The Night Mail

[pH]

31 minutes ago, AndyID said:

My mum used to put my oldest brother in the pram and walk down to the ferry. She bought a ticket and sat on the ferry for an hour or two while it chugged back and forward across the river. 😄
 

At one point in his babyhood, our oldest would fall fast asleep within (literally!) a minute in a moving car. He could be screaming, get him in a car and move off, he’d immediately go to sleep. Only one problem - we didn’t own a car at that point! So it only worked when we had visitors staying.

Edited March 23 by pH

[Happy Hippo]

Don't spend too much at Crewe I was told before I departed for the MIOG show.

 

I obeyed.

 

However, on my return home I received an email offering me a brand new BSA air rifle at 50% off the retail price.

 

As it was a rifle I had been casting covetous eyes over since the beginning of the year, I thought this was too good an opportunity to miss.

 

It was only slightly less cost that a large 7 mm scale Heljan diesel.

 

I've opted for the smaller .177 calibre this time, over my usual .22, as the work I envisage, will benefit from the flatter trajectory of the smaller pellet over varying ranges.

Edited March 23 by Happy Hippo

[Dave Hunt]

6 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

A lot of people's knowledge of their own country's geography, let another another's, is pretty dismal. 

 

When we lived in north Germany we were once setting out for Switzerland when Jill asked me why we were heading south. I replied that it was because Switzerland was south of Germany, to which she said, "Oh, I thought it's in Scandinavia."

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

6 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Don't spend too much at Crewe I was told before I departed for the MIOG show.

 

I obeyed.

 

So whilst at Crewe you didn't buy that Bentley you were talking about?

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Well, the Tweed can be quite rough at times.

 

Dave

Especially if it's Harris

 

Jamie

[SM42]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

I was rather pleased I had registered my car with Antwerp’s version of ULEZ as we got diverted off the motorway into the city on our way home from Germany a few years ago. 

 

Back in 2022 having got a little discombobulated on the Antwerp Ring  by the out of date satnav, barking instructions, the extensive  road works, dodging the heavy traffic and various in car conversations ( I had a car full of Poles) I ended up heading towards Rotterdam.

 

Now that is not a bad place to go, but useless if you are heading to Poland. 

 

The SiL came to the rescue with an alternative route courtesy of an on line mapping app and we trogged through downtown Antwerp. 

 

I've heard nothing since, but I'm not sure if we got inside the ring road and into the zone 

 

43 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Don't spend too much at Crewe I was told before I departed for the MIOG show.

 

I obeyed.

 

However, on my return home I received an email offering me a brand new BSA air rifle at 50% off the retail price.

 

As it was a rifle I had been casting covetous eyes over since the beginning of the year, I thought this was too good an opportunity to miss.

 

It was only slightly less cost that a large 7 mm scale Heljan diesel.

 

I've opted for the smaller .177 calibre this time, over my usual .22, as the work I envisage, will benefit from the flatter trajectory of the smaller pellet over varying ranges.

 

 

I see such instructions as  rather relative. 

 

Spending £1,000 when you could have spent twice as much, is in my opinion  doing exactly as bid.

 

As is only spending such sums wisely, thus obtaining much product by careful selection of goods being offered for sale.

 

Other members of a household may have a different view 

 

Andy

 

 

[Dave Hunt]

27 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Spending £1,000 when you could have spent twice as much, is in my opinion  doing exactly as bid.

 

As is only spending such sums wisely, thus obtaining much product by careful selection of goods being offered for sale.

 

Other members of a household may have a different view 

 

A bit like saying to SWMBO, "I saved £250 today." To her reply of, "Oh, how did you do that?" you respond, "I didn't buy a DCC sound fitted Deltic." 

 

Dave

[Happy Hippo]

Just watched Beyond Paradise.

 

 

The continuity was a bit poor when the starring 4575 class loco, morphed into a Pannier tank and then back again!

 

Completely ruined it for me.

[TheQ]

Remember Trafalgar...

That happened on page 1805...

[Tony_S]

20 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Just watched Beyond Paradise.

We have been watching a US crime series set in Montana (actually Canada appearing as Montana). The “baddies” in series/season 2 are Punjabi Canadians. This has amused Aditi quite a lot and she has translated the odd phrase for me. However it turns out the baddies are on the run from another lot of Indians. When they said “it isn’t the Kapur’s is it?” Aditi was laughing even more as her family name is Kapur. 

Edited March 23 by Tony_S

[PhilJ W]

6 minutes ago, phil_sutters said:

It appears that I haven't previously uploaded this sign from a bakers up hill from Lewes station. If I have - apologies.

 

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, SM42 said:

 

Back in 2022 having got a little discombobulated on the Antwerp Ring 

It doesn't help the unwary when it has a slip road into the city off the fast lane of the ring road.

 

Having spent the best part of two years posted, there it was a wonderful place to live.

 

However, like all wonderful places we returned several years ago to find the city very run down and desolate compared with what we remembered.

[Dave Hunt]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

……the starring 4575 class loco, morphed into a Pannier tank and then back again!

Definitely a horror story then ; worthy of the broadcaster who brought us Quatermass.

 

Dave

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Just watched Beyond Paradise.

 

 

The continuity was a bit poor when the starring 4575 class loco, morphed into a Pannier tank and then back again!

 

Completely ruined it for me.

 

Relax. They were both green weren't they?

[AndyID]

3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

When we lived in north Germany we were once setting out for Switzerland when Jill asked me why we were heading south. I replied that it was because Switzerland was south of Germany, to which she said, "Oh, I thought it's in Scandinavia."

 

Dave

 

A lot of people get a bit confused about this stuff. For example Glasgow is as far North as Moscow and New York City is further South than Barcelona.

[BR60103]

20 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

A lot of people get a bit confused about this stuff. For example Glasgow is as far North as Moscow and New York City is further South than Barcelona.

A quick look at my world map shows that Glasgow is level with Belcher Island in Hudson Bay. It is farther north than Flin Flon but level with Dawson Creek.

It is north of all of Ontario except a small tip. 

The Scottish islands are about on a line with the southern border of Yukon territory.

(anyone not Canadian will have no idea where these places are. Most Canadians have never been there either.)

 

[polybear]

9 hours ago, Northmoor said:

A lot of people's knowledge of their own country's geography, let another another's, is pretty dismal.  My wife watches "House of Games" every night and the round ("Where is Kazakhstan") where contestants stick a pin in the map for a given location, shows how this even afflicts people like TV presenters and stand-up comedians.......

 

......and College Lecturers.....

Someone (a Lecturer in his 50's) my Buddy knows couldn't correctly point to that most difficult of Countries to identify - Italy - when asked.  He pointed at Spain on the Map.

[jamie92208]

8 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

Back in 2022 having got a little discombobulated on the Antwerp Ring  by the out of date satnav, barking instructions, the extensive  road works, dodging the heavy traffic and various in car conversations ( I had a car full of Poles) I ended up heading towards Rotterdam.

 

Now that is not a bad place to go, but useless if you are heading to Poland. 

 

The SiL came to the rescue with an alternative route courtesy of an on line mapping app and we trogged through downtown Antwerp. 

 

I've heard nothing since, but I'm not sure if we got inside the ring road and into the zone 

 

 

Andy

 

 

 

6 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

It doesn't help the unwary when it has a slip road into the city off the fast lane of the ring road.

 

Having spent the best part of two years posted, there it was a wonderful place to live.

 

However, like all wonderful places we returned several years ago to find the city very run down and desolate compared with what we remembered.

Antwerp is stilfull of roadworks as we have found out on our way to and from the ferry at Rotterdam.  Strangely the satnav took us West bound on the ring going north, through a long  toll tunnel, and eastbound coming back nearer the city centre.  Our gizmo for French motorways paid the tunnel toll. 

 

Jamie

[AndyID]

5 hours ago, BR60103 said:

A quick look at my world map shows that Glasgow is level with Belcher Island in Hudson Bay. It is farther north than Flin Flon but level with Dawson Creek.

It is north of all of Ontario except a small tip. 

The Scottish islands are about on a line with the southern border of Yukon territory.

(anyone not Canadian will have no idea where these places are. Most Canadians have never been there either.)

 

The Shetlands are about as far North as the Southern tip of Greenland. I grew up (alternative opinions are available) in a house built on a drumlin in Scotland. They were formed during the not so distant ice ages.

 

One of the best ones is the quite recently recognized https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_floods

That would have obliterated this property.

[SM42]

16 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

 

Antwerp is stilfull of roadworks as we have found out on our way to and from the ferry at Rotterdam.  Strangely the satnav took us West bound on the ring going north, through a long  toll tunnel, and eastbound coming back nearer the city centre.  Our gizmo for French motorways paid the tunnel toll. 

 

Jamie

 

The only tunnel i use round there is the Kennedy Tunnel. 

 

Mind the speed cameras and don't let the "in 800 yards keep left" instruction fool you.  Just means you're not turning off the motorway. 

 

Keep heading towards Breda and Luik till you get to the Eindhoven exit. 

 

Yet to see a train on thd bit next to the railway ( when we're heading westwards across Europe) 

 

On that leg I also like the instructions from the nav, " keep right and bear left". 

 

Basically pick the middle two lanes and go left. It's a bit like a Peco code 75,  3 way point. 

 

Such fun at 5pm on a weekday. 

 

As long as you know which towns you are heading towards it's a doddle, just the crazy Dutch drivers to avoid. 

 

Antwerp and Ghent are two cities we pass that one day we hope to visit properly. 

 

Today's Poznan weather looks a bit drier and sunnier so far 

 

Family coming to dinner today and then a walk to the in laws for birthday cake ( nephew's) and some vodka to wash it down. 

 

Can't have too much ( vodka that is)   as I have a dentist appointment at 8am Monday. 

 

I hope they don't get out of the wrong side of the bed. 

 

Andy

[SM42]

8 hours ago, TheQ said:

Remember Trafalgar...

That happened on page 1805...

 

A day also celebrated in France as the day they did away with Nelson

 

Andy

[AndyID]

4 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

The only tunnel i use round there is the Kennedy Tunnel. 

 

Mind the speed cameras and don't let the "in 800 yards keep left" instruction fool you.  Just means you're not turning off the motorway. 

 

Keep heading towards Breda and Luik till you get to the Eindhoven exit. 

 

Yet to see a train on thd bit next to the railway ( when we're heading westwards across Europe) 

 

On that leg I also like the instructions from the nav, " keep right and bear left". 

 

Basically pick the middle two lanes and go left. It's a bit like a Peco code 75,  3 way point. 

 

Such fun at 5pm on a weekday. 

 

As long as you know which towns you are heading towards it's a doddle, just the crazy Dutch drivers to avoid. 

 

Antwerp and Ghent are two cities we pass that one day we hope to visit properly. 

 

Today's Poznan weather looks a bit drier and sunnier so far 

 

Family coming to dinner today and then a walk to the in laws for birthday cake ( nephew's) and some vodka to wash it down. 

 

Can't have too much ( vodka that is)   as I have a dentist appointment at 8am Monday. 

 

I hope they don't get out of the wrong side of the bed. 

 

Andy

 

Gordon Bennett!

 

I can drive 750 miles from here and make one right-turn 🤣

[SM42]

5 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Gordon Bennett!

 

I can drive 750 miles from here and make one right-turn 🤣

 

Thd best I can manage is the nav telling me my next turn off is in 297 miles. 

 

It used to be 309 miles  just after the 270 degree turn at Kraus Keiserberg but it adds in a little bear left now to break up the monotony 

 

Andy

[Hroth]

26 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

A day also celebrated in France as the day they did away with Nelson

 

Andy

 

Well, they had to get something positive out of the destruction of their fleet, even though it had taken several goes before they finally got him!

 

22 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Gordon Bennett!

 

I can drive 750 miles from here and make one right-turn 🤣

 

Sounds rather dull....

 

Edited March 24 by Hroth
Missed out Cousin It...

[AndyID]

6 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Well, they had to get something positive out of the destruction of their fleet, even though had taken several goes before they finally got him!

 

 

Sounds rather dull....

 

 

And the problem here is they do not deliberately introduce bends in the Motorways just to keep you awake like they do in the UK.