Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Here it is as it is now.>>

[tetsudofan]

Today was the first time I've been out on the public highway since Thursday last week. At 8:05am this morning I joined the old foggies queue at the out=of-town Sainsburys and, after circumnavigating the adjacent empty McDonalds,  30 minutes later was given access to the store. Once in the store it was shopping bliss, not many people about and many filled shelves since my last visit. Managed to get some milk both fresh and long-life, deli and dairy products, crisps, bakery items (including some Belgium buns normally gold dust at this branch of Sainsburys), all the fruit and salad items on my list and a pack of loo rolls which was not on my list but as it was standing all on its own took pity on it and placed it on my trolley. Only Item I couldn't get was a couple of tins of Sainsburys baked beans and sausages. Check out was reasonably quick, only difference was that the till did not accept cash, all transactions had to be done by card and, after that,  by 9:35am was on my way home.

 

Later this morning decided to walk round to the pharmacy attached to the doctor's surgery to collect a prescription ordered on Monday. After waiting about 20 minutes got to the front of the orderly queue and found that they had the prescription but had prepared the items. Returned outside to wait for another 10 minutes or so whilst they prepared the necessary.

 

The afternoon, as it has been for the last week or so, was spent in the garden. Last week before lockdown managed to cut the grass and get the cuttings up to the local Dump. Was quite pleased to see that I managed some straight lines on the grass:

 

 

Since then I've been deadheading the daffodils and started to weed and tidy-up the other flower beds. It's time consuming but then, weather permitting, like everybody else I've got plenty of time.

 

Time for bed soon, pleasant dreams,

 

Keith

[Coombe Barton]

And spotting the place with humans who do NOT have the virus.

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/03/27/brain-fade/

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well I never did any gardening today, instead I decided that since I’ve just pressure washed the patio, it might be a good time to apply some sealant/enhancer to it. I bought this last year and intended applying it then, but it rained constantly on and off. It needed to go on a dry surface and with no prospect of rain, the current weather has been perfect for the job. I managed the first coat before dinner and a second after dinner. However, once it was on, it did mean that I couldn’t walk on it, meaning the workshop was out of bounds, so I went to the cellar and started painting the inner cellar door. One side has now had 2 coats of undercoat/primer applied and is now ready for turning over to do the other side at some point in time. 

 

Once I’d finished that I did a bit more soldering and finished the 4 point relay boards. I then tested all 30 of them and found 4 that didn’t work properly, 3 of these worked if you manually changed the relay contacts, so I think they may just need adjusting. The 4th board the relay worked, but there was no output, so a little bit more investigation work is required there. I suspect there is probably a dry joint somewhere, or maybe faulty capacitors. This morning the postman delivered my latest MERG order, luckily I’d put it in before they closed the kit store for the duration of the current lockdown, I now have a few more kits than I can occupy myself with during the time being. 

 

The evening was rounded off by catching up with some recorded TV accompanied with a bottle of red. 

 

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[laurenceb]

No G so no G word. Been catalaloguing books. 1500 done x to go.

Night awl

[J. S. Bach]

No lawn cutting today, too darn lazy! Anyway, good night owl from the Piedmont.

[roundhouse]

Morning

 

Been in the shed working on the lamp store. After putting the first bit of the roof on I relaised that I had made a mistake htinking that on plan it was rectangular but then the penny dropped as the rood is square. Luckily it was an easy alteration. Whilst doing that I watched BBC's CLick. All about the race to develop cheaper more quickly to produce ventilators. All good that tech is coming together around the world to develop such devices.

 

Today we go for our first walk / food scavenging since Monday. I Sainsburys is busy then we will give it a miss till Monday.

 

Stay safe everyone.

[TheQ]

Mooring awl inner Temple Hare 5/84.

A very good nights sleep,  nearly 7 hours,  the first time I've left the bed in daylight for a very long time. 

 

I noticed on yesterday's trip out,  that vegetation was growing rapidly,  poppies are flowering by the road side,  many more trees are flowering.  I'll miss that part of the trip to work which at this time of year is lined with flowering trees of different colours.. Though next week I need to go to the bank,  10 miles away which will take me that way.. 

 

The wind has got quite strong out there,  not quite howling round the house,  but you can hear it easily. 

No doubt brown eyes will summon me shortly,  at that point I'll confirm if it's bonfire day.. 

 

Otherwise than that it's finish off the garage window,  I suspect any keel work will have to be inside,  no sitting outside in the sun with this cold wind.. 

 

Time I think to move,  it's Saturday and it's bacon and eggs for breakfast.  But first it's patrol time... 

 

 

Edited March 28, 2020 by TheQ

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

But for that ruddy virus I would have been on my way to Wakefield for Scalefour North.  It is little comfort that I have been spared up to three hours on the A1 and its tributaries.  A few years ago it took longer than that, for there was a fatal accident on the A1 west of Stamford that happened right in front of me.  After an hour and a half I was on the move again - south along the northbound carriageway to the next junction, as instructed by the police, through the medieval streets of Stamford, rejoin the A1 and whoosh.  I got the last parking space at QEGS [Queen Elizabeth Grammar Schoool, the show venue] but missed the start of the bring and buy, giving the usual plague of locusts free rein.

 

The latest casualties in the world that I inhabit include Cambridge folk festival.  From the direction of Sidmouth there is a deafening silence around the festival but it's not looking good.  Already one of my pit stops on the way home from Sidmouth, Railwells, has bitten the dust.  For some strange reason my first attempt at typing 'Railwells' came out as 'rissoles'.  Does anyone eat rissoles these days?  They depend for their existence on left-over Sunday roast, a mincing machine and partially forgotten culinary skills.  The mass of events deferred to September is likely to lead to a very crowded diary and some agonising decisions, for there are only four weekends in September.  As always, we shall see what happens, or does not happen.

 

I might just run the gauntlet at one of the supermarkets this morning, or the market.  I like to have breakfast out on a Saturday but that pleasure is one of many not available for the duration.  You don't know what you've got till it's gone.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[roundhouse]

I am hoping that events in September can conitnue as we have our next show in Scousepool followed by Woking with the new layout, possibly Seaboard show as in reserve, then Worthing.

 

I very much doubt that we will be heading across the pond in July hence none of the internal transport has been booked.

 

Just asked about cooked breakfast but I have to wait till Sunday for that.

[Ozexpatriate]

4 minutes ago, roundhouse said:

I very much doubt that we will be heading across the pond in July

I was optimistic that might still be possible and would not entirely give up on the possibility though we need to see a peak in case rate. We are not there yet. With some increased testing (still not enough for everyone) the confirmed case rate is increasing rapidly right now.

 

COVID-19 seems to have burned through Wuhan in about 4 months - depending on when you start counting. Here in Oregon we are a month or so in. The Oregon Health Authority formed their incident response team on January 21. Our first local case occurred on February 28. The first of several escalating executive orders was issued by the Governor on March 8. I can see some relaxing of circumstances by the 4th of July, but admittedly that's a hopeful outlook.

[polybear]

11 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

For those home schooling - feel free to pass it on

 

You may already know these, but…

 

My university as given some links to help those who are home schooling. I’ve posted this on a couple of community forums. (credit: Birmingham City University)

 

For people trying to balance work with childcare and home-schooling, there’s some help at hand. A host of well-known faces are offering their assistance with keeping your kids educated and entertained, whether it’s English, Maths, Music, PE and more. They’re also absolutely free.

 

Now when can we see some loco kit construction lessons instead of Corrie?

 

11 hours ago, 81C said:

......there were a few looking down their nose at people with  trolleys but they have locked up the larger ones,

 

At last - common sense....

[jamie92208]

Good morning all.  Still sunny here but cooler.  The main news iscthat isolation has been extended  to the 15th April with a strong possibility that it will go to the 28th.  Fortunately I have good stocksvof solder and flux and as a household we already gave most of next years fuel supply so this cold snap is not a problem.  

 

Therecare various bits of tidying up to do from yesterdays tree felling and the 2022/3 log pile will be started.  

 

Not a lot else to report except that one large crop sprayer has already gone past. Of course thecmost important  vehicle to watch for is the little yellow La Poste van which hopefully be bringing some railway related reading.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, chrisf said:

Does anyone eat rissoles these days?  They depend for their existence on left-over Sunday roast, a mincing machine and partially forgotten culinary skills.

Food associated the the name "rissole" is regularly consumed in Australia, though these are made with mince / ground beef and then cooked rather than using pre-cooked roast.

 

Per "The Castle" (highly recommended if you've not seen it). And a recipe.

 

Quote

Everybody cooks rissoles darl.

 

Sometimes the term is used indistinguishably from what, in the US, would be called a hamburger, or even a meatball.

 

Edited March 28, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Sun is shining but very cloudy over the North West Leeds Highlands  this morning.

Slept like a log, her indoors woke me up as she went to make a mugatea.

 

I have a feeling domestic orders are about to be issued so TTFN.

Baz

[iL Dottore]

11 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

...They are now enthusiastic supporters of open floor plan / bull-pen, hot desk arrangements with noise cancelling headsets for people working on the telephone laptop audio (since the hotdesk concept does away with actual telephones). Nobody likes this arrangement, except for facilities people and companies who sell modern "workspace" furniture.

This sort of thing has never been about productivity or communication, but all about status and the need to establish authority and to control people (even though a recent study from Harvard Business school not only showed that open plan/hot desking/cubicle farms are actually counterproductive and decrease efficiency/interaction/productivity). This, like many bad business ideas, comes to us from the US. Oddly enough, for a supposedly egalitarian country, the Americans are incredibly sensitive to the pecking order within a business. Office/No Office, makes decisions/not allowed to make decisions, parks near the front door/parks at the back of the parking lot, etc., etc.  I remember an instance when our newly promoted head of department (for the European affiliate of an American company) moved into a corner office without explicit and specific permission from HQ in New York. To say that this ruffled a few American feathers further up the food chain in NY is an understatement (and don't get me started on a US Company - Swiss Company joint collaboration on a project that I took part in, suffice to say that decision making in the Swiss Company was pushed down to lowest possible level [i.e. at the level of the people doing the work] whereas our counterparts in the American team had to push decision making up the food chain... Needless to say this resulted in delays in decision making when (far too often) the senior VP for this or that couldn't be found [a.k.a. "no available slots in his/her schedule"] and the Swiss team had to sit around and twiddle our thumbs as we couldn't progress without "buy-in" from the US team....)

Jobs, Musk, Zuckerberg, Gates, etc. may all superficially pay lip service to "an open and progressive company culture" - but you don't see them hot desking or having to negotiate for a "quiet space" in order to get work done/have a confidential meeting. And as for the American mantra of "profit at any cost...."

[45156]

Morning All

 

Just a quick one, as 30747 and Lily have gone out for their daily walk - I take the afternoon one. 

 

As usual, all posts are read, rated, and noted.  And lockdown greetings are on offer as usual.

 

More fencing today, then resting up, as all this physical work is making us both tired.  Tomorrow, we need to do some paperwork - that never seems to end. 

 

Back later probably.

Regards to All

Stewart

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Sunshine and blue sky over GDB Towers again but it may cloud over later.

Although The Boss perked up for a while yesterday she seems to have gone backwards now and is still feeling very rough. 

Our supply situation is very good as she hasn't been eating much at all and I've certainly cut down considerably on my usual quantity, particularly "snacking" between meals.  This is in fact no bad thing as I could do with losing some weight and am not getting much exercise to help that situation.

Spoke to Nicki last night on Facetime and she's looking really tired. She was in an office with several others which meant that social distancing was difficult but they've now found her a "cupboard" where she will at least be away from other people.  Her big worry is of course picking up the  virus and taking it home to the kids, particularly Joe as he is Type 1 diabetic.

Not sure what today will bring but I suspect I'll need to fire up the washing machine and do a bit of housework.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Oddly enough, for a supposedly egalitarian country, the Americans are incredibly sensitive to the pecking order within a business. Office/No Office, makes decisions/not allowed to make decisions, parks near the front door/parks at the back of the parking lot, etc., etc. 

Corporate culture does vary by company and location and I'm sure there are US companies like this. In my experience it is less true of west-coast headquartered companies in the 'tech' industry.  I have often seen significant business decisions pushed very low down the organization, though spending approvals will be stratified though the levels of management. This gets worse when a company's financial growth is marginal.

 

In my experience, the corporate culture with the most slavish attention to pecking order is in India.

[Tony_S]

Good morning.

 It is sunny and breezy here. No idea of temperature as I haven’t been out. The hearing came on so it may have been cold out.

Aditi made an online grocery order a couple of weeks ago to be delivered next week. She had to amend it yesterday as she had ordered too many vegetables. Max of 6 varieties now, so the aubergines were eliminated to save the bag of potatoes.

 Not going anywhere today!

Tony

[Coombe Barton]

Cold here. Brisk nor-easter. Logs are being delivered today, hopefully, so the woodturner has a good chance of becoming active. The burning off smell, which I've been warned about, may require the opening of windows.

 

My exercise today should be shifting a couple of tons of logs.

 

My mental exercise will be getting some videos loaded for Monday.

 

And all this talk of bacon and eggs is encouraging me to do likewise.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. According to the forecast its going to be cold, and tomorrow even colder, not that I'm likely to venture outside. Now time to run a bath, be back later