Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

Q - lessons to use a sphyg?  it's not hard! Put on arm, line up dot on collar with crook of arm, press button! 117/74 this morning.  Used to be 150/90 before I discovered T2,  low carb diet and weight loss.

[Dave Hunt]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

.......it's cold.  In fact there was snow this morning on Snaefell Mrs NHN reported - therefore local bred folk all panicking. Happens every year #sigh# 

 

Isn't Snaefell Norse for Snow Mountain? I wonder why that is then??

[New Haven Neil]

4 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Isn't Snaefell Norse for Snow Mountain? I wonder why that is then??

 

Indeed it is at 2036 feet, but it doesn't often snow here.  The road is at 1500 feet (there are 'plane shaped holes on hills around here) so it gets a bit but here at NHN towers we are at 90 feet ASL and have had only two significant snowfalls in 18 years!   As a Geordie, I and Cornish Mrs NHN are well skilled at negotiating snowy roads, the locals here are....useless.  Simply appalling. One flake and they're in full panic.

[leopardml2341]

Had mi day playing trains; whoops, sorry I thought that out loud

 

Pleasantly tired.

 

Dropped in at the 'local' on the way home for 1; read 5.

 

Arrived home to a serious telling off from Doggo, had supper (shared with Doggo through guilt) now min bed.

 

Which only leaves one thing to say - G'night awl.

Edited January 9, 2020 by leopardml2341

[Tony_S]

57 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Q - lessons to use a sphyg?  it's not hard! Put on arm, line up dot on collar with crook of arm, press button!

 

Perhaps the one Q is getting, like mine doesn’t have a dot on the collar!

[Kingzance]

Good everninkawl,

 

So I reach the end of another day during which not too much was accomplished, no anti-grump pills were discovered and SWMBO frightened me by suggesting she could learn to play golf. Luckily, she tested her eyesight from the tee of the first, a par three hole, and admitted she couldn’t see the flag. That saved me advising her what golf is an acronym for but it does make me even more fearful of her behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. However, on that topic I must admit that I made a small misjudgement today whilst reversing her car and have damaged a piece of chromed plastic trim on the near side rear bumper. This evening I visited a photography club in Hitchin. It turned out to be quite lively and there is a wide variety of skill levels present. I suspect that, if I join, I could learn a lot. On the other hand, it would be even more distraction from the main aim in life - that which could incur the wrath of The Great Awl and her apocalyptical outriders.

 

I’ve put the tea-bag on the radiator overnight so I’ll wish you all a restorative, peaceful and restful snooze.

[Kingzance]

11 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Perhaps the one Q is getting, like mine doesn’t have a dot on the collar!

They are usually in morse Tony, either dots or dashes!

[Kingzance]

58 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Indeed it is at 2036 feet, but it doesn't often snow here.  The road is at 1500 feet (there are 'plane shaped holes on hills around here) so it gets a bit but here at NHN towers we are at 90 feet ASL and have had only two significant snowfalls in 18 years!   As a Geordie, I and Cornish Mrs NHN are well skilled at negotiating snowy roads, the locals here are....useless.  Simply appalling. One flake and they're in full panic.

As one who can fairly claim to be of the Silver Surfer age, you have just given me enough ammunition to rail (no, not the type that brings out The Awl) against “bl@@dy snowflakes” 

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The lurgi is still trying to hang on by its fingertips but I think I've got it beat. Had a good evening at SEERS though it was a bit crowded being the first time the test track was up after Christmas and a lot of people wanted to test their new presents. I did manage to get a slot to test my new locomotive which ran superbly.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Returning to the meter conversation, before I retired we bought a second home which we intended to move to full time. It was a new build so had a water meter. For the first year we only used it about one or two days a week as I was travelling up and down the WCML a lot and sleeping over at our old house in Solihull. Mrs SE's job at that time frequently took her off around the world as she was involved in organising for an international sports federation. Her office then moved close to our new home so we sold up the other place and consolidated. Water bills were paid by direct debit so we thought nothing about it. About three years on we were presented with a massive bill. It turned out that the contractor employed to read the meter had not done it since the first six months when we had only been at home for about 50 days. All he was doing after the first couple of readings was adding a similar amount to the figure every six months. I found out that at the time that under the company's service charter were obliged to pay us compensation for inaccurate billing. As they admitted to not knowing if any of the seven readings since the one when the meter was installed were accurate they ended up paying us a sum of money which amounted to about half of the cost of water we had used in three years

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Plenty of progress has been made in the cellar. After much measuring and re-measuring both 2 desk top pieces have been cut, joined together and finally fitted in place. The drawer fronts have also been measured and marked up and are now ready for cutting, but the afternoons rain, although only light, put paid to actually cutting them out, hopefully this will be done before the end of the week. I also made a frame to hold up the rear of the desk top, otherwise it would have been unsupported. The missing bag of fittings for the drawer arrived this morning via the postman, so I was also able to finish fitting the drawer runners. The final piece of the jigsaw will be to fit boards below the cupboards, once again these will require measuring and cutting. 

 

Below is a photo of the current state of play, clearly showing the frontless drawers and the legs of the cupboards. 

 

 

Goodnight all

[Barry O]

Evening all!

Enjoyed our meal with youngest Herbert tonight.a Karalian banquet..lovely but..no curried fish...

 

Then a meet up with some club members to set the world to rights and drink  "Landlord Dark" a new name for RamTam.

 

Sleep well all!!

Baz.

Edited January 10, 2020 by Barry O

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[AndyID]

Oh dear. The body of a third skier was found today.

 

Lots of snow expected tomorrow. 6 to 10 inches at this level and 1 or 2 feet in the mountains. I don't think we'll be going out.

[BoD]

Morning all.

 

Daughter’s car is off the road, so for the third day running I am taking her to work.  By the time I have been and picked her up this takes well over an hour.  That seems to put my whole day out of sync.  On the industrial estate (industrial? hah, call centre estate) where the nursery where she works is situated, there is a catering van whose bacon and sausage buns are highly recommended and despite everything, still of industrial proportions. As it is Friday I might stop off and try one as a treat. 
 

A question to those with metered water.  Is there a standing charge element to the bill to cover other services provided?

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is a relatively mild morning in this part of the world.

 

Time for a coffee!

 

Have a good day everyone...

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

I'm not feeling quite so gruesome today, which is just as well as I have two appointments.  The first is the 12-weekly Zoladex injection which is my first line of defence against prostate cancer.  Later there is a LGBT gathering in a coffee bar which is usually quite well attended.  This will be the first public appearance of the rainbow laces in my new trainers.  If I can keep the lurgi at bay I'll be at DeFine in Derbyshire tomorrow  and in the pub tomorrow night with my mate for the first time in goodness knows how long.  On Sunday I will be at the Stevenage show and refuse to waste an advance ticket, lurgi or no lurgi.

 

I was about to say that I need to turn the house upside down again, this time to find my passport and my two foreign currency wallets.  Then they all caught my eye.  What in heaven's name were the three items doing on top of my printer?  Take my word for it, being tidy is very difficult.  I won't need the wallet containing Swiss francs until next December, when it will need replenishing despite judicious use of my no fees overseas cretin card.   The Euro wallet and passport will both be key parts of my expedition in June and the euros in the wallet will not last long in Dublin's fair city.

 

All these pictures of home improvement and the like put me to shame.  I shall run a bath and soak my lurgi away, all being well.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

 

 

 

   .

[AndyID]

I wonder if I should keep schtum about my involvement in the development of smart meters? Mind you that was mainly about making the meters transmit their consumption record to a "drive-by" reader or a relay network. The electronics were not not all that smart either. To keep the cost down they only had one transistor that was used both for transmit and receive!

 

Our electric meter is so equipped. The electricity co-op sends a van round every month to do a drive-by read.

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare, 1059/661.

A three piece sleep of about 6.5 hours in total, but the first piece was very rough, so I'm knackered.

 

Oi leave us snowflakes alone, we are a very good bunch of sailers, it's to them I've got to quote Burns... https://www.sfsc.co.uk/pages/#

 

I'm starting next weeks major system today, they were getting odd figures with it, so I changed the output relays late yesterday, that's 3 more in the box, // bits of metal for the use of..

But first I have to go analyse some cross check results from yesterday.

 

My Normal route to / from here is now stuffed for a month as Anglian water are digging big holes in the ground, I effectively have to drive 1 mile to gain 200 yards....

 

It's time to, get started on that system.

 

[polybear]

7 hours ago, BSW01 said:

Good evening everyone 

 

Plenty of progress has been made in the cellar. After much measuring and re-measuring both 2 desk top pieces have been cut, joined together and finally fitted in place. The drawer fronts have also been measured and marked up and are now ready for cutting, but the afternoons rain, although only light, put paid to actually cutting them out, hopefully this will be done before the end of the week. I also made a frame to hold up the rear of the desk top, otherwise it would have been unsupported. The missing bag of fittings for the drawer arrived this morning via the postman, so I was also able to finish fitting the drawer runners. The final piece of the jigsaw will be to fit boards below the cupboards, once again these will require measuring and cutting. 

 

Below is a photo of the current state of play, clearly showing the frontless drawers and the legs of the cupboards. 

 

 

Goodnight all

 

I'm intrigued - what's the gadget that (appears) to be dangling thru' the ceiling in the top right of the photo, possibly with lots of brown string attached.....

[BlackRat]

Morning one and all.........

 

Couldnt sleep so decided to read news online.....usually makes one doze off.........

 

Wow...... one online newspaper this morning.....35 articles on a 38 year old man who wants to emigrate but his nana isn't happy.

 

I couldn't be bothered reading any more.

 

Anyone else fed up already?

[andyram]

Morning fellow ER’s. The usual round of greetings, good wishes, congrats and commiserations where appropriate. ChrisF, I hope that you shake the lurgy and make it to our humble county. If you have the time, there is a certain model shop in Matlock Bath that will make you most welcome. 

 On the subject of the shop, the week has been very encouraging and enjoyable. Tuesday was one of those days where the door never stopped opening with regular customers who all wanted to spend time chatting (as well as spending). One of nicest parts of being in the business is the time spent chatting to modellers experienced or otherwise. Naturally it is nice if they part with their cash in the process, however it is understandable that sometimes I simply have not got what they want. Yesterday was one such occasion, i was pleased to welcome a fellow RMWeb member and it was nice to chat and catch up. Unfortunately I had sold out of the item he was looking for. 

 Breakfast news, apart from news about an alleged impending war, the dreadful Australia fires (wishes to all ER’s down under) and the “shock” news about a certain married couple, is also full of news of various stores Christmas trading results. It is interesting to see those that have done well or not and compare it to my much smaller operation.

 

 On a different subject, I am intrigued by the talk surrounding various smart meters. Eon are due to visit next week to fit one. I am letting this take place but I am planning to review my supplier in the near future. 
 

 Have a good day all.

Best wishes

 

Andy
 

 

 

[jamie92208]

Morning to Sundry and all.  It's return of the boss day today so much domestic engineering will be done before I set off for the hospital after an early lunch.  The week has been stressful for her but there is a lot of good news.  They have stabilised her blood sugar within the desired parameters and she now only needs slow release insulin overnight along with a once weekly injection of a new drug that stimulates her pancreas.  So 8 injections per week rather than 28.  I attended yesterday to help with translation with the dietician.  That went well and Beth is a lot happier. I suppose it helps that both the Dr and the dietician  were rather easy on the eye....

 

The interesting side effect is that what she thought were hypos have turned out to be a form of withdrawal symptoms (cold turkey to many of us) as her body and brain get used to lower, more normal levels of blood sugar.  Despite the language difficulties the care has been excellent  and the idea of a dedicated unit with newly diagnosed diabetics admitted for an intensive weeks course, is superb.  I don't know of any similar scheme  in the UK.

 

Anyway there are clouds aroun d but at the moment the sun is shining so carpe diem.  Shutters to paint and various other things to do.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie