Early Risers.

[Simon G]

Evening all from a damp North Wales. We drove down yesterday with a weather forecast of a little rain, so it rained most of the way. Today, we had a forecast for a little rain around 11am, so it started around 11 and didn’t finish until 2pm, and has now restarted. This is establishing a pattern which is all too familiar with our time in Wales. There could be a heatwave, and when we turn up, rain is guaranteed in about 24 hours! Despite all this, we managed a decent walk this morning in the Conwy Walley, and have done some hedging this afternoon.

 

Tomorrow morning I will be taking my aunt to the local eye hospital for an injection, which sounds awful, so I hope that it isn’t too bad for her. If by some miracle it remains dry in the afternoon, another walk is planned.

[jamie92208]

A semi miracle has occurred. I have managed to get most of the grandfather clock mechanism back together. As discussed a few days ago I used some thickish paper and made a template of the upper Brass sheet, used a pencil with a tapered end to make holes in the correct places then after 2 or three attempts got everything back in place. I've even managed to secure it with some bits of wire. I now need to spend some time cooking at the photos that I took check how all the various arms are supposed to go.

 

I'm a happy bunny. Beth is in full flow in the kitchen assisted by a French friend. At the moment there is no task that suits my pay grade. Long may this state of affairs continue.

 

 

Jamie

[Horsetan]

…. At the moment there is no task that suits my pay grade....

 

Not even a pair of traditional French registration plates for show use?

[jamie92208]

Not even a pair of traditional French registration plates for show use?

I am still waiting for the wheels of French Bureaucracy to slowly grind round to giving me a new registration number for the Volvo. I was told tat this could take 2 months but August has now intervened. Then I have to wait another 4 months to get the new number for the trailer.

 

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

I am still waiting for the wheels of French Bureaucracy to slowly grind round to giving me a new registration number for the Volvo. I was told tat this could take 2 months but August has now intervened. Then I have to wait another 4 months to get the new number for the trailer.Jamie

French bureaucracy dispatched my Crit Air sticker really quickly and gave a very rapid response to a query about where to put it on a RH drive vehicle.

I noticed from a website that 90 kph single carriageway speed limits in France are now 80kph. Is there an additional reduction still for wet weather?

[Ozexpatriate]

My feet have swollen up since boarding the plane. it might be the blood pressure tablets but odd that didnt happen on the other flights on our trip. So I have decided to miss my tablets today to see what happens otherwise its a trip to the quacks.

I hope this resolves quickly. Swelling after air travel is common and not necessarily related to blood pressure meds.

 

I don't know if you wear them but compression socks are not only well advised but surprisingly comfortable. I routinely wear the medium compression, over the calf stockings. These days they look like regular business wear socks - not the nasty band-aid coloured therapy garments of the old days.  I take my shoes off on the 'plane as well for flights longer than 90 minutes.

 

A colleague of mine remained motionless in a window seat during a long trans-Pacific flight from Singapore and ended up with a deep vein thrombosis. Other than the fright he was fine but he was put on blood thinners as a precaution.

[roundhouse]

I hope this resolves quickly. Swelling after air travel is common and not necessarily related to blood pressure meds.

 

I don't know if you wear them but compression socks are not only well advised but surprisingly comfortable. I routinely wear the medium compression, over the calf stockings. These days they look like regular business wear socks - not the nasty band-aid coloured therapy garments of the old days.  I take my shoes off on the 'plane as well for flights longer than 90 minutes.

 

A colleague of mine remained motionless in a window seat during a long trans-Pacific flight from Singapore and ended up with a deep vein thrombosis. Other than the fright he was fine but he was put on blood thinners as a precaution.

I also take my shoes off on long flights and tend to make sure I move about but this is the first time that my ankles have swollen up. Fingers crossed it isnt the tablets.

[Ozexpatriate]

The wildfire smoke haze has returned. Heat is forecast for the next couple of days. The smoke seems thick enough to prevent some of the solar heating that was forecast. Despite closing up the house and running the air conditioning, my eyes are red today.

 

The big question now is whether we set a new record for the greatest number of days over 90°F / ~32°C.? (As of yesterday the tally was 28 and the record 29.) The forecast says yes, but based on how dim the sun looked this morning, I'm not sure if we'll make it to that temperature today.

 

An onshore flow may bring cooler temperatures and clear the air on Thursday.

 

This morning I had an email from UPS indicating my package from the NRM should arrive this week. It's been a month since the transaction was recorded on my credit card so I was starting to wonder what was up. Made by Rapido, but not rapid it seems.

 

In other delivery service news I spent all Saturday morning waiting for FedEx. I had a robocall on Friday that a delivery requiring a signature was coming sometime on Saturday without any more precision regarding the window of time. It arrived right around noon so there was plenty of time for my Saturday afternoon errands.

 

My health insurance provider is baffled when asked why I hadn't received an explanation of benefits from them since March. After checking that no, I did not select online communications, a reprint will be issued. For reasons far to convoluted and tedious to relate, I've been looking for these. Yes, I could have gone online, I just didn't want to.

[JohnDMJ]

I also take my shoes off on long flights and tend to make sure I move about but this is the first time that my ankles have swollen up. Fingers crossed it isnt the tablets.

 

It's just the gravitational pull on all the alcohol reported consumed!

Edited August 20, 2018 by JohnDMJ

[Horsetan]

I am still waiting for the wheels of French Bureaucracy to slowly grind round to giving me a new registration number for the Volvo. I was told tat this could take 2 months but August has now intervened. Then I have to wait another 4 months to get the new number for the trailer.

New Year, then.

 

Sounds like French bureaucracy runs Indian bureaucracy pretty close, but both are apparently nothing compared to the Egyptian variant...

[TheQ]

Evening awl,

Two bits of good news,

 

My first ever order from fraggle rock has been dispatched.

 

My first ever eBay auction bid, was successful, by me upping my top level bid with 46 seconds to go, and the opposition only upping his bid by £1 at a time he/she only had time for three goes before he / she ran out of time.

 

Now I need to research removing old sails numbers, but that can wait till tomorrow..

 

Good night awl.

[Barry O]

A bit of eyelid inspection, a bit of crust earning then various cricket related phone calls filled the day.

 

Sleep well everyone!

Baz

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[jamie92208]

French bureaucracy dispatched my Crit Air sticker really quickly and gave a very rapid response to a query about where to put it on a RH drive vehicle.

I noticed from a website that 90 kph single carriageway speed limits in France are now 80kph. Is there an additional reduction still for wet weather?

 

 

New Year, then.

 

Sounds like French bureaucracy runs Indian bureaucracy pretty close, but both are apparently nothing compared to the Egyptian variant...

To be fair, most of it has gone quite quickly and the registration for Beth's car bought in France was quick and easy. Apparently the system has been privatised recently and it can't cope with foreign registered vehicles. It used to be done in one day at the prefecture but now it's been centralised and takes an age and is done via franchised dealers such as Garages that sell new vehicles and Insurance brokers. It's very similar to the situation in England when the DVLC at Swansea started up in 1974.

 

 

Jamie

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

I was getting on quite well in the garden whe it started to rain, mind you, I had just started to pack up, but it did speed things up a bit. So far I’ve fixed the brickwork round the drain, reset the step and refitted some missing paving on the path that leads to the cellar. This path regularly supports ladders, both mine and the window cleaners, so I do like to keep this one in good fettle.

 

After tea I went to Salford Quays for a swim, managing to complete 2.3k before it was time to get out. They are quite subtle when they want you to get out of the water, they put the boat close to the bouy and stop you passing it! When I got home I opened a bottle of Doombar and relaxed.

 

Goodnight all

[lightengine]

The mystery of the woman in the sea remains. Nothing being said about how she ended up in the drink. My money is that she was sat on the taffrail.

[PhilJ W]

The mystery of the woman in the sea remains. Nothing being said about how she ended up in the drink. My money is that she was sat on the taffrail.

And alcohol was involved somehow.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Horsetan]

And alcohol was involved somehow.

Loads of it. To not panic about floating in the sea for the best part of half a day suggests borderline paralytic to me.

[Ozexpatriate]

Loads of it. To not panic about floating in the sea for the best part of half a day suggests borderline paralytic to me.

Idle speculation on our part, but that she did tread water for ten hours without passing out might suggest otherwise. Either that or the combination of cold water an adrenaline is a powerful restorative.

 

The fall without injury is an additional curiosity. Locally a teenager was pushed off a bridge and fell 60'. She was clearly having second thoughts about jumping and when unexpectedly propelled by a friend, fell forward flailing. She sustained some serious injury to her ribs and lungs when she hit the water hard.  I would imagine the taffrail on an ocean liner to be considerably higher above the waterline.

Edited August 21, 2018 by Ozexpatriate

[BR60103]

The wildfire smoke haze has returned. Heat is forecast for the next couple of days. The smoke seems thick enough to prevent some of the solar heating that was forecast. Despite closing up the house and running the air conditioning, my eyes are red today.

 

We've been told that there is some haze from the British Columbia fires in our upper atmosphere but it won't be low enough to affect us.

Just to locate us, we have almost single-highway access to 3 of the great lakes.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

We have a somewhat cloudy morning here today, but it is still expected to get quite warm later on.  From my lofty perch, I can just about see the Frankfurt skyline through the mist, but the Feldberg is obscured.

 

Everywhere is still incredibly dry, and the other day some morons decided it would be a good idea to start a fire on the Kleiner Feldberg.  Fortunately, the fire service were able to extinguish it quickly before it got too big.  What is wrong with these people?

 

Time for a coffee!

 

Have a good day everyone...

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

I thought that the injury to my chest which I sustained on Saturday by falling over and landing across a kerbstone was becoming less painful until 12.45 am when I realised that if anything the opposite were true.  I just could not find a position or angle at which to lie in bed without it hurting for England.  With the greatest reluctance I reached for the ibuprofen capsules, which knocked me out till about 4 am.  As I type this the pain is merely a twinge and if yesterday be any guide will remain so all day.  The ever solicitous Harry asked me when we were e-chatting on Sunday if I had had to go to hospital.   Where it happened was right next to Guys but it never occurred to me to go in.  There is no bruise on the chest but you should see the one on my knee.

 

The latest on the boots is that I have exchanged the laces from the new pair with those from the old ones.  A purposeful stride into town was accomplished without risk to life or limb but the boots are heavier on my feet than I expected.  It may be, therefore, that the march will be done in my trainers which, to the approval of many, are fastened with Velcro.  Trials continue.

 

Something I never expected to do is to buy an anytime return between Cogan and Cardiff Queen Street using my debit card.  I shall need one on Saturday.  After railcard discount the cost is £2.65.  As the booking office at Cogan burned down in 1970 I am by no means certain of how else a valid ticket may be procured so it’s a case of punching a bizarre collection of figures and letters into the clunk-clunk-fumble machine which Arriva Trains Wales’s webshite assures me may be found at the station.  I hope to arrive at Queen Street in time for a brief encounter with my cousin-in-law who is staying at a nearby hotel before jetting off on holiday.   There is enough of a window for it to happen but many a slip and all that.

 

There is a tale of turmoil to tell but not today as I am still making sense of it.  Bear with me.

 

Warm thoughts as always to all in distress or missing

 

Chris

[pH]

We've been told that there is some haze from the British Columbia fires in our upper atmosphere but it won't be low enough to affect us.

 

We know there is much haze from the British Columbia fires in our lower atmosphere and it's definitely low enough to affect us.

 

We were in the Interior of British Columbia over the weekend (Okanagan and Similkameen valleys) and the smoke was pretty bad. We were on the shore of a lake on Saturday, and the high mountains on the other side of the lake, just over a kilometre away, were completely invisible. The smoke is dense, so stays and flows in the bottom of the valleys. Yesterday evening, we were near the top of a valley (just below the trackbed of the former Kettle Valley Railway) - visibility was about 2 km horizontally, but overhead we could see the moon, quite a few stars and even a satellite. Coming home tonight, driving west into the sunset, the colours in the sky were spectacular.