Early Risers.

[PeterBB]

When I started Brian could have been wished a happy birthday but now it os hope you had a happy birthday - and it looked you did because of all those tokens.

 

The Q stern woodwork looks great.  Chemical/smells: Burton (and Guilford Friary and Oest Houses) have the effect on me of removing my recent food; Cambridge Heath had ?Palmers and if they had a leak ... and of course good old H2S; once also remember someone dropped a bottle of xylene and the next morning all the staff had 'odd' headaches.  The bad was the sewerage farm and unfortunately the story goes the first one went in, did  not come out, the second went in and did not come out the third started to go in suddenly realised and called the ambulance ... remember it for other reasons.

 

Neil, glad to hear that Grace is coming home - lovely picture.

Locally a lady scrubbed her bathroom out with bleach and another chemical (can't remember off hand), windows closed, suddenly collapsed and unfortunately inspite of rapid response died of chlorine poisoning  because the second chemical reacted with the bleach to release chlorine.

 

Sherringham flooded - no help for the rest of us an here yesterday! rain sun torrent sun rain wind - no snow but three seasons in one.

 

Start the uni process al over again - Coombe Barton- that would be like putting water onto a burning fat filled frying pan.

Not great but the send off via the surgery of his doctor BiL just showed how respected he was.  Thoughts with you.

 

Apologies if I missed anything and for those that I was unable to 'tick' or comment earlier.  Hope you all have a great day

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Evening all,

 

As I stated yesterday, this morning was taken up by an orientation at the new school. Early start, 6:30, earliest I’d been up in months. Today was my sisters first day of school (8th grade), and her school is just down the lane so traffic was awful. But I arrived in my schools PAC well before the 8:00 deadline, and the talks began. The first few were all about religion (it’s an Augustinian school), and then the real info started. We were split into groups and taken on fast paced tour. Then we  were lead outside, given our schedules, and told we had two minutes to report to are first class!

 

Epic pandemonium ensued. It really wasn’t that bad, as all the “upper classmen” were stationed four in every hall as human google maps essentially. So after we went through our schedules at 7x times speed, we were shepherded back into the PAC for more prayer or something. Then I was picked up by the grandmother and taken to her house to do various odd jobs, and was reward with lunch consisting of a brioche burger and a “blueberry gooey cake”, don’t tell HH. One of these odd jobs was replacing a bulb in a Georgian style lamp on a wall, and when I opened it, the sliding lock bracket fell off, so I’ll have to braze it back together. Should be interesting.

 

stay healthy,

 

Douglas

 

Oh, and @jamie92208, I can’t say I have heard of a ploughing engine being used recently to get stuff out of a quarry, but would very interested to know more. 

Edited August 19, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works

[J. S. Bach]

Happy birthday Brian and to all a good night owl from the Piedmont.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all, with belated birthday greetings to Brian, welcome home to amazing Grace and heartfelt condolences to BoD.  It is good to be back where we belong.

 

Today I get to go out of the house again, this time for the fodder run.  I need some inspiration for main meals as but one portion of chicken chasseur remains.  It's not fodder, well it is for my printer, for I need ink.  One of the IT-related joys is that I cannot print in black and white without there being ink in each of the three colour cartridges.  Let's just say that when the printer shows signs of terminal failure I will take it on the chin like the big strong chap I am supposed to be.  I don't feel like a big strong chap, for I am one of the increase in sufferers from depression currently being reported.  I have lived with it on and off since 2005, which makes it no more welcome.  It is what lies behind my current inability to motivate myself and, I suspect, my periodic confidence issues.  I will deal with it using nature's way and will have no truck with antidepressants.   Brave words?  We shall see.

 

As for the news that we are likely to see driverless vehicles on our roads next year, remind me not to go out!  I suppose it was the next logical step from drivers paying more attention to their mobile phones than the road ahead.  It reminds me of a corny old joke.  A police patrol espied a woman knitting while driving merrily along.  OK, it could have been a man, for I happen to know that my friend Harry is knitting himself a scarf.  Anyway, the patrol got ahead of the knitting driver.  The non-driving constable wound down his window and yelled "Pull over!".  The driver replied: "No, socks".  Boom boom.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris  

 

 

[newbryford]

8 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

 

 

Oh, and @jamie92208, I can’t say I have heard of a ploughing engine being used recently to get stuff out of a quarry, but would very interested to know more. 

 

A quick search reveals this.

https://cpnonline.co.uk/news/ar-demolition-use-a-mclaren-traction-engine-from-1918/#:~:text=Demolition experts have used a 102-year-old steam traction,established his family’s construction firm in the 1860s.

 

ISTR that it was mentioned somewhere on RMweb.

 

[Coombe Barton]

When I was working in Coventry many years ago:

 

08:30 - Arrived for work.

08:45 - Truck and men arrived at empty site opposite.

10:00 - Sign erected opposite saying "Federation Brewery Warehouse".

10:15 - Tunnel committee formed.


 

Edited August 19, 2020 by Coombe Barton

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Back again after another flame out.  Not much happened since yesterday.  We were going to go for a walk earlier but it started raining so we delayed. It's still raining so won't be going now.  Fair weather walkers 'R' us!

Biggest problem I have to wrestle with at the moment is what to have for lunch.  Decisions, decisions. 

Have a good one,

U.N. Decided.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Here we are again, but for how long I wonder as access to the cloud seems ratherwobbly at preseent.  Don't worry, CBeebies can help -

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/radio/old-jacks-boat-rockpool-tales-fly-me-to-the-clouds

 

The loss adjuster (in fact she calls herself an 'assessor') is due in a couple of hours time - fingers firmly crossed that she assesses things the same way as me!!   Regrettably the rain might be obscuring some of the troubles but fingers are firmly crossed that she can see the various problems resulting from the way the water has moved itself about under the floor screed.

 

Enjoy your day one and all.

 

PS  After reading GDB's words above my  lunch is decided and will involve a further attack on the South Oxfordshire tomato mountain - so I'm told. 

 

 

Edited August 19, 2020 by The Stationmaster

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Yet another day when the RMWeb was off line first thing. I had a phone call from my oncologists department this morning, once again my PSA has risen, it now sufficiently high enough for me to be called in for a few scans. A bone scan within the next couple of weeks and also a CT scan. In 6 weeks I'll get the results of these tests. 

 

So, it's carry on as normal for now and await the scans. Time to finish installing the underfloor insulation. 

 

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

 

Brian 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Managed to catch up with Farcebook this morning, now to catch up with RMweb. Nothing much can be done outside as its persisting down.

[New Haven Neil]

Ah, the bulb has come back on. Maybe it needs a new wick or something.

 

The Merchant Navy Officer's firefighting courses are a bit more involved than BR's, as dialling 999 (911 for young Douglas) gets you nowhere mid-Atlantic.  Updated periodically (every two years IIRC), generally if you didn't have a burn by the end of the week you didn't pass!  It was tough.  However, I did once have a fire in the engine room due to a split injector fuel pipe on a generator engine, and all the training clicked in - I did all the right things first, press the general/fire alarm, change the generators over etc and then had actually put the fire out by the time the first emergency team came tumbling down the ladders.  All without thinking about it - it was automatic, I just did it.  Took me quite a while to calm down afterwards though, the adrenaline was something else.  I think nowadays engines have to have shields to stop this sort of leak causing a fire, but this sort of fire wasn't unknown in my day.  

[TheQ]

Mooring awl, just, I Think they'd run out of shillings for the meter again..

 

Another poor nights sleep not good,...

Ben the Chase Collie found a pheasant to put into vertical take off mode this morning. 

 

Dry sunny and almost calm before the storm Ellen Arrives,

 

Last weeks major system is still not happy I'm measuring DC current again.. I should be doing it on another system.

 

I've been discussing the finer points of the Sailing rules 2021 edition on another forum.. I think some want a set of rules written especially for themselves...

 

Since I seem to remember typing much of this rubbish before, I must have crashed the system when I sent it, as it's not showing...

 

Never had tours of any of the 5 schools I went to, either at the end of the year before or at the start of the new school.

 It was arrive, all  into the assembly / gym hall. Names called out, form groups with the appropriate teacher. Follow teacher to a classroom which would be your normal registration class.  Be given or write out your timetable, be given or draw out the map of the school, from what was on the board.. and off you went..

 

Ah fires, well all but two of My jobs I ran towards the fire, the two are here and at Bacton gas works at both of them you are told to run away to designated points.. My other jobs I was expected to put out fires, I used to enjoy driving a Land rover fire engine..

 

 Onto the next measurement..

 

Edited August 19, 2020 by TheQ

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Well, the potential for a hosepipe ban this year is definitely off, according to our local supply company's operative whom I encountered this morning. She was rejoicing greatly that a longstanding local leak location has finally been identified, and is even now being rectified. Which is good news.

12 hours ago, newbryford said:

...But: if the flakes hadn't been dried for long enough, the resulting water went into the reactor with predictable results.

One day (before I worked there), a 10kg tub of wet tin was tipped into the reaction vessel, the resulting acid cloud ...

Oh the joy of (stinking and) potentially dangerous processes, inadequately managed. One of this type was definitely mentioned on the course I attended. Attitudes were very lax in the early seventies, all of my significantly older colleagues had known of such 'accidents' with severe injury or death resulting, all avoidable with enforced process discipline.

 

The example of employee protection that stuck in my mind was the poor chap who had somehow fallen into a vat of adhesive tape glue. Not only did he die, but he adhered extremely positively to the floor. My employer of the time had an incident in which a worker passed out while going for his start of shift snort of trichloroethane, and was slumped head down into the degreaser tank. Fortunately he was seen before he died. And the attitude was 'all's well that ends well'.

 

Very happy that this has changed, for all the whining about health and safety run amok. I was impatient at the time, but now see it as comprehensible, in that many of those in management had spent some time in mortal peril from enemy action as their formative experience in adult life.

[simontaylor484]

Glad to hear baby Grace has gone home. I wish her and her family all the best for the future.

Been waiting for the district nurse again this morning. Now waiting for Asda to deliver Swmbo has taken youngest out to the local Morrisons cafe for a treat and to take advantage of the eat out to help out and so he gets used to being out in time for school restarting.

[AndyB]

[45156]

Afternoon All

 

My new laptop is still fighting me a lot - can't access FB (shame?) and Amazon is still giving strange messages and asking me to reset passwords and things - but as for this site - I've tried everything to get here again, password resets, and many other steps - I have now asked my young friend to come back, as he thinks that if I copy the entire Firefox from the old to the new, rather than doing ecverything piecemeal, we should be OK - he's coming back this afternoon.

 

Generic greetings are, of course, on offer to all.

 

Meantime, I am having a great time with Cadent (our gas transmission people) who say that our gas supply pipe needs to be replaced - and they would arrive to deal today, between 8 and 9 am.  Come 9.15 and no Cadent, so I rang them, and was (eventually) advised that the job was assigned to a team which wasn't due to START until 10.30.  So I raised a complaint, and cancelled the visit, as 30747 was due to go out, and we were not happy to leave the job to that late in case we were without gas overnight.  So I went upstairs to do some painting, and there was a ring at the door around 11.30 - Cadent.  They decided after all that the pipe did not need to be replaced - but that some of the fittings to the meter were rusty, and  declined to allow them to continue as they still couldn't guarantee that after they'd finished that the next person to visit would be here before close tonight.

 

Hopefully back tomorrow

Regards to All

Stewart

[PhilJ W]

12 hours ago, PeterBB said:

 

 

 

Locally a lady scrubbed her bathroom out with bleach and another chemical (can't remember off hand), windows closed, suddenly collapsed and unfortunately in spite of rapid response died of chlorine poisoning  because the second chemical reacted with the bleach to release chlorine.

 

 

I know that mixing bleach with Harpic produces CS gas that is not usually lethal. However CS gas is usually used in the open air. Used in a confined and unventilated space and if she had underlying health problems that could have made a difference.

https://thenews-chronicle.com/cheating-death-a-mixture-of-bleach-and-harpic-disinfectant-can-kill-you/

Edited August 19, 2020 by PhilJ W

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, 45156 said:

have now asked my young friend to come back, as he thinks that if I copy the entire Firefox from the old to the new, rather than doing ecverything piecemeal, we should be OK - he's coming back this afternoon.

The easiest way to identify whether nor not Firefox is the problem is to install or use another browser, for instance Microsoft Edge. I use Edge on my PCs and have started using it on my iPad after years of using Chrome on the iPad.

[Tony_S]

6 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I know that mixing bleach with Harpic produces CS gas that is not usually lethal. However CS gas is usually used in the open air. Used in a confined and unventilated space and if she had underlying health problems that could have made a difference.

https://thenews-chronicle.com/cheating-death-a-mixture-of-bleach-and-harpic-disinfectant-can-kill-you/

That appears to be a Nigerian source. Harpic in the UK has hydrochloric acid as an active ingredient. Mixing it with bleach liberates chlorine not CS gas. Still very nasty and why it mentions not mixing them on the label. 

[The Lurker]

14 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Monckton hall coke works? Yes it did stink 

There was a maggot farm on the way out of Knottingley too that stunk too although Synthetic Chemicals/Croda outstank it on the road towards Kellingley

My previous employers were the owners of the chemical plant in Knottingley - i visited once to talk about its tax affairs and the first thing all visitors are given is a run down of the evacuation drill and also where the airtight safety areas were. I think it was there, but it could have been the fluorides plant in Rotherham that you were told if  the wind was in the wrong direction you could kiss goodbye to the paint on your car.

 

The Knottingley plant had come into our group (Laporte) out BP/Shell via Inspec (driving force, a certain Jim Ratcliffe til he left to found Ineos), along with a site, by then defunct, at Four Ashes in the West Midlands, that was reputedly the most polluted site in Western Europe. The tar produced there had got into the ground water over 150 years of production and had caused enormous damage including to the nearby railway lines - or at least the embankments they stood on. 

 

Growing up, the most unpleasant smell came from the Powder Mills in Tonbridge - the air seemed to our teenage minds to have a green tinge to go with the chlorine-y small. The smell i find most redolent of childhood is, however, the sharp smell of freshly harvested hops; you could smell it for miles in the very late summer/early Autumn.

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from a wet but not currently raining Sidcup.

 

I have missed NHN's post on Grace, but seem from others' comments that she has gone home; that is good news.

 

i went for a walk earlier, despite the rain, but Mrs and Younger Lurker have cancelled meeting friends for a socially distanced walk and picnic.

 

i hope everyone stays well and it is now time to crack on with work!

[grandadbob]

Damp here and so am I.  There was a break in the rain so I went and put all the bins out.  "It's all of them this week" said The Boss.  That's food waste small, general waste big wheelie, bottles,tins and plastics big wheelie and garden waste big wheelie shared with next door.  Also put out next door's bins 'cos that's the kind of bloke I am.  Arranged them with food wastes jammed in tight so Foxy & friends can't get at them. Came in and suddenly realised that that was what I'd done last week,  All of them!  This week it's only food waste and paper & card big wheelie.     Went back and changed them all over.  Meanwhile the rain had started tipping down again hence why I am damp.

"Oh dear, sorry" said The Boss.

####  #### ###### & ######## said I.

Edited August 19, 2020 by grandadbob

[J. S. Bach]

I did something unusual today, I started the day with a breakfast. Something I rarely do unless I am traveling. I had a breakfast pizza (well. half, the rest later maybe Saturday) from Walmart; picture an omelette unrolled out onto a  pizza crust made with biscuit dough. It was (and will be) very tasty. Note that Breakfast foods are among my favorites, just not breakfast time!

[Tony_S]

19C here, raining steadily. The forecast suggests when the rain will momentarily ease rather than when we can expect rain. It feels much warmer, I have just opened more windows. 
I had a parcel this morning. Aditi was confused as the enclosed item was packaged in a kitten food box. It did contain a kit though. 
When our flour was coming via Doves Farm variety packs we had a couple of kg of buckwheat flour. So today we had buckwheat pancakes presented like those we have had in France. A small quantity of cider was consumed too. Just like being on holiday. I didn’t know what buckwheat was and Google revealed it is a member of the rhubarb family. 
Tony