The Night Mail

[PupCam]

8 hours ago, rockershovel said:

...... It's like the wind in your hair when riding motorcycles - try it and see how you get on. 

 

Wouldn't work for me.

 

No hair but a very bright crash helmet! 

[Winslow Boy]

10 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Wot!  Run? I just amble.

 

Not when its a field of barley you dont very painful removing the stalks from the.........well the least said about that the better.

[Oldddudders]

40 minutes ago, rodent279 said:

I'm looking at the g50 or g60. I'll do a bit of railway footage, and some wildlife footage, as well as the usual family stuff.

The G60 has 4K output from a bigger (1") sensor. Better quality if you view on a large screen.

 

Are you sure you need a camcorder? Most interchangeable-lens still cameras, DSLR or mirrorless, have very decent video as well these days.

 

Canon, Sony and Panasonic all have big ranges of camcorders and mirrorless cameras. 

[Happy Hippo]

24 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Not when its a field of barley you dont very painful removing the stalks from the.........well the least said about that the better.

A hippo is to a field of barley as a JDAM is to a mud hut.

[Winslow Boy]

1 minute ago, Happy Hippo said:

A hippo is to a field of barley as a JDAM is to a mud hut.

 

Not all of us have your stature Mr H. Not certain what was more painful the coming or the going.

[rodent279]

17 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

The G60 has 4K output from a bigger (1") sensor. Better quality if you view on a large screen.

 

Are you sure you need a camcorder? Most interchangeable-lens still cameras, DSLR or mirrorless, have very decent video as well these days.

 

Canon, Sony and Panasonic all have big ranges of camcorders and mirrorless cameras. 

I don't own a DSLR-hopefully I'll get a decent still camera as well.

[Oldddudders]

15 minutes ago, rodent279 said:

I don't own a DSLR-hopefully I'll get a decent still camera as well.

There is a step-change in progress among interchangeable-lens cameras, with mirrorless supplanting DSLRs. Canon and Nikon are busy fleshing out their lens-ranges in mirrorless, but much less active in DSLRs. Sony have a big lead in mirrorless, having been selling full-frame cameras since 2013, 5 years before Canon and Nikon.

 

The worldwide silicon chip shortage is hitting all these manufacturers very hard indeed. Sony have suspended production of their APS-C size A6xxx range, despite them selling well at an attractive price-point. They just can't get the parts. 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

We are currently drinking tea, working on a 1972 Lotus and listening to 10cc. 
 

All thats missing is a salt and vinegar crisp sandwich.

 

Edited January 8, 2022 by Florence Locomotive Works

[AndyID]

57 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

We are currently drinking tea, working on a 1972 Lotus

 

 

The "Bread Van" model perchance?

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Just now, AndyID said:

 

The "Bread Van" model perchance?

I think your thinking of the Ferrari...

 

It’s a Europa, we just got the carbs back from a rebuilder and they needed installing. Funny how when you take things off a car they have to go back on it to function.

[AndyID]

7 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

I think your thinking of the Ferrari...

 

 

Not sure about the Ferrari but the Europa was often called the bread van.

 

[rodent279]

1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

We are currently drinking tea, working on a 1972 Lotus and listening to 10cc. 
 

All thats missing is a salt and vinegar crisp sandwich.

 

Are they Stromberg's?

[Florence Locomotive Works]

8 minutes ago, rodent279 said:

Are they Stromberg's?

Indeed, fresh back from a rebuild. Hopefully this will solve the problems the car has with not idling below 2000 rpm.

[AndyID]

6 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

We are currently drinking tea, working on a 1972 Lotus and listening to 10cc. 
 

All thats missing is a salt and vinegar crisp sandwich.

 

 

All very well, but "proper" sports cars stick the engine under the bonnet where it obviously belongs. Like this

 

 

Any excuse!

 

 

 

Edited January 9, 2022 by AndyID

[jamie92208]

7 hours ago, rodent279 said:

I don't own a DSLR-hopefully I'll get a decent still camera as well.

I have an Olympus aEM 10 DSLR and the video quality is superb.  And you can take stills whilst recording video just by touching the shutter button.. if you looknwt my Random American photos over theclast couple of days there areca setbof stills of  the Big Boy leaving Laramie. The gieo isclinkedcat the end of the post.

5 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

I think your thinking of the Ferrari...

 

It’s a Europa, we just got the carbs back from a rebuilder and they needed installing. Funny how when you take things off a car they have to go back on it to function.

My dream car from thecarly 70's. I always fancied one in the John Player Special livery.

 

Jamie

[AndyID]

16 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I have an Olympus aEM 10 DSLR and the video quality is superb.

 

 

I'm a great fan of digital. The great thing about it it's just a bunch of ones and zeros.

 

Although fairly new it's just another numbering system but without it civilization on this particular planet would disintegrate PDQ 

 

Just a thought.

Edited January 9, 2022 by AndyID
typhoo

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, AndyID said:

 

All very well, but "proper" sports cars stick the engine under the bonnet where it obviously belongs. Like this

 

 

Any excuse!

 

 

 

That is a nice looking car. I am always intrigued by US number plates but I had to Google Idaho plates to work out what the motto was as I didn’t think it was “lustrus potatoes” which was my initial impression. 

[iL Dottore]

18 hours ago, rockershovel said:

I've no recollection of cake for breakfast at Premier Inns, but it's certainly true that you can eat quite unfeasible amounts at a fixed price. 

If you like industrial quality food.
I once had the misfortune to stay in a Premier Inn  for The Warley show (quite some years back, I admit). The room was OK, but whilst you could eat as much breakfast as you liked, apart from the sausages, there was nothing on the hot buffet I found more than edible (and iD is a serious trencherman). The sausages were also “industrial” but there’s something appealing about cheap sausages (one of my few culinary lapses).

13 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I thought at first you were getting through CHF2000 a day …

Tony

I could easily get through CHF 2,000/day in London, Tony.

Even a “budget” hotel of decent quality in London (such as Citizen-M) will run about £140+/night. 

 

The price per night just rockets when you head towards the “luxury” end of the market - such as The Dorchester (from £720/night), The Lanesborough (from £735/night) or The Ritz (from £695/night) - not including breakfast, etc.

It really has to be a very, very special offer indeed for me to go beyond my ceiling of £200/night in London….

12 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

…and during the hours from 11am to 3pm most were eat as much as you like. I made full use of this and after a few days I realised that after you'd had your fill you could take a doggy bag to eat later on….

That’s unusual, Phil. I thought that “all-you-can-eat” joints expressly prohibited doggy bag - for obvious reasons. There’s only so much a human can eat at one sitting - which is what these places count on - providing as they do bulky high carb items to fill up the punters*, once they allow customers to fill up as many doggy bags as they wish they’d quickly go broke.

I ate, once, at an “all-you-can-eat” joint in the US - I got food poisoning!

 

*there’s a whole science and art to creating a profitable “all-you-can-eat” restaurant - something which, at first glance, doesn’t seem possible.

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

…My dream car from the early 70's. I always fancied one in the John Player Special livery…..

I know I’m a bit odd (no comments from the peanut gallery, please) but I’ve never been interested in fast cars, just luxury ones. Whilst my contemporaries were lusting over the Lamborghini Countach, the Maserati Bora, Porsche 911 930 Turbo and the like, I was setting my sights on luxury cars - preferably vintage (Daimler Majestic, Bentley S2, Mercedes-Benz 220 [W180] “Ponton”).

I still hope to own a Bentley S2….

Edited January 9, 2022 by iL Dottore

[jamie92208]

Though I hardly ever smoked and never touched John Player Specisl I did think that there adverts were very good. They had a series of billboard ones with the word Black, then a short catchphrase. In the mid 70's the M1 finished in industrial South Leeds. As youcame off the last sliproad there was a large billboard with the Packetbof JP Special displayed and the wording.  "Black up north." It probably wouldn't be allowed nowadays even if tobacco adverts were allowed.

 

Jamie

[polybear]

29 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

The price per night just rockets when you head towards the “luxury” end of the market - such as The Dorchester (from £720/night), The Lanesborough (from £735/night) or The Ritz (from £695/night) - not including breakfast, etc.

 

To charge those prices and not include brekkies (I dread to think what they charge for that) is just taking the p1ss; for many, many years when travelling on business the brekkies was always included with Hotel cost - however in the last ten(?) years or so there's been a real trend to charging extra for it (and often the thick end of twenty quid) at many places, especially the chains.

I see the new owners of Selfridges plan to re-open the old Selfridges Hotel as a luxury Hotel

[Happy Hippo]

9 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

To charge those prices and not include brekkies (I dread to think what they charge for that) is just taking the p1ss; for many, many years when travelling on business the brekkies was always included with Hotel cost - however in the last ten(?) years or so there's been a real trend to charging extra for it (and often the thick end of twenty quid) at many places, especially the chains.

I see the new owners of Selfridges plan to re-open the old Selfridges Hotel as a luxury Hotel

I thought Selfridges was a white goods emporium!

 

 

[iL Dottore]

I don’t think they’re taking the p1ss, my Dear Bear; they know their target customers very well: their customers are the sort of people for whom finding an extra 20 quid in their wallet would be similar to (or less than) you or me finding an extra ha’penny in our pocket change.

 

The prices I quoted in my post above were the starting rates for a standard room at the hotel; when you start looking at the prices of a suite (whether mini-, executive- or presidential) then the sky is – almost literally - the limit.

£10,000/night anyone?

 

There’s an awful lot of people for whom dropping £10,000 on three days in London is a matter of little consequence. It is no fluke that during the past 2+ years of the pandemic the one sector that has shown (and continues to show) robust and healthy growth is the luxury goods and services sector.

[jamie92208]

On 09/01/2022 at 08:36, Happy Hippo said:

I thought Selfridges was a white goods emporium!

 

 

That has to have one of these.

 

 

Jamie

Edited April 21, 2022 by jamie92208

[Happy Hippo]

I offered PB's and my own services to become the specialist disposal unit for the pastries department of the Pan Pacific chain of hotels.

 

We would fly around the world offering personalised disposal of the left overs and rejected cakes and pastries for nothing more than our board and lodgings and the cost of our flights.

 

I cannot understand why this generous offer was turned down.

[Happy Hippo]

14 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

There’s an awful lot of people for whom dropping £10,000 on three days in London is a matter of little consequence. It is no fluke that during the past 2+ years of the pandemic the one sector that has shown (and continues to show) robust and healthy growth is the luxury goods and services sector.

At the same time, there were an incredible number of staff members of such high end hotels that were very quickly laid off when we started the Covid saga.  So obviously, the huge sums involved  and paid for by the rich and famous, were not sufficiently filtered down to keep the more humbly paid staff in gainful employment.

 

I suspect that some of the growth was generated by lack of availability, so that those who wanted were clamouring for and were prepared to pay through the nose for the product or service.

 

At one point certain marques of cars were changing hand on the second hand market for more than the price of a new one, as new stock was not available.