Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

What's a "high-test one"?

There are two flu vaccines this year. I suspect high test is the one used  for the over 65s here. High test used to be used as an alternative for high octane. I only saw it on retro T shirts!

Edited October 21, 2021 by Tony_S
Remove surplus a

[TheSignalEngineer]

10 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Or you could pay for Gold membership, probably costs  less than a coffee and cake in a Swiss restaurant and have no ads and access to loads of magazines. 

Certainly less than Baz paid for his afternoon tea in London

[PeterBB]

4 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

The bottom of our garden is bordered by a stand of mature sycamore trees, these do not make any nice autumnal colours at all, but go from green to curly dead brown, seemingly overnight.  We then spend months chasing piles of leaves around the garden.  We do have one acer bush that is currently very colourful.  The wind today (external) will probably ruin that too.

Leaves are 'easy' to deal with, its those dratted 'flying seeds' that are the problem and come spring you find out about the ones you 'missed' whilst clearing up the leaves.  Ours is about halfway down the garden and over 2' diameter at trunk level.

[simontaylor484]

Afternoon from a chilly but sunny West Yorkshire.

Some trees are bare but some still full of green leaves.

Been to Sil's this morning to take a Birthday pressie for Nephew.

Whilst there I had to sit in car for a phone call from my therapist, whilst on the call I noticed their next door neighbour whom I shall describe as vermin cone out of the house wearing one of those coats that look like they have been kicked from a hot water cylinder and trunk boxer shorts and walk off round the corner and cone back 5 mins later with half a dozen eggs from the corner shop.

Looks like someone's having a bad day

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-58992200

[The Lurker]

15 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 

Diwali lights?  

The people over the road from us (known to us as the Slobs) have halloween lights and decs up - and have done for a week and a half now.

[Gwiwer]

Greetings and a Happy Lunchtime to all from a slowly-drying Hill of Strawberries.  

 

Last night became most uncommonly wet.  at very short notice the Bureau of Seaweed-Wrangling posted an Amber Warning of high winds and heavy rain likely to cause disruption.  We were already enjoying both when the warning was posted and had some thunder and lightning as an added bonus.  

 

Today has been .... interesting.  Floods have affected various parts of the railway.  Salisbury - Exeter was closed for a time though the blockage has now reduced ti the still-lengthy Salisbury - Yeovil section.  Buckhorn Weston Tunnel is apparently to be renamed the Buckhorn Weston Canal but there are problems in other places too.  The Great Western route via Tiverton was also affected meaning there way no way to reach Exeter for several hours.  Fulwell Tunnel (that extended-length road bridge which has always been named as a tunnel) was also closed for a time as often happens after heavy rain.  All the money spent on flood-relief work there has had precisely zero effect; it still floods every time the Heavens open.  And then there was Farnham ..... and a few other locations as well.  

 

Not an easy morning at the House of Fun but the sort of challenge that we rise to every time it happens.  "Salisbury sir?  Yes - take the Weymouth train and change at Southampton today."  "Crewkerne?  There will be a taxi arranged from Dorchester South for you madam."  And an oft-repeated invitation to our customers reminding them to claim Delay Repay which brought forth several positive comments.  

 

It's now beautifully sunny of course.  Nowhere near as warm as of late.  Today was the first of the season when thermal leggings were applied and needed.  That will be a daily event soon enough.  

 

Dr. SWMBO is working from work today so it's me and His Furrship for a boys-alone afternoon.  But first lunch.  I wonder what lurks in the fridge ......... 

[The Lurker]

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

 

An important clarification for our American friends: “Autumn is when the leaves change colour and Nature gets ready for winter, “Fall” is when you slip and go a*se over t*t.

although to be fair, Fall was used in England long ago, and is the opposite of Spring. I suspect Autumn was just us wanting to get all continental and sophisticated

 

[Gwiwer]

5 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

The people over the road from us (known to us as the Slobs) have halloween lights and decs up - and have done for a week and a half now.

One of our neighbours hung skeletons out of their upstairs windows a week or so ago.  They glow faintly green for a time after dark.  Complaints were made by some parents that these scared the young children (who are aged 2  - 4) and they have been taken indoors.  

[Gwiwer]

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

An important clarification for our American friends: “Autumn is when the leaves change colour and Nature gets ready for winter, “Fall” is when you slip and go a*se over t*t.

 

Abso .. ****** .. lutely.   

 

And rather too often one goes A over T (or sometimes slides feet-before-botty) on the aforesaid fallen leaves  

[pH]

‘High test’ is also applied to beers with higher alcohol contents.

[Gwiwer]

6 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

although to be fair, Fall was used in England long ago, and is the opposite of Spring. I suspect Autumn was just us wanting to get all continental and sophisticated

 

If you can't remember which way the clocks change it's Spring Forward - Fall Back.  Which works which ever hemisphere you are in even with the seasons a*** about face against the calendar in the southern half.  

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from LBG where the blue sky and sun completely bely the fact that we had torrential rain overnight, so much so that various southeastern services were disrupted - some by a train that broke down in Grove Park depot across the points but others by a landslip at Higham.

 

My train was delayed because of the latter and the crawled between Albany Park and Sidcup. I looked out and saw this:

 

That's the first time I have ever noticed water between the tracks like that, despite having commuted for large proportions of my life - including to school. It's hardly major flooding but it gives an idea of the rain, and how poor the ballast between the tracks has drained

[TheQ]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-58992200

Many years ago Like 43,,  I seem to remember that building the "revolution da Cuba" in the back ground was being used as an exhibition hall, as we exhibited something with parallel metal lines on it  (all hand made ) From the RAF Locking MRC. Across the river / harbour is the building they used a year or two later to pretend to be "Shoestrings"  Radio Station which IIRC was a multistory car park..

Edited October 21, 2021 by TheQ

[Gwiwer]

49 minutes ago, The Lurker said:My train was delayed because of the latter and the crawled between Albany Park and Sidcup. I looked out and saw this:  …..   It's hardly major flooding but it gives an idea of the rain, and how poor the ballast between the tracks has drained

Meanwhile in Yeovil ….. 

 

 

And elsewhere ……. 
 

Credit - news media images found at Somersetlive.co.uk 

[Compound2632]

Time to get creative with the rail replacement service:

 

 

[Embedded link.]

[simontaylor484]

We had a lot of rain yesterday but by constant its sunny but the temperature has dipped.

 

Had I still been working it would have been about time for the annual hire in of leaf sucking machines. The ones with a massive vacuum hose on and they would get fired into the back of the cages on the vans. 

The trouble with them was they were made for Europe so all the operating buttons/levers meant you were stood in the middle of the road to use them 

[New Haven Neil]

@PeterBB Our sycamores!  'Library Photograph' as the leave are half down now.

 

[Tony_S]

51 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Meanwhile in Yeovil …..

I would have expected the clogs to just float away. Unless it was sabotage.

[Compound2632]

32 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Unless it was sabotage.

 

Cleverclogs.

[Ref44]

Some positive news for a change; it looks like we will be moving on the 3rd. Going to a bungalow will make life a lot easier for SWMBO who is currently stuck living in the lounge. Exchange of contracts should be early next week.

[polybear]

7 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

The plug was a moulded one so I cut it off and replaced it. still no joy, and was unable to get to the cord entry without using a Manchester Spanner or Birmingham Screwdriver.

 

There's nothing quite like being compliant with "right to repair".....

 

5 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Gosh, I didn't know you are an aficionado of <Milk (equivalent to 426mL), sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, vegetable fats (palm, shea), emulsifiers (E442 [Ammonium phosphatides], E476 [Polyglycerol polyricinoleate]), flavourings>. (Cadbury's Milk Chocolate*) or of <Sugar, cocoa butter, dried skimmed milk, dried whey, milk fat, soya lecithin (emulsifier), flavouring> (Cadbury's white choclate buttons*).

 

And I thought chocolate was simply cocoa beans, cocoa butter, sugar, milk and natural flavourings. Silly me!

 

Bear would've been most disappointed if CC hadn't mentioned E numbers.....

 

4 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Certainly less than Baz paid for his afternoon tea in London

 

Ah yes, but I can find no mention in the RMWeb Gold Package of free midnight squits.

 

3 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Looks like someone's having a bad day

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-58992200

 

Driver was a lucky boy - or lady.  That could've been very un-funny indeed (from a Bear with experience of numerous underwater escape training courses)

 

In other news:

Washing done  Bed changed  More sorting in the lounge  

And the missing Hermes parcel was delivered at 13:31 today - cos' their tracking says so.  They've even included a photo of the white front door as proof   Now if it were a photo of Bear's blue front door it'd be even better .  No card thru' the door, no address on the tracking, no map....and Bear has been out to check that the door in question doesn't feature on any of the other forty-odd houses in the street.  Looks like this Bear is gonna be a shivery Bear for a few more nights yet whilst Hermes and the supplier get their acts together.  I'll not hold my breath.  Turdycurses.

 

And finally....

One of the Morris FJ Commercial Lorries advertised in MRJ is still available, complete with "Wonderloaf" livery  - it now has Bear's "name on it", and the cheque will very shortly be in the post, as they say.  Result. 

[TheSignalEngineer]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

Time to get creative with the rail replacement service:

 

 

[Embedded link.]

Probably the signalman from Walsall No.3 box which was under Park Street bridge immediately behind the cameraman. Because there was little or no warning of the culvert under the station overflowing and causing a flash flood there used to be a boat kept there tied to the box steps. Without it the signalman could be trapped by rising fast flowing dirty floodwater. 

Around 1968 I was working on the telecomms section at the divisional office. The phone rang and the voice at the other end said "Is that the coastguard?" No, it's the S&T office. "Hello, it's Ron, I'm in Walsall exchange.  I've just opened the door to go to lunch and the water is up round the doorstep." Walsall exchange was on the platform to the left hand edge of the pictute.

[polybear]

Complete b****x of the day:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58993387

Unbelievable

[Compound2632]

10 minutes ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Probably the signalman from Walsall No.3 box which was under Park Street bridge immediately behind the cameraman. Because there was little or no warning of the culvert under the station overflowing and causing a flash flood there used to be a boat kept there tied to the box steps. Without it the signalman could be trapped by rising fast flowing dirty floodwater. 

 

There's another photo here, dated 1931 - looks to be the same boat!

[simontaylor484]

I solved the iron cord problem by buying a "cordless" iron I say cordless because i have not yet managed to teach electricity to run along a piece of string. It has a cord running to the base the iron lifts off the base