Early Risers.

[southern42]

' morning all from red dragon land.

Hope everyone is well and glad to hear Mrs GDB is feeling better.

 

Patches of blue sky are now bigger patches of blue sky and we are getting a bit more sunshine.  It is still cold out there.

 

The lawn (that is what we call it, anyway!) is slowly coming along.  Rubbish areas are being dug up, the dirt sifted of stones and transferred to other places to level it out ready for some grass seed - fortunately, we have a box left over from last year.  Stones and unusable lumps of grass are being bagged up ready for the re-opening of the recycling centre...whenever...

 

I did suggest, to suit my supervisory position, you understand,  I should wear my bowler hat out there... Not sure it went down very well...Was that a smile, I saw?  Youngest's FDNYPD baseball cap does me fine - keeps the hair out of my eyes while I am bending up and down doing whatever is required.  One way to keep fit and we can stay where we are.  I echo Jamie's point - we are lucky not to live in a built up area.

Bike ride not attempted, yesterday - water drops from above and the increasing northerly wind, eventually, drove us in for a cuppa.  We had had enough by then, anyway.

 

Work on my 9642 is progressing.  This is greatly improving my knowledge of m*d*ll*ing or, rather, why it takes so long - it is all the think.....ing, wait....................ing (glue to dry, items to arrive...) and try, try, try agains....but I love it!

 

Take care all and keep safe.

_____________

Best wishes

Polly

[Barry O]

Lummy ..just being "snowing" here!

(Well little bits of white stuff fell from the sky)

Baz

[grandadbob]

I'm glad to report that The Boss is feeling a bit better this morning, so much so that when she came downstairs she asked me what I wanted for breakfast and immediately went into Head Cook mode. Bacon, eggs, tomatoes toast and marmalade greatly enjoyed by yours truly. She only had some orange juice and a couple bits of toast  but that's two more than she has had for the past few days. After that she loaded the washing machine but I told her to slow down because she's still not 100% and is still a little bit wobbly on her pins. However she totally ignored me and has done a couple of other small tasks and it would appear is intending to eat tonight as some chicken thighs have been removed from the freezer to thaw.

I decided to be helpful and cleaned the hob. Whilst removing the knobs to clean under them a small plastic washer pinged off and went down into the bowels of the thing. Got a torch and could just see it through the hole.  Long thin tweezers couldn't get to it but I eventually managed to get hold of it with a long thin screwdriver with a bit of UHU glue on the end. I think that's the end of me being helpful for today!

Another mugacoffee called for.

[Rugd1022]

26 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Lummy ..just being "snowing" here!

(Well little bits of white stuff fell from the sky)

Baz

 

A slight smattering of it hereabouts half an hour ago, most odd. Sunshine and fluffy clouds now, good old England!

 

Herself has dusted off our breadmaker and the house is slowly filling with the aroma of its contents, lovely. Amid the surreal quietness beyond the front door (even for a Sunday) and the dripfeed of awful news from all corners of the globe, in a strange way life sort of bumbles along. It has to really doesn't it...? My brother and I both being drivers on the big railway are still working pretty much as normal, sister no.1 and her chap are both working from home, sister no.2 is a cook at her nursery so still has to go in. Cousin no.1 is an NHS administrator down in Kent so has to be there to keep things moving for her hard working staff, her older sister / cousin no.2  and her hubby are both in the music biz in London and work from home as normal. They became grandparents last week so it's all go for them in a different way of course.

 

Stay safe all and don't forget to wash behind ya lug'oles...!

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Good to hear that Mrs GDB is on the mend, which will no doubt come as a mixed blessing for himself who will of course be greatly relieved that she is getting better while harbouring concerns about the content of the daily orders to come.  But I bet I know what is uppermost in Bob's mind so good news.

 

Ah now the changing of clocks - which thoroughly confused herself this morning when she delivered my tea (in bed) at the usual time only to see the auto-changeover clock said 10.00 - which she said 'must be wrong' (it wasn't).  The odd thing about changing the position of the hands of a clock (or what digits in display in the modern version) is that it doesn't create any more daylight - it simply moves it to what we perceive from a clock as a different time.  But for many folk in the past, and still some today even in our modern society, what matters is the daylight and not what the clock says - for example the farmers in my family always did the milking and moved cattle about or got the harvest in according to the state of daylight so their working day changed (in clock hour terms) round the year.

 

Oddly I long ago found that train punctuality dipped when the clocks changed in the autumn and some years when I was running a large passenger yard the arrival of 'fall back' knocked seven kinds of everything out of getting commuter sets out on time of an evening.  On the other hand when we went through the 'experiment' of not changing the clocks the punctuality dip didn't occur as people adjusted naturally to the move of sunset.  So for practical reasons I think changing the clocks is daft because unless you compress the school (for example) day the children are bound to go one way or the other in poor light.  

 

However just to add a bit of spice to things in my final 'big railway' job I 'enjoyed'  the dubious delights of working with four blasted clock changes (two of which each meant an additional timetable change) every year until the EU took the eminently sensible step of synchronising the clock change date across all EU countries - a brilliant, but very simple, idea.

 

Enjoy the rest of your day one and all and stay safe.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Late out of bed this morning, but I'm going to spend most of the day outside again. I'm going to make the most of the current sunshine, although there isn't much more I can do until I can take the rubbish to the tip. 

 

Stay safe, back later. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Chris, many years ago I created a strawberry planter out of an old composter. The composter was made up of plastic rings and the bottom ring containing the hatch by which the compost was removed had disintegrated. I used the remains to make the planter which was two feet high and the same diameter. I then filled it with compost and planted a dozen or so strawberry plants. It continued to give a good healthy crop until I moved house. Glad to hear Mrs. GDB is on the mend, hope it continues.

[Tony_S]

55 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

A slight smattering of it hereabouts half an hour ago, most odd. Sunshine and fluffy clouds now, good old England!

 

Herself has dusted off our breadmaker and the house is slowly filling with the aroma of its contents, lovely. Amid the surreal quietness beyond the front door (even for a Sunday) and the dripfeed of awful news from all corners of the globe, in a strange way life sort of bumbles along. It has to really doesn't it...? My brother and I both being drivers on the big railway are still working pretty much as normal, sister no.1 and her chap are both working from home, sister no.2 is a cook at her nursery so still has to go in. Cousin no.1 is an NHS administrator down in Kent so has to be there to keep things moving for her hard working staff, her older sister / cousin no.2  and her hubby are both in the music biz in London and work from home as normal. They became grandparents last week so it's all go for them in a different way of course.

 

Stay safe all and don't forget to wash behind ya lug'oles...!

Rather dark clouds appearing here from a vaguely north direction. As Aditi has relatives (and friends) in many other countries we are in receipt of lots of news. Also we are aware from the doctors in the family about how  the current situation varies across England (don’t have any medical relatives in other parts of the UK!). 
Tony

[5 C]

Afternoon awl is it is now.

 

Yesterday was indeed spent doing some of the G word. A vigorous raking of the lawns is as much exercise as I've done in weeks and the slight muscle soreness I felt this morning was proof of that. Washing and assorted housework also done but sadly no muddling.

 

I decided to venture out to the local Aldi earlier to give the car and its new tyres a run since they haven't turned a wheel in nearly a week. There was no queue outside and plenty of parking spaces. A quick whizz round to pick up various bits I usually get from there and a short, socially distanced queue at the till. As a singleton, I'm a basket only shopper and as is the norm, deposited my basket at the usual place at the start of the conveyor once unloaded. I began decanting the purchases into my bag as usual until the cashier told me that I couldn't stand and pack there. I was rather non plussed and asked what I was expected to do. The security guard brought me over another empty basket so I could fill that and take it to the packing bench. Quite what the difference between that and my bag or indeed a trolley was I don't know. I clearly wasn't the only person caught out by this new process and while I don't have a problem with it, some signage might have been nice.

 

Yesterday I had an ear worm. A line in a song from late summer 1978 popped into my head. Maybe it was triggered by the impending clock change or a subconscious desire to be back in a time when life was less complicated. The result can be seen over on the "Recently/currently listening to" thread.

 

Regards to awl.

[The Lurker]

On 28/03/2020 at 11:33, AndrewC said:

Morning all from the borough of boring. Up and out at the crack of wtf this morning. SWMBO needed a few things from the shops. Sod that. Sainsbury’s at 07:55 had well over 200 people queued out the door waiting for a now later public opening. I did manage to get a tank o diesel for £1.08/l. We stopped at a tiny Co-op on the way back and managed to get just about everything. Should have stopped there first. Even the little Turkish grocery near us had a queue. Lidl looked stupid busy as well. Staying home now. Beer delivery from our local brewer expected. 

 

Enjoy the day. 

The Co-op by Sidcup station had no queues and was reasonably well stocked (fresh bread) and the Waitrose on Sidcup High St had a small queue but was very well stocked and was having another delivery while I queued yesterday. The queue at Morrison’s (as featured on the BBC) went right round their large car park.

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup where today we have had rain hail and snow. Good old British Summertime!

 

Mrs Lurker is still coughing, mainly at night and is a bit breathless at times. No raised temperature but she has had herself taken off the rota at school for 2 weeks; it’s now we find that someone had used all the paracetamol in the cupboard but left the empty packs there. It will have been Elder Lurker as my drug of choice is ibuprofen (but won’t be if I succumb to the Covid 19). I will visit a pharmacy tomorrow to pick up a couple of packs.

 

the rest of us are still well and Mrs Lurker is continuing to do the normal Sunday things; the smell of a roast is currently permeating the house.

 

stay well all 

[bbishop]

4 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

Greetings all from Sidcup where today we have had rain hail and snow. Good old British Summertime!

 

Mrs Lurker is still coughing, mainly at night and is a bit breathless at times. No raised temperature but she has had herself taken off the rota at school for 2 weeks; it’s now we find that someone had used all the paracetamol in the cupboard but left the empty packs there. It will have been Elder Lurker as my drug of choice is ibuprofen (but won’t be if I succumb to the Covid 19). I will visit a pharmacy tomorrow to pick up a couple of packs.

 

the rest of us are still well and Mrs Lurker is continuing to do the normal Sunday things; the smell of a roast is currently permeating the house.

 

stay well all 

 

Dry cough or wet cough?  Bill

[Happy Hippo]

I get dry coughs on a regular basis, which can be annoying.

 

The source is usually some sort of dust or very dry food.

 

I recently changed my Muesli, but found that it was both a bit dusty and it had a high nut content.

 

I like chewing on Brasil nuts, but have found this irritates and I end up coughing.

 

Not an allergy but an intolerance.

 

I've stopped eating them at present, mainly to reassure others.

 

More gardening is on the cards over the next few days as parts of the the Hippodrome grounds are more like an industrial waste land than a Capability Brown inspired Grand Design

[Gwiwer]

Greetings one and all.  Sun-day is failing to live up to its name Upon the Hill of Strawberries.  We were snowed upon during our pre-lunch walk and for some moments it was quite heavy.  Polar snow too, formed of glassy chunks, not the white fluffy stuff which is called Temperate snow.   The weather is coming from somewhere very cold indeed and is forecast to do so for a couple of days yet.

 

I booked an Ocado delivery a couple of weeks back just as all the shennanigans was kicking off.  It was due today - the only date I could get at the time.  I have hedged my bets over recent days not expecting to receive more than perhaps half of what was ordered.  So I was pleasantly surprised to receive the email early this morning which, while there were a couple of acceptable substitutions, confirmed there was nothing missing.  And some 45 minutes before the booked slot everything was duly delivered.  Meaning we are now more than adequately supplied for some days to come.  The stockpiling craziness seems to have abated.  The issue now is that there remains no capacity in the delivery services.  I cannot get another slot for love nor money - despite paying a small "Smart Pass" fee which, among other things, means no delivery charges apply.  

 

Today should have been a committee meeting.  Instead I am in communication with some members of the committee from home and shall be opening the Business Continuity file before long.  We can ride this out but there is no guarantee that our hosts, where the preserved train is located, can do so.  Steps are in place to oversee its security within Government travel and social distancing guidelines.  The rest can wait.  

 

Stay well.  Stay warm.  The central heating has just been re-timed and turned back up a notch here.  It isn't warm outside.  

[roundhouse]

Afternoon.

 

Been in the shed working out the high level track circuit. One bracket glued setting before fixing the screws and have enough timber for one more but thats it so hopefully I can order from Lawsons and get it delivered next week as they have now closed along with other timber merchants for collection.

 

My track package is on its way from Fraggle Rock - thanks NHN.

 

We have had wind snow hail and rain but no fire yet. Thats for later when I relight the patio heater.

Edited March 29, 2020 by roundhouse

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Sun, hail, sleet and now sun again all in the last hour but still cold. I will have to venture out for milk and bread tomorrow, and I'll try to get some fresh fruit and veg. Now to tackle Farcebook, be back later.

[45156]

Back again, having duly done the paperwork, so the next session of that will be Wednesday with a bank print to be obtained on Tuesday after a trip to Lidl where we will try to get there quite early to avoid any possible queues - as we are both really early risers (I therefore in more senses than one), getting there for 7.30 to 7.45 will be no great hardship.  We are normally wide awake and are often up and around by 6.30.

 

Then the painting of the gates was done, one person thanked us profusely for his jigsaw, and at least one other was taken, by person or persons unknown, but this is why we put them out - they're not our sort of thing, and we've got upwards of 60 Wentworth puzzles anyway which will do us a lifetime.

 

GDB - glad the missus is starting to recover - sounds like she might have had a dose of seasonal flu, though with the medics in their current situation, you'd be luck to get a diagnosis.

 

Back tomorrow probably quite early.

Be good, and stay healthy.

 

 

 

 

[TheQ]

Afternoon awl, 

 

It's snowed , hailed,  rained, windied,  and currently the sun is shining .

 

Some filling, pointing done on the inside of the garage till I ran out of the correct stuff,  I may see If our local hardware shed has some, its a small Norfolk chain...  Only a few hundred yards from TES and Co where I have to venture tomorrow.   Not panic buying but it is a long list to reduce the number of visits .

 

After that it was sanding the inkle loom and keel,  the loom got another filling after,  the keel is ready for fitting the keel bolts and skin. 

However there is still a long way before the garage is windproof,  and it was darn cold in there with the wind whistling through the gaps over coming the heater. 

 

So I made for the MhRC,  much making like Slartybartfast,  as I made the roads / walls down to the pier. 

 

Just answered a email that's running round our MRC,  basically how are you and what are you doing to survive...

 

Food is on its way.. 

Bye for now..

[Gwiwer]

Drops

 

 

A 

 

 

 

Pin 

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

Gosh it's quiet in here!  I hope ERs are not socially isolating themselves from this place!  And I hope we are all well or at least well enough to contribute.  

 

A quick browse around websites, various, shows that from tomorrow my employer continues to run what is basically its "strike service" - a robust and well-tested timetable based on approximately 40% of normal service overall.  Some lines are near-normal, others are much more significantly reduced.  Southern moves to a Sunday-based timetable with early morning "extras" for the key workers,  and TfL largely the same.  

 

Across the south-east bus operators' responses have varied.  Some routes remain on normal timetables (or near-normal minus a few lightly-used trips) whole others are suspended altogether.  Typically it is a Saturday or Sunday service level but with the latter boosted in the early mornings.  Some council-supported routes continue as normal while others are suspended.  Commendably East Sussex CC has arranged for social welfare buses to accept anyone who must travel if their normal bus is suspended and will honour Freedom Passes for free travel too.  Large chunks of neighbouring West Sussex will have no public transport for the time being.  

 

Committee business has been done.  I now have a small window of modelling opportunity before sacrificing the cluckbird.  And then it will be time to press the uniform, check the thermals and prepare for a cold and windy week at the House of Not-so-much-Fun.  

 

Best wishes one and all.  

[81C]

Afternoon All

 

Glad to hear Chris is back on the move GDB probably the bug I had a month ago not nice it takes your legs from under you, give her our love matey.

I was climbing the walls earlier so I sat down to read a book and woke up 3hours later with the TV playing away to itself, my body clock was all over

the place last week, after the kip I seem to have logged into normal time I've tried to leave the PC switched off and the phone in the draw today spent

too much time on them yesterday.

Enjoy the rest of it & stay safe.  Tim E Outt

 

[Tony_S]

I have ordered a few bits and pieces for the layout. I didn’t want to be a nuisance but retailers seem keen to assure me they are working safely. I won’t be expecting next day delivery! Our posties usually share a van, park it in our road and take bags out to surrounding streets. They aren’t allowed to share a van now so I suspect that will affect things. They are still being expected to deliver junk mail though. 
Aditi got her exercise walking to the post box. She has cut lots of sudoku puzzles out of newspapers to send to her Mum. 

Tony

[Ian Abel]

Hello all...

 

Fortunately the snow expected here mostly stayed south of us, so just a dusting and it's already gone with the temperature rising and the ground now much warmer (relatively!!).

 

Nothing much going on. Yesterday we retrieved some more boxes from the storage area in the rental property as the renters are still stuck in Florida, following the death of a parent - old age a couple of weeks ago, not COVID related. We took the opportunity to get some stuff as they haven't been there for a while now so it should be "safe".

 

Interesting bit of trivia for those still awake at this point in the post - most of you know I'm involved in Flight Simulation activities , and much of that is taken up online on a shared network.

For the first time EVER, there are this weekend more people online over the virtual-European airspace than there are real world - below.

 

 

We usually average maybe 1,200 connections worldwide at any point over the weekend hours, we're currently seeing consistently 2,200-2,400 connections!!! A large percentage over Europe at present as this weekend was an already planned (months ago) European flying event.

Sim-network

 

Will be Zooming (is that the way to describe it?!?!?!?) with Trevor and Meagan later today trying to stay in touch.

Jemma is stuck in Kansas City, has been there since yesterday midday, with a LONG layover, not flying out until tomorrow morning. We talked to her on the phone and it's pretty boring/quiet stuck in a hotel with nowhere to go and even get anything to eat expect some take-outs.

 

2 first thing, rapidly warming and the high expected to reach 9-10, maybe more rain later.

 

Carpe diem...

Edited March 29, 2020 by Ian Abel

[Tony_S]

Ian’s post about the lack of aircraft promoted me to have a look at Southend airport’s arrival and departures website. Everything cancelled except for a flight from Bucharest. I wonder if this is the one of those organised to bring in agricultural workers to pick produce that will otherwise rot. 90000 needed according to newspaper reports. 

[newbryford]

In this current time of carp.

This came as a bit of good cheer.

From my nephew about his Dad - I'm sure he won't mind me sharing it.

 

The nurses managed to get him out of bed and into a recliner the other day which was a big step but it tired him out massively. I also had a phone call him today as the nurses held the phone to his ear and he used a rattle to answer yes/ no questions - tears of joy! 

 

Cheers,

Mick

[roundhouse]

39 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Ian’s post about the lack of aircraft promoted me to have a look at Southend airport’s arrival and departures website. Everything cancelled except for a flight from Bucharest. I wonder if this is the one of those organised to bring in agricultural workers to pick produce that will otherwise rot. 90000 needed according to newspaper reports. 

Looking at Gatwick there is one departure an hour, the rest have 'enquire with airline' and no gate shown. A few more landing but nothing like normal and North terminal is due to shut.

Edited March 29, 2020 by roundhouse