Early Risers.

[Barry O]

20 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Rick, the South Island is super, we have been three times - Mrs NHN's parentals are nationalised Kiwis.  We thought of emigrating there but thought we would become bored so came to Fraggle Rock instead.  No regrets.

 

Taieri Gorge - got a cab ride too - oh look, Pom railfans, want a ride?  Yersss I should say so!

 

Ah.. one of those Japanese built Bo-BO-BO locos.. nice journey that is!

 

I  would have loved to have moved to New Zealand  but  we left it too late. 

 

It is also the home of some of the arstwhile Gatwick Express sets.

Baz

 

[Barry O]

San Fransisco is not on my list of places to return to. I felt very uncomfortable in China Town..  it had a "threatening" feel to it.. preferred San Jose and Salt Lake.

 

Baz

[New Haven Neil]

8 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Ah.. one of those Japanese built Bo-BO-BO locos.. nice journey that is!

 

I  would have loved to have moved to New Zealand  but  we left it too late. 

 

It is also the home of some of the arstwhile Gatwick Express sets.

Baz

 

 

Yes, DJ Class - Mitsubishi built, good locos apparently.

 

It was a hard decision, we have right of entry, and had a job offer for us both, but as Mrs NHN's relationship with her parents is flaky, it was one of the deciding factors.  Life here has not disappointed as an alternative.

 

Mrs NHN just been possibly headhunted for a different job too - even closer to MER action.

 

[monkeysarefun]

18 minutes ago, pH said:

I’ve heard people in New Zealand refer to Australia as the ‘West Island’.

NZ not-very-funny PM Piggy Muldoon in response to a question about NZers moving to Australia claimed it was helping to raise the IQ of both countries.

 

At least people don't keep asking us to say "six" just for the giggles.

Edited November 28, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[Gwiwer]

11 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

At least people don't keep asking us to say "six" just for the giggles.

I knew immediately where the enquirers were from when asked at the House of Fun by a couple of lads - clearly just arrived from afar with backpacks laden - when asked "Uz theer a fush 'n' chup ship hire?"

[New Haven Neil]

Found fush n chup ice cream in Te Anau, jelly fish and choc chip that is.....it was lush.

[Ozexpatriate]

Very changeable weather today. I was expecting rain (like yesterday's heavy showers), but when I looked out the window I saw blue skies and bright sunshine, so I picked a lighter pullover for my walk despite the 2°C temperatures. By the time I was outside the sun was hiding and I was wishing for the heavier sweatshirt I would have worn. The sun did come out eventually which felt much nicer.

 

Since then clouds come and go. Showers continue to be forecast but I've not seen any rain yet today. Enough snow has fallen on the mountain that the ski resorts might reopen this week and the weather forecasters are teasing valley snow on Thursday. It's not likely to stick.

[pH]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

It was pointless points-scoring purely for the hell of it, knowing the Germans couldn't retaliate without breaking the Armistice; the Allies knew they had won the war, so why not just sit back and wait for the clock to strike eleven? 

The whole attack on Mons in the last 2-3 days of the war was (IMO) pointless point-scoring. The Canadian Corps was ordered to retake the town as a purely symbolic gesture, since it been the scene of the first major Allied defeat of the war in 1914:

 

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/battle-of-mons

 

It cost the Canadian Corps 280 casualties (killed, wounded or missing). One of those killed was one of a pair of brothers who had gone to France with the first Canadian units in 1915.

 

Discussion of the 1918 Battle of Mons from 37:50 in this video:

https://youtu.be/Fgmrz-IaqAg?list=PLecklOwGnUiq_QJP9u4wr_Jw0hjdnuA0U

 

Edited November 28, 2022 by pH
Eventually found the attached video.

[polybear]

Bear Here.....

Who's been waiting all f.day for Evri to collect a parcel....and they haven't.  T0ssers.

Looks like I'm gonna be re-booking the collection.

Yep, Rant.

No doubt the ebay buyer may well have the 'ump too - he got it for a bit of a discount so that's the way the cookie crumbles, unfortunately.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[Ozexpatriate]

43 minutes ago, pH said:

The whole attack on Mons in the last 2-3 days of the war was (IMO) pointless point-scoring.

The whole of the 'great war' was tragic from beginning to end.

 

During a Congressional hearing of the House Committee on Military Affairs on November 5, 1919 Pershing was questioned on whether Armistice Day casualties died an unnecessary death. Pershing's response was that he was following the orders of Marshal Ferdinand Foch, commander in chief of Allied forces in France, issued on November 9, to keep up the pressure against the retreating enemy until the cease-fire went into effect.

 

There were no guarantees that the armistice would hold and I find this paragraph on the Armistice Wikipedia page apt:

Quote

Many artillery units continued to fire on German targets to avoid having to haul away their spare ammunition. The Allies also wished to ensure that, should fighting restart, they would be in the most favourable position. Consequently, there were 10,944 casualties, of whom 2,738 men died, on the last day of the war.

The last artillery shell was a 95 pound shell fired from an American Expeditionary Force, 155mm Schneider howitzer from the 11th Field Artillery, Battery E named "Calamity Jane" at precisely 11:00am, in the Meuse-Argonne. The howitzer is preserved at West Point.

 

Edited November 28, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

San Fransisco is not on my list of places to return to. I felt very uncomfortable in China Town..  it had a "threatening" feel to it.. preferred San Jose and Salt Lake.

 

Baz

 

Too many Dirty Harry movies perhaps?

[AndyID]

35 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Very changeable weather today. I was expecting rain (like yesterday's heavy showers), but when I looked out the window I saw blue skies and bright sunshine, so I picked a lighter pullover for my walk despite the 2°C temperatures. By the time I was outside the sun was hiding and I was wishing for the heavier sweatshirt I would have worn. The sun did come out eventually which felt much nicer.

 

Since then clouds come and go. Showers continue to be forecast but I've not seen any rain yet today. Enough snow has fallen on the mountain that the ski resorts might reopen this week and the weather forecasters are teasing valley snow on Thursday. It's not likely to stick.

 

It has just stopped snowing here. At least three inches since last night.

[monkeysarefun]

48 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Found fush n chup ice cream in Te Anau, jelly fish and choc chip that is.....it was lush.

Choice, Cuz!

[Ozexpatriate]

3 minutes ago, AndyID said:

It has just stopped snowing here. At least three inches since last night.

I imagine it will be very pretty when the sun comes out. Nothing quite like mountain lakes in the snow.

[AndyID]

10 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I imagine it will be very pretty when the sun comes out. Nothing quite like mountain lakes in the snow.

 

The Sun is trying to come out but no joy so far.

 

This was the first snowfall three weeks ago.

 

 

[Dave Hunt]

Fame at last for ERs. In today's Daily Telegraph there is a picture of Baz at the Warley show. Well, the caption says it's Baz but since he's holding a 7mm scale DMU in front of his face it's difficult to tell - mind you, the pose does improve the scene.

 

Dave

Edited November 28, 2022 by Dave Hunt

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Sounds like west on something to south on I-81 to west on I-40 to south on I-75. How did you avoid Knoxville? 😺 Anyway your journey reminded me of:

 

 

Actually I travelled west to Gettysburg, then south west towards Knoxville but before I reached there I saw a sign pointing to Shenandoah Valley National Park so I decided to go there. That by-passed Knoxville and I rejoined the highway not far from Chattanooga. The return was via Nashville, didn't stay there for too long as it was shut. From there I headed back north via the Ohio river valley, again through Gettysburg to New York. I didn't stop in NY though as I went on to stay for a few days with an English friend in Connecticut before the flight home.

[Adam88]

5 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Sounds like west on something to south on I-81 to west on I-40 to south on I-75. How did you avoid Knoxville? 😺 Anyway your journey reminded me of:

 

 

 

Here's another take

 

 

 

 

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well I never picked up my book this afternoon, instead I made a large pan of corned beef hash, some of which we had for tea and further seven portions have now been frozen for future consumption. 

 

This evening, I had to go back to Sainsbury’s to get a box of chocolates, that Sheila had forgotten to add to the shopping list. However, whilst I was there, I bumped into an old friend who I’d not seen for several years and I had quite a long chat with her. I’ve known her longer than I’ve known Sheila, in fact, it was at one of her legendary parties that Sheila and I met!

Edited November 28, 2022 by BSW01

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[pH]

We were going to go to Costco tomorrow. However, with snow forecast for tonight and tomorrow, we decide to go late this afternoon. It appeared quite a few other people had the same thought. Twazzazoo!

[iL Dottore]

7 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

In what way?  I suspect you have overstated this opinion.

The husband of one of my US colleagues had a gun pulled on him and was mugged in broad daylight in a downtown parking lot.

 

That was just a month ago. And, from what the San Francisco based colleagues said when my colleague spoke about her husband’s misadventure at a TC (she is based in Minnesota), this is no longer an unusual occurrence in SF

Edited November 29, 2022 by iL Dottore

[jjb1970]

The one city in the US I hope never to revisit is New Orleans, the reason for that is a memory very specific to my own experience. New Orleans is the centre for the American offshore contractor sector (the companies that build and maintain offshore infrastructure such as oil/gas platforms, sub-sea pipelines etc), in 2016 I had to get involved in a Jones Act issue over there which entailed several trips to Houston, New Orleans and Washington DC. The Jones Act is an incredibly emotive issue in the US, it reserves maritime trade between US ports to ships built in US shipyards using US steel, flagged in the US and crewed by US nationals. Whether that is right or wrong is one question, but when it comes to a lot of specialized offshore work the Coastwise qualified fleet (i.e. the Jones Act compliant fleet) does not have the ships necessary to do the work, their yards lack the capability to build them and if they tried them ships costing $300 million to build in the Republic of Korea would come in at over $1 billion using estimates even the Jones Act advocates accept. Which means they either issue waivers to some offshore vessels or they don't build deep-water assets in the Gulf of Mexico and other locations. It's really no skin off my nose either way really, other than at the time it was my job to act on behalf of the offshore contractors at risk of being kicked out. The discussions in Houston were positive basically because all the oil and gas companies were desperate to avoid the inevitable interruption that the changes proposed would result in. Discussions in Washington DC were robust but professional and the USCG people were acutely aware of the implications for safety in the Gulf if high-spec DP3 construction vessels were kicked out and people started trying to use half-baked alternatives instead (the problem agency is the CBP, who enforce the Jones Act). However, in New Orleans it was an awful experience. The US offshore vessel operators (none of whom had the ships necessary to do the work) were genuinely sinister and a couple of them made very thinly veiled threats. OK, I'm a big boy, I wear long pants and I'm paid to do a job, but I've never been anywhere which came close to the intimidation and properly sinister vibes I got from those visits to New Orleans. The memory means I never want to visit the place again.