Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

Back a little early.

 

Rode rattly grindy super shiny old electric train to the badlands of Laxey, with 32 Guides and 3 adult Big Guides for company - all superbly behaved and interested in things I pointed out for them.  Really uplifting to see such well behaved and intelligent young people.  All from the Midlands too.  Wherever that is.

 

Got to Laxey, went into the station to find.......the bl@@dy cafe closed.  Really guys, just not good enough, the season is in full swing now, full timetable in use, lot of folk about....all looking for a brew and a sarnie. Just Not Good Enough in big. Grumpy of Andreas.

 

So back to Royal Ramsey's bright lights, Co-op for shopping and home.  Huge parcel in back porch, looked like a sheet of something about 6 by 3 foot, all wrapped in cardboard.  It was for number 32.  That's about three hundred yards away, our estate splits and it's evens one way, odd the other.  We're....odd.  Of course. 31.  So put it in the car, to find the addressee actually on the phone to Parcelfarce having a right go, as their website said 'delivered'.  Just didn't say where!  Grateful neighbour, whatever it was seemed to have cost a few bob.

[Dave Hunt]

48 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

The topic of kitchens is rather a sore one at Schloss iD......

It could well go to DEFCON 4 and who blinks first…..

 

Hunt Towers was surveyed this morning for the fitting of a new kitchen and when I say new I mean having the current flooring and wall tiles ripped out and the site reduced to four walls (at least, I think it stops there) before rebuilding commences. All we set out to do (at least from what I remember) was to have the worktops replaced but the scheme has grown wings and is now flying high. This morning's chilling activity will be followed on Saturday by us visiting the showrooms to discuss details, like how much damage will be done to my wallet, which is already having to lie down in a darkened room.

 

Maybe iD and I will have to consult CC Ind GmbH for some intervention.

 

Ah, well, off to Bedford now to talk trains while I can still afford to fill the car's tank.

 

Dave

[southern42]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Doesn't that mean there's a risk that Mr & Mrs Public will object to the loss of "their" right of way, with grief and expense incoming as a result?

 

Our right of way, as a public footpath, used to go past nextdoor and over a stile, onto another public footpath. Some years ago, that route was moved higher up the hill and the stile removed from the wall, the gravel and muddy grass, access only, right of way ending at nextdoor. Now, using a proper roadway to nextdoor, I doubt anyone will be complaining, save the odd critter left stranded from its loved ones by the new wall! The East-West Divide! 😂

 

[southern42]

5 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Morning all from Estuary-Land. The hay fever is back so I've now got a wunny dose, this time of year its tree pollen. Apparently whats making it worse is that trees such as silver birch which release a 'cloud' of pollen are fashionable for new planting. Flowering trees such as magnolia and fruit trees and as such rely on insects to fertilize them are becoming fewer and fewer.

 

5 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

I get runny eyes and unaccountable bouts of sneezing. Antihistamines don't stop it, just reduce the intensity!

 

I like magnolias, I must look into getting one for the new house. There was one in the garden of the old house, which came into bloom some three weeks after the ones at the bottom of the road.  A 40ft difference in elevation (mine was higher and more "exposed") probably accounted for that!

 

 

One here with runny, sticky, gritty eyes. I dread the Easterlies. I am not so bad when the westerly depressions come in off the sea. I find antihistamines just reduce the burden, as well. Paracetamol usually works better, in my case. Stopping the symptoms turning into sinusitis/bronchitis/other is another issue.

 

Now. on my walk to get my dose of VLC (Vegan Lemon Cake),  I walk past these beauties.

 

 

 

 

Apparently, I read recently, oak pollen is in the high category for pollen...

and look what I drive past in my tourist atraction vehicle on rails! A young oak wood!

 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2023 by southern42

[southern42]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

One hopes they've applied to the local council to do that,  because if they haven't all it will is a disgruntled walker to complain and the proverbial will start flying.

 

The public footpath was moved by the powers that be, so there is only a right of access. The last walkers we had trying to find their way around were using an out of date map and had to be re-directed onto the proper route. 

[Tony_S]

3 hours ago, DaveF said:

was cold in the wind

It really sunny here today and is lovely when in shelter but while cutting the front lawn I nearly went in for another fleece. Then I noticed my 80 year old neighbour in his front garden wearing shorts and flip flops. 

[Coombe Barton]

... Been out with a colleague today. Photo says where, tweaked to correct converging verticals. Needs more practice. ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/04/04/zoe-more-rapidly-downwards/

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Mrs iD asked if I really needed a fridge that went down to 2°C

On ours it goes down to 1C using the normal controls. Pressing a button with a * on it takes it down to -6C. This was useful when we had to empty our old freezer that needed defrosting. The fridge being 60cm wide would perhaps,be too big for a Swiss kitchen. 

[PupCam]

Nicked off of Faceache, sums up the way the world is going beautifully.

 

 

Over and out!

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon from Bedford, where another ER is heading. We aren't far from where Chris used to live, RIP. skireaf posts only but we are settled in.  We were welcome by an email from Brittany Ferries cancelling our crossing tomorrow evening. Turdycurses.  An hour on the Internet and I have booked Eurotunnel, a hotel in Abbevllle and applied for a ferry refund.  Isn 't travel wonderful. I also tried to prepay the Dartford Crossing but it will only accept UK registered vehicles. 

 

Jamir

[TheQ]

Further spoil shift was verboten by SWMBO, in case her brother turned up with household goods.

So only some bramble cutting was done.

 

Some research has been done on replacement garden gates, 10ft wide, 6ft high. The current ones are see through mesh and tubular steel. The mesh is fine but the tubes are rusting through from the inside.

 

The next gates will be galvanised, and maybe solid.

 

[Ian Abel]

Chewsday...

 

Uneventful yesterday, though Brendan stopped by to pick up Whitney.

Jemma managed to feel well enough to get home from London, glad to not have another day feeling miserable in a London hotel.

 

-1c and overcast first thing, 3c the expected high with rain/sleet/snow forecast for later in the day. BAH!!

 

Carry on.

[iL Dottore]

5 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

On ours it goes down to 1C using the normal controls. Pressing a button with a * on it takes it down to -6C. This was useful when we had to empty our old freezer that needed defrosting. The fridge being 60cm wide would perhaps,be too big for a Swiss kitchen. 

Aye, there's the rub. Our kitchen is built to Schweizernorm standards (so 55cm wide) - which means we can't benefit from the much larger selection (and often cheaper prices) of kitchen appliances just across the border in Germany, France (or Italy or Austria - depending upon where you are). A rather sneaky way of ensuring that local retailers can continue to benefit from high prices charged (Around 30% more expensive than buying the same product online in France...)

 

The high cost of goods vs Germany or France are a very touchy subject in much of Switzerland (certainly in the border areas), generally the view (at least of those with whom I discussed this topic and often mentioned in K-Tip [the Swiss consumer magazine]).

 

Here's an interesting article https://lenews.ch/2020/01/08/switzerland-is-expensive-but-not-for-the-reasons-most-think/

[Gwiwer]

19 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

I found the Cypriots to be really nice people open and friendly

I had what turned out to be the misfortune to live in Harringay shortly after Cypriot partition. The main road, Green Lanes, was effectively Greek our side and Turkish the other. Pot-shots and shop-window smashing were weekly events. 
 

If one who was otherwise uninvolved and had no side to take (such as our household) were to shop on one side you would never be served on the other side.  It didn’t make a lot of difference except that the corner shops were mostly our side and the kebab shops the other. 
 

A good many shop-fronts purported to be mini-cab businesses with a counter and waiting area visible to the street. But no cabs were ever available. The back rooms were gambling and drinking dens. 
 

That said most of everyone we met seemed to be perfectly ok so long as you were not of the “opposition”. 
 

The big local church drew its congregation from a much wider area and was largely British but with some Italian members. It was on the Greek side. But being evangelical rather than orthodox it saw few Greeks among its congregation. And no Turks at all. 

[pH]

9 hours ago, polybear said:

 

The film went downhill somewhat when it went round a hairpin bend on two wheels.....

(ok, so rather more than two wheels but I'm sure you get the drift).

Canadian Pacific used to have a ‘second mainline’ across southern British Columbia, the western part of which was originally independent and known as the Kettle Valley Railway (KVR). It crossed several mountain ranges on the way, so there were very few straight bits and virtually no transition into and out of curves. In the last days of steam on the KVR, almost all trains were headed by Mikados (2-8-2 tender engines). OK - a lot of scene-setting.

 

A railway enthusiast travelling on one of these trains, looking forward out of a window, thought he saw the wheel of the engine’s pony truck on the inside of a curve lift off the rail. Thinking this was something serious, he went forward at the next stop to tell the engineer. The engineer said it was very common, crews were aware it happened and didn’t worry about it. He said a definite ‘thump’ could be felt and heard as the wheel came back down on the rail after the curve.

 

(I would quote chapter and verse for this, but I can’t remember in which of the many books on the KVR I read it.)

 

 

Edited April 4, 2023 by pH

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

also tried to prepay the Dartford Crossing but it will only accept UK registered vehicles. 

 

Are you sure. The prepay option on both the original and updated web version versions works for non uk cars. The older version had a drop down country menu. The newer version has Uk and Non UK option boxes. I tried a made up blue Renault Clio. It couldn’t find it and asked for the details to be added manually. 

[zarniwhoop]

Apologia pro praeterita commentarium

 

more specifically, an apology for my past comment on daffodils. I'll take the first part of google translate's latin version, but following with 'in daffodils' sounds both unlikely and ungrammatical.😄

 

Anyway - in times past I've had daffodils and narcissi (i.e. white with orange centres) in that area, the daffodils used to be early and the narcissi late. Until yesterday some flowers there had yellowish buds so I assumed they were daffs. But now they  are starting to open and  (just like buying bunches in a supermarket) the yellow was misleading and they are all daffodils.

 

So, no full-size daffs any more, but plenty of the white ones and those are not late. Sorry for misleading, but thanks for the nice photos people posted in response.

[The Johnster]

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

I had what turned out to be the misfortune to live in Harringay shortly after Cypriot partition. The main road, Green Lanes, was effectively Greek our side and Turkish the other. Pot-shots and shop-window smashing were weekly events. 
 

If one who was otherwise uninvolved and had no side to take (such as our household) were to shop on one side you would never be served on the other side.  It didn’t make a lot of difference except that the corner shops were mostly our side and the kebab shops the other. 
 

A good many shop-fronts purported to be mini-cab businesses with a counter and waiting area visible to the street. But no cabs were ever available. The back rooms were gambling and drinking dens. 
 

That said most of everyone we met seemed to be perfectly ok so long as you were not of the “opposition”. 
 

The big local church drew its congregation from a much wider area and was largely British but with some Italian members. It was on the Greek side. But being evangelical rather than orthodox it saw few Greeks among its congregation. And no Turks at all. 

 An Algerian chum of mine moved over to Belturbet, Co. Cavan, his wife’s home town, to open a kebab shop, and I helped hom move some of the kitchen equipment over in the back of the Sherpa van I had in those days.  This was the 90s, and the presence of the Border, less than a mile away as it wiggles about quite a lot around there, was a palpable ominous feeling, and people were still being a bit ‘careful’ about what they said, and who to. 
 

Anyway, we were in a the pub one evening and a local who wasn’t aware of his connection to the town asked him hos sectarian allegiance, a bit of a lairy matter and everybody drew breath…  Mo handled the situation with some aplomb by stating himself to be Muslim, whereupon he was asked of he was a Catholic or a Protestant, Muslim, which of course brought the house down!

 

Mo was an interesting character, same age as me but when I was playing 3-and-in-goal with jumpers for goalposts, he was chucking molotov cocktails at French Tanks…

Edited April 4, 2023 by The Johnster

[Ozexpatriate]

Despite a world full of depressing things, in a reflexive spirit of optimism the pop-culture zeitgeist today resulted in the first full trailer dropping for the "Barbie" movie in an ocean of Pepto-Bismol pink set decoration.

 

Silly. Very silly. But there are hints of something more subtle and satirical. Colour me intrigued (but not pink).

[Winslow Boy]

4 hours ago, southern42 said:

 

 

One here with runny, sticky, gritty eyes. I dread the Easterlies. I am not so bad when the westerly depressions come in off the sea. I find antihistamines just reduce the burden, as well. Paracetamol usually works better, in my case. Stopping the symptoms turning into sinusitis/bronchitis/other is another issue.

 

Now. on my walk to get my dose of VLC (Vegan Lemon Cake),  I walk past these beauties.

 

 

 

 

Apparently, I read recently, oak pollen is in the high category for pollen...

and look what I drive past in my tourist atraction vehicle on rails! A young oak wood!

 

 

 

 

A magnolia stellata by the look of it.

 

Chop down one and replace with ten. Only trouble is that it'll take at least thirty years for any of them to get to anywhere near a decent size. Plus they'll  be a fair amount of heave as the ground adjusts and conifers will suck the ground water out faster than a sponge.

[Ozexpatriate]

12 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

... what do posters think of the philosophical position that every decision a person makes – from choosing to buy a Bachman locomotive vs a Hornby locomotive to choosing a government - is a political decision? Presumably, this is the Butterfly Effect from Chaos Theory as applied to daily life.

Stipulating your premise, then surely a cogent response would be a political discussion?

 

I'll offer an illustrative hypothetical: should Western Pacific tensions escalate to sanctions, what would the future of British-outline RTR model trains (and the whole hobby supply/retail chain) look like?

[tigerburnie]

13 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

 An Algerian chum of mine moved over to Belturbet, Co. Cavan, his wife’s home town, to open a kebab shop, and I helped hom move some of the kitchen equipment over in the back of the Sherpa van I had in those days.  This was the 90s, and the presence of the Border, less than a mile away as it wiggles about quite a lot around there, was a palpable ominous feeling, and people were still being a bit ‘careful’ about what they said, and who to. 
 

Anyway, we were in a the pub one evening and a local who wasn’t aware of his connection to the town asked him hos sectarian allegiance, a bit of a lairy matter and everybody drew breath…  Mo handled the situation with some aplomb by stating himself to be Muslim, whereupon he was asked of he was a Catholic or a Protestant, Muslim, which of course brought the house down!

 

Mo was an interesting character, same age as me but when I was playing 3-and-in-goal with jumpers for goalposts, he was chucking molotov cocktails at French Tanks…

I went fishing in Belturbet in the 1970's during the height(or is it depth) of the troubles, lovely people, tried to do a pub crawl with a pint in each bar on the main street, no chance dozens of bars and they wouldn't let you leave.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. The arthritis/sciatica is quiet at the moment and hopefully will stay that way. The hay fever hasn't been too bad this afternoon either but I've stayed indoors with the windows and doors shut and even the curtains drawn.

[Ozexpatriate]

12 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I have also noted, since the 1970s, that the anti-scientific views – held by the extremes on both the left and the right – have become much more widely distributed. I suspect the increasing complexity and sophistication of modern technology, engineering and science (so biology, physics, medicine and the like) a lack of basic understanding of such topics coupled with a populist disdain for “experts“, has led to this situation ..

The populist distain for experts (aka elitists) is very much a political discussion. I would be happy to entertain it, but will forbid myself.

 

8 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

On science and anti-science, I think the attitudes we see are symptoms of a much deeper malaise.

 

Many people have lost trust on the traditional media and have migrated to 'alternative' news, which in many cases is providing even more blatant confirmation bias than the regular news (which is bad enough). 

Not just 'alternative' news, but "mainstream" media that openly, knowingly, and admittedly lies - and not just "spin", hyperbole or exaggeration but utter fabrication. It's not new but is resurgent. I'll forbid myself further discussion.

 

8 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

There's a famous comment ascribed to G.K.Chesterton - When Man ceases to worship God he does not worship nothing but worships everything. I think this could be adapted to say that when a person ceases to believe information from official sources and the media then they believe anything.

Rather, "Truthiness" (coined 2005)

Quote

Truthiness is the belief or assertion that a particular statement is true based on the intuition or perceptions of some individual or individuals, without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts

 

[iL Dottore]

3 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Rather, "Truthiness" (coined 2005)

Quote

Truthiness is the belief or assertion that a particular statement is true based on the intuition or perceptions of some individual or individuals, without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts

I think that this may herald a whole new chapter in the ongoing saga of marital relations vis-a-vis model railway purchases…

 

SHE: You’ve bought another locomotive for your train set, haven’t you?

HE: Au contraire, my dove, this is actually a big box of Maltesers. I intuitively realised I needed a box of Maltesers and I perceived that this box of Maltesers was a bargain…..