Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. ChrisF, you can't be the most untidiest man on the planet because that is me. Dave, our organisation SEERS has also put its AGM back to September from next week but not being a registered charity is only against its constitution. As for preserved lines Mangapps has already announced that it will remain shut until the crisis is over. Although that is not a preserved railway in the normal sense. Thats it for now, be back later.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Seconding very strongly GDB's thanks to Bill for unstinting service to us all, good on you Bill.   The Good doctor has duly returned from g her night shift at the Nuffield and reports all patients there are well although hospital rumour has it that there is a Cov-19 patient in the JR - she apparently expressed the view to various colleagues that that was hardly likely to be anything unusual that apart from the fact that there is allegedly only one patient or is the worrying bit that they contracted the virus in the hospital?

 

I think the tread about Ally Pally started to get ridiculous.  i had already decided not to go, even though I shall be getting a free ticket, because on the same advice of the medical fraternity and statistics to date I sit in a relatively high risk category and when all is said and done it is only a model railway exhibition, there'll be others later in the year.   Today Mrs Stationmaster will brave Waitrose locally for various items which can only be obtained there to match her exacting culinary standards - and provide suitable leftovers for Charlie the cat and Kevin the kite.  I shall duly collect her and we'll proceed together to Tesco to purchase items they retail which meet the same criteria (their fresh veg tends to be better quality than Waitrose's in our experience).  No panics will be bought although we might add another pack of cat litter before that also becomes the target of the black marketeers.  

 

Alas vehicular navigation around the town will be some what impaired because a concern called Zzoomm will be creating havoc digging trenches for high speed broadband connections.  Quite how they create household.business network to their cables remains a slight mystery but presumably it means coming back and digging another hole then making a connection to it.  And is it worth the cost, especially if you will still have a BT landline? -

https://zzoomm.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_cPp3-iZ6AIVwbTtCh0qpwk7EAAYASAAEgIU8PD_BwE

 

The lad has gone to a beer festival in Wantage, train to Didcot thence by 'bus.  He should be finding out on Monday quite how the company intend to manage things in his office after it has received a deep clean - they might work the GroupA/Group B system or they might use home working for as many as possible, which would include him.

 

enjoy the rest of your day one and all

[Barry O]

Malta trip has been cancelled.

 

Looking ahead the date for an ERs get together looks increasingly less likely.

 

I will suggest some new dates when the pandemic has demiced.

 

Stay warm and dry

 

Baz

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Although Jill and I are both in our 70s, my greatest concern is for my Dad, who will be 97 next week.

Having met your father at the Stafford show, I would never in a million years have thought he was 96!

 

Please remember me to him, and give him my very best wishes.

[JohnDMJ]

 

 

 

37 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Morning all,

 

Seconding very strongly GDB's thanks to Bill for unstinting service to us all, good on you Bill.

 

Thirding them, if that's an option!

 

37 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

I think the tread about Ally Pally started to get ridiculous.  i had already decided not to go, even though I shall be getting a free ticket, because on the same advice of the medical fraternity and statistics to date I sit in a relatively high risk category and when all is said and done it is only a model railway exhibition, there'll be others later in the year.

 

I see that AY has locked the thread. I see also, on farcebuk, that my colleagues seem to have taken the decision not to attend before any 'official' advice. What with that firm in Margate apparently having already pulled out, I'm pondering the viability of the show overall. If it's on, I plan to go.

 

More worrying for me is my planned and paid for trip to Amsterdam the following Wednesday albeit for just 2 nights. I was thinking of visiting 'Body Worlds' but a 7 storey exhibition with only one day in the city might be better postponed for a possible future trip. If I get there, I'll explore the city in the fresh air, provided it's neither raining too heavily nor flooded Venice-style.

Edited March 14, 2020 by JohnDMJ

[Kingzance]

Best wishes to Bill and his comrades, it is probably better that we all act to limit our risk until this thing has peaked and thereby help him and his fellow aiders. So, it turns out that my non-pandemic reason for not going to AllyPally now may not matter, and certainly not in the wider scheme of things! as to Midland Mayhem that Baz was organising, that too will “live to fight another day”.

 

On the bright side, we could all be reducing the mountain of kits we have / becoming proficient at various Modelling skills or just become alcoholics...

 

On that cheery note, adieu....

[tigerburnie]

Morning(just), was up early and went to the farmers market at Forfar, a lot of stalls missing and few punters in evidence, but the pork butchers/farmers had still sold out of joints of meat, so got some rare breed hairy coo beef and then went to Tescos. That too was quiet(seems it was chaos last night), the shelves had plenty of stuff we needed, there were no loo rolls, no baked beans and no pasta, shows what a bunch of sheep the Brits are, some idiot puts something on faceberk and everyone goes out and buys it in a panic, what a sad inditement on our society. Bacon butty now consumed and muggadecaffe is now following, stay safe all.

Edited March 14, 2020 by tigerburnie

[jamie92208]

Afternoon all (in our time zone) from a place that is still cloudy but quite bright.  Lynchings have taken place but the only things harmed are the walls which now have several more rawlplugs and screws in them.   The domestic authorities seem to be pleased with the results.  She even allowed a rather nice photo taken on a snowy day at Grosmont to be hung.   A friend gave us it, nicely mounted and framed, as a leaving present.   It shows something black and steamy heading south, and that's not from the rear of a bovine.

 

On the way to and from the chemist I noticed that the village sentinel was on it's usual perch and as I had the camera in the car I stopped to try and get a photo of it.   These are the results, both taken through the car windscreen as I didn't want to startle it by opening the car door.

This is the first attempt at about 100 yards distance.

 

The next one was taken from about 50 yards.

The law of sod meant that as I put the camera down it took off.   If I'd waited a few seconds I could have got some of it taking off.   Not anywhere near what Tigerburnie does but it's the best I've done so far.   The problem is that the light is in the wrong place on my outward journey on a morning where I could just open the drivers window and shoot.  On the return journey the light is behind me but I'm on the wrong side of the car.

 

Jamie

 

 

 

 

[Tony_S]

There is a photo opportunity like Jamie’s available in the next road. There is a hawk on top of a telegraph pole. However it isn’t real. It is supposed to deter birds. However it is just another place for pigeons to sit upon now.

Tony

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, grandadbob said:

Sainsbury's was interesting earlier. Pandemonium doesn't really do it justice,  never seen so many empty shelves. The beer and lager aisles were becoming seriously depleted!  I did manage to get what we needed.

 

Greetings one and all. 

 

A very poor attempt at a night's sleep occurred which resulted in a very late start to the day's proceedings.  I was bored last night and couldn't find anyone to play with.  Ended up heading to bed with the brain in overdrive and couldn't sleep for ages.  I hadn't long dropped off when Neighbours (Upstairs) all trooped noisily home and a rhinoceros party seemed to be in progress for a couple of hours judging by the noise and heavy feet.  At 6am I woke after dreaming that I was being suffocated by a snake biting my face and I couldn't get it away - I found myself trying to pull my own nose off   

 

The supermarket trip was completed more by luck than judgement.  With most trains across the network cancelled because the signals were out at Waterloo I happened to be ready five minutes before a train actually ran.  Waitrose was no busier than normal but lacked a number of commodities.  Tinned vegetables, fresh tomatoes, tissues (though toilet rolls were readily available) and sanitiser were absent.  Rice and dry pasta also, unless one wanted pudding rice of which there was plenty.  Most medications were missing from the shelves and the female sanitary section was stripped bare.  And cat food.  Why cat food???  There were minor scuffles over the last pack of Panadol and there was an orderly queue to be handed a 12-pack of bog-rolls.  None of the above being required here I came home with a fully-ticked list.  

 

SWMBO has submitted another chapter of her thesis for my review which shall be dealt with in the next couple of hours.  Most of the changes are as simple as excising excess commas.  

 

I'll be back later.  Unless the Fun Police get me first   

[The Stationmaster]

Mrs Stationmaster amended her shopping programme because Waitrose was very busy ('like Christmas' according to the checkout lass - so not as bad as Easter presumably? ) so she crossed Tesco off the list and got what else was on her list at Waitrose.  So the cat food and cat litter cost a bit more, but so what?   Car pick up went fairly well apart from a driver in the head of dick category who decided to pull up less than a car length ahead of me and then just sit there for whatever reason percolated into what passed for his brain.  I could no doubt have called him a silly old s*d but refrained as he might well have been younger than me

 

While the town centre car parks were both quite busy the main road into the town from the south was unusually quiet and I made a right turn across almost as easily as I could in the middle of the night.  Maybe everybody had turned off when they reached Tesco and decided to venture no further?

 

Time for sudoku

[roundhouse]

Walked past Sainsburys in Redhill and the toilet roll aisle was bare. Town very busy partly due to Northbound M23 shut to make it a dumb motorway. So is the A217 through Reigate past the bar we are currently drinking in. Pubs very quiet I guess dur to everyone either stuck in a traffic jam or loo roll hunting in supermarket. Loads of National Express coaches going pas,  probably brining people back from cancelled flights. I see Jet2 turned around a flight on its way to Spain this morning.

 

Anyway feel that I deserve a few beers after managing to complete the windows and doors using my new Silhouette cutter.

[Dave Hunt]

What a year this has been so far - shortly after posting this morning  had a 'phone call to say that a friend and Midland Railway Society colleague, John Earl, who was the Journal editor has died. He had leukaemia that had been managed by drugs for about ten years but it suddenly worsened a couple of weeks ago. To say that I'm wondering what the he*l else is going to happen in 2020 is something of an understatement.

 

Richard, thanks for the best wishes for my Dad - I've passed them on. 

 

And I add my appreciation and admiration for Bill and his colleagues - thank the Good Lord for people like him.

 

Dave

[Kingzance]

10 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

What a year this has been so far - shortly after posting this morning  had a 'phone call to say that a friend and Midland Railway Society colleague, John Earl, who was the Journal editor has died. He had leukaemia that had been managed by drugs for about ten years but it suddenly worsened a couple of weeks ago. To say that I'm wondering what the he*l else is going to happen in 2020 is something of an understatement.

 

Dave

You're having a bit of a tough time at the moment Dave, I hope that is the last of it!

[Gwiwer]

Stolen from a Facebook friend who probably got it from somewhere else.  And also posted in the Panic Buying thread just because. 

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

A'noon, from a bog roll free rock.  None at all in any of the shops in the north.   No pasta either, not that I can eat it now.  We have some, but not a lot, left.....must buy a newspaper.

 

Thank you all for the birthday and annie-verse-harry wishes, here and elsewhere. 61/36 respectively.

 

After a nice ride out on the bikes yesterday afternoon in sun, yes sun, today has returned to wind and rain. A couple of hours spent on the other thing in the garage but I have run out of ballast bond - must go to a certain shop to get some.  Sods law, I was in Peel this morning and didn't have my keys!

 

Untidiness, ah yes, I am another of life's messy pups, without the moderating influence of Mrs NHN I would be in it as deep as Chris.  If not deeper.  As it is, the garage looks like a hand grenade has gone off in there, as other than getting a bike out she doesn't go in there! 

 

 

[Gwiwer]

Bog rolls available here.  Should I send some over?  Is there any import duty?  

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, roundhouse said:

Anyway feel that I deserve a few beers after managing to complete the windows and doors using my new Silhouette cutter.

I like the mat you have photographed your station upon. A very recognizable pattern - to me at least!

 

Edited March 14, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[AndyID]

21 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Bog rolls available here.  Should I send some over?  Is there any import duty?  

 

Perhaps HH could arrange a humanitarian air drop?

 

 

Edited March 14, 2020 by AndyID
Predict this!

[AndyID]

Woke up at 4 am and remembered that I had turned the heat down in the water-system pump house. As with the snow blades I was quite a bit previous. It went down to 18F last night. I better turn the heater up a bit.

 

We did get some snow but only about half an inch. Light snow at the moment but it's supposed to stop soon. Likely to be even colder tonight than last night. I might have to panic buy beer later.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Went down to Tescoes lunchtime, not as crowded as a normal Saturday but a lot of empty shelves, no toilet rolls, no paracetamol and very little tinned goods. Another thing in short supply is pot noodles, the shelves were nearly empty as well. I don't eat pot noodles or tinned food so I'm not that bothered, I have enough food in for about a week and plenty of loo rolls. Time to put the kettle on, be back later.

[PhilJ W]

Ooops nearly forgot.>>

[J. S. Bach]

59 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Ooops nearly forgot.>>

Reaching those top ones just might be a problem!

 

Edit: Why is one mounted at an angle?

Edited March 14, 2020 by J. S. Bach

[Ozexpatriate]

Happy "pi" day (3/14) in US numbering.

 

We had freezing temperatures last night, so overnight the snow stuck. This is a field near the house.

As you can see, we didn't get a lot, but even a little is quite transformative. Everything was still - except for the sound of melting. It was melting fast and would be gone by now had it not started snowing again - quite heavily at one point with very large wet flakes, some of them at least 2" in diameter.

 

I think this is the first sticking snow in two winter seasons. I don't think we had any at all in the winter of 2018/19. It's absurd getting it this late in the season (though it's normal to get mountain snow for a couple of months yet).

 

It is supposed to be above 15°C on St. Patrick's day.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

Reaching those top ones just might be a problem!

 

Edit: Why is one mounted at an angle?

Some seem to be the “wrong way round”.