PhilJ W

If you hold it in your hand so that everyone can see it it should be OK.

If someone had pressed the button on the side loader at the right time.

Afternoon from Estuary-Land. The chunk of roofing felt in the back garden did come from my shed which now has a bald patch in the centre of the roof. Fortunately the rain didn't penetrate as the roof is of tongue and grooved boards rather than the usual chipboard, the boards are damp though and it appears that they have swollen with the water making them even more watertight. No other apparent damage though the tiles were rattling well last night.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Have to pop out to check for damage when the rain stops. No apparent damage to the house but a great big lump of roofing felt laying in the back garden. From what I can see of the garden shed from an upstairs window it seems to be OK but a closer examination will be required. Fortunately I had the small flat roofed part of the house covered with a fibreglass roof a few years ago so no problems there. I see from the news that very soon all dogs will need to be microchipped soon so I hope everyones canine friends have been done. Bye for now, be back later.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Spent the afternoon on the track for my diorama. I needed track to approximately P4 gauge to stand the Atlas road-rail Unimog on as this models rail wheels are set at this gauge instead of the more usual 16.5mm. To do this I took some scrap Peco Streamline N gauge track, cut it into two equal lengths. removed one rail from each piece and proceded to remove every other pair of sleepers. Then I placed them interlocked to each other then used one of the lengths of rail joined them together by sliding the rail into the chairs making 18mm + gauge three rail track, in fact it is almost 19mm gauge as Peco Streamline is slightly over gauge so that flanges won't bind when it is curved plus the width of the 'third rail'. The model sat on the track perfectly even though it was a bit tight and can be pushed a few inches but this revealed another problem, the flanges kept coming in contact with the chairs. I dont know of any 'N' rail bigger than code 55 so I'm looking at glueing the rail and cutting off the chairs. As its only intended to be a static display its not that serious, the surface will be made up to rail head level anyway.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. The only timepiece in the house that doesn't adjust itself is my wristwatch. Woke up bleary eyed this morning, checked my watch, 7 o'clock so time for a lie in thinks I. It was only when I switched the TV on for the news that I realised that I hadn't reset my watch last night DOH! Nice to hear from you Jock, as others have said your fortitude is amazing. Things to do now so be back later.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Did a bit more on my diorama today, preparing the (very) short length of track for laying, all 17" of it. Not much else to report so its goodnight all.

Its not unusual for a sparrowhawk to take a pidgeon. A few years ago a sparrowhawk used my patio as a dining table, its dinner was a pidgeon larger than itself.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Dull, grey and windy here today and according to the forecast its going to get worse over the bank holiday, so nothing new there then. Made a start yesterday on making a diorama to display some of my on track plant models so thats the weekend sorted anyway. Predictive text has struck again, first we had lard bard now we have 'toothed station'.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. AndyB, nice place, its got to be my turn to win the lottery soon. Getting late so goodnight all.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Terrible news 28XX, thoughts and condolences with you. No parcels expected today as Royal Mail is not making any deliveries. Bright and sunny at the moment but the weather forecast for the rest of the bank holiday weekend. I'd better make the most of it then so be back later.

Time for bed, goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Peter, I quite agree that provision for genuine GRT's should be made. I live in Basildon and my council tax had to pay for the fiasco. The land concerned in this case was adjacent to a proper GRT site and part of the green belt. A 'travelling' family had acquired the land and moved on to it illegally. However the only way the council could get them to leave was a court order which they duly acquired. However the next thing these so called travellers done was to hire an expensive lawyer to fight their case on legal aid! this is one of the reasons the case dragged on for so long. And as it turned out half way through the case it was revealed that the woman in who's name the notice was being challenged was not entitled to legal aid and in fact owned a £300,000 detached house in Ireland. When I worked for a London borough they had a properly built and managed GRT site, that was until the (Romany) manager of the site had to go into hospital with shotgun wounds. After that the situation deteriorated to such an extent that there was no alternative other than closing the site.

I had to take the equivalent of a re-test despite having a completely clean licence (and still do). This was due to my driving my employers vehicles and their insurers insisted on every driver taking a test. I did pass but the examiner pointed out a couple of bad habits* that I had acquired in about 25 years of driving. I made up my mind to watch out for those habits and try to avoid them. A system of 'assessment' of peoples driving rather than a re-test would be better with no threat of loss of licence but a list of things that require attention. *The two 'bad habits' I had developed were de-clutching whilst braking and crossing my arms whilst steering. The examiner pointed out that these were the most common faults. As I am now aware of this I am more careful of those faults, I wouldn't claim not to still do them on occasion but far less than I used too.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Club night last night and I was surprised to see a friend who was supposed to be in hospital with the same problem as Ian (OD) and he is now due for the same laser treatment. Got to get on now, be back later.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Living as I do only a short walk from the local station the area locally used to be full of commuters cars before a residents parking scheme was introduced. On one occasion a young guy parked his BMW across a neighbours drive, when she went to ask him to move it because it was blocking access to her drive he just arrogantly tossed her the keys and told her to move it herself if she needed to and then just walked off in the direction of the station. As the lady herself didn't drive I offered to move the car for her. That evening he came knocking on my door asking where I had left his car. Despite the fact that I had found him a parking space right outside the station he still seemed annoyed even though the parking space had those nice double yellow lines. This was before they had installed speed cameras, just imagine the fun I could have had.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Still waiting for a couple of packages, ones coming via Hermes so its anybodys guess when it will arrive despite their fancy tracking system, if it had been sent by Royal Mail it probably would have arrived by now. Glad to hear that all loved ones and friends in Brussels are accounted for and are safe and well. Hope that everyone is feeling well, be back later.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Not much to report today as not much happened. I did go into town today and popped into the 'remainder' bookshop where I found a copy of the same book mentioned here a few pages ago, 'Exploring Britains Lost Railways' together with a repro print of a book on the Routemaster bus from 1956. I am not going to comment much about about the events in Brussels except to give my condolences to those suffering from these terrible events.

The situation is still very confused but the latest news is 13 dead at the airport and 10 at the Metro station.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Listening to the terrible news from Brussels, theres not much else that can be said at the moment except that I hope you hear from your friend soon Rick. Glad to hear that Chris is a fellow leaf tea enthusiast, for Christmas I treated myself to one of the glass filter tea pots and I can't see myself going back to tea bags anytime soon. Like beer tea its a matter of taste but I prefer M&S English Breakfast blend, not too much dust and plenty of taste. One thing I've noticed is that the teapot is bowl shaped and because of that any particles are trapped by the bowl shape. Hope that Jock and our other invalids had a good nights sleep. Bright sunshine here this morning so a walk into town in prospect so be back later.

Goodnight all.

I received one this morning but a different one to that one, the Liebheer A900 ZW, its a similar machine but with a clamshell bucket. This is the first model I have received since before Christmas and as it is on the future releases list after the one that Jim has received it looks as if I will have to wait a bit longer for my one. Apparently the demand for this series caught Atlas out and they didn't order sufficient stocks but hopefully they have upped their orders. This is not helped by some dealers/traders taking out multiple subscriptions so that they can make a large profit on re-selling them on e-bay. Prices on some of the models on e-bay are coming down but others are going for a lot of money, the Saro crash tender is particularily rare and one example went for £225 on e-bay recently . The Unimog seems to be settling down in price on e-bay now, I've just obtained a second one for £17 plus postage. I have e-mailed the CEO of Atlas about the 'missing' models and I have been assured that I will eventually receive them but they cannot give a date, hopefully every collector will now receive their models on time. The traders and dealers who take multiple subscriptions for these series so that they can sell them on at a profit are the ones who annoy me the most but now some of these models are selling for less than the Atlas price on e-bay is good news.

BoD, I hope you don't mind but I nicked your post of the Sparrowhawk and posted it on the 'Where have all our garden birds gone?' thread.