Early Risers.

[BoD]

some idiot shouts get in the hole..........,

Apparently that's what golf enthusiasts shout at funerals too.

[Horsetan]

Apparently that's what golf enthusiasts shout at funerals too.

Never heard it around Soho or Amsterdam.

[Barry O]

Nice family "tea" eaten at Lavanta tonight. Sardine fillets for a starter then mixed fish main course..far too healthy but excellent!

 

Sleep well all!

 

baz

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. One thing I forgot to mention. Yesterday on our way to the Brentwood toy fair as we were going down the A127 near Dunton we spotted three paragliders above the road. They appeared to land just north of the road.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

The weather has been a bit dull for most of the day, although the sun did show itself in the afternoon. But just before tea it started to rain, this became a little heavy later, but stopped before it got dark.

 

Despite spending most of the day in the workshop, I think I earned a few more brownie points, as Sheila had asked me to alter one of the bangles I made her the other week. The alterations were duly completed and the bangle re-polished before dinner.

 

Not much else to report, so I’ll bid you all goodnight.

[PeterBB]

Frustration setting in.

 

Item ordered and informed delivery will be Friday 29th September … wait in 24 hours - no delivery.  Check tracking progress and find that the last statement is 'Attempted to deliver' … and also asks on email for comment on 'quality of delivery' that had not taken place.  It does also include a comment referring to the card left if an attempt was made (unsuccessfully) using reference left at the attempt on the card if no delivery to refer back to them… no card (someone isn't telling the truth).

 

Day, in 24 hours … no delivery and again the tracking says that an attempt was made to deliver … again no card reference to contact them with …

 

Just in case day 3 in 24 hours and still no delivery.

 

Try to contact the delivery company (Her...s) and find that there is no way of personally contacting them in terms of their non-delivery but there were two comments on chasing down  1(among its options none of which were relevant to the dishonesty of its delivery statement) -ultimately if it has not arrived contact the seller 'It is them you have the contract with not us' and 2 the way down the 'legal' route'. Neither is satisfactory.

 

The seller (Am …) who will ultimately refund, that is not what we want, only have effectively the same information that we have as far as delivery is concerned and referred us back to the courier company.

 

What really galls me is that they have the cheek to say that an 'Attempt was made to deliver' when clearly that was not the case because their policy is that if they cannot deliver then they leave a card stating that they have been and were unable to deliver with a reference number on it.

 

As I said above someone is not being quite truthful and we have been imprisoned for 3 days because we know the item is too big to leave …

 

Rant over … unless it remains undelivered!

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[newbryford]

Hockey loss 5-8. Blackburn Hawks v Solihull Barons.

 

Can't quite work out how that happened after being 2-0 up and looking in charge of the game.

Solihull have quite a few players that know how the game works and they managed to get our top player sent off with a 5 plus game penalty for spearing.

In those 5 minutes, they scored 3 goals whilst we were a man down. (As it was a major penalty, it means that the team serving the penalty doesn't get a man back when a goal is scored)

 

Strangest thing that anyone had ever seen occurred when the score was 3-6 at the beginning of P3.

Solihull thought they had scored - it certainly hit the metalwork of the goal - but it wasn't given by the goal judge and play carried on.

About 90 seconds later, Blackburn score - and their goalie was objecting to being fouled. The scoreboard now shows 4-6.

Quite a discussion between the ref and two linesman ensues.

Blackburn's goal is disallowed and Solihull's goal is given....... WTF? How can a goal be awarded after play has been going on for so long after the event?

Scoreboard changes to 3-7 and the clock is wound back 90 seconds.

 

Needless to say, the referee wasn't given an easy time after that.

 

Have a good Monday folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[BR60103]

ChrisF

one of my early teachers, Ralph Page, claimed that the best combination for a New England dance was an English dance, a Scottish tune, and a French-Canadian fiddler.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is rather Autumnal this morning, but quite pleasant after the heat of the summer.

 

It looks like a busy week is awaiting, so I had better get on!

 

Have a good day everyone...

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

This week sees the 41st Bedford beer festival.  As I have participated in all 40 so far I look forward to attending at least one session.  There is precious little culture in this town and the normal fare on offer at the Corn Exchange, where the beer festival takes place, is tribute bands and the like.  The event is very much an annual reunion, affording brief glimpses of and conversations with former workmates and other folks that I only ever see there.  Given the situation with the Antipodean it is perhaps just as well that the event is not next week.  If it were it would present a perfect opportunity for drowning my sorrows if, as I fear, there is no room on the train for yours truly.  That is not what the beer festival is for.  It is for meeting and sampling beers that are new to me and other patrons.  All I have to do now is remember that!  Whilst we speak of beer, some of the memories of draught beer on trains jerked a couple of days ago are indeed unfortunate.

 

Today I am expecting a visit from a BT engineer to investigate the recent misbehaviour of my broadband.  It was to have been in the morning but the last I heard it had been rescheduled for the afternoon.  Heck, I didn’t want to go out today anyway.  On Tuesday there is an LCGB meeting of which I must write a report the next day.  In the week ahead there will be fodder runs, ironing, and another frustrating telephone conversation, for there is seldom any other kind, with the travel insurance company.  In this context the beer festival offers a rock of stability.  Thanks to all who gave tips on where to find witch hazel: I would never have thought of Superdrug but I suppose I should have explored Amazon or Ebay.  I can only assume that its absence from Boots threw me.

 

Warm thoughts to all in distress and those who are missing.

 

Chris

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Going for a bit of a walkabout..back soon!

Baz

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, inner Temple here,

A very good nights sleep of 9 hours just broken by the odd wake up and turn over.

Ben the Border collie decided he's happy here and slept down stairs last night. It was a very sleepy doggy waking up when I came down...

 

Plans for today.. Not a lot, I have brought with me a handheld receiver a MRC member asked me to set to up, it's one of these hundreds of channels digital you have to programme the bands you want. He wants air bands...

 

But first... A Muggacoffee..

[45156]

Morning All

 

Sorry that I went AWOL yesterday, but the builder did such a good job on the sealant round the bath that it started to show up the rest of the tilework, and the G word (that's G for grout) word gor mentioned.  So after the obligatory visit to the A6 car boot, I made a start on this task.   Of course, that in turn meant a trip to Screwfix, as the stuff I had was totally useless, as the tub had somehow got cracked, and it was totally dried up.  So that was yesterday completely finished as the old grout needed to be raked out, then the new stuff put it - and that was the day gone.  Still it has now dried, and the bathroom looks great to me, and acceptable to 30747 - well her standards are a bit higher than mine, I guess. 

 

All posts have now been read and rated, and as usual, generic greetings are sent to the ailing and celebrating.  And to some of the missing ERs who are still posting elsewhere - you are missed here, so please come back and visit us soon.

 

Interesting that my builder (who charged me £60 to do the bathroom including three tubes of sealant - so probably only about £25 for himself) is off to London leaving Lancashire at about 3.30 am, to continue his heritage and conservation work, which is now his bread and butter, for a site meeting at Southwark Cathedral.  He is also working on other heritage buildings in the London area - but at least he doesn't forget his customers oop Norf - well at least he hasn't yet, and just as well, as I've used him since he was a lad. 

 

Chrisf - interesting comment there on Sunday (or was it Saturday?) about Music For A Found Harmonium, which is a quite briliant piece, but I can only think of it in the Patrick Street version on "Irish Times".

 

Back tomorrow

Regards to All

Stewart

[jamie92208]

Morning all from Alcatraz. Packing day as we want an early start tomorrow. Hopefully we will get out this afternoon. Apart from that not a lot to mention.

 

Peter BB, aren't Hermes the mob that use self employed couriers for the final delivery who do all the deliveries in their own cars. Then they get paid peanuts for the actual work. It's not a good system but typical of the gig economy. I hope that you get your package.

 

Jamie

[Black Marlin]

Greetings all, and hello to Jason Isaacs.

Spent the weekend doing some small home maintenance tasks (clearing gutters, repairing sealant and trim) and reading. Managed to batter my way through a lot of material: I finished SPQR, by Prof Mary Beard (an excellent canter through Roman history); read Fear by Bob Woodward (an odd book: written entirely in media res, it lacks a historian's traditional narrative arc. As a result, while individual incidents are recounted with stark clarity, there is little sense of any kind of trajectory to Trump's presidency); read The Martian by Andy Weir (entirely gripping and beautifully researched); and started Pale Rider by Laura Spinney (about the Spanish Flu of 1918, which killed between 2.5 - 5% of the Earth's population and has some claim on being the greatest single catastrophe in human history).

Today...back to work (boo) but it's a 4-day week (yay!). And there are LNER wagons on order that ought to be arriving; naturally, this makes me very happy.

Kind regards (complete with footnotes for primary and secondary sources);
Tinkety-tonk, etc.,
Gavin

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

It’s a beautiful sunny day here in the northwest, but cold, 1C according to the app on my phone. It must have rained overnight, as the ground looks quite wet. Once Sheila has left for her Zumba class, my first task will be to go to the post office and collect a parcel that they tried to deliver on Saturday, when we were at the Trafford Centre. Then I’m off to the local (small) DIY shop for some wire wool, as I’m almost out and it is by far the best item to use when polishing and cleaning metalwork. After that I’ll carry on with my work in the garden, hopefully I’ll get a start made on the final bit of the footings for the front edge of the patio.

 

Back later

Edited October 1, 2018 by BSW01

[PeterBB]

Morning all from Alcatraz. Packing day as we want an early start tomorrow. Hopefully we will get out this afternoon. Apart from that not a lot to mention.

 

Peter BB, aren't Hermes the mob that use self employed couriers for the final delivery who do all the deliveries in their own cars. Then they get paid peanuts for the actual work. It's not a good system but typical of the gig economy. I hope that you get your package.

 

Jamie

 

Jamie,

 

That may well be the case - I've certainly heard of extensive delivery requirements for couriers stretching into late evening, circa the recent news about Amazon employees at warehouses, but if they are 'directed' to deliver then they are not self-employed and all that means.

 

There is also the continuing problem of bad internet connection - how can so many businesses insist on internet based use when it is so unreliable?

 

On this site I come back to find that previous 'ticks' are no longer recorded and a day out means that many are missed.

 

Hope your packing goes well and that you have a safe return journey.

 

Peter

[BlackRat]

O levels!

 

Despite dire predictions.....I managed to get 7, an A ( despite the geography teachers predicted E) 2 B's and the rest C's.

 

A levels followed and the upper sixth was a blur of 18th birthday parties which probably assisted in my outstanding achievement of possibly getting the lowest marks in the history of the school.

 

Still if I had passed I would probably be stuck in some god awful job waiting for the pension instead of which....

 

Sometimes failure does lead to success.

 

Happy days!

[roundhouse]

Good morning form a sunny Surrey.

 

Our flight back from Prague was the usual well over 1 hour delay so it was a taxi back home early this morning. With on commute to do and my other half anticipating this by planning to work from home, it wasnt such an issue.

 

Just debating whether it wil be too windy this week to erect the gazebbo today.

Edited October 1, 2018 by roundhouse

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Bright and sunny this morning if a bit chilly, typical autumn weather. Not a lot else to report so its be back later.

[jamie92208]

Still if I had passed I would probably be stuck in some god awful job waiting for the pension instead of which....

 

Sometimes failure does lead to success.

 

Happy days!

That sounds a sort of familiar story BR. I was told by my bullying housemaster that I didn't deserve to get any O levels but managed to get all 7 that I took with grades ranging from 1 (Maths) to 6 (French) A levels 2 C's and a D which got me into Uni then my only passes out of 11 subjects were Tech Drawing and Chemical Process Principles (The subject that I was actually meant to be studying. That meant that after another year at Poly when I passed the wrong combination of exams I needed to do something else and one drunken night in Huddersfield ended up joining the Force. That worked out quite well and this month I will have been drawing my pension for 16 years. It's funny how things turn out.

 

 

Packing and cleaning going well, we may well head for the beach this afternoon then a meal out.

 

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Off to the dentist soon. A filling is required. My recent routine check up revealed the need for some minor attention to a molar.

Tony