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Afternoon all. Our girl cat has bone cancer . She had some teeth removed a few weeks ago and they took samples then. It'll be weeks rather than months as although she isn't in any pain (that we can see), she'll find it too difficult to eat. She's my wife and I first cat and what a cat! She's so good and is more intelligent than other cats I see. For example, she knows when you're upset so will come and try and comfort you. Tried and tested many a time over the 12 years of her life. I've also realised it's the first time I've had to deal with a lot of grief in my life. Only lost an uncle and grandparents - all of which lived a good few hours away from me, I saw them once every 2 or 3 years, sometimes more, plus I was younger so pretty "detached". I know some may think "it's only a pet" but they really do become part of the family. It'll be a great loss to us but she's had a brilliant life.

Anyone else just seeing links not pics above (tick agree if so, save cluttering up the thread)

Greetings and Welcome to Woden's Day. In the Department of Good News we have:- 1. Former Neighbour (Upstairs) has her Covidity test result and it's a dose of the flu without any hint of the Nastyvirus. She remains in bed recovering. 2. I am upright and breathing despite the cat's attempt to prevent both during the early hours. 3. The site is back (again) 4. I am advised that I am among the final ten candidates for a national customer service award; that qualifies me for a modest cheque and if I progress further the value of that cheque gets larger. 5. The flue shot is booked for tomorrow 6. SWMBO is having a better day so far. Just waiting for Boris to Burst the Bubble ........

Today's photos feature some of the remains of the lines built by the North British railway in Northumberland. Some of you will know the locations, others may need to use a map or Goole earth to work out where the photos were taken - most of them are not really near villages, let alone towns. The first three are on the branch from Scotsgap to Rothbury. The last two are taken near the Scotish Border on the line past Reedsmouth to Riccarton. Longwitton April 81 C5350.jpg The station is actually at Rothley, near Rothley lake. B6342 bridge near Rothley cross roads DSC_1084.jpg Brinkburn station NBR Rothbury branch May 81 J7397.jpg Kielder viaduct NBR April 81 J7344.jpg Deadwater station 25th Oct 89 C13805.jpg David

Good Afternoon everyone It's raining again, what a surprise! I had my phone consultation earlier this morning, the good news is that they didn't find any cancers in the scans I've recently had done, a huge relief for all the family. However, my PSA has gone up again, so I'm to go back on hormone treatment, The Christie will write to them and all I do is wait for a call from said GP, it will then start as soon as my GP organises it. Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. Brian

Greetings one and all There is news of the C*****mas and New Year trip to Switzerland - which is that the go/no go decision will be taken in late October. It is good that there is hope of the tour running but there is no sign from where I am sitting of any mass removal of quarantine restrictions, or indeed of that ruddy virus. The stay of execution at least gives me time to learn how to use the banking app on my mobile phone to move the money across to the current account in the event of the Ffestiniog Travel invoice arriving. There were two bits of good news yesterday. One is that I found not only the missing craft knife but another identical one about which I had completely forgotten. Perhaps it is time to get a new and larger tool box. The other concerns something that I have not yet shared with gentle readers. On Monday of last week I was the victim of a crime near the bus station in Bedford. The whole silly business was caught on CCTV. The operator summoned the law and came to the bus station to brief the police. Later a constable visited me at home and took a statement. Yesterday afternoon she phoned to let me know that the perpetrator has been apprehended. It remains to be seen whether I will get my day in court. Thank you for watching, Big Brother. Tonight will see another HMRS meeting via Zoom. Those who manage the church hall where we meet in more normal times are still dithering about resuming hiring. I had been looking forward to the resumption of RCTS meetings in Hitchin next month but it seems that the latest 'think of a number' exercise by those who rule us has scuppered that. Best wishes to all and belated birthday greetings to the ladies concerned Chris

This is my third attempt to get on here today, with the software update seemingly preventing me earlier. Wet and windy here today, but the worst seems to have passed over and I can just about see Fraggle Rock from the living room window. A very brief visit paid to the club rooms yesterday to read electricity and water meters. In so doing, we decided to go slightly further afield for a walk, and went up Dent, which is a relatively small hill just outside Egremont, but with great views. It was nice and sunny when we set off, but the clouds rolled in during the walk, so we were a bit chilly after a couple of hours walking. The picture below shows the view from the top of Dent. Scafell Pike is visible a third of the way from the right hand side, in the distance.

I have just realized that yesterday (Sept 28) would have been my father's 100th birthday. He died two months before his 89th birthday.

We have a device to check the freezer. Half fill a plastic water bottle then freeze it standing upright. Put it in the freezer on its side. If you find the water has refrozen itself into the new position, chuck out everything. We haven't had to do it yet.

Good evening everyone Everything went very well at ‘The Christie’ this morning. I turned up to find there was no queue to enter, my name WAS on the appointments list and I was seen on time, 8:30. In fact I was on my way home by 8:40, the NHS working at its best. I now await a phone call tomorrow morning from one of the team members giving me the results of all the various tests I’ve had over the last 6 weeks. Once home I made myself muggertea No2 and had a quick read before heading off to the workshop. Some more re-organising has been done. I’ve fitted a shelf above the window where the remote link for the WiFi now sits, as the shelf it was on before I think was a little too far as it kept dropping the link. Below the shelf I’ve fitted a long pole, on to which I’ve put a dozen different coloured roles of cable. These were previously stored in a cupboard and as is the norm, which ever one I wanted it was always at the back. But now I can access them much easier. The cupboard now stores all my paint, which is in a large box with multiple drawers in. Like a few others, I have caller display on my land line, if a call comes through for an unknown number, I don’t answer. If it’s important they’ll leave a message, if they don’t leave a message, I don’t call back. I generally answer my mobile as most hospitals and GP surgery’s go through a switch board, so show as an unknown number. But if it’s a crank or suspect call, I just cut them off! Birthday greetings to Mrs GDB. Goodnight all.

Emerging from the gloom, and seen from the bridge, the headboard seems to have righted itself a little, but I really have no idea what happened to the lamps.

The road is known for flooding at that point, the drivers can see the cars in front have proceeded through safely, but going down to an absolute crawl is ridiculous.. The tide has gone down and now all that's left is a big puddle, however with the forecast weather the water level may rise again.. Mooring awl Inner Temple Hare, 795 /497 4.5 hours plus some intermittent dozing, not enough sleep. Not helped while the TV was on, most channels were two ancient persons having some sort of argument, one I think should be sent to a home for the mentally deranged, the other sent home to play with his trains in gentle retirement.. Heavy rain on the way home last night, and to avoid the chaos cause by the afore mentioned 4 inches of water I took a country lane trip home, I was in the landrover as much of the roads had very large puddles, wreakage of fallen trees on the verges where there were verges quite often it was hedges.. and under the Sheringham line there was a dip in the road where the water was about a foot deep, not unexpected, I wouldn't have gone that way in the car... Tonight said Land rover is off to the garage for it's annual service and MOT, I just hope I don't need it in the mean time.. I've brought the MOT forward as having it done in December was not a good idea, since one of it's purposes is to keep us mobile in bad weather, I've twice had to take to the fields to get home.. Today is also My online interview with the big manager from the USA, I've no Idea what he wants but he probably won't get the answers he will like.. 497 days to retirement I can afford to be truthful.... Time I went and did some work, this weeks major system was on cross check overnight...

Good moaning. It's starting to get light here. The fact that we are tied to Berlin time for purely political reasons is something that we have to put up with. Commiserations to Dave. The mention of Telford and hospitals does not surprise me. I got more winterisation work done yesterday and indexed some more photos. Order is starting to appear from chaos. In the evening I actually spent time in the shed with a file in my hand working on something I can't mention. Today the grass needs to be cut but first the winter cover must go on the pool. Apparently we start 6 days of rain tomorrow. If all goes well I might even get some more shed time. Regards to all. Jamie

Good evening. As Baz has noted, I haven't posted on ERs for a while, mainly due to a few issues that I don't really want to go into except for events of the last two days that have made me very angry. I was due for a colonoscopy yesterday following my perforated bowel that started five weeks ago so on Sunday I took the purgative preparation, didn't eat after midday, etc. Yesterday I arrived at Telford hospital at 0845 as requested and was a bit taken aback when the nurse doing the preliminaries asked why I was having the procedure as they didn't have that information. I told her that the colorectal consultant who had dealt with me when I was in Shrewsbury hospital had requested it. More surprise followed when she asked when I had been in hospital but we carried on and eventually she told me to change into the gown provided and said that someone would be along shortly to collect me. One and a half hours later (!) another nurse appeared and told me that she was sorry but they couldn’t do the procedure as it had to be more than six weeks after being discharged from hospital following a bowel disorder and I had only been discharged four weeks ago. As I sat there dumbfounded she said that she was sorry and realised that it was ‘a bit inconvenient’ for me. I asked why no-one had thought to look at my notes and realise that the procedure couldn’t be carried out and she said, “Oh, we haven’t received your notes, just the fact that you were booked in today. Would you like a cup of tea and a biscuit?” Disbelief probably describes my reaction. Before taking any action such as writing to the CEO of the Trust I am waiting for a while to see whether anyone contacts me about this debacle. No wonder that the Telford and Shrewsbury NHS Trust is under special measures! Well and truly p!ssed off probably sums things up. Jill was very supportive and let me have the rest of the day off so I spent a few hours in the workshop. This morning, however, it was announced in daily orders that it was a housework day and that I was involved. Again, though, there was a silver lining and more workshop time resulted. Then this evening we had chicken and chips, which was yummy. Have a peaceful night everyone. Dave

Issue 280 has arrived here in Bath and is available for sale at https://www.titfield.co.uk/Wild-Swan/MRJ-Journal.htm This is my brief review of the contents, it's another good one I think. Edited by Martin Nield who muses slightly eyore-ishly on the usual subject for this year but thankfully also gives us a happy mix of articles. An inspiring account of how Peter Kazer built Talyllyn No 4 in 1/32 scale, Simon Fountain on the O gauge locomotives he has built for "Blackberry Lane Shed", John Thompson builds magnificent NER signals for "Port Solway", the editor reflects on his completed L&YR P4 "Eccleston" layout, Ralph Robertson builds Alpha Mill for "Slattocks Junction", while Stephen Williams adds an advertising hoarding to "Faringdon". This article features one of the nicest colour pictures of the steam era railway that I have ever seen, taken on the Severn Valley line at Bridgnorth - just lovely. A decent letters page contains a wonderfully indignant letter from one John Bennet in Towcester which had me re-reading Tim Watson's piece from last month while small suppliers forum has a fab picture of auto trailer enhancements. Dave Rowe marks the sad passing of Shirley with a beautifully written celebration of their life together. Moving, uplifting, funny and absolutely full of interest to anyone who has been in this hobby for more than five minutes, it brought to my mind the letter Dave wrote to Railway Modeller following the publication of some rather fulsome obituaries to the once ubiquitous Cyril Freezer. It was candid, insightful, down to earth and bloody funny but also kind to the memory of a man who had spread a lot of joy amongst us all in one way and another. RIP Shirley, you are much missed by many.

The Flying Scotsman appears, apparently heading through a hurricane, headboard askew, lamps all over the place, and a fogman's hut blown over too.

Supply and demand. Around here the closure of 2 scrappies has led to a massive drop in the number of metal fairies. I put out some metal from the bbq after replacing the ancient cast grills and steel deflectors. Normally that would vanish in hours. Took 3 weeks for the fairies to visit. Once upon a time the boiler tech put the old one outside the front door while he went to get his van to load it. It vanished in those 5 minutes. I've mentioned before that during the renovations the builder put one of the old radiators outside. A nice older lady knocked and asked for it. Her massive offspring came up and hauled it away. After that we kept the other 6 aside for her. When the house next door was repossessed about 9 years ago, the estate agent left a window open to make the place breathable. (3 heavy chain smokers and no redecorating for at least 30 years. The place stank) On that one night with the window open, someone managed to get in, disconnect the boiler, and make off with 3 of the radiators. Morning all from the boring borough. Cool and damp today. The weather guessers have the same predicted for the next 10 days. Joy unbound. Little else of note, so I'll just say, enjoy the day.

Ey up! An excellent meal was had last night. Local lockdown restrictions were followed! (As they are as clear as mud it is difficult to make any sense of them). Police incident (car accident with a car minus both doors on one side missing being winched onto a transporter). @Dave Hunt.. I can understand your concerns. Why should they check your notes? The Key Performance Indicators will probably include speed of response to a service requirement.... If I end up talking to a real person on a cold call I switch into Russian.. that gets them concerned... A day of housework followed by some muddling beckons as it predicted to be rainy here today. British Gas engineer fixed the fault.. a stuck valve.. i now know which one to g give a sharp tap with a spanner iin the future! Have a great day folls and I hope your telephone discussions with the Christie go well @BSW01 Baz

Can't fix that; most things do.

Morning all. Not a lot happening here. Have a good day. Tony

Backing up and around Cow still eating the roof!

I had a call this morning from area code 614 so I answered, I was asked if this were Dave and I responded very politely "Who is calling please?". There was no response and a I asked again with no response so I hung up. A little earlier this evening I looked the number up on Duck Duck Go (my default search engine) and found out that it is assigned to a trucking company in Columbus, Ohio! Who knows, I may just call them back tomorrow.

G'Day Folks Just sent a E-Mail to the owners of 'Tornado' asking them to bung a bit of plastic card under the cab to lift it up a bit. terry (aka manna)

Hello all, and thanks Drmditch. Today, I confess, is not a good day, but generally I'm managing to stay on the level. I am genuinely confused, though, about what I can and cannot do here in the "Protected Area" of the NE and have more or less given up trying to work it out. I think I can still go to the pub, so long as I don't sit next to myself. Once again, glum for all those badly affected by it in whatever way. The Covid crisis doesn't affect the way I work, but it's killing the economy and that is losing me business, which is a worry. I haven't done any modelling, I'm afraid, just reading. Re-reading Tolkien at the moment, which, like Wagner, is basically all about death. The older I got, at each re-reading, the Lord of the Rings became darker. I'd left off it for a while, but picked it up again recently and am happy that I can now see plenty of the light as well as the shade. Anyway, I am also boning up on the Border Reivers. I am fascinated by the subject, having been up to the Wall recently for my first Covid-era tourist jolly, and picked up an intriguing and very readable book by Graham Robb on the Debatable Land. So, also I'm now tucking into the classic George MacDonald Fraser (he of Flashman) treatment of the subject, The Steel Bonnets. In a near total flight from reality, I am now almost entirely divorced from what, in Tolkien terms, we might think of as the 'primary world', preferring to walking in other realms. Occasionally, however, I am reminded of the wider world, usually, I'm happy to say, when it sends me something nice. It raised my spirits today by sending me this ....

Good Morning all, We're back but running a bit lumpy at present, some stuff is taking ages to load so I should probably say G'day as well as Good Morning. Little to report apart from Charlie cat managing to partially dismantle the exhaust hose from one of the drying out machines. herself will be visiting her follicle rearranger localy later today so she will also conduct a Waitrose raid and i will be called out to taxi her home. Rain later - lots of rain according to the Exeter seaweed. Have a good day folks and stay safe

Just easing in to connect Now to push back a bit to help those patient passengers to get on......

Two more high level views with little or nothing going on. Looking south..... and then to the north.

A peeping Peckett.

Hi, This might be of interest to some, showing the station without the roof in place. Peter A L

Still no modelling started yet, still playing! A gap between the cargowaggons allows a shot of 08802 whilst shunting Dallam freight terminal

The Southern Pacific Railroad radically sorted out their cab / tender issues. Hard work for the fireman though carrying buckets of coal along the footplate !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They did have some handsome steam locos though, didn't dare to get the levels out between cab and tender with this paint scheme. Brit15

Not to mention missing or misplaced drain or manhole covers...... The local Gip, sorry, Metal Recycling Operatives once cleared a mile-long stretch of dual carriageway of drain covers near me. Personally I'm amazed that some countries in Europe (Italy springs to mind) manage to hang onto guttering and downpipes, seemingly without issue - they appear to be made from copper.

If I get a call from a number I don't recognise, I pick up but don't say anything. Usually, after a moment the line goes dead. If it is a real person, they will speak. Every time this happens, I check the number online, and it always turns out to be a known dodgy number. Adrian

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Indeed, my mind is truly boggled Dave. Another case of left hand/right hand. When making tea I was always led to understand that after warming the pot and adding the tea that you had to bring the water to the boil again and pour it as it was still boiling. Now its been suggested that the water only has to be at 80 degrees for making tea. What a load of baloney, the result would be very weak tea that takes ages to brew. I've just brewed a pot of tea, with boiling water so its be back later.

HUMP day! Feel I need a mental health day after being stupid enough to watch a debate brawl on TV last night, no more can/to be said! Quiet other than that yesterday, though I did venture to the local B&Q equivalent to suss out the required components to add an exterior outlet on the house, to THEN run power to the new shed Nothing too exciting expected to day either. 8, sunny and breezy o' crack-sparrow, will reach 16 with rain expected later (57% according to the twirlers). Enjoy the day.

Three dots top right!

#tap tap 1, 2, 3 are we on yet?# new pages loading r e a l l y slowly here. A'noon, as Simon reports the torrents have abated and the currant bun is out, but more wet preguessed for later. Went to see my friend/ex-employee with the new hip, he's doing great after only 2 weeks, really looking so much better now he's mostly out of pain, just 'discomfort'. Walking with one crutch only already, he hasn't started physio yet. He's a retired theatre nurse (as in operating, not stage) so isn't a particularly good patient, but he is behaving! I had to go into the big city on my way back, but I survived, one spark plug acquired for aged motorcycle.

Yup; on it - well I would be if I can find out how I fixed it last time.

Still need to 'forget my password' to get on but 'content I follow' in terms of ER has multiple references. Last time round many of my followed topics 'disappeared' from my list and without he need to keep forgetting .... trying to remember what I was intending to write!

This rather assumes that in addition to the tools and skills required you can easily find straight timber and flat plywood........not that easy these days..

I see the Icons are appearing in a cartouche, do we now all reply in Egyptian? I've failed the major system, it's now gone for repairs, which means more work for me, as when it comes back it will need calibrating again.. So onto a multi resistor unit...

I saw an interview with the neighbours who reckoned the problem existed whether the couple had their telly on or not.

A gap between the cargowaggons allows a shot of 08802 whilst shunting Dallam freight terminal.

OK, the ultimate laugh of the day... Now I KNOW some of the email spammers are NOT English literate and probably English is not their first language, but some are quite simply MORONS and really need to be placed in a care facility for their own protection it seems! Below is VERBATUM the latest SPAM email I received regarding my PAYPAL account - if you're fluent in GIBBERISH it is eventually decipherable; "We've placed a temporary ltimiation on your atnuocc. Dear xxxxxxxx, Why is there a ltimiation on your atnuocc? We've necitod some uausunl aivitcty in your atnuocc and we want to make sure no one has logged into your atnuocc without your permission. To remove the ltimiation, please telpmoce the anoitc rtseuqeed. We've also placed a temporary ltimiation on your atnuocc. For the time being, you won't be able to: • Send myeno • Wwardhti myeno What should you do? Log in to your laPyaP atnuocc and telpmoce the required tasks. What happens next? Once you've telpmoced the required tasks,we'll rweive your atnuocc and get back to you regdraing its status Immediately. We appreciate your help with this matter" Good GRIEF!!!! Suffice to say I DID delete it - "Oh really, why?" I hear you say

Covid lockdowns have begun to take hold here, with rationing taking place. Tesco are:- 4 toilet rolls, 2 packets pasta, and 500ml fresh cheese. Asda & Morrisons are:- 4 toilet rolls, 2 hand sanitisers, 1 packet dried pasta. Waitrose are:- 1 lobster, 100g Ardennes pate, 2 scented candles. AldI are:- 1 mig welder, pink sports bra, 2 trumpets. Oil filter for a Tesla saloon.

View New Content appears to be including a line for each post made, not just one for each topic with new content in it. So the same topic can appear multiple times in the list.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I forgot about the update this morning and I had just started reading ER's when the plug was pulled. At least its not this problem:- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54239180?SThisFB&fbclid=IwAR0V3DnEWwBOY7Qt3rQVoNAAGzsP_L5KUdU_74mME0EwVem92tVtDB9MklA New boiler is working well, not only is the water hotter out of the tap but the radiators heat up a lot quicker than with the old boiler. EDIT couldn't find the edit button at first, its in the three dots top right.

That’s a faff having to remove the back end of the link each time direct link actually embeds the picture as I go along (as the old software did with the likes of YouTube videos) so I’ll most likely use that as it’s always shown a link while I’m writing and a few times I’ve posted the same pics twice, at least I can see what pic I’ve put down now with direct link

Whistler, 40007 sits in Seven Mills Sidings.

Evening all, I must be getting old! Instead of my usual bedtime espresso, tonight I had a decaffinato intenso, to be followed (after I make this post) by a few pages of “The Picts and The Martyrs“ by Arthur Ransome before heading for bed. Often, when I get phone calls from a number I don’t recognise, I politely answer the phone by giving the name of my company. This usually puts them off, but for the intrepid few who want to go further I let them ramble on for about 30 seconds and then say, something along the lines of, “ Thank you for this information, but I will have to transfer you to corporate security on this matter, hold on“ this invariably causes a rapid hang up by the other party. I recently had, twice in the space of six months, a very strange call from South Korea. A very polite lady with a good command of English told me that she did not want to “sell me anything“ but she was offering the financial services of her South Korean company. This, of course, elicited the polite reply that I “already have my financial advisors and investors engaged”, which ended the call. Were these calls a scam, or were they “cold calls“ on behalf of a very ambitious South Korean financial institution? I have no idea! Well, time for two or three pages of Arthur Ransome before heading to bed. Good night all