Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Well the rain has finally stopped falling from the sky the wind has stopped blowing and there are the occasional patches of blue skies to be seen. Yes folks, the weather has changed and for a change, it’s for the better! 

 

Today I have a box of goodies from Widnes due to arrive sometime between 9:15 and 1:15, what do you bet it’s nearer 1:15 than 9:15? So once again I am required for door answering duties, but as the package is for me, I don’t mind, it’s another excuse to sit and work in the cellar. 

 

Sheila is at the hairdressers today, but she could only get an afternoon appointment, so we will be having an early dinner to accommodate that. 

 

That pretty much much sums up what today has in store for us, it’s all very exciting isn’t it? 

 

Back later. 

 

Brian

[Barry O]

Sunny here...very, very sunny...but cold...

 

 

Baz

[tigerburnie]

Morning, dull, wet and cold weather for us today, glad we went for our walk to the lighthouse yesterday as it doesn't look very inviting out there just now, the fire is lit and porridge is on the go, as part of a diet I now miss breakfast in the morning and have brunch instead, a dollop of the wifes' cousins own honey completes the dish, take care all.

[iL Dottore]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

---accompanied by.......a frozen garlic baguette from the Co-op...

 

I do recall thinking that a certain Captain would go into meltdown at the mere thought of such a delicacy.  In my defence there were three in a pack and they were in the clearance cabinet, so 55p seemed a bargain to this Bear....

Hmm.

 

I see the bear is a connoisseur of "Fortified Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Water, Butter (Milk) (8%), Vegetable Oils (Palm, Rapeseed), Chopped Garlic (2%), Salt, Chopped Parsley, Yeast, Concentrated Lemon Juice, Emulsifier (Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids - Vegetable), Flour Treatment Agent (Ascorbic Acid), Flavouring, Wheat Starch, Colour (Carotenes)"*

 

Whereas a homemade garlic bread would just contain yeast, water, salt & flour (the Baguette) as well as garlic, butter and parsley (the garlic butter). And once you've made a batch they freeze nicely.

 

I still remain unconvinced by "convenience" foods.....

 

iD

 

* incidentally, this information was NOT available from the Co-Op on-line shop (https://shop.coop.co.uk/product/6ae852f2-3241-4558-b7a7-1f06698e1fd5), but rather from a department store: https://www.roys.co.uk/co-op-garlic-baguettes-310gm I wonder why the ingredient reticence on behalf of the Co-Op

[simontaylor484]

Been for my flu jab this morning I booked through Pharmacy 2u as my Surgery doesnt have any left for the under 65s despite me being in the at risk group having asthma and diabetes. I had a look on line last night and could get an appointment for 0910 ideal for coming back from the school run. Ironically the vaccination centre is over the road from the drs surgery.

The staff at the vaccination centre have also told me I am eligible for covid booster I have to ring 119 at some point.

Whilst I was out I decided to treat myself to a Morrisons breakfast too.

My arm sore so I am going to use that as an excuse not to wield the vacuum cleaner 

[Tony_S]

29 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

The staff at the vaccination centre have also told me I am eligible for covid booster I have to ring 119 at some point.

From the texts and letters I get I still seem to be on the qualifying by being vulnerable list rather than age.  Previously Aditi did as well due to diabetes and asthma.I think whether or not you get communications now depends on why you are vulnerable. People who are immumosuppressed due to a health condition or having an organ transplant still seem to be communicated with. There is an instruction online that if you think you should be seen and haven’t been contacted to ring 119. I got a text from the GP with a link to the local Covid vaccine booking system. I could have gone nearly 2 weeks ago but needed to postpone until after tomorrows hospital appointment. Aditi will be six months past her last Covid vaccination at the end of this week.

Edited November 2, 2021 by Tony_S

[Tony_S]

58 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

hereas a homemade garlic bread would just contain yeast, water, salt & flour (the Baguette)

Flour in the UK will be fortified and contain the ingredients included in the bracketed text after flour. Fortification of flour started in the 1940s and various things have been added since. Of the other ingredients I suppose the palm oil is rather suspect but for an environmental rather than culinary reason. 

[New Haven Neil]

Well the 'Hip Man' (actually not the man himself this time but a Reg) added a new diagnosis to the list, having decided my hip is doing pretty much OK arthritically really, and the pain in one place is trochanteric bursitis - so promptly stuck a whacking great needle in it and injected steroids.  That smarted.  A Bit.  A BIG bit!  He reckoned I would feel the benefit very soon, as in almost immediately as there is also local anaesthetic in the mix, but having driven home it is now worse than ever. #sigh#  He wouldn't really address the other areas of pain until he saw what result this had.  Two weeks today for the next episode.

[iL Dottore]

@PupCam I tried to send you a PM, but got a notification that you aren’t receiving messages. Have you been put on the “naughty step” and banned from talking to the rest of the class?

 

In other news, I got through to the Thomann customer helpdesk who were singularly unhelpful, but did confirm the package (the Harley Benton CST-24 T) has been dispatched. But now I am at the mercy of DPD updating their damn tracking software so I have some vague idea of where the parcel is in transit.

 

What’s the point of having a bloody tracking number if you actually can’t track anything. (but I suppose it looks good in the glossy promotional brochures…)

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from LBG where the sky is bluer and the air a little warmer than it was in Sidcup earlier.

 

The talk of climate change at the moment and on here over the last few days reminded me of a picture on Mike Morant's excellent site. It is one of a J Class 0--6-4T on a suburban train towards Victoria or London Bridge, taken from HC Casserley's garden in the Bromley area and it is dated, I think, 25 October 1932. Leaving aside the interest of a J class on that kind of work when I had understood them to have been pushed out of London by that stage, what really struck me was that the caption points out that there was a heavy shroud of frost. And indeed it is very visible in the foreground of the shot. I can't recall the last time that there was any frost in October in SE London, never mind a heavy shroud. Even allowing for an increasing heat island effect in the major metropolises, that is quite a sobering thought. In fact, we barely had a frost at all last winter in SE London. I don't know whether the 30s were a cool decade; I suspect the opposite because 1930s cricket pitches in England were regarded as featherbeds on which the batsmen (as they were called then) made hay. I think it was 1932 when Bradman's Aussies made over 600 in a day at Chelmsford for example.

 

And on to other things; a while back there was talk of old signage, largely BR (S) and I mentioned that  "LBSCR " was painted on one of the underbridges on the approaches to London  Bridge. I checked Bermondsey Street half an hour ago. No sign of what I had seen before but I did see this instead:

 

 

[simontaylor484]

Just nipped through to Wakefield again to drop off some more stuff for her. The loneliness is starting to bite at least I have the dog for company at home. Arm still not 100%

I have bought some low noise fireworks for the boys they deserve a treat we were going to have a fire anyway

[BoD]

7 hours ago, Barry O said:

 

@BoD hope the bairn takes after the grandma not the grandad. Congrats!

Agreed.

[Coombe Barton]

2 hours ago, The Lurker said:

And on to other things; a while back there was talk of old signage, largely BR (S) and I mentioned that  "LBSCR " was painted on one of the underbridges on the approaches to London  Bridge. I checked Bermondsey Street half an hour ago. No sign of what I had seen before but I did see this instead:

With a vertical structural crack.

 

[tigerburnie]

4 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Flour in the UK will be fortified and contain the ingredients included in the bracketed text after flour. Fortification of flour started in the 1940s and various things have been added since. Of the other ingredients I suppose the palm oil is rather suspect but for an environmental rather than culinary reason. 

Buy Doves Farm Wholemeal 100% Fine Plain Flour - Organic - 1kg (goodclub.co.uk)

These folk sell flour with one ingredient it seems................................wheat.

[Barry O]

A1sensible.. now having a cup of coffee at the Premier Inn. A bit of exploring soon then off to my meeting.

 

Baz

[PupCam]

 

10 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I can only assume that no one has bothered to update the tracking pages because of the long weekend. Which is fair enough, but it does leave me in a quandary of having to be at home all day for the next couple of days as I have absolutely no idea when it is likely to turn up (a polite snotogram [©Poly Bear] has been dispatched). Fortunately, Mrs iD and the Wolfpack will not be returning from the Holiday Hovel until next Saturday - which means I still have plenty of time to sneak in my illicit purchase.

 

Afternoon All!

 

Just looking out the window at a lovely sunset.

 

Not much to report.   I was considering a bimble on the AJ but thought I'd better crack on with lining the garage door as that task seemed to slip down the priority pile a week or so ago so that's what I've been doing.    On the home straight now, just three more pieces of liner to go.

 

An interesting fact struck me yesterday when I saw a photograph of the damage to properties in my paternal grandparents road by a V2 during the war.    The fact that struck me was that Hitler actually had had a crack at both sets of grandparents and hence both my parents with V2s (No, not Gresley ones .....) as  V2s landed within 2-3 hundred yards of both grandparents houses, one of those being the one that hit the railway at Palmers Green.   Mother can still remember the sound of the explosion and the devastation wrought to all of the nearby properties including my grandparents.

 

https://enfielddispatch.co.uk/attack-on-the-track/

 

 

5 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

* incidentally, this information was NOT available from the Co-Op on-line shop (https://shop.coop.co.uk/product/6ae852f2-3241-4558-b7a7-1f06698e1fd5), but rather from a department store: https://www.roys.co.uk/co-op-garlic-baguettes-310gm I wonder why the ingredient reticence on behalf of the Co-Op

 

Ah!  Good old Roys of Wroxham!    I should imagine @The Q is most familiar with Roys.   

 

Fortified flour or not, home-made garlic bread has got to be better than convenience ......

 

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

@PupCam I tried to send you a PM, but got a notification that you aren’t receiving messages. Have you been put on the “naughty step” and banned from talking to the rest of the class?

 

Not as far as I know.   I'll try sending you one to which you can try replying.

 

UPDATE:     PM sent ....

 

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

In other news, I got through to the Thomann customer helpdesk who were singularly unhelpful, but did confirm the package (the Harley Benton CST-24 T) has been dispatched. But now I am at the mercy of DPD updating their damn tracking software so I have some vague idea of where the parcel is in transit.

 

What’s the point of having a bloody tracking number if you actually can’t track anything. (but I suppose it looks good in the glossy promotional brochures…)

 

A lot of tracking facilities are useless as you've discovered.     I've tried tracking the arrival of letters/packages from Royal Mail on several occasions to be greeted with a message stating that "No tracking information is currently available. Tracking information will be updated after delivery"   - Fat lot of good that was then!     Just like comedy and weather forecasting; it's all about the timing. 

 

4 hours ago, The Lurker said:

The talk of climate change at the moment and on here over the last few days reminded me of a picture on Mike Morant's excellent site. It is one of a J Class 0--6-4T on a suburban train towards Victoria or London Bridge, taken from HC Casserley's garden in the Bromley area and it is dated, I think, 25 October 1932. Leaving aside the interest of a J class on that kind of work when I had understood them to have been pushed out of London by that stage, what really struck me was that the caption points out that there was a heavy shroud of frost. And indeed it is very visible in the foreground of the shot. I can't recall the last time that there was any frost in October in SE London, never mind a heavy shroud.

 

I thought H.C.Casserley lived in Berkhamsted not Bromley - Pete Waterman could almost put a model of him on his latest WCML model.     I checked in my copy of "Steaming Through Berkhamstead" to find that he moved from Bromley to Berko in 1938! 

 

3 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Just nipped through to Wakefield again to drop off some more stuff for her. The loneliness is starting to bite at least I have the dog for company at home.

 

Hopefully now they can get a handle on the problem and get her sorted out ASAP.  At last she is somewhere where she can start to receive professional treatment and support and we wish her well.   No doubt all ERs are thinking of you Simon and all of your family which will hopefully be of some comfort.   It's a shame we can't offer some more practical help but I'm sure the moral support is beneficial.      As a good and very dear friend used to say during his own troubled times; "Keep on swimming" - it's a good maxim.

 

Alan

 

Edited November 2, 2021 by PupCam
"PM Sent" added

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Just spent the afternoon finishing reading the novel (The Night Gate by Peter May). Pretty good but spoilt in my mind by a couple of incorrect historic details. (Jeeps being used by the British army before Dunkirk?) But a good read nevertheless. It switches from wartime France to present day France with two intertwined stories. I found Richard Osmans book quite good as well, the heroines/heroes are all in their 70's, something many ER's can relate to.

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

In other news, I got through to the Thomann customer helpdesk who were singularly unhelpful, but did confirm the package (the Harley Benton CST-24 T) has been dispatched. But now I am at the mercy of DPD updating their damn tracking software so I have some vague idea of where the parcel is in transit.

Not had any problems with most couriers except one, that was UPS. After waiting in all day for a delivery that didn't come I tried to contact them and then discovered there was no contact e-mail or phone number. With some difficulty I managed to locate the local delivery centre, A brand new facility on Thames Gateway. It seems the only way to contact them apparently is to visit the delivery centre in person. I was actually setting out to do just that when the package turned up, a week late.

[Tony_S]

21 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

Buy Doves Farm Wholemeal 100% Fine Plain Flour - Organic - 1kg (goodclub.co.uk)

These folk sell flour with one ingredient it seems................................wheat.

We use quite a few Doves Farm products. During the first lockdown they were one of the few places we were able to get flour from. Their buckwheat (which isn’t wheat) flour makes nice pancakes.  I really like their digestive biscuits too, though of course after checking the palm oil ingredient was responsibly sourced. 

[Tony_S]

20 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

A lot of tracking facilities are useless as you've discovered.     I've tried tracking the arrival of letters/packages from Royal Mail on several occasions to be greeted with a message stating that "No tracking information is currently available. Tracking information will be updated after delivery"   - Fat lot of good that was then!     Just like comedy and weather forecasting; it's all about the timing. 

That message looks like the one given for first or second class “signed for”.  They are not fully tracked services. Packages sent RoyalMail Tracked 24 or 48 are tracked. I think for a letter to be tracked it probably has to go special delivery. 
Though occasionally we get something delivered when the tracking claims it is in a sorting office somewhere else. 

Edited November 2, 2021 by Tony_S

[Gwiwer]

Still some interesting skies here. Wind has died down though. 
 

 

 

[PupCam]

15 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

They are not fully tracked services.

 

So an entirely pointless exercise giving the customer a tracking number then ......

[Coombe Barton]

... and two hours of restraining myself ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/11/02/why-them-and-not-us/

[Ian Abel]

Moaning! <phew>

Far too busy since Friday when I last reported in...

Friday evening the schola performed at the Remembrance Service, it was delightful albeit a little chilly in the Memorial garden where we started, once inside we all fared better.

Saturday spent most of the day preparing for Halloween, cleaning off the track so I could run the Halloween Candy local - see video below

Sunday we had two services to sign at, followed by more frantic Halloween preparations in the afternoon, a "quick" party attendance at4PM with neighbors, then back to sit and hand out candy to the kids, was rather chilly but we managed with some wine to help warm us;

 

 

We finally dismantled everything and headed to the warmth of indoors around 8:30PM. A nice group of revelers, the dads mostly interested in the "delivery system" more so than the kids except a couple of them.

 

Monday back to sing at a funeral for a local musician, someone well know and loved by the church community and who has performed at many of our Cabaret fund raisers.

Monday evening, on information received, found a location doing "walkin" COVID boosters for those who qualify, we do, we got them

 

Today, local elections, we only had school board members to vote for, duly did our civic duty.

Now a little tired and achy, working but may have to quit earlier and rest some.

 

-1 first thing but sunny, expected to reach 5!

 

Carry on

 

 

Edited November 2, 2021 by Ian Abel

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

 

So an entirely pointless exercise giving the customer a tracking number then ......

It is so the sender knows it has arrived rather than for the person  receiving. If you want to track it so you know not go out then many retailers give you the option of paying more for tracked 24 or 48 packages. 

[The Lurker]

So, travel to Canada; Air Canada or Westjet? Any opinions out there. Westjet are cheaper but are they any good?