Early Risers.

[tigerburnie]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Bear is being economical with the truth and has been selectively editing . My original post referred to illicit cake removal and ended with"asking nicely may help".

 

If asked nicely, I have been known to dispatch selected canine, ursine and hippopotamid chums on their way with groaning hampers filled with CAKE, homemade fruit infused gins, homemade brandy marinated fruits & fruit compotes, homemade Swiss Christmas biscuits and the occasional homemade pork pie (some selected h0m0 sapiens are sometimes included in my munificence).

 

See, even Captain Cynical has a soft side at Christmas (unfortunately...)

 

As for those who don't ask nicely? Let's say the last lot who did that are now helping shore-up the Gotthard Base Tunnel

Can this offer of free hampers be extended to Tigers?

[Ian Abel]

BIN day. Hauled them out last night so we're good to go. Some already came and went!

 

Minnesota continues to be mired by the virus and most sensible folks are abiding by the current restriction, even though they aren't that awful. Mostly restaurant indoor dining and gyms closed.

Enter 100 bar owners around the state who have "decided" they think the governor is overstepping his bounds and are opening anyway!

Looking up STUPID in the dictionary I'm now redirected to this;

"Minnesota will suspend liquor licenses of two bars and restaurants defying no indoor-dining order

More than 100 businesses have pledged to defy the order."

 Standing-room only at the bar at Alibi Drinkery in Lakeville, which reopened Wednesday morning in defiance of Gov. Walz.

 

They said some folks drove more than an hour to get there...so much for trying to contain this mess!

I don't generally wish folks ill, but I hope they get fined enough to put them out of business, their claim they should be allowed to open is sad!

 

Whitney visits us today as Jemma will be dropping her car off at the local "shop" to get her winter tires installed. She's then going to do some shopping for the Mrs, who prefers the veg be purchased by someone with a discerning eye rather than relying on the grocery delivery folks to choose veg for her. The grocery service is also scheduled for a delivery today of the "non-critically selected" items.

 

We're making mince pies today as most of the family like them and we'd like to share those as well as cookies. Nothing else planned.

 

-6 and dreary first thing, headed for zero.

 

Enjoy the day.

[simontaylor484]

When i worked in transport the first company we finished Christmas eve then came back beginning of January we delivered to building sites so they were all shut.

The second firm i worked for we finished Christmas eve and then bac in the first working day after boxing day but there was naff all to do we used to split duties so you wotked 1 day between xmas and han 2nd

Then at the council we finished xmas eve early so all the vans were empty us and the bin lads were the only department to carry on all others shut till after new year.

Now in the cruel twists that life has sent me i dont work so. I do miss going in to town xmas eve afternoon and getting a few bargins.

 

On a better note hopefully some therapy is pencilled in to start to help me get out of the house. Covid and this back problem withstanding 

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon all,

 

His ladship attended a footbakll match yesterday evening and would seem to have established a seemingly unique claim to have been the only Norwich City supporter at their away game against Reading.

 

Local Covid vaccinations began yesterday at the two GP surgeries and the (almost) hospital - 900 recipients were dealt with in total.  Jabbing is continuing today but Mrs Stationmaster had no crowd problems getting to her ENT clinic appointment at the (almost) hospital.  

 

Herself then moved on to Waitrose which she said was fairly busy.  Going down to pick up her and the shopping was definitely busy - considerable amount of traffic about with a very high idiot quotient among those pretending to drive their vehicle.  The ultimate cockwomble display came at Waitrose where the driver of the artic delivery vehicle was giving an amazingly skilful display of how not to reverse an artic trailer.  He appeared to be having difficulty understanding the geometry involved in reversing such a vehicle with the result that the trailer didn't go where he thought he was making it go.  It's a difficult move at any time but I saw him make half dozen failed attempts before he got it almost right (after which he had 4 goes trying to straighten the way the trailer was heading) but herself said he'd been at it for more than 10 minutes before I arrived.  if he had passed a test for a Group 1 HGV Licence the examiner must have been blind or drunk.

 

River noted to be well up on the way home with some of the mooring landing stages about to go underwater but the level just upstream at the lock is well below danger level and there are no flood warnings in force.

 

Over the years I've been through all sorts of variety in knocking off times on Christmas Eve/.  HQ office level back in the days when drinking was allowed meant very little work was done in the afternoon and we'd be on our way not long after 16.00.   Front line ops jobs when you had a passenger station, especially a big one, on your patch  was a very different story and you couldn't really be on your way until the rush started to die down - and that depended very much on which day of the week Christmas Day fell.  Similarly HQ ops jobs if you were On Call usually meant it was a good idea to be on hand until at least 18,00.  Never worried me much as it was all part of the job.  

 

Enjoy the rest of the day and stay safe.  and I hope Chris can resolve something for his Christmas Day meal 

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Not had a lot of trouble from the sore foot or from Arthur Itis today but it seems they are both beginning to stir. Been too busy for eyelid inspection but thats next, be back later.

[PeterBB]

Think it relates to a Christmas spent in hospital as a child but have always loved Christmas Carols.  

In the work position of being able to rota Christmas Eve and other duties over the Christmas and New Year period in times of yore always put myself on-call on 24th and, hopefully with no call during the time of Carolling round the wards or pop in and out of I, if busy.  Didn't miss a Christmas Eve carolling in one place or another for 40 years then on year 41 what a night - casualty and therefore pathology very busy all night so no carolling and it stayed that way every 24th until retirement.  As an aside met my then wife on one of those evenings although by then it was a Christmas Day. 

In all the years I've worked, like a number of you, I never ever ended up with regular hours but fortunately always enjoyed the work.

Not seen Gwiwer for a day or two hope he is OK..

 

[Barry O]

8 hours ago, jonny777 said:

 

I am hoping that with an infection rate of 125 per 100k we may be moved from Tier 3 to 2 this morning, as some places already in Tier 2 are around that level, and certain hotspots in Tier 3 have infection rates five or six times that of ours. 

 

Leeds is 138.. our part of leeds its 80.4.. beds in use for Covid in the North East and Humber  are falling.. but we are still in Tier 3.. I smell a rat, large, ill disguised!

 

Parts of Durham (Teesdale especially) have very, very low rates but, unlike part of Surrey they are in Tier 3 as part of "Durham"....

[J. S. Bach]

3 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

Can this offer of free hampers be extended to Tigers?

And classical music composers????

[monkeysarefun]

7 hours ago, chrisf said:

Bedfordshire has been moved into tier three.  Just what I needed.  This appears to put the kibosh on Xmas Day's dinner and I cannot see the posh hotel being able to offer a takeaway service for a three course meal.  Nonetheless I have asked the hotel to get back to me.  If I hear any more from hopeless ministers about not wanting people to be on their own at Christmas I shall say something which at best is not suitable for the ears of polite company.  "Grrrrr" must suffice for now.

 

Bah humbug

 

Chris

That really is sad   - will a koala help?

 

Here after weeks of no local transmission 17 cases just popped up seemingly overnight on the Northern beaches ( thats the bit of Sydney  where they film Home And Away).

 

Given that all arrivals are quarantined for two weeks and have to test negative before going back into the community, no one knows where these cases came from so far - assumedly theres asymptomatic transmission still going on out there.

 

It does show how hard it is to control this thing though, even when your community transmission levels are apparently zero for weeks it can still jump up and bite you in the bum.

 

Its put many peoples Christmases in disarray too - other states are looking at maybe shutting there borders again to NSW,  after many people have booked interstate holidays to see relos they haven't seen all year.

 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2020 by monkeysarefun

[iL Dottore]

3 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

Can this offer of free hampers be extended to Tigers?

Quite possibly, quite possibly. The team at Captain Cynical’s Alpine Redoubt(tm) is always on the lookout for talent. And as it happens, we’re currently looking for someone adept at slashing, rending and disembowelling and a Tiger could well fit the job...

The salary is only adequate (it’s just twice the UK average, I’m afraid), but the benefits are good: such as mandatory Cake Sampling Technique seminars and the possibility of using a number of the Captain’s Swiss Bank Accounts to minimise - how can I put it - “Government Curiosity” about the few pennies a simple Tiger may earn in his spare time...

[jamie92208]

Good evening from The Charente.  A good day out, shopping and trainspotting in good company. An hour this afternoon  was spent discussing nuclear reactor design with pauses for freight trains.

 

Scampi and chips has been enjoyed, now an evening doing not a lot is in store. 

 

As to Christmas' they were usually busy and usually included a sudden or violent death, sometime with humorous overtones such as granny dying as she put the turkey in the oven. At least 6 times I helped cook a full Christmas dinner at 0200 which always went down well. Sadly the days of the duty Supt putting a bottle of whisky on the counter went at the end of the 70's.  For some reason Christmas Eve evening was always manic, Boxing day was Domestic dispute day. However nights was the best shift, get home, open presents with the kids, off to bed then get up, have a 2nd Christmas dinner then go back to work. No regrets though.

 

Jamie

 

 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

Leeds is 138.. our part of leeds its 80.4.. beds in use for Covid in the North East and Humber  are falling.. but we are still in Tier 3.. I smell a rat, large, ill disguised!

 

Parts of Durham (Teesdale especially) have very, very low rates but, unlike part of Surrey they are in Tier 3 as part of "Durham"....

 

Bear has just checked the local rate - 605/100,000 Jeez, last time I looked (a few days ago) ISTR it was about 380.  509 cases this week, which is up 304 on the previous week.

 

10 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

That really is sad   - will a koala help?

 

 

It certainly brightened up this Bear's day....

 

In other news:

The plasterer came today and delivered 4 sheets of EML Lath; he'd been to Jewsons but they wanted twelve quid + vat a sheet, so he went to Wickes and paid forty quid inclusive - and charged me forty quid, delivered   And all done without any committment from me (or pressure from him) that I'd accept his quote.

More free advice given, and a quote for the job of £720, with 3 day's work.  That'll do.

The last bit of wall was scraped, squirty foam around the window frame went well (I'll leave it a couple of days before trimming), new bulb fitted in the porch light, a bit of filler mixed up & applied, and kitchen worktop cut down a bit to make fitting the EML a lot easier.  That's a job to start tomorrow - not looking forward to it, as each sheet may well entail the drilling of something like 50 off x 5mm diameter x 30mm deep holes in the wall.  The new neighbours will like it even less - maybe I'll save a sheet and fit it on Chrimbo day.... Mind you, they're having bathroom work done at the moment so fair's fair.

 

Trying to decide on a supplier for the new kitchen units - bl00dy nightmare.  Ready made units are a problem (no storage) but might be do-able if I split the delivery into two; I'm quite happy to assemble myself if I can find the right cabinet spec. - many have hardboard backs to the cabinets, for example, and I'd much rather have more solid backs for strength and rigidity.

[simontaylor484]

Bi t of a strange day today, the lad who tested positive for covid and sent youngest class in to self isolation a few weeks ago, his dad died yesterday aged 37 from covid I'm not sure if he had any underlying health problems. That's a partner and A 10 year old without his Dad the week before xmas.

School is finished today we have a list of instructions on reporting of anyone comes down with symptoms before. Xmas to report through School as well as track and trace and than twixtmas it's track and trace 

 

 

[J. S. Bach]

40 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

That really is sad   - will a koala help?

 ...snip...

The only reason that I would want to travel to the other side of the world.

[jamie92208]

There's another lovely story from Kangaroo Island about them finding some tiny possum's that they thought had been wiped out by the fires they're smaller than a human hand. It's on the BBC website somewhere.

 

Jamie

[Sir TophamHatt]

Well, don't feel like I've achieved much today.

But then a day of general rest is good.

Tomorrow Mrs and Master STH will be heading out so will allow me an opportunity to get on 3D printing some stuff I'll probably never use and fixing up a loco that needs DCC / LED conversion - LEDs being the dual red/white ones so not as easy as some others!

 

Night all.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Didn't venture out today but now the fridge is empty of dinners its a case of having to tomorrow. Yesterday there was no papers when I called the shop I was informed that they were closed but I did manage to get my papers elsewhere. There was speculation that they were closed due to covid-19 but the papers were there when I came down this morning. The newsagents is also a sub post office so the sudden closure might be something to do with that. The sore foot feels to have been on fire this afternoon but a cooling wipe with a damp flannel and a fresh dressing seems to have calmed things down. 

[brianusa]

5 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

BIN day. Hauled them out last night so we're good to go. Some already came and went!

 

Minnesota continues to be mired by the virus and most sensible folks are abiding by the current restriction, even though they aren't that awful. Mostly restaurant indoor dining and gyms closed.

Enter 100 bar owners around the state who have "decided" they think the governor is overstepping his bounds and are opening anyway!

Looking up STUPID in the dictionary I'm now redirected to this;

"Minnesota will suspend liquor licenses of two bars and restaurants defying no indoor-dining order

More than 100 businesses have pledged to defy the order."

 Standing-room only at the bar at Alibi Drinkery in Lakeville, which reopened Wednesday morning in defiance of Gov. Walz.

 

They said some folks drove more than an hour to get there...so much for trying to contain this mess!

I don't generally wish folks ill, but I hope they get fined enough to put them out of business, their claim they should be allowed to open is sad!

.

 

Enjoy the day.

In WA, Eastern parts of the state in particular, such transgressions are usually by cowboy style conservatives who seem to have a death wish.  After reading of the many deaths due to covid and pictures of sufferers in hospital, this group still persists in their race to eternity much to the bewilderment of the rest of the the state.

     Brian.

[southern42]

' evening all from red dragon land.

 

My best working Christmases were in a greengrocers on the days up to and including Christmas Eve (age 14-22).  Christmas Eve was best - we all stayed in the shop for a late lunch (when the number of customers dropped off) and had takeaway fish n chips (paid for by the owner.  Customers would still come and go but by 4 it was pretty quiet, but still they would come, some to pick up one of the last Christmas trees stacked outside the  door. Afternoon tea break was also a bit special and I would still be in the shop til 6 (normal days would be closer to half 6).  I did learn from my boss that the morning 1/4(ish) moon, being turned up, meant that we would not get any snow because the moon would catch it!  However, opening the front door shortly after 11 pm that evening, there was an inch of snow on the ground...hope Mum and Dad (who had gone to see some friends) will get home OK, I thought.  Since the owner was always wanting a cup of tea, I reckon I was putting the kettle on every hour...and of course, waste not...any blemished fruit we were forbidden to sell onto customers but were encouraged to cut off the bad bits and eat the fruit in the shop, or simply take them home at the end of the day.  Ripe summer fruits would not keep over the weekend til the Monday.

Time to fly...

Til next time...

[Coombe Barton]

... nearly forgot that it’s Christmas Day a week tomorrow ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/12/17/sounds-of-the-season-19/

[pH]

24 minutes ago, brianusa said:

In WA, Eastern parts of the state in particular, such transgressions are usually by cowboy style conservatives who seem to have a death wish.  After reading of the many deaths due to covid and pictures of sufferers in hospital, this group still persists in their race to eternity much to the bewilderment of the rest of the the state.

     Brian.

Those people are free to do what they want with their own lives - the major quibble I have is their resulting use of limited resources like health services. But what I do object to strongly is their putting other, more sensible people at risk by their antics.

[Erichill16]

Evening All, 

Had another busy day, had man round to service bils caravan which he stores on our drive. Then trip to supermarket,then lunch and a trip to dump it site followed by a bit of burning of garden waste. Tea and bath followed then I settled double to watch to tv. Then phone rang, and manager informed me that the white delivery van wouldn’t start. Not the same issue as in lockdown 1 as the lights etc where still working. So at 7 I set off to investigate. I took spare battery and jump leads. Couldn’t get it started so checked the fuses but no luck. Two fuse boxes and one a pain in the posterior to get to. As I was packing up a young man shouted from a passing van if I needed any help so he came over and had a look. Turns out he’s the grandson of one of our oldest customers and lives about 25yards from pharmacy. He couldn’t fix it but helped me move the van on to the driveway and arranged for his mate to come first thing to have a look. I offered him ten quid for his effort and time but he refused saying we(the pharmacy) had helped enough people on the housing estate, which was very touching.

Goodnight

Robert.

 

[The Stationmaster]

We are now almost surrounded by Tier 3 areas with Reading to the south and Bucks to the east/north east.  Not over clever really as folk from Caversham which is nowadays part of Reading on our side of the river come here to shop and ours will be the nearest pubs to Reading that are still open.  

 

Logically armed guards and road blocks should be put in place to keep the Reading folk out. (I know 'Compound' on here might not like that) because unless that happens the whole thing is a mockery and the boozers will simply come here and spread infection.  And the same might go for folk coming from Marlow and possibly even High Wycombe.  Some of the parishes round here already have rates of infection comparable with parts of Reading and unless people stay in their own area infection is going to spread.   County boundaries are really rather meaningless when you start looking at where the idiots will go to find an open pub.

 

Only hope is that our local coppers have got a large supply of breathalysers (assuming they bother to come out of their mess room).  And if they couldn't come out for a killing 60 feet from their door what hope is there for them attending to this sort of thing?  Not a clever move Boris and co.

 

In the meanwhile this evening the lad has been attending an office party - in Graz.   Yes the company are going in for office parties via Zoom.  Clearly office oarties aren't the same nowadays as they were when I was a youngster 

Edited December 18, 2020 by The Stationmaster
typo

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

The only reason that I would want to travel to the other side of the world.

  Though they are a bit like that Gremlins movie - don't get them wet!

 

[tigerburnie]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Quite possibly, quite possibly. The team at Captain Cynical’s Alpine Redoubt(tm) is always on the lookout for talent. And as it happens, we’re currently looking for someone adept at slashing, rending and disembowelling and a Tiger could well fit the job...

The salary is only adequate (it’s just twice the UK average, I’m afraid), but the benefits are good: such as mandatory Cake Sampling Technique seminars and the possibility of using a number of the Captain’s Swiss Bank Accounts to minimise - how can I put it - “Government Curiosity” about the few pennies a simple Tiger may earn in his spare time...

Me being part Viking means the pillaging comes as a natural habit and Bit Coins will be perfectly acceptable lol.