PhilJ W

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Interesting program on Channel 4 this evening. Britains most Historic Towns, the subject was Portsmouth. They showed the course of the line built to take Queen Victoria to the quay were she boarded a boat to take her to Osborne House. The track was lifted many years ago but a lot of the trackbed is still extant only grassed over. Next week they're doing Plymouth hopefully we'll see some more 'forgotten' lines.

That most definitely needs a groan button.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Nipped down to Tess Coe's for a few bits and bobs then a bit of eyelid inspection. Mention of Foulness reminded me of this:- http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170110-why-the-broomway-is-the-most-dangerous-path-in-britain I did have a friend now sadly passed away who back in the 70's was first officer on the Hoveringham IV, a sand and gravel dredger. The practice was to sample the sea bed and if it was deemed suitable down went the suction pipe. This was off of Foulness and it didn't take long for the security to arrive and order him off.

Can we have the groan button back please.

It was one particular individual. The mods have it within their power to stop members from giving or receiving ratings. why that wasn't used I don't know.

I was considering a second hand electric or hybrid car and I was surprised to see how cheap they were. Then I saw the notice "Requires new batteries". On further enquiries I was told it would cost £2,000 to £5,000 to do so depending on the make and model. As the batteries get older/more used recharging slows down. So where quick re-charging is essential, a bus service for instance it is common practice to change the batteries at frequent intervals and use the old batteries for storage. The batteries can be re-used four or five times before they have to be recycled. Lithium also has the advantage of being light weight, some battery electric buses even have them carried on the roof.

I see (or hear rather) that they retain the rather insipid LT air whistle.

Because of some idiot mis-using it.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Up most of the night with the sore foot and still feeling a bit drowsy. My sister worked for Morgan Stanley at the time and actually knew the guy. Fortunately she was based at Canary Wharf. By coincidence a former colleague was killed on 7/7, I didn't know him but some of the girls who did were rather upset.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. When I was working we once had a bomb scare. A suspicious package had been found in a lift. While we waited outside it was found that some staff members were unaccounted for. The bomb squad turned up and checked it out, it turned out that it was someones shopping but as staff members couldn't be accounted for we couldn't return to the building until it had been searched for those missing. They had just finished checking the building which took a couple of hours when those that were missing strolled up having spent the time in the pub. Everyone was furious as the time we spent waiting outside encompassed most lunch hours as well as the time wasted. To say that the CEO was furious would be an understatement. They were 'invited' to the CEO's office the following morning and I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall. Not long after most of the miscreants had left.

There is always bio-fuel but that gives off emissions as much as fossil fuel. To be quite honest I would not feel secure in todays traffic driving a pre 1970's car.

Oo, I feel a model coming on.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. The bright sunshine this morning has been replaced by wet and wind. Just as well that one of my neighbours was having his TV aerial replaced as I went out to Tess Coes. I decided to have a little flutter on the Euromillions, 116 of them tonight so fingers crossed. They are called jamming devices because they use jam. Not any old jam though, its the stickiest most glutinous jam that its possible to find. The idea is that it is concealed within a cake but in such a way that as soon as a bite is taken it squirts out in all directions together with other cake contents such as cream. It also sticks like sh!t to Polybear fur so that he twists himself into knots trying to lick it off. We now have to devise a similar deterrent to prevent hippo's from decimating cake supplies.

Also the lights were flashing before he drove onto the crossing.

News coming in:- https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2020/11/major-disruption-incident-at-a-railway-level-crossing-near-retford-lner-says-do-not-travel.html

Hopefully they no longer put wacky baccy seed in the mix.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Up a bit late this morning, overslept a bit. The sore ankle kept me awake until I took a brace of co-codamols then I went out like a light. Good news is that the post has finally arrived, no nasty surprises and the only bumph was trying to get me to sign up for a mobile phone. I already have five mobile phones, thing is they are in the same condition as Monty Pythons parrot, dead! Thats because I used them so little so I've concluded that I don't need one. A visit to Tess Coes is in order otherwise I'm on a severe diet over the weekend. Last time I was there they had a special offer on their 'finest' mince tarts, they are really very good as those that I purchased early in the week have gone.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Missed a meeting tonight, forgot all about it, an illustrated talk by one of the SEERS members. Not to worry as it wasn't a subject that I'm terribly interested in. Ovens breaking down, as I mentioned I haven't used the oven for ages, I'm not even sure if it does work. I won't be using it, not even to cook C*******s dinner as I will be using the grill for the meat, the dry fryer as a mini fan oven for the roast veg and the micro for the green veg. I recall Christmases when I was a nipper. Us youngsters were in the living room opening and playing with our pressies with mum or dad or a visiting grandparent putting their head around the door on occasion to check that we were behaving ourselves. Mum and dad, with any visiting grandparent were busying themselves in the kitchen preparing Christmas dinner which always seemed to take all of the morning. One Christmas day we had both pairs of grandparents visiting and us (3) kids had to sit at a small side table to eat our Christmas dinner. That was my thought but the main Bahnhoff appears to have survived more or less intact except for some modern fast food outlets who's garish signs seem out of place. It is also the largest railway station in Germany.