Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

The JT26CW-SS/Class 59 is wearing a much smaller dress that an SD40-2. - in fact its maximum height is just about level with the nose short hood of an SD40-2 hence it can be carried in gauge loaded on a normal US large flat car!.   The are a bit rough & ready but a lot less rough & ready than the Class 66 rattle traps.   Riding on one when the super-creep cuts is best described as an 'interesting experience' and is probably the nearest thing to riding on an angle grinder that you can experience in reasonable comfort and without the contortions needed to actually try sitting on a working angle grinder.

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. A very enjoyable Zoom talk this evening. One of our members was able to visit both the Bluebell and the Severn Valley last year. Both organizations to keep social distancing were bringing out the compartment stock rather than the Mk. I's. You had to pre-book and you were allocated a compartment on a particular train. It was of course more expensive but it was still very popular especially with families. Now to do battle with Farcebook, be back later.

[The Stationmaster]

2 minutes ago, Barry O said:

That doesn't seem to work in fog.. automatic lights don't always give main beams a chance.. the new "super sidelights" switch on, as does the lights in the console. Just check what auto does in different conditions.

 

Baz

Th auto lights on my Peugeot 407 do cut in in some foggy conditions - iy just depends to what extent the fog interferes with the amount of light reaching the sensor.  The lights will also come on in some shady situations during daylight hours - for example my cars is parked on the north side of the house and the headlights will quite ften turn themselves on on a very cloudy day if the light is low enough to trigger the sensor.  It can be a nuisance at times when I  realise  I've got headlights while sitting in the drive.

[monkeysarefun]

56 minutes ago, polybear said:

Mention that Bear gets a very useful twenty five quid voucher for every test endured and she'll probably implode....

 

 

 

Mate, you might be asking for a pay rise if the UK goes down the Chinese path (or passage, so to speak..):

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/anal-swab-china-coronavirus/2021/01/27/cc284f56-6054-11eb-a177-7765f29a9524_story.html

Edited February 4, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[Andrew P]

My Peugeot 308 Estate has Auto Lights, just looked outside and there not  on.

[polybear]

6 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

Mate, you might be asking for a pay rise if the UK goes down the Chinese path (or passage, so to speak..):

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/anal-swab-china-coronavirus/2021/01/27/cc284f56-6054-11eb-a177-7765f29a9524_story.html

 

Bear can't read that

[monkeysarefun]

5 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Bear can't read that

Try this, its funnier anyway.

 

https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/anal-swab-covid-19-test-wont-make-you-walk-like-penguins-china-warns-public-after-bizarre-viral-video-3377378.html

 

[tigerburnie]

4 hours ago, pH said:

Can’t do that with our car. Headlights set to “automatic”, so they switch themselves on in low light. Great help, except when driving any other car you have to remember it’s something you have to do yourself!

My Mitsubishi doesn't seem to recognise fog, I have to switch the lights on manually in the day, same in heavy rain, I have front driving lights, but no rear ones, not a huge problem, but I like to be seen. You can switch them off if you like, same with the auto windscreen wipers.

[Coombe Barton]

... COVID jab tomorrow ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/02/04/restating-data/

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Went into town today to get my new specs and we we’re going to go to Tesco’s but after seeing the

queue   outside Tesco’s SWMBO decided a trip to Fox Valley would be a better idea. We not for me as variety of food there is limited. Afternoon we had nephews for home schooling and Sydney for a couple of hours. After taking the three of them home we watched one film.

Tomorrow accountants coming round at 10.00 so need to get some shut eye, need to be on the ball.

Goodnight

Robert

 

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

The sun has shine for most of the day, but we did have a couple of cloudy spells about dinner time, we even had a little bit of rain earlier this evening. 

 

Apart from meal times, I’ve spent the day in the cellar and I’m pleased to say that both chairs are now ready to be painted. After the wax was removed they both had a light sanding. This was followed by washing them down with soapy water to remove the dust, they are now sat in front of the fireplace (which isn’t lit by the way) drying off. Before painting starts next week, I shall again wipe them down with a damp cloth. 

 

Tomorrow is a day off, well, I’ll rephrase that, let’s say I’m not doing any DIY stuff, but as tomorrow will be Friday, I shall be out and about food shopping. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[newbryford]

More WFH, but as is typical with most weeks, it starts to calm down on the email front.

But - why is it, the phone line can be quiet for 30 minutes and then as one call is answered, there's another one pops up about 30 seconds later as a call waiting? Then nothing again for 30 minutes....?

 

Mrs NB's job is patient facing, but as she works for a sub-contractor of a sub-contractor of the NHS, the message hasn't passed down through the system.

She happened to have a chance word with the boss of the establishment and within a few minutes had the email link to book a jab. Next week is the plan.

When Junior NB starts work at the same place - for the same sub-contractor- she will also be entitled for a jab.

 

Although I'm in group 8 [*], in some ways, I will feel a bit safer as their chances of passing on - according to the latest information about O-AZ, provided that they get that one, is that they will be less likely to transmit it on.

 

[*] with a possibility of creeping into group 6.

 

POsETS (the "s" is slightly) is on the cards.

 

Friday night will be busy with 2 Zoom calls - one with long-time family friends and then a late call with a few mates where the conversation drifts from model railways to lad's banter and beyond.............

 

Have a good Friggin' Friday folks

 

 

 

 

[Adam88]

6 hours ago, newbryford said:

More WFH, but as is typical with most weeks, it starts to calm down on the email front.

But - why is it, the phone line can be quiet for 30 minutes and then as one call is answered, there's another one pops up about 30 seconds later as a call waiting? Then nothing again for 30 minutes....?

 

 

 

It can be explained by the Poisson distribution.

Edited February 5, 2021 by Adam88

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, woke 01:10 forepaws, big right toe, and for some reason left knee complaining...

 

01:50 starts very heavy raining,I've not heard of it so heavy before, Ben retreated to his cage, then it got heavier..  it's eased a bit now..

 

Yeay. !!! less than 5 million people in the queue in front of me for vaccination...

 

Favourite weather website now shows 40mph winds, snow and fog from Saturday afternoon through and including Monday... Err  umm I think I might stay indoors..

 

We have a fully automatic system for controlling lights on the car, it's called my right little finger, doesn't work on the landrover...

 

 

it needs my left little finger..

 

Time for more sleep..

Edited February 5, 2021 by TheQ

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[jamie92208]

Good moaning.  The black bin wagon has just heen, or at least the one that takes the black bags from thecgrey bin. I've never looked out at 06.30 to see what colour the wagon is.  

 

I had an interesting time taking the audio unit out of the Volvo, that took half an hour plus watching a video twice. The autochanger  jammed a few weeks ago.  I now know why. After an hour, gently taking screws out I got into the actual CD unit. The main drive pillar appears to have snapped half way down the stack of CD's I will now extract the CD's and surf the secondhand market.

 

Off to the quacks this morning. As long as she confirms what I think the scan says I will be a happy bunny. Ground anchors have held for several days now with no dizzy spells.  Apart from that there is not a lot on the agenda.

 

Stay safe everyone.

 

Jamie

Edited February 5, 2021 by jamie92208

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

It was irritations day yesterday.  On my laptop screen appeared a pop-up asking me to rate my experience of updating my login info from 0 to 10.  This would have been fine if I had actually updated my login info!  The rating I submitted was 0, “extremely dissatisfied”.  Earlier I bought a packet of wheat germ from Holland and Barratt, esteemed purveyors of health foods.  The assistant would not touch the packet herself and asked me to hold it up so that she could scan the barcode!  I’ve heard of self service but this is ridiculous.  What has that ruddy virus done to our country?

 

Some time today I shall embark on another fodder run, hoping that inspiration will strike as I search for the perfect Sunday lunch.  It is probably verging on heresy to suggest that one can tire of steak but it does tend to be the default setting when no other ideas present themselves.  In the spirit of fighting the virus I feel honour bound not to stay in the supermarket any longer than absolutely necessary.  As it is, there is one thing better than whizzing round Tesco in 15 minutes and that is doing it in 10.

 

Matters arising: Bear, many thanks for finding the clip of the clingy baby panda.  “Aah” moments seldom go amiss.  J S Bach, were not J P Richardson and the Big Bopper one and the same?

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Boy did it rain here last night. Despite the unblocking of a culvert yesterday the garden is now backbeing a boating lake.

 

I have another parcel to post so I may go for a stroll in the fog ( no patches of it this morning it is just solid fog). I will see what it is like later.

 

Hee indoors has an appointment with the novavax guinea pig team on Tuesday. We know she had a placebo so it will be interesting to see what they do on her visit.

 

Mugatea here so.. have a great day everyone!

Baz

[iL Dottore]

8 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Nice + Coffee + Cake?  Contradiction in terms, that one........

 

...in a visit to the Co-op (where Bear spotted a special offer, consisting of two Goodfellas Frozen Pizzas, Frozen garlic baquettes, Frozen French Fries and a Tub of Kit Kat Ice Cream...

Mr P Bear, although clearly not like Winnie-the-Pooh (as in “a bear of little brain“), does seems to be “a bear with few tastebuds“  

The contents of his Co-op shopping basket started me thinking about whether or not Mr P Bear is indeed an Ursus maritimus as he claims to be. Ursus maritimus is a hypercarnivore (diet consisting of > 70% meat),  but the self reported consumption of Mr P Bear definitely makes him an omnivore,  in fact the reported shopping basket contents suggest he derives up to 90% of his dietary food energy from vegetable matter.  Which, if typical of his diet, would make Mr P Bear an Ursus arctos.  In other words, Mr P Bear is a brown bear in a white coat! 

8 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

I am sorry but the temptation to rate this with the "Round of applause" button was extremely difficult to overcome!! In fact, I did do that but went back and changed it within a minute or so.

 

Note that I really do agree with your statement.

No need to have changed it, dear fellow. A “round of applause“ recognising the validity of a comment about the value of a “round of applause“  as recognition for a hard job well done, is ironically apt.

7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

...were bringing out the compartment stock rather than the Mk. I's. You had to pre-book and you were allocated a compartment on a particular train. ...

Compartment stock! A very civilised way to travel on the railway. Perhaps The Stationmaster could illuminate me as to why BR (as well as other railways around the world) have abandoned compartment stock.  The cynic in me is thinking that there are two reason; one:  non-compartment stock is cheaper to build and maintain; and two: you can cram more people into fewer train sets then if you were using compartment stock.

7 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

... COVID jab tomorrow ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/02/04/restating-data/

God knows when I’ll get my vaccine. Although the Swiss government has announced that it now has in place orders for more than 30 million doses (although Swissmedic has yet to approve the AZ vaccine), so once the supply chain has been ironed out, it shouldn’t take too long to get to the head of the queue (population of Switzerland? About 6 - 7 million)

 

Unfortunately, current thinking is that life won’t normalise until more than 80% of the population is inoculated - which means that people who refuse the vaccine on stupid non-medical grounds are prolonging pandemic conditions for all of us.

 

As I have said before, the problem with CoVID-19 is that it not lethal enough nor lethal enough in the right demographic (of course, those of us “in the trade” are more than well aware of the virus’s current lethality and consequences). Now, if the virus started killing off 10% - 25% of the under-50s, then the reaction of Joe Public who flout restrictions and/or who refuse vaccination would be very different! They might actually sit up and take notice of reality...

 

As the world cannnot continue indefinitely in pandemic mode, perhaps - for the sake of all of us - governments should truly get dictatorial, with really draconian punishments for those who refuse vaccination on non medical grounds...

 

And on that downbeat note, I wish you all a great POETS day.

 

iD

Edited February 5, 2021 by iL Dottore
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