The Night Mail

[SM42]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

EDIT: For the avoidance of doubt: this post refers to Burntisland 1883, not @PhilJ W's kidney stone.

 

I'm glad you clarified that. 

I was beginning to wonder what acceptable running charactistics of a kidney stone might be

 

Andy

[PhilJ W]

5 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

I'm glad you clarified that. 

I was beginning to wonder what acceptable running charactistics of a kidney stone might be

 

Andy

Like peeing red hot razor blades.

[Happy Hippo]

23 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

I'm glad you clarified that. 

I was beginning to wonder what acceptable running charactistics of a kidney stone might be

 

Andy

From personal experience a bit like the troublesome trucks; bump, clunk, ouch many times, and not necessarily in that order!

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Point motors, first time for me.

 

Douglas

 

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

6 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Point motors, first time for me.

 

Douglas

 

 

 

Some might look at that and say Steampunk!

 

I find there is something quite evocative about elderly electro mechanical devices, especially if they still work. 

 

Then there are times I look in the mirror and realise I'm almost in that state myself.

[Happy Hippo]

Today's excitement is an Asda 'click and collect'.

 

This sortie is totally uninteresting as it involves neither cake nor alcohol.

 

However, It will give the car a chance to turn it's wheels.

 

Since it's a nice day, I am contemplating a garage roof reorganisation:  Download it onto the drive and then repack it in a more effective way.

 

This will ensure I do not have to assist with leaf raking and general gardening duties.

 

[tomparryharry]

20 hours ago, Tony_S said:

That was the image I tried to plant in Aditi’s mind. I do know that motorhomes can be quite comfortable though. I think Aditi remembers before we had a car her colleague would drive over in his motorhome and we would go somewhere nice for a picnic. She thought it was all very civilised.  He had bought the motorhome so he could take his dogs out for nice country walks. 
Tony

 

Motorhomes? Oh no! We went to New Zealand for our 20th anniversary... " Let's hire a motorhome while we're over there.... "  2,000 miles later, I was utterly knackered,. Then, a 24 hour flight back to Horrible Heathrow.  Oh yeah, motorhomes....

[Happy Hippo]

As part of the temporary (6 month) road closure experiment that comes into force at midnight, and makes our lane a cul de sac, they have just erected new signage.

 

So now when facing up the lane you have the gate, then about 5 yards beyond it a 30 mph sign!

 

By my estimation, no one will be able to read it even if they back their car right up to the gate!

 

I sent the  council an email yesterday pointing that the closure they have put in place effectively blocks the route to cyclists,  the equestrians, people with push chairs and wheelchair users, due to the rather narrow gap of the gap left by the insertion of the gatepost close to the wall and the lack of dropped curbs and the mandatory tactile paving in such a location now that you cannot use the paved roadway.

 

It's all very well closing the road to vehicular traffic, but the through route should be easily accessible to other road users.

 

Grump Grump Grump

 

signed

 

Disgusting of Horton

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[Winslow Boy]

17 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

As part of the temporary (6 month) road closure experiment that comes into force at midnight, and makes our lane a cul de sac, they have just erected new signage.

 

So now when facing up the lane you have the gate, then about 5 yards beyond it a 30 mph sign!

 

By my estimation, no one will be able to read it even if they back their car right up to the gate!

 

I sent the  council an email yesterday pointing that the closure they have put in place effectively blocks the route to cyclists,  the equestrians, people with push chairs and wheelchair users, due to the rather narrow gap of the gap left by the insertion of the gatepost close to the wall and the lack of dropped curbs and the mandatory tactile paving in such a location now that you cannot use the paved roadway.

 

It's all very well closing the road to vehicular traffic, but the through route should be easily accessible to other road users.

 

Grump Grump Grump

 

signed

 

Disgusting of Horton

 

That may be Mr HH of Horton but you are not taking into account the Council's statutory duties; cock things up and make life difficult and the optional extra waste money.

 

The special barrier which has been ordered at great expense from a specialist in Europe (due to  EU regulations we are required to advertise this in the EU journal as it is over the minimum expenditure of £5 , but has been delayed due to implementation of Covid restrictions and Brexit importation restrictions ( 'not got the right licence number on here have you')  and won't now be delivered until the 1st April and won't be installed until the 15 th May (' the man who does the risk assessments has been in isolation because he objected to having a vaccination due to it infringing his civil liberties") must then have a traffic survey of at least six months carried out on it before we can agree that it was a complete waste of money and time and take it all out and begin the process again subject to the availability of a suitable grant from the government, or another plague breaking out - Covid 20 anyone? Or aliens invading or the earth spinning off its axis.

 

Yours sincerely

 

W. O. Space

Director of pointless projects and Global Warming implementation.

[Happy Hippo]

A friend of Nyda's has just delivered a Christmas 'cake'.

 

It has an icing top and I am told contains a Chocolate Orange surrounded by a mountain of Maltesers (which can be seen under the icing).

 

She gave us one last year, but my son got his sticky mitts on it.

 

Not this time sonny!

[PhilJ W]

53 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

That may be Mr HH of Horton but you are not taking into account the Council's statutory duties; cock things up and make life difficult and the optional extra waste money.

 

The special barrier which has been ordered at great expense from a specialist in Europe (due to  EU regulations we are required to advertise this in the EU journal as it is over the minimum expenditure of £5 , but has been delayed due to implementation of Covid restrictions and Brexit importation restrictions ( 'not got the right licence number on here have you')  and won't now be delivered until the 1st April and won't be installed until the 15 th May (' the man who does the risk assessments has been in isolation because he objected to having a vaccination due to it infringing his civil liberties") must then have a traffic survey of at least six months carried out on it before we can agree that it was a complete waste of money and time and take it all out and begin the process again subject to the availability of a suitable grant from the government, or another plague breaking out - Covid 20 anyone? Or aliens invading or the earth spinning off its axis.

 

Yours sincerely

 

W. O. Space

Director of pointless projects and Global Warming implementation.

Having been employed by a local authority for nigh on forty years I can say that most councils were run very efficiently when most work was done by direct labour instead of being contracted out under privatisation as "The profit motive leads to greater efficiency", O yea. We had a similar situation here recently where a one way street was converted to two way and the signs were not altered and still showing as one way. The inevitable result was a number of head on collisions, average two a day. When I queried with the county council as to who signed the work off I was told it was the contractor who had installed the new system. The council now does not employ any highways inspectors. Its got nothing to do with the EU either, most of the so called EU regulations are all our own bureaucrats work, it has been pointed out that they are adept at turning a two page memo into a two volume diktat. That we will discover over the next few months when Brexit becomes a reality. 

[Winslow Boy]

34 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Having been employed by a local authority for nigh on forty years I can say that most councils were run very efficiently when most work was done by direct labour instead of being contracted out under privatisation as "The profit motive leads to greater efficiency", O yea. We had a similar situation here recently where a one way street was converted to two way and the signs were not altered and still showing as one way. The inevitable result was a number of head on collisions, average two a day. When I queried with the county council as to who signed the work off I was told it was the contractor who had installed the new system. The council now does not employ any highways inspectors. Its got nothing to do with the EU either, most of the so called EU regulations are all our own bureaucrats work, it has been pointed out that they are adept at turning a two page memo into a two volume diktat. That we will discover over the next few months when Brexit becomes a reality. 

Having worked for quite a number of councils it was noticeable how as the years passed the regulations became more and rigid in there interpretation. There is also marked north south divide with southern councils, no matter of which political colour, being more 'euthistic' over there embracement.

 

What I do find more irritating though, now that I'm on the outside so to speak, is the lack of transparency and this is coming from someone, who as I said has worked for several, so what it must be like for Joe public I dread to think.

 

As with any large organisation, private or public, their will always be indifference to what goes on down the corridor and certainly in the other building. As a result this tends to breed an attitude of only working for their section - hence signs etc not being change because it's not their job to do it.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

6 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I find there is something quite evocative about elderly electro mechanical devices, especially if they still work.

“If they still work”

 

It was, when the mogul was running, a integral part of the steaming bay, so had loads of steam oil dropped on it. Much more than I thought. Pools of it actually.
 

I tried degreasing it somewhat last night, and still got no feedback except for tripping the very loud automatic safety lock which keeps the sliding bit (frog?) from sending the train to a siding, but that was was already working before degreasing. 
 

The plan now is to get some slightly stronger degreaser (not strong enough to hurt the insulation) and let it soak for a few hours. 

[rockershovel]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Having been employed by a local authority for nigh on forty years I can say that most councils were run very efficiently when most work was done by direct labour instead of being contracted out under privatisation as "The profit motive leads to greater efficiency", O yea. We had a similar situation here recently where a one way street was converted to two way and the signs were not altered and still showing as one way. The inevitable result was a number of head on collisions, average two a day. When I queried with the county council as to who signed the work off I was told it was the contractor who had installed the new system. The council now does not employ any highways inspectors. Its got nothing to do with the EU either, most of the so called EU regulations are all our own bureaucrats work, it has been pointed out that they are adept at turning a two page memo into a two volume diktat. That we will discover over the next few months when Brexit becomes a reality. 

 

Yes, but no... “efficiency” wasn’t really a feature of council practice, in the sense of slashing employee remuneration to the bone. Council workers enjoyed a lot of perks, in the form of job security and pensions, and that’s mostly gone. The difference was that a whole range of functions were simply not carried out. Cambridge, when I lived there in the 1960s and 1970s, had NIL staff resources for translation, diversity and social inclusion.. they just mended the roads, built council houses, emptied the dustbins and ran the schools, and regarded this as the sum of their functions. 

 

I await the coming New Year with considerable interest. I fully agree that many of the problems attributed to Europe are more correctly regarded as being significantly home-grown... although Europe has certainly provided a fertile soil for that sort of thing. 

[Compound2632]

2 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

The difference was that a whole range of functions were simply not carried out. Cambridge, when I lived there in the 1960s and 1970s, had NIL staff resources for translation, diversity and social inclusion.. they just mended the roads, built council houses, emptied the dustbins and ran the schools, and regarded this as the sum of their functions. 

 

You're overlooking the primary function of a local authority - historically their first compulsory duty for which a rate had to be levied: to provide Public Libraries.

[rockershovel]

1 minute ago, Compound2632 said:

 

You're overlooking the primary function of a local authority - historically their first compulsory duty for which a rate had to be levied: to provide Public Libraries.

 

Indeed. Public literacy was to be encouraged, a survivor of the communitarian ethos of late Victorian and Edwardian times. One thing I did notice when we moved to Peterborough, was that the bleak Reading Rooms with the day’s newspapers on a sort of lectern around the walls, were absent from the newer libraries. 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

euthistic

I thought that was Swiss rather than UK local authority practice?

[rockershovel]

20 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I thought that was Swiss rather than UK local authority practice?

 

Reminds me of Annie Lennox. 

[Happy Hippo]

I've just realised that there is no Brownie or Guide Zoom meetings this evening, as it's Sunday and not Monday: I don't know how I've lost a day, but my brain tells me otherwise.

 

I suspect it may be either cake or alcohol starvation, perhaps even a combination of the two.

 

Fortunately I have a solution to both issues although the cure for both may very well lead to a slight family disagreement.

 

I need to tread very quietly (to the fridge...)

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

I thought that was Swiss rather than UK local authority practice?

I think my spell checker might be stuck in a queue on the other side of channel. Hope it gets here before we leave the EU otherwise I might have to pay tax on it.

[Tony_S]

26 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

just realised that there is no Brownie or Guide Zoom meetings this evening, as it's Sunday and not Monday

Do you take part in these meetings and if so do you have a be some sort of owl?

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Do you take part in these meetings and if so do you have a be some sort of owl?

No, although I am an occasional helper, with relevant first aid and safeguarding qualifications.

 

You don't have to be an owl either.

 

Nyda is called Kestrel by the Brownies 

 

If needed, I become Albert Ross 

[simontaylor484]

I was lucky with my council pension it allowed me to retire on Ill health grounds at the ripe old age of 43. 

 

[bbishop]

Back from the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols.  We have an exceptional choir in a beautiful church.  One of the choristers has written a new carol, quite beautiful.  We normally have a packed church - but not this year, a congregation of perhaps 30 and no more than nine choristers singing at a time.    But I'm told we had an on-line presence of over 200.  We are on farcebook as StMargaretsLee (or similar) if you want to watch it on catch-up.  

 

At work tomorrow, then starting the shift on Tuesday, then the following Tuesday I leave a few minutes early for my 100th blood donation.

 

Bill

[Adam88]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

No, although I am an occasional helper, with relevant first aid and safeguarding qualifications.

 

You don't have to be an owl either.

 

Nyda is called Kestrel by the Brownies 

 

If needed, I become Albert Ross 

 

Avian names are the norm in guiding.  I once knew a young lady who answered to Dodo.