Early Risers.

[AndyB]

All together now...  

 

 

[roundhouse]

8 hours ago, Barry O said:

Never bothered to join CAMRA.. indeed the reps near me are a bit "picky" about beer.. and "Craft Beer" turns some of them into a hissy fit.

 

Baz

Luckily some of our local active CAMRA members are heavily in to craft beer so do get to find out interesting places but that isn't through the CAMRA website etc.

 

Currently drinking Harvey's Old. Forgot to wear my mask (first time) as I dashed out to photo the RHTT with sheds at each end. Got told off and later the landlady said that in one pub that the new marshals sat there saw some one not wear a mask so fined that person, the bar staff and the pub company.  Maybe there was more to it but I hope they aren't the new traffic wardens of the current crisis otherwise they will become the new gastapo in this strange new world.

Edited October 6, 2020 by roundhouse

[AndyB]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

...as for the BT  website.... no help service that makes any sense...

 

Baz

 

They do that as a favour to you.

 

I used to have a large corporate account with them which was meant to have proper account management from their side. I won't grace these pages with a description of what their account management actually was like.  Suffice to say that my slow-burn fuse eventually did reach the barrel of gunpowder that is my temper. And in fairness to the bloke running the company he did get on the phone pdq to apologise to my team and sort things out.   

[andyram]

Hi everyone. I hope that you are well. My apologies for not being around for a while. I am popping in to ask for your support. Most of you know my teaching background and how I left the profession due to stress etc. During my 20 year career I taught many children, but also trained many student teachers. One of them is now a deputy head at Ravensdale Infant School in Derby. In the early hours of Monday 5th October the school was devastated by fire caused by an arson attack. The building has been damaged, probably beyond repair. The staff and children have lost books and learning resources too. I have decided to fundraise for the school to help them replace some of the lost resources and equipment. The link is below. The donations will be presented to the school at the end of the month.

 

Many thanks

 

Andy

 

https://www.a2bmodelrailways.co.uk/product-page/fundraiser-help-ravensdale-school

[simontaylor484]

Greetings all 

Not been a good few days fell out of bed during a Ptsd nightmare and hurt my back been walking round slanted and in absolute agony since. Only place i could get comfy was in bed. Ended up watching you tube videos cos I couldn't get to see the tv. A couple of the vids i watched were cab rides of Swiss trains lovely even included some street running. Hope Chris f has had an answer now on his trip.

  Jamie i wonder if your model of woodlesford station will have my great uncle toms pond on it o pushed my brother in years ago I can't remember which street they lived in in Woodlesford.

[jamie92208]

25 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Greetings all 

Not been a good few days fell out of bed during a Ptsd nightmare and hurt my back been walking round slanted and in absolute agony since. Only place i could get comfy was in bed. Ended up watching you tube videos cos I couldn't get to see the tv. A couple of the vids i watched were cab rides of Swiss trains lovely even included some street running. Hope Chris f has had an answer now on his trip.

  Jamie i wonder if your model of woodlesford station will have my great uncle toms pond on it o pushed my brother in years ago I can't remember which street they lived in in Woodlesford.

Hope the back gets better. Unfortunately  my model of Woodlesford never got completed though two buildings survive.  I lived just up the road from the station from 75 to 79.

 

Jamie

[Coombe Barton]

I hope this is a sign of returning mojo, but I've just been measuring space to see if a layout will fit.

And then I found myself looking for the potential dates for the next MRJ.

[Coombe Barton]

The next MRJ has been ordered from Titfield.

[Coombe Barton]

... But Boris is definitely not Churchill ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/10/06/teaching-again-2/

[Gwiwer]

On 05/10/2020 at 19:16, Gwiwer said:

Has anyone seen a red box?  Neighbours (Top Flat) are awaiting their weekly food delivery

I found it!!!

 

Remarkably close to its intended destination actually; close but no cigar.  I was washing dishes and glanced out of the window which faces the car parking area and the rear of our Thai restaurant which has a flat above it.  The grey matter clunked into action - the light ambled slowly into the "On" position and there was a connection of synaptic tissues.  "Yes of course" I thought.  "That flat is the same number as the correct address but W*****y Parade not Court".  I wonder ..... "  

 

Dishes done I duly took a nocturnal stroll around the lake which currently occupies most of the car park and found a red box matching the description of the errant one tucked beneath the back steps of the flat's doorway.  Yes the image Yodel supplied looked like that but a red box surrounded by a concrete step could have been almost anywhere ..... 

 

The box was recovered and delivered to a very grateful Neighbour (Top Flat).  

 

In other news this evening has been occupied with ensuring everything is as ready as it can be for tomorrow's celebrations.  Not too much actually occurring as it's a normal day at the House of Fun for me and at the Work-From-Home desk-in-the-bedroom for her.  I am promised a lovely lunch upon my return.  I have to rise slightly earlier than normal to place a couple of things for her to find in my temporary absence.  

 

I quite fancy tea and toast but I should really be off to bed.  Ah the problems of 21st Century First World life, eh?  See you tomorrow.  Sleep well.  

[polybear]

15 hours ago, chrisf said:

The staff there do their best to put me at my ease but I do not feel at all comfortable buying cosmetics!

 

 

Bear has the same problem - mainly due to the ridiculous prices some cost.....

HOW MUCH??

 

13 hours ago, Andrew P said:

I tried to download / upload? the App and it said my phone was not compatible,

 

Bear had the same problem - it seems my IPhone (a freebie from my mate next door) isn't new enough.  A bit of a snag with the Track n' Trace App, me thinks.

 

7 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

The other thing I forgot to mention was about making sure all of the information is removed from the old phone prior to its disposal. I once remember listening to a radio program where the reporter had a phone that was to be disposed of checked over and the amount of confidential info left on it was quite worrying.

 

Most of the PC Hard Drives I've ever "disposed of" are wiped and then used as external drives for data storage.  Ones that are truly disposed of receive the sharp end of an Axe.

 

8 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

The box was recovered and delivered to a very grateful Neighbour (Top Flat). 

 

That's got to be worth a Cake, me thinks.

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[PeterBB]

Full marks to Gwiwer for observation and action.  Photographs can be misleading.  

 

Mr and Mrs PBB wish Gwiwer and Mrs G a very happy Silver Wedding Anniversary ... if he needs to be up early for the House of Fun he will not see this until tomorrow so these wishes will be delivered appropriately.

 

In other aspects I was expecting a thing that runs on parallel strips of metal but the parcel was much bigger than expected ...  it had a big red box, a 'fraction' number and a resin plaque ... looks good but time will tell if that is where it will stay.

 

 

Edited October 7, 2020 by PeterBB
spelling

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Zoom meeting went well. One slight snag though, I checked the time and it said 9 o'clock. I had just settled down to eat my dinner at 8 when Zoom burst into life. Apparently Zoom works on GMT only. As there's no meetings now until next month it shouldn't be a problem (for now). Now time to pour some tea.

[Pacific231G]

18 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Zoom meeting went well. One slight snag though, I checked the time and it said 9 o'clock. I had just settled down to eat my dinner at 8 when Zoom burst into life. Apparently Zoom works on GMT only. As there's no meetings now until next month it shouldn't be a problem (for now). Now time to pour some tea.

That may be in the settings somewhere. I've organised a good few Zoom meetings for my family and a railway group and times are in BST. It does annoyingly use the 12 hour clock so I should look at my own settings to see if I can persuade it to use 24h.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

Its the first time for most of us on Zoom and its like the blind leading the blind. Despite that we managed to have a satisfactory meeting.

[andyram]

If anyone was in any doubt of the reason for my plea.....

 

this is the aftermath.

 

 

https://www.a2bmodelrailways.co.uk/product-page/fundraiser-help-ravensdale-school

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

The weather first thing this morning was dull but dry, however, before I’d finished eating my breakfast it started to rain and that was it for the rest of the day. There were a couple of times when it stopped raining, both times I managed to get to the shed to measure the racking and later the workshop to drop off some brackets which will need to have holes drilled in them. On both occasions, I managed it without getting wet!

 

I spent most of the day of the day in the cellar, removal of the shelf from the rack in the corner of the cellar didn’t take as much effort as I’d originally expected, once I’d cleared the shelf of the items that were stored on it and from the shelf below, access to the screws was relatively easy, taking about 20 minutes. I then cut 4 new uprights for the rack, using the last of my long lengths, as the one that is currently in the shed was made from several short lengths bolted together, which restricts where each shelf can go. So during the next dry spell, I will clear the rack, remove it from the shed and re-build it with the extra shelf. 

 

Goodnight all 

[The Stationmaster]

6 hours ago, Northroader said:

The Mersey Ferry is still running, Mike.

 

no, I must be constructive. One thing we did was string out boat trips on the Thames. A few years back it was possible to go in stages from Oxford downstream, getting back to the start point each time with public transport. It was something like Abingdon, Goring, Reading, Marlow, Windsor, Staines, Richmond. Couldn’t say if it’s still on.

It's still possible but it will take several days  - judging by last year's timetables - because you can't string them all together on any one day.  The most I could find last year was two consecutive cruises but even doing that there were gaps which they didn't operate over at all.

 

At the moment Hurtigruten is the most interesting (I rather fancy a trip to St Kilda even if there's no landing) but it looks like other folk already have the same idea and they're quite heavily booked for the back end of next year.  Thus one I looked at the only available cabins were right up in the bows - travel in the foc'sle and paying for it!   There were some excellent small ship cruises running off the west coast (mainly) of Scotland but whether they will reappear in post-Covid time is a very open question because they were all run by small local companies.  

 

Another alternative is the Scillonian but there are now quite a lot more cargo ship trips available (mostly currently suspended because of Covid) than there used to be although Grimaldi car carriers should be avoided like the plague unless you like a diet of 100% spaghetti - for every meal.  So perhaps something will be delved out before the age related insurance costs go through the roof?

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

I drove to Peterborough yesterday morning to visit my anxious friend.  Sadly I was unable to make much of an impression on her state of mind.  One of the things that had made her anxious was being taken shopping by car into the city centre by her daughter-in-law.  We reminded each other that we had separately survived taxi rides across Paris.  I for one know of nothing scarier and recall thinking at the time of my first such excursion that all Paris taxis should come with brown upholstery.  If I should live to be 87 I hope that I do not succumb to comparable anxiety.  Oh well, I tried, and it got me out of the house.

 

Simon, thank you for your good wishes about my festive holiday.  I am due to learn on 26th October whether my trip to Switzerland will go ahead.  With quarantine and local restrictions I don't see how it can but if it does I want to be there.  Until then all I can sensibly do is check out options and alternatives in the face of the risk that there will be nowhere to go.  From my research the other day it seems that available hotel rooms even in some unlikely places such as Sidmouth (!) can be counted on the thumbs of one hand.  That ruddy virus has made life so infernally difficult.

 

The photo of what used to be a school that Andyram posted shows that there are some sick people on this planet.  Whatever I might have said at the time I did not hate school so much as to set fire to it but clearly there are those who do.  It does beg the question of just how many mental health issues lie undetected among the populace.   1 in 4 people?  And the rest.

 

On that less than happy note, best wishes to all

 

Chris