Early Risers.

[J. S. Bach]

Good night owl from the Piedmont.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all, with apologies to Sherry for overlooking her birthday again and kudos to Rick for a stylish T shirt.

 

The knighthood awarded yesterday to Capt Tom Moore is an uncommon example of rapid response and all the more noteworthy for it.  Normally entries in the honours list have a long gestation period and are scrutinised microscopically at every level, with every nomination either passing through or being bogged down in the relevant department’s honours secretariat.  Somehow this wonderful man has cut through all that and his honour has been announced as near to immediately as it gets.  How nice it is to have some good and happy news for a change.

 

Some nettles were amputated from the garden yesterday, but not enough.  I have been conscious for some time of a stamina deficiency and it kicked in after less than half an hour.  I will have another go today.  Maybe.  In the afternoon I went hunting for a magazine.  It seems that the latest Railway Modeller has been distributed unevenly, being absent from a trusty newsagent and from my regular supermarket.  Eventually I ran it to ground after a 10 mile drive, which will have benefitted the car’s battery.

 

The sixth candidate for my top 10 albums is a triple CD – Queen’s Greatest Hits, volumes 1, 2 and 3.  I do not think that gentle readers need any introduction to the band!  What will the other four be?  There are some interesting candidates.  I might even surprise myself.

 

There will be a routine fodder run this morning, with provision for a relief on Saturday to garner the items that my forgettery will have omitted to add to the shopping list.  This evening the Chilterns Area Group will have another brush with technology.  Our monthly meeting will be a virtual one, facilitated by Zoom.  I have washed my hair so as to look a bit less like an unruly haystack on camera.  What could possibly go wrong? 

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[jamie92208]

Good morning from a sunny place.  Good trip to the diabetologue yesterday, shes was pleased with Beth and her progress. Some shopping was done and then not a lot when we got back. Sat out for a bit and two neighbours came and joined us, at respectful distances.  

We now have a family of black redstarts nesting under the verandah  roof. We are certain that the chick(s) have hatched. Unfortunately  it's in a place that's almost impossible to photograph.  

Today is going to be pool cleaning day, though the ironing needs doing this morning. Not a lot else to impart though.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[leopardml2341]

Morning all.

 

Loadsa vivid dreams and interrupted keep last night, presumably due to the previous day's events not being fully cleared from the output buffer.

 

Today, however is a new start and a new chance to make the most of the day. It is heralded by sunshine, birdsong and some good times on the radio. I have a different plan of attack to the various 'professional' disturbances of yesterday and that us to ignore the idiots......

 

I need to make a visit to the 'proper' office today so I'll take a circuitous route, allows the car to stretch it's legs a bit.

 

The alarm clock is about to sound; shower, breakfast and home 'office' beckons.

 

Porridge, fruit, toast, cereal or bacon butty? Decisions, decisions

 

Best wishes to all.

 

Edited May 20, 2020 by leopardml2341

[TheQ]

Mooring part 2,

Further sleep was interrupted by the mains going on and off several times from 04:05 to 06:05. Each time accompanied by various bits of equipment beeping. 

 

Ben too was woken by each trip out,  so he slept through his 06:00 Alarm call only to get me up at 06:05.

 

It's very quiet out there except for bird song and the sound of the waves hitting the shore to the south east,. For the first time ever I could hear an echo of the waves reflected off the trees at the bottom of the garden.  It took me a few seconds to work out what was going on. 

 

We've had heavy dew for the last few days,  the grass has greened up dramatically. 

The sky is all but entirely blue,  just one wisp of cloud very high up. 

 

I counted up the spare sheets of tin for the shed while on patrol, there are 4,  so now i have a decision to make on the porch,  two  for the roof and one for side of the shed and the 4th cut up to fill the front gap  or 4 to extend the roof,  and find something else to fill the gap in the wall. 

 

Things are beeping again... 

 

Time to collect my porridge from the poppety-ping,  must remember to take my metformin.. 

 

 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,,

Sunny and already a warm 16°C which will rise to 27°C later.

There may be a walk after breakfast but a decision is yet to be made about that.

The loft will have to be visited to retrieve a couple of large fans.

After that I think I think a leisurely day will be spent mainly track testing playing in The Shed and drinking either cool liquids or hot tea as the mood takes me.

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited May 20, 2020 by grandadbob

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Greetngs from sunny Castle Point, the official name for the district where we live.

My parcel didn’t arrive yesterday due to “emergency or extreme weather “. I suspect UPS just don’t have a code for “we are very busy and short staffed”. All the other packages we were expecting via Royal Mail arrived earlier than expected.

The only noise louder than the birdies singing this morning is the rubbish and recycling being collected. 
I don’t think much activity is planned for today. 
Tony

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Confused.baz here. It appears that by making things "happen" our esteemed people in charge can prove they have fixed the virus in the UK. Having changed the advice for diabetics overnight apparently I should contact my diabetic team if I don't feel right. Fat chance of that. No one answers the phone, no one answers emails, no information on the website...PAH!  Seems the links from the middle to the pointy end of the nHS are broken.

 

Today will involve mowing lawns, scarifying lawns, muddling and general housework. The latter is not to my liking but it needs to be done.

 

Right, get ready for Action Wednesday I have things to do (including welding a 4mm chassis for a V2 ( locomotive not rocket).

 

Stay safe! Positive thoughts to all ERs especially those who ail or are missing from these pages.

 

Baz

[roundhouse]

26 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

Good morning all,,

Sunny and already a warm 16°C which will rise to 27°C later.

There may be a walk after breakfast but a decision is yet to be made about that.

The loft will have to be visited to retrieve a couple of large fans.

After that I think I think a leisurely day will spent mainly track testing playing in The Shed and drinking either cool liquids or hot tea as the mood takes me.

Have a good one,

Bob.

Looks like you aren't the only one behind with  track and trace - will you be ready in time for 1st June though

 

I have been in the shed at 4am fitting a decoder to a Merchant Navy that I hadn't realised that this one had not been made DCC (along with one done yesterday). This one has a factory fitted 8 pin socket but as per many Hornby locos I checked the underside of the socket circuit board and sure enough some solder breaching the terminals. That has been rectified and loco ran fine on the programme track and is now awaiting a good run on the High line before it gets weathered.

 

Its going to be another scorter today so not sure if much gardening will be done but a trip to the bank is required to pay in a cheque so may well take photos of one of the very few freights now running at present through Redhill.

[iL Dottore]

6 hours ago, TheQ said:

...I notice on TV yesterday a doctor was particularly scathing about the orange ones latest idiocy.  She mentioned one of the side effects of the hy...lotsofcomplicatedword, that he's taking,  is the loss of hair,  it's certainly less orange than it was...  

The word you are thinking of is “hydroxychloroquine” (which by Pharma standards is a short and easy to remember name). The problem with using this drug in the treatment of COVID-19 is that there have been responses to the drug, but like with all anecdotal evidence, one or two cases are not sufficient to show efficacy and safety for the population at large (I have run a number of clinical trials which failed to show efficacy in the larger population, but nonetheless still had a number of patients who responded well). The other thing that’s overlooked/ignored by the big citrus fruit is the risk/benefit ratio: for example, many drugs used in oncology  will also effect the various types of white blood cells - leaving patients vulnerable to infections, but this is considered an acceptable price to pay (“risk”) in order to clobber the malignancy. Correspondingly, you wouldn’t give a drug that has leucocytopenia as a frequent adverse event for headaches, no matter how effective the drug may be in treating headaches.

Unfortunately, nowadays, too few people have any inkling of how biomedical research works and too many (gullible? impressionable?) people uncritically latch on to whatever nostrums some “media personality” or such like are peddling.

1 hour ago, chrisf said:

..The sixth candidate for my top 10 albums is a triple CD – Queen’s Greatest Hits, volumes 1, 2 and 3.  I do not think that gentle readers need any introduction to the band!  What will the other four be?  There are some interesting candidates.  I might even surprise myself...

Christopher, dear fellow, you continually surprise me - let alone yourself. Your knowledge about folk music is most erudite and extensive and has been most illuminating, especially to me to whom (most of) folk music remains an untapped barrel of real ale.

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

....pool cleaning day....

...The ironing needs doing this morning...

I thought that, if various 70s films are to be believed, pool cleaning was the province of muscular young men in skimpy speedos not mature gentlemen with better things to do - like 7mm railway modelling.....
As for ironing, I once prided myself in being able to iron razor-sharp creases in my suits’ trousers and crisply iron (and starch) dress shirts (again with razor sharp creases on the arms). However, that was early in my career when a business suit, a tie and highly shined shoes were pretty much the expectation of your employer (even though most employees didn’t quite match up to the employer’s expectations in that regard); but ever since the move to “casual office wear“ I have started wearing polo shirts and comfy jeans - both requiring minimal or no ironing. And nowadays, working from home, my approach is “if it doesn’t walk to the laundry basket by itself, it’s good for another day’s wear“. If the dogs don’t mind, why should I?
As a relevant digression, it is interesting to note that for a considerable time in English history, cleanliness was associated with wearing clean clothes every day (or even more times in a day) with washing relegated either to infrequent applications of a damp cloth or the occasional bath for “medical reasons“ Proponents of this approach to hygiene claim that lack of regular washing with soap and water is actually beneficial as it allows the skin and hair to reacquire the natural oils and fats that keep both skin and hair healthy. And, on a personal note, I can inform concerned readers that I regularly have a bath – once every six months – whether I need one or not  

Have a great day!

Edited May 20, 2020 by iL Dottore

[jamie92208]

5 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I thought that, if various 70s films are to be believed, pool cleaning was the province of muscular young men in skimpy speedos not mature gentlemen with better things to do - like 7mm railway modelling.....

I think you've missed the im off the start of the word mature, Flavio. Growing old is compulsory, maturity is not, thank goodness.  However rest assured, I will not subject the gentle readership, as Chris calls us, to an image of me in budgie smugglers.

 

Jamie

[Shedman5]

Morning, sun is shining and breakfast which is being cooked will be enjoyed outside.

 

Plans for the day = not a lot  just a bit of pottering about and time in the shed.

 

 

Enjoy your day as I will mine

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

The sun is shining and the sky is blue, there are some white clouds to be seen, but these are very wispy and very high. Today I’ll continue sanding the arbour, what I didn’t mention yesterday is that the roof is still to be done, so that is my task for today. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

 And, on a personal note, I can inform concerned readers that I regularly have a bath – once every six months – whether I need one or not  

 

I also regularly have a bath - daily.

 

The question is, do you change the water as frequently as I do?

 

[Tony_S]

After a few days of Hippo brand adverts I am now getting ads for T-shirts. 
 

[The Lurker]

13 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

The thermometer reached 26C this afternoon and the same is predicted for tomorrow.  If this is summer all I need is a sandy beach!!!  

 

Around the Hill of Strawberries the locals have been sunbathing in their finest bathing attire whilst their tiny humans run around enjoying the weather.  The slightly-older humans who can sensibly understand what is going on are face-masked and kept under a little more control.  

 

We are rapidly becoming an island of humanity in a sea of empty flats.  It is student moving-out time anyway, lurgy or not, since they would have finished their summer term and most exams by now.  This coming weekend would have been Spring Ball which marks the end of term and - for many - the end of their university days.  Not this year.  Most have had to pack bags and leave early for home not knowing what the future holds, what grade they might be "averaged" nor what their futures hold.  The few remaining are leaving us this weekend which will mean we are one of just three occupied flats at this end of the block and with six empties.  Voids in housing management speak.  When I learned housing management the void rate was never supposed to exceed 2% if we were to remain within budget.  If it ever got to 66.7% the Chief Housing Officer would have had apoplexy and the humble officers might have found themselves to be ex-officers.  That hasn't been my problem for many years now.  

 

Tonight I present number seven of the ten albums I selected.  I hinted yesterday (I think it was) that this band was on my favoured list and here they are.  Gems such as "I left my heart in Papworth General", "All I want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague away kit" and the blatant Brian Cant rip off of "Trumpton Riots" and "Time Flies By" defined a creative and influential band who were favourites of mine and of the late John Peel who I have to thank for being introduced to them.   Welcome to Half Man, Half Biscuit.  

 

Top album! 

 

[Barry O]

Hoovering - done..that Dyson chap has some problematic engineering in his appliance.. he may be a "designer" but is not so good at the  "engineering" part..

 

Floors ..washed... mop and bucket used ..takes me back to summer holiday jobs when I was a student. Big hall was washed and dried using a proper job machine... everywhere else was a mop and bucket.

 

As we are cut off from the outside world (the council have dug the path out across the entrance to the house..nice to know there were going to do it!)

 

Mugadecaff then..lawn cutting!

 

Baz

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Like Chris I'm a Queen fan and I agree entirely. My other favourite artistes are Tina Turner and Meatloaf. I won't be doing any gardening today, its already to warm, I just have to make sure that the stuffed full garden waste bin is put out for collection in the morning.

46 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I also regularly have a bath - daily.

 

The question is, do you change the water as frequently as I do?

 

But how often do you change the water?

[Kingzance]

Good late morning form a sunny NEHerts,

 

Yesterday proceeded generally as expected with a decent walk and a selection of piscatorial products purchased, some of which were converted into an evening meal. I did manage to cut down calorie intake to two sessions and to only snack on an orange and a few raw peanuts between times. Alcohol was restricted to a glass of The Guv'nor and a bedtime measure of Knockando - other varieties of lovely things (some in skirts) to come out of Scotland are available. Some but not total progress was made in respect of the impending granddaughter birthday, accompanied by some music from certain inspirational suggestions amongst the posts from ERs - my thanks to you all.

 

The topic for our next photographic competition is "Distance and Isolation". Thinking that I could use the first word to cover several hundreds of millions of miles, I exited my scratcher at a little before 0300 in order to go to a nearby open area from which I hoped to point my 250mm f4.5 reflector towards 170 degrees and at an azimuth of 15 degrees where I would find Jupiter with Saturn a fraction higher and a few degrees to its east. Having arrived at the selected location, much gear was set up only to find I had not packed the viewing lenses or the power cable that runs between the power tank and the 'scope's drives. There followed a session of pack it all up again, return home, pick up missing bits, return to viewing base and set up again. By this time - and we were still almost an hour before sunrise - the skies were already heralding a new day and the clarity of the celestial object I wished to photograph was rapidly diminishing as pre-dawn erupted. I returned to my scratcher at around 05:30 and then considered whether I should just picture an old-fashioned directional road sign. Despite the setbacks, I will have another go at an even earlier hour tomorrow before switching to the local road signs! As you can imagine, the whole procedure was conducted in splendid personal isolation.

 

So today will mainly see me completing the trough for the tomato plants as the last required timber was acquired yesterday. That will presage the purchase of two grow bags before plants can be positioned and allowed to flourish (hopefully with more success than last year). The purchase of granddaughter's gifts will be concluded. Further shoe base will be worn away and Her Ladyships every wonts will be attended with much care. Flying pigs will be seen interrupting air movements at Luton and Stansted airports!

 

Time to cease these inane ramblings and follow the instructions eminating from Leeds Highlands. Have a good day one and all and be safe!

[AndrewC]

Morning all from the boring borough. The Not the Chelsea Flower Show was enjoyed by both of us. Perhaps a bit too much of the Pimms in the hot sun. Then a few too many in the Blue Shed public house while throwing some sharp pointy things at the wall. We both overslept this morning. 

 

Today marks the 25th anniversary of SWMBO saying "I Do". What the hell was she thinking. It will of course be just the 4 of us today, including the cats. Not surprisingly we were married in a pub. The plan of course was for the ceremony to be in the garden but it snowed. As mentioned before I have to work today so she is puttering in the garden. Temp is up to 23 already. The house is starting to heat up somewhat. Hopefully the predicted rain tomorrow will cool things off. 

 

Little else to say. Enjoy the day. 

[Kingzance]

6 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

Today marks the 25th anniversary of SWMBO saying "I Do". What the hell was she thinking. It will of course be just the 4 of us today, including the cats. Not surprisingly we were married in a pub. The plan of course was for the ceremony to be in the garden but it snowed.

And they said it wouldn't last  Congratulations!

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from the fold in the hill which is getting increasingly warm as the day progresses. A day of frustration yesterday as the system which should contain the info I need to do the work my boss has requested did not have the information properly - and I could not retrieve it all properly. So i have now resorted tgo the inefficient process of requesting all the source data from teams around the world. 

 

All to check whether assumptions made by other people are reasonable - to which the answer will be "no they chose a really easy but completely in accurate route to predict their tax charge". I wil then be expected to make something up which will be no more accurate because the base level of detail has been skipped over.

 

Oh well, I can always spend more time here!

 

Today''s infuential album is the most recent on my list.

 

4."Temet" by Imarhan. This was the first album I acquired of desert rock, produced by Tamashek speaking Touregs from Mali/Algeria. Think of a fusion of blues and African rhythms all wrapped inthe wide open space of the desert. I heard a couple of tracks on the radio and was sufficiently intrigued to buy the album. I have then explored music by other groups from the same sort of tradition, in particular Tinariwen, who are probably the foremost progenitor of the genre. It's quite different to my normal musical consumption, hence it being influential on my listening taste.

 

I should add that this list is not my top 10 albums of all time although some on this list would appear on that. 

 

Have a good day all, and try not to melt in the sun!

[Happy Hippo]

26 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Like Chris I'm a Queen fan and I agree entirely. My other favourite artistes are Tina Turner and Meatloaf. I won't be doing any gardening today, its already to warm, I just have to make sure that the stuffed full garden waste bin is put out for collection in the morning.

But how often do you change the water?

I was being slightly ironic: Look at the colour and judge for yourself!

[newbryford]

Happy Silver greetings to Mr & Mrs Andrew C

[grandadbob]

"Hoppy" Anniversary to Andrew and Mrs C.

 

It was decreed that it was too hot for walkies this morning and I was happy to concur so my collar and lead have been hung up!   I've been to The Shed which was lovely and cool but having opened the door and windows it's now heating up so the fans will shortly be deployed.