Early Risers.

[The White Rabbit]

35 minutes ago, PupCam said:

By the way,  Am I the only one seeing a large Banner add at the top of the page?   

 

           I've paid good money to make those go away!

 

 

I can see that one now. I stand corrected but I thought the Premium option was to eradicate non-modelling ads? (Hence my post about the dog worming advert a day or two ago). Quite honestly there have been some days when I see non-railway ads, some when I see modelling ones and some when there are none. I used to screenshot some of the former, thinking if the issue persisted I'd mention it in the relevant thread for Andy's information but things have changed quite a bit lately with all the [known] site issues and I've rather lost track, especially with having to do some IT fiddles with my PC (still haven't fixed that * annoying paint shop pro corner rounding!) which might confuse the issue. He's a busy bloke and if I do report anything, I want to make sure I've got all the info and the right end of the stick. 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Just had our local MP (or suppose I should say candidate), who also happens to be a (current) government minister, outside.  

Though he didn't knock on our door or engage with me in the front garden.

Maybe having a big poster for a rival candidate in our window, may have had something to do about it...

 

Whoever you support, please do vote tomorrow. And remember to take photo ID.

[iL Dottore]

33 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 Morning (Pre-munch)!

 

For some*, eating is but  a necessary chore and thus the only point of consideration might be;   Are there any facilities available at all that provide acceptable to the user  scoff?  Where it came from,  how it was prepared and even what it contained might not be of the slightest interest whatsoever.

That’s really, really sad.

 

Food is one of life’s great pleasures and a great social lubricant. An interest in food (and many other things besides) have lead to many memorable moments of my life.
 

I really think that one should have a Rabelaisian approach to life, tempered by Da Vincian curiosity. One should be prudent with one’s finances without falling into the trap of self-denial or (worse) meanness.  Openness of mind, willingness to learn, generosity of body, spirit (and purse) bring more happiness and contentment than the inverse.

 

It may be old-fashioned (and probably politically incorrect) but there’s a lot to be said in favour of being a Renaissance Man. Whilst we may no longer be able to emulate the depths of a Renaissance Man’s knowledge, we can certainly strive for that breadth of interest. And, I would argue, one should also have a passing knowledge of those topics that don’t interest one - you never know when such knowledge could come in handy. 

[4630]

23 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

 

 

 

Whoever you support, please do vote tomorrow. And remember to take photo ID.

 

Absolutely. 👍

 

I live in a constituency that has, over the 30 years that I've lived here, been considered a three-way marginal which has tended previously to encourage a fair bit of door step canvassing in the run up to election day.

 

Not this time though.  Just the usual propaganda leaflets extolling the virtue (!) of the major candidates.

 

Perhaps I should feel delighted/relieved/overlooked/taken for granted (delete as appropriate) with their approach this time around.

 

But to echo again what you said Peter, Whoever you support, please do vote tomorrow. And remember to take photo ID.

 

 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 12:37 by 4630
spelling

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from a grey skied part of London between Southwark tube and the river.

 

Sorry to read of Ben the Collie's passing. Like Gwiwer, not a dog person, but the tales of other people's dogs always bring a smile, and I will miss them.

 

Good to see a picture or two of Bear's Lisbon trip - we had a good time there last summer, although i don't recall eating any pizza. Peri peri chicken yes, great big steak yes, and a nice seafood rice dish...  I think there are two sorts of people - those who eat to live and those who live to eat; I am definitely in the latter group and am happy to pay good money on occasion. I will try the local stuff unless it is something I really don't fancy (those icelandic fermented sharks with the exploding tins spring to mind) but food is not the only reason to travel. It's part of the experience.

[Tony_S]

32 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

please do vote tomorrow.

I would get in trouble if were to do so having posted my vote last week. However I know what you mean. We have had quite a few leaflets from our most recent MP in the last few days. Other than that you wouldn’t know there was an election on. When we first moved here there were people touring round in cars or vans with  loudspeakers and posters on lampposts or hoardings in gardens.  
The BBC news tomorrow will be free of any party political stuff, just things like pets at polling stations or similar. We are going out to lunch on Friday so I won’t be staying up too late (if at all) after the polls close on Thursday. 
 

Edited Wednesday at 12:47 by Tony_S

[PupCam]

17 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

That’s really, really sad.

 

..... but I would suggest true.

 

4 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

I think there are two sorts of people - those who eat to live and those who live to eat; I am definitely in the latter group and am happy to pay good money on occasion.

 

Like work, I'm sure that's true to a point although in reality perhaps not perfectly boolean.

 

I was very much a "Work to live" kind of person but the difference in my well being, interest, efficiency and performance doing things I was interested and engaged in compared with things I wasn't was quite marked.   In two projects I was engaged in on a couple of occasions it was said to me, more than once, "it must be great being paid to do your hobby"* and it's true they played to my strengths and were particularly interesting and productive parts of my working life.   Having said that it was also the time when I worked the hardest, longest and put myself out the most so I'd say that was a Win-Win for both the GE and I.

 

*  I'm not saying which of my many hobbies were applicable - further details withheld

 

I'm reminded of a chap I was working with during my early training in the 70s who was most definitely a "Live to Work" type.   He was unmarried & lived with his mum and had as far as we knew no interests.  He was a production controller in the days before computer based inventories etc and his domain was a collection of huge registers/ledgers that contained sheets and sheets (no doubt the Imperial equivalent of something between A3 & A2) detailing the quantity, standard and other information on every component in every assembly used in a particular fast moving (no, I'm not talking about how quickly they sold) product.    When we returned from the long Christmas break which was a new and novel concept at the time everyone was retelling stories of their most enjoyable Christmases.     Billy (yes that was his name) said that he had a very quiet Christmas and was rather bored "so he popped into the office on Boxing Day and the subsequent days of the holiday to make sure the registers were completely up to date."     I wouldn't mind betting no one actually noticed the affect of his efforts and I guarantee his beyond the call of duty exploits were not rewarded or even recognised by those that mattered.

 

Now that was really sad.

 

I Late ON

 

Monty's new Ignition coil and leads were installed yesterday and the postman has just delivered the new plugs.        It's persisting down so the plugs will remain unfitted for now TCs!

 

TTFN

 

 

 

 

[jjb1970]

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

But you ignore true experts at your peril.

 

The original Michael Gove quote in full was “I think the people in this country have had enough of experts from organisations with acronyms saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong”

 

And he has a point.

 

As bad as many of these experts from organisations with acronyms can be, they can be beacons of sanity compared with the self-appointed expert. Which, I would argue, covers those highly opinionated “serious” amateurs @jjb1970 wrote about.

 

There was one poster on RMWeb who was a self-appointed expert who thought he knew everything about colour and colour perception and was quite insulting to anyone that challenged his world view - even if such “challenges” were science-fact based. And after insulting you, he would triumphantly crow that he knew best because he’d been “professionally painting models for 25 years”  I felt like retorting “I have an acquaintance who is a butcher, he has been cutting up carcasses for 25 years. Professionally cutting up meat for 25 years doesn’t make you a ****** brain surgeon”.

 

He is no longer on RMWeb

 

I work with internationally recognised experts in the field of oncology and almost to a man (or woman, for that matter) they freely admit that they know a lot, but they don’t know everything. Certainly there are a lot of disagreements between these experts - but disagreements based on knowledge and interpretation of that knowledge. No one disputes that successfully treating colon cancer involves surgical resection of the tumour followed by adjuvant therapy (chemotherapy, targeted therapy, radiotherapy etc). The disagreement arises on whether or not you also give neo-adjuvant therapy before surgery (depends) and what sort of adjuvant therapy do you use. The beauty of science is that (unless the politicians get involved) it is based on facts and as more data is accumulated the facts change - what was weak support for X, become strong support for X and so on. Which is why medical conferences, journals and organisations are so important: they set and communicate the “gold standards” for treatment. Most change is incremental, but sometimes treatments come along that radically change how patients are treated, pretty much overnight (such as with Trastuzamab which has completely altered the management of HER2+ breast cancer patients). 
 

Real experts change their minds as the data changes.  As John Milton Keynes famously said (quoting Paul Samuelson) “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”

 

As Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote:  “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds“

 

Indeed, the problem is not people who are genuinely, knowledgeable, informed and competent in their field, but rather the self-appointed gatekeepers and media commentariat who in some cases are clueless and in others maybe quite knowledgeable but their knowledge tends to get lost in the opinionated bile they spew out. Which is ironic given that in my experience those with genuine expertise tend to be quite balanced and reasonable, perhaps because those who really know their subjects appreciate things tend to be more complex and nuanced than might appear to the instant expert (just add water) types.

 

[TheQ]

Swmbo is definitely eat to live, many years ago she was walking into a radar operations room and someone pushed the door from the other way, it hit her and broke her nose, she was left with a very limited sense of smell, and that affects taste as well.

 

Thursday dentist and shopping, Friday radar museum and MRC, 100% political avoidance.

 

A car just drew up and smartly dressed people went to all the houses except ours. Funny how, big high fencing and a beware of the dog sign works.

 

All our political leaflets are packed in bags with other paper, ready to start the next bone fire. 

 

Some doggy bedding washed, bowls washed, new baseboard for the Radar museum next diorama made.

New garden side door for our post box waterproofed. Another day and it will be fitted to the existing hinges.

 

Must be time to shift the current lot of bedding from washer to dryer.

[DaveF]

A few photos from my trip to Belsay Hall and Castle yesterday.  It was dry and bright but quite cloudy so not much direct sunlight.

 

Belsay Hall

 

Big Gunnera

 

AV about the Middletons and the Border Reivers inside Belsay Castle

 

Another AV scene

 

Folly farm

 

David

[DaveF]

A few more photos at Belsay.

 

Belsay Castle

 

In the Quarry garden

 

Art Installation in the Hall at Belsay Hall   It would make a good space for a model railway.

 

Art Installation in the library at Belsay Hall

 

A view from the study

 

David

Edited Wednesday at 14:09 by DaveF

[The White Rabbit]

Something of a clickbait headline for @Happy Hippo and Night Mail followers? 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/03/hippos-might-fly-uk-research-discovers-animal-can-get-airborne 

 

Actually it reminds me of a similar discussion about horses, how they run and how they were depicted in paintings but anyway... we'll not let the details stand in the way of a good headline, eh? 

[Gwiwer]

Remember, among those for whom it matters, that "vote" is just an anagram of "veto".

 

We fought long and hard for the franchise we have today.  Few more so than the female half of our population but let's not forget that the vote was once - not too long ago - the preserve strictly of the gentry and the great majority of the population had no say whatsoever in who governed them.  And that an election was also - again not too long ago - a very public affair with more than a fair quote of persuasion and even enforcement.  Allegedly at the pointy-end of a pitch-fork at times.  

 

Our Orangey-party candidate was around again yesterday.  The only one to have been around in person at least while we were home but as one of us is usually home for the time being the chances of being accosted by anyone are quite high.  Cheery greetings were exchanged and I managed a light-hearted "you can't change my mind now - I'm a postal voter!" which was warmly received by him and his party.  Without them knowing who I had voted for.  

 

Strictly the constituency is marginal though the boundaries have changed since last time.  No-one knows which way it will go.  We are also among the last to declare because of the offshore votes from the Isles of Scilly which have to come over by boat.  Several boats, in fact, as the off-island ballot boxes are first tripped to St. Mary's and thence all come to Penzance.  Only perhaps 1800 in all and that's if everyone votes.  But they all count equally and one vote might make the difference.  

 

If you really do suffer from this condition then of  course we have freedom to choose whether or not to exercise our hard-won franchise.  But don't blame others for what happens next.  

 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

7 hours ago, TheQ said:

 

Ben, 

Yesterday during the night he had got up from bed, had a drink then moved to his cool place.

But in the morning he refused to get up, he had a vets appointment today anyway. So we carried him out on a  "stretcher" of Vetbed. At the vets carried him in.

He was slowly suffering from kidney failure anyway, he had a high heart rate, we knew he was feeling hot and panting a lot, the vet said he was collecting liquid internally. Nothing more could be done.

 

Once we got home I cleared the next place in our doggy grave yard, and did a lot of digging. For once no tree roots were hit, so the biggest problem was getting back out of the hole. He was then laid to rest.

 

 

 

 So sorry to hear about Ben. I always liked to follow his daily adventures. 

Border Collies are very special and you'll have many memories to cherish.

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, DaveF said:

Folly farm

 

David

If I win the lottery that's on the top of my 'to buy' list. Always fancied living in a castle, even if it is only a folly

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. The weeds I sprayed the other day seem to have revived. Either the weed killer was washed off by the rain or its useless. It is forecast to be dry tomorrow so I'll give them another dose in the morning.

[Hroth]

3 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I would get in trouble if were to do so having posted my vote last week. However I know what you mean. We have had quite a few leaflets from our most recent MP in the last few days. Other than that you wouldn’t know there was an election on. When we first moved here there were people touring round in cars or vans with  loudspeakers and posters on lampposts or hoardings in gardens.  
The BBC news tomorrow will be free of any party political stuff, just things like pets at polling stations or similar. We are going out to lunch on Friday so I won’t be staying up too late (if at all) after the polls close on Thursday. 
 

 

Dinky used to do a model (492) called "The Election Candidate", consisting of a Mini van with a double horn speaker on the roof and "Vote For Somebody!" posters on the side, accompanied by a bloke in a sheepskin coat holding a microphone.

 

Doorstepping and loud shouting is probably not considered an effective tactic nowadays. 

 

Oh well, I posted my vote off last week, so thats when the election finished for me.  I won't follow the vote on Thursday evening after the polls close, but if I do wake in the middle of the night I'll pop the tv on* to see how things are going...

 

* Or indeed grab this tablet and have a look at the BBC website.

 

Edited Wednesday at 16:31 by Hroth
A spot of reformatting. Revised to Dinky!

[Tony_S]

6 minutes ago, Hroth said:

I'll pop the tv on* to see how things are going...

Probably Jeremy Vine riding a bike to demonstrate swing from one party to another.  

[Hroth]

7 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Probably Jeremy Vine riding a bike to demonstrate swing from one party to another.  

 

I remember when the BBC psephologist used to illustrate swings by pushing a large cardboard pointer to left or right.  The good old black and white telly days when things were simpler.....

 

Edited Wednesday at 15:48 by Hroth

[DaveF]

Like many others I've already voted.  I've only had leaflets from 2 of the local candidates, perhpas the rest do not want to win.

 

I visited the dentist this morning.  As usual parking was easy, it was 21 steps from the car to the front door of the dentist's.   I had my teeth cleaned and it was decided that all the old fillings are best left alone as renewing them often causes problems.  I have another appointment in January next year.  I am fortunate that my dentist still takes NHS patients, though I have brought home details of their payment plan just in case things change.

 

Apart from that the day has been quiet, I've sorted out and done things with yesterday's photos, cooked a piece of salmon for lunch and done some jobs in the greenhouse.

 

The rest of the day has been reading and watching the Tour de France.  I feel tired as I did a bit too much yesterday.

 

David

[Gwiwer]

33 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Corgi used to do a model called "The Election Candidate", consisting of a Mini van with a huge horn speaker on the roof and "Vote For Me!" posters on the side, accompanied by a bloke in a sheepskin coat holding a microphone.

Tri-ang Railways used to do a brick-arch bridge.  I had mine until around 1995 when all the model stuff I then had bar the tin-plate went to my eldest nephew.  It bore the legend "Vote for Tri-ang Trains" for a reason I never understood and - at the time - I had no idea what "vote" even meant.  I think I was given that as a starting-school present to add to my birthday present of the early "Connie" 0-4-0 kettle, assorted goods wagons and a small oval of track which comprised my first powered train set.  It must have been an election year release as the item was in the catalogue for many years (and possibly still is in some form) but never with the wording added.  

[Gwiwer]

Spot the election proper gander 🤣

Additional scarf colours are available.  

 

[grandadbob]

Evenin' each,

Lazy sort of afternoon.  I ambled down to our friend's house and completed my watering duties.  Pots were still slightly damp but I gave them a good soaking.  The promised rain hasn't really materialised, just a few spits and spots.

After that I settled down to watch the rest of today's stage of the T de F.  Wow, what a finish, well worth watching IMHO.

Now just tapping some keys on the laptop for a while before getting ready to go out for a meal.  I keep looking at their menu online but can't decide what I'm having.  Cab is booked for 19.00 hrs.  

[Tony_S]

17 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

keep looking at their menu online but can't decide what I'm having.

Perhaps there will be a “speciality of the day’ to tempt you. 

[pH]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

I remember when the BBC psephologist used to illustrate swings by pushing a large cardboard pointer to left or right.  The good old black and white telly days when things were simpler.....

 

Robert McKenzie  and his swingometer!