Early Risers.

[Purley Oaks]

Happy New Year!

 

Have been lurking this week but a bit cr@p after iv, but halfway through now, hooray!. Even went to bed at 10pm last night - unheard of on Hogmanay! On the way up now, will post more later.

 

Interesting piece in yesterday's Guardian about riding the night underground around the world http://www.theguardian.com/cities/ng-interactive/2015/dec/31/night-riders-metro-3am-barcelona-berlin-sydney-new-york-copenhagen

 

Best to Jock and Is

 

Have a good day all

 

Mal

Edited January 1, 2016 by Purley Oaks

[andyram]

Morning all and a Happy New Year.

12 months ago Sarah and I sat with a bottle of champagne, celebrating the arrival of 2015 to the sight and sounds of Queen and Adam Lambert live on the BBC. I have always enjoyed Queen's music but had never seen the new lead man prior to that night. We were both hooked and were fortunate enough that, just three weeks later, we got to see them live in Nottingham having got a cancellation in a box. It truly was the best night of the whole year!

We are both big Bryan Adams fans so hoped that this year would see a repeat. We thoroughly enjoyed his show last night and I was on the IPad at the end of the show ready to book tickets for his visit to Nottingham later this year. Just before I booked the tickets I checked the date and realised it is the night of our school parents evening. It means I won't be able to go. Gutted! I have managed to be busy on every other date he has performed locally so I am quite upset. Not a good start to the new year. To console myself I washed down the three glasses of bubbly with a large measure of Tallymore Dew whisky.

We finally got to bed at 1.30 but that didn't stop cat number 2 waking me four hours later to go out for his early morning dump!! He then woke me again twice more in the next couple of hours do he is not popular at the moment.

To add to everything else I managed to smack my head on the kitchen cupboard door whilst making breakfast. I really hope that these are not omens as to how the new year will go. I am trying to adopt the attitude that things can only get better.

At least 2015 had a good end. I received an email from the Derby County press office yesterday asking me to appear in the fan's feature in a future match day programme. It involves sharing experiences of first game, best manager, finest game / player / goal / shirt seen. Finally I have to select my finest Derby 11 from players I have seen. It will then be published on a double page spread in the programme complete with photo. I am very happy about this. Nice to end on a positive.

 

Enjoy New Years Day..

 

Great to see you online Jock.

[lightengine]

Wet and windy here in sunny Teignmouth. Nearly had bubbly for breakfast but decided on a good old cuppa instead.

Forgot to mute the mobile so we got beeps throughout the sleep.

[shortliner]

All the fours - page # 4444 - Happy New Year everybody. Had a VERY hard frost here in the Land of the Northern Haggis - front drive is like a skating rink, and the rubbish bins are frozen shut

[newbryford]

Late on parade hare, but a very Happy New Year to all.

 

Party at wife's work last night with about 80 other folk (golf members/family/friends). We sneaked off about 0015 as one of the family was up again at 0730 to look after breakfast for about 100...... Somehow, Mrs NB had delegated the task to Junior! So a very welcome lie0in for Mrs NB - who has been working like a trooper over the last 10 days or so. She's now gone back to work to start preparing for a small family party tonight. No doubt Junior will be home soon and wanting to go straight back to bed for a couple of hours.

In the meantime, there's more plaster to be knocked off the wall before she comes home and wanting to sleep, so I'll catch up fully later and probably sneak to the shed for a couple of hours before going and helping Mrs NB tonight's setup.

 

Have a very good 2016 folks.

 

Mick

[iL Dottore]

Good Morning All and A Happy New Year to all.

 

We (meself, Mrs iD, The Wolfpack) came back from the holiday hovel early (on the 31st) as the village the hovel is in was crammed full of revellers and we wanted to avoid the incessant fireworks that usually accompanies New Year's Eve. It's not the fireworks per se, but rather the cockwombles who think that it is hilarious "fun" to let off the loudest, most explosive, percussive fireworks possible. And, as one would expect, every year some idiot either makes it to the Darwin Awards or manages to blow off numerous digits...

 

Christmas was pleasant, but not at all festive (missing, as we were, mince pies, Christmas pudding, Christmas crackers and the roasted bird [either Turkey or Goose]). I gave Mrs iD an Apple watch to go with all her other Apple paraphernalia, though she wasn't enthusiastic about the present (which was pretty much the same reaction when I got her an i-Pad, which is now heavily used) and the Wolfpack enjoyed the snow - Schotty especially: rolling around on his back, burying himself in the stuff.

 

I met with two RMWeb denizens in Brig: ChrisF of this parish and JohnDMU, despite my best efforts (and a more than helpful hotel receptionist) we were unable to see the HO model of the BLS North and South Lötschberg Tunnel Ramps. Not because of any unwilling or obstructive person, but simply because the person with the key was not around... We then decamped to a small bar where we had an OK hot chicken sandwich and some great local beer - putting the world of railway modelling to rights.

 

2016 will be pretty tough for me: I am determined to finally shift some surplus and superfluous iD flab which means a radical overall of both diet and exercise. With a brief exemption to the regime permitted for the 8^th - 10^th January (I'm in London), I'll be eschewing most carbohydrates, eating a lot more vegetables and reducing (alas) my meat intake. So it's back to my Indian and Italian cookbooks (both cuisines manage to do great vegetarian dishes and thus I can avoid the dreaded "tofu burger" and even worse "quorn"). Unfortunately, avoiding carbohydrates also means severely cutting back on alcohol - so what little I do consume must be of high quality, a perfect excuse to acquire some well aged single malt whiskies!

 

And on that cheerful thought, enjoy the first day of the rest of your lives.

 

Tatty-Bye

 

iD

Edited January 1, 2016 by iL Dottore

[southern42]

Happy New Year's Day from red dragon land.

Yes, I'm back...

 

We had several superb railway items from the family for Christmas including this one.

 

Does that mean we have to retro the whole bathroom, like this?

http://www.coflein.gov.uk/images/l/DS2012_052_003.jpg(Ladies Room at Carrog, Llangollen Railway)

 

Er...hum...as I said...I'm back. 

 

Good to see Jock is home and best wishes to all.  Ray's been keeping me up to date after I failed to catch up on ERs whilst attempting the Christmas Quiz.

 

[The Stationmaster]

Happy New Year's Day from red dragon land.

Yes, I'm back...

 

We had several superb railway items from the family for Christmas including this one.

GWR.jpg

 

Does that mean we have to retro the whole bathroom, like this?

http://www.coflein.gov.uk/images/l/DS2012_052_003.jpg(Ladies Room at Carrog, Llangollen Railway)

 

Er...hum...as I said...I'm back. 

 

Good to see Jock is home and best wishes to all.  Ray's been keeping me up to date after I failed to catch up on ERs whilst attempting the Christmas Quiz.

Interesting Polly - I've never seen one of those although I saw plenty of GWR toilet roll holders over the years (all duly stamped 'GWR').  Somewhere I think I might still have a  fairly complete GWR toilet roll - definitely know to be GWR as the Company's initials appear on - from what I have seen - every sheet plus each sheet also carries a (non-illustrated advert), er for a proprietary treatment for piles (yes, it is good old fashioned 'hard' toilet paper.

 

And congrats on a 'highly commended' result in the demon quiz - 38 out of 40 is not to be sneezed at.

Edited January 1, 2016 by The Stationmaster

[DDolfelin]

Happy New Year, Polly!

[bbishop]

Happy New Year to you all. Last night was stressful, I took a bottle of bubbly to my friend for her 78th birthday and had to suffer a 30 minute rant that no-one has rung her to wish her happy birthday. She hasn't worked out that people don't ring because they don't want to be subjected to a rant. Sadly, Doreen has a Jeckell and Hyde personality, and My Hyde appears rather too often nowadays.

 

I am about to adjourn to a very cold garage. Höchstädt maintenance calls!

 

Bill

[Killybegs]

A Happy New Year to you all from a far corner of the emerald isle.

 

Snow on the hills this morning. We are just back from the RNLI New Year's Day swim. A very good turnout despite a bitterly cold wind and a fairly choppy sea. There are some very brave souls out there and very generous too, a lot of folding stuff went into the buckets. No, I didn't go in, it's not usually warm enough for me in the summer. My hands are just about thawing out after putting up all the banners, bunting, safety ropes, etc. and then taking them all down again an hour later. All in a good cause.

 

I think a quiet afternoon in the train room is called for.

[southern42]

Interesting Polly - I've never seen one of those although I saw plenty of GWR toilet roll holders over the years (all duly stamped 'GWR').  Somewhere I think I might still have a  fairly complete GWR toilet roll - definitely know to be GWR as the Company's initials appear on - from what I have seen - every sheet plus each sheet also carries a (non-illustrated advert), er for a proprietary treatment for piles (yes, it is good old fashioned 'hard' toilet paper.

 

And congrats on a 'highly commended' result in the demon quiz - 38 out of 40 is not to be sneezed at.

 

Websites seem to favour: "based on an original Victorian design" or "Victorian style."

Whatever, our bathroom is definitely not Victorian though the house is of that age, a converted quarryman's two up two down.

[lightengine]

Happy New Year's Day from red dragon land.

Yes, I'm back...

 

We had several superb railway items from the family for Christmas including this one.

GWR.jpg

 

Does that mean we have to retro the whole bathroom, like this?

http://www.coflein.gov.uk/images/l/DS2012_052_003.jpg(Ladies Room at Carrog, Llangollen Railway)

 

Er...hum...as I said...I'm back. 

 

Good to see Jock is home and best wishes to all.  Ray's been keeping me up to date after I failed to catch up on ERs whilst attempting the Christmas Quiz.

I need to find an LNER roller towel holder to place my original LNER towel on. God knows where I would put it though!

[45156]

Quite good really. She controls her diabetes with one of the more common medications called metformin. However a few years ago rather than prescribe a higher dose the diabetic nurse also added something called sitagliptin.

The Metformin/Gliptin route is pretty good, though I was taken off it as the version I was on turned out to have complications of its own.  By the time the less troublesome variants were tested and available, I had wound up on insulin.  My GP isn't too keen on the kidney "disposal" drugs for the very reason that Aditi has experienced - good initial results, but tailing off as time goes on.  And he does know his stuff on diabetes, so his opinion is valuable to me, and I am happy to share his thoughts here with fellow diabetics and their families, if he has shared them with me.

[45156]

Afternoon All

 

And a belated Happy New Year to my fellow ERs.  Also the usual blanket greetings to all.

 

Great to hear that Jock is home and recovering - may it be quick and pain free.  Hopefully not too long without the obligatory nightcap but Dr's orders come first.

 

Thanks to all for the greetings, and I have already raised a glass to you you all.  Penderyn malt again, but it does need to be finished.

 

Didn't make Jools' last night, or indeed anything much later on, with three of us sleeping in the chairs and sofa.  So an early night, and surprisingly not too many fireworks around here last night, but one of the worst offenders in the area has moved, and another is spending the festive season with friends abroad.  Today, didn't manage to get to sort out the books as expected, as we decided to clear some of the shelves and cupboards in the back in preparation for the call to say that the patio doors are to be fitted.  One of the shelves is filled with some of the offending volumes, so I'll sort them when they are due to go back.   Quite a big job, and the main reason for my late arrival on parade today.

 

I'll try to pop back later.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

Happy New Year's Day from red dragon land.

Yes, I'm back...

 

We had several superb railway items from the family for Christmas including this one.

GWR.jpg

 

Does that mean we have to retro the whole bathroom, like this?

http://www.coflein.gov.uk/images/l/DS2012_052_003.jpg(Ladies Room at Carrog, Llangollen Railway)

 

Er...hum...as I said...I'm back. 

 

Good to see Jock is home and best wishes to all.  Ray's been keeping me up to date after I failed to catch up on ERs whilst attempting the Christmas Quiz.

 

....shouldn't the paper be IZAL for authenticity?....or maybe strips of 'The Mirror' or 'The Sun'

 

Dave

Edited January 1, 2016 by Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71

[shortliner]

I wonder how many of these they will sell?

 

http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2015/12/the-intricately-designed-wooden-train-set-you-should-have-gotten-for-christmas/421992/?utm_source=nl__link6_122815

[newbryford]

....shouldn't the paper be IZAL for authenticity?....or maybe strips of 'The Mirror' or 'The Sun'

 

Dave

I don't what would hurt most. The Izal or the cutting edge journalism of said tabloids? (Daft question - obvious answer)

 

Cheers,

Mick

[newbryford]

I wonder how many of these they will sell?

 

http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2015/12/the-intricately-designed-wooden-train-set-you-should-have-gotten-for-christmas/421992/?utm_source=nl__link6_122815

I wonder how long before someone build a layout for them?

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Happy Hippo]

I don't what would hurt most. The Izal or the cutting edge journalism of said tabloids? (Daft question - obvious answer)

 

Cheers,

Mick

I didn't realise you suffered from tabloids:  Apparently you can cet cream for that!

[runs as required]

I've got to post on ERs' page 4-4-4-4. Isn't that some extremely sexy Pennsy high steppin streamliner with divided drive?

 

Glad that op went well Jock. My!  But they kept you in a long time.

Hereaboots the hard men al discharge themselves early for fear of thar them Hospital Bugs.

 

Altogether now in the the chorus:

"Do yer b@ls hang low?

Can you swing them to and fro?

Can you....etc. etc.

  dh

[Tony_S]

I've got to post on ERs' page 4-4-4-4. Isn't that some extremely sexy Pennsy high steppin streamliner with divided drive?

 

 

  dh

Or something from my wanted list, a Fell.

[roundhouse]

Morning all from a sunny California. Our train to SBA is on time so far. Just had breakfast on board. Love the receipt header.

 

We missed the LA celebrations as we both fell asleep not waking up til 1am. I knew that I should have stayed on the couch in the living room rather than get in bed!!

 

Hoping to meet up with some one from the UK who is in Santa Barbara staying with his son for the holidays.

 

Have a good day all.

[AndyID]

Morning all from a sunny California. Our train to SBA is on time so far. Just had breakfast on board. Love the receipt header.

 

 

And cheaper than Starbucks too!

[roundhouse]

And cheaper than Starbucks too!

It was tea that we had rather than coffee but yes still a good price for on board a train.

Edited January 1, 2016 by roundhouse