Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Wind, wet, hailstones and thunder and lightening outside at the moment, but its goodnight all though I won't be going to bed yet.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all.

[AndyID]

16.5 at Scaleforum

Is that some strange 4 feet 1.5 inch gauge?

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

Do you really want to bring that up here? I'll be happy to respond if you do.

[newbryford]

Do you really want to bring that up here? I'll be happy to respond if you do.

 

Just don't tell someone with the initials M and W........

 

Cheers,

Mick

[AndyID]

Just don't tell someone with the initials M and W........

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

Martin Wynne is a very good friend of mine. If you have something to say to him I suggest you tell him yourself.

[Ozexpatriate]

All the very temperate British 'summer' weather that I've seen discussed here for several weeks feels very distant.  (We've had no meaningful rain since mid-June.)

 

Here's how September is starting here:

 

We look set to reach our record number of days above 90°F (32°C) this year, which last happened in 2009. That and all the un-contained wildfires still burning make for a less than idyllic transition into Autumn.

 

I will be glad when the seasons change.

Edited September 2, 2017 by Ozexpatriate

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

Opening the post was quite a pleasure yesterday.  When postie appeared well after the crack of noon today he brought my tax rebate from the nice folk at HMRC.  Thursday’s mail, which I also opened yesterday, produced the September issue of BRILL.  For once I shall be utterly immodest and report that it includes a letter from yours truly.

 

Something occurred to me in Tesco yesterday.  My Clubcard has been changed to one that is described as contactless.  Why, then, am I asked to tap it on the card terminal?  I think that the tap, however gentle, is a form of contact.  How silly.  It reminds me of a line from the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band fully 50 years ago about the 24 hour dry cleaners that took a week to clean the suit.  The explanation given to the man with the dirty suit was “That’s just the name of the shop, dearie”.   Something else of which to beware in many shops is the imminent supersession of the round pound coin.  It seems that checkout staff have been told to give out as many old coins as they can in change.  I should have thought it better to round them all up through tills but hey, what do I know?  

 

Best wishes and felicitations to all in distress and recovery

 

Chris

[BoD]

How much do they pay the England Soccer team?? Anything more than coppers would be far too much!I watched the Kia Super League Womens; T20 finals ..far more interesting than this soccer malarky!My match tomorrow is top of the League v bottom of the League...could be interesting.Baz

I watched the first game of the new rugby season. Cracking game it was too.

 

Morning all.

There was a definite nip in the air when I went round for the paper earlier.

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl Inner Temple here,

A very good night's sleep of about hours even if in 3 pieces.

I think the supermarkets are trying to keep the old £1 in circulation as very few of them have converted their shopping trollies yet.

 

One of the problems with going direct to an insurer is they see you as a captive consumer and try to push the price up. For many years I used a reliable insurance broker who re-quoted my insurance every year. They were never beaten on price. Unfortunately when the owner retired he sold out to another brokerage chain that had links to one insurer after that the prices accelerated upwards.

After a couple of years searching online with difficulty as I don't have a mobile phone number which some sites require. I became old enough for Saga Which are a broker's not an insurer they've become my first choice.

 

I often see on landrover forums people railing against a well known broker for having claims rejected, the claimants have to be reminded the problems are with the insurer not the broker, and often because the claimant has gone for the lowest possible insurance and not specified certain thing to be included.

 

Today's plan, a quick visit to the supermarket 10 mile return journey, I forgot the milk yesterday. The back to wall building.

 

Meanwhile a pair of brown eyes are looking at me.

 

Time to walk Ben the Border. Collie

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a village that is sunny yet again. Yesterday was spent running round doing all sorts. The chapel was nearly cleared and a car load of stuff from the house went to a charity shop. I then did my second trip to Wakefield in the evening and had a good time fettling one of the station buildings to make it sit better. However at least I got some results. Today starts with the monthly Men's Breakfast at church then I need to help Beth with the afternoon tea that she runs. I certainly won't get bored.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Coombe Barton]

Back after a sojourn in the west and the remainder of the week at work.

 

Good news from GBD regarding Steve. Congratulations to DOM and family on the new arrival. Happy Birthday to Tony.

 

If I've missed anyone out apologies. Taken me a couple of days to read through.

 

SWMBO had been dispatched to a Quilt Show in Bristol, so I have the task of finishing clearing/cleaning the caravan and making sense of the jungle that the garden's become since it hasn't had any attention since early July. On the work front my new head of department has asked that I develop some new material - and that takes me up to 2020 - nice to be asked this even though my retirement should have been a couple of years ago but I do want to stay on and do things. I now have an excuse to play with some very interesting software on the clock, so to speak.

 

I will try to get to Scaleforum in a few weeks - that'll be my only show this year. Maybe inspiration will strike.

[Barry O]

A bit chilly up here in the North West Leeds highlands this morning.

 

Match today starts at 12:30 rather than 1pm. Earlier finish than usual expected.

 

Hope the show goes well Mick.

 

Off to have a mugatea.

Baz

[New Haven Neil]

Morning.  A pleasant morning, still, cool, and fresh feeling.  Mrs NHN off to Pilates, NHN sitting doing nothing....   Still, more wood cutting as soon as she's back, as dead still days are rare on a small island with a 2,000 foot mountain in the middle of it, and sawdust makes a terrible mess if its windy!

 

No cockwombles so far today. Yet.

[Coombe Barton]

Ubernerd time here - have been reading bits of New Hart's Rules - The Oxford technical style guide for writing and printing. Discovered that I'd been doing most things right without thinking. This is in preparation for next term's teaching where the text has got to be right.

 

I must get out more.

Edited September 2, 2017 by Coombe Barton

[New Haven Neil]

Ubernerd time here - have been reading bits of New Hart's Rules - The Oxford technical style guide for writing and printing. Discovered that I'd been doing most things right without thinking. This is in preparation for next term's teaching where the text has got to be right.

 

I must get our more.

 

I was just mulling over this, and had the thought that having a writing style dictated to oneself is a rather restrictive and bad idea - suppression of individuality?  Merely the opinion of an oily grunt engineer not an academic!  Does it really have or add value to write in a prescriptive way?  Genuine question, not having a go.

[Coombe Barton]

I was just mulling over this, and had the thought that having a writing style dictated to oneself is a rather restrictive and bad idea - suppression of individuality?  Merely the opinion of an oily grunt engineer not an academic!  Does it really have or add value to write in a prescriptive way?  Genuine question, not having a go.

 

This 'style' is the correct use of grammar, punctuation and syntax. I have to make sure that our stuff is correct before we impose our views on the students. It's they, after all, who are the ones who need to be able to express themselves correctly in order to get a job and be respected in their careers.

 

Although text speak is declining as a mode of communication as text is no longer charged by the character, constantly declining standards mean that phrases such as 'well good' are an accepted norm. It's handy to have a small though not thin volume that I can slam place gently on the desk when the there/their/they're mistakes crop up. And some staff aren't immune.

 

Another instance is correctness in Legal terminology. When is the Latin term italicised? Should there be full stops after each letter of an acronym? How does English Law differ from EU Law in this respect? If you don't get it right your argument in court may be rejected.

 

That's the sort of thing it means as 'Style'.

 

Writing style (creative) is different altogether. This is the technical stuff of getting the correct usage whatever writing style you're using.

Edited September 2, 2017 by Coombe Barton

[DDolfelin]

Ubernerd time here - have been reading bits of New Hart's Rules - The Oxford technical style guide for writing and printing. Discovered that I'd been doing most things right without thinking. This is in preparation for next term's teaching where the text has got to be right.

 

I must get our more.

 

Had to happen!

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Bright and sunny here. We had some thunder and lightning last night with much rain for a while too.

We are off out for lunch today. Aditi thought we should go out to celebrate my birthday. I said that was fine as long as I didn't have to have the OAP special. We will be going to Stock. The village of Stock seems to have a lot of pub restaurants that Aditi and her friend have tried out over the last couple of years.

 

Neil and John. When Desktop Publishing became the "new best thing since..." in the 1980s I was sent on a course about technical style, typography and layout. The chap who ran it had done everything from hot metal, offset litho to the then latest electronic page setup systems.

A lot of the "rules" are good for stopping your work looking messy. Also when using right justified text is a good thing or a bad thing.

Once upon a time I knew such things. As for content style that is another thing. Matthew found out that the academic English style he had become used to using in UK and Canada was not appreciated in Europe. He had to change his style, mainly using shorter sentences. Aditi's doctoral dissertation was praised for her style of writing, even though the bits I read were full of big words I didn't recognise!

 

Tony

Edited September 2, 2017 by Tony_S

[Coombe Barton]

Had to happen!

I haven't got to that page in the book yet!

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

A fine start to the day and hopefully it will stay like that as we are going out to a BBQ tonight.

 

I watched the first game of the new rugby season. Cracking game it was too.
 

 

Damn! I'm supposed to be a rugby fan and I forgot all about it so missed it. It's official - I'm an Idiot!    At least I should be able to see the London double header later as we have already shopped earlier this morning so the day is mine.  Said he, as usual, hopefully.

 

Have a good one,

Bob.

[Horsetan]

In advance of Scaleborum, I need to find a Tippex pen to write Letzte Fahrt on the T34 tender of the Roco wreck.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Many happy returns to Tony.  Fortunately his comment above has proved the validity of the reminder on Farcebook so at least he seems to trust them by entering an accurate date of birth whereas mine is entered there as 01 April (which ought to be clue I thought?) while the year of my birth is shown as something well over 100 years ago - which at least one RMweb member decided was probably correct.

 

Ah, the contactless Tesco card.  Actually mine doesn't seem to work if I tap it on the card reader but it does work if I just hold it on the reader - so hardly contactless as Chris said but you do get a little click sound if it has been read properly (or in my case you just watch the price reduce by 10%   ).

 

The Good doctor was commended for the excellent punctuation on her PhD thesis so I was rather pleased with my work  in that respect (and it was good read as well as it happens).  And I look forward to reading the epistle from Chris in BRILL as I have a  pretty good idea what it will say  regarding inaccuracies in a recent series of articles including some abysmal mistakes in captions.

 

Have a good day one and all

[grandadbob]

Oops. Still in idiot mode I missed wishing you a very happy birthday Tony! Enjoy your lunch!

[NGT6 1315]

Mawnin' awl. Boy, do I just have a throwback earworm:

 

 

 

My mum and dad will be visiting in a few, so just so you know, everything's slowly settling in here. We're very happy that Annika seems to be a good sleeper as of now, so the three of us are also getting sufficient sleep for processing everything.

 

And, as I already wrote on FB, happy birthday to Tony!

 

Cheers, folks…

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Happy birthday Tony. Just after signing off last night I noticed that water was coming in via the join between the flat roof of the porch and the wall of the house. A quick inspection this morning revealed that something had lifted a bit of the flashing, probably birds looking for insects. This was facing directly into the wind and rain last night so the water had been blown in there. So its out with the sealant and a hammer (to knock the flashing back into place) this afternoon. The roof itself is fibreglass and has proved to be very durable over the last 30 years or so. Thats it for now, be back later.