Leaderboard

Greetings one and all Today I am to have a whole body bone scan. It has been ordered by Professor Oncologist, possibly because he suspects that my prostate cancer has spread within the adjoining skeleton. As I was diagnosed nearly six years ago it has had plenty of time to munch its way through my body undetected. Before the actual scan I must have a radioactive injection. The appointment letter is quite emphatic that I must keep emptying my bladder and drink plenty, though not necessarily in that order. I am trying not to worry about the outcome of the scan, and failing miserably. Best wishes to all Chris

Good luck Chris, if luck has anything to do with it. I’m finding results of my PSA test today. Robert

*Project Update Update* GWR Steam Railmotor. Since our first update on Monday, we have now received images of the first assembled Engineering prototype models. They will be with us for review and testing very soon. See our dedicated project page for more details here https://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/pg/144/GWR-Steam-Railmotor

Afternoon all, Very good wishes for a successful outcome for those undergoing or waiting the results of various tests. Alas(?) in my experience the radioactive injections seem to do nothing to reduce electricity consumption by creating your own artificial light. Hot weather deaths are alas a commonplace feature among the elderly, more potentially 'dangerous' than cold weather in some cases. Apparently a common problem in big cities in the USA is that in extreme heat people tend to open their windows instead of leaving them closed with blinds or curtains drawn and the ingress of the hot air can have a far worse effect than keeping it out. And of course it is far easier for us to warm up our bodies than it is to cool them - all an often unconsidered impact of rising global temperatures and consequently changed weather patterns it would seem. It's fascinating how local water can affect the taste of beers even when all other factors in the brewing process are consistent. When our local brewery closed a small concern at the other end of the county bought their beer brands and recipes but, from what little of it I have sampled, the taste is definitely different - because they aren;'t using the same water. When Whitbread were looking round for a new, modern, brewery site in South Wales after their takeover of Ely Brewery and Rhymney Breweries they chose a site a Magor because it offered water that was chemically as compatible as they could find with water they were already using elsewhere (in England). The water they use comes from the Great spring in the Severn Tunnel and was originally purchased from BR, presumably now from NR. Whitbread reportedly have a license to use up to 2.4 million gallons of the water daily which leaves plenty of room for development as the Great Spring pushes out an average of 9 million gallons every day. I presume the original extraction method still applies with the water being pumped to the surface at the Sudbrook Shaft where the pumps lift it from a separate brick lined culvert which runs from the spring to the foot of the shaft - it's quite a sight watching it in the culvert as it moves at one heck of a pace to the sump from which it is pumped. Far more exciting to watch than the adjacent drainage culvert which drains the Welsh end of the tunnel itself which tends to get very wet from the land above (not from the Severn) although there is a damp atmosphere in the tunnel which plays merry heck with anything electrical. So yes, in my railway career I actually went just about as low as you can get on the Western Region Have a good day folks and stay safe while keeping those fingers crssed.

Long shadows: Al.

Good news for her indoors. Her ladies xray says. ,"all clear" Baz

Morning, and my best wishes to those under stress for various reasons. PSA induced stress is of course something all men of a certain age have to cope with, we all get the dreaded disease, just in most cases something else gets you first as it progresses so slowly. Mostly. One of the male body's failings. Yes, I'm another on the watch list. Archery extra round today as Mrs NHN is off for the week, only a couple or three shooting so no scoring, saying you came second when there's only three competing is a bit of a fraud!

In the 1970s when Travellers Fare sold McKewans Export in cans on buffet cars, I always maintained that the taste of the beer on up ECML trains was superior to that on trains where the buffets had been replenished at Kings Cross. Whether the beer had been brewed in different places, I don't know. Now onto a more intriguing subject... I am not sure why these petrol pumps need warning signs, unless I have missed something.

Summer has returned to North Somerset - hurrah! I wonder if it was last all day? The lurgy, which is officially not covid, certainly has the ability to knock a person back. I ventured outside yesterday afternoon and managed to clear some duckweed from the pond, and clip a few lengthy shoots off a low hedge; and became so exhausted that I had to sit down for half an hour to recover. Oh well, another 10 hours sleep has me feeling better today, but I'm beginning to think I am turning into a dormouse.

Very grey overhead here this morning. Cleaning day scheduled although her indoors has a (HOW MUCH???) hairdressing appointment scheduled about noon today. I have a bit of crust earning to do followed by.... well anything I want. Two types of distracting noises yesterday during cricket.. 1 RAF Airways playing with lots of Typhoons 2 The Lincolnshire Coast light Railway with parp, parp every time it crosses a level crossing.. oil engines being used not coal ones.. @chrisf hope it all goes well today.. @PupCam may still be glowing in the dark... i hope @gordon scan partake in the pages milestone. While wasn't the first to post on this version of ERs he was one of the original founder members. stay safe! baz

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare, 522/327 Fell asleep an hour early, I was that tired.. Unfortunately then woke up an hour earlier than normal.. Then had another two 1 hour sleeps making a total of 6, about as good as it gets these days. SWMBO'S Aunt and Uncle had an up to 5 foot high underfloor space accessed by a hatch in the kitchen floor, it was 5 foot high at the front of the house going down to not a lot at the back... yes they were on a very steep hill side. We have a concrete floor one side of the house and wooden the other, but as the water table is just 3ft down in the winter, I doubt that the underfloor space under the wooden floor is usable for anything. Thoughts are going on to this weekends boat work I think some metal bashing first the Jib club needs cutting to size as does the rudder stock. The rudder mountings having been changed to reduce height and weight. I found an error in a spreadsheet.. No not the handicap one, but a work one... And it wasn't caused by me, good job I spotted it as it would have had serious consequences. As it is it will require some work by me to measure a unit that came back from outside calibration, to ascertain whether the value has moved or the outsiders have got it wrong.. Either way the boss had copied down the value above in the spreadsheet not the new value... I suspect the units value has seriously moved.. That competing manager was phoning up again.. he appears to have taken on a job he's not fully capable of doing.. Time I wandered down to the lab and see how the overnight cross check has gone..

Some photos taken at Stocksfield 1988 to 1992 this afternoon. As you will remember Stocksfield is on the line from Newcastle to Carlisle. HSTs were only seen on the line when the ECML was closed between Newcastle and Edinburgh so that trains were diverted via Carlisle. This was usually for engineering work on the ECML. Stocksfield Class 101 Hexham to Sunderland Oct 88 J9701.jpg Stocksfield 43122 Inverness to Kings X diverted via Carlisle April 89 J9887.jpg Stocksfield 143014 Newcastle to Hexham 15th April 89 C11868.jpg Stocksfield 43079 diverted Kings X to Edinburgh March 91 J11794.jpg Stocksfield 153317 and 143611 Middlesbrough to Carlisle Aug 92 J13303.jpg David

I had to dispose of some Guinness yesterday and not in the usual way. When tidying the garage I found some cans that were way past (years) their consume by date. I don’t normally worry too much about best before dates but I was convinced that the can looked more convex than normal. So I opened one and it was amazing how far it sprayed out, fortunately I had taken it into the back garden. The others were like that except for one which was rather flat. Tony

Thoughts with @chrisf Robert and others awaiting various results. Hope they are all on the preferred end of the scale. HUMP day... more importantly the LAST day at my current employer, tomorrow being the FIRST day, technically, with the huge corporation that purchased our business unit. Still mixed feelings, especially since we have been told NOT to expect any communications related to getting our new email details, setting up of personal information, the sign-on to the payroll system, signing up for direct deposit of pay, etc., etc. until tomorrow or Friday! Makes me less impressed than I was, for sure <sigh> They even managed to c0ck-up sending out the "Employee Agreement" email, such that many of us responded with a "WHAT EMAIL/AGREEMENT" yesterday when asked if we could expedite completing it, as many of us "hadn't done it yet...". <duh> The above resulted in a less that decent sleep last night, though in the grand scheme of things nothing to be bothered about compared to some folks with worries about medical issues, so I should be grateful. Not a lot planned today, work, tidy up loose ends to move to the new "company" and that's it. 17 and sunny first thing, headed for 30 later. Carry on.

Greetings all from Sidcup where the sun is making a valiant effort to force its way through the ever darkening clouds. It's currently dry but there's little chance of heat records being broken here any time soon. Best wishes to Chrisf for today and to Pupcam and also to those awaiting results. We enjoyed the football in Lurker Towers - Elder Lurker was surprised how quickly the second half had gone which is unusual for an England match when the poor performance/the effort of willing them on despite the poor performance can make the match seem interminable. the evening game was less exciting although it did feature a goal with 131 minutes on the clock - a couple of lengthy injury stoppages contributed to the extended duration. Work continues to trundle on. A gentle nag to the person who works for me that she needs to get on with certain tasks has elicited work that now needs reviewing. And the person who runs a project I am on has got himself a whizzy project managing tool which is good for sending me lots of e-mails - although I am sure he said part of the idea for using the too was to reduce the amount of info shared by e-mail - and he has set up lots of task tables where I am allocated as the person to do the work. What he needs to build in are some kind of dependency function; I can't do said tasks until someone else has done their bit. Oh well, best get on

Fingers crossed for chrisf erichill& pupcam and anyone else in need

She was pretty good. One of the better ones actually. A long term absence with a health problem meant she vanished from the department overnight. This is the first I've seen or heard from her in 6 years. A bit of a hugger if I remember. @Tony_S As I understand it. Molson/Coors is brewing Molson Export and Molson Canadian in Burton in small quantities to supply the UK and EU. Yuk.

Thanks for everyone’s concern . Test result have through clear. Hope Chris’s is as fortunate. Robert

Unlikely to taste the same as the original (this may be a good thing). Beers brewed elsewhere under their original name are usually (in my experience) trading on nostalgia or reputation, but produced according to local tastes. At one time, I could get “Tennent’s Lager” on draft in Vancouver. It tasted nothing like the Scottish original - it was just another Canadian lager.

Another high view, but of the south end, as an A3 brings in the 8.00 Leeds, while a J6 and parcels vans wait in the bay.

There was someone on TV News some years ago that had exactly the same arrangement, though it was only 3 - 4ft high. And he'd built a huge great model railway beneath the house, all whilst crawling on his hands and knees. It was getting to the point where they needed to sell up, and he was hoping the buyer would be a modeller as the layout was a permanent feature with no way of removing it. Was he a good guy, or a cockwomble? As you say, could be fun..... In other news: Bear is ready for the Granite fitters, only to have just received a call to say they'll be landing at 09-40. Could've had another hour in bed.... And it looks like Bear has murdered Henry the Hoover (actually it's Mickey the Miele to be precise) . He doesn't sound "right" (more like a jet engine than a vaccuum) and there's a faint burning smell. Bvgger. Still seems to work, though Bear is wise (wise?) enough to realise that actually using it is pretty certain to end in tears very quickly. More LDC tokens needed; June is proving to be a very expensive month, what with the roof and the worktops. Turdycurses.

Good morning. It is rather damp outside here but not currently raining. We will be going for a walk later at Hyde Hall gardens. There are no special events today so it won’t be as crowded as last week when there was a craft fair. Tony

View directly north from our deck at 10PM this evening: The red colour may be due to traces of smoke moving in along valleys from wildfires well inland. With heat like we're having, people are very apprehensive about what it might mean for the peak wildfire season. iD - these are the mountains I was referring to last week when talking about the view from the local restaurant.

Unbelievable. I saw this story on CNN today: More than 230 deaths reported in British Columbia amid historic heat wave We seem to have fared somewhat better here. At one point there was a graph on CNN showing the highest percentage of households without air conditioning in the 25 largest US cities. The top three were: Seattle San Francisco Portland I would expect the Vancouver metro to be comparable to Seattle. I can't imagine getting through last weekend without my air conditioning.

More work for the paint shop!! Waiting to move on, a right pair of little Minxes sit in the bay platform.... Now what colour shall I paint them, hmmmm, well if in doubt just paint them grey! Funny but the kit includes a vacuum cylinder but no pipes, luckily my spares box came to the rescue. All the pictures I have show these fitted so these are to.

Clear Prop! Morning everyone. Best wishes particularly to Chris this morning ahead of his scan today. Understandably, given the circumstances, it's a very worrying time for him and I'm sure all ERs fingers are well and truly crossed for the best possible outcome for him. Alan

Back down on the farm, they're still chatting.....

Mornin folks. I don't have much to report except for the usual South Derbyshire 'grey', so it's back to keyboreding and 'another day at the office'. 'til later.

Good moaning from a grey Charente. We actually watched the football last night but in the afternoon I watched the Manx Missile win his 31st Tour stage. My annual sport on TV fix is Le Tour. As the weather was unpredictable we had a plan B in case it rained and the satellite Freesat stopped working. I made sure that our French TV was working, this comes via the internet and was showing both Le Tour and the football. Anyway today is postponed shopping day as I had to wait in for phone calls and deliveries yesterday. Hopefully this afternoon I'll get some shed time. Regards to all. Jamie

9773 Swindon 1962

I didn't realise that lager was that dangerous. Jamie

Mid/dark grey earlier, but getting ungreyer with the sun attempting to elevate our spirits. Scans - troubling whatever the reason and good wishes sent.

Good morning everyone A beautiful sunny day, with virtually no wind (outside) and quite warm, currently 13C. So hopefully we should have a pleasant hour or so at the RHS garden centre. The plant prices are not overly expensive, when compared to other local garden centres, but the quality is much better. Then it’s home for dinner and then out once again to the small craft shop in Dunham Massey. What for I know not, but I’m sure Sheila has her eye on something there. Chrisf. I hope your bone scan goes ok, having had one only a few months ago (which thankfully came back clear) I know only too well the worries these things bring. Robert. I hope your PSA results are good. Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. Brian

Talking of Breeze. When I was an Apprentice I worked with a Len Breeze, Mr Windybank, Mr Fairweather, we also had Misters, Brown, White Gray and Pink, in the Garage.

Greetings all from the boring borough. Crabtree is taking a stress day today. @chrisf Hope the scan comes back negative. All the best. @Erichill16 May all the digits in your PSA test be on the right hand side of the decimal point. All quiet here. My hip seems to have decided to go on strike for some unknown reason. Something must have gone pop in the night. Appropriate tablets taken to no effect. Unless it decides to stop playing silly b^ggers it looks like the camping weekend may be off as I can barely climb the stairs at the moment. <arsebiscuits> or words to that effect. 13 days left on the job with 8 of those on leave. Found out yesterday that a former "boss" will be reporting to me at the new job. Could be interesting. Tomorrow is Canada day. Will be low key here. Some imported Alberta beef on the BBQ along with Newfie Snow crab, Poutine, and a few Canadian beers. (not bloody Molson's beaver p!ss either) Just hope the hip behaves. That's about it. Enjoy the day. I'm off to embrace the dark (roast) side.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Best wishes to Chris and I hope they don't find anything nasty. Robert, I hope your results turn out OK. Joints were stiff again this morning but now I'm moving about the stiffness has disappeared. Time to get breakfast, be back later.

We ran a poll in June and Augugust last year to get people's thoughts about returning to shows - well, that all proved wide of the mark thanks to events but we are approaching a time when events may well start to return. In fact @Phil Parker did his first event last weekend at the 16mm Narrow Gauge show at Peterborough. The new poll is to temperature test what people feel now in regard to the restart of exhibitions. New survey here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfhb9pL1JzfmsDTn08fdUGPmQumDJv6WEbK_0cRX7d42pOU5Q/viewform Results link - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfhb9pL1JzfmsDTn08fdUGPmQumDJv6WEbK_0cRX7d42pOU5Q/viewanalytics No personal data is sought. I'd set this off yesterday in the Covid topic and the initial responses don't paint an exactly rosy picture for large events during this year. There seems to be more enthusiasm for small, local events and there's quite a high acceptance of some requirements that may be necessary for an event to be safe.

I've been redoing the 'water' on a 1/350 ship display I built years ago. Originally it looked like this: And now, with some work still to do, it looks like this: John

Once upon a time the Canadian national brands all had to be brewed within the province they were sold in. One of those ancient and bizarre liquor laws Canadians hate. Molson beers brewed in Montreal were different than those brewed in Edmonton, etc. Today brewers claim to have been able to replicate beers across differing water chemistry, brewing vessels, etc. I call ******* but for many beers their ability to match flavour profiles across different breweries is fairly good for things like lager, pilsner, and other lighter beers. Not so much for bitters and stouts. Bud is a case in point. It varies in ABV around the world but still tastes exactly like making love in a canoe.

Forgot to mention, I heard a scuffling outside yesterday evening. It was a young fox on the patio snaffling up the slugs and snails bought out by the rain. I stood and watched it for several minutes but then I must have made a noise because he/she looked up for a minute or two then shot off into the shrubbery.

Thoughts for @chrisf and @Erichill16 this morning, and also of course @gordon sand any others missing in action.

Lytton has broken all-time Canadian temperature record for the third day running - 49.5C today: https://bc.ctvnews.ca/the-air-is-like-fire-b-c-village-breaks-canada-s-all-time-heat-record-for-3rd-day-in-a-row-1.5490844

Good evening everyone Most of the day has been spent under the living room floor, working on the new underfloor storage area. My first job was to apply some water resistant sealer to the walls. I did a small test area last week to see if it worked. Happily it did, so I painted it to all the exposed brickwork under the floor. It’s original purpose is for use on patios, to prevent water, oil damage or contamination. It seems to have sealed in the loose dust etc that you’d expect to find in the walls a lot better than I’d hoped. I then began to fit the beams, however, when I put the first beam in place, I discovered it was to big, bu99er! So, it was out with the tape measure again to check the gap, it was 6ft but my beam was 6ft 1in, Instead of cutting them I’d cut them 1in shorter than 6ft, I’d cut them 1 inch longer than 6ft, But at least they were too long and not too short, it’s much easier to cut a bit off than add a bit on! My plan was to cut them 1in shorter than the gap, so that I’d have a little sideways movement when fitting them and also to allow for the thickness of damp proof membrane. There are 8 long beams and 2 short beams, luckily the short beams fitted into the space, so I only needed to cut 2in off each of the 8 long beams. Before cutting, I had to remove the damp-proof webbing I’d fitted. So, I removed the webbing, cut one beam and tested it to make sure it fitted. Thankfully it did, so the rest were treated the same, it only took an hour to do all 8. I then started fitting them and I’d got the first 4 long beams in before dinner. After dinner I fitted the last 4 long beams and the 2 short beams, it’s now ready for the flooring sheets to be fitted, but that’s a job for Thursday, as apparently, tomorrow WE are both having the day off and we’re going to the garden centre at RHS Bridgewater AND the craft shop we went to last week, I fear my credit card will take a bashing again. Still, there are no pockets in shrouds are there?

Good luck. We were supposed to produce plans like that when I worked as an advisory teacher for our training courses. . I think someone senior had been on a “How Gantt charts can solve everything “ course.

On my two trips to Canada I seem to have managed to completely avoid the beaver pee. Enjoy your day tomorrow.

BC's electricity is more than 90% hydro - so there's no heat produced in generating it. But yes, there is heat generated in its use.

Bear is most intrigued about this storage area - any chance of (a) piccies please, and (b) BSW01 diggin' me one?

Can't believe you do all this work all by yourself! My 'tool kit' consists of a screwdriver and a pair of pliers, and I have problems with that! Brian.

Now we come to some experimental high level shots at the north end. Your reactions will tell me if they are worth persevering with them. The first features a Director in number 4 bay, which it will leave at 10am.

Morning all, shinny but a gentle breeze can be reported from these parts this morning. To walk or not to walk, the decision will be made after the visit to the washery. Have a good day one and all, Stay safe and keep well.