Early Risers.

[Happy Hippo]

7 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

A very good show, I thought, and both larger and busier than my previous visits. I too spent a while chatting with Chris though as ever he and Sam were busy busy. The show bargain triple-pack of cement wagons for under £30 was just one of the items I came away with. At that price I can afford to take them along to Twickenham & District MRC for a weathering demo and it won’t matter if they end up looking a mess!   

 

I spent most of my time giving meal-break relief on the SEG/NSERS sales stand as I had previously arranged. 

 

A kind thought, John, to have offered a lift back to steel-on-steel but I had family business to attend to later for which my sister provided transport. 

 

The bus replacement of the Brighton - Littlehampton route was a shambles to put it politely. An utter raised cockerel would be nearer the mark.  The NR app suggested a bus every ten minutes serving all stops and one every half hour making fewer stops. Arriving in the holding pens (“queuing system” would be too good) at Brighton there was a bus loading. For Shoreham and Littlehampton only. Not even Worthing???  Then next bus was only going to Portslade. Nowhere else. The “bus controller” who looked as though he should have still been at school had no idea when buses were coming nor where they were going. I waited over half an hour. A bus arrived labelled “Littlehampton all stations” but “controller” assured us it wad not going to Littlehampton. Finally a bus appeared labelled “Brighton all stations” which the driver assured us was in fact going to Worthing. 

 

The queue by this time was stretching back out of sight. I reckoned over 200 were left behind when the bus pulled out. Arriving at Hove we were already full but beseiged by an angry mob of 100 or more. The same story repeated at every stop. We set a few down at Portslade where two Brighton bound buses were both full, were about to leave perhaps 150 behind and were surrounded by irate passengers banging on windscreens and driver’s windows trying to get on. 

 

It didn’t help that the bus timings were hopelessly unrealistic. One cannot drive a bus through Brighton traffic and reach Hove in 7 minutes for example. It didn’t help that Shoreham level crossing had failed booms-down meaning buses were making three-point turns in the main street to divert. And it didn’t help that the controller, when I finally reached Worthing and enquired about a bus to Durrington, replied with “Where’s that mate?  I’m from Potters Bar. Never been here in my life”. 

 

And we wonder why bus replacements have a bad reputation. On this occasion it was thoroughly deserved. 

 

Returning was not much easier. Again the semi-fast buses NR advertised just didn’t exist meaning I missed the required train at Brighton waiting a further 30 minutes. 

 

Finally arrived home Upon the Hill weary and frustrated.  

 

Now it is time for extended eyelid inspection. 

 

G’night all 

And that, dear reader is why I have a car.

[Smiffy2]

Morning all.

Soaking wet, and no breakfast yet; I've just taken Julie and all her gear to a craft fair at the Diamond Riding Centre, and my word is it raining... Plus point - squad of Air Cadets helping unload cars. Minus point - the venue smells very strongly of horse apples.

 

So, a day on my own watching F1, then picking her up again (I've been promised Air Support) and then off to son and grandkids for dinner. I think that counts as a good day, and I hope you all have the same.

[45156]

Morning All

 

All posts read, happy birthday to Mrs Baz, and Mrs GDB, commiserations to Rick on a crappy bus substitution, I never did like these, as they have always been hit and miss.  Generic greetings as ever to the ailing and celebrating.

 

Our surgery seems to have the flu vaccine sorted out - over 65s at appointed clincs, at both surgeries yesterday, with three nurses at one and four at the other, running for four hours, with appointments every three minuted,  and the same again next week for the under 65 vulnerable paitients next week.

 

Had a problem with Lily last night, she had one of her floor licking episodes that the vet can't fathhom, at 3 am and kept us awake until 4.

 

Oh and Barclays couldn't arrange a printout again.

 

Hair duly cut also, much neater now, and as usual, my most pleasant hairdresser of 20 plus years separated me from a quite large sum, but it's worth it to get a proper haircut without any buzz cut or thinning scissors, both of which just cause my hair to stick up when next washed.

 

Now chuckinitdarn, and Lily needs a walk.

 

Back later while 30747 listens to Gardeners Question Time.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

Edited September 29, 2019 by 45156

[81C]

 Morning All 

Pissitating down here at the moment 

Bought a new duvet a couple of days ago 13,5 tog jobby I've never slept better and not being woken up in the early hours feeling cold.

My little mate wont let me walk him in the rain it will be a quick pee and a dump on the grass out the front of the house, I will need to change

my clothes before I leave him as he is constantly jumping up to get my attention and covering me with the contents of the back garden with those

monstrous paws.

Enjoy your day well done to all the people who got involved with the Macmillan cake day happy birthday to those who are a year older.

 

Must get on W.W.Winky  

 

Soppy dog 

 

 

 

[Barry O]

Bike race has now passed by..only 20 mi utes late. 10 police motor bikes, 5 police BMW SUVs, 5 Ambulances and a respondee..lummy where did theyfind them??

So we are no longer cut off by road!

Baz

[Debs.]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

Currently cut off from the rest of Britain!

Roads are closee around here for a cycle race. Apparently its a world championship race but not much info seen around here. Result.. a set of 3 people waiting to watch!

Doh!

Baz

Being Yorkshire......

Surely, it's the rest of Britain that's cut off! 

[Coombe Barton]

3 hours ago, Barry O said:

Currently cut off from the rest of Britain!

Roads are closee around here for a cycle race. Apparently its a world championship race but not much info seen around here. Result.. a set of 3 people waiting to watch!

Doh!

Baz

Been diverted

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49869924

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A bit late this morning after the Sunday morning lay-in/soak-in. It certainly persisted down last night. Had a quick perusal of this mornings posts and Smiffy's mentioning horse apples has given me the nasal equivalent of an earworm (noseworm?).

[Debs.]

6 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Been diverted

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49869924

"Cancelled events include the inaugural Regatta London race on the River Thames....."

 

Doubtless, due to flooding. 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Like elsewhere in the country, it’s persisting it down. Lie in this morning followed by breakfast in bed, just finished muggertea No2 and I’ll shortly be heading back downstairs to the cellar. 

 

Happy birthday Mrs Baz and Mrs GDB. 

 

Back later

[Two_sugars]

16 minutes ago, Debs. said:

"Cancelled events include the inaugural Regatta London race on the River Thames....."

 

Doubtless, due to flooding. 

Not that daft . . . . .

 

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/17693377.durham-regatta-cancels-todays-races-amid-safety-concerrns-following-heavy-rains-overnight/

 

 

Morning all.

 

John

[PhilJ W]

12 hours ago, 81C said:

 Morning All 

Enjoy your day well done to all the people who got involved with the Macmillan cake day happy birthday to those who are a year older.

 

Must get on W.W.Winky  

 

 

I didn't realise yesterday that it was a national event, the cake that I had was scrumptious.

Edited September 29, 2019 by PhilJ W

[Tony_S]

Hello all.

I was fast asleep.At 11am Aditi woke me to remind me that people will be arriving for lunch. Since then I have had breakfast, vacuumed and polished stuff  and might even look tidy myself soon. 
It isn’t raining here though there are clouds that look as if places surrounding Benfleet are getting wet. 
Have a good day. 
Tony

[TheQ]

Plenty of info on those cyclists with all the warning signs up the A1.

 

Ben's just been walking on the kinneil estate where James watt did a lot of his early experiments, within sound of the SRPS Bo'ness and kinneil railway.. Who must be running steam today from the sound of it.. 

 

Ben was running around with two of my oldest sisters dogs.. He will be knackered.. 

Off to the orange shed after a Muggacoffee... 

[Gwiwer]

Morning all. Happy Birthday to Mrs GDB and Mrs Baz 

 

It continues to be extremely wet here. We are thankful for living Upon the Hill of Strawberries for down the road in the Vale of Strawberries the River Thames is well over the banks and flooding across Radnor Gardens. Those who know the Barmy Arms and White Swan  in Twickenham might be aware that the Riverside area where those are located is also experiencing significant flooding. 

 

The Autumn king tides are pushing water upstream above the half-tide Richmond Lock. This is meeting a very fast-flowing flood surge coming downstream over Teddington Weir with the inevitable result. 

 

Regatta London .... cancelled

in these conditions this is the only safe option. The Thames is swollen by two surges and is flowing very fast. 

 

why I have a car

We discussed the need for one of those when we moved back. We had, of necessity, one each in Australia where distances are greater and any public transport you meet is purely a random aberration. 

 

We live next to the railway station. There are no buses through the village but within ten minutes walk are multiple bus routes several of which run 24/7.  I am entitled to free travel across Greater London and throughout the SWR network and SWMBO the latter. We seldom need a car. When we do we hire. That has been far cheaper than owning up to now.  And we don’t have to pay for the resident’s parking permit either. 

 

What’s this???  A yellow shiny thing in the sky???  I forget what we call that now .....

 

 

 

[jamie92208]

Afternoon all from z wet and wi dy Charente.  Up betimes again this morning just in time for the nurse. Then off to the market for a coffee and chat with friends.  Then home and a stew for tonight has been donated by a neighbour . Then another friend  rang to say that she'd made too much soup, so that was lunch sorted.  

 

It' good that I have an interest in things with wheels as I niw gave to solve various shunting puzzles each day.  We are using 3 different  wheeled appliances.  Each can get through adifferent selection of doors. Beth can propel herself on two of them. Two have brakes that Beth can apply but one set only stays on when the levers are being squeezed.  When transfers are necessary to complete a planned journey then the shunter has to position the articles corectly.  It's all good fun making sure that there is always a clear route.

 

Happy birthday to Mrs B and Mrs GDB.  

 

Regards  to all.

 

Jamie

[PeterBB]

Happy Birthday Mrs Baz and Mrs GDB;

Flu jabs - our surgery is now very efficient - book in 'next' (are you allergic to eggs) as they have multiple 'jabbers' working.  So much better than the old days when if you arrived at 0830 you were on the end of a very long queue.

Jamie hope Beth recovers quickly.

ASCII, computers and mobile telephones ... not a clue, 

Internet banking ... it would help if it worked!

[Tony_S]

Lunch went well. 
However Aditi managed to scald her abdomen with steam when opening the oven. She didn’t mention anything during lunch but now has 2 doctors (lunch guests)  applying the contents of my Land Rover first aid kit to her tummy. 
Tony
 

[Debs.]

22 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Lunch went well. 
However Aditi managed to scald her abdomen with steam when opening the oven. She didn’t mention anything during lunch but now has 2 doctors (lunch guests)  applying the contents of my Land Rover first aid kit to her tummy. 
Tony
 

Oh, Tony! 

[Barry O]

1 hour ago, Debs. said:

Oh, Tony! 

Ouch!  Hope it is not too painful.

 

Lunch has been eaten

 

Excellent! 

Mrs B says thanks for the birthday wishes. 

Baz

Edited September 29, 2019 by Barry O

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon al,

 

Happy birthdays to Mrs Baz and Mrs GDB.  Hope Aditi is not badly hurt.

 

Ah, replacement 'buses and the Lonf don regatta and tides up the Thames.  Today we were planning an outing to the Barrier (see below) but because of massive confusion from several different websites about whether we would have a 'bus or train on the branch and the times at which they would or wouldn't run plus what the tide table for Woolwich foretold as well as the forecast rain we decided to cancel our jaunt.  Our friend intended to carry on and report what actually happened as opposed to what was supposed to happen (see below).

 

Today was planned to be a complete closure of the barrier from c.08.00-10.00 (depending on the tide) until this evening, presumably chosen because it is a high Spring Tide today.  The time of the rising tide and slack(ish) water suggested that the Barrier would be closed by 08,00 at the latest by which time very little of the rising tide would have happened.  In fact the London Regatta, for all sorts of craft including some pretty small ones (such as paddle boarders) was planned for today because the Barrier would be closed which would allow the Regatta fun & games to take place from Putney and Hammersmith right down to below Westminster.  The regatta was cancelled yesterday due to forecast high winds,  and heavy rain which it was stated would affect the water coming downstream.   But noting what Rick said it turns out that it isn't surprising that the tide is whipping upstream because the full closure of the Barrier has been cancelled for 'operational reasons'.

So looking on the positive side our decision not to go would appear to have been vey much the right one and it saved us getting wet through if nothing else.  And to cap that a carefully timed Tesco visit for the 'papers this morning fitted almost exactly between the lulls in the rain - the Met Office got the times right

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Belated birthday wishes to Mrs. Baz and Mrs. GDB and I hope Aditi is OK. The wind is still blowing and a large garden umbrella was depoited in my back garden this morning, now it looks as if it is about to exit. I was tempted to move it but decided I didn't want to do a Mary Poppins. Dinner to prepare so its be back later.

[tigerburnie]

Evening all, belated birthday wishes to Mrs Baz and Mrs GDB and I hope Aditi is recovering, kitchens can be dangerous places. We have had a decent day weather wise, saw some rain when we went up into the clouds as we crossed the Cairn O'Mount, but as we dropped into deepest darkest Aberdeenshire the sun came out briefly. A smart pair of moleskin trousers bought in the sale before chips and an ice cream walking along the sea front at Stonehaven and back home for tea.

Endoscopy in the morning, so no food after nine o'clock, I got told off on a previous one, cornflakes obscure the view apparently...………………………………….!

[TheQ]

Stonehaven's a nice place,  having propped a up a bar on the harbour ,  while we sheltered from a force 10. A friend I knew in Saudi has retired  nearby.. He plays with sailing boats and real steam trains...

[Tony_S]

We have instructions to purchase replacement dressings tomorrow. Though I could look for more in another first aid kit. Drs Ian and Punam both  approved of the first aid kit contents. Aditi said she isn’t in any discomfort. She did immediately cool the scald with cold water. 
Tony