Early Risers.

[PeterBB]

bbishop  I still have an ACME Thunderer from my days as a rugby ref.

 

Snap but a long time ago!

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

The weather has been very unsettled today, I’ve been half expecting it to rain at any minute, but thankfully it didn’t. About 50% of the rubble has been cleared away, so I can now move around the area with a bit more ease. Thankfully, like yesterday the rain held off until after tea.

 

I was never much into guitars, much preferring something like this, although I had an extra floor tom Tom and a couple of extra cymbals, but the colour was the same. Like others have said, I wish I hadn’t sold it.

 

Photo care of gumtree.

 

This evening I spent a pleasant hour on the phone to my brother in Canada, as is the norm, we didn’t put the world to rights, merely chatted about mundane stuff, but it was nice to catch up.

 

Goodnight all.

[Horsetan]

I guess all you need to tell him is, „it’s French.“ He‘ll understand, doubtlessly. ...

 

 

WCPGW?

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Tony_S]

I think the longer I can keep some of the scam telephone people talking is at least a few minutes less they can defraud some vulnerable person. I also suspect whistles and horns are more likely to injure nearby ears than those with modern communication headphones at the scam factory.

We had a nice time at MiL’s with the cousins from West London. After they went Aditi’s sister wasn’t happy that MiL had consented to,a visit with getting her approval first . So I said something. I really can’t watch a 90 year old be bullied.

Tony

[Tony_S]

IMG_20180812_1759591.jpg

 

WCPGW?

The tester may not approve of the.tree poking out of the roof?

[The Stationmaster]

14 September sounds ok to me Flavio.  I did wonder when the next date might be as we passed Old Street UndergrounD station in a taxi last Wednesday and the Wednesday before.  The taxi driver on the 1st was quite a chatty chap and he is an enthusiast for the Princess of Shoreditch but mainly as a watering hole from what he said about it.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

If you don’t mind, I have a little more to say about what has happened.  Clearly the seeds were sown at Bristol Pride though I did not realise it at the time.  The next day, at Folk By The Oak, the Young’Uns sang a song which struck a chord given that I had marched at Pride the previous day.  “Be The Man” is a tale of gay love and prejudiced opposition which merits every award going.  I dashed across the field to buy the CD, get it signed and shake the hand of the author, Sean Cooney.  Two weeks later I played the CD in the car on the way to Newport.  When “Be The Man” came on there were tears and I don’t care who knows it.  I played the track six more times, couldn’t get the words out of my head and don’t want to.  The next day, on my way to fetch the car from its oil-change and valeting, there was no parting of the clouds and no booming voice from above but the result was the same – I knew what I should do.  To ensure that I would go through with it I shared my plans with my e-friend Harry who has been most supportive.  Three days later the deed was done.  I am humbled, staggered and grateful that so many have expressed support. 

 

“I’ll be the man, be the man, be the man I was born to be, I was born to be.”

 

Warm thoughts as always to all in distress or missing

 

Chris

[Ozexpatriate]

Just arrived into Charlottsville where there are more demonstrations due to it being a year today since the woman was killed by the person who drove a car into demonstrators to the right wing march. I can see helicopters flying above downtown

Events that dominated the news this weekend. Most of the 'drama' moved to Washington DC today and, fortunately, was not as violent or deadly as Charlottesville was last year. A "state of emergency" had been declared for Charlottesville for the weekend as a precaution.

 

It's been a long time since I visited Charlottesville. When last there, I brought my son, then teenaged, to visit Monticello (home to Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the US), Monticello has recently opened an exhibit focused on Sally Hemmings - a person owned by the President with whom he is believed* to have had several children.

 

* Which is supported by genetic experiments.

 

Were I to return to the area I would also visit Montpelier, the home of James Madison. I suspect that most Americans do not fully comprehend Madison's contributions to the Constitution, which he largely authored and co-defended with Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers. He was Jefferson's neighbour and protégé. The impact of his presidency was overshadowed by his decision to go to war with Great Britain in 1812.

 

EDIT: I noticed that I erroneously included "Highland" James Monroe's home in the post originally. Serves me right for a late posting. Monroe was President after Madison and another Virginian who at one point lived in the Charlottesville area.

Edited August 13, 2018 by Ozexpatriate

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is a nice morning today, with some broken cloud and pleasantly cool - although it is supposed to warm up a bit later on.  However, I hope we have seen the last of the really hot weather.

 

The funeral on Saturday went well.  I have never been to a funeral in a forest before!  There is a piece of forest which has recently been opened for burials - and it is a very tranquil spot.  Our friend was laid to rest under a tree there.  I have now packed away my black tie, and hope that it is a long time before I have to get it out again!

 

Thank you all for the thoughts, and good wishes.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[Ozexpatriate]

This weekend saw a blessed reprieve from the heat. My company's picnic was on Saturday evening. Saturday reached around 25°C and in places it even rained. Curiously not on the picnic though. My home stayed dry as well, but running errands perhaps a mile away I found wet streets.

 

With the PGA golf tournament on, I built myself a GWR Hall from a kit. Despite adding the usual details, a smokebox dart and buffer beam lamps, (which did little to improve the model) I have to confess that an overabundance of 'selective compression' has left this model not quite properly rendering the shape of one of Mr. Collett's finest. Sans connecting rods and and axles, properly quartering the wheels proved quite impossible.

 

The less said about the tender and the four wheeled BR Mk1 SK the better.

 

Now the challenge is to do something about those proportions and the missing axle on that tender. Rather surprisingly the LEGO website actually has all the proper components - wheels, axles and wheel housings - in stock to do something about it. Last time I checked (around Christmas time) they had no axles.

 

I will give LEGO a pass. GWR modellers are not their intended audience for this model. At least this one has the right number and relative size of wheels, which makes it far superior to their old one. Fortunately there is no need to count spokes on the pilot wheels.

 

EDIT:

 

We'll be back in the mid-30s tomorrow. The Heat Is On, again. Tonight is supposed to be the peak of the Perseid Meteor shower but locally our views are obscured by haze from wildfires in British Columbia..

Edited August 13, 2018 by Ozexpatriate

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl Inner Temple Here,

A remarkably good nights sleep of around 7 hours even if it was spread over a 9 hour period.

 

At around 01:00  heavy rain fell, so there were large puddles around this morning. however not much traffic at all today, very quiet the roads.

 

Hopefully it should also be a quiet day at work, I have to review a cross check that should have been run over the week end, and then start a new prototype system calibration. If it works It will reduce the amount of time I have to take doing major system calibrations. although it will be some time before that is implimented.

 

As part of our repurposing plans for various sheds allyways etc I will have to lay some concrete slabs that I collected from tesco extension that were surplus. Each is 2ft by 2ft and about 2.5 inches thick, anyone got a spare crane? I'm not as strong as I was when I put them there... There are around 40 of them...

 

Time to go do the review...

[Barry O]

Morning all from a slightly moist North West Leeds Highlands.

 

Plans for today include a trip to the Building Society and a return to some weathering projects.

 

Have a good day!

Baz

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a sunny village over 100 miles from the nearest Ikea.   Yesterday I managed to do some successful wiring and then we went to our friends garden party in the afternoon.   Fortunately we did know one or two people who were there and met some new folk as well.   I even inspected the railway works.   He's done most of the trackbed in concrete blocks and has got to the stage of experimenting with bits of track to check things.   I asked home where one of the branches was leading and it was apparently a condition of the planning application to the boss. She wanted home to be able to deliver wine to the ladycave (aka Summerhouse).  Obviously the condition has been complied with.   

 

Shortly we are off out on a bike ride and will also be picking sloes as a prelude to producing sloe gin.   We also discovered last night that some of our blackberries are ready for picking.

 

Hopefully after the exertions of fruit picking I will return to the man cave and strangle some more wires.

 

Robert I hope that your wish about the tie is granted.

 

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Ozexpatriate]

... the ladycave (aka Summerhouse). ...

Not a "she-shed"?

[BoD]

 

“I’ll be the man, be the man, be the man I was born to be, I was born to be

 

Chris

'One of the hardest things in life is to have words in your heart that you can't utter.'

 

I'm glad for you Chris, that you feel able to 'utter' things.

[TheQ]

Not a "she-shed"?

I thought a She'd

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

We had very heavy rain last night as we were getting into bed, it it all seems to be dry(ish) now. Once Sheila has gone to her Zumba class I’ll go outside and continue with my work on the patio. I’m hoping to be at the stage where I can start to relay some of it by the end of the week, but I think that will all depend upon the week’s weather. This afternoon I will take things a little easier as I’m hoping to so swimming tonight, last week I felt a little too tired, but Monday nights are a lot quieter than Thursday nights.

 

Back later

[43110andyb]

A good morning across the Grand Union at Lapworth with the sound of trains passing on the line just north of Warwick.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Slept like a log last night, so I'm now bright eyed and bushy tailed but I'm not sure how long it will last. I see that they are announcing the first contestant for the next bout of Strictly come dancing this morning. I'm not sure of which sleb she is as I usually avoid such trivia but if you want to see why Botox should be more strictly controlled you just had to watch what looked like a talking mannequin with lips so swollen that she looked as if she'd been punched in the mouth. Apart from the usual shopping trip for bread and papers I will be doing the same today as yesterday, absolutely nothing. Muggatee awaits so its be back later.

[newbryford]

CX back up and running on brand new battery. Badly needs a wash to get rid of three weeks' worth of cobwebs; those spiders work fast.

 

MoT on Friday afternoon. Can't wait to see the examiner's face when he sees it - last time I brought an old car to him was five years ago. Hope he remembers that a CX handbrake acts on the front wheels, not the rears....

 

Does that mean you have to go backwards to do handbrake turns?

 

IMG_20180812_1759591.jpg

 

WCPGW?

 

How long have you got?

[jamie92208]

A good morning across the Grand Union at Lapworth with the sound of trains passing on the line just north of Warwick.

IMG_1001.JPG

 

Welcome to the wacky world of ER's Andy.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

We have come back from our bike ride with 2 lbs 4oz of sloes.  None of this metric nonsense here in France.   Tomorrow shopping list has had to be adjusted to include the purchase of two litres of gin rather than one.  Life is so hard.   In fact whilst picking we were able to hear buzzards mewing nearby.  Their nest must be in that area. Things continued to be so hard that shortly after we set off home from the hedgerow Bet managed to fall off her bike and landed on top of a prickly bush of some description.   I was eventually able to untangle her and her bike and can report that the bush has survived the encounter.   Beth is now in the shower examining bruises and picking thorns out.   I will draw a veil now as we are approaching the threshold of TMI.   Fortunatley it appears to have been only her pride that got hurt. 

 

Now a wardrobe needs to be built.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie