Early Risers.

[AndrewC]

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

A colleague had just invented a new very appropriate phrase that I'm desperately trying to incorporate into my feedback on dissertations.

The phrase - word salad.

I've often heard that in regards to  politician's speeches, or some PowerPoint addicted ID10-T's attempt to talk through graphs and analytics.  

[leopardml2341]

2 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

Oh, that's such an amusing game!    

 

I remember many years ago (i.e. when it was particularly topical) a number of colleagues trying to incorporate Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease into a number of technical reports.   Given those technical reports related to "functional testing of some aerospace equipment" you'll appreciate that that was no mean feat!   

Agreed.

 

Once in a previous employ, I was rightly as it turned out, suspicious that my input into monthly reports was not actually read by anyone so I decided I would tell the story line by line about how futile the whole exercise was. I did this by injecting one line at a time into each report. It was some considerable time before I was rumbled, and as such the person who spotted it couldn't really 'b@ll@ck' me because I had been telling them for months that I suspected that they didn't read my input - let alone act upon it.

 

Box ticking at its best.

Edited June 9, 2021 by leopardml2341
'couldn't' not 'could'

[Gwiwer]

23 hours ago, Andrew P said:

NO PICTURES if you please kind Sir   

Not even a little one?

 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

You don't happen to know who gave Macron a slap do you? get them to give him one from me if the chance arises again lol.

The BBC seems to have an ID. Persons have been arrested. Slapper seems to be a mediaeval martial arts monarchist with links to right wing groups. 

[New Haven Neil]

Did the washing, two big loads.

 

Strung out on the lines as it isn't a bad day for drying, being now 21c and breezy to windy.

 

Did some other work for an hour, went to check washing.  Line pole snapped off at the base (rusted through) and washing all over the lawn and the garden railway (oily rails from running session the other day).  Do washing again......pah.  Actually I said something else but there are ladies present.

[Gwiwer]

Good afternoon all from a very warm Hill of Strawberries.  

 

Hermes is awaited or is that, correctly, Hermes are awaited?  The item was notified as being out for delivery "Between 1 - 2pm" which slipped to "Between 1 - 3pm" then went to "Between 3 - 5pm" and is now "Between 7 - 9pm"  Hmmmmm.  Do they even have it?  Do they know where to go?  Are there bears in the woods?  

 

Today has been another pollen festival and sneezing symphony.  I have had to resort to wearing the exemption badge on my trains to and from the House of Fun as the cloth beard-protector was causing distress in the nasal and asthmatic departments.  On the other hand the rewards for my efforts have been substantial in terms of the Great Scantily Dressed and I am now much better acquainted with the more socially-popular regions of several younger ladies.  TMI, perhaps.  But if they choose to openly display themselves then they must be aware that others can see.  Thorpe Park was, as ever, the destination of choice for many.  

 

Time to retreat to the darkened corners of the Hill with another muggercamomile to desensitise the sneezing regions.  Back later.  

 

 

[BoD]

Afternoon all

 

grumpy head /on

 

Firstly, a K1 which is fitted with a Zimo sound chip has decided to go very quiet.  It is resisting all fettling at the moment.

 

Secondly, hotel prices.  We rarely go abroad and so regularly holiday in these wonderful British Isles. We fancied braving a few days away and got a real shock when looking at hotels, both familiar and new.  I had, given the circumstances, expected some increase in prices to cover possibly reduced capacity and enforced Covid precautions but even where rooms are still available the prices have increased by ridiculous amounts. I realise that it's supply and demand and all that but I do wish that all of those, for whom holidaying in the British Isles is normally beneath them, would leave them alone for those of us who have always enjoyed doing so. 

 

grumpy head /off

Edited June 9, 2021 by BoD

[Andrew P]

38 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Not even a little one?

 

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[simontaylor484]

@BoD I haven't holidays in Britain for a few years now, not because it is beneath us but on cost basis. We had caravan holidays when we were kids.we even had a tourer ourselves before my first breakdown. I have seen a lot of this country there is beautiful countryside cites and coastlines but it costs a fortune and there is the weather.

If it were possible i would have 2 weeks on the Yorkshire Wolds in red hot sunshine cheap activities and eating drinking on the Yorkshire coast.

[Tony_S]

I am sitting inside with the curtains drawn following my return from the retinopathy photography. I was obediently waiting outside but was invited in as no one else was there. No problems with the tests.

There was no parking at the clinic but Aditi knew of a quiet road nearby as she had parked there a couple of years ago while attending a funeral at the nearby church. 
The fence panels went in this morning. Neighbour seemed confused that only the first few lined up. Both i and the other neighbours helping out tried to explain his garden was on a slope so the top of the fences dropped a few inches to the next panel.  Anyway we can get on with restoring that side of the garden now. 
I may have mentioned a few weeks ago I bought a new PC. The only choice for a UK keyboard was a very basic one. I don’t want anything very special but I have got used to an illuminated keyboard. Any better keyboard from the manufacturer was US International rather than UK. So,I have obtained another one from a keyboard manufacturer. I thought I was going bonkers last night trying to understand the instructions. I didn’t want the keyboard to display rainbow patterns or surf effects I just wanted the keys to be gently illuminated. The first few attempts didn’t survive a reboot but it is all ok now. Who does want rainbow waves or raindrop effects on a keyboard anyway?
My car has some sort of “mood “ lighting effect. It is set to a very dim red in mine. I don’t know what mood that is. 
Tony

[simontaylor484]

Oh I forgot in that 2 weeks a visit to the Scarborough Cricket Festival i haven't been since I was 15. We saw the first day of Yorkshire v Nottinghamshire we were plagued by wasps

[BoD]

15 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

I haven't holidays in Britain for a few years now, not because it is beneath us but on cost basis.

 

I know a few people who 'over winter' for a couple of months in the Canaries because it is almost as cheap as living at home at that time of year.

[Ian Abel]

HUMP day! Woo hoo

 

Yesterday ravaged by attempting to digest, interpret and begin choosing the benefit options - mostly healthcare that most of the western worlds population don't have to struggle with! Overall comparable and parts are actually CHEAPER (YAY!!) for the same coverage. The only major annoyance is that the prescription drugs are handled exclusively by the "CVS" pharmacy. You have NO CHOICE of where you get your prescriptions  . Currently I can go anywhere to obtain them and use a pharmacy that's less than 1/2 mile from here, easy to walk to if I care to.

The nearest CVS is about 5 miles away   First world problem in any case I suppose!

 

Continues beasly hot and humid here, today started out at 21 and full sun, will be 34-35 again next few days.

 

Tally ho.

[New Haven Neil]

My last Flawed Ford had 'mood' lighting that was also red - seems an odd choice other than I suppose it is supposed to not destroy night vision as they didn't go out.  Mrs NHN's Citroen has sort of vanilla coloured lights in footwells (warm white?) which go out after a few seconds after embarking.  More sensible?  My i30 doesn't have any that I have noticed, nor do I miss them.  We didn't know we 'needed' them I suppose.

 

Now i get into rant mode, it seems to me cars have all sorts of things you only seem to 'need' for the week after you buy it, and never touch again.  As a forinstance, mine has adjustable weight power steering, which...I fiddled with once out of curiosity and never again in three years!

[leopardml2341]

3 minutes ago, BoD said:

 

I know a few people who 'over winter' for a couple of months in the Canaries because it is almost as cheap as living at home at that time of year.

I intend to do just that as/when/if we're able to and I'm retired.

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon all,

 

The sun is shining and the temperature is rising.  Fortunately  our roundy washing line is seated, very firmly, in a substantial piece of concrete.  Unfortunately if it ever breaks at ground level I am in for a major rebuilding job or total abandonment and start again somewhere else.

 

'Word salad ia s quite long established expression.  In fact plenty long enough established to be included in the Cambridge Online Dictionary (and be defined elsewhere on the 'net)

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/word-salad

 

As for foxes and n muntjacs we haven't seen anything of our usual visitors for a week or two.  Mr & Mrs muntjac tend to move about a bit although they seem to prefer dropping their yougster in the more hidden parts of our garden and I do wish they would stop jumping through our front hedge and demolishing various plants in the process.   I seem to have managed to dissuade Mrs Fox for dropping her litter here by the crafty process of putting broken flints in the hole every time she starts digging her maternity ward.  But having said that it was great fun watching when we had the fox cubs playing in the garden over 10 years back - very entertaining and just like any other sort of puppy when it came ti fun and games.  Amusingly they and our then resident muntjac used to completely ignore each other even when only a few feet apart.  The concrete floor in the garage still has the evidence of the fox cubs using it as a playground before it had completely set.

 

Searching for yet more background information for a thread in the prototype area by taking a route which completely ignored railways I came across this fascinating film from 1914 - a very different world -

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-great-dalis-horse-fair-lampeter-may-1914-1914-online

 

Enjoy the rest of your day and stay safe.

Edited June 9, 2021 by The Stationmaster
typos

[TheQ]

Hermes. Singular, messenger of the gods. He is therefore near perfect

Hermes, courier, messenger to the unhappy , non receiving public. They are therefore near carp..

 

Bin absent most of the day, much too much work today, plus brain got latched onto handicaps again.

now why that piece of music?

Well we are surrounded by barley this year, not your modern shortarsed variety. These are 3ft tall still green and still growing. I think therefore a heritage variety heading for a brewer somewhere.. you'll be drinking our fields next year.

 

64 years ago yesterday my parents got married, funnily enough at the moment I'm 63, 

I shall move towards 64, by inspecting eyelids.

 

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by TheQ

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

Not even a little one?

 

And for today we have Rick sporting a nifty off  the dhoulder budgie smuggler.

 

Jamie

[Ian Abel]

23 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

And for today we have Rick sporting a nifty off  the dhoulder budgie smuggler.

 

Jamie

Interestingly, given a "budgie" isn't a common term for those small birds, the equivalent clothing item here is referred to as a "banana hammock"   

[Gwiwer]

23 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

And for today we have Rick sporting a nifty off  the dhoulder budgie smuggler.

 

Jamie

As in the budgie is already off the shoulder. The birdie has flown

 

[Gwiwer]

1 minute ago, Ian Abel said:

Interestingly, given a "budgie" isn't a common term for those small birds, the equivalent clothing item here is referred to as a "banana hammock"   

 

[J. S. Bach]

5 hours ago, leopardml2341 said:

 ...snip... Another colleague chimed in at that point and my response was in no uncertain terms JFDI - end of and if I catch you not doing you will be reported. ...snip...

JFDI ?????

[polybear]

5 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

JFDI ?????

 

Bear pondered that, then settled on:

"Just F*****g Do It"

[laurenceb]

5 hours ago, leopardml2341 said:

 

 

It was regards office accommodation and social distancing.

 

One covidiot who is not going to accept the vaccines out of choice, was complaining (incorrectly) that the company's guidelines for working in that office meant that in the course of his job he would have to work in close proximity to others.

 

My response was that he should wear a mask and use other protective measures, again as required by company procedures. His (smart arse) response was that a mask won't protect him, only others; my response - "As you have chosen not to be vaccinated you should take steps to protect others when working in close proximity - in that way you will comply with company guidelines and do your bit for humanity to protect others despite refusing vaccination"

 

Another colleague chimed in at that point and my response was in no uncertain terms JFDI - end of and if I catch you not doing you will be reported.

 

Perhaps not exactly the bloodbath you might've anticipated, but certainly an indication of my vulnerability to losing it due to being under the weather

 

Very restrained Andy

[J. S. Bach]

7 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

...snip... Cracking photo of the GW railcar towing no less than four wagons as tail traffic, hopefully the route didn't have any notable gradients. ...snip...

If that is the wedge-nosed one that Dapol is coming out with very soon (according to Hatton's), I have one on pre-order; the thing fascinates me and reminds me of a Philadelphia & Western "Bullet" car:

I had a chance to run one of these on the last inbound trip from Norristown to 69th Street late one night (very early morning?), what a feeling cruising along at 70+ mph (even through Strafford Junction; 25 mph speed restriction! Al did not tell me about it until we blew through!!)

 

 

 

Note that the cars face south to go to 69th St. so get a lot more sun than the Norristown bound ones. There are no loops, the operators change ends. In the 50+ years that these ran, the mileage nb/sb was probably very close to equal.

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by J. S. Bach
to do a minor edit.