Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

It doesn’t really matter who is first and sometimes before mass communication and the www people were independently developing the same thing. The UK may have only launched one satellite on a British launcher but the UK builds a lot of satellites. This is a solid commercial business. ARM based in Cambridge but worldwide now have an impressive profile in the electronic sector.

And of course according to ministers we can export a lot of jam....

Tony

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

Sainsbury’s was very quite this morning, despite going WITHOUT the shopping list, I managed to get everything that was on it, except for some new face flannels, so they are now on the list for next week. Once I’d put the shopping away I made myself a muggertea and proceeded to make a dozen red velvet cakes. These were left to cool as we had dinner, they were iced after dinner, ready for Ava, Evie and Max to eat after tea. After tea we all sat down and watched yesterday’s episode of Dr Who.

 

Goodnight all

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[AndyID]

Babbage was there a long time before any electrical "computers"  - and his ideas do work..the IET proved that his first machine worked and his son demonstrated that the programmable machine would have worked ..but just like a lot of things made in Britain a lack of money stopped things being completed...

 

Without Colossus we were having great difficulty at Bletchley Park decoding some of the German encrypted messages (the USA knew about Colossus as they had a few really good people at Bletchley Park.).. but it all goes to show the USA were not the first in the party..

 

Stop knocking the UK we can be very proud of our achievements.mainly managed without having vast sums of money thrown at it...Ever heard of Project Mustard.. try reading about the UK Space Shuttle...

 

Baz

 

Who's knocking the UK?

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

We have a rather cold morning in this part of the world.  The temperature is down around freezing, but looks fairly clear.

 

There isn't a lot else to report, so have a good day everyone...

[NGT6 1315]

Cheers all. Not really firing on all cylinders yet, so apols for just saying hi for the moment!

 

Cold outside, too, though at least I don’t need to venture there just yet.

 

Happy new year to everyone, especially if I shouldn’t have wished you so by other means just yet.

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple here,

5.5 hours sleep plus another couple half asleep on the sofa, being kept awake by Ben the Border Collie woofing in his sleep..

 

On the way home last night, heavy braking to avoid a muntjac taking a stroll across the road, this morning the well and trully splattered remains of another deer on a fast section  of road.. not the same deer.

 

Chilly with clear skies on the Morning patrol with Ben, but much less wind, so less biting, I get in the car and the radio womble says cloudy this morning...

 

A senior HR person has left, roumer has it she was going to stay for a hand over to her replacement,, until she found the replacement will be getting £18,000 more.... To which my reply is what *****is she on as a base rate? The majority in this factory do not earn national average pay.

 

Meanwhile the orginal first contender to be my deputy boss has been selected as the new man. The paper work is however, going the rounds to get the required signatures, before sending the offer. With no head of HR here, it has to go to the next one up, who's not resident in this country...

 

Some kind person has left a list of overdue for cal items on my desk... It can stay there until I've cleared the must do's, which I reckon will be in about a fortnight..

 

 While typing this I have taken about 20 measurements on the late arrving customers unit.

 

Fourty minutes has passed so...

 

Time to ... go down the other end of the labs to turn the knobs for it's next section.

[dseagull]

Morning all

 

No frost despite the warnings, so an easy run to collect SWMBO. School run next, but just time for a muggacoffee before we have to leave.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

It’s a bit cool this morning, 0C according to the app on my phone. Sheila is getting ready for her first Zumba class of this year, so once she’s gone I’ll spend the morning pottering about in the cellar, as I’m expecting a parcel from Ebay and I won’t hear the door bell if I’m in the workshop. Once the postie has been, I’ll go to the workshop and continue to work on the G16. Hopefully by the end of the week I’ll be at the stage where I can apply the first coat of paint, so I think I’ll give the L1 a coat at the same time.

 

Back later

[AndrewC]

Greetings from the borough of boring. 

 

The yellow and blue van from that Swedish company has been and gone already this morning. All new bookcases for the dining room to assemble. At least it will finally stop SWMBO from complaining about her book embargo. She'll have 3 times the current shelf space. Although I fear that will fill very quickly in the coming months. I'm really happy I have a complete set of hex bits in my drill case. Makes the assembly job so much faster. The upside is the old pair of small units are now in the shed and will be re purposed for stock and tool storage. 

 

For those of you struggling with your smart phones. 

 

That is all. Enjoy the day. 

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a sunny but cool part of the world that is well over 150 Kilometres from any blue and yellow large sheds. Not a huge amount got done yesterday except that we can now record on the Satellite box as I sorted the leads out. This morning WE are going out for a bike ride. I suspect that that will actually be two rides, a fairly short one with Beth then a longer and faster one on my own. We might ever see some deer. There were four in the fields two days ago when we went for a walk.

 

 

Regards to all.

 

 

Jamie

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

A cool and very cloudy start here but there may be some brighter spells later.

Talk of blue & yellow sheds reminded me of the London TV news last night   One of the main items was film of the smouldering remains of a storage warehouse with the two remaining chimneys of the old Croydon power station (which have blue and yellow bands atop) in the background.  Unfortunately a lot of people seem to gave lost everything in that bonfire.

Today we are almost back to normal for a Thursday. I say almost because the bins won't be collected until Saturday but on the "plus" side we get to go to Sainsbury's!  Good-oh. 

After that I have to do some book balancing but AFAIK the signs are that finances are much healthier than is usual at this time of year. (IE the modelling fund is in the black)

Have a good one,

Ivor Goneshopping.

Edited January 3, 2019 by grandadbob

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Not frosty here but quite chilly.

So far this morning I have managed to turn our remaining Tesco vouchers into a senior railcard for Aditi. She has a few outings to London soon so it seemed like a good idea.

We may go shopping today.

Tony

[shortliner]

A completely different science to male logic and it is impossible for either branch to understand the other.

 

 

Jamie

That is because women are from Venus and Men are from Mars - and there is an enormous amount of space between them!

A prime example cam up this morning  - Her - Put your jeans over the bigger rack" so I did, and was wrong - to Her "bigger" means" wider", and not "taller!"  - this despite my explaining that I am bigger that her - ie Taller!

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Some normality is now resumed here with both the offspring back at work today and it's even going to be a faux Friday according to information instructions I have received.  The latter is currently planned to include both the trainspotting branch of Waitrose and the Class 165 spotting branch of Tesco such are the diverse requirements of what is apparently required.

 

Bit nippy outside but notwithstanding threats of overnight zero/minus temperatures there has been no frost. Yesterday evening's theatre outing definitely included red cabbage with the meal although the steak and ale pie came this time as steak with red wine pie - which didn't really taste any different from the version with ale. 'Guys & Dolls' was well performed although the volume was a bit too loud with the music sometimes 'hiding' the singing which was a pity as the latter was good while the dance part was - I'm told - excellent (I don't usually understand that sort of thing but I did understand the bit where the three young lady dancers removed their dresses, to considerable applause from c.50% of the audience).  No big names in the cast but quite a few of them with West end experience, amusingly when they list their credits they now seem to include 'workshops' although that does not appear to involve lathes or even saw and chisels so the expression leaves me mystified.

 

Have a good day everybody.

[Purley Oaks]

I'd sooner communicate with Prof ' Alice Roberts.        

Our family always used to laugh at the intro to one of her earlier programmes - Dr Alice Roberts, PhD in Anthropology AND Medical Doctor. Imagine it was to prove her credentials, but eveytime we see her on tv now some smart*rse always adds "and medical doctor".

 

Did she need to prove her qualifications for the telly role?

 

Anyone know what David Attenborough's university qualifications are? Me neither.

 

About to venture out, looks chilly.

 

Mal

[Tony_S]

Our family always used to laugh at the intro to one of her earlier programmes - Dr Alice Roberts, PhD in Anthropology AND Medical Doctor. Imagine it was to prove her credentials, but eveytime we see her on tv now some smart*rse always adds "and medical doctor".

 

Did she need to prove her qualifications for the telly role?

 

Anyone know what David Attenborough's university qualifications are? Me neither.

 

About to venture out, looks chilly.

 

Mal

I do know what David Attenborough studied at university. I not am sure why or where that information entered into my memory. Edited January 3, 2019 by Tony_S

[jamie92208]

That is because women are from Venus and Men are from Mars - and there is an enormous amount of space between them!

A prime example cam up this morning  - Her - Put your jeans over the bigger rack" so I did, and was wrong - to Her "bigger" means" wider", and not "taller!"  - this despite my explaining that I am bigger that her - ie Taller!

I read a similar book called "Why men don't listen and women can't read maps" It was quite illuminating. One thing that I remember was a section about pain thresholds and that after research men have a much higher pain threshold. Apparently due to running past thorn bushes when out hunting in the days before clothes. I have however been a coward and never mentioned this to my other half when she says "If men had to give birth there wouldn't be any more babies."

 

Jamie

Edited January 3, 2019 by jamie92208

[tetsudofan]

Morning from a currently bright and sunny albeit slightly colder south east spot closer to France than most of the UK.

 

Back from my first shop of the year at my local Sainsburys. Upon arrival was greeted by a large sign announcing that prices of some items have been locked down for 8 weeks but upon entering the shop didn't come across any locked-down items but did find the following:

 

- bananas increased from from 78p to 83p per kilo

- Taste the Different chicken marsala meal increased from £3.50 to £4.00

- 4pints of milk increased from £1.10 to £1.15

- can of squidgy cream increased from £1.50 to £1.55

- half a cucumber increased from 35p to 40p

- Taste the Difference Shortbread increased from £1.50 to £1.60

- deli filler increased from £1.25 to £1.50

- Ginger Jam increased from 75p to £1

- cherry tomatoes increased from 80p to 85p

- sweet leaf salad increased from 75p to 80p

 

Welcome to 2019!! Have a good day,

 

Keith

 

oops, forgot we are now in 2019, not 2018 as previously stated.....

Edited January 3, 2019 by tetsudofan

[Simon G]

Morning all,

 

Cool and dry here, so a morning walk has been completed, and now sitting with a mug of coffee.

 

Yesterday, we had a shopping expedition to Keswick, aka the outdoor clothing shopping capital of England. It was cold, with -5 showing as we passed Bassenthwaite Lake. I failed to find any walking shoes to fit me (without paying silly money), as the sizes all seem to go up to 12, and my feet are either a very wide 12 or a 13. It also bugs me that in nearly every shop, the shoes and boots are carefully placed nearest the floor. Why? Given that people with large feet are usually tall, it would make sense to stack the large sizes as high as possible. After bending down countless times, my knees were quite sore. Fortunately Mrs G did have some success.

 

On the way home, we visited the Lakes Home store in Cockermouth to find Crown paint at very reasonable prices in their sale, so bought 4 tins, then to find that they took another 20% off at the till. 2.5 litre tins of Crown emulsion at a net £7.99. Can’t be bad!

 

Also on the way home we overtook a lorry carrying a small carriage, which turned out to be the Ratty’s brand new carriage which had left the Ffestiniog Boston Lodge works earlier in the day, after being built there. I look forward to seeing it in use.

[southern42]

' Morning all from red dragon land.
 
 

Apparently the house now looks "funny"  without the decorations!    

 
We put ours up Christmas Eve and bring down on the Feast of the Epiphany.
We have two Christmas trees, one that gets decorated and a white fibre optic one that does not get decorated and thus comes out more often, especially if we go away for Christmas/New Year.
 
This year, Youngest decided to put up the latter (oops!) former with the "old" lights. 
 
Tuesday the tree lights went out.  Mind you, they are over 40 years old!
 
Yesterday, Ray googled our tree lights to see if we could get replacement bulbs, although it turned out it was just a dodgy connection which was fixed.
 
Did you say the tree lights are selling on Ebay for more than £200? £200?
They were not even worth that much in old money when I bought them! 
 
Don't all rush to offer to buy ours., though...  

They are not For Sale...     

Grandchildren's inheritance and all that.      

 

 

 

 

Who knows? I have long given up trying to fathom out female logic.

 

Me too!

Though it may explain why I am in a minority on here.  

 

 

And I do miss the Awl....What a brand of female logic she brings...wishing you all the best, Debs.

 

More catching up to do but mugadecaf first.

 

Cinderella

Edited January 3, 2019 by southern42

[Simon G]

Morning from a currently bright and sunny albeit slightly colder south east spot closer to France than most of the UK.

 

Back from my first shop of the year at my local Sainsburys. Upon arrival was greeted by a large sign announcing that prices of some items have been locked down for 8 weeks but upon entering the shop didn't come across any locked-down items but did find the following:

 

- bananas increased from from 78p to 83p per kilo

- Taste the Different chicken marsala meal increased from £3.50 to £4.00

- 4pints of milk increased from £1.10 to £1.15

- can of squidgy cream increased from £1.50 to £1.55

- half a cucumber increased from 35p to 40p

- Taste the Difference Shortbread increased from £1.50 to £1.60

- deli filler increased from £1.25 to £1.50

- Ginger Jam increased from 75p to £1

- cherry tomatoes increased from 80p to 85p

- sweet leaf salad increased from 75p to 80p

 

Welcome to 2018!! Have a good day,

 

Keith

Sainsburys are clearly trying to outdo the railway companies after their inflation busting price hikes this week!

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Some evidence this morning of rain last night but I must have slept through it. I saw the storage warehouse blaze mentioned by Bob on the news as well, plenty of scope for dodgy insurance claims there. After the 1989 gale I had some minor damage to the roof of my then home, I luckily got it repaired within a day or two. The builder informed me that the insurance companies were letting claims under £1,000 through without query. Probably something similar in this case.