Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

Will someone tell that to my other half.Jamie

Hope this helps

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/mind/forget-marie-kondo-tidy-homes-time-embrace-good-old-british/

[New Haven Neil]

Lunchtime-ish.

 

Another untidy being, bad for an engineer really, but I am trying to be better!  I know where things are, but SWMBO does like to move them around into tidy spaces which spoils my system.  I'm very much a creature of habit, so if something isn't where I usually leave it, I'm sunk!  Also with the onset of middle age, what Chris calls a Forgettory is making itself known only too much. 

 

When does middle age turn into old?  65? 70? 80?  

[Horsetan]

....When does middle age turn into old?  65? 70? 80?  

 

Good question. I used think it was round about the 13th century.

[AndyB]

Afternoon all and it's a sunny one here.

 

Late on parade as I've been sorting through paperwork and creating a shredding pile to be offset against pocket money. 

A parcel arrived, not sadly, anything railway related, but a new-joiners pack to introduce me to my line managers and my work buddy who'll be mentoring me for the first few months. 

 

The fireworks I get involved with are a public display and hopefully generates a few pounds for charidy. You can't buy them in the shops. The budget isn't huge so we have to be imaginative in how to use those we can afford. 

 

A good display may also persuade a chunk of people that they don't really need to have their own display at home.

For those that don't seem to be persuaded i'd rather they lit them on Nov. 5th and that was an end to it. 

 

Heading "oop north", well to HH-land over the weekend to continue swmbo's birthday celebrations. 

[Horsetan]

Update: I am now covered to drive the CX tomorrow. On a 5000 mile/yr policy, it works out at £208/yr, including Legal Cover. That is remarkable for a big car.

 

Useless trivia: the CX is nine inches longer than a VW Bora.

 

If classic car insurance really can be this cheap, surely - and I've said it before - there is an argument for encouraging young/new drivers to drive classics - which will generally require greater care - instead of higher-risk modern day machinery?

[newbryford]

 

 

If classic car insurance really can be this cheap, surely - and I've said it before - there is an argument for encouraging young/new drivers to drive classics - which will generally require greater care - instead of higher-risk modern day machinery?

 

 Some of my pupils had the likes of a Mini (a proper one, not the bloated German version) or a Morris Minor for just that reason.

 

And they were considered "cool" by their school mates.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[New Haven Neil]

Update: I am now covered to drive the CX tomorrow. On a 5000 mile/yr policy, it works out at £208/yr, including Legal Cover. That is remarkable for a big car.

 

Useless trivia: the CX is nine inches longer than a VW Bora.

 

If classic car insurance really can be this cheap, surely - and I've said it before - there is an argument for encouraging young/new drivers to drive classics - which will generally require greater care - instead of higher-risk modern day machinery?

 

...and promptly ruin classic insurance rates for the rest of us?  I have 4 classic bikes insured for £100 pa, agreed value, no mileage limit.  I don't want kids tearing around on classic bikes or cars and crashing (they nearly always seem to) and thus creating huge claims.  Vintage Club membership is compulsory for my insurance, helps keep the non-genuine out.

[AndyB]

Update: I am now covered to drive the CX tomorrow. On a 5000 mile/yr policy, it works out at £208/yr, including Legal Cover. 

 

Erm, of all the people that'd need legal cover..... 

 

Have you been mis-sold Personal Legal Cover.

Phone Andy on 0800...to get your claim started.

Don't delay as he's going down the pub in about 2 hours. 

[The Stationmaster]

 

 

I thought he was still drinking his way around Belgium?

 

That was last weekend. This weekend it's 'small railways' (various) as he's pulling levers at the Cockcrow on Sunday.

 

PS  A good visit was made to Tesco where a considerable quantity of alcoholic beverage was purchased along with various other necessities.  The fun bit came looking at the bill which told us that 'multi-buys' had saved us £50, which of course meant we'd actually had to spend money in the first place in order to buy the (wine) multi-buys.  Much more encouraging - although it still meant we had spent money was that the double discount saved us a very real £50 which would otherwise have been £25 at the usual discount rate.  Overall one does wonder just how much they make when they aren't discounting stuff?

 

And yes Baz - commuting is definitely for younger folk.  Having had a dose of it in younger years I spent the last 15 years of my big railway life commuting with the final 6 years taking me eastwards to London so in the same direction and time bands as most other people although it was fortunately interrupted by regular trips to France & Belgium plus occasional trips to various other countries (mainly Germany).  And oddly my last two jobs for Lloyds Register also involved me in commuting but it was much more interesting as my route involved a ferry trip across Port Jackson every morning and evening as well as a train ride and a walk (morning) or 'bus ride (evening - to avoid walking up the hill I walked down in the morning); that was what I could live with as far as commuting is concerned although some people would probably suffer seas-sickness doing it on the really rough days.

 

And talking of ships I see our regular holiday venue is currently up the Tees at Smiths Dock, fingers crossed for a good survey result for the old lady.

Edited October 20, 2017 by The Stationmaster

[Ozexpatriate]

Tend to agree about fireworks.

We've all seen the big shows organised at huge expense.

Do I need to see them again, or indeed back garden efforts?

Not really.

About a week following the endlessly repeated mobile 'phone video from the Las Vegas mass shooting, it happened to be the homecoming football game at the local high school.  Various parts of the High School are in a line of sight from my home. (Google helpfully tells me that it is about 2,165' (660m) in a straight line to the football field.) 

 

I was watching TV when (what I quickly surmised to be) a fireworks display at the high school began. The sound (muffled by my closed windows) was eerily similar to the sounds I had heard on TV all week and for a moment I found it quite disturbing. 

 

I hear a lot of sporadic gun fire where I live - there is a big gun club with multiple rifle ranges about 1.5 miles, as the crow flies, away but the fireworks sounded exactly like what I heard on TV all week.

 

I like professional fireworks displays, but after a while they all sort of start to look the same and feel less and less worth the effort to attend. With the larger ones, the traffic jams afterwards can be exceptionally fraught.  Amateurs with bottle rockets in the city just seems not worth the risk to property.

[Horsetan]

Erm, of all the people that'd need legal cover.....

 

 

Have you been mis-sold Personal Legal Cover.

Phone Andy on 0800...to get your claim started.

Don't delay as he's going down the pub in about 2 hours.

Don't knock it. It only cost an extra fiver. ....oh wait....hang on, what quality of legal cover am I getting here!??

[Happy Hippo]

 

Heading "oop north", well to HH-land over the weekend to continue swmbo's birthday celebrations.

 

HH and the Obergrumpenfuhrer have withdrawn tactically to Stockton upon Tees.

 

PH and Elsa are rearguard.

 

M6? Don't use it.

 

Average speed for first two and a half hours of journey was 37 mph.

 

Mile upon mile of roadworks.

 

Good run over A66 but the roadworks at Scotch Corner saw us moving a mile in forty five minutes.

 

Use of tablet restricts my essays to rather basic finger poking.

 

For Black Rat... That is why the Ammunition Technical Officer's course takes 12 months. Really big bangs on that one!

[pH]

Anyone have 1:1 plans for an ark?

[Danemouth]

Just spent a few days in York and there are 353 posts on this thread to be read.

 

Sorry folks that ain't going to happen so may I sincerely wish generic congratulations or commiserations as appropriate to you all.

 

Off to see the  Cardiff show  tomorrow,

 

Warmest Regards,

 

Dave

[Ozexpatriate]

Anyone have 1:1 plans for an ark?

Your ongoing deluge this week finally made it this far south yesterday. According to the TV news yesterday we had over 1" locally, though the nearest official recording station lists 0.77" / ~20mm.

 

Today isn't too bad so far but through the weekend we could see as much as 3" or 4" here in the valley and 6" on the coast.

 

EDIT: I was surprised to see a couple of short 'sun breaks' this afternoon glittering on the wet pavement and trees, etc, but the forecast for the weekend continues to be very wet.

Edited October 20, 2017 by Ozexpatriate

[Barry O]

Layout put up and tested, food eaten, now for some sleep..

 

Baz

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Horsetan]

....Useless trivia: the CX is nine inches longer than a VW Bora.....

 

Clearly I've forgotten how to calculate in imperial measurements; it is in fact a whole eleven inches longer than a Bora. 

[BSW01]

Evening all

 

Another damp start to the day, which saw us going to the Trafford Centre early. It doesn't open until 10:00, but we've found that if we get there for opening time, we get what we want before the crowds get there. Once all the required shopping was done (around 11:30) we left and came back via the butchers, so I could collect our weekly meat rations and then it was home for a dinner, which today was a pastie, which I picked up whilst at the butchers.

 

In the afternoon we went to Altrincham, as I wanted to go to Hobby Craft and Sheila wanted to go Waitrose. When we got back Sheila noticed that her phone wasn't working. She couldn't send or receive texts. Or make or receive phone calls. So after tea, we ended up going back to the TC to get it looked at. After a few checks by one of the very helpful sales technicians it turned out to be her SIM card was faulty, which was replaced FOC.

 

Once we got back home it was time to open a bottle of red. Tomorrow morning after breakfast, I'm off to the Warrington model railway show.

 

Goodnight all.

[Gwiwer]

Good morning to those up around midnight. Just back from a blustery but surprisingly sunny day on the Costa Geriatrica.

 

Mother isn't so good. Very breathless and tired. She really wouldn't have been up to making the trip here last Saturday. We have pencilled in 4th or 5th November instead. Her sister, my aunt, defies the Grim Reaper by hanging determinedly on to the last threads of life. She passed her 88th birthday in her hospital bed where she is now "being kept comfortable" with pain relief but all other medication withdrawn.

 

Not a bunch of roses at chez-sister either as young niece is suffering extended anxiety attacks to add to her depression. On the positive side however BiL will have been cheered no end by tonight's bladder-kicking exercise at the (former) Olympic stadium in east London.

 

Storm forecast has eased back to a gale warning through tomorrow lunchtime here though coasts exposed to SW-W winds need to be on full alert as this system will drive already-high tides well above flood levels in places.

 

Stay safe. Sleep well. See you soon.

[AndyB]

Morning all, 

 

Rick, I hope all is as well as it can be with you and yours. 

 

Up early as one of the littleuns was up during the night. 03:50 was a bit early to start the day, but at least i was up early as promised to drive "oop north". 

Time to do a cooked breakfast - mushrooms and a poached egg on wholemeal toast. 

 

Have a nice day everyone. 

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple here,

A solid 6 hour sleep and after annoying you within this insight i might try for some more.

Unusually Ben the Border Collie is hiding in his cat cage, though we have only 13 mph winds at the moment he might know something of what will happen when Brian arrives.

 

I stopped of at the DIY shed on the way home, they had not a single full sheet of plywood, and when I went looking for timber for framing all the small sizes were missing.

So all my plans for layout supports / trainsport boxes will have to wait.

 

A trip to the MRC went reasonably well last night a low attendance though. I tried a electrostatic grass machine for the first time. Not altogether successfully, I found the mesh area too big so loose grass was going in many areas I didn't want. I know that it can be cleared up after, as there is no glue there, but it's an annoyance. I might try putting a plasticard insert to reduce spread. Also there does not seem enough "standing" grass, however that i can't fully tell until the excess is removed when the glue is dry.

 

Further trials will continue. One thought occurred is that this is sheep country I'm muddling most of the grass will be maybe 3 to 6 inches long, that's only 0.5mm to 1mm in N, so the static grass will be restricted to small areas. An alternative fine scatter will be required.

 

Plans for today umm..? Some wood work for the new post box maybe, an interior cab light for the land rover. Much later fully kilted for the summer sailing clubs annual prize giving dinner.

Kilts In a gale, could be drafty.

 

Time to.. inspect the eyelids..?

[Barry O]

Morning from Teesside.

 

Bod hope you are ok.

 

John, be nice to see you.

 

HH Stockton is very close to the model railway show in Hartlepool.

 

Positive thought to all especially Debs and john

 

Now I need a mugatea then breakfast before venturing into the land of the Hart.

 

Baz

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a village somewhere near a furniture store. The house is starting to come to life and shortly various tasks will no doubt be allocated. We are off to Lincoln for the weekend to stay with No1 son and his girlfriend and her 5 yr old son. It should be a good weekend and I know that several outings have been organised. One for the males might include things that fly.

 

Good wishes to everyone else as appropriate.

 

Time for breakfast.

 

Jamie