Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

I believe that there was an Ascot Pullman special train today but cant remember where I saw the details.

 

There was, from Manchester, via Reading to ascot so a long way from the M20 although the ECS went under the M25 enroute to Willesden.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[tetsudofan]

On the drive back (north on the M20) I saw a train crossing a bridge in the distance. I didn't see the loco but the carriages were brown and cream, possibly Pullmans, and there was an EWS on the back. No sign of smoke or steam. Then a Eurostar crossed over going the other way (east-west).

 

Anyone got any ideas?

 

Thursday I think is Orient Express day. The train stops at Folkestone West to transfer the passengers to and from Kings Ferry coaches which take them to or from Calais through the Chunnel.

 

Keith

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[southern42]

' Evening all from red dragon land.

 

We went for a walk to watch the sun go down.  It is a long time since I last did this at midsummer! The strong light made the foxgloves, rosebay willow herb and red campion shine out in a way I have not seen before.  Wonderful, even though the effect did not last very long.  Sunset was far less dramatic with so little cloud cover in that direction - just a yellow and red band of haze on the horizon.

 

[

 

 

 

' Night all and nos da.

[BR60103]

The lab PC took 15 Minutes to boot up after / while doing an update... then it comes up with...

 

"We cannot find a license for Micrsoft office.."...Arggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

Oh the IT man is going on Holiday, "use the internet to send a docket to head office or telephoneXXXXXXXX.."

 

 

The Phones go through the computers as well   Arggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Does anyone know if all the world's Defense departments go through the same internet as the rest of us?  I'm starting to worry about it.

 

I get regular messages that my icloud settings are out of date. I didn't know I had icloud settings.

[Smiffy2]

Thursday I think is Orient Express day. The train stops at Folkestone West to transfer the passengers to and from Kings Ferry coaches which take them to or from Calais through the Chunnel.

 

Keith

 

That sounds very much like it, as the train was on the Eurotunnel line, just outside of Ashford (well, a few miles). Thanks for the info. It's a pity the train can't run straight through, as I believe some freight trains do.

[BR60103]

I'm trying to dispose of my highland formal jacket. The vest no longer closes around my mucklewame.

One of my friends is going to be in the Scottish part of his nephew's wedding. Bride's family will all be in colourful eastern finery and I though the jacket might do him as he's close to my size. The sleeves just covered his elbows.

Checked one Scottish shop today (in Fergus) but they don't do rentals -- something to do with the condition of the returns.

Had repeated eyelid inspections today -- still nothing wrong with them.

[AndyID]

Not so! The 23rd & 24th have a minute longer than the 21st. This is Exeter daylight hours and I guess applies to other places

 

Funnily enough, that's why the Chief Druid ended up with a black eye and a jammy nose.

[AndyID]

It's nice to live in the mountains but they can affect the weather, a lot. There were warnings of ping-pong ball sized hailstones North-West of here. Unless you like the cosmetic effect of shot-peening your car it's probably best to protect it from that sort of stuff. I managed to drag enough out of the garage to allow my truck to fit.

 

The worst of the storm seems to have passed now and we seem to have escaped the really nasty hail, but better safe than sorry.

[Gwiwer]

Not so! The 23rd & 24th have a minute longer than the 21st. This is Exeter daylight hours and I guess applies to other places

One minute. That’s a minute difference.

 

Exeter daylight is about 15 minutes later than London daylight. You can blame the GWR for that - the coming of the railway meant London (Greenwich) time became the UK standard.

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

The process of securing travel insurance for my Christmas and New Year holiday occupied far more time yesterday than it deserved.  My preferred provider insured me last year and the year before, excluding the malignant ailments from the cover.   This year they would not entertain an application earlier than six months before departure date.  They felt unable to offer cover either with or without the diseases.  Thanks for the betrayal, AA Travel Insurance.  Likewise was the response from Age UK and an outfit called Staysure recommended by a friend.  A call to the British Insurance Brokers Association [bIBA] led to me being connected to a company who offered four quotes.  They ranged from £1,600 to £2,400, the latter being close to the cost of the holiday.  At this point I thought it wise to talk to the travel agent.  Unofficially she gave me a lead which led to a quote.  Fine, you might think, if it were not for the company wanting to know to how many bones the cancer had spread!  Gold medal for stupid question of the year, I fancy.  I then spoke to Macmillan, for surely having cancer does not prevent travel.  They suggested another call to BIBA.  By this time I had decided, reminded by Mal, that I did not want to be covered for the ailments so asked to be pointed towards a suitable broker.  The upshot of that was a quote for £38, which I accepted.  All that took six hours – on the phone.  The staff who deal with enquiries plough diligently through a list of questions which are remarkably similar from company to company.  When they get to “has the cancer spread?” they fail to appreciate that it had already done so when I was diagnosed and is not steadily munching its way through my hapless body.  If this tale has a moral, it must be “be careful what you ask for”.

 

I have long been cynical of insurance.  When I left my camera on a German train in Switzerland some years ago I was not best pleased to learn that the insurance policy covered neither loss nor theft.  What is the use of that?  I now take the view that insurance covers everything except what happens.  The balance of probability, I assess, is that if I fall ill on holiday the cause will be neither cancer nor diabetes.  Rather than lose my holiday and with it my sanity I am prepared to take the risk.

 

Q, I hope that your brush with the black dog is but fleeting.  Warm thoughts to you and to Andyram, Debs, Andy P, Robert and his dad, Tony and Aditi, Mal, Simon and all others in distress.

 

Chris

[pH]

I now take the view that insurance covers everything except what happens.  

 

I've seen a definition of insurance as renting you an umbrella, then demanding you return it when it rains. 

 

(Apologies to any and all insurance agents on here.)

Edited June 22, 2018 by pH

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is quite a bright morning here, but pretty chilly!  After the 30°C heat, we now have 11°C.  However, I must admit that is preferable.

 

Not a lot else to report, so I guess it is time for a coffee.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner temple Here,

A poor nights sleep partly because the last song I heared before going to bed last night kept reappearing in my brain and partly Because I couldn't find a comfortable position..

 

I notice the reported lack of CO2, this is similar to the lack of LPG earlier in the year, as companies, go ever tighter on "Just in time" and "sweating their asseets" to make their profits, the quality of their service falls... Our Biggest product is at a standstill because we are waiting for One small piece of plastic.The product are stil being made, but are stacking up waiting...

 

We Have Third Party insurance for the dog, but Don't bother with Health insurance. when we bred Rough Collies, we discovered Third Party insurance for Up to 20 dogs was £20 a year, but medical was £100 per dog, and the excess was £100 so we practically got nothing. So we put the dogs health insurance money in the bank and very shortly after had enough to cover the most expensive operation they would do. Now we have enough to cover Ben the Border Collie anyway, unfortunately some may be used soon as he caught his dew Claw again...

 

A very Chiily strong North easterly this morning gusting 35mph,yesterday I reported the house being at 22degrees, after a day in the sun and that wind it dropped to 21C at around 16:00 and is Now Down to 19C..

 

Meanwhile Great Yarmouth has been in chaos the Haven Bridge has stuck open to River traffic for the 3rd Time in 4 weeks....This is similar to the two main railway crossings they keep being Unable to open them due to the heat expanding the track, This illegally blocking river traffic. Funny that they've stopped  fitting the "summer" bridge rails which are slightly shorter...More money saving at others expence...

 

A black dog walked by later yesterday evening, but only for a minute or two... I was ok shortly after.

 

When I was in the Military a frightening 30+ years ago we had our own dedicated lines for the important stuff, although the common or garden telephone was BT.(I looked after the RAF end of some lines)  However even these dedicated lines often went through BT exchanges. Since then I know in some circumstances there are purely military lines going their own way..

 

 

Time to

... Go see how the Major system did on it's overnight cross check...

Edited June 22, 2018 by TheQ

[Barry O]

Morning all, back later as her indoors is in a rush to get to moreassons...

[jamie92208]

Morning al from a sunny part of France that has had it's wettest year since 1953 apparently.   Much tidying is ongoing as we have "An Insurance agent" due to visit in just over an hour.   Beth is very happy about this as he is described by her as "easy on the eye".   I prefer his assistant Laetitia.  

 

Chrisf, I'm glad that you got the insurance sorted.   I can empathise as ew have similar problems due to Beth's joint problems and multiple orthopaedic problems.  However mush we tell tam that these are managed and don't cause us to cancel things, as we are prepared, it can still be tricky to get insurance.

 

Anyway here is a question to all ER's out there.   Can anyone identify this object which appeared on the front lawn yesterday.

It's about 6" high and 2.5" diameter across the head.   I did suggest to Beth that she samples it and that I would record the results, this did not go down well for some reason.

 

Various things will no doubt be done today and this evening we are going to a musical evening in the Salle de fetes.   Local liquid produce is promised and Beth has been asked to take her guitar.   It should be a good night.

 

Regards to all and hope to hear some news from Debs.

 

Jamie

[tractionman]

It looks like a puffball

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handkea_utriformis

 

If it is they're very tasty if sautéed with some scrambled egg.

 

Cheers,

 

Keith

[lightengine]

One minute. That’s a minute difference.

Exeter daylight is about 15 minutes later than London daylight. You can blame the GWR for that - the coming of the railway meant London (Greenwich) time became the UK standard.

This will be depressing news for LMS, LNER, SR etc fans who didnt know that GWR was so widespread across the UK.

 

Although June 21 is the longest day of the year, it is not the day of the earliest sunrise, in fact this week leading up to the solstice will have an earlier sunrise by one minute than the day of the solstice itself. By contrast, the earliest sunset is not on the day of the winter solstice itself but in the week leading up to the winter solstice.

 

 

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2018/06/20/longest-day-summer-start-summer-solstice-7646337/?ito=cbshare

 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Blue sky and sunshine here and dry warm day is predicted.

Went to the dentist on Monday for an MOT and all was OK. Not so much now as a tooth started aching that evening and by 3.00AM this morning woke me up and was very painful. Luckily yesterday I'd phoned the dentist and have got an appointment this morning. Also got to go to the doctor later this afternoon for another (hopefully) minor problem.

 

I've watched parts of some of the round ball matches. What a load of fairies! They're not even good at falling over. I'd love to see their reaction to a rugby tackle by somebody like Courtney Lawes. They'd find out what pain is then. 

<Rant over>

 

Have a good one,

Bob.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning.  Old Fart's Bike club day, think I'll take the old BMW.  If the battery isn't flat....  It is on its last legs, replacement of it, as it an odd uncommon size, is in the same league as Ivan's potential transmission rebuild.  It has three letters on the side......something about BuyMeWhenyoucanaffordit.  aftermarket versions not available.

 

Sunny on the rock, but a touch breezy still, but foreguessed to get better. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A bit nippy this morning but its now warming up nicely. Jamie, that is indeed a giant puffball and as Keith said is edible but grab it quick as when I spotted one the little darlings decided to use it as a football! Getting things ready for the Ipswich Transport and Model festival tomorrow, which makes a good day out. My friends young lad is eagerly looking forward to riding on the old buses, he's hoping to 'bag' a half cab open platform low bridge double decker, something even his dad had never seen except in a museum. Kettles boiled so now to prepare tea, be back later.

[Purley Oaks]

Morning all

 

A bright and sunny morning here with the gulls soaring high in the sky (best place for 'em!) and the swifts whizzing around the rooftops. Just discovered this is swift awareness week.

 

Glad that Chrisf found his travel insurance - 6 hours hanging on the phone is a very real drag.

 

Funny we're running out of CO2 when that is one of the things causing climate change...

 

More tidying today, getting ready to part-exchange the drumkit tomorrow - won't tell you just yet what for, but it is something rather beautiful and jangly - not more earings, surely? Will post a pic soon.

 

Have a good day

 

Mal

[Barry O]

shopping done, more parcels made ready and posted, now for a cupacoffee.

 

Baz