Early Risers.

[Kingzance]

33 minutes ago, The Lurker said:Rugby has changed so much I rarely watch it now. I lost interest in it during its previous sojourn on Sky. I look out for the results.

 

 

 

 

Sport always seemed to stir deep tribal feelings and little has changed. Some supporters feel empowered by the event to act stupidly and sometimes violently. This is in part a reflection on our society. It isn’t just rugby either, look at soccer and even how some idiots have to shout “get in the hole” before a player hits his / her ball - or the behaviour of the cricket fanatics known as The Barmy Army. It won’t change back now so you and I may just mourn that which has passed.

[Tony_S]

41 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

I take it Tom and Jerry were banned?

Aditi didn’t really like cats so probably wouldn’t have cared about Tom being beaten up. I don’t think we saw any Tom and Jerry when Matthew was little.  However he soon was seeing most of the Disney films and loads of Thomas. And Pingu didn’t make him delinquent either. I think being an elderly first time parent made Aditi a bit anxious initially. 

[BoD]

ChrisF:  had you heard that Dublin has cancelled its St Patrick's Day parade? They must be very concerned (or cautious) to allow that to happen. Still, there's plenty of time for things to change between now and the end of June.

Edited March 9, 2020 by BoD

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon all,

 

It's raining.  But it wasn't when we popped down to Tesco for the 'paper and various odds & ends. Interestingly, and usefully because our stock level is starting to decline they not only had some of out favoured brand of bog roll but there was an offer available (saving £1.58 in total) if you bought two x 9 roll packs, so we did.  Weird seeing a special offer when the stuff is supposedly being panic bought by the ton but presumably as a large percentage of Mr& Mrs Somebody now has their own little bog roll hillock, if not a mountain, maybe the stuff is no longer selling?

 

On a very different front the week before last Mrs Stationmaster lighted across a link posted on Farcebook by somebody she knows well about  making a claim for Marriage Allowance.  Without consulting me she duly filled in various - fairly limited - information and pressed 'send' before she decided to ask herself, and me, if she had done the right thing?  When I asked her if it was the HMRC website she seemed not to know so I duly googled Marriage Allowance and the top link on the page was to the website she had sent details to.  The HMCRC site was several lines down (it isn't now, the other one seems to have vanished).  Basically all she'd given them was her name and address (that was bad enough of course) and the next step would be for them to send the relevant claim form authorising them to make the claim on our behalf.  Further investigation around the 'net revealed these twisting bunch of carpet baggers pocket 42% of the money realised!!

 

So I then showed herself how to make a proper claim via the HMRC site.  As she had already checked her status regarding tax it looked like we had a valid claim so I banged one in.  The claim form from the shysters arrived early last week and gave the  shredder something to do for a minute or two - they needed both names and both NI numbers and of course never got them so they lost out on their little wheeze.     As far as the real claim via HMRC is concerned their cheque, for the full amount of course, arrived in today's post and as we went back through all the years we could - a very simple process which takes a no more than a minute or two - £800+ will be going into the bank as soon as I pay the cheque in and it is cleared.   So definitely worth doing if you're a married couple and you think you've possibly got a claim (i.e.one of you isn't paying Income Tax) get in now before the end of the tax year as they only go back so far and you lose a year every new tax year. 

 

Enjoy the rest of your day folks

[newbryford]

16 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Dare you to post that on Wright writes.

 

He'll only complain about the incorrect headlamp code......

[The Lurker]

3 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Aditi didn’t really like cats so probably wouldn’t have cared about Tom being beaten up. I don’t think we saw any Tom and Jerry when Matthew was little.  However he soon was seeing most of the Disney films and loads of Thomas. And Pingu didn’t make him delinquent either. I think being an elderly first time parent made Aditi a bit anxious initially. 

I bought myself a dvd box set for a trip down memory lane when elder Lurker was about 6. He found them hilarious and commandeered them for his own room when he was given a telly in later year so 

[Ian Abel]

Morning... recovering from a busy weekend, mostly recovering from overindulging on food and wine yesterday at the delayed family birthday celebration...

 

Trip home Friday seemed uneventful with us wonderfully early - UNTIL - I realized I'd left my cell phone in the taxi

Fortunately the guy found it and called to let me know he had it, although he was back at the airport taxi queue by then. So, a late night, 10pm drive to the taxi queue to retrieve said article!

 

Saturday, mostly errands/shopping (NOT for millions of bog rolls I hasten to add) for the making of both dinner for the evening, and various items for the upcoming birthday gathering on Sunday, including ingredients for a cheese cake which was made with the Mrs help. She usually makes it herself, but, having had a 10 day case of a sinus infection and generally only just recovering to 100%, I was there to help.

 

Clocks duly forwarded, and Sunday arrived much as it usually does, on time

Event #1 was lunch with friends on the way to dropping them off at the airport.

Event #2 the family arrived to celebrate my birthday, Indian meal duly ordered/collected while we (mostly ME) consumed probably too much wine!

The cake only had 5 candles, it's not ACTUALLY ON FIRE, just the way the picture looks  

 

Today, rather "fragile", then again there's no point NOT enjoying yourself, is there

 

Weekend temperature was around 10-12 and most of the snow has gone.

Down to ZERO for the morning temperature and overcast, expecting only about +3 for the high.

 

Enjoy the day.

 

 

[chrisf]

2 hours ago, BoD said:

ChrisF:  had you heard that Dublin has cancelled its St Patrick's Day parade? They must be very concerned (or cautious) to allow that to happen. Still, there's plenty of time for things to change between now and the end of June.

 

I had, thanks.  I am in touch with Pride admin.

 

Chris

[Ozexpatriate]

7 hours ago, tetsudofan said:

Surely its Danish,  Danish steam locos have the red ring on the chimney

I went looking online for Continental locomotives - Danish in particular, given the LEGO Group's homeland. I couldn't find any but the German ones. Searching for 0-6-0 tank locomotives found more British examples than anything, even when specifying German or Danish.

 

Perhaps I needed to search using Danish words to get the right answers.

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, The Lurker said:

before that LEGO made trains. The rails were bright blue. you had to assemble them on to sleepers. 

Now that you mention it, I remember the blue track. A childhood friend had some and that was certainly more than 40 years ago. 40 years ago we were teenagers and certainly weren't playing with his LEGO. At that point he was close to getting his driving licence.

 

Looking at the link to set 7810 mentioned by @Compound2632 above, the anniversary is a specific reference to the "LEGO Trains" theme which was apparently introduced in 1980. They have changed their trains so many times over the years.

 

Apparently the blue track dates back to 1966 and was retired in 1978 with new system being introduced in 1980.

 

Edited March 9, 2020 by Ozexpatriate
LEGO Trains Theme - 1980

[Tony_S]

We did have Duplo trains but Matthew really liked his Brio trains. 
Tony

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, Ian Abel said:

I realized I'd left my cell phone in the taxi.

Fortunately the guy found it and called to let me know he had it, although he was back at the airport taxi queue by then. So, a late night, 10pm drive to the taxi queue to retrieve said article!

I'm guessing you called your telephone from home?

 

I'm glad it worked out. On the DFW SkyTrain (or whatever it's called) a gent departed leaving his mobile on the seat. It soon rang. I answered it. The people calling appeared to be relatives and I told them I would leave it with airport staff which proved harder than I thought it might while I was rushing to make a connection. I left it with someone at an information desk.

[Ian Abel]

2 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I'm guessing you called your telephone from home?

Indeed, but standard practice for me (your mileage may vary) is to put my phone on silent mode on the plane, so it was still that way, it'd just have vibrated, even though I called it several times.

The cab driver saw it once he was parked in the queue and just sorting out/cleaning his cab.

[Ozexpatriate]

7 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Matthew really liked his Brio trains

When my son was very young we had a surplus coffee table that at one point had inserts for two mirrored glass panels. (One of these  glass panels had broken.) I built a frame that nestled into the mirror openings with an edged, green painted, plywood surface overall, which formed the baseboard for a Brio layout. At that point in time, the Thomas the Tank Engine wooden railway was new and did not offer their faux-sleepered tracks. So it was Thomas rolling stock on Brio tracks at the right play height.

 

I could say this was the first "fixed" layout I actually constructed.

 

Edited March 9, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[J. S. Bach]

9 hours ago, TheQ said:

Of course the problem is they all stand around and say "who's going to be mayor"? and then all take one pace backwards..

Been there, done that! Not as a mayorial choice, thankfully.

[Talltim]

3 hours ago, BoD said:

ChrisF:  had you heard that Dublin has cancelled its St Patrick's Day parade? They must be very concerned (or cautious) to allow that to happen. Still, there's plenty of time for things to change between now and the end of June.

My friend was very put out, he only became an Irish citizen last week

[polybear]

Let's see now....

The latest from the UK Government, according to BBC News:

 

People who show "even minor" signs of respiratory tract infections or a fever will soon be told to self-isolate in an effort to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.

The UK government's chief medical adviser said the change in advice could happen within the next 10 to 14 days.

 

So what's wrong with giving people that advice instruction now?

So we have to wait until it's bad enough before taking action to stop it getting bad?

 

Am I missing something here, or are these Bozo's really are a totally clueless bunch of brainless F.Wits?

[J. S. Bach]

13 minutes ago, polybear said:

Let's see now.... ...snip... or are these Bozo's really are a totally clueless bunch of brainless F.Wits?

Yes.

[J. S. Bach]

13 hours ago, chrisf said:

Good morning one and all ...snip... I never thought I would say this but I am seriously considering a cull.  I hate to throw anything away but needs must.  It is a daunting prospect.  Is there anything in the run if this or that comic that I want to keep?  I should hate to dump the whole lot in the recycling bin only to find,  ...snip... Best wishes to all

Chris

Chris,

 Before you haul them off to the dumpster consider donating them to a children's' hospital, library, any waiting room, or other similar places. I once acquired about a dozen issues of a UK model train magazine (the one put out by PECO; the name escapes me) and an issue of the Hornby magazine (it had a rundown on the BR MK1 equipment)   brought over here by a fellow insulator collector and put on the free table. After reading and enjoying them, I saved three of the PECOs plus the Hornby and took the ones that I did not want to the local library's free table. Within a month or so they were gone.

Edited March 9, 2020 by J. S. Bach

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Mike, the tax scam that you mentioned has been going on for years but 42% is being greedy, even the 'We will claim your PPI back for you' shysters only charged 25%.

18 minutes ago, polybear said:

Let's see now....

The latest from the UK Government, according to BBC News:

 

People who show "even minor" signs of respiratory tract infections or a fever will soon be told to self-isolate in an effort to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.

The UK government's chief medical adviser said the change in advice could happen within the next 10 to 14 days.

 

So what's wrong with giving people that advice instruction now?

So we have to wait until it's bad enough before taking action to stop it getting bad?

 

Am I missing something here, or are these Bozo's really are a totally clueless bunch of brainless F.Wits?

 

3 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Yes.

I've had sniffles on and off since October as I have had for the past few winters. Its a normal part of growing old, I'm now 71. The symptoms are very much the same so how will I know?

[PhilJ W]

3 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Chris,

 Before you haul them off to the dumpster consider donating them to a children's' hospital, library, any waiting room, or other similar places. I once acquired about a dozen issues of a UK model train magazine (the one put out by PECO; the name escapes me) brought over here by a fellow insulator collector and put on the free table. After reading and enjoying them, I saved three and took the ones that I did not want to the local library's free table. Within a month or so they were gone.

That would be the Railway Modeller, just celebrated its 70th birthday. I suspect it being foreign had something to do with it. Mags like Model Railroader are more likely to be taken if offered on this side of the pond as well.

[Tony_S]

One of the medications I have recently been prescribed gives about 20% of people a cough as a side effect. I seem to be in that 20%. Will I need to carry a pass to go out?

[PhilJ W]

If you find yourself at the back of a long queue just say "I've had this cough since I returned from Italy." and you will soon find yourself at the front of the queue.

[Talltim]

20 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:.

Saturday saw me "modelling" assembling No. 7810.  No, LEGO have not beaten Dapol to the post. It doesn't look anything like "Draycott Manor". 

 

Apparently LEGO systems trains are 40 years old. This commemorates that milestone.

 

It looks very German. If it's going to carry 7810 it needs some brass work somewhere. Maybe a coppercap?

 

What £100 of Lego did you buy to get that?
 

(Link to post about model) https://www.facebook.com/groups/18854918656/permalink/10157285459798657/

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, Talltim said:

What £100 of Lego did you buy to get that?

The new LEGO Creator Fiat 500 model (10271) with some odds and ends. A US$99 purchase is required here.