Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

I have just been intstructed to clear the editor which says 'G'night all' - although it doesn't seem to have posted last night  very odd.

 

Today we have sunshine peeking its way between various bits of nicely broken  cloud and plenty of blue skies - very pleasant looking out there in fact.  Breakfast - if you can call it that - has been taken in the form of a couple of cold sausages which hardly compares with various other combinations being mentioned here today.  As there are some mushrooms getting a little bit older every day lurking in the fridge they, plus some streaky bacon, will be my lunch today while others in the household will no doubt be consuming the pasties which weren't eaten for dinner yesterday evening.  all being well there should be roast lamb for dinner this evening.

 

A chap I worked with back in the '70s had spent most of the war flying in Sunderlands and remained rather fond of them as an aircraft in which to spend a long working day.  Another former colleague had been an RNVR pilot flying Swordfish of escort carriers - apparently not always the most enjoyable way of spending one's time on convoys to Russia but like anyone who had flown them he was a great fan of 'stringbags'.

 

No major plans for today although the newspapers will provide some sudoku and the GD and I might well watch the snooker final having watched a fair bit of it over the past couple of evenings.  Alas it does have all the makings of a walkover but it will be interesting to see if age and experience can stand up to an extremely talented young player who is little short of being a snooker prodigy.

 

Have a good day one and all and stay safe.

 

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by The Stationmaster

[Gwiwer]

14 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

I have just been intstructed to clear the editor which says 'G'night all' - although it doesn't seem to have posted last night  very odd.

Mine does the same apparently randomly.  Not today at all but yesterday it did.  No rhyme nor reason to it that I can see nor is it device-specific.  

 

In other news I have just received an email from a named individual representing BBC Spotlight (South West regional current affairs) seeking my thoughts on the G7 Summit just announced for Carbis Bay in June.  I shall reply.  Without breaching our "No Pottylicks" rule I can at least say they they have chosen a spot which is relatively easy to secure, is stunningly beautiful, is not in main-season (though might affect the pre-booked holidays of a few) and may place Cornwall front and centre on the world stage.  

 

Cornwall was already likely to be full for the summer assuming travel restrictions are eased.  It was last year.  A tsunami of humanity descended upon it from the first hour they were permitted to do so.  Most people we know - particularly accommodation and other service providers - had the worst season in memory.  A lot of the "Wrong Sort Of People" made everyone else's lives a complete misery.  Cornwall is not the Costa del P1ssup nor is it the Island of Drunknos.  Many locals complained of being abused, shoved, pushed around and spat at for just going about their daily business by people who felt they had some sort of inalienable right to be first in line, the most important, the loudest-mouthed and indeed the foulest-mouthed.  

 

Cornwall is gearing up for another similar season as those who might normally holiday overseas do so instead as a "staycation".  The additional requirements of an international security clampdown, road and path closures and possibly beach restrictions will not be swallowed comfortably despite the additional revenue which G7 might bring.  

 

King Arthur's is indeed a double-edged sword.  

[grandadbob]

Went for a walk after a very enjoyable breakfast. Only managed a mile and a half before The Hip started to seize up.

That seems to be my limit at the moment.

My late Uncle Fred was a pilot and flew Sunderlands off the West Coast of Africa hunting U-boats. He too was rather fond of them. 
Coffee now and then I will see if I can hobble down to The Shed.

[Barry O]

 I went for a holiday in Cornwall a long time ago.. it took ages to get there...

 

More memories of being somewhere appreciably warmer this time last year..

 

 

Singapore Botanical Gardens with it fantastic array or Orchids...

 

 

Baz

[Tony_S]

Good morning. 
Bright and breezy here today. The weather is at least. I suspect it is about 5C but I haven’t been out yet. I will later as I have noticed that the local birdies have at last emptied one of the feeders. 
I believe there may be a short walk  possibly even venturing out of our road. There aren’t exactly crowds of people round here , except for school arrivals and departures. The schools are open but for the children of key workers or vulnerable children. Not enough to require our road as a car park though and not of course today being a Sunday.

I am not sure what we will be eating today. We normally discuss this but I was otherwise deployed yesterday at food decision time. Aditi couldn’t log on to the medication renewal app. It claimed she was logged on with a different password on another device. Resetting the password seemed impossible but the GP surgery website allowed another method of access. This required  creating an NHS login. After scanning her passport you have to make a video reading out the numbers they send. Bit like a hostage video. Aditi was convinced I was making it up. Anyway it all worked. But as it took a while to sort out I wasn’t asked about food. It doesn’t matter, if asked, I rarely mind what we eat. Aditi isn’t cruel enough to feed me coconut or any of the other few things I dislike. During the last 20 years of her employment I did nearly all the cooking and what we ate depended on what time she thought she would be home. 

Tony

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Surprise, surprise, its a dry sunny day, but still cool only 5C. As it's Sunday that means we had breakfast in bed and it was my turn to make it. 

 

Now sat in the workshop about to start working on the brackets to support the scenic turntable top. 

 

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

 

Brian 

[PeterBB]

14 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

... and there looks to be space appearing ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/01/16/longer-lockdown/

Looking at your 'detritus'  and object placing having to be rethought out it would seem that even the best brains don't get it right always.  In terms of not relaxing until at least Easter I totally agree that should be the case and it should be stated much earlier than is currently 'normal'.

 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. (Well it is morning at the mo, just). Arthur Itis is quiet at the moment but the sore foot feels as if its on fire so not much sleep. Speaking of which I'll have to try shortly for another eyelid inspection.

[45156]

Afernoon All

 

And again, apologies for prolonged absences over the past few days due to various interruptions and issues of differing types which I won't go into here.  However, the warmest of greetings are proferred to all ERs with a hope that none of us is suffering too much at present.

 

30747 has been feeling poorly for days now, and early yesterday morning (like about 2am) said that she wanted a Covid test, so onto the website.  There is a large drive in testing site a few miles from here at the park and ride, and they had vacancies for tests yesterday at 12.30, so we both booked, and unlike the last test, where we were slung a kit and left to get on with things, and where I suspect that the results are a bit dependent on whether you actually hit the correct areas of your throat, we were offered the choice of an NHS staff member to carry out the test.  Drive in, windows shut and read the cards held up by the staff, then a large A was put under the wipers, drive to the bay indicated on the card held up, large A removed and replaced by two test kits one under each wiper, and then two nurses in full PPE came out, and did 30747 first, then went in and two other nurses came out and did me.  I could tell from both 30747's reaction and what I felt that this test was more thorough than the self test which we did last time - which makes me wonder about the effectiveness of the self test.  This was very well done indeed, and was a real credit to our hard pressed NHS and all the staff, who were working in the open in the wind and rain were very professional.

 

Results came in by email around 2.15 this morning, and by text at about 6.10, and luckily we are both currently clear.

 

Good news on the guitar front, as my tame repairer texted me to say that my Tanglewood, which I took into him before the last lockdown is now ready (he's working from home, not the shop so can't do things quite so quickly), and is apparently playing very well indeed, and he's only charged me £40 to lower the action, lubricate and clean the fretboard, new strings, and give it a good polish.  We are meeting in town tomorrow, and I can't wait.  That's four of my guitars that he's fettled and none have cost a fortune - in fact, the Ovation which I was told had a passive preamp by two dealers, the one who sold it and another in Sutton, only needed a new battery, and he only charged for the battery.  He did say that the Ovation needs attention of a more expert repairer as the neck needs to be reset, and he doesn't feel up to tackling it - so after lockdown, there's a very good repairer in Grange Over Sands.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

Edited January 17, 2021 by 45156

[southern42]

' afternoon all from red dragon land

 

Breakfast this morning consisted of an "I've started so I'll finish" concoction...

Now, when I made my mince pies,  I made too much mincemeat and put the surplus in the freezer. With the *C* cake all gone, and a *C* pudding (*C* present from family) still to eat, I decided, yesterday, to make a mincemeat tart.

 

However, I economised too much on the pastry leaving just enough for a vague trellis pattern on top - in other words more gaps than trellis and I was afraid the mincemeat might dry out.  I went online to check cooking time and came across a recipe for mincemeat tart covered with sliced apple (among other things!).  Ah ha!  Tinned sliced apples in the cupboard...  A little later, each gap in the trellis pattern was filled with a slice of apple. Mincemeat mostly covered over.

 

As you can see, the pastry was a bit fragile... Not the prettiest looking mincemeat tart in town but still very tasty and the mincemeat still juicy, with the bonus of the tart being a lot quicker to make than the dozen mini mince pies I made last time.

 

But what has this got to do with breakfast?

Well, I only used a third of the tinned apples, the rest being enough for two days on porridge with some de-frosted and cooked summer fruits.

 

A longer sleep was had last night after the previous night of wind rumbling through the roof slates and driving rain pounding the window.

 

Time to get on and extract a few more articles from the magazines... One pile almost done... Another pile, or two, waiting in the wings. 

 

Take care all and play safe. 

_________

Best wishes

Polly

[PhilJ W]

8 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

.....but what about the onions? Both dishes, as excellent as they are, can be taken to a whole new level with the addition of a mound of caramelised onions.

 

Of course the onions were included.

[TheQ]

If NHN has my luck the Dax symbiont will have transfered into Curzon..

 

Afternoon Awl,

First shelving unit painted on second side. Now drying

Weight spreader plank glassfibred one side, now setting

Base unit below first shelving unit had second coat now drying.

 

Ben took me for his long walk with no refusals, although the distant sound of a nail gun did cause him to come to me for reassurance..

He took interest in the sheep again, as the sheep did in him, I told him no and he walked on..There's not much greenery left in the field they should be moved on by next week..

 

Dry sunny, quite pleasant out there.

 

Three cars went past, during the walk, one with a London registration, one with an Oxford reg and one with a Preston reg...hmmm...

 

Shortly this way dinner comes..to be accompanied by a glass of red..

 

 Bye for now..

Edited January 17, 2021 by TheQ

[leopardml2341]

Aft'noon.

 

It's bloomin' cold out there. Some of mi outdoor doin's done but not completely. Mugga decaff coffee and a couple of slices of toast now and a shower next to warm up, I need to clean the shower anyway, so might as well clean mi sen as well

 

Then ironing......

 

Sometimes I quite enjoy ironing sometimes not, today I fear is a 'not' day, but I'll put the radio on and just get on with it

 

See you all later.

 

 

[leopardml2341]

6 minutes ago, TheQ said:

 

Three cars went past, during the walk, one with a London registration, one with an Oxford reg and one with a Preston reg...hmmm...

That's no guarantee that they (the drivers have travelled from there); my car registration prefix letters are 'DP' indicating Shrewsbury, but I drive around and live in South Derbyshire.

Edited January 17, 2021 by leopardml2341

[The White Rabbit]

Afternoon awl,

 

No issues with the editor, at least not yet. Recently I haven't bothered to sign out/in to RMW, I don't know if that's made any difference. 

 

It's quite a bit warmer now, the snow is melting at a fair old pace and making walking a lot less treacherous. A resupply trip was made earlier, originally due Friday but rescheduled as we couldn't get off the drive due to the snow & ice. The roads and supermarket were both very busy at 10.00, sadly the latter was full of covidiots treating masks as fashion accessories rather than useful tools to stop the spread of the pestilence. However, on the plus side, a Lemon Drizzle Cake 'kit' purchased. ("Come in Mr Bear, I have been expecting you..."). I thought it was time to sample this notorious delicacy. 

 

The G word invoked a bit later as it didn't feel like the North Pole had been resited to the back garden any more, cleared away some of the damage caused by the snow. I saw the first of our snowdrops had emerged, maybe half a dozen in bloom. Various spring flowers, bluebells, whitebells, crocuses, garlic and others, were showing increasing amounts of greenery. For both general and specific reasons it's felt like a long winter. It may not be over for a while but these horticultural signals always feel like the light at the end of the tunnel. And it helps keep the dark canine at bay. 

 

If anyone's interested, I collect seeds of some flowers and have some spare. I can't send outside the UK, Customs get a bit antsy about biological material, but if anyone wants any seeds for the price of postage, PM me. I have seeds for Aquilegia, Foxgloves, Garlic Mustard, Iberis, Love in a Mist, Ribwort, Toadflax (purple), Sweet Peas, Welsh Poppies and Whitebells. 

 

And now it's time to prepare for the requisite daily medical check:

[TheQ]

15 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

 

 

And now it's time to prepare for the requisite daily medical check:

Test ok, I'll just check again..

[The White Rabbit]

Better to be safe than sorry... 

[polybear]

A medium kinda morning for Bear - I kept busy doing some dross and also polishing the areas under the bonnet of my 4 year old car (tops of wings - those bits only visible when the bonnet is open, also a long strip along the underside of the bonnet itself where it rests against a rubber seal) previously reported to be showing very light signs of rust bleeding thru' the paintwork.  First polish, then wax, then Dynax Wax coating applied; the really good news is that all signs of rust disappeared without difficulty when threatened with the polish, so Bear's a much happier bunny.

This afternoon involved a close encounter with a cockwomble of the Plusnet variety, via a telephone conversation   My previous 10mb broadband contract expired on the 14th, so on the 13th I signed up to a new 30mb deal for only a couple of quid extra, so long as I stay put for 2 years.  However, close examination of my latest bill received today revealed that they'd charged me thru' the nose this month.  A call to their billing dept. revealed that apparently my new deal won't be starting until the 20th (which explains why the speed hasn't changed yet) - only they failed to mention that previously when I arranged the deal, and paperwork received makes no mention either).  Why does this matter?  Well it seems that means a six day window where I'm "out of contract", and they see that as a fair excuse to kick me in the goolies.  Mr. cockwomble wouldn't see sense, so a second call to the sales dept. found a more sensible guy who sorted it for me; he obviously realised that kicking a Poly in the Goolies wasn't a bright scheme....

[polybear]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[simontaylor484]

Late on parade today

 

All posts skim read

Been doing lego with youngest he has taken photos of our efforts, the photos he has taken are quite good he is only 10 watch out Tony Wright.

 

The snow has all but gone only icy piles where it has been shifted.

Bacon and mushroom sandwich for lunch this morning still full now.

  

Saw the foxes Friday night at the same time as the weekly Cross country voyager passed. It comes from York ex Glasgow Central and passes on its way to Bombadier at Crofton nr Wakefield.

 

Other than that nothing to report

[jamie92208]

Good to read all the comments about Sunderlands.  I came across one of the few remaining ones by chance in Oakland CA.

It's in a Museum close to Oakland Airport.  There was a factory that built and maintained them, built on Lake Windermere.  The site is now Whitecross Bay caravan park but the hangar floors and door tracks are recognisable as such.  My father was working in West Africa during the war and though a committed pacifist, rather liked Sunderlands.  he said that he always felt safe when the convoys he was on were escorted by Sunderlands and thought that had real grace and beauty.  His Uncle was the QS for the building of the factory and took my dad with him on a couple of visits.  He said that the sight of them taking off and landing on the lake among the hills was lovely to watch.   There is a book about the factory that I picked up in a bookshop in Grasmere. It's a fascinating story.  Apparently the Friends of The Lake District objected to the building of the factory on the grounds that it would spoil the views.

 

Jamie

[simontaylor484]

Phil mentioned vertical farming i saw a while ago a really interesting set up but i cant remember where it was. But it was a normal vertical farm but at the bottom was a fish tank. They were able to farm fish and plants at the same time and it was a closed system the fish provided nutrients for the plants the plants cleaned the water for the fish. It was quite an interesting concept.

[simontaylor484]

Last time i went to Duxford they were restoring a Sunderland this was in the 80s i wander if its the one in PBs photo.

[tetsudofan]

1 hour ago, leopardml2341 said:

That's no guarantee that they (the drivers have travelled from there); my car registration prefix letters are 'DP' indicating Shrewsbury, but I drive around and live in South Derbyshire.

 

I've often thought that when driving around here as my plate is MB which I believe indicates Manchester (but for me it means Mercedes-Benz ) whilst I'm down here in Kent.

 

Only time I seem to have been of interest to the authorities is when I was showing one of my ex-work colleagues (UK-born of Chinese parents) the area around Dungeness and we stopped to watch a couple of fully-armed policemen opening and closing a gate leading across the shingle to the sea without put their rather large guns down. As we moved on they got back in their Range Rover-looking vehicle and followed us down the coast for 12 miles before they left us.

 

Checked them out when I got home and found that they were members of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary who are fully-armed and have the right to patrol upto 12 miles from Dungeness Nuclear Power Station.

 

As an aside I've just been reading a book on Dungeness (as part of my Covid reading) and found out to my surprise that locally Dungeness is/was known as "Nanny Goat Island". Quite surprised when I found out what it means.

 

Keith

[New Haven Neil]

Gordon Bennet.

 

A bad day on Fraggle Rock, what looks like a domestic murder in a house about 50 yards from us in the village, a cyclist killed down south in an RTC which I won't speculate on but think will have repercussions, and 9 new covid cases, but they are all already in isolation as returners from medical treatment or known contacts from the outbreak a fortnight ago so at least no community transmission.