Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The foxes have done nothing much but laze about in the garden all day. Haven't done much myself today, its too darn hot. According to the indicator at the bottom of the screen its still 21C. and its 10:30 in the evening. Not helped by the hay fever kicking in either.

[southern42]

 

Happy birthday Zarniwhoop, hope the day went well - very well, even.

 

Good clothes drying day. The sun did its magic in just a couple of hours.

Click n collect day, so the afternoon spent indoors although I did get a sit down outside with a mugadecaf before lunch.

 

After CnC groceries sorted, lengthy toot on the flute trying to get my right thumb to stop wandering away from its most efficient position. To see what this is, bring the right hand index and middle fingers together and bring up the thumb to the centre.  Slide the left index finger (representing the flute) in between thumb and fingers. This makes the notes covered by the two finger holes more secure, and lines up the other two fingers over their respective holes for a better sound.  However, it feels unnatural and the thumb has moved left away from the fingers without me realising it. At least, I now know why the quality of the notes deteriorate as I play, or why they are not good from the start. As from today, my focus is getting the thumb in the right position from the start and keeping it there, rather than in the most comfortable one.

 

Mugacocoa time now and do the midnight Click n collect order (a month ahead) so. 

' night all and nos da.

 

Polly

 

 

 

Edited June 16, 2022 by southern42

[andyram]

Good evening all and many happy returns to @zarniwhoop. I am also pleased to hear that @BSW01enjoyed the day at Chatsworth. I would be interested to know thoughts on the giant sculpture display currently located in the grounds. I have a tentative arrangement to visit on Monday with a friend of mine.

 

Today has not been great. Weather was beautiful but I was stuck inside the shop staring at the computer screen all day dealing with grade profile statistics for the college. Sadly there were precious few customers to distract me. The month of June continues to be a poor showing, just as it has been for all but last year. I expected it, especially with the current economic climate, and hope that the usual upturn through July and August will also be repeated.

 

Further bad news from Sarah’s work. The nursery has always been a separate entity to the school, renting the room but being independently managed, despite sending all the children onwards into the school. It has been an arrangement that has been maintained for as long as the school has been open which amounts to 36 years. Today the school served notice that they want to replace the nursery with one of their own and, in 14 months, they will need to vacate. This will lead to redundancies although one or two staff may be kept on in the new provision. A lot of anger and upset is present right now. I am beginning to wonder if we will ever catch a positive break again.

 

Night all.

 

Andy

Edited June 16, 2022 by andyram

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

The D1ckbrain seen riding his m'sickle whilst dressed in a crash helmet, trainers...and a pair of shorts. 

Par for the course down here but without the trainers which are replaced with  thongs (flip flops?) . Optional is a singlet or undone buttoned shirt flapping madly, I guess those guys  are skin cancer aware at least.

 

See America, all the fun things you can do when you dont have medical bills to pay afterwards!

 

Edited June 16, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

After I’d dropped Sheila at her Zumba class this morning, I called at Argos in Sainsbury’s to collect my package. I then drove to the garden centre and managed to get a large bag of grit and also the plants I’d been asked to look for. When I got home, I took the plants and grit to the back garden, then came back inside and opened my package, which should have been a box containing the 10 Swann Morton No3 scalpel handles that I’d bought. Happily, it did AND they were all still sealed in their original wrappers. But there was also another box in there as well, a box of 100 No10 blades, again still sealed in their wrappers, a real bargain at £16 for the lot, including postage! 

 

Once that lot had been checked, I made a start in the garden, planting up the fuschia tub with today’s purchases, followed by some dead heading. I took a quick break around 11:30 and sat on the bench under the workshop window and had my muggertea. 

 

Charlie didn’t call round today, he was rather tired from doing several late and early shifts, so decided to stay home and rest, so I spent the afternoon in the workshop on my own. 

 

Andy. The sculptures at Chatsworth are interesting, if somewhat bizarre, the best by far is the Pegasus sculpture near the stables cafe, which is animated, it’s very impressive indeed. If you do get there on Monday, I hope you have a good time. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[Ozexpatriate]

38 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Par for the course down here but without the trainers which are replaced with  thongs (flip flops?)

A University classmate was glad that his leg parts were still in his boots and riding leathers after an altercation with a motor vehicle laid his motorcycle on his leg riding home from university one dark, rainy night.

 

He ended up in a full leg cast and needed an extra year to finish his degree.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[monkeysarefun]

Ok so I guess these guys are starting to get a little bit too demanding..

 

(For the 3D modellers out there yes I know there are a heap of reversed faces on my car, SketchUp and Blender don't interpret each other's STL files too well!)

[BR60103]

Today SWMBO had lunch with two old work friends. This was at a restaurant in the far half of the big city, working out to a 1.5 hour drive, including picking up the friends. We avoided the big motorway as the traffic is generally non-moving. 

The restaurant is near a place called George's Trains.   They are celebrating 60 years (George is no longer with us). 60 years ago our school went to a play and a couple of us spotted his sign.  There was confusion as the second sign said Bob's Toy Trains -- George had just taken over.  The store is now out in the sticks and no longer has streetcar service to the door. (But just across the street is Rapido.)  And a CNR line in the back yard. 

I managed to get into the rain as I left the shop and it was even harder when I parked for lunch. 🛀🌧️

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by BR60103

[iL Dottore]

7 hours ago, polybear said:

…Bear's Cockwomble Of The Day Award goes to.....

The D1ckbrain seen riding his m'sickle whilst dressed in a crash helmet, trainers...and a pair of shorts.  Now't else.  He's heading for a whole heap of pain, sooner or later.

Definitely foolish.

 

I remember once, when working in the ER (A&E to you) when the paramedics brought in a young woman who had come off a motorbike (fortunately at a relatively low speed) and tumbled along a gravel road wearing nothing more than a pair of boots, a bikini and a motorcycle helmet. The poor lass was one great abrasion – except for the two strips covered by her bikini. 

 

The young woman was admitted for what was undoubtably an unpleasant and possibly long hospital stay.

 

Motorcycle leathers exist for a purpose!

[chrisf]

I have train times to check, for there are two visits to the capital city of the UK in prospect.  One is tomorrow, because I am to attend a gathering of kindred spirits.  The other is a fortnight hence, when I plan to take part in Pride in London, marching from Hyde Park Corner to Trafalgar Square with up to 40,000 other people.  ''London Pride" is a fine ale brewed by Fullers.  

 

Belated birthday greetings to Zarniwhoop.

 

Chris

[TheQ]

My sailing compatriot is just 2 months from it being 3years since meeting the front of a tractor having come off his motorbike.. he's still not working, still struggling to walk... And he was wearing the full leathers gloves boots helmet etc.

 

Mooring Awl,

3 hours broken sleep, just too hot, as the house reradiated the stored heat back into the house. Then down stairs and a further 4 hours broken sleep but at least it was cooler.

This is with windows open both side of the house upstairs to allow the breeze to blow through.

 

It was a surprise when Ben the I want out Collie took me out to find it cool breezy overcast.. not the expected, great fried egg beating down..

 

Plans for today,

unload the Landrover of foundation blocks, and bits to complete the bathroom shelving unit.

Wether or not any blocks are installed depends on the temperature at the time.

 

A visit to the doctor's to collect the pills is required, they were short staffed the other day and had closed early.

Some grass cutting is required, we need to clear the way to the coal bunker for our summer cheap rate annual delivery.

 

Time for morning ablutions, then breakfast..

 

[Grizz]

Interesting book from what I’ve seen so far…

 

However that is a very unusually HST power car on the dust cover. One might almost say unique in its appearance. Perhaps it was intended as a low speed variant, given the obvious reduced braking capacity! 

Anyone spotted it yet?!?!?

 

 

It might have been an ironic take on what the government of the day had intended that it would end up like, if it had had it’s way? 
 

Sad that this book cover was not run by someone who knew about trains before it went to print. 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

My Hay-fever tablets are very ineffective this year. Pah!

 

After wall to wall "volunteer" meetings yesterday ( including one which started at 8:30pm and lasted an hour) I hope I have a quieter day.

 

Herself is offvolunteering today so I have some "me" time available. Great!

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

[polybear]

8 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Did you not consider chiselling a lump out or the architrave instead?

 

Hold me back Lads.....hold me back.....

 

7 hours ago, andyram said:

Further bad news from Sarah’s work. The nursery has always been a separate entity to the school, renting the room but being independently managed, despite sending all the children onwards into the school. It has been an arrangement that has been maintained for as long as the school has been open which amounts to 36 years. Today the school served notice that they want to replace the nursery with one of their own and, in 14 months, they will need to vacate. This will lead to redundancies although one or two staff may be kept on in the new provision. A lot of anger and upset is present right now. I am beginning to wonder if we will ever catch a positive break again.

 

Isn't that basically stealing a business?  Same service, same location, quite possibly some of the same staff.  So will the new place be a state-run nursery, or a private enterprise (I'm assuming the current nursery is privately run).  'Stewards doesn't quite cover it somehow.

 

Bear here.....

I neglected to mention yesterday my attempts at getting a couple of items deleted from my repeat prescription as I no longer take them (they don't help/I can do without them and I don't like the side effects).  The Chemist told me I needed to get the Docs to do this - so a phone call to the Docs took place.....

"You'll need to go on-line and let us know in writing via the website, so we have your permission in writing".  Turdycurses #1.  I do have a feeling I did register many moons ago, but where those details are now?  Can I remember login details?  Nope.  It does have a "forgot password" option - but that assumes a certain Bear can remember the username;  "Bear" or "Poly" didn't seem to cut it, strangely.  Turdycurses #2.

So I figured I'd re-register.  Er, no.....to do that I have to go into the Surgery with photo i.d. and proof of address.  Yep, that's #3.  So at the moment it looks like Bear is gonna have to remember to hand back perfectly good tablets to the Chemist every time I collect a bag of repeat sweeties - I wonder if they remove the sticker and re-issue them, or if they get binned?  (When Bear tries to remove the stickers before empty packets go for recycling it never ends well).  And if Bear forgets then they'll have to be returned, at which point they will get binned.  Ho hum.

 

As for today, well the hind leg started with the grief-giving the moment I crawled out of the Beary pit so the Jury is still out regarding tasks for today - Pink Pills (the big 'uns) have been despatched.  I may get to unscrew the skirting ready for painting (not much floor grovelling required to do that), I have a light switch surround to fit and I'll also check out ordering some plumbing stuff for the outside tap and radiator installation**, as well as an air vent grille.  That'll keep this Bear busy for a little while at least.

 

**Chrome-plated copper pipe & matching compression fittings required - mucho LDC vouchers at serious risk of never being seen again.  Yep, #4.  And it's not ever 8am yet.

 

[jamie92208]

Good moanng from sunny Bournemouth.   A very lazy day took place yesterday and a good book was read.  Today we are heading off to the ferry via a friend's at Ringwood.   However last night we went out for a meal and had a very nice meal at the local Loch Fyne restaurant near Poole.  Good food and good service.

 

Packing has mostly been done and there is just the task of taking stuff to the car,

 

Regards to all.

Jamie

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Sunny and very warm at 23°C with the chance of 30+°C today.  Intermittent night's sleep even with the fan running all night.  Noisy foxes didn't help either, I even got up at one stage and went outside to chase the b#ggers off.   Might go for a short walk after breakfast but I'm still thinking about that.  High temperatures and me don't mix very well so once again I'll be staying mainly in the shade.

Time for breakfast.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

I didn’t notice the overnight temperatures as I was asleep. The foxes round here wander about all day. My neighbour is having a kitchen refurb and had a temporary kitchen in the garage. He had put down some food for his cat when a fox wandered in and tried to eat the cat food. Rosie the cat wasn’t having this happen so launched herself at the fox. This one didn’t run away and the neighbour had to intervene. 
Tony

[AndrewC]

Moaning all from the boring borough. It is already quite toasty. Today I shall mostly be puttering about. First on the agenda is trying to discover why the shed air con isn't doing its job properly. The compressor is running, the fan is fanning, but the air is anything but conditioned. Online suggestions say first to look at the warm air vent hose to make sure it isn't blocked and feeding the warm air back through the unit.

 

After that it is time to load up the Landy for the trip to the northern wastelands of Carlisle. We haven't seen the offspring for a few months so this will be a good visit. With the price of diesel, if it wasn't for the full load of cargo, we'd be on the train. I'm looking at about £200 for the round trip to cover the cost of the dino-p*ss . On the subject of vehicles the dealership where I bought the Landy keeps pestering me about trading it in as there is a massive shortage of used vehicles in their stock. Trouble is, if I want to replace it with the newest hybrid model, there is a 40 week, yes 40 week wait time to get one built. No doubt mostly down to the shortage of chips for all the onboard electronics. <sigh> 

 

Must dash, SWMBO is working from home today and wants another latte. Time to fire up the Sage. 

 

Enjoy your weekend. 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. The foxes in my garden are not much trouble, they've scraped a few holes but I quite enjoy watching them especially the cubs but like all youngsters they are messy and untidy. I'm going up to Ipswich tomorrow which according to the forecasts will be a bit cooler than here. Apart from a quick trip to Tess Coes I'm staying indoors today, already got a few sniffles from the hay fever.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from a showery 19c rock, where these bikers have always worn protective equipment - to avoid the 'gravel rash' iD mentions.  Ooooh I bet she was sore.

 

@andyram Sarah's union needs to look at the TUPE act, I'm years out of date with application of it, but it may bear fruit.  Case law for it was a minefield, the Ayse Suzen decision threw the spanner into the works back when I was an HR practitioner.  Not anything we had to use in the NHS, but awareness of it was necessary for CPD.

 

@Grizz Many may say that Christian Wolmar knows little enough to have OK'd the cover......

 

Like Baz I'm really struggling with hayfever this year, now on the third different antihistamine to try to control the snot river. 🤧🤢  So a neighbour has just started moving the grass - in the rain - pah! 🤬

[DaveF]

 

I spent the first part of yesterday removing gravel and digging out small slabs from the garden at the back of the garage, it's where I used to put the wheelie bins when the car fitted into the garage.  This summer it is going to be a chrysanthemum bed, the plants in the greenhouse are just about ready to plant out.  The gravel is now in bags ready to be reused on a path, the small slabs will provide a hard area at the back of the greenhouse to put things on.  That kept me busy until coffee time when I knew it was time to stop - the warning sign is when a hernia scar starts to get uncomfortable - it was collateral damage to nerves and muscle tissue, not the site of hernia itself that gets painful.

 

After a nice read and rest I had chilli chicken for lunch before going to the flat to collect more things.  I managed to throw out quite a lot of rubbish and brought more things home.  I found some more silver cutlery and other kitchen things in a cupboard I'd not emptied before.  Then during another look at the books I found a copy of "The Country Scene", a large very old book with prints of paintings of the country side and descriptions.  It has my great uncle's name in it, Colonel Tom Ford, it had been stamped just inside the cover with a german prisoner of war camp stamp.  I also found a similar size book with a mix of real 19th century photos and watercolours, but no title , I think also Tom's.  There were a number of other books as well.  I know he was in a PoW camp in Germany, I have a number of his paintings he did there.

 

Mum's TV is now in my spare room to replace an old much less good one, I also have a new small radio from her kitchen along with an old radio cassette player - I found a few cassettes and may transfer them onto my PC.

 

When I got home I realised I'd forgotten the remote control for the TV so I had to go back which meant I picked up a few more bits and pieces, including a satelite receiver (free to air) which will make a useful spare for me - I sometimes watch German TV, as did Mum.

 

David

 

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by DaveF
To remove random typing errors.

[DaveF]

2 hours ago, Grizz said:

Interesting book from what I’ve seen so far…

 

However that is a very unusually HST power car on the dust cover. One might almost say unique in its appearance. Perhaps it was intended as a low speed variant, given the obvious reduced braking capacity! 

Anyone spotted it yet?!?!?

 

 

It might have been an ironic take on what the government of the day had intended that it would end up like, if it had had it’s way? 
 

Sad that this book cover was not run by someone who knew about trains before it went to print. 

 

 

I've been sent a copy of this book by the publisher as it has one of Dad's photos in it.  It's in a pile of about 6 other freebies from publishers with mine/Dad's photos in them.  One day I may decide to read it.  The others will be looked at first.

 

David

Edited June 17, 2022 by DaveF