Early Risers.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Frosty and -2^oC and a sunny but chilly day is forecast.

Mrs GDB has been taken to her temporary place of employment. They couldn't organise a p#ss up in a brewery as no-one was answering the doorbell. I waited with her until  two of the lads who work with her arrived and they were still standing outside when I left. This is the firm who changed the hours of all the online shopping staff so they had to start at 4.00/5,00 AM. Most of them are women and it's not bl##dy right that they should stand outside in the cold, possibly by themselves, at that hour. I shall be making another complaint to her manager.

<Rant over> and I feel better for that! 

Today I shall be attempting to finish repairs on the Cyberman. The wonky handlebar is not the one I fixed so I'm going to attempt to put that right.

Also got shopping to do but that will be in Chris's usual place of employment. (which will give a chance to speak to her manager - she of course doesn't want me to but I'm not having it!  Ooops - nearly started another rant)

Have a good one,

I'm rather looking forward to the rest of the day.

Bob.

Edited January 19, 2017 by grandadbob

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

I do not have much luck with discount coupons generated by shop tills which do not state clearly enough what goods they cover.  One such case occurred yesterday when I went shopping for personal organiser refills in my local WHSmith, armed with a coupon that tempted me with 25% discount.  At the till the coupon would not work.  The assistant said that it was because I had selected Filofax brand refills or, as the coupon proclaimed, wallets.  After a futile argument about what constitutes a wallet the manager was summoned and the exchange continued.  Finally the proposed purchases were replaced with the nearest available own brand products – and the coupon still would not work!  Blaming the bar code, eventually the manager deducted an approximation of 25% from the bill and we parted on good terms.  Pragmatic solutions are often the best. 

 

Area Group was good and the M1 behaved itself in both directions.  Next time the meeting is in my neck of the woods.  I popped out last night to confirm with the venue that it would be OK.  It will: the ale house is sparsely attended during the week and is attractive for that very reason.  There is no threat of Sky Sports or those clad in tribal costumes that it tends to attract.

 

Tonight I return to The Stables to enjoy the iconic folk singer Tom Paxton.  Before that the spectre of the ironing board raises its ugly head, or would do if ironing boards have heads.  After lunch I have been enjoying the new series of "Father Brown" with Mark Williams in the title role but today's episode is the last in the series.  Will I succumb to the lure of the re-runs next week?  Tempting as it can be to slob out all day, there are always essential tasks that must be discharged long before there can be any thoughts of m*d*ll*ng.

 

On that happy [?] note, best wishes to the lonely and depressed, to all travellers [wonder how the talks between Southern and ASLEF are going?] and to the ailing, recovering, supporting, grieving and missing.

 

Chris 

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is very cold this morning.  -8°C was spotted at one point on the way into work.

 

It looks like today is going to be a day of meetings (among other things).

 

Time for a coffee!

 

Have a good day everyone...

[Barry O]

Morning to most, evening Rick and others... Next year all being well this will be reversed as her indoors is arranging a trip to Oz and New Zealand as part of her retirement "do"

 

Some parcels to prepare and post then off into the City Centre for lunch with an old boss/friend. (He gave up trying to manage me but was a source of wisdom and support.)

 

Tea to be drunk so TTFN.

 

Baz

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Chillier than predicted here -4C at the moment.

Breakfast soon and then off to Whitechapel (Royal London Hospital) for a chat and probably blood tests.

Have a good day.

Tony

[AndyID]

Jamie's comments about the woman who becomes ill by Googling the illnesses reminded me of a former female coleague who came in full of herself, her GP had told her that she had acute hypochondria!    Most of us managed to keep a straight face but one of the other girls burst out laughing much to the womans annoyance.    Not as annoyed as she was when she looked up hypochondria.

 

At least he didn't tell her she had a cute angina.

[TheQ]

Morning awl, after a 5 hour nights sleep which is about average these days.

 

Yesterdays attempted Cockwomble award goes to a Toyota RAV 4 driver, at the road works through the NDR Norwich (Northern distributer Road) aka bypass, there was one of those road sweeping lorries following the muddy tracks of several contruction vehicles. at the point where construction  vehicles swing wide to turn into / outof the works on the left. Said road sweeper does the same to follow the mud, Cockwomble decides at that point to try to undertake!!!!! they missed each other but only just.

 

The computer net work  is getting annoying again, it says I have to change the password spome thing it does every 3 months. at that point it send you an email every few hours as a reminder. So not only do I have to clear all the you have not backed up messages( because the computer was switched off), clear all the spam written by comapny sales executives and managers saying what wonderful things they have done. I now have these to clear these as well...

 

The TV seaweed was wrong again, dire warnings of frost this morning, all the road corners gritted, frost .... none.

Edited January 19, 2017 by TheQ

[AndyB]

Morning all, and t's -5oC, 4 deg lower than forecast. 

 

ChrisF, my solution to the 50p off your next shop* is simple. As there is generally a use by date, and I shop in such places infrequently, I hand the coupon to the person standing next in the queue. Brings a smile to their face. 

 

Chapter 6 - Organisation. Barry, book me a one-way flight to Zurich! 

The one good thing about the textbook is that when it comes to drafting otherwise very dull and dry documents it makes them look like the height of excitement by comparison. 

 

Good luck AndyRam with the visit today. New challenge and horizons may be just what you need?

[jamie92208]

Morning all from the village west of Dean Woods. Breakfast has been consumed and I think that the domestic authorities are now active upstairs. No doubt morning orders will be posted in due course. I also got the Error 502 Bad gateway message last night.

 

Once it's time for the buss pass to work I'm off to Leeds to meet a mate who's having a bit of a rough time. He's in his early 50's with 2 young kids and got made redundant a few moths ago and is having no joy in finding another job. To cap it all his mother has become a victim of telephone fraudsters and has lost most of her savings. We're going to have a cup of coffee and a natter.

 

Then it will be back home and the ironing basket is making groaning noises as it says that it's overloaded.

 

All the best to all and sundry.

 

Jamie

[The Lurker]

Greetings all.

 

It was parky in Sidcup again today, another heavy frost, and even colder than yesterday in Lurker Towers. The work done by the plumber seems to be holding up although when it is this cold, the downstairs is bitter and the sludge in the system means the rads don't come on at all. I am regretting not getting the heating sorted in November when we had a quote but we decided it would limp through to the spring. We didn't really discuss our options properly because of the MiL's heart attack. Well she can share in the joys of our cold house as she is coming to stay for a week starting tomorrow.

 

Oh well, it will get warmer!

[Mike Bellamy]

Update on the dirty protest outside Derby Crown Court - he claims to have lost £5 million . . . . . . . although I note the report says some were personal cases that went against him which I suppose is a chance you take when both parties believe they are right

 

http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/derby-court-mud-protester-lost-5million-in-nightmare-legal-cases/story-30068362-detail/story.html

 

 

.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

As Sheila has once again gone out to her Zumba class this morning, so as the kitchen is un occupied I'm going to commandeer it and make some more soup, leek and potato this time, the freezer is getting quite full now! After that I will venture down to the workshop and will continue constructing the final baseboard. Once I've done that, I can then make a start on fitting the fasteners that will hold them together, then a tray for the controller and control panel.

 

Back later.

[Coombe Barton]

Weather dreich.

 

Sister Drac soon.

 

Then working at home today 

 

OH YES I AM!!!

[petethemole]

GTR = Grand Theft Railway. Now there's a computer simulator game idea....

 

You can get this mod for GTA5  https://www.gta5-mods.com/scripts/railroad-engineer .

 

Frosty again here; Tiggers' water re-froze after I broke the ice for him but it's just starting to thaw now. Yesterday the shade temperature didn't get above freezing until after 2pm. Tigger won't touch tap water in the kitchen where he feeds and has a bowl of rainwater outside. He will however drink tap water during the night from a bowl in the bathroom (and from his outside bowl if I've refilled it when empty). 

 

Chris, enjoy Tom Paxton; I saw him at the Albert Hall in the '60s, possibly 1966. His songs were popular with the singers at the folk clubs I went to (except Southend, very traditional, no guitars allowed).

 

Have a good day.

 

Pete

[Simon G]

Later up than usual today, so we must have slept well! It is a very mild and calm day here, so we might make it out for a walk on the sand at low tide today. There should be some more construction on the layout today as well. It is a much slower progress than I had expected! I am not in a rush though, so no problem.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Not a lot of sleep last night as the rash on my foot felt as if it was on fire. The only solution was to try to sleep on top of the duvet without it touching anything, I did manage a couple of hours sleep after that. My brother will be 70 at the begining of March and I'm only 16 months behind him. I have been able to contact my neice and nephew on Facebook and we will try to organise a surprise for him, he's not on Facebook so hopefully we can make it a complete surprise. Still somewhat chilly at the moment despite the sunshine so going to make the most of it, be back later.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Another day of bright sunshine although some high cloud is edging in from the south east and another morning of a decent frost although not as hard as yesterday's so starting off as another nice winter day.

 

(post then duly interrupted for attention from my hairdresser and then hoovering up the consequences from the kitchen floor - no blood was spilled)

 

Today being faux Friday it means a Waitrose shopping trip 'somewhere' (depending on availability of parking spaces) and eating out with friends this evening.  

 

Have a good day one and all

[Horsetan]

Latest silent call number to be blocked: 020 3725 5560, one of hundreds of numbers operated by Gamma Telecom Holdings Ltd. Add this one to your block list. Bloody robo-diallers.

[BSW01]

The soup finished, it's now cooling, just waiting to be decanted into suitable containers ready for freezing.

 

I'm just enjoying a cup of tea whilst listening to Classic FM, before going down to the workshop to do some more carpentry.

[jonny777]

Hello from a frosty Somerset. It was bright and clear at sunrise, but after 9am the fog rolled in from somewhere and has persisted ever since; although I can make out the sun through it at times.

 

I may still hang out the washing and allow it to freeze on the line.

[trisonic]

Just sitting here watching you lot with glazed eyes....... I find reading other people’s routines rather soothing, really.

 

What I should be doing is honing my chops on guitar - which is a bit difficult at 5:53 am................ well, not difficult, more anti-social. 

 

Still mild here, for the time of year.

 

Later, Pete.

[lightengine]

Another bright and sunny day here in sunny Teignmouth. Not a cloud in sight presently.

Nothing doing today just awaiting a parcel farce delivery.

[BlackRat]

Well good news......after 2 years and a not inconsiderable amount of time spent at the GP's, Physio etc etc etc it's been finally agreed I can have an op on my back to sort my lumbar disc prob.

 

Luckily for me, the firm paid for me to see a orthopaedic back specialist at the Nuffield (he also works at the NHS) who was surprised I hadn't been referred before.

 

Goodness knows what all this has cost the NHS........it would have been a lot easier for me, and cheaper if I had seen the specialist in The first place, but I have spent well over two years having umpteen physio visits, I've spent a fortune on chiropractors and I reckon getting on for a decent O gauge loco plus a few coaches on prescriptions.

 

Still there are many many people far worse off than me, and it's good that there may well be light at the end of what has been an exceedingly long........and painful tunnel.

[Coombe Barton]

Still dreich. 

 

However the autocorrect keeps changing it to 'drench', which may be correct if you stand out in it too long.

 

Email to 7500 people shortly to be triggered. Better make sure the spelling's right.

 

[EDIT] See - told you I was working.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Coombe Barton

[DDolfelin]

Well good news......after 2 years and a not inconsiderable amount of time spent at the GP's, Physio etc etc etc it's been finally agreed I can have an op on my back to sort my lumbar disc prob.

 

Luckily for me, the firm paid for me to see a orthopaedic back specialist at the Nuffield (he also works at the NHS) who was surprised I hadn't been referred before.

 

Goodness knows what all this has cost the NHS........it would have been a lot easier for me, and cheaper if I had seen the specialist in The first place, but I have spent well over two years having umpteen physio visits, I've spent a fortune on chiropractors and I reckon getting on for a decent O gauge loco plus a few coaches on prescriptions.

 

Still there are many many people far worse off than me, and it's good that there may well be light at the end of what has been an exceedingly long........and painful tunnel.

 

 

Good luck with that.

To be honest you haven't been looking too well in your avatar.