Early Risers.

[roundhouse]

Morning all from the boring borough. Expecting a special visitor today. Well, only our local fruit & veg man's weekly delivery. Around here that's a highlight and exciting.

 

Phil, Tony. The Virgin wifi is similar to the BT fon service. (something I never ever managed to connect to) However, it doesn't require a password. Basically it creates a new ssid which is broadcast as Virgin Wifi. That connection has a separate ip address and cannot be tuned or configured from within the hub's settings. Its all remote. The authentication takes place on Virgin's servers and not at the hub. My issues with it are it will take another wifi channel in both the 2.5Ghz and 5Ghz bands, which are in short supply around here. I have 4 wifi routers in 2 different bands so turning on the hotspot will impact my throughput as the routers will need to work around the channel clash. The other problem is these things are rebadged Netgear routers which have a reputation for gaping security holes. Until such time as I see sufficient evidence that the hub has proper separation between my node and the public node, I'm opting out.  

 

Enough geek speak.

 

Ian, (roundhouse) hope work improves. Sometimes a change is as good as a rest.

 

To everyone else, enjoy the day come what may.

Andrew

 

One of our local CAMRA residentswho we now and agian bump into at the bus stop mnetuioned a very good bar in Brussels two tram stops from Centraal. It has quite a long name (but didnt have time for him to write it down), a long bar and loads of beers on. Do you know the name of it?

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

Out into the howling, the blustery, the mild and the halflight this morning.....

 

....the River Churnet flow into the reservoir from its moorland catchment is increasing daily.....

 

 

....this Autumnal canopy was complete the day before yesterday....

 

 

 

Friends from work coming over today to have lunch with us

 

Best regards to all with ailments of any kind

 

Now music by The Caesars....Jerk it out

 

Feathered ones provided for

 

Enjoy what you do

 

Dave

Edited October 22, 2015 by Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

Andrew

 

One of our local CAMRA residentswho we now and agian bump into at the bus stop mnetuioned a very good bar in Brussels two tram stops from Centraal. It has quite a long name (but didnt have time for him to write it down), a long bar and loads of beers on. Do you know the name of it?

 

....what did he do to a good bar in Brussels  ;-)

 

Dave

[AndyB]

Morning, all.

Thanks for the video, Gordon. My palms are now damp! Naturally I shared it with a mate who loves heights. 

 

Smiffy, sounds interesting. I guess you may have seen this? 

 

Was interested to see the prog from the car manufactory over the last couple of evenings. Mindboggling complexity. But I rather liked the Malvern-based car best, as did Mrs B. She's now looking carefully at how many shares I have and whether she can flog some of them to a passing Chinese delegation!   Sadly just one magpie in the garden this morning so I'll stick with my little German car for now. 

Whilst drooling I note they also do a 90-minute factory tour for about £15. 

[lightengine]

....what did he do to a good bar in Brussels  ;-)

 

Dave

Cafe Delirium probably. Its a chain of bars with over 3000 beers.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Thursday, that strange limbo between HUMP day and POETS day. Is it Hoets day or Phump day, or is there  another word to describe it? Enough of my ramblings, there was a news item this morning involving Basildon on the BBC Breakfast program, on many such news items they show a satellite view of the part of the country and 'home in' on the place in question. In this instance they started with a picture of the greater London area and then 'homed in' to the north west (somewhere in rural Bucks) and showed an open area of countryside duly labelled 'Basildon'. Don't they teach basic geography now or is there no one in the BBC who can read a map?

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

Morning all...:-)

 

This gave me twitchings in my nether regions....:-)

 

 

.....doesn't the lift work in that building?

 

Dave

[lightengine]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Thursday, that strange limbo between HUMP day and POETS day. Is it Hoets day or Phump day, or is there  another word to describe it?

NFFY as in Not Flipping Friday Yet.

[big jim]

Control orders today hopefully i wont get a call to move a train

 

Got next weeks roster in, got 4 days training based in cardiff so will have to lodge away, then on thr friday got a booked job using the train im training on

[Smiffy2]

 

 

Smiffy, sounds interesting. I guess you may have seen this? 

 

 

Interesting, but I'm planning (?) something based on the illustrations in Mrs Bradshaw's Guide, so locos that are vaguely UK c1860, vaguely US style carriages etc. and proper Pratchett names - Loco #1 is, for some reason, called Iron Girder... I may just cut up some GBL T9s and C Classes The general effect is very short! It'll probably be a static plank.

 

But I've got to find room for some track first.

[AndrewC]

Ian, most likely either Moeder Lambic or Poechenellekelder. If you are going in and out of Midi-Zuid I'd recommend a taxi to Moeder Lambic. 300+ on their beer list. If you are in Centraal area then try out Imaige de Nostre-Dame & Von Vieux Temps. Both next to each other.

[PhilJ W]

Not with it this morning, just realised that I've missed a whole page of ER's, that means that my previous missive makes no sense, not that it did anyway.

[shortliner]

Morning all. Dull here in Carshalton-sur-Mer, and the weather's carp as well. All of the whelkmen phoned in sick today.

 

Nothing much planned today, Julie is out to lunch from 11:30 to 5:00...

 

Doing a bit of thinking around the Ankh Morpork & Sto Plains Hygienic Railway. Some potential there, but where to get 4mm scale dwarves, trolls and vampires?

 

Best wishes to all, let the day come to you and then bray it between the eyes to let it know who's boss.

 

Smiffy - speak to bridgiesimon, creator of Hobbiton End - he may be able to suggest suppliers

[southern42]

 ' Morning all from red dragon land.

 

Smiffy, make your own, it might be more fun - a bit of modelling clay/putty/blutack over the top of likely donors might do the trick.  A dwarf could be made by covering a child figure. .  From a plastic Hornby figure, I made a Dr Who by just lengthening the jacket into a long coat with blutack and his sticky up hair by reshaping the bobble hat!  White metal figures can be filed down and built up (also using blutack) and painted.  I did this to CQ's Morris Dancers

 

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Thursday, that strange limbo between HUMP day and POETS day. Is it Hoets day or Phump day, or is there  another wo d to describe it? Enough of my ramblings, there was a news item this morning involving Basildon on the BBC Breakfast program, on many such news items they show a satellite view of the part of the country and 'home in' on the place in question. In this instance they started with a picture of the greater London area and then 'homed in' to the north west (somewhere in rural Bucks) and showed an open area of countryside duly labelled 'Basildon'. Don't they teach basic geography now or is there no one in the BBC who can read a map?

 

They should've googled it!

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Basildon,+Essex/@51.5740878,0.3925709,10z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x47d8c40464ebc273:0x5bc43aeac7f4d089

 

No excuse to get lost, now.

 

Coffee time. Back soon...

[Happy Hippo]

.....doesn't the lift work in that building?

 

Dave

Only going up!

[Happy Hippo]

Smiffy, make your own, it might be more fun - a bit of modelling clay/putty/blutack over the top of likely donors might do the trick.  A dwarf could be made by covering a child figure. .  From a plastic Hornby figure, I made a Dr Who by just lengthening the jacket into a long coat with blutack and his sticky up hair by reshaping the bobble hat!  White metal figures can be filed down and built up (also using blutack) and painted.  I did this to CQ's Morris Dancers

They were warning about plastic surgeons like you on this morning's BBC Breakfast

[lightengine]

Plenty of waffle this morning on the media about banks. Suggestions that they should be broken/split up. WTF. Why were they encouraged to merge years ago? Why were Midland, TSB, etc etc swallowed?

 

It's a bit deja vu, back in the 90's the bus deregulation allowed small bus companies to compete with bigger companies. Years later our local small companies got virtually swallowed up by a much bigger one.

 

Flavour of the month only seems to last around 10 years.

[Two_sugars]

I really shouldn't post when I'm tired. . .Two major mistooks on last nights post..

 

Download speed is less than 4 Mbps not Gigglies.

 

Nephew has a collection of 'OO' gauge A 4s , not 'O' gauge . . . . You'd think he had money or summat. 

[lightengine]

This is currently doing the rounds on FB.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=foahTqz7On4

Trickery of the Devil! Next chimpanzees will be typing Shakespeare.

[Tony_S]

This is currently doing the rounds on FB.

Trickery of the Devil! Next chimpanzees will be typing Shakespeare.

Elephants are very intelligent. The trainers on the side away from the tourist cameras are instructing them by voice and pulling and prodding. Cruelty is alleged, these shows are very profitable.

[leopardml2341]

Plenty of waffle this morning on the media about banks. Suggestions that they should be broken/split up. WTF. Why were they encouraged to merge years ago? Why were Midland, TSB, etc etc swallowed?

It's a bit deja vu, back in the 90's the bus deregulation allowed small bus companies to compete with bigger companies. Years later our local small companies got virtually swallowed up by a much bigger one.

Flavour of the month only seems to last around 10 years.

Short termism, brought on by a 5year political calendar. Biggest travesty was not placing building restriction orders on railway lines closed by Mr Marples policies.

 

This, bus company deregulation, utilities sell offs and bank mergers hmmm, I wonder what they are all associated with?

[Ian Abel]

Ahhh, BIN day (variable for everyone, but for us it's Thursday) - again, as I'm away the Mrs gets to do the honours!

 

Once again yesterday the dungeon was all work, work, work - maybe hanging from the wall in chains was a good alternative/option back in the medieval times, for a change of pace?

 

Today I get to "escape", leaving here around 2 for the 4:30 flight back home. With luck they'll "bump" me for the $500 they offered to volunteers (that was my "bid" so there are probably daft buggers willing to do it for less) as the flight is overbooked. I figure I'm happy to wait 2hrs. at JFK for the next flight if they want to pay me $500 for the privilege. So far I've manage to get that once in three attempts, so not particularly bad odds.

 

For the time of year, going to be a warm one here, 13 as I drove in and expecting 23 for a high, around the time I depart.

 

Enjoy BIN/IIFY everyone.

Edited October 22, 2015 by Ian Abel

[Gwiwer]

where to get 4mm scale dwarves, trolls and vampires?

 

 

At risk of straying disgracefully off topic ..... here's a start albeit in 3.5mm

 

http://www.eurorailhobbies.com/erh_list.asp?erh_find=vampire

 

[Smiffy2]

At risk of straying disgracefully off topic ..... here's a start albeit in 3.5mm

 

http://www.eurorailhobbies.com/erh_list.asp?erh_find=vampire

 

Excellent - thank you very much!

 

 

>edit<

 

Unfortunately they are only available in G Scale (1/22.5) at the moment.

Edited October 22, 2015 by Smiffy2

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon all,

 

Well the scheduled things have been done as scheduled - in order

1. Nice cuppa and sausage roll (honey & mustard flavour) taken in a local caff - seems honey & mustard on sausages is very 'in' - we had it for dinner last night.

 

2. WHS visited, no sign of MRJ but it's Thursday so magazine delivery day so ask bloke putting out various mags if MRJ has arrived, clearly a village has lost its idiot as he proceeded to tell me that they don't stock it;  so I asked him why they normally have 8 copies?; he explained to me again that they have never stocked it; I bit my tongue and restrained my fist.  Total contrast to the usual staff who if it's delivery day and a mag isn't on the shelf (and is expected) will check the lists in all the boxes to see if it is in any of them - hopefully this idiot will be making an early return to his village, always assuming they will be prepared to take him back.

 

3. Optician (or whatever they're called this week duly visited.  The good news is that I can see, the not so good news is that I have early stages of macular degeneration and cataracts in both eyes - so I said o the optowhatsit fellah that struck me as very odd because I was told two years ago about the early stages of macular degeneration in one eye but the optowhatsit last year said I didn't have it all.  Optoman duly consulted last year's notes and said that it was written on them - clearly last year's optowallah has probably returned to the sub-continent where his habit of telling people what he thinks they want to hear instead of the truth will be better appreciated.

New specs duly ordered - oddly two pairs this year, even without the loyalty card reduction on the first pair,  are cheaper than last years (but of course the lenses are done in China; but they were last year so maybe it's a Presidential visit bonus this time?).

Have been given a personal test chart to put on the fridge for d-i-y macular degeneration testing, would also be useful for noughts & crosses if your writing was very (and I mean very) small.

 

4. Went to Tesco - sanity reigned.

 

5. Came home and had pizza for lunch - sanity still prevailing.

 

6. Got to ERs - sanity (more or less) continuing.  Next will be a wander around RMweb, fist duly bandaged to avoid cuts when thumping 'puter screen (or I could avoid certain threads as some will no doubt be providing evidence of shrinking village populations, ah well takes all sorts).

 

Have a  good day one & all