Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

A'noon, HB GDB!

 

It occurred to me this afternoon whilst having another walk to get the joints moving, and attempting (and failing) to take a silhouette photo of the parish church of St Andrews that this village's name isn't pronounced like wot is is spelled.  It isn't 'Ann-dray-ass' as in the fault in the USA (no, not him) but 'Ann-dress'.  The more well known village (to railway buffs) of Foxdale is pronounced 'Fox-dull' not 'Fox-dayle'.  I always thought it an odd name when working there some years ago, as there are no foxes on Fraggle Rock.  

 

That's 8.5k paces today now, (4 miles) the hips have eased somewhat, despite the 7c/80% humidity arthritis killing weather!

 

D'oh forgot the photo.

 

Edited December 1, 2020 by New Haven Neil

[Ian Abel]

Happy birthday GDB...

 

Chewsday <yawn>

All quiet here, nothing much to report at all, so we can just move along - oh, I'm definitely prepared to forget Haggis Scotch eggs, would have preferred to never even know such an abomination existed

 

"chilly", PAH. -10 here retrieving the newspaper, but sunny at least. +1 the expected high.

 

Later...

 

[The Lurker]

Greetings all, a flying visit only and too many pages to try to catch up.

 

Still, there's time to wish GDB a happy birthday. No doubt some decent quality falling down water will be consumed.

 

Work still trundles on and they still have not signed the accounts!  We were told tomorrow, but now it's being put back. Trouble is, that just encourages the auditors to dig more and more. 

 

 

[jamie92208]

52 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Many years ago I visited a Travellers Fare (as I think they were by then) sandwich making facility - tucked away in part of Euston station.  Quite interesting to watch a number of ladies siting round a table buttering slices of bread which wtre then passed to another team of ladies for the filling to be added; apparently all the ladies working there could multi-tac sk d so they didn't just do butterng or filling.

 

I think the 'stale railway sandwich' joke dates n back to WWII when they might well have sometimes spent a little too long on the shelf so to speak.  But even in BTC days all sandwich stock was only supposed to be displayed for one day and if it hadn't sold in that day it was got rid of.  Subsequently of course various food hygiene laws required that to happen in any event for some sorts of filling.  Sounds like it was quite a wasteful process but in fact it wasn't and in the early 1970s they had got demand forecasting down to a very fine art so there was very little waste through unsold sarnies.  Some of the things you get to learn about in a long railwaty career can be quite unexpected  

Funnily enough the latest Modern Railways has a rather acerbic piece by Uncle Roger Ford, taking Grant Shapps to task for referring to Stale BR sandwiches. He expands on what Mike mentions above.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon.   My hair was lopped by the fair Veronique then shopping was shopped. This afternoon it was off to the hospital in Niort. I did see one thing is the same as in the UK, smokers attached to drips standing or sitting in wheelchairs outside the doors. If I was in charge they would have all treatment suspended forthwith.  Rant over.  We arrived early having called at C&A where my granddaughter managed to prise my wallet open from 700 miles away. A parcel is being prepared. Getting to the hospital we bought coffees whilst we waited. It would have been rude to leave a coffee eclair on it's own. It was put to very good use.

 

The consultation  was early and excellent and we are now back home.

 

Happy birthday to GDB.

 

Jamie

Edited December 1, 2020 by jamie92208

[BoD]

Many happy returns, GDB

[simontaylor484]

28 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Good afternoon.   My hair was lopped by the fair Veronique then shopping was shopped. This afternoon it was off to the hospital in Niort. I did see one thing is the same as in the UK, smokers attached to drips standing or sitting in wheelchairs outside the doors. If I was in charge they would have all treatment suspended forthwith.  Rant over.  We arrived early having called at C&A where my granddaughter managed to prise my wallet open from 700 miles away. A parcel is being prepared. Getting to the hospital we bought coffees whilst we waited. It would have been rude to leave a coffee eclair on it's own. It was put to very good use.

 

The consultation  was early and excellent and we are now back home.

 

Happy birthday to GDB.

 

Jamie

Your Granddaughters powers are exemplary working at that range 

[TheQ]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

A'noon, HB GDB!

 

It occurred to me this afternoon whilst having another walk to get the joints moving, and attempting (and failing) to take a silhouette photo of the parish church of St Andrews that this village's name isn't pronounced like wot is is spelled.  It isn't 'Ann-dray-ass' as in the fault in the USA (no, not him) but 'Ann-dress'.  The more well known village (to railway buffs) of Foxdale is pronounced 'Fox-dull' not 'Fox-dayle'.  I always thought it an odd name when working there some years ago, as there are no foxes on Fraggle Rock.  

 

That's 8.5k paces today now, (4 miles) the hips have eased somewhat, despite the 7c/80% humidity arthritis killing weather!

 

D'oh forgot the photo.

 

Foxdale, That got me interested, so I looked it up, its as usual an English language mistranslation.

Its real name is Forsdal, Manx Norse for "dale of the waterfall" as in the various "Force" places / waterfalls  such as "Force Gill" in the Former Danish Kingdom of  Jorvik covering Lancashire and Yorkshire.

The village of Kirk Andreas / Skyll Andreas / St Andrews  is as is obvious because of the church of St Andrews.

 

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Couple of funny incidents have happened over the last 24hours.

Went to Asda with SWMBO yesterday despite  her not being  very well with a heavy cold and grateful for the mask as it covered a nose that Rudolph would have been proud off. Anyway after buying my cider the cash out lady asked her to remove her mask so she could check that SWMBO was old enough to buy alcohol. SWMBO started receiving her NHS pension last year so wasn’t amused!

Nephews have been picked up from school and are here with Sydney. Eldest nephew was a bit rough with Sydney and frightened him, so SWMBO made nephew go and cuddle Sydney for five minutes to show that he was sorry. Sydney got his own back by letting a stinky fart out just at the right time. Sweet (?) justice?

Robert

 

[grandadbob]

Many thanks for all the birthday greetings.  It's been quite a good day so far and in the end The Boss relented and I was allowed cake with my afternoon cuppa.   I think she got fed up with my moaning!    It was excellent and it's rather unfortunate that I can't share it over the Zoom party so I'll have to suffer eating it all myself. 

I had my bowel test result in the post earlier and all is well with no further action required.

Beer and wine have been and are being sampled and I'm looking forward to the rest of the evening.  Tossing up between cognac or single malt next.  Decisions, decisions! 

 

Having spent 38 years in the building trade and knowing quite a lot of them over the years it comes as no surprise whatsoever to me what scaffolders (and roofers) can get up to. They are and always have been a law unto themselves and I can assure you that some of them can turn rather nasty and so if you need to be firm with them do it very carefully. 

 

Cheers for now,  time to Zoom shortly.

 

 

 

 

[Adam88]

9 hours ago, southern42 said:

 

Hmmm....I fell into that trap...er c*k*b*x.

Waiting for the train, 1962... 

 

When the c*k*b*x scene was finished, I photographed it against a snowy backdrop (grey-white) but I felt a little disappointed. Admittedly, as I gave it a light coat of hairspray to fix the finer snow products, the hairspray changed the texture of the hillside snow which was not what I wanted or expected - spraying too close, possibly. Also, the glittery stuff did not glisten, anymore.

 

So, new timescale.  Still the winter of 1962-1963 [the blizzard arrived in the South West and Wales 29-30 December] but it is now late afternoon in post Christmas December and the moon is up. The railway men are still waiting to make sure the snow train can pass through.  Santa (AY of this parish and member of the BRM Fab Four) and his little helper are on their way to the railway’s late-in-the-day Christmas Party down at the village station but Santa insists on waiting to get a photo of the train, first  - with a Brownie 127 in the dark?  Perhaps, he will catch the headlamp lighting up the snow!

 

However, looking at the photos taken against the contrasting black background, the scene is better doing what I hoped it would do: track is showing evidence of snow clearance; trodden footpaths have mounds of shovelled snow alongside; snow has been disturbed along the footbridge rails; feet, shovels and biscuit tin are half buried in the snow; expanses of untrodden snow lie on the hillside; and the figures, which lead the eye down from one to the other, tell their own story.

 

Morale restored!  Photos uploaded to photo website and turned into fridge magnets and Christmas cards - just waiting for them to arrive in the post.  Fingers crossed they look alright.

 

In case you have not seen it...my inspiration.

 

 

Very good - both the c*k*b*x diorama and the film.  I'm not sure why, but I'd not seen the latter before and was only aware of 'Snowdrift at Bleath Gill' from a few years earlier which is shown so often that, recalling my father's words: "It's a wonder there are any sprocket holes left".  I see from Wikipedia that this film was nominated for a Short Subject (Live Action) Oscar so that says something.

 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Hope you've had a good day Bob and for the rest of the day. I'm not after any cake as Victoria sponge is not my kind of cake. Arthur Itis is making himself felt now so tablets to keep him quiet have been taken. I clicked on my profile earlier and saw something called 'Won the day' which I have done so 45 times. Its those who get the most ratings in a day who are deemed to have won the day. Looking it up ER's feature strongly, Andrew P seemingly well ahead of the rest of us.

[PhilJ W]

5 hours ago, polybear said:

 

I congratulate you on your restraint.  My response would be more along the lines of "shift it - now".  And if they didn't then they'd find their scaffolding reduced to a kit of parts next morning.....

I'd be careful about taking it down yourself or even touching any of it. If they don't shift it pdq get onto trading standards.

[Tony_S]

Aditi sent me out to check the lawns to see if I thought it was worth cutting them. I thought the ground was a bit soggy so we both agree it was better to leave at the moment. So she decided to make a test cake in the new oven.  She didn’t make one we had tried before as a test but a new recipe. This was a banana and honey cake. We have sampled it. Seemed fine. I don’t think Aditi really wanted to test the oven , I think she just wanted a cake for teatime.

Tony

[AndyB]

Evening all,

Thanks for all the thoughts re the local building work. 

One thing that I noted is that the scaffolders are subject contractors to a (supposedly) reputable roofing company.

So when they turn up I'll note the phone number down and give their office a call. Along the lines of holding them entirely responsible for the unannounced invasion, erecting scaffolding on my roof and any damage.

May not change anything for me but for the next punter their subbies might be a bit more considerate. 

[New Haven Neil]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Foxdale, That got me interested, so I looked it up, its as usual an English language mistranslation.

Its real name is Forsdal, Manx Norse for "dale of the waterfall" as in the various "Force" places / waterfalls  such as "Force Gill" in the Former Danish Kingdom of  Jorvik covering Lancashire and Yorkshire.

The village of Kirk Andreas / Skyll Andreas / St Andrews  is as is obvious because of the church of St Andrews.

 

 

Now you mention it I had heard that explanation, but had forgotten it, thanks - age. It was 17 years since I worked there, and I sort of avoid the place as it is high, quite uninteresting and cold.  There is a small waterfall up there, it even had a halt on the railway.

 

Kirk Andreas is the parish, in the sheading of Ayre, the village is just Andreas, or technically 'Andreas Village'.  This gets argued over by the real Manxies ad infinitum.....as a stopover, and son of an Onchan (down south!) woman, I try to not get involved!

 

[The White Rabbit]

Happy Birthday to GDB. 

 

Regarding any builders/subbies, I'd always make sure you have photographs as some insurance against things going wrong. Hopefully not needed but very useful as evidence if they do.  

 

I see there's still considerable coverage of scotch eggs in the media. I admit the ones I do could legitimately be regarded as a meal in themselves. I usually work on two of our local butcher's thick pork sausages per egg and that produces something the size of a respectable cannon-ball. Rather tastier though, whether with peas, salad or by itself if out and about walking. But the mass produced ones, hmmm, sounds about as convincing as a manifesto promise. 

 

Nice day weatherwise here, cold but sunny and not too windy. 

 

Placenames, their meaning's full of traps for the unwary. And experts can get very worked up about their interpretations, more than I'd have thought possible. One etymologist and you have a learned opinion. Two and you have a lively debate. Three and there's an argument. Four and they're fighting with chairs ... 

 

 

[polybear]

6 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

Happy Birthday to GDB. 

 

Regarding any builders/subbies, I'd always make sure you have photographs as some insurance against things going wrong. Hopefully not needed but very useful as evidence if they do.

 

 

Firstly, happy Beary birthday wishes to GDB - I've just scoffed a choc ice in your honour (seeing as I didn't get to share in your cake ).

 

Hopefully the scaffolders have dangled a company sign on their handiwork - always useful to have in the photo shot.

 

Bear has just received a letter from Lloyds regarding my PPI claim (originally submitted before the 29 August 2019 deadline); I sent a follow-up letter in March this year as I'd heard nothing (I put it down to PPI claim workload and C-19 kicking off).  Well it's only taken them the best part of 8 months to respond to my March letter.  Now of course they claim not to have a record of my original claim and since it's now outside the cut-off date for PPI claims blah blah blah then tough luck sonny.  Well if they think Bear gives up that easily then they're in for a disappointment.  This is cake money we're taking about here.....

 

Framework for the plasterboard which will cover the top part of the stairs has commenced, somewhat slowly it has to be admitted.  Lots of thinking and planning required, with angles all over the shop to be measured and cut.  It doesn't help that what I'm securing to is about as straight as Donk's hind leg.  More tomorrow - deep joy.

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Your Granddaughters powers are exemplary working at that range 

Wait till you get one, they are far better at opening their grandparents wallets than their parents were.

 

Jamie

[New Haven Neil]

What?

 

 

Edited December 1, 2020 by New Haven Neil

[BokStein]

1 hour ago, AndyB said:

Evening all,

Thanks for all the thoughts re the local building work. 

One thing that I noted is that the scaffolders are subject contractors to a (supposedly) reputable roofing company.

So when they turn up I'll note the phone number down and give their office a call. Along the lines of holding them entirely responsible for the unannounced invasion, erecting scaffolding on my roof and any damage.

May not change anything for me but for the next punter their subbies might be a bit more considerate. 

 

Follow up the 'phone call with an email and a letter so there's a trail!

[Coombe Barton]

... and the Scotch egg culture and social responsibility ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/12/01/sounds-of-the-season-3-feast-day-of-st-loy/

[Dave Hunt]

Only one thing to comment on today, which is the culmination of another trip round the sun for GDB. Sorry it's a bit late Bob but it may coincide with you having a drop of happy juice so I'll join in and raise the glass to your health.

 

Dave  

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Gwiwer]

A late evening drop in from me to wish GDB a Happy Birthday and all of us a good night's kip.