Early Risers.

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a slightly warmer piece of the Charente.   It's a positively tropical plus 3 degrees this morning and the sky is nice and bright.   

 

The tree replanting was cancelled yesterday due to frost on the ground so my first job was to get the new plates fitted to the Volvo.   The local garage were very good and Sebastians wife (I don't know her name) rivetted the new ones on in no time and wouldn't charge me for the work.  Apparently it's the law over here that they cannot be glued on with double sided sticky like the old ones were.   I now have to try and learn my new reg number.   It does look strange, I've only had the Volvo for 11 years with it's old number.   After that it was off to the CT (MOT) testing station to ask for a new sticker with the new number on.   It continued to get better as the gent told me I didn't need one as all the existing one has the VIN and expiry date on it.

 

Not a lot got done the rest of the day but I did have some luck sorting out running problems with the new loco and then Beth and I played a couple of games of canasta.

 

Today we are apparently picture hanging so I will be wielding the drill and other tools to put up hooks in the correct places.  Working out where to put such hooks has been decreed as well above my pay grade.   The artistic director will however be wielding the hose attachment on the hoover to catch the dust.  A stew is going to be made and put in the slow cooker.  This is because this afternoon we are off to Cognac for Beth to have an MRI, or IRM as the locals call it, on her shoulder.  This is an hour's drive away at 5pm so hopefully the stew will await us on our return.

 

Glad to hear positive news from Andyram.   To those preparing for Warley, I wish you good luck and safe travelling.

 

Regards to all

 

Jamie

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A tad nippy this morning but no surprise there as I had to scrape the frost off of the car windscreen yesterday evening before going to the club. Got to go now as a soak in a hot bath awaits, be back later.

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl Inner Temple Here,

5.5 hours sleep and none on the sofa, not too good.

 

Ben The Border Collie, just to be contrary, after having his patrol, ran back to the house this morning, leaving me in the cold and drizzle in the middle of the garden..

 

I was awake enough to spot the unit I must do urgently today is measurement only, not adjust, It gets very embarrassing when someone adjusts something that the customer does not want adjusted. This is normally done on equipement where they have set it up for the computer to take out the errors arithmetically after measurement. But they do need to know what the errors are, hence my measurements, which will still take most of the day.

 

We don't celebrate CXXXXXXXXs as it's just the two of us, so there is not a lot of reason to do so, the most that will happen is a turkey dinner, a few cards on the wall, a few phone calls to be made and then we go for an extra long walk with Ben having not done anything else that day..

 

That's a good start, I've got to run the first test again as it came up with a >500% error..

 

Depression is sweeping the factory... yes it's time to fill in our annual assessments, it's that stupid system where you fill in your feelings on what your assessment should be, the manager fills in his bit of what he thinks the assessments should be, then you get together and you agree to fill the  in with his assessments.. It's aided and abetted by it all being on computer written in American HR language which no one understands.. A total waste of time especially when I have only about 4 years to go.

 

It's nice to others with more serious depression are now escaping it..

 

I'm going home via a big orange shed, as I've worked out I need more timber for the proscenium Arch, as this will be laminated up I don't need top quality. Oh and I need some purple enamel type paint..

 

Ah test passed this time.

 

Time to ... go do lots of manual tests..

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

It’s decidedl chilly here, -3C when I got up, with quite a bit of frost about, I’m so glad I don’t have to work in this anymore. As I don’t have to go anywhere and I’m also expecting a parcel, I’m not even stepping outside today! Sheila will shortly be setting off to her Zumba class so the house will be very quite, a perfect time to do a bit of research I think.

 

Back later.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It isn’t raining, it is warmer than yesterday, it is quite overcast though.

My Yodel delivery today is number 152 on the driver’s route. I don’t think I will be accompanying Aditi to the shops today. I was planning to if the delivery came early. Just routine shopping.We had a “not in stock at Sainsbury” incident yesterday Aditi wanted Toulouse sausage. I did mention that it is only a Sainsbury Local not a proper full size store. Aditi chose an alternative. The dinner was nice anyway.

Q’s HR department are very brave asking about feelings. In the Aditi v HR incident during her penultimate year of employment she informed HR of how their actions were making her feel. They threatened legal,action over her comments. She replied “How dare you attempt to control how I feel”. This was the point at which she asked me to research if the HR department had any qualifications. I soon had a certain spaniel set up with a LinkedIn account to reveal what was needed.

Tony

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

An eventful morning thus far.  First Mr Fox declined the cold boiled potatoes which were put outside earlier and instead climbed into the large flower planter by the garage,  however more recently the rooks expressed an interest in the potatoes; Kev the Kite definitely won't go for them I'm sure.  Next come the stroke of 09.00 I was on the 'phone to Harwich to make our and our friend's bookings for next year - early enough in the queue (if there was one) to get our first choice.  and finally about 20 minutes ago an extremely large artic pulled up at out r gate and the driver came to our door to ask the whereabouts of No.11 (we are No.12) so i pointed to the house opposite and explained that is No.1 and that No.11 is a huge new-build round the corner.  He had a load of paving slabs to deliver and was a bit crestfallen when I told him that that side of the road is usually solid with parked vehicles.

 

Now back to normal and the sun is disposing of last night's hard frost.  another tip for Andyram - if you aren't paying tax currently set up a deposit account and put 20% of all your pay cheques etc into it every time you're paid so paying out won't come quite so hard when you get the tax bill.  Presumably you are paying your NI currently?

 

Ah, the big artic has just reversed down the road and turned at the corner, despite the various badly parked cars - brilliant bit of driving.

 

Enjoy your day one and all

[PhilJ W]

Morning (yet again) from Estuary-Land. Despite my being a genuine ER this morning I spent the early hours trying to get my e-mails back. Virgin media done something and I got a screen saying that there was maintainence going on and that  it was unavailable. When it did come back all I was presented with was a blank screen. After contacting a gentleman in India he suggested I try Google Chrome, after a bit of tooing and froing I eventually was able to see my e-mails on there. At the moment most of my other stuff, including RMweb is on Firefox which is where it will stay for the present.

[Simon G]

Morning all,

Started some decorating as the spare bedroom needs repainting. It also needs some holes filling where some of the plaster came out while the roof was being redone earlier this year. So this morning I have started by working on filling the holes, and generally sorting the room out. I decided to have some music to work to, so Pink Floyd was playing off the laptop.

 

Now enjoying a cup of coffee while waiting for the filler to dry and then I can rub it down, and possibly refill the larger bits.

 

Lovely day here so far, so I may get out for some fresh air and exercise in due course.

Edited November 25, 2018 by Simon G

[roundhouse]

Andyram - glad that business is picking up. I may have my first layout commission but will see when I visit them in a few weeks time.

 

Morning from a cold Surrey. Had to scrape the car this morning before dropping other half at station.

 

Last night was a rather pleasant one in oour local Harveys pub. I managed to get a pint of Old before the barrel ran out and then they couldnt get the beer engine to work on the new barrel so we switched to Bon Fire Boy which is also very nice.

 

Today the last of the trees was planted and once set along with the scratch built gates the board was boxed up and another board unboxed. Should get what I planned done ready for loading tonight and a set off in the morning for Warley.

 

Did you know that this day in 1995 Toy Story hit the big screen and was the first film to be produced totally with computer generated imagery. Well thats what Alexa has told me this morning

 

All Alexa's working fine through the new wifi set up with music playing in synch around the house.

[tetsudofan]

Morning from the far south east corner, no sign of any frost here this morning, the sun has even woken up!!

 

Thursday is the highlight of the week - shopping day at Sainsburys. Was up at the crack of dawn and in the store by 8:00am and soon found what items on my list were out of stock - this week it was celery and tiramisu. It seems as though the store is spiralling downwards, ordinary day-to-day items out of stock, empty shelves..... Can't give the local Morrisons a look-in as that got burnt down a couple of weeks ago in a rather spectacular fire.

 

Whilst in the store this morning bumped into the guy I met there a few years ago and  who I got into model railways a year ago. He now joins me on my monthly bout of retail therapy at The Hobby Shop at Faversham, the next visit being scheduled for tomorrow (just after my credit card enters its new phase!). We take it in turns to drive with the agreement that the one who is passenger pays for breakfast at Wetherspoons. I'm the passenger this month.

 

Had a enjoyable day out on Saturday in search of the Short-Haired Bumblebee re-introduced to the Dungeness area back in 2012, last seen in Britain in 1988. A stock of bees was found in Sweden where they were collected and brought to Kent. About 50 queen bumblebees were released at the RSPB's Dungeness reserve. We didn't see any though....

 

The train was topped and tailed by two Cl.66s. First port of call was the Isle of Grain branch after which the train headed back towards London before taking the Lee Spur and then heading again towards the coast finally ending up at the end of the Dungeness branch now only used by the nuclear flask trains:

 

 

 

Spent about half an hour parked up where they started serving dinner. Was rather bizarre enjoying dinner whilst looking out on the vast expanse of shingle not that far from home, a few miles down the coast:

 

 

Enjoyed the day so much that upon returning home booked a dining seat on the "Snowdonian Panorama" next April which includes a trip on the Ffestiniog from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Porthmadog and the Welsh Highland from there to Caernarfon. I volunteered on the Welsh Highland back in the early 2000s and have not been back since so using the charter will be a great way to ride the completed Welsh Highland knowing that what little bit I did back then helped in the recreation of the WHR.

 

Keith

 

 

[The Lurker]

I found that when I went self-employed, the taxman took a large chunk on the first year - be ready. It took about 3-4 years to balance out. Make sure that everything you can offset as work related expense is recorded. Stationery, printer ink etc. I even put clothes down as I couldn't go to work naked...... (that would have really upset the driving school pupils!)

 

Clothes are not generally tax deductible, unless required for safety reasons or as a uniform. for something to be deductible it needs to be wholly, and exclusively for business purposes. Clothes don't normally qualify because you need to protect the general public from your naked self and not just your pupils and so can be used other than for business purposes. A case on just this got as far as the House of Lords where the taxpayer lost (Mallalieu v Drummond). HMRC guidance still confirms this is the case.

 

So Mick got away with one!

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from a cold and gloomy London Bridge. it was -2 when I set off from the Fold in the Hill this morning

 

Year end work is mostly over and I am now catching up on all of the other things that I am supposed to have done.

 

There is not a lot to report here although I can at least comment that I have traversed the Lee Spur on a number of occasions on my commute from Sidcup, twice in the down direction and once in the Up. All involved a reversal in the "Bromley North platform" at Grove Park.

[Gwiwer]

Afternoon all. Muggertee No.3 in hand. That is slightly unusual in that I am a coffee drinker other than the first beverage of the day and, sometimes, a brew about now.

 

The grass was crunchy this morning. So was the footpath and station platforms. Only the grass had not been gritted. For the first time this week fate allowed a good service to run and the morning passed without notable event.

 

Vacuuming done. Tonight’s meal prepared. Tomorrow’s supermarket delivery ordered. I think it’s safe to relax now.

 

Best wishes to all.

[Rugd1022]

A much belated 'morning all', hope all's well,

 

I took my (somewhat knackered) camera to work with me last night for the first time in ages, having five hours to kill at Bescot a chap needs something to do of an evening...!

 

 

 

 

 

What I didn't manage to capture was the gang of lads sorting out a derailment at the south end of the yard (behind me) in the freezing cold, well done chaps!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NGT6 1315]

E‘ning, crewmen and women. Gosh, am I glad to be home and having a day off ahead of me! Working so far outside your accustomed hours is quite taxing indeed...

 

Dinner cooking already, which will doubtlessly be followed up with a sip of something spirited, if one might call it that.

[AndyB]

A much belated 'morning all', hope all's well,

 

I took my (somewhat knackered) camera to work with me last night for the first time in ages, having five hours to kill at Bescot a chap needs something to do of an evening...!

 

DSCF3830a.jpg

 

DSCF3864b.jpg

 

DSCF3869a.jpg

 

DSCF3883b.jpg

 

What I didn't manage to capture was the gang of lads sorting out a derailment at the south end of the yard (behind me) in the freezing cold, well done chaps!

 

Well, the camera may be a bit knackered but those photos look very atmospheric. I particularly like the 3rd photo. 

[AndyB]

Evening all,

 

Late on duty tonight as I had a bit of a GDB moment last night and have paid the price.

Whilst doing what most Drs would say is a good thing - a bit of sport - I managed to fall off the top of a cupboard (helping to retrieve a bit of errant sports equipment), landing heavily. I thought it was only my brain that took a whack, but by lunchtime today I realised it was my hip and jaw too. Quick email to the boss and I flexed off. 

 

Ironically I've just started to read Robert Harris' "Fear Index" which in the early chapters the main character takes a blow to the head....

 

I was planning on using my flexi time accumulation to do a bit of modelling, but ended up reading the NGS journal that arrived most timely mid-morning and watching a Marvel superhero dvd with the youngest (who is off with the lurgy). 

[Purley Oaks]

Evening all

 

Wet here today so no overnight frost. was chilly, though, just 4C all day.

 

 

Oncologist meeting today; he wants another scan, and that he will try to get it organised in 10 days or so and give the results before the holiday break.

 

Put in an offer on a house yesterday that had been on and off the market over the last couple of years without a buyer. So we thought it should be relatively plain sailing. Astonishingly another buyer did the same just after us. We didn't get it. Coincidence or what? Having seen around 25 houses so far it wears a bit thin! This one ticked all the boxes, too. Am hopeful we'll find another.

 

Popping out later tonight to see a charity screening of Sunshine On Leith at the local Vue. Apparently it's sold out so hope our seats are not near the front.

 

Mmm this post is all a bit gloomy, apologies!

 

Have a warm night

 

Mal

[AndyB]

Evening all

 

...

 

Popping out later tonight to see a charity screening of Sunshine On Leith at the local Vue. ...

 

Mal

 

Pru?

 

 

[NGT6 1315]

Follow-up contract for twenty additional NGT10s on top of the „up to 41“ from the original contract:

 

Click

[grandadbob]

Evening all,

 

Late on duty tonight as I had a bit of a GDB moment last night and have paid the price.

Whilst doing what most Drs would say is a good thing - a bit of sport - I managed to fall off the top of a cupboard (helping to retrieve a bit of errant sports equipment), landing heavily. I thought it was only my brain that took a whack, but by lunchtime today I realised it was my hip and jaw too. Quick email to the boss and I flexed off. 

 

 

Andy, what sort of sport entails climbing onto a cupboard (or was it a wardrobe)? I think we should be told.....

 

on second thoughts perhaps not, maybe that would be TMI.  

[New Haven Neil]

Evening.

 

Nidge, that last photo is fantastic, so atmospheric.

 

In other news….er….um.....

[AndyB]

Andy, what sort of sport entails climbing onto a cupboard (or was it a wardrobe)? I think we should be told.....

 

on second thoughts perhaps not, maybe that would be TMI.  

 

Badminton. 

Where we play the shuttle can sometimes lodge in nooks and crannies of the ceiling. 

So, we invented a 16 foot L-shaped pole to retrieve said shuttles.

Due to its size we keep it on some high-up brackets, out of the way.

At one point last night muggins had to retrieve the pole by climbing up onto a cupboard.

Lost my balance when climbing back down, caught my tracksuit trousers on something, spun round and bashed my head.

Got home later and found a gash in my ankle and this morning quite a bit of pain in one hip and my jaw. 

 

Now, if I'd said we sometimes get our c@ck lodged in nooks and crannies that would be a whole other matter!!!    

[Gwiwer]

In other news .....

 

Yes those photos are rather good.  Cameras can be knackeed or not but the quality of the image is still largely in the hands of the operator.

 

SWMBO fell asleep on the sofa after dinner and has been encouraged to have an early night.  Cat is roaming about with a couple of his toys in the hallway.  Neighbour (Upstairs) popped in for tea earlier and a relaxed hour of conversation.  We both find it positively encouraging that in this day and age of "cannot be too careful" that there is a deep bond of friendship between us despite an age gap of 35+ years.  It's all about being sensible and respecting each other.  

 

Another week is almost at an end in the professional sense.  Next week will include only two days at the House of Fun as Wednesday - Friday will be the balance of my 2018 Annual Leave.  SWMBO has plans for us to go to Bath.  I prefer a shower myself.

 

Time for bed for this early riser.  G'night all.

[laurenceb]

Night awl