Early Risers.

[grandadbob]

Evenin' each,

Well as usual the parcel from Fraggle Rock arrived promptly at about 12.30pm so about 21 hours from notification of despatch. Not bad at all Neil.  Only contained a couple of points and some Setrack 4th radius curves which once again I've had to revert to because I cannot for the life of me get Flexitrack to do anything other than a very gentle curve without kinking at the joins even with the use of Tracksettas. Feel free to call me useless, I've been calling myself far worse than that. The whole thing will probably just end up looking like a toy trainset rather than a model railway but as long as I can play with it I no longer care.

Probably won't get to The Shed until Monday now what with rugby to watch tonight  (Sharks v Tigers) and 6 Nations tomorrow.  Will have to record Wales v France as final party preparations will be underway while that's on.  

Pizza night tonight. I'm not that keen on them but The Boss is so I humour her occasionally.   It was OK but the Black Label Shiraz helps.  A lot.  I think I'll get it to help a bit more. 

 

[JohnDMJ]

Evening alwl,

 

Looks like it's been a busy day here!

 

8 hours ago, Kingzance said:

Of course we know that happens in the case of large builders (who banked 4x as many approvals as they built last year) but this crowd of pen pushers refused an individual planning permission for a stable block; the individual then defies the refusal and builds it all the same before applying for retrospective approval - which is granted!!! The next stage in that individual’s path will be to convert the stable block to residential, even though there is an existing covenant on the use of the land that it cannot be for residential purposes. Is the local planning authority populated by thick-skinned pachyderms I wonder? They certainly are not serving the people who elected their so-called bosses or who actually pay their salaries! 

 

Oddly, Arun DC went along these lines when a certain well-known (locally, infamous might be a better description) person converted a building in Littlehampton to, effectively, a brew pub. There was a covenant prohibiting any alcoholic production or sale on the site. After he filed for bancruptcy, the building has been converted to flats!

 

7 hours ago, grandadbob said:

Thanks KZ. I always been very cautious ever since a new credit card was stolen (by our postman at the time) many years ago and 2/3K put on it (it was resolved successfully) and I check bank and credit card transactions daily. I have different pins for every bank and credit card and different passwords for every online account and website I visit. Depending on what sort of account some are very complicated but I usually manage to remember them. Just seems weird that I've forgotten a 4 figure pin.  

 

I keep a database of my various logins but only cryptic clues to the password should I ever forget it.

 

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Dr. Acula has been consulted and blood has been found in my alcohol system.

 

It must be beer o'clock somewhere - it is always beer o'clock somewhere - therefore I need to cellar-brate with something appropriate to the time of week.  See you later.  Maybe   

 

Blood in the alcohol stream?! What was it doing there??

 

IMHO, it's always Beer O'Clock everywhere, given the right environment.

 

13 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

Evenin' each,

Well as usual the parcel from Fraggle Rock arrived promptly at about 12.30pm so about 21 hours from notification of despatch. Not bad at all Neil.  Only contained a couple of points and some Setrack 4th radius curves which once again I've had to revert to because I cannot for the life of me get Flexitrack to do anything other than a very gentle curve without kinking at the joins even with the use of Tracksettas.

 

 

I won't call you useless but, dare I say it, Normal! Flexitrack wants to be straight (no need to get excited ChrisF! ).

 

If you have to put a joint on a curve, it is best to join the pieces together on the straight and solder across the joints to keep them in line. In retrospect, you could try pinning at least six sleepers either side of the joint. On second thoughts, just stick to setrack as the A&E's overcrowded.

[5 C]

8 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Sounds like lazy plods. There are a multitude of offences that could have been investigated there including, attempts, conspiracy and I'm sure that there are offences involving Her Majesty's mails. However many of my former colleagues never bothered with more than a few basic offences. I ysed to enjoy using the lesser known ones.

 

 

Jamie 

 

 

A former colleague was very proud of making an arrest under the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860 for the offence of "making a disturbance in a churchyard". He had an ambition to arrest or charge for every offence listed in "Summonses and Charges".

[Tony_S]

23 minutes ago, 5 C said:

A former colleague was very proud of making an arrest under the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860 for the offence of "making a disturbance in a churchyard". He had an ambition to arrest or charge for every offence listed in "Summonses and Charges".

A friend , now deceased was in the Sealed Knot and after a re-enactment somewhere near York was with others being somewhat drunk. They were escorted to a police station and there was some discussions of appropriate charges. My friend begged them not to charge him with drunk and incapable "anything but not incapable". They were just sent on their way next morning (it was a long time ago). The sergeant said he had considered "drunk in charge of a column of marching men" but wasn't sure if it still applied.

[BoD]

48 minutes ago, 5 C said:

A former colleague was very proud of making an arrest under the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860 for the offence of "making a disturbance in a churchyard". 

 

We've all been guilty of that. Especially after choir practice.  Ah, those were the days.

[Ozexpatriate]

Gentlemen, thanks for the entertainment of the rant o' the morning.

 

While a ban on burning coal would be greatly inconvenient to some, it would seem that a ban on burning green wood inconveniences exactly no one (at least no one sensible) making it entirely moot.

 

While I'm sure it can be found, in my experience, burning coal in a household fireplace is highly unusual in the US. I do recall the corporate headquarters of a company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that had a roaring coke fire in their corporate lobby. Entering the lobby on a freezing cold winter's day to the presence of a coke fire was very pleasant. Doubtless there are others, but this is the only coal fire I have ever seen in the US. There are of course plenty of coal fires for artisnal or historical forges / smithies.

 

Plenty of historical buildings of course have fireplaces that might have once held a coal fire, but I've never seen them used. Most of the boilers for household, steam radiant heat were converted to bunker oil or entirely replaced by forced air most commonly heated with a gas furnace. When I rented an older home in Chicago, the radiant steam heat was still in place, but the boiler was fired by mains natural gas.

 

Edited February 21, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[roundhouse]

Just opened a brown envelope form HMRC dreading the usual ' you owe us' but instead, they owe me and its quite a considerable sum aswell, more than I was anticipating when I finally get round to reviewing my tax status. That will pay for my half of our Summer trip.

 

Been a busy day today dropping off heavily weathered locos (crust earning) then to mums doing more work for her in the garden. Also found trellis that has blown down behind her garage so that's another task to do.

Back home I have weathered more rolling stock for this weekends show in Tenterden. Also more ground levelling behind the shed and moving rubble down the garden ready for the impending patio extension which will involve lifting some of the Garden railway and relaying once the patio has been extended. Luckily there will be little cost as the paving slabs were kept when the conservatory was built.

 

Layout loaded ready for an early start tomorrow.

Edited February 22, 2020 by roundhouse

[polybear]

9 hours ago, grandadbob said:

Well that's it,  I'm doomed! Had to pop to Sainsbury's to pick up some stuff and when trying to pay by card I appear to have forgotten my PIN number. This on a card I use almost daily! Luckily I have others which I use rarely and I seem to have no problem with remembering those numbers. Will now have to wait a few days for the bank to send a new PIN which is a bit of a nuisance.

B.R.Ainfade

 

Some years ago (when I was about 50, at a guess) I couldn't remember what a Kettle was called, so I gave up and just said "it's next to the thing that makes hot water". 

 

6 hours ago, Tony_S said:

.......but I don’t recall HR being involved in her work. She didn’t think her job was to find fault but to improve/help/support if necessary. 
 

 

That'll be why HR don't get involved.  Such subjects are a complete mystery to them.

 

[Ian Abel]

2 hours ago, pH said:

 

That sounds like a case of "the sum of rounds very seldom equals the rounding of a sum". 

Sadly not the case, although it did appear that could have been the culprit on very early inspection.

 

Turned out that the report that had scores of lines making up the total was missing some convoluted manually created differential that was automatically taken care of in the other report.

Judicious posting of some "adjustment" of accounts (far beyond my pay grade, I'm a simple developer/report writer!!) solved the problem

 

 

[Tony_S]

5 minutes ago, Ian Abel said:

judicious posting of some "adjustment" of accounts (far beyond my pay grade, I'm a simple developer/report writer!!) solved the problem

 An adjustment printed in invisible ink?

Tony

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Took an hour to drink a can od dark beer (7%) last night as it cost between £7 and £8.

Gobsmacked!

 

Baz

[JohnDMJ]

4 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Ey up!

Took an hour to drink a can od dark beer (7%) last night as it cost between £7 and £8.

Gobsmacked!

 

Baz

 

At 7%, an hour was quick and, for a beer, I wouldn't grumble too much about that price at that ABV! One is enough.

Edited February 21, 2020 by JohnDMJ

[roundhouse]

3 minutes ago, JohnDMJ said:

 

At 7%, an hour was quick and, for a beer, I wouldn't grumble too much about that price at that ABV! One is enough.

I had a third of NZ beer for £6 yesterday. It was 11% though and had to travel all the way from NZ to Birmingham... it was well worth it was a superb dark beer.

[AndyID]

I burn wood, but only to heat my shed/shop. It's been a while since I fired up the stove. Does softwood (Grand fir and Douglas fir) dry faster than hardwood? It seems to burn well after a year or so. Once you cut it into rounds it develops radial cracks in about a week during the Summer. I also have some Ponderosa pine. It burns well too but it tends to tear rather than split cleanly like fir.

 

I'm trying to give the neighbors the slip - literally. When we bought this place it came with a boat slip. As it turned out we couldn't legally own it! However the judge decided we could use it during our lifetime but we were required to pay for maintenance. We were not about to put a lot of money into something we didn't own and as we really don't use the boat very much, we eventually walked away. (Subsequently we bought a vacant lot that has a slip on a different dock.)

 

The neighbors with the claim to the slip have received an offer to sell their house and they are including the slip in the sale (why I do not know - their house has a private dock.) Yesterday they called to inform me that they were sending a "quit claim" for us to sign and have notarized, and they didn't ask nicely. I told them we were not signing anything until our lawyer reviewed it.

 

He did and he told us we are under no obligation to sign anything and we should tell them to go away. He also said their quit claim was BS but, if we wanted to be nice about it, he would create a proper quit claim. He will do that for $300 and he suggested they also pay us $300 for having to run around like blue arsked flies. (To put things in perspective the property is being sold for well in excess of a million dollars.)

 

I put that to the neighbors and they came back with a lot of weasel words about not wanting to pay lawyers and such. For some reason they seem to think this is a negotiation. I'm about make it clear that there is no negotiation. It will be interesting to see how that goes. If they keep playing silly billies I might put the price up to $1,000.

 

Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

[brianusa]

56 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Some years ago (when I was about 50, at a guess) I couldn't remember what a Kettle was called, so I gave up and just said "it's next to the thing that makes hot water". 

 

 

 

 

 

Its probably true to mention that most go through this black hole at sometime or other, only to remember a few minutes later.

    Brian.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Made a start on clearing the garden shed this afternoon. First I had to clear away the brambles and then had to prune a fir tree before I could get to the shed. Due to the mild wet winter so far the brambles were rampant and have been putting down suckers everywhere. I have removed most of them but will have to see if anything sprouts in a few months time, but I'll be ready with the weedkiller. I had the loppers out for the fir tree as the lower branches were also obstucted the shed door. The end result is that I didn't even open the shed to start clearing it. The brambles and branches have made a pretty good job of filling the skip anyway. The drainpipe has also been directed into the soakaway, I expect it to be tested over the weekend if the weather forecast is anything to go by.

[TheQ]

Evening awl, 

The landrovers new battery was waiting for me when I got home.  Fitted,  landrover started, much quicker than before it failed,  but I have a niggling feeling something ain't quite right. 

 

A good amount of work was carried out at the well attended MRC, though sitting contemplating what I could see,  I realized slartybartfast had got too excited with rock making, I predict production of pollyfilla dust next week. 

 

Its gusting 45mph out there.. The wind is howling around.. 

 

When I turned this on there were 28 messages showing on our" looking after our parents" messenger account.

From my sisters "According to Dad " Mum said Dad is moving to their local cottage hospital .

                               "According to Mum" Dad said Dad is moving to their local cottage hospital. 

According to my sisters,  the nurses say Dad is going home if they can arrange a care package of at least four nurse visits a day. 

Also my niece who looks after their house for my parents has an oil leak from her car, my niece is a qualified car mechanic , but shes so busy she'll probably have to put it in to be fixed. But in the meantime she can't run mum across to the general hospital to visit dad... 

 

It time to drink my choccy  bye for now.. 

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[leopardml2341]

Goodnight all.

 

Only thing to report is that it's a bit blowy out.

[Simon G]

Weather today was absolutely carp, so went into town this morning for both Mrs G and I to try to buy some new walking shoes.  She found a pair no problem, but I couldn’t find a pair to fit, as I have size 13 feet.  So I asked to order a pair of shoes which were supposedly available in size 13.  The shop assistant tried her best, but the shop (Millets) systems would only let her order sizes 7 to 12 for delivery to the store.  I had to resort to going home and ordering them online myself for delivery to the same store in a week or so.  Why their systems wouldn’t allow my size to be ordered in store completed befuddled the assistant.  To add injury to insult, my online order cost me an extra £1 for “delivery”!  I just hope that the bl**dy things actually fit comfortably when they do arrive.

 

This afternoon, I went down to the Ratty for the annual induction, this year accompanied by a written assessment for the first time.  At least everyone can travel in the knowledge that the railway has written evidence of their guard’s competence, hopefully even me now!

[Coombe Barton]

Good developments at work.

 

Many people want to use my book.

 

Now all I have to do is write it.

[brianusa]

19 hours ago, BR60103 said:

We've had a communication from one of my cousins who is on a North American trip. The plan was to visit another cousin near Boston, fly to Vancouver and return to Toronto by train. She found out that there were potential problems only when she got to Boston. When she arrived in Vancouver today she had an eMail that the train trip is off.

In a dispute about a pipeline across British Columbia, the Indigenous people are blocking the railways all across the country. Most of the passenger service is cancelled and the freight lines are laying off employees.

 

HB to Chrisf.  I just got active enough to drink the IrnBru that I got for mine -- 2 months ago today.

 

 

You don't fool around with the tribes!  Before you build anything, big or small in this area, you'd better find out if there are any remains buried.  Many's the time work has started only to be stopped by digging up bones or artifacts long buried by the local Indians years ago.

            Brian.

        

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

It’s been raining for most of the day, (it’s still raining now) sometimes it was only light rain, at other times it was a lot heavier, but luckily, each time I had to go out, it was only light rain. 

 

This morning’s Trafford Centre Grand Prix went well, I left home about 9:45 and was home just before 11:15, having visited Asda, the Trafford Centre itself, where I visited a couple of shops and the butchers! Once home, I continued working on my circuit boards and finished the 2 remaining main relay boards, which was something I didn’t expect. 

 

I was seen pretty much on time at the doctors this afternoon, it’s only a 1 1/2 mile round trip to the surgery, so despite the rain I decided to walk. I set off from home just after 2:30 for my 2:50 appointment and was back home just after 3:10! I saw a young doctor who was very easy on the eye and after a quick chat about the medication, she took my blood pressure, which she was very happy with and then filled out the prescription and emailed to the pharmacy whilst I was still sat there. I was able to collect it, along with a prescription for Sheila later in the afternoon.

 

The evening was rounded off by opening a bottle of Malbec. 

 

Goodnight all 

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Simon G said:

Weather today was absolutely carp, so went into town this morning for both Mrs G and I to try to buy some new walking shoes.  She found a pair no problem, but I couldn’t find a pair to fit, as I have size 13 feet.  So I asked to order a pair of shoes which were supposedly available in size 13.  The shop assistant tried her best, but the shop (Millets) systems would only let her order sizes 7 to 12 for delivery to the store.  I had to resort to going home and ordering them online myself for delivery to the same store in a week or so.  Why their systems wouldn’t allow my size to be ordered in store completed befuddled the assistant.  To add injury to insult, my online order cost me an extra £1 for “delivery”!  I just hope that the bl**dy things actually fit comfortably when they do arrive.

 

This afternoon, I went down to the Ratty for the annual induction, this year accompanied by a written assessment for the first time.  At least everyone can travel in the knowledge that the railway has written evidence of their guard’s competence, hopefully even me now!

Do you have a branch of BigClobber near you? Give them a try if you do. If not they also do mail order.