Early Risers.

[Barry O]

Thunder, lightning..rain..which is what this area needs ..

 

Baz

[Kingzance]

I first visited the Land of The Long White Cloud 50 years ago and found it wonderful. I last went back six years ago and still loved it. Sadly, SWMBO is not of my disposition in that respect so it will not be my final home.

Stock of muddling tokens is taking a hit, one nail in centre of rear nearside tyre is plug-able, long and sharp small stone in shoulder of front nearside tyre is not - bar steward! Still, If we couldn't have taken a joke, SWMBO shouldn't have succumbed to wanting a BMW - talking of which, things are quiet here as the two broomsticks have flown off to disturb the residents of Welwyn Garden City. No doubt more tokens will be spent. Bah, humbug,

Yours,

E Ben Ezerscrooge.

[Tony_S]

5 minutes ago, Kingzance said:

shouldn't have succumbed to wanting a BMW - 

Are tyres for BMWs particularly expensive? I notice some  tyres are rated for certain manufacturers and wondered if they cost more?

[Kingzance]

13 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Are tyres for BMWs particularly expensive? I notice some  tyres are rated for certain manufacturers and wondered if they cost more?

BMWs are a bit like some Bavarian gentlemen (and ladies) I have met who are large and broad people who frequently don't signal their intentions adequately. They seem to exaggerate their size by using even bigger boots . Original equipment for this model was either a Dunlop Maxxsport or a similar Michelin, both of which come up as more expensive via the common tyre searches. Were we to have a smaller car, it wouldn't have such large wheels requiring low profile and high speed rating tyres - 225/60 R17V are what is supposed to be fitted and, whilst you can get cheapo ones by unknown manufacturers, the only thing that allows me to go round corners and to stop is the small amount of rubber in contact with the road in each corner. I therefore stick with the same specification and with a quality brand, the Pirellis on now have been and remain very good. Sadly, there is no present stock of the Pirelli tyre so it will be Avon - also good in my view.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Kingzance said:

225/60 R17V are

Mine are 245/45 R20 W so I expect they won’t be cheap but at least there is free tea and coffee at our local (highly recommended) tyre place. 
Tony

[TheQ]

Nursey, wielding the many headed hydra,  aka the ECG machine,  says I'm normal,  I didn't think anyone on ER was normal...

[newbryford]

4 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Nursey, wielding the many headed hydra,  aka the ECG machine,  says I'm normal,  I didn't think anyone on ER was normal...

 

There are two types of people.

Those that are normal and those that think they are.

[Ian Abel]

Morning.

 

Yesterday with most of the day to myself I started with the exercise program <groan>

After that some light piano practice and then decided that the exercise program has woken up a lot of sleeping muscles and spent the rest of the day mostly relaxing, reading and doing the Sunday crossword puzzles. Getting in shape is painful

 

-2 and cloudy first thing and that's the expected high for the day!

 

Carry on

[Two_sugars]

26 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Nursey, wielding the many headed hydra,  aka the ECG machine,  says I'm normal,  I didn't think anyone on ER was normal...

 

I had my annual "heart" interview today. . .blood pressure a little on the high side, so . . . .

booked in for an ECG on Thor's day aftanyun.

 

John

[Oldddudders]

19 hours ago, Andrew P said:

Hence the User Name?

Indeed , Andy. In our "naughty" days, she needed an alias, and Ashcombe was a corker - the first time she appeared on RMweb I knew it had to be her! As it happens, our skool was opened in 1933 as the "County School" in Ashcombe Road. There were 4 'houses' in the skool - and Sherry was in Ashcombe house. I was in - er - Rivett, named after a former headmaster, and our colour was blue not golden...... In 1959, the year I started there, a brand new secondary modern girls' school opened next door. With modern inclusive ideas about education, the two were amalgamated about 1980 to become the Ashcombe School. In recent years we have been guests there on a couple of occasions, and the headmaster was inspiring in his vision of measurable success for all, I have to admit. He has since retired, is a Salvationist. 

 

Sunday of last week, our theatre friend Glynis set off - against much advice - for China, to see her latest grandchild. Today, a fortnight early, she is back at the airport awaiting a flight home. Let's hope she doesn't bring anything nasty with her. Sherry will not be back in Torquay until next Monday, by which time incubation should have completed, so Glynis will either be healthy or not!

[tigerburnie]

2 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

There are two types of people.

Those that are normal and those that think they are.

Must be three types as I know I'm not normal...……………………...and quite proud about it too lol...……….

[Ozexpatriate]

10 hours ago, Barry O said:

Took my new friend for a walk at the zoo today

 

Meet Minibus. A lady wombat ..she loves raw sweetcorn, can kill dingoes and has a top speed of 45kph.

...

Lots of koalas being looked after by the teams at Australia Zoo.

I am very pleased to have been able to see Harriet the tortoise at Australia Zoo when my son was little.  I have a pre-digital photograph somewhere.

 

Sadly Harriet (whom Charles Darwin collected in the Galapagos while voyaging on the Beagle) is no longer with us. My dad has slides of Harry (as she was known then) roaming the Botanical Gardens on Gardens Point where she developed a fondness for Hibiscus flowers.

 

The story behind funding and naming the "John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward" at the Australia Zoo is very funny.

 

A short synopsis: English expatriate comedian (now US citizen) John Oliver, with a weekly political satire show on HBO, purchased some of Russell Crowe's movie ephemera (including the leather jock strap from Gladiator - which was subsequently displayed at the penultimate Blockbuster Video* store in the world) at auction. Russell Crowe donated the proceeds of the auction to Australia Zoo and "honoured" the origin of the funds by naming the ward.

 

* The only remaining Blockbuster Video in the world is in central Oregon.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I bought my new tyres  through Black Circles http://www.blackcircles.com . Most of the tyres with names that you don't recognize are made by the big name companies. If you compare them you will see that the only difference is the name moulded on the carcass, and the price which can be as little as half of the big name tyres. My car is on Pirelli's but that isn't the name on them. Had a look again today at the 'battered boxes' at Tess Coes' and came away with a HDMI lead for half price. Now time for dinner, be back later.

[The Stationmaster]

Evening all,

 

Thanks Ozxp for the Bill Murray Groundhog Day ad - had me in stitches.  Weird tho' it might sound I happened to watch the film right through a couple of weeks ago and had watched a bit of it before than and some of it again since then.  Most of the film showing channels on Freeview have the interesting habit of showing the same film over a period of a week or three at different times of day during their repeats - clever idea but at times distinctly off putting as some of the old films are distinctly carp, or just plain weird  (but often much better than most other rubbish on the tv).

 

As for moving about in places of living I must be the stuffiest person on ERs.  Although I worked in South Wales and the West Country for quite a few years before going back to London, then returning to the highly unfashionable extreme north eastern arm of the West Country (i.e. Swindon),  followed by going back to London, I tended to live in lodgings for much of the time until we got married.  When first married we had a couple of rented rooms across the road from here before moving all of 12 miles to the unfashionable Rates/Poll Tax/Council Tax milch cow in the extreme north eastern arm of West Berkshire.  Then after my father died - being amazingly adventurous but with the laudable aim of mitigating exposure to various iniquitous taxes - we demolished the family home where I had grown up and built a four bedroom house on the site, where we now reside.  Thus unusually for this day and age I actually live not only on the site where I grew up but also within not much more than a stone's throw from the building in which I was born (less than 200 yards from it as the crow flies).  The only difference being that the building is no longer a nursing home but has long since been divided into rather up market flats - a 2 bedroom one of which is currently on the market for just over half a million quid (must be down to the high ceilings and off road parking?).  

 

An old school friend owns one of the flats but his tenant will be leaving shortly and he's wondering about selling - bet he didn't pay anything like that much and the fact that he bought it in the first place indicates that the restaurant he used to run made a lot more money than nature of the food he served would  suggest.   As it happens a good many years ago I took Mrs Stationmaster to that restaurant and she quickly decided that the food reminded her of school dinners.  She thought it was hilarious when I explained that she was incredibly perceptive because at that time the school friend's mother was doing the cooking at the restaurant - and she used to be a school dinners cook in one of the local schools.  Not that we ever mention that to him when we see him and his wife

 

BTW - a note for ChrisF - your pharmacist is supposed to discuss with you at least once every year the medication you are on and how you are getting on with it.  At the Tesco pharmacy we have to sign a form confirming that has been done by their pharmacist - apparently it is nowadays some sort of requirement that pharmacists do this and the level of compliance by pharmacists is monitored by some sort of health quango.

 

Enjoy the rest of your day one and all.

Edited February 3, 2020 by The Stationmaster

[Coombe Barton]

Some years ago I had some sort of screening scan at the local Doc's. I came back and said I was normal

 

Sandy demanded a recount.

 

Edited February 3, 2020 by Coombe Barton

[pH]

7 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I don’t have any special desire to move elsewhere. It is quite peaceful here but not in any way remote, there is a bus route at the end of our road to both local hospitals and the railway station. 
Tony

 

As 'empty nesters', our house is far too big for us. We keep talking about moving and downsizing. However, we can't agree where we would move to - stay around here or move somewhere else and cash out the equity in the house (house prices in Greater Vancouver are silly) - so we stay. We do, however, agree that our next house if/when we move should be within walking distance of a shop selling milk and bananas.

[Kingzance]

We downsized to something smaller (only just) and also with a smaller plot (definitely). We also moved from a village with one pub and no shop to a village with two pubs and one shop - all of which I can easily walk to (at the moment). We thought that, being close to the grandkids, they may wish to escape from home for peace and quiet - that is not something they have considered at any time!

[AndyB]

6 hours ago, Kingzance said:

BMWs are a bit like some Bavarian gentlemen (and ladies) I have met who are large and broad people who frequently don't signal their intentions adequately. They seem to exaggerate their size by using even bigger boots . Original equipment for this model was either a Dunlop Maxxsport or a similar Michelin, both of which come up as more expensive via the common tyre searches. Were we to have a smaller car, it wouldn't have such large wheels requiring low profile and high speed rating tyres - 225/60 R17V are what is supposed to be fitted and, whilst you can get cheapo ones by unknown manufacturers, the only thing that allows me to go round corners and to stop is the small amount of rubber in contact with the road in each corner. I therefore stick with the same specification and with a quality brand, the Pirellis on now have been and remain very good. Sadly, there is no present stock of the Pirelli tyre so it will be Avon - also good in my view.

I missed a trick. I should have sold my whole car to you. We'd both have come off better. 

[Tony_S]

Aditi once upon a time would have liked a larger garden but thinks it is “just right” now. 
This house doesn’t require a lot of maintenance, we had  all the wooden soffits and fascias replaced some years ago. All the rotten window frames went too. 
The near neighbours are nice too, my parents had “difficult “ neighbours and I wouldn’t like that. 
Tony
 

[Tony_S]

6 minutes ago, AndyB said:

I missed a trick. I should have sold my whole car to you. We'd both have come off better. 

When I traded in my Scenic for a Freelander the trade in just about covered the cost of the accessories to carry a dog about. 
Tony

[AndyB]

1 minute ago, Tony_S said:

When I traded in my Scenic for a Freelander the trade in just about covered the cost of the accessories to carry a dog about. 
Tony

I always thought dogs were expensive to keep! 

 

My youngest is desperate for a KC Spanial. But with us all out at work or at school it wouldn't be fair. 

 

Meanwhile a new colleague joining my team has an assistance dawg.

The rest of team have gone completely soppy over it. I did try to explain it would be a trip hazard and endanger programme delivery if they broke their legs....I'm told it will enhance everyone's well being. 

Not everyone's, I explained. I'm now officially grumpy. 

[Ian Abel]

Well, as most regulars know, we downsized last year, out of a far too large two story older home into a US "ranch-style" house.

Still quite large but most of the living space is on the main floor, with a large basement area that has a guest bedroom/bathroom, family room/bar/railway space.

We move 509ft. as the crow flies, since we love the neighbor hood and wanted to remain right here, so the decision "where to go" was easy, we just had to wait until a suitable house became available in the neighborhood.

 

I'm now, according to Google Earth, 4,022 miles from where I grew up, and have arrived here by way of two separate apartments in NYC, a townhouse in a suburb of Minneapolis for a year (before I met the Mrs), a house in south Minneapolis for 10 years about 5 miles from where we are now, and a brief 18 month excursion to Silicon Valley during the time we owned the south Minneapolis house.

[Gwiwer]

12 minutes ago, Ian Abel said:

Duplicate post!

There seems to be an outbreak of those across the site

 

There seems to be an outbreak of those across the site

[Ian Abel]

Just now, Gwiwer said:

There seems to be an outbreak of those across the site

 

There seems to be an outbreak of those across the site

Indeed, and I even tried to "Hide" the second one but it refused to go away so I edited it instead

[AndyB]

11 minutes ago, Ian Abel said:

Indeed, and I even tried to "Hide" the second one but it refused to go away so I edited it instead

Well I found it as interesting the 2nd time as the first.