Early Risers.

[PeterBB]

15 hours ago, Robert said:

 

Even going back to the time of the Hillman Imp with its Coventry Climax engine.  That had been designed as a fire pump engine.  Therefore, it could be wheeled out, started, and run on full throttle for hours without problems.  The problems only came in if you treated the engine with kid gloves!  It was always considered to be the one engine that you should never try to run in.

 

The Hilman Imp was good on the racetrack ... remember them racing the feet off the Minis before the main British Grand Prix F! event in the 70s

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Ozexpatriate]

In an email the other day my mum used a term from her time capsule of colloquialisms.

 

She described her sister (who is ill) having a moment where she was "scotty" with her adult daughter.  (No offense to Scottish ERs but it means a short tempered outburst.) While readily understood in Australia, I don't think it is commonly heard ("stroppy" would be more common) and I assume that expression has a background in the British Isles. Is this expression used colloquially today?

[AndyID]

4 hours ago, PeterBB said:

The Hilman Imp was good on the racetrack ... remember them racing the feet off the Minis before the main British Grand Prix F! event in the 70s

 

My brother bought a Clan Crusader in '72. It wasn't all that quick but it could corner like a Lotus. He left it with me when he went to work in Persia. I had to rebuild the gearbox before he came home!

 

EDIT: The Wikipedia page says it was available as a "kit". That's not strictly true. You bought three "spare parts" that you had to bolt together. There were no instructions. At that time kits attracted purchase tax but spare parts didn't. The introduction of VAT not long after my brother bought his Crusader put an end to that. It probably had a lot to do with demise of the company and kit cars in general.

 

 

 

Edited January 24, 2020 by AndyID
Moinfo

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Had a bit of good news from my niece this evening just before I went out. My brother is home from hospital despite another two hours on the operating table. If I have gotten rid of the lurgi next Friday I might pay him a visit. The meeting tonight was a washout as the guest speaker failed to show. He probably had a good reason that we will find out in due course.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[AndyID]

It's #1 daughter's birthday tomorrow. I was hoping she'd wait a day longer and be born on the 25th but she wasn't having any of it. She was born in Irvine (the Ayrshire one) and her initials are RAB at least they were until she got married. Now she is RAC.

 

Does the RAC still exist?

 

I still have my dad's aluminium GB plate which he got from the AA. We always had a good laugh about that because his initials were GB.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

The temperature is hovering just above freezing today.  Hopefully we will see some sun later.

 

6 hours ago, AndyID said:

At that time kits attracted purchase tax but spare parts didn't. The introduction of VAT not long after my brother bought his Crusader put an end to that.

 

Which is also the reason why there were so many Mini vans around at that time.  Vans were classed as commercial vehicles which were free of purchase tax.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Dark outside still, not raining though. Off to local clinic at midday for a blood test. Requested by hospital just to check they didn’t cause any other problems as a result of the angiogram on Tuesday. Afterwards a little walk somewhere local is planned. 
Tony
 

[AndyID]

15 minutes ago, Robert said:

Which is also the reason why there were so many Mini vans around at that time.  Vans were classed as commercial vehicles which were free of purchase tax.

 

 

That reminds me of I lad I went to college with around that time. He had a minivan. IIRC it had some sort of coat of arms on the sides with the writing "Lanarkshire Polite Force". The gendarmes in Glasgow were a wee bit underwhelmed

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all, with special thoughts to all who are under the weather or in imperfect health for whatever reason.  There is a certain amount of self-interest in this, for my lurgi has reached the stage of one final push needed before it goes.  On past form I reckon I am stuck with it for at least another week.  Oh joy.

 

I see that some have been discussing times for getting out of bed.  Until I was paid to go away, at the end of March 2006, I would crawl out of bed at 04.40.  In those not entirely happy days I worked in Cambridge and soon discovered that the earlier the journey was made the less time it consumed.  Even a departure five minutes later meant a disproportionately later arrival.  Some reassurance came from spotting familiar vehicles, complemented by modest anxiety if one of the familiar vans and lorries was missing.  Nowadays, as a free man, I regard 6 am as a lie-in but have no difficulty in rising early if I need to be somewhere.   When I drive down to Sidmouth for the folk festival I aim to be on the road by soon after 04.30.  No, I'm not crazy.   Doing it that way means that I miss nearly all the rush hours between here and there.  I used to take a break in Bristol at about 08.00 for a cuppa with my aunt and would resume my south-westward trip around 09.30 once the rush had cleared.  I will need to rethink this now because my aunt has moved into a care home, as well she might at the age of 95.  The tea at Gordano services is probably a poor substitute. 

 

On a related subject, I need to remind myself how long it takes to drive from here to the Southampton show, including a stop for breakfast.  Now that Fleet Services has reopened I should be OK but I recall having an increasingly desperate search for a full English in the period that Fleet was closed following fire damage.  There are some decent breakfast outlets on the road.  One of my favourites is the Harry Ramsdens at Michael Wood on the M5 north of Bristol but it's not a lot of use if I'm bound for Southampton.  I have not entirely lost my sense of adventure and, as with many other things, we will have to see what happens.

 

I need to go to the bank this morning to retrieve some statements.  Going through them will keep me quiet for an hour or two.  Maybe.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

Edited January 24, 2020 by chrisf
typos, always typos

[Barry O]

Ey up! 33°C here abd a gentle breeze. Watched a bit of live cricket earlier at the WACA. Off to the Big Bas League game later.

Positive thoughts to all who ail!

Grab the day good people!

Baz

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, inner temple Hare, 1045/653.

6 3/4 hours sleep in two pieces not to bad I suppose.

 

The RAC does exist in  two forms.. The Royal Automobile Club in London, and RAC the car recovery service, the two split in 1999 and are now separate entities.

 

Chris Fs comments about leaving early are definitely true, if I leave 15 minutes later for work I arrive here 1/2 and hour later..

 

We had a section meeting yesterday afternoon which normally would have been chaired by the now EX boss. much info on the background to events came out.

Every one was in full Monty Python mode when the phone lines to the USA suddenly opened, so a chorus of "he's not the Messiah he's a naughty boy" went state wise...

 

The official story of the EX boss, that came from the USA was it was an amical parting of the ways, was accompanied by those holding the fort here trying (not very hard) to hold a straight face.

The unofficial story told when the lines had closed, is that persons from another department had taken advantage of him being off sick to have a palace revolution to try to obtain the Ex bosses job.

 

 The company has taken it's usual route of claiming there has been a change in role so his job has disappeared, and the new manager will therefore have a new title and role. This is the usual lie they put out to avoid legalities of dismissing someone who's off sick.... (or for any other dodgy reason)

The American manager who has to implement these changes will have to visit next week to sort things out, the telling thing is that he did say the replacement will come from inside the company at our site..

 

Well, providing winter doesn't turn up, there is every sign the daffodils will be out in the next couple of weeks... very early..

 

While ploughing on through piles of current shunts, I shall review the calculations for the main part of the keel today, it would be a right pain if I got it wrong and had to start again once wood has been cut...

 

Time to.. go warm the lab up with some current..

 

 

 

Edited January 24, 2020 by TheQ

[roundhouse]

Good morning from a drizzly but mildish Surrey at around 6 degrees C.

 

No shows for us till April, not even Ally Pally as the layout I was helping on, isnt now going till next year due to a change of layout co-ordinator.

 

However I have now booked our flights across the pond. The return flight from Seattle was just over £200, cheaper than the outward flight to Chicago by half. Still a lot sheaper than last years flights.

 

I had a short bout of upset stomach last night. Had to keep visiting the loo but it appears to have cleared up so should be Ok to go visit Mum and brother this evening for a meal. His other half is already missing Chineese food so its likely to be to the chineese restaurant depending on what time they get back after collecting his no 2 son from Colchester when he finishes school.

 

In the meantime I shall be getting overed in foam as I sand the expanded foam scenery ot shape ready for covering in filler. I also hope to have my Backwoods kit of LYN working on DCC once the decoder has been fitted.

Edited January 24, 2020 by roundhouse

[TheSignalEngineer]

34 minutes ago, chrisf said:

In those not entirely happy days I worked in Cambridge and soon discovered that the earlier the journey was made the less time it consumed.  Even a departure five minutes later meant a disproportionately later arrival.

Definitely true. When l worked on the bottom end of the WCML i continued to live in Birmingham due to son and daughter being at critical stage in secondary school. Additionally my boss and HQ were in Birmingham so one or sometime two meetings per week there. 

I had offices in Bletchley and Willesden and temporary site depots at Watford and Wembley so quite a lot of mobility needed. A lot could be done by train but when I needed to get around there were definite windows to aim for. There was a distinct lull for about 30 minutes on the M1 between those going to work and those attending meetings or social travel. The same coming back in the afternoon except for Friday which was always a nightmare and a train day whenever possible, especially if there was a race meeting at Towcester.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Another grey, damp and dreary start. Looks like it's going to stay that way.

The Boss has suggested that I spend a day in The Shed to cheer myself up. She doesn't know that that is likely to make me more uptight.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Yet another dull and wet day here in the northwest of England. As is the norm for a Friday, I’ll be setting off to the Trafford Centre to collect the few items we can’t get locally. I’ll also call in at Asda and return home via the butchers where I’ll pick up the weekly meat rations and a pastie for dinner. Hopefully, the afternoon will be spent with the soldering iron as my MERG order arrived yesterday EVENING! I can only assume that the Postie put it through the wrong letter box and whoever did receive it, put it in ours late last night. There may also be some more laundry that requires putting in the machine, but I’ll await instructions on that score. 

 

Enjoy the day, back later. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I used to start and finish early, 8 to 4 instead of 9 till 5. That ment I'd arrive at work just as the morning rush was starting and going home slotted neatly between school turn out time and the start of the rush. My employers were happy as well as it spread the hours when there was someone there to cover. Grey and overcast as it has been for the last few days with a bit of drizzle in the air. Muggatee awaits, be back later.

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

I used to start and finish early, 8 to 4 instead of 9 till 5. That ment I'd arrive at work just as the morning rush was starting and going home slotted neatly between school turn out time and the start of the rush. 

 

Now if everybody had the sense to do that...

[leopardml2341]

Afternoon folks (just).

 

On mi lunch break at work, one thing I've tried to make sure I do for a few months now is to actually get away from my desk.

 

Another thing I've done since Ch*****as is tried, and generally succeeded, to drink more fluids. Trouble is, more in = more out......

 

Back in a bit

Edited January 24, 2020 by leopardml2341
Chr*****as rather than Christmas, didn't realise it was a banned word :)

[southern42]

' morning afternoon (!) all from red dragon land.

 

My best beat-the-clock commute was back in the early 70's:

Blue diesels to Ealing Broadway,

Across the platform onto the District Line to Ealing Common,

Across the platform onto the Piccadilliy Line to Hammersmith,

...And this is the important bit..!

Race across the platform and jump on the District Line train in front of the one I got on at Ealing Broadway

And get to Sloane Square and work in time for a cuppa before start of play.

HOWZAT, then?

 

I came home the pretty route...!

Tube to Ealing Common/Broadway, 207 AEC Routemaster along the Uxbridge Road, then a walk through the horse field past Hayes Cricket Club ground and through the park to home.

Sanity restored!

 

Now back to Wednesday of this week...

 

Arrival at West  Shore, the Great Orme just about visible, and the Isle of Man some distance beyond...

 

Leaving West Shore after a chat in the Clubhouse

 

Nearing home

Yesterday, mist - sun - mist - sun - mist

Today, mist and wet underfoot.

 

 

And here's the promised pic of the Terrace Patio Lambkin

Friendly looking girl, isn't she?  Not got a name for her yet...

 

Time for a mugadecafcafetierre (Chr*****s pressie! - Roberts coffee).

 

Take care, all

____________

Best wishes

Polly

Edited January 24, 2020 by southern42

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from a greyish LBG.

 

My roommate in Leeds had a mini van, proudly proclaiming his old man's shopfitting firm in Crayford. I doubt much business was gained from the rare occasion he'd bung 50p of petrol in it and we'd head off to North Farm Fisheries. (Onion bhaji, chips and curry sauce 99p).

 

Hope those that are ailing maintain an upward trajectory.

 

Have a good weekend

[Ian Abel]

POETS all (or at least those who have it on offer) ...

 

Another quiet yesterday, just busy with report changes - the finance department all in a flurry having misplaced some serious amounts of money - how DO they do that!
Actually, apparently just not in the right buckets, but causes a major alarm around here, especially with the looming year-end close and arrival of the feared "auditors"

 

With weather at both ends of the trip checking in as acceptable, I'm expecting/hoping for an on-time and easy trip home - how's THAT for optimism and tempting fate?

 

So far nothing planned for the weekend, as far as I know, so there's a real danger I may get some time to start resurrecting the layout, another tempting of fate?

 

-1 and clear driving in, expected to be around 0 to -2 when I get home later.

 

Tally ho.