Early Risers.

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Not been around much today so I hope I find everyone fit and healthy and in good spirit.

One thing I’d like to comment on though is ‘best before’ dates. I regularly buy provisions from M and S and am confused by their policy on this subject. I often buy products with a best before date which is the date I’m making the purchase. I don’t have any aversion to this other than to think if the product is better before this date, M and S are selling NOT the best products. I would have thought the marketing department would have thought about this. 
Ive spoken to shop floor staff about it and they just shrug their shoulders.

As we only went to Mand S I’d didn’t got any cider or smoked cheese. 
As to ‘essentials’, I could have bought a kids bike from Halfords and Xmas decorations from B and Q. Marvellous....

Goodnight,

Robert

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[simontaylor484]

Our local Hermes driver is pretty good far better than the last who 2 seconds after knocking would disappear down the street trying to find someone to tske it in. The ladt problem we had the parcel dissappeared in the depot.

Parcel delivery is only profitable through large volume of collection and delivery. I dont know how much Hermes charge for a parcel but proportionally 40p msy actually be a decent rate.

Lets say they charge a retailer £2 a parcel Hermes have to collect the parcel and take it to their depot. Cost 1.it would be sorted and trunked to a central hub cost 2. Then taken to delivery depot cost3.then sent out for delivery cost 4. As you can see costs soon eat away at that 2 quid obviously these costs wpuld be spread over a massive volume of parcels 

This is just an assumed path to delivery to give some insight into what may be going on.

 

Edited November 22, 2020 by simontaylor484

[newbryford]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

I think some of the courier services that end up with the final section being delivered by what are often private cars depend very much on the individual courier. The ones who deliver round here for Hermes seem very responsible. The couriers in vans with logos seem very reliable too. It is probably slightly less stressful delivering round here than in a big city. I wonder if the ones where it is very rural wonder how worthwhile it is driving miles for the 40p they earn per delivery. 

 

The quality of Hermes does seem to be down to the local courier.

Hermes at work is the local private hire company and I have to say they are very good for delivery. But we don't use them for outgoing.

Outbound is Royal Mail for small stuff - including smaller international, DPD for larger UK and some European. DHL for anything large and international. (or to countries with a "doubtful" national postage system).

 

Having said that - the DHL guy that is on the international run is very good. If it's a DHL sub-contractor doing UK pickup/dropoff, then forget it. They usually turn up 15 minutes after they know we close.

 

The current Hermes at home - which seemed to be Ok has become erratic since the courier changed. It is used by Junior NB to send non-RM stuff out (via ebay Packlink). When the Hermes driver doesn't turn up to collect, she blames the "other" driver the next day. Not sure that there is one.............

 

Not at work tomorrow to pick up the "where's my parcel?" emails. It's my turn for the 4-day week.

 

The weather is forecast to be mostly not wet, so a MTB trip to Gisburn Forest is on the cards with Junior NB.

The plan is to do more than our usual blue route, including part of the top section of the "8". This will be new to Junior.

It includes a decent hill climb that is usually about 5 1/2 minutes of solid effort for me (I'm not the fastest hill-climber and far from it!). Over 60m elevation gain in 0.5km.

It gets steeper in the final 1/3 - which emerges around a corner. Then the very last curve reveals the steepest 50m to finish.

I have a bet with Junior of £10.

She is allowed to stop for a rest, but not allowed to push for anything more than a remount of the bike.

I think my tenner is safe, but secretly hope she can earn it.

 

My other secret hope is that golf will be allowed again soon.

 

Have a good Monday folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

For those who might not have come across it this is the current UK Govt provisional priority order of vaccination for Covid 19 (it was posted on 25 September but is still the one most frequently referred to by various Govt health sources and the media.  Extract from -

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/priority-groups-for-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-advice-from-the-jcvi-25-september-2020/jcvi-updated-interim-advice-on-priority-groups-for-covid-19-vaccination

 

On the basis of some earlier calculations - I think by John (CB)? - 50 million doses of the first vaccine announced as effective a few weeks back would treat 25 million people and would get down to about about level in this list.  It has been repeated several times by various official sources that private purchase of vaccine/vaccination will not be permitted in the UK. 

 

 

 

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

Our local Hermes driver is pretty good far better than the last who 2 seconds after knocking would disappear down the street trying to find someone to tske it in. The ladt problem we had the parcel dissappeared in the depot.

Parcel delivery is only profitable through large volume of collection and delivery. I dont know how much Hermes charge for a parcel but proportionally 40p msy actually be a decent rate.

Lets say they charge a retailer £2 a parcel Hermes have to collect the parcel and take it to their depot. Cost 1.it would be sorted and trunked to a central hub cost 2. Then taken to delivery depot cost3.then sent out for delivery cost 4. As you can see costs soon eat away at that 2 quid obviously these costs wpuld be spread over a massive volume of parcels 

This is just an assumed path to delivery to give some insight into what may be going on.

 

Don't forget to include the cost of the managing directors visit to head office, usually around c.........,... Time so that the wife, girlfriend, mistress ( other significant others are available) can go shopping and buy Tabitha and christen there pressies.

[Mike Bellamy]

 

We thought we had a courier today who couldn't read the house number or find the door bell - opened the front door at 7.00am to let the cats out and there was a large 15kg sack of dried dog food there. No address label and so we had no idea where it had come from or who it was for. Waited until later and then went next door to ask our neighbour and down the road to another dog owner but neither of them were expecting a delivery. My wife then put out an appeal on local WhatsApp and Facebook groups to try and find out who this dog food belonged to.

 

This afternoon our son rang - to say that a friend of his who lived nearby would be bringing round a bag of dog food and could we keep it until he was able to collect. His friend does part time work with a gamekeeper and can buy the food at wholesale price which was about half retail value - he had no idea that his friend was going out very early this morning as we were later told the bag was dropped off before 6.30. So mystery solved - and we can't blame a courier . . . . . 

.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

I’ve had some success in the workshop today, I managed to get all the control wiring for the turntable finished today. Once it was all done, everything was connected together and power applied, nothing happened. So I consulted my circuit diagram and looked again at the wiring and found a couple of mistakes, but by then it was dinner time. 

 

So after dinner I rectified then and re-applied power, this time it all works as it should, although the bridge was a little jerky. A bit of oil was applied to the bearings which improved things, but I suspect the main axle has got slightly out of line. But as I will need to dismantle it all to fit into the new board I’m to cut, I’ll leave that until the well is fixed permanently in place. So after a bit of a dodgy patch this morning, all-in-all, it’s been a pretty productive day. 

 

After tea tonight we had a slice of the fruit tea loaf that I made on Friday afternoon, see photo below. I’ve tweaked the original recipe over the last few years and this is the tastiest by far. I’ve posted the recipe for this a couple of times on here. This cake has no eggs, is fat and dairy free and this version made with fruit tea is also low in added sugar. We usually have a slice each night and a full cake lasts us between 7 - 8 days. I make a variation in winter where I use spiced apple tea and add, cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spice. The shine on top of the cake is down to the fruit that was soaked overnight slowly releasing the tea, which also keeps the cake moist. 

 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[J. S. Bach]

4 hours ago, polybear said:

 ...snip... DHL is Drop It, Hide It, Lose It.

I bought two Atlas O Comet commuter coaches from a seller in Columbia (the country, not the capitol of my state ) that were shipped via DHL. To this day I wonder why

US Customs does not have a facility in Miami (the POE) considering all of the traffic from Central and South America. The tracking information:

Origin Service Area: BOGOTA - BOGOTA, DC - COLOMBIA
Destination Service Area: CHARLOTTE, NC - CHESTER - USA

Monday, July 13, 2020                                                 Location                                                                                     Time      Piece
22     Delivered - Signed for by: D KINGSTON     CHESTER                                                     10:53     1 Piece
21     With delivery courier     CHARLOTTE, NC - USA                                                                                    08:49     1 Piece
Friday, July 10, 2020                                                Location                                                                                     Time     Piece
20     Arrived at Sort Facility GREENSBORO - USA     GREENSBORO, NC - USA                     07:59    1 Piece
19     Departed Facility in CINCINNATI HUB - USA     CINCINNATI HUB, OH - USA               06:47    1 Piece
Thursday, July 09, 2020                                                Location                                                                                     Time     Piece
16     Processed at CINCINNATI HUB - USA     CINCINNATI HUB, OH - USA                               05:31     1 Piece                                                      
Wednesday, July 08, 2020                                  Location                                                                     Time     Piece
14     Departed Facility in MIAMI GATEWAY - USA     MIAMI GATEWAY, FL - USA               23:27     1 Piece
12     Arrived at Sort Facility MIAMI GATEWAY - USA     MIAMI GATEWAY, FL - USA                     21:36     1 Piece
10     Departed Facility in SAN JOSE - COSTA RICA     SAN JOSE - COSTA RICA                     15:55     1 Piec
8     Arrived at Sort Facility SAN JOSE - COSTA RICA     SAN JOSE - COSTA RICA                     15:51     1 Piece
7     Departed Facility in PANAMA CITY - PANAMA     PANAMA CITY - PANAMA                     05:45     1 Piece
5     Arrived at Sort Facility PANAMA CITY - PANAMA  PANAMA CITY - PANAMA                     00:44     1 Piece
Tuesday, July 07, 2020                                                Location                                                                                     Time     Piece
4     Arrived at Sort Facility BOGOTA - COLOMBIA     BOGOTA - COLOMBIA                                     21:51     1 Piece
3     Departed Facility in BOGOTA - COLOMBIA     BOGOTA - COLOMBIA                                     21:09     1 Piece
1     Shipment picked up     BOGOTA - COLOMBIA                                                                         17:02     1 Piece

I highlighted the parcel's stops and deleted some lines that do not show any travel. Note that it left Bogota forty some minutes before it arrived there and never arrived at Cincinnati, although it did depart there after inspection.  When it got to Charlotte, it was handed off to the local delivery person; DHL or USPS, I no longer remember. All I can say about the customs inspection is that nothing was damaged and the car (they only opened one) was replaced in its box properly. As much as I do not care for DHL, this transaction went smoothly enough and the cars arrived in fine shape.

 

Hmmm, too much excess bloviation here, I better stop.

Edited November 23, 2020 by J. S. Bach

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

Ah, couriers who cannot find doorbells.  They are too abundant.  Many seem to be employed by a firm named after a river in South America that seems hell-bent on world domination.  The couple next door buy lots of stuff from that outfit and make a point of not being at home when it is delivered.  More often than not the delivery operative bangs on the glass, the task of finding and pressing the doorbell seemingly being too hard.  When I answer the door, to save the glass any further punishment, I point out that I have a doorbell.  "Oh.  Sorry" is the usual response, often uttered in fragmented English.  Out of what is left of the goodness of my heart I take in the parcel, which reposes in my hall until the consignees remember to call for it or, more often , I draw it to their attention.  I do not envy anyone who works for A****n.  My e-friend Harry does so in an executive capacity and I fear increasingly for his mental health.

 

Rick mentions the Levellers.  I am not familiar with what they do but from what I know I suspect that it might appeal to me.  As for karaoke, I have tried it once.  It did not go well.  I had this daft idea that I could do a passable replication of Freddie Mercury rendering "The Great Pretender".  On the night, the backing track bore sparse resemblance to what I had expected and lasted barely two minutes.   That will teach me to show off.

 

Sometime this morning I shall venture out to buy my weekly donation to charity, aka my lotto tickets.  Later in the week there will be a fodder run, but not tomorrow as scheduled.  Balancing the bank account is the scheduled activity for Tuesday so I shall venture into the ghost town that is Bedford and head for the bank to print out a statement.  Something daring will follow: a bus ride home.  I have no fear of public transport.  So there.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris 

[AndyB]

Morning all,

I'm toying with the idea of getting a wormery.  Not, you understand, a tablet to rid oneself of a troublesome infestation. But a series of interlocking trays that digest kitchen scraps, producing, in turn, a steady trickle of liquid feed and worm cast. 

Not to mention a reduction in stuff going to the landfill bin.

 

And thinking of gardening it will soon be time to think of which varieties of Sweet Peas to grow this coming year. I have to say those from the Sweet Pea Society in Wem ast year didn't live up to their billing, lacking almost entirely in scent. 

[roundhouse]

Morning

 

Deliveries - one of the largest times that we have ordered online was a new TV just over a year ago. Its the only time that the courier went to a flat next door probably due to us having a letter in our house number so assumed it was a flat. Luckily the driver rang to say he wasnt getting any answer from us. I knew that he want at our door as our doorbell rings on all our Alexa's (including the one at Mums) and also on our mobiles. It actually howls very loudly and has made my other halfs work collegues laugh when she has been on a video call!

I soon worked out what the driver had done and wandered round to the rear flats next door where he had the great big box in his arms. If the flat occupier had been in, they may well have ended up with a nice new TV as the box clearly showed what it was.

 

Our post man is excellent. A few years ago he put the letters through the door then noticed a parcel left by others, disappeared then came back and picked the parcel up. At first I thought he had run off with it but it turned out that rain was forecast and he checked our neighbour was in, then took the parcel to hand to them. A few days ago he asked if the new cover by our door was for parcel, so now he knows its ssfe to leave stuff there if its likely to rain. The cover is out of sight from the road but well in sight of our various security cameras.

 

Yesterday more gardening done for us and next door then more shredding and tried a bonfire but it just would not stay alight so gave up when it got too dark to try again.

 

This morning already been in the shed finishing off some crust earning by fitting NEM boxes to three brass wagons, then sorting out a N scale wagon that kept derailing.

[TheQ]

Mooring awl, Inner Temple hare..

7.5 hours sleep with just a couple of very short wake up and roll overs... very happy at that..

 

Ben the happy Collie was running around the garden upsetting the pigeons..  Crunchy grass beneath star lit sky above, the moon which had illuminated the bed room at bed time had B****red off by morning.. frosty car but leaving the car running while patrolling with Ben soon cleared it..

 

7 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

The weather is forecast to be mostly not wet, so a MTB trip to Gisburn Forest is on the cards with Junior NB.

 

 

Have a good Monday folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

 

Going to the Forest in a MTB must be interesting, I guess they've fitted aircraft Propellors to the Merlins instead of marine to make it fly..

 

Couriers

 The best  Here, Royal Mail, / Parcel farce, local people who know everyone..

 The worst was DHL home delivery , but they flogged that off to Yodel, so now they are definitely  the worst.

Hermes is one man delivering from an unmarked car, quite good. they don't seem to do home pick up here. You take parcels to a near by (4 miles) garage shop where they scan it in and give you a receipt..

The house of strong ladies, was very bad, but they are now good, admittedly Their Eniglish is almost non existent, and  some can't read the large white letters on the Red post box at our gate that says parcels..

 

And to work, that high accuracy Temperature meter to finish off and then... no major system because it's broke, I'll see if any of those due soon are free as there is a major log jam just before Cxxxxxxxxs..

 

Time to stroll down to the lab...

 

 

 

[roundhouse]

7 minutes ago, AndyB said:

Morning all,

I'm toying with the idea of getting a wormery.  Not, you understand, a tablet to rid oneself of a troublesome infestation. But a series of interlocking trays that digest kitchen scraps, producing, in turn, a steady trickle of liquid feed and worm cast. 

Not to mention a reduction in stuff going to the landfill bin.

 

And thinking of gardening it will soon be time to think of which varieties of Sweet Peas to grow this coming year. I have to say those from the Sweet Pea Society in Wem ast year didn't live up to their billing, lacking almost entirely in scent. 

Thats an idea that I hadnt thought of as I could grow sweet peas along the fnce by the shed. I will have to ghet a few seed packets.

 

Recently I moved our compost bin away from the shed as thats where the new covered out door bar / layout set up area is going to be constructed. I moved the composter under a fir tree. However I now need ot build a cover over it to stop the lid getting covered in bird poop.

[jamie92208]

Good moaning. We've another cool but sunny day in prospect. I've got a complaint about thst, I've no excuse to head for the shed when the G word is mentioned.  The G word was mentioned yesterday  and more of the jungle was cleared, very little left to do. Then coffee and the lastvpiecescof ginger cake were consumed whilst watching the sunset.  Oatmeal and honey biscuits have now taken the place in the tin that the cake occupied.

 

Off out shortly to finish loading the trailer and then off to to the tip.

 

As to other matters we've now decided not to cone to the UK over Christmas so you are all safe.

 

Jamie.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Our "Daleks" aka the compost bins reside behind the garage.. one is ready for use as compost, one will be ready in about 6 weeks time, the 3rd is still being added too.  Works wonders and our local council did a great deal on them.

 

I have a parcel to post. I use Royal Mail who are normally very good. But a parcel posted last week had been badly bashed in transit..luckily it is repairable...

 

Other than the trip to the post office my day is free..now, what should I do? I know, I will wait for some parcels containing items I have ordered for her indoors to receive on the 25th December...frabjoy!

 

Time for.. a wander off to make some more tea!

Stay safe, hope all ERs have a pleasant day!

Baz

Edited November 23, 2020 by Barry O
Spellung

[AndrewC]

Greetings all from the boring borough. 

 

A weekend of nothing. Woke up Saturday morning and my lower back felt like some oil company had started a fracking operation. Much heat rub and Naproxen was consumed over the 2 days. Nothing accomplished. I can still hardly move and the occasional spasm reminds me that all is not well. 

 

I see the courier conversation is still ongoing. We order all our pet supplies from Zooplus. Normally they use Yokel but you have the option of changing to DPD. After Yokel damaged 2 in a row (how do you destroy cases of cat food in pouches?) we now specify DPD. Never had an issue with them. There was much gnashing of geek teeth on twatter the other day as people who had paid premium shipping with Game to get the newest Sony game console on the day of release via DPD, got the shaft and the things were sent via Yodel. Some are still waiting 5 days later for them to deliver. First world problems. 

 

The local couple of DPD drivers are great. Until recently our Herpes driver was really good as well. However, we seem to have had a spate of new ones and now have a 50% success rate with deliveries.  A plastic envelope parcel of clothing arrived on Friday with a nasty rip in it. Fortunately the contents were unharmed. The lost/found/damaged/lost/delayed package that should have "been on the move" by Thursday is still stuck in the system somewhere. Until they either find it or declare it lost to PostNL the brewery can't claim the insurance and resend the order. By that time the Christmas beers the package contained will be long out of stock. <insert string of profanities here> With brexsh*t and the new customs way of life, this would have been one of the last times we can order from them. 

 

SWMBO off to commute to the city today. (Mon & Wed only) Southeastern have decided to cut their services way back again, meaning no direct train to Cannon St so she has to change at London Bridge. She's not a happy bunny. 

 

Enough moaning for a moanday. Enjoy the day. Time for another coffee. 

 

[polybear]

10 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

One thing I’d like to comment on though is ‘best before’ dates. I regularly buy provisions from M and S and am confused by their policy on this subject. I often buy products with a best before date which is the date I’m making the purchase. I don’t have any aversion to this other than to think if the product is better before this date, M and S are selling NOT the best products.

 

I can understand "best before" on the day of purchase for bakery products (and maybe some deli counter items?) but can't see any reason for it on other items.

 

9 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

I dont know how much Hermes charge for a parcel but proportionally 40p msy actually be a decent rate.

Lets say they charge a retailer £2 a parcel Hermes have to collect the parcel and take it to their depot.

 

 

ISTR reading that Hermes pay the driver for a delivery - if they have to go back a second time they don't get any extra; that's why they do their best to leave it with someone, somewhere....

 

7 hours ago, BSW01 said:

We usually have a slice each night and a full cake lasts us between 7 - 8 days. I make a variation in winter where I use spiced apple tea and add, cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spice. The shine on top of the cake is down to the fruit that was soaked overnight slowly releasing the tea, which also keeps the cake moist. 

 

 

Dribble....

But don't you mean 7-8 minutes??

 

1 hour ago, chrisf said:

Ah, couriers who cannot find doorbells.  They are too abundant.  Many seem to be employed by a firm named after a river in South America that seems hell-bent on world domination.  The couple next door buy lots of stuff from that outfit and make a point of not being at home when it is delivered.  More often than not the delivery operative bangs on the glass, the task of finding and pressing the doorbell seemingly being too hard.  When I answer the door, to save the glass any further punishment, I point out that I have a doorbell.

 

 

I have sign underneath my door knocker which reads "Please Ring The Doorbell", with little "Bell" symbol underneath.  There are two doorbells, one directly under the other; the one at the top has "Press Both" written on it (that way I can be sure of hearing the bell wherever I am in the house or garden).

How many delivery drivers fail to meet these simple requests?  Rather a lot.....

I recall some years ago spotting a couple of parcels tucked up in the rafters of my outside porch canopy (so no door or sides etc.) - they contained a couple of DMR etched brass kits, in the days when Mike Russell still ran the show (they've since gone to Precision Paints), so a couple of hundred quid's worth at a guess.  No idea how long they'd been there.

 

[Joseph_Pestell]

I used to have numerous deliveries where the courier did not ring the bell. When asked why they did not ring the bell, they would say that they had not seen that there was a bell. Should these people be driving? The bell concerned is a ship's bell hanging right by the door.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dry and fresh start to the day here with sunny spells forecast.

 

15 hours ago, polybear said:

 

But shouldn't birthday spirits be "over and above the norm" and not instead of?

Hate to say it, but in Bear's book you've been swindled.....

 

 My dear Bear, fear not!  You are of course correct in saying that birthday spirits should be over and above the norm.

Presumably you didn't notice that I said I've been told not to order "yet."  This I'm told is purely to avoid duplication and once I know what I'm getting I can then continue with my own choices.  That is of course assumimg that the hints I've been receiving are correct and it's not all a big con and a swindle...!

We're very lucky with couriers here and have had no problems whatsoever this year.  Our postie is exceptional,  he rings doorbell, leaves parcel on step, stands back and waits to make sure somebody's in.  If not then he will ask a neighbour to take it.  As we're in more than others we do tend to be the main repository for the adjoining neighbours.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[jonny777]

21 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Morning all,

 

A touch of sunshine outdoors and a couple days without rain are promised by the seaweed wranglers of Exeter   I sometimes wonder if they made better forecasts when they were at Bracknell and a long way from fresh seaweed?

 

 

Ok, I will take the bait. 

 

I think the problem was two-fold; money and time. 

 

The advent of computers which can perform zillions of operations per second, but have to function within liquid nitrogen (or some other very cold stuff) just to prevent them overheating, has enabled the long hard slog of human forecasting to be dispensed with. 

 

The latest of these weather forecasting computers is expected to start churning out data for the Exeter outfit in about 2 years' time, but will have cost over a billion £££s. 

 

In the old days, some highly experienced human forecasters would cast their beady eyes over the forecasts and think back to similar past events where certain details went 'Pete Tong' and were missed, meaning within hours said forecast was not worth the paper it was written on. 

 

But then the computers became faster and faster; and somewhat less prone to inaccuracies, and management realised that paying experienced old wrinklies at the top of their pay scales just for Quality Control and subtle wording (taking into account previous howlers) purposes was not worth it, when 20-somethings straight out of university would give an acceptable interpretation of the computer output for half the pay. 

 

Goodbye, experienced wrinklies. 

 

It didn't take long for the 'interpretation' to be abandoned in favour of just believing the machine output, because it was becoming more regularly correct, in broad terms, than the interpretations of the relatively  inexperienced 20-somethings. 

 

I believe the output is generally more accurate these days, especially 2-4 days ahead; but it is the lack of experienced and local area interpretation which sometimes lets the forecasts down IMHO. 

 

By the way, its dry and sunny here in Somerset this morning; and looks like continuing that way for the next 7 hours or so. 

 

On the subject of sausages, I did buy a home made sausage maker from one of those kitchen gadget specialists about 30 years ago. I tried a few different combinations, but the kids preferred the shop bought ones and so the experiment was abandoned and the equipment is probably gathering dust in the back of a cupboard somewhere. 

Edited November 23, 2020 by jonny777