Early Risers.

[Kingzance]

John, although I have watched my parents both succumb to The Big C, it is expected in all societies that the parents will usually pre-decease their children. That can't be as emotional for the survivor(s) as when you lose your partner of so long. I do not know if I would have the strength to do as you have done should the same happen to SWMBO who has been with me for over 40 years now. I am sure that a chronicle from your blogs into a compilation / story / book will inspire others in days and years to come. It would be a fitting tribute to Sandy and to your undying care. May Sandy rest and you recover in peace.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Reading the blog entry echoed a lot of my Dad's last few days. 

You must preserve Sandy's work as I expect some of the sites  have already fallen to the march of 'Progress'. It's clear from topics on here how much we rely on material like photo collections from years ago to do our research.

 

Also if I'm feeling low I look through few old things from trips we did when I was little right up to my Dad's sermon notes for my Daughter's wedding where he gave a brilliant address faultlessly at the age of 83 without visibly referring to his prompt cards. I've also got a video interview done by Birmingham Museum about Mom and Dad's experiences of growing up in 1930s Birmingham and serving during WW2. Mom is featured in the World Wars Oral History display at the Museum and a picture of Dad in uniform when serving in India was used for posters around the city centre advertising the opening of the exhibition. Great memories of times now gone but kept alive in our thoughts.

 

Enough rambling from me, you have enough to do without having lots piled on, but remember that communities of people with common interests can be helpful at bad times if only for a bit of cyber-conversation. 

[newbryford]

John -  from your last blog - I hope you do not mind me quoting.

 

now I have the memories of our time together and that’s far, far more valuable

 

Sincerest Condolences.

 

Mick

[Coombe Barton]

10 minutes ago, newbryford said:

John -  from your last blog - I hope you do not mind me quoting.

 

now I have the memories of our time together and that’s far, far more valuable

 

Sincerest Condolences.

 

Mick

She was (and is) my inspiration, Mick.

[Tony_S]

18 minutes ago, newbryford said:

John -  from your last blog - I hope you do not mind me quoting.

 

now I have the memories of our time together and that’s far, far more valuable

 

Sincerest Condolences.

 

Mick

I have only just accessed the internet since earlier today 

John, please accept my condolences. Memories of times spent with a loved one who has gone are as you say valuable. 

[BlackRat]

What a roller coaster few weeks. I feel it's been a shared journey with John and Sandy ( bless her).

For the last few days, I've found myself repeatedly looking for Johns updates, hoping for, well I don't know what, yet somehow not wanting to look for fearing the worst.

John and Sandys journey, if that's the right word, has been one many of us have experienced through the loss of friends and relatives. We've shared highs and lows, and I'm sure we were all hoping for an ending that deep down, we knew wasn't going to happen.

Johns strength through all of this, well has been nothing short of amazing. 

Im not sure I could have held up as well.

Yes,  write that book, because in someone's darkest of moments, it shows that with courage and fortitude, you can be there to support your nearest and dearest, when they need you most of all.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Coombe Barton]

1 hour ago, Stubby47 said:

John, absolutely the blog should become a book.

 

If I may, can I suggest you continue writing your blog, as you document and catalogue Sandy's work. Even if just for your own sake, I think it will help.

Thank you.

 

Sandy's work involves the non-conformist meeting house of Kerrier and Penwith, some 300 of them. I'm thinking that it may be deposited at Gwennap, at the Wesley Chapel in Bristol, at Oxford Brookes University Methodist collection or the one in Manchester. Or all of them.

Many of the photos show decay over the years.

One of the most elusive was the one on Market Jew Street, Penzance. We only discovered it by going round the back of Primark (?)

[BSW01]

John, my deepest condolences. I have no better words to offer that to just echo what has already been said. 

Brian 

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[Coombe Barton]

5 minutes ago, BlackRat said:

What a roller coaster few weeks. I feel it's been a shared journey with John and Sandy ( bless her).

For the last few days, I've found myself repeatedly looking for Johns updates, hoping for, well I don't know what, yet somehow not wanting to look for fearing the worst.

John and Sandys journey, if that's the right word, has been one many of us have experienced through the loss of friends and relatives. We've shared highs and lows, and I'm sure we were all hoping for an ending that deep down, we knew wasn't going to happen.

Johns strength through all of this, well has been nothing short of amazing. 

Im not sure I could have held up as well.

Yes,  write that book, because in someone's darkest of moments, it shows that with courage and fortitude, you can be there to support your nearest and dearest, when they need you most of all.

I'm not holding up at the moment.

 

I've also been hoping against hope, but knew that ultimately the outcome would be what it was. What  none of us, including the medics, were not prepared for was her rapid decline. A couple of weeks ago she managed to walk from wheelchair to CT scanner. On Friday she talked to the consultant, n Monday she couldn't. When she went into the hospice it was for pain control, but that too quickly changed.

Thanks for the confidence on my writing ability. See if publishers want to play.

[TheSignalEngineer]

12 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

I've also been hoping against hope, but knew that ultimately the outcome would be what it was. What  none of us, including the medics, were not prepared for was her rapid decline. A couple of weeks ago she managed to walk from wheelchair to CT scanner. On Friday she talked to the consultant, n Monday she couldn't. When she went into the hospice it was for pain control, but that too quickly changed.

Things can change very quickly. Dad had been unwell for some time but just generally old age and his body was giving out. He had been caring for Mom with help from my sister even though he was 90. They had been in a home for a couple of weeks while my sister was away. I was down there on the Monday with them and made arrangements to go to their flat on Thursday to get it ready and do the shopping, staying over to pick them up on Friday to take home. Whilst driving down I got a call from my Son who was over visiting to say that day had had a turn during the night so I diverted to where he was staying.  He picked up well during the afternoon and the three of us went for a walk round the gardens chatting about our vegetable planting plans for the spring and the merits of various varieties. On the Friday I called the chairman of a ex-service association where he was Chaplain, he came over and had a nice chat before one of his Clergy friends came to give us all communion together. Shortly after that he had to be sedated and never properly came round again dying on Monday. Mom died quite suddenly from a heart attack three weeks later, so in the space of six weeks I went from cooking a meal for them at their home to two funerals.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

John please produce a book of the blog it, along with Sandys own work is so important to others who will greatly benefit from there contents.

 

As a young, daft student my mums journey with the Big C was at arms length to me. I have never really got over it..but, your blogs have helped to put my mind straight after all these years. 

 

So thank you for sharing....

 

Baz

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all.  We are almost in the cold light of day and John will need strength now as much as he ever did.

 

I spent much of yesterday searching fruitlessly for three frets of etched nickel silver.  Wouldn't you know it?  After far too long I might just have the confidence to start turning them into what the manufacturer intended and I can't lay my hands on them.  Conventional wisdom suggests that if I stop looking for them they will turn up.  That sounds like an old wives' tale to me but if I have looked everywhere I appear to have no choice.  The process of upending crates on the kitchen floor and replacing the contents less untidily did yield a few secrets.  Does that cardboard cube really contain the Grace Petrie mug that I put in too safe a place to find it after the Cecil Sharp House gig where I bought it?  Yes it does!  It is decorated with a couplet from her song "Black Tie" which for reasons that are about to become apparent you will not hear on the radio: "The images that f*cked ya were a patriarchal structure".  My first cuppa of the day tastes fine when drunk from that mug!

 

I am now the proud owner of a 3 2 litre slow cooker.  Thanks to a couple of vouchers that I came close to overlooking I paid £9 for it, much better than the £20 list price.  The £11 that I saved went on a recipe book full of interesting ideas that I am looking forward to exploring.  It will be a few days before I do so because a conventionally cooked beef casserole needs eating first!

 

It's an esrly night for Chris tonight because I'm off to the Uckfield show in the morning, entailing breakfast in London, a relatively undemanding train ride and a series of purposeful strides to the station at stupid o'clock.  I have a meeting note to write before all that which for reasons previously given did not get done yesterday.  What will happen today to stymie that one?

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

Edited October 18, 2019 by chrisf
Got the size of the slow cooker wrong!

[Robert]

John, so sorry to hear your news. 

[81C]

Morning All

Stay with it John we are all here for you.

 

 

 

I'll be out the front door soon off to Gold Day at Pendon .

 

Enjoy your day T.R.Ainnutt 

Edited October 18, 2019 by 81C

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare,

Dad got home safely last night, from what I'm told they were all making jokes about how long till his next trip in to Hospital..

 

A fairly good nights sleep, but when I woke each time it was to a large amount of coughing, So I was downstairs on the Sofa, before midnight, so as not too wake SWMBO much..

 

A shortage of muddling tokens has commenced, the car went in for an MOT Service and cam belt... -£700

On the MOT a front shock absorber had failed, so that means two shock absorbers, that means the front suspension arms have to come off, in old times you'd have changed the rubber mountings.., No they're bonded in, you have to change the entire suspension arms... the ABS light was on, so... a wheel bearing has to be changed!, yep the ABS system passes through the wheel bearing and that was at fault.. so that lot adds another £1000 to the bill.

It was a hard decision whether or not to scrap the car or continue with it.... the car survives, and hopefully will last the planned three years till I retire. Then we buy something suitable for our retirement plans..

 

On Patrol this morning there was a large lightening flash from the south , no noise was heard, but Ben the Wuss collie made a runner back to the house..

 

Rain started on the way in but didn't become chuckinitdarn.

 

We have our new key fobs to enter the building and the last door with the  old key card was being changed as I left yesterday. The idea is that the key fob being separate doesn't have the company name on when lost... so what do I see … today lots of people with the key fob hooked onto the company ID card /tag we have to wear...

 

I have a 100M ohm Box to calibrate today, it's made of 10 X 10Mohm resistors so each has to be measure separately.. (I know I've been talking about Hospitals but the Spell fhecker keeps changing 100M Ohm to 100Mg)

 

Time to... take a strepcil and head for the lab.. 

 

 

 

[jamie92208]

Morning all from the Charente.  Thoughts and prayers very much with John.  Various other things are and gave happenned.  Yesterday afternoon I took Beth to a ladies meeting and then having deposited her with her buggy set off north to Niort to a big DIY shed for plumbing fittings. The pman was to get what I needed then have a coffee on the station before returning for her ladyship  at the agreed time.  Slow traffic and multip,e small speed restricted towns put paid to that plan.  However I did see a train while waiting at a level crossing.  In the evening we binge watched 2 episodes of Doc Martin.

 

Today we are waiting for the nurse who will also be giving both of us flu jabs along with Beth's anti DVT jab.  The bed has been dust sheeted and the builder will be hear soon.  This afternoon  it is time to visit the hospital for a review of Beth's ankle then out for fish and chips with 4 friends.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

 

 

[Barry O]

Ey up(part 2)

Her indoors has secured a pair of upgrades to First Class for our trip home today...theres posh! As some of my Welsh friends say.

Time to pack the bag and go and see if the London and Never Ready Railway can manage to get a train from london to St Evenage than onto Leeds...

 

Apparently due to a lack of maintenance the number of trains is limited...well they are Government disorganised!

 

I await a posting on here from a ER nnew to ERs.. when the posting arrives you will, I hope, get my drift.

 

Now get out there and spend your tine today wisely good people!

Baz

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dull here with sunny periods, heavy showers and thunder all possible today.

I'm sorry to be missing the Pendon trip as something else has got in the way but hope Bob, Mike et al have an enjoyable day.

 

19 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I would lay the track across the flap, ignoring it completely. Check the trains run.  Then insert brass screws touching the track either side of the join, solder the track to the screws and then cut the track with a splitting disc. Then sort out electrical connections. 
Tony

 

Tony, that is near enough what I've been doing although I've been connecting the droppers as I go along and testing each piece of track works electrically.  I think my main problem was the Flexitrack as it has to curve immediately before and after the flap and I couldn't get it right so I've now reverted to some rad 3 & 4 Setrack for this bit. Coward's way out possibly but I wouldn't get a much bigger radius there anyway.

 

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited October 18, 2019 by grandadbob

[Stubby47]

I've used set track on the loop for The Circle - making the join with separate pieces of track and lining them up by eye. It seems to work ok.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Departing soon and at least the rain has stopped - for now!

 

Baz - I believe the technical description was the Late & Never Early Railway. (but I'm showing a degree of bias there as the others obviously dragged the North Eastern down to their level.

 

Have a good day one and and all.   And John try to keep busy - it can help a bit to fill the empty moments.

[Coombe Barton]

1 minute ago, The Stationmaster said:

 And John try to keep busy - it can help a bit to fill the empty moments.

Busy? Dealing with officialdom?

I'll be sitting round in waiting rooms for ages, knowing my luck.

[Kingzance]

Mawning,

An interrupted night (well, more so than usual thanks to downpouring) has left me with a reduced urge to rise so I allowed SWMBO to beat me to the kettle. We remain hopeful that today will see the completion of the sale of the old place which will the allow us to clear a large debt and claim back a significant wedge of money that HRMC insisted we paid them as we then owned two properties. It also means we can claim back overpayments from our once Local District Council (who seem to be wasting it at a furious rate as they head towards being dissolved and replaced by a unitary authority) and from our electricity supplier. Whether any of the savings will be directed into Railway modelling remains doubtful as SWMBO has “plans”.

 

Version 5 of the Sports Club rebuild plans were submitted last night to the scrutineering team and I have a few days free before I will get any responses. I think we are making progress towards something that will comply with the guidance / directives of various sporting bodies and be effective and affordable. I had been so focused on completing them that I had not picked up the terribly sad but not unexpected news from Leicestershire. Coincidentally during the early afternoon, I had chosen to listen to (amongst other pieces) RVW’s variations on a Theme by a Thomas Talis - a piece I know much loved by John and possibly Sandy.

 

The refrigerator is somewhat empty so I suspect a trip to a certain supermarket will be ordained. The Swiss coffee emporium should be delivering a load of capsules later and we may be visited by the cavapoochon. What, you may ask, is that? A cross between a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, a Miniature Poodle and a Bichon Friese - nice little mutt as handbag dogs go but it has melted SWMBO’s stern stance against dogs somewhat. We have started and may continue to dog sit, to go alongside the extensive grandchild sitting duties already scheduled regularly.

 

The sky is a pale blue, the nearby builders are seeing how many discharges of their nail guns they can effect into the roofing timbers before they completely split them and an abundant range of Anglo Saxon vocabulary is drifting to us on a light to moderate breeze. They installed some “Velux” style roof lights yesterday and chose to nail them in rather than screw the carefully fitted integral mounting brackets to the timber frames! Ah well, these are “only social housing” so you can’t expect better I suppose.

 

Make the most of your day, I shall attempt to do the same!

[Kingzance]

14 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Busy? Dealing with officialdom?

I'll be sitting round in waiting rooms for ages, knowing my luck.

Take a flask, sandwiches and a tablet to pass the time John!