The Night Mail

[jjb1970]

On traffic regulations, something I have found (and it is true about the law in general) is that visiting somewhere with broadly the same laws and regulations as home can be riskier than going somewhere very different.

 

If people go to somewhere like China, for example, they know it is a very different country with a very different legal system and tend to be suitably cautious.

 

If they go somewhere very similar it is too easy to assume it is the same, which can get people in a world of the proverbial.

 

Singapore is a good example, their legal system is still based on the England & Wales legal system, traffic codes are similar to Britain and the language of administration is English. That leads many British visitors to think it is just like Britain in Asia with a lot of Asian people. However, it's not the same and assuming it is can result in real problems.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[SM42]

Well that was a fun trip home from work.

Started in white town with clear wet roads, proceed to outskirts with white roads with two black bands then out to white over roads and back to clear roads with very little snow. 

In fact there is more snow 

about 1.5 miles away than here. 

 

Time for some kip. 

 

Till later

 

Andy

[SteveyDee68]

The promised snow has finally arrived here (Bury, north of Manchester, U.K.) but it is hardly the “snowmageddon” promised on the news forecasts! 🙄

 

Steve S

[Oldddudders]

We do not have snow, despite quite often having weather similar to SW UK. After a couple of very dry months, we have had some rain over the last couple of days, and the ditches outside my gate are looking quite full. They were properly re-dug within the last few months. Yesterday's showers w occasional sun had temperatures up to 13+. Today it isn't actually raining, but we have windspeeds up to 85 kph, which are enough to bring the temperature down from 8 to 4, they say. 

 

I have a blood-test at 11, to be compared with the one a week ago, before my Zoledronic Acid infusion. It seems likely that I am suffering from hyperparathyroidism, which is nothing to do with the thyroid, but where the parathyroid glands (in the neck, near the thyroid gland) produce too much parathyroid hormone, suppressing the body's ability to absorb calcium. A small op may be needed, I suspect. People suffer much worse diseases/conditions at my age!

[Happy Hippo]

I found that hitting the ripe old age of 37 was the start of my decline!

 

Once I passed 40 I needed to wear some form of hat on a cold day.

 

Now I also need a good seal between top of coat and neck which is provided by a fleecy tube like contraption which I believe is also called a snood.

 

But as Ian has written, there are people out there in far worse conditions. Two of my friends (neither on RMWeb) are each dealing with a wife who has Stage 4 cancer, and although both of them are fit and well, the impact on their mental health has been significant.

[bbishop]

I have three dates.  My body decided it didn't want to play rugby any more when I was 34.  My hypertension was discovered at 62 (post retirement, but work-stress related through the previous decade) and my knee decided to fall apart at 69 (luckily repairable but now in the last chance saloon).  Bill

[SM42]

I went to bed 39 and woke up 40 and thought " that didn't hurt yesterday "

 

The back gave out at 36, Rugby started to hurt at 18, now at 53, shoulders, knees and occasionally random other bits object at random intervals about any given activity too 

 

If I was a horse they'd have shot me by now. 

 

Andy

[Gwiwer]

Amid this measurement* of modellers whose bodies and minds have objected over time I feel fortunate to have had largely good health and without too many protesting parts. 
 

Yes I am a cancer survivor and occasionally suffer from gouterous toes but beyond that I am doing all right. A very few and very minor aches in cold damp conditions such as today but otherwise the joints are holding up very well. 
 

I am regularly mistaken for a man of younger years. Just this morning I was asked for directions by a group of ladies addressing me as “young man”. It turned out I was several years older than the lot of them!

 

And I still have a juvenile sense of humour. As fellow fans of HHGTTG will appreciate. 
 

 

* What other collective noun could there be?

Edited March 10, 2023 by Gwiwer

[New Haven Neil]

A whinge of modellers?  We seem to do a lot of it!

 

45 was my first real wake-up to things ageing, then 60 as I realised my recovery from an accident wasn't going to be 'complete'.  I'm 64 next week, and the Beatles were right. Luckily Mrs NHN will still take the job on, she's several years younger and only just 5*.  * in case she reads this..... ;-)

[Danemouth]

My mother used to say "Old age cometh not alone".

 

Now I am 75 I know she was 101% correct!

 

Dave

[BoD]

These days, if any one asks how I am, I just reply ‘bits of me are still ok’.  

[jamie92208]

I've managed to get to 70 without any major parts failing so thank my lucky stars.

 

Jamie

 

 

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

3 hours ago, SM42 said:

If I was a horse they'd have shot me by now. 

 

Andy

 

I can oblige if required

[DenysW]

2 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

3 hours ago, SM42 said:

If I was a horse they'd have shot me by now. 

 

Andy

 

I can oblige if required

Really Mr. H, tsk, tsk. @SM42 did not say he was now self-identifying as a horse. He was merely being allegorical, which is still legal in most of the UK, but probably not Texas.

 

Do not over-react to passing poetry is my recommendation.

[SM42]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

A whinge of modellers?  We seem to do a lot of it

 

When I was in the exhibition management game, whinge was great collective noun for traders 😁 for much the same reason.  

 

Perhaps it's just a modelling thing.

 

7 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

I can oblige if required

 

Good job I'm not a horse  isn't it?

 

Andy

 

Edited March 10, 2023 by SM42

[skipepsi]

I remember saying on ER's I have no money but at least I still have my health... followed by C spine crumbling ,high blood pressure, type two diabetes and twenty years of anti depressants. 

Forgot the heart attack and on going angina.

Edited March 10, 2023 by skipepsi
missed a bit

[Happy Hippo]

This afternoon I have been back on the foam front.

 

All the bridge abutments had their mortar courses widened with a dental probe to get rid of the rather sharp edges left by the original grooving process:

 

 

These were then filled with fine grey filler, and than rubbed over with a damp sponge pad to remove the excess:

 

 

Of course, although this time when I make the retaining wall I'll stick with the same style based on Ashlar stonework, the next time, I'll be a bit more adventurous with the style of block.

 

I did consider binning this set and starting again, but sanity prevailed.

 

Next is some dry brushing and some weathering washes, by which time the plastic I require for the platework should have arrived.

 

Edited March 10, 2023 by Happy Hippo

[Winslow Boy]

5 hours ago, SM42 said:

I went to bed 39 and woke up 40 and thought " that didn't hurt yesterday "

 

The back gave out at 36, Rugby started to hurt at 18, now at 53, shoulders, knees and occasionally random other bits object at random intervals about any given activity too 

 

If I was a horse they'd have shot me by now. 

 

Andy

 

Be careful Andy big Big H might get ideas and use the excuse -well he did say he wanted to be shot.

Edited March 10, 2023 by Winslow Boy
Drat beaten to it. Dürrrrrr

[pH]

I remember the moment I first thought that things might be starting to - shall we say - “degrade”. Not having played for a month or so, I came off the field after a football game thinking “There was something different about that”, but not being able to say just what. A couple of hours later, it came to me - I had been up on my toes when running maybe only three or four times in the game. I had started to run flat-footed. I was 27.

[jamie92208]

I've just shovelled the first third of the earth for one raised bed. My shoulders told me when to stop. Anyway it was raining by then. I did seem yo make quite an impression on the soil heap though.  

 

Jamie

 

 

 

 

[Northmoor]

This week I did a very rare thing and bought a new loco.  I can just about justify it for what will be about layout #3 on the to-do list but discounted to the level it was, resistance was futile.  The Peckett W4 is exquisitely tiny:

 

There are people on RMWeb who found a long list of things on this model to complain about.  My sympathies to them.

[Happy Hippo]

23 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I've just shovelled the first third of the earth

 

And this week viewers, Jamie is going to be....

 

Briarios the Strong!

[bbishop]

28 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I've just shovelled the first third of the earth for one raised bed. My shoulders told me when to stop. Anyway it was raining by then. I did seem yo make quite an impression on the soil heap though.  

 

Jamie

 

 

 

 

A Sisyphean activity?

[PhilJ W]

I am fortunate that none of my age related ailments are potentially fatal. They are beginning to curtail my activities however as some preserved railways are now inaccessible to me.

Edited March 11, 2023 by PhilJ W