Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

Hmm, we have have had a yellow warning about thunderstorms for the period from 14.00 -23.59 today which thus far - ok 73 minutes to run - has proved to be incorrect.  But we are currently getting a nice steady lot of rain falling both in front of the house and behind.  it might get 'heavier' (contains deuterium?) according to Exeter's seaweed but the same seaweed also predicts an reasonable percentage chance of some sort of rainfall over much of the night.  

 

So looking on the bright side it could well be the case that summer has arrived and the farmers round here will soon be complaining about the difficulty of getting in the harvest.  On the other hand with daytime temperatures forecast to reach a daytime high of 28C during the coming week it is probably more likely they'll be saying it's far too hot to work outdoors

Edited July 20, 2018 by The Stationmaster

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

I wondered if Tony had got some rain, he's only about 4 miles east of me. I'll have to ask my friend who lives a mile further on if he had any rain.

[Horsetan]

I think I'm going to need a new battery for the CX.

 

You would have thought that last weekend's 130-mile run (mostly fast) would at least have contributed sufficient charge that would have lasted a week. Seemingly not, as I discovered just now that it's totally flat. Not enough charge even to trigger the central locking.

 

Great.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Barry O]

Night awl!

 

Baz

[Tony_S]

I think I'm going to need a new battery for the CX.

You would have thought that last weekend's 130-mile run (mostly fast) would at least have contributed sufficient charge that would have lasted a week. Seemingly not, as I discovered just now that it's totally flat. Not enough charge even to trigger the central locking.

Great.

I thought the joy of owning a classic vehicle,was sorting out those little problems. I am quite happy not to have those “is it the battery or the alternator “ discussions with myself at inconvenient times. My multimeter just gets used for model railway stuff now.

[BSW01]

 

We managed to beat the crowds at the Trafford Centre, although there were still a few ejits, who will insist on standing still just as they get off an escalator, or walk around looking at the screen of their phone, instead of where they’re going, drives me nuts! On the way to the butchers it started to rain, but only lightly. However, this continued for most of the afternoon, by teatime In was really chucking it down. But it had all stoped by about 7:30 and the sun came out!

 

I was able to bag myself a pastie from the butchers this morning, which I duly ate for dinner. After dinner I retired to the living room and carried on with the sudoku puzzle I’d started whilst waiting for Sheila to get ready this morning. After which I partook in a bit of eyelid inspection.

 

James and Amelia arrived early this evening as it was her last day at her present school. We were shown a few photos of her school prom and very grown up she looks too, I would appear that they grow up far quicker than when I was young! Once they’d gone home, we did a quick tidy up and then sat down and opened a bottle of red.

 

Goodnight all

[newbryford]

AWOL-ish for the past couple of days.

 

A trip to Londinium Town on Thursday with Mrs and Junior NB. 

We did some tourist stuff including having a picnic in Green Park, my "treat" was a trip on the Mail Rail exhibit at Mount Pleasant.

 

Quite interesting if a little pricey for what it is.

 

An evening watching the musical "Bat Out of Hell" followed. Vague storyline, but some good performances and an excellent set.

 

However, this was the real reason for our trip darn sarf.

 

There's normally only three reasons for me wearing a suit and tie - hatched, matched and dispatched - here's a fourth

Proud parents.

 

 

Although Junior finished her fast track course [*] in August 2017, the graduation isn't until the following yearly round of them.

 

[*] Her course condensed a normal 3 year degree into under two years by not having any long summer/winter breaks. 

 

Return journey was prolonged - not helped by a 20 mile/45 minute detour to pick up a machine for wife's work and then dropping Junior off near Ashbourne for her cousin's hen do. We departed at 1430 and eventually arrived home at 2130.......

 

Beverage consumed and time for zzzzz.

 

Cheers,

Mick

Edited July 20, 2018 by newbryford

[southern42]

' Evening all from red dragon land.

Had a quick run through the posts for today to catch up.

 

We had a great day in Liverpool for youngest's graduation.  Ceremony in the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.  Plans to spend time in the nearby gardens thwarted by the rain but found coffee bar to relax in before catching the train home.

 

Up early tomorrow for the B I G  D A Y at West Shore.  At least the rain has dampened the grass so there should not be an issue with lineside fires.   All steam ahead, then? 

 

I must remember to polish the spark arrestor

I must remember….

    

 

' Night all and nos da.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[AndyID]

 

 

However, this was the real reason for our trip darn sarf.

 

 

There's normally only three reasons for me wearing a suit and tie - hatched, matched and dispatched - here's a fourth

Proud parents.

 

At least she didn't do what our daughter did when she graduated from NJIT. We were looking down on the proceedings and were able to see quite clearly the "HI MUM" she had stuck on the top of her mortar board in big orange letters. She's always had a wicked sense of humor.

[lightengine]

I thought power companies were supposed to advertise their tariffs. Last week whilst looking for a new tariff I found an EDF tariff on a comparison site that EDF weren't offering on their own site. I received the acceptance email today.

[Ozexpatriate]

At least she didn't do what our daughter did when she graduated from NJIT. We were looking down on the proceedings and were able to see quite clearly the "HI MUM" she had stuck on the top of her mortar board in big orange letters. She's always had a wicked sense of humor.

That's quite charming compared to what some (many?) students emblazon on their mortar boards. Some of them are very creative.

 

EDIT: I mean "charming", not "harming" sorry.

Edited July 21, 2018 by Ozexpatriate

[JohnDMJ]

I honestly couldn't tell you - I was out. (In a previous procedure it was staged on a big hose reel in the procedure room.)

 

After the 'prep' is done with your insides, there's not much difference above or below so I suspect the same kit would be employed fore and aft, It's pretty much 'clean as a whistle' from one end of the tube to the other.

 

I do have photographs.

 

Fear not, I shan't be sharing them.

 

Having also had fore and aft examined, albeit on different occasions, I would agree that the one bit of kit could be used starting with the top entry; yes, the preparation is pretty thorough.

 

Whilst I watched the aft exam and discussed the equipment and procedure with the doctor at the controls, I do not have any photos

[AndyID]

To try to relax in all this stress, I try to fault find an HO Bachmann Gas Electric “Doodlebug”,which was running very lumpily. The fault was found to be a split gear and it appears that Bachmann US no longer supply spares for this loco. It might therefore be tricky to repair!

 

It might be possible to 3D print a new gear in nylon. If you shoot me the dimensions and some pix I'll take a shot at creating the model and put it up on Shapeways.

[AndyID]

That's quite harming compared to what some (many?) students emblazon on their mortar boards. Some of them are very creative.

 

It was some time ago. On that occasion she was the only one who dared. Hope she didn't start an irreverent trend

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

Heaven be praised, a miracle!   There was rain last night at about 9 pm.  This probably means that it will be hot and steamy today, ideal for standing around in the town centre watching several morris teams performing.

 

I visited M&S yesterday morning.  For £15 I found a nice cool pair of white – OK, cream -trousers with a zip fly.  Good call!  What’s the betting that the FolkWeek campsite is too muddy for me to wear them?  Before that I called into Clarks as my so-called best outdoor shoes have just about had it.  The new pair looks and feels great and I will take the cost of £75 on the chin.  My boots are starting to go at the heels but are good for another few months.   It might not be a bad idea if I go hunting for a new pair of trainers.  What is it about a forthcoming holiday that concentrates the mind?

 

Someone out there is hunting the gullible again.  This time he/she/it has hidden behind an e-mail purporting to come from BT and invites victims to log in to ensure continuity of service.  Mine has gone to the real BT for information and to the City of London police who run Action Fraud.  Civic duty done – tick. 

 

Warm thoughts to Andyram, Andy P, Robert, Simon, Debs, Tony and Aditi, Mal and all who are in distress or missing.

 

Chris

[TheQ]

Strange the top and bottom banners on the site are showing 504 gateway time out. It Does have the advantage of making the site quicker ...no time delays waiting for the banner to download.

 

Mooring Awl inner temple here,

A reasonable night's sleep was had, even though it's very warm in here..

 

One thing I meant to mention the other day was that when shifting the pile of rubble the bricks on the sunny side were surprisingly warm. Probably why our single brick house gets so hot in the sunshine. Pity the sunshine is so weak in the winter...

 

No rain here and no sign of the mist this morning. Just two days of mist have greened the desert out there very slightly.

 

Once I've unloaded the rubble, I need to top up the axle oil, before I set out to pick up the trailer. It's less than 5 miles away to get it but I'd rather top it up before I go.

Once I've got the trailer, I need to look at its date of manufacture and who by to research its value to make sure she doesn't give it to me too cheaply..

 

Later it's varnish the sign for the buoy, fill the centre of the new centre pillar with foam then cover the outside with glass fibre.

After that if I've time it will be back to working on the boat.

 

Time too, doze for another hour or two.

[jamie92208]

Morning all from darn sarf (certainly of Watford). Had a great day yesterday at the railway modellers get together. As we were all above retirement age, much of the time was spent discussing health care and other issues. Much valuable information as gained. After a good lunch we drove to the host's house. A sort of meeting ensued then we had a tour of their huge garden which has a G scale (32mm track at the bottom and the earthworks for a 7 1/4" track part way down. No track yet. John, the host is a very talented engineer and has built this:-

 

 

He's now working on a 'Sweet Pea' from scratch, with just the drawings. The frames are built and he's saving up for the boiler. As it's over 100 metres in distance, down a bit and across a road to the trackbed, he's got a crawler barrow which will take the weight for transferring the locos from the workshop to the track.

 

Then set off back home and stopped at a station en route.

 

This just happened to come through.

 

 

Then back home and out for a bike ride with Beth. Not a bad day.

 

 

Beth hasn't risen yet but has had a disturbed night with shoulder pain. Today has already been decreed a relaxing one. I might even get some work done in the shed.

 

I will not comment on Brexit on tis forum. I might get annoyed.

 

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

 

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Cloudy outside this morning. Mugatea to be drunk so TTFN

Baz

[TheQ]

Sunny, hot on skin, cool breeze off sea..

[Black Marlin]

Gavin, I sympathize. Having said that, it's such a galvanizing and polarizing topic that it will inevitably put someone off in this genteel corner of RMweb.

 

My own observations of the trajectory of US politics int the last decade or so beggars belief. The erosion of traditional journalism in the wake of the disrupting influence of the internet created a vacuum filled by hyper-partisan multimedia "news" outlets that play on emotional rather than rational reasoning that is amplifying traditional partisan divisions into 'in' and 'out' groups that are almost sectarian in nature.

 

Meanwhile we have reality television politics on both sides of the Atlantic that plays to this sentiment. Politics is always tumultuous, but it feels different and somehow more intense these days. I suspect that you would love to be able to unburden yourself to people who you can count on to be reasonable - like the ER community here.. I know I would but we have our self-imposed guidelines for a good reason and I respect that.

 

I agree with absolutely everything you say - up to and including the need for self-enforcement of our self-imposed 'no politics' rule. The comments to which you were responding so thoughtfully were in response to Horsetan's question, so I tell you what: if there's anyone here who actually wants to know what I think about a given issue - although to be honest I have absolutely no idea why anyone would value my opinion on anything (save possibly English usage, about which I really do know what I'm talking about!) - or who wants to have a courteous discussion even if it turns out we disagree on something, drop me a PM and I will respond with guaranteed civility and as rational an argument as I am capable of mustering. Like I say, amiableness to all...! 

 

* * * 

 

Greetings all, and hello to Jason Isaacs.

 

Unfortunately I woke up screaming in pain this morning. A few years ago I was in a car accident, as a result of which my right leg is - and forgive me for the descent into technical terminology - not quite right. As a result my right calf is prone to excruciating cramps, the pain of which is so intense that I have been known to pass out from it. This morning I didn't quite go that far but my calf feels like it's been pummelled and I can barely walk. Today shall, therefore, be somewhat of a less strenuous one than I had planned. Frustratingly, I won't be able to manage a 2-hour drive - which means I won't be able to attend the steam gala at Aviemore.

 

Off now to potter about and see what there is to keep me entertained...

 

Genial bonhomie extended in all directions;

Tinkety-tonk, etc.

Gavin

[Horsetan]

I thought the joy of owning a classic vehicle,was sorting out those little problems.....

You would think so, wouldn't you?

 

One bright spot was finding a set of Ultrascales for a 72xx 2-8-2T that I had forgotten I had....

[JohnDMJ]

 (save possibly English usage, about which I really do know what I'm talking about!)

 

 

Really?

 

"about which I really do know of what I'm talking", perhaps?

Edited July 21, 2018 by JohnDMJ