Gwiwer

Yes this is business and no not all of us can afford to pay what the NHS will not cover. I have said here before that my treatment (in Australia) cost me dear and a sum which is not yet fully repaid. That is despite the assistance of the Medicare system there. I have never regretted the decisions we made nor the cost which ran to a five-figure sum over the years. I had the support of my employer and was able to work part time throughout all but the most uncomfortable of times for just a few weeks. I have not once complained that the costs arise because business profits from misfortune. That it does but I would rather have my health and if the price I pay also supports both investment and research along with some business profit then, as I have something like 98% of my former health back, the price has more than been worth paying. I am still contributing to someone’s profit and until the last of the credit card debt is repaid that will continue.

Such images should be reserved for after the watershed !!!!!

Afternoon all. My weekend has arrived. And with it a flurry of emails alerting me to activity in Jock67B's Cancer Ward which topic has already had my attention taking priority over matters often less significant. A beautiful but chill day today during which Dawn broke at 06.40 (how careless of her - I'll have to have a few words ...... ) and the sky remained cloud-free until almost 15 o'clock. Almost everything was running nicely as well which made it a good way to end the week. i can, however, add to my collection of mispronounced place names having been asked for "Horse Mire" (Haslemere), "Winker-Hester" (Winchester) and the unlikely destination of "Float" which turned out to be Fleet. Optimistic Person of the Month Award - thus far - goes to the couple speaking in strong Irish accents who had just arrived via Gatwick Airport and hoped that their touch-on with a contactless card, which is available at Gatwick for travel to London Zones 1-6, would see them right for the train through to Inverness. Oh and which platform does that leave from please??? They expressed surprise that a London zones fare ends at Watford High Street, Mill Hill Broadway or Hadley Wood (according to route) several hundred miles shy of anywhere in Scotland. And it's Platform 16 and change at Watford Junction to the overnight service for those playing at home. Mr. Stannah's lift has been installed and sampled at Mother's with the first report being that she was motivated by its arrival to make a special effort to get up and use it. I'll be down to see for myself in around ten days' time as things stand. Best wishes to Debs and those supporting her. It is less than an hour until Beer O'clock. I am allowed to enjoy more than one tonight and fully intend to. Avagoodweekend.

Darren Sorry to see you here and to read your news but please be assured of our support no matter what. And no matter what the medical profession says no-one knows how long is given to them (or their loved ones); we have already read here of some remarkable stories. My aunt herself laster nine years after being advised she had "a couple of weeks at best" to live and in the end her primary cause of death was given as Old Age. OK chemo is unpleasant and debilitating. It can be disfiguring. But it can also stay the onset of many a cancer and offer quite significant "life extension" to a good many patients. Every one of us is unique but there is certainly cause for hope here. Please keep us up to date, turn here in dark times and feel free to PM myself if you would rather chat privately about some matters. I'm only ever a message away mate.

Good indeed to hear of Debs and that things might be looking up even if only a little. Little things count. Waiting to receive confirmation that mother's stair-lift has ben successfully installed today and - maybe - even tested by her. Visiting is still subject to me making a full recovery (no random hacking and snotting) which is yet to be achieved to anyone's satisfaction. But like the train to Haslemere it is surely coming! Things were nowhere near normal when some signals at Vauxhall decided to throw a tantrum. First we noticed was an up Exeter which was unusually sat at Vauxhall for almost a half-hour. Thankfully the already-thin main line service actually helped mitigate the log-jam. Hiccups spread to the down locals. Good luck to those trying to get home tonight. You will get there, but probably not at the expected time and potentially not with the normal accommodation available. Now to relax and catch up on a little voluntary work at the computer which has been deferred owing to my being unwell. Bins out tonight; upsets and mess will be guarded against by the creation of a "fox line". Apparently a fox will seldom cross a line of male human wee so in simple terms I shall place the bins out and - errrr - create a circle of "territorial marking" around them! Good thing it's dark. Best to all.

Morning all. Very windy overnight though the worst was over by the time I set forth. Major disruptions everywhere. A large tree has apparently destroyed two lineside signalling equipment cabinets at Milford which may take some time to make good. Trees down over the main line south of Basingstoke and at Epsom. Southern also in disarray. Overground suspended on both routes to the House of Fun due to wind-borne debris fouling point blades. And my mate who works Eastleigh panel was gloating over how few trains he was offered. You can go off some people! Second half beckons. Widespread disruption likely to persist. Best wishes to all.

Evening all. A quick check-in without having read the day’s news. Managed the full rostered hours at the House of Fun today though in icy temperatures it was certainly a challenge. Noted that summer is indeed on its way as Dawn was awakening as I stepped off the train at 6.40am. Tomorrow may be less kind with high wind forecast to take away any hint of comfort from the expected top of 12C The usual best wishes to all and especially our notable absentees.

Evening all Slow recovery continues here. Made it to the post office in damp icy conditions and felt pleased I hadn’t had to spend 8 hours outside. Caught up some of the domestic backlog. SWMBO arrived home around three hours earlier than expected owing to a staff team issue. One of hers managed to beat all the recruitment checks and failed to disclose medical information which likely would have changed the outcome of her recruitment if known. SWMBO being on the receiving end of inappropriate language and behaviour, and being the manager-in-charge, has passed a large file to her HR department and, today, decided that she had had enough for the day and came home. Due process has to be followed but we have to hope that said member of staff has already fallen on their sword and is waiting to be handed a letter. That may happen later this week. Still very concerned by the news from Debs and continued good wishes directed there and to those among us who know her personally. Now off for an early night hoping to be fit enough to resume duty in the morning. Night all.

Morning all. Welcome to Cheeseday. Yesterday did not go as planned. Signed on for duty, after 30 minutes felt nauseous so sat myself down in the waiting room. Actually felt worse in he warm-and-damp so returned to the cold-and-damp ouside. As matters didn’t improve I signed myself back off knowing rail safety must come first. As I felt queasy my concentration was therefore not where it needed to be to manage moving trains in a dark, wet morning peak. And I am still home today. I put the unpleasant sensation down to sudden exposure to harsh outdoor elements after four days mostly in bed. There’s nothing else wrong - I just needed longer to recover. On other current matters “or similar” hire cars seems to be pot luck. The similarity seems to end at having four wheels to balance on and a fifth to aim the thing with. For some time now my bookings have been with Europcar as they offer a Penzance pick up at the railway station. The website suggests “Skoda Oktavia or similar”. I have yet to see a Skoda. I have had the following as “or similar” : Kia Cee’d (twice), Fiat 500L (three times), Hyundai Getz, Hyundai i20, Hyundai i30 (twice) and Dacia Duster. Some clearly bigger than booked, one or two definitely smaller. One one occasion I was alerted to a one-hour delay owing to no vehicle availability and duly arrived to find two other customers literally outbiddng each other over my car as their bookings could not be honoured. At other times there has been so much slack that I have been offered my choice from everything below prestige level in the garage. It can help to have loyalty to an operator and a branch plus a good history of prompt returns. Must admit to never having flown BA but SWMBO has. Working for an outer Governmental organisation she has little choice when they send her overseas to conferences. She does however have a Directorial dispensation to fly Premium Economy. The reports are not good. Very indifferent food, sloppy cabin service with one very surly purser encountered and feedback provided. Seating ok but the 747s are showing their age and are noisy compared with the A380s were are now accustomed to on London - Melbourne flights. Entertainment was described as “lacking”. Now to make something of this bright, brisk and breezy day. There is plenty of cleaning and tidying overdue but first the cat requires patting and I require caffeining. Back anon. Avagoodun.

Agreed 100%. They weren’t very nice to drive either. But Nationals couldn’t go everywhere and the LH / LHS was NBCs only alternative. The ones with Plaxton Supreme grant-door bodies must have been the low point. Presenting the elderly folk of Cornish villages with a mountain of steps and not even a decent fixed handrail.

Morning all. A big welcome back to Andy. Uniformed up, brekky had and raring to go feeling like carp here. Let’s see what a wet Moanday has to throw shall we? Thoughts with Deb. Best wishes one and all.

Allan, Firstly thank you for sharing your condition and some thoughts with us. As others have said there is any amount of support here; that is why we opened the Ward in the first place. I too know something of lung cancer and of medicinal cannabis. My late partner of 30 years ago found herself breathless and unable to recover after a shower. This being most unusual and having persisted for ten minutes we called the blue-light ambulance. Which duly drove straight past the large regional hospital and on for another hour to the specialist unit at Derriford in Plymouth where she was formally diagnosed. Despite putting up a decent fight, enduring chemo then being largely managed at home by the Macmillan nurses she slipped peacefully away some six months later. Dad had discussed use of cannabis with us in his final months suffering bowel cancer. He never shared how much pain he was in but always felt embarrassed that having brought up his children to refuse the stuff here he was trying to find some. In truth he could have had the resin or weed any time - they are easy enough to obtain with some degree of discretion and reliability as to content. He was after the oil on a “why not?” basis. As he said “I’m going to go anyway and I’m too sick for them to lock me up for it”. He never found any. I wish you the best and will have you in my thoughts.

Yes there are trains up and down the country and often very late at night or first thing in the morning which are booked via unusual routes for knowledge retention. Sometimes these can be picked from the public timetable by having uncommonly “slack” timings apparently from A to B but actually via C. But in most cases those would still bring trains to their booked destination. It is rather more difficult to avoid somewhere like Nottingham entirely as opposed to taking a different route to get there. GWR only managed to avoid Reading completely during the recent blockade by using a hefty fleet of buses and Chiltern’s new chord at Bicester. Crewing of the Penzance - Marylebone trips which ran via Didcot’s west curve and turned right north of Oxford would have been interesting with HST crews lacking route knowledge and Chiltern ones unfamiliar with the traction. I bet there were a few surprised looks from passenger believing they had been “piskie-led” as well. With wholesale abandonment of freight and secondary passenger lines in the East Midlands few alternatives remain. And securing the numbers of buses required at the start of the morning rush would have been as easy as collecting rocking horse poo. And that’s without the closure of the tramway and major road closures bringing traffic to a near-standstill.

You’re welcome Peter. I was working at Euston during the last year of full Mk1 rakes on the main lines. The IC-liveried rakes worked alongside a number of b/g rakes based on Euston Downside and normally used on Northampton turns. They had daytime fill-in trips to Birmingham and I sometimes finished an early turn, hopped aboard a down IC rake to New Street and returned almost straight home on the b/g set. I think their long lives and the need to renovate some so late in life arose from service enhancements which the Mk2 fleet couldn’t cope with. Full Mk3 operation was still some years away. In the modern era the “Pretendolino” set of Mk3 stock was formed to cover a slight shortfall in the newer things bringing a repeat of history on the route. Those “Master Cobbler” sets used on peak time Northampton trips ultimately passed to NSE with several rakes receiving toothpaste stripes

Morning all from a somewhat noisier Hill than might be ideal. There is only the tiniest breeze, barely registering a 1 on Beaufort, but it is in the nor’east which means we are underneath Heathrow’s departure flight path. Anything heading south does a right turn under full thrust just about over our roof. Concerning news from Debs though any news is probably better than none. Continued best wishes sent in her direction. The uphill path to recovery continues here. Still not “right” by some way but have confirmed my return to the House of Fun tomorrow. The healing process shall be supported shorly by French toast, bacon and maple syrup with a large Muggertee. No firm plans today. Must press the uniform at some stage and undergo a few purificatory eurhythmics but that’s about it. Have a good one where ever you are.

That is NOT an 0-6-0

Evening all Have so far managed to remain out of bed since 10am though with a couple of power-naps on the sofa. Some cleaning has been achieved. In her absence neighbour (upstairs) has been gifted our spare wardrobe - one of those pole and tray types which was more than we needed - which I assembled for her whilst having a long and very amiable chat with her flatmate. SWMBO has performed some kitchen magic and presented us with home made lamb and vegetable soup. I’m now off to digest that with another nap. Back later. Kind thoughts to all.

IC Mk1 stock wasn’t common in terms of numbers as only a few rakes were done for everyday use. Those had specific duties mostly on the WCML including a Euston - Shrewsbury - Euston diagram which on summer Saturdays ran overnight Euston - Pwllheli (with a five-hour stop on the Abbey Foregate loop) then the daytime return. These coaches were renovated inside with dark grey seat covers and new(? or completely renovated) tables. IC described them as a “Director’s Reserve”. As they were kept so far as possible to the intended diagrams they were very common sightings but only on those duties. There was also the IC Charter fleet of white-roof raspberry ripple stock used largely on high-end land cruise trains and for private charters. These were mostly open firsts and often used for full at-seat dining. These were based at Ferme Park at the London end of the ECML and could be found on charter operations allover the network’s most scenic lines.

While on the subject of former London operators and MB coaches an honourable mention should go to Wahl / Redwing (I never did understand the relationship there) with a number of bright red and curvaceous coaches which I think were O302s.

Morning all. Out of bed for the first extended period of time since Wednesday afternoon. Aching all over and the body is most unwilling to comply with instructions to catch up on the Domestic Engineering or visit the village shop for essentials. The supermarket delivery van has been booked instead and I shall endeavour to clean up one cup at a time when I am passing the kitchen. Lithgovian Wildebeest Flu won’t make any headlines but it has knocked me for six fair and square. Duly concerned to note Her Debship is in stealth mode and with thoughts to all our number who are hors de combat. I’ll be snoozing on the sofa if I’m needed. Knock twice.

That is a remarkable recovery from a serious situation. Clearly it will be some time until full repairs are effcted but at least it is possible to travel to or from the station again within 24 hours of the fire breaking out. Full credit due to all involved.

NR currently expressing hope that a limited or possibly full XC service will be possible from (an unspecified time on) Saturday morning but with no disabled access nor any of the normal station facilities. Subject to safety checks at this stage. No suggestion of EMT returning just yet.

“Root password” can be misconstrued by anyone familiar with Australian slang And Magnum Opus is the work required to obtain chocolate-coated ice-cream on a stick.

Neil - thank you. For me it was only doing what I would hope many others of human-kind might do when called upon. Given that all of us in the block currently have or have recently had the same bug cross-infection wasn’t a concern. Responding to a call for help is something I will always do or - if circumstances prevent that - will arrange for someone else to respond. I have swapped messages with the young lady in question in the past hour. She has been taken home to rest and recuperate though hopes to be back here soon. Thanks were included with a selection of emoticons. Job done. This time around.

Greetings all. First and foremost very best wishes to Andy P for a swift and complete recovery. The Twitterverse has gone into conspiracy-theory overdrive regarding Nottingham. Suggestions are rife that several recent unrelated fires around the country are due to “the cuts”. Which cuts would they be, exactly, that saw a good deal of money expended very recently on Nottingham station and which turned it from a slum to a modern rail-tram-bus interchange? No-one hurt, we are told, and the seat of the fire was apparently in the Ladies Room. Maybe it’s something the locals put in the curry up there. Still bed-ridden here though the coughing has eased. If the appetite would return I might feel happier about getting up and about. It is most unlike me to be so far off eating that a single mouthful produces the urge to return it. Received a call earlier from my DSM in the best railway tradition of taking the welfare of staff seriously. Good to know that baby wasn’t thrown out with the privatisation bathwater. I hope to be back waving bats at trains and telling everyone where to go - in the nicest possible way of course - on Monday. Any thoughts of a trip to see mother are cancelled until I am well clear of this bug. Anything she contracts might well tip her over the edge. And neighbour (upstairs) had another episode yesterday though that was dealt with by paramedic neighbour (top flat) summoning a hospital car to take her in for further assistance. Blue light not required this time. It seems MacMike is sorting himself out. I found the biggest PITA with the whole Apple set-up was the ID. I still seem to have two and cannot delete either. A phone call to Apple a while back didn’t achieve that either though it did fix the constant ID clash which had prevented me doing anything requiring the AppleID. Like downloading updates or anything from iTunes. Off to sleep a bit more now. The cat thinks all his Christmasses have come having someone to keep his duvet warm 24-7