Early Risers.

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Tony_S please wish Aditi a Happy Birthday.

Not much to report today but managed a visit to Morrison’s and M&S so I’m stocked up on cider, smoked cheese, Hayward’s sweet pickled onions and I’ve got a selection of ready meals and meat pies.

The fish and chip flavored crisps are a bit of a disappointment really. I can’t really make out the taste so I don’t think I’ll be getting any more but I’m definitely on the lookout for some more Golden Wonder sausage and tomato flavor, they are quite nice! I think the UK is leader when it comes to crisps, when I’m abroad in supermarkets I’m always disappointed with the flavors available. All you seem to get is ready salted and paprika and sometimes cheese and chive. No prawn cocktail,  beef and onion, lamb and mint sauce etc.

Im on my second dose of cider and crisps (prawn cocktail) and feel I’m beginning to ramble on so I think I’ll wish you all a goodnight,

Robert

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Despite getting to the butchers fairly early, there were no pasties, so I had to make do it ha steak and ale pie for my dinner instead, ooh it’s a hard life sometimes!

 

Once I’d packed away the meat rations I finally got the leaves swept up. I filled the wheelbarrow twice, once in the back garden and then again in the front garden. They are both looking a lot tidier now, but no doubt I’ll be doing it again next week. The whole process took about 2 hours and was completed before dinner time. In fact I even managed an hour in the workshop before dinner. After dinner I spent another hour in the workshop before packing up and coming back inside for my mid afternoon muggertea. 

 

Goodnight all 

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[BokStein]

Given it's gone midnight, Good Morning all, sleep well (in the UK current time zone. Other time zones are available!)

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

The sh!t kit strikes back.  Those who deal with them at the NHS have found something in mine.  I have had a letter saying that further tests are needed.  A virtual appointment with a screening practitioner has been made for me a week on Monday which is likely to lead to a colonoscopy.  I had one about five years ago which was not the greatest success.  To make the bowel fit for examination a preparation called Moviprep is used.  It was not totally successful in emptying my bowel and the consultant was not best pleased.  I must mention this when the screening practitioner rings.  He or she may recommend an alternative method – a dose of nitroglycerine, perhaps.  The letter does its best to be reassuring: “usually this result is not caused by cancer” is a good start.  I am not reassured one little bit and am as prepared as I ever will be for the worst.  By coincidence, I have a virtual appointment with Professor Oncologist later that day to discuss the cancer that I already have and with which I have learned to live.  I remind myself that Mrs Electric-Chair next door is 93 and has survived three different types of cancer.  Right now that does not help much.

 

Those who use Twitter have been rather backward in coming forward but I have had some useful advice about messages and the media used to send and receive them.  Casual observation suggests that a tweet has much more force than a mere e-mail where complaints are concerned.  Perhaps a tweet would have produced speedier results than e-mail in my recent dispute with BT but I will never know.  For the time being I shall concentrate on other things.  There are still seasonal greetings cards to write, though I have made good progress thus far.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Mugatea has been made.. the projected fatchy pog has not arrived... i must try and get some more sleep!

TTFN

 

Baz

[polybear]

10 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Just come across this on Farcebook.

Woolworths toy counter just before C*******s 1951. And biscuits as well.

And who remembers these:-

And of course the fruit jellies sweets that were so loaded with sugar that its a miracle we had any teeth left.

 

 

Proper toys, then elevenses

Where will Bear find this mystical shop?  A Tr*in Set for seven shillings and a pound of biccies for tuppence will make the pension stretch nicely.  In fact at that price it'll be biccies all round, on me.  Not an offer Bear makes lightly, or often.

If only Fishpools in Waltham Cross still had it's Toy Department, complete with m*del railway section.  Every Christmas they had a huge collection of lego that you could use to make your own "whatever" and submit it for their competition.  Never did win - must've been a fix.

 

7 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Not much to report today but managed a visit to Morrison’s and M&S so I’m stocked up on cider, smoked cheese, Hayward’s sweet pickled onions and I’ve got a selection of ready meals and meat pies.

 

Were the nondescript Pickled Onions that Mrs EH kindly selected for you not quite up to scratch by any chance

 

 

[polybear]

11 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I think, Mr Bear, that you and I should join forces. You clearly have the abilities that will greatly benefit an organisation like mine.

Why don’t you come to Switzerland in a month or two? It is the start of the official cockwomble hunting season (people say it’s cruel, but you really do have to to thin down the herds) and I always manage to bag a brace or five. We are, of course, sporting gents; so we always let them have a few hundred metres head start. I can guarantee that the food will be superb, the whiskies rare and exquisite and there will be plenty of popsies around to keep the Bear’s toes warm at night

 

What say you? I’ll send part-time job (like odd-job, but he only works 50%) to collect you in the Lear Jet. And don’t worry about quarantine, not only do I have advanced alien medical technology (thanks to a “friend” in A**a 51), but Britain won’t know you’ve left and Switzerland won’t know you’ve arrived.

 

iD (a.k.a. Captain Cynical)

 

A nice offer, though my Beary Radar detector is twitching somewhat, warning of the possible presence of a scurrilous motive.  Switzerland certainly does have it's attractions, not least it's mountain scenery (far better than lying on a beach all day IMHO) and secret bank accounts; Toblerone is acceptable too, though their are better (the shape doesn't help - if it were square with no gaps between pointy bits there'd be far more yummy chocolate and no wasted oxygen). 

Plying me with drink won't work, however, as Bear doesn't like the stuff.  Wine tastes like brake fluid to me, and yes, I've tasted that.  Don't swallow, whatever you do....

Unfortunately, my current role as protector of the Nation's cake reserves (a role I've not been entirely successful at it has to be said, according to my line manager at my last assessment).  Something to do with "significant stock-taking irregularities", apparently; well they said "do a stock-take", so Bear did.  Seems that my attempt at blaming any shortfall on "mice" fell a little short, with the boss saying that there'd need to be more mice that soldiers in the Chinese army to swallow that little lot.  (Actually, there were that many mice - once; trouble is they were chocolate mice and a certain Bear felt that some measure of pest control were in order.  The Boss didn't quite see it that way, however, so I'm "on probation"....)

 

[AndyB]

Morning all.

One of those weeks where the weekend is very much looked forward to.

One thing that I do have to think about is a potential job offer in the quasi civil service. The upside is that it pays well - possibly well enough to allow me to retire at least a couple of years earlier than planned if I banked the pay rise carefully. Of course you "don't get owt for nowt", so the challenge would be great and quite possibly stressful.  Much to ponder. 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

A dry start with some blue sky and some sunny spells are forecast.

No major plans for today apart from waiting in for parcels. The Boss is doing domestic stuff but does not need my hindrance assistance so I may venture to The Shed which has not seen me at all for several days.

Before that though a decision has to be made about what to have for breakfast.

Have a good one,

Bob.  

[TheQ]

Mooring awl,  inner Temple Hare, 

5.5hours sleep, indefinite dozing of intermittent kind after.. 

Woke at stupid o'clock needing the little room but I had cramp in my thigh at the same time...  That was a painful hobble... 

Ben the demanding Collie wanted out at 06:00, 07:00, 08:00.. But each time didn't do much but wanted to play.. Not in that chill doggy... 

 

Frosty grass, low mist over the fields clear skies.. 

 

Scrambled egg and bacon  was had for breakfast,  Muggacoffee number Two is under way.  Pink pills have been had..  An early eyelid inspection may occur before heading to the garage.. 

 

Time drink my coffee. 

[NGT6 1315]

Moaning awl...

 

Crispy cool outside but sunny, which is the kind of autumnal weather I don’t mind at all. SiL and Annika‘s cousin will be in town to buy him some new shoes for the cold season later. There’s a very good specialist shop for children’s footwear a few minutes from here who definitely merits support in these interesting times...

 

We‘ll be staying well clear of the covidiot rally which is expected to take place today. There’s an ongoing dispute over the authorities having mandated a stationary assembly outside the city centre for public health and safety reasons, as opposed to the march around the ring road the covidiots had intended. I’ll need to buy some foods later but I won’t have to get anywhere near these folks, thankfully.

 

Stay safe, everyone...

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Where do all these Covidiots come from? We've had them protesting in London as well. My theory is that they are aliens from the planet Covidia and Covid-19 is their secret weapon and they are using us as guinea pigs. Their mind numbing idiot ray has not been successful however. They tried it on the orange one not realising that you have to have sufficient mind to numb and they have now numbed what little there was. On to other things, bright and sunny at the moment but fortunately no frost. Now off to run a bath, be back later.

Edited November 7, 2020 by PhilJ W

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Seems that my attempt at blaming any shortfall on "mice" fell a little short, with the boss saying that there'd need to be more mice that soldiers in the Chinese army to swallow that little lot.  (Actually, there were that many mice - once; trouble is they were chocolate mice and a certain Bear felt that some measure of pest control were in order. 

 

Would you please keep the tails of any rodents and despatch them to the APHA for examination.

 

This is in order to ascertain the extent of resistance to rodenticides in rats and mice!

[Simon G]

Morning all

 

Lovely sunny day here but cold.  I have spent an hour outside cutting and splitting some logs, and when I came in my hands were freezing, although the rest of me was warm from the work.  Later I plan some gardening and then a walk, so as to make use of the rare nice day.

[tigerburnie]

Morning, I might have fancied a trip to Switzerland but I hear the sea fishing isn't up to much, so I will pass, though now the Grouse shooting and Deer stalking are at an end I do have some spare ammo.................................

Off out for the afternoon catch you later.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It is sunny here. I have no idea when any fog disappeared,  I slept through all the radio alarms. It will be a late breakfast this morning. 
I think the gentle exercise for today could be using the mower on the front lawn. 
ChrisF. I have never had MoviPrep but it seems as if it works in the same way as Kleanprep which I have had to use except that Kleanprep requires 4 litres of it to be swallowed rather than 2 litres.  Colonoscopy techniques improve all the time. At my last one the doctor seemed quite excited that their latest device was so flexible it could do a u turn and look back with the camera. I expect I will be summoned in February. 
 

Tony

[Gwiwer]

Good morning all and (slightly delayed) Birthday Wishes to Aditi.  

 

The Orange Army has descended Upon the Hill of Strawberries and has been making grinding, cutting and other heavy-machinery noises all night and so far all day.  We are promised this will be a feature of tonight and tomorrow also.  This is I think now the sixth time they have spent the weekend digging up the level crossing to progress the re-signalling project.  Quite why they cannot dig one hole and return to poke wires through it later is not within understanding.  Instead they dig up the job they did only a couple of months ago and start all over again.  Not once but how many times now?  

 

Back in the day we had a perfectly good signal box, everything was done locally by people who knew local conditions and 'resignalling" meant a rusted and worn-out semaphore arm would be swapped for a new one.  In 2020 it seems ridiculous amounts of money have to be spent on over-engineered "solutions" which will require everything to be controlled from Basingstoke.  That's a lot of wires.  And the longer the wire the more scope there is for something to go wrong.  It only takes one hungry mouse ......... 

 

I have a video to make suggesting I am a half-competent muddler.  Enough moaning - I had best get on and prove the point   

 

Avagoodun.

[The Stationmaster]

G'day all.

 

Don't worry about all those wires - its a sort of DCC nowadays and probably involves some sort of Cloud thingy as well.  So when it goes wrong it well and truly goees wrong and shuts the job for hours instead of minutes.  That is called progress (another one of those words which nowadays seems to mean the opposite to what it once meant).

 

It was remarkably quiet here last night with only one minor, and fairly distant, skirmish, heard and it didn't even upset the cats.  maybe the idiots are saving all their artillery for this evening.  Or perhaps they're keeping it to celebrate the end of Lockdown 2 - hopefully out in a shed where it will get damp and cease to work when they try to set it off.  

 

Incidentally a point for Simon  - if your house was built in 2007 it should be up to current standard in terms of insulation - double glazed, insulation in the exterior walls, and a suitable depth in the roof,  and insulated under the oversite concrete the floor sits on, plus the design should comply with the then Building Regulations in terms of air leakage = draught exclusion  (in effect tested by pressurising inside the building and checking the rate at which that pressure falls),.  We built our house in 2006/7 so we had all of that plus the requireent for a certain percentage of low energy light biulbs.

 

And dare i mention it or not the virtual exhibition is underway but alas Chrisf and I will not be meeting for a cuppa and a slice of bread pudding.

 

Have a good day folks and stay safe.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

A bit late on parade today due to a bit of a lie in. I then went straight to the workshop and carried on working on the turntable bridge. I'm currently sat in the sunshine enjoying my second muggertea of the day.ehilstvsome paint dries. 

 

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

 

Brian 

[iL Dottore]

Good afternoon one and all. 
Lots of things to comment upon today:

Flavoured Crisps - the tuber equivalent of Marmite: either you love ‘em or you hate ‘em. When I first came to CH, they only had two types: plain and paprika, the latter having only the colour in common with the (alleged) flavouring. Now they have branched out and we can now have cheese and onion as well... (the English speaking verein I belong to imported a case of Guinness flavoured crisps. Gods, they are addictive...)

 

Colonoscopy Preparation (a.k.a “Bowel Prep”) both the gastroenterologists and the GI Surgeons of my acquaintance were very fond of the HHH enema approach to cleaning out the bowel (soapy water: High, Hot and Hell of a lot). One in particular was particularly demanding of the patient: firstly a low residue diet, then a fleet enema to start things going and finally a Triple H Enema. Having said that, a squeaky clean colon is certainly the pre-requisite for many sorts of bowel surgery. Even though the E. coli in your bowel are “friendly and helpful“ E. coli, you certainly don’t want them in the abdominal cavity... A well washed out and squeaky clean colon is also incredibly important when a colonoscopy is being done. The last thing you want to do is go through all that effort, up to and including sedating the patient for the procedure, only to find that you “can’t see sh1t“ (well, actually you can, but you get my meaning). TBH given a choice I would rather have a colonoscopy than an endoscopy (specifically a gastroscopy) because with a colonoscopy you don’t have to overcome the gag reflex.

 

Broken Biscuits: I wonder what ever happened to the whole concept of selling on broken biscuits? Whilst improvements in food production technology probably means there is very little wastage, at least in terms of broken biscuits, I think it is a shame if they just throw the broken biscuits away rather than sell them on at a greatly reduced price (I absolutely hate wasting food). It’s probably “an elf and safetee” regulation or something that broken biscuits can no longer be sold to the public. Apart from the aspect of wasting food, there is also the fact that children now, and in the future, will be denied one of the great pleasures of childhood: a bowl of broken biscuits slowly softening under a good ladleful of hot steaming custard. Although such a treat probably contains trillions of calories, billions of carbohydrates and enough sugar to give an elephant a month long sugar rush, there was something both comforting and reassuring about such a treat.

 

So, to conclude this afternoon ramblings, a question to all my fellow ER is: what was/were your favourite childhood treats that are no longer available (or no longer permitted) or (if you have moved far away from your childhood home) no longer easily or readily accessible/available. For me, apart from a bowl of broken biscuits and custard, I also have fond memories of a cup of hot Bovril and two slices of hot buttered toast after swimming lessons at the local swimming baths (located near the Town Hall and long before “leisure centres“ reared their ugly heads)

 

iD

[simontaylor484]

As Stationmaster rightly says our house is well insulated, when we bought it the front door didnt fit correctly there was a gap at the lower side you could walk through this was changed at our insistence. The back door is a french door it was made by Anglian  but it is dropping apart and it is not very secure. I recently replaced the front door with a high security composite door. OIwouldn't want intruders feeding themselves to Rolo the security dachshund. 

[PhilJ W]

The answer to Flavio's question in my case was beef dripping on toast. It has to include a good dollop of the jelly from the bottom of the dripping bowl and the toast* hot enough for it to melt through. Followed by a slab of mum's bread pudding. Unhealthy? well I'm still here 60+ years later. *Toasted with a toasting fork over an open fire.

[PhilJ W]

If you thought the Presidential election couldn't get any crazier:-

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/fox-news-pundit-tucker-carlson-22972933#source=push