Early Risers.

[roundhouse]

Mum had her xmas cards unpacked months ago. She was unpacking her boxes after moving in to her new place

 

My other half got home just in time to avoid a power supply failure out of Victoria last night.

 

Not good out of Paddington last night and today as no trains till mid day. Advising passengers to go via Waterloo. However theres a signal failure between Wokingham and Reading.

 

I wont be using the trains till Friday but will be dropping my other half off at the station in a little while.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is just starting to get light in this part of the world, and it looks like it is going to be another warm and bright day.

 

In fact, of late, I have found myself wondering if the climate has indeed reached a tipping point.  I can't remember a summer as hot and long as this one.  We have had very little rain for months, and it was reported on the radio this morning that nearly a third of this year has temperatures which are classed as summer.  I still don't have any grass on the lawn, and I haven't mowed since about June!

 

Oh well - time for a coffee.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Although I am not fully recovered I feel much better this morning. Recovering from infection while taking immunosuppressive medication is “interesting “.

Have a good day. I have been excused bin bag duty this morning.

Tony

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Misty here again this morning.

 

The revenge of the flu jab has struck! Woke up at 5:30 shivering but too hot..managed to get back to sleep eventually. I now feel fully "flued" up. Pah!

 

Mugatea being drunk then..crust earning and some discussions with solicitors.

 

Positive thoughts to our missing ERs and all who ail.

 

Baz

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Here,

Another poor nights sleep due to a somersaulting stomach, but I did I think get around six hours sleep  in very many pieces.

 

I asked Ben the Border Collie, if he wanted out this morning he walked up to the open back door, looked around without stepping out, looked up at me,  turned round and went back to bed...

 

 Just before bed Time I got a phone call from my winter sailing compatriot, offically to discuss the possibilities of launching. the results of which are,

Just down river is a boat yard managed by a sailor we know, he might be able to help.

The Summer club is organising a lift out for the summer club next week, but that would mean missing the first race of the season, which this year is the Tri Icicle, a 20mile endurance race.

We try to launch ourselves using the parish slipway, this would mean lowering the trailer into the water down the slip on a rope from the back of the landrover. It would also mean the sailing compatriot having to rebuild the trailer bearings after he got home to remove any water..

 

The Computer here is working like a snail as it's got a massive amount of updates being installed and no doubt on other computers throughout the factory.

 

After discussing that we then went onto what ever of interest each other had been doing through the summer, which of course was mostly to do with my boat, which he was interested in because he donated the mast for the boat.

 

On the way in they've changed the lights at the cremated Swan back to timed  from sensors again. So at 06:00 in the morning on a minor crossroads out in the countryside there were queues of cars on all four legs of the crossroads...

 

The equipment multiple shunt unit I'm working on is not giving the results  I expect, So I need to discuss that with the boss, he won't be in for another hour and a quarter. So I think it's time to have my brain fried by stupidity i.e....

 

I've still got that sexual harrassment "Learnings" to do and now also arrived is this year's company survey..

 

I may be some time, send a Collie with a large bottle of whisky to revive me..

 

Time too....yugh,,

[Happy Hippo]

 I bought myself a new beer, a bottle of Harviestoun Old Engine Oil. So I opened it tonight and it was quite nice, 

I've just used the last of the steam oil I got from the loco stores when I visited the RE site at Long Marston.

 

Since that was about 1991, I can't complain, but my locos might!

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

It’s a wee bit dull here at the moment and it looks like it’s been raining, more rain is forecast for later so the fact that I’m going swimming this morning looks like it’s a good decision. Not much will be done after I get back, as we have Charlie, Ava, Evie and Max coming over for tea, so a rest before they arrive is usually a good idea.

 

Back later.

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from La Belle France. A bit late on parade after internet problems with Orange. Our phone, which connects via the internet, was working, and the wifi but there was no internet access. The box had been switched on an off to no avail so I rang Orange. 2 helplines and half an hour later, 3 presses of the reset button, then un/re plug the box and it started working. I did manage to drink my mug of coffee during that time. More hedge trimming is now in order then hopefully some muddling.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I must admit that I start some C*******s shopping on boxing day or soon after, when the supermarkets want to clear their shelves of all the goodies tat. Some of it is quite useful tat, such as a string of 50 'soft white' LED's for £2 complete with batteries of which I obtained a few last year. C & C's to all that require them, be back later.

[Happy Hippo]

Today the Obergrumpenfuhrer has decreed we will be visiting Harvington Hall. (One of the few Halls in GWR territory not to have been honoured by being named after a locomotive.)

 

Ideally I'd much prefer to be fitting the stay alive packs, that arrived with this morning's mail, to the various members of my 7mm scale fleet.

 

However, discretion is the better part of valour.

[AndrewC]

 

Is it morning? Not sure anymore. Night time work on a clean up project has seen me working/sleeping in short blocks since Monday evening. Up at 01:00 for some remediation after the client's full backup. Sleep from 4-9 back to work. zzzzzz. 

 

Yes, Chr*****s appears earlier every year. The one saving grace is the shops seem to be taking more interest in Halloween so rather than green and red everywhere, it's orange and black. At least there doesn't seem to be a Chri****s shop in every mall like in Canada & the US. I think I mentioned that we had to pre-book our Golden Arrow Chri****s dinner way back in August. Depending on the offspring and his lady it may just be the 2 of us on 12/25. If they aren't coming it will be the first time it has been just the 2 of us. If that happens, I don't know whether or not I'll go the full monty with the meals. Speaking of which I'm going to have to order the turkey soon as the farm we get it from usually sells out by the beginning of November. Must get a decision from the kid. 

 

Phil, once upon a time you could get all your decorations for 75% off if you got them after the day. I've noticed in the past couple of years that places like Sainsbury's, B&Q, etc all seem to have cleared out their seasonal sections a couple of days before. 

 

Time for more coffee and to figure out what planet I'm on. Enjoy the day. 

 

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Not sure if Tesco have mince pies on the shelves locall but if they do they'll probably have an 'eat by' date well before 25 December - they did last year.  They've had Christmas chocolate and biscuit packs around for some weeks and no doubt the tin of biscuits for my aunt will be bought between the 19th and 25th of this month as the staff discount will be running at 20% during that time;  I suspect the alcohol stock might also be replenished between those dates but it doesn't qualify for discount anyway!

 

Another soggy morning but as it isn't currently raining I presume we are enjoying the 10% rain free element of the '90% chance of rain' forecast for much of this morning.  No other major tasks loom at the moment although the dining room table is beginning to get mentioned, er, repeatedly.

 

Have a good day one and all.

 

PS For HH - when involved in helping reorganise Southall MPD's stores in 1967 we came across to 45 gallon barrels of steam oil still in stock and unused - I think they were sent back to Shell with the empty barrels of currently used oils.

[TheQ]

Went off and had my brain fried by that sexual harrassment "trainings" it was written so badly in American English that everyone I know failed it, and repeatedly put in the answers in different combinations till they passed (multiple choice on computer).

 

After that the new company survey which includes questions about the above, racism as well as how you felt about the company.

For the first time they had a written anything else? at the end.. Boy did I have fun... pointing out the racism of their emails all coming written in Amercan English, photos of the Statue of liberty included in their postings and the fact it always refers to federal statues..

Then a bit about how on company emails for briefings we are supposed to attend the lecture hall in the USA or for first aid, go to the first aid room in the USA.

 

When I cam back after about an hour, Win 10 + other updates still hadn't completed..

 

Had an email back about the ESD LAB Coats, they are blaming the suppliers for not suppling in the boxes what was ordered..

 

Time for ... the next measurement..

Edited October 17, 2018 by TheQ

[trisonic]

Am sure that Paul Allen put a lot of money into cancer research and treatments, just a shame that he's died so relatively young, a bit like Steve Jobs.

 

Paul Allen spent a lot of money on a Jimi Hendrix museum in Seattle; only mention that because a couple of 'new' Jimi Hendrix singles are being released for Record Store Day on US Black Friday, one is a track with Jayne Mansfield recorded before he became well known, the others are 3 mono tracks from Electric Ladyland.

 

Annoying because they keep releasing stuff piecemeal to get the most $$. The Mansfield track is an alternate take to the original one, which is very hard to find, so why not issue both? Just a curio, really, and not very good tbh.

 

Just a pet peeve of mine.

 

Have tickets to see newish folk duo The Marriage in early November here in town. Johnny Marr in Glasgow a week later. Cannae wait, as they say.

 

Mal

I believe Paul helped Jimi's sister get hold of the rights to his recordings (they were held by some Japanese bloke previously) . Whilst her choices of reissues  have been controversial I still think it right that the family have this. By the way despite the hooha over Jimi losing the original mix of Electric Ladyland on the UnderGround (myth or not) - I still prefer the original (remixed) UK release over the "correct" American one.

 

It's more complicated than I can put into a post here but I think you would know what I mean.

 

Family photo:

 

 

Best, Pete.

[AndrewC]

Went off and had my brain fried by that sexual harrassment "trainings" it was written so badly in American English that everyone I know failed it, and repeatedly put in the answers in different combinations till they passed (multiple choice on computer).

 

After that the new company survey which includes questions about the above, racism as well as how you felt about the company.

For the first time they had a written anything else? at the end.. Boy did I have fun... pointing out the racism of their emails all coming written in Amercan English, photos of the Statue of liberty included in their postings and the fact it always refers to federal statues..

Then a bit about how on company emails for briefings we are supposed to attend the lecture hall in the USA or for first aid, go to the first aid room in the USA.

 

When I cam back after about an hour, Win 10 + other updates still hadn't completed..

 

Had an email back about the ESD LAB Coats, they are blaming the suppliers for not suppling in the boxes what was ordered..

 

Time for ... the next measurement..

Worked for an American company once that put out paper based employee surveys every 6 months. They finally decided to give up after everyone in the office kept sending the surveys back blank but with spelling corrections. 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Raining steadily here and it seems set to continue for a while.

I believe somebody mentioned Winchester University yesterday. Our friends and neighbours were at Winchester Cathedral yesterday for their lovely daughter's graduation ceremony. It was streamed online but I missed her appearance. However it was interesting to note that one A.Titchmarsh is the Gardener Chancellor of the University.

Some domestic tasks undertaken and some "money laundering" done earlier along with a lengthy telephone call with my bank which was quite helpful.

After school Joe & Gemma will be here and Nicki and son Steve are coming as well after work for dinner so that should make for an entertaining evening. I believe a slow cooked chicken curry is on the menu.

The biggest decision I have to make at the moment is what to have for lunch.

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited October 17, 2018 by grandadbob

[trisonic]

Aditi’s uncle in California sent us a copy of a Polaroid photo he took of us in August 1977. You may wonder why I am still somewhat casually dressed compared to Aditi. MiL had invited a few hundred of her closer friends and had insisted that Aditi was ready early to greet people. Some of us were still arranging tables for the food. The function was supposed to start at 2 so MiL had told any English guests 2pm and the Indians 12 o clock so they wouldn’t be late! This used to really annoy Aditi’s Dad who was single handedly trying to convert their friends to being punctual. An Iranian friend of theirs turned up at 11am.

 

 

What a lovely photo!

You related to Donovan Leitch?

 

Best, Pete.

[Tony_S]

I don’t know what we are doing for Christmas. Initial plan was to “go away”. However Aditi’s brother wondered if we would like to have the tiny nieces visit (with him and his wife too!). They are all lovely so that would be great but I am not sure I could cope this year “doing” Christmas for the extended family. Raj and Emma only have Christmas Day and Boxing Day as holiday this year anyway. Schools and nursery close but their GP practice doesn’t . Though their holiday childcare is usually Emma’s parents who live nearby. However, last week Emma got a 3am phonecall from her Mum to,say that her Dad had collapsed, was unconscious and the paramedics had asked if she wanted to tell someone else who could meet them at the hospital. Emma arrived and followed the ambulance. Her Dad is home now full of antibiotics treating sepsis that had developed from a recent operation. Having met Emma’s Dad I could imagine him being convinced he wasn’t ill and he would be fine in the morning and people should stop worrying about him.

[Barry O]

It was only by doing a bit of research that I have found out how complicated the story of Jeff Lynne's ELO is. Lummy people leaving/returning ...

 

Interesting that Roy Wood was inducted as part of the group on the Hall of Fame.

 

Still a good night was had and I can catch up on my Vinyl version of some of their records....shows how old I am....

 

Baz

[trisonic]

If I remember correctly Roy actually started ELO and when The Idle Race broke up Don Arden "suggested" to Roy that Jeff should join... That line up lasted two singles. That was a GOOD idea as even Jeff couldn't take The Idle Race anywhere.

 

I'm still wondering whether Jeff ever takes off his hat. We should be told. I was watching the Concert for George last night; some good line ups in that. Check it out.

 

Best, Pete.

Edited October 17, 2018 by trisonic

[Tony_S]

It was only by doing a bit of research that I have found out how complicated the story of Jeff Lynne's ELO is. Lummy people leaving/returning ...

 

Interesting that Roy Wood was inducted as part of the group on the Hall of Fame.

 

Still a good night was had and I can catch up on my Vinyl version of some of their records....shows how old I am....

 

Baz

They both have stars on the Birmingham walk of fame.

The “who gets to use a group name” can get complicated. A couple of years ago we saw “Brian Wilson and Al Jardine perform Pet Sounds” as they don’t have the use of the Beach Boys name. Almost their own tribute group

[Ian Abel]

Hello HUMP day.

 

Yesterday uneventful until the Pharmacy called and informed us that the long awaited "second dose" of the new shingles vaccine was not in and we're up for getting it!.

Off we trot, and turns out you can have/get the flu jab at the same time, we'd been planning to get it this week anyway - bonus, what fun!  

 

So we've both got sore arms, and hoping there are no other side-effect.

 

The Mrs is planning (not left yet) to go to the cabin for the day and complete the close-up. Meanwhile I'll make some spaghetti sauce for dinner.

 

Was ZERO and sunny first thing this morning, the week looking like "below" for now. Small chance of flurries Saturday, apparently.

 

Over the HUMP we go.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Ian Abel

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. As an avid fan of 'Buzz-word calypso' I read Andrews and the Q's posts with interest, I'm sure there must be some way to bu@@er them up. I spent more than 37 years in my final job, when I started it was the head of department who did the hiring and firing. When I left there were layer upon layer of 'HR' departments who didn't know (or care?) about what you did. In fact that is the reason I took early retirement, the only thing I miss is the camraderie of my colleagues.

[Tony_S]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. As an avid fan of 'Buzz-word calypso' I read Andrews and the Q's posts with interest, I'm sure there must be some way to bu@@er them up. I spent more than 37 years in my final job, when I started it was the head of department who did the hiring and firing. When I left there were layer upon layer of 'HR' departments who didn't know (or care?) about what you did. In fact that is the reason I took early retirement, the only thing I miss is the camraderie of my colleagues.

The vice principal at the last college was very keen on collecting student data. The students were tolerant about course related questionnaires but not anything about attitudes or similar. So of course when he expressed concern about some of the issues raised by such information gathering we didn’t like to tell him a lot were generated by random answers or choosing the most stupid one.

Tony

[Coombe Barton]

New car being collected Friday

 

And now you can say what you like about a mid-life crisis.

 

It's an Insignia SRi

 

Didn't ask for it - it's what they could get. And this is the sixth they've tried to get for me in the past three weeks - the rest they wouldn't sell me as they weren't good enough. Says a lot as I've been buying cars from them for 35 years.