Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[Ozexpatriate]

The Q mentioned a favourite tyre place. I had a flat tyre last Friday. The first tyre place I phoned up in Attleborough just were not interested and showed no enthusiasm at all and wouldn’t have been able to investigate whether or not it was a puncture for a few days. So I phoned up a place in Wymondham who assured me whether it was repairable or not they would get it sorted. They did.

There is a big chain of tyre sales/repair shops here in the Pacific Northwest. (AndyID will likely know of the chain I refer to.)

 

They are very customer service oriented. When you arrive an attendant is required to literally run out to your car to see what you need. Often they will take care of it immediately (without an appointment) and will, in some cases. make simple repairs (like removing a nail or screw) free of charge. This behaviour encourages a lot of customer loyalty.

 

Like anything, customer experience will vary, and there are times where I've had to wait for some time, reading the paper and drinking their coffee, but I'd say the experience is more positive than your place in Attleborough.  They are always busy when the seasons change and it is time for people to swap out winter studded tyres and summer tyres.

[Tony_S]

There is a big chain of tyre sales/repair shops here in the Pacific Northwest. (AndyID will likely know of the chain I refer to.)

 

They are very customer service oriented. When you arrive an attendant is required to literally run out to your car to see what you need. Often they will take care of it immediately (without an appointment) and will, in some cases. make simple repairs (like removing a nail or screw) free of charge. This behaviour encourages a lot of customer loyalty.

 

Like anything, customer experience will vary, and there are times where I've had to wait for some time, reading the paper and drinking their coffee, but I'd say the experience is more positive than your place in Attleborough.  They are always busy when the seasons change and it is time for people to swap out winter studded tyres and summer tyres.

Our local tyre sale and repair place is excellent but it isn’t part of a chain/franchise. The place we did end up at in Wymondham had all the same hardware as our local one. I was chatting to another customer and he was telling me about where he had been recently and was attending to have everything put right that another place had messed up. I thought cowboy tyre places had disappeared years ago.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[BSW01]

SW Water separated our water supply from a neighbouring building back in April. Ever since then turning the cold water on has resulted in what can only be described as a Thunder Roar noise like heavy noisy machinery travelling nearby. This morning the kitchen floor vibrated as I played the noise down the phone to the SWW operative. She suggested it could be our problem/fault. I suggested it could be because of their work as it had not happened previously and asked if it was the pressure.

Tonight we had a call to make an appointment to come here. When I questioned if there was a charge I was told no its why you pay for your water.

I await their visit to establish the cause of the Thunder Roar.

I suspect that a small piece of debris has got stuck in a valve, probably in a water cistern. We had the same thing a few years ago, when I changed the valve in the hot water header tank it stopped!

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

Not a lot has been done this evening, mainly catching up on some recorded TV.

 

Time for bad, goodnight all.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[southern42]

' Evening all from red dragon land.

Showers this morning but as it was it was not too bad.

 

We had gone from home to West Shore to do some more work on the signalling and, a couple of miles short, Ray remembers he was meant to go to diystore to pick up an order for the bits to do it.  So, back round the roundabout and all the way to the store, pick up order and back up the A55.  By the time we got to West Shore, the showers were over and everyone was in the portacabin on a coffee break.

 

We went straight to the signals, not that I did much, rolling out the extension leads so Ray could use the electric tools (cutting into the rendering on track wall to run the cable from the sensors to the light signals), and winding it all back in when he had finished.  Other than that it was chatting in the portacabin and sitting down watching Ray...oh!....and getting "You must be the apprentice" remarks!  Still, I suppose it is better than, "You must be the secretary"...er...hum?    I am definitely NOT secretarial material!  But all that get's put into context when I get called, "The Lady Driver."

 

And "the Lady Driver" managed to keep the steam up, without it blowing off and thus kept it quiet!!!! - Phew! - during the speeches, the loco's naming ceremony, and the cutting of the ribbon to open the completed track, on 21st July - seems a lifetime away, now.

I guess, in a way, I feel proud to have such a "title", but I also look forward to there being more than just one of us!

 

 

Edit.  the grease top is a genuine 1964 Compton B.R. hat.  I could not get a small enough one from today's suppliers!!!

Edited August 8, 2018 by southern42

[AndyID]

This was our Next Century Neo-Tudor in California, shortly after they finished building it. The black car belonged to our neighbor. He seemed to think this was an appropriate place to park (even though his garage was empty.)

 

 

I had a chat with him. It went like this:

 

Me: Have you seen my wife reversing her car?

 

Him: No.

 

Me: I didn't think so. If you had you probably wouldn't park there.

 

Seemed to do the trick.

 

[Gwiwer]

Morning all. Welcome to a wet Thor’s Day

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

I am back in the office this morning having got back from the UK yesterday.  We buried Dad last Friday, and I stayed on for a few days to help Mum with some of the paperwork.

 

The funeral was a quiet and dignified affair, and I managed to get through the eulogy.

 

Time for a coffee - Have a good day everyone...

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a damp, cool and cloudy village.

 

Robert, I'm glad to hear from you and that things went as well as they could.  It's good that you were able to do your part.  I hope that the coming days are OK for you as you have time to reflect.

 

Here we did some work in the shed.   Beth was able to organise her craft and art stuff and I moved the Grandfather Clock, the dining room side board and the Hi Fi cabinet and CD rack over to the house.   These still need to  be assembled/filled with contents etc but it has left the shed a lot tidier.  Once the boxes of CD's, vinyl etc get brought over and put away things will be better. In the afternoon Beth excelled herself by finding the box of controllers for the fiddle yard, that had eluded me.   Not a lot else got done after that.

 

Today I am apparently going to assemble a wardrobe and help tidy the dining room.   I might then be released from such duties to actually get the aforementioned controllers plumbed in and working.   Not a lot else to report here.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Black Marlin]

Greetings all, and hello to Jason Isaacs.

Chilly this morning - only 6 degrees in my neck of the woods. Still, today is the last day of my working fortnight and tomorrow I shall go and see Ant-man and the Wasp, to which I have been looking forward, so all in all things are looking up. And nary a cephalopod to be seen!

Welcome back, Robert (and Mike, and those others who've been away).

Kind regards clasping their victims in an indissoluble tentacular embrace;
Tinkety-tonk, etc.
Gavin

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Here.

A much better nights sleep as the heat has finally reduced, about 7 Hours sleep that is.

 Some windows, that have been opened for the duration of fried egg time have now been closed..

 

Sadly I can't see vessels proceeding up the German Ocean due to sand dunes, unless I stand at chimney height, and without scaffolding that isn't happening. So unless Stationmaster was going by during  Ben the Border Collie's trip to the beach time, He would not be observed.  Though I have seen the floating crane to puts the propellors on Wind turbines go by once or twice, as it's very tall..

 

Sea Palling was the proposed site of a station, on a line from a Junction, on the  railway line from the North Walsham  to Cromer that went via Mundesley. It would have gone Happisburgh-Sea Palling-Hemsby-Caister- Great Yarmouth beach station. IIRC Construction work started around 1905 before it was abandoned, as it was realised bus competition would be too great.

The line would have passed one side or the other of my house, I suspect the seaward side. There must be plans still existing of the route, which I'd love to see. A planned semi fictional of the line was one of the possibilities I looked at when choosing what to model..

 

Driving back to work yesterday I observed the police aware tape by the embankment at the Wroxham road /NDR roundabout was broken.. I thought it had just broken naturally.. Going back from work  last night, I observed that new crunched kerbstones on the triangle in the centre of the exit, they were followed by a black curving skid mark across the road over the pavement and through where the tapes were... So another car took a flyer.

 

This Morning, strange wet stuff was very gently falling, enough to leave tracks on the unwashed for months, tarmac. This lead to strange feelings through the steering wheel, with one brand new shiny tyre front left and one old, nearly worn out tyre front right.  Needless to say I was exceedingly carefull at the above mentioned roundabout and the following ones...

 

It's occured to me that I haven't seen a BQ Advert for some time (by email), I supposed I'd better check the spam box tonight...

 

I have 7 10G Ohm Resistance measurements I must do today, each takes up to 1/2 hour settling time.. This could get long and boring...

 

Time too...type in a measurement ... Yippeee...

Edited August 9, 2018 by TheQ

[NGT6 1315]

Morning all. Welcome to a wet Thor’s Day

 

 

Not here, it isn't. Wet, that is. Fingers crossed this'll change as the day progresses...

 

Mawnin' awl. Seem to have slept better than the night before, though it's still too effin' warm. 

 

My aunt and her partner are currently in town on their way back from Sweden with their camper...

 

 

…so we visited them for lunch at their lakeside camp site yesterday and will be there later today, too.

 

 

Glad to hear things at the funeral went as well as they could, Robert. Hope you're all right...

 

 

Best wishes and thoughts as appropriate…

[Black Marlin]

I am definitely NOT secretarial material!  But all that get's put into context when I get called, "The Lady Driver."

I have spent the last few minutes rewriting the lyrics of this song in my head to match...

 

Edited August 9, 2018 by Black Marlin

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

It's  raining.

I think I will go outside and lie down in the garden.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[Simon G]

Morning all,

 

From the reports here there seems to have been a north/south reversal of the weather, as it is a lovely sunny day here just now, which makes a change after our recent rain.

 

Useless Utilities have finally finished all the work on our property. After no shows on Monday and Tuesday for reinstatement work, they arrived just after 8am yesterday, only to disappear again when they realised that they needed some wood shuttering to support the concrete. Fortunately the depot was only 3 miles away, so they were soon back and concrete was laid. Just as they finished, it started to rain, so I rushed into my garage and put down some sheets of plastic to protect the wet concrete. Another guy arrived just before 8am this morning to collect the three barriers that had been left to stop me from falling down the holes!

 

The way things have gone, I am still expecting another team to arrive to fix my water leak, and possibly another to fill in the now non-existent holes!

 

A good part of yesterday was spent under the floorboards putting insulation around the new water pipe, and also a number of the central heating pipes while I was there. It was warm, dusty and unpleasant work. More to do today under a different piece of floorboards!

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

The sun is shining, but there are a few clouds in the sky, so I think it will be a mixed day today. Once Sheila has left for her Zumba class I shall make a start on the cake baking. First up is a fruit tea loaf, this will be followed by a courgette and orange cake. I started the fruit tea loaf last night,as the fruit needs to soak over night before the flour is added. Once that’s in the oven I’ll start the second cake, this will be for after tea tomorrow evening, it went down well with the kids last time I made once.

 

Currently being played on Classic FM is Chopin’s Grand Waltz Brilliant in E flat, which neither Sheila or I can listen to without thinking of Tom and Jerry, The Flying Cat.

 

Back later.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Robert, I am glad everything went well at the funeral. I am sure your eulogy helped the others there cope too.

We are off to Enfield today to see MiL and take her shopping.

Rain is forecast.

Tony

[AndrewC]

There is a big chain of tyre sales/repair shops here in the Pacific Northwest. (AndyID will likely know of the chain I refer to.)

 

They are very customer service oriented. When you arrive an attendant is required to literally run out to your car to see what you need. Often they will take care of it immediately (without an appointment) and will, in some cases. make simple repairs (like removing a nail or screw) free of charge. This behaviour encourages a lot of customer loyalty.

 

Would that be Mr Schwab's emporium? My one and only highway blow out was on the I90 coming into Spokane way back in 78. Excellent service and as I remember equally good free coffee while I waited for them to fit a new tire. I actually ended up replacing all 4 as they had a sale on. 

 

Morning all from the soggy bottom of the boring borough. Quiet day today thankfully. Met up with some old friends from YYC who are on holiday. Nice Italian meal followed by drinks in Cask beer co near Victoria. Bit tired as we didn't get home until around 12:30 this morning. Today I shall be mostly painting the bedroom during my work breaks. The rest of the house has cooled from "fusion reactor" back to "pizza oven". By tomorrow it should be down to "feck its cold in here". 

 

That's about all from me. Enjoy the day

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Back home to a drop or two of rain and the air is a bit cooler but the overnight aircon was missed (in more ways than one as my mild cough seems to have gone - almost certainly aircon initiated as several others were also coughing, fortunately the system is well maintained).  Today will be faux Friday with a vengeance and washday several days over although I did wash out one shirt while onboard as we had a rather wet boat ride back to the ship after our little jaunt ashore on Monday - could well be the boat was riding a bit low after the crew's shopping trip loaded 85 cans of Guinness, two large packs of bottled water and a bag of BBQ charcoal among other shopping.  Quite what they were going to do with the charcoal remained a mystery but as the for'ard well deck is partly steel plated I presume something was in mind for the coming weekend.

 

A view of part of Harwich harbour, with Felixstowe in the background, before we joined the ship -

 

 

The Good Doctor waves us on our way from the pier - she can be just made out wearing a red tee shirt immediately to the right of the stern end of the preserved lightship -

 

 

On the bridge -

 

 

The two buoys marking the site of the  wreck of the Jacoba Aliijda in the deep water channel 50 miles off shore, there were 4 buoys marking the site when we were here in 2014 and it seems we brought a decent sea state and good weather on both occasions-

 

 

 

Have a good day everybody.

Edited August 9, 2018 by The Stationmaster

[81C]

Morning All 

My horse collar has shrunk overnight I still feel carp but not as bad as yesterday,    laugh of the week Her is going to learn how to speak Spanish

my Cuban SiL Leo said he would teach her I asked him had he heard of the term "Pigs Fly" anyway I left that to my daughter   to explain that one.

 

It seems as if all my best laid plans are flying out of the window  one by one our week end in Wells cancelled as I don't think I will recover by then and she 

won't drive and a coach trip to Dorchester Market next week cancelled cos of the hospital scan I will cheer myself up with a large dose of retail therapy today that

always works. 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   enjoy your day  O.L.D'crock 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. There was an accident hereabouts early yesterday afternoon. I was returning from doing a bit of shopping when I came across the accident, just a few yards west of the junction of Clay Hill Road and Church Lane (Basildon). It involved all three emergency services but all that I could see was the underneath of an overturned car. The mystery is that it occured on a straight bit of road in broad daylight without any obstructions to vision. It was easy for me to avoid the hold up by taking a detour down Church Lane. I passed the spot later when I went to the club, the only evidence was white powder covering a couple of small oil spills. Not a lot to do today except for a bit of shopping, thats it for now, be back later.

[grandadbob]

Robert, glad to hear that your Dad's funeral went OK. These things are never easy.

 

 

Decided not to lie down in the garden in the rain as something more pressing came up in the form of a summons to take The Boss to Sainsbury's. That's now done and the beer cellar looks a bit more respectable.

My Dynamometer Car arrived eventually at 17.25 yesterday. I'd given up hope of getting it until today as we've never seen a postman here that late. Apparently the regular guy went sick and he was covering so well done to him.

It really is a beautiful model and has raised the bar. Now looking forward to see what coaches Locomotion are going to offer to go with the Stirling Single and hope that I can afford them. 

Still  raining steadily and it can do so for the next couple of days as far as I'm concerned.

Time for a haircut, this will only take The Boss a couple of minutes to do once she's found the one or two hairs that actually need cutting.