Early Risers.

[Horsetan]

Matthew was in a "trad" pub in Cork. The musicians were performing in the bar, not on a stage, when a very hairy German chap wearing a leather kilt asked if he could join in. His instrument was the penny whistle. Matthew said it was a great evening.

Some of the greatest exponents of Irish trad are, er, Japanese.

[AndyB]

Night all. 

[andyram]

Evening all. I hope today finds you well. Many happy returns to Dom. Also good to see Debs posting, and thoughts remain with her. The picture certainly triggered something in my eye too.

 

Another busy day has passed by. Tomorrow will be a challenge because I have been asked to teach a much older class than I am used to and one that is supposed to be a real challenge. This is something I am not especially looking forward to. I just hope I can be successful.

 

Tonight was spent at the church model railway group - a relaxing evening spent applying hanging basket liner to one of the cuttings I built a few weeks ago. It allowed me to escape the seemingly endless procession of ghouls and goblins appearing at the door. People are welcome to their fun, but I am afraid to say that Halloween is not a "festival" I recognise. Not wanting to be killjoys we did buy a bag of small chocolates that we could give out to our visitors. With Sarah and Amber out at an alternative non-Halloween "light" party, I was left to field the visitors. I missed a couple due to being in the shower, answered to a couple whilst the evening meal was cooking, then was met with six or seven separate visitors whilst I was trying to eat. I did not answer many of those! I was certainly glad to escape to the club.

 

Tomorrow brings the start of November, and leaves less than two weeks until the model railway show. I started the floorplan this evening, bit will have lots to over the next few days. I hope I can find the time.

 

Take care all.

 

Andy

[Barry O]

busy night at cricket.

 

time for some sleep now.

 

Night all!

 

Baz

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[BSW01]

Evening everyone

 

It was a very busy day yesterday, Sheila was at her Zumba class as usual for a Monday, whilst I busied myself in the cellar. We also had quite a few people calling round too, as yesterday we celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary by going out for a Chinese meal instead of an Indian. By the time we got back home it was a bit late to think about logging on, never mind actually posting, so I've not had time to read all the post since Sunday.

 

This morning I continued work on Max's train layout and I've been painting the cliff faces and I've also made a start on the station platforms.

 

Below are a few photos showing before and after shots of 2 areas. The cliffs are made using a mixture of ready to use artex and black acrylic paint, ending up a grey colour, which means that there are any knocks or breakages there are no white bits that stand out. It is they sculptured into shape using an artists palette knife when it's partially dry. When it is completely dry, it is then painted using acrylic paints and when that is dry, it is weathered using water colour paint.

 

 

 

 

 

I've still got to add a little vegetation yet, but I'm pleased with it so far.

 

 

Dom. Happy birthday.

 

Goodnight all.

[emt_911]

Night all

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Gwiwer]

Round Midnight Club checking in again.

 

First - very best wishes to Debs; good to see you here again and please be assured of my support and willingness to talk at any time.

Second - Happy Birthday to Dom. Drive safely.

Third - Cockfosters 8 minutes. Users of the Piccadilly Line will understand.

 

Today saw me revisiting haunts on London's outer northern fringe (and slightly beyond) where I haven't ventured in many a long year. Routemasters (green and red) no longer meet at Potters Bar as they once did. The 134 and the 716 are gone. You can't get to St. Albans on a "red" bus either. The 84 still runs but is no longer a part of the London network as the majority of the route is in Herts. Time was when you could reach several "green" London Country garages using a Red Bus Rover. The 84 went to St. Albans, the 96 to Dartford, the 21 to Swanley, the 71 to Leatherhead and several red routes reached Staines.

 

Yesterday I revisited some of the more amusing place names TfL serves though pride of place must go to the R5 bus at Pratt's Bottom. Nearby Lock's Bottom Hospital now goes by another name. It amused the schoolboy Gwiwer that there might be such an establishment purely for proctological problems. There isn't, of couse. The R5, successor to London Country route 471, is a particularly pretty hour-long rural circular.

 

Samhain, All Hallows Eve or what ever we choose to call it was marked here with a candle-lit dinner, appropriate toasts to the spirits departed and thosd who watch over us, and with some gentle musical accompaniment courtesy of Loreena McKennit.

 

I feel ready for a long comfortable eyelid inspection now. G'night all

Edited October 31, 2017 by Gwiwer

[laurenceb]

Thoughts with Debs

Night awl

[PeterBB]

Evening all. I hope today finds you well. Many happy returns to Dom. Also good to see Debs posting, and thoughts remain with her. The picture certainly triggered something in my eye too.

 

Another busy day has passed by. Tomorrow will be a challenge because I have been asked to teach a much older class than I am used to and one that is supposed to be a real challenge. This is something I am not especially looking forward to. I just hope I can be successful.

 

Tonight was spent at the church model railway group - a relaxing evening spent applying hanging basket liner to one of the cuttings I built a few weeks ago. It allowed me to escape the seemingly endless procession of ghouls and goblins appearing at the door. People are welcome to their fun, but I am afraid to say that Halloween is not a "festival" I recognise. Not wanting to be killjoys we did buy a bag of small chocolates that we could give out to our visitors. With Sarah and Amber out at an alternative non-Halloween "light" party, I was left to field the visitors. I missed a couple due to being in the shower, answered to a couple whilst the evening meal was cooking, then was met with six or seven separate visitors whilst I was trying to eat. I did not answer many of those! I was certainly glad to escape to the club.

 

Tomorrow brings the start of November, and leaves less than two weeks until the model railway show. I started the floorplan this evening, bit will have lots to over the next few days. I hope I can find the time.

 

Take care all.

 

Andy

 

Not something I recognise either - we put our ancient 'No thank you' note in the door window - ... not aware of any callers so by now I don't think they even come to check.

[BR60103]

We haven't had Hallowe'en visitors for many years. Before we moved to this seniors' community, we were in a place where most of them had grown to grandparent status and there were very few sub-teens.

Where I was very young, one of the deeds on H. was pulling up traffic signs. Stop signs were on 4x4 posts and qhite easy to pull straight up.

 

A story in the paper today. Norfolk Southern was done on 4.7 million ties (sleepers). The supplier apparently substituted for creosote almost anything else that would make the ties black, including paint and motor oil. Date of the supply was 2009-2014.

 

Chaotic operating at Wimbledon today as the Fat Controller (self-described) decreed that the TPO car had to be turned to be in the proper direction for pick-up.

 

Bits of snow or frozen rain today, but mostly rain.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

A belated happy Birthday to Dom, and as Andy said, it is nice to see Debs posting.  My thoughts are with you.

 

We have a somewhat autumnal morning in this part of the world.

 

It looks like today is going to be relatively busy, so I guess it is time for a coffee and then I had better get on.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[Ozexpatriate]

Is the "porch light on = trick or treaters welcome / porch light off = please move along" signal not commonly understood in the UK?

 

It 'generally' works pretty well in the US, but of course the Halloween tradition is better established there than anywhere else.

 

I was not at home for the 'modern Samhain' - here is my view this morning (much cropped and in case anyone wants to guess, it is a "Sea". Also I am posting much, much earlier than I normally would be inclined to do - another clue.)

 

I duly enlisted my son and future daughter in law to mind the store  at home. I was expecting some packages to arrive and didn't want them on the front porch over Halloween - that would just be too tempting for some. Based on the alarm system's front door detector they had about 21 sets of callers. This is only my second year in the house and we're at the end of a street which still has one home under construction. I was too soon in the house to participate last year.

 

I have to say I am not a fan of the shadeless windows in the 787 Dreamliner. They do have a programmable photosensitive shade, but no old school mechanical one. In terms of keeping the cabin dark, it was very effective and while sunrise over the Davis Strait was very colourful, once the sun had fully risen over Greenland, I found it disturbingly eerie. It felt like being on another planet, a long way from a very large bright star with a green atmosphere. I didn't have a window seat and was not able to play with my own view. Few passengers appeared to have figured out that you can manipulate the controls and allow the full natural light, with it's full spectrum.

 

Congratulations, sympathies and felicitations as appropriate while I am away.

 

I hope everyone has a good day.

 

 

  

[Ozexpatriate]

Below are a few photos showing before and after shots of 2 areas. The cliffs are made using a mixture of ready to use artex and black acrylic paint, ending up a grey colour, which means that there are any knocks or breakages there are no white bits that stand out. It is they sculptured into shape using an artists palette knife when it's partially dry. When it is completely dry, it is then painted using acrylic paints and when that is dry, it is weathered using water colour paint.

 

IMG_1662.JPG

Understanding that this is incomplete, in it's current form it looks rather like some lava flows that I have seen.

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

Late to bed, early to rise, leads to bags under the eyes.  It was just my luck to miss the East Midlands train at 22.35 from St Pancras and having to settle for the 22.48 all shacks from downstairs.  The gig, at the Water Rats pub in Grays Inn Road, was very good.  I had gone for the support act, Jack Carty, but enjoyed the headliners, All Our Exes Live In Texas.  They are four young ladies from Australia, as is Jack of course, and the venue did its best to accommodate most of those from a land down under living in London.  Some dressed with a Hallowe'en theme, including one girl with a very fetching axe springing from her head.  Guess what: one more CD for the pile.  An investment of £7 for a taxi from Bedford station was so much more appealing than a 25 minute trudge through the town centre after midnight.

 

I expect to spend most of the morning at the blood test place.  Professor Oncologist and Sister Diabetes have both instructed me to have a test in November and this being the first day of the month is as good a day as any.  With any luck I will be home in time to watch Hansard's Half Hour, aka PMQs, but it matters little if I do not.

 

Belated many happies to Dom, clearly a man of culture, and thanks to Rick for reminiscences of bygone buses around London.  These days one cannot move for them in the city centre but on the fringes a calendar is not a bad idea.

 

Warm thoughts to all in distress and recovery

 

Chris

[emt_911]

Morning all. A day where I find out how much information has been retained so far.

 

Have a good day everyone.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Another fairly cool start but dry and it should stay that way with some bright or sunny spells and light winds.

We only got the two visitors last night (porch light was on) but talking to my daughter it seems that around here kids will only normally knock if there are decorations/ pumpkins etc on display. The two that did come were friends and neighbours who were with their Mum who is a Greek Cypriot so that probably explains a lot.

There's lots of sweets and chocolate left for me! However I will have to be careful as my blood sugar is currently in the right place after warnings and a near miss earlier this year.

Today I am postie watching and parcel waiting. Can't track it as the supplied number doesn't work.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[jamie92208]

​Morning all from a bright and dry village.   Brekafast has been taken and the morning TV is being watched.  Yesterday I got most of the bits of layout up and did some useful testing and fettling.  I also spent a rather frustrating hour or more on the phone trying to get someone to give me a straight tale as to why Beth has been waiting 39 weeks for a hip operation.  Three people gave me differnt and contradictory explanations.  i was not amused and was eventually told that it would not happen before February, 1 year after her consultation. I ended up taking the route that Jock used to advise and emailed the CEO of the Hospital Trust directly.  I will await developments.   I actually managed to avod shouting at anyone but they got annoyed when I pointed out the inconsistencies in their differing explanations.  If they just gave a straight tale and admitted fault things would be so much easier.

 

Anyway, a load of washing needs putting in then it's off to the clubrooms to continue work on the layout.   I'll be meeting Beth at Asda on my way home to help her load the shopping.

 

Belated birthday greetings to Dom and thoughts towards Debs.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

Morning to most,

 

We do have a lot of missing Ers at the moment. I just hope they are ok.

 

Busy day here in the North West Leeds Highlands so..off for my mugatea.

 

Baz

[grandadbob]

Hrrrmph. It has been (gently) pointed out to me that the reason the RM tracking isn't working is probably because they haven't yet scanned it and as it's 48hr delivery (I missed that as well) the earliest I'm likely to see it is tomorrow.

Never mind, I can now go and eat chocolate instead!

[DDolfelin]

I also spent a rather frustrating hour or more on the phone trying to get someone to give me a straight tale as to why Beth has been waiting 39 weeks for a hip operation.  Three people gave me differnt and contradictory explanations.  i was not amused and was eventually told that it would not happen before February, 1 year after her consultation. I ended up taking the route that Jock used to advise and emailed the CEO of the Hospital Trust directly.  I will await developments.   I actually managed to avod shouting at anyone but they got annoyed when I pointed out the inconsistencies in their differing explanations.  If they just gave a straight tale and admitted fault things would be so much easier.

 

 

Jamie

 

My experience of the NHS is that one has to shout loud and long.

When SWMBO needed major surgery some time ago, it was only progressed as a direct result of interaction with the Consultant's secretary and ultimately with him.

Of course, this means that someone else moves down a place in the queue but when loved ones are involved the gloves have to come off.

I remember asking: "If it was your wife, would you be anxious for her to have speedy surgery?"

Consultant: "Yes I would"

DD: "And are you on good terms with her?"

[AndrewC]

Good moaning from the boring borough. Bright and sunny but cool out. Feeling a bit smug as 90% of my Christmas shopping has been completed. I still have to brave a couple of shops but that will be quite pleasant as past experience has shown. 

 

Another quiet day at work. Mulling over a potential new position with a smaller consultancy. This came out of the blue. More £ but loss of chiropractic, dental, optical, and private health insurance. Need to weigh out the replacement cover costs over the increased salary. The pension plan would be a simple matter of changing to direct debit from salary sacrifice  as its a private scheme. Only the tax would need tweaking. The downside would be the loss of working from home. Not sure about going back to daily commuting with the crawling turd known as SouthEastern. 

 

Not a lot else to say. Wednesday, we are almost half way through the week. (3h 53m at time of posting)

 

Enjoy the day all. 

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Here,

 

 A very poor nights sleep, 3 hours solid to start with followed by I don't know how much but very intermittant dozing. For some reason my brain wouldn't shut up...

 

We had our lights on last night, but not for attracting Halloween moths, but just so SWMBO can find her way in from the car after her weaving group.

 

Ozexpatriot's photo puts me in mind of our beach...

 

Only this one is  just half a mile away, it's on this map.

 

My poor nights sleep meant I was late getting up and of course had the morning rush around. Then getting caught with a different selection of Cockwombles on the road.

Being late of course I got caught in traffic, a huge piece of farm machinery stuck behind a cyclist. The only way past would have been over him. Eventually the road widened enough for it to pass, whereupon I couldn't go past, as the cyclist started speeding at 35mph in a village, down hill, until we went back uphill again....

 

I must admit, I'm feeling very tired, and it's been building up for weeks.

Tomorrow (Thursday) night we have an evening works section Dinner I have to attend, it's held this late in the year so a boss from Foreign climes can attend as part of his annual visit. It does have the advantage he normally pays, whether or not from his expenses I don't know.

Friday Night MRC of course

Saturday I'll be wall building in the chilly forecast northerly wind.

Sunday sailing of course.

Monday  I have two major systems to which will take 5 days to do, but after work I have to go to Oxford (3 hour+ journey) for a course on Tuesday on Demystifying Spectrum and Signal Analysis. I hope there is not too much maths involved. After a day there, we have the drive back.

Wednesday Back in  to try to get 4 more days work in on the next three days.

Friday night  MRC of Course,

Saturday Spalding MRC show

Sunday Sailing,

Monday another major equipment to work on and finish off the previous weeks work...

 

oww.... either the Air conditioning  is squeakiing a bearing or the gas control valve is doing it 's nut, I need ear defenders...

 

24 current shunts to do today 1mA to 100A / tomorrow, at least it's not anything that is a brain ache

 

Ah the noise has switched off so I suspect the gas control valve...

 it's switched of I suspect the gas control valve.

 

Three shunts competed (including initial setting up) in the last 1.5 hours while typing the above during warm up times. (good figures too)

 

Time to ... start measuring the next one.

 

[Barry O]

White Rabbits....