Early Risers.

[emt_911]

Morning all. Late on parade but as there is nothing planned for the day I'm not bothered.

 

A day of general pottering and modelling is planned. I have no desire to join the masses shopping for a bargain.

 

Time for another coffee.

 

Have a good day everyone.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

The sun shineth (doubt it will last, but you never know) and I'm told today will be leftovers day, fortunately I did get in a bottle of pickled red cabbage to go with the cold pork and there's plenty of stuffing leftover to go with the cold chicken.

 

Havea good day one and all and fingers remain firm;y crossed for Debs and her dad.

[Happy Hippo]

Why do we assume that you have sense now and are no longer young......

 

 

The former is in dispute, especially as I turned down the offer by the Obergrumpenfuhrer to buy me a drone in the boxing day sales (on line) plus the fact that I forgot to mention a Minerva sound fitted 57xx, is due arrive shortly to keep the lonely 8750 company.

 

Gross stupidity is lessened only by some spectacular camouflage which I am currently trying to create.

 

I am currently trying to sneak out of the house, without much success, for my own private Boxing Day shoot.

[Tony_S]

The former is in dispute, especially as I turned down the offer by the Obergrumpenfuhrer to buy me a drone in the boxing day sales (on line) plus the fact that I forgot to mention a Minerva sound fitted 57xx, is due arrive shortly to keep the lonely 8750 company.

 

Gross stupidity is lessened only by some spectacular camouflage which I am currently trying to create.

 

I am currently trying to sneak out of the house, without much success, for my own private Boxing Day shoot.

We nearly got a drone yesterday. A parent and child were attempting to fly their drone in the park when Robbie ran off with their handset. I am not sure whether my loud "LEAVE" caused him to drop it or just that it wasn't tasty. Fortunately no dogs or drone were harmed. Drone flying parent rather amused.

Tony

[newbryford]

Afternoon all.

 

No leftovers in this house as we didn't cook anything much at all, Three platefuls of turkey etc arrived home from Mrs NBs work at about 4.30.

 

The only thing I had to add were some Yorkshire puddings...................

 

Then we sat and watched Kingsman (again). . I didn't actually do some modelling but spent some time looking at pictures and videos for research purposes. (EA alert maybe)

And that was about it apart from one of the menagerie bringing in a present.

It is likely that one of the bigger lads (Bruce) brought it in, but Benji was in "look what I've caught" pose.....

We have a reasonable garden with a back fence bordering a railway and field the other side.

 

I will later start reading one of my newly acquired book - the "workshop manual" for a Saturn V. I was interested in the moon stuff as a kid and Neil Armstrong et al, will always be on my "heroes" list for sitting atop a 3000 tonne bomb.

 

Mrs and Junior have gone out for a walk and I have been tasked with picking them up in about 15 minutes and taking them to lunch - at  KFC!! It's all go in our household.

 

I may do some modelling later with my newly acquired information.

 

Back to work for three days tomorrow. I wonder how many calls I'll get asking how to wire up a DCC controller...?

 

Have good rest of the day folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

Edited December 26, 2017 by newbryford

[Horsetan]

.......A parent and child were attempting to fly their drone in the park ....

 

Was this anywhere near a prison?

[BoD]

I will later start reading one of my newly acquired book - the "workshop manual" for a Saturn V. I was interested in the moon stuff as a kid and Neil Armstrong et al, will always be on my "heroes" list for sitting atop a 3000 tonne bomb.

  

Cheers,

Mick

I remember building an Airfix model of the Saturn V I got as a Christmas present many moons ago (see what I did there?).

The finished model was impressive but I was distinctly underwhelmed when building it. There were not that many parts or that much detailing. When you think about it though, there wouldn't be.

[Tony_S]

Was this anywhere near a prison?

Even if they could have got it to take off the batteries wouldn't last as far as Chelmsford.

[Tony_S]

I remember building an Airfix model of the Saturn V I got as a Christmas present many moons ago (see what I did there?).

The finished model was impressive but I was distinctly underwhelmed when building it. There were not that many parts or that much detailing. When you think about it though, there wouldn't be.

The real thing seems quite detailed. There is one displayed horizontally in Houston.

[Gwiwer]

Morning all.  

 

Just a check-in as I haven't long returned from Sussex and have not back-read the Christmas mail.

 

Managed to drive safely there and back with fewer cockwombles on the roads than anticipated.  One decidedly womblous BMW driver tested his high-beam flashing for a time on the A24 where I was overtaking slower-moving traffic perfectly safely while travelling at 70mph in the right-hand lane.  When it was safe to move left I did so and said BMW roared past and disappeared in a cloud of dust at what might have been approaching a full Ton.  Anyone who knows the sinuous nature of the A24 will know how dangerous that is.

 

Also encountered one unlucky but uninjured driver on the old section near Capel who had been hit by someone reversing from a drive on a blind bend disabling both cars and requiring the attendance of the police to pass traffic one way at a time.  Inconvenient more than serious in both cases but someone would have been late for their Christmas morning gathering.

 

Family news is that mother is extremely poorly.  Sister and myself were the only ones to visit yesterday and found her propped up in bed with insufficient strength left to even take the three steps required to the commode.  She hadn't eaten anything the previous evening and managed only a biscuit and glass of Lucozade all of yesterday.  It is the considered opinion of the family that her time is now very short indeed despite the fact that she remains mentally alert and talkative.  Sister is exhausted and I shall be relieving her of some domestic duties as work and rail strikes permit over the coming days.  She and several of her family have also endured the horrible cold which is going the rounds.  We all, seven in total, managed to sit around the table to share Christmas dinner but middle nephew retired back to bed soon afterwards and sister, having ben obliged to drive youngest nephew to work at 6am today due to a lack of public transport, then pronounced herself unfit for any further duties and retired for the day with a box of tissues and various medications.

 

In short the welcomes were warm and the givings generous but it neither felt like a "proper" family Christmas nor, given Mum's condition, was it entirely happy.  But that is how things are and each of us has a limited time on the planet.  While Mum might rally slightly and go on for a while I fear I am expecting a phone call at any time.

 

Best wishes to all.  Thoughts with those known to be in particular need or distress.  I'll be back soon.

[laurenceb]

Thoughts are with you Rick

[The Stationmaster]

Visited Tesco to buy the 'paper and one or two 'cold fighting' items for the Good Doctor.  En passant however we duly noted some remaindered turkeys - going for £2 each; great bargain for those who like such poultry as they could be popped in the freezer and saved for another day, we don't like or eat turkey so we passed by.

 

One motoring cockwomble noted - drawn up at a roundabout in the left hand lane he then proceeded to turn right, perhaps a bit full of 'Christmas cheer' (or maybe he was just plain stupid)?

[Tony_S]

Our only drive was down to the park. Very little traffic today. Fortunately no drones for Robbie to catch. New bike day today. Everyone was being sensible and aware of other path users. We did go to the small Sainsbury for some milk. We didn't overstock before Christmas Day. Our milk consumption goes up a lot when Matthew is at home.

Not a lot happening for the rest of the day, late lunch soon.

[AndyB]

Afternoon all, 

 

For whatever reason - potentially related to excitement - meant that the children were up and about at around 04:00. 

I was feeling the early start by 19:00. 

 

Driving duties yesterday meant that I spent the day alcohol free, so had a glass of port for breakfast this morning.  

 

Roads were ok yesterday and I was glad to be sharp enough to avoid a driver who pulled straight out of a side road in front of me. Emergency stop by both of us. 

I was particularly pleased to be alcohol free as the car that pulled out into my path had some annotation down the side in large blue lettering. _ _L_CE, for any hangman fans.   

 

Father Christmas was generous and brought me some set-track that I wanted to use as a planning tool for an upcoming layout. 

First result of the test is that my GF coaches seem to uncouple quite easily. May have to rethink the layout idea! Not sure how others get their layouts to work with 9" radii?? I'm struggling with 3rd radius.

 

Anyway, enough of this, and back to the mince pies! 

[tetsudofan]

Afternoon from the far south east corner. Awoke to a bright and sunny morning so, after a few moments of thought, decided to have a play with my Christmas present to myself.

 

After a quick walk round the garden checking for obstacles such as pine needles, fallen twigs, leaves and fox poo it was time to get this new beauty out of its box and send it off for a trip round the garden:

 

 

For those interested the stone lantern in the picture came from Japan and formed part of an in-door garden set up in my office in Tokyo. When the office was moved there was no space for the lantern in the new office so somehow the lantern made its way to the UK. It's been in the garden for maybe 20 years and is weathering nicely.

 

What amazed me most was how little detritus there was around the garden, maybe all the leaf and twig removal that I did before the winter set in has proved its worth. Thinking about it, its probably the neatest that the garden has been at this time of the year for many a year.

 

Hopefully all bodes well for re-awakening this garden this coming Spring.

 

Keith

Edited December 26, 2017 by tetsudofan

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl Inner Temple Here,

Two ibuprofen were taken with breakfast, before, heading to the sailing club.

We get a good attendance on boxing Day with old friends and sailors turning up to watch and consume Corinne's famous rum punch...

 

Weather southwesterly, 15mph gusting 30mph right on the limits.. not a cloud in the sky,

 

Course. 4p outside black horse broad, 1p near village staithe, 2p outside the club house corner by the swan Inn green. https://goo.gl/maps/aJGAEH2r2T52

 

Race 1,

We were delayed a bit by all the other boats, being in our way , so we turned late for the line.

The lead boats were early, everyone heading for the starboard of the line. The lead boats had sailed down most of the line just when A, the buzzer went, B , a multistory block of flats aka a floating gin palace, came across the line.. the lead boats were forced to turn away, the slightly later ones, were able to head up more into the wind and go behind the gin palace.

We much further behind carried on at a higher course. So when those stopped by the gin palace came back they were forced to turn behind us...

So we popped out into 4th, but within a tack or two that was third.

 

We the set off after the 2nd place boat slowly catching up, until we rounded buoy 4, we then hauled up our spinnaker, and carried on catching up. Reaching the Swan Inn corner we were inches behind them, and were forced to go round the outside as they held the bank. Luckily with the tide still going out we overtook, and had the inside for buoy 1, we held this to buoy 2, and beyond.

But in the tacking up river they caught up, by the time we had turned the bend, we were tacking along side each other for several tacks. Then disaster, we turned to avoid the other boat but not enough, to clear them. Although we did not collide we had to take the penalty of a 720 degree turn. That done we chased after them up to buoy.

Rounding buoy 4 we got the spinnaker up, and were catching when we got bit by a huge gust of wind and overpowered were heading rapidly for the bank. The tiller extension caught in the main sheet horse were within inches of the bank by the time we recovered control. More to the point the other boat got the wind right and had shot away. So we trailed them all the way to the finish.

Coming in third.

 

 

This race overran and we had to wait a long time for the later boats. But it gave us time for a cup of coffee..

 

Race 2, this time we made a good start, in second place, to the boat which won the first race and after a few tacks were in first place. My many Christmas dinners keeping the boat upright more in the strong wind. We slowly pulled away from them and the previous race second place boat also passed them.

Many tacks later and we rounded buoy 4. Up spinnakers and away we went, they slowly caught till the bend, but we chose the middle to right hand bank they chose the left on the straight to the club. We continued to get ahead more for the rest of the race and finished in First.

 

Then after packing away it was time for rum punch and mince pies, while we waited the dinghies who ran their faces 5 minutes after us, were also up for the combined results on handicap.

 

As it turned out, in the first race we were 4th overall, but in the second we were first. So we won the silver platter for this year.

 

Time to,. Have some more whisky..

 

Oh we were shown a sailing calender at the club in which we starred in. I'm trying to track that down.

Edited December 26, 2017 by TheQ

[New Haven Neil]

Evening.

 

Not much to report sort of day, but Rick is uppermost in my thoughts.

 

We went to John's for lunch, and managed only to run his layout for 20 minutes...  ;-)  Didn't get told off too badly.

 

Like Mick, tomorrow will be a day of DCC (and other train thing) related phone calls!  Thankfully, unlike last year we won't be inundated with complaints about those cheap little Hornby controllers not working in train sets - we didn't sell them this year!  They let themselves down badly with that product, but it did our Gaugemaster sales a lot of good.....

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Venturing out this morning I did not see very much cockwomblery but plenty of evidence it over the previous 48 hours. Near my street is a mini roundabout with railings to protect the footpaths, someone had tried to form them into a modern sculpture with their car. This afternoon I went to pay a visit to my brother and as I neared a sharp dog-leg I noticed that the board with the chevrons pointing to the right was crumpled having been hit by a vehicle coming from the right. A few yards further on on the roundabout for the hospital there was a wrecked BMW buried in the hedgerow with a 'police aware' notice on it. It might be something to do with the police helicopter buzzing around late last night.

[lightengine]

Is it time to rename Boxing Day to "Returns Day"?

[roundhouse]

Happy boxing day all.

 

Sunny but cool here. However a trip out to Largs thrn bus to Wemyss Bay Station meant that we got a fair few nice shots.

now back in Glasgow for our final evening in Scotland this year.

[bbishop]

Evening all.  Boxing Day is usually "Arthur Day".  Arthur Christmas cake, Arthur Christmas pud., Arthur stilton, etc.  For reasons set out yesterday, I was somewhat out of provisions so a trip to the purple store at 10am found the staff busy discounting the stock to tuppence halfpenny.  Now provisioned.

 

Then a walk round Petts Woods to blow out the cobwebs.

 

And this evening I have some work to do on the South Western Circle portfolio service.

 

Tomorrow is a trip to M&S in Oxford Street for clothing in the sales, then a blood donor session at 3pm.

 

Bill

[Barry O]

Hey up!

 

a laid back sort of day. Food eaten, tea drunk, soccer watched (well bits of it watched), a bit more muddling done and now..an early night beckons as her indoors has decided that we will get the bus to town tomorrow for "shopping"... oh badgers!

 

Sleep well all

 

Baz

[TheQ]

Evening Awl,

 

The good news... They've let Dad out of hospital. :)

 

The bad news I may have bricked my PC....?

Having read all my emails on the pc, I was trying to get it to recognise the new SSD so i Could clone onto it. The bios recognised the SSD correctly, but it would not come up in windows.

I tried a few settings in the bios then.....

It won't read the delete key to go into bios mode, it will read F10 or F12 to do other things.

 

Tomorrow when the frustration has cooled and I can find a torch, I'll get down on my hands and knees to reset the cmos.

 

The motherboard is 10 years old, so in the mean time I'll see what's available...

[newbryford]

 

 

Like Mick, tomorrow will be a day of DCC (and other train thing) related phone calls!  Thankfully, unlike last year we won't be inundated with complaints about those cheap little Hornby controllers not working in train sets - we didn't sell them this year!  They let themselves down badly with that product, but it did our Gaugemaster sales a lot of good.....

 

If we're quiet, I'll phone you up pretending to be a customer with a "problem".

 

Cheers,

Mick

[laurenceb]

Night awl