Early Risers.

[BR60103]

I don't expect to see the Model Railway Challenge over here until the Summer Wine tapes wear out.

We're discussing blocking all the channels on TV that carry news.

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

I was expecting to come in for some stick after yesterday’s post.  Yes, Ivan, that was all.  I could not begin to aspire to matching you sup for sup on one of your alcohack jaunts.   I’m just happy that I have been able to taste some familiar and less familiar beers less than 15 minutes’ stumble from home and get to talk to some interesting people in the process.  It is quite possible that I might have been able to up the quantity consumed if I had gone for it hell for leather, but at what price?  I’ve not had a hangover for ages and I don’t particularly want one now.  The key, I think, is pacing oneself.  This works very well at Sidmouth FolkWeek, where I can have a pint in my hand from noon to midnight for a whole week and come out unscathed.  I should also make it clear that I do not neck such quantities with any regularity.  It is as well to remember also that there is one not entirely welcome side effect of real ale, which is that it is quite a good cure for constipation.  The final total for 4 days was 28 pints.  I do not expect to get anywhere near that for quite some time.  Some crazy things happened at the Saturday session.  One guy photographed my T shirt, which bears the slogan “Hangover – overhang”.  Another claimed to remember me from the long-defunct 141 bus that used to run from Bedford to Huntingdon which I last used in 1976!

 

So what does the week ahead hold?  Today I plan to make a mixed grill for lunch, either side of continuing work on my Christmas round robin which will need some drastic editing ere long.  Monday is crunch day for the Antipodean.  Will there be a cabin for Chris on the Ghan?  Tuesday will be spent with Poorly Pal and some m*d*ll*ng should get done if I am able to concentrate.  On Wednesday Greg Russell and Jack Rutter play as a duo at the Slaughtered Lamb, about five minutes from Farringdon station, so what’s the betting that I end up on an all-shacks train home?  Thursday night sees singer-songwriter Grace Petrie in concert in Bedford and, all being well, the debut of my new T shirt which will impress some and baffle others!  My late friend Andy’s funeral is on Friday.

 

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

 

Chris

Edited October 7, 2018 by chrisf

[roundhouse]

Morning

 

after a bit of a pub crawl last night in Noth End, Portsmouth I have no hangover. No good beer guide pubs but soem great looking buildings. The best one was the last one of the evening as it didnt have loud music / live music and the Hogoblin Gold was very well kept. So was the Leffe Blonde on tap.

 

So faer managed to avoid buying any more locos but my other half is very tempted to get a OO scale DRS class 68 ' Astute' as she has been in the cab of that one a few years ago at Kingmoor open day. At present we dont have a layout to run it on.

 

Should be a drier day today. I wonder if the show last Friday on Ch 5 will mean more punters at shows.

[Barry O]

Morning all!

 

Astute..aka Boat 1. I watched her depart from Barrow one wet and windy day..no photographs due to the weather.

 

Now I need some tea and breakfast.

Have a good day everyone!

Baz

[jamie92208]

Good morning from a grey and quite cool Charente. At least the rain has stopped and the wind has subsided.

 

The first task today is for me to wield the chain saw again and reduce a pile of logs to blocks that can be split another day. Hopefully this afternoon I will be able to spend some time sorting out some 6 crates of assorted muddling items that need putting away properly.

 

 

As to beer, I was brought up in a strict teetotal Methodist household but things went downhill, aged 15 on a school choir outing to Ripon Cathedral where we had a break between rehearsal and performance and I was called to the bar to down a pint of Vaux Gold Label. Things continued from then and I think that the most I ever drank was 13 pints of Watney's Red Barrel which probably doesn't count. I do remember standing in a shallow bit of the Thames near Shepperton at one point that night. Nowadays I would be hard pressed to drink a quarter of that though as Chris has said, pacing is the thing.

 

 

Regards to all.

 

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl Inner Temple Here.

I've had about 8 hours almost solid sleep, after a few hours half dozing on the sofa. I don't intend to do much to day...

 

Why?

Thursday drove home from Scotland about a 9hour trip with stops.

 

Friday, (times are approximate)

09:00 went out to landrover, pulled out trailer, hooked up to Land Rover, checked lights, all OK.

09:45 After a final coffee set out for MRC.

10:00 arrive MRC, Start loading trailer and landrover with trestle tables, signs, boxes of books. During which others arrive.

11:00 we all depart for Aylsham.

11:50 arrive at jubilee Centre Aylsham.

12:00 previous group finish their use of hall, hall manager around helping, start unloading trailer, more club members arrive. Some go down to BVR to prepare second site.

13:30 trailer unloaded, clear hall of stage, and excess chairs

others have started marking out the pitches on floor using masking tape.

14:00 PAT test cables, lay three main cables to centre "islands", PAT test more cables while others haz tape cables to floor.

15:30 take stroll to Tesco, I need a sandwich..

16:00 hall is ready with trestles and other tables laid where required. Soon after first traders and layout arrive. They are assisted in.. Tea and coffee supplied all round.

18:00 I leave, as no longer required, Just one member stays with keys as layouts have till 19:00 to set up.

 

Drive home via a chinese for evening meal long wait, not in my normal Chinese as its on holiday for October.

 

Try to watch that modelling programme, overruled by SWMBOs recordings, she's out at an art group, eat Chinese not good the worst I've had in years..

 

21:00 bed but didn't get to sleep for an hour or so.

 

Saturday,

 

01:10 wake-up sweating feeling very hot, go downstairs, have a drink, feel enormously bloated, have a very poor night dozing sometimes on the sofa..

05:00 get up have a small porridge for breakfast.

06:00 depart for Aylsham

06:50 arrive park up in designated place in adjoining new early learning centre. Walk round to front just as club member organiser with hall manager walk to doors. It's windy and drizleing which it did all day..

07:00 first exhibitor arrives with layout, from then till 09:00 a continous stream of layouts and traders arrive and are helped into the hall. Some PAT testing was required.

09:00 bacon roll o'clock called, One each free to all exhibitors traders, club members and the hall manager. Free tea and coffee available to all the above all day. I raid two traders and spend a lot on second hand 2mm stuff.

 

10:00 Doors open.. I'm on stewarding / first aid duties in the hall.

 

11:00 I make a rapid exit to a small room where an explosion occurs, I feel a lot better after that..

12:00 another club member starts herding cats.. Aka rounding up exhibitors for the first dinner call. (everyone has timed tickets)

13:30 my turn for dinner, baked spud beans cheese sausages, followed by a choice of cake and custard. I had walnut and coffee.

14:30 another Steward /deignated first aider arrives with a victim, a lady of vintage years had bashed her arm in the kitchen which imediately bruised about 2 to 3 inches in diameter bleeding in the middle. I go grab first aid kits, the other first aider then gloves up while I search boxes for big enough plaster.

Lady plastered and is otherwise OK.

 

16:00 doors close.

 

Traders and exhibitors helped out in the rain, still windy.

Extension cables removed, trestles placed at front of hall.

17:00 just a couple of traders left and one exhibitor. I get Land Rover and trailer to front of hall start loading up. Not many books to take back.

17:30 while some are hoovering the hall, myself and others bring the sectional stage back in, followed by around 150chairs to be laid out for the Sunday morning service.

18:30 depart for MRC, I note hall manager peering out window as I reverse trailer past his car

 

19:30 at club house unload then head for home... Informed by club member a trailer light has failed.

 

Last I heard we had around 380 visitors, which is down a bit, probably because the bad weather and also another railway group had something on as well.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It looks sunny. No idea about temperature.

MiL will be visiting today. Aditi’s sister and husband will be bringing her here.

Tony

[BoD]

Morning all.

 

It looks quite pleasant out today. Put it away then, I here you all cry.

Off to play with trains for the NT again. An enjoyable way to spend a Sunday.

[AndyB]

Morning all, and it's a sunnier one than yesterday. 

Work has kept me away from these pages in recent weeks, so generic congrats and commiserations to one and all.

 

In any spare time I've been working on my n gauge layout.

 

Like Flavio, I'm looking forward to the debut of the new Dr this evening. Due to a family connection with the show my youngest has a number of birthday cards from the "Doctor". 

 

Meanwhile, are there any takers for Saturday in the Aldershot area? 

 

All the best. Andy

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

And a nice sunny day outside, distinct improvement on yesterday.  Trusting too that the antipodean sun will shine on a small part of Bedford tomorrow for Chris F.

 

Nothing planned for today but as both lots of secateurs seem to be 85% ineffective I shall have to call for a garden centre visit before further slashing and cutting pruning appears on the G roster, but the brown bin is nearly full anyway, phew!  Ah, a brief flash of inspiration - when the tree surgeons appear with their chipping machine I could offer up a goodly selection of suitable material .  And Jamie I should get on and split those logs - the longer you leave them the drier they get and less easy to split.

 

Have a good day one and all.

 

PS.  Thanks for the reminder Andy, always a good show and well; worth the aggro of getting lost on the way I've found.  Some interesting layouts although I have seen several of them previously, and useful trade presence so I shall be seeking a suitable release in order to join the queue for the car park.

Edited October 7, 2018 by The Stationmaster

[newbryford]

I didn't see this when you first posted it, Mick.

 

That's the proper way to handle it, according to ice hockey rules. Don't stop the game to discuss a call, but wait for the next natural stoppage in play, then discuss what happened. It does look very unusual when the next stoppage is for a clear goal, though.

 

Think of another possible outcome here. What if the result of the discussion had been that the Solihull goal wasn't a good goal, but the Blackburn goal was? Following the procedure as the refs and linesmen did, Blackburn would have got their goal. But if play had been stopped immediately to discuss whether or not Solihull's goal was a good one, Blackburn would not have had the chance to score that goal.

 

If they had stopped play to discuss Solihull's goal - no problem.

If they had decided that it was no goal, then it would be a centre-ice (or blue zone) face off (much like a drop ball for footy fans).

There certainly wouldn't have been any discussion about future events that didn't happen.

 

Much discussion took place about when the previous incident occurred and how long to wind the clock back. Somewhere in the region of 90 seconds or so. Ice hockey is such a fast game that 5 seconds is more than enough time to score a goal - I was saw three in under 60 seconds playing time.

 

Home to Whitley tonight - the Hawks had a brilliant road trip away win there a couple of weeks ago. Always a well fought contest between these two teams, although we are a man down after Solihull's antics last week earned our man a 3-match ban.....

 

Work to be worked.

 

Catch up later.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

The sun is shining, but according to the app on my phone, it’s only 3C! However, I’ll still only be wearing a tee shirt above the waste today, it’s not cold enough for a jacket just yet.

 

Back later

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Bright and sunny here this morning but a tad chilly but predicted to hit the mid 20's by Wednesday. I hope you enjoyed 'Mr. Holmes' Tony, I certainly did even if it was a bit pedestrian at times. Not a lot else to report so its be back later.

[AndyB]

So, the dilemma is this. 

A mate told me that his youngest asked: "Dad, can we go to that place where the little trains indoors are?"

After further questioning, it turns out that the lad was angling to go to the Aldershot show.

Now, as he clearly is showing an interest, should I:

a) fetch the spare "Peco starter pack" down from the loft for him    , or;

b) ask his parents first. 

 

Dilemma, schlemmer. To complete the set his dad would only have to buy a controller, loco, coach, wagons, build a baseboard, negotiate with his wife for room to put it.....

[Coombe Barton]

So, the dilemma is this. 

A mate told me that his youngest asked: "Dad, can we go to that place where the little trains indoors are?"

After further questioning, it turns out that the lad was angling to go to the Aldershot show.

Now, as he clearly is showing an interest, should I:

a) fetch the spare "Peco starter pack" down from the loft for him    , or;

b) ask his parents first. 

 

Dilemma, schlemmer. To complete the set his dad would only have to buy a controller, loco, coach, wagons, build a baseboard, negotiate with his wife for room to put it.....

 

Go on - you know you want to!

[grandadbob]

Good afternoon all,

Late here today but I was up early to watch the GP. Also watched both rugby matches yesterday and enjoyed them, particularly Quins v Sarries.

A bit hectic here as our friends from next door are currently heading towards Blighty from Naples and we are feeding them later when they get home so much cleaning and cooking needs to be done. 

Andy, I should make Aldershot along with t'other Bob.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[AndrewC]

Greetings from the boring borough. 

 

Jamie: I once had a T shirt that proudly proclaimed "I thought Puking was a city in China until I tried Watney's Red Barrel"

 

I gave up drinking pints quite a while ago. For me it's quality over quantity. Although that didn't stop me from digging deep into the bierkeller last night. A few Belgians and more than a few Dutch beers were downed. The majority of which had double digit abv. Yes, I'm a bit delicate today. It's true that you can't drown your sorrows as the b*stards float. 

 

CAMRA members tend to be a strange bunch. I'm in my 15th and probably last year of membership. Our local group is so dysfunctional that several people, including myself and SWMBO jumped ship and had their memberships moved to the SE London group. I could spend a lot of time boring the crap out of the lot of you with the horror stories of Bexley CAMRA. Although I think I was disowned a few years ago when I walked past a table of them in the local 'spoons while deliberately drinking an American craft beer straight from the tin. 

 

There seems to be a rather large black dog pestering me over the past few days. Work stress, extra hours, the house, family, exhaustion, etc. We are supposed to be going to my younger brother's vow renewal this week. I'm really dreading the whole thing. Turns out the accommodation is in shared 2 bedroom apartments. Not what we were expecting. Now we're having to look at alternative hotels. If not for the fact the rental car is in my name and we are travelling with cousins, I'd come down with anthrax to avoid going. I'm feeling another "off the grid" month may help. Suspend my fecesbook and twatter profiles, unplug the laptop, phone in the sock drawer. If I vanish for a bit, it just means I've gone into hermit mode. 

 

Enjoy the day, I'm off for a hot soak and a nap. At least the builder didn't f*ck up the jetted tub installation. 

[Tony_S]

Beer.

I didn’t really like it having sampled various brews available in the Midlands. Moving away to the SE revealed that not all beers taste the same . Also when younger I seemed to have a,problem with capacity of any liquid whether alcoholic or not. Matthew used to send me the most amusing comments about beer . When he lived in London the “hipsters” drinking in pubs were a great source of amusement to him. I don’t suppose either of us would have qualified for Camra. As well as the craft ales and Belgian beers I also like Guinness. I know there are other less commercial equivalents of Guinness but I like it.

Tony

Edited October 7, 2018 by Tony_S

[tetsudofan]

Good afternoon from a currently (relatively) warm and sunny south east corner of the country. 

 

Beer if something that I don't drink much of these days. Years ago, on celebrating the conclusion of the "A" levels at a village pub in Eynsford, Kent I got horribly drunk on Director's Bitter (aided by the fact that vodka had been added by some of my so-called friends) and ever since then I have not been able to drink beer out of a pint glass …. but I can drink three or four half-pints.

 

Rekindled my interest in beer whilst living in Japan. At that time Kirin was the leading brand (but maybe pushed out by Asahi Dry by now) and the interesting thing was that you don't drink it out of pint or half-pint glasses (or the metric equivalents) but instead in quite small glasses. If you were out drinking a few bottles were placed on the table, one was opened and then all the glasses were filled. As soon as your glass was empty somebody else would fill your glass and that's how it would carry on, the problem being that you could easily lose track of how much you had drunk. The big no-no, though, is that you never fill your own glass, that has to be done by somebody else. That I learnt on the first party I attended!!

 

Regarding ties, working in a bank, you had to wear a tie. Most of most of my ties came from M & S and were not the most colourful of things. One day, at a meeting with my boss (a rather dry german-speaking Swiss)  at UBS in Tokyo, upon leaving the meeting,  he suddenly said to me "Mr. B, your ties are boring!!" He was right!! 

 

On my next visit to Hong Kong I purchased a couple of rather colourful Versace ties and the response I got from everybody I met in the office when I started wearing them was amazing. It seemed s though I had been reborn. Ended up with quite a collection of such ties but they get very rarely used these days and many are still in pristine condition. Maybe should think of e-baying them and buying some more trains.

 

Keith

[New Haven Neil]

A'noon.  Wee trip out in Mrs NHN's new motor for lunch, all approved.  All the way to Castletown I'll have you know. No beer was harmed.

[New Haven Neil]

Oh Keith - I remember Japanese beers - Asahi, Sapporo , Kirin, mainly for their ability to generate fearsome hangovers!  Some good bars in Kobe.... ;-)

[tetsudofan]

Oh Keith - I remember Japanese beers - Asahi, Sapporo , Kirin, mainly for their ability to generate fearsome hangovers!  Some good bars in Kobe.... ;-)

 

Neil,

 

When I was in Japan order of beer popularity was Kirin, Asahi and Sapporo coming a distant third, Kirin were number one and believed they could not be pushed out of that position..…. until Asahi introduced Asahi Dry.

 

Keith

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

I spent most of the morning on the sofa, only interrupted by lighting the fire for the fire for the first time this year. As I felt very cold even with the heating on.

 

During the show yesterday, I spoke to a wheel chair user about the height of the layouts. With his input I've decided my exhibition layout will be at about 3ft. So when awake I've sketched out some possible transport carriages/ layout supports.

 

At around 12:00 while Ben was being taken for his walk I put the trailer away, Ben thinks the tyres are big balls to play with if I move it with him there.

Later on, I, after dinner another hours sleep at the end of which I came to a solution on the layout carriages. Final drawings will be made, then a prototype / first one will be made. 150mm diameter wheeled casters ordered..

[Horsetan]

Just been told that another one of my clients has died. She was 92, I think, and appeared to be in excellent condition given the circumstances.

[lightengine]

I don't expect to see the Model Railway Challenge over here until the Summer Wine tapes wear out.

We're discussing blocking all the channels on TV that carry news.

Is that because at some stage you expect someone to authorise the bombing of Canada? It will be on Twitter first