Early Risers.

[PhilH]

Forgot to say I've just run the AC4400 so will upload the pics soon....

 

Ah, that good old ECML stalwart!

 

Morning all, bright but cold here. Not much planned, suppose I'd better start thinking about dunging out the house as Good Friday sees the visit of son, daughter plus their wife and husband (edit, just to be clear), grandchildren x 2 1/2 and mother. I'm chief cook and bottlewasher for the day. One of the toys in the cupboard is table football (foosball for Pete) so a big tournament is planned.

 

This week sees a couple of days off, a couple of days driving on the Mid Hants, so should be good.

 

Have a good one!

Edited April 1, 2012 by PhilH

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Pete, Thanks for the picture of the train. When I was young we lived in Somerset and the trains went past the side of next doors garden but the traffic on an ex GWR branchline didn't exactly wake anyone up.

Blue sky, and sunny here but not warm.

Tony

[travelintrev]

Morning all,

Wow Pete, that is amazing...........here it seems the other way round, rail lines get turned into roads, markets, etc ...... the three wheelers are (rear axle at least) to "Cape Gauge"!. What has surprised me is that no one yet has thought to put rail wheels on the front.......(Give me time!)

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Nice sunny day again but much of it is going to be spent log hauling and splitting. Yesterday's 'French restaurant' turned out to be a caff at a garden centre as herself wasn't feeling very hungry - but at least I found a rather nice cast steel log splitting wedge, very handy and effectiveness test due today.

 

At times I wish we had a railway up our road - the way the silly b..s park hither and thither could do with a good shove - preferably an N&W A Class up their back ends!

 

And an interesting little local forecast for us from the Met Office - we're due sleet on Tuesday night. Hardly surprising, I recall one (April) Good Friday back in the 1970s when we had a couple of inches of overnight snow on the ground.

[Sidecar Racer]

Good morning from a sunny Somerset , I dont know about temperatures as I have'nt been outside yet .

 

Nice picture Pete , that loco wuld have looked good on the old Weymouth route to the harbor .

 

A bit of loco painting to be done today , other than that not to busy , certainly no wood chopping .

 

I remember that snowy Easter too Mike .

 

Which part of Somereset Tony if you dont mind me asking ?

 

Have a good one everybody .

[45156]

Afternoon All

 

I'm back now, and have just spent the last few minutes hour catching up on the musings and meanderings that are ERs. Great to see that the gang's all here. Belated symapthy to Dave about Henry - I know what a dog-sized hole in your life is like - never easy.

 

Surgery went reasonably well, though I'm feeling a bit under the weather now. As usual involvement with the NHS is never stress free, and at times when you least need stress, it can be quite disheartening. First off, I was meant to confirm first thing on Wednesday whether there was a bed for me - they said I'd need to wait until lunch time - with admission scheduled for 2.00 - finally confirmed at noon that I could come for admission and could I please arrive as appointed, so a mad rush to get the bus as 30747 has been very poorly with flu and was totally out of it for driving. Got there, and spent the next two hours answering the same questions first to the admissions sister, then to the admissions Dr, then to the ward sister - each time the answers were recorded in a different format and on different bits of paper. Had my "half hour" operation on Thursday - went down at just before 2.00 pm, and came round in recovery about half past 4 - and asked if I had been slow recovering - but it transpired that the op had taken a lot longer than expected as the bone regrowth was actually covering the plates in places, and had to be chipped away with a hammer and chisel before they could get at the screws! As I had been longer than planned on the table, the consultant suggested that I should stay an extra day - I was actually down for discharge on Friday, but he said it would probably be better to stay on - much to the consternation of the ward staff who were ready to get me gone so that they could use the bed again. Saturday discharge is a bit awkward, as there are certain papers that need to be signed off by the duty Dr, and when he arrived, he was unhappy with my heart rate, which was high. So he ordered extra blood tests and an ECG to be sure of the possible cause. So that took us to lunch time, and still uncertain as to what was happening. He checked the ECG but the bloods were not back, so he said that it was probable that I'd be going home once they had the results. The big problem was that this guy was an A&E Dr who was covering on the ward between emergencies - apparently that's how it works there nowadays - so my discharge had to be fitted in between all the sporting injuries and accidents with power tools that seem to be endemic to A&E departments every weekend. I didn't get the all clear until after tea time! By then the normal patient transport was finished, and I had to be taken home using a priate servich which operates on call for out of hours work. Lesson to the NHS - the money you save by skimping on doctors quickly winds up in the pockets of the private ambulance service - and that sort of thing is why the NHS is in its current state, methinks. Whn I got home, I read the patient notes for the pain killer that they'd been using on me, and two of the side effects are lowering of the blood pressure, and raising of the pulse rate - but I guess that to get there as the likely cause, they had to eliminate the more sinister and obvious, and I'd rather not have wound up back seeing the A&E doctors again a few hours after I'd got home, so I'm guessing that even though it was frustrating for me, the Dr was erring quite correctly on the side of caution.

 

Anyway, I'm on my feet, and plan a slow and steady recovery - and I can put weight on the leg already, and the physio said that provided it's not too painful, I should continue to do so.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

Edited April 1, 2012 by 45156

[Tony_S]

 

Which part of Somerset Tony if you dont mind me asking ?

 

 

Clevedon, though it later became part of Avon, not totally sure what it is now, nearest I've been since is on the motorway. The nearby branchline was the Clevedon to Yatton branch. I lived there from 1955 to 59. Long enough to acquire an accent that made other children at my new school in Birmingham laugh. Of course they didn't think they had accents!

[trisonic]

I never heard a Birmingham/West Midland accent until "Crossroads" started (of course I may still not have done...) Birmingham was somewhere we bypassed on the way to somewhere else, usually Scotland, unfortunately. That could be read wrong - I meant I wished we had stopped off there at least once. My Dad's folks were centred on Ludlow - never visited there either, I have no idea why.

 

You only think of these things when the person who could answer has died.

 

Best, Pete.

[The Stationmaster]

Good to hear you're 'released' Stewart and trust all goes well now that you're back in what ought to be a much more restful environment than the place which is supposed to provide that sort of care and calm.

[DonBradley]

I'm very glad you are home and recovering Stewart. Sorry you had admission and discharge problems but glad it's now all ov.er

Now about that proposed layout................

[Sidecar Racer]

Clevedon, though it later became part of Avon, not totally sure what it is now, nearest I've been since is on the motorway. The nearby branchline was the Clevedon to Yatton branch. I lived there from 1955 to 59. Long enough to acquire an accent that made other children at my new school in Birmingham laugh. Of course they didn't think they had accents!

 

Not so far from me then in Burnham on Sea , although I only moved here in 1974 .

 

It's now North Somerset , Avon as such is no more ,

[Sidecar Racer]

Welcome back to normality Stewart , hope you get fit soon .

[Tony_S]

Not so far from me then in Burnham on Sea ,

Clevedon's beach wasn't that "child friendly" so we used to go to some place called Brean which was near Burnham on Sea for the seaside. Memories of that beach include getting a lot of sand in my eyes (frequently) and Mum (once) locking the boot key inside the boot. I can still remember Dad walking up and down the beach looking for someone else with the same Ford Anglia to borrow their key so we could pack away the picnic hamper, windbreak etc

[45156]

Thanks for the kind wishes there gents.

 

Pete nice to see your new avatar here - not big and my eyesight isn't what it was, but if I'm not mistaken, it's you and your late friend Barry, and it makes a nice gesture.

[Tony_S]

I never heard a Birmingham/West Midland accent until "Crossroads" started (of course I may still not have done...) Birmingham was somewhere we bypassed on the way to somewhere else, usually Scotland, unfortunately. That could be read wrong - I meant I wished we had stopped off there at least once. My Dad's folks were centred on Ludlow - never visited there either, I have no idea why.

 

Ludlow is rather nice.

I was born in Birmingham, we then moved a lot, Solihull, Somerset back to Solihull. A Birmingham accent isn't the same as a Black Country accent. Most of my relatives sound something like Jasper Carrott or Pete Waterman. However a lot of the words used/phrases used by my mother's side sound more like those attributed to Black Country people. They moved a lot as well but not too far from the Bull Ring! My parents lived in Wolverhampton until shortly before I was born. They would have stayed there but got evicted and went to live with Dad's parents in Acocks Green in Birmingham before the first move to Solihull. Although I've been away from the Midlands for over 40 years I'm told that people know I'm not from "round here". Loads of my students (Romford Essex Boys and Girls!) used to amuse themselves trying to get me to be able to say "singing" or "ringing" like they did.

When I was doing my year of teacher training it was necessary for some reason to attend a course on "voice" run by some mad woman. She had a real love of some accents (Geordie, Liverpool) but hated any hint of a glottal stop which damned anyone with what now is called an Estuary accent. These courses were for some reason split into male or female sessions. The tutor had never seen a name like Aditi and assumed it was a male name. Much amusement at the observe and feel your partner's chest movement when breathing!

[Tony_S]

Thanks for the kind wishes there gents.

Glad you are back home safely. Are you completely metal re-inforcement free now?

[45156]

Glad you are back home safely. Are you completely metal re-inforcement free now?

Apparently so - the surgeon had an East European scrap merchant standing by in theatre to take the metal off his hands, as the scrap price of the metal exceeded the cost of my surgery including the in patient time! LOL

 

Seriously, I did ask him if I could have some to take home as a momento, and was told that it is not permitted under the catch all of elf n safety (what else) as some of the screws used in the procedure are sharp! Well, I'd never have thought that - screws are sharp?

Edited April 1, 2012 by 45156

[Tony_S]

 

Seriously, I did ask him if I could have some to take home as a momento, and was told that it is not permitted under the catch all of elf n safety (what else) as some of the screws used in the procedure are sharp! Well, I'd never have thought that - screws are sharp?

The most dangerous person I ever knew became a health and safety rep for his union. I'd been trying to track him down for many years after losing contact. I only found out about his transformation to H&S person when I found his obituary online recently.

[DDolfelin]

"Well, I'd never have thought that - screws are sharp?"

Pleased they managed to slot you in, Stewart.

Sorry Mrs Stewart couldn't be your driver but it must have given you both phillips to get it over.

Back to the thread ....

[BoD]

..... is that awl?

[eldavo]

Note to self, tapping your foot during concerts really screws it up for others

 

[NGT6 1315]

Good to see you're back and improving, Stewart. I guess feeling below your best is quite normal after any sort of surgery. The only real bits of it I ever had were four wisdom tooth extractions many years ago, which I'm glad to not have to ever repeat, though...

[Debs.]

Note to self, tapping your foot during concerts really screws it up for others

 

The best kind to be in this 'thread'

[The Stationmaster]

Seriously, I did ask him if I could have some to take home as a momento, and was told that it is not permitted under the catch all of elf n safety (what else) as some of the screws used in the procedure are sharp! Well, I'd never have thought that - screws are sharp?

 

Ah but did he have secret knowledge of your interest in railways and thought he'd have a bit of fun saying they're sharp Stewart?

[gordon s]

Good to have you back in circulation, Stewart. Just take it slowly......

 

Just back from the smoke via South West Trains. A Sunday service that stopped at every piggin' station to Waterloo and relieved us of £40 in the process. Had to travel into town to be measured up for the July jamboree. Apparently the male bit players are all in matching suits. If only we had matching bodies, as the groom and associated ushers had waistlines and pecs straight from the Beckham mould.

 

I just looked grey and plump in mine.....