Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I agree with Peter(BB) about the arsonists, and if they are caught in the act give them a beater and put them under the charge of a senior army NCO until the fires are out. I have made a complaint to the BBC about the (lack of) the news last night, apparently I was not the first to complain by a long way and I doubt very much that I will be the last. I caught a bit of the news this morning, the bit that was between the football and Wimbledon, the weather forecast for this part of the world is this week will be the same as last week. Thats it for now, be back later.

[newbryford]

20 degrees at 8.30am this morning. I estimate that my workspace will become unbearable by about 2pm.

 

A man was arrested under suspicion of setting the Winter Hill fire - released under investigation.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Andrew P]

20 degrees at 8.30am this morning. I estimate that my workspace will become unbearable by about 2pm.

 

A man was arrested under suspicion of setting the Winter Hill fire - released under investigation.

 

Cheers,

Mick

Burn him at the stake anyway,      hahhah.

[TheQ]

Later mooring awl,

Well, I'm back from the vampires, who of course made two holes for one small phial of blood.

 

Since then I've measured a Current shunt and assessed the results of last weeks major system. OK.

 

While sitting at home waiting, for Count Draculas castle to open, I went through the box of Dremel accessories I had ordered. One of which is a sideways drill bit, which sort of does some routing work. This reminded me I Have some of these drills, for a normal mains drill.  if I pass this drill bit between the two halves of boat it should remove various peaks to allow a better close fit. Where I don't have manouvering room for the big drill, the dremel itself will do those small pieces.. My router is definately too big for the task..

 

Creating accounting on time Sheets, is something I've learned Most employees have to do. Time sheets are created by IT personnel  under orders from accountants and Human resources. None of which have any idea how to do or record the work, a factory does..

[Horsetan]

My favourite radio comedy

[Simon G]

I got a bit of a surprise this morning when two United Utilities contractors arrived to try to find our leak, closely followed by 2 United Utilities staff. The more senior of the staff promptly got out his diviner, and was pretty confident he could trace where our pipe was, so digging has commenced. It appears that the two guys who came last week are pretty new, and should have done more investigation themselves and also didn’t follow internal UU procedures. We should have had a phone call to determine that the time they planned to come was convenient. Luckily, it isn’t a problem. Now we are just hoping that they can find the leak, and that it won’t be a major problem for us.

[The Lurker]

Today was spent on a trip to Carlisle for two purposes, one to visit the Poppy Wall, that has been on display in the castle for the last month or so, and also to take some of our club sale stock to the Carlisle Club for their members to purchase.  On the way, we stopped at a garden centre, and found some cheeses well reduced so stocked up.  The Poppy Wall was well worth the visit:

 

P1010811.JPG

P1010814.JPG

 

Entry to the castle was also free for the duration of the Poppy Wall being there, which is now only for another week.  The only downside was that I found the ups and downs of the castle walls and keep very tiring, and I got quite light headed at times, so needed plenty of rest.  From the castle I went to see the Carlisle modellers at the home of one of their members, due to the fact that their club rooms are out of action.  The rooms are actually on Carlisle Citadel station, but some halfwit thief nicked the lead off the roof above them, so the rooms have been raining in for a long time.  The halfwit carried out his crime while being under video surveillance, and while wearing his company logo'ed clothing!!  Anyway, a decent amount of trade was done, so all were happy.  I then got a major headache, and had forgotten to take my tablets, so went into a Lidl store to buy some, which at least blunted the headache.  The fact that the temperature was around 30C probably didn't help my head.

 

On the way home, just outside Carlisle, we stopped for fish and chips at a place we had been meaning to try for a while, and weren't disappointed.

 

All in all, generally a good day despite the tiredness and headache.

the poppy wall looks great. Are the poppies the same ones as, or similar to, the ones that surrounded the Tower of London a couple of years back? That was a very moving display, despite the vast numbers of people shuffling by them

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from LBG where the skies are blue and the sun is hot.

 

We're under a consultation period at work now; so the mood is subdued.

 

The weekend passed all too quickly, but included a decent curry on Friday night, and a bit of gardening on Sunday before it got too warm. Other than that it seemed to include football watching.

 

I am trying to remember school trips. We went to the zoo when I was in Singapore. And I have a feeling we did London zoo too, as well as a trip to Herstmonceux when that was playing host to Greenwich observatory in the country. I think we also went to Hever. Secondary schools visits included a trip to Canterbury (which I mainly remember for one classmate through his newspaper out of the train window and it being sucked over the top of the train and into a window further down the carriage) to the Cathedral. We also went to Stoke on Trent and went to a pottery and down the Chatterley Winfield museum mine.The Biology field trip was to Dale Fort right on the end of Wales. We went unsupervised by train. In fact thinking about it all of the secondary school trips were by train. At university the History course didn't do Part 1 exams; we went on a weekend to Otterburn and had to present papers on whatever it was we had prepared. I can't remember what mine was on but I do remember the trips to the various castles and abbeys in the area, which is one of my favourite in this country. And the beer we had in the Coach & Horses in Hexham. It was Tetley, but it tasted so much better than the Tetley that was standard in most pubs in Leeds at the time!

[Tony_S]

I haven’t had the call from the gp yet but the garage rang me this morning to re boot my cars connection to Land Rover. The online stuff now recognises that it is my car not theirs!

Cancelled the service plan on my previous car and tried to set one up for the new one. Apparently it has a 5year service plan included. Which is nice.

I tried very hard to make use of the German online environment sticker order sites today. None of the reasonable priced ones worked. I tried every browser I had but the Berlin state one recommended by the AA refused to upload my jpg or pdf file even though it was within size limits. Gave up and used one of the more expensive commercial sites. I know I can pop into various testing stations en route but I like my documentation in place before I travel. Two of the hotels in Germany we stay in during our trip to and from Austria are in city environmental zones.

I have noted that some French cities are now requiring stickers but having introduced the scheme there is a shortage of stickers.

Is that rule about carrying breathalysers still active?

Tony

[lightengine]

Is there a reason they dont leave the moor to burn and do some protection on the perimeter of it?

[newbryford]

Is there a reason they dont leave the moor to burn and do some protection on the perimeter of it?

 

Winter Hill has the TV mast for the entire North West of England as well as one or two other communication towers.

There are some houses that may be in danger if the wind shifted.

 

The locsal issue is drifting smoke/ash which has caused road closures.

Yesterday, I was about 10 miles from the fire and just at the end of my bike ride so thankfully not having to inhale too much of it.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

I know they burn heather in the past, but these were managed burns, not the uncontrolled one we have now.

[Simon G]

the poppy wall looks great. Are the poppies the same ones as, or similar to, the ones that surrounded the Tower of London a couple of years back? That was a very moving display, despite the vast numbers of people shuffling by them

I am not quite sure, but I expect that they are either similar, or the same ones being reused across the country. The poppies are all handmade in ceramic. They are doing a tour of the country and details can be seen of other locations at:

 

wherearethepoppiesnow.org.uk

[roundhouse]

In response to Andrews post I haven't a clue how Thameslink are doing today hut we will nerd to use them to get home tonight unfortunately.

I spe t a couple of hours sitti g under thr canopy at Leamington Spa Station taking photos of loco hauled Chiltern services and freight before catching a XC that was an hour late but arrived at a suitable time for me to catch it to Banbury. Then another Chiltern loco haul Ed service to High Wycombe for a beer but thr pub next to the station wasn't open so it was another of back along thr platform and up the footbridge. Now on a two car unit back to Marylebone then underground to Farringdon for a pint.

[45156]

Afternoon All

 

Again, generic greetings are on offer, and all posts are read and rated. 

 

Scorchio again here - getting boring now.

 

Been to our new solicitor and our new wills are being drawn up -almost managed to forget a legacy of my brother, and also the instructions for the disposal of our mortal remains, which are to be buried in a "tree cemetery" and with no religious pomp.  How I could forget these is anybody's guess, but in the end, I did remember everybody and everything.

 

Back tomorrow.

Regards to All

Stewart

[jamie92208]

Winter Hill has the TV mast for the entire North West of England as well as one or two other communication towers.

There are some houses that may be in danger if the wind shifted.

 

The locsal issue is drifting smoke/ash which has caused road closures.

Yesterday, I was about 10 miles from the fire and just at the end of my bike ride so thankfully not having to inhale too much of it.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

I know they burn heather in the past, but these were managed burns, not the uncontrolled one we have now.

I think that the main problem is that the fire can still be burning deep in the peat and can then flare up again unexpectedly so that have to be absolutely sure that it's out completely.

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

Afternoon All

 

Again, generic greetings are on offer, and all posts are read and rated. 

 

Scorchio again here - getting boring now.

 

Been to our new solicitor and our new wills are being drawn up -almost managed to forget a legacy of my brother, and also the instructions for the disposal of our mortal remains, which are to be buried in a "tree cemetery" and with no religious pomp.  How I could forget these is anybody's guess, but in the end, I did remember everybody and everything.

 

Back tomorrow.

Regards to All

Stewart

Signing our wills tomorrow.

Also sorting out powers of attorney for each other. I know the forms can be downloaded from the government website but at the moment I prefer a solicitor to deal with it.

[Simon G]

I got a bit of a surprise this morning when two United Utilities contractors arrived to try to find our leak, closely followed by 2 United Utilities staff. The more senior of the staff promptly got out his diviner, and was pretty confident he could trace where our pipe was, so digging has commenced. It appears that the two guys who came last week are pretty new, and should have done more investigation themselves and also didn’t follow internal UU procedures. We should have had a phone call to determine that the time they planned to come was convenient. Luckily, it isn’t a problem. Now we are just hoping that they can find the leak, and that it won’t be a major problem for us.

The leak investigation has not gone to plan! Two large holes dug, and they haven’t managed to even find the pipe yet. They did disconnect the line next to the meter, and insert a sonde cable, which they could then track with a Cat scanner, but even though the second hole was dug exactly where the scanner indicated, no pipe has yet been found down to a depth of 1.2 metres. They have now gone home, which in the case of the hole diggers, is Manchester, so they have a two and a half hour journey back home. I did feel sorry for them having to do a lot of digging in this heat, but did keep them hydrated with pints of cold squash. We will hopefully have more success tomorrow with round 2!

[AndyID]

MiL's estate finally wrapped up. It would have been four months sooner if the twits at the DWP had sent the lawyer a bill for overpayment when he asked for it. Sheesh!

[AndyID]

The leak investigation has not gone to plan! Two large holes dug, and they haven’t managed to even find the pipe yet. They did disconnect the line next to the meter, and insert a sonde cable, which they could then track with a Cat scanner, but even though the second hole was dug exactly where the scanner indicated, no pipe has yet been found down to a depth of 1.2 metres. They have now gone home, which in the case of the hole diggers, is Manchester, so they have a two and a half hour journey back home. I did feel sorry for them having to do a lot of digging in this heat, but did keep them hydrated with pints of cold squash. We will hopefully have more success tomorrow with round 2!

I told you divining was a load of cobblers

[Barry O]

back from a trip to see some friends in Lincolnshire. Could see the Red Arrows display in Cleethorpes in the distance yesterday afternoon...now to catch up with various other matters

 

Baz

[Black Marlin]

It takes a special kind of someone to return from a first aid course more injured than they were when they went to it, but I, in a fit of unparalleled anatomical ingenuity, have managed to elbow myself in the ribs hard enough to bruise them.

The situation was this. As part of our continuing recertification we are required to correctly identify and treat various ailments that would require the intervention of a first aider. On this occasion, I was to be the casualty. I was to be an epileptic, one who progressed from a minor to a major seizure. As part of this transition, I was instructed to collapse from my chair in front of the person assessing my 'symptoms'. This I duly did, but my colleague was standing directly in front of me and so I hurled myself to one side - with my left arm, the arm I landed on, tucked in at my side. This meant that my full weight - and I am only described as waif-like by the kindly and the blind - landed on the elbow I had pressed against my ribs. It bloody hurt, but we continued the scenario.

Now that I am home I shall avail myself of the ibuprofen. I didn't like to say anything at the time (of the four people in the room, I was the only man, and masculine pride got in the way - especially since the woman at whose feet I threw myself is the kind of woman whom other women would describe as 'attractive in an obvious way'). In fact the only way I felt I could retain any dignity at all was to pretend that it was all part of the plan: "I'm a method actor, darlings."

All in all, I think we can all agree that my day was a triumph. 

[RhBBob]

Wife, Daughter and I had three splendid days last week in the beautiful city of Liverpool !  Wow, what a clean, vibrant and compact city it is ! The powers-that-be have obviously invested well since 2008, when it was the City of Culture.  i last visited with my Parents about 60 or so years ago when they were still building the Anglican Cathedral.....

 

Recommended are the British Music Experience in Cunard House, the Museum of Liverpool close by and, of course The Beatles Experience, the Cavern Club Experience and the real Cavern a couple of doors away. In the BME, I was able to play a Gibson guitar and chat at length with the musician in that section, me describing my Strat XII and he promising not to let his fingers get arthritis like I did ! No seriously, he offered tips on keeping my fingers supple with exercises on the keyboard so once my new finger joint is fully active - hopefully in September - I shall be entertaining the neighbours once again......

 

We stayed room-only about a mile from the Mersey waterfront, with free on-street parking covered 24/7 by CCTV. We travelled into the city each day by taxi, average one-way cost being £4.50 per trip ! Marvellous !

Edited July 2, 2018 by RhBBob

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Checked Facebook this morning and was delighted to see a post from Debs. It was marking the first anniversary of her marriage to John who sadly is no longer with us to celebrate. Got to go now, I've something in my eye.

[Horsetan]

MiL's estate finally wrapped up. It would have been four months sooner if the twits at the DWP had sent the lawyer a bill for overpayment when he asked for it. Sheesh!

I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel in the Irish Estate.

[newbryford]

I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel in the Irish Estate.

 

This was the light at the end of a tunnel I was in last week......

 

 

North portal of Blea Moor through the fly-spattered secondman's window of an orange/yellow/black diesel powered device.......

 

Cheers,

Mick