Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

As is the norm for a Sunday morning, we’ve had a bit of a lie-in and breakfast in bed. The weather currently is a little dull but there is next to no wind, no doubt that will change later in the day. Once I’ve finished muggertea No2 I’m off to the workshop to carry on working on the kit locos. 

 

Back later

[grandadbob]

Crime in Sutton is definitely on the increase. I actually saw somebody parking on double yellows the other day. I'm seriously thinking of moving somewhere safer! 

 

Seriously though we have the 3rd lowest crime rate in London after Richmond and Bexley.

Edited March 3, 2019 by grandadbob

[81C]

Morning All

All your stories have nothing on Reg across the road he was on a car cleaning marathon yesterday he was sitting in the road when one of the

lady neighbours came tearing into the close at breakneck speed missing him by inches he bellow at her about it she retorted what an effing idiot 

you are sitting in the road hiding behind a car, there was a burst of laughter by several other neighbour who were in earshot to top it all Reg had

earphones on so he was non the wiser.

                                                                      enjoy your day I won't it's in scowl mode.  Welland Truly-Peedoff

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Spent a few minutes clearing the rubbish from the temporary shelves in the utility room to make way for the rubbish from the shed. In doing so I discovered a great many low energy bulbs most still in their boxes. I've now gone over to LED so I'm sure that the local charity shops will appreciate them. On the subject of power tools, I do use them but sparingly, such as drilling into brick or other hard substances. Thats it for now, be back later.

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, grandadbob said:

Crime in Sutton is definitely on the increase. I actually saw somebody parking on double yellows the other day. I'm seriously thinking of moving somewhere safer! 

 

Seriously though we have the 3rd lowest crime rate in London after Richmond and Bexley.

I always thought double-yellows meant "Park parallel to the kerb"

[jamie92208]

Afternoon all from what is now a very sunny and breezy Charente.  I can report that I still have all my limbs and appendages.  Half a stear of Oak has been sawn and a half stear of pine from our garden has been split so we now have two adjacent pallets of ready to use wood.   No chainsaws, wives or other impediments were harmed in the process despite Beth working hard at the stacking.  Lunch of Mussels has been consumed, done in garlic, rose wine and crème freche, excellent.  Yesterday it was scallops (Coquille St Jacques to the locals).   Life is hard here.   

 

However having sweated this morning after the market I have been granted the afternoon off so will be heading for the shed when Beth goes for her walk.

 

As to Chainsaw's it helps having a son who actually trained as a tree surgeon and has given me much helpful advice and training.   Despite having arguments at times he seems to want his old dad to remain intact.

 

Jamie

[AndyB]

Afternoon all,

A productive weekend so far.

Greenhouse cleared out and cleaned with new gravel down to smarten it up. 

Now, what to grow this year? Tomatoes and chillies, methinks. Some of the varieties that seem to be favoured seem to end up being tasteless and unproductive. So, probably stick to some cherry tomatoes types. 

 

I don't know if Sutton is tranquil or not, but if GDB gets a power saw then I'm imaging the local stats may show up a "Power Saw Massacre" - self inflicted one! 

 

 

 

[Gwiwer]

We have - he says with his hand firmly touching something wooden - the lowest crime rate in what is regarded as Greater London here Upon the Hill.  We are just outside the London postcode area being TW not SW but are widely thought of now as London and not Middlesex.  Not only is this a part of the Royal Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames but the lowest-crime area within it.  There was a crime spree in the run-up to Christmas; two homes were burgled.  We may not know all of our neighbours but we do watch out for them and each other and make mention of anything unusual.  It is particularly uncommon to see any police presence here too as the crime rate is low and the locality is largely self-policing.  Of all the places we could have ended up when we returned from Down Under we might have done a whole lot worse.

 

I have, in my younger days, lived in Newham (Stratford, Plaistow, Manor Park and Custom House), Haringey (Harringay - note my spellings of both suburb and borough are correct), Waltham Forest (Leyton and Walthamstow) and Havering (central Romford) so I might know a thing or two about less salubrious areas!

 

In other news the Man-Cave is having a tidy-up.  That is the room which somehow accommodates bed, office, library, work area, rolling stock storage and layout.  It has become a little less than organised and if I am to have guests viewing some of the contents in due course then I would wish to have it presentable at the least.  It also serves to remind me of a few kits and bits the ownership of which has slipped my mind and has produced the multimeter which I need in order to test those pesky wires.

 

PS - there is also an awl in the tool kit which will enable self-punishment for the above paragraph should it be demanded.  

 

Next = iron the uniform as the House of Fun requires my attendance in the morning.

After that = sacrificial rites in the kitchen are expected.

 

Best wishes to all. 

Edited March 3, 2019 by Gwiwer
Because I can

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Done a bit more clearing of the shelf unit but it still looks full and I haven't even started on the shed yet. I did however find several unopened packs of torch batteries, and some opened ones so I won't need to buy any more for some time to come. Wet and windy outside at the mo so definitely staying in. Muggatee to be drunk, be back later.

[roundhouse]

Evening

 

Missed a few days of posts on here.

 

A great weekend playing trains at the Freemo South meet in Epsom. Whilst I enjoy exhibiting at shows, Freemo means a leisurely arrival and set up with trains moving by lunchtime rather than 10am when shows normally open to the public.  With a short stretch of double track we managed to run quite a few Amtrak trains form my layout to the far end of the set up and back with a reversal at AndrewC's module to take in a branch. We stopped running after 2.30 and away just after 3pm. With just a 26 minute journey for me it was very relaxing but others have Devon to get back to in the wind and rain. its our turn to have a long trip for the next Freemo meet which is West of Exeter in May. I even manged to sell quite a few items of rolling stock that has been sitting around for some years. That should help fund the new 009 layout.

 

In other news, our local Harveys pub shuts early tonight for 4 days as the first phase of refurbishment is commencing. lets hope it doesnt change too much. At least we were in there last night and it was very busy even at 6.30pm and both the Harveys Porter, Old and Kiss were all very well kept unlike Wetherspoons that had no ales on due to a gas supply fault. I guess they use some power assisted means to work the handpumps. At least the other pub in the town centre normally has a good pint of Tribute. We tend not to use the Youngs pub the other side of the station as its way too cramped in the bar area compared to what it used to be and service can sometimes be painfully slow whilst customers choose what coffee or wine they want. We may have to walk a bit further to another good pub when we met with an ex work collegue one evening.

 

Now watching recorded Death in Paradise.

 

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by roundhouse

[New Haven Neil]

Evening.

 

Just rain here - and plenty of it, but no gales as per the seaweed twirlers guesses.

 

I use a Stihl petrol chainsaw, for cutting up firewood - with full PPE. And I mean full.  Trousers, gloves and jacket with the carbon fibre threads in that are 'alleged' to stall a saw almost instantly if they touch, combined helmet, face mask and ear defenders, steel topped boots.  If used in accordance with the destructions they're safe enough.  Never give them an inch, though and always test the kick-back brake.  More recently I bought a saw trestle that holds the chainsaw on a pivot, with a blade guard - it's a good safe bit of kit but I still wear the PPE.

[Tony_S]

We had a nice lunch with the family, it was especially nice to see our nephew, Josh. He lives in Brighton but his girlfriend has been working this weekend so he came home to visit his parents. He went home from Benfleet and will be home in time to cook his girlfriends dinner when she finishes work tonight. After everyone left I went out and removed stuff from my car as it off for its first service tomorrow. Tidying didn’t take long, I haven’t made it particularly messy! It should come back nice and clean anyway.

Wet and breezy here at the moment. I am not planning to go anywhere. 

Tony

 

[grandadbob]

Early dinner tonight as The Boss wished to watch "Skating on Ice" or whatever it's called.  Nice roast leg of lamb which I carved without wearing any PPE but I think I got away with it.   I'm fairly sure the only blood in sight  came from the joint  and that went into the jus gravy which I made and which was declared "very nice" by Herself. All preceded by beer and accompanied by an Aussie Shiraz that I quite like, even if it is their cheapo reject stuff.  Might have some more in a minute. 

Earlier I enjoyed another good rugby match with Newcastle managing to beat Worcester and give themselves 4 much needed points as they're at the bottom of the table. They've still got a long way to go yet if they are to survive.

 

Currently lots of wind and rain here and stuff like wheelie bins blowing over.

 

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by grandadbob

[TheQ]

Home,  everything on my planned list this morning came to pass. 

 

A bit windy in Scotland  light drizzle from the Tail end of the previous storm. 

Sunny from South of Glasgow almost to Wetherby , even though we saw cars with headlights on from half way across the A66.

I chose to go M62, M18, M180, A15 which I think was a nice change.  The drizzle increased until. Just south of Lincoln the fire hose had been turned on.  It remained so most of the way so by the time we were on the NDR round Norwich, you couldn't see tarmac only a river.. 

 

One major Cockwomble, on the A17,  approaching the roundabout,  left hand lane, marked left turn and straight on,  right hand lane, marked right hand turn and straight on.  Long queue of cars in left hand lane, so I choose right, overtake half a dozen cars,  go into right hand lane on exit.  It road shows the zip together markings, I accelerate up form up  with a discovery in left lane  just in front.. 

 

At this point a silver VW golf accelerates hard from behind in the left hand lane to come alongside me, as the zip arrows disappear. He then holds to left of me as I track the right hand white line which slowly closes as the road narrows.  Eventually he backs off with a load blaring of horns.. 

For the next 2 roundabouts he polishes my boot,  trying to overtake at the exit of each roundabout but they have single lane marked straight  on and no merge lanes on exit. 

At the next roundabout he turns right and leaves with a loud blaring of horns.. 

 

Amazingly we pulled into home and the rain stopped,  So we quickly unloaded while we had the chance.

The house temperature was showing 12 which was interesting as I had set the thermostat back to 10C.

The thermostat is now set to 18, the fire has now been lit,  and the temperature is now up to 14..

 

Chinese peppered pork is on its way.  Ben is snoring in his basket having been very good all the way home. 

 

I'm lying on the sofa trying to straighten my back after 8.5 hours sat in the car.. 

 

[lightengine]

6 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

I always thought double-yellows meant "Park parallel to the kerb"

I think double yellow means "no parking, but if you park with 2 wheels on the pavement it's ok because you aren't really parked, you've just paused." I believe this is a rule that applies to BMW owners only.

[AndrewC]

8 hours ago, grandadbob said:

Crime in Sutton is definitely on the increase. I actually saw somebody parking on double yellows the other day. I'm seriously thinking of moving somewhere safer! 

 

Seriously though we have the 3rd lowest crime rate in London after Richmond and Bexley.

They don’t call Bexley the boring borough for nothing. Sometimes that’s a good thing. 

[tigerburnie]

Had a nice day with family visiting from Perth, weather calmed down enough to join the grandsons on the park, though I gave the zip wire a miss this time, daughter and Son in law treated me to a landrover safari on Rannoch Moor later in the year, includes going to Rannoch Station for a bit of photography and wildlife watching.

[lightengine]

The soffits have stopped rattling.  I think we survived it.

[Gwiwer]

38 minutes ago, lightengine said:

The soffits have stopped rattling.  I think we survived it.

They may have stopped rattling but there is no need to worry until you see one come adrift and fascia

 

Still blowing a hoolie outside but we seem to be weathering the storm  higher-than-average winds.

 

Off to attempt sleep now.  Flapping trike cover and other miscellaneous wind-related noises might make that an intermittent pastime.  To each goodnight.

[Coombe Barton]

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2019/03/03/sandys-chemo-day-75-of-126/

[BoD]

Evening all.

 

It's been a long day.

All fairly quiet here, perhaps Freya hasn't reached us yet.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Still blowing a hooley outside but the rain seems to have stopped. According to the seaweed twirlers it should all be out over the North sea by morning, well lets hope so.

[laurenceb]

Wind seems to have died down here 

Night awl 

[newbryford]

'Tis a bit breezy in the NW...

 

POETPEx was accomplished on Friday about 30 minutes behind schedule, but a pre-planned and well coordinated loading meant that we pulled up at the venue 1 minute before our "authorised" time. There were others in the venue that had had to use the rear doors, but ours access doors were opened bang on time and the van to layout distance was less than 30 steps......

 

Much fun was had playing trains on DL, interspersed with an ice hockey match on Saturday evening, followed with a steak on the stone and few beverages with my good friend and guest operator Nobby John

 

 

It didn't take long to shift.

 

The hockey game was a bit one-sided with a 4-0 win for the Blackburn Hawks. It would have been more, but their goalminder was on stunning form. The shot tally was 72-20!

 

Sunday was another train playing session. Sunglasses required and apologies for the blatant train pics.

 

 

Packing up was accomplished without fuss and DL was delivered into storage until October and then I was home for 7pm, including a SOS trip to try and rescue one of Junior's co-workers with a broken car. It was stuck in gear - the lever felt like it was in neutral but there was no budging it apart from dragging it (with the large van)  about 20 yards to a better resting place until tomorrow morning.

 

Lots of work to be worked in the next three weeks up to Ally Pally.

 

I'll try to keep up as and when.

 

Have a good week folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.