AndrewC

One of the gents we met up with in Haarlem at the weekend, tested positive yesterday after being near a travelling plague rat on Sunday. He was masked as well. I tested neg this morning. Phew.

Greetings all from the boring borough. Whump! What was that? Reality Feck Last of the annual leave used up. 6 decent days away. Lots of good beers and catching up with people who we haven't seen in 3 years. Back to work today. I could use another week to recover. About 25 pages to catch up on so I'll go back when I have a few minutes. Just one note though. Simon, when I did my shoulder in 5 years ago the GP, specialist, and pharmacist all said not to naproxen and codeine within 4 hours of each other. Had a nasty hiccup with the shed while we were away. Something in the greenhouse tripped the rcd on the shed's consumer unit. Freezer with about £500 worth of bbq meat. I think you can see where this is going. Got home last night to find after 6 days there was still ice in the freezer and about 2/3 of the stuff was still very frozen. Internal temp was 1.5c. Hats off to Kenwood. In the end the loss was less than £100 worth. Time to get back to work. Coffee awaits. No latte until I can get to the shops for milk. <sigh> Enjoy the day.

Greetings all from the boring borough. Still in meh mode. Chiropractor at lunch time so at least I escape the endless meetings of nothing for a couple of hours. <sigh> Like Simon, I've had stupidity from car rentals. Once upon a time we booked a Britrail rail-drive pass. This let us take the train, then pick up a car, etc. Booked car from Gatwick to Bath over 3 days. All good. Second booking was for Shrewsbury. Confirmation letter etc, all supposedly good. When we dropped the car at Bath I asked the girl at the counter to confirm our Shrewsbury booking. After several minutes of faffing about, she discovered the Shrewsbury location no longer existed. Closest available car was in Stoke. <insert naughty words here> Train to London, then to Stoke. Picked up a new roller skate with 2 miles on the clock. I think my coffee maker had more horsepower. Managed to get a drop off in Anglesea near the station with no drop charge for all the inconvenience. Went to drop the car with the letter from Stoke saying "no charges". Waited an hour past their supposed opening time. Nobody showed up. Finally dropped the keys wrapped in the letter. We didn't bother trying to rent another even though we still had 5 days of rental available. On returning home we received a £50 charge for dropping off instead of returning. A long phone call to tear them a new one until it Hertz was made. In other news....... eff all. Pumpkin spice latte at the ready. Enjoy the day.

Thanks. Sadly the math says we have to keep working until the mortgage is gone. In our situation we basically started from scratch (with a couple of small Canadian pensions and gov pension locked away) when we moved here just under 19 years ago. We bought just under 15 years ago and still have 8 1/2 to go. We probably could have knocked 5 years off that if we didn't add on to basically rebuild the interior 4 years ago. Oh well. Such is life. Although we lose ££ for ever year short of the magic UK full pension contribution years as well. July 2031 seems to be the earliest viable date still. <sigh> As for trimming or even purging, I've done that in the past and sometimes regretted it. I had a friend who did the same. I bought most of his stuff and ended up selling it back to him a couple of years later after his regret tuned in. This time it feels different. I really have done nothing in the shed apart from maintain it and play darts for the past 3 years. (darts is now verboten after my elbow surgery) The only modelling of note was to rewire a set of Freemo modules I bought 2 years ago. I just can't seem to get motivated. Technically I've got over 100 bits of stock all crying out for weathering. By the time I'm finished work for the day I'm just mentally knackered and can't face doing anything except an early night. My cunning plan to compress my work week and have Friday as a modelling day / bbq cooking & smoking day just hasn't worked out so far. Oh well. The shed had a 10 year warranty for the walls and roof. Shiplap and roofing felt doesn't last forever in this climate. What I'd really like to do with the roof is strengthen it and slap up a large bank of solar panels. It has a 2m by 7.2m south facing roof that and the bit of house roof that faces south, theoretically would generate around 5kw/h of juice. The cost of doing a reinforced roof that would take the weight though is almost as much as the panel installation. Maybe what I need to do is empty the shed, do a proper fix on it and then set up all the existing modular bits. If I get the bug to play trains then great. If not time to move on and do something different.

Moaning all from the boring borough. 00:00:00 of the proceedings were watched yesterday. A quiet day on the garden patio was enjoyed instead. Little else going on these days. There seems to be a big black dog running about. 8 years 10 months till retirement and I really can't picture myself lasting that long. I seem to have zero motivation for anything anymore. 4 days off and did the sum total of eff all really. I'm again seriously considering downsizing and disposing of most of the model railway stuff, scrapping the shed and replacing it with a much smaller outdoor office building. The train shed is now 14 and despite replacing the insulation, floor, and interior lining last year, it still needs a fair bit of work. Some of the outside panels are showing real signs of decay which will need replacing. The roof as well is starting to bow and the roofing material needs replacing as well. Enough self pity, time for more coffee and endless bloody meetings.

Greetings all from the boring borough. Due to work issues this is my first Friday off in ages. I plan on enjoying the 4 day weekend. @Tony_S You will be pleased to know that no mice were involved in the intranet cable issues. A dodgy crimp of a cable to blame. Back to getting 1900mbit in the office. Little else of note. Enjoy the weekend. Time for along hot bath.

With the mourning queue at about 5 miles in length it is almost as long as the queue for the toilets at the Great British Beer Fest.

Good day all. This seems to have change to the epicurean thread. Smashed avocado on toast is lovely. SWMBO makes her own quasi-guacamole with tomato, chives, avocado, and a bit of hot sauce. mmmm Tomorrow's plan is to finally cold smoke the cured bacon I've made. After that it will be sliced, vac packed, and frozen in easy to use portions. It is so much nicer than the water injected crap from the supermarket and about half the cost of the good stuff from the butcher. The <censored> bunch of tw@waffles at DHL's local depot managed to forget to load a package of frozen food from the Sausage Man on Tuesday. It arrived yesterday with the contents thawed. £100 of food in the bin. Replacement arrived. Jager schnitzel tonight for dinner. For my next trick I have to trace a dodgy ethernet cable. I ran 2 cat6 lines into the office from the router a while back due to sporadic wifi. Noticed today that one of them isn't performing very well. The speed test confirmed that it is running about 10% of expected. I'm hoping it is either a bad connection to the jack or the cable from the jack to the switch. Otherwise it means the long cable is compromised. <feck> Lunch time. Enjoy the day

Like Ian I have my initials on the bottom of each car and loco. When I have a module as well as stock I tend to keep my stock list down to under 20 items. Even then it can take 10 to 15 minutes to round them all up.

Ahh you must mean Melissa's. One of the best places there is for steak anywhere. Been around since the 70s. Then again Alberta beef is fantastic. (no antibiotics, hormones, or other crap) So they have a good starting point. Once I started bbq as a semi-serious hobby I have yet to find anywhere in the UK that can do as steak as good as I can. (ego a go go mode on) Mostly they are cheap cuts, no marbling, not aged properly, and just stuck over a gas flame or worse still in a frying pan. I'm lucky that I have a UK source for Alberta beef. Not cheap but well worth it. The current trend with steak is called reverse sear. The meat is rubbed or marinated as desired. Thrown in a smoker at around 110c until the steak reaches 45c internal. This can take about 20 to 30 minutes. Let the meat rest for about 15 minutes, then place over a very hot grill at around 300c. No more than 60 seconds per side. Et voila a steak that has a slight smokiness, and will melt in your mouth. Never more than Medium. If you want well done, I'll throw an old shoe in the microwave for you to chew on. 😁 The slow heating in the smoker starts to break down the fat and collagens in the meat making it more tender, while not losing too much moisture. The hot fast sear seals in the juices and gives you that great outer bark. <bbq bore mode off> Good moaning all from the boring borough where more rain has interrupted my plans on cold smoking 4kg of bacon today. Oh well. Little else to report. Cough still with me. Feeling drained still. Work sucks. meh. Enjoy the day.

Go on, you know you want to.

Greetings all from the boring borough. Back home again and have finally caught up on ERs. That was a week I really want to forget. Late flight, even later flight, poor directions to client office, and the worst cold I've had in years. (3 neg covid tests as well) My sum experience of 6 days in Copenhagen was airport, metro, hotel, client site, whole day in hotel trying to shake the cold, more metro, more client site, more hotel, airport. The really fecking annoying thing is half the people in the workshop sessions were on bloody Teams and not in the meeting room. There was no real reason for me to have been there in person. <grrrr> Managed to trip on Saturday and smash my bad knee. That was the end of any attempt to get stuff done around the house this past weekend. Still coughing and wheezing, but now with the added fun of being barely able to walk. Post-op elbow has become rather tender as well. Time to play a game of frustration and book an appt with the quack. Little else to moan about. More coffee needed. Enjoy the day.

Good moaning. Just a drive by Birthday greeting to @Tony_S Happy Birthday Tony. 🎂🍺

I keep receiving similar emails. The ones that make me borderline homicidal are ones with the sender marked as a late good friend. Obviously, his account was compromised after his passing and the f*ckers are using his contact list as a way of pushing dodgy malware links.

Greetings all. Back in the boring borough for a few days. Way too much to properly catch up on. I've sprinkled some thumbs and hearts as appropriate. 6 days of Belgian beer fests and tastings done and dusted. 93 new (to me) beers sampled along the way. Back to work for the week. <sigh> Planned meal out with friends on Saturday scuppered by Covid. Little else but to wish everyone a great day. Laterzzzzzz

Apart from all the congratulatory stuff my biggest beef are the recruiters that don't read your profile but just use keywords to harvest potential victims. "we think you'd be a perfect fit for this role" No I bloody wouldn't. Finally gave up on it and set my LinkedIn to "hibernate". Sheer bliss.

Greetings all from the boring borough. Finally got some rain the day after Thames water stopped dumping sh*t in the river just long enough to enact a hosepipe ban. The thunder has the cats hiding at present. Poor old George jumped half way to the moon at one point in the night. Oz's experience with American companies and time zones is at odds with what I've frequently dealt with in the past. Many, including the client I'm finishing up with today expect their offshore suppliers (me) to work to their office hours. (Eastern Time, GMT/BST -5) Some, very few understand that the rest of the world is not the US of A. Then again the UK is almost as bad when it comes to offshoring to India or Lithuania. Expecting them at late afternoon meetings is pretty schitty. My last missive for a while (stop cheering). Off on a week of Belgian beer hunting tomorrow, then a week on the new client site in Denmark, followed by more time off in the Netherlands. Enjoy the day

Maybe they could fax you a cruller. 😁 Still not as bad as the mandatory training missive I got yesterday. "you are now overdue for the mandatory patient awareness course". This is an onsite course in New York that some arsebadger in HR managed to apply to all onboarding workflows. "your line manager will be informed of non-compliance" good luck with that, he just told his boss to go and f*ck himself. Now that was a meeting worth attending!!! Sadly, there is no real human in the process that I can yell at. Really don't give a rat's arse as I'm gone on Thursday. I can stay non-compliant.

Having been connected to American companies for far too long in the past, I know exactly how you feel. Corporate missives and jingoism around all the American holidays while expecting immediate responses on Canadian hols (now British ones too) were very annoying. What really frosted my corn flakes, were the "invites" to corporate festivities festooned in flag graphics and other merde. Yea, sure I'd love to come to the company Thanksgiving picnic & baseball day. Can't see you tight fookers paying my travel costs though. Asshats!!! The American ignorance of international timezones is also astounding. So many are now used to "follow the sun" support from suppliers, they forget that the sun goes down in other countries as well. All hands meeting tomorrow at 12:00 Pacific?? If you think I'm going to attend a meeting at 8pm on a Friday night you can go forth and multiply. <insert more naughty words here> The Indian & Polish teams weren't impressed either. Today the problem is almost reversed. Trying to find a working day when someone isn't on a holiday to have a meeting is next to impossible. Every last Friday at supplier X is no-meeting day. Thursday then, nope holiday in Lithuania. Wednesday? nope people on split week time. Tuesday? India team event day. Monday then? Can't do Monday, UK bank holiday. <aaarrrggghhh>

Read The Fantabulous* Manual other less polite words beginning with F are available.

Greetings all from the boring borough. Last day before the hosepipe ban takes effect. The bits-o-rain we had over the past few days have half filled the water butts so the plan is to top them off today as well as the trickle watering gizmo in the greenhouse to keep the few remaining plants going while we are away next week. All forecast rain has vanished from the app. Work is all hand over meetings this week. <sigh> In true Dilbert fashion the whole set of 6 hours of "meetings" could be distilled down to the 5 page document that is available. I'm tempted to just put RTFM on the screen and go for a pint (or 6). With regards to angry critters, https://nypost.com/2022/07/01/two-hikers-injured-in-bear-and-bison-attacks-in-yellowstone-area/ Darwinism is alive and well. How many times do people have to be warned not to take selfies with the fluffy cows. The bird feeders and water seem to be attracting an ever increasing number of small flying things. We had what has to be called a swarm of sparrows the other morning. That is until something large dive bombed the lilac. The carnage looked like a Hitchcock movie. A minute later, what appeared to be a sparrowhawk (hard to tell in silhouette) zoomed off with something in its talons. It was about 6 hours before any other birds returned. We also have a rather young Bexleykeet that visits every morning for peanuts. I was thinking of taking up bird spotting but the numbers on their sides are too small to read. 😃 That's about it. Enjoy the day. Thar be lattes to be made.

Greetings all from the boring borough. Another Monday. 3235 days until retirement. With hols and compressed work week that's roughly 1568 working days, or 1567 days too many. Another wasted weekend where my mojo refused to get out of bed. I think we've both come to the conclusion that the amount of effort to keep the house, garden, greenhouse, train shed, etc running is becoming beyond our abilities. SWMBO took the decision yesterday to scale back the greenhouse for the season and dumped out all but 6 plants that were already fruiting. The stragglers are gone. I can see a massive downsize and move in the next couple of years. That's about it from here. Enjoy the day.

Happy solar orbit completion @BSW01 🎂

Not accurate as BNSF didn't exist in 1980. Great Northern did own a large amount of land in the area but at the time of the 1980 eruption the whole area was under ownership of the US Forest Service. I was in Spokane at the time and despite it being nearly 400km away the whole city got covered in ash. Good moaning all. Another day, sigh. Was just outside Kings Cross yesterday when the taps were turned on. York Road flooded to the point where the nearby McDonalds had several cm of water pouring in the doors. Heavy rain a bit later when I was in Clerkenwell. Returned home to find we had a paltry 2mm and everything had already dried. It appears the heath acts as some sort of rain shadow. The radar map of the rain in the afternoon had masses of rain all over London but there was a visible strip of no rain that matched the "lump" that runs from Blackheath to Dartford. I wouldn't have thought such a little hill could cause weather changes but it seems to. It is common that Greenwich, Woolwich, and Thamesmead get rain and we get nothing. Burger all else going on. Enjoy the day.

Further north, unless you bought a real cheap pile of crap, exterior and structural walls are always 2 by 6. When we built our last house (25 years ago now, wow) the sandwich for the exterior was siding (vinyl), Tyvek breathable membrane, 1/2" ply (not chip board) 2" x 6" frame stuffed with fibreglass pink insulation, vapour barrier (6mm poly) gypsum drywall. Nice and warm in the coldest winters. Cool in summer. One thing to look out for with flooring are the so called silent joists. They are anything but. Basically an I beam made with softwood top & bottom with a chip board middle. The idea is it flexes but doesn't squeak. Bollards to that. Ply screwed to solid joists works far better. Greetings all from the middle of a pizza oven in the boring borough. The office air con has been commandeered for the bedroom at the moment so things are rather less than ideal in the office. meh. Work is work. Winding down on this project. A few days off at the end of the month then something new. Enjoy the day