sixoh8sixoh

What a waste of India Pale Ale...

Think I would have scored 4, maybe 5... Great to see trains moving and between this and the fact that our loft has had some flooring put down now, it’s maybe starting to give me a little inspiration back too!

Afternoon all. Back for an irregular post... the modelling mojo went a couple of years ago but may have just had a spark of reignition. We had the central section of the lift floored this week and a proper wooden folding ladder installed. And once I went up to see the finished product, the other half suggested I could now get a model railway in place. Looks like I could have a roughly 3’ x 4’ section with a further 12’ of 1’ to 2’ wide section either side of the uprights... That’s the spark (along with seeing Gordon get a train round ET!)...

Morning all - I think I'll skip catching up on however many thousand pages have passed by since I last dropped in! Railway modelling mojo well and truly gone, but getting on otherwise. Nice to see (looking at the last couple of pages) that many of the same folk are still here! My morning walk into work from the new house takes me past one half of the Craigentinny depot in Edinburgh and this morning was a bit of a treat as there was an 08 shunter just finishing pushing into a siding a 47 and a 92 in Caledonian Sleeper livery.

They did, but then they called it snooker!

I’ve tried that before. Definitely didn’t reach the distance. I was lucky if I hit it into the foreground...

I can also recommend Mixbook - have had photobooks from them and they have regular discount codes too. www.mixbook.com - as above, no affiliation other than satisfied customer.

I like both options - the flow of Option 2 is good - it seems more like the shed complex was carefully planned before building, whereas Option 1 has a more organic look to it - which might not be a bad thing. I still like the diamond crossings in Option 1, but it does seem to isolate areas of the complex a lot more from the incoming main line than Option 2 does. That might be a good thing if you're using a second panel and operator for that area, though!

You need one of these! https://goo.gl/images/ryYN1a I have one in the loft at my parents... Actually I'm sure an operating coaling tower will be well within your abilities having seen your trackwork and electrics!

Hi Gordon, lovely to see ET moving along at pace now. My layout plans have just been plans for probably as long as ET’s thread has been running, mostly due to lack of space (and more recently time). I first tried using Parallels Desktop without much success, then partitioned my desktop Mac and had Windows running on it, and my advice is don’t bother. I had a full version of Photoshop installed and found myself avoiding going in as the process for swapping partitions was slow, I spent my time worrying about Windows-targeting viruses and in the end just ended up using lighter weight software on the Mac instead! (I know that’s not an option for Templot though!) I’d say stick with tried and tested - and fast - methods until you find a genuine and pressing reason to change - no-one here will mind a picture of a screen taken in a hurry as opposed to a proper screenshot!

Afternoon all from a grey blue and white (we're not allowed to be any other colour now) Scottish HQ. Was floored on Monday and Tuesday by the zombie plague that's doing the rounds in our office and still not feeling right - keep waking up with sore throat and catarrh during the night and takes me about an hour to feel human again in the morning. Or maybe that's just the effects of being 40...? Looking forward to the last round of 6 Nations games tomorrow. Should get to see at least the England game, but maybe the Scotland game too if I'm lucky... Hope all are well!

Afternoon all from a busy but (mostly) sunny Scottish HQ. We came 7th in last night's quiz - that was enough to secure 3rd position in the league, so we got £120 in winnings. (Though given we've paid £72 in entrance fees over the course of this 12 week league, we're not that much up in the long run!) :-D We're going to use our winnings to get a nice meal out for the 8 most regular attendees to the quiz - there's a catering college at Portobello where you can go for a Masterchef-style 6 course dinner for £10 a head cooked by the students. I joked about putting the winnings on a horse... I never bet apart from the Grand National but for a laugh I put £2.50 (of my own money, not the team's!) each way on Quiz Master in the 3.30 at Wincanton. It came in 3rd so I got £7.50! Not going to make my fortune but beats my usual luck!

Afternoon from a sunny but blowy [edit: though clearly not as blowy as Minnesota!] Scottish HQ. Last night of the current pub quiz league tonight. We're sitting in 3rd position on 67 points, 2nd place are on 70 points and the leaders are on 74. 4th place currently on 58. 10 points for a win down to 1 for 10th place, so all still to play for tonight. Winners likely to get £250, 2nd £150, 3rd £75, 4th £50, 5th £30. Or thereabouts. We'll probably use our winnings to get a nice meal out somewhere as a team. Bit nervous but excited! Don't think either of my parents has made a will. I did mention it a while back but Dad's never been one to prepare for that sort of eventuality. I think he's planning to live till he's 100+...

Afternoon all - not yet caught up (5 pages since yesterday afternoon?!). Went out for a lunchtime run. Slower than the last time I did that route (5 miles), but it's a month since my last run so I'm not terribly surprised. Feeling sleepy now!

I've had my Premium Bonds since 2007 and never won a penny... Think I ought to sell and reinvest them!

Yep - the croci on Leith Links are looking impressive at the moment. I think Scotland stand a decent chance this weekend, England have been poor in the championship so far and Scotland have exceeded expectations. But as you say, they've not won at Twickenham since I was 6...

Afternoon all from sunny Scottish HQ. Full of busy here, and have no idea where my weekend went! Still, the window's open next to my desk and the sun's shining so I can't complain too much. Hope all are well and recovering* (*delete as appropriate). I need to get a new computer to replace the old iMac at some point this year. I'm holding out at the moment for a refreshed iMac line-up coming out this month, but can't decide between getting a MacBook Pro and a replacement desktop iMac... If money was no object I'd get both, but sadly the Euromillions ticket I bought on Friday didn't come up trumps...

Morning all from a sunny Scottish HQ. Condolences to Rick. Not a lot to report here just now. Tea required before a 2 hour meeting on passported benefits at 10...

Ian Abel - Farcebook tells me so...

Morning all from a sunny Scottish HQ. Happy birthday Ian! A rare visit from me at the moment, seems to be a lot going on and not enough time to do it. Missed the Glasgow show this year, which was a shame as I'd have liked to see Liverpool Lime Street and the model of the Forth Bridge. Went away to Romania for my 40th birthday, had a nice quiet trip away and relaxed rather than doing our usual whirlwind tour of a hundred places in 7 days. Hope everyone's as well as can be expected!

Thanks all for the Vesta suggestions! Will see if I can find them. It's the puffy crispy noodles that are the ones I can't find in Chinese supermarkets. They puff up like prawn crackers. Good to know Vesta are still on the go!

I didn't spot you noticing me! I was wrapped up rather warmly yesterday and sweltered walking to the office! Talking of which, another make of food I can't seem to find anywhere now is Vesta. I used to love the crispy noodles in the Vesta Chow Mein, but no Chinese supermarket recognises that type of noodle from my description and they seem to have stopped stocking Vesta meals in supermarkets. If anyone finds them let me know! No Tunnocks Caramel Log for you then, Mal!

Morning all from a now-sunny Scottish HQ. Lots going on here, Ministers are back today. Not much interesting to report otherwise... Regards to all.

Morning all from a slightly damp Leith. At least it looks damp on the ground. The holidays have gone far too quickly. 10 days just isn't enough! Especially when 7 of those are with the little one. Lots to do today, the decorations are already down but need to be tidied away. The tree went out on Thursday as it was dropping showers of needles if even breathed on. This year's likely to be one without much railway modelling, I think. I do still have an itch to build my layout but it will have to wait till I'm in a bigger property. As part of that though, there's a monastery in my chosen location (now a posh hotel) that I'd like to model and the Faller Beberhausen monastery looks like good modelling inspiration... just a shame its about €400 and in HO! Will just have to make my own when the time comes. Hope all are well and Robbie's survived the tumble dryer...!

Morning all from the People's Republic of Leith. Working from home today - I made it very clear when I agreed to cover 2 of the 3 days between Christmas and New Year that I was only working one day in the office. Sunny, but there are dark clouds out there. The potted Christmas tree is a worse needle-dropping culprit than cut Christmas trees I've had in the past. You need only breathe or set foot on the loose floorboard in the middle of the room and there's a shower of needles. It may have needed more water early on in its stay. I will be wrapping it in a duvet cover to get it out of the flat and down the 4 flights of stairs when the time comes. I don't think re-planting it is going to be an option... Spent a little bit of last night pratting around on Ancestry.com - it's quite addictive once you get going. Unfortunately it got so addictive that I was still awake at 0230... Have a good Thursday (is it Thursday, hard to keep track in this period? Yes, it is...)!