The Night Mail

[Florence Locomotive Works]

I must beg the indulgence of the hippo, he will surely be pleased to see the completion of track laying in Pwllheli station. 
 

 

 

 

Douglas

[iL Dottore]

8 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Finally got all the reports on Jill's heart tests together with the cardiologist's OK for her to start driving again. Since we have another appointment with the kitchen designer tomorrow to finalise the deal she said that if I didn't want to go she could drive herself there. And leave her with a carte blanche to decide on extras/upgrades/gold plated fittings etc? Fat chance!

 

Dave

I am very pleased to hear that Jill has had all her tests (hopefully with good outcomes) and that she can start driving again.

 

However, Dave, I am most disappointed that it seems that you didn’t follow doctor’s advice about the right psychological approach to take in regards to the kitchen rebuild, as SWMBO still has unbridled enthusiasm for the refit. Early and appropriate intervention, as I had described in an earlier post, would have prevented this from developing.

 

You are now, understandably, having anxiety attacks about what may occur at the kitchen designers. KDM-UPS (Kitchen Designer Mediated Upwards Price Spiral) is, sadly, one of those conditions that once it takes hold is impossible to cure - with only palliative care currently available*. The disease is one of those unique MFM** conditions where the person afflicted (the SWMBO) is asymptomatic and the partner (the MrSWMBO) has all the symptoms: night terrors, wallet cachexia, impending doom anxiety, etc.

 

Unfortunately KDM-UPS is not fatal - with the sufferer forced to live with the consequences.

 

A Doctor

* palliative treatment includes avoiding gadgets that have too many lights, bells and whistles, avoiding shiny have-to-polish-after-each-use surfaces, etc.

** MFM = Marital Financial Maladies are a spectrum of conditions mediated by SWMBO, ranging from the relatively mild “GTPI” (Get The Painters In) to the moderately severe KDM-UPS and the very severe “Imelda Marcos Syndrome”

[rockershovel]

Wet celery AND lace up boots? (Pauses for contemplation....)

 

The whole point about magnetos is that they are self-contained, with no external wiring other than the plug leads and possibly, an external earth wire which serves to stop the engine. Cutting that wire just means the STOP button doesn't work (oh, and those low-tension PAL magnetos found on 1960s and 1970s JAWA speedway bikes, which have the HT coil mounted externally. THEY have external wires)

 

The Dutch will scold you vigorously for speaking loudly on a mobile on trains, although finger-wagging disapproval is a sort of general thing over there...

 

 

[rockershovel]

On 12/04/2023 at 09:33, pH said:

Here, that piece of timber would be a “two by four”.  I wonder why the dimensions are the reverse.
 

That is different from a “two-four”, which is a flat of four and twenty cans of beer.

Because having two children by four fathers doesn't really compute...

[iL Dottore]

9 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Now ensconced in the Barking Travelodge,…

That sounds like the beginning of a Film Noire/Raymond Chandleresque story. As in 

Now ensconced in the Barking Travelodge, Jamie cracked the seal on a bottle of cheap brandy, lit his twentieth Malboro of the day and wondered how he had ended up like this….

[iL Dottore]

6 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

You learn all sorts of stuff like that in my line of work. 
 

Speaking of that, there has been a change of occupation. I am now an antique tool and scientific instruments dealer, having made a significant number of contacts through my work with the Plumier Foundation. It earns me probably 5x what your average 17 year old earns!

Well Done That Man!

I’m actually in the market for an Orrery - so if you stumble across one during your travels “let’s talk” (as the late, great, Joan Rivers, would have said)

[AndyID]

9 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Now ensconced in the Barking Travelodge

 

 

Surely it's not that bad?

 

Or are you referring to the one on the Isle of Dogs?

[iL Dottore]

14 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

…On another matter, a touching tribute in HO/OO gawd bless her

https://www.bradford.com.au/qeiitrainbge.html

Good grief. PT Barnum was right - you’ll never go broke underestimating the taste of the general public.

 

What’s astounding is this company has a Swiss website (https://www.bradford.ch/) as well as sites for the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Ireland and England. Although the Swiss site seems to be marginally more tasteful and microscopically more upmarket.

 

What’s also interesting is that each national site is uniquely customised, so they have

• In Italy, religious themed items
• Switzerland: Swissair
• Austria: “Modelleisenbahn”
• Sweden: clothes and bags
• The UK: Christmas

and so on.

 

Given that this stuff tends to be made in the PRC (as seems to be the case for almost anything nowadays), it’s no wonder the PRC is flexing its muscles. One can imagine Chinese industrialists talking:

 

Chinese Business Mogul 1: “my factory received an order for 20 new bullet trains from the PRC government”

Chinese Business Mogul 2: “my factory received an order for 20,000 Princess Diana* commemorative toilets seats from the west”

 

* other commercialised public figures are available…

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by iL Dottore
Typo

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from Barking. Early night last r night so I will be away fairly soon. I'm heading for Cambridge for a cousins Réunion.  15 of the 16 are still around and hopefully I'll meet most of them today. Two of them will appear via Zoom from Canada.  The event is being held at Downing College, where one cousin's husband is currently master.  I'm looking forward to it. Sadly it may be the last time that I speak to 1 or two of them. I'm the 3rd youngest.  

 

My first task is however to find some breakfast as the hotel only offers a breakfast box. 

 

Regards to all

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

4 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

I must beg the indulgence of the hippo, he will surely be pleased to see the completion of track laying in Pwllheli station. 
 

 

 

 

Douglas

Never mind the trains, let's see the tools!😂

[Happy Hippo]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I am very pleased to hear that Jill has had all her tests (hopefully with good outcomes) and that she can start driving again.

 

However, Dave, I am most disappointed that it seems that you didn’t follow doctor’s advice about the right psychological approach to take in regards to the kitchen rebuild, as SWMBO still has unbridled enthusiasm for the refit. Early and appropriate intervention, as I had described in an earlier post, would have prevented this from developing.

 

You are now, understandably, having anxiety attacks about what may occur at the kitchen designers. KDM-UPS (Kitchen Designer Mediated Upwards Price Spiral) is, sadly, one of those conditions that once it takes hold is impossible to cure - with only palliative care currently available*. The disease is one of those unique MFM** conditions where the person afflicted (the SWMBO) is asymptomatic and the partner (the MrSWMBO) has all the symptoms: night terrors, wallet cachexia, impending doom anxiety, etc.

 

Unfortunately KDM-UPS is not fatal - with the sufferer forced to live with the consequences.

 

A Doctor

* palliative treatment includes avoiding gadgets that have too many lights, bells and whistles, avoiding shiny have-to-polish-after-each-use surfaces, etc.

** MFM = Marital Financial Maladies are a spectrum of conditions mediated by SWMBO, ranging from the relatively mild “GTPI” (Get The Painters In) to the moderately severe KDM-UPS and the very severe “Imelda Marcos Syndrome”

The good doctor has forgotten to mention the hyper expensive GLRS (Garden Landscaping and Redevelopment Scheme.)

 

This happens when a muddy hollow is just not enough.😭

Edited April 14, 2023 by Happy Hippo

[Happy Hippo]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

That sounds like the beginning of a Film Noire/Raymond Chandleresque story. As in 

Now ensconced in the Barking Travelodge, Jamie cracked the seal on a bottle of cheap brandy, lit his twentieth Malboro of the day and wondered how he had ended up like this….

Have you seen LGA?

[iL Dottore]

1 minute ago, Happy Hippo said:

The good doctor has forgotten to mention the hyper expensive GLRS (Garden Landscaping and Redevelopment Scheme.)

 

This happens when a muddy hollow is just not enough.😭

Thank you for pointing that out, HH.

 

I kept the list of MFM conditions quite short as I didn't want to increase DH's already high levels of anxiety.

 

Perhaps TNM posters need a @Gwiwer style T-Shirt "I survived MFM"?

 

[jamie92208]

Breakfast sourced in a lovely old style cafe that I found after asking a market inspector. Poached eggs on toast with baked beans have set me up for the daynow en route to Cambridge.

 

Jamie. 

[Happy Hippo]

22 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Breakfast sourced in a lovely old style cafe that I found after asking a market inspector. Poached eggs on toast with baked beans have set me up for the daynow en route to Cambridge.

 

Jamie. 

Having eaten that, you should get to Cambridge with the benefit of a following wind.

[wasabi]

On 10/04/2023 at 18:07, Canal Digger said:

As you say almost impossible to say, how close to the cliff edge, how precisely you follow various headlands, how to choose where to cross a river etc, coastal erosion, ..... but you set me wondering so here goes:

• English Costal Path 2700 to 2800 miles depending upon source of information, so go for 2750 miles
• Welsh Costal Path 870 miles.
• The Scottish National Heritage estimated the total coastline length Scotland to be 6333 miles for a conference in 2010.  

Sum total 9953 miles

When I went from London Victoria to Kowloon in 1987 I worked out the mileage as 9610, plus 71.5 for the Dover - Oostende ferry crossing (no tunnel back then), which provides an interesting perspective.  Although 11 of us set out I was the only one going 100% by train as the others omitted Beijing - Shanghai and flew to X'ian instead.  A couple of them later confided that when they saw the tyres of the plane they wished they had stuck to the original plan!  The airline was CAAC or 'Chinese Airlines Always Crash'.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Well Done That Man!

I’m actually in the market for an Orrery - so if you stumble across one during your travels “let’s talk” (as the late, great, Joan Rivers, would have said)

I’ll see what I can do.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Never mind the trains, let's see the tools!😂

Here you are.

 

[Happy Hippo]

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

I’m actually in the market for an Orrery -

Sounds like the speech impediment my cousin Joe Twump suffers from.

[J. S. Bach]

54 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Here you are.

 

I don't know, that nuclear reactor core with the straw sticking out of it looks mildly harmful to me.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

36 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

I don't know, that nuclear reactor core with the straw sticking out of it looks mildly harmful to me.

It was very nice I can sure you. 

[polybear]

4 hours ago, wasabi said:

A couple of them later confided that when they saw the tyres of the plane they wished they had stuck to the original plan!  The airline was CAAC or 'Chinese Airlines Always Crash'.

 

I saw a Bus in Bombay where the rubber on the tyres was practically non-existent - there was plenty of canvas showing though.

[Happy Hippo]

26 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

I saw a Bus in Bombay where the rubber on the tyres was practically non-existent - there was plenty of canvas showing though.

And just after the bus was dropped off:

 

 

Apparently after it landed the state of the tyres was immaterial.

[PupCam]

18 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Cut the wires to the magneto. That's what Agatha Christie did and it worked for her. Mind you the hero did jerry rig a repair. How much does Jill know about car electrics?

 

Blimey what classic vehicle do the Hunts drive I wonder!    And how many wires does the magneto have?  

 

(I've just checked;  no mags on a Hunter, Hillman or otherwise 🤣)

[J. S. Bach]

 

13 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

I must beg the indulgence of the hippo, he will surely be pleased to see the completion of track laying in Pwllheli station.

Douglas

I see it now; six ex-Penn Central SD45s and a hundred plus 100-ton coal hoppers thundering south on F track headed to the Popes Creek Branch and the Morgantown Generating Station on the Potomack River!

Morgantown Generating Station

 

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by J. S. Bach