Early Risers.

[tetsudofan]

Seeing Roundhouse's pictures above reminds me I was up in London on Saturday and spent some time down river dangling up in the sky for a few minutes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First time I had been on the Air-Line, quite interesting especially seeing parts of the river that you don't normally see. After the ride it was off to the Museum of the London Docklands for the AGM of The Tram and Light Railway Society.

 

Keith

[jamie92208]

I'm a royalist through and through. 

 

Btw BoD has hit another nail on the head.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall to hear his granddad's comments....

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

The first and only home depot I've been in was at Dhahran in Saudi Arabia, the fitted out as per home depot in the USA.... Quite what Saudis at sea level were going to do with snow shovels I have no idea...

 

The last time I saw HMS Belfast I was putting a fire out, a warehouse a hundred yards away back in 1977...

 

Nine tins of humbrol bought on the way home, ouch have they gone up since I last bought some. Though I note they were cheaper than humbrol list price.

 

Loosing 50kg would loose just under half my weight, and well below my fittest weight when in the RAF, I know I'm over, but nowhere near that much. Well done ID.

 

Meantime various items for the manufacture of 2mm scale fencing have arrived, not all here yet though. I'd like all the alternatives to get here before final decisions are made.

Also arrived that necessity for a Highland scene, a flock of white metal sheep, the other part of the order including more sheep, a farmer and Ben the Border Collie have yet to be rounded up and penned.

[81C]

I'd love to be a fly on the wall to hear his granddad's comments....

 

Jamie

Pity Fluck & Law never got to grips with that one those guys were funny. 

[81C]

Handbags at dawn.....for goodness sake each to their own!! 

 

Baz

It looks as if they have both had "The Order of the Boot" neither of them have posted since their last handbag event this morning.    

[New Haven Neil]

Where’s NH Neil?

Found a live feed for the main drag between New York and Boston at Norwalk, Connecticut. Two camera’s attached to SONO tower.

Quite good. The branch off to the left goes to Danbury CT. You can catch the Acela in the middle and plenty of Slow or fast Locals. The NH heritage is still discernible in these.....

 

 

Many Happy Returns, Rick!!!!!

 

Best, Pete.

 

He's here.....

 

Just a bit busy at the mo.  I'll have to watch that for a while, looks good!

[Barry O]

well  that was two hours of my life I won't get back... Two Ground visits. At the first one the Club can't be bothered to turn up...pah!  The second went well but that is 4 Clubs visited, two successfully.

 

Sleep well all!

 

Baz

[newbryford]

 

 

Today, once I've breakfasted, I'm off to a village near Clitheroe to see my best mate from my childhood.   

 

 I hope you had your passport checked....

 

 

 

Really pleased with the mpg on the new car, already hitting mid 50s without really trying and doing (mainly) short runs. The Focus was mainly low 20s and only got to mid 30s on a long run.* This will probably not surprise or even impress some of you  but to me and my wallet it seems that the modelling fund could prosper.

 

 

 

 

So what you need to do, is go on a really, really long drive and save even more money..........

 

 

 

Car is in for a major service and MOT this afternoon, so a minimum of £205 before any other remedial work which might be involved - and that is in a cheap garage, though the mechanic is Peuguot trained.

 

Back tomorrow

Regards to All

Stewart

 

£205 for a Peugeot service. Is that a coincidence?

 

Cheers,

Mick

[trisonic]

No apologies for including another aerial movie; this time it is the USAF “Thunderbirds” in their F16s.

 

I’m a big fan of the F15E but you have to admit that the visibility from the F16 cockpit is amazing (I don’t like canards, fans of the Typhoon) see shots at 4:05, 6:35, 8:44.

 

Nice way to while away some time, though.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMXHlw80v4k

 

Even the ground crew work in unison.....

 

Cheers, Pete.

Edited May 17, 2018 by trisonic

[Gwiwer]

Ladies and gents,

 

Many thanks for the birthday wishes.  It has been quite a lap of the Sun this last twelve months.  I had just arrived back from the Colonies this time last year, to a nearly bare flat awaiting the arrival of our container-load of furniture and goods.  I had no idea where or even if I might be employed in the future and, with a nod of apology to Debs, I had only just taken a chain saw and lump hammer to a very well-known and popular piece of scaled-down Cornish fantasy.  Things were uncertain to say the least.

 

We are now on a much firmer footing having both passed our respective probationary periods of employment.  SWMBO wouldn't dare, surely, to consider moving elsewhere the very month she was told personally by Sir David Attenborough how much of a step-change her work had made to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.  I have enough wood, plastic and other stuff to enable 12-volt powered motion of certain unspecified objects within a few weeks.  

 

The support received from here, and through the message system, has been extremely valuable.  ERs is known for its friendship and support even among those we may never have met face to face.  I am always happy to offer that in return.

 

A full-on shift this morning was followed by collection of the Fortnum & Mason picnic hamper the contents of which had to be refrigerated until tonight.  The flat was cleaned, the Terrace was cleaned and the Rick was cleaned before dinner was enjoyed under the lowering sun and the gently trickling water feature (being the downpipe from the Neighbours Upstairs bathroom!).  A very tasty meal was shared by the two of us before being joined for drinks by Upstairs.  SWMBO declined the offer of a subsequent visit to a local house of alcoholic refreshment but three of us continued our evening there for a couple more hours.  I can truly say that was the most relaxing and enjoyable evening since I arrived Upon this Hill of Strawberries and has more than cancelled out any sense of loss being the first birthday with both parents now passed away.

 

Onwards and upwards.  And with special thoughts to all our absentees and those enduring sickness of any kind.  

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all.

[BSW01]

Evening everyone

 

As I mentioned earlier, once we’d had dinner I refitted the bath panel, it was all finished, tools and equipment etc put away for 3:30, just in time for a large muggertea. Seeing as I didn’t start the refitting the panel until after 2:00, I don’t think I did too badly at all. However, this morning whilst rummaging around under the bath I managed to scratch my arm in a couple of places, not badly, but enough that unfortunately meant that I wasn’t able to go open water swimming tonight as planned. Well I wouldn’t want to get leptospirosis, the risk is increased slightly with open wounds, so I decided to give it a miss. So instead I’ll go to the pool tomorrow morning. Sheila has kindly offered to wait in for the parcel that is due from Hattons, which is their P class loco in SECR Green.

 

Goodnight all

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Tangoman69]

Cock a doodle doo!!

 

Good morning all,

Caravan is packed, 2 Conf calls this morning, then deploy to site, then 2 planned calls this afternoon.

 

Then relax....BBQ, beer and sunshine all weekend.

 

Have a good one everyone!

☀

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is quite a pleasant morning today.  According to the weather, it is supposed to be the coldest day of the week - but I think it may get quite warm later on.

 

Behold!  I bring the gift of beer

 

 

Have a good day everyone...

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all, with many happy and belated returns to Rick.  Yesterday I picked from my garden the first strawberry of the season.  It was delicious.

 

Tomorrow I shall try to reach Bracknell for ExpoEM Spring.  This will mean an early start if there is to be any hope of avoiding the lemmings bound for Windsor.  A few minutes with the road atlas today could be time well spent.  If it were not for Expo I would not willingly visit the town.  It is a monument to all that was bad in 1960s town planning and I fear that the recent demolition works are merely tinkering.  Perhaps the new build will be an improvement on what went before.  Oh, is that a squadron of pigs overhead?

 

I hope to be back from Bracknell on Sunday in time to watch the new drama on BBC1, “A Very English Scandal”.  Hugh Laurie plays Jeremy Thorpe and Ben Whishaw is cast as Norman Scott in Russell T Davies’s dramatisation.  I can watch anything with Ben Whishaw in it and it may be of interest that I met Jeremy Thorpe 50 years ago.

 

Neil, Mike, Bob, Andy and Stewart, thank you so much for caring and for offering advice which at the moment I am neither taking nor spurning.  Harry and I have been e-friends for 10 years with long gaps in our conversations.  We had met on line with a common cause.  When the present conversation started last month we were both looking forward to meeting for only the second time. The reason we have only met once before is that it has always proved infernally difficult to arrange and I lost count long ago of the unsuccessful attempts.  When the new boyf came along via a website, three weeks back, Harry abruptly discarded, or was made to discard, a part of his life which had been a driving force for ten years because the new boyf isn’t into it.  The suitors have decided understandably that they will not meet other guys while they are seeing one another but it depends what you mean by “meet” and by “guy”.  I have sought clarification.  As things stand, Harry feels free to go to the pub with other friends but not this one.  I’m not letting that go without a fight and discussions continue.  I smell a rat and suspect that Harry is not in full control of his relationship.  My throwaway remark about “Jealous Guy” the other day is beginning to haunt me.  A fuss over nothing?  Maybe.

 

Warm thoughts as always to Debs, Andyram, Robert and his dad, Tony and Aditi, Simon, Mal and all others in distress.

 

Back here on Monday

[PeterBB]

Hi Guys,

 

Reception variable so probably limited visitations for a while ... cannot pick up everything and generally cannot post comment.  Hope things go well for all in need.  Peter

[TheQ]

 And the cat says.... ok where's the bottle opener?

 

 

Mooring Awl, Inner temple here,

 A good nights sleep was had which I definately needed.

The Northerly breeze has eased, leaving a sky of threatening black clouds with little patches of blue though which an occasional view of the Big Fried egg may be seen.

 

On fully examining the yesterdays packages, a 2mm Scale Ben the Border Collie,  a famer and some more sheep were rounded up. A "little" painting  is required for which 305mm Scale Ben will be modelling tonight. Which reminds me I have a piece of shelf glass sat outside the mobile home, which was originally planned for fence making but may be better employed for mi-nute painting

Strangely the stuff I ordered first Namely a new set of batteries for the chainsaw on a stick appear to be the last items to turn up.

 

This mornings TV news began with  Hello I'm standing.... AAAAArgh.

 

Sunday is World Metrology Day, so today is the day of my bosses demonstration and lecture. As of 15:00 when I left work yesterday, he and his deputy were still struggling to get the demostration piece to work. A lot of lego, some electromagents and a laser are involved. The Lecture is at 10:15 this morning....

 

Todays work, is a previous model of temperture measurement system, only 1 part per milllion accuracy. I don't see  many now as there are no more spare parts to be had for some key "ingredients" inside. They take longer to measure but I do prefer working on them.

 

Time to check the spam, and then go play with resistors and a temperature device.

[45156]

Morning All

 

Sunny here again this morning, and car got its service and MOT - passed with no issues at all, not even an advisory, which is good news for a six year old vehicle with 68K on the clock.  Service came in on price at £204.99 - had to sit around as they don't do loan cars, but they did pull out the stops and got two mechanics on it for a while to speed things up and to get it back by 4.30. 

 

Flavio - that weight loss is quite some achievement, and I have no doubt that you will lose the other 10kg without too much problem.

 

Mentions, as usual, for Simon, Mal, Tony, Robert, Andy, ChrisF, and Debs - and anybody else who is ailing or suffering.

 

Oh and how I wish that the event tomorrow was not being covered so much on the media - Chris Evans is an even bigger PITA than usual this morning. 

 

Regards to All

Stewart

Edited May 18, 2018 by 45156

[grandadbob]

Good morning all, 

Another sunny start to the day and it should stay that way.

It appears that domestic duties are called for today and I may (possibly) cut the grass/weed patch that I didn't do yesterday. I did do some other stuff outside including weeding and cleaning the BBQ as I'd forgotten to do it after we last used it. 

I will make very effort to avoid watching the television or even being in the same room when it's on because I'm fed up with the so called reporting about "the event" unlike The Boss who seems to be lapping up very detail. Apparently this makes me an old misery and a grumpy old sod.     So be it. 

Have a good one,

Bob.

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a sunny village.  In this house the TV has just been turned off to avoid the drivel that they are all spouting about a certain event tomorrow.   I wish the couple all the best for the future and hope that they make a go of it. 

 

Yesterday was great. I had a good run up to rural Lancashire, fortunately Mick (NB) as a native of a proper northern county (Cumberland) I don't need a passport when travelling around and between these troublesome southern neighbours.   I hadn't seen Mick for over 15 years and we had a good few hours catching up. He showed me part of his collection of classic cars, classic Land Rovers and Classic Massey Ferguson and Ford tractors.   His pride and joy is this.

Not a 'blower' as I thought but still a mightily impressive machine and fully roadworthy.   We had an excellent pub lunch nearby and generally caught up. Mick and I were best mates throughout our childhood and spent much of that time playing in the beck that runs through the village.   It's all prettified now and we would probably get served with ASBO's nowadays.   He was forced to leave school by his dad to help run the family farm and when he was 18 told his dad, who didn't pay him, where to go and walked out.  He's not done badly for himself.   Hopefully he'll be coming to visit in France.

 

Then back home in the afternoon and more clearing done.  The back bedroom and half the landing are now clear so we can entertain guests this weekend.   

 

Our friends arrive this afternoon and Martin and Katie (No 1 son and partner) arrive tomorrow.   I am now tasked with various jobs for the rest of the day but already half the ironing has been done.

 

Chrisf, I hope that you manage to sort things out.   Thoughts are very much with Debs, Robert, Simon, Mal and all the others in need.   Rick, it seems like you had a very good birthday.

 

Regards to all and back to finish the ironing before the hairderesser arrives to see to us both.

 

Jamie

 

[Purley Oaks]

Good morning all

 

Another bright and sunny morning here, the best May weather for years in Edinburgh.

 

Saw new oncologist yesterday, much more positive than the previous one; scan is what he'd expect to see so soon after a big op, wants to see another scan for comparison in August. Feel good. Gabe seemed happy, too, probably because he was very fanciable.

 

 

No apologies for including another aerial movie; this time it is the USAF “Thunderbirds” in their F16s.

Cheers, Pete.

Thanks for this, Pete, slightly reminiscent of when I stopped regularly at Londonderry Truck Park and watched the RAF planes taking off very loudly from RAF Leeming. Not quite so meticulous as the USAF, but then the RAF were never known for marching in time anyway. 

 

Good morning one and all, with many happy and belated returns to Rick.  Yesterday I picked from my garden the first strawberry of the season.  It was delicious.

 

I hope to be back from Bracknell on Sunday in time to watch the new drama on BBC1, “A Very English Scandal”.  Hugh Laurie plays Jeremy Thorpe and Ben Whishaw is cast as Norman Scott in Russell T Davies’s dramatisation.  I can watch anything with Ben Whishaw in it and it may be of interest that I met Jeremy Thorpe 50 years ago.

Don't know if you'll see this, Chris, but it's Hugh Grant (not Laurie) playing Thorpe; looks an interesting drama.

 

The rhubarb picked on Wednesday tastes great. And there's a load more, too. It's green rather than pink, but who cares when it tastes so good?

 

On a different note, G was astonished that I spent over £30 on Harry Knox's book about St Margaret's Shed. Good job she doesn't know about the Rails Caley 0-6-0 pre-order!

 

Have a good day

 

Mal

Edited May 18, 2018 by Purley Oaks

[chrisf]

Mal, you're quite right.  How silly of me.

 

Chris

[Andrew P]

Morning all from a sunny village.  In this house the TV has just been turned off to avoid the drivel that they are all spouting about a certain event tomorrow.   I wish the couple all the best for the future and hope that they make a go of it. 

 

Yesterday was great. I had a good run up to rural Lancashire, fortunately Mick (NB) as a native of a proper northern county (Cumberland) I don't need a passport when travelling around and between these troublesome southern neighbours.   I hadn't seen Mick for over 15 years and we had a good few hours catching up. He showed me part of his collection of classic cars, classic Land Rovers and Classic Massey Ferguson and Ford tractors.   His pride and joy is this.

P5173389.JPG

Not a 'blower' as I thought but still a mightily impressive machine and fully roadworthy.   We had an excellent pub lunch nearby and generally caught up. Mick and I were best mates throughout our childhood and spent much of that time playing in the beck that runs through the village.   It's all prettified now and we would probably get served with ASBO's nowadays.   He was forced to leave school by his dad to help run the family farm and when he was 18 told his dad, who didn't pay him, where to go and walked out.  He's not done badly for himself.   Hopefully he'll be coming to visit in France.

 

Then back home in the afternoon and more clearing done.  The back bedroom and half the landing are now clear so we can entertain guests this weekend.   

 

Our friends arrive this afternoon and Martin and Katie (No 1 son and partner) arrive tomorrow.   I am now tasked with various jobs for the rest of the day but already half the ironing has been done.

 

Chrisf, I hope that you manage to sort things out.   Thoughts are very much with Debs, Robert, Simon, Mal and all the others in need.   Rick, it seems like you had a very good birthday.

 

Regards to all and back to finish the ironing before the hairderesser arrives to see to us both.

 

Jamie

And NOT a YELLOW one in sight!  

 

Lovely collection  though.