Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

Like Baz I too have found it worse flying back to the west from Aus.  Going out it was simply a couple of 'early to bed' days then fully adjusted and cheerily heading off for the office at 07.45 in the morning; maybe it's something to do with getting there early a.m. after leaving in the evening?  But coming back home it took longer and was definitely a more wearing experience.

 

And g'night all

[newbryford]

There's plenty of long transcontinental flights served by 737s.

 

 

FlyGlobespan Liverpool/Shannon/Keflavik/New York on a 737-800. Worst flight ever. It was configured for Glasgow-Tenerife flights (small seat pitch) and a row in front  was a mother with small child that simply did not want to be there (and I mean the mother.....) The aircrew had to prompt the mother into nappy changing by handing her one,

 

FGS had leased a 757 (I think) for Liverpool-JFK duty but it had failed at JFK the day before.

It turned out that it was still there 2 weeks later as we arrived for our return flight.

We eventually made it home a day later via another carrier.

 

We later learnt that FGS were lacking on the ETOPS front and the FAA had grounded it. FGS went bust a couple of months later.

 

Mountain biking after work tonight. Wet, dark and immense fun. My bike visited the mechanic a couple of days ago to have the brakes bled. Not ideal to be continually pumping them on the down bits. Tonight, they were just right. I have sent a text complimenting the mechanic on his brake setup skills.

I set three PB times on downhill sections that put me in the all time top 400 of over 6000 recorded times. I was pretty suited with those. 

 

Thursday is a planned day off - there may be some golf played - weather permitting.

 

Have a good pre-POETS fay folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

Edited September 27, 2017 by newbryford

[Gwiwer]

Morning all.  Or late late night.

 

No chance to read anything so apologies if suitable comments have not been made.

 

That was a day.  23.45 Euston - Glasgow in the sleeper (probably the last time I'll do that in a Mk3 berth) and my first class 92 haulage.  The evening meals in the lounge and the breakfasts served to first class sleeping car passengers are OK, actually.  Spent a morning reacquainting myself with the "blue trains" which are now mostly Saltire blue not the old Electric blue.  A lap of the Subway broken for coffee at Partick (because everything which runs through both low level routes comes through Partick) and a first-bash of the Carmyle line as far as I know.  It's possible I travelled that way once on a previous overnight trip but I can't be sure.  I am now.  The train continued on to Motherwell passing a trio of new class 88 electro-diesels on shed there (among other things) and then went on to Hamilton whence I was able to make a first trip (definitely) over the reopened Larkhall route.  Back to Glasgow and the hike from Hielanman's Umbrella (beneath which the stench hasn't abated over the years despite it looking a bit cleaner) via Argyle and Queen Streets to the other surviving terminus then a fast ride to Edinburgh.

 

I have travelled this way on generations of stock.  Inter City DMU sets, push-pull with pairs of class 27s, push or pull with a "shove-duff" class 47/7 and now aboard a class 170 DMU.  For what should be the last diesel-powered trip over the route as electric trains start next year. Two were spied lurking in Motherwell yard earlier.  I spent 90 minutes in the Scottish capital marking off another first - their trams - and returning by way of the now-electrified Bathgate route which has been reopened over the "missing link" to Drumgelloch and Airdrie making it a through route to Glasgow.  It does seem strange seeing trains waiting in Edinburgh bound for Milngavie or Helensburgh.  

 

By the by I have also passed through two of Glasgow's tricker-to-pronounce stations.  Caldercruix isn't too bad at "Calder-CROOX" but Chatelherault you would need to know is "SHAT-ler-oh" to avoid sounding stupid!

 

Return from Glasgow was on the 18.40 Beardie-leano which was scheduled an impressive 4 hours 54 minutes to Euston but achieved even better at 4 hours 42 minutes.  My first trip aboard a Pendolino (verdict = not overly impressed), and easily the fastest trip I have made between those terminals.

 

A very quick transit of London thanks to a waiting Northern Line train saw me aboard the 23.50 off Waterloo and out at Twickenham for an Uber home.  Whereat I arrived at 00.25.  Had I waited for the Strawberry Hill train I would still have been at Vauxhall at that time.

 

Now sleep.  Tomorrow is another day already here!  

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is a rather pleasantly warm morning today.  Rain is forecast for later, but we appear to have broken cloud at the moment.

 

Interestingly, there was a small earthquake near to Darmstadt this morning.  We didn't feel it, but friends of ours who live there did.  Things seem to be waking up geologically at the moment.

 

The next time they went the family had more money and flew BOAC whuch meant they, as unaccompanied minors had an assigned stewardess to escort them right up until they were met by family.

 

BA and Lufthansa (and probably others) still provide this service.  Thomas has flown unaccompanied a few times and the service is very good.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all, and special thoughts to Smiffy in the profound hope that things cannot become any more grim.

 

I don't like flying, or airports for that matter.  Five Xmases ago [i think] I flew to Vancouver and back from Toronto.  On the outward run take-off was delayed by an hour because the plane was too hot.  In December!  My worst flight was with Air France to Beijing in 2003 when I discovered the folly of putting fold-down tables on the backs of reclining seats.  There was a full and frank discussion with the clown in front who made my meal gymnastic.

 

Today I visit Poorly Pal to do some m*d*ll*ng and cook us lunch - stir fried chicken with some sort of chilli sauce out of a packet and some unlikely vegetables, all prepped yesterday.  On the way I will divert via the branch surgery, hopefully to grab my flu jab.  Tonight we will, I hope, enjoy a presentation by the young professional photographer Jack Boskett, who is rather good at getting pics into the Daily Telegraph.

 

Yesterday I forgot to mention an attempted scam.  An e-mail purportedly from Paypal referred to a payment of £144.50 for a purchase I had not made and invited me to log in and view the details.  I know better than that.  The e-mail was forwarded to spoof@paypal.com and to Action Fraud c/o City of London police, who I'm sure will put it with all the others.  Am I reading too much into the wisdom of basing responsibility for investigating fraud in the City of London?

 

Felicitations and best wishes to all in distress and recovery

 

Chris

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl Inner Temple Here,

Another bad nights sleep about 4 hours solid to start with but then an unknown amount as I dozed and woke irregularly all through the rest of the night.

 

It was however raining every time I awoke, as it was when I left for work. the roads were very wet and flooded between the grass verges / banks on the single track roads.

 

Talking of Banks,  Santander is closing it's Cromer branch, with Barclays already closing there, At the rate it's going,  Norfolk will be without banks other than in Norwich.

 

Flying , I have gratefully given up flying anywhere, most of my flights have been to the Falklands, Brize Norton or Lyneham Via Ascencion to Mount Pleasant.  I was in ancient Tristars with all flight entertainment removed, for about 18 hours, Food was a couple of bread rolls and an apple. The only good thing about it was,,, I wasn't doing it in a Hercules.... Oh I was a civilian at the time.

 

The only flying I did in the RAF, a one hour air experience flight in a herc, and an hour in a chipmonk at Filton when we over took Concorde...

 

Time to go do some work

Edited September 28, 2017 by TheQ

[Barry O]

Hey up!

 

Strange that I love flying but do not like heights. I do like the A380 as my flights on them have been good. B747s were OK but had some interesting manoeuvres in them...worst flight Orlando to Miami in a USAir turboprop as we edged past a storm, most interesting a flight from Leeds to Southampton in a BA Jetstream 41 when one engine (which happened to be the one with the hydraulic pump fitted) gave up the ghost. We did stop at the very end of the runway.

 

It has been decided that we are going to have a restful day.....

 

Breakfast first....

 

Baz

[jamie92208]

Morning all from the Southern Uplands of Leeds.   The sky is actually looking pale blue rather than grey, someone must have put a shilling in the meter.   Various tasks got done yesterday and I had a very good chat with a friend about the logistics of getting my layout to France on the back of an artic bound for Portugal. I need to investigate whether I can get one of those ratchet devices that puts plastic tape round pallets etc then crimps them in place.   Otherwise it's off to the discount warehouse to buy a boat load of ratchet straps.   I also need to source 8 or 9 pallets and then work out how to get a loaded pallet off my twin axle trailer when you can't drive a fork lift up the tail gate/ramp.   

 

Today starts with taking Beth to have her hand dressed. She's then out for lunch so I have the rest of the day to myself.   I'll probably pack some boxes of stuff from the modelling room and clear another shelf.   

 

Smiffy, my thoughts are with you.   There's not a lot else that we can do but send supportive thoughts, you seem to have got into a sort of perfect storm.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[BlackRat]

Worst flight........Lyneham to Brunei......in a Herc........3 days!

 

Not one filling secure at the end of it.

 

Funny thing banks, I think we've only 1 left in our town now, we used to have 4 when I moved here 34 years ago.

 

Since then the population has tripled and the banks accordingly closed.

 

Luckily for me I enjoyed the upper 6th far to much and flunked my A's.

 

Wanting to be a pilot or aircrew I was somehow convinced in the RN/RM recruiting office that my future lay elsewhere.

 

I say luckily, as basically my life since has been one big adventure, getting paid to ride bikes and shoot stuff, ski, jump out of helicopters and other boys own stuff.

 

Like Mrs BR says, you've never had a proper job in your life!

 

Would I do it all again........,,,,in the blink of an eye YES!

[TheQ]

And now we come to the season of expanding waistlines..

 

in the next 4 months we have,

 

The Summer Sailing Clubs;

End of season supper,

Flag officers invitational buffet,

The Annual dinner and Prize giving.

The Winter SC Start of Season dinner

The MRC Chrismas Dinner

The SC Christmas Dinner

The Works Section Chrismas Dinner

The Works Factory Christmas Dinner

SWMBOs Weaving Group Dinner

SWMBO's Art Group Christmas Dinner

Burns Night at the Sailing Club.

 Also in there is  SWMBO's and My birthdays..

 

The first 3 invitations have arrived...

[shortliner]

Odd Meteorological Sights - this was sent by a friend in Canada

 

 

Photographer: Ondrej Králik
Summary Authors: Ondrej Králik; Jim Foster

This photo shows red sprites dancing above a thunderstorm located over southeastern Germany. It was taken just before midnight on August 18, 2017, when the storm was approximately 315 miles (507 km) away from my vantage point near Low Tatras, Slovakia. Red sprites are mysterious forms of lightning that sometimes appear in the upper atmosphere above energetic thunderstorms. Their pinkish-red flashes can only be detected at night (usually only with high-speed cameras) and seem to be linked to particularly strong cloud-to-ground lightning bolts (positive strikes).
Low Tatras, Slovakia Coordinates: 48.9470, 19.5383
 

Edited September 28, 2017 by shortliner

[Northroader]

On the plus side, your boat won't capsize in a stiff wind with the extra ballast?

[TheQ]

On the plus side, your boat won't capsize in a stiff wind with the extra ballast?

it probably will.... to the side I'm sitting on...

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It rained all night but has stopped now. Still quite cloudy though.

I will look in the shed to see if the recent repair to the felt was adequate. If not, I suppose I will have to do something about it.

Tony

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. The dawn chorus of the bin men seems to be absent this morning but the pink re-cycling bags have gone. Stealth bin wagons? or just that I might not have been listening. Will have to start construction of the new baseboard soon, might be showing it next  year if I get a move on. Commiserations to Smiffy, friends you can choose but family!!!! to Debs as well as she has reported on Facebook, John had to be rushed back into hospital last night. Thats it for now, be back later.

[bbishop]

 

 

Yesterday I forgot to mention an attempted scam.  An e-mail purportedly from Paypal referred to a payment of £144.50 for a purchase I had not made and invited me to log in and view the details.  I know better than that. 

 

Chris

Ditto.  Remember to "hover" over the sender.  If info at paypal.com turns out to be ivan at spoof.ru , then it is obviously a scam.

 

Bill

[trisonic]

Odd Meteorological Sights - this was sent by a friend in Canada

 

Odd Met.gif

 

Photographer: Ondrej Králik

Summary Authors: Ondrej Králik; Jim Foster

 

This photo shows red sprites dancing above a thunderstorm located over southeastern Germany. It was taken just before midnight on August 18, 2017, when the storm was approximately 315 miles (507 km) away from my vantage point near Low Tatras, Slovakia. Red sprites are mysterious forms of lightning that sometimes appear in the upper atmosphere above energetic thunderstorms. Their pinkish-red flashes can only be detected at night (usually only with high-speed cameras) and seem to be linked to particularly strong cloud-to-ground lightning bolts (positive strikes).

Low Tatras, Slovakia Coordinates: 48.9470, 19.5383

 

 

Even more rare are the “Blue Jets”. These things (all of them) are huge.....

 

 

 

best, Pete.

[trisonic]

And now we come to the season of expanding waistlines..

 

in the next 4 months we have,

 

The Summer Sailing Clubs;

End of season supper,

Flag officers invitational buffet,

The Annual dinner and Prize giving.

The Winter SC Start of Season dinner

The MRC Chrismas Dinner

The SC Christmas Dinner

The Works Section Chrismas Dinner

The Works Factory Christmas Dinner

SWMBOs Weaving Group Dinner

SWMBO's Art Group Christmas Dinner

Burns Night at the Sailing Club.

 Also in there is  SWMBO's and My birthdays..

 

The first 3 invitations have arrived...

Ha! Quite. I always turn down Christmas dos (except the Abbey Road Studio Party - which is worth saving myself for).

 

Things to drive if the SHTF #1:

 

 

 

 

Best, Pete.

[roundhouse]

Our Xmas plans are currently being considered but as Mum is likely to be away Xmas ours will be an 'Xmas avoider' trip consisting of beer and more beer. Just depends where.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all, (Just)

 

Dick, very sorry to hear even more bad news from your direction. 

 

Now dry with sunny spells after all the rain and it should stay that way for the rest of the day.

Late here but up early as we had a marathon session at Sainsbury's to do for tomorrow's birthday bash for The Boss. After that I pootled off towards Croydon to take advantage of a special offer on foamboard at Hobbycraft.  (4 A1 sheets for £10 as reported on the bargain hunters thread)

 

Am now going to the railway room to muddle or possibly play whilst The Boss gets busy baking. She seems to be in Marie Antoinette mode at the moment. I have been asked told to keep out of the way. Suits me.      (as long as I get to do some testing later  )

 

Have a good one if you can,

Bob.

[Tony_S]

Matthew rang.

He was up early this morning and when he phoned me he was having breakfast in Timmy's and made use of their wifi. He has been asked to talk to some undergrads tomorrow about his research. He is going for a long walk this morning.

Aditi won a flight to Dublin from Southend. She has been booking it for sometime in November. She is booking an additional seat for me but it has to be done separately as it can't be added to the free flight. The website is one that keeps asking about are you sure you don't need insurance etc. It isnt Ryanair!

Tony

[AndyB]

Afternoon all, and heavy overnight rain gave way to sunshine.

Instructions for the day include shortening the grass. 

 

As it's the tail end of the grocery week I've been rooting around in the larder to figure out what to cook for the family's dinner. We don't overstock the fridge. 

Lasagne al forno was my conclusion, which not just needs warming through later.

A brioche, gorgonzola and ham sandwich was a pleasant lunchtime interlude; the sweet of the brioche and sour of the blue cheese is quite pleasing. 

 

Having a wait whilst various references are sought I'm reading up about one of the projects I'll be working on.  

 

Good wishes to all, especially Dick and Debs. 

[Tony_S]

I have just had an email. Aditi has booked me a return flight and I will even be sitting next to her. A hotel is being booked now. We will be away on her birthday. Perhaps a trip to Guinness world? They have a little train I think.

Edited September 28, 2017 by Tony_S

[Ian Abel]

BIN day - missing that exercise again, the Mrs gets that duty today.

 

Nothing to report from yesterday <yawn>

 

Planning to POE to JFK a little earlier today so I can stop at Trainland on the way and pick up a few bits (speaker/baffle, 8-pin DCC plug) to add sound to my Rails Q1  - IF it has/ever arrives    14 days and counting?!?!?!

 

Will be nice to get home and have a relatively quiet weekend - so far nothing planned so I MAY JUST get some modeling in - plans may well change but Jemma is off on a trip so there's one less potential "...dad, can you..." possible

 

Weather back home will be autumnal, highs in the 18-20 range and lows in the 8-11 range - LOVELY JUBBLY

 

Right now here 23 but less humid today, highs around the time I leave expected to make 26

 

Have a BINderful day...

[tetsudofan]

Having spent over 30 years of my working life I've lost count of how many long-distance flights I've made. During the last few years I was making three Tokyo/London/Tokyo flights per year - one paid by the company as part of my compensation package, one paid by myself and the other by the mileage earned on the  two previous flights.

 

Best bargain was round-the-world trips which earnt more miles than a direct flight - normally two r-t-w flights gave me enough mileage to pay for the third direct trip. Scheduling-wise always found it best to fly east mostly broken up into seven-hour segments.

 

Normally started by catching an evening NorthWest Airlines flight from Tokyo to Honolulu. This allowed me to check in my baggage in at the Tokyo City Terminal early Friday morning, spend the day in the office and at 5:00pm head out to Narita Airport to board the flight leaving at 8:00pm which then arrived in Honolulu at 8.00am on Friday - which meant that I always got two Fridays!! Would normally spend the weekend winding-down in Honolulu before taking a flight to somewhere on the mainland (normally somewhere which had trams (streetcars) or a good railway museum), spend a couple of days there and then hop over to the UK. The longest part of the trip was the return trip to Tokyo by KLM which meant flying from London to Amsterdam, spend couple of hours there and the get the direct flight to Tokyo.

 

Doing the flights in stages meant that I didn't normally suffer much from jet-lag, even on the long flights back to Tokyo. The flights would arrive in Tokyo around 8:00am,and I would manage to get back to my apartment by noon, have a shower and then head off to the office to spend the afternoon at work getting back into the normal routine.

 

The worst I've suffered from jet-lag was when I did not do what I normally did as outlined above. Instead I decided to fly from Honolulu to Berlin in one go which meant an evening NWA flight from Honolulu to Minneapolis arriving early the following morning with a 7-hour layover before catching an evening flight to Amsterdam arriving the following day ending with a short hop from Amsterdam to Berlin. NWA provided transportation to the local shopping centre at MSP which, at that time, was the biggest shopping centre around so that's where the layover was spent. Once I got to Berlin I was like a zombie and spent most of the time I was there catching up on my sleep. Never again would I do a trip like that.

 

DPD just been and delivered a package in a red box...... and soon got to head off to the local Out Patients Department for my first meeting with the Urology people since I decided not to have the TURP procedure. Clear blue sky at the moment so it will be a pleasant walk....

 

Keith

Edited September 28, 2017 by tetsudofan