Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

The sun is shining and the sky is blue, breakfast has been consumed and I will shortly head down to the cellar and refit the door furniture to the inner door and then refit the door in the frame. I started working on the door in October last year and work was suspended firstly when Ava had her accident (losing a tooth) and then because of Sheila’s eye operations, so it will be nice to be able to actually close the door between the 2 rooms again! After that the plan is to give the workshop balustrade a good clean and then give it a repaint along with giving the new finials a second coat. After that some pottering in the workshop to mock up a temporary fascia for the turntable control panel. 

 

Stay safe, enjoy the day, back later. 

[tigerburnie]

I think I can feel a project coming on...…………………..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-nottinghamshire-52190442/coronavirus-locked-down-pub-manager-serves-beer-on-model-train

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all;,

 

Bin day here too but the binmen haven't bin yet - probably overwhelmed with extra recycling (it's that week) from all the parcels folk are receiving.

 

I must admit to being a bit confused about how social distancing works in golf.  As all the players are aiming to get their balls into the same holes surely there is a risk of cross infection should you feel in the hole to make sure you've achieved your aim and also to extract your ball.  Do you know how many other golfers have put their fingers in that hole - of course you don't.  Could be even worse if you're playing away for home of course as you have even less idea about whose fingers have been in the hole.  Or do golfers wear some sort of protection when they get to the holes?

 

With that thoiught I wish you all an enjoyable day and please stay safe - especially if putting your fingers in a strange hole

[PhilJ W]

Don't golfers wear gloves? Though I don't play golf I have a pair of golfing gloves as they give a better grip on my walking stick than ordinary gloves.

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup where the sun is shining and the sky is blue with high cloud. I shall go for my daily walk in an hour or so

 

Work continues to be slow; there and needs doing but motivation is not too high!

 

All the talk of bins makes me vaguely jealous. The Boring Borough decided to scale back collectiosn and our plastic/bottles bin has not been collected for nearly 6 weeks now.  Don't they realise beer and wine bottles get very heavy?! They're due to be collected after the weekend but there was talk they would do an extra collection this eek so all our street has bins out in hope!

 

Have a good day all and stay well

 

 

[polybear]

2 hours ago, AndrewC said:

The shared chimney stack has also vanished without a party wall notice being issued. Time to call building control methinks.
 

 

IIRC the property owners are liable for the costs involved regarding you having your own independent Structural Engineer/Architect/Surveyor (delete whichever one is b0llox) overseeing any works which affect the party wall.

 

2 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

Taking down a shared chimney stack puts both properties at risk if not done properly.

 

Not to mention the occupants of the house if things go badly wrong....

 

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Especially if the stack is still connected to the fireplace below and used when the weather turns inclement.

 

The loss ot the chimney stack also limits your options in the future regarding choice of heating/fire etc.

 

Edit:  Personally, I'd be onto B.C. today, sharpish....

Edited April 8, 2020 by polybear

[AndrewC]

4 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

IIRC the property owners are liable for the costs involved regarding you having your own independent Structural Engineer/Architect/Surveyor (delete whichever one is b0llox) overseeing any works which affect the party wall.

 

 

Not to mention the occupants of the house if things go badly wrong....

 

 

The loss ot the chimney stack also limits your options in the future regarding choice of heating/fire etc.

 

Edit:  Personally, I'd be onto B.C. today, sharpish....

Thanks. I'm not worried about the loss of the stack as it ends about 8' above my head, supported on my side by a steel beam that runs the length of the room in the loft space. We removed the breasts up to loft height 2 years ago so there is no chance of the stack ever being used for heating again. 

 

Going through BC now. 

[PeterBB]

Well sausages and mash - a good choice to share via iPad with son and granddaughter ... never known a sausage and mash dinner take so long to finish but it was a good evening.

 

Gardening looks a lot different than it did a week or two ago and to get to that state required rather a lot of physical exercise.  There is one problem... normally the branches are stacked in the estate and taken to the local 'recycling tip' but at present we have a full bin and a full overflow ...we will see how it goes.  

 

Engine shed is still a tip from the hurried departure a month or two ago and the dumping of things 'that we (I a/c SWMBO) might need' but hoping to do something about it.

 

Keep safe everybody ... our local hospitals have had over 100 deaths - the highest in the East Midlands - including medical and nursing staff.  Our thoughts are with their families.

Edited April 8, 2020 by PeterBB
Multiple typos

[roundhouse]

3 hours ago, AndrewC said:

I think this is the quote you were looking for: I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

 

Moaning all from the borough that has become a boring black hole of boring. Still feel crap and spending around 12 hours a day in bed. The rest is either working or cooking. I just don't have the energy to do much else. I'd love to be playing trains prototypically operating a sophisticated scale model recreation. That ain't happening until I spend at least 8 or 9 hours clearing and finishing the new floor in the shed. 

 

Building works next door continues. Really getting on my t*ts now. Some of the roof tarp has been removed on what was supposed to be a small dormer section to a loft conversion. Nope, it is a full 2nd story 10m² extension as well as a loft conversion. Ball park guess is the whole thing will exceed 40m³ which would require planning permission. The roof overhang of the extension and dormer appears to extend beyond the property boundary and over my roof. The shared chimney stack has also vanished without a party wall notice being issued. Time to call building control methinks. Maybe UKBF as well as I'm not convinced the builders are completely kosher. 

 

Day 2 of SWMBO's furlough. Wishing now I had put a lock on the office door. Hard to concentrate when I'm so used to having the house to myself apart from the cats all day. 

 

Oh well. Enjoy the day. I need more coffee. 

 

Blatant promotion: with the lockdown my usual coffee pusher has closed. We've now found a local small roaster called TortoiseTom. Lovely coffee, decent price, and free shipping over £25. 

other half is in the house working, I am in the shed working. All happy here unless I stray in when shes on a video call - I wish that I had a dinosaur costume

 

I might be going African, Zulu shields just require painting. Left overs from curved boards

Edited April 8, 2020 by roundhouse

[tetsudofan]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

I think I can feel a project coming on...…………………..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-nottinghamshire-52190442/coronavirus-locked-down-pub-manager-serves-beer-on-model-train

 

 

Think the guy needs to upgrade to LGB (45mm track) as they have done at the place in Prague - wagons are big enough to transport a beer without it falling over....

 

Keith

[Joseph_Pestell]

7 minutes ago, tetsudofan said:

 

 

Think the guy needs to upgrade to LGB (45mm track) as they have done at the place in Prague - wagons are big enough to transport a beer without it falling over....

 

Keith

 

An LGB tank wagon probably big enough to deliver the beer.

[Judge Dread]

"All quiet on the Western (Eastern)Front", nothing to report here in sunny Hull.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Can anybody here recommend a competent energy supplier?

 

When I moved here, I inherited three energy contracts: one with British Gas, two with Business Energy Supplies.

 

Both companies are totally incompetent, staffed by cockwombles. British Gas has even registered a complaint as being from a previous occupant/owner who has been dead for about 18 months! I feel like doing a video for Facebook based on the famous Python sketch. Perhaps a bit of ridicule going viral might find somebody in British Gas with enough braincells to actually read the letters sent to them?

 

These problems can not be blamed on reduced staffing due to coronavirus. It has all been going on since I moved here in early December. 

[81C]

Morning All 

over cast and not very inviting.

Not much has happened here Ms Nosey made a beeline for my daughter who came to pick some tools up yesterday we did keep our distance it appears Nosey 

has appointed herself as god she now runs the complex, my daughter told her to keep her distance and then just ignored her and got in her car and left, Nosey

looked at me and I laughed at her, the cupid stunt . 

One of my close friends reported on Facebook last night his mother has succumbed to Covid 19 she was a lovely woman I had met here on several occasions

R I P and may her God be with her. 

 

My new Babe is Keeping me up all hours of the night on Teusday morning I watched sun rise through her window, it was 3am when she nodded off today, 

with nothing to do all day I've been passing the time with these video calls in the evening. 

 

Better do some cleaning and then lunch stay safe all we are all vulnerable Errol Flynn   

    

[Tony_S]

11 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

Can anybody here recommend a competent energy supplier?

I would be very happy to recommend my energy supplier but I suspect you would get terrible reviews for the same company from other respondents. In case you are interested we are with EoN.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, The Lurker said:

They're due to be collected after the weekend but there was talk they would do an extra collection this eek so all our street has bins out in hope!

Our final bin (brown wheely bin for garden waste) had just been emptied. The recycling sacks went very early as did food waste.  The council will indicate any changes in service on their Twitter page as well as their website. So far they are collecting as normal as the County Council recycling sites (formerly known as tips) are closed.  Our kerbside contribution was similar to normal, even though it contained a lot of newspapers. We usually keep them for the neighbours to take to Wales when they visit their family. However they don’t know how long it will be before they can go again. 
Tony

[AndrewC]

22 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

Can anybody here recommend a competent energy supplier?

 

When I moved here, I inherited three energy contracts: one with British Gas, two with Business Energy Supplies.

 

Both companies are totally incompetent, staffed by cockwombles. British Gas has even registered a complaint as being from a previous occupant/owner who has been dead for about 18 months! I feel like doing a video for Facebook based on the famous Python sketch. Perhaps a bit of ridicule going viral might find somebody in British Gas with enough braincells to actually read the letters sent to them?

 

These problems can not be blamed on reduced staffing due to coronavirus. It has all been going on since I moved here in early December. 

Gave up on Grittish Bass years ago. They are an insult to hoofw*nking cockwombles the world over. Oh did I tell you one of my current projects is with their parent company. <insert many profanities here> It isn't so much them as their outsourced suppliers for just about everything. I think their customer service is with Cognizent or Capita and outsourced to some small island in the pacific. 

 

We've been with OVO for about 6 years now. Never an issue. No billing or other problems. They ain't the cheapest but they've been the best for us. If you decide to choose them let me know by DM as we can use their refer a friend (fiend?) and get £50 in vouchers. I'd just have to send you the referral code by email. 

[The Stationmaster]

The big advantage we found with British Gas inefficiency was their total inability to charge us for the gas we were using - for just over a year and despite numerous reminders and pleas from us  to them to charge us.  When they finally got their 'puter sorted they said they couldn't charge us for the unpaid period because they didn't have any records - despite us giving them meter readings every months for a year and giving them the opening reading on the meter.  all very odd but at least we had a year's worth of gas out of them.

[roundhouse]

1 hour ago, tetsudofan said:

 

 

Think the guy needs to upgrade to LGB (45mm track) as they have done at the place in Prague - wagons are big enough to transport a beer without it falling over....

 

Keith

The wagons in that bar do have extra outside stabilizers ot reduce the loaded wagons tipping over. great place though.

[jamie92208]

36 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

We've been with OVO for about 6 years now. Never an issue. No billing or other problems. They ain't the cheapest but they've been the best for us. If you decide to choose them let me know by DM as we can use their refer a friend (fiend?) and get £50 in vouchers. I'd just have to send you the referral code by email. 

We also used OVO when wevlived in thevUK and found them to be excellent.

 

Jamie

[Dave Hunt]

2 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

I think I can feel a project coming on...…………………..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-nottinghamshire-52190442/coronavirus-locked-down-pub-manager-serves-beer-on-model-train

 

A good few years ago I several times visited a pub/restaurant in St. Andrews (can't remember the name) that had an LGB track running round the place on shelves at about 8ft off the floor. We were having dinner there once and I remarked to the landlord that I hadn't seen the train running. "Oh," he said, "It's not working. It's stuck over there (pointing to a corner) and I can't get it to run." I offered to have a look at it for him and managed to fix things in about fifteen minutes. He was over the moon about it and gave me my dinner and a couple of pints of eighty bob free. Not a bad rate of pay I thought.

 

Just had a delivery from Iceland, who are the only supermarket who could give me a slot sooner than the end of May, and have disinfected everything. Also a parcel just arrived from DJH that I ordered on Monday evening - as good as the Fraggle Rock guys.

 

Hoping to get down to the workshop for a while this afternoon.

 

Stay safe and well everyone.

 

Regards

 

Dave

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

Can anybody here recommend a competent energy supplier?

 

 

 

Use Martin Lewis' Cheap Energy Club:

 

https://clubs.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub

 

Not only does it give price comparisons, options etc. against your current usage, it also gives customer performance ratings etc.

Never failed me.

[tigerburnie]

18 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

A good few years ago I several times visited a pub/restaurant in St. Andrews (can't remember the name) that had an LGB track running round the place on shelves at about 8ft off the floor. We were having dinner there once and I remarked to the landlord that I hadn't seen the train running. "Oh," he said, "It's not working. It's stuck over there (pointing to a corner) and I can't get it to run." I offered to have a look at it for him and managed to fix things in about fifteen minutes. He was over the moon about it and gave me my dinner and a couple of pints of eighty bob free. Not a bad rate of pay I thought.

 

Stay safe and well everyone.

 

Regards

 

Dave

We visited the book shop in the old station at Alnwick, my grandsons loved the railway that runs along the top of the book cases(o gauge I think)

[Compound2632]

28 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

We visited the book shop in the old station at Alnwick, my grandsons loved the railway that runs along the top of the book cases(o gauge I think)

 

Barter Books. Not sure of the gauge but as I recall it runs what I took to be Accucraft stock - Lynton & Barnstaple types, so 16 mm/ft and pretty chunky.

[Joseph_Pestell]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Use Martin Lewis' Cheap Energy Club:

 

https://clubs.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub

 

Not only does it give price comparisons, options etc. against your current usage, it also gives customer performance ratings etc.

Never failed me.

 

I'm afraid that I am no fan of Mr Lewis. A consummate self-publicist, yes. A consumer champion? Not on the basis of my past experience.