Early Risers.

[45156]

Morning All

 

The usual apologies and generic greetings - as usual, matters domestic and financial have got in the way of the serious business of RMWeb,

 

Phone rang at 6pm last evening - can 30747 please work tomorrow - day off spoiled again, but there's so many of her colleagues down with the lurgi, and they can't really close the nursery, so she really has little choice in saying "no".

 

Parcel deliveries - this was what 30747's niece got from Royal Mail with apologies that it appears twice, and I can't get rid of the second one.

 

 

Unfortunately, she was on her wedding in Graceland at the time, and was away for three weeks - you can guess the rest - and Royal Mail have said that she will not learn the outcome of their investigation as it is "an internal matter". 

 

And I too have appeared on TV, but unknowingly - I was taking a sickie one day and went to Carlisle with 30747, and we saw a camera, but didn't know they were filming at the time - some months later a religious friend rang us to say that we had appeared in "Songs Of Praise", in a street scene in Carlisle,

 

And on addresses, I have had quite a few (though some were student accommodation).

 

Newmilns, Ayrshire - 2

Glasgow - 1

Paisley - 1

Renfrew - 1

Worcester Park, Surrey - 2

South Norwood - 1

Kenley, Surrey - 2

Whyteleafe, Surrey - 1

Caton, Lancashire - 1

Ketterningham, Norfolk - 1

Hornby, Lancashire - 1

Caton, Lancashre - 1

 

Now waiting for builder to arrive as he's coming to change the filling loop on our boiler as the tap isn't admitting any water - or it it is, it is very slow.   Bacon bagel now calls.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

 

 

 

Edited February 6, 2020 by 45156

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Frosty here and have heard the sound of windscreens being scraped since 5.00am, It should stay dry with sunny periods.

We take in parcels on an almost daily basis, mainly for our friends next door and their two adult daughters. I usually advise them by text with a message saying "Your parcel is now awaiting collection at your local warehouse." With other neighbours, like Rick, if they haven't collected I deliver to them. The annoying thing is that if we are out Sod's Law says that the neighbours will be as well and we then have to collect from the PO or courier depot or arrange a re-delivery.

Today being Thursday means Sainsbury's. I get told off by The Boss for referring to the"trolley" as a "barrer." Mind you, I also get told off for most other things including breathing.

Seeing the post about "everyone's a nutter" reminded me that Epsom where I spent a few years working was home to the Epsom Cluster of 5 large mental institutions. One of them, Horton Hospital, had its own light railway. ISTR that at one time the patients numbered about 10% of the town's population. 

 

https://langdondownmuseum.org.uk/research/u3a-research/2014-long-stay-institutions-for-people-with-learning-disabilities/the-five-hospitals-that-made-up-the-epsom-cluster/

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14652885

 

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

 

 

Edited February 6, 2020 by grandadbob

[Kingzance]

5 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

The neighbor behind me in Florida was one of the soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk. Unfortunately he would never talk about it other than to say that he was there,

It is with the benefit of age that I realise how many people tried and try to block out the horrors they have suffered or witnessed by refusing to discuss them. Sadly it means many of us did not get to hear that part of history from some of those who were living it. This was the case for my father (a Japanese PoW) and my mother’s brother (RN gunnery and torpedo specialist).

[Kingzance]

1 hour ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

I had a similar experience yesterday. Used a tape measure and Stanley knife to cut a piece of plasterboard.

 

Went to cut next piece of studwork and could not find the tape measure. Got round that for a while by using other pieces of timber as a measure. That worked rather well until I needed to cut another sheet of plasterboard. Knife missing! So clearly they are together but I can't find them.

Have you looked behind the last piece of plasterboard Joseph? When doing the same a number of years back to create a partition to form a study, I carefully placed my Stanley Knife and tape measure on a horizontal frame and subsequently nailed on a sheet of board to confine them to history. As a Simpson family member would say... “doh”

[Kingzance]

Good morning from a crisp NEHerts where things are almost back to normal, in that CowboysRUs are drowning out the sounds of spring - not the “boing said Zeberdee” ones - and skies are a sort of Jet-A1blue, a colour not found in the Dulux mix-n-patch chart but certainly existing between Luton and Stansted on a still day.

Today I shall be mainly awaiting orders but I do know I have to go to a florist to collect flowers from son-in-law for daughter as he is working in Barcelona and it is daughter’s birthday tomorrow. The fridge and larder are running low so I suspect a session of “barrer” steering will be required. Attempts will be made to avoid creating any carnage with it. Later, I will be interested to see how my two digital images are critiqued by the judge at the camera club meeting tonight. The wood burner has gorn aat for the first time since 26th January so needs cleaning and will be relit, slightly adding to the intensity of the Jet-A1blue above.

I wish you all well, less lurgi and more gusto.

[PeterBB]

54 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

 

Seeing the post about "everyone's a nutter" reminded me that Epsom where I spent a few years working was home to the Epsom Cluster of 5 large mental institutions. One of them, Horton Hospital, had its own light railway. ISTR that at one time the patients numbered about 10% of the town's population. 

 

https://langdondownmuseum.org.uk/research/u3a-research/2014-long-stay-institutions-for-people-with-learning-disabilities/the-five-hospitals-that-made-up-the-epsom-cluster/

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14652885

 

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

 

 

Yes Bob, as part of the 20 000 beds in 'the semi-circle' ... worked at St Helier Group for 15 years and did occasionally travel to one or two of those ... some of which were described as 'super nutter' places in those days.  I also remember a patient who said "Why should I go outside - I'm well fed and watered - what more do I need". Things changed when they said that 'working for free was oppressive' they 'cannot 'work' - some of them seemed quite happy working but after this directive had nothing to do all day ... and became worse.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Off to Whitechapel this morning, for a noon appointment at the Royal London Hospital. Not heart or lungs today, anyone picking my pocket en-route won’t like today’s sample pot. 
Dad wasn’t at Dunkirk but he did go and volunteer as a result. 
Tony

[TheSignalEngineer]

Morning from a distinctly white Dark Peak. Weather app is telling me it feels like minus something outside so washing won't get put out for a while yet.

 

2 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

Unlikely. I often put things down in just this way but in this case I was doing the cutting in another room.

 

I shall find them today, just after I return from B&Q with a new knife and new tape measure.

I'm good at that. There are now five strategically placed  tapes around the house so I can usually find one.

 

Sympathies to lurgi sufferers. Mine seemed to come on in waves every few days for about five weeks.

 

I managed to avoid most TV appearances but have been spotted a couple of times. Classic was a friend of my Dad. He threw a sickie as he had a ticket to see West Brom in the 1968 FA Cup Final but couldn't find cover for a shift swap.

It was the first final televised in colour and the fire station social fund had splashed out on a new set. During the singing of Abide With Me the Divisional Officer arrived to watch just as the camera zoomed in on the absent crew member. Epic Fail!

Edited February 6, 2020 by TheSignalEngineer

[tigerburnie]

Morning, me the missus and son in a buggy were chased round Bournemouth pier by Ester Rantzen and a tv crew, didn't to be interviewed by her!! I was interviewed by Alan Whicker in Amsterdam, but ended up on the cutting room floor as the bit shown was a lad next to me, I was seen but not heard. I have also been seen on David Dickinsons antiques program more than once wandering around in the background wearing a Tigers rugby shirt, he used visit Derby often when we lived there.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

A sunny but frosty start to the day, up later than usual but as there isn’t anything planned for the day, (other than the usual laundry, eye care) it shouldn’t be as busy as yesterday. In between the above mentioned tasks, I’m hoping to do a bit of circuit board building today, but we’ll see how that pans out.

 

My father and his older brother were children during the war and as such too young to participate, as were my mother's brothers. Sheila’s father and her uncles (both mothers and fathers brothers) all fought! Her dad’s BiL was in the RAF went missing during a raid. Two others were in the navy and her father the army. He was at El Alamein and Monte Casino, where is was wounded. He wouldn’t talk about the war and Sheila can remember her dad waking in the night screaming. One of her uncles who was in the navy was on one of the coastal corvettes and never went much further than the Scottish Isles, as his shop was only a short range vessel. The other who was in the navy went to the US, South Africa and was in Tokyo harbour when the surrender document was signed. In his own words, he had a very lucky war and “never fired a shot in anger” despite being a ‘gunner’! During his ‘foreign visits’ he had lots of food parcels sent home to his parents.

 

Back later. 

Edited February 6, 2020 by BSW01

[45156]

Builder has been - I was fitted in before he goes back down South to work on the Guildhall in Guildford and also a historic church in Brighton - but even when he's working for English Heritage, he still has time for his small jobs, and he doesn't charge us the earth, and the repair to the boiler was only charged at £30 for cash.

[Coombe Barton]

Today would have been my grandmother's 129th birthday. This is her with her mum in 1891, probably taken in close proximity to Ugborough where my great grandfather ran a pub.

 

[petethemole]

Mornin' all from The Gateway to The World.  Diabetic review yesterday, all results were "good" apart from blood pressure which is a bit high, and I can reduce my Metformin dose.

 

Dad was called up in early 1940, a Rifleman in a home defence division, then transferred to the Intelligence corps as a sergeant instructor of Commandos at Inveraray, training in encrypted radio communications. This also involved participating in raids and he visited Norway (Vaagso) and France (Bruneval).  He missed Dieppe due to a serious illness after which he was downgraded (in fitness), posted to Royal Signals, and sent to South Africa as a WO2 as part of the British Military Mission to the Smuts government.

 

I haven't moved about much; grew up in Ampthill, left at 18, spent nearly two years in a bedsit in Leigh on Sea followed by 3 years at Southampton Uni.  I then stayed here for archaeological work and sort of stuck, living in various bedsits and flats of varying degrees of seediness.  The last was over an antique shop backing onto the main line at Northam.  I bought  a small house in '87, married in '99, and we moved to our present house in 2006.

 

There are things to do so I'd better get on; have a good day.

 

Pete

PS I forgot to add, I was interviewed on local TV News twice, about archaeological sites I was working on; once by Fred Dineage.

Edited February 6, 2020 by petethemole

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Only just in time to count as an ER, time seems to have flown.

8 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

MrsID's dad went over after D-Day and came back PDQ with a serious leg injury. We were never able to get him to tell us anything about what happened.

 

Uncle Bobby, my mum's brother, was in the RAF and he was killed quite early in the war. Mum never talked about what happened and we never asked. My brother eventually did some research and it turned out he was killed when some yahoo pilot decided to perform a low-flying stunt on a training exercise.

 

Uncle Jim was in Burma and contracted malaria but he made it back in one piece.

My mum and dad had only one brother each and both were fortunately to young to take part in the war but both were called up for national service after the war. My mothers brother was medically discharged quite quickly though he always seemed very fit and lived until his 80's. My other uncle was an apprentice engineer when he was called up and after the initial square bashing carried on until he got his degree and his national service finished. My mums cousin, an RAF bomber pilot was lost in a mid air collision on a night flying exercise off the coast of Wales.

4 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I usually find missing tools to be where I put them down when I picked up the next tool I used.

 

Jamie

Thats if the gremlins don't find them first. They hide them and then replace them in the same spot when your not looking.

[TheSignalEngineer]

1 hour ago, BSW01 said:

One of her uncles who was in the navy was on one of the coastal corvettes and never went much further than the Scottish Isles,

During a course in the mid-1990s the instructor had what he described as 'War Stories' time around every break to save them from interfering with the content he was presenting. Three of the course had joined BR under 'Forces for Change' which was a government resettlement programme for MOD personnel during budget cuts. One had recently returned from the Gulf, another had been to the Falklands. I decided to wind up the third, my assistant at the time, whose service history I had seen when I accepted him for training under me. He had been a weapons officer on various ships.

"Where were you in the Falklands War" I asked. 

"Effin Fisheries Protection patrols round the Western Isles" was his reply.

[roundhouse]

3 hours ago, 45156 said:

 

 

 

And on addresses, I have had quite a few (though some were student accommodation).

 

 

Kenley, Surrey - 2

Whyteleafe, Surrey - 1

 

When we moved from Bristol area parents nearly bought a house in Kenley but it fell through on the day of signing after they had signed the house in Bristol so moved temporarily into Wallington then to Warlingham.

 

Upper Warlingham station in Whyteleafe was my local station as was Whyteleafe across the main road. The hill was the killer, uphill from Upper Warlingham to Warlingham!

 

The Whyteleafe Tavern is still open amazingly but the Radius micropub is superb and is often busy but either two buses or two trains to get there from Redhill There is a weekday only direct bus there but finishes too early to make much use of it.

 

To add to my other halfs travel home, East Croydon station has been shut due to a suspicious truck nearby.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Who is Eva? Does Melania know about this?

 

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

4 hours ago, grandadbob said:

One of them, Horton Hospital, had its own light railway.

 

 

I will have to dig out 'A Mercifully short history of the South Horton Irrigation Tramway'.

 

For those with a railway history bent, the South Horton being the forerunner of the  very famous military range railway at Wrekin Havock.

[Kingzance]

9 minutes ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Who is Eva? Does Melania know about this?

 

 

 

Next thing is he will be supporting the Washington Redskins! 

[The Lurker]

5 hours ago, roundhouse said:

 

 

Due to overhead wire issues on the St Pancras to Bedford half of our trains are cancelled. Luckily my other halfs normal train ran but it was wedged after the net stop. her journey home will not be as easy as the wires wont be fixed till tonight. I must do her delay repay  for Monday but might wait till tonight. How I hate Thameslink - it needs changing to improve reliability when theres a problem the one side of London so it doesnt mess up other parts of the South east.

 

 

Phil b-259 would no doubt patiently explain that it was all done to make the trains run more reliably. Allegedly the London Bridge works benefitted SE passengers because they would no longer be affected by a TL breakdown. The thing is that never happened any way unless it was a wider LBG issue. SE trains are still delayed due to points and signals at New Cross, St Johns, Lewisham and Slade Green with monotonous regularity.

 

Mind you he did ruin his patient explanation by sounding off about how rude commuters were and that they deserved all they got.

[The Lurker]

Greetings all, form a sunny LBG.

 

I can relate to the parcels experiences. I had an Amazon delivery yesterday - the card suggested it had been left next door with an undecipherable name, We know next door well and they had not received anything. The number was not clear either so we had to hope a neighbour eventually turned up with said delivery. When they did we had a laugh about the writing after my apology, To make it worse, I found I had ordered a vinyl version of an album instead of a CD, at a lot more cost.

 

War stories; nothing has come down to me from those in action. On one side, my Grandad was killed in the Ardennes on a routine patrol in 44, on the other I think my Grandad was in the merchant navy (my Mum has ivory handled cutlery that allegedly comes from there..) but he did when I was 2. All I really know is that he picked up a smoking habit that he hated but could not shake, and as a teetotaller rank rum for medicinal purposes. He had what was described as a nervous breakdown when my Mum was a child but could easily have been some kind of PTSD.  Neither family were evacuated from their respective suburbs, although my Dad has talked about being in a nissen hut after the war, so presumably a result of bomb damage.

[polybear]

4 hours ago, Kingzance said:

Have you looked behind the last piece of plasterboard Joseph? When doing the same a number of years back to create a partition to form a study, I carefully placed my Stanley Knife and tape measure on a horizontal frame and subsequently nailed on a sheet of board to confine them to history. As a Simpson family member would say... “doh”

 

So that's where I left the cat.  Bvgger

Edited February 6, 2020 by polybear

[petethemole]

21 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

So that's where I left the cat.  Bvgger

 

When I was looking at buying my first house in '87 i had a builder acquaintance round to check it out.  This included lifting some flooroards downstairs. The back door was open and a cat came in, said hello and wandered about, as they do.  When we were about to leave we heard a plaintive miaow.  The cat had gone under the foor and we'd put the boards back without knowing.

[TheQ]

30 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

So that's where I left the cat.  Bvgger

So your wife is called Cat?

 

I spent the Falklands war in a concrete building in Norfolk, I knew some who did go down there because they were qualified on the right radar. Pity it got dropped into the water while being unloaded. They Spent their war keeping their head down with nothing to do..

 

I didn't expect to be sent down there some years later..... as a civilian...

 

[Joseph_Pestell]

4 hours ago, Kingzance said:

Have you looked behind the last piece of plasterboard Joseph? When doing the same a number of years back to create a partition to form a study, I carefully placed my Stanley Knife and tape measure on a horizontal frame and subsequently nailed on a sheet of board to confine them to history. As a Simpson family member would say... “doh”

 

Like me, you all thought that the question to ask was "where were you working when you last used them?". Turns out the right question was "when?".

 

It was just before lunch. So I went upstairs where the new boiler has made things very cosy. So I took off the fleece that I was wearing. It seemed quite heavy when I picked it up this morning to put it on.....