Early Risers.

[brianusa]

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Rugby,  like all sports, you played when you were told to at school or training in the RAF, . I successfully avoided being selected for any team except cricket at school,  where I stood in the outfield watching the play>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

          No sportsman I, but couldn't be avoided in school.  However the sports field was situated right by the GW main line at Marsh Mills which was where I stood in the outfield, watching the trains

            Brian.

[grandadbob]

When I left primary school I was soccer mad and was horrified that the grammar school I went to only played rugby. From my very first session (started as a prop) I was hooked and soon realised that I would be a much better at rugby. We were lucky that we had 2 coaches (both history masters) who were proper rugby players themselves (one of them a top class player) and not jumped up sadistic PE teachers. I was really gutted when I had to pack up playing club rugby at 32 when I mangled my ACL. I liked most sport at school and also played cricket and swam for the school. Wish I could still do even a fraction of what I did then.

Edited May 4, 2019 by grandadbob

[Dave Hunt]

The most anti sportsman I ever knew was an RAF colleague who announced to the rest of the Squadron that he was starting Sports Anonymous. The idea was that if you ever felt like participating in any sporting activity you could ring him then he'd come and drink with you until the feeling wore off.

 

The main drawback to Hippo's suggestion for a rugby XV would seem to be getting the team together. Since we appear to be spread across the scale/gauge spectrum, by the time the dates of Scaleforums, EM Gauge meetings, GOG shows etc. are taken into account along with Ally Pally, Warley and such, only about two weekends are free. Mind you, if we're trying to get a starting lineup for the Tigers, on present form the results would be the same whether there was a team there or not (makes mental note not to venture near Welford Road on dark nights anytime soon).  

 

Have a good night everyone.

 

Dave  

[grandadbob]

1 minute ago, Dave Hunt said:

The most anti sportsman I ever knew was an RAF colleague who announced to the rest of the Squadron that he was starting Sports Anonymous. The idea was that if you ever felt like participating in any sporting activity you could ring him then he'd come and drink with you until the feeling wore off.

 

 

Yep - In my present state that sounds like a plan to me! 

 

PS Tripped over the bloody walking stick earlier. 

[grandadbob]

Just poured a large measure of Scottish falling down water. Heaven alone knows what I'll do to myself now. 

[Dave Hunt]

I'd come round and help Bob but I'm part way through my second.....

 

Dave

[Ozexpatriate]

Fortunately by the 5th grade (age around 9 or 10) I was informed that my services for school rugby were no longer required. (Mine was a League school at that time, though they later switched to Union some years after I had matriculated, presumably in an effort to become more posh).

 

My services were never required for cricket. I did however play in the first XI (the soccer team) where I successfully parleyed my total lack of enthusiasm for any sort of running by being the goalkeeper. Despite what you might expect from our shared genetics, my younger brother (by little more than two years), captained the first XIII and the first XI* and ran cross-country.

 

* The one with bats and wickets.

 

A friend and former colleague remains a mad keen soccer player and continues to play despite turning 60 this year. He blew his knee out twice in the last few months and in a recent SMS text message happily reported that his knee was holding up through 2 of 5 games in a tournament. Personally I think he's mad (I don't know if this disorder is related to his being French), but it truly is his passion.

[Ozexpatriate]

Vaccinations continue to be a distressing topic. In the last couple of months we had a major measles outbreak across the river in southern Washington, so it's been very much in the news.

 

My siblings and I experienced measles sequentially - right at a time my dad had scheduled his annual holiday at the beach, requiring him to shuttle us back and forth for the duration. My brother and I had it one after the other - then my sister who at around 18 months old was quite ill. My parents were quite distressed at the time since my youngest brother was a newborn. They were duly anxious to keep him from contracting the disease - which I believe they did. My other sister had not arrived by that point.

 

Then there was the chicken pox - which I distinctly remember as being very uncomfortable - if not deadly.

 

A colleague of mine is distressed by this whole topic. His wife has embraced the anti-vaxxer message. (She is also quite bought into a non-gluten regime for herself and her sons.) They have a son who had a tumor around his pituitary gland, which has severely stunted his development. I'm not sure whether he can be further vaccinated. Their paediatric physician is someone who does not believe that vaccinations should be delivered in big wallops, but spaced out. With movement toward statewide mandatory vaccination records for school admission they are seriously considering home schooling - which is an unwelcome path for my colleague.

 

The public health benefits of mandatory vaccination are self-evident to me and 'herd-immunity' is essential in our modern societies - particularly so to protect newborns and those with compromised immune systems. Having said that I remain skeptical enough to consider the possibility that for some individual patients there may be unintended consequences* and the "vaccines are absolutely safe" message might be overly zealous. Epidemiology is a very complex field.

 

* I'm not talking about the debunked autism causality.

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[Simon G]

10 hours ago, roundhouse said:

A Great White Worm with ironing boards instead of seats

 

I had heard the comment about the seats on the class 700 being compared to ironing boards.  They were pretty hard on the 700 from St Neots into London, but not much worse than the 365 going back again.

 

Les Mis was fantastic, and the 4 in our party really enjoyed it.  I was glad I had watched the TV series a few months ago, so knew the story.  After that, we had about 25 minutes in the National Portrait Gallery before it closed, and I actually managed to see two paintings I recognised- The Hay Wain by Constable, and The Fighting Temeraire by Turner.  Pity we didn’t have longer.  We finished off with a meal in a Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown before returning back to St Neots, all tired but happy.

[newbryford]

Thirsk Races successfully negotiated. Part 1 of my middle brother's 60th birthday weekender (I say middle, as I'm the youngest of 3)

Mostly sunny, but with a chilly easterly across the York Plains and around the front of the grandstand

 

A day at the races is not a common event for me and I approach them with a simple betting mantra.

I prepare to bet a certain amount per race - if I lose every race, then so be it. (I do the same on the even more rare event of a trip to a casino)

If I have an early win, I may increase my original planned bets, but not beyond my original "prepared total loss" amount

 

The Thirsk Hunt Cup was race 5 on the card.

Having picked a 7-1 winner in Race 2, I went for something with slightly longer odds with a £10 each way bet at 15-1.

I know a very small amount about form and tipsters and just looked at a couple of papers to make my choice.

 

Winner!

Ker-Ching to the tune of £200............

 

Day paid for with a healthy profit of modelling tokens.

 

Part 2 is tomorrow with a visit to an indoor kart track with 33 on the grid in various races.

I know it will be competitive and I have a prediction of the winner coming from a choice of 4.

 

Have a good Sunday folks, I'll be giving it a go.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[JohnDMJ]

Evening Awl,

 

Just arrived back from a pleasant day in Lille where a certain exhibition was attended.

 

Met with several people and touched base at Platform 5, Peco and with kirtleypete on Saltdean. Excellent exhibition in its second year; long may it continue!

 

Went out on an E320, came back on an E300 - put the icing on the proverbial cake!

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all.

[Gwiwer]

Evening all.  Or for those who read this tomorrow - Good Morning.

 

In short it has been a week on the roller-coaster.  Roughly two days up followed by one very much down.  We hope SWMBO will start to improve later in the month as various medical appointments come and go and - hopefully- bring positive results.

 

I was raken very much by surprise at news of an Aussie friend's untimely passing which I learned of yesterday.  We were unaware of any illness and he was close to my own age so that wasn't a likely factor.  My own thoughts, having spoken with him on a good many occasions, are that he was a loner in life and might have had few real friends.  It is a dreadful thought but we who knew him think he may have succumbed to the Black Dog and done something to end his misery.

 

SWMBO and I had an evening out with a couple of her workmates tonight.  After a miserable day with her being unable to do anything but sit in front of the TV (and not even able to tell me what she was watching) she perked up somewhat and we both had a reasonably good time at a riverside pub in Kingston.

 

There is no telling what tomorrow might bring.  That is the curse of dealing with these issues.  I might be required to spend all day indoors (as today) as she doesn't want to be left alone at any time.  Or she might be perfectly fine and we can go about our normal Sunday in what ever directions we choose.

 

Best wishes to all and special thoughts to our missing and poorly members.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

Most of the day has been spent outside the workshop, thankfully the rain held off until I was just about to pack up for the day, so I think my timing was very good. My first task was to make a bangle for a friend of ours who’d been admiring the one that I’d made for Sheila. The polishing was done in the workshop, but all the heat treatment and hammering was done outside. 

 

Once the bangle was completed, I then turned my attention to cutting up bits of wood. I’ve decided to make a plasterboard support for each stand, so that the weight of the plasterboard is spread a bit more evenly than it would otherwise be. The foot on each clamp is a just a little bit bigger than 2” x 1” and if, (which is highly likely), I over tighten the clamps, could put holes in the plasterboard. So I thought a larger foot, about 12” x 4” would hopefully spread the load and prevent any damage. I also made a pair of extensions for 2 of the stands, as I only have 1 pair of large (36 inch) clamps, these will bring the next size (18 inch) to the same height. Once I’d finished I tested the stands and clamps using a large off cut of plasterboard and all seemed to work well, so I’m really pleased with today’s work. Once again, all of these items were made from the wood that I salvaged from the old pallets, so have cost me nothing but a few hours work. 

 

I’ve never been one for betting on horses, as I only know 2 things about them, which end you feed and which end you keep well clear of!

 

Rick. So sorry to read about the lose of your friend. 

 

Goodnight all 

[laurenceb]

Condolences Rick

Night awl 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[AndyID]

5 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

I'm a little stiff from rugby.

 

 

Well that one flew like a lead balloon

 

It was one of my mum's favorites.  The derogatory epithet "little stiff" is a bit old fashioned. A more modern equivalent might be "wee pillock". (Hope nobody's from Rugby.)

[pH]

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

A friend and former colleague remains a mad keen soccer player and continues to play despite turning 60 this year. He blew his knee out twice in the last few months and in a recent SMS text message happily reported that his knee was holding up through 2 of 5 games in a tournament. Personally I think he's mad (I don't know if this disorder is related to his being French), but it truly is his passion.

 

“Masters” soccer is a big thing here in North America. In our area, a group of soccer players grew old together, and set up 'age limited' leagues for significant ages as they reached them. So we have over-30s, over-40s, over-50s, over-55s, over-60s, over-65s and they're talking about an over-70s league next winter. There are over-70 groups in competitions run by the US Adult Soccer Association, and they're going to include over-75s this year. The oldest player I know of in our area is 84 years old, but there are quite a few over-75s

 

Rules are a bit different. There is unlimited substitution in all leagues, and players can come back on after being subbed. There's no slide tackling in over-40s leagues and upwards. Refs can send players off for 10 minutes to 'cool down', but they can be subbed while they're off. Red and yellow cards are also available (and used).

 

You meet all kinds of players. I've played with or against ex-internationals from Brazil (1970 World Cup qualifying squad – I don't know if he played in the finals), Scotland, Fiji and Algeria. Quite a few ex-professionals – we had 3 ex-Scottish League players on the field one evening.

 

I don't play competitively any more after a hernia operation about 5 years ago, though I keep getting invitations to do so. Instead, I play in two 90-minute pickup games each week. Apart from players born in Canada, last week we had people on the field who were born in Scotland, England, Germany, Holland, Italy, Serbia, Brazil, Vietnam, China, Czechoslovakia (as was), Trinidad, Denmark and Greece. (The common language is obscenity.) Without thinking too hard, I'm sure I could double that number of countries over the 35 years I've played. One evening, we turned up for a game and the other team didn't. We had the field, and a good number of players, so we decided to split up into two teams and play an “intra-squad” game. The eventual split decided on was 'ex-Communists' (e.g. Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Romanian, Chinese etc.) against the rest!

 

A team from this area did a tour of England a couple of years ago. I believe they won every game. They said their most difficult games were two “walking soccer” games they played. The problem was remembering not to run!

[pH]

1 minute ago, AndyID said:

 

Well that one flew like a lead balloon

 

It was one of my mum's favorites.  The derogatory epithet "little stiff" is a bit old fashioned. A more modern equivalent might be "wee pillock". (Hope nobody's from Rugby.)

 

I did wonder if the original post was worthy of an EA.

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all, with condolences to Rick for the loss of his friend

 

I am cross with Tesco, and not only for moving the mushrooms again and persistently neglecting to put out the paper bags for purchases of loose mushrooms.  The decision that the fresh meat counter is to be closed at the end of next week could shake my loyalty to the extent of compelling me to cross town to a supermarket that is nowhere near so stupid.  The word "deranged" clearly does not apply just to the products that are removed from sale without notice.

 

BT Mail had a bad day yesterday, or rather I did at its hands.  It turns out that the facility to keep logged in has been withdrawn - another telepathy failure by BT.  So why is the box to tick still on the screen?  Away from the laptop, some triffid culling took place yesterday and I mowed the motley collection of dandelions and nettles where the lawn should be.  Fear not, there are plenty more.  From Pride In London came an appeal for anyone who has a place in the parade on 6th July and cannot now use it to surrender it so that others may march.  That event is going to be stunningly massive and I will be in the thick of it!

 

Today I plan to cook and scoff a piece of sirloin steak but it may not be at what is regarded as lunchtime.  It depends partly on how well I get on with catching up with other tasks, of which there are frighteningly many.  How long, for instance, will it take to mend my tent?  On the face of it only one piece of elastic needs to be re-attached but things are seldom quite so simple.  That reminds me: "Line Of Duty" reaches its climax tonight.  Am I allowed to say that?  It has other meanings ...

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,  inner Temple Hare, 

5 hours solid sleep followed by another hour or so dozing on the sofa,  until summoned by Ben the Border Collie,  to go on patrol. 

 

The wind has eased from yesterday but is still blustery, it rained earlier. 

 

I have to attend a training course later at the sailing club on use of the boat crane,  this being a insurance  requirement. I'll find out how yesterday's open day went,  sadly it will have been affected by yesterday's bad weather. 

 

I doubt I could even play walking football at the moment,  I think working outside in the cold yesterday has crept into my joints,  both knees and elbows are painful.. Pills have been taken with breakfast. 

 

That being said,  once a Muggacoffee or two has been consumed,  some shovelling will be carried out to start to provide a ramp into the shed.  As this ramp is on our parking area it will have to be a general increase in ground height. Only 3 or 4 inches high at shed end about 8ft wide,  and will have to extend maybe 8ft out to keep it very shallow to clear the door track ( sliding doors) with the lawn mower cutter. 

The parking area is in theory gravel,  but has a lot of grass in it.. 

 

Time to get that coffee.. 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Sorry to hear about your friend Rick.

Hopely you and your good lady can enjoy a restful Sunday today.

 

On the home front here her indoors is still coughing and barking, despite enjoying a curry for tea my throat feels like I have eaten a spiky cactus..whole. a dose of Vic has been applied and a mugatea is being drunk.

11am start for my umpiring today to try to avoid the "only" sport in Yorkshire...the Tour de Yorkshire..pah!

 

Enjoy your day if you can..

Baz

Edited May 5, 2019 by Barry O
Missing word

[AndyB]

Morning all,

Was up early this morning and pottering about in the greenhouse. Touch of frost on the car windscreen. 

Some more acquisitions yesterday, including a small bay plant. Not one that has been carefully twirled and manicured into a sculptured shape but £5 of scruffy shoots. My thinking was that every few weeks I purchase a small handful of bay leaves in a glass jar for £1. So, why not have leaves on demand in the garden and cut out the packaging etc. 

 

Rick, sorry to hear of your loss. I hope that you and your swmbo can navigate  your way to better times.  

[Happy Hippo]

10 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

The most anti sportsman I ever knew was an RAF colleague who announced to the rest of the Squadron that he was starting Sports Anonymous. The idea was that if you ever felt like participating in any sporting activity you could ring him then he'd come and drink with you until the feeling wore off.

 

The main drawback to Hippo's suggestion for a rugby XV would seem to be getting the team together. Since we appear to be spread across the scale/gauge spectrum, by the time the dates of Scaleforums, EM Gauge meetings, GOG shows etc. are taken into account along with Ally Pally, Warley and such, only about two weekends are free. Mind you, if we're trying to get a starting lineup for the Tigers, on present form the results would be the same whether there was a team there or not (makes mental note not to venture near Welford Road on dark nights anytime soon).  

 

Have a good night everyone.

 

Dave  

I'll bet we could all make the post match drinks party!