Early Risers.

[SouthernRegionSteam]

Oh don't get me started on bad drivers....
I would just like to say however that I wish I had heard the word "cockwomble" before - amazing! 
I shall have to remember that one...

 

Also supermarket car parks are the most dangerous place (maybe even more so than those horrible old multi-storey car parks) to be a pedestrian.
Speaking of multi-storey car parks; having had to park in Poole Hospital's one to visit my grandad on Christmas Day before he passed away, I can honestly say that the pedestrian "walkways" must've been a sudden afterthought. The slopes are barely wide enough for my tiny car to use, let alone having to share them with pedestrians.

Anyway! Today I managed to get some more m***lling done - and it was one of those sessions where a small change brought about a big result; which is always satisfying. I also learnt some new techniques, so even better!
It'll be a long time before my RMweb blog catches up, but those interested can always catch my ramblings on my personal blog.

With regards to my mum's situation, she's had more confirmation from her old colleagues from other schools that she was in the right; so that is really promising. I've reminded her again about using the Union to the max, so fingers crossed that the situation improves; preferably sooner rather than later!

My usual sympathies and blessings to those struggling at the moment; stay strong!

Edited February 7, 2019 by SouthernRegionSteam

[New Haven Neil]

Evening.

 

My best wishes to those ailing, as ever.

 

Interesting notes about BP, my new GP is a BP evangelist, anything other than 120/80 is no good and cause for a telling off of biblical proportions.  Not often I get that low, but 130/90 is a sort of average, which my previous GP reckoned was OK at this age (59.9) and given I have issues with some exercise due to various surgeries over the last few years.  My BP meds have stayed the same for quite some time, and as I really struggled with some of them previously  am not minded for great change.  We will have further discussions I am sure!

[Coombe Barton]

Debs has been given a date fo an operation with a different surgeon.

 

Just hope that they are able to keep to it.

[TheQ]

Cockwomble is not my invention,  but has periodically appeared before,  how far back I don't  know.. 

 

As for BP I'll have to listen to the nurse next time I go for prodding,  normally they just say that's OK,  and that will do for me.. Before the next prodding,  I need to lose some weight it was 20:30 before I eat anything else,  after the company breakfast at 08:30...

 

Trouble with diets is tonight I've just received two emails,  a meal with wine tasting with the winter sailing club in February,  the rigging out meal in mid March at the start of summer sailing club,  and I also know the winter clubs end of season dinner and prize giving is a week after that.. 

 

Having noted the sad events for Mal, I went and read " Jocks cancer ward" thread, while mid read the computer decided on its random play of over a week's worth of music on there,  to play "miss you nights",  followed by the "blood donor" theme , followed by "amazing grace" by then the screen became Misty and unreadable... 

 

I wont be posting on that thread,  as I would feel a fraud,  until 5 years ago I had never encountered any one with the big C, even the big smokers in the blood related family   seemed to get away with it.

 

Then SWMBOs uncle got it, but since he never felt pain, he did not know till way too late. I was only on the perifery of this supporting SWMBO, so it hardly affected me. 

 

Then I joined the MRC and came across a member who was already on chemo,  then after a year or so it was no more possible treatment  and 3 months later he was gone. Although by now a friend, it was such a short time it again had little affect.. 

 

Now my brother in law has something similar to Mal, and only 14 miles from Mal, the BiL has been sent home with Macmillan  nurses attending.  It makes me sad that someone relatively close has cancer,  but it still feels remote to me,  I've only met him maybe a dozen times,  as I've not lived within 100 miles  since at least 5 years before they were married.. 

 

Most of my life I've spent moving around until shunted into this siding in Norfolk,  it's now almost 20 years since we bought this place, but the previous 40 years, the longest in any one place was less than 8 years, it's also always been moves far enough away to loose contact with anyone from before.. ( no internet then) . If I survive the employment lottery,  this job i have now will be the longest at one place at about 16years when I retire in 4years, before then the longest continuously at one place was about 3years..

The above paragraph means I've never much felt connected to any one or anywhere, how I got hooked up to SWMBO I'll never understand.. 

 

I've felt I've always been a watcher of life going past,  never actually involved.. 

 

Well that's probably  got you all depressed,  no hearts for me, there are a too many on this site that really deserve your support. 

 

Time to drink my choccy and go to sleep.. 

 

I hope  all sleep well and stay healthy.. 

[bbishop]

Evening awl,

The old standard for systolic was 100 + age. PeterBB makes a valid point that BP changes during the day and is affected by exercise and by diet.  A mug of coffee puts five points on mine.

 

I have to study BPs for my enhanced course , which is likely to be 10 - 14 June.  And of course I got a letter this morning, delaying my "wee procedure" to 14 June; it's now a week later.

 

Bed now - an early start tomorrow with stage 2 of the gas changeover.

Bill

[Dave Hunt]

Thanks everybody for the interest in my blood pressure; and to think that until yesterday I hadn't really given it a second thought except that when I used to have my RAF annual medicals it was 'OK'. I guess from the latest thinking on the subject that I'll be wise to shed a few pounds - unfortunately I have back/spine problems that effectively preclude meaningful exercise more than walking a mile or so. Hence no Scottish falling over water tonight.

On a lighter note, got nearly four hours productive workshop time in today and even managed to avoid any major c*ck-ups. Whoopee!

Night night awl and thoughts for those with real problems.

Dave   

[laurenceb]

If memory serves it was AndrewC  who started the term cockwomble

If my BP was down to 120 I would be flat out

Night awl  

[lightengine]

Excellent post on Little Muddle on how to get your 'favourites' easy to find.

[AndyID]

9 minutes ago, lightengine said:

Excellent post on Little Muddle on how to get your 'favourites' easy to find.

 

How do I find Little Muddle?

[Coombe Barton]

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/sandys-chemo-day-51-of-126/

[BSW01]

Good evening folks

 

Well the rain stopped just after I’d got down to the workshop and by dinner time the sun was out! A bit more progress has been made on the old L class loco kit. I made a start on adding some cab interior (there wasn’t any supplied in the kit) and I also corrected a mistake I made on Monday, I’d inadvertently put 2 treads on a missing step it instead of 1, doh!

 

This evening we had James and Amelia round for tea. They usually join us on a Friday, but he couldn’t make it tomorrow, so came round tonight instead. For tea we had a roast chicken dinner.

 

Thoughts with sick and missing, in particular Mal & Gabe, John & Sandy, Deb’s and anyone else who needs them. 

 

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Ozexpatriate]

30 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/sandys-chemo-day-51-of-126/

John, I hope your students are now pivot table and VLOOKUP experts.

Edited February 8, 2019 by Ozexpatriate

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is slightly milder weather today.

 

It looks like it is going to be a fairly busy day, and we are testing next week and the engineer responsible is off sick.  (As are many, there's something going around).

 

Oh well - Time for a coffee, and then I'll make a start.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Dark here. 

Our train this afternoon is still timetabled to be running. A few each day have been cancelled due to weather related work. Was it windy in the U.K.?

We saw a group of gilets jaunes yesterday in the museum. They were about 7 years old on a school trip. 

Tony

Edited February 8, 2019 by Tony_S

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all, with one more day before I set off Down Under.

 

This is the day on which I wonder what else I have forgotten to pack.  Already my kagoul has made a miraculous reappearance and what’s this but my collapsing umbrella?  I don’t want to wear a winter coat on my way to Heathrow because it will take up valuable space in the case for three weeks.  You can tell that I’ve never done anything quite like this before!  Now I learn that London Underground have made it difficult for me to reach Paddington tomorrow because some vital bit of track is being dug up.  Why Paddington?  Because I fancied riding Heathrow Connect instead of the Piccadilly Line – not Heathrow Express, mark you, for the holiday has cost me quite enough already.  Never mind, it means a direct journey.  Things should be better when I return but I shall have time to kill before my period off-peak return to Bedford kicks in.  The prospect of a ‘Spoons breakfast at St Pancras becomes even more attractive!

 

This afternoon the LGBT group meets in a coffee bar and I’m sorry to knock on the head all those fantasies about what might go on in the Methodist church.  On the way to the meeting I have a cheque to pay in, for Festiniog Travel managed to secure compensation from Eurostar for our 90 minute late arrival in Paris just before Christmas.  Yesterday the prospectus for the 2019-20 tour arrived!   As it will be a couple of months before bookings open I will have time to decide which savings account to empty to pay for it.

 

Continuing warm thoughts to Debs, Rick, Sandy and John and any other poorly folk that I may have overlooked.  I must also give a special shout-out to Mal for sheer bravery in the face of the awful illness that he is fighting.

 

Chris

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare,

An especially carp night's sleep, disruption of my meal patterns and the amounts seem to cause this...

 

And tomorrow? Well SWMBO reminded me this morning at the arrival of her morning Cup of tea with Ben the Border Collie, that we have a party to go to, a lady at her weaving groups significant birthday.

 

This will be at the Pleasure Boat Inn on Hickling Broad, as it's next to the Hickling sailing club I know it quite well. Also I pass Harry's house, Harry being the MRC member who died a while back from the Big C.

 

Since then his widow has been trying to sell the house for over a year, however when they bought it 30+ years ago the owners of the farm house and buildings that were split up to provide 4 dwellings put the ground markers in different places, to the maps provided with the deeds. So  part of their garage was in a neighbours garden and they had a bit of someone elses garden etc..

She has finally got full land registry approval for the revised plans and has put the house back on the market.

 

Two cockwombles this morning, the first parked on the wrong side of the road had his headlights on full beam straight into my eyes, the second went through red lights to cut across the front of the car in front of me... 

 

Time to go into battle with some more equipment..

 

 

[88C]

Best wishes to Chris on your big adventure. No doubt you won't be posting for a while, unless you have mastered that new phone.

 

Brian

[AndyB]

Morning all and it's a wet and blowy one today.

Steady now!! No tittering in the back rows, thank you.

 

Working from home today as one of the kids has the lurgy.

That means I won't have the delights of traffic jams etc and got an extra hour or so in bed.

 

Not much else to report. 

 

Ta ta for now.     

 

 

 

 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Very wet and windy here and forecast to stay that way for most of the day.

Chris, I hope  you enjoy your trip of a lifetime.

No plans made for today apart from, of course, my assistance being required with one or two domestic tasks.

Might go upstairs and play with trains as they've been neglected for a while.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

[Dave Hunt]

Wet and windy here too. Not a lot planned apart from taking my Dad to the dentist and getting stuff ready for going to my son's in Leatherhead tomorrow. We are going to see my six year old granddaughter in a song and dance production on Sunday.

Have a great time on your trip Chris.

TTFN

Dave

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

It’s another wet start to the day! Breakfast has been consumed, as has the muggertea and the orange juice. Once Sheila has finished her breakfast we will be heading to the Trafford Centre. On the way home we will call in at the butchers to pick up the weekly meat rations and hopefully a pastie!

 

Chris, enjoy your holiday. 

 

Back later

[jamie92208]

Morning all, slightly late, from an overcast little village.   Had a lie in this morning after waking at 6 for a loo trip and then spent a few minutes keeping the fire going before going back to bed.   Next thing I knew it was 09.00.  

 

I had a good morning doing my various collections.   First a visit to the vineyard/distillery to buy a barrel or Fou (I think that's the local word.

Unfortunately they hadn't left any of the product inside.   Then after a visit to the garage to get a headlamp bulb changed I went to some neighbours who are clearing our prior to selling up.   Two old implements were dragged out and loaded up.

These were then unloaded into the top end of the shed.   Senior management has not yet decided where they are to be place.   Such decisions are way above my pay grade.   However I did identify that the implements are a horse drawn plough and scarifier with what I think are a set of wheels for transporting them between fields.   I will enjoy myself trying to re attach the broken parts.   Various jobs were dine in the afternoon and then some time was spent In the shed with a soldering iron.   

 

This morning I am tasked with putting some net curtains up in the kitchen window and have another pair of cupboard hinges to paint.   

 

Chis, I am looing forward to hearing how your trip goes.   We will be two months behind you on our trip of a lifetime so your experiences will be read with great interest.

 

The origin of the term cockwomble is interesting.   My memory of the time that the term emerged is that Andrew C produced several similar terms that involved anglo saxon words and animals.  One ended in puffin IIRC.   Remarkably inventive.

 

Thoughts very much with Mal and Gabe, John and Sandy and of course Debs.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Simon G]

Very wet and windy here so far today.  The wind is set to continue here for about another 36 hours.  I don’t plan to go out today except for a talk on Indian Railways tonight, which is part of our MRC winter talk season.