The Night Mail

[jamie92208]

29 minutes ago, tomparryharry said:

 

Ooh... Eccles cake. Either those, or mince pies made with puff pastry....

Greggs mince pies with icing on top used to be onevof my favourites. Unfortunately neither mince pies or Eccles Cakes are sold here. The district nurse is rather partial to Eccles Cakes.

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

I'll stick with Welsh cakes as I know how to make them and have a bakestone which needs regular exercise.

[Dave Hunt]

Douglas looks as though he should be in a Hovis advert.

 

Jamie, I trust that you have applied for an import licence for Eccles cakes after January 1st? Also please make sure that when in transit they do not pass within range of the Muddy Hollow or the Bear's Den.

 

Dave

 

PS Jamie - does Beth know that you are luring the district nurse with Eccles Cakes? 

Edited November 6, 2020 by Dave Hunt

[Tankerman]

On 04/11/2020 at 15:13, New Haven Neil said:

Just over 100,000, the biggest currently, but that is more modern than in my time, biggest I sailed on was 30,400. which was just about the biggest then - 1983.  

 

 

Biggest one I every sailed with was a 24,000 Sulzer built by Sulzer at Winterthur, being built by them to their standards, instead of a licensed builder, it ran like a sewing machine. 

[Happy Hippo]

5 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Jamie, I trust that you have applied for an import licence for Eccles cakes after January 1st? Also please make sure that when in transit they do not pass within range of the Muddy Hollow or the Bear's Den.

That's like threading a needle blindfolded whilst tiptoeing through a minefield

[polybear]

43 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Unfortunately neither mince pies or Eccles Cakes are sold here. The district nurse is rather partial to Eccles Cakes.

 

Jamie

 

That sounds like an easy business opportunity for an enterprising ex-pat if ever I heard one....

[Happy Hippo]

3 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

That sounds like an easy business opportunity for an enterprising ex-pat if ever I heard one....

Can you imagine the headlines?

 

ex Police officer arrested for Eccles smuggling!

 

[tomparryharry]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

Greggs mince pies with icing on top used to be onevof my favourites. Unfortunately neither mince pies or Eccles Cakes are sold here. The district nurse is rather partial to Eccles Cakes.

 

Jamie

We used to call them Duchess mince pies.  The biggest problem with puff pastry mince pies, is the quantity, normally 4.  3 make it across the car park, 2 make it past the petrol station, one makes it to the driveway... The front door is like crossing the Great Divide...

 

"No love, the dog had it....."  

[Happy Hippo]

A conversation with Nyda has just gone like this:

 

R:   What time shall we have tea?

 

N:   Remember I've got a Zoom this evening

 

R:   Where are you flying to?

 

R:   Ouch!

[jamie92208]

33 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

A conversation with Nyda has just gone like this:

 

R:   What time shall we have tea?

 

N:   Remember I've got a Zoom this evening

 

R:   Where are you flying to?

 

R:   Ouch!

So now we know, the ultimate defense against a hippo engaged in nefarious acctivities eg larceny of cakes or promotion or spreading false claims about panniers is.....

 

A Nyda.

 

Jamie

[New Haven Neil]

5 hours ago, Tankerman said:

Biggest one I every sailed with was a 24,000 Sulzer built by Sulzer at Winterthur, being built by them to their standards, instead of a licensed builder, it ran like a sewing machine. 

 

The one up thread was an 9RND90 Mitsubishi built, and was a good 'un, no issues at all bar the usual scavenge cleaning.  A similar 8RND90 built by Barclay Curle was horrible, rough, unreliable, liner eating monster and the bane of my life for 8 months. I hated that ship with a passion. The builder of an engine certainly did seem to make a difference!  The 8K98FF B&W I sailed on was....unspeakably awful. Rather have Doxford..... That it ended up at the bottom of the ocean later was unconnected - Derbyshire. 

[Tankerman]

44 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

The one up thread was an 9RND90 Mitsubishi built, and was a good 'un, no issues at all bar the usual scavenge cleaning.  A similar 8RND90 built by Barclay Curle was horrible, rough, unreliable, liner eating monster and the bane of my life for 8 months. I hated that ship with a passion. The builder of an engine certainly did seem to make a difference!  The 8K98FF B&W I sailed on was....unspeakably awful. Rather have Doxford..... That it ended up at the bottom of the ocean later was unconnected - Derbyshire. 

 

The British licensees in general didn't seem to build to a good standard, I sailed on the Orissa with a Kincaid built B&W which was also pretty bad, later I sailed on the Garbeta, twice, which had a B&W built by B&W and it was lovely. 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Tankerman said:

 

The British licensees in general didn't seem to build to a good standard, I sailed on the Orissa with a Kincaid built B&W which was also pretty bad, later I sailed on the Garbeta, twice, which had a B&W built by B&W and it was lovely. 

Were “built under licence” power plants just a set of plans or did they include some parts made by the original manufacturer?

[tomparryharry]

10 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

A conversation with Nyda has just gone like this:

 

R:   What time shall we have tea?

 

N:   Remember I've got a Zoom this evening

 

R:   Where are you flying to?

 

R:   Ouch!

Zoom?  It's a tad cold for ice lollies!

[Happy Hippo]

6 hours ago, tomparryharry said:

Zoom?  It's a tad cold for ice lollies!

There is a Zoom training meeting this morning!

 

I now take these to mean I get more unsupervised playtime.

 

Today's excitement involves me carrying out some measuring and making a list of components to 'rewire the garage'.

 

It's not a rewire, but more of a move existing lights and sockets into more appropriate positions.

 

Putting the light switch next to the main door would be better than having it half way along a wall.  We've only been in the house since 1994, so it wasn't a priority job, but now I'm finally getting around to a serious reorganisation of storage in the garage, it seems like a good time to get it done.

 

One definite improvement will be to replace the plastic conduit with galvanised steel as we fitted into the workshop.

 

I also need to speak to our local sparkie about fitting a electric car charger into the garage, although that would longer term and beyond my remit.

[tomparryharry]

1 minute ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

One definite improvement will be to replace the plastic conduit with galvanised steel as we fitted into the workshop.

 

Yes, I can't understand why or how people fit plastic conduit . Unless it's a fire-suppressant standard-type material, then I wouldn't suggest it.  As the song goes:

 

"I went down, down, down, in a burning ring of fire..."

"I went down, down, down, as the flames crept ever higher..."

[coastalview]

51 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Today's excitement involves me carrying out some measuring and making a list of components to 'rewire the garage'.

 

We recently installed some of the led battens and the difference in light quality over the old fluorescent tubes is amazing.

[coastalview]

It seems to arrive earlier every year.

 

60 pages of stuff to fill your house with "good cheer"

 

Including something no home should be without

 

A 2.5m LED Tinsel Santa Train for £112.15 plus VAT.

 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, tomparryharry said:

 

"I went down, down, down, in a burning ring of fire..."

"I went down, down, down, as the flames crept ever higher..."

I am always amused that cars are permitted to be kept in garages especially those that form part of the house. 

[tomparryharry]

Building regs should require that the ceiling of an internal garage  is made of non-flammable material, such as fire-rated plasterboard.

Edited November 7, 2020 by tomparryharry
yes.

[Happy Hippo]

6 minutes ago, tomparryharry said:

Building regs should require that the ceiling of an internal garage  is made of non-flammable material, such as fire-rated plasterboard.

The last army quarter I lived in had an integral garage.

 

The floor of the bedroom over it was made of reinforced concrete!

 

Unusual for a quarter, as usually the constructional standard is akin to moulded damp newspaper over a spaghetti frame.

 

The chucking out continues, including a box of model aircraft I was given some time back.  All completed but missing the important bits like propellors and canopies.

 

The model cars are a different kettle of fish, all being carefully made and super detailed.  They are safe in a cabinet.

 

I did not realise that my garage roof was actually a warehouse for Wickes!  Although I'm glad I did go up as there was some skirting board that I can trim down and use as architrave which will save a trip out later in the week (and some pennies).

 

 

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, tomparryharry said:

Building regs should require that the ceiling of an internal garage  is made of non-flammable material, such as fire-rated plasterboard.

I believe that you are meant to have a step up into the house to contain spills and a fire door to a certain standa4d between the garage and the house. Our utility room door here which used to be a garage has steel plating on the former garage side of the door.

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

One of the attachments to the new pressure washer broke when it was used for the first time.  I contacted the supplier, sent a photo with a description, and there is a replacement en-route.

 

Of course, with this sorted out, I decided to see if I could repair the defective part.  As is usual, my penchant for overengineering a repair came to the fore, and although the fix with ABS pipe solvent worked, an inner sleeve of 15mm dia copper pipe epoxied into place and running the full length of the broken component will add a lot of reinforcement.

 

Unusually, I was able to put my hand to the solvent, epoxy and copper pipe rather than scrabbling around in the depths of the garage.  This only goes to prove that my tidying up and rationalisation of  'stuff' is paying off.

 

Although I have more floor space, it still looks as if a bomb has gone off inside.

 

Tomorrow will see a big improvement when a lot of the smaller stuff is stowed away.

Edited November 7, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Just got back from breakfast downtown. A excellent sausage roll and some Earl Grey was consumed, and a bit of cake. I am due to leave soon to get my ears lowered, and then it’s off to the track. Once that’s all wrapped up, we’re off back downtown for an early birthday dinner. (My 15th is tomorrow, but most restaurants are closed on Sunday nights). If there’s any spare time it will be spent looking at boards to mount the clockwork garden line too.

 

Douglas

[Happy Hippo]

21 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Just got back from breakfast downtown. A excellent sausage roll and some Earl Grey was consumed, and a bit of cake.

Douglas,

 

I'm sure that PB will confirm that this could be best described as a small bit of cake: