Early Risers.

[Coombe Barton]

11 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I don't have a satnav neither do I want one. However I'm seriously considering a dash-cam, Halfords offer to fit one for £30 looks good. 

Make sure the resolution's good enough to be able to read number plates from a distance in less than perfect light.

[laurenceb]

And make sure that it's recording properly, a friend was sold a pup and didn't find out till the recording was needed. Duff card fortunately as a witness not his car bent

[New Haven Neil]

GPS speed and location is what you want in a dashcam - worth paying the extra for.  Having such a device sorted out some nastiness that happened to Mrs NHN last year, had to go to Court to prove she wasn't to blame and the other party was a liar.  Dashcam was part of the evidence.  Mrs NHN 1, lying b*tch 0.

[Coombe Barton]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I don't have a satnav neither do I want one. However I'm seriously considering a dash-cam, Halfords offer to fit one for £30 looks good. 

Following from NHN's post, I use this one - dual front and rear cam and I also bought the GPS add on and card. OK you'd be spending £50 and fit it yourself. It does provide high quality recordings with speed and location metadata. Others are available. of course.

And it's come down in price since I bought mine.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07GPWV9RV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Edited May 19, 2019 by Coombe Barton

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

 Mrs NHN 1, lying b*tch 0.

 

For some reason that reminded me of this place. I drove past it a few times.

[tigerburnie]

Evening all, well that was a far more interesting afternoon than expected, SWMBO wanted to go looking for something to spend her bingo winnings on(don't ask there's 3 of them that think it's a good idea) any ways they won last night nearly 600 smackeroos between them !!. 

Off we went to deepest darkest Aberdeenshire to Milton of Crathes, which as I'm sure you know has a small heritage railway there, next thing I know I'm sat in the cab of a wee oil burner blethin' with the drivers, nice way to spend an hour or so.

BM1K9530 by tigerburnie, on Flickr

Edited May 19, 2019 by tigerburnie

[Coombe Barton]

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2019/05/19/sandys-chemo-day-145-of-147/

[Kingzance]

Good evening all,

 

Although little was planned for today, those somewhat sketchy ideas were thrown in the air and dispersed to the four corners in rather short order! One off Grandchild arrived at 0850, taken to informal cricket practice at 0955. Two off grandchilds with mother arrived at 1010 and had to be fed / watered / entertained until around 11:15. Meanwhile friend from cribbage arrived with daughter 1's boyfriend and daughter 2 to take away some of my spare topsoil for their new vegetable trugs. By noon, Kingzance was well and trulied but the G word was then uttered by SWMBO. This well trained lackey then proceeded to erect trellis, mount solar powered wall lights and mow lawns until 1600 at which point my attention was directed to proving that the new barbecue was capable of cooking for 9 (comprising SWMBO, daughter, SiL and their five offsprung plus yours truly as food burner in chief). Thankfully, amongst the grandchilds is elder granddaughter who has been blessed with the ability to make a decent G&T to lubricate her grandfather during his catering chores. By 2130, all visitors despatched, garden and furniture cleared, empty wine and other liquid containers loaded into recycling containers, barbecue cleaned, dishwasher loaded and running whilst a somewhat unrelaxed Kingzance sat down to read ERs.

 

Two Sugars - Your musical choice easily surpasses that of the EuroVision camping contest. To The Q, you must stop headbanging at your age, Status Quo are a shadow of their formers after the death of good old Rick Parfitt. PhilJ W - I have considered such a device but was looking towards the Nextbase 412 as it offered 1440P recording.  John (Coombe Barton) If you are happy with the device you have, I may include it in my comparison list - let's face it and as an RMWeb contributor notes: as society advances, we produce more advanced idiots, many of whom now populate our roads!

 

Knackered KZ has emptied his current bottle of 15-y-o Mortlach and will contemplate the meaning of life whilst supping the last of it. Next week is supposed to be a calm week with a little railway modelling leading up to RailEx. One or more vehicles are to be MoT'd and green stuff to be trimmed again - but just watch someone turn up and spoil that! As the wonderful Dave Allen used to say:
Goodnight, and may your God go with you!

Edited May 19, 2019 by Kingzance
Added a helpful reference

[laurenceb]

Night awl 

[tigerburnie]

19 minutes ago, Kingzance said:

 

Knackered KZ has emptied his current bottle of 15-y-o Mortlach and will contemplate the meaning of life whilst supping the last of it. 

You may be dismayed to know that the Mortlach has taken a nasty turn for the worse and seems to be nothing like what it used to be anymore, try the Glen Garioch(pronounced Geery) as a suitable replacement.

 

G'night all

Edited May 19, 2019 by tigerburnie

[Kingzance]

11 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

You may be dismayed to know that the Mortlach has taken a nasty turn for the worse and seems to be nothing like what it used to be anymore, try the Glen Garioch(pronounced Geery) as a suitable replacement.

 

G'night all

Ah, thank you for that. I still have a couple of bottles, one 12 and the other 15-y-o but sounds as if I should keep these for special occasions!

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Not making much progress with the young mans layout. Went to the local Orange emporium only to find that they don't stock all of the required items. Only that particular store the assistant informed us that other larger branches did stock what was required but we're going to try Homebase and Wickes first. 

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

Well I didn’t get as much done in the workshop as I’d originally hoped for, but I have made some progress with the old L class. I’ve removed all the valve gear and stripped it down. I’ve also prepared the new set ready for assembly the next time I go down there. What I did notice was that the etch fret shears that I use, had lost a small section of one of it’s blades, there was about 1mm missing. I seem to remember dropping them last weekend, but I’d didn’t notice they were damaged at the time. Anyway, I decided the problem needed rectifying sooner rather than later, as using them was quite awkward. So I first ground down the longer, unbroken tip so that it match the length of the broken one, I then thinned both the backs and edges to make them fit in the gap in the etches, making it easier cut etch parts off the fret. But I’ll have to start using a larger pair for thicker metal and use these for the finer parts, so far they’re working fine and I can now get into smaller gaps than I used to be able to. 

 

This evening I spent a little over an hour talking to my brother in Canada, as usual we didn’t change the world, but between us, I think we put it right, well up until tomorrow morning anyway. 

 

Goodnight all. 

[Dave Hunt]

43 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

You may be dismayed to know that the Mortlach has taken a nasty turn for the worse and seems to be nothing like what it used to be anymore, try the Glen Garioch(pronounced Geery) as a suitable replacement.

 

Being one of simple tastes, I find a nice drop of Lagavulin or, venturing across the water, Bushmills (both 12s) touches this spot. Now, then, which shall I select.........

 

For anyone who finds Friday's carnage at Stamford as revolting as I do, there's now a crowdfunding site where you can contribute to helping the club (and individual modellers I imagine) - see the topic. It's not just the money but the expression of solidarity that I find encouraging.

 

Today was going quite well and a fair bit of bas***ard building had been achieved when I got a call to say that my Dad had been in a car accident so off I went. Luckily neither he nor anyone else was hurt but it was his fault and something of a daft bit of driving. I've tonight suggested that maybe he should hang up his driving boots (he is 96) and he's agreed. Bit of a relief actually but it will mean a lot more ferrying about for me.

 

Have a peaceful and restful night everyone; sympathy for those who can't.

 

Dave 

[Gwiwer]

Quote

Rick - hope that the Lurgi soon leaves you, and that you are fit and well enough to at least get to work - at least then you have been seen to get there by your line manager, then perhaps go home sick.  At least that's what I'd probably do.

That is indeed Plan A

 

Late night update - I have managed a slow walk around the block, pressed the uniform and fully intend to make it to the House of Fun for the morning shift.  Whether I am deemed fit or not is for my line manager to determine though might also be determined by how many others are absent.  That shouldn't be the case but find me a job where there isn't pressure to cover .....

 

Dash-cams were just on the way in when I traded in my car insurance post in Oz for a return to the railways.  We were always pretty good at spotting dodgy claims anyway and reckoned we paid out on 99.5% of genuine ones and 0.5% of completely false ones.  But industry-wide there is an understanding that most claims have an element of inflation to them which is one reason the assessor, or loss-adjustor, exists.  If everyone was fair, reasonable and honest they wouldn't have as much work.

 

Enter the dash-cam.  We received training on how to transfer files securely and how to read them alongside Google Maps data on road layout and markings.  And within a couple of months I receive a call claiming the Other Party has overtaken on the left and cut in where their lane ends in a marked give way  point.  Our Party alleges they were pushed into the third lane and into the path of Yet Another Party who then hit them up the behind.  On the face of it a three-vehicle incident and as described to me with Other Party responsible for the lot.  Yet Another Party could not be held responsible for the rear-ender through being too close because Our Party alleges they were pushed across the lane.  Damage described could have been caused in the manner described.  We asked for Other Party's version.  Other Party claims to have no knowledge and no damage.  We ask for Yet Another Party's version who replies with their version that Our Party has swerved into their lane so close in front as to make collision unavoidable.  Our Party denies these and offers dash-cam footage .....

 

...... Dash-cam footage shows Other Party was in a lane to the left of Our Party but about a kilometre back and that Our Party swerved left into their lane clipping but not damaging their car but then bouncing off the crash barrier.  Our Party returns to middle lane and promptly wanders into the right-hand lane right in front of Yet Another Party who hits them in the rear.  Our Party still insists their version os right despite camera (with sound) evidence to the contrary.  In the end Our Party was found to be at fault for causing three separate collisions with Other Party, with the crash barrier and with Yet Another Party.  Our Party was also successfully charged with insurance fraud and their records endorsed "Do not reinsure - fraud prosection". Which will make legal driving in future rather difficult.  

 

These things work both ways!

 

G'night all.

[Kingzance]

4 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Being one of simple tastes, I find a nice drop of Lagavulin or, venturing across the water, Bushmills (both 12s) touches this spot. Now, then, which shall I select.........

 

Sad to admit that my palette is not keen on really phenolic scotches Dave so the Lagavulin isn’t my cup of water of life as they say. As for the Bushmills, it seems somewhat shallow to my taste. Once past 16 years in cask the Lagavulin mellows somewhat and the price rises accordingly but I am certainly more comfortable with Speyside and Highland malts.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Tony_S]

20 minutes ago, Kingzance said:

phenolic scotches 

Wasn’t Dettol a phenolic disinfectant?

[lightengine]

A couple of phenolic scotches would stop your wheels rolling.

[Ozexpatriate]

An odd weekend. Slept in on Saturday and did some light gardening to tidy up the front. Ran errands and foraged before a storm front moved in during the early evening. Very gusty winds with some lightning and thunder followed by heavy rain. The street was littered with dozens of pine cones from the (very tall) Douglas Firs across the street which swayed dramatically and a bit scarily in the wind. A shrub in the back ended up with a split branch but otherwise I'm sure the garden enjoyed the soaking rain. (Thunderstorms are rare here - we see about 10 'thunder days' per year.).

 

This morning I awoke to find Nadal playing Djokivic in the final in Rome. After they completed three sets I did some gardening in the back. The jungle by the back fence (hidden by a reverse slope) was far more overgrown than I realized. I made a small dent in it but stopped when the green wheelie bin was full of armloads of the nasty creeper that grows prolifically in the river rock drainage field in front of the back fence. 

 

I spent the afternoon procrastinating over completing work required by tomorrow by watching the conclusion of the PGA Tournament - which turned out much closer than the overnight 54 hole score suggested. The afternoon rain that was forecast did not materialize, though it has been cloudy. The last sunbreak I noticed was while weeding.

 

Tonight sees the finale of Game Of Thrones. I will be glad to see it come to a close even though legions of diehard fans are disappointed by the 'rush to conclusion' that has been the final series. On the topic of series finales, The Big Bang Theory finale was very satisfying and sweetly done. That show I will miss. It has given me much joy at times when I really needed a laugh over the last decade or so. (I wasn't introduced to it until it was in syndication on cable television.) The season ending episode of its spin-off, "Young Sheldon", written as a tandem to the TBBT finale, was equally well done.

 

Edited May 19, 2019 by Ozexpatriate

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[AndyID]

9 hours ago, 45156 said:

Anyway, I'm changing the car soon anyway, and hopefully it will just have a radio and CD, and if I really need a Satnav, I can just buy one that I can update for a more reasonable charge.

 

Hi Stewart,

The aforementioned Navmii runs on Android. Both the app and the dowloaded maps are free with a few ads or no ads for a small charge, and Navmii is based in Chiswick (sometimes pronounced "chis-ick").

Andy

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dry but dull start and sunny spells with some showers, possibly heavy and thundery this afternoon .

Up early thanks to very noisy birds a-twittering loudly outside the window. Talking of the latter it will be the first to replaced today along with the other front bedroom (ex railway room) Let's hope the rain holds off for a while.

I paid a flying visit to the local model engineering club's annual exhibition yesterday. Some beautiful examples of their work on display along with some live steam running giving rides . They have various gauge tracks, including 5" and 7 1/4" along with a table height gauge 1. There was also cake on sale!

http://www.suttonmec.org.uk/

 

Time to take some tea up to The Boss.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It isn’t raining.

I have no appointments today. However I am sure meals will be eaten and numerous cups of tea consumed. 

Tony

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

It wasn’t a bad weekend in Bracknell, all things considered.  The company in the ‘Spoons on Saturday night was convivial, the plateful of fish and chips filling and any thoughts of Eurovision totally absent.  The Tie has a new admirer in the very pleasant shape of one of the barmaids.  The purpose of my visit to Bracknell was, naturally, ExpoEM Spring, for what other reason could there possibly be?  The leisure centre where it is held has in my view been notably disimproved.

 

The night before I set off for Bracknell I had an e-conversation with the other half of the problematic relationship, who is, of course, my e-friend Harry.  He apologised for losing track of recent messages and warned me that he will be super-busy for the next few weeks, which will get in the way of messaging.  It’s what comes of having a highly paid job with Amazon!  For the time being at least it’s panic over but I am taking nothing for granted.  Black Rat, I appreciate your kind observation.  I do not disagree with what you say but it’s not that simple.  At his best he is one of the kindest and most supportive people that I know and I do not wish to lose him from my life, though I know, not all that deep down, that it will happen one day.  Tomorrow, by the way, is the ninth anniversary of the day that we met.

 

There are a few things in the diary this week.  On Wednesday I will be visiting Cambridge beer festival with a friend and on Thursday evening he and I will be attending a concert in Bedford featuring Ninebarrow.  In theory we could have done both on Thursday but the weak link in that idea is the X5 bus.  On Sunday it’s off to Stoke Mandible for Railex and, I suspect, quite a few cups of tea.

 

Rick, I am very sorry to learn that you have been struck by the lurgi and do hope that it doesn’t clobber you as hard as it did me.  I tried to keep going through the worst of it but for the first three weeks I could barely function.  This did not stop me driving to Somerset and back for a family funeral but it should have done.  Admitting defeat is not in my nature but even I know that it has to be done sometimes.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris