The Night Mail

[SM42]

Mrs SM42 celebrates another lap of the sun tomorrow and by way of a treat I will be taking her on a trip on Saturday. 

 

We shall be heading to Calne for a look around

 

What? There's an exhibition on?

 

Andy

[Winslow Boy]

29 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Cadent and their works on the A456 have reached a new low in weird 

 

A two lane road with a wide central chevron area that used to be a third lane

 

Temporary traffic lights installed. 

 

Plenty of room for two lanes of traffic  and the works on the pavement / kerb line. 

 

And they wonder why drivers get frustrated. 

 

 

This mornings trip into work was very blue light service heavy. Five police cars and three ambulances in total

 

The first police car overtook me just after the above roadworks. A mile further on it joined two unmarked cars on the dual carriageway, blocking the road. 

 

Looked like I would be late till it moved into the right hand lane in front of the other two cars  to let the traffic through.

Meanwhile the truck driver behind me was getting a little frustrated as I have left a whole car length between me and the car in front whilst we waited. 

 

A colleague told the three police cars were still there an hour later when he went past. 

 

Very odd

 

Another two unmarked cars were parked on the roundabout ( blocking one lane, blue  lights on) at the M5 junction.

 

Again  an odd place to park. 

 

It's not like you could see the motorway from there. 

 

Even on the way home there were a few unmarked cars tazzing about on the blues. 

 

I don't think I've seen so many police cars in one day ( except perhaps the day I was rammed by a getaway car) 

 

Its not like HH had even left Telfland. 

 

 

Andy

Perhaps it was a rehearsal for when HH decides to go on tour- the posse will take some transporting.

[DenysW]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

GWR Green (aka Brunswick Green) is one of the colours prescribed by The Buddha for aligning the chakras and achieving inner balance and harmony

I wasn't aware until this post that The Buddha was red/green colour-blind, together with 7% of all men. Thank you, @iL Dottore, for helping me achieve Enlightenment (at least on this sub-topic).

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[zarniwhoop]

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I've read about that too.

 

Now where was it where I read it????

 

Ahh, Yes.... "Conspiracy Theory Nutters Monthly"

 

Anyone who is properly qualified to pronounce on such matters will be able to tell you that GWR Green (aka Brunswick Green) is one of the colours prescribed by The Buddha for aligning the chakras and achieving inner balance and harmony.

 

Any deleterious effect experienced is purely psychosomatic, Dave, purely psychosomatic.

I think that must be the Buddha from Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, otherwise the Buddha you meet on the road.

 

More commonly, the Chakras can be aligned using Malachite, the various shades of BR(S) coach / EMU / DEMU green, and Improved Engine Green.

[zarniwhoop]

16 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I am glad to read that Mrs br2975 was seen with speed and efficiency.
 

However, I would like to comment that given a choice between a doctor with a curt and abrupt bedside manner with outstanding clinical skills and expertise and a doctor with a smooth and reassuring bedside manner and so-so clinical skills and expertise, I’d take Dr Grumpy any day.

 

Many decades ago, when I was working in the hospital, I noted that some of the very best clinicians were those with the poorest bedside manners. One neurosurgeon in particular had a hair trigger temper in the operating theatre (things had to be “just so” and he did NOT tolerate any sloppiness in technique) and was brutally blunt with the patients (along the lines of “I’ll remove the tumour but you’ll be permanently impaired”j and yet he was the neurosurgeon of choice for incredibly complex procedures.

 

Thinking about the above, I wonder how much was an act?

I think that acceptable bedside manner may have depended on where/when a doctor was trained. For several years I 'worked' online with someone who had started out studying a science (i forget which, possibly physics or astronomy), switched to medicine, but at the end was unable to become a doctor because of his bedside manner (lack of empathy, or telling it to them straight). Dealing with him online, he was a fun guy and spent a lot of his time gaming - I think he was unemployable.

 

Neurodiversity is no doubt over-diagnosed, but for those playing with software it is a feature even more than for those playing with toy trains.

 

In the end, it seems to have got too much for him. I still miss him.

[PhilJ W]

My dad's solicitor trained and qualified as a doctor but then went into law instead. I would have thought that he was uniquely qualified to become a coroner.

[zarniwhoop]

When I was idly killing time looking at so-called news on my phone earlier this week I saw a lot of posts saying that iplayer apps were closing down, with a comment from the BBC that it was too expensive to continue. When I can be bothered, I've been using get_iplayer (on linux) to download things - quality often not brilliant, but good enough to watch on a computer monitor.

 

Having closed down all the other things I was doing, I thought I ought to stop installing the perl modules get_iplayer needs. But before that I gave it a try - working perfectly, including local news from Thursday evening.

[zarniwhoop]

Just now, zarniwhoop said:

When I was idly killing time looking at so-called news on my phone earlier this week I saw a lot of posts saying that iplayer apps were closing down, with a comment from the BBC that it was too expensive to continue. When I can be bothered, I've been using get_iplayer (on linux) to download things - quality often not brilliant, but good enough to watch on a computer monitor.

 

Having closed down all the other things I was doing, I thought I ought to stop installing the perl modules get_iplayer needs. But before that I gave it a try - working perfectly, including local news from Thursday evening.

Doh, I've done a @polybear and mixed up ERs and TNM!

[polybear]

6 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

Doh, I've done a @polybear and mixed up ERs and TNM!

 

It's a very select Club - welcome.....

p.s.  Bring Cake

 

 

 

[TheQ]

14 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I've read about that too.

 

Now where was it where I read it????

 

Ahh, Yes.... "Conspiracy Theory Nutters Monthly"

 

Anyone who is properly qualified to pronounce on such matters will be able to tell you that GWR Green (aka Brunswick Green) is one of the colours prescribed by The Buddha for aligning the chakras and achieving inner balance and harmony.

 

Any deleterious effect experienced is purely psychosomatic, Dave, purely psychosomatic.

My dear boy I suggest eye testing is further required..🙂

Brunswick Green is a British Railways colour.

Middle Chrome Green is the GWR Colour.

Edited April 12 by TheQ

[iL Dottore]

21 minutes ago, TheQ said:

My dear boy I suggest eye testing is further required..

Brunswick Green is a British Railways colour.

Middle Chrome Green is the GWR Colour.

Alas, I am still too far away from Godhead, from achieving Earthly Nirvana and my chakras are so unaligned, that such a trifling difference will narily impact on my quest to achieve oneness....

 

Now, the above may seem depressing - and indeed viewed in certain light, it is. But then I am cheered up no end by contemplating the fact that on the next turn of the wheel, (the eternal cycle of life and rebirth - saṃsāra) as Karma always restores balance to the Universe - both @Dave Hunt and @jamie92208 will be reborn as GWR modellers.

 

And when @Dave Hunt Mk II and @jamie92208 Version 2 proudly exhibit their panniers, then we'll know all is well with creation!

Edited April 12 by iL Dottore

[polybear]

3 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Now, the above may seem depressing - and indeed viewed in certain light, it is. But then I am cheered up no end by contemplating the fact that on the next turn of the wheel, (the eternal cycle of life and rebirth - saṃsāra) as Karma always restores balance to the Universe - both @Dave Hunt and @jamie92208 will be reborn as GWR modellers.

 

And when @Dave Hunt Mk II and @jamie92208 Version 2 proudly exhibit their panniers, then we'll know all is well with creation!

 

That's probably the best reason for giving up on Religion that Bear has ever heard.....

[Happy Hippo]

12 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Alas, I am still too far away from Godhead, from achieving Earthly Nirvana and my chakras are so unaligned, that such a trifling difference will narily impact on my quest to achieve oneness....

 

Now, the above may seem depressing - and indeed viewed in certain light, it is. But then I am cheered up no end by contemplating the fact that on the next turn of the wheel, (the eternal cycle of life and rebirth - saṃsāra) as Karma always restores balance to the Universe - both @Dave Hunt and @jamie92208 will be reborn as GWR modellers.

 

And when @Dave Hunt Mk II and @jamie92208 Version 2 proudly exhibit their panniers, then we'll know all is well with creation!

I should point out that DH has created quite magnificent GWR models in the past when he traded as Pilgrim Models; a finer 28xx kit would be hard to find.  So I can forgive his wanderings.  It's probably a mild infection picked up when the Midland Railway made a penetration of the Swansea area via Hereford and Brecon.

 

On the other hand, Officer Crabtree has no such plausible excuse, although deep down you know he has GWR tendencies. Why else would he be suffering from Lancaster Green Hair?

[bbishop]

51 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

On the other hand, Officer Crabtree has no such plausible excuse, although deep down you know he has GWR tendencies. Why else would he be suffering from Lancaster Green Hair?

Blame Beth, she mixed the wrong shade of Grecian 2000.

[Happy Hippo]

One has to remember that modelling the GWR/(BR(W) is a very exclusive and elite group, and membership of such is very restricted. 

 

This probably accounts for the large numbers of modellers who moan about all things Swindon, simply because they fail to meet the exacting standards laid down by the Glorious Western admissions committee.

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, Happy Hippo said:

One has to remember that modelling the GWR/(BR(W) is a very exclusive and elite group, and membership of such is very restricted. 

 

Heck, I'm in: the club layout I'm involved with is BR(W) c. 1955. (Though at the Blandford exhibition I did smuggle in a 3F on the excuse of a bit of S&DJRness being locally appropriate.)

 

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

Brunswick Green is a British Railways colour.

Middle Chrome Green is the GWR Colour.

 

I understood that middle chrome green was a technical description of the pigment used whereas Brunswick green was a non-technical description of the resulting appearance.

 

However, by the post-war period, the paint technology was probably changing, so the paint used in BR days was presumably intended as a match to the GWR colour.

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I should point out that DH has created quite magnificent GWR models in the past when he traded as Pilgrim Models; a finer 28xx kit would be hard to find.  So I can forgive his wanderings.  It's probably a mild infection picked up when the Midland Railway made a penetration of the Swansea area via Hereford and Brecon.

 

On the other hand, Officer Crabtree has no such plausible excuse, although deep down you know he has GWR tendencies. Why else would he be suffering from Lancaster Green Hair?

Is that why he was banished/exiled to foreign shores. You were fearful that prolonged exposure might contaminate the GWR body.

[Winslow Boy]

44 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

One has to remember that modelling the GWR/(BR(W) is a very exclusive and elite group, and membership of such is very restricted. 

 

This probably accounts for the large numbers of modellers who moan about all things Swindon, simply because they fail to meet the exacting standards laid down by the Glorious Western admissions committee.

Either that or the entrance fee is too high.

[iL Dottore]

6 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Either that or the entrance fee is too high.

If you have to ask, you can't afford it!

[PhilJ W]

Green or red locomotives are far too common. They should be aquamarine blue with vermillion lining and connecting rods. Having lit the 'blue' touch paper I shall now retire.

[jamie92208]

8 hours ago, bbishop said:

Blame Beth, she mixed the wrong shade of Grecian 2000.

No she mixed the little know Lancaster improved Engine Green otherwise known as Midland Red. 

 

Jamie

Edited April 12 by jamie92208

[Hroth]

Blackberry Black is the only PROPER locomotive engine livery!

 

(Shoots, eats and leaves...)

 

[polybear]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

One has to remember that modelling the GWR/(BR(W) is a very exclusive and elite group, and membership of such is very restricted. 

 

This probably accounts for the large numbers of modellers who moan about all things Swindon, simply because they fail to meet the exacting standards laid down by the Glorious Western admissions committee.

 

Rumour has it that the first stage of admission involves a High Court Judge declaring that the "applicant" is unfit to stand trial.....🤣

 

Edited April 12 by polybear

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Rumour has it that the first stage of admission involves a High Court Judge declaring that the "applicant" is unfit to stand trial.....🤣

 

Would that be the same High Court Judge that declared tinned baked beanz and curly fries illegal substances????