Early Risers.

[Ian Abel]

Monday moaning...

Yesterday was another delightful day, punctuated with various large-scale protests and another curfew. Hard to get a first hand perspective as we've no intention of joining in or getting close to the locations, sadly too old to want to risk all that. 

Secondhand and relayed details continue to show much is peaceful, but increasing amounts of incendiary materials being found stashed around the city, some at least 48-hours old apparently. Friends have found gallons of kerosene in out-of-the-way places on their city alleys.

 

Enjoyed the Zoom with our UK friends, and the early evening happy hour/Indian meal with friends. Given the volatility of the situation, the local supermarket decided to close all day Sunday out of an abundance of caution and safety issues for staff and shoppers. Not sure how long this is going to play out, and more importantly how much the unrest (warranted) but in some cases unrelated, distracts from the real issue and the death that was a catalyst for it all in the first place.

As usual/always the divider-in-chief made matters worse by once again opening his !@$!@$ mouth - having him buqqer off and play golf isn't that bad really! 

 

Another nice day here, 22 and sunny, heading for 31.

 

Stay safe everyone...

[TheQ]

And so endeth my first day back at work. 

 

Observations 

Traffic to work was different,  local traffic as normal,  no commuter traffic heading for London. 

Traffic in work was different,  a one way system,  that means a 600 yard walk up and down the building to get a cuppacoffee to my desk. 

Leave desk turn right,  walk turn left, walk turn right, walk turn right,  walk turn left,  walk turn left,  walk turn left,  walk turn right,  walk turn left,  walk reach coffee machine,  walk turn left turn left,  walk turn right, walk turn  right,  walk turn left,  walk turn right,  walk turn right,  walk turn left,  walk turn left,  walk turn right,  walk turn right,  walk Sit down,  you have reached your destination... 

 

Alcohol wipes/ sanitiser dispensers everywhere. 

Paper cups back in the machines instead of saving the planet using your own mug. 

T bar looks like an old school,  separate desks widely spaced all facing the same way. 

My processing computer is slower than ever.. They are promising a new one since the boss tried using it.. 

My lab a/c is broken,  2 months lead time for a £ 10,000 replacement,  however it needs signing off for purchase,  most of the requisite people are WFH.. In the meantime time I'm stuck in a corner of the main lab. 

On the way home, 

Lots of teenagers / low 20s out, not social distancing, 

 

Dinner has been eaten,  time to inspect the eyelids. 

 

[81C]

Greetings All

Had a busy day flat looks like a bomb has gone off still the new bathroom suit has arrived and the old bath has been ripped out the new bath will go in tomorrow

once the walls have been fixed the tiles have been purchased so I will be playing Tiler tomorrow I can get all the tilling done behind the "throne" before the cistern goes in

it won't take long as the tiles are 60 cm x 30 cm  its only 105 tiles in total on quick drying cement should have it tiled by Wednesday afternoon if my hands don't give out.

Kitchen arrives Wednesday the fitter will crack on with that while tile, once I tile around the sink that can be fitted in place and sealed along with the bath with silicone.

At the weekend I will be back in Essex with my partner.

Must get on stay safe Roger Ringinbedd.

[Barry O]

I have been in communication withthe keeper of the Awl. Debs is training up on the 32 awls at once multi awl flinging device...gulp! Practice makes perfect!!

Baz

[Gwiwer]

Afternoon all,

 

Another warm day Upon the Hill of Strawberries.  And, currently, mulberries which are ripening apace.  

 

Just two school uniform-wearing customers through the House of Fun this morning one of whom would probably have been Year 10 and therefore the child of a key worker.  The other probably a Year 6.  A very few extra folk over and above the past week or several and hardly anyone heading into Central London.  As ever the busy routes were Croydon - Clapham and change, Clapham - Brentford or Richmond and the various London Overground routes.  

 

Once again no sign of the coffee shops opening but two Costa managers were seen checking things.  It appears that the problem is two-fold.  One is the purely commercial concern that there is nowhere near enough traffic to make reopening viable and the other is that Notwork Rail has apparently told all retail tenants that they may not reopen while the one-way system and social distancing is in place.  In other words they might as well pack up and leave now as the one-way system may become a permanent feature.  

 

After lunch there was weeding of the pathways in the afternoon sun followed by socially-distanced chit-chat with friends, various, via electronic means and whilst enjoying a beer earned for my efforts.  The starboard knee is protesting, as it has occasionally done in recent years, but should self-rectify soon enough based upon previous experience.  

 

I am required to assist in the kitchen if dinner is to be performed so had better go and investigate .....  

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Train trip today, first in over 3 months, quite likely the longest period without going by train since my teens! (Took madam's car for its annual service, travelled home and then subsequently to collect by train.) Almost forgotten how pleasant an experience it is.  The 700 units are ever so roomy when you are the only passenger in a carriage, and station stops exceedingly brisk with only 2 or 3 alighting or boarding. The convenient elbow operation of the door buttons is useful in this situation.

 

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

...On the way home, lots of teenagers / low 20s out, not social distancing...

Based on my walk from station to dealer's premises in the mid afternoon, I concur. But at that age we are looking at 'golden lads and girls all must', and no government anywhere can switch that off.

[NGT6 1315]

3 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Monday moaning...

Yesterday was another delightful day, punctuated with various large-scale protests and another curfew. Hard to get a first hand perspective as we've no intention of joining in or getting close to the locations, sadly too old to want to risk all that. 

Secondhand and relayed details continue to show much is peaceful, but increasing amounts of incendiary materials being found stashed around the city, some at least 48-hours old apparently. Friends have found gallons of kerosene in out-of-the-way places on their city alleys.

 

Enjoyed the Zoom with our UK friends, and the early evening happy hour/Indian meal with friends. Given the volatility of the situation, the local supermarket decided to close all day Sunday out of an abundance of caution and safety issues for staff and shoppers. Not sure how long this is going to play out, and more importantly how much the unrest (warranted) but in some cases unrelated, distracts from the real issue and the death that was a catalyst for it all in the first place.

As usual/always the divider-in-chief made matters worse by once again opening his !@$!@$ mouth - having him buqqer off and play golf isn't that bad really! 

 

Another nice day here, 22 and sunny, heading for 31.

 

Stay safe everyone...

Stay safe too, Ian. The news from across the 'lantic isn’t exactly pretty indeed. Alas, I wouldn’t place any bets on things actually changing in the aftermath of all that turmoil... 

[New Haven Neil]

Evening.  One current CV case here, no new cases for 12 days - closed borders working nicely.  Also keeps the Awls out, although it should be noted the good lady has visited the rock in the past.....although for matters not train or NHN related.

 

Slightly less madness at work, but still mad.  If there were less e mails to answer asking when their parcel will be dispatched, we could dispatch more parcels.....when we are keeping (just...) in the 4 working day delay posted on the website.....that they hadn't read until pointed out to them!  Ah well, keeps me in a job.

 

Toasty again today on FR, 22c on the way home, we're not used to this!  

 

Should be TT now, it is just not fair, boohoo.

[roundhouse]

Evening.

 

A good mornings work finally cutting the hole in the shed and fitting the spray booth extract duct. its only taken me a year to get round to it. makes a big difference when using Tamiya Acrylic paint as gave it a test!

 

The cardboard, glass / plastic / tin cans all taken to the recycling bins on our way for food shopping. It annoys me that some people just dump all their bags of general rubbish in the first bin they come across which is normally the glass bin. We then drove past the yet again realigned queues outside Sainsburys. We havent been in there for three weeks now. So a drive to a much more pleasant Morrisons in Reigate. No queues to get in and both of us allowed in together. Plenty of teenagers especially of the female variety scantily clad in very close proximity to each other. Must be a lot of twins / triplets around here. There is a large park right next to the store hence a big thoroughfare into the town.

 

Food items obtained for much except for the icing sugar as the shelf was empty. Even managed to get a sensible sized bag of flour for her.

 

Now back in the shed having fitted an old decoder into my Q1 and given it a run on the rolling road. being Hornby, I did check the back of the factory fitted socket and all was OK so no blown decoder.

 

No beer o'clock today either as it is our day off the beer.

[Happy Hippo]

On the Forum the menu page I've just seen a title about 'Having to double tap.................

 

I was most disappointed to find out it was nothing to do with combat shooting.

 

 

[Barry O]

no worries but the ONS data (which, admittedly was not fully complete) did show a major uprise in the R figure last week...after last weekends chaos goodness knows what it will be in a weeks time..

 

"use common sense" .. OK if you can also use your brain....

 

Baz

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

I have been in communication withthe keeper of the Awl. Debs is training up on the 32 awls at once multi awl flinging device...gulp! Practice makes perfect!!

Baz

UnFortunately, the authority required to licence such an activity is in lock down and will remain so for the foreseeable future. The year 2023 being the earliest that we can hope for the check tests and the issuing of the licence for authorisation to use such a complicated contraption.

 

Biggles, Jaymee le Gendarme and I believe that the document to release the licencing authority from lockdown is currently stuck in a motor cycle Pannier,  on a rock, somewhere in the middle of the Irish Sea.

[Barry O]

52 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

UnFortunately, the authority required to licence such an activity is in lock down and will remain so for the foreseeable future. The year 2023 being the earliest that we can hope for the check tests and the issuing of the licence for authorisation to use such a complicated contraption.

 

Biggles, Jaymee le Gendarme and I believe that the document to release the licencing authority from lockdown is currently stuck in a motor cycle Pannier,  on a rock, somewhere in the middle of the Irish Sea.

 

surprisingly enough..she seems to be perfectly capable of licencing herself.. and that means....more awls!

 

 

Tigerbernie asked about the awl... Well..the unwritten rules of ER include:

 

no politics

No model railways 

 

these can be dealt with else where on RMWeb.. ERs is for .. just about everything else.....

 

Baz

[Coombe Barton]

What leadership?

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/sometimes-stalled/

[iL Dottore]

8 minutes ago, Barry O said:

... Well..the unwritten rules of ER include:

 

no politics

No model railways.....

Well, that’s me well and truly stuffed. I suppose I will have to await arrest by the ER police and sentencing by the “awl”
 

I have just been scanning through the online newspapers about Britain’s first day of limited lockdown release and I can’t believe what a total clusterf*** it is.

Apart from the idiots who are refusing to acknowledge the need to keep at least some distance from other people to minimise the risk of picking up infection, there is the bizarre and often contradictory advice from the government. Apparently, whilst you cannot “get up close and personal“ with an attractive neighbour in your own house, doing so in the garden is apparently permissible. Going out is allowed, except when it is not. And the police will be checking on the number of guests that you host when you eventually get round to holding that dinner party you meant to hold a number of weeks ago. If you invite more than 4 people (assuming you and the SWMBO will also attend), then you‘re gonna be in trouble. 

On a slightly more positive note, some epidemiologists and clinicians in Italy are reporting that they seeing signs suggestive that COVID-19 is mutating to a less lethal form. This, of course, can happen and by becoming less lethal the virus will propagate more easily (it’s not a terribly good survival strategy to kill off your host each and every time a host gets infected). Whether this turns out to be a repeatable finding or a just an anomaly seen in a few patients remains to be seen.

Mrs iD is back with the Wolfpack after visiting her friend (who is a vet) as a sequalae to this, poor little Lucy has a new food and medication regimen (apparently Lucy continued to have GI problems during the visit - leading to a consultation with our friend, the vet).

 

Now off to bed.

 

G‘night All

 

iD

[brianusa]

What is happening in the world?  Didn't read the morning paper! Nor didn't watch the TV news!!  What a nice day we're having in GH, the sun is shining but its not going to get too hot.  The harbour is looking lovely, the fishing fleet is in and yachts are enjoying a little cooling breeze that is coming off the Pacific.  I am now off to make lunch for my wife and I to be enjoyed on our deck under our shady maple tree.  For the rest of the day I may just stay there!

     Brian.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

no worries but the ONS data (which, admittedly was not fully complete) did show a major uprise in the R figure last week...after last weekends chaos goodness knows what it will be in a weeks time..

 

"use common sense" .. OK if you can also use your brain....

 

Baz

 

 

Our nationwide  daily new infections are now so low we could name them individually (eg 8 yesterday), but one thing that shows is how fast outbreaks happen when they do - for instance a meatworks in Victoria suffered an outbreak that has infected 90 people over the last couple of weeks and a delivery driver infected 9 people at one Victorian Mcdonalds outlet.

 

Luckily we have well established testing and contact tracing regime , and small enough numbers now to ensure its comprehensive which keeps these outbreaks in check, I have no idea how the UK govt thinks it can handle cases there  in the same way given the still large numbers of daily new infections.

Seems a little mad from here, or your government is awesome.

 

One thing though, with all these new hygene skills and social distancing infection rates here for things like flu and  chicken pox has dropped off a cliff.

[tetsudofan]

Evening all, a week or so ago, the subject of collecting was mentioned. Despite not being a smoker and needing matches, collecting match boxes at hotels and restaurants was something I got into, at times it seemed to be a thing to do many years ago.

 

During the weekend I came across some the boxes that I collected, never used and in pristine condition. The following picture shows some of them:

 

 

For those interested from top left to bottom right:

 

Kaufleuten Zurich

Capitol Tokyu Hotel, Tokyo

Yashiro Shabu Shabu House, Tokyo

Some place in Korea

Hotel Pulitzer, Amsterdam 

Rock'n Show & Beer Restaurant, Tokyo

Ritz Carlton Hotel, Hong Kong

Schweizerhof Hotel, Zurich

Hotel de Premiere, Minowa, Japan

Savoy Hotel, London

Chinzan So Restaurant, Tokyo

Tony Roma's Ribs Restaurant, Tokyo

Al Palazzo Italian Restaurant, New York

Iwata Ekimae Nobusi, Iwata, Japan

Brienz Rothorn Bahn, Switzerland

 

All hotels and restaurants I've visited, never did any swaps! Different to collecting stamps.....

 

Keith

[Erichill16]

Evening All, Been mending the cold frame that SWMBO and my Dad build. It has sentimental value so was worth the effort. SWMBO then  painted it and I think it’ll last a couple more years. Not much else to report, not been out but done a bit more modelling.

Work tomorrow so relatively early night.

Keep safe and try to avoid the nutters out there,

Robert 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The computer shut down earlier, not from overheating but because of a low battery, I'd forgotten to switch the charger on. The fan has not come back to life but more like trying to come out of a coma, it tries to start but only runs for a second or two so I'm going to switch off for a while.

[polybear]

14 hours ago, roundhouse said:

I have just seen a very large blow up workshop / spray booth that can take a car inside it and even comes with its own blower that will have it up in 3 - 5 minutes and separate ventilation blower. Very tempting to set up layouts in the garden and have my own private socially distanced show but must check if it will fit on the lawn first. Its got large clear windows so you cold in theory set it up in a public space where viewers could look through the windows at the layout (s)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Portable-Inflatable-Tent-Paint-Spray-Booth-Car-Mobile-Workstation-with-2-Blowers/173918990429

 

I have something similar to this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BEACH-TENT-SUMMER-UV-SUN-SHELTER-UPF40-OUTDOOR-CAMPING-FISHING-FESTIVAL-TENTS/121332906674?hash=item1c40013ab2:m:mAIngoFond_mIbfVeozq9Qw

 

I find it very useful for spraying/airbrushing larger items in the garden - spray the job, then zip the front up to keep the dust and flies out.  Works a treat, and cheap too; also it collapses down to a small bundle for storage.  Recommended.

 

[AndyB]

4 hours ago, Barry O said:

I have been in communication withthe keeper of the Awl. Debs is training up on the 32 awls at once multi awl flinging device...gulp! Practice makes perfect!!

Baz

Mon dieu when she reads about Richard and his black p@nn £r t@nk she'll blow her copper-clad stack! 

 

I'd not put money on 3 Para!

[Ozexpatriate]

48 minutes ago, tetsudofan said:

... collecting match boxes at hotels and restaurants was something I got into ...

At one point before smoke free restaurants, so had I. It was built on a collection started by my then significant other.

 

The combined collection was amongst my possessions and when I found them after a move I offered them to her.  She accepted, which pleased me. There was about a half a cubic foot of them and this much accumulated fire starter began to unnerve me in my new home.

 

They were in the garage which does not have any temperature control and can get quite warm. Theoretically they were "safe" of course. I had grown uncomfortable with them.

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, tetsudofan said:

Tony Roma's Ribs Restaurant, Tokyo

Which was apparently the first international location of the chain in 1979.

 

I was fond of the chain and had a birthday dinner at one in southern California (since closed) more than 30 years ago. My birthday is close to Halloween and the waitstaff were in costume.

 

Despite having 115 locations worldwide, they currently have only 13 in the US which seems much smaller to me than they did at one point. There's much more competition for more traditional regional southern barbecue than there was when the chain was formed.  Now you have to be regionally authentic - like Texas, St. Louis, Memphis, Kansas City, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina etc. The sauces, rubs and preparations all vary somewhat.

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by Ozexpatriate