PhilJ W

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I attempted to make it to my building society yesterday afternoon only to find that due to COVID-19 they are now shutting at two. I also wanted to go to smiffs which is almost opposite to get the April Backtrack as my subscription doesn't start until May but smiffs was shut as well. One thing I did discover though was that many stores that are still open that normally opened on Sundays such as smiffs are now closed on Sundays. When I went into Tesco's I found a bargain in a small slow cooker marked down from £18 to £9. The only thing wrong was a flap was missing from the box. I'm a bit wary of slow cookers as I know of a couple of people who became ill after eating meals from them. Two separate instances but both involving a slow cooker and chicken. I will probably only use it for veggie dishes and then give the food a quick blast of microwaves. But how many of those turned out to be not entitled? Many that are can have difficulty in proving that they are especially the homeless. It would be easier if we all carried ID cards as the Blair government tried to introduce. But because certain right wing newspapers opposed it they weren't able too, and those same newspapers are the one's complaining about medcal tourism. Skin on custard...YEUK!

Goodnight all.

Dove Holes Quarry at 8pm this evening.

Yes, I looked it up, 400 is in the visible spectrum so as you say not a lot of use even on bacteria (it should be below 180 to be of any use).

Just a thought. On the bridge bashing thread the is a picture of a lorry stuck under a bridge. Someone noted that it had a foreign registration and on further examination it appears to be Italian. I was just wondering what about lorry drivers stuck in another country and those in this country unable to get home?

Should still be reported in case there was any damage to the bridge.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Made the trip to Tess Coes and managed to get almost all I needed, the one thing missing was the oven chips which had sold out. However in compensation was another batch of bread pudding and one was duly acquired. I now have sufficient food for about five days, I was watching the use by dates so some was rejected because the dates were less than three days hence. Only had to queue for about 15 minutes to get in, not too bad. I noticed that the town centre shops such as smiffs, and others that are still open are closing early and not opening at all on Sundays. My torch is 395nm whatever that means. He would probably get better medical attention than many American citizens who do not have medical insurance. And on that point about people coming to the UK as 'medical tourists' (not anywhere near as many as the Daily Wail would have us believe) I can see medical insurance being compulsory in future before none residents/citizens enter the country due to the CV-19 outbreak.

Becoming a dad at 79, good luck to him.

I've been going back over this thread and some of the models I have almost forgotten. In the meantime I have managed to acquire a pair each of the Lima FIAT 131 and the Eko Jeep, one of the Eko Jeeps I found at a stall at the Bluebell Raiways swapmeet for the grand sum of £2. The Hornby Sierra, has anyone thought of converting one to a P100 pick-up?

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. The 'electronic' plane spotters are getting excited. You'd think that with the limited number of commercial flights they would be disappointed. Its that very lack of commercial flights that has resulted in some unusual flights. The C-17 touch and go at Southend the other day was only one of them. There has been several survey/mapping flights over London including one flying back and forth between Chiswick and Ockendon. As someone pointed out he had a serious heart condition and at 74 he was vunerable. RIP.

That is allways a problem in todays traffic. If you leave enough space for a safe braking distance someone will take advantage and dive into the gap.

What do you do during lockdown when you like to go to the pub for a pint and play the fruit machine?

What do you do during lockdown if you like to go to the pub and play the fruit machines?

Farcebook et al was up and running within a couple of hours and looked OK this morning.

Morning yet again from Estuary-Land. The bin wagons dawn chorus has been a bit earlier lately, probably because there are no traffic hold ups. I am still waiting for a couple of packages but as they are coming from Hong Kong I expect I'll have to wait for some time with most air traffic grounded, slow boat from China etc. I have a supply of face masks which should last as I only go out every four or five days. I also have a UV torch with which I can zap any germ or virus but what is the best way to use it? NB you might like this, nicked from the forum jokes thread.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Will have to venture out for supplies again though I could leave it until tomorrow. But a bath is the next thing on the agenda, be back later.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I wondered whats happening to Farcebook as it was refusing to load any pics from about ten this evening. Just had a newsflash that its gone down together with Instagram and Whatsapp. Probably overloaded due to the extra use its been getting.

The test at first only applied to cars, not to commercial vehicles that were only required to take the test after 1962.

Here's one for Dave, Southend Airport had a visitor yesterday. Apparently it was an exercise, it done a touch and go which made it officially the largest aircraft ever to take off from Southend.

Afternoon all from Estuary- Land. In my job I not only had to deal with some of the bozo's further up the ladder in my own department but I also had to deal with the managers from other departments. The varied from the good, the bad and the ugly. The good ones were obviously the best to deal with and with only one notable exception came 'off the tools'. That notable exception was a woman in the building department who had stepped into the managers job from being the managers PA and she was mustard. The bad were just that, in a job that was beyond their competence. How they got there was sometimes a mystery but one everyone was certain he got promoted for letting one of the senior managers roger his missus. Now we come to the ugly, the @r$e lickers, the bullies and a few really nasty bits of work. As a trade union rep, and in my union we were all trained as health and safety reps, I had an incident were a member was on a diciplinary for refusing to obey the instructions of one of the nasty ones. I was tasked with representing the young woman at the diciplinary. I immediately realised that the managers request breached health and safety regulations and further checking revealed a catalogue of health and safety breaches within the department. I only had to present this to the diciplinary board and of course the complaint against the member was thrown out. It only took a few weeks for that particular manager to resign, rumour was that he was ordered to do so.

Simply apply rule one.

It is indeed a Jowett, with a flat opposed 2 cylinder side valve water cooled engine rated at 7 HP. It had a 3 speed crash gearbox with a 'reversed' gate. The basic design goes back to the Edwardian period and was continued up to 1953 in the Jowett Bradford van.

I wonder if its possible to fit Oxford Diecast chassis to Minix bodies. For example the Victor 101 onto the FB Victor chassis. Or at least the wheels.