Early Risers.

[Winslow Boy]

23 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Yeah.

 

Now your just showing off.

 

Put it away man your embarrassing yourself

[BSW01]

18 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Even bigger EEEEK!

I think you'd better start looking for that mouse, it seems to be getting bigger. 

[tetsudofan]

4 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Podiatrist, yes, but they don't do surgery other than toenails etc.  I used to manage the department.....

 

My foot was reconstructed by the top local orthopod, he does more than just hips and knees.  Trouble is there were an awful lot of broken bits.  I don't think you were around here at the time, but the aftermath looked like this: (apols to those eating....)

 

 

 

 

Puts my marks to shame...........

 

[petethemole]

Have you figured out why you keep hurting the same place? You might be doing something wrong.

[J. S. Bach]

This brought some tears to my eyes:

 

https://www.mail.com/scitech/news/10617058-lost-to-mountain-japanese-internees-bones-return.html#.10616924-stage-mm2s1-2

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, chrisf said:

You learn something every day.  There was a cover of that song by Twice as Much on the Immediate label which may even have charted but I never knew till now that the Stones had recorded it.

 

Chris

I don't know my early Stones albums that well, just their singles and now will have to source the CD. Brian Jones on Harpsichord, a volunteer st Crich as well as a great musician.

 

Jamie

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

A day of waiting around, visiting mil and taking her and Sydney out for a walk. Not been on here much today so I hope I haven’t missed anything important but I have noticed NHN foot but haven’t read too much detail as sometimes you can have too much information. Anyway Neil, I think I may have missed your birthday so ‘Happy Birthday’ 

Watched a couple of films, which I didn’t initially realise were based on true stories. One had a happy ending whilst the other didn’t. 
Not got much done over the weekend so I’ll say goodnight as I ought to make an early start tomorrow.

Robert

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well it’s been very wet here in the southwest of Manchester, the puddles that were forming in the back garden almost joined together to make one large one, but then the rain stopped and spoiled that little plan. 

 

Sheila really liked her homemade card, so much so, that may well be the way forward from now on! Vickie, Ian and Ava called round this afternoon and dropped off Sheila’s cards and presents, but due to the cold and wet weather and also that they couldn’t come inside, they didn’t stop long. Sheila then had phone calls from both Mike and James, they’d both dropped off Sheila’s cards etc, earlier in the week, but again, didn’t stop due to the cold wet weather and the lateness of the visit. 

 

We had an email today from the RHS, informing us that both the ‘Hampton Court’ and ‘Tatton Park Flower Shows’ will go ahead as planned this year. We won’t be attending the Hampton Court one, be well go to the ‘Tatton Park’ one. This was something we didn’t expect and are both greatly looking forward to it. We usually go on the Wednesday, which is members only day, the visitor numbers are a lot lower than the days when it’s open to the general public, but I suspect masks will still be a compulsory accessory. 

 

We are both quite happy to be at home, as we both have hobbies that both keep active and sane, but we have missed seeing friends and family. Something that has had to be done via, text messages, phone calls or emails. But hopefully this can be addressed later in the year. Like a lot of others, I miss going to shows and meeting up with fellow modellers, perhaps these will also start to be organised for later in the year, fingers crossed.

 

Yet another invitation to ‘sell’ our house from another estate agent today, so more paper that went straight into the recycling bag. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[TheSignalEngineer]

12 hours ago, Tony_S said:

What I replaced in the bathroom yesterday was quite creative but really bad work. 

Reminds me of a house we owned many years ago. It had a phone with and extension and an additional bell in the back porch.  Problem was if you picked up both of the phones at the same time the bell in the porch would ring continuously. The GPO telephone engineer who came to fix it

said "I wish I could meet the effin idiot who wired this lot" to which I replied "You probably already have, the previous owner did it and he's an instructor at your training school"

 

13 hours ago, Barry O said:

my skills in conducting "interview without coffee" means I can get him to realise what a complete skilless eediot he is without stating it directly.

My daughter and some of her friends are absolute artists at that. During her time at university she was in a club with one of the other girls when two England footballers tried to pick them up. She knew full well who they were but didn't let on, then asked one of them what he did for a living.

[andyram]

Evening all. Very late on parade today after what has been a very busy day. It began with a very early trip to the local Asda. The upcoming week is Sarah’s planning week at the nursery. Along with planning certain activities for the children, she also has to purchase the fruit and snacks. The shop opens its doors at 9.30am on a Sunday with the tills opening half an hour later due to trading restrictions. We strode through the door at 9.40am, hoping to get the shopping done before things got too busy. It was unbelievable to see a queue of 20+ already lined up at the self service tills all carrying flowers. Talk about last minute shopping!

 

 With shopping completed fairly painlessly, we then headed over to Nottingham so Sarah could have a doorstop visit to hand over gifts to her mum. The cold and damp weather was hardly conducive to making it an enjoyable stop off.

 

 Back home I then braved the conditions in the afternoon to visit my mum. My brother and his children turned up at the same time. That made holding conversations and maintaining distances more of a challenge especially with the high winds!

 

 The afternoon was spent on marking whilst Sarah continued with preparation for the week ahead, getting the resources ready etc. She has been very stressed by the whole process and has bemoaned the time it has taken. I have resisted the temptation to mention the challenges of having to conduct similar preparations every week of six half terms. Perhaps she may now understand he challenges and demands I faced during my years as a teacher. I have tried to help her as much as I can and hope the week goes well.

 

 The evening has been spent on some modelling. Unfortunately, Sarah commandeered the main tv for the final episode of Bloodlands so it prevented me from making use of the new toy!

 

Stay safe, stay sane.

 

 

Andy

Edited March 15, 2021 by andyram

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[Ozexpatriate]

Daylight saving time began in the US this morning. For some reason (perhaps because today was cloudy and the last couple of days were sunny) my system overrode intent and decided today would be a day to sleep in.

 

I had set the clock before retiring. Having at one point stirred and visited the second smallest room (the pantry is smaller) before what I thought would be a short snooze, when I finally awoke I was quite shocked to see that it was 10:45am!

 

We had very delightful weather (15°C and sunny) for a few days but rain was forecast midday-ish. It arrived as I stepped outside for my daily constitutional a little after eleven. After that, golf* on television and the day is pretty much done.

 

* The Players tournament.

 

There is little in the way of broadcast television diversions this evening. For pop culture fans (not really me) the Grammy awards are on. I think I'll watch the evening news and prepare something to eat.

 

EDIT
Even if a little rainy, the weather here is kinder than in the Rockies and plains, with blizzards and tornadoes. Even if the equinox is a week away, it is certainly Spring.

 

Edited March 15, 2021 by Ozexpatriate

[pH]

4 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Daylight saving time began in the US this morning.

And in Canada. There’s talk that this may be the last time we change here in BC, and we’ll stay on ‘summer time’ from now on, though that really depends on Washington, Oregon and California doing the same.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, pH said:

... we’ll stay on ‘summer time’ from now on, though that really depends on Washington, Oregon and California doing the same

I don't know if there are holdouts - the Governor of Oregon has signed the legislation for year-round daylight saving time (shared with the other states/provinces on the west coast).

 

It requires Congressional approval. It is in the purview of the Department of Transportation.

 

I enjoy daylight saving time in the summer. I am not a fan of daylight saving time in the winter, unless school hours are changed. I don't think small children should be forced to go to school in the dark. Perhaps this is necessary in latitudes like Scotland, but with standard time, our latest sunrise here (PST) is 7:48am. It would be 8:48am with year-round daylight saving. 

 

The requirement to share daylight saving time is sensible. I have much experience with the QLD/NSW border time warp where in the summer you literally* go back in time stepping north over the border to Queensland.

 

* a subject of many jests about it being metaphorical as well.

[pH]

32 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I enjoy daylight saving time in the summer. I am not a fan of daylight saving time in the winter, unless school hours are changed. I don't think small children should be forced to go to school in the dark. Perhaps this is necessary in latitudes like Scotland .. 

The UK stayed on ‘summer time’ from March 1968 to October 1971 i.e. through three winters. The effect on daylight hours in winter became more the further north and west you went. In some of the western islands in Scotland, in the shortest days of the year, it was dark till mid-morning. The main push for all-year daylight saving appears to come from road safety organizations. It seems to have resulted in fewer accidents overall (more in mornings, fewer in late afternoons/evenings) in most parts of the UK, but more overall in northern Scotland.

[BR60103]

I object to daylight saving. If the government wants me to be at work at 7:00 instaed of 8:00 it can pass legislation to that effect, rather than lying about what time it is.

We managed to change most of the clocks last night except one that was dropped behind the washing machine. That was retrieved but one of the hands had bent enough to interfere with the other hand. I managed to sort that this morning.

Temperatures have risen enough here that there is more grass than snow showing.

 

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, pH said:

The main push for all-year daylight saving appears to come from road safety organizations.

Here that is certainly being used as "justification" - that there is a spike in road accidents in the day/days immediately following the time change. The notion is that people are more tired right after the time change, leading to accidents.

 

In my opinion, the motivation seems to be a combination of people simply dreading the time change and not wanting to give up long summer evenings. (I feel like the road safety argument is window dressing. There's never any analysis of what will happen to road safety on dark winter mornings, which here, are usually wet.)

 

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

It is as well that I have not summoned the courage to ring Stalag Surgery this morning.  So far today the knees have not twinged.  They will be subjected to further tests when I get up from the sofa later on and attempt a purposeful stride to the corner shop to buy my lottery tickets.  If the knees have healed and do not require attention, well and good.  As a rule I prefer nature's way to chemical warfare but there are times when needs must.  We shall see what happens.

 

The makers of the frozen chips that accompanied my lunch yesterday would be horrified if they knew how I prepared them.  The packet advises that they should be placed on a baking tray in a pre-heated oven and left to incubate for 25 minutes.  This is fine if there is something else in the oven, such as a plaice fillet.  Oven baked steaks are, I'm told, not a good idea.  Instead I utilised my collection of frying pans well, devoting one to the chips and the other to the steak and its accompaniment of mushrooms.  As is well known, there is more than one way of skinning a cat - not that I would ever think of skinning a cat, you understand. 

 

Before lunch yesterday I decided, impulsively, to watch a DVD.  The reliability of my DVD player is suspect and already the remote control appears kaput - and yes, I have tried changing the batteries.  About an hour into the film the picture froze and the only button that I could persuade to function was Eject.  Fortunately the laptop has an E drive which enables the watching of DVDs.  I wonder if DVD players count as non-essential goods?

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning. It's not raining and the fire stayed in overnight.  We had a good day yesterday and Beth had contact from all the kids.

 

Today is painting day to get the corner of the sitting room ready for the picevof furniture that's setting off from  Boroughbridge this morning, along with other items. We have no idea when they will arrive but will apparently  get a phone call the day before.

 

As well as painting I'm going to visit the pharmacy to enquire about vaccination. According to the various websites, a combination of my age, a history of raised blood pressure and a BMI of 31 mean that I am now eligible.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

 

[iL Dottore]

12 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

 

Here you are, just cut and paste.

Phil, in the words of the famous Guinness ad: “accept no substitutes”

 We need the official groan button back!

11 hours ago, polybear said:

 

EEEK!! 

Not much of a “fearless denizen of the forest” are we? 
Captain Cynical is most delighted to find this degree of squeamishness in what should be a fearless Ursine. 

8 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

I'll have to ask my sister.  She retires on 1st April aged 62.  I expect to work until I'm 70.  Not sure how that happened.  

I could retire this year, however I quite enjoy working and especially enjoying the muddling tokens it provides. It’s (for me) easy work and what’s more it’s indoors, done sitting down and doesn’t require any sort of safety gear.

Having worked in the UK for a short while (and paid taxes and NI contributions) I checked on my pension status in the UK. Once I am allowed to retire (at age 67)  I can claim an eye wateringly, gob smackingly enormous pension of £5.75 a week.

Unless the Swiss Franc to British Pound exchange rate goes to something like SFr.100 to £1.00, I don’t see the point in going through the hassle of getting this sum of money (besides, by the time you add on bank “handling charges” you’d probably end up with something like 35p a week)

8 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Yeah.

 

Interesting bit of ironware, although probably not much of a challenge for the orthopaedic surgeon. Simultaneously inserted, bilateral, knee prostheses are slightly more complicated! 

8 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Even bigger EEEEK!

Captain Cynical is really, really rubbing his hands in glee at this news. This Ursine faintheartedness has provided the Captain with a whole lorry load of new ways to protect his CAKE stash!

7 hours ago, tetsudofan said:

Puts my marks to shame...........

 

Scalp wounds! Definitely not something for the “feel faint at the sight of blood“ crowd. One of the hallmarks of a scalp wound is that patients bleed like a stuck pig and it looks very alarming. Of course, once you have established there is no damage to the skull and skull’s content, then management is fairly straightforward (although from my days when I worked in the ER I recall that it was sometimes hard to determine whether or not the skull actually contained, before injury, fully functional and normal content).

 

Oddly enough, I am not overly comfortable at looking at films and photos of injuries and medical procedures. But “in the flesh“, so to speak, I have absolutely no problems with dealing with even the severest of situations. Others, have the complete opposite experience: they can look at films and photos of such things with equanimity, but faced with the “real life” event with its multidimensional aspects (sight, sound and smell), they tend to be a bit faint hearted (and I understate a bit).

And on that medical/surgical note I bid you a great start to the week!

 

iD

 

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl , Inner Temple Hare, 629/393

5 hours sleep, then I lost 1.5 hours but don't remember sleeping.

 

Heavy rain last night water running down the roads this Morning..

 

Ben was happy again going out in the day light... He won't be happy in two weeks time when he has to get up an hour earlier..

 

Had to dodge three mallard duck on the way in.. Paddling around in a puddle on a  B road..

 

Confirmation arrangements are coming in about the start of the sailing season on the 4th of April, and the arrangements for those who's summer clubs close for the winter, for towing their boats back from Snowflake sailing club, which will occur Good Friday. (2nd April).

 

I think this week will include two trips to the orange shed, one to get more shelving planks, the other to get something suitable for moving the keel on, that would be useful for making things out of after, It may well be thick OSB or shuttering ply cut into two 2ft by 8ft lengths. But first today a trip to the Tes and co establishment.. I'm hoping March will leave like a lamb as the Easter weekend, I intend putting the roof back on top of the Marquee, though not yet the sides, ready for boat work..

 

Now the fridge is back down to temperature, there is a lot of ice left in the Ice cream tubs after 12 hours, I think we will be able to cut the number of changes to 1 a day..

The Authorities have decided that the old fridge freezer will progress to the storage area of my workshop. The now useless fridge part will become storage for my more valuable marine paints glues and varnishes. the lower half a freezer overflow when required.. I also suspect I'll keep some cans of cider in there, promoting them to to the defrosting area above for use as required.

 

Time to head for the Labs again....