coastalview

Have a wonderful birthday Douglas

Absolutely agree with this I went to a Poly, and strangely enough both my kids went to former Polys.

That sounds familiar. Julies Dad got a cast off Dyson from her brother as it wasn't working very well and he could use it in his workshop. Well to cut a fairly short story very short we stripped it down removed a blockage inside it and cleaned both the filters. It's now as good as new and not relegated to the workshop.

Well that was an expensive morning. Just been to the opticians and my wallet feels like it has purchased a complete optical factory..... Must say the sight test and examination was probably the most thorough I have ever had and its reassuring to know that the cataracts have not changed significantly. Already saving for next year's visit

The sun is out , the wind has stopped blowing slates off so we have decided to take a day out from home improvements to go to Bodnant Gardens. Wish us luck as we cross the border into the land of dragons

The ideal location.... https://maggiemaesvintage.co.uk/

We were there in October one year and it was in the low 30's and incredibly humid. Easter is a good time to visit in our experience if you don't like the heat plus the Easter celebrations are very interesting.

First time I visited was in 2000 and I certainly felt the British influence, however, we have been going back every couple of years or so and Malta is becoming much more Mediterranean Europe. Gozo is certainly still more British in feel. Its fascinating to wonder what it would be like now if it had become part of UK.

I would love to have come into the Grand Harbour on a cruise ship it must look amazing

Always quite fancied the idea of living in Malta, as spent quite a while working in the country

Sorry for the long absence the outside world intruded rather violently. Things are now back on a more even keel so looking forward to getting back involved.

Seeing as you ask.. It's got more track than baseboard and is wired for DCC, so don't expect realism but it should be fun when the grandkids come up (although I think they will have to run a little faster) as I've just discovered that a second one is due this Christmas

I always found Delta to be particularly useless on the customer service when I was travelling fairly regularly from Manchester to Atlanta, but it had the benefit of being direct so convenience outweighed less than stellar customer service

The first test train has just completed a circuit on my first layout since I built one for the boys 30 years ago. A feeling of smugness pervades the train shed. It's not finescale just code 100 10x8 roundy roundy from a CJ Freezer plan. But it works and nothing falls off the track so well happy. Next job is ballasting Chris

As an aside that has little to do with this I once worked at the Midland Red Head Office at Edgbaston and it still had the old plug style telephone boards in reception. When Pat who was the longest serving telephonist answered the phone all anyone ever heard was "d Red". Apparently she had been answering this way for over 30 years It was a fascinating place to work as it was in the final days of the Central Works where they used to build buses like the one in Tony's model. The last things I recall being built were some Ford Transit bread van style minibuses. Walking round the works was a real history tour and I rather wish I had taken some photos.