The Night Mail

[New Haven Neil]

On 06/11/2020 at 21:39, Tony_S said:

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

 

I really don't know Tony, but I suspect they were fully manufactured by the licensee.

 

My old Dad would have known as he was senior, and stood by quite a few new-build ships so would have been present at engine building, testing, re-assembly in the vessels and trial testing.  They are built at the engine works then dismantled to be re-built in the ships, you can't lift thousand ton engines and drop them in to place.

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Oh and a Happy Birthday to young Douglas - hope you had a great day at the track.

 

Ever looked at Cleetus McFarland?  Mad as a box of frogs, but making a fortune from U-Toob and having a lot of fun drag racing and general misbehaving car fun.  All the red-necks must love it, the whole thing started as a mickey-take, the name is a clue!  He's really a law school dropout called Garrett Mitchell.  

[SM42]

I spend 4 days earning an honest crust and things move from cartoon mice to karting.

 

I can't keep up.

 

Hoping for good weather tomorrow as have to trim the back garden shrubs, move the pampas grass,  build a small retaining wall to keep the flower bed  from washing onto the lawn (what's left of it) tidying the front garden, replace a leaking shower hose and source and fit a lock to the new shed as well as finishing off the shed guttering.

 

All this before a night shift.

 

"Won't take you long." she said.

 

I'm worn out already

 

Perhaps I need bad weather instead

 

Andy

[Dave Hunt]

Happy birthday to Douglas and a great many more of them with continued creativity.

 

My younger son Douglas (a mere 47 year old) was hastily admitted to hospital in Surrey yesterday with appendicitis and was operated on today. He should be home tomorrow as it was keyhole surgery so recovery time is so much shorter.

 

None of the RAF quarters I ever lived in (Valley, Cranwell, Wildenrath) had garages. Some officers' messes had a handful of prefab type concrete garages at the back but the chances of ever being allocated one were minimal and I never managed to reach that exalted state. 

 

Have a good night each.

 

Dave

[Tony_S]

8 minutes ago, SM42 said:

move the pampas grass

Into the front garden?

[Tony_S]

8 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

appendicitis

Before the use of colonoscopy, flooding the bowel with barium compounds was used to x ray the large intestine. The radiographer had a look at my abdomen and asked me when I had my appendix removed. He said he couldn’t see it on the x ray. I said I hadn’t had it removed. I had to move about a bit. Apparently pointing in an unusual direction. 
I hope your son makes a quick recovery. 
Tony

[Florence Locomotive Works]

39 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Oh and a Happy Birthday to young Douglas - hope you had a great day at the track.

 

Ever looked at Cleetus McFarland?  Mad as a box of frogs, but making a fortune from U-Toob and having a lot of fun drag racing and general misbehaving car fun.  All the red-necks must love it, the whole thing started as a mickey-take, the name is a clue!  He's really a law school dropout called Garrett Mitchell.  

Thank Neil, it was quite fatiguing but fun. I have looked at Cleetus a few times, but the “Mad as a box of frogs” bit always put me off him.

 

Douglas

[SM42]

16 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Into the front garden?

 

No, across the back garden to fill the gap made by the loss of the Honeysuckle and Berberis, victims of the erection of the new fence.

 

It looks a bit bare over that side at the moment

 

Andy

Edited November 8, 2020 by SM42

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Afternoon,

 

Lunch was made by me, and consisted of, bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast with marmalade. Breakfast was as I had requested, a sausage biscuit from McDonald’s. The afternoon has been spent sawing wood with the chainsaw, a very slow process, as everything has to be moved up and down a flight of stairs. Including the wood. Currently it’s still being stacked by my dad as I appear to be coming down with a cold. Dinner is something to look forward to, pork pies. 
 

Douglas

 

 

Edited November 9, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works

[SM42]

15 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

 The afternoon has been spent sawing wood with the chainsaw, a very slow process,

 

Being of a nervous disposition and  consequently not owning a chain saw, I had to cut up the the remains of the old Pyrocantha by hand saw.

 

Made a nice pile of small logs (and my arms sore) for use on Friday evening when we fired up the Chimnea in our own little bonfire night celebration.

 

Sat on the patio, eating Polish sausage, baked potatoes and bigos, washed down with a nice cup of tea (had to work next morning so alcohol, including beer, was off the menu), whilst being slowly smoked and staving off frostbite. 

 

 

Weem's mad we is.

 

Andy

 

 

Edited November 8, 2020 by SM42

[Tony_S]

45 minutes ago, SM42 said:

  consequently not owning a chain saw,

I do own one but I watched lots of videos before using it.

[KeithMacdonald]

13 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I do own one but I watched lots of videos before using it.

 

I do own one too.

 

But after meeting two different people who have lost fingers using one, mine is gathering dust in the tool shed.

[SM42]

I've just been reminded of another job by le grand brie.

I have a Doll's high chair to repair. 

I seem to be volunteered for fixing toys the monsters at Mrs SM42's pre school seem to destroy on a weekly basis. 

I'll need to cut a replacement seat back. Problem is, I don't have any bright pink paint to match the rest of the chair

 

 

Andy

 

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by SM42

[Happy Hippo]

My son worked for an Arb company and went to college to learn about chain saws and trees.  He's moved onto proper engineering, but keeps his hand in and helps out on an ad hoc basis.

 

He does a lot of service and maintenance of arb machinery, wood chippers, chainsaws, hoists and even traffic lights (for temporary road works) which makes a nice change from the heavier engineering with Warrior APCs and what's left of the CVRT range.

 

Any mechanical tool is a danger to the operator:  Those that have whizzy bits will have no hesitation in biting you if you mess around with them.

 

Having said that the nastiest injury I gained from a machine tool was chopping  a small amount of the side of a finger tip off!

 

The machine was off!  It was disconnected from the motor, and I was reassembling the gearbox:  Trying to push mate some gears together I managed to trap the side of my finger between two of the cogs.

 

Of course,  I had to remember to pull everything back out to release it, which wasn't easy with one finger trapped in the gears.

 

It is rumoured I uttered a rude word or two.

[Happy Hippo]

7 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Morning,

A very nice dinner was had last night, after I had declared the election was not to be discussed. However I will say I’m quite pleased with the supposedly “illegal” result.

 

 

It's been pointed out in the press over here that the American electoral system has been tightened up considerably in the four years since the 2016 Presidential elections.  Back then we were being told that the polls had been tampered with by the Russians, although now vote tampering is simply not possible.

[Tony_S]

5 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

tampered with by the Russians

Clearly they didn’t otherwise one of the candidates would have received 105% of the vote. 

[Happy Hippo]

7 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Clearly they didn’t otherwise one of the candidates would have received 105% of the vote. 

No, I'm sure that was the other bastion of democracy and exemplary electoral monitoring...........

 

Zimbabwe.

[Tony_S]

23 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

No, I'm sure that was the other bastion of democracy and exemplary electoral monitoring...........

 

Zimbabwe.

When my brother worked in Zimbabwe (for the railways) I think the Chinese and North Koreans were providing advice. Perhaps in elections too. 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Evening,

 

Pork pies and mashed were consumed, and were excellent. Then some Tiramisu was also had, with more being had throughout the week. Many thanks to all for the birthday wishes. Now the “Victorian Farm” is being watched. 
 

Douglas

Edited November 9, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works
Horrific spelling mistake!

[AndrewC]

Happy Birthday Boxing Day to Douglas. 

 

 

 

(that should get the google fingers working ) 

 

My cousin's 2 girls had to try to out do each other with their birthdays when they were kids. One in November, one In January so the silliness went on over Christmas as well. Birthmonth, Birthweek, Birthday eve, Birthday, Birthday Boxing Day............. They are now both in their late 30s and still doing it. 

[jamie92208]

Happy belated birthday to Douglas.  Chain saws and trailers are the two must have accessories  here in deep rural France. No 2 son provided good advice about both. He trained as a tree surgeon and has done a lot of agricultural contracting. He advised me to get an Ifor Williams trailer, which I did and taught me how to use a chain saw. I now have two tronconeuse's oan electric and a petrol. Plus a static chop saw with many guards that lives in the woodshed. A log splitter also helps with larger wood.  Wood has to be left to dry for 3 years over here so this year the house is being heated by ash, sycamore, cherry and plum that we fellled, split and sawed ourselves.  Very satisfying and the garden looks a lot better. Today the trailer, plus load will be heading towards the tip, to empty it as it's needed to collect tiles.

 

Jamie

[Joseph_Pestell]

9 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

It's been pointed out in the press over here that the American electoral system has been tightened up considerably in the four years since the 2016 Presidential elections.  Back then we were being told that the polls had been tampered with by the Russians, although now vote tampering is simply not possible.

 

I don't think that it was ever suggested that the Russians had intervened quite so directly as that in 2016.

 

The main issue this year is a massive increase in postal voting which the US is not geared up for. The election commissioners were banned from even starting to process the postal ballots until on-the-day voting had finished and they did not allow themselves enough staff to do this. It is a much slower process to deal with postal votes as there are envelopes to be opened and supplementary papers to check.

 

POTUS is not wrong that postal voting does open up more opportunity for fraud. But not to the extent that could influence an election on this scale.

[Happy Hippo]

55 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

 

 

POTUS is not wrong that postal voting does open up more opportunity for fraud. But not to the extent that could influence an election on this scale.

It was the irony of the losing side whining about electoral malpractice in both  2016 and 2020 elections I was poking fun at.

[Happy Hippo]

Over in ERs, GDB has just pointed out that the Rugby autumn Internationals start on Friday.

 

Wales had better up their game otherwise the outing to Dublin will turn into a routing.

 

On their current form the only good thing to come out of this will be the application of liberal amounts of Penderyn and the consumption of Welsh cakes to sooth  shredded nerves.

 

I'm feeling better already:  Should I try a practice run?

 

 

[Northroader]

I see they’ve sacked their defence coach.