Early Risers.

[jamie92208]

7 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

I haven't heard that one before although may have heard the officers name mentioned before. I take it you mean his father was a Vicar too not an Estate Agent as my dad was for many years. And as for the male society i never knew the cubs had so much influence 

Yes, his father was a vicar just east of where you live.

 

Jamie

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup which is sunny but cool. Or at least this room is cool now that the sun has moved round and higher and is no longer coming in.

 

Just had a frustrating e-mail from the FD ; it reveals that he has not listened to anything my boss has said to him - or not taken it in - over the past 2 or 3 years. Either that, or he thinks we are sitting with out thumbs up our r-ses.

 

Fortunately I have the time to draft the e-mail I want to send, delete it, and then type him the one that I ought to send.

 

Before I do any of that I shall shortly be off to the shops to acquire this week's LDC and Autosport for Younger Lurker, and then deposit the car for Mrs Lurker's use later.

 

This will give me a chance to establish the actual temperature and also to work over in my mind what it is I need to say in the email!

 

Anyway, I had best get on. Have a good day all

[The Stationmaster]

G'day all,

 

The sun shineth but i shall no doubt sleep at some stage after a somewhat disturbed night resulting from her catship sleepinfg on one of my feet for long enough to get the foot set in a one position  (a consequence of arthurs-iitis) and having to get up and walk around a bit to get it back to normal.  After that it managed to set itself with no help from the cat - several times so i was up & down like a yo-yo.

 

On the other hand the GD had a far more interesting night because due to a major problem in A&E at one of the other hospitals she and colleague were transferred there (by taxi!!)  to increase staff numbers.  So she had various different things to do which she quite enjoyed as a change from the usual incontinent old ladies.  Hmm 'enjoyed' A&E and wiring patients up for ECGs and such like and doing Covid tests. (she's done some of thenm in the past so nothing new in that).

 

Big task today is to visit the town and obtain an anniversary card for herself for tomorrow otherwise I might end up in A&E.  But it provides a chance to shop for comics in WHS so not a major problem or imposition and good for a bit of amusement walking past Harrods caff and laughing at the idiots who didn't check the prices - or Trip Advisor - before venturing there.

 

 

Havea good day one and all and  stay safe (as I shall endeavour to do when I enter the town of idiots later on).

[New Haven Neil]

52 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

Sip<

 

Fortunately I have the time to draft the e-mail I want to send, delete it, and then type him the one that I ought to send.

 

 

Take, care, Lurkio.  When Mrs NHN worked in the dole/pensions office many moons ago,  (she did pensions) a rather unpleasant colleague in unemployment benefit wrote a letter like that, and was foolish enough to print it.  It got accidentally sent with all the others on the printer pile by being heaped into the folder/envelope stuffer thing by a helpful minion....'Dear Malingering Parasite' was the heading.....he became 'Dear Dismissed', then as is the way, re-instated at a lower grade on appeal as he blamed all his team colleagues for actually sending it and it was 'just a bit of a joke'.  His colleagues didn't much like getting blamed for his incompetence (notorious) and accusations, he had to be placed elsewhere.  He later got sacked for something else.

 

The day here is most pleasant in appearance and 13c allegedly, but feels far less in the stiff breeze.  The garage beckons.  I had to go to the Big City to order new spectacles, so the bank is once again empty - pah.  Had lunch in Laxey prom 'shed' on the way home, which is neither Bright lights nor Big City, I need to develop a term for it. Perhaps Ex-Lax, as an American friend on a USA model forum calls it!  One of our favourite places on the island, we looked at houses there but couldn't find anything we liked in our budget range at the time.

 

 

[polybear]

Bear's fun for the day has involved a short walk to the post box to post (a) my postal vote (dunno why I bother) and (b) a birthday card to my SiL (dunno why I bother - not so much as a phone call from her or brother in over ten years - they only live an hour away.  The last call from me to bruv - and I had a feeling he'd rather I hadn't called - ended with him saying "we'll have to come over and see you, or you come here - I'll have a word with SWMBO and get back to you". I had a strong suspicion it wasn't gonna happen (history...) and I was right - I'm still waiting for that call, ten years later).

 

Then it was a bit of scanning, followed by the prep of a kitchen delivery check sheet for next week - I have a fear of them saying that something has been delivered - and signed for by Bear - only for there to be no sign of it.

 

Then it was another session with Nurse Covid (cue incoming jokes.....) followed by sorting the pan cupboard and re-distributing them around the house, after first checking which ones will work with an Induction Hob (they need to be magnetic); Bear was somewhat pleased to discover that the newest and best ones are induction compatible, which should save money.  There are three or four older and scruffier ones that will go to the great scrappie in the sky, but that's no great loss cos' I've got too many anyway (how many does a Bear actually need, after all?).

 

I think this afternoon I'm gonna get really excitable and do some dusting in the lounge.....

[New Haven Neil]

Oh!  As I drove down to Old Laxey Exlax earlier there was a post van backing out of a really tight little lane, I thought he's daft trying to take that up there....obviously just after I passed this happened! He was backing out of where the silver car is coming down.

 

 

 

[Winslow Boy]

I must report that it is lovely clear blue skies here on the mainland and that I'm having to resist the urge to get the shorts out. Don't panic at the back there it is not what you think. Shorts are only worn for several days when there is a 'u' in the month and it coincides with a blue moon. 

 

So what else has occurred since my last report. Well I have been and had my 2nd jab, Pfizer since you ask. I despite being asked to report do not appear to be on any database as they were unable to find me. This happened the first time. Still weighing up whether this is a good or bad thing.

 

Off now to Weald the Dyson as it hasn't been used in some considerable time. Wonder if I could ask for sick leave due to adverse reactions to jab- tiredness, lethargy ah that's how I feel anyway.

Edited April 22, 2021 by Winslow Boy

[Tony_S]

12 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

due to adverse reactions to jab

I did mention to Aditi I felt a bit lethargic after the second jab and as she commented “so no change then”, which is quite true really.  

[PhilJ W]

Hello again from Estuary-Land.  

3 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

I was a shop steward at a GEC factory in the 1970's, company asked for voluntary redundancies, it was pointed out that we had a guy still working past his 65th birthday, so maybe he should asked to retire, this happened. Some weeks later one of the managers came up to me, "I thought we let that guy retire" he said, "yes" I replied, "Well he's still here working?". Turns out he couldn't spend the whole day at home with his missus, so he carried on coming into work, running errands for folk and pushing a brush round without pay, they had to ask him to stop as he wasn't insured to be on the site. He was later seen driving round and round the streets all day on his motor bike, apparently he'd still not told his wife he'd retired!!

In a similar vein. In the early 80's the London borough where I worked in the payroll department took over the GLC houses when the GLC was abolished. We also took over the maintenance staff. One of the painters, who had worked for the GLC since he had left school more than forty years previously fell ill soon after the take over and the problem was identified as his being allergic to the brand of paint used by the council (different to the GLC paint). As he was about 61 at the time he was put on ill health retirement, the only thing was he didn't want to go. But go he did and the next thing was he tried to sue the council for unfair dismissal which as you would expect was thrown out by the court. He was about to appeal when he dropped down dead at the age of 63. The only one who benefitted was his lawyer.

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Take, care, Lurkio.  When Mrs NHN worked in the dole/pensions office many moons ago,  (she did pensions) a rather unpleasant colleague in unemployment benefit wrote a letter like that, and was foolish enough to print it.  It got accidentally sent with all the others on the printer pile by being heaped into the folder/envelope stuffer thing by a helpful minion....'Dear Malingering Parasite' was the heading.....he became 'Dear Dismissed', then as is the way, re-instated at a lower grade on appeal as he blamed all his team colleagues for actually sending it and it was 'just a bit of a joke'.  His colleagues didn't much like getting blamed for his incompetence (notorious) and accusations, he had to be placed elsewhere.  He later got sacked for something else.

 

Just how accidental was it getting into the 'to be sent' pile?

Edited April 22, 2021 by PhilJ W

[Andrew P]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

G'day all,

 

The sun shineth but i shall no doubt sleep at some stage after a somewhat disturbed night resulting from her catship sleepinfg on one of my feet for long enough to get the foot set in a one position  (a consequence of arthurs-iitis) and having to get up and walk around a bit to get it back to normal.  After that it managed to set itself with no help from the cat - several times so i was up & down like a yo-yo.

 

On the other hand the GD had a far more interesting night because due to a major problem in A&E at one of the other hospitals she and colleague were transferred there (by taxi!!)  to increase staff numbers.  So she had various different things to do which she quite enjoyed as a change from the usual incontinent old ladies.  Hmm 'enjoyed' A&E and wiring patients up for ECGs and such like and doing Covid tests. (she's done some of thenm in the past so nothing new in that).

 

Big task today is to visit the town and obtain an anniversary card for herself for tomorrow otherwise I might end up in A&E.  But it provides a chance to shop for comics in WHS so not a major problem or imposition and good for a bit of amusement walking past Harrods caff and laughing at the idiots who didn't check the prices - or Trip Advisor - before venturing there.

 

 

Havea good day one and all and  stay safe (as I shall endeavour to do when I enter the town of idiots later on).

If you want a real transfer of Nursing Staff Mike, here's one for you.

 

Jan 2018,  when I had my HA, I was rushed to Burton Hospital, I was seen by a brilliant Doctor and a young, (to my eyes, but about 30 ish) Heart Nurse, that had been lent to them for the night from Warwick Hospital so quite a trek. He was then bundled into the 2nd Ambulance with me for the Blues and Twos journey over to Stoke on Trent for emergency surgery. 

I cant imagine how or what time he got back home to Warwick.

[jonny777]

One thing which makes me feel old, is the placing of ads on Eurosport snooker. The one showing orthopaedic beds and walking trolleys is bad enough; but the one which annoys me even more is some lady actor posing as a satisfied customer for a company called Parsleybox. 

 

Apparently, according to her, there is always room for some sticky toffee pudding. This is said as if it is some English classic remembered wistfully from 1930s dinner tables along wit jam roll-poly and spotted dick. 

 

Except it is not. As far as I can make out, sticky toffee *anything* was unheard of in the UK until the 1970s, and only then at a restaurant in the Lake District until it escaped into the celebrity cookbooks, which are almost identical except for adding/subtracting a few grams here and there to make them look original. 

 

The origin of the pudding seems to be Canada, and the main ingredient is dates - something which the Parsleybox concoction has precisely 0 grams of. In fact looking on their ingredients list, the main one appears to be water - which does not strike me as everyone's pudding starting point. The inclusion of five different E-numbered chemicals would also put me off, but I suspect they are one of the reasons the meals can be stored in a cupboard, rather than the freezer. 

 

Right, daily moan over. 

 

Now to wait for the motorised wheelchair advert......

[TheQ]

Afternoon aWL, 

Almost ready to poet..

Lots of 10 G ohms Done. So I'm working on the spreadsheet of calibration hours I do, that doesn't include meetings, webinars, and "trainings" etc..

At the moment it's showing an average of 7.7 hours a working day, which is clever considering I work 7.5 including the above..

 

Polybears new kitchen means he will have to learn how to make LDC, it would certainly save the pennies for more.....

 

 

LDC?

[simontaylor484]

28 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

One thing which makes me feel old, is the placing of ads on Eurosport snooker. The one showing orthopaedic beds and walking trolleys is bad enough; but the one which annoys me even more is some lady actor posing as a satisfied customer for a company called Parsleybox. 

 

Apparently, according to her, there is always room for some sticky toffee pudding. This is said as if it is some English classic remembered wistfully from 1930s dinner tables along wit jam roll-poly and spotted dick. 

 

Except it is not. As far as I can make out, sticky toffee *anything* was unheard of in the UK until the 1970s, and only then at a restaurant in the Lake District until it escaped into the celebrity cookbooks, which are almost identical except for adding/subtracting a few grams here and there to make them look original. 

 

The origin of the pudding seems to be Canada, and the main ingredient is dates - something which the Parsleybox concoction has precisely 0 grams of. In fact looking on their ingredients list, the main one appears to be water - which does not strike me as everyone's pudding starting point. The inclusion of five different E-numbered chemicals would also put me off, but I suspect they are one of the reasons the meals can be stored in a cupboard, rather than the freezer. 

 

Right, daily moan over. 

 

Now to wait for the motorised wheelchair advert......

Makes a change for the ads for 50 to 80 funeral plans or cremation plans

[jonny777]

Just now, simontaylor484 said:

Makes a change for the ads for 50 to 80 funeral plans or cremation plans

 

Yes, I haven't seen too many of those recently - but then I tend to lose concentration in the ad breaks. 

[The Lurker]

Mention of sticky toffee pudding in that context makes me think of Werther's Originals, another thing made out to be old when it isn't. 

 

My walk back from depositing the car for Mrs Lurker proved that although it is sunny it is also cold. I did manage to both hear and see a skylark in the patch of wasteland between the railway and the River Cray (maps mark it as College Farm) and a bird of prey of some sort. I will try to identify it later and report back.  Also in the 10 minutes or so it took me to walk under the railway by the cricket club and across this land, I saw three passenger (two down, one up) and two freight trains. I have not had a chance to look at Real Time trains but I suspect that one was the usual Hanson empties from Allington. However there are some Q paths around that time too.

 

Finally when I crossed the Meadows, I saw a Jay busily collecting food. Until earlier this week I have never seen one in the Meadows.

 

So an interesting-ish walk. 

 

My boss, equally p'd off, has said I ought to send my reply e-mail to him first for review. We did discuss whether sarcasm was the way forward bur decided against it!

[The Lurker]

635G Allington to Whately

6O86 Acton Yard GBRF to Tonbridge West.

 

10 minutes earlier I would have seen another freight ex Angerstein Wharf.

 

The bird was a sparrowhawk - male.

[jonny777]

I haven't heard a skylark in years. 

 

I grew up with them, especially when spotting by the GN&GE in the 1960s. I could rarely see them high up above the fields, but their continuous song from the sky was an audible backdrop to the half hour gaps between goods trains. 

 

If I heard one now, I know I would be transported straight back there. 

[tigerburnie]

North East Scotland still seems to have good numbers of farmland birds, Skylarks in good numbers, I can hear them from my garden, Corn Buntings, Yellowhammers and in the Glens, Lapwings and Curlews breed in the sheep meadows, reminds me of England in the 1950's, a lot of the hill farms are low intensity hence lots of Thrushes, both Song and Mistle as the chemicals are absent.

[jamie92208]

At the moment we get, Robins, Blue Tits, sparrows and blackbirds.  Occasionally we get a Hoopoe and also at  night a Little Owl. However our current most regular caller is Harry the pheasant called for Sally and Meghan.  We get a lot of buzzards nearby and we hear them mewing sometimes. 

 

Jamie 

Edited April 22, 2021 by jamie92208

[PupCam]

On 19/04/2021 at 08:39, PupCam said:

I must be getting better at multiple phone operation! 

 

I encountered a new step this morning; instead of going from "We're Closed" straight to "Permanently Engaged" I got straight through (well after the 5 minute monologue about Covid)  to a receptionist and a telephone appointment was arranged for today.  It was even narrowed down to an AM appointment!    

And again!    What on earth is going on?

 

Another round of the "Doctors Appointment Lottery" was played this morning using dual phone technology.    

I got straight through   then the other phone said "Engaged" .    

 

Even more surprising, the doctor called me nice and early at ~10:00 and the necessary arrangements were made straight away, so many thanks to him

 

 

[Joseph_Pestell]

In the French village that I have just moved from, I notice many more sparrows than there used to be while numbers have declined massively in the UK. Pre-Brexit emigration?

Housemartins are late to arrive. How do they, sat 000s miles away in Africa, know that the weather in France is still too cold for them?

[TheSignalEngineer]

4 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

At the moment we get, Robins, Blue Tits, sparrows and blackbirds.  Occasionally we get a Hoopoe and also at  night a Little Owl. However our current most regular caller is Harry the pheasant called for Sally and Meghan.  We get a lot of buzzards nearby and we hear them mewing sometimes. 

 

Jamie 

Yesterday afternoon on grandad duty there was a sparrow hawk sitting on daughter's shed roof watching some activity in the next garden. Not usual for a suburban garden in the Stockport area I would have thought.

Edited April 22, 2021 by TheSignalEngineer

[PupCam]

16 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

while numbers have declined massively in the UK

Not in my corner of the UK.   They have been particularly prolific around here the last couple of years with the noise of chirping sparrows being nearly deafening in most of the local hedgerows (which is good!)

 

No House Martins or Swallows yet though but plenty of Red Kites .....

Edited April 22, 2021 by PupCam

[simontaylor484]

The bats were out in force last night swooping around. We could hear the owl (type unknown) and one of the foxes was spotted

[TheSignalEngineer]

The talk of ghosting on the payroll reminded me of an S&T Lineman on a country district which came under the office where I was working c1968. He would sign on in the morning and ring the office then go out on the district in the van supposedly doing various maintenance tasks. He was caught out when a failure was causing a lot of disruption and he was nowhere to be found. He lived on a smallholding and grew vegetables. The Inspector went out to try to deal with the fault and as he was passing the local market he spotted the Lineman's van and the Lineman serving on a stall.