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Photos on the ECML between Newark and Retford today. Cromwell crossing 254022 up Sept 79 J6646.jpg Carlton on Trent Class 254 up May 79 J6447.jpg Gamston 55007 up June 79 J6519 Gamston 254019 up June 79 J6520.jpg Gamston Class 55 55015 down June 79 J6522 David

Today I shall be shopping, followed by paddling and a bit of shivering. At PN though, it is still a balmy evening, as Cambridge's B2 Framlingham enters with the Colchester- Glasgow. It is a long train this evening, though most of it is still parcels traffic, so the B2 ends up standing well clear of the platform.

Please, please, please Bob, confirm it's not a pair of roller skates! The thought of you loose on a pair in Sutton High Street is too much for my delicate sensibilities to bear.

Our grandson can confirm NJ is snowy.

When I gave my talk to a branch of the 2mm Scale Association on Sunday, I put in the following picture............... It's taken (of course) on Copenhagen Fields (how many other folk enjoy the privilege of being able to plonk their {great big} camera down in such an 'intimate' position?). I consider it to be one of the best model railway pictures I've ever taken - one has to be photographing one of the best layouts of all time to be able to say this!). Yes, of course, the pedants (of which I'm one) will tell you that upper quadrant signals were an LNER feature (not GNR), and the latest (in reality) this picture could have been taken is the early years of the last century. But, doesn't it exude 'atmosphere' (despite one of the 'futuristic' signals being a bit wonky)? Given, then, that the only way that a real-life a photographer could capture such an image would be in B&W, here it is again...................... Which actually I prefer, given that it's much more redolent of the time.

Ladies and Gentlemen.... Honoured guests and followers of this thread I give you 5934 Kneller Hall Though not totally finished as I am still trying to track down the Hornby Hall cylinder and gear spare part, 5934 was seen resting in the bay platform with her new Modelu crew waiting for the Dullcote and coal to thoroughly dry before handling anymore. Though Tony kindly gave me this loco for free as it was destined to go to his version of Barry Island (or whatever they have in the Southern region) I took on the challenge of seeing if I could update it to a background prop. I have spent less than £25 on materials renovating it and only cut my finger once in the process! All in all a fun little project to do.

still not feeling 100% but getting better... Just talked with NHN.. I need an awful lot of points.....so that is the 2020 modelling token pile somewhat diminished! May try some soup for lunch ..... back later baz

George update. He is doing much better and will be monitored for poop output for the next few months. Hopefully this means he won't have to have major surgery after all.

New bed delivered and it's extremely comfortable, so much so that I'm tempted to move to the spare room! Told The Boss and she just laughed and said "Go on then!" Feeling rather unwanted now.

Listen very carefully, I will say this only once and quietly so that I do not get attacked by the awl: It is an SLW sound fitted Class 24 two tone green D5040 which has been on order for over a year.

Breakfast:

Good morning one and all I had a convivial time at the Ace Cafe yesterday. As I expected might be the case, I was humbled by the sheer quality of the photographs that the other guests had brought. My enthusiasm for photography has waned over the years and I must see if it can be kick-started again. Don’t hold your breath. My journeys to and from the Ace were not without interest. I could not help noticing that few of my fellow passengers were not using mobile phones. One lady who sat opposite me for part of the journey up had the most lightning thumbs that I can recall seeing. I proffered a compliment. She smiled and put it down to multi-tasking. From other sources I had concluded that this is endemic in today’s world of work. How glad I am that I was paid to go away from the rat race at the end of March 2006! Later in the journey a most elegant lady sat opposite me. She removed her gloves before she started texting, which activity was interrupted by an incoming call. It would not have been proper for me to ask either of these nice people what I really wanted to know - do they ever turn off their phones? There was something on the radio the other day about increased addiction to mobile phones. Even the normally level-headed Harry is worried about how much he uses his phone. So many users have them clamped constantly to an ear. The worst example I have seen was a good few years ago. On a train at St Albans a woman had a phone at each ear and was braying into them alternately. How sad is that?! I was disappointed by the performance of London Overground yesterday. Seven minutes after it should have left Euston, or Useless as I now call it, the Class 710 which I fondly hoped would take me to Stonebridge Park was emptied and a railway servant pronounced it cancelled. We were directed to a Class 378 at the adjoining platform. That was delayed by nearly 10 minutes because the empty train off which I had been turfed was required to leave before us. I wasn’t impressed. Tonight there is a talk at the LCGB about an obscure piece of railway on the Norfolk/Suffolk border. I hope it is interesting because I have to write a report of it. Best wishes to all Chris

Afternoon all, been absent again for just over a week. This time it was because we were away in Madeira for that time, and like some others here, I don’t advertise significant time away from home due to potential insurance invalidation. It was our second visit to Madeira, the first being over 8 years ago, and the weather was much better this time, with an average day time temperature of around 22 degrees, and with some sun. We did quite a bit of walking and got one minibus tour of the northwest of the island, which was an excellent day out. The only drawback is that a week is just too short! We should have gone for 2 weeks! We are now trying to adjust to the somewhat lower temperatures here in Cumbria, and starting to plan our next trip away for more winter sun.

Morning, Regarding sprouts it seems due to our weather this year there will be less available, good news for some not others! Awaiting delivery of my new car this morning which was a sort of internet buy, after test driving various makes and models I decided on a certain make and model, colour had to be discussed with other half then used a couple of car tender sites and waited for replies. Offers came in from several dealers and I chose one spoke to the dealership and now its coming some 211 miles from Poole in Dorset the dealer offered me a great deal which was not matched by our local dealer! Apparently it will arrive nice and clean..........its coming in the back of a furniture van! Enjoy your day Alan

The only vegetables that do not benefit from undercooking are Root vegetables (with the exception of carrots which I love to eat raw). All this talk of food reminds me that the Obergrumpenfuhrer and I are off to Oswestry today, for the Borders MRC Christmas Luncheon.

A couple of modern 'shorts'...the first by me at Derby on Saturday, showing EMR 43465 and 43480 sandwiching a single MK3 catering vehicle. Who says you need a full 5+ trailer HST rake? It returned from Neville Hill later in the day with just 1 PC and the trailer... And another from Flickr (click on either to link) but not by me...someone bought a new Bachmann 90 (good repaint though) and a single Hornby KFA... Jack.

Only if they want it to go down on its maiden...... voyage.

Well, what can I say....what a fantastic, very short trip to the UK this year, met so many people, people I have known on RMWEB, some eager to meet me and some people I have been longing to meet. It was such a fantastic time, I owe it all to Tony, for putting me up for the two weeks, introducing me to so many people, helping me out with a bit of modelling and all in all being such a great mate, thank you, thanks to Mo as well of course. Warley bankrupted me as usual, but I am proud to say that I didn't buy one thing RTR, I went for stuff I couldn't get back home, such as kits, I walked away with a Nucast J6, a Macgowen B4 and C4 and an already built B16, which needed a new motor/gearbox and wheels to be compatible for DCC, which Tony kindly fitted for me. Along with some other bits and pieces from Warley, like some old wagon kits, I also got my self scanned for a 3D printed model of myself, kindly painted by Paul, first rounds on me next time I'm over!!!! I also was invited to have dinner with Tony, Mo and the Grantham crew, it was nice to catch up with them all since last August, I think I missed the memo of bringing a wife though..... Thank you to all of you for making me feel like part of the crew. Due to it being such a short trip this year my friends from up North Dave and Christine traveled down to Little Bytham to visit me and to also visit the model of LB, we all had a lovely dinner at the Willoughby arms pub, I may or may not have stayed out late with them..... It was also good to see Geoff West again, we were like naughty school children on the far side getting a stern talking to by Sir, all good fun, mates running trains. I also visited Geoff Haynes to get my A2 a light weathering and the department train a quick matte finish, here he is in full flight, many thanks to Geoff for this, cant wait to read his new book on painting. and what a way to arrive in London Kings Cross before flying out last Thursday.... Well back home now and still getting over the jet lag, been cleaning the train room and the layout ready for some work, still halfway through but got busy this morning with the K2 conversion that i picked up from Graeme King, many thanks to Jaime for helping me with this, still not finished, but she runs, which is always a plus. Also have the triplet set on the tracks, I bought this of Barry Oliver in BR maroon, Jonathan Wealleans kindly painted it into teak for me, he's not that bad at painting coaches for a wagon builder........... oh and the B16? Here she is, doing what a B16 does best. All in all, thank you to everyone who has helped, looks after me in some shape or form, you all know who you are. Its such a pleasure and honor to call you all my friends, thank you. See you all in Easter 2021.

This post marks the start of what I expect to be a slow and challenging adventure into modelling the Railways of New Zealand. It's amazing how many options I have for the other facet of my modelling, Late 1940's Southern Railway, compared to what is available for NZR . Virtually nothing (read; Nothing) is available RTR, and as far as locomotives go, there are only a few kits on the market at the moment, with some only now being re-introduced after a hiatus. There are however a few rolling stock kit suppliers, so you aren't confined solely to the world of scratch-building. After having a chat with the owner of one of these suppliers, I decided this would be where I would dip my my proverbial modelling toe. I'm not quite sure why, but there's something charming about fat little trains running on narrow bogies and rails. In case you didn't know, prototypical NZR is 3'6" gauge, and is regarded as being 'narrow gauge'. I duly ordered a NZR 50ft Steel Panelled Day-Car (Coach). The kits comes with everything you need, sans paint (and tools, glue etc). Wheels, bogies, couplings, handrails, the whole shebang. Here's the work of a few hours efforts: The kit is a bit of a mixed media affair, although mostly comprised of whitemetal and resin. The Resin components are actually very nice to work with, they are flexible, and sand easily - closer to ABS than to resins i've used before. Here's the underframe. The trussing was all soldered together and then glued to the floor. I did fix the battery boxes on upside down and get the fuseboard in slightly the wrong place, but this has since been corrected. The same approach is taken with the vestibule ends, you solder them all together and then glue them to the carriage end. This means the resulting assembly (sans roof, interior and bogies) is already pretty weighty. There is still a bit to go, the ends need to be fitted to the roof and then filed to profile. But first it needs some plasticard glued in, as its not quite long enough. Of course, now I need something to pull my, err.. single coach. What better than the re-released NZR Ab? The Ab was a 4-6-2, 2 cylinder workhorse. Of which 141 were built between 1915 and 1927, making them the largest (numerical) class of steam locomotive to run in New Zealand. They could be seen everywhere up and down the country, from mainline passenger work to branchline freight. Again, the kit on offer, while not exactly 'cheap' (£300 at the time of publishing), Comes with everything you need, including motor, gearbox and wheels. So you pays your money, and you gets your kit: The whitemetal parts are crisply moulded, with no defects and almost no flash. The N/S etches are fantastic, and a wooden dowel is supplied to roll the boiler, and water tank on the tender. There is also a small etched Jig supplied which helps you quarter the wheels. I've not had much to do with brass castings before, and have just purchased a jewellers saw to help me remove the parts from the sprue. The gearbox is a rather simple arrangement, and i decided to tackle this first. The worm is already pressed onto the gear axle. you just need to fit 2 small washers and the bearing cups This then slots into one side of the gearbox frame, and the first pinion(?) wheel simply slots in below. You then screw the two sides of the frame together. Fit the gear wheel to the axle, drop it into the slot and screw the bottom of the gearbox on. It then connects to the motor via some very tight rubber sleeve. I hope to have a few more updates, but I imagine they will be sporadic, as this is a subset of my more prevalent railway related hobby. Finally here's a photo that was published in a copy of 'Womens day' of Paekakriki depot in the late 1950's. This is just up the coast for me, and the sheds are now one of the main preservation centers in the country. They've even (present day) got a Garratt outside, waiting for overhaul! Thanks to all those who have stuck through to the end.

At least its not Yellow Snow Tony! Good (still, just) morning, It has been somewhat busy in the NEHerts zone here today, daughter and mutt arrived for a flying visit lasting one hour, neighbour for another flying visit that commenced as daughter exited the front door and lasted another 45mins, took SWMBO into Hitchin to have her tallons toenails cured, returned home to a visit from our local council waste management team's mobile inspector checking on her flock of recalcitrant operatives and finally a chance to make a contribution here after catching up on all events in the world of wheel tapping and good humour. A period of retail excitement being dragged around Waitrose may be scheduled for later, as is meeting our fresh fish man, then a trip to ferry grandsons to golf lessons, fresh fish for tea and finally cribbage - I don't know how I manage it all. Best to those afflicted or affected by the actions of others, wishing you a speedy end to those tribulations.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Interesting fact about the Ace cafe, it was flattened during the blitz and completely rebuilt after the war. Living on my own I can pick and choose the veg for Christmas dinner and sprouts are not on the menu. Not because I don't like them but cooking for one means that such small quantities are required so cooking requirements have to be taken into account. On facebook someone posted the sign for a pub called 'The Duke of York' featuring a portrait of the current D-o-Y. On the bottom of the sign was written 'Under 18's welcome.' This talk of people engrossed in their mobiles reminded me that there's a film or two on Youtube of those so engrossed coliding with lamposts and walking into fountains. I normally carry an extra door key in the ticket pocket of my jeans. Last week it went missing and I had another cut, needless to say the original turned up, in another pocket of a pair of jeans.

What's with all the negative vibes here about sprouts? They should be caressed briefly in boiling water so they are still crunchy and then savoured for the delightful tasty truly wonderful morsels that they are!

Ey up! Woke early not feeling particularly well. Hopefully I will improve to allow me to take a trip to Skipton today. Why? Wel me ans her indoors fancy a trip out and ...we are on the search for a bottle of Old Monk Indian Rum. Apparently the whisky shop in Skipton has bottles available. Now for a bit more sleep.... Baz

From snowy NJ. We had to book an extra day as the roads were not recommended. At the moment, tomorrow should be passible. We went out for coffee and papers this morning and came back to spend the day inside -- packing and sorting.

Evening. Bit of a difficult day, I'm in the doghouse because I have lost my wedding ring, my full time assistant is off sick, phone going mad etc etc, but one call was from Baz so that one at least was OK! One of those days when many callers wanted to chat about, well very little indeed, but not buy anything, and we were rushed off our feet and really didn't have the time.....but you have to make the time of course, as they may well become good customers, if only they could decide what they actually wanted..... Baz by the way, did know what he wanted!

Have returned from a visit to Sainsbury's where I picked up quote a lot of near expiry meat which now inhabits the freezer in John meal sized portions. However some bags are labelled "Kerry's pork chops". Yes, she is spoilt.

greetings all from a sunny and bright LBG - it's one of those lovely days where the sun brings just a little warmth. Pity I will be spending the vast majority of it behind a desk. My evening out tonight is in jeopardy because at least one putative attendee is a victim of SWT strikes. Other than that, not too much to report. I have a day off tomorrow, during which we will brave the hordes at Bluewater for a bit of Christmas shopping and a spot of lunch. Best wishes to those who are ailing.

Brilliant! Just had an email telling me that a certain 8 wheeled item has now been despatched.

Moaning all from the boring borough. A flying hello before I take George to the vet again for a check up. He has started to poop a bit so that is good news. Trouble is the drug that seems to be helping is hard to get and we'll need about 60ml / month for the foreseeable future. That means bulk purchases. That is a major dent in the modelling token department but well worth it. Boats & ships. No thanks. As mentioned may moons ago. I prefer to be several thousand feet above sea level. Any boat needs to be able to be carried, and any body of water narrow enough for me to swim or wade to shore. Sprouts: not my favourite but SWMBO loves them. Got a new recipe from the BBQ roadshow last Saturday. Par boil, smash on the griddle with bacon. Basically mushed bacon cabbage. Previously I've pan fried the sprouts with pancetta. Similar. Still coughing up my lungs. Off to the vet. Enjoy the day.

Greetings from a village east of Tong and west of Dean Woods. Breakfast gas been eaten and the car is packed. The vital task was to stop the 20 bottles of beer rattling in their crate. I would not want them to be damaged. Brainwave then took over. They are now carefully wrapped in the unwashed socks that would otherwise be in the suitcase. It looks quite funny but stops the rattling. I will be off shortly heading first of all towards a certain daughter and granddaughter. Then lunch with some old friends before ending up in Lincoln with Martin Katie and young Ryan. The curry last night was excellent with no adverse results. There's no need to play a certain Johnny Cash song. Jamie

I have seen a woman get off at London bridge in the peak hour crush holding her laptop and walk along whilst watching video on it. There was a report a few years ago that said 150 people a year have fallen off platforms whilst looking at their mobile. I suspect that has risen in number these days. Morning form another cold but sunny day. The forecast freezing fog never materialised luckily so dropped my other half off at the station then straight to Mums. Her train was cancelled this morning as was last nights one home for her. Yesterday her morning one ran but the ones either side didn't so it was wedged as was the later train today. yesterday loads of GW Worms cancelled whilst I was out photographing freight. Whilst at Earlswood station tow in a row were cancelled heading back to Redhill so no service for 1.5 hours and different excuses all the time from signal failure to staff shortage and train shortage due to more trains requiring maintenance than usual. Luckily there is a reasonable pub neat the station. Glad that I no longer commute. Later today i will be back in the shed working on 'Blackmoor Gate' station building. It is really just 'Blackmoor' back when the L & B was open but 'Blackmoor Gate' is what I am calling the layout at present. Still to decide if I drop the 'Gate' bit..

By the time my mother has finished cooking hers, (On since last Easter.) they are no longer in solid form, and make a quite refreshing soup de jour.

I Think Nelson had trouble with women on board. Mooring Awl Inner Temple Hare, 6.5 hours sleep but the first hour was a bit on off as brain wouldn't shut up about the finer points of toolbox building.. As it was, I've decided to do the corners with quadrant moldings, I think it will be neater. and instead of having 2 foot wide drawers I'll have 2, 1ft wide -ish as it will reduce the chance of saggy bottoms. Ben the I'm scared of the Dark Collie didn't want out this morning, which was just as well as it regained an extra 10 minutes , I'd thought 5 minutes I'll have to get up... 20 minutes later... A touch frosty this morning, but not the windscreens, I suspect by the time dawn arrrived the screens would have been frosted.. it should get warmer.. someone of orange appearance has arrived and is bound to produce lots of hot air.. Very shortly I need to produce my list of work for my favourite landrover garage, this family run business, Dad, and 2 sons, only work on landrovers , and specialise in the real ones Series 1, 2, 3, 110, 90 and Defenders plus the Range rovers and Discos of the same build type. I've got tomorrow off, so will be dropping off the 110 on the way for SWMBO to spend lots of money in Norwich, I hopefully will pick up an MRJ.. I think I'll have go back to mail order for it's getting harder to get hold of..... The Major system, failed yesterday, needing it's three output relays changing, that done I had to start again, So i had to restart the Calibration once I'd done that, so only one hours productive work was accumulated. That does mean I have 3 more 5 V relays capable of switcing 10A and 100V sitting in my Pocket. A failure of 1ppm will not be noticed on a muddle railway. Right the major system has been working away on it's automatic runs, and are about to finish. So.. Time to manually measure dc Amps and Ohms..

Good morning all, Dry but chilly and there may be some sunshine. Sort of still going Robert and by the look of it thriving. https://london.acecafe.com/meets/ Reading the history it seems to have closed but then re-opened many years later. Tuesday means Joe and Gemma will be visiting which always lifts my mood. Still feeling very weary but continuing to take it easy as directed. A brief shopping trip required so we can feed the kids later and then we have to wait in for a new (spare) bed to be delivered. Have a good one, Bob.

If you mean flying as many as 180 or so people per travelling team for each game every Sunday for about 20 weeks (including locations like London and Mexico City in addition to about 30 cities in the US) then no, I doubt it. It's not entirely off their radar. Google found a number of articles about carbon-neutral SuperBowl events but I've never seen or heard any discussion of a general plan.

Evening all. Hope you are all well.... An eventful few days. We managed a draw over at Sandford Springs and yesterday beat The Downshire to strengthen our position in the M4 Winter League. With just two clubs to go through to the knock out stages, we're in good shape with just three games to go, two of which are at home. Sadly I've said that before and we've finished 3rd in the group stages in the last two years, so this could be our year.... Just got to the 18th green yesterday when I saw a familiar face smiling at me. My dear lady wife had somehow got the key jammed in the front door lock and couldn't get in nor get her key out. No idea how it had happened, but I had to shoot home, climb over the fence and then go in via the back door, setting off all the alarms in the process. One thing I did realise is that I'm not as young as I used to be and climbing over a 6' fence was not as easy as I thought it would be, let alone the jump down the other side... "I can fix that", I said, so once home trawled through the web to find out how to dismantle a Euro lock and get the key out. Eventually I had to admit defeat and called out a locksmith this morning. A very professional guy, who for a reasonable sum, broke the lock and fitted a new one, so all is secure once again. Of course none of that is anything to do with ET, so here's the latest update. Still amazes me how you can stick loads of bits of paper together and 15-20' away they all still line up like magic. As expected I had to scrap two or three simple boards, but rescued the turnouts before they went off to the tip. Sorry it's mostly paper modelling, but the three dimensional layout is starting to take shape. Loads to do yet with a few turnouts to build and track beds to cut, but now I know it all lines up OK, I'm quite tempted to build the over bridge to the shed as a module with the four main lines underneath and add biscuit wafers so they can be aligned and attached to approach boards. Routing a slot in the end of 12mm ply and gluing in a biscuit is a very simple way of joining two track beds together and still get a flat surface. Here's a couple of pics... Had to clamber into the corner to get this view from the approach into ET. The up and down gradients are both 1:65, so steeper than I really want, but a compromise I'm happy to accept. The actual gradient is only 5m long and trains will be limited to seven coaches or the equivalent number of wagons as that will be governed by the length of the traverser bed. The finished boards will be open plan, these are just a few sheets of mdf and ply that were kicking around to allow me to lay out the paper prints. 17.22pm. Must be time for a beer. A bottle of King Goblin has just appeared. 6.6% by volume. I'll probably be asleep by 20.00.....

I just wanted to keep everyone updated. Due to large volume of orders including many new Bachmann and Hornby arrivals plus the dreaded staff sickness which has been making its rounds (Thanks to the winter bug!), we currently have a slight backlog of orders waiting to be despatched. We are working as hard as we can to get back on top of this and hope to have this resolved in the next couple of days. The remaining van orders are being processed and will be despatched today (subject to any payment issues). I apologise once again for the delay in getting these out to our customers but please believe me when I say we are doing all we can! Many thanks Oliver

Two vans doing nothing.

Although they possibly have their good points, I think that so-called 'smart' phones are beginning to be a curse. A few weeks ago SWMBO and I were in a restaurant and two couples at the next table spent the whole evening on their phones, hardly saying a word to each other. I was recently on a train where as far as I could tell I was the only person in the carriage not engrossed in one and whilst waiting outside a shop in Shrewsbury for SWMBO to emerge the other day I saw two pedestrian collisions involving mobile phone users. I suppose that there are some advantages in having one but I'm content just to have an old one that does nothing else but make phone calls when I need to - no camera or apps or anything. Dinosaurs rule OK! And I love sprouts. Apparently there is a substance in them that only something like 30% of people can taste but if you can, that taste is quite unpleasant so obviously I'm not one of those affected. No more leaf gathering for the moment but the willow in the front is still hanging on to some of its own so doubtless I'm not finished yet this year. Dead leaves, darkness, damp and the prospect of no improvement for months are among the reasons that I hate autumn; at least during winter there is the prospect of spring just around the corner. The three throw turnout building is finished - yippeeeee. Now just some yards of plain tr*ck to go before wiring, point control etc. take over. Have a a good day everybody. Dave

If they build another one will it be called The Duke of York?

Morning All, We have a chilly (3°C) and damp morning today. Seeing Chris mention the Ace Cafe brings back memories of the time I lived in North London. I am surprised that the place is still going! I used to drive past it often. It just goes to prove that however much things change, some things always stay the same! Have a good day everyone...

Nah - that's the old one Yes, my pic. of today is the new one and I don't think it has got much further than Portsmouth so far but judging by the smoke effects this morning either the engines work or the ship has some very good smoke units to make it look as if they work (it didn't move off its berth). Apparently she is due to be commissioned next week. And a nice touch to see RO9 reused in the RN.

WOT DID YOU SAY IT WAS Bob?

To each their own. My late father always referred to them as f@rtballs but professed to enjoying them nonetheless. I'm ok with them as is SWMBO but we became more ok after a visit to the Richmond Hill Cafe in Melbourne (as distinct from the unrelated establishment of the same name SW of London) originally set up by Stephanie Alexander. There we encountered sprouts halved top to bottom, the outer leaves stripped but reserved, the veg par-boiled until just yielding to the fork then seared in olive oil with kaffir lime leaves and breadcrumbs. The result was served garnished with the outer leaves (which had stayed a darker shade of green) and were crispy and delicious. I have re-created the same at home at it also works well with a few lardons or chunks of bacon tossed in at the frying stage. Sadly the Richmond Hill Cafe is no longer with us. After changing hands many times but largely retaining its original Alexander recipes they closed without warning earlier this year having been unable to pay the bills. No sprouts are scheduled here for the time being. Instead it is time to erect festive illuminations and to enjoy the delights of a delivered meal of some sort (sort yet to be decided) as SWMBO is out at a function and I am off-leash for the evening. I'll see you later. Provided I don't electrocute myself putting up the battery-powered lights!!!

I think the chap who pulled out of his drive yesterday and attempted to occupy the same bit of space-time as me certainly wasn’t using a phone. He didn’t seem to be able to move his head left or right and just stared ahead. I think his passenger may have been giving instructions. Unlike “real” Land Rovers the modern ones have very good brakes.

Looks like my days of Bratty mit pommes frites und chip sauce are over! Too much oil/grease unfortunately. Pah!! As it happens I went to a family wedding in Portsmouth. The reception was at HMS Nelson. On the wall is a painting of Nelson. The wall at the other end is adorned by a portrait of his lady "friend". On mess nights they cover the lady up to make sure she doesnt't get sight of the goings on.... Baz

There's nothing quite so comforting as a warm helmet............ I wonder if the NFL has a carbon footprint reduction policy?

Evening all. I’ve just put the sprouts on ready for Christmas lunch. I know some here will have had theirs going since October but don’t leave yours too late.

Sea Eagle is at the head of the first sleeping car express of the evening, so our man recorded the formation, though I think he may have done it before. Still no time for philosophising.