Early Risers.

[jonny777]

21 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Dare I mention that seven months today is Christmas Day.

Hat, coat, gone.

 

Yes, and the nights will start drawing in just over 3 weeks from now. 

 

 

[chrisf]

1 hour ago, 45156 said:

So for the musicians among us - this is the latest from the excellent Josh Turner - Chrisf - I think that it reminds me of the music of John Renbourn - with whom I used to drink in the Half Moon at Putney from time to time.

Stewart, I can hear why you think that.  I've not come across this young gentleman before.  He reminds me of a young Martin Simpson.  That's a compliment btw.

 

Chris

[Two_sugars]

I was thinking of Martin Simpson as well . . . . . Chop the little Burgers fingers off to give the rest of us a chance.

He is very good though but.

 

It's been 14 days since I had Jab2 . . . Slight bruised feeling on days 2/3 but nowt to see, and no other problems.

 

Have a good day all . . and keep smiling

 

John

[polybear]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Finally, P Bear has bemoaned the alteration (desecration?) of his beloved Coop LDC, could Amazon not provide a Chinese made copy of the original Coop LDC??? 

 

iD

 

Not even this Bear could be persuaded by Chinese knock-off copies of cake heaven, such as it was.  No doubt such a product would contain huge quantities of cancer-causing industrial chemicals and pesticides deemed highly harmful and long since banned by the EU.

Cynical Bear.

 

 

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

The end of a week's bachelordom occurs this afternoon when Jill returns from Devon s

 

 

INCOMING.....

 

49 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Dare I mention that seven months today is Christmas Day.
 

 

Only if you wish to join the ER sick list.....

 

Kitchen progress slow - a few brackets added, a bit of paint added to the wall so that when Bear is will be routing around inside the sink cupboard he sees a nice blue colour instead of bare plaster, and a pipe collar purchased from the 'bay; £1-48 for two is a rip off when compared to the Toolstation price of £2-48 for ten I know, but (a) they're delivered, and (b) what would Bear do with the other nine, other than bung 'em in the loft (that I'm trying to empty, rather than fill)?

No news from any Gas Fitters.....

[petethemole]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

'Going through the motions' was less appealing....

Part of my job as an archaeologist was managing the Environmental Archaeology work.  This included sorting through the sieved contents of Saxon and Medieval cess pits.  I was just going through the motions.  My lecture for day schools was entitled "All things must pass".

[iL Dottore]

3 minutes ago, petethemole said:

Part of my job as an archaeologist was managing the Environmental Archaeology work.  This included sorting through the sieved contents of Saxon and Medieval cess pits.  I was just going through the motions.  My lecture for day schools was entitled "All things must pass".

Where's the BLOODY GROAN BUTTON!!!

[Tony_S]

Those of you who doubted that my parcel originating in Roswell , the one in Georgia not New Mexico, wouldn’t arrive due its final miles being delivered by Hermes will be pleased to know it arrived earlier this morning. No problems. Interestingly the wrapping paper in the cardboard box seemed to be sheets from a Russian language newspaper. 
My new computer will be arriving between 5 and 6 this evening according to DHLs texts and emails. Royal Mail sent a van out for our bird food. 12.5 kg would have been a bit much for Paul the Postie’s shoulder bag I think. 
We had a strange conversation with MiL yesterday about dogs. Our nephew and his fiancée have recently bought and moved into a house. They have had flats before. Apparently they went to look at a cat but it made Josh sneeze, he did still wonder if he had a cat allergy and this confirmed it. This means a dog is being sought. Fiancée Bianca loves animals. However MiL is totally anti the idea as she thinks people have dogs instead of children, and keeps mentioning every bad dog related tale she recalls over her 93 years. My nephews parents never let us take Robbie over to their house but didn’t mind visiting here. They did let my Mum take her mini schnauzer over but he was very calm and also didn’t shed hair. I am working up to being very pro dog and saying how lovely it will be. I tease Aditi’s brother about ponies or horses for the nieces (he has a large garden!) but he has a sense of humour.

Tony

Edited May 25, 2021 by Tony_S

[simontaylor484]

4 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

The end of a week's bachelordom occurs this afternoon when Jill returns from Devon so this morning is try to get the house prepared and get the shopping in so that I stay out of trouble. Cock-eyed optimist - me?

 

My car started its 'let's see how many dashboard warning lights we can get on at once' trick again yesterday so I took it into the garage where two minutes with the plug in diagnostic machine showed the trouble to be a faulty ABS sensor. It's booked in on Thursday to be fixed so bang go some more modelling tokens. There's also a new kitchen water heater on order and some loose roof tiles to be sorted out so the wallet damage threatens to be severe.

 

Good news on the Dad front as he is now having regular physiotherapy and seems to be much more positive in his attitude. As of this Friday we can visit him so I hope we will see the improvement first hand. 

 

Must go now, housework calls.

 

Yuk.

 

Dave 

Glad to see your Dad is getting the proper treatment at last.

 

I haven't heard of the cock eyed optimist but i have heard of  the cock eyed prophet 1 Isaiah.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

cock eyed optimist

South Pacific ?

[Gwiwer]

3 hours ago, petethemole said:

This included sorting through the sieved contents of Saxon and Medieval cess pits.

Ah.  The Midden Ages   

 

Our palaeontology group wasn't all aware of everything they were handling in the lab one time.  Specimens labelled "Coprolite" were queried as not being found in either the mineralogy texts nor the flora and fauna of the Jurassic.  

 

"Ah", says Harry with glee (always Harry, he was never a Dr and wasn't the Prof) "You've got dinosaur s**t on your hands!!!"  

 

Exit two squeamish females at high speed with screams and gagging sounds  

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, petethemole said:

Part of my job as an archaeologist was managing the Environmental Archaeology work.  This included sorting through the sieved contents of Saxon and Medieval cess pits.  I was just going through the motions.  My lecture for day schools was entitled "All things must pass".

Flavios wish is my command.

 

Jamie

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon all,

 

apologies for not having fully caught but it's good to hear some better news abut Dave's dad and commmiserations to Phil about his stone - hoping for agood outcome.

 

We dined out on Sunf day evening to celebrate the GD's upcoming birthday but within a few hours of returning home I was being violently sick which was then accompanied by output from the other end which continued long after the sickness had ended.  The GD rang 111 and explained the situation to them adding that I was suffering - by that stage, from Type 7 diarrhoea (which I suspect meant nothing to the call handler.  A helpful Doctor called back later with all the usual advice regarding dehydration and not to take most of my normal diet of pills;  a later telecon with the GP confirmed all of that plus a request  for a 'sample' if things don't clear up within a couple of days. Tthe GP thinks it might be down to food poisoning (we suspect possible shellfish cross contamination of my meal through the added 'leaves' which were common with two other starters among our number) and the restrauanteur is being very helpful investigating kitchen procedures so I won't be naming the establishment.

 

Going back a bit earlier in response to Dom's question I found German approach to railway terminology very straightforward especially if you like long nouns.  My own (British) job title rendered in German came down to a single word exceeding two dozen letters although I can't remember it now.  But then it was three fairly long words in English and three words and two prepositions in French (although it does roll off the tongue rather nicely in French) and because it started with the 'Chef' it tended to impress those who needed to be impressed.

 

Anyway back to today and less time is being spent catching up a night's lost sleep than was the case yesterday (fortunately) and the tum is still not fully right but that's not unexpected.  Enjoy the rest of your day one and all and stay safe

[phil_sutters]

As there seems to be a number of people knowledgeable in horticultural or botanical matters in this thread, can any one identify this plant, growing in a west facing flint church-yard wall in Sussex? I have just seen it for the first time, although I have walked past the spot scores of times over the past ten years.

[polybear]

9 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

The GP thinks it might be down to food poisoning (we suspect possible shellfish cross contamination of my meal through the added 'leaves' which were common with two other starters among our number) and the restrauanteur is being very helpful investigating kitchen procedures so I won't be naming the establishment.

 

 

= Giving the kitchen an emergency deep clean, sorting the fridges, bo11ocking the chef and ensuring all ducks are in a very neat row in case the Env. Health Officers come knocking....

Cynical Bear

[southern42]

 

 

I see the C word has arisen in this parish, already. I am not partial to punishment, but perhaps a week without LDC for the Coombe Barton gentleman will, perhaps, perform a miracle cure.

[polybear]

An afternoon of new sink planning has been carried out, in particular to ensure the existing pipework will hook up ok to the chosen (but not yet purchased) sink.  So far, so good.  Hopefully.....

A response from a local Gas Fitting company (as opposed to a one/two man band) regarding the bl00dy gas pipe  (other descriptions are available....) - they've quoted Bear £72  , which is very easy money - and a lot of cake tokens in Bear's book.  And they've given availability as next Tuesday .  Bear has responded with a plea for this week, which also plays for time a little in the hope that others may yet respond today.....

Bear should've been a Gas Bear.....

[polybear]

5 minutes ago, southern42 said:

 

 

I see the C word has arisen in this parish, already. I am not partial to punishment, but perhaps a week without LDC for the Coombe Barton gentleman will, perhaps, perform a miracle cure.

 

Or indeed any other flavour, as suitable punishment for uttering such language....

[TheQ]

Much more important, it's 11days to the 3 Rivers Race, the current forecast is for a  20 to 30mph southerly wind.. which is on the strong side, and would mean lots of tacking.

 

It bin chuckitdarn most of the day, the roads are very soggy. 

 

This week's major system is now on its cross check run.

 

Ben awaits SWMBOs return from weaving..

Edited May 25, 2021 by TheQ

[The Stationmaster]

47 minutes ago, polybear said:

An afternoon of new sink planning has been carried out, in particular to ensure the existing pipework will hook up ok to the chosen (but not yet purchased) sink.  So far, so good.  Hopefully.....

A response from a local Gas Fitting company (as opposed to a one/two man band) regarding the bl00dy gas pipe  (other descriptions are available....) - they've quoted Bear £72  , which is very easy money - and a lot of cake tokens in Bear's book.  And they've given availability as next Tuesday .  Bear has responded with a plea for this week, which also plays for time a little in the hope that others may yet respond today.....

Bear should've been a Gas Bear.....

I don't think you should do what I did to get some action out of Southern Electric (or whatever they were called that week) when I required a property to be disconnected but it did work.  

 

They had prevaricated mucked about over coming up with a date to do the work for over a month and I was getting somewhat hacked off with them as they were holding up demolition work. So I rang them and gave them a final warning - either they disconnected the property within the next couple of days or a digger bucket would do the job for them.  Blokes were on site at 08.00 the next day - unfortunately they didn't bother to contact me first so they had to hang around for the best part of an hour waiting for me, the key holder, to arrive.

 

It would have been quite amusing watching this 14 tonne beastie deal with the cable  (the driver said it was a great shame the job hadn't been left for him to do) 

 

[jonny777]

1 hour ago, phil_sutters said:

As there seems to be a number of people knowledgeable in horticultural or botanical matters in this thread, can any one identify this plant, growing in a west facing flint church-yard wall in Sussex? I have just seen it for the first time, although I have walked past the spot scores of times over the past ten years.

 

The flowers look a bit like arrowgrass but it has grass-like leaves, nothing like that. 

 

[Barry O]

Shopping has been done. Pah!  Muddling tokens seriously depleted.. PAH!

 

Lad from Middlesborough has rung up and fixed our BT Mail accounts.. I made sure he was a real BT help desk person by asking hi if he ever ate Parmas. .. he was real!

 

Next up what to have for dinner.. hopefully Stationmaster will be feeing considerably better as the day progresses...

 

Baz

 

 

Edited May 25, 2021 by Barry O

[Tony_S]

53 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

 

The flowers look a bit like arrowgrass but it has grass-like leaves, nothing like that. 

 

I thought it might be a sedum or sempervivum at first but I can’t find any that look quite like that. 

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, phil_sutters said:

As there seems to be a number of people knowledgeable in horticultural or botanical matters in this thread, can any one identify this plant, growing in a west facing flint church-yard wall in Sussex? I have just seen it for the first time, although I have walked past the spot scores of times over the past ten years.

Could be bugle, does it have a square stem?

 

[jonny777]

Or maybe some form of Verbascum? 

 

[polybear]

Well "We can do it next Tuesday Ltd." came back to Bear in good time - this time they offered tomorrow afternoon, so Bear finally has a Gas Man booked .  Only one other of the eight nine contacted has had the courtesy to respond - and they can't do it (good that they did respond anyway though - which is a tick in their box).  The bozo that I contacted at the start of last week (and said he could probably do the job later in the week) never did respond to my text this morning, so he can go Foxtrot - it's no good offering a cheap price if you're not gonna do the job.

 

In other news:

A bit of a woolly kinda day really - I'm a bit of a serial kinda Bear at heart, in that I like to do things in a set order - whereas others manage to be a bit parallel and if one job is held up then they jump onto something else instead.  I'm getting better in this respect, but it doesn't always come easy.  Anyone else like that?