Early Risers.

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl . Inner Temple Hare, 783 /489.

Not a good nights sleep 1/2 an hour to start with then an hour and a half awake, then 4 hours if intermittent sleep. no particular reason..

 

Baron, Alan Beith I've met a couple of times, Because he was our MP,  the misleading name of the constituency gives the impression it's just Berwick, but in fact it covers an area up to 50 miles south of Berwick, down past Morpeth.. and living near Alnwick, we were well inside his area...

 

Ben the I'm not going out in that Collie refused exit today, I'm not surprised is it had just stopped raining and everything was dripping. Once driving it the roads were suddenly dry halfway though Wroxham.

 

While Awake my brain kept going over and over the shelf extensions working out the simplest and most economic method of construction, One thing yesterday, while standing on a stool to fit the new wiring I spotted another roof leak, a glow of light through the roof, one piece of  flashing tape later and it was sealed, though from roof side no hole was showing so it took a while to work out exactly where it was, it just looked like a chip on the asbestos not all the way through..

 

Two major systems this week, which for a while will run concurrently, as they are different and use different test equipment. I get the first out and park it in the lab, then start running the second, the the short sections at the start of it's run are over. Once that is on it's 40minute semi automatic sections I get the other system up and running as that is mostly manual tests.

 

Time to ... get started.

 

 

 

[polybear]

Bear was left somewhat dumbfounded whilst watching the news last night - in particular whilst listening to some stupid **** moaning that the latest lockdowns (in particular those affecting "up north" were going to spoil what is a prime time for socialising - Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas.

Some people really don't get this, do they?

Is that classed as a rant by any chance?

[Barry O]

18 minutes ago, polybear said:

Bear was left somewhat dumbfounded whilst watching the news last night - in particular whilst listening to some stupid **** moaning that the latest lockdowns (in particular those affecting "up north" were going to spoil what is a prime time for socialising - Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas.

Some people really don't get this, do they?

Is that classed as a rant by any chance?

No.. it is an observation... but if it is a rant.. you get my vote..

 

Baz

[Simon G]

Morning all, wet here this morning, so I expect more time will be spent finding and sorting out all our old baby stuff, so we can see if son and d-i-l want any of it if they come here in the next week or so, as currently planned.

 

Our electricity went off at about 6pm last night and wasnt restored until nearly 01.30 this morning.  We seem to have had a large number of cuts in recent months, so I have raised a formal complaint to Electricity North West, and encouraged our neighbours to do the same.  Part of th problem is that once they find a problem, it takes over an hour to get an engineer to the scene.  We are not so remote that they couldnt have someone located in West Cumbria.  The number of cuts we have, it would probably save them time and money!  At least this time, we had just about finished cooking dinner, so didnt go hungry!

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a sunny place.  It's a tad chilly though.  The old couple's  boxes and other small stuff were packed into avan yesterday in good time then 11 of us sat down for a good meal. Most conversation in French but a lot of laughter. Another crew were waiting at the other end.  Back home and a relatively lazy afternoon ensued. I did however have a successful time in the shed.

 

Today is off to Niort for the day as Beth has an appointment. A friend is coming with us and because of the timing we are heading for the Buffalo grill for lunch.  Whilst she is in the hospital it would be rude for me not to head for the nearby station.  Not a bad day in store. 

 

Hope that Rick and Sharon are enjoying Kernow and that Debs does OK in the archery.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[AndrewC]

Greetings from the boring borough. 

 

Condolences to Neil and family. 

 

Saturday ended up as an unplanned pub crawl around the local micropubs, including the newest 2. That makes 12 open with 2 more almost ready to go. Sunday became a non-day as my knee decided to go on strike. Meh. 

 

As of late I'm finding Audi drivers giving the BMW pilots a major challenge for the crown of biggest D-bags on the road. Coming a close third are drivers of silver Mercs. ie: minicab drivers. 

 

Little else to report. Time to start another week of "Working with W^nkers". deep joy. 

 

Coffee at hand. Enjoy the day. 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dull start to the day here and rain is forecast later.

That might be fun for next door as they are having widows replaced and the guys started work about 30 minutes ago.  Well, they've unloaded a a bay window off the van and are now having a cup of tea.  I predict GDB Towers being a bit noisy today judging by the volume of their voices.

The Shed was visited and the structure of Platform 1 is now complete.  Some track has been lifted in the goods yard and will be relaid differently although I may start on Platform 2 first.

I must have enjoyed the FI as I didn't fall asleep during the highlights. 

I need to book an eye test as I was due for one 4 months ago but put it off due to lockdown  and keep forgetting about it.  However they have now sent a reminder.

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited October 12, 2020 by grandadbob

[Andrew P]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Bear was left somewhat dumbfounded whilst watching the news last night - in particular whilst listening to some stupid **** moaning that the latest lockdowns (in particular those affecting "up north" were going to spoil what is a prime time for socialising - Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas.

Some people really don't get this, do they?

Is that classed as a rant by any chance?

 

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

No.. it is an observation... but if it is a rant.. you get my vote..

 

Baz

And mine.

 

[Andrew P]

My Stepson had a call last night to say that a friend of theirs, a former Concorde Pilot and part owner of a Tiger Moth had sadly past away whilst in the back of the Moth when he and a college were flying it yesterday. Sad, but what a way to go, good job it wasn't he who was doing the flying at the time, on this occasion he was in the back I believe, good job he wasn't on his own.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning.

 

Dull and grey, internally and externally.

 

Debs off to work, (did well thanks Jamie, report up-page 3rd in class, beat Lesley) which will be a difficult day as news of Sue's death spreads - she is well known throughout the service and will be sorely missed.

 

Off for a late lunch today with my old Inspector, which brings to mind we were awarded a local police honour way back when he was my boss (ex-Marine, HH) for community service (he's back right, hiding as he hates things like that).  No OBE but it was nice to be recognised by the queen's representative here, the Lieutenant Governor.  NHN (office manager) back left. Hell, 2006!

 

[Andrew P]

Now on to a brighter note, it's a bit chilly on the Wi, .......NO NO NO.

 

Anyway yes it was noticeably cooler on the walk this morning. despite staying on the level, the left hip gave an almighty yell at one point telling me that it had had enough. It was quickly followed by the right Hip and Knee also complaining. The Left knee has so far not come out in sympathy with the other joints yet, but being connected with them, it probably will later, I guess that's Unions for you.

 

In other news, my left arm H U R T S.

I had the same from last years Flu Jab, and I still get soreness from that, but the whole of the upper arm was hurting all day yesterday, but no bruising to be seen.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Not much sleep last night, Arthur Itis was yelling at the top of his voice. A brace of ibuprofen did little to keep him quiet but a good application of voltarol ointment seemed to muffle him  but by then it was three in the morning. Another muggatee then a try at catching up on the eyelid inspection, be back later.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

My first task this morning is to phone the secretary of my oncologist to see when they wrote to my surgery. Then I’ll get back in touch with the surgery and find out what is happening. The rest of the day will be pottering about in the cellar waiting for the package (printer inks) that didn’t arrive on Saturday! After that I’m not sure what next, the weather at the moment is dry but dull, but we’re predicted to get some rain later, so any outside work is looking decidedly dodgy. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later.

 

Brian 

[tigerburnie]

Mornin', chuckinitdarn 'ere, guess that's the reason for everyone's aches and pains, at least if it hurts we know we're still alive, might do some muddling, or more likely some eyelid inspection later, been up half the night for no reason. Take care and enjoy your day.

[grandadbob]

A Tale of Two Cities Appointments:  You couldn't make it up.

 

A couple of weeks ago I phoned the surgery for flu jab appoints for me and The Boss.  They didn't have any vaccine and didn't know when they were getting it so I booked appointments online at Lloyds Pharmacy. (for today)  Last week I got an email from the surgery booking an appointment for us on Saturday so we duly attended but I kept today's appointment until we actually got the jab.  Once that happened on Saturday I phoned the pharmacy to cancel today's appointment but they couldn't do that as apparently they're not told appointments in advance.  Suggested I went online to cancel but I couldn't as there was no facility for cancellation, only booking.  Not only that they did not recognise me or my password despite the fact that they'd sent email confirmations.  Not be outdone I phoned their customer services where a very helpful chap said not to worry, he'd cancel them immediately......

......at 9.30 this morning I got a very apologetic phone call from the pharmacy saying they would have to cancel our appointments and rebook them as they'd run out of vaccine!   

Edited October 12, 2020 by grandadbob

[polybear]

3 hours ago, AndrewC said:

Little else to report. Time to start another week of "Working with W^nkers". deep joy. 

 

 

 

Working with them?  I was relegated to working for them - even worse.  Guess that makes me an oik.

 

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Off for a late lunch today with my old Inspector, which brings to mind we were awarded a local police honour way back when he was my boss (ex-Marine, HH) for community service (he's back right, hiding as he hates things like that). 

 

 

Now if you'd said "which one in the photo was ex-Marine?" he'd be the one I would've picked.  He has that "cross me and I'll rip yer 'ead off" kind of eyes......

 

A bit of leccy work done this morning; this afternoon will be putting the railway room floor back down, hopefully - I'll give the CH one more run during din din time just to check no leaks.

I hear that CV-19 may last for as much as 28 days on some surfaces, under the right conditions - worth noting if you're into a policy of quarantining any shopping, parcels etc. to await the lurgy disappearing.  Seems that daylight is our friend in such cases:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/12/virus-that-causes-covid-19-can-survive-up-to-28-days-on-surfaces-scientists-find

[grandadbob]

Oh and to cap it all had to pop to Sainsbury's as we'd run out of something and the clown in front of us at the checkout reckoned "this virus business is a lot of fuss about nothing."  I made a brief reply that shut him up.  

[TheQ]

6 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

 

I hear that CV-19 may last for as much as 28 days on some surfaces, under the right conditions - worth noting if you're into a policy of quarantining any shopping, parcels etc. to await the lurgy disappearing.  Seems that daylight is our friend in such cases:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/12/virus-that-causes-covid-19-can-survive-up-to-28-days-on-surfaces-scientists-find

ONLY If kept in the dark, put your purchases  in daylight the UV kills the bug..

[AndrewC]

4 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Working with them?  I was relegated to working for them - even worse.  Guess that makes me an oik.

 

With them, against them, for them, in spite of them. W^nkers to the right, tossers to the left. 

[Sidecar Racer]

 

Greeting all ,

 

 I don't post a lot these days but I do follow on a daily basis just to make sure you are

all behaving properly , but with no threats of an awl being lobbed .

 

All this talk of honors and medals caused me some amusement , as others have said

they do sometimes go to people who appear not done to have anything significant to

earn them .

 

This happened to my father , he served 24 years in the RAF , he joined pre  WW2 as an

airframe fitter , he was caught somewhere in the middle east and did four years as a

POW , as his service continued he gained various promotions and postings and his

last station was at RAF Gaydon working on Valiant bombers with the rank of

Master Technician , I actually got to sit in one once . He finished his service in 1959

and for reasons he never fully understood was put up for a medal , as far as he was

concerned he just did his job to the best of his ability .

 

This is what he recieved .

 

 

 

 

 

He never made a big thing about it , seldom mentioned it ,and never used it in as 

he was entitled to by putting it after his name unlike a lot of people do .

 

I  can just about remember going to the ' Palace' for the investiture , Phil was doing

the handing outs that day , to me as a 9 year old it was a bit overwhelming , I do remember

that after the event we met up with his parents and went  for a meal in a London

restaurant .

 

Well that's my input to ER's done for a while , I  hope you all keep safe and well in these

difficult times , and best wishes to all who are suffering with ailments both physical

and emotional .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[polybear]

36 minutes ago, TheQ said:

ONLY If kept in the dark, put your purchases  in daylight the UV kills the bug..

 

Bear did mention "...under the right conditions...." - which could for many include leaving them in the garage, if that's dark.

[Gwiwer]

Greetings from the Moanday Mizzle. 
 

It blewin overnight and is due to blow out dreckly giving us a return to these conditions later. 
 

 

[Tony_S]

Our district council like to remind us that we are sea, shore, and land too.

 

[iL Dottore]

Afternoon all,

 

That was an interesting piece about the longevity of CoVID-19 on surfaces. But the thing about this sort of research, is that it is (unless I am greatly mistaken in my reading of the article) laboratory research. And, as countless scientists and clinicians have found out (often very expensively) what you see in the laboratory does not always translate into “real life“. Interestingly, whilst on the topic of laboratories, CoVID-19 is a BSL (Biosafety Level) 3 pathogen (as are the various SARS viruses). BSL 4 pathogens include such fun things as ebolavirus and the Marburg virus (a haemorrhagic fever virus) but, surprIsingly, HIV and Hepatitis A, B and C are “only” BSL 2 pathogens.

 

This sort of newspaper article bothers me, because it seems to be a simplistic summary of the science and written in such a way to scare the beJeesus out of people. And I also find that they play fast and loose with the data. For example, if you have a disease (let’s call it “iDeremia”) that infects 1000 people of whom 40 get sick, of whom15 get very ill and have to be hospitalised, and of those 15, three die, Newspapers are more likely to print the headline “iDeremia kills 20% of affected” than “iDeremia has an 0.3% mortality rate”. Both statements are true, however the first statement, as it is not placed in context (i.e. those patients dying are a subset of a subset of a subset), Is intentionally misleading and sensationalistic.

I think that it is safe to say that, except for the extremely vulnerable, good hygiene practices (such as effective hand washing relatively frequently when out), social distancing and - where necessary - mask wearing should be sufficient to keep most people safe. To be brutally honest, I am more concerned about the potential for being infected by the idiots in the supermarket who are not wearing their masks properly, than the incredibly remote risk that there is sufficient viable virus on an Amazon package to infect me.

[Simon G]

This mornings rain appears to have abated, leaving it just cold and windy outside.  Nonetheless we will venture out for a walk at some point.  
 

During last nights power cut, we invented a new game entitled “count the number of visible lights on the Isle of Man”.  As it got slowly dark, it was surprising just how many lights on the island are visible on the mainland, considering that it is about 30 miles away.  Some were bright but momentary, presumably car headlights, while others were visible all the time.  There was even one bright red light right down at the south end of the island, possibly around the Castletown or Calf of Man area.  Perhaps NHN knows what it is?