having been the last word in Good Samaritans. My stress levels at about 18.30 local time were stratospheric, but they galloped to my rescue. Poor Sherry could only offer calm words by txt.

 

So, what befell me? A frantic knock at the door, which when opened revealed a local lady who walks her dog, a very fine spitz/husky creature who wanted to lick me to death, I think. Her message was short and sweet "Your donkey's escaped!" Arrgghh! "Mais merci, Madame!" FSF! Fortunately he'd got bored already, and cheerfully walked back through the gap in the fence. After feeding them and securing them in another paddock, I inspected the problem, and found the fence post, 12 years in the ground almost to the day, had been snapped at ground level, dragging the two attached rails with it. Martin has an itchy skin condition, so tends to rub against things - yes a cure is being sought - and no doubt he had been the post's last straw.

 

So the two friends (they aren't really lovers these days) came and did what I could not do alone. Gerry, who is enormously strong, dug the requisite 30" deep hole, using my pair of post-hole borers, and a new post was inserted, tamped down with the requisite post bashing device, and attached to the rails. I am sitting on the terrasse in the dying sun and chilling. I live to grumble another day!

[Horsetan]

....Martin has an itchy skin condition...

I wonder if that might be "sweet itch".

[Oldddudders]

I wonder if that might be "sweet itch".

Something like it, I'm sure. Alison's goats and donkeys have something similar, and Gerry has offered advice on a product. Alison will Google it first to check side-effects (not least on the environment, about which she cares passionately) and then we'll see.

[Horsetan]

Something like it, I'm sure. Alison's goats and donkeys have something similar, and Gerry has offered advice on a product. Alison will Google it first to check side-effects (not least on the environment, about which she cares passionately) and then we'll see.

This might bring some short-term relief

[Oldddudders]

This might bring some short-term relief

I have some of that, I think, for humans! And Pegasus is known to me too.

[Horsetan]

Form of eczema, I think. Gets worse as the weather gets warmer. We found E45 cream helpful as well.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The plasterer failed to turn up and my only means of contact, my neighbour, his FiL was also absent for most of the day. As it turned out the plasterers wife who is heavily pregnant has been taken into hospital as a precaution, the baby isn't due for a few more weeks and fortunately the local hospital is little affected by the computer virus. At least its given me an opportunity to arrange for more shelving and give the walls of the shed a going over with the wire brush, so much so that in places its back to bare brick. Luckily I was able to do a bit of shopping when I delivered the chairs so staying in all day wasn't a problem.

[Donw]

This might bring some short-term relief

 

It might well do it. We had a dog who had problems with a skin itch leading to an Acral Lick (excessive licking causing an inflamation ) bathing it with the Hibiscrub did calm it down for a bit. The problem was not easy to diagnose vets generally thinking it would be fleas. Eventually we were recommended to try Advantix which also kills things like sandflies which solved it. It was probably an alergy to midge bites or something and the Advantix discourages insect from biting. I doubt the stuff would be suitable for a Donkey I think it definitely says not to use it on a cat so it may be animal specific. I dont know if they do anything similar for a Donkey  might be pricey too.

We continue to use the Advantix on our dogs as it is also somewhat effective for Ticks which are common round here but needs to be repeated monthly and sometimes it seems less effective towards the end of the month.

 

Don

[Horsetan]

..... I dont know if they do anything similar for a Donkey  might be pricey too....

You can be sure that any treatment labelled as suitable for treating equines comes with a considerable price tag attached.

 

Meanwhile, the EuroSong Contest (from Kiev this time) feels a bit flat so far. The Hungarian effort was terrible.

[BoD]

Blew the budget at ExpoEM.

Yours, the firms or that of your Irish client?

[Horsetan]

Yours, the firms or that of your Irish client?

I'm not sure my late Irish client could have covered it either.....

[Tony_S]

This might bring some short-term relief

Robbie was prescribed that to stop him licking a sore paw. Allegedly dogs hate it. Not my dog.