Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon all,

 

somewhat de;ayes d as part of the morning was h given over to the shearing of The Stationmaster who has to admit that an increasing hirsuteness was beginning to surround his bald patch.  The official shearer said she couldn't understand why my beard grows perfectly well but the hair in the middle of my head doesn't make even the slightest attempt to break through the bald patch - I don't understand that either.

 

We have sunshine between the clouds and occasional light showers and it is still relatively nippy but no doubt the wind bears some responsibility for that.  Apart from the lack of an access ramp I can't put my car in the garage because I haven't got anywhere else handy to store my cement mixer (or the pressure washer, or the hedge trimmer or various other items).  And anyway the advice I was given years ago was never to put a wet car into a garage so how on earth would I dry it outdoors if I drove home on a wet day?

 

For the advice of the bear imports from the EU to Britain have apparently dropped by 21.6% according to the source that says exports have dropped by 40%.  As for stuff going to Northern Ireland I can recall very many years ago we had to complete Customs Declarations for various goods traffic and parcels being sent to Northern Ireland let alone across the english Channel or North Sea, so there really is nothing new in the world.  Provided the customer had the necessary information and relevant paperwork Customs Decs were easy compared with the far more intricate task of preparing invoices for biscuits packed in water tanks being sent to London docks for shipment because you had to copy all the shipping marks onto the invoice - fortunately Huntley and Palmer didn't ship biscuits to Lagos every week.

 

Enjoy the res of your day folks and stay safe while increasing numbers around us are trying not to be.

Edited March 13, 2021 by The Stationmaster

[polybear]

Bear has finished dangling bits of wallpaper

(*Apart from one bit, that is - which has to wait until the kitchen units are fitted - because they will decide where the wall tiles go, which decides where this particular strip of wallpaper must end....).

Washing done, bed changed, a visit to the Co-op, a visit to the chippie all accomplished successfully.

 

Buddy next door phones:

"Does Bear like chocolate?"

Huh?

"Does a duck float", says I.

Buddy:  "Back fence, five minutes"

At which point Bear is shown probably "40 minutes worth" of a bl00dy great, very gooey looking choccy cake, made by Mrs Buddy.  Bear thought his luck was really, really in.  It wasn't

However, I did get a pretty good lump off the cake, in a tupperware box.  Followed by a big stodge of left-over choccy-gooey topping stuff in a little china bowl to woof.  I did, too

 

In return, Bear gave buddy a bag of flour and some yeast that were obtained during the first lock-down, with every intention of "making something".  Bear was (a) all keen to try something then, and (b) had a kitchen to do it in.  The first has since been re-assigned, and the second is history.

Buddy responded by saying he'll bake Bear a loaf of bread with it.  Now THAT is what I call a result.

[PeterBB]

Happy birthday Neil.

 

Hope GDB is fit enough to watch todays rugby.  For a start Wales were superb and should be capable of the Grand Slam but, thankfully Italy did manage a try.  Let's see what happens with England and France.

 

The England France match was a superb example of 'fast rugby' with relatively few penalties and some great tries.  Heart in mouth until Englands almost last minute try.  So only Wales can make the GS this year but France look good for the not too far away World Cup.

Edited March 13, 2021 by PeterBB
Added the England v France comment.

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl ,

Following on from IL Dottore, It is noticeable , that when I work with calibration personnel and engineers, the conversation is interesting and they do things like muddle railways and sailing along  with technical information. When I have to be around the production line personnel, the standard of conversation and knowledge drops somewhat. talk is of Football, "celebrities" ,  pubs, nightclubs  etc,  Sometimes with their lack of knowledge on things , you wonder how they survive in life..

 

The shelves were made and went together extremely well. So I also actually made the blanks for the next section. The shelves final assembly will occur tomorrow, and next week's will get painted..

 

I had a serious look at the fridge and decided .. Nope I'm not playing with that.. the plastic is aging. Various bits are broken already, if I start trying to prize bits apart there'll be lots of swearing and broken bits everywhere. A new one will be ordered at some point.

 

No work on trailers has taken place, high winds and occasional horizontal rain make it unpleasant out there. 

 

The long walk with Ben was also unpleasant, very chilly north easterly. Though luckily no rain, just the odd bit of drizzle. Absolutely no cars not even in the distance, no unnecessary journeys today.

 

Scale drawings of the new rudder have started, ,it's about , 30% smaller than the one  I'm not happy with, but still bigger than the original one.

 

One thing I didn't realise with diabetes , is that it's affected by stress. This last week and a bit, the there has been a bit of stress with odd failures of equipment and a shortage of time. I realise now, this is cause of some very erratic sugar readings, though quite what I can do about that I don't know.

 

Dinner of haggis and baked potato, has been had along with a couple of glasses of red. I think an eyelid test is required.

 

[pH]

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

So I will probably make a few bequests and then have a Viking funeral (you know, where all the worldly possessions of the deceased Viking are placed on a long boat, set on fire and pushed into the sea to burn and sink).

 

So, you've been watching "What We Did on Our Holiday" then?

[andyram]

Afternoon all and congrats to Debs and NHN. I have not posted for a couple days and have not been on RMWeb much so apologies for anything I have overlooked. 

 

 The last few days have passed in a bit of a bleary eyed blur. After being forced to cancel the DPD delivery on Wednesday, I was given a rude awakening on Thursday morning. Another early (7am) alert for a delivery slot from 8.10am. Fortunately, Sarah saw the alert come through on my phone and gave me the nudge so I could get ready and drive over to the shop in time. It was not quite the start to the day I had needed after a self inflicted late night.

 

 As those who read my posts will know, the last few months have been spent in constant and fruitless search for a certain Sony console. Throughout, I have been referring to a regular stock update blog which had provided details of potential  restocks throughout the week. One of these was at Argos. For some reason they decide to restock in the early hours of the morning which had resulted in the late night on Wednesday checking the app on my iPad, but to no avail. 

 

 On returning from the shop on Thursday morning I logged back on and found stock available at Game. Unfortunately, after two hours in the virtual queue, I was greeted with the all too familiar "out of stock" message. This was repeated in the afternoon when further stock seem to become available. 

 

 On Thursday night I headed to bed early to catch up on sleep and was out like a light - until 3am when Sarah disturbed me to go to the toilet. I rolled over and had a sneaky check on the Argos app. Unbelievably the item was in stock - duly ordered and arrived by van just six hours later! Yesterday I was therefore otherwise entertained! 

 

 Stay safe all.

 

Andy

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Hopefully I will have a new model railway layout by Wednesday. Just need to withdraw the requisite modelling tokens and its mine.

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Afternoon all,

 

somewhat de;ayes d as part of the morning was h given over to the shearing of The Stationmaster who has to admit that an increasing hirsuteness was beginning to surround his bald patch.  The official shearer said she couldn't understand why my beard grows perfectly well but the hair in the middle of my head doesn't make even the slightest attempt to break through the bald patch - I don't understand that either.

 

I have a massive beard but it keeps moulting, hairs everywhere, furniture and carpets especially.

[Erichill16]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

 

fire up the PlayStation and kill things!

Enjoy this grey and dismay Saturday afternoon.

 

Cheers

 

iD

 I hope no punks will be harmed for your enjoyment!

[polybear]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Afternoon Awl ,

Following on from IL Dottore, It is noticeable , that when I work with calibration personnel and engineers, the conversation is interesting and they do things like muddle railways and sailing along  with technical information. When I have to be around the production line personnel, the standard of conversation and knowledge drops somewhat. talk is of Football, "celebrities" ,  pubs, nightclubs  etc,  Sometimes with their lack of knowledge on things , you wonder how they survive in life..

 

 

Does Q also notice that the standard of conversation drops even further when around HR and Project Managers - talk is of "The Only Way Is Essex" and "Love Island".......

[polybear]

5 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

 I hope no punks will be harmed for your enjoyment!

 

Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk? 

[PhilJ W]

Murray Walker has died, RIP.

https://www.gpfans.com/en/articles/62674/murray-walker-f1-commentating-legend-dies-aged-97/

[New Haven Neil]

Just had a 'Windows is ruining your computer' hour.....didn't ask it to, but it has.  So we went out to do some log splitting, very brave, lulled into it by 7c showing on the thermyometer.  I didn't see the 'feels like -1' bit on my phone....pah!  Still, we split some difficult bits we keep putting to one side for a time unspecified, and the results are now keeping us warm and toastie.

 

Birthday curry now brewing, Mrs NHN in charge as a treat for me.  

 

Yes Q, stress, illness, drugs (legal, I don't do the others so can't say from experience) all have an effect on our blood glucose, and result in some really anomalous readings.  The Pfizer jab did mine in completely for a few days, really all over the place. OK now, just had a 4.4 before dinner, happy days. 

Edited March 13, 2021 by New Haven Neil

[Erichill16]

19 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk? 

Well actually yes, my team were 2:1 down at half time and looking rubbish, but came back to win 3:2 

[Gwiwer]

4 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

summoned to perform "more useful" tasks by Dr. SWMBO

I was duly summoned.  The "more useful" task I was required to perform was to cook rice.  This was required to accompany tonight's vegetable curry.  Mostly cauliflower curry if truth be told but with generous amounts of purple sweet potato, carrot, celeriac and onion.  

 

Her own recipe.

 

Let's just say I added a small quantity of Naga paste  

 

An exclusion zone of 400 yards has been imposed for the next 12 hours

[pH]

An honest and brave engineer has died:
 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/allan-mcdonald-dead/2021/03/10/572bd0d6-81a3-11eb-ac37-4383f7709abe_story.html

Edited March 13, 2021 by pH
Change link

[tigerburnie]

Evening all, we took advantage of the new lock down rules up here and went for a chilly visit to our daughters at their new house, went for a walk and lit a fire in the fire pit and toasted marshmallows with the grandsons, perfect tonic, even if it was brass monkeys outside. 

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[brianusa]

10 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Reading here (and elsewhere in the media) I am so glad that I am one of these people who is perfectly happy with his own company and doesn’t have to be around other people at all. There seems to be a sense of increasing desperation amongst socially oriented individuals

 

Thats you and me, doc!  I have been quite content these last months at home.  As my dear wife has done most of the shopping (she says because of my age!), I have not travelled far.  In fact a recent trip into town was a revelation, lots of new houses and streets.  Some establishments missing sadly but on the whole I don't think I was missed!  I bought some cards and nearly forgot the change but even that seemed like a new experience.  There's little doubt that prolonged isolation can really affect some but I have my books, music and hobbies and each day has passed with little boredom and certainly not desperation.

      Have you ever looked forward to a holiday, booked everything and waited impatiently to go and when you get there look forward to the day when you go home?  That may have something to do with it!

       Brian.

[jamie92208]

7 hours ago, Barry O said:

If I decanted all of the items* out of our garage I can park beasts in there and open all doors (including the tailgate) and still be able to walk around the car.. The new door when fitted cost two arms and a leg as it was a special size (about 1.8 time normal size)

 

* which will not be happening today as it is blowie yet another Hoolie and occassionally chuckinitdarn. PAH!

 

Time for more coffee!

 

Baz

No problem with size of garage. I just can't do a 3 point turn in there any more cause some fool put a rather large model railway in part of it.

 

Jamie

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Happy Birthday Neil, I hope you enjoy the curry, the highlight of the day?
Not much happened here today. More planning of the new build and paid some more bills. Mil came round for tea instead of coming tomorrow  and Syds here for another sleepover.

Should try and make contact with some friends, especially a couple who live on their own but can’t summons the energy.

Energy lacking now so I’ll bid you all goodnight.

Robert

[laurenceb]

Oops. Birthday greetings Neil

[Mike Bellamy]

6 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Thanks for all the good wishes yesterday, it is indeed the celebration of yet another orbit today too, as someone has noticed, and a few elsewhere.  The co-incidental dates were planned, in the 37 years I have never forgotten our anniversary, which also means her Debship doesn't forget my birthday!  62, if you're asking BTW.

 

 

I only have one date to remember each February as we got married on my wife's 20th birthday, 43 years ago . . . . . . . . 

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[sixoh8sixoh]

Evening all from south of the Wall, land of the Prince Bishops, Dunelmia, very close to a certain open air museum with a replica of Locomotion No.1...

 

Happy birthday @New Haven Neil! 

 

Penultimate night in the house my parents have had for 22 years. Skip number 6 is now filled, most of the stuff that's going is packed, a few things to still be collected by folk with bigger gardens than ours in Edinburgh who might be able to make better use of them. 

 

Had an amusing moment while sorting garage, when I got locked in as the electric garage door refused to open (I'd had to shut it to remove some ladders which were catching). No phone so had to rely on my wits to escape...

 

 

[Barry O]

@sixoh8sixohHope the trip back to Scotland goes well.

 

Had an interesting day. Now worn to a frazz so

 

Goodnight  all!

Baz