Early Risers.

[BoD]

Now is the time to stop digging that hole DD.

[DDolfelin]

Just trying to provoke a response if she passes through, BoD.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

We are back to exceptionally mild temperatures again - there is definitely no sign of winter at the moment.

 

I am back in the office after a quiet weekend.

 

There isn't a lot else to report, so have a good day everyone...

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

I had an enjoyable day at Southampton and apologise for missing Barry - and anyone else, naturally.  The outward journey had a couple of hairy moments.  06.40 in Bedford saw a cyclist with no lights going the wrong way round a gyratory and risking a head-on collision with me.  A swift honk would have brought him back to such senses as he possessed.  Later on the M3 near Winchester a driver saw fit to pull out without indicating or, it would seem, looking in his mirror.  Swerve, honk.  Then I heard the announcement about Wogan.  I doff my hat to Susan Rae who managed to retain her composure whilst reading the news.

 

On the way home I diverted via Weybridge to be fed steak and kidney pudding by a kind friend.   This detour was long enough for the M25 to be cleared of congestion.  My journey home was accompanied by music from Peatbog Faeries, who play weird and noisy stuff, not necessarily a good idea on the motorway.  I  did not sleep very well so may rest later once I have fetched my medication and done the ironing, oh joy.

 

Now, if the sad passing of Sir Tel does not raise awareness of the Big C, nothing will.   It has claimed many high profile names in January and one can only imagine who will be next.  I recall the death of Richard Dimbleby in 1965.  Before he died it was almost unknown to even mention the disease but he let it be known that he had it and shattered many taboos in the process.  

 

Best wishes to all of us who ail.

 

Chris 

[roundhouse]

Morning in from a dry but breezy Surrey.

Show number three of the year over and number four this coming weekend at Alton.

 

Bus was running close to time this morning but lost three minutes in as many minutes for some reason. Luckily the roadworks have gone. A number of Tonbridge Redhill line services cancelled due to a train fault but working out the timings it more than one faulty train.

 

The Previous train came in on time, but wedged so must be a previous cancelled service or some other issue. Our train was on time but we sat around at Stoats Next Junction for about five minutes..

 

Update. Been siting for another five, minutes north of Norwod Junction and now at a snails pace heading Towards LBG. Conductor isn't being told what's going on.

Edited February 1, 2016 by roundhouse

[Tony_S]

Good morning all

Forecast to be quite pleasant weather today. It already seems quite warm.

 

Bed still on lawn! No overnight additions of rubbish

Tony

[skipepsi]

Morning all, windy out there but we live at the top of a hill so not a surprise I will investigate soon where the wheely bins are. It is mild out of the wind so predicted snow is absent at the moment. Into work and weeks of emails shortly but nothing life or death. Always good to reminisce about things, disasters at the time but funny afterwards. Have a good day all.  

[Barry O]

Woke up needing a cup of tea...now being drunk.

 

Parcels to be made and posted today.

 

May have a crafty 40 winks later.

 

Have a great day everyone.

 

Baz

[roundhouse]

That's a new one, a rough piece of track around Forest Hill. Now around 15 to 20 late. Some trains now being terminated at Eat Croyodon apparently.

 

A good start to the weeks commuting.

[Smiffy2]

Good morning.

Trepidatious start, due to see the diabetic nurses at 10. Ritual humiliation time...

 

So simply wishes to all for a good day.

[HeeleyBridge]

Blowing a hoolie here again, between that and the head cold I've been awake most of the night. Off to Mum's in a bit after collecting her pension, hope not to get blown away and that our re-routed bus is running on time.

 

Back for food, thence to a pointless (but very important) meeting with the people from the DooWoP. Their inability to understand that progressive degenerative arthritis does not get better annoys me incredibly.

 

I'm going outside, I may be some time.

[jamie92208]

Morning all, very blowy here in the southern uplands but nice and bright.

 

Glad the hear that things seem to be getting better for Jock.

Dave (TG) hope that things go well with Is.

 

Ian (RH) how glad I am that I don't have to spend such a large part of each day squashed in a commuter train. It's now nearly 14 years since I lst had to get up and go to work.

 

Beth spent most of yesterday with her friend and got home at 8pm. I had been to York and collected the bed that I now have to unload. At 2am Beth got another call asking for help as the end was close and she finally got back in about 7 this morning. She's now gone to Asda to meet a friend for coffee and do the shopping. All I've been able to do is be a support back here and keep the cats fed. The friends husband is now finally at peace.

Anyway various tasks have to be performed today. The first is to locate a new offside wing mirror glass for my car. The other decided to fall off and driving back from York in the dark and rain without an offside mirror and the back of the car full of bed base was tricky and probably illegal.

 

Hopefully some modelling will be done at some point then this evening I will be at the club so to all and sundry I hope that day brings what you wish for.

 

Jamie

[shortliner]

Back for food, thence to a pointless (but very important) meeting with the people from the DooWoP. Their inability to understand that progressive degenerative arthritis does not get better annoys me incredibly.

Ask them what they understand the words "PROGRESSIVE" ...... & "DEGENERATIVE"..... to Mean? If needed take a dictionary

Edited February 1, 2016 by shortliner

[shortliner]

Eat Croyodon apparently.

I'm glad that is not a directive - sounds distinctly un-appetizing! Edited February 1, 2016 by shortliner

[NGT6 1315]

Update. Been siting for another five, minutes north of Norwod Junction and now at a snails pace heading Towards LBG. Conductor isn't being told what's going on.

 

As I've said before, I don't envy the poor working on the South London railway lines if they continue to be hung out to dry like that and will invariably continue to take the flak for faults outside their sphere of influence or responsibility. I do have my doubts there will be very many individuals among the general ridership to, one, have broader knowledge of the issues on today's railways like we on railway-themed forums such as this one do, and, two, to properly attribute such mishaps.

 

That being said, it does offer relief when, as a member of staff, you are informed of causes for disruptions, and can then point to that information when addressed by frustrated passengers. Though I also have made the decision for me to avoid letting myself become involved into fruitless and pointless discussions if I should notice that someone is not prepared to listen to any kind of background information I might be able to give them, which in general I am happy to. In such cases, I would refer the individual in question to our customer service department – also because there will most likely not be the time for extended conversation in the middle of traffic.

 

Though as a positive example to the contrary, one night in December on Line 3 I had been stood behind a failed service on the same line, which needed a while to be made able to clear the route. One passenger to have alighted from that service and hoping to continue with mine asked me she was curious as to why said service could not continue with passengers if it could be made ready to clear the line. I explained to her that as soon as all brakes on a trailer (as in this case) have to be manually opened, we are no longer permitted to proceed with passengers due to safety considerations as the trailer would then be completely unbraked, but can only return the set in question to the depot. It seemed to me like that was immediately plausible to the lady, who thanked me for this bit of operational insight, if you want to call it that.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from a breezy Estuary-Land. Noticed yesterday that the car could do with a good clean, the back bumper looks as if it could be used for growing mushrooms. As I frequently mention I am looking into my family history, one 'half'* branch of my family were involved in the motor trade and obtained a Ford dealership and set up business on the North Circular Road, the name is still perpetuated in &@+~$ Corner. Just after the war during the 'Export or die' austerity years new cars were difficult to obtain unless you could prove a need for a new car or was in an occupation, such as doctor or clergyman. The end result was they provided a car to an elderly clergyman who didn't even have a driving licence! Officialdom eventually got wind of what was going on but they managed to get away with it largely because one of the recipriants of the 'vicars' cars was a solicitor. They would by all accounts make Arthur Daly look like a choir boy. *After my great X 2 grandfather died at an early age his widow remarried a blacksmith and their decendants went on to repairing and dealing in cars.

Edited February 1, 2016 by PhilJ W

[45156]

Good morning.

Trepidatious start, due to see the diabetic nurses at 10. Ritual humiliation time...

 

So simply wishes to all for a good day.

Mine's on Thursday with a new diabetic enemy - the Pharmacist Practitioner.  I now have four professionals who can and do look after my diabetes - two GPs, one DSN and the aforesaid. 

 

Ian's train problems appear to be due to this though I've never heard it described as rough track before - normally as defective or damaged.

 

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/119066.aspx

 

Morning All

 

Again, fully caught up, and late on parade, largely due to a huge list of "to do" tasks from the weekend, including yet another call to HMRC as my tax refunds are still up in the air.  My, how my phone bill is suffering as a result, as these calls consist of a long wait, and explanation, a period on hold "while I read the notes" followed by another long wait "as this is handled by a specialist section" - which from the hold times and the length of the waits for things to be handled must be staffed by one man and his dog. 

 

Generic greetings are the best that I can offer, as I was reading many of the posts while I was listening to HMRC's diabolical music on hold, which I can sing now from memory, and though I've rated everything, I can't recall everything that has been said. 

 

Wind is starting to get up now as storm Henry (was he the blue engine - I can't remember) is getting itself wound up to do more damage to my fences.

 

Sadness here chez 45156 at Terry Wogan's passing,   I still can't come with his successor's inane rantings from 6.30 onwards.

 

List of domestic tasks is quite long, and I really fancy a bacon and egg butty now before I start.  Dinner is also my job today, so I think I'll do a Shepherd's Pie.

 

Any news about Pete - I thought somebody said he was online the other day, but I haven't seen any posts?

 

Regards to All

Stewart

Edited February 1, 2016 by 45156

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Jock - thank you but I am fine - I've just been having a break from posting and have been lurking and trying to keep up. Basically this has been been my "Dry January" however as I am in fairly good health despite my couple or three beers, and/or wines & spirits virtually on a daily basis I thought it a bit silly to give up the booze in case it affected me adversely.   . So I gave up posting in ERs for a month reasoning that the lack of my rather fatuous daily drivel would not hurt me or anybody else.  I also gave up railway modelling  fiddling with and playing with the train set at the same time. This has meant that I've stayed dry in as much as I haven't bled once in the past 31 days! The start of a new month means that I will carry on where I left off so I've laid in a fresh supply of plasters, bandages, splints and painkillers. 

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited February 1, 2016 by grandadbob

[NGT6 1315]

Just remembered this song to be rather good:

 

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Thanks for the reminder about Alton this weekend Ian - I think I shall rule out Stafford as Alton is a heck of a lot nearer home!  And what a weird piece of information in '... a rough piece of track around Forest Hill ...- presumably a Driver reported rough riding and some dimwit failed to translate it into 'a track problem/defect' ?

 

As for you folk in the motor trade bending new cars that's nothing - one of my Drivers was takinga  brand new, 'delivery mileage only guv', HST into a carriage shed when he managed to collide it with the very substantial stop block (one made out of dressed stone and very solid).  Not much visible damage but after a check over it had to go back to Derby for every coach to be lifted to ascertain what damage had occurred and for it to be rectified; I think we got it back about a month later.

 

Now today might be tap day.  Having set out last week to nmend the hard water tap it did its usual thing and the delivery pipe disintegrated as soon as I slackened the securing collar - today, assuming I can manage to bend sufficiently to get at things and undo the nuts, I have a complete new tap to replace it; my fingers are firmly crossed.

 

Havea  good day one and all and good to see you back GDB.

Edited February 1, 2016 by The Stationmaster

[AndyB]

Morning all,

 

Jock, just remember to always take the "blue pill".

The blue pill will remind you to take the "red pill", which is a really handy pill to take as it will remind you to....

Take the "yellow pill". The yellow pill acts as a catalyst/stimulant to help you to remember to....

Take the "green pill". The green pill has a coating which, over time releases an important chemical messenger to remind you to....

Take the "purple pill". The purple pill is crucial as it is the same colour as the notebook the pharmacy gave you with a list of medicines to take next, starting with the "blue pill"....

 

 

Have a nice day everyone. Andy

[roundhouse]

I'm glad that is not a directive - sounds distinctly un-appetizing!

 

You should have seen how many typos/ auto corrects came up trying to type those posts on the ipad. Some took many attempts to get the ipad to stop changing them.

 

Eventually arrived into LBG just over 25 minutes late but not late enough for Delay Repay whihc works out at just over £3 so hardly worth getting excited about!!

 

 

Got into work and my work PC wouldn't start. Finally got it started doing a restore point recovery. Then it wouldn't log on due to the security seeing the restore point. About 50 minutes later I managed to start doing work. Gone are the days of just using paper.

[BoD]

 

Any news about Pete - I thought somebody said he was online the other day, but I haven't seen any posts?

Stewart

If you look at the top left of someone's profile it tells you when they were last active. Pete was last active at 10:12 yesterday. That may mean just logged in rather than posting.

 

 

Along similar lines, it is year tomorrow since Trev was last active.

[lightengine]

 

Ha! Some of my comments have appeared on ABC Channel 7 New York.

 

Whilst I may appear critical locally, overall the infrastructure here is performing well - they’ve had plenty of practice in the past, of course.

 

Later, Pete.

I think this was Petes last post. Maybe shortly afterwards the men with the Raybans came a knocking and they are presently monitoring RM Web from his log in.

I guess you cant be too critical of New Yawk snow plows (ploughs) really!

[The Stationmaster]

I sometimes think the world of IT is so disconnected from human lifeforms that it simply doesn't understand the real world.  About 25 minutes ago I received a 'phone call from someone with a distinctly sub-continent accent talking all about my IIP settings and and then proceeding to explain that due to a BT server failure they need to reset my IP address - at which point I made it very clear to him that he was talking gonads and that as far as he was concerned urination was off.  Now gunga din, who called himself 'Alec', was actually stupid enough not to hide his 'phone number which came up on a 1471 check as somewhere in Sweden.  So far so simple - the bloke was a relatively thick con-artist chancing his arm and clearly keen to learn some of the more earth parts of the English language.

 

As he was imitating (very badly) BT I went to their website to find out how to report the incident and the 'phone number he was using.  15 pages later I still couldn't actually find out where and how I could report him while the link to 'Report Fraud' seemed more interested in tax fiddles and social security than telephone fraudsters.  So I haven't reported him - because having spent the better part of 10 minutes trying to it turned out to be impossible.  Filling in BT's 'survey' about my 'online experience' of their website did however offer some, slightly perverse, satisfaction.