Early Risers.

[Gwiwer]

Good morning all from the House of Fun. Bright but cool weather has arrived on the first day of England’s baby-steps back to work. 
 

Few if any extra passengers are about.  After 08.00 most trains have departed almost empty. 
 

The parcel didn’t turn up last night. Due “by 8pm” that message changed at 8.30 to “Due by 9pm”. At 9.30 that updated to “Still coming today but it’s been delayed”. At 10.15 I made one final check before bed and found the message had changed again to “Due on 20th May”. Grrrrrr.  
 

SWMBO seems more comfortable on her third day back at WFH though I shall find out more a little later on. 
 

Interesting move by the G/WR who have now “closed until further notice” and cancelled all 2020 events including the usually lucrative Santa specials. More may emerge on that story later too. 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Its not raining and the sun is trying desperately to shine, but it’s a still quite cool. More work on the arbor will be done today, hopefully I’ll get the roof bit cladded and also cut and drill the barge boards for it too. I want to do all this work outside, so I’m hoping the sun makes an appearance and the rain stays away. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

 

 

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from a cloudy and somewhat chilly Sidcup. I may even have to close the "office" window. From downstairs the thunder of Joe Wicks participation comes and I am getting ready for my 10 o'clock Teams call! Yesterday's telecon was totally scuppered by IT failure so I missed half an hour of a 45 minute call but no great loss. What I heard was deathly dull!

 

Condolences to AndrewC (belatedly) on the loss of Tiggr.

 

On a completely different note, I must say that Il Dottore's Chorizo and lentil tagine sounds absolutely delicious, combining a number of my favourite ingredients in a style I enjoy too.

 

That's it for now, must make the call. Stay safe and don't go wild with your new found freedoms!!

 

[bbishop]

Andrew, a bit late but sorry about your loss.

 

On the beer front, Staropramen is now brewed in Luton (?) using Czech hops (wow).   But Sainsbury's own Czech Pilsner Lager is, according to the label, brewed in Prague by Staropramen. A nice thirst quencher on a hot afternoon and it is much cheaper.  Of course, how long it survives the 31 December fiasco.

 

On the gardening front, I broke my secateurs yesterday.  I must have had them 40 years, but a nut fell out when attacking ivy.  Couldn't find it in the leaf litter but I am a railway modeller and a 4BA cheesehead fitted perfectly.  Good for another 40 years but it won't be me wielding them  by then.

 

Bill

[New Haven Neil]

Cvovve break, as someone orange once said.

 

When at sea we used to get some awful beer, as you got whatever was available (cheaply, no doubt) at the port where you took stores.  For us that was usually in the far east, so Japanese beers such as Sapporro, Kirin and Asahi (available in Ambleside in March, strangely) come to mind or various others, Tiger etc.  Not great but they were drinkable, especially after coming off watch in an engineroom at 40c or more. Sometimes a lot more.

 

On one ship we had gone to Canada, and took a load of Molson beers, no idea what they were now, but there were two types.  The 'decent' or at least drinkable one went fairly quickly, leaving this other darker stuff that was truly foul - no-one could drink it no matter how cold, so in an unheard of action we were buying it and throwing it away (the Purser wouldn't order more until it had gone).  Of course it was dirt cheap, paying no duties on it at sea. 10p a can IIRC or was it 5? (1980's).  The Purser couldn't believe his eyes.  He gave in eventually, as he even had to admit he couldn't drink it and the Old Man was going to have to deal with a mutiny if things continued!

 

OK, back to work!

 

 

[Dave Hunt]

When I was stationed in Singapore '68 - '70 about the only beers readily available were San Miguel and Tiger. Tiger was, to me, very acidic and the only way I could drink it was as a Tiger Tops with a dash of lemonade in it. When I was made operational on my first (Hunter) squadron at Tengah I had that evening to drink the 'Op Pot', which was a two and a half pint pot of unadulterated Tiger that had been in the fridge since lunchtime. It was mandatory that it was quaffed in one go and quite unusual for anyone to manage the procedure without mishap but much to my surprise I managed it. With a big grin on my face I triumphantly went to hand the pot back to the Boss who said, "Just a second Dave," and first went to open a window. A few seconds later I realised why as two and a half pints of ice cold Tiger beer made a break for freedom and for a minute or so I was leaning out of said window feeling less chirpy than before.

 

Not a lot else to report except commiserations with Andrew - I know only too well what he is experiencing.

 

Stay well everyone and try to Baz your day.

 

Dave

[Barry O]

hoovering completed!  Floors which can be washed..washed...

 

Her indoors now preparing list II.. Pah!

 

Me I am off to the workroom..

 

Baz

[Happy Hippo]

1 minute ago, Dave Hunt said:

 the Boss who said, "Just a second Dave," and first went to open a window. A few seconds later I realised why as two and a half pints of ice cold Tiger beer made a break for freedom and for a minute or so I was leaning out of said window feeling less chirpy than before.

For some reason, I have a picture of the SWO standing under the window, in his best blues addressing the assembled other ranks espousing the merits of abstaining from the demon drink.

 

'You horrible little shower.............'

 

Drip, drip, drip.

 

'That was a horrible little shower..................Sir!  When I said I wanted to slip into something cool after the parade, I did not expect to be so obliged!'

 

Salute: About turn: Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock................

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A bit cool this morning with a bit of high cloud making it a bit hazy. When I woke up this morning I wasn't even sure of what day it was, for a minute I thought it was Friday then I was able to work out it was Wednesday.

3 hours ago, Barry O said:

 

 

They still have "caulkers" in shipyards. Never checked out what they do but they will have a devil of a job caulking the metal hulls and decks on modern warships...

 

Baz

Wooden ships are still being built today so theres still plenty of work for caulkers. Even steel vessels can spring a leak and these have to be quickly repaired or 'caulked'. This also applies to leaking pipes so a caulker might be required on larger naval vessels. At one time when a ship was launched shipyard workers were on board ready to plug any leaks that would occur once the vessel was afloat. Most of those were apprentices as highlighted when the SS Daphne capsized on launch in 1883 with a tragic loss of life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Daphne_(1883) 

 

[Andrew P]

3 hours ago, Barry O said:

Ey up!

Andrew P..now you can lehally move (did you have access to the Government's "think tank or crystal ball??" Good luck with the move!

 

 

Positive thoughts to all ERs!

Baz

Hi Baz, We were fine Baz, you could always move, providing the property you are going to is empty, which the one were buying is as of yesterday, and we move in on Friday and will move out from here tomorrow, and the new person can move in here on Friday, and so on.

The Removers were the problem, but the Company were using are splitting the load into two Vans, hence loading three quarters today and the rest in a separate Van tomorrow, so also splitting the Crew for the journey South and back.

 

I need a crystal ball for your Lottery numbers though, haha.

[grandadbob]

I seem to be suffering from a case of slow today.  Slow breakfast, slow to drink coffee, slow walk, another slow coffee.  After that The Boss wanted to sort out our Sainsbury's order and as she's a bit slow on computer matters I became the designated driver.  That also went slowly thanks to Sainsbury's carp website.  We got there slowly but I've now lost the will to live swear so probably won't make a slow walk to The Shed until after I've had lunch....slowly.

 

H. Andbrakestuckon

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by grandadbob

[jamie92208]

50 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

For some reason, I have a picture of the SWO standing under the window, in his best blues addressing the assembled other ranks espousing the merits of abstaining from the demon drink.

 

'You horrible little shower.............'

 

Drip, drip, drip.

 

'That was a horrible little shower..................Sir!  When I said I wanted to slip into something cool after the parade, I did not expect to be so obliged!'

 

Salute: About turn: Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock................

Exactly that happenned at our basic training school at Newby Wiske in North Yorks. We had a dining in night before our passing out parade. There were two memorable moments. The first when a rather shy policewoman presented a cheque to the commandant. She had conquered her shyness and wore a very revealing dress. The commandant leaned over the table to accept the cheque and almost fell down her dress. His wife was not amused.  The other was afterwards, the inspecting officer was taking the night air outside the front door, still in uniform, when a student had to do what Dave did, out of the dorm window, all over the Deputy Chief Constable. Brilliant.

 

Jamie

Edited May 13, 2020 by jamie92208

[petethemole]

Mornin' awl, bright and breezy here but still chilly; the heating's on, not that I need it but Mrs mole feels the cold.

 

Belated commiserations to AndrewC on the passing of Tiggr.  Our Tigger is 14 and still in reasonable shape in that nothing seems wrong with him apart from not being able to jump up very high.  His nights of prowling the elevated highway across the neighbourhood shed and garage roofs are over.  He used to like going up the ladder to the loft and had had devised a clever way of coming down.  Lately he's been unable to come down and I had to rescue him, and stop him going up.  The other day I left the ladder up and he started up but got stuck halfway and had to be lifted down.  He sleeps much more than he used to but is still affectionate, hustles for titbits and prowls the garden. 

 

I found an extendable line prop in Aldi yesterday, which was handy as our old one broke.  When I got it home I said "Guess what they're selling in Aldi, social distancing poles."  Mrs mole believed me.  It reminded me of the time I manage to convince an acquaintance, who was into D&D figure painting, that Humrol made rainbow paint; "What number?" he said...out loud...in Beatties....

 

I've actually done caulking.  When Southampton City Museums owned the former tug tender Calshot some restoration work was being carried out and the Archaeology unit often provided labour, so I spent some time caulking new deck timbers on the foredeck under the supervision of the Maritime Museum technician, a former ship's carpenter named Wally.

 

Stay safe and elfy.

Pete

Edited May 13, 2020 by petethemole

[PhilJ W]

14 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Exactly that happenned at our basic training school at Newby Wiske in North Yorks. We had a dining in night before our passing out parade. There were two memorable moments. The first when a rather shy policewoman presented a cheque to the commandant. She had conquered her shyness and wore a very revealing dress. The commandant leaned over the table to accept the cheque and almost fell down her dress. His wife was not amused.  The other was afterwards, the inspecting officer was taking the night air outside the front door, still in uniform, when a student had to do what Dave did, out of the dorm window, all over the Deputy Chief Constable. Brilliant.

 

Jamie

How did that students police career go after that little incident?

[81C]

Morning All

Overcast and cold 

Had some heating on this morning just to take the chill out of the air I really must sort out the kitchen window and seal the frame in.

I'm getting things moving again in the flat I had come to a grinding halt until my Babe paid a visit and we spent so quality time together 

filling the draws in the bedroom with summer clothes that had been packed a removal box, just the remainder of one box to be unpacked

I can use space for all the kitchen stuff that's still boxed the bedroom is first on the list to paint on Friday hopefully that should be completed

quickly then I can move some stored rolling stock into it out of the way.

Better get on now the green mist has gone from the bathroom, Stay Safe . Watta Dump. 

[newbryford]

4 hours ago, roundhouse said:

 

Hopefully Mick NB can get back to calling 'fore'

 

Hopefully, not too many cries of FORE as that usually accompanies an errant shot (along with another silently uttered four letter work beginning with F)

 

5 hours and counting......

 

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

G'day all,

 

Weather less than wonderful but at least it's not raining (nor is any forecast.

 

Interesting chat with the Postman this morning as he knocked on the door to inquire if it was ok to leave the post in the porch (told him it was) so i asked him why they weren't using gloves (it would mean a new pair for each new bundled they opened - seems very logical and they have had special instruction re not touching their faces plus washing their hands etc when the round is finished.  Apparently - and not unexpectedly - the ending of Saturday deliveries is to create some catch-up time where they are short handed plus to allow extra time for sorting packets of which there are rather a lot at present.  Not short staffed locally with no one off sick etc but apparently at Bracknell 50% of the Posties are off due to the virus.

 

And now something which passeth my understanding - why is RMweb plagued with total idiots who can't be bothered to read explanations other people have already posted and then go on to post total nonsense presenting it  as 'helpful information'?  I've just spent far too long of my morning dealing with the garbage posted by one of these halfwits having already previously made it plain that he was posting irrelevancies, then he claimed that what I had posted was not possible;  sorry dozy p*llock but my T-shirt reads 'Been there, done that'.   His Hipponess is aware of the thread I refer to having visited it recently.

 

Ah well the vacuum of the ground floor of the house needs to be cleaned and I am duly depi uted to do it today as the Good Doctor will be attempting to sleep during the coming three days after three night shifts.

 

Have a good day one and all and stay safe. (I see next door seem to have a visitor but they've been doing that anyway for the past couple of weeks judging by an occasional male voice in their garden although only three females live there)

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

How did that students police career go after that little incident?

Apparently the culprit couldn't be identified, all occupants of the dorm professed their innocence.  It wasn't me guv, honest, on my mothers life.  There used to be a mythical animal called the county dog, who got hit by many police cars at night but always escaped, just leaving the damage.  It was a black beastie of legendary size but was never caught or found. In this case the county dog couldn't be blamed.

 

Jamie

Edited May 13, 2020 by jamie92208

[iL Dottore]

5 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

.... - why is RMweb plagued with total idiots who can't be bothered to read explanations other people have already posted and then go on to post total nonsense presenting it  as 'helpful information'?...

The most plausible (and more charitable) reason would be that what you have described is due to a hitherto unreported neurological deficit secondary to an otherwise asymptomatic COVID-19 infection. One hopes that these posters are self-isolating.

The equally plausible (but less charitable) reason is that such people are innately inconsiderate, stupid, c**kwombles, whose grasp of debate, reading what has been posted and their ability to understand writings with “big pictures and small words” is somewhat less than the average stunned slug.

So there you have it, boys and girls, the eternal diagnostic dilemma: Disease or Defective DNA?
Now off to make my version of a veal, ham and egg pie

Cheers

F

[Barry O]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Wooden ships are still being built today so theres still plenty of work for caulkers. Even steel vessels can spring a leak and these have to be quickly repaired or 'caulked'. This also applies to leaking pipes so a caulker might be required on larger naval vessels. At one time when a ship was launched shipyard workers were on board ready to plug any leaks that would occur once the vessel was afloat. Most of those were apprentices as highlighted when the SS Daphne capsized on launch in 1883 with a tragic loss of life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Daphne_(1883) 

 

Submarines hulls (or the ones I was involved in) are made of a variety of metals...In the trial dive they do have people on board to check for leaks...mind you before my time they did a test dive and opened the torpedo outer doors.. didn't check that the inners were sealed shut.. ooops! In reality if you dive deep then "caulking" a leak might work but they do other things to sort these out.

 

They are generally found fitting gaskets to "things" and getting in the way of painters/fitters/pipe stranglers/wire stranglers...

 

Baz

 

 

[Barry O]

can anyone explain to me why I can't go and visit my son at his home..but can go to the house next door to him for a "viewing"...   distinct lack of a holistic approach .. but SM.. yes they must be on here too!

 

Ba

[AndrewC]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

And now something which passeth my understanding - why is RMweb plagued with total idiots who can't be bothered to read explanations other people have already posted and then go on to post total nonsense presenting it  as 'helpful information'?  I've just spent far too long of my morning dealing with the garbage posted by one of these halfwits having already previously made it plain that he was posting irrelevancies, then he claimed that what I had posted was not possible;  sorry dozy p*llock but my T-shirt reads 'Been there, done that'.   His Hipponess is aware of the thread I refer to having visited it recently.

 

Ahh the great online conundrum. ID said it best. Cockwombles. The same thing on steroids can be seen on any Fecesbook thread. X posts something about Y with a correct answer of Z. 3 days and 100 posts later all confirming Z, some sh*tgibbon, lets call him A for ***hole, posts his answer as B. They haven't looked at any of the 100 replies, or are even in the same ballpark for their so called answer. 

 

I really miss the old days of the Internet when idiots were confined to AoL as getting online properly was a task for someone with a functioning brain. Now, any arsebadger with a thumb can barge unwanted into conversations, threads, etc. No wonder the dark web is popular, it is still free of the flashing 12s. 

 

(A flashing 12 is a derogatory term for people who were too stupid and technically inept to set the clock on their VCR. ) 

[Gwiwer]

2 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

Cockwombles.... some sh*tgibbon, lets call him A for ***hole,

Sorry.  I'll go quietly  

2 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

any arsebadger with a thumb can barge unwanted into conversations, threads, etc

Apologies again .....  

5 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

No wonder the dark web is popular

It is?  I wouldn't know  

 

 

in other news the parcel missing from yesterday has just arrived despite being "rescheduled" for 20th May.  Better late than never.  Or is it now early?  

[jamie92208]

I may havevposted this before but I was once told that the human brain takes about 25% ofbour calorie intake to function. I suspect that there are many out there working on 1% or less.

 

Anywzy getting away from duscussion of the dried up shallow end of thd gene pool, I can report a remarkably quick delivery.  The jumbo oats that are part of my homemade breakfast ceral have just arrived from Mornflake of Crewe. Less than 1 week after being ordered.  Well done to the despatch staff and UPS. I now have enough for the next 12 months.

 

Jamie

[Dave Hunt]

I guess that, sadly, the standard distribution curve of intelligence (or lack of) in the general population is reflected in membership of RMWeb. Fortunately ERs seems to have escaped their attention.

 

I was once at an air display with a Hunter. In front of the aircraft was a large board containing information about it, starting with, 'Hunter Mk FGA9 single seat ground attack fighter. After spending several minutes reading the board, one cockwomble came up to me and asked, "Where does the rest of the crew and the passengers sit?" For a brief moment I thought it was a wind up and prepared some pithy and jocular retort but quickly realised that the enquirer was serious so I settled for, "There aren't any."

 

And such people are allowed to breed.

 

Dave