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Whilst cleaning the upstairs windows of a warehouse I spotted the Dean Goods arriving in the harbour siding. Luckily I had my camera and tripod with me so was able to get this snap.....!

Apologies, but here's yet another diversion from OO/4mm steam locos with my latest N/2mm building project. Yesterday I started scratch-building a representation (simplified and compressed) version of Borough tube station (c mid 1980s). I still need to make the canopy and tall cast concrete LT roundel. These I'll make separately and glue in place when complete and painted. Here I'm testing the fit of a card template (well, trying to with one hand while holding the camera in the other hand) for the canopy to ensure it will fit snuggly against the curved wall:

That Ivatt now gets the chance to leave, and this time the coaches can actually be seen.

Good morning from the House of Fun where we enjoyed one of the autumn’s regular sky-shows as day broke. I must speak to someone about these self-breaking days. Very poor workmanship if you ask me

Hi folks, Well, six weeks since my last update, so not as bad as last time. I've been pretty busy on the traction front recently. You wait ages for new locos on WW and then no fewer than five come along at once. The new additions cover the full timespan of Waverley West, including a centre headcode 40, two Railfreight 20s and two sector 60s. Anyway, without further ado, here are the new releases from the Waverley West Works: First up are two Railfreight-liveried 20s, based on Bachmann's new release. Although Bachmann's chosen 20227 was a Haymarket loco and therefore perfect for WW, I thought the choice a bit strange, as I was unable to find any other Railfreight 20 which was fitted with a hi-intensity headlight while in BR service, which led to a renumbering headache. I wanted a pair of the locos, so in the end I opted for 20132, which was fitted with a headlight sometime after privatisation as far as I can tell from my research. I found it a bit surprising that no other Railfreight 20 was fitted with a high-intensity light, given that twenty class 20s were painted in this livery and presumably lived on longer as a result. Anyway, 20132 is always the train loco in my pairing, so you don't really see the headlight. So, rule 1 applies and I've let myself off the hook. Here are some photos of the pair, which are currently powering one of WW's Speedlink rakes, passing through Princes St Gardens and on through Waverley... I opted for a "workaday" appearance for this pair. Not particularly clean, not particularly dirty. The next new arrival is Petroleum-liveried 60065 Kinder Low. This ended up being a complete respray due to Hornby's complete hash of a paint job on the original loco (60062 Samuel Johnson). Despite their almost exclusive use on freight, 60s always seemed to be pretty clean, so that is how I've portrayed this one. The loco is currently being used on my rake of TEAs, one of the longest rakes on the layout (10 bogies), which it pulls with ease (after the usual major modifications to the Hornby close-coupling mechanism anyway). The fourth new loco is Coal sector 60078 Stac Pollaidh, which will mainly be used on one of the layout's coal rakes. This was also a complete respray for the same reasons as above. Here it is pootling about the station light engine... The fifth and final arrival for now is Banger Blue 40159, which will replace split headcode 40142, which will be sold. My memories of 40s, especially those in Scotland, don't really include the split headcode version, so I had been waiting for the centre headcode version from Bachmann. Again, this one is fairly clean, although the roof is dirty... Well, I seem to have reached my 10 Mb limit for this post, so I'll sign off from this one. More to follow though! I've been having a bit of a clear-out of my loco projects, as looking at my stock boxes, it was clear many projects were never going to see the light of day for various reasons (lack of time, cost of fitting sound chips, obsolescence, etc. etc.). So, I decided to sell off quite a few locos and use the proceeds to fund sound chips for locos which had been sitting in their boxes for too long. So far, this approach has been paying dividends, with the above locos now making it to the layout at last and a few other locos also on the bench, including two Coal sector 26s, Large Logo 37417 and (please don't tell anyone) an InterCity 90 and DVT combination. The latter are not a sign that electrification of WW has been authorised (extremely unlikely), just that I happen to like them! They will be used on both drags and as an electric without any OHLE when no one's watching. Rule 1 again. Hope to be back soon with those other photos. Cheers for now. Happy modelling! Dave

Have just done the same thing with my AA renewal and the RAC came out best at just over £200. It looks as if our move should progress soon; we are waiting on the solicitors agreeing a date. We need to move for SWMBO, she was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia last week.

A few more piccies of 40159... Finally, to finish off for now, here are a few other piccies of the depot taken during a recent running session. Hope to be back soon with some pics of the pair of Coal sector 26s, as they are nearing completion now. Cheers for now, Dave

Apologies for going even more off the wall than usual. MrsID has been diagnosed with some form of breast cancer. We're not sure what treatment will be recommended. Hope to find out soon. Cancer can be a very nasty thing but it's not necessarily a death-sentence. I had testicular cancer in 1985 and I'm still sort of clonking along.

Trains at Ulgham Lane crossing for today. One from each year from 1988 to 1992. UlghamLane 47301 up ICI Sept 88 J9663 Ulgham Lane crossing 31221 and a Class 47 47207 up freight Oct 89 J10537 Withnthanks to Andrew - "Brushman 47544" for identifying the Class 47. Ulgham Lane crossing new barrier crossing being installed Oct 90 J11641 Ulgham Lane crossingClass 43 43082 up 15th June 91 C15936 Ulgham Lane crossing 56126 down coal 28th Nov 92 C18142 David

'That b*gg*r David just nipped in front of me! Doesn't he know we can't brake!' Yelled driver Bill Thwaite

I really enjoyed my last job little stress until the halfwits in the office messed things up. I used to have a bit of variation either out walking and picking litter up. Or driving the van round emptying litter bins and dealing with jobs that had come in. Then on occasions I would be driving a pavement sweeper. We had a good team we had a laugh Sadly it was all ended by 3 doctors a psychiatrist and occy health

A ghostly Pantyffynnon 17Oct21

David is back this morning to check on the Shorthorns.

Darlo show on Saturday . . .good to be there. Gateshead toy fair Sunday morning . . . .Highlight of the day was nephews comment about someone lacking in Hygiene . . "I know it's two years, but I'm sure I smelt him last time . . . . " Goodnight all . . Sleep well. John

@polybear that's why I have a mix of pyracanthus and nice rusty barbed wire on my back fence. I have bought some bamboo screening to staple to the fence now it's repaired and the ends of that seem sharp too as a bonus. I also feel your pain regarding Momma Bear both my Grandma and Mil died in terrible pain from Cancer towards the end of their lives until they went to the Prince of Wales Hospice in Pontefract who looked after both as in patients for a short while before the end. The staff could not do enough for them and any visiting relative. I stayed with Mil after she passed for 2 hours just to see her out of pain and I didn't want her to be alone the staff brought me tea and toast . Pre pandemic my dad was on the Rota for visiting Chaplain he says its the only service he does when he hopes no one turns up

In other news The sat nav update has worked yay I am no longer driving through fields on some of the new roads

Aditi really liked her job, although she didn’t really like the journey to and from work. I know she spent a lot of time when not at work doing work related stuff too. However at annual reviews with a line manager she would always say her motivation was to earn enough money to go on holiday/travel. Asked about what did she want to do next year she usually replied “your job”, or in later years “My garden”.

Then finish off with some Bushes, a Grass verge and fix the walling.

Bear feels your pain Caution - some may wish to skip the next bit..... > > > > > > > ? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > When Momma Bear had The Big C and was in UCH there was one instance where she asked the docs for a bullet . For some strange reason that wasn't available on the NHS - however I've no reason to believe that suitable pain management wasn't in place (she did receive Morphine once - and only once - after which she said "never, ever again" but wouldn't elaborate). Knowing what I know now about the particular flavour she had I'd feel totally comfortable (and I'm sure she would've gone for it too) if she'd decided on a Holiday in Switzerland; no doubt I would've been in deep doo-doo upon return but that's the way the cookie crumbles. As for those who seem intent on blocking such ways out, just don't try convincing this Bear......

Most were at least clever enough to realise that I had been around long enough to have put in, maintained and designed alterations to the old systems that needed to be modified or interfaced to. In one instance a particular early computerised system of which only one existed was preventing any alterations at one signal box until I announced that the machine originally used to produce thd EPROMS was sitting in our office, and for a small fee I would get a man who knew how it worked to see if it could be resurrected. It turned out that it could be, and one of our clever people modified the program to run on Windows. We were provided with a set of the data records to assess the extent of the alteration and soon realised that they didn't match the installed infrastructure. Mods done were missing and stuff included had never been installed. For a slightly larger fee we arranged to clone the existing EPROMs to provide a set of spares and a copy of the as installed data. Our company bean counters were a bit twitchy that I was following a couple of little jobs, but I won them over when I told them that there was a big contract in the offing and we would be specified as sub-contractor for the mods to the electronics. The client was being backed by the TOC and local authority and would not quibble much if I said it could cost up to £0.5m and we came in with a price a bit lower. The contract got done and overall from me first being asked about it we made a margin of about 30% on our part.

A lot of readily available old preparations seem to have disappeared in recent years. I suppose it is due to either risks associated or potential misuse. My mother was secretary to a group of doctors about 60 years ago. I had a sports injury that was giving me pain so one of them produced a small bottle of dark liquid and administered about 10ml of it. He said now lie down as soon as possible. I fell asleep a short while later and slept until next morning. When I spoke to him a while later he explained that it was a mixture he learned when training. He spent time working in what would now be called A&E by the London docks then shortly after qualifying he joined the Army Medical Corps and was sent to the Dardanelles. He said it was very useful for putting wounded men to sleep when treating them. I think it contained enough Class A substances per pint to finish a large horse.

Good moaning from the Charent. Up early with nature's alarm clock then checked the fire. As it's getting a bit cool we litbit last night. It was still going so some logs have been added. The room and most of the house are nice and wzrm. Some work got done in the garden yesterday. Two Pyracanthius bushes were pruned. These were smothered by Ivy and briar 3 years ago and we thought they were dead. They have come back to life very well to our surprise. The last of the grass was cut and assorted other jobs got done. A tip trip today then hopefully some shed time. Regards to all. Jamie

Surpisingly, despite having Dignitas and the like, Switzerland doesn't seem to be awash with scheming relatives ready to off their rich but elderly relatives... There are a huge amount of checks and balances in place and - importantly - the person choosing to end his/her life MUST be compos mentis. Otherwise it doesn't happen. The cocktail of drugs is self-administered and no-one is permitted to administer the drugs (although I understand you can give the drugs to the person - in the sense of handing the medication to the individual to take). The problem in the UK is that the elderly fit will frequently be denied treatment that would allow them to continue to have a decent (and possibly independent) life, yet at the same time the very ill elderly will often be given treatment even though the treatment is unlikely to be successful. And whilst this is most noticeable in geriatic care, it is an ethical dilemma that raises its ugly head for all kinds of patients in all age groups. That dilemma is "we can do treatment/surgery X, but should we do treatment/surgery X?" As the Joe Bonamassa song goes "Just 'Cos You Can Don't Mean You Should" Another complicating factor that using QALYS (Quality Adjusted Life-Year) is in itself problematic - what might be an unviable treatment (and thus uneconomical) in one person, may bring significant quality of life to another. I am glad that this is a dilemma that I don't have to deal with... iD

We've recently renewed insurances, and stayed with our current providers (UK - better for the campervan and they did a deal for all 3 of our 4 wheeled vehicles) but it took a bit of poking to get the best value out of them. The bikes are insured locally, and beat any UK based broker pricing by about 60% or more. Locally underwritten, so they truly understand the low crime (theft esp.) environment, and we're old enough not to want to smear ourselves over a crash barrier (aka stone wall) up on the mountain pretending to be racers. Vintage Motorcycle club membership helps too, as does IAM (motorcycling) membership.

The first job this morning was the finish off the entrance to the shed. Then I began work on the roof, with the central section which rests on the black girders. The twenty two spans were cut in 2mm acrylic by York Modelmaking. I made up lengths of square section Plastruct to rest on the girders, concrete beams in the real shed, and the spans were attached to these with Superglue, an L shaped bracket on each side giving a locating position. I decided to attach the narrower section of roof on the right to the main span rather than leaving it separate. The first thing was to glue a length of 'concrete' beam to the inside of the wall for it to rest on. Then the framework on 'concrete' beams to built up from Plastruct. It will be spray painted in due course before the glazing is added. With the roof this far on I can now complete the tops of the walls which will be the next job. Peter

I'm pretty sure thats what they gave my dad in his last hours. He had an unusual form of cancer*, it appeared literally overnight as a pea sized lump in the chest cavity. At first it was thought to be angina but a chest x-ray revealed what it was. At the time (1990) it was incurable but he was warned that it would increase in size over time but not gradually but like it started suddenly swelling then stopping and then suddenly increasing size again. Eventually it increased in size to such an extent that his airways were obstructed and I had to call an ambulance and he died twelve hours later. I'm pretty sure that what he was given not only knocked him out but may have even helped him on his way. *I can't now remember the name of the cancer and I don't have his death certificate to hand.

I find it amazing how women can turn any member of their gender into the 'enemy' with such ease. 'Nuff said on that subject. Yesterday was a bit of a non-event. I had a bit of a reaction from Saturday's jab, much more than with the first two. Fortunately the effects wore off as the day progressed but the planned painting was postponed until today. The other planned action was an early trip for some photographing of moving machinery at Sheepsrear but it was decided that the inclement weather at the time would make the effort futile and not fun. In the event it gave some time for sorting old photos and recording some details of them in a more easily identifiable form. Enough for now, I have a ceiling to paint. I may be back later.

Ey up! Loadsapaperworh to catch up on today..pah! Her indoors is off darntarn looking for calendars and other "stuff" I shall stay at home. Large mugatea 1 consumed..next up.. breakfast. Stay safe! Baz

Shunting condemned vent vans, for scrapping, at Charlie Strong's yard.

Some afternoon leftovers featuring 18000.

One of the most effective pain killing concoctions ever devised was the “Brompton Cocktail”. A mixture of morphine or diacetylmorphine (heroin), cocaine, highly-pure ethyl alcohol (some recipes specify gin), and sometimes with chlorpromazine (Thorazine) to counteract nausea, it was given to terminally-ill individuals (especially cancer patients), it was developed (well refined, actually) by the Royal Brompton Hospital in London - hence the name. It’s rarely used now, but some oncologists still swear by it I remember oncologist colleagues in the late 70s prescribing Brompton Cocktails for end-stage patients with bone, brain and liver metastases. (It is claimed that the worst pain any patient can suffer is from bone metastases or a dissecting aortic aneurysm. As one colleague once said “there are two kinds of severe pain: one where you’re afraid to die, the other when you hope to die”) What angers me is how many docs refuse to prescribe narcotics because of “the risk of addiction or dependency”. Let’s face it, addiction would be the last thing I’d be worried about if I had end stage cancer with bone mets. There are many good reasons for being cautious about prescribing narcotics - dependency in end-stage cancer patients ain’t one of them.

They were built at the same time and by the same builder. He built ours to finance his! The family did live next door for a few years, but moved on to a plot a few doors down which had a massive L shaped site. Funnily enough this first house of his also had an L shaped plot, and it was a bit of a sticking point when it came to selling. We offered to buy the short leg of the L, which is where our current veg plot is now situated. Once that was sorted out, the house sold quite quickly. He built a very nice house on his huge L shaped plot and lived there for about 20 years, but is now moving onto building his retirement home, which is being built behind his current house.... The reason for the large L shaped plot! They are becoming adjoining neighbours once more, as their rear garden now backs onto our rear garden which is good. What before was a weed infested field, with the attendant problems of seeds blowing into our garden, is now becoming his back lawn with an immediate increase in maintenance.

Morning, from a dark and 13c rock, someone forgot to turn the lights on. Mrs H away to work still on the high of beating Mysogo-man at archery yesterday. NHN less enthused about the pile of washing that Mondays bring! This week's diary has lots of things in it, and some shuffling of things will be needed to accomplish everything - retirement wasn't meant to be so busy.

Nah! He’s a rank amateur, actually Bear. Captain Cynical (but he shows promise ) Voltarol (aka Voltaren) is a diclofenac (NSAID) cream developed by Novartis. In terms of analgesic properties I find diclofenac more effective than other NSAIDs (I take a 50mg slow release tablet when my joints really decide to play silly bu99ers). Unfortunately, 50mg diclofenac is prescription only - so I have to stock up whenever I visit the “boy doctor”. It certainly has. I remember when it started (in the 80s) and it was a passable medical drama (but not as good as St Elsewhere). Now Casualty is just another tedious British soap opera. Unwatchable - like much of the BBC’s output nowadays (from Kenneth Clarke’s Civilisation to Strictly come prancing… My, how the mighty have fallen!) And whilst on the subject of medical “drama”, I’m on day two of a three day low residue diet in preparation for a colonoscopy on Wednesday. It’s all rather tedious and I still have various bowel motility and peristalsis enhancers to look forward to. As always seems to be the case, the colonoscopy is a procedure I am very familiar with - but not from the wrong end. Serious drugs have been promised pre- and peri-procedure, so should be “interesting”. And on that GI note (not to be confused with GU!) I bid you a great start to the week! iD

Greetings There are some events of note in the week ahead. Tomorrow I am due to have my flu jab at 9.42 am - such precision! - followed in the evening by the AGM of the Bedford branch of the LCGB. On Wednesday the Chilterns Area Group will have its quarterly lunch in Harpenden. It would be wise to put some petrol in the car before then. Apart from that it should be pretty much the old routine. Some good news came yesterday. My young friend who is enslaved by Amazon is on holiday in Stockholm. I hope his break does not wear off too quickly when he returns. He is allowed five weeks' leave a year and I suspect that he has not been able to take all of it. I recall that when I retired, upwards of 15 years ago, my benevolent employers had to pay me for five and a half weeks' leave for a similar reason. I'm not knocking dedication to duty, far from it in fact, but there is a difference between working to live and living to work which I hope my friend understands. Best wishes to all Chris

Evening each, Noisy day here with work going on in houses either side of us and up the road. Adjoining house to us is still having work done in their kitchen which has been going on for weeks months and they're using so-called tradesmen although judging by what I've seen and heard I have my doubts. The house up the road is quite frankly a bad joke judging by the mess outside and the time it's taking. Most of the protective polythene sheeting around the scaffolding at the front of the house is hanging down to the ground at the moment. As it's currently pouring with rain I suspect it may be somewhat damp in there. Apparently he's doing a lot of the work (a loft extension) himself with the help of family and friends. I understand he is completely competent and qualified for this as he is an IT professional! After weeks of work and conflict the loft extension two doors away has now been finished. (that was the one where the Chinese guys were squaring up to each other with iron bars and lumps of wood). We quite miss their arguing and shouting and probably swearing although as it was in Chinese we couldn't understand a word they were saying. My new printer colour cartridge has at last arrived and surprise, surprise the thing now works...for now. The big hammer has been put back in The Shed. Enough of my ramblings for now, another glass of Shiraz awaits.

I enjoyed most of my jobs over the years.. even the emptying bins as a students one! I had a bad time with three bosses (all were fired after I left clutching copious amounts of dosh!) although you could play them like a salmon on a line...not the smartest of cookies, just arrogant and.. quite thick really! My first job (the rocket scientist one) was OK but I got bored doing simulations of various types of rockets, the support to production and.. not a lot else.. and promotion? Well it was dead mens shoes or .. leave! I left! Baz

just paid for my Holiday Insurance... that Covids has badgered the prices.. even with a healthy discount it has gone from £238 to £402 for the two of us.. and we can't go to Singapore for reasons best known to the insurance company.. and yes I did look at some others which.. come out very similar to the non discounted price...PAH! Baz

Amongst other things I have not been doing! Thinking about couplings on kit build wagons. Until now. Hunts have appeared. I am experimenting! Ns didn't work that often east of Exmouth Junction, however. First Van has 3 Links (actually in use on this train as well as the Hunts between Van and first Wagon) and was inherited; following Wagons are Tunny and Ling from ex Chivers, wot I built some time ago. Guard's Van is an old Hornby job that is converted to a track cleaner using a Brass Roller. The Wagons have extra weight added and a layer of light Ballast to cover the Liquid Lead. I added this as I was fitting Hunt Elite Swivel Intermediates and the magnetic couplers are great but drag lightweight stuff off the track on curves. Hunt the Hunts! (Please excuse tatty label on the middle front!) Wagons in front left are Cambrian versions of these: Like this They are weighted in the well, but no couplings yet. I have shown these before: Covid therapy projects! That's it for now. CBA to take any more pics of my Walruses that have different Hunts attached to the Bogies. P

I was lucky to get a job I liked and until privvy-tization it was generally enjoyable. Yes there were hard times but a brew and a bit of railway humour usually got us through those. It all changed with the Failtrack blow-ins. Mostly no knowledge other than how to work out what quantity of concrete had been poured or bricks laid. I got grief from them until I commented that my savings were bigger than my mortgage and my pension would keep me comfortable for longer than I was likely to live so when I stopped liking the job I would be off. They were mostly very nice to me after that.

Greetings all from a Sidcup which is grey and dry although my weather app has promised rain! The weekend has passed, as weekends tend to do, all too quickly and here I am back at work again. The rain that fell strategically mid Saturday morning put paid to my tentative plans to mow the lawn and clear up the first fall of leaves - the copper maple has started to let go of its leaves. With more rain forecast for this week, I am doubtful the lawn will get another mow this year. Have a good day all

Excellent images Gwiver, the second one in particular. Good noontime all. Nothing much to report today. I'm just entering my busy editorial period so will be a bit head down for a while. It's now dull and grey in W. London (though I did see a bit of Gwiver's red sky when I went to the bathroom early this morning). No rain yet and I had a brisk 3 mile walk at about 11.00-12.00. On the way I noticed that Thames Water are on the Ealing Golf Club's course pumping large quantities of water into the River Brent. I've no idea where from as it's about 300m from the former New River Company water main from N. London to Hounslow which they've been digging up in stages for the past couple of years and installing a large new pumping station just to the west of the Hoover Building.

Very sorry to hear of your wifes cancer. Hopefully its at the early stages where treatment is usually successful.

Feels great, doesn't it? Bear feels your pain already...... How long were you in A&E for? Nasty little bleeders...but great for keeping scrotes out Are those big words for Moviprep by any chance? Bear found it to be "kinda fun" - in a weird sort of way; if only it didn't taste so f. distgusting - and seems to get worse the more you drink (which is a lot) Bear made do with hoovering up some sort of gas as required during the actual fun - which was all rather interesting really cos' I got to watch it on telly. It was a hell of a lot more interesting that "Come Dancing", I can tell you. The worst bit? Dreading it'll be 'orrible beforehand - and of course hoping beyond hope that you don't have a sudden urge for yet another No. 2 between home and hospital.... In other news: Yet another "MIUAIGA" day - which the Outlook Calendar reminders function has just informed me is to include searching for Car Insurance quotes for the next year. Oh joy. And finally...... Bear would like to issue an "As Muchvirtual LDC As You Can Eat For Life" Award to the Swiss Chemist Heinrich Keberle for inventing the drug "Baclofen" - which once again appears to have knobbled Bear's latest episode of the dreaded "Big H**"; as you can imagine Bear doesn't dish out such awards lightly (in fact I can't recall the last time - if ever). Wiki tells me all this happened back in 1962 though, so actually claiming the award could be dubious.... (Apparently he was working for Ciba-Geigy, the manufacturers of a well-known sticky stuff). ** At their very worst they have been known to hit 28/minute - for 18 hours. Work out what 28 x 60 x 18 comes to.....

This coming weekend, 23-24/10/21, sees the return of the Leeds MRS (of which I have been a member since 1976) exhibition: If you're within travelling distance of Leeds I recommend strongly that you find time to pay a visit. What has this got to do with the Mid-Cornwall Lines? Well, it just so happens that, exactly 40 years ago, the 1981 Leeds show saw the first exhibition appearance of my St Enodoc layout. This was the portable branch line layout shown in this post: Although, for obvious reasons, I won't be at this year's show I wish all my mates at Leeds all the very best for the weekend.

Mr. Lewis seems to think that prices will end up somewhere between renewal and new customer prices: Banning price walking is a popular move and is good news for those who don't switch (or do switch but don't want the hassle of doing it). But it could also push up prices for savvy switchers over the coming months. Our guess is insurers won't just cut renewal prices to match those they charge new customers. They'll drop them and crucially increase new-customer charges to meet in (or above) the middle. That's apparently what happened when cheaper car insurance for females was outlawed as being discrimination. In other news: Big H back this afternoon, so not chased off yet ; winding up - and down - the meds has to be done slowly, otherwise the side effects can make you feel somewhat iffy to say the least; I'm normally on 10mg/day but was on as high as 60mg/day several years ago - I was warned by the Neuro guy not to suddenly stop taking them otherwise I could expect all sorts of nasties. A waste of a day today - just the odd little bit here and there. Turdycurses. I did do the car insurance price comparison cr@p - I'm still waiting for my latest renewal price from the AA to see how they compare though; at present it looks like the RAC via GoCompare are the best deal - two hundred notes, which is some sixty quid less than I paid the AA last year.

Good grief, doesn't that break the Geneva convention or if not, it should..................................

Kitchen seems to have developed a wobbly floor, think the tongue and groove has failed, need to lift the vinyl and have a look, then decorating and finally new set of doors for all the cupboards, the carcasses look sound. Re your car insurance quote I had a word with the large Welsh Opera singers mob, saved me money, got the cover I wanted and I get a free £250 excess should I ever have to claim, they got me with a reputable company too.

Good morning all, Red sky earlier and it was very overcast but now there is a glimmer of something bright through the clouds. Rain is forecast but it's quite mild at 14°C. Late on parade this morning as I got side-tracked. First task was to unblock and wash the filter on the little Vax vacuum cleaner that I use in The Shed and yes I did get down there yesterday for a couple of hours. (After that I watched Saracens massacre Bath) I've also just spent some time online booking a little break away for a couple of days in the not too distant future. Some Shark wielding has been done but no decorating yet. Saving that for tomorrow..... Lots of noise from our friend's house next door as they have decided to have a bathroom refurb and doing the same as us replacing the bath with a large walk in shower. Mind you they haven't got the same problems as we had as they have a second shower room in their loft extension. Time for more coffee. Have a good one, Bob.

Evening All, Spent most of the day on house chores and the last couple of daylight hours spent in the garden. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little bit more interesting. For SWMBO’s birthday we went to Gainsborough as we’ve never been before and sister said we should try it. Tomorrow will be last ‘free’ weekday for a couple of weeks as I’ve got various jobs on the horizon but I’ve arranged to go to see the new Bond film. A friend and I will be going to see it at Penistone Paramount, a fabulous little venue and there’s a bar that opens before the screening and again during the interval. We always go there as it’s nice to support something quaint and local and it’s good to see its re-opened post Covid restrictions. Enough rambling, Goodnight Robert