Early Risers.

[Sir TophamHatt]

Morning all!

 

Really sad it's so cold out at the moment.  Last week we did loads in the garden and re-seeded so could do with the sun and warmth.

 

It's Mrs TH's birthday tomorrow.  Clearly not going anywhere apart from a walk, so I'm baking her a cake and she can choose what to have for tea (or Dinner depending on where you reside ).

[Tony_S]

Just had two Waitrose deliveries! After the first one Aditi noticed all the meat (not a lot ) apart from 6 sausages was missing. The national help line was busy saying please email. I found the store that had issued the order and got through to their petrol station. A very efficient lady took our number and said someone will ring back. They did and said if the van driver didn’t find it they would get the stuff and deliver it. However the van pulled up a few minutes ago with the missing products. 
Tony

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Well half of the bread pudding survived until this morning, but only just, but it made a good breakfast. The Royal Mail are still delivering the usual bumph with the post, a brochure arrived yesterday for DFS sofa's, you've gotta laugh. Commiserations Simon on the loss of your friend. Best birthday wishes to Mrs. TPH for tomorrow. The advice is that if you have to make a shopping trip do it only once a week. I'm OK with that as it saves me petrol money and the only reason for shopping daily was the newspapers which I now have delivered.

[southern42]

' morning all from red dragon land.

Sunny - may do a bike ride in the garden after lunch and some more G stuff below the new terrace - apparently it has become a public convenience for the local puddycat!    Or is that too graphic? 

 

Waiting for some varnish (m*d*ll*mg stuff) to dry...details posted uno-where.

 

Sorry to hear your news, Simon.

Hope the Lurkers show improvement soon.

Take care all and keep safe.

Thoughts with everyone.

_____________

Best wishes

Polly

[iL Dottore]

Interesting the comments about the various names (and uses) given to the diverse rooms in their childhood homes, as are the various terms used for meals. And as such very indicative of socio-economic status (and perhaps regional location???)

 

Growing up as I did in a mixed household (both culturally and socio-economically) our naming of rooms was - I suppose - ecletic: we had both a dining room and a "salotto", etc.. Nowadays, at Schloss iD, we have (ground floor) entrance/vestibule & guest loo; kitchen, separate dining room and separate living room. First floor we have Library/Home Cinema (a repurposed bedroom now covered in bookshelves from floor to ceiling [plus a pull-down screen and video projector]), the "Japanese Room" (originally a guest bedroom decorated in the Japanese style [futon, tatami mats, etc] now repurposed as a library overflow and Mrs iD's wardrobe overflow repository); master bedroom, bathroom. Finally we have the attic room (guest bedroom, incorporating a TV room and my home office corner) and the Egyptian Bathroom (so named due the colours of the tiles and the decorations - it's quite an experience to take a bath under the watchful eyes of Anubis, surrounded by scrolls from the Book of the Dead). The cellar has been upgraded to wash room, workshop, wine cellar and also holds the heating system).

 

What drew us to buy this particular property (which sounds a lot grander than it actually is) was the fact that we had the kitchen, dining room and living room were all (and remain) separate and the attic had been converted into a usable room (with adjacent bathroom). I utterly loathe open-plan living, it is the domestic equivalent of an open plan office (with similar and additional drawbacks). I prefer - as much as possible - one room per household function. Furthermore, as I am an enthusiastic cook. I think that a separate kitchen does somewhat limit the spread of cooking (some would say noxious) smells - such that from Roast Chicken stuffed with 100 cloves of Garlic. Mrs iD is trying to persuade me to either move to a bungalow or a dachwohnung a little further out in the country to make "retirement living easier" (hah!). The problem is that the properties in the price range we want to pay are all either requiring refurbishment and/or are open plan...

 

As to meals, given that I am half-Italian, our meal schedule (growing up) was as follows:

1) Prima colazione (breakfast)

2) Pranzo (lunch, definitely not dinner)

3) Merenda (snack)

4) Cena (dinner, definitely not Tea)

As I grew older and more wise to the ways of the culinary world the following were added:

1a) Z'nüni (elevenses)

1b) Brunch: replacing 1 and 2.

3a) Afternoon Tea: replacing 4 which is then followed - late in the evening - by

5) Supper

 

Furthermore, unlike today's mealtimes frequently taken independently in front of the TV, as I was growing up all meals were taken at the dining room table and with all the family (weekday lunches excepted). We were certainly NOT permitted to wander away from the table when finished before the adults. We always had to ask permission ("may I leave the table?"), very, very rarely not granted (I think such formality actually benefits children). And one final thing about our meals - no choices: you ate what Mama (or sometimes Papa) cooked. You could ask not to have one or t'other of a meal's components (I frequently said "no thanks" to salad and "yes please" to spinach [I was a strange child]), but otherwise you ate what you were served or went without.

 

Now that's got me all hungry, so off to fix Mrs iD's lunch (homemade egg mayonaisse, a small mixed salad and a toasted muffin).

 

Stay safe and stay well

 

iD

[iL Dottore]

Sorry to hear about your friend, Simon

[Dave Hunt]

Until I joined the RAF I had breakfast, dinner and tea in that order but when I became an officer cadet it was breakfast, lunch and dinner and remained so (lunch when on a squadron being usually a sandwich grabbed in the crewroom). When I worked for a short time with the Italian Air Force at Gioia del Colle I got used to iL Dottore's items 1-4 but never liked espresso coffee very much and used to ask for cappuccino during the day. This was regarded as quite odd and I became known as Maggiore Cappuccino. Now we have breakfast (or, at least Jill does - I generally settle for coffee) and a snack meal of some sort in the early afternoon with dinner as the main meal in the evening. The main exception is when we are staying in a hotel when I look forward to the full Monty breakfast or at a model show when a bacon butty is a must at start time.

 

Must go - muddling calls.

 

Dave

[Oldddudders]

Afternoon all. Just a drive-by with the jolly news that solidarity in lockdown isn't universal. In the last couple of days a large number of cars in several quiet residential roads near Sherry in Torquay have had one or more tyres slashed. Including hers, of course. All the tyre-fitting places are closed, natch, but a mobile chap is still operating and will be attending today. Equally of course, no-one is going very far right now, but you still expect to be able to go out if needs must. Will it happen again? Only the bored, braindead yobs concerned know that. Sigh.

[The Stationmaster]

G'day all,

 

The sun has got its hat on - after an earlier appearance without it - and it's not exactly warm out there.  To help out Mick and others who got lost here is a pic of the bungalow as was - with the two bay windows at the front, the right hand being a bedroom and the left hand being the front room the further, and larger, of the two flank windows visible was the window for the other bedroom (long ago my bedroom) -

 

 

Now a view of the house as is.  The right hand bay window (which is basically in the same position as the previous one) is the dining room window and the left hand bay window is the study.  The window in the visible flank wall is the side window of the kitchen and is roughly in teh same position as teh previous bedroom window (hence the planners let us have a window in the flank wall).   The front wall of the house and the visible flank wall are on exactly the same lines as the previous bungalow walls but the house is wider than the bungalow was and goes about 3ft  closer to the southern (further) boundary than the bungalow did while the rear wall lies about  2 feet further away from the road.

 

 

Bit nippy for the garden today so I'll no doubt find something else to do, or somebody will find it for me

 

Enjoy your day one and all and stay safe

 

 

[Tony_S]

Aditi’s family had a lot of meals.

Breakfast, elevenses, lunch , afternoon tea and then dinner. Mysterious snacks after dinner too.

Traditionally my family had breakfast(never cooked) , dinner and tea. My mother also favoured a pre bedtime snack(supper)  of some sort of sandwich to ward off “night starvation”. The night she passed away she had only eaten one sandwich and left one. 
Tony
 

[Joseph_Pestell]

My mother was not against Dad and I having cooked breakfast...so long as we cooked it and washed up. She was not a morning person!

[Shedman5]

Afternoon, mixture of blue sky and clouds and its quite pleasant outside, we ventured out to Waitrose this morning. All supplies required sourced though with the only one shopper it was down to my other half to do this whist I sat in the car reading newspapers on my phone.

 

I retired at 57 and do not regret my decision at all, last year I went back on a consultancy basis for one day a week for around 3 months whilst we drew up plans to deal  with our decision to leave a certain club, it felt quite strange but I knew my decision to go was right when I heard the ideas of some of my previous fellow managers. Not a bl**dy clue none of them sad to say and thats without the corporate crapspeak.

The money was very welcome but  I am more than happy with my lot as they say.

 

Stay safe and enjoy what's left of the day

[Happy Hippo]

17 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 

 

Curiously hippos and whales evolved from Anthracotheriidae

 

What made me look that up is the Entelodont or "Hell Pig". They are terrifying creatures standing up to 2.1m tall with sharp pointy teeth and a brain the size of an orange. Like pre-hippos, they belonged to the order Artiodactyla and look a bit similar.

I'm a bit shorter, with blunt teeth.  Judging by the description, there has been a bit of shrinkage in the brain department as well.

 

 

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

In the last couple of days a large number of cars in several quiet residential roads near Sherry in Torquay have had one or more tyres slashed. Including hers, of course.

 

How very frustrating.  We don't expect that at any time.  We all need to be able to make urgent trips at zero notice sometimes and if some oik (or other word of choice) has vented their boredom on our property then we can only hope karma catches up with them.

 

This is also a very worrying time for all with interests in the heritage railway sector.  Whether or not many of our favourite names even survive is very much up in the air but with some sites operating on minimal staffing they can be a sitting target.  There have been too many wanton attacks on rolling stock recently as it is.  I fear we shall be lucky to come out the other side of this with all of our lovingly-restored and often-unique historical items (and buildings) intact.  Those who are aware of my own position on committee can be assured that we are doing as much as the Government advice allows us to in order to maintain oversight - though it cannot be 24/7 security - of our assets.  

 

A beautiful though cool sunny day has arrived Upon the Hill of Strawberries.  And a sack of compost has also arrived.  It should have come with the seeds yesterday but rather like Tony and Aditi's meat it was found in the van when the driver finished his run ......... SWMBO can now proceed with potting up seeds and growing things edible and pretty - in some cases both.

 

Still day-by-day in active employment and that can still change without warning.  Time will tell.  It is very strange to be at Britain's busiest railways station during the morning peak hour and see perhaps 5 - 10 passengers per train then dispatching without whistles.  Platform and on-train staff are no longer permitted to use them until the risk of infection has passed.  Meaning the loudest sound much of the time is the birds.  Who'da thunk it of Clapham Junction? 

[Andrew P]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

G'day all,

 

The sun has got its hat on - after an earlier appearance without it - and it's not exactly warm out there.  To help out Mick and others who got lost here is a pic of the bungalow as was - with the two bay windows at the front, the right hand being a bedroom and the left hand being the front room the further, and larger, of the two flank windows visible was the window for the other bedroom (long ago my bedroom) -

 

 

Now a view of the house as is.  The right hand bay window (which is basically in the same position as the previous one) is the dining room window and the left hand bay window is the study.  The window in the visible flank wall is the side window of the kitchen and is roughly in teh same position as teh previous bedroom window (hence the planners let us have a window in the flank wall).   The front wall of the house and the visible flank wall are on exactly the same lines as the previous bungalow walls but the house is wider than the bungalow was and goes about 3ft  closer to the southern (further) boundary than the bungalow did while the rear wall lies about  2 feet further away from the road.

 

 

Bit nippy for the garden today so I'll no doubt find something else to do, or somebody will find it for me

 

Enjoy your day one and all and stay safe

 

 

Very nice, but.

 

Which is the Train Set Room Mike?

[81C]

Afternoon Campers

I just seen my neighbours  Barry & Yvonne Stuart-Hargraves fresh back from 3 months in Spain I think they got kicked out where they were staying I always say Hi De Hi when I see them

much to the amusement of other residences in the block they have not cottoned on to my p!ss take yet.

 

My Daughter dropped some milk off earlier it was nice just to chat to some one for a while they are on the earhole for decorating equipment which I'm using at the moment I will see what

have spare that they can have.  

 

Mike I liked the cabbage patch you had on the bungalow door step.

Spose I'd better do something. stay safe Y. Awning 

 

[Gwiwer]

6 minutes ago, 81C said:

Afternoon Campers

 

You do know that the  camp sites are closed?  

[Happy Hippo]

I am being encouraged to go out to the garden again.

 

I think the Obergrumpenfuhrer is practicing some rotivational speaking techniques.

 

She also keeps making jokes about rugby and 'turn over' ball.

 

After the efforts over the weekend, and the levelling exercise yesterday, all the ex wasteland now requires is a bit of patting down, and some grass seed sown.

 

Of course where does one get grass seed from under the present circumstances? I do not want the ground to self seed under the upcoming onslaught of dandilions  from next door's paddock.

 

We do have some seed in the shed, but it will probably not be quite enough!

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. HH some supermarkets stock grass seed and I'm pretty sure that theres no panic buying. On the lunchtime news it was announced that garden centres are having a bad time because of the lockdown so if you want to support them why not phone or e-mail a local one to see if they can do click and collect. This is normally the busiest time of the year for garden centres and some pundits predict that as many as half of them will go bust due to the shutdown.

[45156]

Back again

 

I have skipped a few posts and will backread them later/tomorrow morning.

 

Shed is now dark oak again, not green and faded brown - and the broken featherboard is covered over, as it was easier that way than to try to get the broken one out. 

 

Must go, as postie's at the door - not with anything from Fraggle Rock, ufortunately, but with a five pack of boxer shorts from M&S.

 

Stewart

[TheQ]

Afternoon awl, 

 

Inkle loom paint still not dried,

 

Keel clamps removed skin checked OK,  then ply glued at nose and reclamped. 

 

Another 4 ripples in of Ivy removed from Garage roof , it's getting easier the further from where it had grown up from.  However my shoulders and arms still ache. 

 

I went to the MhRC,  intending to get the marked up ply,  however my attention was taken by the wall, on the layout. So two hours were spent scribing stone work. A first wash of paint was then applied,  it looks quite reasonable . I may return back there later .

 

By this time Ben the demanding Collie wanted his walk,  and he took us the long route.  Blue skies slightly chilly air,  but warm sunshine. 

We saw no one, heard no mechanical vehicles by air, land or sea. A beautiful day for a walk.

Saying that a tractor has just gone past. 

 

My parents except for 8 years have always had living room and kitchen on the ground floor , those 8 years,  we had a Best room as well.  It was referred to as the front room, even though the living room also had it's window to the front. 

 

These days the main meal may be at lunch time 12-13:00, or at dinner time,  16:00 -18:00 in either case we call it dinner. 

 

 As for retirement my intention was at the end of 2022, what current events will make of that I don't know,  this 12 week isolation is a good practice.. 

[grandadbob]

It was always breakfast, lunch and dinner for me growing up and like ID no choices and you couldn't leave the table until everybody was finished and permission granted. When visiting Grandma (Dad's mum - Mum's mum was always Nan) we had the added delights of afternoon tea on the terrace in the summer as well.

Parcel arrived, it was beer. There is one from another brewery on order but I haven't got a clue when or if that will delivered.

Had to spend nearly half an hour on the phone waiting for Messrs Wickes call centre  to chase up a credit for the compost they didn't deliver last week. When I eventually spoke to a human being a very nice young lady said she'd deal with it immediately and within a couple of minutes I had an email confirmation from them and Paypal.

I then got my compost delivered from a local garden centre who just wanted a minimum £25 order which was fairly easy to do. Yesterday they sent me a special offer for £25 of plants so I thought I'd take them up on that but when I phoned up was told that minimum delivery was now £50 because of high demand. I'm guessing the plants I was going to buy may now end up being dumped... along with many many more.

Edited March 31, 2020 by grandadbob

[The Stationmaster]

45 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

Very nice, but.

 

Which is the Train Set Room Mike?

You ned top look very carefully Andy.  see that big white door down past the side of the house - the clue is in the roof because you can only see just over half of it.  So what we have there is a double garage with that nice white up & over door - but it is the only large door and inside there is a partition wall down the almost middle of the building from front to back and the other half is 'the room' with it own separate pedestrian entrance (outward opening of course on the far side)

 

 

 

[PeterBB]

Early retirement after 35 years in the NHS but not by choice - the cuts.  Awkward for a while but then went into teaching  hoping for primary but told that I was too old and that they would not get enough years of teaching out of me to justify primary ... would I like secondary ... so ended up with using PGCE in FE for the next 12 years plus, in teaching hours 14.5 and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Cuts meant my courses were removed so retired again (the overwhelming -unnecessary to teaching - paperwork making it less of a wrench).  As an over 30 year volunteer with RC EFA (as of today the RC no longer provide Event FA cover) so most current active EFA first aiders etc. have transferred to SJA. Managed to obtain a two-year funded training post with RC that became 10 working with the GRT and the homeless that were very rewarding years, leading to a number of saved lives, until finally retiring at 74 so 20 plus teaching years given.

 

Early years housing memories.  In hindsight bearing in mind the parent health situation we did quite well in housing but memories of other places visited - water running from an outside sink across floor to a drain the most poignant and not the result of war damage.  Grandparents home - the front room or whatever they called it was never used and the house even then seemed small for such a large family that had once resided.  Grandad was never seen doing anything but sit by the range smoking his pipe and I never ever remembered him speaking.  My brother and I feared him and did not like him and later information provided interesting ... enough said.

 

SWMBO says that I am spending too much time on here ... since I read everything she is probably right so perhaps I had had better see what is in the 'Engine Shed' as it was labelled and stuck by a friend.

Edited April 1, 2020 by PeterBB
Spelling corrections - thanks.

[AndyB]

Afternoon all. I see this page is showing me funeral plan adverts.  

I was poorly but feel this a bit premature!  

 

I was in the office at 5.30 this morning so feel I've done my bit for the day. Time for a nap methinks.

 

Warm regards to all.