Early Risers.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

In the past I have had my knuckles rapped by The Management for referring to the monthly magazines as “comics”.  One reason why I do this is the remarkable number of mistakes that appear in print.  Some publications tend to be better than others on that score.  The latest issue of Steam World arrived yesterday.  In it is an illustrated feature on Pangbourne.  I quote: “Pangbourne is the first station west of Reading on the Great Western Main Line to Bristol …”.  Oh dear.  Not according to my rail atlas it isn’t!  Somehow, poor little Tilehurst has been overlooked.  I notified the magazine of the error by a succinct e-mail and expected to hear no more about it.  Overnight a reply arrived.  It thanked me for my interest and told me that my e-mail has been passed to the editor.  I wonder what he will do with it?  Should he have spotted the error when the contributor who got it wrong submitted his copy?  Is it his job to do so?  Now do not look upon me as a role model if you know what’s good for you, but when I was asked to write captions for another magazine I did my best to ensure that they were free of errors.  As far as I know I got away with it.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[TheQ]

6 hours ago, BSW01 said:

Good evening everyone 

 

This morning’s diabolical eye test that Sheila had seems to go well from what the ophthalmologist said during the process. It didn’t take long either, she was in and out within 30 minutes and we were back home for just after 10:15. So I had plenty of time for a second muggertea of the day, before I headed out once again, this time to Costco. The provisions that I went for were obtaining and the cupboards are now groaning. 

 

After dinner I did a bit more calligraphy practice, the pen I use is a rather chunky and weighty pen, by the German Pen Company LAMY, it’s very nice to hold and writes beautifully and the nibs are very easy to change. I test drove quite a few in the ‘Pen Shop’ at the Trafford Centre when I was looking to buy one. It wasn’t the dearest but it wasn’t cheap either, a shade over £50 about 8 years ago, but this one felt the nicest in my hand and iveOnce I’d done practicing, I produced 2 A4 sheets, each with 11 names done in 4 different styles. They are basically the same script, but the style and spacing of the letters differs slightly, there is also one in cursive (joined up) writing as that’s how they originally wanted it. But I personally think they look better separate, as the are easier to read from a distance. These will be given to Mike when him and Sarah call round next week. 

 

After a mid afternoon muggertea, I did a spot of eyelid inspection, they both passed!

 

Below is a photo of some today’s work,

Good evening everyone 

 

This morning’s diabolical eye test that Sheila had seems to go well from what the ophthalmologist said during the process. It didn’t take long either, she was in and out within 30 minutes and we were back home for just after 10:15. So I had plenty of time for a second muggertea of the day, before I headed out once again, this time to Costco. The provisions that I went for were obtaining and the cupboards are now groaning. 

 

After dinner I did a bit more calligraphy practice, the pen I use is a rather heavy pen, by the German Pen Company LAMY. I must admit that I’d never heard of this company before, but it’s very nice to hold and writes beautifully, I test drove quite a few in the ‘Pen Shop’ at the Trafford Centre and this one felt the nicest. It’s quite a chunky, weighty pen and the nibs can be changed very easily. It wasn’t the dearest in the shop, but at just a shade over £50 around 8 years ago, it wasn’t the cheapest either. Regardless of the price I paid for it, I’ve never regretted buying it, it’s a lovely pen to hold and use. 

 

Once I’d done practicing, I produced 2 A4 sheets, each with 11 names done in 4 different styles. They are basically the same script, but the style and spacing of the letters differs slightly, there is also one in cursive (joined up) writing as that’s how they originally wanted it. But I personally think they look better separate, as the are easier to read from a distance. These will be given to Mike when him and Sarah call round next week. 

 

After a mid afternoon muggertea, I did a spot of eyelid inspection, they both passed!

 

Below is a photo of some today’s work,

 

plus mine and Sheila’s name in Celtic script. 

 

Cor!!! an echo inside a post that's a new one..

Cor!!! an echo inside a post that's a new one..

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl Inner temple Hare, 625/391

6.5 hours solid sleep Yeah...I needed that Fore paws only slightly painful.

Ben the very happy Collie was bounding around this morning, definitely not showing his age..

 

Me Hand writing? Well, I have a calligraphy set, not an expensive one , rarely used because its effectively painful to do.. I have to concentrate so hard and hold the pen so carefully my forepaws don't like it. I was taught Copper plate handwriting at my first primary school, as we all were, it was their default hand writing style. Unfortunately my second primary school it was straight up and down writing. and you were punished for not doing it their way.. Hence my hand writing is now carp.. Not helped these day by typing everything.

 

The good news is my parents have had both their jabs , the bad new is my great niece at school has been tested positive for Covid, Her mother, my niece is the registered carer for my parents which is complicating things at the moment. Also testing positive is my nieces brother, he has gone to hospital and is on oxygen..

 

I went to the big orange shed and the cupboard was bare, that is, several shelves that should contain sheet ply were empty, talking to staff there is a 2.5 week back order on ply at the moment. So the 3/4 inch ply I wanted , became 1/2 ply which will need some framing up. The member of staff was generous though and allowed me more than the permitted number of cuts. So I got the ply cut in half length ways and a sheet of MDF cut into shelving width strips..

 

Time to head for the lab..

 

 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

It has been decided that today will include filling in the census data. Wow! What a change to our normal Friday!

 

I am still losing weight.. good. I don't like using the epipen every day. I will get used to the injections eventually.

 

My blood sugar reading have also reduced.. following some changes in levels earlier this week which were a tad concerning. Sister Drac would be pleased but as she is in comm uni car do on the Marie Celeste she won't find out.

 

I see @sixoh8sixoh has causee problems north of the border.

 

The new bricks laid in the water feature next door have tuened a nice shade of white. I take it this shouldn't happen?

 

So, time to drink my mugatea and get Friday bashed into shape.

 

Have a good day! Nice to see you are ok @Robert

 

stay safe!

baz

 

 

[Andrew P]

I only speak English, but I used to be amazed back in the 1970's when I went to International Moto Cross Events and see / hear Riders from France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia and even sometimes  Russia all talking together in groups and all using English to communicate. Of course the same is said today for most Sports, Especially F1, and also of course in the EU Parliament. 

Also English is the International Language of Air Line Crew. 

Edited March 19, 2021 by Andrew P

[Andrew P]

And so somebody has decided that our Garden and Lawn need watering, oh well, Mr Fair Weather walker will be absent from the Streets of Amp Sher this morning.

 

Have a good day one and all, it's almost the weekend, and so stay safe and well, one and all.

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from what was a sunny rock that has suddenly gone all grey.

 

IIRC potassium is much more reactive than sodium - or is that only in water?  Racking the remains of my brain thinks that it is kept in oil but not sure if this is to protect from water in the atmosphere? Duh....too long ago.

 

A day of driving the washing machine and attempting to get soil/compost for the pots ahead, deliveries/collections are still taking place from a local garden centre, but it is hard to find what they actually have.  Phones are busy.

[NHY 581]

1 hour ago, chrisf said:

Greetings one and all

 

In the past I have had my knuckles rapped by The Management for referring to the monthly magazines as “comics”.  

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

 

You're not alone Chris. I also refer to magazines as comics and see nothing wrong in that. Having been a regular purchaser of Victor and Warlord comics in my childhood, my purchase of MRJ simply continues that tradition. 

 

Even the Memsahib refers to said MRJ as a comic.......which will no doubt upset somebody, somewhere. 

 

 

Rob. 

[Mick Bonwick]

19 minutes ago, NHY 581 said:

 

......which will no doubt upset somebody, somewhere. 

 

 

Me! Comics are for entertainment and contain more than a small portion of fantasy, depicting life as we think it should be and not necessarily how it is. Magazines, on the other hand . . . . . . . . . . .

 

 

Oh!

[Andrew P]

And now the big white / red thing is glowing.

Morning glory,

what's the Story?

The Sun is here.

So lets all cheer.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

It’s a dull start to the day, the temperature outside is currently 7C so it’s quite cool, but I suspect the stiff breeze will make if feel colder than that. 

 

As its a Friday, that means there will be another fodder run today. First will be my walk to the butchers for the weekly meat rations and hopefully a pastie for dinner. Then I’ll head off to the Trafford Centre for a few more comestibles. After that there are no firm plans, so possibly some reading or maybe a layout planning. 

 

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

 

Brian

[pH]

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

I was taught Copper plate handwriting at my first primary school, as we all were, it was their default hand writing style. Unfortunately my second primary school it was straight up and down writing. and you were punished for not doing it their way.. Hence my hand writing is now carp.

I did it the other way round. At six and a half, I moved from a school where we were still printing to a school where cursive writing was already in use. My handwriting never caught up. Having to take handwritten lecture notes at university just finished it off.

 

1 hour ago, Andrew P said:

I only speak English, but I used to be amazed back in the 1970's when I went to International Moto Cross Events and see / hear Riders from France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia and even sometimes  Russia all talking together in groups and all using English to communicate.

Before covid arrived, I played soccer with a group of guys originally from all five continents (seven if you count South America and Oceania as distinct continents). The common language is English, dialect profanity.

[Danemouth]

Talking of Magnesium I think it was the principal component of the old fashioned flash bulbs - remember them?

 

The flashgun contained a small battery and a Capacitor which caused the magnesium to light. Don't forget the  blue bulbs needed for colour film to balance it to the colour temperature of daylight.

 

Dave

[jonny777]

Dry and bright again in North Somerset. The sun keeps breaking through from time to time. 

 

I realise that I am now residing in a parallel universe. There was a knock on the door a few minutes ago and two chaps from the local kitchen fitters (who put in our new kitchen about 12 months ago - just before lockdown) who said they had come to disconnect my pond. 

 

???

 

I do have a small pond, but it is just a preformed plastic thing containing water and duckweed. It is not connected to anything. I looked suitably bemused, and they went away once satisfied that I had no idea what they were talking about. 

 

On the subject of magnesium and bright burning light, I once took a piece from school and proceeded to light it with a match when I got home. It certainly did burn very brightly, but the strip I was holding also became very hot very quickly (something I had failed to think about before starting my 'experiment') and in a panic I dropped it, but before I could extinguish the flame it had burned a small black circle on my mother's kitchen worktop. 

 

I cannot remember the excuse I made up in order to attempt to quell her anger when she came home, but I suspect it was equally as pathetic as not recognising the heat conducting properties of metals. 

Edited March 19, 2021 by jonny777
grammar

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, Mick Bonwick said:

 

Me! Comics are for entertainment and contain more than a small portion of fantasy, depicting life as we think it should be and not necessarily how it is. Magazines, on the other hand . . . . . . . . . . .

 

 

Oh!

I thought that Magazines were for storing explosives.

 

Good moaning, just, a bit late on parade this morning for various reasons.  Most of yesterday  was spent being assistant nurse to our retired nurse friend wh we call Nurse Ratchet.  Tina helped a lot with Beth. The Dr arrived late afternoon and sorted out some extra pain medicstion, along with dispensing good medical advice and some gardening advice.  After tea Beth managed to get through to the sitting room.  The Dr, had told us to get booked online for vaccination due to the AZ problems.  (Not invented here apparently). I thus went online and a few minutes later had booked us both slots for jabs at Ruffec, 20 milesxaway and with an active railway line. Our appointments are for the 7th April and 4th May.  Questionnaires have now been downliaded and I also got appointments  for our friend Nurse Ratchet.  These are all for Phizer.  That's good news for us.

 

This morning Beth's back is a lot better and she has been unpacking boxes of stuff from her late fathers house. It was all very well packed and nothing is damaged.  The boxes are now empty.  My next task to to sort chairs out and put a rug down.  

 

Hopefully the patient will behave.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

 

[Andrew P]

40 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

Dry and bright again in North Somerset. The sun keeps breaking through from time to time. 

 

I realise that I am now residing in a parallel universe. There was a knock on the door a few minutes ago and two chaps from the local kitchen fitters (who put in our new kitchen about 12 months ago - just before lockdown) who said they had come to disconnect my pond. 

 

???

 

I do have a small pond, but it is just a preformed plastic thing containing water and duckweed. It is not connected to anything. I looked suitably bemused, and they went away once satisfied that I had no idea what they were talking about. 

 

On the subject of magnesium and bright burning light, I once took a piece from school and proceeded to light it with a match when I got home. It certainly did burn very brightly, but the strip I was holding also became very hot very quickly (something I had failed to think about before starting my 'experiment') and in a panic I dropped it, but before I could extinguish the flame it had burned a small black circle on my mother's kitchen worktop. 

 

I cannot remember the excuse I made up in order to attempt to quell her anger when she came home, but I suspect it was equally as pathetic as not recognising the heat conducting properties of metals. 

We bought a property and was told there was a small pond under some Brambles and undergrowth.

 

On moving in, and clearing the Brambles I found the so called small pond. It was in fact a Plastic Volvo Commercial Vehicle Parts box in bright blue, sunk into the ground and about 3ft x 2ft and about a ft deep.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Bright and sunny here this morning and the forecast is mostly dry with a very slight chance of a shower and will remain dry for the next few days. I'm looking for electrical connectors, two pin low voltage plug in type but I couldn't find any stockist after the demise of Maplins. However I Googled what I wanted and found a similar company to Maplins that also has a local branch https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/ I have ordered what I need click and collect and will collect the order this afternoon.

[Gwiwer]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

snorrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeee

 

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

Welcome to National Sleep Day. I shall celebrate between lunch and Friday Drinks. 

[Coombe Barton]

4 hours ago, Andrew P said:

And so somebody has decided that our Garden and Lawn need watering,

 Mine's still going squelch.

[New Haven Neil]

Ours also - wintertime water table here is about a foot under our back lawn, it spends all winter like a bog, but doesn't stop growing.  Makes it hard to keep the garden looking tidy in winter.

 

John CB's duck has escaped....

 

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, Andrew P said:

We bought a property and was told there was a small pond under some Brambles and undergrowth.

 

On moving in, and clearing the Brambles I found the so called small pond. It was in fact a Plastic Volvo Commercial Vehicle Parts box in bright blue, sunk into the ground and about 3ft x 2ft and about a ft deep.

Nice bit of recycling then.

[polybear]

Bear late on parade....

The Tiler has arrived, initially to start laying tiles. As the first row went across the kitchen it became apparent that yet more self-levelling compound was required, otherwise levelling of individual tiles as required would need to be achieved using tile adhesive, which is more expensive than SLC.  Oh well, Bear's cake budget takes another kicking....

Still, Bear has absolutely no intention of ever doing this again, so I'd much rather it was "right" rather than "near enough" and feeling forever disappointed as a result.

[Sir TophamHatt]

On 17/03/2021 at 20:21, J. S. Bach said:

I presume that Master Topham Hatt is a very young baby? Maybe the scale was too cold for him. Just a thought.

Yeah, 12 months now.
Wow - gone quick!

 

He was crying before putting on the scale and looked like I'd just plopped him in some cold water before but you're right, the room wasn't that warm.

But a brave guy - loads going on at the moment as well as all the learning and development that comes with being a baby anyway.

 

At least it's coming up to Spring / Summer.

Means we can spend more time outside, which he loves... which I love!
And he's taken an interest in cars and Thomas the Tank Engine too!

 

Being a Father really is the best thing that has happened to me in life.

Edited March 19, 2021 by Sir TophamHatt

[polybear]

13 hours ago, andyram said:

The agency are casting doubts over whether we would be able to foster in the future. They simply don’t think we have the time.  Whilst I appreciate their concerns, it does not feel like they are listening to us and see everything as a negative. A misunderstanding between the social worker and Sarah resulted in Sarah leaving the room leaving me to finish up and don the diplomatic hat.

 

A friend of Bear's ended up fostering  his niece(s) unexpectedly, on a temporary basis - IIRC the social workers turned up on his doorstep unannounced.  At a subsequent meeting with them they were saying he'd have to install a 6ft back fence, would he consider moving to a bigger house etc etc.  And at one meeting they seemed to think that in the event of fire he should rescue the foster children before his own - he responded that he'd rescue the ones in the greatest danger first...

[The Lurker]

19 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Brian, I am curious about your calligraphy. I presume pen rather than brush? Do you use a fountain pen with an Italic nib or a dipped chisel top pen? Do you have a favourite alphabet design that you emulate, or have you your own interpretation?

 

I have dabbled in calligraphy since I was a teenager. I would not call myself very proficient. As practice, mostly I sign birthday and holiday cards (with all my nephews and nieces, I end up doing multiple per month) in an Italic script using a fountain pen with an Italic nib for convenience.

 

The ability of greeting card paper to take ink varies wildly. Shiny papers often reject ink and pulpy, heavily recycled paper can wick it away in little tendrils.

 

I was asked to do a couple of marriage certificates. It felt uncomfortable working without a 'safety net' (there was only one copy of the certificate for each) but I was satisfied with the results. 

do you have a go at the "elvish" characters devised by Tolkien for his Sindarin etc?