Early Risers.

[NGT6 1315]

A'noon, troops. Long time no see, so I hope you've been well, or on the mend if that should not have been the case!

 

Finally two non-working days again, so I could run some errands before picking up Annika at two. She'll have a day off tomorrow as well (from the nursery in her case, obviously!), so as Elise has to work, I may either take Annika to the zoo, or to a toy store.

 

Cheers.

[PeterBB]

13 hours ago, Kingzance said:

Even given the frequent lack of corroboratory evidence found in some Wiki documents, that post by Michael  is very informative. Having made so many nuclear reactors for both military and “peaceful” purposes, there needs to be a global management of how these and the waste from their fuels are dealt with but politics will prevent that. Meanwhile, how does the world obtain enough energy for its ever-growing population without resorting back to carbon? Once more I suggest that simple numbers of people are the biggest challenge to survival.

 

 ChrisF has covered the reason that my Sister in Law says is why hospital A&Es are overstretched, that of being unable to see a GP in a reasonable time -and she is a very experienced A&E nurse in a major hospital. 

Agree on both counts … irresponsible to have 22 children in this day and age … all use resources.  Plastics in place of metal where practical came because of 'dwindling' metal resources … and where are the main sources of the essential resources that TV screens etc. need!

Edited January 14, 2020 by PeterBB
Spelling correction

[Oldddudders]

 I am on the 13.04 Padlington to Newton Abbot. My journey has not been enhanced by a txt from Sherry saying the ECG she had yesterday, after chest pains,  indicates that at some stage she has had a heart attack, so she is awaiting a taxi to A&E. I will get there as soon as I can!

[Smiffy2]

Give her our best wishes for a rapid recovery, please.

[PeterBB]

Hope Sherry does not have to wait too long for the taxi and gets proper treatment soon. and of course that the train is at least on time. 

[Kingzance]

24 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

 I am on the 13.04 Padlington to Newton Abbot. My journey has not been enhanced by a txt from Sherry saying the ECG she had yesterday, after chest pains,  indicates that at some stage she has had a heart attack, so she is awaiting a taxi to A&E. I will get there as soon as I can!

Hopefully a minor incident and not one that will require surgery. I was lucky enough to be able to manage my incident chemically. Good luck to you both.

[TheSignalEngineer]

2 hours ago, Kingzance said:

By keeping things small and local, we get away from large transmission networks, cut the impact of a major outage

A point made on numerous occasions by engineers in the railway's rush to bigger and more complex control centres. 

Yes, we can interrogate an interlocking in Australia from the UK, but why should we trust a system working across a globally-routed 3rd party computer network to control a train outside the signal box?

[TheSignalEngineer]

Thankfully I managed to fend off this morning's suggestion that the Tuesday MTB ride should be resumed following the bout of lurgi.

My argument was that I would probably set a Garmin PB for Hadfiled to Woodhead but need a tow coming back, and the rain radar was looking ominous. About an hour later it was p!$$!ng it down so I was in the clear to disappear to the Railway Room to impart some liquid colouring to the fiddle yard baseboards. Between coats a sticky bolt on the garage door was freed and a bit of bike maintenance was fitted in thus maintaining my current favourable status within the household. Hope it lasts long enough for me to sneek off after tea to do some m*****ing

[Andrew P]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

 I am on the 13.04 Padlington to Newton Abbot. My journey has not been enhanced by a txt from Sherry saying the ECG she had yesterday, after chest pains,  indicates that at some stage she has had a heart attack, so she is awaiting a taxi to A&E. I will get there as soon as I can!

Please give Sherry our best wishes Ian.

 

Keep us posted as and when you can.

[Gwiwer]

10 hours ago, chrisf said:

we need to remember that koalas need eucalyptus leaves.

And very specific ones at that.  There are very many eucalypts.  There are very few which the koala will eat.  That is one reason why they are quite thinly scattered in populations of a few tens.  

 

My friends and former colleagues at the Palace of Attendance, Melbourne, report that the air quality there today is officially "Hazardous" and that outdoor work has been ceased for all except urgent and emergency tasks.  P2 masks are in very short supply because demand exceeds all predicted levels.  The view from Princes Bridge, often described as iconic, is of thick smoke haze and visibility sometimes below 400 metres.  

 

Some wag has been busking the most famous rock guitar riff of all in those conditions - Only in Australia, eh? 

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Gwiwer

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

 I am on the 13.04 Padlington to Newton Abbot. My journey has not been enhanced by a txt from Sherry saying the ECG she had yesterday, after chest pains,  indicates that at some stage she has had a heart attack, so she is awaiting a taxi to A&E. I will get there as soon as I can!

Hope your journey progresses smoothly, I got similar comments after my recent ECG that what I had assumed was indigestion was most likely a heart attack and I may have had a heart problem for some time. The reason I went was for breathlessness, and I did have a lung problem but the heart got checked as well. At present I am receiving a couple of tablets which help until they do further tests , tomorrow is a pre angiogram test, hopefully leading to a date for the test. Round here heart conditions are managed by a community clinic service. Where my brother in law is a GP they are practice managed. I do hope Sherry gets treated as efficiently and timely as I have been. 
Tony

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Very sorry to hear about Sherry's heart attack Ian. Best wishes and keep us posted as and when you can. Its currently blowing a Hooley outside with a few showers whipping through. The lurgi is now down to the odd sneeze or cough but I'm beating it into submission. Thats it for now, be back later.

[TheQ]

It's blowing a hoolie out there,  but at the moment the rain has not arrived. 

 

The NDR is partly blocked by road works,  so I came home from the orange shed via the old northern ring road which is actually a collection of joined up roads and on the equivalent section to the above road works.... More road works.. They're narrowing the road so that's probably for more cycleways. 

 

Ben had a decided disinclination to come outside while I unloaded the timber.. He's curled up in his bed and not moving in this weather.. 

 

Time I measured my BP for tonight.... 

[roundhouse]

Ian, give Sherry our best wishes and hope that this weather doesn't impede on your journey to see her.

[jamie92208]

Sorry to hear about Sherry Ian, i hope thst things work out and she is OK. Here I am about to gead back to the shed to do some testing of things that cannot be spomen about.

 

Jamie

[grandadbob]

Ian, please pass on multifarious positive vibes to Sherry from the Land of Sutt. 

[The Stationmaster]

Evening all,

 

Ian - sorry to hear about Sherry and I trust the medicos will get things sorted pdq.

 

Anyway catch-up time as yesterday was devoted to a visit to a public house in Wokingham for an OFs' nosh then a camera purchasing expedition in Reading followed by a 'why should I bother with the 'net' evening' - so much catching up here today.  I quite like seeing the wind farms offshore although I'm not so keen on those on land but some can blend in quite well and add an interest to a view.  The pub might be known by some ERs familiar with the area as 'The Molly Millar' but last year it (a)woke as 'The Station Tap' (although no doubt some already existed in the nearby station building) and it is now full of all sorts of things I believe are described as 'woke' (a new word which to those of my generation basically seems to mean bl**dy daft).  So notwithstanding some peculiar new tiles on the walls behind and around the bar, and some very peculiar foreign sounding things on the menu I managed to obtain a quite decent plate of cod & chips with mushy peas.  They also actually had some reasonable proper draught cider (i.e. made from apples instead of prunes, or strawberries, or wastepaper).   A good day with many old colleagues - plus the Southern lot as well although quite a few of us present had a foot in both camps (at the same time in my case) over the years.

 

I'm not sure long Sir TH has been dealing with customers passengers but one thing you quickly learnt in the old days was that a high percentage of them couldn't read and couldn't see notices.  Then came a group who were apparently incapable of thought, then the ones who were out of their comfort zone and more than a little wary of either appearing to be nervous or betraying their ignorance of how to cope with public transport.  And of course there are always a few downright ignorant. usually oafish, characters.  The trick is really try to earn how to 'read' such folk and, if at all possible to divine what they really want irrespective of what they actually ask for as the gulf between the two can sometimes be massive.  One nice easy one from many years ago was the who came up to the public counter at Paddington and asked 'What time does the 10.30 leave please?' - I immediately replied 'Platform 1 madam' and she thanked me profusely for realising wheat she really meant to ask and apologised for getting mixed up.  More irritating (and perhaps much rarer nowadays is the clown who asks ' What time is the next train to, e.g. London?'  A;; quite normal until having been told the times of the next several departures then asks 'when did the last one go?' - at which point one needs to restrain any thoughts of physical violence.  One Booking Clerk of mature years who I knew a long while back had a very smple way of dealing with such people replying, with varying degrees of rudeness and bad language. something along the lines of 'why do you want to know, you've b***** well missed it' (oddly he always got away with it!).  So don't worry Sir TH - they're not 'strange' but just conforming to one or other of the long established patterns of railway passenger behaviour.

 

Now on to Ambridge - and enjoy the rest of your day/evening.

[Oldddudders]

Three hours and counting. An ECG and blood test on arrival, but these have yet to be evaluated by a doc. One has to infer that survival is expected! 

[Tony_S]

10 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Three hours and counting. An ECG and blood test on arrival, but these have yet to be evaluated by a doc. One has to infer that survival is expected! 

My ecg and echosound were evaluated within about 30 minutes by the consultant but I wasn’t in A&E as my GP had referred me directly to the chest and cardiac unit. She rang me back to say don’t worry when they ring you later to make an appointment! I noticed while I was waiting for my appointment there is a “walk in” chest pain clinic here too, with one for those ticket machines supermarkets used to have for their cheese counters. 
Tony

Edited January 14, 2020 by Tony_S

[JohnDMJ]

27 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Evening all,

 

Ian - sorry to hear about Sherry and I trust the medicos will get things sorted pdq.

 

I'm not sure long Sir TH has been dealing with customers passengers but one thing you quickly learnt in the old days was that a high percentage of them couldn't read and couldn't see notices.  Then came a group who were apparently incapable of thought, then the ones who were out of their comfort zone and more than a little wary of either appearing to be nervous or betraying their ignorance of how to cope with public transport.  And of course there are always a few downright ignorant. usually oafish, characters.  The trick is really try to earn how to 'read' such folk and, if at all possible to divine what they really want irrespective of what they actually ask for as the gulf between the two can sometimes be massive.  One nice easy one from many years ago was the who came up to the public counter at Paddington and asked 'What time does the 10.30 leave please?' - I immediately replied 'Platform 1 madam' and she thanked me profusely for realising wheat she really meant to ask and apologised for getting mixed up.  More irritating (and perhaps much rarer nowadays is the clown who asks ' What time is the next train to, e.g. London?'  A;; quite normal until having been told the times of the next several departures then asks 'when did the last one go?' - at which point one needs to restrain any thoughts of physical violence.  One Booking Clerk of mature years who I knew a long while back had a very smple way of dealing with such people replying, with varying degrees of rudeness and bad language. something along the lines of 'why do you want to know, you've b***** well missed it' (oddly he always got away with it!).  So don't worry Sir TH - they're not 'strange' but just conforming to one or other of the long established patterns of railway passenger behaviour.

 

Increasingly at work, we are noticing that the doors to the asylum seem to be opening earlier and wider! I'll say no more.

[Barry O]

Ian

Hope that Sherry receives all the medical attention she may need.

 

Baz

[New Haven Neil]

Best wishes for Sherry, Ian, and don't forget yourself in all this - stress, hunger, etc - she needs you to be fit too!

 

A better day today, after a rather difficult one yesterday - just 'one of those'.  Oddly, two of the stressy things from yesterday came back today sorted, this time the dealer was right, twice, not the customer! 

 

Nice chat with an RMWebber too, this afternoon (not associated with the preceding!).

 

Weather is normalised this evening, rain and wind, but not to excess.  No more bin wagons have been blown over anyway.

[pH]

With a snowfall, partial thaw, then hard re-freeze, we have a seriously iced-up rone pipe. Since it's going to get even colder over the next few days, now's the time to deal with it. That's the afternoon seen to!

[brianusa]

14 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

I have not had much sleep. But am I missing something here?

 

If no bridge and no through rail traffic, what would be the benefit in changing the Irish gauge?

On 11/01/2020 at 23:23, Ozexpatriate said:

Seattle too is bracing for snow. Brian in Gig Harbor mentioned this the other day.

 

So far the prognosticators don't believe the deep cold from the Arctic air mass will make it this far south, (though we are on the edge of it) but may set up for snow here on Wednesday. We will have low altitude snow (around 1,000') tomorrow. Mountain snow has been very heavy.

 

As yet the lowest temperatures forecast for Portland are in the -4°C range mid-week and much will depend on the direction of a low pressure system off the coast of Oregon which may bring a small amount of snow (2cm - 8cm) or possibly 15cm depending on how it moves.

 

 

Senior moment, Joseph. (At my age, I'm entitled to a couple!)

      Brian

 

 

[81C]

Fingers crossed for Cherry,  Ian been there myself it's not nice on your back and you can't really move without setting the alarms off give here our love mate and stay chilled.

 

Any-one going to the Eastleigh show next week ? I hope to be there if GDB puts in an appearance it was a good show last year even "The Tie" was there.  

 

It turns out Zeus had a different flavoured food today that's why it was throw around the kitchen, I remember my GSD many years ago had something different

from his normal Pedigree Chum he would not eat the other stuff it sat in his bowl for days fussy bloody animals.  

 

Night All