Early Risers.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

The high wind yesterday was more than sufficient to deter me from venturing into the garden.  My beloved jungle remains in dire need of care and attention but may well not get it today.  Should the rosy fingers of dancing sunbeams appear I might think again but I can't honestly say that I regard it as a therapeutic activity.  When it is in good order it is a nice place to sit but the amount of work required to turn it back into a nice place is truly daunting.  My admiration for those who like it and are good at it is unlimited but they and I are not of the same breed.

 

I thank Petethemole, if it was he, for drawing my attention to a programme on Sky with a koala content.  My TV is not equipped to receive Sky.  Perhaps it is just as well, for I spend far too long watching it already.  Sir David Attenborough's exploration of the wildlife of Australia, shown yesterday afternoon, included only a blink-and-you-miss-it reference to the lovable marsupial.  Never mind, there is always YouTube.  Yesterday I rediscovered a brief clip of yours truly marching at Pride Cymru in 2018.  Oh dear.  I should have combed my hair before the march began but that would not have stopped me looking disappointingly old.

 

As I type this the Today programme's content alternates between the new improved looser Covid restrictions or absence thereof  and the remarkable business of the stranded shipping in the Suez Canal.  [Sub-Lieutenant Phillips, where art thou?  Even The Navy Lark never came up with such an absurd story.]  Social distancing has its place in virus control but what is to be done with it if entertainment venues are allowed to reopen?  They will never be viable if only allowed to accommodate a third of their capacity.  No doubt those who rule us have a cunning plan.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[jamie92208]

Good moaning. It looks like it's going to be a sunny day.  As it's jab day tomorrow morning, shopping appears to be on the agenda today.  We had a very good time with our friends who came for lunch. They did leave before curfew.  The we watched The Dig on netfllix and enjoyed it.

 

Apart from shopping there will be more work on the chicken run but apart from that notva lot.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare, 615/384

6.5 hours sleep several wake ups turn over bog back to sleep.

 

Forepaws very stiff this morning, though not too painful, left elbow just the merest hint of complaint, Back  ouch....

 

Todays rabbit food in the box, contains radishes, cucumber, lettuce, and home made coleslaw. accompanied by, some cold meat, and a banana.. I too dislike rocket, and many other green leaved  matter. just distasteful space filler...

 Incidentally , I, some time ago,  looked up the word rocket , having wondered why Stephenson called a certain unmentionable so..

It derives for the plant, from the Italian / French  for" a type of Cabbage".

For the thing that blasts off it derives from a bobbin or Distaff in italian / German ? old Norse, generally a weaving term.

 

So what we call a rockets today means basically a cylindrical object..

 

Time to Head for the lab... I will return..

 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

The adverts on this page are trying to get me to buy the best knife in the world..in German..

 

Hoolie eventually abated o erniggt. Supposed to be warm today but it has already been raining.. Pah!

 

I have "tidying up" to do today..not aure what or where but it is on the to do list.

 

Enjoy Monday and some new found liberation.

 

Baz

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

Well from today those of us in England can meet up to five others from any households or any number from our own plus one other household

 

Outdoors. 
 

In clean socks. 

 

It's a scientific fact that the wearing of clean socks is just as efficient at the prevention of covid as two doses of vaccine

(I wonder how long it'll be before that little nugget appears in a TV news report?)

 

In other news:

Bear still feeling less than 100%, but not enough to cause any issues - hopefully.  So today's plans are to:

1. Get my bl00dy great sheet of polythene slung over the washing line and hosed down so I can then use it to protect the new floor whilst painting.

2. Apply decorators caulk to the walls as required - I want to leave it a couple of days before painting (it seems the advertised "over-paintable in 1hour" is asking for trouble).

3. Finish off the bathroom door-bar and re-stretch the carpet.

4. Have a bit of a tidy up.

5. Ponder.

[The Lurker]

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

.. I too dislike rocket, and many other green leaved  matter. just distasteful space filler...

 Incidentally , I, some time ago,  looked up the word rocket , having wondered why Stephenson called a certain unmentionable so..

It derives for the plant, from the Italian / French  for" a type of Cabbage".

For the thing that blasts off it derives from a bobbin or Distaff in italian / German ? old Norse, generally a weaving term.

 

So what we call a rockets today means basically a cylindrical object..

 

.

 

and some time ago I looked up why we call the "distasteful green stuff" rocket whereas on the other side of the pond it's known as arugala ("yeah arugala"*). Both are derived from the Italian rucola but the two English names derive from different Italian dialects, depending on the dominant region of origin of Italian expats

 

* pizza advert reference

Edited March 29, 2021 by The Lurker

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from a still blowing a hoolie Fraggle Rock.

 

Two deaths yesterday/overnight, but only three (tracked) new cases, we're not done with this yet.  The two had been in ICU for some time.  So our lockdown continues.

 

Not sure what today will bring, doubt Tank will come as it is so windy, but it is at least dry currently.

 

 

[southern42]

‘ morning all from red dragon land.

 

Yesterday, wind and rain all day and all of the night - the constant rumble sang me to sleep!

Still wet n windy though visibility improved - a little, anyway.

 

I went off pizzas years ago but when we had our yacht with a stove, we used to make what we called “boaty pizzas” - home bake baguettes cut in half length ways, baked in the oven then laden with cheese and halved cherry tomatoes and popped back in the oven for a few minutes.  When we gave up sailing, we did them at home, though not in the last 12 months. Must try and get some baguettes on our click n collect order.

 

The ‘M’ word marching on. Carving out a low relief backdrop proving to be most satisfying, at least, at the moment.

 

Fitt  and  Elfie keeping up.

 

Take care all and play safe.

————-

Best wishes

Polly

Edited March 29, 2021 by southern42

[AndrewC]

Moaning. Just a fast quarterly hello and to let a couple of people know I'm still alive. 

The borough is still boring. 

My builder finally finished paying off his court judgement.

Both my knees are now forked. 

I've randomly poked through ERs to try to catch up a bit. < that way madness lies. 

Revamp of the train shed has taken 6 months longer than planned. Just have a second coat of paint inside to do then back to having a useful space. Mostly down to my back and knees. 

Hawaiian pizza was a childhood fave. Properly done with fresh pineapple and good thick chunks of ham. These days I make my own pizzas on the bbq. Easy to get the temp up to 320c for properly done Neapolitan style pizza. 

Work has deteriorated. Morale is down the schitter. We've now lost 11 people in the past year with one more pushed and another ready to quit. As of yet none, have been replaced. We've had to borrow staff from some of the European and Indian practices. I've had a few interviews but nothing that is really tempting yet. 

SWMBO's office is closing with the staff moving to another building. She's been on site helping get the move organised. A bit worried as more than half of her job description will vanish once the move is complete. We can survive a couple of years on 1 salary but who knows. 

Trying to stay off anti-social media as much as possible. 

First jab 2 weeks ago. Took 2 weeks from booking time, 3 hours to schlep to the hospital, queue, and get home. SWMBO got a call from our normally useless GP while I was in the queue. She got hers 3 days later and was out, done, and home in under 20 minutes. Grrrr. A nasty headache the following day but a couple of Tylenol chased it away. 

 

That's about it for now. Take care and laterzzz. 

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup where the sun is now emerging from behind the earlier cloud and the day promises to be warm if somewhat breezy.

 

I have now deposited Younger Lurker at school.

 

Good to see AndrewC on a drive0by. I saw a BBQ Barn van doing deliveries a couple of weeks back and thought of him.

 

I like a pizza. We had them on Friday evening for the first time in quite a while.

 

Otherwise the weekend was fairly uneventful. I suggested to my parents that I went down next weekend and sat in their garden. They weren't too keen at the thought because the weather won't be warm. Oh well!

 

We enjoyed the grand prix highlights yesterday; we could be in for an interesting season!

[Andrew P]

Well its supposed to be OTTER, but its KOOLER, so that's no good, a short walk to post a letter, (about 200 yds) as the back is better, but I didn't want to aggravate it any more than I need to.

 

The big ball is trying to show its hand through the clouds, but there seems to be some disagreement between them as to which will win the day.

 

Have a good day one and all, stay safe and well.

And if you think its wind, keep smiling.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Arthur Itis has not been as noisy this morning keeping to his usual domain my hips. A couple of Nurofen have seen him off for now. My hips are not deemed bad enough to require replacement so those who's hip replacements have been delayed must be in far greater pain. I see on the news this morning that the ship stuck in the Suez Canal has got moving again. The canal has been widened and deepened over the years but even in the lakes such large vessels have to keep to the marked channels. Muggatee awaits so its be back later.

[The Lurker]

1 minute ago, PhilJ W said:

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Arthur Itis has not been as noisy this morning keeping to his usual domain my hips. A couple of Nurofen have seen him off for now. My hips are not deemed bad enough to require replacement so those who's hip replacements have been delayed must be in far greater pain.s

My Dad could barely walk by the time he had his second hip replacement. He spent more than a year on the waiting list but as he could not get an appointment, he bit the bullet and went private. He was lucky he able to cut the wait out; most people cant afford to do that.

[PhilJ W]

1 minute ago, The Lurker said:

My Dad could barely walk by the time he had his second hip replacement. He spent more than a year on the waiting list but as he could not get an appointment, he bit the bullet and went private. He was lucky he able to cut the wait out; most people cant afford to do that.

Hip replacements have come to a virtual halt due to Covid, even if you were going private. Once this is over there will still be the backlog of operations to clear which could take years.

[tigerburnie]

1 hour ago, southern42 said:

‘ morning all from red dragon land.

 

Yesterday, wind and rain all day and all of the night - the constant rumble sang me to sleep!

Still wet n windy though visibility improved - a little, anyway.

 

I went off pizzas years ago but when we had our yacht with a stove, we used to make what we called “boaty pizzas” - home bake baguettes cut in half length ways, baked in the oven then laden with cheese and halved cherry tomatoes and popped back in the oven for a few minutes.  When we gave up sailing, we did them at home, though not in the last 12 months. Must try and get some baguettes on our click n collect order.

 

The ‘M’ word marching on. Carving out a low relief backdrop proving to be most satisfying, at least, at the moment.

 

Fitt  and  Elfie keeping up.

 

Take care all and play safe.

————-

Best wishes

Polly

We call our boaty pizzas french bread pizzas, I love 'em with some fresh sliced peppers or chillies from the greenhouse as well as cheese and tomato.

[tigerburnie]

14 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Hip replacements have come to a virtual halt due to Covid, even if you were going private. Once this is over there will still be the backlog of operations to clear which could take years.

My wife has been told she may get her second hip, but Glasgow is the only place doing the op in Scotland at the moment, that is on the NHS.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Well the day started out with beautiful sunshine, but now I’ve finished my breakfast, there are lots of dark clouds appearing, pah.

 

So instead of getting some gardening done, I’ll make a start on painting another couple of dining chairs, we’ll it keeps me out of mischief doesn’t it, well at least that’s what Sheila thinks anyway   

 

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

 

Brian. 

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Blue sky, fluffy  white clouds here now. 
I will be off ina moment to the dentist. It was my routine checkup but I think the dentist is  keen to check up on his work last week. All seems fine but he is welcome to investigate. 
Back soon,

Tony

[PeterBB]

You will have noticed fewer 'comments'.  This is due to the fact that I cannot think of food.  Salads - no thanks, Pizza - no thanks.  Recently there was a little thing on FB that asked about food items and tick off the number you do not touch.  One friend stated 4 and another 1 but for me it was over 30.  I eat to survive and unfortunately that means we normally have two different meals at any one time.  'Meat and two veg' (actually normally four veg) is great but start adding pepper and anything else (or health reasons including salt) is a no no.

 

Glad to hear that 'the builder' has finally paid up.

 

Mention of adverts - never notice them on RMweb but am annoyed by the ones on YouTube the appear before what you actually want to view.  Have to admit that without them some of the web content would not be viable  so have to put up with them.

 

Covid - not illegal to travel miles to a beach but ... bet many will try it and social distancing will be come difficult although the weather at Easter may limit the numbers then.  We will see.

 

Zoom meeting on Great Central Railway Signalling last night - extremely interesting and very well presented.

 

G word - weeding but need knee supports as bending that far down difficult.

[The White Rabbit]

 

 

11 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Regarding the price of salad items - depending on what they are and where you buy them - many of the usual 'British' salad ingredients can be grown at home.  You don't need a big garden, or even any sort of outdoor garden at all, to grow lettuce or radishes or - with a spot of ingenuity - some types of tomato and if you are partial to capsicum peppers they can also be grown indoors and all those nice salad crops will brighten up your window sill.   We currently have basil and mint growing in pots on the kitchen window sill - the latter being particularly useful as the mint outdoors isn't really underway yet  although the mustard plants are doing very well (but they are only for digging-in as green manure and are not for seed raising).

 

I grow my own, on a few square feet of windowsill, cress, mustard, rocket and other salad leaves. It looks like rocket has entered the pantheon of ERs controversial food, along with baked beans and bread. I confess I like the stuff I grow, but couldn't get very fond of the supermarket variety. Even the small bags had far too much in, a small handful per meal and within a couple of days the bag was still half full and the contents were wilting. Not much flavour either. Growing your own gives you the flexibility to have as much or little as you like, as well as tasting much better. 

 

 

Morning all. The seaweed oracles must have been having an off-day, looking outside it's a rather different picture to what they were portraying earlier. Blowing a hoolie and the sun and grey clouds are oscillating between prominence like a toddler playing with a light switch. I'm currently dithering between having a walk and doing a little G word. If in doubt, spend time on ERs? 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Still blowing a hoolie here, but sunny.  Garden thermy-o-meter in shade showing 18c!!! App thing shows 12c - feels like 8c.  I need to walk to the village shop so will give an end of the schnozz calibration soon.

 

Just watched the F1, pretty good race but Marzepan has no business being in a F1 car.

[Pacific231G]

Morning all

Still cloudy and "moderate breeze" (i.e. quite windy) in W. London but the sun is starting to break through. I'll have to find a new socially distanced walk now that the local public golf course has re-opened (not that its closure stopped half of them from playing illegally in groups of four or five throughout the current lockdown)

Body clock hasn't quite adjusted to BST yet so ended up going to bed late and getting up late this morning.

On hips, I have a friend who is a "junior"  orthopaedic surgeon and he's still not doing any elective surgery. Says he can't wait to get back to knees and hips but currently doing trauma. He retrained for intensive care during the first wave and spent some time doing that but since then has mostly been doing broken bones- a lot of hand injuries apparently.

 

[Tony_S]

Back from the dentist. All is well. 
MiL rang while I was out. Aditi got told off for not driving me to the dentist. Aditi did remind her; it was only a checkup, we can see the surgery from our house and anyway I need the exercise. 

Tony

 

Edited March 29, 2021 by Tony_S

[Barry O]

While we still have a stiff breeze here it is noticeably warmer than it has been. Trip to the Post Office accomplished.. no problemo!

 

Nice to hear that @AndrewC is OK. Call back again soon Andrew!

 

As it happens, herself has gone to Makro for supplies. As we don't have a "bogroll hoard" she has those and some large bottles of cleaning fluids to procure.

 

Baz

[jonny777]

Sunny and dry in North Somerset today, and I have taken advantage to be out early and try a pond liner experiment which needs a lot of time. 

 

Unfortunately due to some form of unpredicted soil compression, the spirit-level adjusted soil base which I prepared and stood on (to flatten out any lumps) in order to make sure everything was perfect for the preformed liner to sit on, decided to sink slowly on one side once the weight of the water began to have an effect. This has resulted in the thick plastic liner buckling slightly and the water spills over the top at that point, whilst being nearly an inch from the top everywhere else. 

 

Short of draining the whole thing and starting again, my Heath Robinson theory is to superglue a piece of thick vinyl sheet to the depressed area, cover this with duct tape, and then layer more duct tape over the joins on the inside of the pond in order to produce a water-tight area. This probably will not work, but the result will not be any worse than the starting point. 

 

However, all these stages need time; take buckets of water from pond to lower water level, leave to dry, super glue extra piece to liner, leave to dry, duct tape join, leave to dry, duct tape inside - well you get the idea. 

 

I decided today would be an ideal day for this, although SWMBO has given me other instructions.