Early Risers.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Cloudy start here with the chance of some sunny spells and showers.

There is a bit of an air of fedupness around GDB Towers today. We should have been setting off for Southampton a little later  to board a new ship bound for the Norwegian Fjords.  I don't think they've finished building the ship yet and believe it's still in the builder's yard in Germany.  P & O have postponed the start of sailings again until October.  We've rearranged our cruise for next May but I'm not holding my breath!

My parcels from Ford and Fraggle Rock arrived promptly so today I may retire to The Shed and see if I can do something with them without messing them up.  There may or may not be some cursing involved.

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited June 20, 2020 by grandadbob

[Andrew P]

22 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

Good morning all,

Cloudy start here with the chance of some sunny spells and showers.

There is a bit of an air of fedupness around GDB Towers today. We should have been setting off for Southampton a little later  to board a new ship bound for the Norwegian Fjords.  I don't think they've finished building the ship yet and believe it's still in the builder's yard in Germany.  P & O have postponed the start of sailings again until October.  We've rearranged out cruise for next May but I'm not holding my breath!

My parcels from Ford and Fraggle Rock arrived promptly so today I may retire to The Shed and see if I can do something with them without messing them up.  There may or may not be some cursing involved.

Have a good one,

Bob.

Mind your head on the Shed doorway, Bob.

 

Have a nice day all.

[AndrewC]

5 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Inquiring minds need more data:

• proper low and slow barbecue brisket ...
• or prepackaged from the supermarket?
• barbecue sauce, pico de gallo or salsa?
• soft tacos? flour or corn?

I’m a purist. 

Low and slow. Hickory or mesquite smoking chips. Rub with deli mustard and rub with your fave brisket rub. 225f for around 90 mins per pound. Water tray below the meat if you can. Injection with beef stock & beer is optional. 

You won’t want any sauce if the meat is done right. If you plan on shredding it for tacos, then a sweet bbq sauce like Traeger’s apricot. Corn tacos are much nicer. 

 

Prepackaged is usually baked then steamed to make it moist. 

[roundhouse]

1 hour ago, grandadbob said:

Good morning all,

Cloudy start here with the chance of some sunny spells and showers.

There is a bit of an air of fedupness around GDB Towers today. We should have been setting off for Southampton a little later  to board a new ship bound for the Norwegian Fjords.  I don't think they've finished building the ship yet and believe it's still in the builder's yard in Germany.  P & O have postponed the start of sailings again until October.  We've rearranged out cruise for next May but I'm not holding my breath!

My parcels from Ford and Fraggle Rock arrived promptly so today I may retire to The Shed and see if I can do something with them without messing them up.  There may or may not be some cursing involved.

Have a good one,

Bob.

A long time friend and other half should have been on a new ship around now but instead they went for a day out to Swanage and Weymouth, where they could seee various cruise ships anchored in the bay. He works for Southern so has had to take his allocated leave.

[iL Dottore]

All this talk on ER about bus services, or lack thereof, makes me realise how lucky I truly am. Our local bus and tram providers (BLT and BVB) are running their standard services. The instructions are, during rush hour, to wear a mask otherwise social distancing is sufficient. The trams run by both companies are large (and long) affairs and outside of rush hour it is very easy to maintain social distancing. In regards to scheduling, most bus and tram lines run on a frequency of between every 5 and 20 minutes. There is one bus, however, which I take every so often to get me to my physiotherapist when I don’t have a car, that runs every 30 minutes. And it’s basically a bus version of the Mercedes Benz Sprinter

I enclose a link for the “Bus Geeks” amongst you: https://www.blt.ch/en/company/vehicles/buses.html

 

I am now off to finish reading my book on Adolf Hitler by the German historian Volker Ullrich, which is an interesting take on material that I had thought to have been “done to death“; in fact he provides some very interesting insights.

Then, this afternoon, I get to fire up the HIWATT Little D Rig for the first time (when it arrived it was without manuals so until the Swiss importer was able to run some tests on the speaker cab and confirm the cab’s impedance, I couldn’t plug in the head as there was the risk - albeit remote - that the single Fane speaker wasn’t 8 ohms). I’ll dig out my Keeley Electronics “Dark Side” effects unit (“Pink Floyd in a Box”) dust off the Fender DG Black Strat and see how badly I can mangle Brain Damage and Eclipse from DSOTM 

 

With acquisition of the HIWATT amp, my adolescent longings have now been fulfilled (at least the musical ones; Donatella will, alas, always be out of reach )

 

iD

 

Edited June 20, 2020 by iL Dottore
Typo

[JohnDMJ]

 

5 hours ago, chrisf said:

Greetings one and all

 

Once again the process of booking a service appointment with British Gas was more of an ordeal than it should have been.  What should have happened is that the website would spring into life and display a selection of slots from which I could choose.  Instead it apologised noiselessly and displayed a telephone number.  I dialled it and the fun started.  How I detest those voices which belong not to a human but to a machine that seems to be hard of hearing.  For all the good it did I found myself yelling the answers.  Out of the rigmarole came an appointment for a six hour afternoon slot and being asked no less than three times whether I had symptoms of the virus.  Only one of the questions was accompanied by an invitation to press 1 for yes and 2 for no.  I do hope that British Gas do not regard their customer service as state of the art.  It isn’t.

 

Sounds like more of a black art!

[Simon G]

Morning all,

 

Today is our 39th wedding anniversary, but I don’t think that we will be doing much to mark the occasion.  I asked Mrs G what she wanted for a meal, so I will be making my own version of lasagne tonight.  We haven’t had it for quite a while, so it will make a nice change.

 

Morning walk has been completed.  We managed to avoid contact with too many people by going out early.  It was rather cool as there was a breeze.  Hopefully it will come out later to make gardening a little warmer!

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. This morning if it wasn't for Corona-19 I would be in Ipswich for the Transport and Model Festival. An event I have attended for the last several years and I introduced my friend Richard and his lad to a few years ago, well there's next year to look forward to. The parcel that came when I was out has been identified as there was an 'out on delivery' notice, an old plastic kit (50's/60's) for a couple of cars. No chance of a lie in this morning as the neighbours opposite were having a tree or trees removed, those chipping machines are noisy! Thats it for now, be back later.

[PhilJ W]

Happy anniversary Simon and Mrs. G. 

[grandadbob]

Congratulations and a very happy anniversary to Simon and Mrs Simon!

[J. S. Bach]

9 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Evening all, ...snip...  Just had some excellent tacos for dinner ...ship...

Douglas

Hmmm, "excellent" and "taco" should never be used in the same sentence!

[Andrew P]

Happy anniversary Simon and the Good Lady.

[AndrewC]

Happy Anniversary MR & Mrs Simon

 

Greetings all from the boring borough. Glad midsommar. Doing a bit of Sweden today with some beer from Popples Bryggeri, Swedish cheeses and snacks. Just because we can. 

 

This morning I’ve managed to replace the tube in the auto vent for SWMBO’s greenhouse. Dremel is my friend as a couple of the bolts and the retaining clip had to be cut off. My next must do task is to find out why the washer isn’t filling. Most likely the intake filter is clogged again. Joy as it means crawling to disconnect the water supply, then pulling the washer (with dryer on tap) out of it’s space so I can reach the back of it. 30 min effort for what I’m hoping is a 2 minute fix. Failing that we will probably just replace the pair as it means the pump has had it. Not worth fixing a 10 year old appliance. 

 

And now beer o clock. I’ve just been told the washer can wait until tomorrow. Enjoy the day. 

 

[J. S. Bach]

Yes, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to Mr. Simon and Mrs. Simon.

Edited June 20, 2020 by J. S. Bach

[Tony_S]

Happy Anniversary to Simon and Mrs G.

Tony

[J. S. Bach]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 ...snip...And it’s basically a bus version of the Mercedes Benz Sprinter

I enclose a link for the “Bus Geeks” amongst you: https://www.blt.ch/en/company/vehicles/buses.html

iD

 

We have a similar vehicle by Ford here in Chester:

 

 

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 ...snip...

I am now off to finish reading my book on Adolf Hitler by the German historian Volker Ullrich, which is an interesting take on material that I had thought to have been “done to death“; in fact he provides some very interesting insights.

 ...snip...

iD

I started a similar book: "HITLER" by Joachim C. Fest but got bored with it (or found a more interesting book; easy to do! ) and put it down. If I decide to pick it back up I may have to start again.

 

Edited June 20, 2020 by J. S. Bach

[Tony_S]

23 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

Not worth fixing a 10 year old appliance

The 10 year parts and labour warranty on our washing machine expires next year. However the manufacturer guaranteed to make parts available for 20 years after manufacture. 

[Tony_S]

I saw this “How to weigh a Koala” on Twitter. 
I thought ChrisF might like to know how they do.

[jamie92208]

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

All this talk on ER about bus services, or lack thereof, makes me realise how lucky I truly am. Our local bus and tram providers (BLT and BVB) are running their standard services. The instructions are, during rush hour, to wear a mask otherwise social distancing is sufficient. The trams run by both companies are large (and long) affairs and outside of rush hour it is very easy to maintain social distancing. In regards to scheduling, most bus and tram lines run on a frequency of between every 5 and 20 minutes. There is one bus, however, which I take every so often to get me to my physiotherapist when I don’t have a car, that runs every 30 minutes. And it’s basically a bus version of the Mercedes Benz Sprinter

 

In, this afternoon, I get to fire up the HIWATT Little D Rig for the first time (when it arrived it was without manuals so until the Swiss importer was able to run some tests on the speaker cab and confirm the cab’s impedance, I couldn’t plug in the head as there was the risk - albeit remote - that the single Fane speaker wasn’t 8 ohms). I’ll dig out my Keeley Electronics “Dark Side” effects unit (“Pink Floyd in a Box”) dust off the Fender DG Black Strat and see how badly I can mangle Brain Damage and Eclipse from DSOTM 

 

With acquisition of the HIWATT amp, my adolescent longings have now been fulfilled (at least the musical ones; Donatella will, alas, always be out of reach )

 

iD

 

Our bus service is term time weekdays only to the town 10 miles away.  Outbound at 08.00 return at 15.30.

 

The place was jumping to the HIWATT amps till a 20" cymbal fell and cut the lamps.

One of the tracks I listened to yesterday. Long Live Rock by the Who.

 

Happy Anniversary to Simon and Mrs G.

 

Jamie

 

 

Edited June 20, 2020 by jamie92208

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Simon G said:

...Today is our 39th wedding anniversary, but I don’t think that we will be doing much to mark the occasion....

Congratulations, Simon.
Of course, compared with some of our esteemed, more (ahem!) “mature” ER members, you and Mrs G are just beginners in regards to marital longevity!.

So, here’s to many more 

iD

[The Stationmaster]

G'day all,

 

A happy anniversary to Simon and Mrs G and many more of them,

 

I had a new type of call from 'somewhere foreign' - it started off with 'you are needing a refund on the computer services you recently paid for' which was daft enough so I let him carry on which resulted u in my being asked if I was at my computer.  No was my (truthful) response and I then asked why to be told that would allow 'them' to refund the money.   So i said as you have my 'phone number you must know my address so send me a cheque - which resulted in another request to ggo to my computer.  so I told him to go forth & multiply (actually words of a similar meaning, I do hope he understood).

 

Today carrots have been lifted by the management - pretty good looking specimens - maybe I should ask fora carrot cake for Father's Day?  As for Weymouth to look at the big ships there look to be only two there now, there are another two in Torbay; Coverack is good for spotting large tankers with five offshore.  There are currently three large cruise ships off Bournemouth/Boscombe (one of which was previously in Weymouth Bay), and four more in Sandown Anchorage off the Isle of Wight, two alongside at Southampton and another alongside at Dover, five in Tilbury Docks alongside plus another moored out in the river.  The area between Southwold and lowestoft is a sort of tanker magnet with 20 of them anchored within a few miles of shore.  There aren't many cruise ships further north, one alongside at port of Tyne having moved there from Southampton and another three in Rosyth Docks.  The west coast isn't so popular - there are two large cruise ships alongside at Clydeport and one not so large one alongside in Avonmouth Docks.  Which I think means a total of 27 cruise ships moored/.anchored off the British coast.    And that is not much different from the number spread out between Miami and the Bahamas.  Presumably British port dues etc are relatively cheap because there are only three on the Dutch coast and only two (French registered and very upmarket smaller vessels) anywhere near a French port.  it might also have something to do with the ability to move crew members about as the UK is one of the more helpful nations in that respect.

 

Right time to follow request orders and clean the vacuum, assuming I can find it if course.

 

Have a good day one and all

Edited June 20, 2020 by The Stationmaster

[Happy Hippo]

5 hours ago, Barry O said:

 

 

A question if I may? How have our overpaid soccer players managed to keep their immaculate haircuts during lockdown? My hair is getting "Shaun the Sheep" like. Do they all travel to a certain town in durham???

Obviously they all married hairdressers.

 

 

 

[iL Dottore]

37 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

 

We have a similar vehicle by Ford here in Chester:

 

That’s really a spectacularly ugly vehicle. It looks like the result of an incestuous relationship between a transit van and a city hopper. The MB Sprinter conversion looks the dog’s danglies in comparison. Nor am I impressed by the livery: in a country where every mode of public transport seems to be daubed in violent, eye haemorrhaging colours, this is positively boringly drab by comparison. I thought the whole idea of liveries on public transportation is to make the vehicles carrying them stand out from the rest of the traffic. One could be forgiven for expecting this vehicle to have a ladder sticking out the back and somewhere on the sides, back or front the logo “no job too small, reasonable rates“

Would I be over optimistic in assuming that the ride comfort is good and the ticket price reasonable?

[Happy Hippo]

5 hours ago, Barry O said:

The idea of go everywhere by bike not bus or train is ok if you live somewhere reasonably flat and have panniers or a basket to carry shopping in. The local buses are seeing a steady increase in patronage. Some of the cyclists have realised they can just about ride a bike but not wirh bags draped off the handlebars.

We used to have a bus service from the village into Telf Central.

 

It left the village around 0930 on both Tuesday and a Thursday.

 

The return journey left Telf Central at around 1030 on a Tuesday and a Thursday.

 

If you caught the bus on a Tuesday morning and didn't get back to the bus station in time, you had to hang around until 1030 on the Thu for the next return service.  Woe betide you if you caught the Thursady bus out and missed the return journey otherwise it was staying in the bus station over the weekend.

 

As you can imagine, nobody used this fantastic service, so sadly it was axed.

 

This is the way you encourage citizens to use public transport rather than rely on your car.

[Barry O]

Happy anniversary Simon.  Hopefully you and your good lady celebrate a lot more anniversaries.  You may never forget this one!

 

Baz