Early Risers.

[Ian Abel]

 POETS, and I'll partake best I can.

 

The morning meeting with the architect/designer proved quite shocking in that there is so much demand for construction at the moment that costs are out-of-sight. We will still probably proceed with some minor interior wall removal to open up the main living space, but any thoughts of "expanding the garage", " pushing out the wall of the living room" and "adding a screened porch", were quickly suppressed when the ball-park budget of $100,000 - $150,000 was floated    perhaps when there is less demand the costs will become more realistic again.

 

Yesterday evening the usual pre-choir practice happy hour went well and choir practice saw us expand our numbers by some 8-9 new members. The choir is now in excess of 80 members if everyone shows, so it's getting VERY tight for space in our practice area!  We usually see a large number of members showing in January as the Martin Luther King concert is one of the largest draws we have. Several local musicians/artists are always involved and with the choir backing 80% of what's presented/sung it gets folks wanting to be involved - PLUS, of course, you don't need to buy a ticket for the event.

 

Jemma headed out for another trip so we're dog-sitting Whitney this weekend, other than that not much planned.

 

-7 and cloudy first thing, fast becoming sunny and a high of +1 expected.

 

POE if you can, otherwise enjoy the start to the weekend in whatever way is possible...

[roundhouse]

Evening all

 

Been a busy day. Other half still not feeling 100% so she worked from home again today. Something that was difficult for me - if I went in feeling ill was in trouble for spreading it to everyone (even had one collegue threaten to punch me although he fell out even with the bosses and left causing  hassle for them), if I didnt go in then I was not 100% committed to my job and a whimp. Now I often get up and make my other half a cup of tea and its been nice having her around all week - for three weeks shes had to put up with me virtually all the time.

 

This morning a trip to Mums to check up on the work carried out to her conservatory and move stuff back in there. Picked up my prescription and back via garage to see if they had received the steering rack for our layout shifter. Owner told me a new one from the USA would have cost over £2k but hes got a reconditioned / rebuilt one which is fine if it keeps the vehicle going a few more years.

 

Then I spotted on RTT three loco hauled trains due through Redhill within 10 minutes of ech other so drove to Earlswood ot photo them, 2 x 73's on de-icer stock followed by two empty stone trains.

 

Back home there a knock on the door and delivery of a box the size of a washing machine whihc threw me till I realised what it was. It was the plastic gratings for the shed base that were supposedly coming next Wednesdau. As its been quite pelasant outside I decided ot lay soem of them for the old timber shed then we both took the layout trolleys across to Travis Perkins and picked up a few bags of shingle.

 

Shed base now awaiting the paving slabs which are currently under the newer plastic shed which in turn will get the smaller paving slabs that have been lifted from around the pond. The paving slabs arent normally required on htis type of base but it helps raise the shed enough that they will beo ut of any flooding that the back of the garden gets once every few years.

 

 

 

 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I read regularly but don't often post here or you would all be bored stiff by the nonstop litany of the troubles of the six elders for whom the wife and I have care responsibities. (Current score all six variously disabled: two in hospital, one recovering nicely from kidney failure, the other 'under investigation'.)

 

But today it was my turn. I'd been feeling a little odd ("ho ho" says my wife, that means 'normal') the last few days, and noticed last night my jaw getting stiff, and a lump in my cheek. (Little sensation in this location due to ancient industrial accident.) Not long back from dentist and then pharmacy, all equipped with amoxycillin to damp down the abcess under a split wisdom tooth. Apparently I should be in agony, but thanks to the nerves that don't work, I am not. However I am told the extraction will hurt. But no matter, I can go to the CMRA show tomorrow.

[Ozexpatriate]

The morning meeting with the architect/designer proved quite shocking in that there is so much demand for construction at the moment that costs are out-of-sight. We will still probably proceed with some minor interior wall removal to open up the main living space, but any thoughts of "expanding the garage", " pushing out the wall of the living room" and "adding a screened porch", were quickly suppressed when the ball-park budget of $100,000 - $150,000 was floated    perhaps when there is less demand the costs will become more realistic again.

It is an odd time for the home construction industry. Their segment of the economy is booming but most of the labour pool that building sub-contractors used has melted away south in the last two years. (Avoiding a political topic, this a very specific demographic and that timeline is specific and not coincidental.) Relatively low unemployment is a related factor. Despite the booming business climate, contractors cannot find labour (or at least at the same rates) and are taking on fewer projects despite the high demand.

 

My home was completed just in time - around October of 2016. A year later while the home across the street was being completed a window sub-contractor was trying to install windows - by himself! (The general contractor helped him out in the end.) My builder, who has had a long and successful career, announced in his annual Christmas newsletter that he is not undertaking any new projects this year.

[81C]

Mike 

Please convey a get well soon message to the Good Doctor I missed you earlier post I just hope she doesn't get blown away wearing that parachute shirt of yours.  

Shock & amazement Her dragged me into Sainsbury's I didn't go without a fight   we finally found a new kettle & toasted the exact colour Her wanted, trawling round Fleet

 I bumped into many ex-customers of mine buqqer me I didn't have any ear plugs with me but Her did come to my rescue and told them my hearing was shot.   

 

I phoned GDB to see if he was in one piece after fixing his taps he was nearly done and report no damage to himself still there is always a chance he could bash his head 

 putting the tools away in the cupboard.

                                                                         time for another coffee as I'm yawning my brains out I.M. Nockheard

[New Haven Neil]

Evening all.

 

Successful prosecution today of a young 'lady' driver who did a few VERY silly things - our dashcam footage proved without doubt the offence occurred.  Result.   Strongly advise the use of them, but get a decent GPS HD one, so all time, speed and position data is imprinted.   And don't forget it can be used against you as well as for you.....

[New Haven Neil]

A little sad tonight, having heard that Diane Oxberry, wonderful BBC North West weather girl and consummate professional broadcaster, has passed away at only 51.

[grandadbob]

Perhaps they could bring the homework to yours?

 

They already do that but don't get enough time to finish it here so have to stop and then restart when they get home. I think that the interruption is part of the problem.

[grandadbob]

And good evening each,

 

As reported above by Mr. I.M.Nockheard I have successfully fixed the kitchen mixer tap without any mishaps whatsoever. Also completed several tasks domestic so am currently not sitting on the naughty step.

The Boss slow cooked a gammon joint earlier and that was sampled along with some egg 'n' chips. Absolutely lovely. Now sampling a McGuigan Black Label Shiraz which I am quite partial to.

There is a distinct possibility that I will be watching rugby shortly and I've just seen that at least 4 matches are being televised tomorrow. This can only be a good thing!

 

General D.Ogsbody (aka P.L.Umber aka R.Ugbyfan)

Edited January 11, 2019 by grandadbob

[newbryford]

A little sad tonight, having heard that Diane Oxberry, wonderful BBC North West weather girl and consummate professional broadcaster, has passed away at only 51.

 

Likewise.

Very sad.

[Coombe Barton]

News from Debs.

 

More of the same - waiting the next op, but waiting, waiting ...

[jamie92208]

News from Debs.

 

More of the same - waiting the next op, but waiting, waiting ...

Please pass on our regards we are getting withdr AWL symptoms.

 

 

Jamie

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The bin wagons dawn chorus was a bit late today, in fact the black bags were not collected until it was getting dark.

[newbryford]

For those in Northern Trains land....

 

https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/jpimedia

https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/reachplc

 

Although a weekend ticket is pretty useless under the current regime.

 

Cheers,

Mick

Edited January 11, 2019 by newbryford

[The Stationmaster]

Generally the monarch only delt with taking land from the nobles, the peasants were way too far down the pecking order for the King to be bothered about...

 

The land around  owed it's church tithe to Kings College Cambridge, to which it had been given to at the reformation. It, like much of Norfolk around the broads had belonged to various abbeys. This would suggest it was purchased by the tennants in 1812. My property purchased it's church tithe in 1927, so it suggests the land and tithes were sold separately

 

Like lowland Scotland where the big estate owners enclosed the land, then rented it to the tennant farmers or sold it to them. That left the cottars with no land for animals, and just the patch of land with their cottage. As at the time in Lowland Scotland there was no need for the cottars anymore, they were often evicted to the towns and villages (sometimes villages were created for them).  Some Cottar that had a skill, like weaving or smithy work did well out of it and instead of just making stuff for the laird. Made money by making stuff for the many. Most however went down the mines or into the steel works or general labouring as the evictions from the lowlands coincided with the start of the industrial revolution.

 

Down here that meant the cottars went to the towns to factories, or had a poor exsistance as day hire labourers. Whereas in Scotland labourers were generally hired for 6 months or a year, getting half their wages at the end. This gave many Scottish labourers the lump some to emigrate to Canada or elsewhere..

 

Tithes were definitely sold separately - my grandfather bought out his in the late 1920s as well - after several years of arguing with the Bishopric over how much he should be paying but the land had been bought from the church back in the 1850s

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all.

 

A few train times to check out for tomorrow then off to bed with an early start in the morning to reach St Evenage before the sun goes down (it feels like - 2.5 hours from here, so I'm driving to Reading which will reduce the rail/TfL journey time by at least 45 minutes, who'd live on a branchline.  but looking on the brightside it'll be even worse journey times into London when (make me very)Cross-rail arrives, no ontrain toilets either, gawd have mercy on the carriage cleaners.

[Coombe Barton]

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2019/01/11/sandys-chemo-day-24-of-126/

[TheQ]

They were discussing whether or not to go to St Evenage at the MRC tonight, it's a 2.5 hour drive, or a half hour drive, then 3hours on the train including 2changes..

 

I won't be going...

 

Big news... After 1year 4 months the scaffolding and traffic lights have been removed from the cremated Swan and adjoining buildings..

 

At the MRC tonight, grief over my layout taking too much space, it's only temporary it will be gone long before they need the space.

 

And in order to expedite this one board was concentrated on to finish maybe in two weeks..

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

Well I never got to the workshop today, life just seemed to get in the way. By the time I’d done the shopping, put it all away etc it was almost dinner time. After dinner I walked up to the bank a paid in a dividend cheque that arrived whilst I was out. I do quite a lot of my banking on line, however, I don’t have any banking apps on my phone and I only do any on line banking when I’m at home, but you can’t pay a cheque in on line! Anyway it’s topped up the coffers quite nicely!

 

By the time I’d returned from the bank it was almost time for my mid-afternoon muggertea, so I decided to read instead. Tomorrow I intend to spend the whole day in the workshop.

 

Goodnight all

[AndyID]

We've been socked in all day. I was thinking of skiing and when I looked at the skicams it turned out that the fog was only in the valleys, so off I went. Beautiful up there but the snow was a bit cruddy. It had thawed then it froze again. Not exactly Champagne Powder - more like Sierra Cement but it gave my thighs a serious work-out.

Edited January 12, 2019 by AndyID

[BR60103]

The VBA Opera group showed Ernani tonight, Verdi's first internantional success. I got to introduce it. Plot full of chivalric honour. One of our members (retired professor of opera) had sung the first act once but had never seen the whole thing. Ours was a Met version with a young Pavarotti.

I'm preparing the layout for a meeting of the VBA railroaders. I straightened out a kink on the mainline; got a short while testing it and found that I hadn't removed the Tracksetta.

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all.  Good to hear news of Debs

 

As I hoped, I have achieved one of my 2019 objectives, by making contact with an LGBT group to which I plan to return.  In fact it is two groups which meet monthly and complement one another.  One, which I sampled yesterday, meets in a café.  The other takes place in a methodist church and is run by the minister and her wife, with themed evenings.  I have some reservations about this but will attend in a couple of weeks to see what’s what.  Google was of no help whatsoever in finding either of these and if it had not been for a Facebook message from a former hospital radio colleague I would still be none the wiser.  As always, we’ll see what happens.

 

Today I will be visiting DEfine in Derbyshire, which calls for an early start and breakfast on the road.  It looks to be an interesting event.  With any luck the M1 will behave itself.  Oink, flap.

 

Warm thoughts to Sandy and John and all in distress or missing.

 

Chris

[jamie92208]

Bonjour to all. Good to hear news about Debs and also to read of Sandy's continuing progress.

 

I got on well with brash clearing yesterday and lots more of the drive is now clear. Then in the afternoon departed to trainspot with Andy.(He models swiss railways) He lives between the new TGV line and the classic line to Bordeaux. We drove south for a coupe of miles to where they cross, (Just north of Luxe) then spent 2.5 hours standing on a now redundant road bridge that gave us a great view of both lines. 12 new TGV's and 4 new locos, went into the book. Good chat was had and an afternoon was well spent. In the evening Beth and I watched the latest Silent Witness. I refrained from pointing out all the procedural errors, but sort of enjoyed it, as a comedy show.

 

 

This morning I will attack the brash again as well as hopefully clearing the remains of the dead plum tree that we felled the same day. The main trunk of that has been requested by a mate who is into wood turning. Once all the brash is gone, then the main task is to tidy up the woodshed before moving the good logs from the felled trees, to where they will dry out over the next two years. We are going to start labelling our pallets of logs with dates of felling etc so that we know when to burn them.

 

 

Apart from that there is fist and mog outside so I don't think we will be going anywhere. it is however a good bit warmer so I will hopefully get into the shed later.

 

 

I hope that those heading to St Evanage enjoy themselves.

 

 

Jamie

[pH]

Today I will be visiting DEfine in Derbyshire, which calls for an early start and breakfast on the road.  It looks to be an interesting event.  With any luck the M1 will behave itself.  Oink, flap.

 

Just to be clear - the 'Funny' rating was for the two-word sentence fragment.