Early Risers.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[chrisf]

15 hours ago, Barry O said:

On a point of principle I would never use Amazon.. Bozos is a tight money grabbing company destroying person who treats some of his staff very badly.. and his company makes sure that despite huge profits taxes paid are very low.. not sure what you want to buy though Poly.. wood?  B& Q, Electicals?  Currys. everything other than wood? John Lewis

 

Baz

 

Greetings one and all

 

I am very, very wary of Amazon, though I will admit to having purchased a book a couple of weeks ago rather than wait for my local Waterstones to be allowed to reopen.  A couple of CDs that I want may  have to come from the same source.  If one is feeling alarmist, look no further than Channel 4, where several documentary/exposes can be found.  In the nicest possible way, having a go at them is so much better done by the BBC.  It is clear that Amazon won't go away.  Their share of the retail market continues to grow, helped by the collapse of several major shop chains  and the conditions brought about by the pandemic where we are positively encouraged not to go outside and - gasp - meet other people.  About half of Amazon's trade involves third party vendors.  My e-friend Harry works for Amazon dealing with third party vendor liaison.  This has been keeping him uber-busy for months, even at weekends, and I appreciate fully that if he is in front of a laptop screen all week it affects his capacity and willingness to communicate with friends on line.  For this e-slavery he is being paid handsomely: what could easily be £1,000 a week is not bad for someone who is not yet 30.   Sadly he does not get much chance to enjoy the fruits of his labours.  I fear greatly for his mental health but must take him at his word when he tells me that he enjoys his work.  He has become more secretive, which is rather at odds with the Amazon ethos of wanting to know everything about everybody.  Over Christmas and New Year he has a two week break.  I can only hope that he uses it wisely.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[Barry O]

Ey up!

And ..they are off.. flights to tenerife, lanzagrotty, fuerteventura  and gran canaria lined up to go this morning.. hope they dont catch anything or pass on anything from home...

@chrisf i know someone in the finance department at a senior level.. he gets paid megabucks for doing things to move money around..if we are short of dosh a point of sales tax may be the answer?

 

Today is walk to butchers for some bacon followed by a trip to see the laser..

 

Have as good a day as you can.

 

Positive thoughts to all ERs.

@BoD  _ i hope you and your good lady are ok. Watched a bit on channel 5 which included the railway to oban.. very sxenic.

 

now its... mugatea time!

baz

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

A good night's sleep, 4.5 hours, +3 hours might have been longer, but Ben the demanding Collie wanted out. He charged down to his various favourite spots and immediately became lighter...

 

Its cold, but not freezing out there , a light breeze, very cloudy, with just Mars showing through to the south..

 

The delayed due to lockdown, Yeoman Keelboat Nationals start today, at my winter club Snowflake S.C. but with the restrictions, I won't be going to watch. The normal format is two races this afternoon and three on Sunday. The usual AGM, and dinner won't be happening.

You can see some of the event on the Summer Clubs webcams https://www.horning-sailing.club/webcams/ 

How many turn up will be interesting, I suspect the competitors from London or Rutland etc may give it a miss. One London area competitor comes from Erith, doesn't do well, but enjoys coming up for the event normally.

 

Breakfast is being considered, 

Time to head for the kitchen...

 

 

 

[roundhouse]

33 minutes ago, Barry O said:

@BoD  _ i hope you and your good lady are ok. Watched a bit on channel 5 which included the railway to oban.. very sxenic.

 

now its... mugatea time!

 

I also watched that programme. I remember driving alongside the old route many years ago an even longer ago I recall standing on the platform at Crianlarich Lower in the snow with a friend on one of our £12 anywhere Young persons railcard promotion trips. The track was still in use for timber traffic back  then.

 

We use Amazon. Not so much by choice but since places like Maplins went and especially since Lockdown1 its often the best way to get items. Quite a lot of the items do come from smaller suppliers on their website. However virtually all modelling stuff does come via the individual retailers website. Ebay is the preferred route for many non-modelling stuff. Going into shops is avoided with mask wearing. My other half ended up with a very sore face (looked nasty but dont tell her I said that)  till Lockdown2 . The last month meant that she didnt have to wear a mask apart from the weekly food shop. Shes not even keen to go into pubs at present hence only one pub since Lockdown 2.1 commenced. However, today she is going into at least three, one for breakfast then sit outside one in Croydon (meeting  just two old club members) and hopefully our local brewery which may also be outside, for dinner. We will be wrapping up warm as max of 6 degrees forecast.

 

One phot of the low level with logs beingl oaded an another at high level. Wonderful trips back then.

Edited December 5, 2020 by roundhouse

[jamie92208]

Good moaning. It's cold here but I've just relit the fire so it it's starting to get warmer. The bstch of logs we are burning at the moment are from our own garden about 3 yearsxago and I was a bit over enthusiastic about what to keep. Once that pile is cleared then it's back to the good large oak logs.

 

14 more tile spaces cleared yeasterday, 16 to go which should be finished today. 

Baz, I hope the lasering goes well.  BoD, kepp up the good progress.

 

Now it's time for our weekly chat with young Emily.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

 

PS, thanks for the Crianlarich picture Ian, i remember seei g log wagons there in 67 when we went that way for a holiday on Lewis.

Edited December 5, 2020 by jamie92208

[Barry O]

@roundhouse.. Rapid Electronics are cheaper than Maplins used to be and very efficient at getting items sent out..

 

Baz

[polybear]

10 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Just checked my Euro lottery tickets and I've won! Not the £175 million though, I only got two numbers for which I get the grand sum of £2:60. Tea is brewing so I'll be back later.

 

£2-60 is all you need...for a snack at any rate:

https://www.oakhousefoods.co.uk/luxury-lemon-drizzle-muffin.html

 

9 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Evening All

MY team took a pasting this evening so I’ll quickly move on.

Mr Bear, can John Lewis and partner gift vouchers be used as Waitrose and partners as I’m sure you could find something appropriate there.

 

 

Good call - sadly Waitrose are not very local to me and I suspect they may not deliver to my area

 

7 hours ago, BSW01 said:

...... so I tried to log on to the old laptop to check a circuit diagram with the simulator program that I have on there. But it wouldn’t let me on, repeatedly saying I was putting in the wrong password! Now I know my memory can be a bit off sometimes, but the password was definitely right. After several failed attempts, I gave up and packed the f*****g thing away, grrrrr. 

 

You may well find a free programme on the web that allows you to by-pass the password on start-up (you run it from a disc or memory stick).  It may depend on the O.S. though - the last time I used one was with XP (maybe vista) so I'm not sure if later systems blocked this.  Sadly you still need the password to be able to set a new password though, even when you're "in"

 

1 hour ago, chrisf said:

Greetings one and all

 

I am very, very wary of Amazon, though I will admit to having purchased a book a couple of weeks ago rather than wait for my local Waterstones to be allowed to reopen.  A couple of CDs that I want may  have to come from the same source.  If one is feeling alarmist, look no further than Channel 4, where several documentary/exposes can be found. 

 

 

It's about time that our Gov. had the b@lls large enough (or any, for that matter would be a start) to jump on Amazon and similar companies and close tax loopholes once and for all.

 

In other news:

Bear had a productive day working on the plasterboard framworke - or so I thought.  A check later revealed that I'd got some alignment wrong,  so some rework will be called for today.  Turdycurses.

On a brighter note, today is Saveloy, Chip Roll and Beans day, to be scoffed whilst watching a recorded episode of Battlestar Galactica

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dull and dry here and it's 4°C.  Some sunny spells and one or two showers are forecast.  When they said that the other day it pee'd down for hours.

I had two parcels from Amazon yesterday and one is due today.  If it suits me I will use them.  I also received a case of beer from a Suffolk brewery to go with the Cornish one and the various wines and spirits that have arrived over the past couple of weeks so the "cellars" * at GDB Towers are now looking decidedly healthy.

A chocolate and cream Advent calendar item from Sheffield should also arrive today.  It will be welcomed by me but I may well be on my own there.

 

11 hours ago, Barry O said:

Watching a bit of rugby..perhaps @grandadbob can tell me where Northampton Saints got their  hideous rugby shirts from?

 

Not sure Baz although I did hear somewhere that Trotters Independent Traders were putting in a bid for Cotton Traders. 

Watched the game and quite enjoyed it although I bet the Saints replacement prop didn't after cocking up in the last minute and losing the match for them.  More rugby to watch today.... on Amazon... Ooops!

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

* Cupboard under the stairs.

 

[TheQ]

21 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

 

A chocolate and cream Advent calendar item from Sheffield should also arrive today.  It will be welcomed by me but I may well be on my own there.

Yes please..

Yes please

 

Edited December 5, 2020 by TheQ

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A bit of frist and mog this morning. Looks as if its going to be a grey day but predicted to stay dry.

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

 

It's about time that our Gov. had the b@lls large enough (or any, for that matter would be a start) to jump on Amazon and similar companies and close tax loopholes once and for all.

 

 

By coincidence the EU is taking steps to close many of these tax loopholes applying to all member states. Oh, we're no longer a member. 

Edited December 5, 2020 by PhilJ W

[jonny777]

Dull damp and cold again here in North Somerset. Not heavy rain, but enough to be a nuisance. 

 

On the subject of Waterstones they do have a decent website and are pretty efficient with their delivery of orders, so any one wishing to switch from Amazon does not really have to go to a physical shop. 

 

I use them all the time for book presents, and Argos/Currys for the other non-food stuff. Most places have a minimum order value, above which delivery is free.

 

I would not like to think of a world where one mighty US retailer has bankrupted all of the reliable opposition by paying slave labour rates and docking pay when people need the toilet. In our local area we have a Facebook group which lists all the nearby retailers in an effort to encourage people to shop locally even during lockdown/tier 3. However, it is noticeable that few of them actually have a working web page where goods can be bought and paid for. I think the virus has brought a retail revolution whether we like it or not, and the local retailers who survive will be the ones who have adapted to use the internet 100% when their high street premises are forced to close, rather than just bleating about how much seasonal trade they have lost. Even a link to an Ebay page they have set up, would be a start. 

 

Sorry, whinge over.  

Edited December 5, 2020 by jonny777

[jamie92208]

Mention of Ebay makes me wonder why it never seems to be targetted about tax.  A British seller puts an item on, it's bought and paid for by a British customer and posted out via Royal Mail, yet because of the loophole of having their accounting done in Luxembourg, all the Ebay fees do not get taxed in the UK despite the big profits generated.   Rant off.

 

Jamie

[skipepsi]

Do onto others as you would have them do onto you is the answer ( from an atheist)

[chrisf]

1 hour ago, grandadbob said:

 

A chocolate and cream Advent calendar item from Sheffield should also arrive today. 

 

 

The GWR had many lucrative sidelines but that one is new to me!  So for that matter is the presence of God's Wonderful in Sheffield.  We must rewrite history, and do it NOW

 

Chris

[jonny777]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

Mention of Ebay makes me wonder why it never seems to be targetted about tax.  A British seller puts an item on, it's bought and paid for by a British customer and posted out via Royal Mail, yet because of the loophole of having their accounting done in Luxembourg, all the Ebay fees do not get taxed in the UK despite the big profits generated.   Rant off.

 

Jamie

 

 

I think the only problem with trying to solve that question, is there would have to be some form of tax on UK yearly turnover; and I can't see any large companies taking that idea lying down. Nor many politicians either, as it would be portrayed as a tax on success. 

 

I do agree though, that many companies are exploiting the tax system in order to gain large sums for their 'bottom line'. 

 

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Today I'm getting on on the keyboard before the owner of a laptop and two other 'net connectable devices takes over as soon as I get to ERs.  She also buys from the tribe based up the big river as do others in the family, I think i'm the only person in the house who regards the Bezos empire as sitting on a far lower rung of business probity than estate agents and O'Leary Air.   And I agree 100% that they should be taxed at point of sale and not just thanked for their measly 'agreed contribution' to the nation's coffers.  Rant off.

 

In fact rant definitely off because on Thursday afternoon my flabber was well and truly gasted when I received a telephone call from a very nice sounding lady (who did not have a Swansea accent) from the DVLA.  Yes a 'phone call FROM the DVLA   She enquired about my state of health in relation to the previous (age 70) report from the GP and was happy to hear that there was no change and then said my licence renewal application would therefore be going ahead with no problems.  Very nice lady so I was on my best behaviour in terms of proffering thanks etc.

 

such helpful and polite behaviour cannot be attributed to to motoring cockwombles driving around Tesco car park yesterday - quite how they miss great big painted arrows on the ground and 'No entry' signs is beyond my understanding.  Maybe they should be given eyesight tests as well as some of us of clearly greater maturtity than their behaviour when driving a motor vehicle.   Alas my car park walks were somewhat curtailed because the sound of a brass monkey with a very high voice warned me not to spend too long outside the car while waiting for the management to finish the shopping.  Mind you, and being appallingly blokeist there was lady wearing a mini skirt while out to do the shopping - brave lass.

 

It is nippy out there again today but we have no forecast of snow.  But we do have that other inconvenience as aeroplanes heading for LHR are today following their inbound course over our heads as they turn on to the bearing for the runway.  The first one was not far behind the 06.00 opening time although so far we have only had a total of 3 passing within earshot as one of the greatest benefits to us of Lockdown 1 is lost.

 

No big plans for today but as the GD has a week of kleave coming up I think it might be time to look towards the rebuilding of the back doorstep as the only brickie I can find round here is me.

 

Have a good day one and all and stay safe & warm.

 

 

[BoD]

3 hours ago, roundhouse said:

 

 ........ another at high level. Wonderful trips back then.

 

3 coaches - typical winter formation.  Sorry but I can’t manage 403......

 

 

You can tell I haven’t been able to get out this week.

[tigerburnie]

Morning, what a rough night that was howling winds and horizontal rain, I was due to go out fishing in it, but thought better of it, that's a sign old age is creeping up, last year I was out in worse lol.

[Barry O]

Had a message from the Marie Celeste this morning. People are making appointments then not turning up.. selfish p1llocks!

Numbers for hospitals are about the same as in previous years but some procedures have been (and still are) cancelled or postponed. I know someone who is down for an emergency gall bladder removal in Essex.. still waiting since February. 

 

In other news.. a walk to the butchers has seen some home cured bacon, black pudding and two proper growles for lunch.

 

Post office had a queue a mile long and an "older" person tried to bypass the queue.  Turns out the man at the front was older!

Baz

Edited December 5, 2020 by Barry O
Get the word not in the right place

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Cold, wet from the overnight rain, but the sun is now shining. The workshop is cold enough for me to put the heater on! I'll probably turn it off later once it's warmed up later. 

 

Work is about to resume on the turntable control panel, I want to see why the stoppedight isn't working. 

 

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

 

Brian 

 

 

[iL Dottore]

16 hours ago, Barry O said:

....we had a Chinese meal in a street market in Hong Kong.. Still waiting for the rice but the chicken with lemon sauce was not quite as good as the ones we van get from the Wan Loi  near us..

I can’t speak for the quality of the food that you get from the restaurant you name, but when I was in Hong Kong I was never disappointed by the food. Furthermore when I was travelling extensively in Asia (mostly Thailand and Malaysia) I tried to eat as often as possible at the street stalls (hawker stalls).  In fact, next to one of the hotels we stayed in in downtown KL is a little hawker stall that does the world’s only guaranteed cure for jetlag (a cure based around the ingestion of fresh handmade noodles and loads of chilies and is a story for another time).

You can also eat incredibly well in Japan, and I regret I had so little time there when I did go to the country. When the world has righted itself after COVID-19 I plan on taking a well earned two or three week holiday to Japan (I will inform the taxman that it is a “fact finding business trip” for my company ) with the aim of doing two things: eating the best food the various regions of Japan can provide and travelling on as many of the superb Japanese railways (especially their “tourist trains“) as possible.  I may even indulge in buying up some Japanese  N gauge railway modelling materials.

13 hours ago, BokStein said:

Three minutes silence, please, in memory of the dearly departed, much loved, Groan Button!

I’m sure you probably know this, but with those words you are speaking for an entire generation!

7 hours ago, chrisf said:

...It is clear that Amazon won't go away.  Their share of the retail market continues to grow...

I am not enamoured of Mr Bezos and his business philosophy, but the service that Amazon provides is usually very, very good. Quite frankly, most local businesses, at least around here, ignored the possibility to become a local competitor to Amazon by doing the positive things that Amazon does and doing them early enough so as to get in on the ground floor (such as offering a decent selection [either in stock or “we’ll get it for you“],  A user friendly website and ordering process [you’d be surprised to learn that even nowadays there are plenty of Swiss businesses whose online presence is a website where - when you click on the button for their selection - it takes you to a page that just says “we’ve got lots of good stuff in the store“ obviously they’ve kind of missed the point] and so on).

And to add insult to injury (or is it injury to insult?), a couple of times I have ordered rather expensive items from a Swiss online dealer, because I wanted to avoid import taxes and charges, only to find that when my order did arrive it came with import taxes and charges attached because the online dealer had a “partner“ (usually in German) send the order to me: which defeated the whole purpose of the exercise (and so, back to Amazon I went).

5 hours ago, polybear said:

...It's about time that our Gov. had the b@lls large enough (or any, for that matter would be a start) to jump on Amazon and similar companies and close tax loopholes once and for all...

As much as I agree with your sentiments, it would require a united and coordinated effort on the part of an awful lot of governments across the world to force these people into paying taxes appropriately by closing loopholes. I don’t see that happening, even something as disastrous as Covid has not significantly improved intergovernmental collaboration.

I would argue that the problem with these megacorporations is not just about the ease with which they can move money around to avoid being taxed, but I think it is also because there is no repercussion at the very top for illegal acts. There have been numerous reports of well-known mega-brands exploiting sweatshop labour (often involving children) and the CEOs of such companies (who, at least theoretically, are answerable for the actions of the company) do not even get a slap on the wrist. And of course, the bigger the corporation the more untouchable are the ones at the top

 

So, for example, as owner and CEO of my own small company [emphasis on small] I would be answerable should my security team [Lucy & Schotty] savagely assault an innocent bystander. If I had a megacorporation, I could just pass it off as “a failure of lower management“ or “inadequately trained staff“ and walk away scot-free, even if I had said “Lucy, Schotty - attack” (perhaps am I being really, really cynical here and just a bit “de trop”?).

 

Well, enough waffling on for me. Time to put the oven on and start on making my traditional English boiled fruitcake.

 

Enjoy the day!

Edited December 5, 2020 by iL Dottore

[Gwiwer]

Good morning all. 
 

Bright sunny and cool Upon the Hill of Strawberries this morning. Laundry is in progress, SWMBO had threatened to ride her trike along the riverside path towards Richmond and I have declined the offer of accompanying her. 
 

There is stuff to be done here. I’m not altogether sure what stuff but I shall find stuff to somehow avoid doing.  
 

The m***l is being exhibited “virtually” this weekend thanks to my friends in Hayle MRC. Apparently this qualifies it for an attendance plaque. 
 

I might even get some weathering done out on the Terrace. Not bad for Decembrrrrrr. 
 

Best wishes to one and all. 

[roundhouse]

4 hours ago, Barry O said:

@roundhouse.. Rapid Electronics are cheaper than Maplins used to be and very efficient at getting items sent out..

 

Baz

I have used them a few times but often forget about them

[southern42]

' afternoon all from red dragon land.

4C this morning better than yesterday's 2C. Dry, cloudy with a few areas of blue sky. Not sunny here at the moment, though.

 

Yesterday's Advent Calendar.

[Scare  Warning 1...Look away now if of a sensitive disposition...]

The choccy critter was a Mouse - very tasty.

[Scare  Warning 2...it gets worse...]

The fact behind the window states: There are over 40,000 spiders [edit: species of (see J.S.Bach below)] world-wide. 

 

 

Hope that has not spoilt your day. 

 

Time to get lunch.

 

Fitt  and  Elfie up to their old tricks.

 

Take care everyone and play safe.

_________

Best wishes

Polly, aka Miss D. Meaner.

Edited December 5, 2020 by southern42