Early Risers.

[Barry O]

Good morning to most!

Ed cold has returned. Buggrrritt.

 

More crust earning today. It's not the firting of chips and speakers that takes the time...it is finding space to fit them! Some of the locos are full of lead, tenders are full of weight (why???).

 

I wont be at Ally Pally on Saturday so, to those who can attend, please enjoy your meetup .

 

Her indoors off to get her car serviced and MoTd. More modelling tokens going west.

 

Rick, I hope work isn't too cold today. Hopefully life in the Hill of Strawberries can only get better.

 

Hoping for better news from Debs, thanks to Jogn for his daily blog. I hhope Sandy continues to improve.

 

Have as good a day as you can

Baz

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

I have completed today’s task and bin bags are now awaiting collection. 

I think it is forecast to be quite warm here today. 

I will probably do some more removal of model railway stuff from the garage. I am fairly sure I have removed enough for the old door to be removed and a new one to be fitted. Now it will be removing stuff I don’t want damaged should something fall during the process. So I will be removing scenic items before removing a baseboard in a few days. 

Tony

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a very sunny village.  Yesterday was interesting with quite a bit happening.  The funeral was very different to any that I've ever been to.   Christian, despite his name was apparently an atheist so there was no form of service but was all gathered at the graveside and the funeral director read some words and recited a poem. Our current mayor then read a form of eulogy that mainly dealt with Christian's public service as village mayor for 10 years and throughout the 30 plus years that he had lived in the village since his retirement from SNCF.  Then we all filed past in turn and were given rose petals to scatter on the coffin before it was lowered.   A book of condolence was available for signing as we left the cemetery. before we made our way to the town hall for drinks and biscuits.   A very moving and simple ceremony.  

 

In the evening our good friends from the village, Claude and Delia, came round for a meal.   Beth excelled herself with a simple dish of fish with carrots, peas, potatoes and parsley sauce.  The latter was new to our guests but got eaten with relish.  The parsley was from our garden. Cheese then strawberry's followed. I had cream on mine, Claude had sugar and red wine and Beth and Delia had Balsamic vinegar and sugar on theirs.  All in all a very pleasant evening.

 

Today I will be doing some minor tasks and in the afternoon will hopefully be wielding a soldering iron.  

 

As to large items, we all have trailers and the tip is not far away.  Most furniture in this area goes to to a charity called Emmaus but I've no idea if they collect.

 

Thoughts with all those in need.

 

Jamie

  

 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

A cloudy start to the day, currently 9C here and the sun is trying to make an appearance, I do hope it succeeds! Once breakfast has been consumed I will wait about 40 minutes then head to the swimming pool for my weekly swim. Hopefully, as I had a better sleep than last Tuesday I’m hoping to get in around 100 lengths. 

 

Back later. 

[tigerburnie]

Morning from a dull and eerily calm NE Scotland, I too have no idea what the boss has in store for me, I might see if I am flexible enough to get into the railway room, no services have run for nearly 3 weeks now. Have good day all.

[BlackRat]

1 hour ago, grandadbob said:

Re British Heart Foundation they will only collect furniture that complies with current fire safety regs and has the appropriate label attached.

 

https://www.bhf.org.uk/shop/donating-goods/book-a-free-furniture-collection/fire-labels

 

 

 

The BHF took 2 weeks to come over to us... then they didn't want it!

 

No reason given, just took a pic, stuck a sticker on it, gave us some paperwork then as I went to collect the cushions they told me it wasn't required.

 

It was in perfect nick, was very expensive 15 years ago and I reckon far better qualitynetc than its Next replacement.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Tony mentioning putting the bins out reminded me. My friend, who lives quite close to Tony was preparing his bins to go out a few weeks ago when a rat popped out of the waste food bin and disappeared behind the kitchen cabinets. Their dog, a terrier cross went in hot pursuit but seems to have given up after half an hour. There has been no indication since of its presence, so it probably escaped the house. The food waste bin is normally kept outside to prevent the dog rummaging in it and was only bought into the house for a few bits to be placed in it ready for collection. Fortunately there is no rat problem around here due to the large number of foxes, you just have to make sure that things such as waste food is well wrapped before putting it out for collection.

[jamie92208]

Morning again, I'm getting forgetful.   I forgot to mention a major success yesterday.  Union Pacific have just published the schedule for the Big Boy' (4014 not anything else and certainly not an EA) first run to Ogden and back in May.  We land in Vancouver on May 12th and fly home from Denver on the 24th.  By sheer chance 4014 is returning to Cheyenne after the celebrations at Ogden on the 10th.   SWMBO must have been in a good mood yesterday as she was happy for me to book motels for Laramie on the 18th and Cheyenne on the 19th so that we can see the loco on Sherman Hill on it's way home.   It will be double headed with 844, over 1000 tons of steam power pounding up from Dale Junction to Sherman.   I am a happy bunny.   No doubt a price will be extracted in due course.   I had an inkling that this would be happening so gave Beth free hand to plan our 2 weeks in Oz in April and left our 2 weeks in the US fairly fluid.   

 

Jamie

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Weather reasonable, a few plans involving limited physical effort on my part, and the Good Doctor has just returned from her excursion to a local swimming pool.  The latter is far more sophisticated than the one the town used to have - which was a roped off area in the river and which was often closed in the summer months due to 'pollution' (i.e. sewage) in the river, of course it didn't open at all in the winter months.

 

12.30 Saturday sounds fine John (and no you're not going daft as it was mentioned previously but, I think it was at the time one of our number was upside down and no doubt far more interested in the sights of upside down lands than anything happening in the future at Ally Pally.  ).

 

Have a good day folks

[Sir TophamHatt]

 

The worst news.

Not pregnant.

 

The wife thinks it's her fault.

 

Was in the hospital and read how 4/5 frozen babies don't work :/  But I didn't get that impression from the doctors at any point through the process.

I was so confident, especially after the embryologist was very pleased with everything.

I just hope the next time they allow us to put two in.  It isn't NHS policy but as the first failed, it might change things.

 

However, on the up, built a new hill for the railway, so that'll keep me distracted.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

 

The worst news.

Not pregnant.

 

The wife thinks it's her fault.

 

Was in the hospital and read how 4/5 frozen babies don't work :/  But I didn't get that impression from the doctors at any point through the process.

I was so confident, especially after the embryologist was very pleased with everything.

I just hope the next time they allow us to put two in.  It isn't NHS policy but as the first failed, it might change things.

 

However, on the up, built a new hill for the railway, so that'll keep me distracted.

Our journey to becoming a family was different to yours but did involve seeing lots of doctors over quite some time. The optimism and disappointment cycle is hard. I do hope the policy allows you a better chance next time.

Tony

[The Lurker]

1 hour ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

 

The worst news.

Not pregnant.

 

The wife thinks it's her fault.

 

Was in the hospital and read how 4/5 frozen babies don't work :/  But I didn't get that impression from the doctors at any point through the process.

I was so confident, especially after the embryologist was very pleased with everything.

I just hope the next time they allow us to put two in.  It isn't NHS policy but as the first failed, it might change things.

 

However, on the up, built a new hill for the railway, so that'll keep me distracted.

My thoughts are with you. Younger Lurker arrived using the same route that you described. As Tony S says, the cycles are very wearing and I hope that the two of you recover from the disappointment.

[BlackRat]

1 hour ago, grandadbob said:

Re British Heart Foundation they will only collect furniture that complies with current fire safety regs and has the appropriate label attached.

 

https://www.bhf.org.uk/shop/donating-goods/book-a-free-furniture-collection/fire-labels

 

 

 

The BHF took 2 weeks to come over to us... then they didn't want it!

 

No reason given, just took a pic, stuck a sticker on it, gave us some paperwork then as I went to collect the cushions they told me it wasn't required.

 

It was in perfect nick, was very expensive 15 years ago and I reckon far better qualitynetc than its Next replacement.

[skipepsi]

Deja Vue a wonderful thing!

[tigerburnie]

Well that was a day I hadn't planned for, we decided we'd go and spend a birthday voucher at the garden centre, walked out to the car to find a puncture. I could have done without the exercise of fitting the space saver and two trips to town, but the upside is it was repairable, the offending 2 inch screw(or its metric equivalent) removed and only cost £20, so my exercise walk was cancelled lol.

[Ozexpatriate]

9 hours ago, TheQ said:

Noting the above notes about sofa etc,

The British heart foundation will collect such Items for free according to their adverts..

 

8 hours ago, grandadbob said:

Re British Heart Foundation they will only collect furniture that complies with current fire safety regs and has the appropriate label attached.

Notwithstanding legal dumping complications, does putting it on a street corner on a sunny day with a sign that says "free" not make things like sofas in good condition disappear?  That seems to work pretty well here.

 

The spell of remarkable, sunny breezy weather continues. It hasn't rained (or snowed) for a couple of weeks. So much so that there were reports last night of wildfires - in March no less! Fire danger is declared to be 'high'.

 

I am hoping to evade the lurgy. I did have a 'flu' shot this season. There's an irritating tickle in my throat, something that is quite unusual for me. Yesterday I had a hard time concentrating. I don't usually take vitamin C supplements but I did this morning. Hopefully it will pass me by.

Edited March 20, 2019 by Ozexpatriate

[roundhouse]

6 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Morning again, I'm getting forgetful.   I forgot to mention a major success yesterday.  Union Pacific have just published the schedule for the Big Boy' (4014 not anything else and certainly not an EA) first run to Ogden and back in May.  We land in Vancouver on May 12th and fly home from Denver on the 24th.  By sheer chance 4014 is returning to Cheyenne after the celebrations at Ogden on the 10th.   SWMBO must have been in a good mood yesterday as she was happy for me to book motels for Laramie on the 18th and Cheyenne on the 19th so that we can see the loco on Sherman Hill on it's way home.   It will be double headed with 844, over 1000 tons of steam power pounding up from Dale Junction to Sherman.   I am a happy bunny.   No doubt a price will be extracted in due course.   I had an inkling that this would be happening so gave Beth free hand to plan our 2 weeks in Oz in April and left our 2 weeks in the US fairly fluid.   

 

Jamie

Thats good timing. I am hoping the loco will be out when we are in Denver / Salt Lake City but no dates issued beyond May at present. Look forward to seeing your photos.

 

\my first two box car weathering commissions are nearing completion and hopefully in the next two days will pick up a box of more freight cars to weather. However my airbrushes decided not to work this morning so hopefully I can get them working later this evening once we return from Mums. Most of the layout is unloaded but require my other halfs help to unload the larger boards once I pick her up from the station. Meanwhile I have set up a temporary office in Mums conservatory and been fettling the wiring on the smaller fiddleyard boards.

 

[TheQ]

23 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 

Notwithstanding legal dumping complications, does putting it on a street corner on a sunny day with a sign that says "free" not make things like sofas in good condition disappear?  That seems to work pretty well here.

 

 

Put a Notice on it "free to a new Home," it will sit there for weeks. 

Put a notice on it "for sale £100" it will disappear overnight.. 

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Discovered a large sheet of ply in the garage, a 'freebee' recovered from a skip. The reason it was free is that it is warped. It is now laying on the garage floor on a groundsheet having been dampened and a quantity of old bricks placed on top. That should give me more than enough ply to line the shed. 

[grandadbob]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 

Notwithstanding legal dumping complications, does putting it on a street corner on a sunny day with a sign that says "free" not make things like sofas in good condition disappear?  That seems to work pretty well here.

 

 

There is a large problem in general in London with fly tipping but not many people seem to get prosecuted. I would bet a lot of money that if I did what you suggest my feet wouldn't touch the ground and I'd be in court before you could say "GDB has self harmed again!" 

 

In other news roofing works are proceeding briskly and I'm reliably informed that "we should be finished by tomorrow lunchtime."

Edited March 20, 2019 by grandadbob

[New Haven Neil]

Evening.

 

A day that felt like spring for a while, although it went off a bit later.

 

We too struggled to get rid of a well made, but aged cosy chair when Mrs NHN got a new recliner as we had stupidly cut off the fire regs labels as they showed at the front of the cushions.  So none of the charities would take it, but it ended up going next door when we mentioned it to our neighbour!

 

Still thinking naughty O Gauge thoughts.....couple of new Dapol wagons.....oops....

[jamie92208]

17 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Still thinking naughty O Gauge thoughts.....couple of new Dapol wagons.....oops....

Go On Neil, you know you can't resist.... Once the bug has bitten you can't get rid of it.   You will just need a bigger shed...….

 

Jamie

[grandadbob]

1 minute ago, jamie92208 said:

Go On Neil, you know you can't resist.... Once the bug has bitten you can't get rid of it.   You will just need a bigger shed...….

 

Jamie

 

I knew there was a reason I've just ordered one! 

[New Haven Neil]

Well I already have the garden railway......and my garage is almost as big as our modest bungalow!

 

[roundhouse]

Most of the layout now set up at Mums ready for working on it tomorrow then a nice meal Mum had cooked for us. Despite being nearly 87 she enjoys doing cooking as much as her garden. I must get my garden railway running again as it will be the first time in round 5 years if I do but that wont be this week.

 

Spray gun or should I say airbrush now working again so weathering complete apart form a sealing cot of matt varnish which will be done in the morning.

 

Tomorrow I may catch the bus to Mums. Something that I have never done as they generally only run weekdays and sporadic at best but on the way home I can meet my other half down the long hill at the station, go for beer in the micropub then either train or bus back home. We shall see.