Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon/Evening all from Estuary-Land. I would have been writing some of this diatribe earlier but I got the dreaded 'This community is not available' message this afternoon and I didn't have time to hang around as I had to Visit Tess Coes. I have had a problem with my smartphone as I don't use it all that much but my credit was disappearing into the ether. So I took it into the Tesco Mobile shop and asked them why. The young fellow sorted the problem within seconds. It was the internet connection that was 'on' and I was being charged for that.🥴 In future I will have to be careful what buttons I press on the phone.

 

Edited 3 hours ago by PhilJ W

[Andy Hayter]

3 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

If you're doing a scam, get it right please chaps with at least some form of gov.uk address. 

 

 

 

I would just countenance a bit of caution.

 

I received an email purporting to be from my insurance telling me about changes to billing, which would mean that the equivalent of direct debit was ending and being changed to charged direct to the bank card.  Please click on the link to input your card details.  (The full text was a bit more detailed and potentially more convincing.)

 

The email address was xxx.[insurance company]@free.fr instead of the usual xxx@[insurance company].fr.   Probably enough to convince some that it was legit.

 

The link address to input the information was however completely unlike anything you might expect.

 

Some of the sh1tb@gs  are getting a bit smarter.

[tigerburnie]

A sad reflection of the times is that I now treat all emails as scams and rarely open any of them, even some of the genuine ones, resulting in a letter in the post on one occasion, so if the genuine article want me to respond, it's snail mail for me.

[PupCam]

 

Evening

 

22 hours ago, PupCam said:

If you wanted to be really posh (aka pricey) you could go for something like this but me being me I'd go for a home built job of my own design and making.

 

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Arthur Daley lives!😱

 

Those that can DO, those that can't BUY ....... 😉

 

ION

 

I've had a most interesting time bear-baiting today.       Numerous cakes were wafted within sniffing distance of the bear snout but with one small exception all remained safely on the plate!    Impressive willpower I'd say.   It was a risky process having cake on open display as a passing Hippo could easily have spotted it and burst through the window.   Thankfully this did not happen.    

 

Some comparative ML may have been explored and yet again  the world has  been corrected although, no doubt, yet again the world wasn't listening!   How very rude of it, we were only trying to help.

 

I noticed that the village of the White Elephant roundabout was on the national news this evening due to large quantities of water.    Perhaps if they'd spent less on the roundabout and more on the drainage system a less disastrous outcome would have ensued.     The bottom of my road is flooded along with the little lane named Brookside.   The clue I suppose is in the name although perhaps it should be renamed Raging Torrentside.   We are at least  a whole 12" higher 😬 and 300 yards away and so far water flowing onto the drive has found  a suitable exit route I hope it continues to do so.     It's just started raining again.

 

 

An early night is called for I fancy.

 

Night all

 

 

 

[Ian Abel]

Returning after an AWOL, and several days away in northern Minnesota on vacation and Troll hunting.

 

Very delightful trip with our travelling companions, and we hiked various woods and forest areas, found all five Trolls, solved the puzzle to locate the whereabouts of the Golden Rabbit, and felt very accomplished at the end of it.

 

I give you five Trolls

               

 

 

and the elusive Golden Rabbit.

 

 

Weather has been delightful here, especially so on our Troll hunt. 

Today, 12c first thing starting to feel a little brisk in the morning, sunny and 30c for the high.

 

Tally ho.

Edited 2 hours ago by Ian Abel

[polybear]

13 hours ago, Mike Bellamy said:

The O-16.5 (or NG7) loco is Townsend Hook, a 3D resin printed kit with numerous brass fittings produced by Paul Martin @ngtrains.com and sitting on a Dapol B4 chassis. See link below

https://ngtrains.com/shop/product/townsend-hook-body-kit/

 

In his latest newsletter last week, Paul had two left and I see they are now showing as out of stock - however the newsletter also said there would be more coming in due course "When these two are gone the TH kit will rest awhile before it's adapted to my new printer and more castings arrive." 

.

 

 

Thanks for this; the fact that he's invested in a new (and presumably better) printer suggests to This Bear that the quality of a subsequent run may well be better, so worth waiting for.

 

12 hours ago, TheQ said:

Always wanted a Unimat, but could never quite justify getting one, at the moment I have a distinct lack of worktop space to put one.

 

 

"Lack of Workshop Space" ??

Doesn't the Continuum have a grand total of EIGHT Sh*ds??

A confused (and perhaps a tad jealous) Bear.....

 

11 hours ago, DaveF said:

She also gave me some £5 notes for a £20 note I had which is useful if I am just buying a coffee - some places here really prefer cash.

 

 

A cunning way to launder those dodgy twenties.....🤣

 

Bear actually saw his first dodgy note last week - it was a twenty that one of the Charity Shops had (apparently they're getting three a week now, despite having a note checker - I guess one of the penalties of sometimes relying on Volunteers on the Till.  How good was the funny money?  Extremely - you'd need to study it against a genuine note to spot any issues (or use a note checker).  The worrying thing is the fact that it had the King on it, rather than Queen.  Didn't take long.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

I spent a couple of hours in the office downstairs this morning, updating lists etc and scanning and printing the locomotive drawings I wanted to do. This is with the aim of converting an old Hornby 0-4-0 saddle tank locomotive into a small SR tank engine. The main dimensions are roughly right, the main work will be the cab, as it will need a completely new, almost open cab. 

 

Late this afternoon, I was a very naughty boy, I’ve pre-ordered some of the new Rapido ‘EVOLUTION’ coaches, a box set of 3 and 2 more individual coaches, all in LB&SCR brown, they’ll look great behind my H1, which is also in LB&SCR brown. ☺️

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Goodnight everyone 

[monkeysarefun]

6 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

she found a Schooner (425ml) in Oz was the right size

 

Asking for a beer  can be interesting depending on what state you are in. 

 

In NSW we have the choice   of a middie, a schooner and a pint.  A middie is 285mL a schooner is 420mL and a pint is 560mL. A schooner is the default size if you just as for a beer. 

 

The Schooner is a standard in several states , but is not well known in Victoria for instance, where if you ask for a beer

without specifying the size you'll most likely  get a "pot", which is  285ml.

 

In Queensland they have the same as NSW but a middie is called a pot, like in Victoria.

 

In some states asking for a "pint" will get  a schooner sized glass, for no apparent reason.

 

Folklore also states that if you turn you empty beer glass upside down in an Australian pub, it is a signal that you want to fight everyone in the place. I have not tested this out. 

 

The closest I may have come to was in Tasmania where the bloke beside me finished his beer then laid his glass on its side.  I was wondering if this was a Tassie variation and that soon there'd be a punch-on, so I asked him what it meant, but he said it just meant that he didn't want another beer and was an indication to the bar maid to  not refill his glass.

 

 

 

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

A sad reflection of the times is that I now treat all emails as scams and rarely open any of them, even some of the genuine ones, resulting in a letter in the post on one occasion, so if the genuine article want me to respond, it's snail mail for me.

A while back the "Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006" required the banks to contact their customers and tell them to confirm their personal details.

 

Needless to say, many people, me included, after being told endlessly by banks that "we will never send emails asking to confirm your personal details" just ignored them!