Early Risers.

[emt_911]

A very rewarding but hot day. I certainly wasn't ready to deal with a complete SNAFU with my hotel booking in the calmest of manners.

 

It seems that a very hot and humid night is going to have a severe impact on the amount of sleep tonight.

 

An early start in the hope of missing the worst of the temperatures tomorrow.

 

Night all

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

 

PS No problem with the float valve in the header tank - we haven't got one  What we do have to to do (and did) is run the tap nearest to the rising main.

Edited June 19, 2017 by The Stationmaster

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[AndyID]

Bear stopped play this morning. An adult one wandered on to the soccer pitch beside the one we were playing on, then across the pitch behind one of the goals, then into the woods to scratch its back on several trees. We stopped, and warned joggers, walkers, mothers with kids in strollers etc. who were walking the paths in the park. The bear wasn't bothering anyone, but it's always better to know one's around to avoid surprises for people, and the bear.

 

There were city Parks and Rec staff working nearby. They said they will watch for the bear appearing again in the same area. If it happens two or three times more in the next few days, then it's getting habituated to the local environment and will have to be tranquillised and relocated.

 

Sadly, I just read that a young lad in Alaska was killed by a black bear.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/bear-chases-kills-16-old-194111380.html

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

I was glad to get home last night. Engineering works meant there were no trains to Benfleet via Basildon. Some cancellations and going via Tilbury made the journey longer. We got seats though. Our neighbour came and collected us from the station. The house was rather warm when we got in but we opened every window until we went to bed.

I am still having some unpleasant side effects from medication. I suppose the good news is that it does show it is working. My only task today is to collect Robbie. I think mid morning is the most likely time.

Thank you all for the wedding anniversary greetings. We had a lovely day. Aditi's family had contacted the hotel and arranged for a nice bottle of wine. I knew someone in the hotel must have written the card as most of Aditi's family are doctors with dreadful handwriting.

The train journey back frommWengen via Luzern was great. The train from Interlaken to Luzern had carriages with big windows. Lots of spectacular scenery, it was clear and sunny.

 

Tony

[emt_911]

Morning all. Once I managed to get to sleep I slept well just not for long enough.

 

Hopefully a better day and home at a decent time.

 

Time for another coffee.

 

Have a good day everyone.

[Tony_S]

Horsey revelations from Essex

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/19/shetland-ponies-could-have-pulled-chariots-colchester-find-suggests/

 

Tony

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It was a real scorcher yesterday afternoon.  The temperature is expected to get up to 32°C again today with possibly 35°C forecast towards the end of the week.  That's too hot!

 

There isn't a lot else to report, so I guess it is time for a coffee.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[AndrewC]

Good moaning all from the Borough of boring. No sleep for me. The pinched nerve in my shoulder is back with a vengeance. Now sitting on the patio with latte and cooking brekkie on the BBQ. At the moment it's a hazy 17c and quite pleasant. The pizza oven house is still 26 inside apart from our bedroom, where the a/c has kept things cool. Today I shall mostly be avoiding meetings with time wasting morons and job hunting.

 

Enjoy your day.

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all from the Tropic of Bedford

 

After collecting my meds yesterday I decided to have a long overdue haircut - shampoo and style, they call it, though the heap of thatch on top of my head can be called style only with uncommon generosity.  I was in the barber's chair before I had finished reading the latest sob story about half of Ant and Dec.  It speaks volumes for the tabloid comic concerned that it can find nothing better to splash over its front page and a fair chunk of the inside.  To be fair, the papers had gone to press before the latest atrocity happened.  I am beginning to think that the UK is running on infinite improbability drive.

 

I had a cheeky git on the phone at lunchtime, making a cold call.  When he started his marketing spiel I jumped in and asked where he got my number.  He recited some guff about a consolidated database based on the electoral roll.  Excuse me?  Since when did the electoral roll act as a telephone directory?  He then asserted that one has to renew ones registration with the TPS annually, at least that is that he was told in training.  I ended the call and blocked the number.  What I did not do was make a note of the organisation represented by this hapless youth so I may yet call back and find out before reporting them.  Somehow the word "hapless" in the last sentence came out as "shapeless".  Oh dear.

 

This morning will see the fodder run accomplished with all due speed and some rather manky towels added to the next batch of laundry.  My brow and limbs have been mopped rather a lot over the last few days.  Breakfast will include the last of my homegrown strawberries in half a pot of yogurt.  Yum.

 

Best wishes to all in distress

 

Chris

[45156]

Morning All

 

Been a while, due to various personal things going on, and also a few days away, which were great, but the return journey from West Berkshire to Lancashire took a lot longer than it should have, as the M6 was closed, but as we had early warning, we were able to divert off well before the tailback.  Diversion was very slow, as it took in a number of towns, but had the advantage that we were progressing, and also were able to stop if necessary.

 

Generic greetings are the best I can do at the mo.  These are liberally offered here.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[andyram]

Morning all from a still very hot area of South Derbyshire. The sun is currently behind a layer of cloud but the air feels heavy. Firstly a welcome home to Tony and Aditi - I am glad you enjoyed the trip. Generic greetings to all with congrats and commiserations as appropriate.

Stewart's account of his journey home reminds me of our journey down to Somerset last summer. After receiving advanced warning of major delays on the M5, I took a gamble and left the motorway at junction 12 heading south towards Yeovil, but turning off and travelling through Bath to get to Bishops Lydeard. It was a much longer route but we avoided long queues which, with a four year old in the car, gave us the freedom to keep moving and stop when we wanted. There is a lot to be said for that.

On the subject of holidays we head to down to Brixham for our summer break next month. I have just found out that our arrival day coincides with the Brixham Model Railway show. Sarah has already agreed a visit.

Yesterday's heat caused the postponement of Amber's sports day which was not unexpected and a very sensible decision. This meant I stayed at school all day and caught up on a few one to one jobs with the children. Last night saw the newsletter sent out to parents with the announcement of my departure. It will be interesting to see if there are any comments today.

 

Have a good day and stay safe in the heat.

[Barry O]

Time to prepare for Sister Drac's little helper....a walk to the surgery is in order I think, followed by a haircut.

 

Never wish for cooler weather...looks like it could get a bit chilly tomorrow.

BOD and two_sugars..early warning..all being well I am visiting the County Palatine to umpire at Durham School. I will wave!

 

Baz

[TheQ]

Morning Awl,

Another Awful nights sleep, due to the heat 28C showing on the downstairs thermometer when I went up, 25C  this morning when I left for work.

 

It was quite misty this morning with visibility just over half a mile, the distant coast and  tree  lines were showing as edges fading into white going down to the ground.

 

Ben the Border collie has been staying with a friend occasionally who has several Borders and Sheep (on a small holding), he displayed all the usual Border traits running round us all trying to keep us together, pulling branches out of the hedgerow, much to big to throw and going into all the various poses that a Border makes when rounding up sheep....

 

I drove through the floods on the way in, well all of 1 inch, yet another water main has failed in Coltishall, it won't get any deeper than that, as it flows down to a small stream and the River Bure. Coltishall must be a candidate to have it's entire water main system renewed.

 

One Cockwomble on the way in a Range Rover coming the other way decided to over take a car  through some S bend on the edge of Norwich , he had to make some effort to get it back on his side as I came the other way in the LandRover, causing the car he had passed to have to brake. Had I been driving in a similar speed going the other way we would have met in the middle.

 

 The radio reported that the trains to London are half cancelled and those that run are doing so slowly to prevent overhead damage. Also they report three rail bridges are closed to river traffic as they will not risk opening them in case they jam open and stop all rail traffic. This means Network rail are breaking the law, as their original act of parliament give priority to boat traffic. While I can understand why they are doing this , it's becoming regular and Network Rail really should fix the bridges so this doesn't happen. It didn't happen before welded rail came in..

 

Well I finally cleared last weeks major system yesterday, and the test system for my Programming efforts has arrived. Unfortunately I'll be an hour short of time today and two hours short tomorrow before I go off to Scotland. 

Today is the company Barbeque, which at least means I don't have to cook for myself tonight, this years theme is rodeo so they've got one of those rodeo machines coming in , with my back I won't be going near it. There lots of other silly games.

Tomorrow I've got part 2 of my 6 monthly diabetic check so I'll be 2 hours late into work.

 

Time to... go and test some programming in my nice cool Lab...

[BlackRat]

Just home From Brittany, so trying to catch up.

 

The sun has most definitely got his hat on.

 

In the cold it's easier to warm up than it is to cool down in The heat.

 

Best wishes to anyone with asthma etc, not much fun is it.

[roundhouse]

Morning from a very warm Surrey. It was cool enough in our bedroom with the fan on to get some sleep but the rest of the house was baking hot through the night.

 

Mor problems on Southern this morning but so far are not affecting us. The drivers over time ban which was postponed prior to the election after the Govt were "talking" but surprise surprise that once that the election has passed that they haven't reached an agreemet so the overtime ban commences at the end of this month right when the Sumer staff shortages often start occurring.

 

Andyrams mention of avoiding motorway jams, we will oft n divert onto country roads even if it does take longer, it's far more interesting than staring at all the stationary cars in front. Our sat nav gives good traffic reports but if you diver off a motorway then it will try to reroute you back to th motorway for quite some miles so one of us will use a map to find a suitable route til the sat nav then picks up a new route avoiding the problematic area.

 

It could be beer time tonight. We have enough beer tokens just in case.

[AndyID]

If it gets too hot here I can always jump in the lake.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

Another hot and restless night with not as much sleep as necessary. For some reason my work email seems to have stopped working, I'll try again through the day, but if it persists I will have no other option than to go in the orifice to try and sort it, but I think I'll leave that until tomorrow.

 

Back later

[Horsetan]

I have managed to scan and convert the instruction sheets and diagrams of the old Modern Outline Class 47 kit to PDF, so if anyone needs a replacement set for their unbuilt or half-built kit, you only have to ask.

 

The kit itself is quite complex, and given its mid-1980s origins it's quite sobering to remember that the artwork was all hand-drawn. No CAD assistance in those days. I must ask Dave Sharp how many of these things he managed to sell before production ended.

 

The 47 joins the two MOK 08s here. I am aware that there was a kit for the Class 40, but I've never seen one!

[The Lurker]

Morning all from a warm London Bridge. Unlike Roundhouse I didn't notice any breeze imparted by the Shard last night but felt quite smug that the Charing Cross trains were not affected by yesterday's problems at Cannon Street. Smug that is until the driver of our train announced at New Eltham that there had been a points failure at Sidcup and that we were going nowhere in a hurry. That meant a bus or walk home. I couldn't get on the bus so I was walking up the hill to Sidcup when a car pulled over and offered me a lift. The guy recognized me as someone who lived very near them so that was a relief. Apparently I am referred to by them as "Fast Walking Man". Well now that we have exchanged names they know I am The Lurker.

 

Our house was a warm 26 this morning. Sleep was not too bad but was interrupted by the sound of crying. Immediately I thought it was one of the Lurker boys before I remembered they are much older! Later we heard a crying child being walked through the streets at about 1 in the morning. A parent at the end of their tether, no doubt.

 

Today is just another day at work. Spreadsheet king may or may not be in depending on whether the workmen he has arranged to do work on his kitchen and extension turn up. They were too poorly to turn up yesterday which does not bode well for the timeliness of the work.

 

Have a good day all, and if you can't keep cool, keep your cool!

[DDolfelin]

If it gets too hot here I can always jump in the lake.

 

 

Go jump in the lake.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. It was so hot and sticky last night that I decided to leave my bath to this morning so I was up before seven. According to Carol it won't be as hot today but tomorrow, phew! The poppies are in full bloom and quite a few have bloomed already but theres still plenty more that haven't flowered yet. Thats it for now, be back later.

[Horsetan]

Go jump in the lake.

 

Make it a running jump 

 

Morning all from Estuary-Land. It was so hot and sticky last night that I decided to leave my bath to this morning ....

 

You may have to resort to two baths a day if it's going to be like this for the next couple of days.

 

Personally I don't think it's a good idea to go to bed sticky. If you need a bath, you need a bath.

Edited June 20, 2017 by Horsetan

[AndyB]

Morning all and it's a sunny one here with expected high of 29^oC. Roughly the same as NY, I understand. 

Tomorrow it is expected to reach 30^oC, so my Fair Isle patterned tank top may have to come off.  

 

The warm weather has brought on the ripening of some of our soft fruits, so it was ice cream with strawberries and raspberries last night for pudding.

 

Next door's new tree has responded to not being watered for a number of weeks by going all autumnal on them. 

I wonder if it will have the will power to survive the winter? 

 

In spite of the amount of insulation I put into the garage walls and having boarded the loft space over, the accumulated heat in there last night was quite something. 

Nevertheless, layouts don't build themselves so I spent an hour or so in there last evening.

 

The first of today's practice tests has given me a score of 90%; better than yesterday's score on a different section of the syllabus which will need revising.

I'll report back when I get a pass mark on that bit!!