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The latest SEF A4 is now just about complete and ready for going off to Geoff Haynes for painting. The hardest part of erecting the motion was cleaning up the lost-wax castings for the crossheads/slidebars. In fact, probably 90% of the time spent in putting them together. The lubricator drive was fudged from spare valve gear frets, and is probably over-sized. That said, when weathered it should be better, and it won't fall to bits (unlike some Hornby ones I've seen). It's also just attached to the chassis, not to any part to the body. The drive is my last DJH one with a Mashima motor, though the replacements are just as good. Some cleaning and tidying up necessary. On test at speed this afternoon. You'll have to take my word for it that she's scooting round LB at over a scale 90, hauling 14 metal kit-built bogies.......................... Easier going the other way - just 12 mainly plastic carriages. I think a fall plate and cab doors are called for............................... After I'd tested the A4, I put the two locos back which had been on the respective trains. HAPPY KNIGHT; built from a Crownline kit and painted by Ian Rathbone. GREAT EASTERN; built from a DJH kit and painted by Geoff Haynes (including hand-painting the coat of arms on the nameplate!). Panning shots like these are an interesting exercise, and it's a good job they're not on film. It takes at least 20 exposures before I'm happy with any!

WD getting closer again. and the shabby Immingham B1 is just beginning the trek back to Grimsby.

Morning. Dry with a cool breeze just sufficient to make walking in to it unpleasant. Nice sunrise though. Mrs NHN dropped off for her bus, will be meeting her in the Big City later to take her to the Consultant Ophthalmologist appointment. Nervous. Couriers here are mostly sub-contracted bar DHL. They're OK ish, DPD are the best, but living up in the sticks all bar DHL only come up here once or twice a week (its a long way you know.... ) even if you have paid for a priority service - they ignore that - but they charge the earth since they think we're in Outer Mongolia. Isle of Man Post (= Royal Mail) are superb, any service, same cost as anywhere in the UK both ways. We wouldn't use anyone else when we had the business, and without boasting we had a great reputation for next-day delivery, which seemed to amaze customers we could achieve that from here. Our posties are great, over the 18 years we have been here we have had a few, knew all their names, and still speak if you see them elsewhere. They will leave parcels in an agreed place or re-deliver, your choice. It's not like we have much crime. The thought of Ian saying they have security cameras on the house reminds me how good life is here.

Back to trains.... Third Coopercraft cattle wagon built and finished. Here is a short cattle train running behind the Collett Goods, why that loco....well it was the only loco on the track at the time as the rest where in the storage box. I think that should suffice for now on the cattle wagon front, perhaps a few more GWR brown wagons, perhaps? LMS one makes a nice addition, a few more out of region ones needed.....another day.

We had the same problem last year - new door. Solved other with a wireless doorbell. I also took the opportunity to get a doorbell with 50 sounds effects. Of which 49 are irritating. I sometimes "adjust" it when I go out - scares the hell out of the kids if they hear "dogs barking" or "horses neighing" in the lounge. Lol

Good evening everyone I’ve had some success in the workshop today, I managed to get all the control wiring for the turntable finished today. Once it was all done, everything was connected together and power applied, nothing happened. So I consulted my circuit diagram and looked again at the wiring and found a couple of mistakes, but by then it was dinner time. So after dinner I rectified then and re-applied power, this time it all works as it should, although the bridge was a little jerky. A bit of oil was applied to the bearings which improved things, but I suspect the main axle has got slightly out of line. But as I will need to dismantle it all to fit into the new board I’m to cut, I’ll leave that until the well is fixed permanently in place. So after a bit of a dodgy patch this morning, all-in-all, it’s been a pretty productive day. After tea tonight we had a slice of the fruit tea loaf that I made on Friday afternoon, see photo below. I’ve tweaked the original recipe over the last few years and this is the tastiest by far. I’ve posted the recipe for this a couple of times on here. This cake has no eggs, is fat and dairy free and this version made with fruit tea is also low in added sugar. We usually have a slice each night and a full cake lasts us between 7 - 8 days. I make a variation in winter where I use spiced apple tea and add, cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spice. The shine on top of the cake is down to the fruit that was soaked overnight slowly releasing the tea, which also keeps the cake moist.

Dave was a very happy man. He had been dating for over a year, and so they decided to get married. There was only only little thing bothering him — it was his girlfriends beautiful younger sister. His prospective sister-in-law was twenty-two, wore very tight miniskirts, and generally was bra-less. She would regularly bend down when she was near him, and he always got more than a nice view. It had to be deliberate. Because she never did it when she was near anyone else. One day her “little” sister called and asked him to come over to check the wedding invitations. She was alone when he arrived, and she whispered to him that she had feelings and desires for him that she couldn’t overcome. She told him that she wanted Dave just once before he got married and committed his life to her sister. Well, he was in total shock, and couldn’t say a word. She said, “I’m going upstairs to my bedroom, and if you want one last wild fling, just come up and get me.” Dave was stunned and frozen in shock as he watched her go up the stairs. He stood there for a moment, then turned and made a beeline straight to the front door. He opened the door, and headed straight towards his car. Lo and behold, his entire future family was standing outside, all clapping! With tears in his eyes, the future father-in-law hugged him and said, “We are very happy that you have passed our little test. We couldn’t ask for a better man for our daughter. Welcome to the family.” ———————————————————————————————————— And the moral of this story is: Always keep your condoms in your car.

Morning all! First day of a run of early shifts today. However, enjoying Aldi hot chocolate more than Asda own brand. While it's probably not that healthy, it's certainly better than the old fizzy drinks and a step closer to just plain old water. Excited for tea tonight - roast as I forgot to get the stuff out the freezer to have it yesterday. I AM A MASTER AT ROAST DINNERS.

We thought we had a courier today who couldn't read the house number or find the door bell - opened the front door at 7.00am to let the cats out and there was a large 15kg sack of dried dog food there. No address label and so we had no idea where it had come from or who it was for. Waited until later and then went next door to ask our neighbour and down the road to another dog owner but neither of them were expecting a delivery. My wife then put out an appeal on local WhatsApp and Facebook groups to try and find out who this dog food belonged to. This afternoon our son rang - to say that a friend of his who lived nearby would be bringing round a bag of dog food and could we keep it until he was able to collect. His friend does part time work with a gamekeeper and can buy the food at wholesale price which was about half retail value - he had no idea that his friend was going out very early this morning as we were later told the bag was dropped off before 6.30. So mystery solved - and we can't blame a courier . . . . . .

First look at Boris's space force.

Morning all, We have the same unpleasant breeze as NHN, not surprisingly, so it feels bl@@dy cold outside. A walk may be walked later, but the padded trousers will be found from the wardrobe first. We keep trying to make the walks longer, but I dont seem to be getting any fitter as a result, just more knackered. I suppose it is called getting older.

Greetings all from the boring borough. A weekend of nothing. Woke up Saturday morning and my lower back felt like some oil company had started a fracking operation. Much heat rub and Naproxen was consumed over the 2 days. Nothing accomplished. I can still hardly move and the occasional spasm reminds me that all is not well. I see the courier conversation is still ongoing. We order all our pet supplies from Zooplus. Normally they use Yokel but you have the option of changing to DPD. After Yokel damaged 2 in a row (how do you destroy cases of cat food in pouches?) we now specify DPD. Never had an issue with them. There was much gnashing of geek teeth on twatter the other day as people who had paid premium shipping with Game to get the newest Sony game console on the day of release via DPD, got the shaft and the things were sent via Yodel. Some are still waiting 5 days later for them to deliver. First world problems. The local couple of DPD drivers are great. Until recently our Herpes driver was really good as well. However, we seem to have had a spate of new ones and now have a 50% success rate with deliveries. A plastic envelope parcel of clothing arrived on Friday with a nasty rip in it. Fortunately the contents were unharmed. The lost/found/damaged/lost/delayed package that should have "been on the move" by Thursday is still stuck in the system somewhere. Until they either find it or declare it lost to PostNL the brewery can't claim the insurance and resend the order. By that time the Christmas beers the package contained will be long out of stock. <insert string of profanities here> With brexsh*t and the new customs way of life, this would have been one of the last times we can order from them. SWMBO off to commute to the city today. (Mon & Wed only) Southeastern have decided to cut their services way back again, meaning no direct train to Cannon St so she has to change at London Bridge. She's not a happy bunny. Enough moaning for a moanday. Enjoy the day. Time for another coffee.

Ey up! Our "Daleks" aka the compost bins reside behind the garage.. one is ready for use as compost, one will be ready in about 6 weeks time, the 3rd is still being added too. Works wonders and our local council did a great deal on them. I have a parcel to post. I use Royal Mail who are normally very good. But a parcel posted last week had been badly bashed in transit..luckily it is repairable... Other than the trip to the post office my day is free..now, what should I do? I know, I will wait for some parcels containing items I have ordered for her indoors to receive on the 25th December...frabjoy! Time for.. a wander off to make some more tea! Stay safe, hope all ERs have a pleasant day! Baz

After building a second Boxfile over two weekends I thought this photos might qualify for this section. J36 No. 65311 rests under the coal loader on my shed scene.

The Bagnall heading past Newton Heath Works with clay for the weathering beds

Evening. Gosh yes Poly there was a fight in Douglas the other day.....don't suppose a fight makes news in London. Drugs are funny here, because we have such hard sentencing the prices are high, so the Scousers come over on the ferry to chance their luck. They get home a year or two later usually. With good behaviour. Given the closed borders situation currently they have been sending stuff by post - like they think we don't check? #sigh# In much better news, Mrs NHN's eye issue is related to arthritis - who knew? Should be OK with management, lots of steroids for now. Better than glaucoma that's for sure.

On the subject of posties, we used to have a middle aged lady deliver our mail for years. She loved me (not in the emotional sense) because I retired a few years before everyone else in this street (cul-de-sac) and therefore was at home a lot of the time and willing to take in parcels for those who were not answering the door. She was very concerned if anything seemed amiss in the street, and one day knocked a second time after delivering a parcel saying that she had been next door with some letters and noticed a parcel on their doorstep, plus they had not brought in their recycling bins 24 hours after being emptied. (I must point out that the residents of this particular 'next door' were an unmarried couple who seemed very strange. No one had any idea how they could afford a mortgage on the house, let alone virtually strip out the entire innards of the building within weeks of moving in. From the gossip I heard they imported cars from abroad, which seemed a bit dodgy to me, and there were always BMWs with foreign plates outside the front garden. However, the police only came around once when the chap set fire to our garden fence - but that is a wholly different story. I became quite used to him wandering around our front garden completely unannounced, and when a polite inquiry was made into his activities, he would say he was looking for his cat. They have moved on now <relief>, and the latest neighbours appear much more normal.) Anyhow, the postwoman was worried that the evidence pointed to them being away and might attract burglars. She suggested I take the parcel, and put a note through the door to the effect that I have it for safe keeping- which I did. The next morning there was a loud knock on the door and the weird (male) neighbour was asking for the parcel. He seemed rather angry, but I thought that was a little unfriendly until he told me that the parcel had been left outside for the courier company to take away, so that when the courier arrived there was nothing there. I tried explaining about the postwoman being concerned, but this seemed to agitate him even more; and after calling her a number of unrepeatable names he grabbed his parcel and left. I don't think we spoke much after that.

I am sure someone on ERs (years ago) had an oven cleaning man and the door fell off. Hope it wasn’t him!

Crime is reasonably low around here but I like the tech and the doorbell cam was so that I could answer the door even if I was in the shed at the back of the garden otherwise the caller would have gone by the time I got into the house and to the front door. Its also handy to avoid any cold callers but my other half tends to just answer the door hence she got caught last week by someone offering to redo our parking area.

A bit late this morning, the Flip Flop decided to do an up grade, and then shut down due to a flat battery that I couldn't see because it was a plain blue screen. I plugged in the charger, re started it, and then it went into an Automatic UNDO of the Up date. It's NOW asking for another Up date to be done.

I used to have numerous deliveries where the courier did not ring the bell. When asked why they did not ring the bell, they would say that they had not seen that there was a bell. Should these people be driving? The bell concerned is a ship's bell hanging right by the door.

Good moaning. We've another cool but sunny day in prospect. I've got a complaint about thst, I've no excuse to head for the shed when the G word is mentioned. The G word was mentioned yesterday and more of the jungle was cleared, very little left to do. Then coffee and the lastvpiecescof ginger cake were consumed whilst watching the sunset. Oatmeal and honey biscuits have now taken the place in the tin that the cake occupied. Off out shortly to finish loading the trailer and then off to to the tip. As to other matters we've now decided not to cone to the UK over Christmas so you are all safe. Jamie.

Thats an idea that I hadnt thought of as I could grow sweet peas along the fnce by the shed. I will have to ghet a few seed packets. Recently I moved our compost bin away from the shed as thats where the new covered out door bar / layout set up area is going to be constructed. I moved the composter under a fir tree. However I now need ot build a cover over it to stop the lid getting covered in bird poop.

Moanday...ah, where to start Self-isolating provides much free time to do "tasks". MY latest was to fix/correct/re-wire the three-way switches that control the lights on our enclosed porch, they've never really worked correctly from both of the 3-way switches so it was time to figure that out. This also entailed replacing one of the switch boxes, easy access from behind as it's in the attached garage wall, which is unfinished. Easy, right! First, the screws holding the box to the wall had been stripped by the installer arsewipe who wired the carp originally! Took quite a while to deal with that mess, ended having to grind away the screw heads to get the damned thing off. All wires entering the box were dutifully labelled before dis-assembling and removing/replacing with a new larger box to accomodate the mess of wire that had been jammed into too small an original one. On the FIRST attempt Saturday to re-wire once I'd put the new box in place, buqqer all worked, one step WORSE than before I started Subsequent wire-tracing travails Sunday with the volt/ohm meter over a 2+ hour period showed that the feed from an adjacent box was an accident waiting to happen as the live side of the circuit had finally separated in THAT box somehow throwing off what was already obviously a poorly fitted wire nut holding the mess together. The fact the garage hadn't burned down due to an electrical fire was simply dumb luck it seems! We'd occasionally wondered why a couple of the lights sometimes flickered! All the wire tracing ALSO revealed the reason the lights didn't work quite correctly, the installer had made a complete fist of wiring a 3-way switched circuit. Now everything works as expected and is SAFE, result <phew> Today, the rental property is getting new windows - a total of 21 replacing the aging/leaking originals. Expected to take a couple of days for the complete install. Mrs monitoring. Also, today tree trimmers expected here to sort out the large maple and trim back from the house where it's currently overhaning. Busy day Work, not so much, I think I may take a couple of additional days off as they seem to have gone into hiberntaion. This week is Thanksgiving in the US, we're NOT having anyone over, so decided something suggested on one of our local radio programs - rather than a huge meal (no-one to consume it anyway) on Thursday, make it a Thanksgiving WEEK, and make something special for the two of us each day for several days. Delivery of various tasty ingredients ordered for tomorrow, to allow us to make several of our favourite dishes. Looks like a nice beef stew will be the Thursday/Thanksgiving meal. -6 here first thing and sunny, looking for a heady +2 for the high. Light breeze so a wind-chill/Real feel isn't much different. Carry on

A small flat scraper, (which I made this about 35 years ago from an old saw machine blade) a steam wallpaper stripper, a small hammer and lots and lots of elbow grease,

Sorted, found 4 sausages in the back of the freezer, normal service has been established.......................

We brought our doorbell from our old house. I am sure it counts as retro being a 1970s Friedland “ding ” type. I expect that to get censored. yes, the dong did get censored. As in completely eliminated, it became a non word rather than ####.

Ouch! parcel posted ..fine walk was completed even though the thin breeze is freezing! BUT then Bought Test match and T20 Tickets.. they cost.. HOW MUCH??? Then I bought some raffle tickets from The Lords Taverners .. no Christmas Lunch with the Taverners at Headingley this year which is a shame.. so donated the money normally spent via buying some raffle tickets.. they cost HOW MUCH?? but a very worthy cause. Now to recover a bit before.. the oven cleaning man arrives.. oooh the excitement! (He is an ex Tankie.. 14/21st Lancers).. Baz

Morning, I solved our door bell conundrum, when a nice shiny new door and frame was fitted, I didn't want to drill holes in it, so we don't have one.................................luckily our delivery drivers are very good and leave stuff in my greenhouse if we are not at home, works a treat and it confuses the hell out of the Jehovah's Witnesses.............................

Good morning all, Dry and fresh start to the day here with sunny spells forecast. My dear Bear, fear not! You are of course correct in saying that birthday spirits should be over and above the norm. Presumably you didn't notice that I said I've been told not to order "yet." This I'm told is purely to avoid duplication and once I know what I'm getting I can then continue with my own choices. That is of course assumimg that the hints I've been receiving are correct and it's not all a big con and a swindle...! We're very lucky with couriers here and have had no problems whatsoever this year. Our postie is exceptional, he rings doorbell, leaves parcel on step, stands back and waits to make sure somebody's in. If not then he will ask a neighbour to take it. As we're in more than others we do tend to be the main repository for the adjoining neighbours. Have a good one, Bob.

Greetings one and all Ah, couriers who cannot find doorbells. They are too abundant. Many seem to be employed by a firm named after a river in South America that seems hell-bent on world domination. The couple next door buy lots of stuff from that outfit and make a point of not being at home when it is delivered. More often than not the delivery operative bangs on the glass, the task of finding and pressing the doorbell seemingly being too hard. When I answer the door, to save the glass any further punishment, I point out that I have a doorbell. "Oh. Sorry" is the usual response, often uttered in fragmented English. Out of what is left of the goodness of my heart I take in the parcel, which reposes in my hall until the consignees remember to call for it or, more often , I draw it to their attention. I do not envy anyone who works for A****n. My e-friend Harry does so in an executive capacity and I fear increasingly for his mental health. Rick mentions the Levellers. I am not familiar with what they do but from what I know I suspect that it might appeal to me. As for karaoke, I have tried it once. It did not go well. I had this daft idea that I could do a passable replication of Freddie Mercury rendering "The Great Pretender". On the night, the backing track bore sparse resemblance to what I had expected and lasted barely two minutes. That will teach me to show off. Sometime this morning I shall venture out to buy my weekly donation to charity, aka my lotto tickets. Later in the week there will be a fodder run, but not tomorrow as scheduled. Balancing the bank account is the scheduled activity for Tuesday so I shall venture into the ghost town that is Bedford and head for the bank to print out a statement. Something daring will follow: a bus ride home. I have no fear of public transport. So there. Best wishes to all Chris

I bought two Atlas O Comet commuter coaches from a seller in Columbia (the country, not the capitol of my state ) that were shipped via DHL. To this day I wonder why US Customs does not have a facility in Miami (the POE) considering all of the traffic from Central and South America. The tracking information: Origin Service Area: BOGOTA - BOGOTA, DC - COLOMBIA Destination Service Area: CHARLOTTE, NC - CHESTER - USA Monday, July 13, 2020 Location Time Piece 22 Delivered - Signed for by: D KINGSTON CHESTER 10:53 1 Piece 21 With delivery courier CHARLOTTE, NC - USA 08:49 1 Piece Friday, July 10, 2020 Location Time Piece 20 Arrived at Sort Facility GREENSBORO - USA GREENSBORO, NC - USA 07:59 1 Piece 19 Departed Facility in CINCINNATI HUB - USA CINCINNATI HUB, OH - USA 06:47 1 Piece Thursday, July 09, 2020 Location Time Piece 16 Processed at CINCINNATI HUB - USA CINCINNATI HUB, OH - USA 05:31 1 Piece Wednesday, July 08, 2020 Location Time Piece 14 Departed Facility in MIAMI GATEWAY - USA MIAMI GATEWAY, FL - USA 23:27 1 Piece 12 Arrived at Sort Facility MIAMI GATEWAY - USA MIAMI GATEWAY, FL - USA 21:36 1 Piece 10 Departed Facility in SAN JOSE - COSTA RICA SAN JOSE - COSTA RICA 15:55 1 Piec 8 Arrived at Sort Facility SAN JOSE - COSTA RICA SAN JOSE - COSTA RICA 15:51 1 Piece 7 Departed Facility in PANAMA CITY - PANAMA PANAMA CITY - PANAMA 05:45 1 Piece 5 Arrived at Sort Facility PANAMA CITY - PANAMA PANAMA CITY - PANAMA 00:44 1 Piece Tuesday, July 07, 2020 Location Time Piece 4 Arrived at Sort Facility BOGOTA - COLOMBIA BOGOTA - COLOMBIA 21:51 1 Piece 3 Departed Facility in BOGOTA - COLOMBIA BOGOTA - COLOMBIA 21:09 1 Piece 1 Shipment picked up BOGOTA - COLOMBIA 17:02 1 Piece I highlighted the parcel's stops and deleted some lines that do not show any travel. Note that it left Bogota forty some minutes before it arrived there and never arrived at Cincinnati, although it did depart there after inspection. When it got to Charlotte, it was handed off to the local delivery person; DHL or USPS, I no longer remember. All I can say about the customs inspection is that nothing was damaged and the car (they only opened one) was replaced in its box properly. As much as I do not care for DHL, this transaction went smoothly enough and the cars arrived in fine shape. Hmmm, too much excess bloviation here, I better stop.

For today's photos we head north from Darlington on the ECML. Darlington Class 253 down from site of loco shed 16th Feb 85 C6696.jpg Hett Mill Class 91 down16th Oct 93 C19127.jpg Croxdale Class 91 down 16th Oct 93 C19135.jpg Plawsworth Class 254 up 26th Oct 87 C9180.jpg Low Fell 47598 hauling fire damaged 47713 in freight up 28th June 88 C9550.jpg David

I set up a womery for my mum a couple of years ago you just need to dilute the liquid feed as used neat will scorch plants. Some sweet peas have lost their scent through the plant breeding process. I think it is the Spencer varieties that have kept the heady fragrances. I got some seeds for xmas last year from Matthewmans sweet peas i started them off in the cardboard tube from inside toilet rolls full of seed compost then when risk of frost gone they plant out direct in the cardboard tube with no disturbance to roots. I assume Matthewmans do mail order iirc there was a Solihull address on there somewhere. I have no connection with them only the recipient of a gift from them

I Wear this No not the MCC Tie, But the Yeoman class Keelboat tie.. If we had a motion detector door bell, it would go off all the time.. the house is 6 ft from the road.. and if we weren't, the deer, foxes rabbits, owls, pheasants, would all send Ben the I don't like Noises Collie crazy...

Very low round here but there was a police crew bus with the grills over the windscreen (like the ones you see delivering police officers to riots) parked over the road yesterday. I suspect they had been told to park somewhere quiet in case they were needed in Basildon again. There was a “demonstration “ there yesterday about Covid lockdown restrictions. Rumour had it there may have been another one planned for Sunday.

Mooring awl, Inner Temple hare.. 7.5 hours sleep with just a couple of very short wake up and roll overs... very happy at that.. Ben the happy Collie was running around the garden upsetting the pigeons.. Crunchy grass beneath star lit sky above, the moon which had illuminated the bed room at bed time had B****red off by morning.. frosty car but leaving the car running while patrolling with Ben soon cleared it.. Going to the Forest in a MTB must be interesting, I guess they've fitted aircraft Propellors to the Merlins instead of marine to make it fly.. Couriers The best Here, Royal Mail, / Parcel farce, local people who know everyone.. The worst was DHL home delivery , but they flogged that off to Yodel, so now they are definitely the worst. Hermes is one man delivering from an unmarked car, quite good. they don't seem to do home pick up here. You take parcels to a near by (4 miles) garage shop where they scan it in and give you a receipt.. The house of strong ladies, was very bad, but they are now good, admittedly Their Eniglish is almost non existent, and some can't read the large white letters on the Red post box at our gate that says parcels.. And to work, that high accuracy Temperature meter to finish off and then... no major system because it's broke, I'll see if any of those due soon are free as there is a major log jam just before Cxxxxxxxxs.. Time to stroll down to the lab...

Morning Deliveries - one of the largest times that we have ordered online was a new TV just over a year ago. Its the only time that the courier went to a flat next door probably due to us having a letter in our house number so assumed it was a flat. Luckily the driver rang to say he wasnt getting any answer from us. I knew that he want at our door as our doorbell rings on all our Alexa's (including the one at Mums) and also on our mobiles. It actually howls very loudly and has made my other halfs work collegues laugh when she has been on a video call! I soon worked out what the driver had done and wandered round to the rear flats next door where he had the great big box in his arms. If the flat occupier had been in, they may well have ended up with a nice new TV as the box clearly showed what it was. Our post man is excellent. A few years ago he put the letters through the door then noticed a parcel left by others, disappeared then came back and picked the parcel up. At first I thought he had run off with it but it turned out that rain was forecast and he checked our neighbour was in, then took the parcel to hand to them. A few days ago he asked if the new cover by our door was for parcel, so now he knows its ssfe to leave stuff there if its likely to rain. The cover is out of sight from the road but well in sight of our various security cameras. Yesterday more gardening done for us and next door then more shredding and tried a bonfire but it just would not stay alight so gave up when it got too dark to try again. This morning already been in the shed finishing off some crust earning by fitting NEM boxes to three brass wagons, then sorting out a N scale wagon that kept derailing.

Morning all, I'm toying with the idea of getting a wormery. Not, you understand, a tablet to rid oneself of a troublesome infestation. But a series of interlocking trays that digest kitchen scraps, producing, in turn, a steady trickle of liquid feed and worm cast. Not to mention a reduction in stuff going to the landfill bin. And thinking of gardening it will soon be time to think of which varieties of Sweet Peas to grow this coming year. I have to say those from the Sweet Pea Society in Wem ast year didn't live up to their billing, lacking almost entirely in scent.

The quality of Hermes does seem to be down to the local courier. Hermes at work is the local private hire company and I have to say they are very good for delivery. But we don't use them for outgoing. Outbound is Royal Mail for small stuff - including smaller international, DPD for larger UK and some European. DHL for anything large and international. (or to countries with a "doubtful" national postage system). Having said that - the DHL guy that is on the international run is very good. If it's a DHL sub-contractor doing UK pickup/dropoff, then forget it. They usually turn up 15 minutes after they know we close. The current Hermes at home - which seemed to be Ok has become erratic since the courier changed. It is used by Junior NB to send non-RM stuff out (via ebay Packlink). When the Hermes driver doesn't turn up to collect, she blames the "other" driver the next day. Not sure that there is one............. Not at work tomorrow to pick up the "where's my parcel?" emails. It's my turn for the 4-day week. The weather is forecast to be mostly not wet, so a MTB trip to Gisburn Forest is on the cards with Junior NB. The plan is to do more than our usual blue route, including part of the top section of the "8". This will be new to Junior. It includes a decent hill climb that is usually about 5 1/2 minutes of solid effort for me (I'm not the fastest hill-climber and far from it!). Over 60m elevation gain in 0.5km. It gets steeper in the final 1/3 - which emerges around a corner. Then the very last curve reveals the steepest 50m to finish. I have a bet with Junior of £10. She is allowed to stop for a rest, but not allowed to push for anything more than a remount of the bike. I think my tenner is safe, but secretly hope she can earn it. My other secret hope is that golf will be allowed again soon. Have a good Monday folks. Cheers, Mick

Our Broadband dropped out early Sunday morning and it turned out to be a significant problem in our local area. Never really gave it a second thought for a few minutes, but as the hours went on, I became aware of just how much dependency we have on the Internet. Status updates from BT were vague and we never knew what the cause of the problem was, but the whole system was down for 36 hours and has only just returned. I even felt a little stressed not knowing when it would be back as it seemed everything I wanted to do needed internet access in one way or another. Apart from food and clothes we order everything on line. Our entertainment in terms of film/TV/radio all require the internet to have 100% access to access downloads and radio via a Sonos system. Of course the ease of access means our conventional TV/radio's have long since gone and it struck me just how much time we spend on the web simply looking up information and learning how to do things. Online banking and finance all require digital access. Of course those much younger than I would laugh as everything can be accessed via their mobile phones, but I rarely use mine. It’s a very early iPhone and the Vodafone signal at home is non existent, so that didn't help at all. Never thought I would say this, but life without the internet seemed almost Victorian and was not a place I would like to go.... Let alone, no RMweb.......

They have been trying to get a reliable DEW for quite a while... having said that a laser range finder could be used as a DEW against some targets.. like soldiers eyes, sighting systems etc. Many years ago I talked to a team working on DEW technology Big problem was.."where do we store the nuclear reactor needed for supplying electrical power".... Baz

We started buying ours from the supermarket when doorstep milk went “off” during the doorstep to fridge journey. Leaving milk while we were away and had cancelled it didn’t encourage us to continue. We used to get a manager from the dairy asking us to reconsider our decision to enable doorstep deliveries to continue. I declined.

Door bells seem to be a foreign concept to many people. We've got the Ring system installed, including lights/cameras out back and in the alleyway. Most food delivery people have clued in and push the glowing blue button. About half the couriers and postmen manage it, but thankfully none of the unwanted (god botherers, cold callers, charity muggers) seem to know what it is. That means we get the motion alert as they reach the porch and can happily ignore their knocking safe in the knowledge we aren't missing a delivery or something important. One of the former partners at SWMBO's workplace was a past chairman of the Lord Taverners. Most of the higher ups in the company are cricket nuts. Before he retired there were always a couple of tickets going spare. Sadly with our luck the few times she managed to get some it bloody rained. We once got 3 overs against New Zealand, then spent 5 hours waiting until they called the day off. Luckily we were under cover, but ended up spending a bomb at the shop and bars.

You do realise that you could have saved the tokens and used them for something that runs on parallel strips of metal! My father was an MCC, Surrey, Middlesex and Worcester member so I approve of money going to the Lord's Taverners.

Morning all. Frosty this morning but a clear blue sky. Aditi and her family were sending each other photos of gardens yesterday. The ones from India had all their winter flowers which are basically anything planted for the English summer. Aditi’s cousin was most impressed by the sky in Aditi’s photo, another blue sky day. Her cousin said that is a very rare sight in Delhi now. Tony

Don't mention Hermes, I'm still waiting for a refund from a collection that I cancelled and they did not call for so must have got my cancellation notice. Pay Pal are now dealing with it. As for Post men / women / person, we seem to have a different one every day. Todays none Post, he walked on by, was about 8-30 , some days its about 4pm. Have a good day and stay safe one and all.

Good morning everyone A bright and wet (overnight rain) start to the day, but it isn’t raining at the moment. My plans for the day are to continue removing paint from the cellar walls. Today I’m going to start on the wall next to the outer cellar door and work my way into the corner. There’s no way this will all get done today, this section of wall is about 8ft long, but I’m hoping to get about half of it done today. As far as deliveries go, Hermes, Yodel are utter carp and DPD aren’t much better. DHL aren’t too bad and the local Amazon driver is a friend of one of my brothers so is usually very good. By far the best are Royal Mail and Parcel Force, although we’re currently still waiting for a package from RM which should have arrived last week and is still showing as stuck in the depot, but due to the current situation, that could be due to Covid. Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. Brian

Possibly one of the most unfortunate headlines