Early Risers.

[Mike Bellamy]

10 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

If the  driver is charged with causing death by dangerous driving (Max sentence 14 years), and immediately pleads guilty, then the max sentence is halved due to the rules laid down in the sentencing guidelines, so (s)he can now only go to prison for  a maximum of 7 years. 

 

General sentencing guidelines are here - this indicates a reduction of one third for a guilty plea

 

Quote

The maximum level of reduction in sentence for a guilty plea is one-third

 

https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/overarching-guides/crown-court/item/reduction-in-sentence-for-a-guilty-plea-first-hearing-on-or-after-1-june-2017/

 

 

8 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

I once worked for a General who had been knighted, and depending who you, were depended on how you spoke to him.  Officers on his staff referred to him as Sir xxx, the rest of the Headquarters called him either General, or Sir depending on the circumstances.

 

 

My first job as an 18 year old school leaver was with a major High St bank and the first customer I served had a appointment with the manager. I nearly crapped myself when he told me his name and I've never forgotten it ' Major-General Sir Christopher Welby-Everard ' - he was the last British commander of the Nigerian Army before independence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Welby-Everard

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-maj-gen-sir-christopher-welby-everard-1348775.html

 

What he didn't realise that was that although I had never met him before,  I had heard the name many times as my Dad was the plumber his housekeeper called out with any problems !!

 

Mike

[Tony_S]

It is rather warm and there is no breeze tonight. I suspect it won’t rain. 
The play tonight was quite intense. There was music at scene changes but it wasn’t Judy Garland.

I notice that grub screws have been mentioned. I remember losing them from loco gearboxes years ago when I assembled locos rather than bought them. So when I recently started playing with slot cars again and noticed just how many tiny grub screws are used I purchased a few bags from eBay. Now I have lots I probably won’t lose any. 
Tony

[brianusa]

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

The discussion on crime and punishment, delivered with such conviction, (pun intended) reminds me why it is such a good thing that we don't indulge ourselves in politics (overmuch) here.

 

There have been sailings close to the wind on controversial subjects here perhaps at the discretion of the mods.  We may appear to be a well educated fairly well off group, the ones that usually keep out of controversy, but like anyone else, probably have darker thoughts on the more  and more serious problems that plague (that one too!) our society.  Luckily we seem to tolerate others thoughts and feelings which may be quite unlike our own but hopefully get our point across without causing the mayhem found on lesser sites.  It would be nice to discuss our real thoughts and feelings but in today's society and environment there are so many that are off limits, it would be most impracticable.

      Brian.

[AndyID]

58 minutes ago, Simon G said:

I was rather delayed in this walk by stopping to watch the bats flying around the house.  They really are fascinating to see.

 

I have to admit I was tempted to make a cheap comment about a belfry but I thought better of it

[BSW01]

5 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

In my view, there are two very good reasons for not portraying criminals as “victims of the system“: firstly, there are plenty of people who have had the same disadvantageous backgrounds and unfortunate circumstances of the criminals, yet have turned out to be law abiding citizens. So claiming that it’s all down to background and circumstances is a bit disingenuous to say the least; 

 

I’d have to agree with you here. I came from a single parent household that was living on state benefits (which by the way wasn’t enough) and on a council estate, but I didn’t end up as a drug taking criminal who thinks the world owes him! 

 

Instead, I was taught by my mother and her parents, the value of money and if you want something then you have to earn and save for it. I left school with half decent grades, got myself an apprenticeship and then never looked back. A career move in the early 90’s, followed by some internal moves within the company ended up as the best move I ever did and I’m now happy retired, with a very good pension, all of which I’ve worked for and earned. 

Edited May 21, 2020 by BSW01

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

When I got to the butchers this morning, I arrived a few minutes after 9 and was informed that they didn’t open until 9:30, as I was already there, I decided to wait. In less than a minute there was a queue behind me, by 9:30 there was were about 8 or 9 behind me. 

 

I didn’t get to do any reading this afternoon, instead I sat at the old laptop and did a bit of drawing. Mainly tidying up and condensing some scribbles I’d done in a note book for the MPD that I’m planning on my layout. 

 

The MPD is based on parts from 3 different SR loco sheds, the main track plan is based on Ramsgate Shed, the coaling facilities are based on those at Norwood Junction and the sheds themselves are based on those at Strawberry Hill. All of the information has been gleaned from photos in the many books I have as well as some found on ‘tinternet!

 

Below is a diagram of the depot

 

Goodnight all 

[Dave Hunt]

Evening all.

 

 

HH's remarks about RAF Officers' rank badges being stripes rather than the Army's pips, crowns etc. reminds me of when I did my first tour on Phantoms in Germany and was also Air Liaison Officer for 3rd Royal Tank Regiment at Fallingbostel. The first time I went out with them on a scheme (or what we in the junior service would call an exercise) I was made a trainee member of a Chieftain crew, the driver being a fairly jolly scouse lad. Since I was a fellow Liverpudlian we immediately got on well and during stops for a brew got to chatting about the city. At the time I was a Flight Lieutenant so had two stripes on the epaulettes of my tank suit and when we'd stopped for the night Scouse asked me if it meant I was a Corporal. "No he isn't,"  the tank commander butted in, "He's the equivalent of a Captain." "Oh, sorry sir," said Scouse, "With you being a good bloke I didn't think you were an officer." We still got on well though, even when they let me drive and I broke a track......

 

Some years ago I was selected by my Station Commander from a short list of one to give a talk to the local branch of the Aircrew Association. On arrival I was met by the branch Chairman who introduced himself as Captain XXXX. Mindful of the fact that only retired officers of field rank and above were entitled to retain their substantive rank ( as described earlier by HH) I assumed that he must have been a Fleet Air Arm (RN) Captain equivalent to an RAF Group Captain and thus senior to me, my being a Squadron Leader. I therefore called him Sir until at the coffee break another member came up to me and asked why I was doing so. I explained my reasoning. "Good grief, no," he exclaimed, "He's never been in the services, he was an aircraft captain with BEA but insists on still calling himself Captain. He's a pillock  really." Funny the importance some people attach to labels isn't it?

 

Got a bit more modelling done this afternoon and had bacon and eggs for dinner followed by an Eccles cake from Fordhall Farm. Jolly good Eccles cakes they are too, even though they are on the naughty list. I'll try to be good tomorrow.

 

Have a quiet and peaceful night everyone.

 

Dave

 

[Happy Hippo]

57 minutes ago, Mike Bellamy said:

General sentencing guidelines are here - this indicates a reduction of one third for a guilty plea

 

 

https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/overarching-guides/crown-court/item/reduction-in-sentence-for-a-guilty-plea-first-hearing-on-or-after-1-june-2017/

Thanks for pointing out my % error there.

 

In mitigation I had recently been looking into various min/max sentencing parameters and also the statute of limitations as it affects differing severity of offences. In particular TWOKing and what might be deemed the average sentence for such.. there was also the the difference between youth sentencing and adult sentencing where the former does allow for upwards of 50% in sentencing reductions.

 

Obviously I then suffered a case of thumb up b*m and mind in neutral when I started on my earlier prattles.

 

I'm getting more of a Silly Old Buffer on a daily basis. WOT!

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Happy Hippo]

11 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Got a bit more modelling done this afternoon and had bacon and eggs for dinner followed by an Eccles cake from Fordhall Farm.

We've had stuff from Fordhall in the past, and I would concur with Dave's appraisal.  All their products are excellent.

 

Due to the distance away from the Muddy Hollow, it only tends to be visited if we are passing by.

 

Looking at the time I'd better drop into Waupaca on the VR Youtube channel as the local may be shunting the foundry.

 

Foraging later.

 

I'll bid you all good morning.

 

 

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[AndyID]

Still distinctly hill-billy here. Likely to drop down to around 4C tonight. Well below freezing and some snow likely on the mountain passes. Mind you it's not all that unusual. Some years ago I went skiing this late in May.

 

 

[J. S. Bach]

Good night owl from the Piedmont.

[AndyID]

7 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Evening.  Sub-Lt equivalent NHN here.  One miserable gold ring....technically qualified to go higher though!

 

 

Not to pull rank on you or anything but I'll have you know I was Patrol Leader of the Peewits

 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from down ere. I have a severeal complaint about the ER's that reside in Hipposhire, they have mentioned Eccles Cakes. That is a crime against my waistline as they cannot be found over here and currants aren't sold.  They are one of the things that friends often bring over from the UK for me.

 

Anyway things got done yesterday and the pool got emptied, the last couple of inches by hand baling with s plastic bucket, plastic dustpan and finally a mop. Several small holes were found in the bottom so today I'm off to try and buy a new liner.  The route may take me across a railway line. How sad.  Apart from that notva lot to report except  that scampi and chips were enjoyed last night washed down with a bottle of Old legover.  

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[iL Dottore]

9 hours ago, Barry O said:

...They have marked some of our drive to be "Removed".. its on my land...time to sort the Council out... fat chance! Getting a snowball into and out of the sun would be easier!...

Good luck with that. Of course, if polite, fact based, objections don’t work you can always turn to one of the various newspaper ombudsmen (correct term?) who can nationally spotlight your case. I’ve read many-a-time things along the line of “xxxx refused to do y for Mr Jones, after being contacted by this newspaper, xxxx admitted they had made a mistake and immediately did y for Mr Jones”. For some reason, many of those bodies who are supposed serve the public really hate it when the cold spotlight of national media attention is trained on them - I wonder why?

8 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

The joke is that of the whole family, their son who is a chemist, is the only proper Doctor in the family as he has a PhD.

I think that whether or not a physician is also a “doctor” depends on the educational system. In the US, for example, one must first complete a 4 year bachelors degree before going to medical school and getting the MD (Doctor of Medicine) degree. Other countries, Germany, Switzerland etc., have yet another system.

Interestingly, the reason why surgeons in the UK are called “Mr” instead of “Dr” has to do with the origins of the specialties - medicine deriving from the universities (e.g. academic degree = Dr) whilst surgery derives from the “Barbers and Surgeons” of the time (no academic degree = Mr).

6 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

...pity they shut the pub and turned it into flats, ...

I think you can thank the rise of cheap supermarket booze and the smoking ban for that. God knows how the Pub industry will be affected, in the long run, by COVID-19.

I can easily see myself living in a decent pub building, converted into a single dwelling, but flats? They’d be rather cramped, I’d reckon.

6 hours ago, brianusa said:

...There have been sailings close to the wind on controversial subjects here perhaps at the discretion of the mods....

I think that it’s because, here on ERs, we are grown up enough to reasonably debate various “controversial” topics without descending into the “you moronic OO modeller; no, you’re the finescale ar*ebadger” sort of name calling and vitriol prevalent elsewhere.

Whilst I haven’t met all of the posters on ER (of course), I have met many and whilst we may differ in political outlook, we get on very well for, I think, two reasons: firstly, we realise that we are all more than just a political viewpoint and we appreciate what we have in common; secondly, we are grown up enough to listen to each other’s point of view. Not necessarily to agree but certainly to understand and learn

5 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

..I'm getting more of a Silly Old Buffer on a daily basis. WOT!

Not another bloody SOB story...

2 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Not to pull rank on you or anything but I'll have you know I was Patrol Leader of the Peewits

 

For much of my career I was instructing senior (medical) consultants what to do. I wonder what equivalent military rank that gives me.

 

Off to walk the Wolfpack. Poor old Lucy has been out of sorts for a bit, I fear that a trip to the vet beckons.

 

Enjoy POETS day

 

iD

[chrisf]

On 20/05/2020 at 08:16, iL Dottore said:

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.

 

Greetings one and all

 

Flavio, you mention folk music in the same breath as Queen.  Some purists may not approve but I learned a long time ago that drawing and trying to maintain boundaries is a recipe for trouble.  I have heard all sorts at Sidmouth over the years.  Such tunes as “Calling All Workers” and the Dr Who theme have been used as social dance tunes, Glenn Miller’s “American Patrol” now has its own clog dance thanks to Lizzie Dripping from Sheffield, at least one morris side dances to Jona Lewie’s “Stop The Cavalry” and a respected ceilidh band from Coventry has drawn on the playing of Status Quo.  A couple of years ago a visiting American band would have had us believe that “Stop Stop Stop” was from the tradition rather than being a hit for the Hollies.  On one of Martin Carthy’s albums may be found his cover of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Nothing Rhymed”.  Come on in, the music’s lovely.

 

There was no angry letter to Currys after all.  Instead I spoke to a member of staff who explained that they are all working from home.  That would go some way towards explaining the disconnected phone calls.  Helpfully, the guy advised me to buy my lead from somewhere like Wilkos.  I did, and saved myself a few £.  Currys can sort out the part-completed transaction for themselves.

 

Candidate 8 for my top 10 albums is “Late Bottled Vintage” by Strawhead.  It is a compilation drawn from their finest work.  The track that I would take to my desert island is “The burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna”, set to the tune of “Tom Bowling”, a favourite of the Last Night of the Proms.  I played it incessantly after the band came off the road seven years ago, leaving behind many broken hearts, including mine.  Since then I have not been able to bring myself to listen to their music.  Maybe it’s time to remind myself what I enjoyed in half a lifetime of following them up and down the land.

 

To Andy Leopard and whomever else it may concern: it’s OK to not be OK.  Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[AndyID]

4 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Anyway things got done yesterday and the pool got emptied, the last couple of inches by hand baling with s plastic bucket, plastic dustpan and finally a mop. Several small holes were found in the bottom so today I'm off to try and buy a new liner.

 

We had an in-ground swimming pool in Arizona. It was OK for a few of years then then it became a total PITA

[Ozexpatriate]

16 minutes ago, AndyID said:

We had an in-ground swimming pool in Arizona. It was OK for a few of years then then it became a total PITA

Even maintaining the proper chemistry for a hot tub is a lot of work, and that's before the occasional deep clean. They are nice though on a cold clear night. Even on a rainy night.

 

Once upon a time (many years ago) my other half maintained it. These days I did not want to commit to that level of effort for the occasional return. My neighbours have a whole wing dedicated to their swim spa. 

[JohnDMJ]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Enjoy POETS day

 

iD

 

[Joseph_Pestell]

Everyone that I know who has a swimming pool spends stupid amounts of money keeping it clean and not going green. Indoors is the only way but that is a whole different level of initial cost.

 

I rather like the solution that some friends in Somerset have adopted, a large hot tub with a current that you can swim against.

[polybear]

7 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I notice that grub screws have been mentioned. I remember losing them from loco gearboxes years ago when I assembled locos rather than bought them. So when I recently started playing with slot cars again and noticed just how many tiny grub screws are used I purchased a few bags from eBay.

 

Purely out of interest you understand (and nothing whatsoever to do with modelling, especially 4mm Locos)  what thread do such grub screws usually use - Metric or BA?  Or something else?  Seems like a sensible idea to have a few spares....

 

47 minutes ago, chrisf said:

There was no angry letter to Currys after all.  Instead I spoke to a member of staff who explained that they are all working from home.  That would go some way towards explaining the disconnected phone calls.  Helpfully, the guy advised me to buy my lead from somewhere like Wilkos.  I did, and saved myself a few £.  Currys can sort out the part-completed transaction for themselves.

 

 

 

Going back many years now (20+?) my friends over the road (now sadly no longer with us ) purchased some sort of clever box that hooks up to the telly (recorder, player, decoder type of thingummyjig IIRC) from Curry's.  The salesman convinced them that a "special SCART Lead that was oxygen free (WTF) with gold plated pins was essential with this particular item, and of course not included in the box".  An extra seventy-odd quid later for the lead.....

Personally, I've never had a problem those from Poundland.

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

a large hot tub with a current that you can swim against

That's what is called a swim spa here.

 

You can have that installed in a swimming pool too, but I expect it is quite expensive.

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, polybear said:

"special SCART Lead that was oxygen free (WTF) with gold plated pins was essential with this particular item, and of course not included in the box"

This was the "monster cable" pitch.  Website here.

[polybear]

5 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

This was the "monster cable" pitch.  Website here.

 

A (cable?) supplier in (I think) Oz was so p*ssed off that customers were being ripped off for scart leads that he posted them out to anyone that asked for them, free of charge....