Early Risers.

[simontaylor484]

We have hive for our central heating and hot water control it's quite good and simple to use. I even bought a couple of light bulbs from Maplins cheap when they went bust (as well as a load of storage bins) 

The  upshot was when at work i could turn the lamps on and of at home whilst I was out frightening swmbo the first few times till she cottoned on to the reason it was happening.

[PeterBB]

Gwiwer - your description convinces me that the 'combination things' are a pain and not only that but you lose the airing cupboard facility.

 

Hope Dave's Dad is getting some visits and that the curtains have been removed and that Gordon turns the corner.

 

Liked the Beethoven 7th 2nd movement  John - long time since hearing it live in the days when the Royal Festival Hall was just a short trip from home on the' tube'.

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by PeterBB
Typo

[J. S. Bach]

Speaking of bad "commercial" meals (we were, weren't we?), outside of one dinner at the USAF Clark AFB in the Philippines; the absolute worst meal that I had was a breakfast on Amtrak's northbound Silver Meteor; oddly one of the best meals that I ever had was a dinner also on the Meteor, but a different trip. That one was so good that I went up to the cooking area and thanked the cook.

[brianusa]

20 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

We have hive for our central heating and hot water control it's quite good and simple to use. I even bought a couple of light bulbs from Maplins cheap when they went bust (as well as a load of storage bins) 

The  upshot was when at work i could turn the lamps on and of at home whilst I was out frightening swmbo the first few times till she cottoned on to the reason it was happening.

 

How I long for the simplicity of an on/off knob!

    Brian.

[Dave Hunt]

Thanks to all ERs who have sent good wishes for Dad. He has been seen twice by a psychiatric nurse and is in a slightly better place mentally although still having trouble sleeping. Physically, his leg is apparently mending nicely but his oxygen level has been low for the last couple of days so he is on antibiotics in case of a lung infection and was due to have an MRI scan this evening to check for blood clots. I spoke to one of the doctors looking after him this afternoon who said that the plan is to get him medically to a state where he can be transferred to a care home or similar where he can continue to have nursing care and physiotherapy. I have managed to see him on Facetime twice more and he now has his laptop and phone so we are able to communicate in a variety of ways but the lack of face to face visiting is not helping his sense of isolation. To give the staff their due, though, it does seem that they are doing their best in the circumstances to make life bearable for him. I don't expect anything to change over the weekend but fingers crossed that next week brings some progress.

 

Dave

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

After dinner and once the kitchen had been vacated, I set to and made the curry sauce for tomorrow nights tea, Kashmiri curry this time, 6 portions were made, 2 are now in the fridge, the other 4, in double portions are in the freezer ready for some future date. The whole process from getting all the ingredients together to decanting the sauce in to 3 - 2 person containers took just over an hour, so not a bad afternoons work that.

 

The evening was spent sat on the sofa with a nice bottle of merlot watching a film. 

 

Glad to read there is ‘some’ improvement with Dave’s dad, I do hope all goes well with his MRI scan. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[The Stationmaster]

6 hours ago, Northroader said:

I was there 64-65. Fellow inmates you may have come across were Phil Nethercot, who went on to be assistant at Landore diesel, Cyril Candlin, a shift foreman at Tidal, and Steve Malloy, who reported back to BRB on how many wagons there really were in Cardiff Division. Very comfortable place with good meals. Then I got married.

I was there from part way through '72 to the Spring of '74 when I moved back to England although I'd had a few weeks at the end of '73 covering a job at Swansea so I spent the week down there and came back to Cardiff on some weekends.  Cyril was still there as he was Area Manager at Newtown by then.  For almost all of that period we were the only BR people in and by a peculiar quirk we each had one of the rooms on the top floor  which was rather daft as we were also the only people lodging there who were On Call and right up there we couldn't hear the 'phone so Mrs reagan or John would answer the 'phone if it rang at night and come up and let us know we were being called - fortunately night time calls were rare.  The majority in there at that time were BT people who were running training courses and very occasionally trainees on those courses and we had a couple of regulars from the Prison Service although they only came for a few weeks every now and then when their job brought them to Cardiff.

 

Very comfortable place and very handy for me to get out to cathedral Road to drive up to Radyr although the railway car spent its night on the jetty at Cardiff General.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

We have spent three hours attempting to set the thermostat for the new boiler. 

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

My thermostat on the new one is internet connected and the app in the phone does everything. I have a multi-page manual for the controls but Vaillant have excelled themselves with the simplicity of the control.

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

We have hive for our central heating and hot water control it's quite good and simple to use.

1 hour ago, brianusa said:

How I long for the simplicity of an on/off knob!

I wish my irrigation system was a connected "smart" appliance with a web-based interface.

 

Its user interface is diabolical. There's a rotary selector with about 20 settings, several buttons and an incongruous, small (maybe 3cm x 5cm) and low contrast (making it difficult to read) monochrome LCD panel.

 

It's easy to see whether the one zone with sprinklers works - they pop up out of the ground and make the grass wet, but the remainder of the zones are all drip and it's hard to know if they are working, even in manual test mode. That and the fact that it is set to operate at midnight on alternating days makes it hard to tell if it actually functions.

 

Apparently we're having our driest March/April on record.

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by Ozexpatriate

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[J. S. Bach]

Glad to hear that Dave's Dad is doing better. So Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[JohnDMJ]

 

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Meaux just happens to be our 'Twin town' in France. It also has a thriving model railway club and I have been over there four times on exchange visits. These took place in November when the whole town puts on a bi-annual exhibition including a model railway exhibition. The accommodation was chosen by the French MRC and was a motel on the southern edge of the town. Pretty decent accommodation but breakfasts were rather limited, not that it mattered as in typical French fashion everything stopped for lunch which was quite substantial. I have unfortunately never been to our other twin town in Germany, Heilinghaus, its attraction for me is it is only 5 miles away from Wuppertal of suspended monorail fame, perhaps I'll get there some day. 

 

Phil, I have seen the Meaux Club's exhibition layout several times at various Expos in France and would like to attend their annual show; any chance, when you get the details, of posting this in the RMWeb calendar, please?

 

Travel there is easy! Eurostar to Eurodisney then bus to Meaux or Eurostar to Paris then RER to Meaux. I'm curious to know if the "Meaux BIll Phones" shop still exists!

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

It was a strange day yesterday.  The temporary indisposition of RMweb caught me off guard, as anything happening at 5.30 am is likely to do.  I was flummoxed when I tried to copy and paste what I had written, for sometimes I compose my thoughts the night before.  Was it the forum playing silly bu99ers or my laptop?  I spent far too long messing about in search of a solution.  Eventually I found Andy Y’s e-mail address, sent him something appropriate and ran a nice hot bath in which to luxuriate.  Not long after breakfast all became well.  Later, after the fodder run, I gave in to fatigue and lay on the bed.  An hour and a half later I woke with a start.  How terribly unproductive.

 

Before we leave hotels completely, I should mention the one where I stayed in Toronto.  It was way, way above what I would have chosen for myself in terms of price but I was just thankful that the tour went ahead with just two participants.  I hope that seeking to make money at every twist and turn is not a characteristic of the Canadian people but my experience at the Fairmont in Toronto did make me wonder.  I had been alerted to the possibility that I would be asked to pay twice for breakfast and sure enough I was.  A demand for car parking charges when I had arrived by rail at the station right opposite the hotel was another matter: “I’m sorry, Sir, we just assumed” really doesn’t cut it.  Neither does being asked to pay for a non-toll free phone call given that the clue is in the name.  What really infuriated me was the appearance on my credit card bill of a purchase of a drink from the minibar in my room three days after I had checked out of the hotel.  The transatlantic exchange of e-mails was brief and, at my end, very angry.  It should not have been necessary.

 

Today I shall spend some time at Virtual Scalefour North.  I would much rather be live in Wakefield but these are still troubled times.

 

Continuing warm thoughts to Dave’s dad and Gordon S and best wishes to all

 

Chris

[JohnDMJ]

Mornin' all!

 

ChrisF, your comment bears (bares?) only one response:

 

12 minutes ago, chrisf said:

“I’m sorry, Sir, we just assumed” really doesn’t cut it.

 

"With respect, Sir, to assume is to make an Ass of U and Me, which you have just, successfully, achieved!" .... off!

Edited April 17, 2021 by JohnDMJ

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare,

A three piece sleep, 4hours , long awake, 1.5 hours, wake up turn over get comfortable again 1 hour sleep, get brown eyes huffing in my ear.

 

Ben the I want out Collie demanded patrol, Mr fox must be hungry this morning, no new pile of feathers.

Very frosty , clear skies, I hope the workshop heater comes on ok.. it has so far.

 

I replaced our heater thermostat, with a simpler one. It's wireless from its position to a receiver in the power pattress for the boiler. In there are just mains in, and Mains plus three signal wires out.

 

That being said, it can still do two on off periods, different each day. However it's now set permanently to 17C, it's rare one of us isn't in. It didn't seem to make much difference to the overall bill, and I'm not woken by the heating coming on to a higher setting in the morning. I get little enough sleep as it is.

 

The living room thermometer/ clock indicates it's 20C in here the living room. , that's the multifuel stove doing it's stuff, though it will need a prod and top up shortly. The living room on the rare occasion it gets too hot, we just open the door and dump the heat into the rest of the house.

 

Only had one hotel try the add bits to my bill, which was in Lytham st Anne's, I received the bill to find a large drinks bill on it... I never put drinks on the bill as the company wouldn't pay, and it got complicated having it not claimed for when processed by the company. They very rapidly removed the bill without question which seemed to me to be too easy, so I suspect there was something going on with that...

 

Today's plans,

I have 11 pieces of shelf to measure, cut and paint, probably to install tomorrow. This being the final section of that wall, it has to take account of non straight walls, and the odd measurement discrepancy.

 

Trailer,

I think I have a solution to the boat support at the coupling end which involves a T shape support from the trailer to 3ft 6inches above, and braces from the ends of the top outer ends of the T to the trailer further back. I'll have a play with some bits of wood and tape measure later.

Hopefully I'll lift the boat today, if not at least preparation work will take place.

 

In half an hour I'll go cook breakfast, but first..

 

Time to wander round (RM) web.

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by TheQ

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Woken by her indoors sorting out a drink of water for herself at 2:45am " Sorry to wake you dear".. Humph!

 

Blue skies mixed with a heavy frost here. Hopefully I can stay warm while umpiring. I bet people will beboutside the clubroom drinking beer all afternoon.. while not watching the cricket.they need to watch the ball as it can be hit into the spectators at this ground.

 

Hopefully @Dave Hunts dad will see rapid improvement when he can be with some other people..

 

Any news of Gordon, @BoD?

 

I put in 3 objections to the plans for next door yesterday. There would have been 4 but the plans have already changed (although still incorrect). Having talked to a friend who works in Buildings Control eleswhere he has given me some other points to raise. Next door are not talking to us and just glare at us as they walk pasr. 

 

Time to dri k my cupatea and get my head around umpiring!

Have a good day if you can!

Positive thoughts to all!

Baz

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a cloudy but not so cool Charente.  4 degrees this morning 3 more than yesterday.  The girls have been let out and given some fresh lettuce.  They gave us 4 eggs yesterday so it's only fair. We are giving half a dozen to a friend this morning.  The even better outcome is that Beth is planning some baking to use up eggs. Life is pretty good.

 

This morning we will have our usual hour talking to Emily and her mums.  Beth is then off to medt a friend (taking the eggs) and I will be grass cutting.  This afternoon  I plan to watch a funeral, then spend a bit of time in the shed getting some things ready for a zoom talk.

 

Good wishes to Dave's dad and to Gordon S.

 

Jamie

[leopardml2341]

8 hours ago, PeterBB said:

Gwiwer - your description convinces me that the 'combination things' are a pain and not only that but you lose the airing cupboard facility.'

 

Now, my CH system has a standard sealed system boiler with a very large pressure vessel heated by the usual coil and diverter valve arrangements. Result; mains pressure hot water on tap which in the bathroom is almost instant cos there's only about 12" of pipe between the cylinder outlet and the shower mixer valve

 

And I have an airing cupboard......

Edited April 17, 2021 by leopardml2341
Added airing cupboard

[iL Dottore]

Morning All,

 

Still a little fatigued from the vaccination (my immune system must really be getting a work out. I reckon that if it were unionised it’d be “down tools, all out” by now in protest over “excessive demands made of the workforce”). I’m wondering what will happen post-second dose, by many accounts some people have no AEs following the first inoculation and plenty following the second.

 

In regards to “good” and “bad” meals, as a dedicated Gastronaut I’ve long since found that price is no guarantee of quality, although it is generally a truism that the more you spend the better the quality of the ingredients and - hopefully - the cooking.

 

Down at the budget end of dining, one of the best meals I have had was in a tiny workers café, frequented by Bangladeshi and Pakistani guest workers, in the heart of Dubai. There I had what was probably the best Mutton Biriani that I have ever had. It cost me the equivalent of 85p. Some wax rhapsodic about Wetherspoons, but I’ve always found their offerings to be rather poor, most of the menu being of the “industrial food nuked in a microwave” category. To be fair some of their breakfast items are fairly decent (tho’ the baked beans - which I avoid anyway - are certainly of industrial sized catering tin quality). The less said about offerings from McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, KFC and the like, the better. Paradoxically, in all of these places the food smells much, much better than it tastes (usually along the lines of flavoured cardboard).

 

For me, a particularly problematic area is that of the mid priced restaurant. Mainly because what they offer is usually nothing I cannot do myself at home. And in the case of Jamie‘s Italian and Carluccio‘s I can certainly cook better than they can  (I had to eat there because the colleagues that I was with at the time decided that these would be good places to eat at). You in the UK are particularly lucky as the midpriced Asian restaurants tend to be very good. Here in Switzerland, (well at least German Switzerland) the midprice restaurants tend to be incredibly boring and repetitious (and there is no such thing as a “cheap“ restaurant in Switzerland).

 

Finally, with one exception, all of the top and restaurants I’ve ever eaten that have been superb. The two that stand out, for me, in London are Heston Blumenthal‘s Dinner and Kerridge's Bar & Grill (both, surprisingly, located in hotels. Something which used to be a no-no for a good quality restaurant). Needless to say neither are what you could term “inexpensive” but both offered a memorable dining experience in terms of both food and ambience. Were I based in London, I would be more than happy to make Kerridge's Bar & Grill the works canteen. The exception I referred to above was, surprisingly, in Venice. When I was there in December about four years ago the group I was with (a private group, not a tour) ate at this very famous restaurant near Piazza San Marco. It was only “okay“ and certainly not worth the price. Sadly, in Italy, too many grand old restaurants have found themselves over run by tourists with a resulting hike in prices and drop in standards.

 

One final thought, contrary to popular expectations you can eat very well for very little at a restaurant with a Michelin star, you just need to know where they are.  Unfortunately (because of the  current travel restrictions), the cheapest two that I do know about are located in Asia: Liao Fan Hawker Chan in Singapore (about £2) and Konjikihototogisu in Tokyo (about £5), so I won’t be visiting them for a decent lunch or dinner any time soon (alas). However, for you lucky Home-counties based ERs, many Michelin starred restaurants in London do have great value set lunch and dinner menus - but tend to be in the £15 - £30 range (this may be stiff for some, but it’s very, very affordable when compared to the price of eating out at a lack lustre “cheap” [ha-ha] restaurant here in Switzerland).

 

Well, time for another cup of coffee and get myself ready to firstly clean the kitchen and secondly make the choux pastry for the profiteroles that I will be baking today.

 

Enjoy the day

 

iD

[leopardml2341]

Mornin'

 

Awake at stupid o'clock for about three hours; reason unknown but now I have to get up I'm kn@ckered.

 

Off to supermarket soon for provisions and then I'll be painting/varnishing inside the summershed - the end is nigh

 

Whilst a little later I'll be meeting up with some friends at, wait for it............

 

......yes, a beer garden

 

Best wishes and positive thoughts to all.

[Andrew P]

Morning all.

 

There is no doubt,

The Sun is out,

And I will be soon,

Long before noon.

Must get a move on,

Or the day  will be gone.

 

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

[Andrew P]

We will be sitting down from about 2pm to watch HRH Prince Philip's Funeral today and pay our last respects to a Great Ambassador to OUR COUNTRY, and OUR MONACH.

 

RIP, His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

[Mike Bellamy]

 

 

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Only had one hotel try the add bits to my bill, which was in Lytham st Anne's, I received the bill to find a large drinks bill on it... I never put drinks on the bill as the company wouldn't pay, and it got complicated having it not claimed for when processed by the company. They very rapidly removed the bill without question which seemed to me to be too easy, so I suspect there was something going on with that...

 

On one of my Israel trips with the University, we were there for the Graduation ceremony and after going back to the hotel at about midnight the Vice-Chancellor asked me to order a round of drinks for everyone. What I didn't realise was that all accounts were billed direct to the University and so I had to explain why I had broken every rule in the book by spending this without authorisation. An email to the VC copied to the Finance Director who was on the same visit soon sorted out that little problem !

[chrisf]

1 hour ago, JohnDMJ said:

Mornin' all!

 

ChrisF, your comment bears (bares?) only one response:

 

 

"With respect, Sir, to assume is to make an Ass of U and Me, which you have just, successfully, achieved!" .... off!

 

What a shame that you were not there to remind me.

 

Chris