PhilJ W

Morning all. Got to spend most of today indoors, new front door and windows being fitted. Jock, I occasionally get e-mails come through for Apple updates, I'm with Microsoft. Andrew, the thundering sh*tweasels are the reason I took early retirement, unsurprisingly I don't miss them.

Morning all, I was amused by an item on BBC's breakfast show this morning. It was concerning some 'art' made from Lego blocks, the presenters are struggling not to mention Lego.

One is currently being rebuilt at Eastleigh as a dining car, for TfL! http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2014/09/12/fancy-a-luxury-meal-in-a-london-underground-train/

I have a few suggestions for such a series but I think it ought to be on a different thread.

Thanks for that Tim, give Don all our best wishes. Jock, with a less than 1,000 majority it might be a surprise result. As I stated yesterday I 'helped out' at the Shenfield exhibition. During my free time I browsed Bob Pearmans books, as an incurable bibliophile it normally proves nearly fatal, to the tune of 6 books totaling £102! I only intended to purchase one book, vol. 3 of 'The Longmore Military Railway' which I did.

A couple ended up on the Longmoor Military Railway. Does anyone know what livery they would have worn, olive green or blue?

Evening all, 3 pages of ER's since I posted this morning! On the subject of the Scottish referendum, I am thankful for the outcome as I thought that a yes vote would be a step into the unknown. Its a very uncomfortable feeling when something happens that can profoundly affect your country in so many ways and you have no say in the matter. As someone once said every five years we have an elected dictatorship but at least we have a say in that dictatorship. Most, if not all of us have never lived under a dictatorship but this, despite being a democratic process gave me a feeling of what it could be like under a dictatorship.

The one you can't remember is High Royds. Just as well it wasn't called Emma Royds....Hat, Coat gone..............

Morning all, off to steward at Shenfield shortly. Tony, sounds as if I'm not the only NHS pin cushion.

Bananas were imported 'green' and had to be ripened, this is why banana vans were steam heated.

The ones provided to the military had a veranda at both ends. The Metropolitan sealed up the loading doors on their examples and used them as straight brake vans.

Having just had one blood test I now have to have a second one. They take one sample then give you a high sugar drink then take another two hours later. At least I was able to ask my GP to add a PSA test to the things to be tested.

At the moment its uncertain as to the level, I've got to have more tests as my blood glucose levels were high but not seriously so. I think its a secret plot by the NHS to turn me into a pin cushion as they've also offered me a flu jab. Problem for me is that I really hate needles, this I reckon comes from having injections at school in the 50's when they used to use about 2 needles for the whole class, when most classes were 30-40 pupils. My surname begins with a W, and as they usually went by the class register, and when my turn came those needles were very blunt indeed! I tend to think that a hammer would have been useful to get the needle in.

It looks like the same thing is happening over here as well.

Please, PLEASE, PLEASE can we have a groan button?

Yes, but we keep sending him back.

Morning all, just. Had to visit the docs this morning and got good and bad news. The good news is that the kidney stone should dissolve and disappear of its own accord. The bad news is that I might be diabetic, so goodby to the cakes and biscuits.

Did they hand them over using a pair of tongs?

Apart from my other health problems my arthritic hip decided to remind me that it was still there this morning.

Another industry that comes to mind is the dairy industry. Creameries and bottling plants were often rail served. Milk and cream in (in tanks or churns) and finished products out (butter cheese etc.). I remember milk tankers being delivered to a bottling plant as late as the 1980's.

You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

Until Kit Kat took them over and closed the factory down? (Have a break...).

I came across a photograph of myself the other day, standing on the footplate of a Welsh narrow gauge loco. It was taken over 40 years ago and the jeans I was wearing I could barely fit on to one leg today. Just as well perhaps unless very wide flares come back into fashion.

Remember the alternative definition of 'expert' ex =redundant 'spurt' = a drip under pressure.

I still have my milk delivered. Dairy Crest seems to be the only national company still delivering milk to the door. They only deliver 3 days a week now, they don't deliver Sundays and the other 3 days the milkman operates another round. The reason I persist with home delivery is that living on my own with no relatives near at hand someone will notice if something is wrong, not that it will help much if something serious occurs but at least I wont be found lying on the floor for months if something does happen. The milkman usually delivers about 4 am, the only time I have had milk go off is if I have forgotten and left it standing on the stoop.