Early Risers.

[Andrew P]

Good morning one and all

 

The second concert in two days featured Grace Petrie.  I had heard of her but did not know what to expect.  How good it was to hear a folk singer doing protest songs.  Grace turned her wrath on anything and anybody right wing – Donald Trump, Tony Blair, the Daily Mail – and defended gay rights with a deep-rooted passion.  She was thoroughly entertaining and I now have five more CDs for the hessian bag.

 

My late friend Andy’s funeral takes place this morning.  I shall go, if only to see who is there.  I may or may not go to the wake afterwards.  Again, it depends who is there.  I don’t like funerals.  Most that I have attended fell well short of what should have been the objective of celebrating the life of the dear departed, with a mindless selection of the same old hymns and a slug of mumbo-jumbo spoken by the celebrant who failed dismally in the objective of bringing comfort to the bereaved.  Fortunately my late cousin Michael had other ideas and his funeral was as joyous an occasion as possible given the circumstances with a mischievous choice of music.

 

Warm thoughts to all in distress and those who are missing.

 

Chris

I agree about the Music Chris, it should reflect what that person actually listened to and enjoyed in their life here on Earth.

 

I have cued up on the Turntable;

 

Comfortably Numb, full version by Pink Floyd, as people come in.

Light my Fire, by the Doors, as the curtains come around my box, and 

Knocking on Heavens Door, by Guns and Roses. 

 

 

That should cause a stir.

 

BUT I don't want it just yet please Mr.

[45156]

 

Dropped my other half off at the station along with our rucksack. Hopefully meeting her for an earleir trian to Lancaster if she can get away by noon. We are mindful of the the weather warning for the North West so want to get up there ASAP.

It's not too bad actually, here at the mo, Ian, I've seen a lot worse - not currently raining, though forecast for later, so I'd get as far North as possible as quickly as you can. 

 

Morning All

 

As I just said, it's a bit breezy here, and has been raining quite heavily.  Sorry I've been AWOL for a day or two, and the best I can do is the (now only too usual) generic greetings to the ailing and the celebrating.  A special mention to Chrisf for getting a place of the Ffestiniog tour - in all honesty, £7k seems not unreasonable for what is on offer, and this is the trip of a lifetime - as a single person, you have the advantage that you only have to fork out £7k, and not £14k for a couple.

 

Fodder run this morning, and then pick up 30747 from work, as she goes to her art group.

 

Back later/tomorrrow.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[bbishop]

Morning all,

 

What wedding?

 

Off to Southwark Bridge, via the dentist, one very painful tooth.  Back late Saturday (from SB not the dentist).

 

Bill

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Some cloud with a hint of sunshine at the moment and it may be windy with some rain later.

Not firing on all cylinders at present with yet another splitting headache, aching joints and a couple of other problems. Going to see the medic this afternoon.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

It’s a bit dull and blowy here, but no rain as yet! We will be off to the Trafford Centre once Sheila is ready for a few bits and pieces. Our return journey will take us to the butchers for our weekly meat rations and hopefully a pastie for my dinner. Later this afternoon James and Amelia will be here for tea. Other than that, there’s not much going on here.

 

Enjoy the day, back later.

[chrisf]

 A special mention to Chrisf for getting a place of the Ffestiniog tour - in all honesty, £7k seems not unreasonable for what is on offer, and this is the trip of a lifetime - as a single person, you have the advantage that you only have to fork out £7k, and not £14k for a couple.

 

Stewart, thank you.  I agree absolutely that £7k is not unreasonable for the trip of a lifetime.  Sadly, FT apply the dreaded single room supplement.  A couple would pay £6,300 each = £12,600.  This really bites for some tours.  An escorted holiday comprising two days to get to Prague, three days in Prague and two days to get home from Prague is £1,660 each if you are a couple but £2,095 if you are single.  File under having a laugh!  In April Sainsburys sent my e-friend Harry to Prague on official business and I doubt they paid anywhere near that much.  I'd quite like to go to Prague - not this year, obviously - but not at that sort of price.

 

Chris  

[Purley Oaks]

Stewart, thank you.  I agree absolutely that £7k is not unreasonable for the trip of a lifetime.  Sadly, FT apply the dreaded single room supplement.  A couple would pay £6,300 each = £12,600.  This really bites for some tours.  An escorted holiday comprising two days to get to Prague, three days in Prague and two days to get home from Prague is £1,660 each if you are a couple but £2,095 if you are single.  File under having a laugh!  In April Sainsburys sent my e-friend Harry to Prague on official business and I doubt they paid anywhere near that much.  I'd quite like to go to Prague - not this year, obviously - but not at that sort of price.

 

Chris  

Chris

 

You can easily sort out something for yourself in Prague for a lot less than £2,095 - and much less than £1,660.

 

Depends on your tour riders, of course!

 

Mal

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A bit breezy but otherwise warm and sunny this morning. Not much else to report so its be back later.

[Black Marlin]

The geographical knowledge exhibited by a group sitting behind us on the flight from Southend was interesting. After about 50 minutes they were convinced the land below must be America as Ireland is part of England.

 

*Weeps quietly* Perhaps they were merely so seduced by Arlene Foster's 'blood red line' of there being no border down the Irish Sea that they had taken it a stage further and eliminated the Irish Sea altogether, even as a concept?

 

 

Greetings all, and hello to Jason Isaacs.

 

I am here to report a rare moment of legal triumph. I had booked a 'non-refundable' hotel room in Glasgow so that I could attend a gig. Sadly, 10 hours after I'd done so the band (Carbon Leaf) cancelled their European tour, and so 12 hours after reserving the room I had to cancel it. What about my £100, I asked. "It's non-refundable! It's non-refundable!" the night porter (literally) shouted down the phone at me before hanging up.

Interestingly, I have some knowledge of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and what it has to say about unfair terms and conditions, so I sent an email yesterday pointing out that article 5 of schedule 2 of the act identifies as an unfair term anything requiring the consumer to pay a disproportionately high fee for services that will not be rendered. This morning I got an email back informing me that £75 had been refunded. I'm calling that a win!

 

Kind regards beaming blindly down on all like Lady Justice herself,

Tinkety-tonk, etc.

Gavin

[lightengine]

Chris

 

You can easily sort out something for yourself in Prague for a lot less than £2,095 - and much less than £1,660.

 

Depends on your tour riders, of course!

 

Mal

Totally agree Mal. Join Travelzoo and get some decent offers.

I'll get my Mum to have a chat with you Chris, she is only 87 but still travelling solo, not in groups.

[Barry O]

Chris...try Jet2.com...they do 3 day breaks in Prague.

 

Shopping done

3 sheets of plywood have been delivered while we were out.

Collected 3 parcels from the sorting office..tgis means a bit of crust earning to do...

 

Herself is off out to the dressmaking supply shop so I can take it easy for a while.

Time for another mugatea...

 

Baz

[roundhouse]

Chris

 

You can easily sort out something for yourself in Prague for a lot less than £2,095 - and much less than £1,660.

 

Depends on your tour riders, of course!

 

Mal

Squeezyjet return for around £150.00, bus to Metro all for a few quid from ticket machines at bus stop and it now has English option. There is also a ticket office in arrivals land side. Most sights easily accessible on trams or metro. Many speak English in bars hotels and restaurants and its a pretty safe place with usual precautions.

 

 

Hiccup at present with our weekend plans but we have a contingency plan in place just incase ut my old Triang Jinty won't be much use. More on this once we know for sure.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Having just taken a phot of our wood burning stove to amuse another thread I'll repeat it below to betray how Mrs Stationmaster is spending her morning while not engaged in emptying the fridge.  Yes, the fridgeman has cometh and -

1, It's so old the maintenance destructions are not on his laptop so,

2 He had to 'phone a friend to ascertain certain details but

3 He has now partially dismantled the interior and is replacing the temperature sensor (which seems like good idea on a fridge which is chucking out too much cold)

 

So fridge finger are now. crossed that what he's done will have solved the problem.  No other plans for today as yet and as tomorrow's weather forecast looks a bit soggy I might well be making my way to Aldershot as it won't be a day for bricklaying.

 

Have a good day one and all.

 

 

 

[The Lurker]

On hearing I was Scottish a taxi driver in Oxford asked me if I'd had a good sail over on the boat

when I was a kid (about 6) I equated other countries with being abroad. Even though I knew that Scotland was joined to England on the map, in my mind  I imagined there had to be some kind of ferry between the two like there was between England and France. Otherwise I couldn't mentally make Scotland another country.....

[TheQ]

You Know I Keep Mentioning  SaiIng. The BBC have just given permission the club to use the video on this page it really shows the club well,

https://www.horning-sailing.club/

 

From studying the video I deduce it was filmed on a late Saturday afternoon. August ? as the top of my boat has been cleaned of Bird carp..

 The Type of boat I sail, a Yeoman, at the moment was that flapping about in the middle of the river not doing a lot at the start  while a Rebel sails behind it,  there are two Yeoman tied up at the club getting rigged up.

 

 there looks to be plenty of room in the pictures, but our start line runs from the clubhouse across to the headland opposite. try it with 20 boats on the line and up to 100 in the river as seen in the high up shot to where the river seems to stop.

Edited October 12, 2018 by TheQ

[Ian Abel]

Morning all - POETS to everyone.

 

Will be doing a POE and hopefully JFK won't be too snarled, it WAS yesterday with 1+ hour delays on outbound, so far the weather MAY cooperate and allowing for sensible traffic handling!

 

Interesting anecdote to share regarding my travels;

Always rent cars from National - for ME they have been exemplary for 10+ years that I've relied solely on them. Anyway, I ALWAYS get a thank you/let us know if we can help note from the JFK  rep. every time I'm here. Always assumed/expected it was a fancy form letter and never did anything about it.

This week, the only vehicle that I deemed suitable (don't need a mini-van or pickup truck!!) was what turns out to be an awful item - Dodge Journey - that appears to be a poor mans cross between a small SUV and a mini-van, it's low end/cheap and is frankly one of the worst pieces of sh!t I've had the misery to drive.

Figured that I'd let the guy know, making sure I explained that their service and staff are always excellent, but this was something they should consign to the junk yard rather than rent to folks!

 

Though, oh well, there's that consigned to the circular file...

Lo and behold, a very swift response apologizing profusely, and offering either an exchange if convenient to  "premium vehicle" or a couple of days free rental!

Result - I've opted for the couple of days since it wasn't worth attempting to switch the car for just a day.

 

Anyway - that's all exciting happening here, save it chucked it down most of the night apparently and there's minor flooding all over the coastal areas of NJ and some of Long Island. Nothing visible on my drive in, but the Long Island flooding was supposedly quite localized and mostly expected to be gone by 7-8 anyway!

 

Weather "HOME" is a very different story from here, -3 overnight and light snow flurries early morning. expecting  0 to -3 for the next few overnights, highs may reach 6-10!

weather here 15 and cloudy driving in, supposed to be 18 for a high, partly sunny and high winds.

 

POE all that can.

[New Haven Neil]

Crikey Ian, if you think that's a crepe car, be careful when you come to the UK next!  It doesn't look too bad on Wiki.

 

Wet wet wet here, and windy too.  Ferries are off (UK cut off again) and most flights also.  The OF's club was a bit subdued, after one of our younger members leaving for the bike club in the sky last week very unexpectedly, and there's a big classic bike do in England this weekend so a lot have gone away 'off world' for that - hopefully they weren't expecting to travel today!  'Big Dave', ex Royal Corps of Transport, strong healthy fit in appearance bloke had a hearty actually in hospital, but didn't survive.  :-(  He was a leading light of the British Legion here, so there will be a lot at his funeral next Friday.  One of my better friends in the club, I'm gutted.

 

Not in the mood to dodge the rain to go down to the garage to fiddle with trains, well trying to get the impetus to rip up the old layout really, so I think a quiet afternoon is prescribed, books and DVD's.

[Ian Abel]

Crikey Ian, if you think that's a crepe car, be careful when you come to the UK next!  It doesn't look too bad on Wiki.

 

The "look" is fine, it's everything else...

It has, even with a full power seat, one of the most uncomfortable driving positions I've ever encountered, it's almost impossible to keep your heel on the floor and operate the accelerator (and I've got BIG FEET!) so I've ended up with a sore ankle even with a short 30-40 minute drive.

Since it's a poor-mans vehicle, it has no backup camera, almost a REQUIREMENT these days with the SUV/mini-van configurations and the way they are designed apparently to prevent you seeing ANYTHING behind you no matter how much you swivel around and lean every-which-way.

The gas (petrol) mileage is abysmal and this for a supposed econo-vehicle, even with me driving very conservatively.

There is almost NO rear view through the vehicle due to the seating/headrests/small mirror and the side mirrors are a square design not giving a decent coverage either - it's almost dangerous to drive.

I'll be glad to be rid of it...

[Happy Hippo]

Now here's a strange one...............

 

On answering the door to the postman this morning, I noticed that two breeze blocks has mysteriously arrived and were placed on the drive between the car and the front door.

 

By nature, I am a suspicious old git, and trawled from the back of my mind, why such a phenomena would happen?

 

Fortunately some parts of my brain are less feeble than others and I deduced that it was more than likely a 'target marker'.

 

ie  If the breeze blocks are not moved, then there is no one at home.  You can deduce what would follow during the dark parts of the night.

 

I've warned the neighbours to be on the lookout for suspicious characters.

 

I also tried to inform the Police, but failed dismally as 101 eventually puts you into a queue which after 30 minutes on hold, I gave up.  I tried to report my suspicions on line, but the system doesn't support such.

 

In the 'good old days' I could have dropped into the local police station and had a work with the desk sergeant:  Fat chance of that happening now.

 

Luckily, I found a mobile number for a member of the community policing team, so managed to leave them a message.

 

I thought my suspicions might improve the overall Police Intelligence for the area............ Or would the use of the phrase Police Intelligence be an oxymoron?

 

Unfortunately, I seem to have mislaid my bloodless castrators.  Perhaps I'll use the breezeblocks as it would be a shame to waste them after they were so kindly delivered to the door.

[Simon G]

Wild wet and windy here too, although the rain has abated slightly here for now. Rather knackered today after a poor night’s sleep. This was due to my latest lymphoma maintenance treatment yesterday which was accompanied by a large dose of steroids. I am sure that the steroids have their use, but they are bl**dy good at keeping me awake! Still, I mustn’t grumble as I am pretty healthy all things considered.

[roundhouse]

Good afternoon from a windy Lancaster. We wisely caught a train an hour earlier from Euston. Cnection ot Barrow was cancelled due to driver shortage as many trains are around here plus faults on trains and an incident at Morecambe earlier. So a quick pint and a half in Merchants 1688 th n ontbnext service an hour later. Good job we got on before the later connection from Euston / Preston arrive. This two car unit is now wedged.

 

Two blokes kilcked of the train with bikes despite being on when there was space. Staff not at all friendly or helpful to them. Just shows the state of the railways at the moment. I would be interest d to se latest passenger ignores since May compare to the same time last year.

 

On to our earlier last minute panic. Mike has had to wait at his mums for doctor to show up that was 10am then suddenly became 2pm so my old layout Appledore is now going under Phatbobs supervision. He’s loaddit in Warrington and on his way to BIF. Just aswell he di wait as he’s just phoned to say she has a severe chest infection but won’t admit her to hospital till Monday.

 

What a sh1t place we live at the moment.

[TheQ]

Now here's a strange one...............

 

On answering the door to the postman this morning, I noticed that two breeze blocks has mysteriously arrived and were placed on the drive between the car and the front door.

 

 

 

I suspect they were disturbed or you would have been needing new wheels...

 

 

It's windy round here blowing 40 according to the nearest weather station. Sunny though..

[Barry O]

DCC ready..pah! Two locos I have to earn a crust with ..one in a blue box, the other in a red box are "DCC ready" Well there is a socket but no room for the chip!!

 

disgruntled baz

[Ozexpatriate]

This week, the only vehicle that I deemed suitable (don't need a mini-van or pickup truck!!) was what turns out to be an awful item - Dodge Journey - that appears to be a poor mans cross between a small SUV and a mini-van, it's low end/cheap and is frankly one of the worst pieces of sh!t I've had the misery to drive.

National's "pick any car in the aisle and go" did shake up the rental car industry.

 

I'm a long time Hertz renter - that being my company's choice. I am now in their "President's Circle" which gives you the same option, but sometimes it's 'Hobson's choice'. I like to rent sedans (with a boot/trunk) so that my luggage, but mostly my laptop bag, is not visible. (Smash and grab laptop theft is endemic in parts of the Bay Area.)

 

It's not like the old days (25 years ago now) when Hertz rented nothing but Fords and the line up was almost exclusively: Escort, Tempo, Taurus and Crown Victoria. The Ford Tempo was monumentally awful. I really enjoyed an Infinity Q60 the other day and was pleasantly surprised by a hybrid Buick LaCrosse that I used for a round-trip drive of 300 miles. I seem to end up renting a lot of cars like the Chevy Malibu and Nissan Altima. 

[BlackRat]

So....... A38 now closed in both directions.

 

Up to 90 minute delay on Saltash bridge......

 

45 min delay at least on the Torpoint ferry......

 

Train services.......expect delays......

 

Welcome to the Southwest........if you can get there lol