Early Risers.

[AndyID]

Time for a doggy pic. No particular reason

 

[NGT6 1315]

Cheers, folks. Now stretching out on the sofa after a dinner of mirzeh ghasemi and baghalee ghatogh with rice. Hope you all made something worthwhile out of this day .

 

The tram accident in Kassel seems to have been the result of the HGV having failed to observe a red light. I suppose the tram will at the very least require an extensive rebuild, given that the body segment directly affected by the impact looks like it has suffered irreparable structural damage...

 

Snow predicted again for tomorrow - we shall see...

[AndyB]

Evening all,

The drive to work was easy, although taking a front wheel drive car I borrowed from swmbo was probably wise. 

Not as many portable igloos on the road today, although I did spot one Mini Cooper where the driver had meticulously cleaned the windscreen, but left several inches of snow on the bonnet and roof. 

[AndyID]

Evening all,

The drive to work was easy, although taking a front wheel drive car I borrowed from swmbo was probably wise. 

Not as many portable igloos on the road today, although I did spot one Mini Cooper where the driver had meticulously cleaned the windscreen, but left several inches of snow on the bonnet and roof.

 

Some people do that here but it's a bit silly. Jump on the brakes and the whole lot slides off and completely blocks the windscreen. (Do not ask me how I know this.)

[Tony_S]

We had bean and potato curry, dal, and rongi (black eyed bean curry) . With rice and naan just to be decadent, usually either bready stuff or rice but not both here.

Dom's Iranian meal sounds similar to many North Indian recipes. There was a lot of Persian influence in North India, though of course aubergines are originally Indian.

Tony

[newbryford]

Busy day.

One of our staff phoned into work yesterday with a minor transport problem.

His flight back from Munich had been cancelled.

 

So muggins here volunteered to meet a truck with a 20' container that was arriving at our warehouse.

Fully expecting it to be on pallets and a 10 minute job with the services of our friendly next door fork lift truck and driver.

 

Opened the door to be greeted by the sight of 288 boxes - not on pallets. Not pleased.

 

So I started to fill up a pallet that the truck lifted up.

Then one of my work colleagues arrived to help.

 

288 boxes of varying sizes and weights were then manhandled onto pallets which were removed faster than we could fill them.

 

Job done - but - not quite.

 

Said 288 boxes - all individually numbered then had to be sorted and checked in.

They are now sitting in relatively neat groups of 10.#

 

Just as we finished, our errant traveller turned up on his way back from the airport to home. 500 euros for a Munich-Manchester flight with LH and there were four of them each paying that. A clear case of supply and demand!

 

Got to back to the office to be greeted with a customer service phonecall to a fellow ER. Good to match a voice to a name - Hi Neil!

 

My back is now quietly aching, but at least it feels like a 288 boxache and not sciatica pain. The hot bath is nearly ready.

 

Catch up later.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. An interesting snip of film on Facebook, a transporter loaded with Transit vans tried to go under a low bridge. The inevitable happened and a van on the top struck the bridge. To make matters worse it was a skew bridge that twisted the van until it came in contact with one of the uprights of the transporter resulting in one very bent (banana shaped) Transit. Sorry I can't post it here, I still haven't got the hang of posting Facebook items.

EDIT. FYI the road markings showed directions for A40(W) and A468 and there was a large direction sign in the distance showing a roundabout but too distant to read.

Edited March 19, 2018 by PhilJ W

[trisonic]

Where’s Ian?

 

NWS say we could get 14 inches of snow on Wednesday, the first full day of Spring - that’s more than the highest totals in the UK for a year............ Then more snow next Sunday.

Does this mean we should burn more carbon?

 

Best, Pete.

[New Haven Neil]

Evening.

 

First day back at work was a little busy, to say the least, but a lot got done.  A chat to Mick mid afternoon to discuss a matter was pleasant, improved the day a lot as the pile of things on my bench wasn't reducing much at that time.  Amongst the debris was a FEEFO Gold Trusted Service Award, which is a nice bit of feedback for our hard working staff.  And me. Just haven't worked hard for the last 6 weeks!

 

Got home knackered, and then had a laser treatment on my foot by the Physioterrorist.  Its supposed to help with healing, both of the scars and deeper tissue - she did explain it all, sounds highly testical. Oddly for her, it didn't hurt.  She made up for it by massaging ligaments and things to release adhesions.  That hurt.

 

 

 

[Tony_S]

The snow here melted but that which melted has since started freezing to ice. By tomorrow mid morning it should be just into double digit Celsius .

My next outing will be to Alexandra Palace, I am not sure whether it will be Saturday or Sunday. Aditi has a cunning plan to deposit me near one of the Enfield stations and then go to see her Mum.

Tony

Edited March 19, 2018 by Tony_S

[Gwiwer]

We are both somewhat more than tired this evening.  It is time for bed despite the relatively early hour.

 

But I shall go with a grin and perhaps even an unrestrained chortle on account of Neil's

Physioterrorist

 

[AndyB]

Where’s Ian?

 

 

Best, Pete.

 

Which one?

Ian A

Ian (RH)

Ian (OD)

[Barry O]

I would suggest Ian A...

 

meanwhile back at the ranch....

 

well done Mick

Neil hope the physio goes well...

 

wonder how Debs is....

 

Nighty night Rick

 

Wonder how olddudders is doing??

 

 

Baz

 

ps shortly heading form some sleep too as I am cream crackered after the weekend...now getting ready to help operate Grantham at Alley Pally this weekend..Hope to see you Tony!

[PhilJ W]

Evening again from Estuary-Land. I have a problem, I booked four seats for the rail trip to Bath next Tuesday the 27th, and the people who said that they would like to take the other three seats have all dropped out. So I have three spare seats and only a week in which to fill them. The pick ups are Southend East, Upminster, Barking, Stratford and Slough if anyone is interested please PM me.

[New Haven Neil]

Well it wasn't this bad!

 

 

Nah, you can't feel it actually.  Kirree-Anne is lovely, helps divert your attention when she's doing the other stuff!

[Simon G]

Beautiful sunny day here today, so all the old slates have now been removed from roof. I expect more tiles will go on tomorrow.

 

Our lane has been closed for a good part of today for Openreach work, which unfortunately meant that the bin men could not get down. Most annoying as for once, the bin was chock full.

 

I was feeling so tired this afternoon, so that when I sat down to read a book, I promptly fell asleep for about half an hour. The sleep didn’t seem to refresh me much, so it will be an earlier night than usual.

[roundhouse]

Evening

 

As the repalcement battery arrived through the post box today my task this evening was to replace the battery in my other halfs smart watch that hasnt been so smart recently.

 

Watched a few Youtube videos on how to do it. Quite fiddly but the good news is that the watch is now working again without constantly crashing. Save buying a replacement watch for now.

 

kept me going till now which is good as will hopefully get over the time difference in the next day or so. This weekend the clocks go forward for us again, so twice in the same month due to being Stateside when theirs changed to DST.

Edited March 19, 2018 by roundhouse

[Purley Oaks]

Evening all

Still chilly here but a high of 8C expected tomorrow afternoon.

We went to see the Black Panther movie this evening - good fun but too much CGI in the fight scenes, which were too long, anyway, imho. Had to ask a young woman if she could possibly stop looking at her bright phone screen when she switched it on for a second time just 5 minutes in. It was right in my peripheral vision. She did - would have been nice had she apologised afterwards, or is that my age?

Have a warm night

Mal

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PeterBB]

Peter Herculaneum Dock worked reasonably well.. first time I have ever had point switches affected by the cold!

 

One of the 'bigger' layouts working on two levels.  At least you were in a warm part - those in the L- shaped bit  (American, German etc.) were really cold and the draft (wind) coming through the door was truly arctic.  We were stuck in the far corner and were reasonably well protected although I did not keep my coat off for long.

 

Followed your holiday with 'jealousy' ... as a student we had a geomorphology book by Cotton with NZ examples and I thought that at some time I would go ... things changed and it didn't happen and now in reality probably will not as family takes priority.  It certainly looked like a fantastic experience.

 

Cheers, Peter

[The Stationmaster]

I was required to take herself shopping and as my car is parked on the shady side of the house some clearance of snow was needed. and some of that was best tackled with a (plastic) shovel as the snow was more than 6 inches deep.  I took care to clear the front end of the roof having had to make a rather sudden stop in Didcot, to avoid an idiot pedestrian,  during a snow period some years back - which of course brought most of what I'd left on the roof straight off it onto the windscreen, oops.

[tomparryharry]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. An interesting snip of film on Facebook, a transporter loaded with Transit vans tried to go under a low bridge. The inevitable happened and a van on the top struck the bridge. To make matters worse it was a skew bridge that twisted the van until it came in contact with one of the uprights of the transporter resulting in one very bent (banana shaped) Transit. Sorry I can't post it here, I still haven't got the hang of posting Facebook items.

EDIT. FYI the road markings showed directions for A40(W) and A468 and there was a large direction sign in the distance showing a roundabout but too distant to read.

 

Hi Folks,

 

The Transit transporter got himself stuck under the bridge at Abergavenny. He has just exited the A40, off the A449 (Newport-Monmouth-Hereford) towards the Heads of the Valleys road (A465). Abergavenny Station is about 400 yards from here. The rail line is Newport (Maindee) to Pontrilas. Funnily enough, I drove under the bridge about 2 days ago. No, I didn't get stuck!

 

Ian.

[tomparryharry]

Which one?

Ian A

Ian (RH)

Ian (OD)

 Forgot me as well....

 

Ian. (No, not that Ian, another Ian.....).

[Ozexpatriate]

... will hopefully get over the time difference in the next day or so. This weekend the clocks go forward for us again, so twice in the same month due to being Stateside when theirs changed to DST.

On top of the 8 6 (thanks roundhouse) hour jet lag from Denver (it's normally 7) that would be a mess to my system. Twice a year is enough. "They say" it takes a day to recover for each hour of displaced time zones. Some people I know take melatonin at bedtime but I've never tried it. (It takes me longer than that when we 'spring forward'.

 

On the domestic front, knowing that it was headed to the garage, my motor car started flawlessly this morning in the cool fog.  Optimism crept in, but I knew that it would fail if I didn't take it in immediately. Knowing they wouldn't have the parts, I was loaned a courtesy car and the repair shop diagnosed a faulty safety switch which is due to be replaced tomorrow. (Last time this happened it wasn't diagnosed the first time.)  After the ransom is paid I should have the car back, so good news in all.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Ozexpatriate

[roundhouse]

On top of the 8 hour jet lag from Denver (it's normally 7) that would be a mess to my system. Twice a year is enough. "They say" it takes a day to recover for each hour of displaced time zones. Some people I know take melatonin at bedtime but I've never tried it. (It takes me longer than that when we 'spring forward'.

 

 

Its actually 6 hours difference at the moment till this Sunday when it reverts back to 7 hours.

 

As I get older it takes me longer to adjust and hence why I am wide awake again. We have another trip already booked in the Summer to Kansas City and another trip in the planning later on in the year so plenty of punishment to the system let alone the beer hunting.