Early Risers.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[BR60103]

My previous one is now in Sandy's car (she does far fewer miles) and I just have to work out how to operate this one. It doesn't help that the manual's in a Heinz number of languages (each translated from a Far Eastern language, I think)  and is set in 5 point type!

Does the manual also cover a dozen different models, including features which your model may or may not have?

[Coombe Barton]

Does the manual also cover a dozen different models, including features which your model may or may not have?

I can't tell. Some of the material is different. Guessing seems to be the nature of the game.

[BR60103]

In his autobiography, Isaac Asimov tells how, in the Navy, there was a style which seemed to be referencing things by number and sub-number. He wrote a spoof where everything was a cros-reference and nothing was actually said.

He heard later that the Navy was still using it as an example of the way to write a report.

[emt_911]

Morning all. A wet start to the day which hasn't put me in the right frame of mind for a long drive on my first day back especially after a lousy nights sleep.

 

Time for another coffee.

 

Have a good day everyone

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is a fairly bright, but chilly morning in this part of the world.  We have a temperature of around 9°C, but according to the radio some of the higher areas are already down to 3°C.  A sure sign that autumn is fast approaching.

 

I am not sure where the weekend went!

 

Have a good day everyone...

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

Thank you, Neil, for your kind remark about people like me (!) who correct captions.  I wish it were not quite so necessary and I am sure that the editors of Backtrack, BRILL and Bylines are sick of me.  I had an idea the other day to spread the load a bit.  We could have a thread called “Encyclopaedia of Errors” or something similar.  There is no shortage of material in books and magazines …

 

I cut the grass yesterday.  I say grass but there is much more than that in my lawn, or there was until my electric Flymo [no, not Paul] got to work.  There are bald patches and the surviving vegetation is far from being a uniform shade of green.  Whether it will be cut again before the end of October is one of those imponderables but the act of pruning the centrepiece of what passes for a garden has shown even more clearly just what a mess the rest is.  Yes, I know: don’t sit there moaning, get out there with weeding tools.  That it makes precious little difference when I do just that is incredibly demotivating.

 

It appears that the local paper whose delivery brat causes me such grief is to be revamped and will no longer be published on Sundays after the beginning of October.  Instead it will appear on Wednesdays as what is described as a community newspaper.  In its day it was a fierce campaigner and its founding editor, the late Frank Branston, a relentless newshound.  I fear for its future.

 

In the week ahead there is a meeting on Tuesday night which I must report dutifully.  The trip to ExpoEM Autumn on Saturday will have to be by road as the alternative combination of trains and buses will take too long.  I doubt that my hatred of the M6 will be lessened.

 

Best wishes and felicitations to all in distress and recovery

 

Chris

[DDolfelin]

Tony has kindly sorted the URL for the Garden Railway movie.

Ignore any requests to join and delete the Ad to see the arrow to start the video.

 

https://www.dropbox....- Sept 2017.MOV

 

I should explain that this was the first time the track had been tested.

Never met the builder but they seem a very nice family.

Not on RMW as far as I know.

Very impressed with the quality of materials and the time taken to get this far.

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Here,

Another good nights sleep of about 7 hours what is the world coming too?

 

Ben the Border Collie took one look outside this morning at the slight drizzle, turned round and went back to bed. We were watching country file last night and the introductions to One Man and his Dog came one. Ben doesn't normally react to the TV, but as soon as the whistled instructions to the dogs were on he sat up and looked at the tv. then started pacing from one side of the room to another. I think reinforcing our opinion He was bred at a farm and is reacting to distant memories...

 

We don't seem to have had the rain of other areas, the slight drizzle still left dry patches beneath the trees,  my car was the only one leaving tracks of dampness, until I reached the main road 5 miles away. another further 5 miles and the roads were perfectly dry all the way to work in Norwich.

There are dire warnings of road works on part of the route in Norwich, this would be the totally rebuilt section they did about 6 months ago, time for holes in the new tarmac I suspect.

 

Time to go and measure a major system, this one is not used for calibration but by engineering for testing their designs. As they are nearing the end of a project they now need to know the precise values they are getting, this will make it difficult for me as our calibration is right at the edge of measuring capabilities. Reassurance of me calibrating correctly is from the previous set of results being roughly similar and cross checked once, but the previous set in this case is 6 years old not 2 months. So checking, double checking and triple checking will be the order of the next few days.

 

Time to go....    put up the sticker on the major equipment for next weeks cal, then into battle with this one..

[Barry O]

Pah! Damp here with fatchy pog. May get to 19°C later.

 

Tony , when Aditi cracks the cake temperature problem in your oven can you put how to get cakes to bake properly on here as her indoors is having a similar problem please? Ta in advance!

 

Today involves a trip to the building society, a trip to look at a possible new club room ( same building, same floor just across the corridor), then a club committee meeting tonight.

 

I had been thinking about hanging up my umpiring coat (a lot of people are with the Law changes due on 1st October) but I may just give it another year or two. I will need a new coat though as mine is showing its age.

 

Have a great time today!

 

And I hope some of our missing ERs return soon.

 

Baz

[andyram]

Morning all. The last day of the summer holidays and I somehow feel a sense of de ja vu - preparing for a busy week of work and trying to fit in Sarah's Avon deliveries alongside school planning whilst dealing with a lack of sleep. Sarah was awake all night with the sickness bug - on her advice (knowing that we had the Avon delivery early this morning) I ended up sleeping downstairs although there was not a lot of sleep. 

 

Thoughts with my ex colleagues today - they start back today with, from what I gather, a very intensive INSET day. I am sure the ex boss will already be thinking about who should be the next member of staff to head for the door. 

 

Have a good day all.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

It was raining earlier but seems to have stopped for now and should brighten up with some sunny spells this afternoon along with the chance of more showers.

Suffering this morning from a severe case of "back" and am finding movement rather difficult. It went whilst I was stupidly assisting with domestic stuff. Should have known better!

I did enjoy the Leicester v Bath match though. Great result for the latter although they nearly blew it at the end. Didn't get a chance to see F1 highlights but have heard the result.Might watch it today.

Roast lamb was lovely last night and I got to try out my new carving knife. Boy, what a difference that made. Incidentally I previously mentioned getting rid of the old knives safely. I solved that by chopping the blades into small pieces with my angle grinder. (PPE was deployed and I can see that I still possess all digits) 

 

Evening all from Estuary-Land. GDB, what name do you go by on Facebook? A lot of ER's are on Facebook as you are probably aware and many I'm sure will want to become your friend on Facebook.

 

 

 Phil, as I said earlier I may only be there for a short while so at the moment will keep myself in stealth mode. It is interesting though to see old "friends" who have been missing for years who I've previously tried to get in touch with. As they have never replied in the past to my messages via other means then I assumed they didn't want any contact with me (I can understand that - sometimes I don't want any contact with me either)         I'm waiting to see if any of them now surface. 

 

Today The Boss wants to go to her bank and building society so some money laundering must be on the agenda.

 

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited September 4, 2017 by grandadbob

[DDolfelin]

Incidentally I previously mentioned getting rid of the old knives safely. I solved that by chopping the blades into small pieces with my angle grinder. (PPE was deployed and I can see that I still possess all digits) 

 

 

Good grief!

[45156]

Morning All

 

Sorry - missed a lot of pages and posts due to a vast load of domestic tasks,  As car boot season is now finished for us, the collection of boxes in the garage needed to be cleared to the loft, to leave a space for the logs which occupy the same space.  Of course, that meant that the rest of the garage needed a "quick tidy".  Our log supplier is now on alert that we need a new supply.  Then as the front porch is the storage area for the log supply on a daily basis, that too needed to be  tidied up.  So it is apologies for the fact that I may have missed birthdays, and other events.  My general greetings are on offer to those who have been ailing or celebrating.

 

So now then, I managed tio chip a tooth over the weekend, and need to visit the emergency dentist this afternoon, and to add to the rushing around, Lily has developed an ear infection (surprise), and 30747 has a hospital appointment after work (on new hours from today, as start times for the 8.30 starters now need to start at 8).  So it is all go.

 

With vets five miles away and appointment now imminent, it's back later.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[AndyB]

Morning all and summer seems to have given way to a drizzly autumnal feel. Sorry, haven't been able to check in for a while. 

 

The tail end of last week and the weekend is one I would probably wish to forget as it was extremely stressful for the family. 

Actually, on reflection, I'll scrub that as being on hand to offer nursing care to a loved one in the autumn of their life is a memory to cherish. 

Mum now safe in hospital and hopefully transferring to longer-term respite care in the near future. 

 

I may make it to Woking this coming weekend, however, if I don't hook up with any of you, then I hope that it is an enjoyable show.  

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a damp village. Just a quick visit. The car and trailer are loaded for France. We are going with some friends from church this time. Peter and I set off at lunchtime, after attending the funeral of a long standing church member at 11.15. Then we have 3 days when we will do nothing wrong. The womenfolk arrive by air on Thursday. They are in major panic mode about what has and has not been packed. Peter helped me pack the trailer this morning and we have agreed on the important things in life. The first part is which CD's to load into the autochanger. Then it's which bar we are going to go to on the boat tonight to get the best view of HMS QE, before we dine.

 

Things have been a bit hectic over the past few days but the layout is all packed up and put away. Beth ahs had to go out with her step mum this morning and is having to miss our friends funeral. Betty (The step dragon in law) had a mastectomy 2 years ago just after she married Will my FiL. She found another lump last week and has been fast tracked for tests. Beth is both worried for her 92 year old dad and for Betty but also privileged that she has been asked to go along in support today.

 

Anyway I've now got to go and dig the suit out and put everything ready for setting off straight after the funeral.

 

Chrisf keep correcting the captions. If this isn't done false facts get passed on and go viral. I actually managed to spend some time captioning the Green Ayre photos for the December Modeller last night. I even checked them. I have thus made myself a hostage to fortune.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Drizzle and not that warm here today.

I don't think I am supposed to do anything today. Robbie will get a walk, probably in the park.

Tony

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Somewhat soggy outside but at least no more is currently descending from the heavens.

 

Captions are an interesting subject and at times a very trying one where it is, alas, far too easy to make mistakes unless one is extremely careful.  Some years ago I checked the captions for an upcoming Wild Swan book where considerable attention had been paid to them by the author and he'd made use of photos from people who were known to keep copious notes - but even then I found an error in one, but just the one.  The real bugbear I have found was checking text where errors can far more easily creep in and it then becomes almost slavery as you end up virtually re-writing something.  One I checked for magazine article had the geography wrong in places and most of the gradients wrong although both could have been easily sorted by the author while others were a doddle because the author had done all the factual checking before putting finger to keyboard.  But errors still slip through and I'm ashamed to say that there is a magazine piece by me where I not only slightly erred but the editor (Chris Leigh as it happened) also missed my error - because it sounded right (and it wasn't), and it was about a GWR loco class 

 

So it can happen all too easily but it's great, and genuinely helpful that people pick up such things and correct them for posterity.

 

Enjoy the rest of your day - if the weather allows.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Dank and miserable here this morning as well but quite cosy indoors. As Rick said the internet and Facebook in particular seem to be playing up with Facebook 'freezing' for a few seconds. The answer seems to be come out and switch the computer off for a few seconds and then restart. Thats it for now, be back later.

[petethemole]

Mornin' all, dull and damp at The Waterway to The World after a soggy Sunday. Belated birthday greetings to Tony and even more belated congratulations to Dom and Elise.

 

During the last week we received a final diagnosis that Martyn is autistic, although not with Asperger's as we'd thought. We don't have the full report yet but it means that his college can justify and if necessary increase the learning support he gets. He also enrolled for year 2. His first year results mean he needs to retake year I of his maths A level, so he may be there for 3 years. His Computing result was good though, which is his main focus.  Mrs mole had the second cataract removal and is on 'light duties' for a month. It didn't stop her going to a handfasting in the New Forest on Saturday, but there were nurses among the guests if she had had a problem.

 

Today I need to shop and go to the bank; hopefully I can contrive to be across the road at EH to snap the grey thing; the ambient light levels won't be doing it any favours from what I've seen already.

 

Have a good Monday.

 

Pete

[roundhouse]

Afternoon from a currently dry London.

 

 

Reading Andy B and Jamies post I suppose that it's all part of us getting older seeing close friends and relatives suffering but still doesn't make it any easier. Mum had the ambulance turn up outside the house this morning. She was doing gardening and wondered why they the Ambulance was there. Turns out that she had accidentally set off her emergency cell fob around her neck, they had treied phoning but as she was in the garden she did not hear the phone ring so the emergency services were called. She was very embarrassed and apologetic but at least she knows the system works.

 

Saturday we had a good show with the layout at the Burgess Hill show were a fellow modeller and occasional helper visited for the first time in a few years as he hadn't been well enough till now to do so. Was good to see him.

 

Yesterday we spent some time clearing more stuff out of my old railway room at mums, the loft over the garage. There are still a few railway items up there including one board off my first exhibition layout 'Eridge' which was built in the early eighties. Not sure what to do with that remaining board but as it's just double track in a cutting

, with a little bit of modification it might make a good photo backdrop for rolling stock. I need to make space somewhere at home if I am to keep that board.

 

This weekend we are out again this time with Banbury at the Woking show. Looking forward to taking the layout out as it's last show was back in April.

 

In the meantime a full week at work.

Edited September 4, 2017 by roundhouse

[Purley Oaks]

Afternoon all

 

Currently dry here but overcast and warmish.

 

Must get a dashcam whenever we change our car; incrediby useful to nab hit-and-run drivers when your vehicle is parked-up overnight in a street.

 

See that VW are offering £6,000 scrappage for older cars - aren't they playing a bit fast and  loose with the € exchange rate - surely the €10,000 offer in Europe is around £9,000 at the mo - or probably £10,000 the way the economy is going...

 

Just been for my second anniversary MRI scan, results next week. The stuff they pump into you for contrast which give a hot flush then a feeling of peeing yourself - mmm, great!

 

Hope your day goes well

 

Mal

[Horsetan]

..... VW are offering £6,000 scrappage for older cars - aren't they playing a bit fast and  loose with the € exchange rate - surely the €10,000 offer in Europe is around £9,000 at the mo - or probably £10,000 the way the economy is going...

 

Should we be surprised? When the diesel test scandal broke, VW (I think) eventually offered compensation to US buyers, but not to UK ones.

[Tony_S]

A £6000 scrappage allowance isn't a sufficient inducive for us. Aditi likes her Fiesta and my Freelander doesn't qualify as it is Euro V anyway. Can't think of any VW that compares either.

[trisonic]

You need one of these, Tony:

 

Panzercycles..

 

 

 

 

Best, Pete.