Zero Gravitas

Here's the entire email - sent from no-reply@royalmail.com: And whilst I will complain, I suspect it will be about as useful as any other complaint I have ever made to Royal Mail... about as effective as Hornby's shipping packaging on a W1 (just to show some semblance of being on-topic).

RM are not what they were. I was expecting a delivery for Mrs. Gravitas’ birthday yesterday. At 05:22 I received an email saying it was scheduled for delivery between 09:52 and 13:52. Then at 11:05 I received another email saying that: “your parcel has reached your local delivery office. We’ve received a request not to deliver mail to the property your item is addressed to today. We’ll attempt delivery as per the instructions we’v received, which is usually on the next working day” I certainly never made such a request, so the conclusion is that someone at Royal Mail has invented such a request to massage their own figures... and the next working day is now Tuesday - it’s a good thing Mrs. Gravitas’ birthday isn’t until Friday.

I wasn't talking about getting stuff through Parliament - I was talking about Johnson's own backbenchers turning on him through letters to the 1922 committee, which is what he is really worried about. And I certainly won't be compromising the identity of my source. Suffice to say, the information is not from the media - it is from a good friend of mine, who is a manager within the NHS with responsibility for ensuring resources are available - and they are currently very, very worried.

I should have added - none available for delivery through the NHS website either. The actual wording was “no delivery slots are available “ And I fully agree about the government’s current approach. It would appear that Boris Johnson is much more interested in keeping his job than actually doing it - and keeping his backbenchers happy rather than keeping the public safe. The consequence will be that the restrictions, when they inevitably come in the new year, will be more severe and longer lasting. Remember that it’s not just about having beds in hospitals- you have to have the staff to look after the people in those beds, and NHS staff are currently dropping like flies...

Big problem at the moment is test availability. No LFTs at any pharmacy in town, and no knowledge of when any more will be delivered. As such, it’s even more likely that cases are being significantly underreported.

This is probably verging on the political, but the strong impression I have is that Cressida Dick is far more interested in keeping her job that actually doing it.

It was actually the imperial system that caused that particular problem in 1999. Lockheed Martin failed to convert data from imperial to metric when they provided it to NASA. If they’d been working in metric, the problem would never have happened.

Whilst I can’t post a source for this - because it has come directly from an NHS employee - the problem that is being anticipated (and which appears to be happening at the moment) is not the number of people being admitted to hospital with COVID; it’s the fact that there are not enough staff to look after them as the staff are contracting COVID at an alarming rate. And this doesn’t just apply to COVID wards - it applies across the hospitals.

Hmmm.. I can’t think, but if you were a lady, you might need a fusilier and and a ranger to help you decide...

Hang on - you forgot the bit where the couple in their early thirties inexplicably bought the property for £600,000 and yet somehow have a budget of another £500,000 to fund the project... I had to stop watching because I realised I hated them all.

As in: “In the current situation, it would be moronic not to wear a mask in any crowded or indoor public spaces”?

I would heartily recommend any thing by Jasper Fforde. “Shades of Grey” is an excellent stand-alone novel (although there is due to be a sequel next year) - but I’d start with the Thursday Next series. (just for context, my favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Iain M. Banks and Jasper Fforde)

Just corrected that second quote for you :-)

And to me it's quite obvious that politics leaning to the right are tolerated in this and other threads. I think Andy has done a splendid job to keep the debate alive without stifling the differences of opinion that are bound to occur. However, I was unable to let your comment about the one-sided tolerance of views pass. To my mind it's a bit like the BBC - if both sides are complaining of bias it's probably got it about right.

Yes, I did. But I’m not so sure you did - what part of “ he obviously doesn't espouse the left wing leanings which are so openly tolerated on this (and other) threads” do you think isn’t a political point?

Sorry - are you suggesting that it’s OK for the right-wing leanings in the thread to be tolerated, but not those that are left of centre?

Which means you’re perfectly at liberty to apply a new crest on one side if that suits the period you are modelling :-) Or if that’s not something you want to do, then you could always commission Rails to produce a version that meets your precise needs. TBH, if that’s the only thing you can find to complain about, then I think Rails have done a pretty good job. Yes, I know. It’s late, I’m grumpy - but the fact that we actually have an RTR model (and a good one at that) of such a prototype, and where RMWeb members had such welcome input to Rails to get it right, means that to me this sort of comment is not helpful.

Mine has just arrived at Gravitas Towers here in not-so-sunny Didcot :-) I'm tempted to claim that is is the closest 18000 model to the actual prototype - less than 1 mile away...

On the theme of air ambulances, here’s the Thames Valley Air Ambulance in the field behind Gravitas Towers, whilst attending a nearby traffic accident:

IIRC, If you look at the address label when it’s delivered, the last issue number of your current subs in in brackets after your name.

Agreed. Notwithstanding all of the problems with the running gear; whilst the body detail is good, it's a scale foot too wide and looks vaguely ridiculous next to other coaching stock. My plan with mine is to put it on a 5Seven9 (or is it Five7Nine - it's still early) 6-wheel underframe when it becomes available separately, and run it as the brake van on a train of milk tankers to try and hide the extra width.

Apologies for the hijack - but exactly which Tourett volume is this, please? I’m suddenly slightly concerned there’s a wagon book I don’t know about :-)

But then who would they get to pander to their every whim?

Not quite - Boris knows where Afghanistan is as he took a day-trip there in 2018 to avoid a Parliamentary vote on the Heathrow third runway: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44594439 Note that I chose the BBC report so as to inflame both the right and left wing equally... Raab on the other hand, is an even worse foreign secretary than his current boss, which is no mean feat.

You do realise you can change the heads on Oral-B toothbrushes, don’t you? :-)