Early Risers.

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all but feel free to disagree

 

Condolences to Rick on the loss of his workmate.  I recall that one of mine died of a heart attack while playing football, aged only 29.

 

Yesterday started so well.  I finished an article, submitted it and had it accepted, all in fairly short order.  This was too good to last.  Later my broadband misbehaved for 20 minutes for more, fortunately just after I had finished an e-conversation.  To be strictly accurate it was finished for me, by a difference of opinion.  It was one of those situations when you know you have upset somebody but aren't quite sure how.  Let us see what the cold light of day brings.

 

I ought to do a fodder run this morning but enthusiasm for that vital task is absent.  Starvation is less attractive though.  The good thing is that it will get me out of the house.

 

Like others, I regret the confirmation by DB that St Pancras - Frankfurt will not happen and to be honest I never thought it would.  Seamless, borderless travel by rail is such a luxury when one has endured the Checkpoint Charlie setup at St P International just to get out of the country.  Those who wish that HS2 would be linked to HS1 haven't a prayer thanks to the Border Agency.

 

Andyram, I'm pleased that you have your extended certificate, though the rigmarole of getting it appears needless and insensitive.  Warm thoughts to you, Debs, Andy P, Robert and his dad, Tony and Aditi, Mal, Simon and all others in distress.

 

Chris

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,   Inner Temple Here,

6.25 hours sleep solidly yippee...

 

 

Drones can Be useful...www.edp24.co.uk/news/man-missing-on-walk-between-brancaster-and-titchwell-lucky-to-be-alive-1-5566262

Regularly people go out on the marshes and further round on the sand and often get caught out by the rising tide. Though in this case it looks like he just fell in and got stuck in the mud, up to his neck in water...

 

Visitor                / local          / actual spelling

Nor--which        /  Norrich      / Norwich

Happis burg      / Haysbrugh  /  Happisburgh

Cost ess sea     / Cossy        / Costessey

Ah cle                / A cl            / Acle

Tackle Nest on / Tacklston   / Tacolneston

Ludgers hall     / Luger-shull    / Ludgershall

Bal I van ich   / Baile a' Mhanaich / Balivanich (in English)

 

Time to go do some work...

 

ugh they've replaced the sick Chris Evans with Sara Cox from bad to worse...time for classic FM..

Edited June 19, 2018 by TheQ

[Barry O]

Nice sunny morning here. Umpiring starts at 10:30..should be finished by 5:30.

 

Yes Sara Cox is a lot more irritating than Chris Evans in a morning.

 

A successful visit to town yesterday. New trousers purchased ready for a wedding we are attending this Saturday. Never been to a Sihk wedding and we are looking forward to it.

 

Now a strange one is it Harewood or Harwood?

 

Have a good day everyone especially those that ail!

Baz

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

The sun is shining and after last nights rain the garden is looking quite lush. Sheila is out this morning for her regular visit to the hairdresser, so once she’s gone I’ll be making chocolate cupcakes with a peppermint buttercream topping for tomorrow nights tea.

 

Back later

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Cloudy with a bit of sunshine and dry at the moment and will be warm but there may be a bit of light rain or drizzle.

Good news is that our neighbour's Mum was released from hospital yesterday and it was not too serious.

Some shopping is on the agenda to start with and later Joe is coming to lunch as he has now finished with school until September. He has got 3 weeks work experience coming up (with son Steve) but is looking for more. Gemma will be here after school as usual. She is not impressed that her brother has an extra long break even though she will get the same in a couple of years time. 

Apparently "we need to get a move on" so I will hopefully return later.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[Simon G]

Hi al, now back home after a long tiring train trip home yesterday, but at least everything ran to time. Now off to Sister Drac for a blood sample in advance of what will hopefully be my last round of chemo.

 

Here is a Cumbrian place name and the way it is pronounced locally:

 

Torpenhow, pronounced Trepenna. I used to fall foul of that one and had the locals amused. Of course, Cumbrian even has its own numbering system, ie Yan, Tan, Tethera etc, which can really confuse the unwary.

[TheQ]

Ah... Hill-Hill-Hill -Hill, as in Tor-Pen-how-hill

 

 and

 

Ain, tain, tethera,

in Wiltshire...

[81C]

Morning Peeps 

Had a lovely meal at my daughters house last night marred by SiL having the telly on so we had to endure 90 minutes

of utter tripe   nuff said.

Today will be another day with the layout some of the scenery is not turning out the way I like it some of the glues used 

take a while to set and bits keep pinging off I'm going to try Gripfil on some parts and instant grab on others, builder stuff

which I know will work and there will be a trip to Hobbycraft later to buy more rattle cans and maybe check out their range

of glues.

                                                                                                                                                                                              enjoy your day U.N.Ibond   

[The Lurker]

Greetings all. Currently preparing for a meeting at Younger Lurker’s school to discuss the funding he gets for his autism and how the school use it. We are not so happy with the way that it has been going and indeed the way that the authority have apparently illegally reduced the level of funding. Hopefully there will be some way forward as a result. I have to play bad cop, which is not my usual style. Meanwhile elder Lurker has been reminded he needs to actually get up and have a shower; none of this wanting even more work experience.....

 

I found the football an exhausting experience; England were fortunate that Tunisia were not very good.

 

I was pleased to see Kent get to the one day cup final where they won’t be playing Yorkshire, who lost yesterday.

 

I hope those who are suffering improve and it would nice to hear again from Debs. It is also good to hear that Jamie and Beth are starting to settle into their new life in France

 

Have a good day all

[lightengine]

I found the football an exhausting experience; England were fortunate that Tunisia were not very good.

Nor was the ref.

Nor were the VAR team in Moscow. Considering VAR is supposed to spot such wrestling moves and that the said move was in his vision area.

Tunisia are the top rated African nation to give them some credit

Good morning to all from the Charente Profonde.  The sun is starting to appear and we are apparently going to get some good weather.

 

Yesterday went quite well.   The shed is now a lot clearer.  To help the lady I did three loaded runs to the Decheterie with my trailer.   Estimate of about 18 cubic metres of rubbish.   However she told Beth that I was bullying her.   Beth was having none of that.   We have agreed for her to leave some stuff which she will pick up in September.   She has also left more rubbish that will fill the trailer at least one more time.  She attempted to let a guy that helped her cherry pick all the garden tools that I was going to have in lieu of rent.   That again has been stamped on.   The end result of all this is that we have gained an awful lot of space in the shed.  It all needs sweeping and I will get the final tip run done this week plus some of our stuff.   Then I'll have to move some stuff round ready for our 9 pallets of stuff to arrive next week.

 

On a cheerier note, many brownie points were earned yesterday.  First of all Beth was able to pick up the Renault Clio that we bought for her in April.   I had even managed to get all the paperwork correct.   Then while she was making tea, I managed a minor adjustment to the satellite dish, that was a major result as we were able to watch the England match last night.

 

Hopefully life will settle down a bit now.   This morning we're off to see the insurance broker and sort the final details of the car insurance.  I'm also going to get him to come and give me a quote to take over the house contents insurance.   Then an afternoon of doing not a lot has been decreed.

 

I sincerely hope that no other ER's end up being involuntary blood donors and hope that those that have done heal quickly. 

 

Regards to all, 

 

Jamie

Did you get the unpaid storage charges though?

[45156]

Morning All,

 

Greetings from a slightly sunny village East of Lancaster.  It just has to be generic greetings to most, with special mentions to Rick, who seems to be cyber suffering, and belated happy anniversary to Tony and Aditi.

 

Won't be back now until next week, as off tomorrow morning to 30747's sister's place for a few days while they're in France.

 

Chimney sweep is here as we speak, and is doing the annual clean of the flue and stove.  Judging from the noise from the chimney breast up here, he is getting a lot of mess down.  I believe it is fifty quid well spent.

 

Back next week.  If anything really significant happens in the meantime, can somebody please PM me with an update.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[TheQ]

Some people should realise when they do a search on the internet through the company network it can trigger adverts on every other computer...thinking "you have searched for"...Laura Ashley it ain't, in fact there isn't a lot of cloth in it at all..

Edited June 19, 2018 by TheQ

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Sunny again so no doubt a bit of shopping and an interesting garden task (maybe).

 

Yesterday the management called me to the pair of water butts behind the greenhouse and pointed out that the water from the gutter which flows into one is not flowing into the other one and therefore the one the gutter flows into needs to be raised - the connection between the two butts is via a link high up on them which is where the blanks were situated.  I duly explained that what is actually needed to improve matters is to somehow join the tanks at a lower level and my ally - the Good Doctor  also pointed out that raising one butt won't make any difference as water enters below the connecting pipe to the other butt and therefore it will overflow out of the butt before it overflows into the other one (although in fact when the first butt is full water does gradually go into the other one anyway).  Having been blamed for there being no water in the second butt ('we haven't had much rain dear'). i decided cutting holes would be rather silly so suggested that if she wanted more water in the second butt the simple answer would be to join the tap of each butt to the other one with a length of hosepipe and open both taps - the levels would then equalise but, obviously, there wouldn't be any additional water created.

 

So I might have a little, slightly pointless until we get a major downpour, job today.

 

Have a good day one and all.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Just had a couple of packages delivered by the postman, E-bay purchases one from Hong Kong, will be opening them very soon. Bright and sunny at the moment but Arthur Itis is hinting at some rain to come. The poppies are doing well still although the seed heads are starting to outnumber the blooms. Thats it for now, muggatee awaits, be back later.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Other ERs mentioning colleagues who had passed away before their time reminded me of the terrible shock and anguish demonstrated by Matthew's colleagues at Maynooth. The geography department hadn't experienced anything like that. If he had lived I suspect he would have been very involved with their Fantasy World Cup game. The admin ladies almost certainly would have had to explain to him it wasn't totally serious, though it may be getting that way...

I am off to the shops, probably Sainsbury.

Quite cloudy here but not cold.

Tony

[PeterBB]

ER always seems to bring back memories only on this issue one that we would rather not have happened ...

 

Catastrophic when a workmate especially when bright, young and with a good career beckoning.   We had a student placement who was excellent and when a new project was envisaged we decided to find her.  A fantastic start then at twenty-three a tumour diagnosed and that was it.  A packed church and her mothers anguish at burial stays with me and has, as you'd expect, just vividly flashed back ... 

[Horsetan]

Just down the road from where I live, there was a partial collapse of some shop front fascias onto the pavement. The basic structures are about a century old, having been there since at least the coming of the London Underground in 1926, and the cement / pointing between the bricks would have long dried out and lost grip. I've never seen the freeholders do any maintenance work. Once the weight of the bricks starts to shift, you get this fallout.

 

Some people should realise when they do a search on the internet through the company network it can trigger adverts on every other computer...thinking "you have searched for"...

 
Does that happen even when you use "incognito" settings on Google Chrome?

Edited June 19, 2018 by Horsetan

[jamie92208]

Did you get the unpaid storage charges though?

I'm fairly certain that we will come out on top.  The domestic authorities seem to be very pleased with two very large planters that I will have to move, and there is also a free standing large trampoline with a net round it. There are also various other things plus a double extension ladder that got used last night to adjust the dish.  The gardening equipment is all of good value, once I mentioned to the other guy that we had first dibs.   He's coming round on Saturday to help sort things.

 

We went to the insurance office and paid for the insurance on the two cars.   This automatically includes breakdown cover so the RAC subscription is to be cancelled this afternoon.  I also got my twin axle trailer insured, considerably cheaper than I was paying in the UK.  Not a bad morning's work.

 

Jamie

[andyram]

Good afternoon fellow ER's and my condolences to Rick on the loss of his colleague. Thoughts remain with others who need it, including those fighting their own black dogs.

 

This morning I had the dubious honour of calling the school to inform them of the doctor's decision. Thankfully that went ok. Then after a stroll to the shops I was out helping Sarah deliver promotional Avon books around the estate. As we were eating lunch a couple of ladies from the church coffee morning called in. They wanted to check I was ok because we had not attended coffee morning and I had been missed. That was a touching thought.

 

The black dog seems to have retreated for the time being. A nice weekend at the GC and the doctor's extension of the medical certificate will probably have helped. I just the business to take off now!

 

Best wishes

 

Andy

[Happy Hippo]

Morning all,

 

Sunny again so no doubt a bit of shopping and an interesting garden task (maybe).

 

Yesterday the management called me to the pair of water butts behind the greenhouse and pointed out that the water from the gutter which flows into one is not flowing into the other one and therefore the one the gutter flows into needs to be raised - the connection between the two butts is via a link high up on them which is where the blanks were situated.  I duly explained that what is actually needed to improve matters is to somehow join the tanks at a lower level and my ally - the Good Doctor  also pointed out that raising one butt won't make any difference as water enters below the connecting pipe to the other butt and therefore it will overflow out of the butt before it overflows into the other one (although in fact when the first butt is full water does gradually go into the other one anyway).  Having been blamed for there being no water in the second butt ('we haven't had much rain dear'). i decided cutting holes would be rather silly so suggested that if she wanted more water in the second butt the simple answer would be to join the tap of each butt to the other one with a length of hosepipe and open both taps - the levels would then equalise but, obviously, there wouldn't be any additional water created.

 

So I might have a little, slightly pointless until we get a major downpour, job today.

 

Have a good day one and all.

You could always fill the errant butt up from the garden tap and a hose pipe!

 

Do it quietly, and then summon the management to see that a hallowed miracle has occurred.

 

The trouble is you'd then have to lay on a complete banquet from half a fish finger and the crust off last week's loaf.

[TheQ]

Just down the road from where I live, there was a partial collapse of some shop front fascias onto the pavement. The basic structures are about a century old, having been there since at least the coming of the London Underground in 1926, and the cement / pointing between the bricks would have long dried out and lost grip. I've never seen the freeholders do any maintenance work. Once the weight of the bricks starts to shift, you get this fallout.

 

 

 

Does that happen even when you use "incognito" settings on Google Chrome?

One wonders how often the shop frontage was altered over the last hundred years with no regard to supporting the bricks above...

 

As for Chrome I have no Idea because we are forced to use MS here.. We are not allowed to install 3rd party software without permission and you've got to prove a job related reason...

[Ian Abel]

Chewsday.

 

As I took yesterday off to recover from the late night/little sleep/splinted finger, not much to report.

 

I DID note that even though I'm right-handed, I'm generally fairly ambidextrous and the resulting splinted left index finger is far more cumbersome and annoying that I expected it to be  usually holding drinking containers (tea, wine, beer etc) in my left hand is suddenly quite the sodding nuisance. Fortunately only a couple more days with the splint.

Also did manage to watch England - still a better choice than most ANYTHING on daytime US TV  thought they did fairly well, although with a couple of additional decent strikers (his mind wandered longingly back to the '66 team) we should have won by about 6+ <sigh>

 

Attempting to work today...

Weather has taken a temporary back-slide, only 16 this AM, cloudy and raining and expected to barely reach 22 with rain throughout the day.

 

That's all folks.

[Andrew P]

Thoughts for Rick and the Family of the deceased.

 

I lost two very close friends when in the Motor Trade in Hampshire, both Heart Attacks, and no second chance, one 34, and the other 37, both with two very young children each, exteemly sad and again this has brought back those memories.

 

I do count myself extreemly lucky to have survived my first one.

[Purley Oaks]

Afternoon all

 

Mike's travails trying to raise a butt made me snigger a little. Reminds me of those wretched internet puzzles where you have to work out which butt will fill first.

 

Hope you're feeling ok now Ian (Abel) - shame it wasn't your middle finger...

 

Not much happening here today. I replaced the old electric doorbell with a new fangled wireless one with all of four different ringtones, each annoying in their own way, and not one a bell.

 

Overcast now, expecting a prolonged spell of rain, as they say, later.

 

Hope you stay dry

 

Mal

[Happy Hippo]

This one is especially for Grandadbob!

 

Over the past few weeks, I have noticed a tendency for my left foot to splay out when I am on my bicycle.

 

I was a bit concerned that this unnatural position might cause me some harm over time so decided to do something about it.

 

after some consultation with one of our muddling group who is a very keen cyclist, I invested in some proper shoes with cleats and what are referred to as SPD pedals.

 

In a nutshell, your feet are secured to the pedals so they can't slip, are held in the correct position and provide power both on the down and the upstroke.

 

I was also warned about the perils of failing to unclip when stopping.

 

A number of practices were made on the safety on our drive and I became very adept at clipping and unclipping both feet from the pedals.

 

Then I made a number of  quiet trips, and found that I have been able to extend my cycle ride from seven to ten miles.

 

This afternoon, I went out, but for some reason I encountered rather heavy traffic.

 

Since I tend to stick to back lanes and cycopaths (sic), there are times when I have to stop and cross the road when safe to do so.

 

I got to one such crossing point, which is quite awkward as the lane puts you onto a cycle path wich goes 10 yards to a crossing point so you are with your back to traffic trying to turn right across the road.

 

I unclipped my right foot in good time and got to the point of turn.

 

it was my intention to put my right foot down as I turned and then straighten up and stop to look for traffic.

 

WHOOSH!

 

A rather large curtain sider roared past and the air he displaced blew me over.  Had I been using ordinary pedals I would merely have put my other foot out, but nay, I was still clipped in on that side.

 

It was a very soft landing on the verge, and very fortunately there were no hidden dog deposits to hinder my fall from grace.

 

Less fortunately was the fact the soft landing  was well cushioned by a combination of brambles and nettles............

 

And in true GDB style, apart from the shoes, I was only wearing a helmet, short sleeved top and shorts:

 

STINGEROO!

 

The trouble now was I still couldn't unclip my left foot so in trying to get up, was doing a very good impression of Long John Silver with one too many rums inside him.

 

I did make it to my feet, just as a couple of cyclists on road bikes shot past.

 

'Don't forget to unclip next time mate' drifted along the breeze.

 

Trouble was, I had difficulty in stopping laughing and regaining what dignity I had left before setting off once more.

 

When I got to the next junction I wisely unclipped both sides.....

 

But there was nothing coming.

 

Sod's Law!

Edited June 19, 2018 by Happy Hippo