Early Risers.

[jjb1970]

10 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

How on earth can the people on the bridge see enough to dock or carry out any other close manoeuvre?

 

Dave

 

Excellent question, if you find an answer the navigation officers would be appreciative of you sharing it with them🤣

 

There are IMO regulations, which is why they moved the wheelhouse forward (older designs had the accommodation block about 3/4 - 2/3 aft) but it's still not good.

 

The engineers are the losers in the new configuration, the big ships have a an engineers cabin in the aft superstructure over the engine room so the duty engineer isn't too far from the engine room. 

[Tony_S]

10 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

the usual "weneedtocleanthisplaceupabitit'satip"  and other similar stuff. 

I can remember Matthew’s comment once when Aditi suggested we should tidy up as “John Lewis were delivering “ later. 

[DaveF]

A bright breezy showery morning, not quite as nice as yesterday.

 

As usual yesterday I went to church but came straight home afterwards as I was expecting a parcel. I needn't have hurried as the local postman didn't come until about 11.45.  He delivers the letters first on foot then returns with his van to do the parcels.  It was just a rolling road, it has already been used to solve one problem so well worth what it cost.

 

In the afternoon I decided it was time to tackle the garden as over the last few years of doing other things like caring for Mum too many annual weeds were appearing - especially one very like shepherds purse.  In the end I got out the kneeler and hand weeded all the beds which needed doing and the path round the greenhouse.  The garden bin is now much fuller and the garden looks a great deal better.  All I have to now is keep weeding regularly as last years weed seeds start to grow - I was always told 1 year's weeds means 7 years weed seeds.

 

Having finished the garden I was surprised that I didn't ache any more than usual so it must have done me good.  I also proved that I can get up from kneeling outside without anything to hang on to.  The garden actually took all afternoon to do.  To be honest there a lot more things I intend to do in it this year but at least it is a good start, it was a mild day and lovely to be outdoors.

 

In the evening I watched a short film I recorded some time ago "Painted Boats", a fictionalised account of life on narrow boats during the war.  It was worth it for the photos - some places I recognised easily especially around the Potteries and east midlands, some I'd been to on boats.  It waas filmed in 1945 when there were still quite a lot of working narrow boats.  After that I found an old Sweeney to enjoy.  Am I getting old as I enjoy old films and TV?

 

David

[PhilH]

Afternoon from the bottom. Busy day today, daughter and SiL round to help with clearing 40 years worth of junk (I call it treasure) from the loft. How do you decide what’s to go….I’m not sure that the ‘if you haven’t used it / thought about it for x amount of time bin it’ rule applies here. Books from my fledgling trainspotting days, old tools, guitars, amps, stuff from 30+ years playing with real steam engines, all sorts. 
 

Still, it’s just stuff I guess and, to be fair, daughter is being very gentle and understanding with me. But boy, have I got a lot of  said stuff!
 

Whatever you’re doing, just enjoy it.

Edited March 24, 2023 by PhilH

[polybear]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

An excellent addition to an N gauge layout, a 1/150 model of a 23,964TEU container ship. Whenever I see this model I can't help thinking why didn't they just make it 24,000TEU.

 

 

Is it just Bear, or do those things look like an accident waiting to happen?

 

1 hour ago, grandadbob said:

We formed a quite useful back row (after I'd moved from being a hooker..no silly comments needed 🤪)

 

As if we would......

 

12 minutes ago, PhilH said:

Afternoon from the bottom. Busy day today, daughter and SiL round to help with clearing 40 years worth of junk (I call it treasure) from the loft. How do you decide what’s to go….I’m not sure that the ‘if you haven’t used it / thought about it for x amount of time bin it’ rule applies here. Books from my fledgling trainspotting days, old tools, guitars, amps, stuff from 30+ years playing with real steam engines, all sorts. 

 

Don't worry if you hear any strange noises at 3am - it'll just be fellow ER'ers bin diving......

 

Bear here......

The replacement valve cores + tools (all in a nice little plastic box) arrived as promised and a new core has been fitted; when I went to unscrew the original I discovered that it was somewhat loose, so maybe that's been the problem all along?  I've fitted a new one anyway - and checked all the others are tight as well.  Now to see if the fix is successful - I've a sneaky feeling it may be, which would be a result.

Now The Big River may come in for plenty of Flak (rightly so) but I ordered the valves at 5pm last night and they arrived at 11am today; £2.99** for 30 valves, a couple of tools and a plastic box.  Seems pretty good to this Bear.

 

(** OK, so I have Amazon Prime - but that's primarily for Prime Video; having the quick & free delivery is just a bonus really).

 

Bear gone.

[Coombe Barton]

Currently trying to recover teaching from someone's else's disaster. Got given the task and module leadership less than 24 hours ago. Having to make big writings about making things understandable for students. I was hoping to have the worked not typing, but ...

P1ssed off of Bosworth

[southern42]

. morning all from red dragon land.

Still breezy. A bit of blue sky and sun occasionally but hopefully will remain dry for today's click collect groceries.

 

Another day of toot on the flute in front of the online metronome. Yesterday, I used my beat box with tabla set at 60 bpm - that was fun! <<Er...hum.>>  So, just the single beat, today, but set at 65 bpm as on the tutor's video. There seems to have been 3 stages of play:

1. Getting a feel for the beat,
2. Keeping the beat,
3. Keeping the beat going.

It was sometime before completing the refrain so that I could move onto verse 1 and, in turn, verse 2, Then, could I include the refrain before and/or after the verse? You will be pleased to know, after many trials and much error, I did end the morning's session with a complete round of refrain and 2 verses. Not expected so I was gobsmacked again...and shattered! Keeping enough air in the airways is another story. 🤣

 

Sun is out, again, so that will make it bright enough for Henry to do his sweeping up jobs prior to the groceries arriving.

 

Best get cracking.

Take care, Be good. (Yes, you too ;-) Have a go - you may surprise yourself.

Polly

 

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by southern42
too many typos today.

[eldavo]

1 hour ago, PhilH said:

Afternoon from the bottom. Busy day today, daughter and SiL round to help with clearing 40 years worth of junk (I call it treasure) from the loft....

 

You are clearing out modelling suite A?  That's a bit drastic though I suppose you still have suites B, C and D!

 

Cheers

Dave

 

[southern42]

@Coombe Barton I remember back in the sixties and onwards, a member of my family teaching in a college of further education, continually down the years, giving us accounts of similar stories, more often than not of new subjects on the syllabus, and regularly becoming one step ahead of his students.

 

But...it kept him employed...

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by southern42

[PeterBB]

3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

How on earth can the people on the bridge see enough to dock or carry out any other close manoeuvre?

 

Dave

According to a lot of 'companies' thjey don't need to - 'just log-in to their mobile and the information is all there to see!' as they expect everybody to have up to date mobiles and the ability to use them.  

 

Coming down to earth, with no credit card and no' high polluting' mobile how are you going to pay the excessive car park fees with cash?

 

Oops it seems it became a rant.

 

[Winslow Boy]

19 hours ago, polybear said:

 

I'll have you know that the @polybear igloo bar and pizza parlour most definitely does not have "Spittoons" 🤬  It's a very select, classy joint I'll have you know....

 

p.s. "Shotgun Puppers?"  The recoil would send him off into next week....

p.p.s. "Elegantly dressed tall thin man with a shock of immaculately coiffured white hair??"  Oh I forgot - this is a fantasy fiction story.....🤣

 

Apologies Bear  I should have realised you'd only run a high end establishment. How about if I changed it to the composting compart of Bears recycling station. Would that be acceptable?

[Ian Abel]

POETS, but not today, taking the entire day off.

 

Yesterday, quiet, then rehearsal, all good followed by a nice relaxing happy-hour over munchies and drink.

 

Today, leaving in an hour or so to head 3 hours down to Iowa for the funeral tomorrow. We'll only be staying overnight, and returning tomorrow late afternoon.

 

Sunday, who knows, nothing planned.

 

First thing -4c bright sun. Expected to reach 4c for a high. No precipitation in forecast until Wednesday, and highs for next 5 days in the 3-4c range.

Continuing to lose the snow cover slowly.

 

Tally ho.

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

I'm becoming more and more convinced that the agenda at government level is for us to end up with a US style health business, God help us.

It doesn't have to be either/or (ie either NHS style free for all or a  full private system), many countries have a hybrid combination of the two, such as here  - an NHS style safety net that all residents have access to, coupled with voluntary private health insurance which provides basically faster access to treatment for  non life threatening conditions and access to private facilities.

 

The essential trick  to make it work successfully (and where the UK seems to be falling down over the last couple of years)  is a commitment to maintain the free service at a level that makes it still viable to those who need it or choose to use it rather than cynically let it run down and thus force everyone into the private system.

 

Australia's regional and country areas feel the strain first when the health budget hits it's funding limits, which is happening here just like much of the world. This leads to increased  difficulty providing consistent service levels across vast distances with a sparse population,  but the public/private combination means that most of us in the populated coastal strip  are well catered for when it comes to being able to for instance organise medical appointments   - the situation @PupCamis in sounds completely ridiculous in comparison to what I have access to here.

 

Were I to wake tomorrow (or Sunday) and need a doctor, if my normal one wasn't open or couldn't fit me in I'd be able to book an alternative online or over the phone and see a doctor somewhere locally  before lunchtime, or just rock up unannounced at a medical centre,  though the wait in the surgery in that situation could be a couple of hours. And most practices still bulk bill (though cost rises means an increasing number will charge these days, though health insurance covers 70 to 80% of that) so it's NHS style free.

 

Like I said, due to the huge area of Australia many of the regions are less fortunate though ironically if you need medical attention in the even more remote or outback areas, the Flying Doctor service will arrive with a full paramedic team, or a larger aircraft fitted out as a flying hospital .Their services are completely free to all  Aus residents, visitors should have travel insurance. Their mission statement is to have a patient loaded onto an aircraft and treatment commenced within 3 hours for priority one calls which is quicker than the response of some overseas regular ambulance services.  They also provide free medical and dental clinics to outback communities.

 

https://www.flyingdoctor.org.au/about-the-rfds/facts-and-figures/

 

A similar service provides  regular aerial medical transport for those in remote areas that require regular visits to major centres for treatment, again free for all Australian residents.

 

So all up we are an example of a system that can provide an  adequate and prompt free health service to  those who need it or choose it (regional caveats as above) but have  that coupled with a voluntary private health insurance system that provides access to basically more timely treatment and private facilities. (Also called communist medicine by the side of US politics that prefers to see it's population bankrupted through medical bills.)

 

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl 

Abbreviated version.

Orange shed, 1/2 deltic,

Chandlers 2/3 deltic 

Diesel, 2/3 deltic,

Tesco's, 1/4 deltic.

 

Long version.

Traffic chaos out side orange shed, we got green light, ambulance came the other way. .

Next time we got green light. Unmarked police car, coming the other way. Blue lights flashing in hidden places.

Third time we got green light, managed to get to the orange shed.

 

To SC, to work on BM.

Steering gear moved refitted tested ok, will probably have to readjust tension on strings on Sunday.

4 Jammers for jib sheets moved, 

Jib club fitted 

Normal jib sheets replaced with new longer ones.

Jib sheets to hold out jib club extended.

Worked out routing for halyards.. need more blocks. Hence 2/3 deltic spent.

Gave up when big black clouds threatened.

 

To do,

Fit mast, extend halyards, 

Try modified jib,

Try new mainsail.

Go for a sail.

 

Heavy rain outside while in Tes and Coe.

 

Other news SWMBO'S brother flies to Thailand while I'm at my brother's funeral.

 

No dark colours at funeral, it has been requested I wear a kilt...

 

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Still blowing a hooley but at least its dry at the moment. The arthritis keeps coming and going as well. A few thoughts on the container ship, I wonder how it behaves in a strong wind? 

[Tony_S]

25 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

wonder how it behaves in a strong wind? 

I suspect it would shelter you nicely if you popped down to the estuary. 
Those container ships are a lot easier to see going past Canvey Island compared to the tankers that used to pass by. 

[Barry O]

Not only was Boeing Always very late our prepaid extra legroom seet booking had been... lost...and, the pilot dropped our A321 onto the tarmac from about 15 feet..sideways.. ouch!

 

Great news in the post though.. "Apply for your Old Age Pension... now!"

 

 

Next up..fill in on line forms for a bus pass.

 

Time to empty the luggage..pah !

 

Baz

Edited March 25, 2023 by Barry O

[polybear]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Afternoon Awl 

Abbreviated version.

Orange shed, 1/2 deltic,

Chandlers 2/3 deltic 

Diesel, 2/3 deltic,

Tesco's, 1/4 deltic.

 

 

So that'll be 2.1/12th Deltics then.....

(Bear can't remember the last time I did clever fractions stuff like that).

 

Bear here....

Total number of wallpaper strips hung today?  Zero, zilch, diddlysquat, buggerall.

Why?  Well yesterday I did find that the Wallrock ready-mixed adhesive was like trying to brush very thick sticky cold custard on the walls, so I thought I'd ask the manufacturer if all was well; a photo was sent in as requested, which then had to be forwarded to their supplier (i.e. the real manufacturer....) for a response.  By the time I got a reply to confirm all was indeed well it wasn't worth starting, meaning H/S/L progress today is diddlysquat.  Oh well.

 

Instead I completed an email claim for a replacement Printer Cartridge which started to misbehave ("Cartridge not Recognised") - the supplier ("Stinkyink") was absolutely fine and a new one has been despatched.  Tick.

And after that it was a session to see what is required to produce some box spanners to fit the teensey eensey BA screws & nuts a few days ago; the smallest nuts (16BA) are a mere 1.5mm across flats.  I did manage to drop a 12BA nut in the process and even that took some finding.

The easy way is to find a selection of appropriately sized imperial and metric socket head screws and use those as the basis for producing some box spanners.  A small Tick.

I also discovered that whilst I'd ordered some 14BA nuts I managed to forget to order any screws to go with them.  Poo.

 

In other news.....

Apparently the dog owner says it was all the fault of the Horse:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11894607/Pictured-Horrific-injuries-suffered-veteran-police-horse-PH-Urbane.html

I hope they throw the f.book at him.  B'sterd.  That's a Rant.

 

Bear gone.

[New Haven Neil]

A'noon.

 

Car parking, Keswick.  Long term park was App only, but our phones don't work well here on data, couldn't get it to work.  No option to pay by cash, card etc. So no long term stay, only the short term park had cash ability.  So loss of our spend in the town as we weren't there long enough to do all the things we wanted.  Rant? You're *&^%ing right it is.  How the &^%$ do they expect oldies with no phones etc to cope?  Shopkeepers up in arms about it, as they're losing trade,  but council don't care as they have 'made savings' by sacking the guy that used to empty the machines.  They don't give a fig about the reason folk want to park. Ruined our last day in the Lake District.  Maybe our last visit to Keswick.

 

 

 

 

[tigerburnie]

8 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

A'noon.

 

Car parking, Keswick.  Long term park was App only, but our phones don't work well here on data, couldn't get it to work.  No option to pay by cash, card etc. So no long term stay, only the short term park had cash ability.  So loss of our spend in the town as we weren't there long enough to do all the things we wanted.  Rant? You're *&^%ing right it is.  How the &^%$ do they expect oldies with no phones etc to cope?  Shopkeepers up in arms about it, as they're losing trade,  but council don't care as they have 'made savings' by sacking the guy that used to empty the machines.  They don't give a fig about the reason folk want to park. Ruined our last day in the Lake District.  Maybe our last visit to Keswick.

 

 

 

 

Were I the person that lives off this toilet of an island, I might parked and just ignored the parking ticket............................."that'll lurn 'em"

[Ozexpatriate]

After a handful of sunny days >15°C in the last week or so which brought forth daffodils at last, yesterday the weather turned, not to exceed 10°C. According to the news, the Sakura are blooming downtown but not the local ones at the high school. Everything botanical seems delayed by a couple of weeks.

 

This morning, setting out on my walk, saw big snowflakes (2 - 3cm in size). As I prepared to leave the temperature dropped from about 2°C to 1°C with the falling snow. Very pretty but there was no accumulation and was mostly rain by the time I got home.

 

Am waiting for a package to arrive in the post from 'The Continent'. In my estimation it is now late by many days. (There is no tracking available in terms of a link to click.) I am looking forward to it arriving and now finding its absence frustrating each day when I check the mail. Meanwhile, on Wednesday I thought I mislaid something. I searched and searched and finally gave up. Yesterday evening it turned up later precisely where it should have been. Usually things turn up in the last place you look. This one was in the first place I looked, yet managed to overlook it all the same. At least the imaginings that it somehow ended up in the bin can be put to rest.

 

Tony Wright appears to be demonstrating his scenery technique in the pop-up video in the lower right of the page. Very informative and useful but annoying when the video obscures posts. Despite an entreaty with the 'powers that be' it remains persistent. 

[Coombe Barton]

... Boris’ claim about a leaving do being an essential work meeting takes pride of place in the incredulity stakes. ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/03/24/upwards-ever-upwards-but-winding-down-of-responses/

[Mike Bellamy]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

. . . Car parking, Keswick.  Long term park was App only, but our phones don't work well here on data, couldn't get it to work.  

 

We were surprised that our Tesco phones had no signal (using the O2 network) when we were in the middle of Keswick last year - but at the top of "Catbells" overlooking Derwentwater there was a full signal . . . but no car parks on top of a mountain !!

.

[New Haven Neil]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

Were I the person that lives off this toilet of an island, I might parked and just ignored the parking ticket............................."that'll lurn 'em"

 

Unfortunately, although our vehicles aren't on DVLA, the do liaise with Fraggle Rock version of it (grey haired lady in a dusty office) nowadays. Pah.

 

39 minutes ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

We were surprised that our Tesco phones had no signal (using the O2 network) when we were in the middle of Keswick last year - but at the top of "Catbells" overlooking Derwentwater there was a full signal . . . but no car parks on top of a mountain !!

.

 

A few years ago when in hospital in Greater Manchester (aka Wigan  Wrightington hospital) after some fairly gory hip surgery I discovered my mobile wouldn't call Fraggle Rock Patient Transfer to arrange transport and flights to get me home.  Useless.  Fragg-O-Com couldn't explain why this was. Shrug of shoulders.  My reply was less than polite, being left marooned unable to walk, away from home was no fun and that was not the answer I was looking for.  We still find their performance in the UK to be dodgy, and it's been a few years since I was up Catbells!  See 'hospital' above!

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Another week over and nothing new to report.

Highlight of the week undoubtedly my teams win over the dee daa’s from down the A61. Great atmosphere, like old times waving scarves in the air.

Booked a holiday for early summer with some friends but neither SWMBO nor myself are particularly keen on leaving Hovis but it’s something we are going to have to get used to.

Feels like I’m waffling so goodnight,

Robert