PhilJ W

As I recall it wasn't that far from the A1.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Just had some wet stuff falling from the sky about an hour ago but now all trace of it has gone except for some distant rumbles to the south. The TV has definitely had it, it stays permanently on scan mode so some modelling tokens will have to be splashed out on a new one. In the meantime I'll watch those programs that I want to see on the computer.

Many years ago I acquired a stack of pallets where the slats were butted up to each other. They were held together by some very odd nails with short spikes either side of the shank that bent upwards as the nails were hammered in, not quite as tight as ring shank nails but still difficult to remove. The timber was of good quality, so good that we decided to use them for a fence. We removed the top and bottom runners (there was no central runner just a slat at right angles), by running a jigsaw through the slats leaving just the slats. After creosoting them we just had to fix them to the frames (made from some old joists that were laying about). The central right angle struts were only pinned to the others so if some spare slats were required it was simple to dismantle one of the pallets. The wood blocks burnt quite well especially those that had been splashed with creosote

Not sure if it was on this thread or another, but the subject was driving on pavements. An incident reported in the press recently. A householder was complaining about a telecommunications junction box that was installed in front of her property actually blocking in one of her cars. As it turned out she had converted the front garden into a car parking area but hadn't bothered to have a dropped kerb put in. The telecoms company had permission from the local planning authority to install the box that stated exactly where it was to go and thats where it was placed. If the householder wants it moved it will cost her £5,000 and all because she didn't have a dropped kerb installed.

Holbeach rings a bell. they were targeting an old and very rusty shipwreck but didn't drop anything on it as far as I could see. When I first went abroad nearly fifty years ago it was by car/ferry, Dover-Zeebrugge. The sea was so rough that the swell in the inner harbour at Dover was at least ten feet. We had opted for couchettes that were right in the bows of the ferry and in the heavy seas every time the ship hit a wave it was like being in an oil drum with someone hitting with a hammer. I couldn't sleep with that going on so I went up to the restaurant for a meal of egg and chips. Quite by chance I sat by the entrance and people coming into the restaurant seeing what I was eating turned a funny colour and rushed out.

Back in my schooldays I was in the air cadets. On summer camp we went to a training establishment flying Varsities. They could carry eight passengers IIRC and they filled all eight seats with cadets for the flights which were of about six hours duration. We were each given a packed lunch and a sick bag and told that anyone who barfed had to clean their own up if they missed the sick bag. What we weren't told that we would be practicing high-low-high bombing runs. We were told to strap ourselves in to our seats, rearward facing RAF style at the back of the fuselage. We had barely strapped ourselves in when the aircraft went into its dive that had no effect on us as all we could see out of the windows was blue sky but on the pull out and climb we could see the sea and coastline and it was then about half the cadets barfed, but not yours truly. Fortunately they all used the bags so that there was no mess to clear up. This was just before lunch but those who had barfed didn't fancy eating so those that didn't barf had two lunches. I can't for the life of me recall which base it was but it was somewhere in the fens and the 'bombing practice' was over the Wash and the North Norfolk coast.

Its your layout so you can run what you like. The complete opposite is 'rivet counter'.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Like Andy P I overslept this morning, my excuse is that without RMweb yesterday evening I picked up a crime thriller and read it end to end and it was gone three when I went to bed. The BBC Breakfast coined a new name for the UK following the number of people who have been 'pinged', the United Pingdom. Now time for breakfast, be back later.

Don't forget that at the start of the pandemic Royal Mail and other delivery agencies struggled to find sufficient staff to maintain the usual level of service. This will probably start happening again as more people are 'pinged' when they have been in contact with someone who was positive for covid.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. When it comes to intelligence there is an animal, a mammal living on Earth today that some reckon is at least as intelligent as primates. That animal is the Dolphin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin. What if there was an animal 66 million years ago that had that sort of intelligence but like the dolphin was confined to the oceans. Another thing is the dinosaurs were reptiles, and many were cold blooded relying on the sun to warm their bodies, not only to get their muscles to work but their brains as well. This might be one of the reasons why the dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago. The ash thrown up by the meteorite strike would have blotted out the sun for several years.

Only left water out, mostly used by the birds but the fox did use it as well (until a couple of magpies chased it off).

Well it hasn't been around for a couple of days so it may well have been passing through.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Someone mentioned James Bonds machine gun equipped Aston Martin DB5. A truly remarkable car as the machine guns occupy the same space as the front wheels of the car. Eye lids urgently require inspection, be back later.

A young fox appears to have taken up residence in my back garden. I'm pretty certain it is one of this years cubs going by its size.

This one was sold at auction a couple of years ago. https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/25448/lot/212/

I would imagine that was the downfall of most of the drophead Light 15's. Once rust and corrosion got into the floor and sills it was a one way ticket to the scrapyard.

https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/19450549.erith-ocado-warehouse-fire-caused-colliding-robots/

Far too modern for me I'm afraid.

Heller produced a kit of the saloon in 1/43 scale. Indeed it does, I have one of the kits and it can be built as either.

Poundland often had batches of Hongwell/Cararama models limited to two or three types. My local Poundland had a stack of Transit vans and minibuses so I bought a batch of each and sold them on for a small profit. They also had a delivery of the H0 scale American trucks which were very useful cannibalised for bodies and other components such as light bars.

They have very similar giant slugs in Barbados but they are the usual grey/brown colour.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Happy birthday Baz, and more of them. No matter what I do the TV goes into scan mode. Its time for a replacement, its over eight years old and I'll have to remember to shield the new one from direct sunlight which is probably the cause of the problem. I don't watch much TV anyway and what I want to watch I can watch on the computer.

Goodnight all.