The Night Mail

[Winslow Boy]

Time to man , or should that be 'person' ? , the ak-ak guns I think Mr Hunt and don't forget the tin hat as you never know what might get 'dumped' in response.

[Tony_S]

Our Dect phone base unit has failed this morning. So another one is arriving this afternoon. It has been a bit like courier/postie bingo over the last couple of days. We get RM, Yodel, DPD and Argos today for a change. I am not totally sure who delivered the two bags of specialist compost in a big box yesterday but I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so heavy as I tried to lift it into the hall. Aditi initially thought it was a new waste bin she had ordered. Aditi took the compost away. I have told her I am ok to lift things now but she insists on doing stuff herself. 

[J. S. Bach]

18 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Will we get photos?

I only unwrapped a few cars and then re-wrapped them. Maybe later this weekend, I will attempt to post a few photos. All were two-rail except one Atlas/Roco that was stock three-rail. A friend will get that car.

 

 

18 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Asking for some friends.

Hmmm, where have I heard that before?

 

Edited May 6, 2021 by J. S. Bach
To add some information.

[J. S. Bach]

5 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

A bit worrying leaving all that on your front porch, in many places that would have disappeared in minutes.

Not a problem here, nor was it a problem where I lived in south Florida.

Just to warm things up a bit, my front yard there:

 

[Happy Hippo]

Deliveries completed with the pleasantness of a complete lack of AAA in the MD area.

 

 I now have to move onto the start of the manufacture of the mud kitchen.

 

This is in anticipation of the grandchildren visiting during the half term holiday.

 

At least the weather is pleasant: Yesterday I was trying to make a start on another timber cutting job, but every time I tried to move the saw out onto the driveway to do some cutting, the skies opened.  What was so annoying was I was able to do all the measuring and marking of the timber outside, but the saw seemed to be the weather trigger.

 

I also need to check when our friends with the 'holy' doors are next in as the plugs are now ready to be fitted into them.

[Tony_S]

34 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

now have to move onto the start of the manufacture of the mud kitchen.

I do know what a mud kitchen for children is but it does remind me of when Aditi’s Dad suddenly seemed keen in making a tandoor from garden mud. It turned out that the must have gadget amongst MiL’s friends was an electric tandoor like restaurants have. So of course Aditi’s dad didn’t say no to the idea but insisted he wanted to make one. It was clearly a strategy to delay anything happening as I asked if his garden soil was suitable. He said it wasn’t at all suitable but it didn’t matter. He was just outlasting the oven craze. 

[simontaylor484]

Oh the irony Hippo building a mud kitchen in the muddy hollow

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I do know what a mud kitchen for children is but it does remind me of when Aditi’s Dad suddenly seemed keen in making a tandoor from garden mud. It turned out that the must have gadget amongst MiL’s friends was an electric tandoor like restaurants have. So of course Aditi’s dad didn’t say no to the idea but insisted he wanted to make one. It was clearly a strategy to delay anything happening as I asked if his garden soil was suitable. He said it wasn’t at all suitable but it didn’t matter. He was just outlasting the oven craze. 

I like tandoori chicken but there's no Indian restaurants locally that I know of that does a good one. When I lived in Romford there used to be several very good Indian restaurants but I understand a lot of them have gone now. As tandoors are usually made from clay perhaps if your FiL had lived in Essex the garden soil clay would have been more suitable.

[jamie92208]

Funnily enough, young Emily got a mud kitchen given to her on Satyrday by hervunvle, our eldest.

jamie

[J. S. Bach]

3 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

 ...snip... As tandoors are usually made from clay perhaps if your FiL had lived in Essex the garden soil clay would have been more suitable.

My soil is almost as hard as concrete. When I had to dig a hole to bury my previous cat, I could not make much of an indentation until I soaked it for about 24 hours; even that did not help too much though I no longer needed the blasting powder! I suspect that it would fire quite well; now, just what color glaze do I want.  Maybe I could make some of my own insulators!

[Happy Hippo]

48 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Funnily enough, young Emily got a mud kitchen given to her on Satyrday by hervunvle, our eldest.

jamie

That's posh. 

 

The one I'm making is far more tatty  being a collection of old bits of timber screwed haphazardly together to form a sort of  self standing shelf unit.

 

 

[jamie92208]

19 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

That's posh. 

 

The one I'm making is far more tatty  being a collection of old bits of timber screwed haphazardly together to form a sort of  self standing shelf unit.

 

 

I agree it's posh, they had it made by someone in Newark.  We both think it's a bit OTT but Emily seems to like it.

 

Jamie

[simontaylor484]

Just wait till she wants to send Grandad a mud pie through the post to France

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

My soil is almost as hard as concrete. When I had to dig a hole to bury my previous cat, I could not make much of an indentation until I soaked it for about 24 hours; even that did not help too much though I no longer needed the blasting powder! I suspect that it would fire quite well; now, just what color glaze do I want.  Maybe I could make some of my own insulators!

There used to be several brickworks in the county. I know of at least three within about ten miles from where I live. One of them only ceased production this century (there is a film of its narrow gauge railway in use on YouTube). 

Edited May 6, 2021 by PhilJ W

[Happy Hippo]

10 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Just wait till she wants to send Grandad a mud pie through the post to France

If it's made from anything like the clay around here, it would travel extremely well, and would crack Jamie's dentures when he took the obligatory Zoom taste test. 

[PhilJ W]

We had a Zoom talk last night on the subject of rail accident investigation. The presenter was Alan Clark who is a retired BTP Inspector. He was involved at a high level in to the investigations of Potters Bar and Great Heck accidents and gave us quite a few insights into what happens after such incidents. I feel sure some of you will have heard of Alan and possibly even know him.

[bbishop]

Voted yesterday.  It was fairly complex in London with three different papers and up to four votes.  The Registrar sent a 36 page booklet through the post.   I voted for three different parties, one of which is blue, but a different shade of blue to Gekko's party.  Bill

[Stubby47]

We also voted down in the deep south west.

 

Only 3 of the 6 prospective parish councillors had bothered with any form of flyer, and none of the 4 applicants for police commissioner.

 

How are you supposed to choose ?

[PhilJ W]

2 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

We also voted down in the deep south west.

 

Only 3 of the 6 prospective parish councillors had bothered with any form of flyer, and none of the 4 applicants for police commissioner.

 

How are you supposed to choose ?

I voted but I didn't get any flyers from one major party. Not like a few years ago where in a previous local council election when that particular party put  up a candidate in every ward. I asked why they bothered and the candidate for a ward they had no hope of winning pointed to the few votes they had obtained (about 125 IIRC) and said "There's 125 reasons to put up a candidate.". 

[polybear]

20 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

We also voted down in the deep south west.

 

Only 3 of the 6 prospective parish councillors had bothered with any form of flyer, and none of the 4 applicants for police commissioner.

 

How are you supposed to choose ?

 

Eeeeny Meeeny works for this Bear

Rumours of being bought off by the plying of LDC are strongly denied.....

[Compound2632]

21 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

We also voted down in the deep south west.

 

Only 3 of the 6 prospective parish councillors had bothered with any form of flyer, and none of the 4 applicants for police commissioner.

 

How are you supposed to choose ?

 

True, no campaigning for Police and Crime Commissioner* in the Thames Valley - so one has no option but to vote along party lines. I wonder if the independent candidate understood that? Or hoped to pick up the votes of those dissatisfied with the three parties fielding candidates? 

 

*I nicely even-handed job title - the role is evidently intended to keep both the police and the criminals busy.

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, polybear said:

Rumours of being bought off by the plying of LDC are strongly denied.....

 

As I understand electoral law, bribing the voters with LDC is an offence. Though I gather some candidate got away with biscuits.

[Tony_S]

19 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

nicely even-handed job title - the role is evidently intended to keep both the police and the criminals busy.

Not the present election but a previous candidate for the job in Essex later got six months (suspended) for electoral offences.

[Happy Hippo]

I have now completed the repairs on the three of our neighbours doors that I was asked to have a look at.

 

This has amassed a huge amount of brownie points.

 

Work continues on the mud kitchen:  The outer frame is complete, but I am now awaiting the delivery of a plastic bowl so I can sort out the sub frame for the counter.  I'm going to make this out of T&G boarding which was left over from a partial re-panel of one of the sheds.

 

Of course, once it has gone into the mk, I will suddenly have a requirement for more T&G board for re-panelling elsewhere.

 

I have been told that I do not need to stain or paint it:  This will be a task for the grandchildren when they visit.

 

That'll be fun....

 

And very, very messy!

[Happy Hippo]

A bottle of Auchentoshan single malt whisky has just been delivered with a request to sample it and to give an opinion.

 

I know that to give a sensible appraisal, it will have to be rigorously and extensively tested.

 

As you can see, I live a simple and frugal existence when I'm not out pillaging the surrounding countryside for cake.