Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

Changing the subject entirely I learned something today. I found out what a remoulade is. I have seen such a thing mentioned on menus but haven’t taken any notice. I suspect I thought it was either a quiche or a cheese. 
As Aditi was planning to be in a Zoom meeting with Claude from Lille this evening we had a quick dinner of pizza and baked potato. Aditi didn’t like the look of the coleslaw so asked if I would like a celeriac remoulade. I was brave and answered yes so now I know. 
Tony

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Not been about much today so hope all is well.

Thanks for the support regarding Mil and SWMBOs cousins attitude towards having the COVID  vaccine. Got Sydney for a sleepover.

Getting  late so I’ll bid you all a goodnight,

Robert

[Erichill16]

Seem to be struggling with technology today.

 

[Tony_S]

2 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

Seem to be struggling with technology today.

 

You seem ok now. This post only came through once.

 

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all.

[TheSignalEngineer]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

When I was working in the radio room at Morley in about 1980 we used to get deafened regularly by bursts of what sounded like static on the UHF.  The problem was eventually traced to our transmitter, on a water tower, being almost in line withe the microwave link from Tingley to Meadow Lane. The interference was when control interrogated 300 remote sites every couple of minutes. 

Reminds me of when BR Research were trialling the radio system for the Cambrian RETB. The transmitter was located on a hill near the coast somewhere around Harlech. Every time they tried to send a message to a train it played havoc with the RTE television signal in Dublin

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

It never really warmed up today, I think the highest temperature we had was 1C mid afternoon. 

 

Like I mentioned earlier, I was planning on staying in the cellar today and that’s just what I did, the chairs have now had 2 coats of primer/undercoat and will be ready for the first topcoat tomorrow. 

 

Once I’d finished the painting, I went to the office and continued with the TPO decals. I’m now at the stage where the ROYAL MAIL lettering is done, I’ve also done SOUTHERN RAILWAY lettering as well as the vans running numbers, so that the shade of yellow is consistent throughout. I’ve done a test print on plane paper and I’m quite happy with how it’s all turned out. All I have to do now is the RED letter box notice for the sorting vans, hopefully this will be done by tomorrow. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Baited to attract saltwater crocodiles, so obviously the perfect place for swimming in according to tourists.

How much XXXX Gold was involved in their 'thinking'?

[southern42]

‘ night all and nos da.

Keep warm!

[BR60103]

I think there was comment here yesterday about smoke detectors beeping late evening/early morning.

An explanation I heard (that seems reasonable) is that the detectors compain about their batteries if the voltage goes below a certain level. Battery voltage is lower in lower temperatures (for the same battery). In the evening house temperatures go down. A battery that was at the acceptable level drifts to unacceptable and the alarm goes off.

We had a walk today but the overnight is expected to go to -17.

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by BR60103

[iL Dottore]

Good morning all,

 

Yesterday, in the absence of the Wolfpack, I had a dose of canine companionship when a friend stopped by with her dog, Frida. Frida was so excited to see me, that she promptly threw up (apparently a common happening when she gets over excited) it was easy enough to clean up, no harm was done and afterwards we enjoyed some quality time together. Yesterday, Frida was in my friend’s bad books; as Frida had not been obedient but had been very stroppy (she is a young dog and she seems to be going through her “terrible teenage” years). Interestingly, according to my friend, Frida behaves herself much, much better when in the company of Lucy and Schotty.  Probably due to the fact that both Lucy and Schotty have clearly established the relationship between them and Frida, who thus knows her place in the scheme of things (early on in the relationship between the dogs, Frida was bouncing around being incredibly boisterous and bounced up to Lucy in a “look at me aren’t I special“ sort of way; Lucy just gave Frida a cold stare, curled her lip exposing one canine as though to say “don’t even think of it”. Frida immediately backed off and you could almost hear a canine “Whoah!, sorry, sorry”)

 

In regards to categorising different groups of people, whether you refer to them as “BAME“ or “BIPOC”, the effect is the same: to artificially separate such individuals out from everybody else in the population. One wonders who really benefits from this separation and classification, certainly not those people who actually get classified as “BAME” or “BIPOC” as I don’t actually see them benefiting from being so classified. Just because someone now comes under a politically correct umbrella term, doesn’t mean that their situation is going to improve. Quite frankly, Martin Luther King had the right idea: we need to judge people not by what minority they are, but by who they are as people. From a certain perspective, the Roman Empire had the right approach: anyone could be a successful Roman citizen, regardless of race, creed or colour, provided that they learned the language, followed Roman customs and obeyed Roman law (and the Romans were, how can I put it, rather “robust“ in the treatment of transgressors). 
 

As far as I am concerned, people - until proven otherwise - are QuSBs (Questionably Sentient Beings). If I can be bothered to be forensically analytical, I can further subdivide QuSBs into DDTs (Demonstrators of Darwin’s Theory), FaDs (Feral and Dangerous), SFBs (Sh*t For Brains) and UBHs (Useless But Harmless). Some, sadly too few, can be classified as NUDES (Nice, Useful, Definitely Sentient). Of course, this is not terribly scientific, especially when you consider that you have no clear demarcation between the categories or if you consider that some individuals can be in multiple categories at the same time.

 

And on that cynical and misanthropic note, I bid all the NUDES on ER a great “Hump Day”

 

iD

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

Another evening, another Zoom meeting.  This one was in the slot normally occupied by the Hitchin battalion of the Royal Corps of Train Spotters.  Those attending were by no means confined to the catchment area.  It is good that it is so easy to "attend" attractive meetings without subjecting oneself and ones horseless carriage to the rigours of long distance travel.  The danger is that one will soon find oneself running out of free evenings.  Tonight I have the option of attaching myself to a meeting nominally based in South Wales.  I'll pass this time, thanks, but next month is another matter because the presenter is someone that I knew at university and went on to become a professor.  Life is full of surprises.  One snippet of conversation which I caught last evening was a suggestion that when things return to "normal" there might be meetings in a church hall or wherever with a screen in said hall for the benefit of those still wishing to attend electronically.  Hmmm.  We have enough technical hitches and glitches with Zoom as presently configured without adding to the possibilities.  As always, we shall see what happens.

 

It is perhaps ironic that the more I yearn to travel to new and/or exotic places the more difficult it is likely to become.  Those who rule us are not short of ideas to exacerbate this.  It remains to be seen how useful the jabs will be in unlocking the situation but my hopes are not high.  Nonetheless I shall have my first jab tomorrow and carry on doing feasibilty studies of some crazy ideas for going places one day.  It costs nothing to dream.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Ice skating rink open in what was rhe front garden. Pah!

Cleaning duties have been detailed. These include "disinfecting the car" before its mot tomorrow. Problem is.. does that include the engine and external bodywork or just the door handles and interior area?

 

I await the delivery of my outstanding tablets from my prescription. First time I have ever had a box with 2 (of 28) tablets included.. strange!

 

If you umpired at Barnsley Cricket Club abd used the radios for relaying info to the scorers you would regularly receive orders from the local taxi firm..a change of channels would solve it generally.

 

Once cleaning is complete I can turn my attention to some "makingitemsmorerealisticbyaddingsomedirttothem".

 

Try to enjoy the day good people!

Baz

[polybear]

8 hours ago, pH said:

It would appear that the local squirrels’ mating season has started. At other times of year, it’s unusual to see even two squirrels together. Today, there were groups of six and eight at different times frolicking in the trees and on poles and phone lines across the street from us.

 

Bear has a mental image of squirrel orgies,pole-dancing squirrels and heavy breathing into a phone....

 

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

And this is what a 4.3m saltie looks like. Packaged up ready to relocate somewhere further away -  they are a protected species here...

 

 

 

Now Bear would have no problem at all with being turned into shoes.

 

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Here's something for the covid deniers to ponder. https://www.bionews.org.uk/page_152485

 

Oh good -  stop 'em reproducing.  Nature does have a sense of humour

 

Today?  Well, 99.95% of the filling has been done, though wet-wiping the walls down discovered a couple of other areas requiring Bear's attention.  Isn't that always the way?

Then it'll be marking where the coving it to go, scoring the wall to help adhesion and then applying thinned PVA to the top strip (roughly 45mm) of wall to seal it before the coving goes up.  I might even get really keen and start putting coving up.

 

And hopefully I'll hook the cooker back in today - it'd be nice to be able to have proper din dins for a charge.  Or even such culinary adventurous delights as grilled cheese & pickle on toast.  This Bear knows no bounds.

 

Doe Bear detect that Sqdn Leader Hunt is MIA?  Hope all is well.

 

And finally.....

https://www.ellisclarktrains.co.uk/collections/pre-owned-gauge-1/aster?sort_by=created-descending&mc_cid=d06b0a3161&mc_eid=ae4b0913a0

I wish.  I'd need a much bigger garden.....

[polybear]

11 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Ey up!

Ice skating rink open in what was rhe front garden. Pah!

Cleaning duties have been detailed. These include "disinfecting the car" before its mot tomorrow. Problem is.. does that include the engine and external bodywork or just the door handles and interior area?

 

 

Bear confused.  How does the garage know it's been done, and thoroughly?  Do they collect the car - if not, then you'd need to do the job again once you've driven there.  How do you know they've cleaned it - and thoroughly (some hope) when you get it back.  Makes more sense to this Bear of Little Brain that the recipient does it themselves, to their own standards.  Need a lie-down.

[pH]

21 minutes ago, polybear said:

Bear has a mental image of squirrel orgies,pole-dancing squirrels and heavy breathing into a phone....

My, Bear does have an active imagination!

[polybear]

7 minutes ago, pH said:

My, Bear does have an active imagination!

 

Not a lot else to do in the North Pole - even the telly reception's cr@p

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare,

6 hours solid sleep + 3/4 hours sleep.. it can't go on like this, I'm just not used to it..

 

I have a military vaccination card, last updated in I think in 96, before that in about 92.. and I left the RAF in 88. the reason being you have to have a full set of up to date  vaccinations to go to the Falklands in case the Aircraft has to divert to somewhere in Africa.. The GP was pleased I had the card as they could, easily check that their records matched the card and therefore what was needed to up date the hole in my arm... 

 

Holes in road.... according to one road works website  there are no less than 7 sets of road works due to start yesterday on the A47 between Norwich and Great Yarmouth .. That will cause real trouble...

 and then around Horning,

 

As for Batteries, I came downstairs to a chilly house, the boiler was off... I took the temperature transmitter off the wall and walked towards the boiler with it... and the boiler came on... New Batteries needed, not enough power  to transmit round the corner and about 15 foot. Transmitter left near the boiler, I'll pick up new batteries on the way home..

 

Today I  move house... Well at work anyway, at 09:00 my desk moves 50ft to a new temporary position while they remove asbestos and change the ceiling. The eventual plans have changed and we are moving back to where we came from afterwards.. Also our Live steam modeller ( ok Software engineer) is being replaced , which is a surprise with all the cut backs we've been having. He leaves in April,  but they've only just decided this so the vacancy will probably only be advertised as he leaves..

Also Our Deputy boss of Calibration post has been authorised.. Unfortunately just after the application for getting a replacement had been automatically deleted from the system as it had taken so long... So they have to go through the full authorisation scheme again..

 

So, since I have to be there  for the desk move , I'm measuring a 20G resistor, it takes at least half an hour to settle for each of the 3 measurements and can be left to do it's thing while I wander off..

 

 Coming to the end of the first settle, , I'd better stop this, turn round and watch the meter,  while not moving for the final bit of settling..

 

[jamie92208]

8 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Reminds me of when BR Research were trialling the radio system for the Cambrian RETB. The transmitter was located on a hill near the coast somewhere around Harlech. Every time they tried to send a message to a train it played havoc with the RTE television signal in Dublin

I did wonder if any of the viewers in Dublin noticed the difference.

 

ID,  you've missed one category out, the OT or oxygen  thief, usually having appeared from the shallow end of the gene pool.  Mind you, my mate and I did once spot 3 surviving examples if the missing link in Hamilton south of Glasgow.

 

Anyway, I dulyngot my wayward locks tidied up by Veronique yesterday. The excellent timber merchant ot Chef Boutonne supplied me with some  red cedar to repair a gate and in the afternoon I started the repair.

 

Sister Drac, in the form of Frederique has been and relieved me of 6 vials of the precious red stuff. Breakfast has been consumed so it is almost time to seize the day.  The shed and some joinery await.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[New Haven Neil]

Morning world, from a resident UBH.

 

Similar to iD's comment about race, an employee who was deeply religious asked me one day what I thought about gay people - I replied I thought they were just people.  I don't think he expected that but rather a more robust reply, having been discussing my past as a salty sea dog.  He was disappointed I think.  The world has some sad folk in it.  No need for labels.

 

Temperature here like around Brian's way didn't exceed 1c yesterday I don't think, and it was -1c as I went out to take Debs for her bus this morning.  

 

The surgery have managed to only complete one of my prescription requests - the unimportant one. #sigh#  I called in yesterday late afternoon when I was told to be patient as they were 2-3 days behind.  This would be after a quiet period...#sigh again#.  They used to be quite good but seem to have used Covid as an excuse to cease being so, bearing in mind we have not had anything like the disruption here suffered over on the adjacent island.  The surgery was empty....not a patient to be seen.  

[AndyB]

Morning all.

 

Looks like a busy day here. Another 5 hours of the training course I'm doing this week plus work-related meetings followed by course work for tomorrow's sessions.

 

I did have the chance though to attend a semi-public presentation yesterday evening by colleagues who are at the heart of developing and testing the vaccines.

 

Fascinating.

 

In a world where everyone is an expert it was refreshing to hear from those at the sharp end who set the vaccination strategy and run the clinical trials etc. A good Q&A session. I'll see if a link comes out later and will share it. 

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by AndyB

[jonny777]

Another dry and bright morning in North Somerset, but a cold one. 

 

SWMBO had a frustrating time trying to send a 9kg parcel via Yodel from the corner shop. The courier service was not the problem, only her flat refusal to embrace modern technology on her phone. She pretends to be an expert in conversation, but when faced with the woman in the shop wanting to scan her barcode she is flummoxed, even though I had done all the preparations for her and left the page with a button saying 'show barcode' as the top page on her mobile. 

 

I managed to break the ice on the pond and remove some excess duckweed. I don't think there are frogs in there, but wouldn't want them to suffocate. This will probably become a daily job for a while. 

 

Living room temperature has now struggled up to 13C, and I can read the paper without shivering.