Early Risers.

[Oldddudders]

Dave (TG) - Do keep pouring it out here. I found the support from RMweb enormously helpful when I was in a comparable situation. I also posted daily on a couple sites where Deb had been a most popular contributor, and received much warmth in return, of course. I think Smiffy may have been a member of one of them. The agony of watching a partner slipping away is indescribable, but sharing in public places like this worked for me, not least by giving me a focus, a self-imposed task, when all seemed lost and pointless.

[roundhouse]

Morning from a currently dry Surrey. When I was sitting in the conservatory it rained really hard yet bone dry road surfaces a short while later . Cars wet though.

 

A little work on Fort Myers refitting a silo back in place that was removed for the board alterations.

 

On a delayed train to LBG. A few hours in the office then to a few meetings which will hopefully take me to POETs the head to St Pancras for our Eurostar service. Paid a little more for Premium economy. First time that we will have been in an upper class on Eurostar. Currency exchange first stop this morning on way to office.

[Happy Hippo]

Very quick drop by this morning.

 

Gerry came by yesterday and checked all the electrical installation in the shed: He was pleased with the work presented, and asked if we (the PH and I) would like to do some work for him as it was very neat and tidy.  His only criticism was that most of the installation was 'gold plated' and far exceeded what was required for the application.

 

We can now consider the building of the bench for the lathe and milling machine.

 

Off for a quick trip to the tip next as we have a trailer full of recyclable stuff to go (we also have the requisite trailer permit).

 

Then it's back, change and off to Llandudno for MiL's funeral.

 

Back this evening and then off on Saturday to Highclere for the Game Fair.

[Coombe Barton]

We're off tonight until Monday - so no reads or posts unless 4G happens and my phone produces some stability when I say I don;t want the mobile version.

 

Thoughts to Dave and Is - Dave - I've said it before but please make sure you're looking after yourself. We had to tell that to FIL's wife yesterday and that it was OK to feel helplessness.

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

Dave (TG) - Do keep pouring it out here. I found the support from RMweb enormously helpful when I was in a comparable situation. I also posted daily on a couple sites where Deb had been a most popular contributor, and received much warmth in return, of course. I think Smiffy may have been a member of one of them. The agony of watching a partner slipping away is indescribable, but sharing in public places like this worked for me, not least by giving me a focus, a self-imposed task, when all seemed lost and pointless.

 

....getting together as adults with a 22 year age gap meant that we set out to grab life with both hands from the off. We have typically averaged 5-6 holidays per year throughout, with many outings/meals out on top. I have also had a year of training for this situation, with Is's treatment. I'm aware that everyone will correctly view all of this from their own perspective but I take the stance that we haven't missed any opportunities and have few, if any, regrets....I have been fortunate to meet Is when I did and settle for the great times which we've had. Once quality of life slips away then we both look more to our faith and accept that there is a better place to go to.

 

Dave

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all, with apologies for lateness on parade.  I've been up for more than two hours but with other tasks requiring attention, principally a long hot bath to see off assorted aches and pains.

 

I went to see Poorly Pal yesterday.  We enjoyed our stir fried prawns with kung po sauce and a bold selection of vegetables, guest starring lettuce, and may have duck next time.  As we scampered round the supermarket I pointed out various things that are easy to cook but he still has confidence issues.  Don't we all, I mused.  Today I must do another fodder run, principally to buy something to put in my sarnies for tomorrow.  They will get me out of trouble on the railtour, on which I will be trundling round Kent on a Javelin.  On Sunday I will be at Railex and hope to encounter other inmates there.

 

Lots more RMweb to read now so au revoir, with the customary thoughts to all the ailing, recovering, supporting, grieving, missing and depressed.

 

Chris

[New Haven Neil]

IIRC, Stihl also provide some pretty darned good safety clothing which clogs chainsaws if they get too close to the skin!

 

 

I have that too, John, as a chainsaw owner and operator (woodburner!).   Trousers with Kevlar threads in them that jam a chain pronto if touched - not that I intend to prove it!  Might stop it before it reaches the femoral artery I suppose.  I also have the matching gloves, jacket etc.  Chainsaws are lethal weapons.

 

Dave and Is, what can I say, but my thoughts are with you both.  Ian speaks for us all  above I think, we're here for you.

 

A dull but warm start on Fraggle Rock today, TT preparations in full swing now, hordes of Germans (always first here) are pouring off the ferries, and I'm off to my bike club then out for a trundle about to see what interesting machinery I can see.  Being unable to share this with Jock is hurting.

Edited May 27, 2016 by New Haven Neil

[Gwiwer]

Safely home in Cornwall after a horribly slow trip in very heavy traffic. Local ales enjoyed. Local friends overjoyed. Came through torrential rain across Dartmoor (not unusual) after fine weather until then. Liquid sunshine appears to be the weekend forecast. Saturday will involve Hayle MRC exhibition and a catch-up with those nice Kernow people.

 

Thoughts with all those on the needs register. Aunt in Clacton is being a most unconscionable time a-dying to borrow a quote and is causing dad considerable distress.

 

I'm going to temporarily turn off email notifications for this topic as the volume of them is causing my phone to fill and lock. Would someone kindly PM me if anything of great significance occurs?

 

Enjoy your days. I am anout to. See you again dreckly.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Seems like a nice day.

I need a haircut.

We will be shopping in Leigh on Sea later, but not at the seaside bit, just the part the A13 passes through.

Matthew has heard from his tutor and will be meeting next week. His friend from Calgary has hurt her ankle so won't be seeing him in Utrecht today, he will visit her in Amsterdam instead.

I did do something for my model railway yesterday but hesitate to call it railway modelling. I cut up lengths of foam to fit box files to keep wagons in.

Tony

 

Tony

[Coombe Barton]

I did do something for my model railway yesterday but hesitate to call it railway modelling. I cut up lengths of foam to fit box files to keep wagons in.

Tony

More than some of us have done recently.

 

Edited May 27, 2016 by Coombe Barton

[Coombe Barton]

FIL update - Sandy's just phoned the hospital from work and I have this text message

 

Dad had good night and sitting up having breakfast

 

From someone who they were debating on whether to operate six days ago this is remarkable.

[iL Dottore]

Morning All,

 

Just whizzing through, today. I'm afraid that I haven't been much on RMWeb lately - for numerous reasons: job-hunting, preparing for my "Big Birthday Bash" party, the slow process of wrapping an octagonal chimney in strips of embossed brick plastic (for Jamie92208) and learning lines for amateur theatre  plus mandatory dog related activities are all keeping me off RMWeb. Anyway, congratulations and commiserations to ERs as appropriate. Maybe I'll get caught up (and post progress photos of the buildings I am constructing for Jamie) this weekend.

 

Off to review some lines and then walk the doggies whilst the sun still shines

 

Stay Frosty Dudes

 

iD

 

p.s. Anyone in the vicinity of Brig on Sunday June 26th is welcome to join Bbishop and me..

[HeeleyBridge]

And so, the day that should be Friday is about to become Monday, which in turn will become Sunday which will make tomorrow Tuesday and as of yesterday I am again, dazed and confused.

 

Welcome to the interesting little world of HB and the Bank Holiday Mum's pension arrangements. Hopefully the post office stiff staff will be able to work out how to log into their own system this morning and I will be able to get to my bus in time (unlike last week )

 

So today I shall be mainly hoping that the glorious sun of the Roker Riviera will spread inland and allow a full day of play in the second test. :sungum:

 

Thoughts to all those sick, recovering and those enduring far more than their fair bl**dy share.

[The Lurker]

Morning all, thoughts are with Dave and Is,

However  it is good to read of John's FiL progress.

 

Today  is the last day before holiday and true to form it promises to be a pig. The Chairman of the group has asked for some urgent advice and the CFO has just come round asking for something too. You can tell my boss has a day off!

My in laws always talk about winding down before a holiday - but they both worked for Customs & Excise. We tell them things are different in the real world

 

The cases are largely packed and plans for departure have been made. I told you Mrs Lurker was organized.

 

 

Anyway, onwards and upwards, have a good day all

[BSW01]

 Morning everyone. A cool, slightly grey but dry day today, although the sun IS trying its best to break through the clouds, so there may be hope yet. 

 

An good and uneventful trip to the orifice this morning, the trip taking me just over 45 minutes, quite good compared to yesterday which took almost an hour! The first of no doubt many cups of tea has now been consumed. I've been searching on the company's website about early retirement, and after spending a nearly full week in the orifice, I think my mind is now made up, and I only need to see the figures now, SHOW ME THE MONEY!            

 

I've still got bu99er all to do, just sitting around and drink tea. My job title is Network Technician, and to my mind, that last word really says it all. I do technical things and sitting around in an orifice day in, day out, everyday for a week   is not what I like to do! If I wanted to be an office clerk, I'd have taken that route when I was teenager and not taken the apprenticeship that I did.

 

Anyway, SWMBO   has decreed that we are both going to spend this weekend doing our own respective hobbies, so I'm looking forward to spending mine in the workshop.   

 

Back later

[AndyB]

Morning all and positive thoughts to on and all.

 

Today I've been learning facts about the birds and the bees. Well, before you all get hot under the collar, more precisely some facts about honey bees.

 

A bee hive makes somewhere between 25 ad 60lbs of honey. To make 1lb of honey the bees fly some 55,000 miles.

And there you were looking at the packaging on your salad potatoes and thinking that Egypt was a long way away.

 

Clearly from a food miles point of view something has to be done about bees.

So far all the so-called experts have manged to come up with is that "theoretically bees shouldn't be able to fly at all."

 

People, in the interests of sustainability we need to do something!  

1. I propose that bees in each hive should be allocated a defined and restricted area of operations. 

2. If they want to gather pollen we should bring the flowers to them; surely a lorry of carnations from Jersey has less Carbon footprint than a hive of these critters.

3. I'm working on 3.

4. Bees should be given a pollen quota, see 1,2  especially 3 above.

5. We need to urgently think about low-Carbon alternatives to bees.  

7. "Local" honey needs to be re-labelled as "diverse location plant-based animal product produced using insect @r$e wiping technology."

 

Now to find out what the birds have been up to whilst we've been distracted by bees! 

 

Stay alert, people. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Checked the weather reports for the bank holiday weekend, Sunday looks OK but Monday is decidedly iffy so I'm looking at an outdoor event Sunday and an indoor event Monday. To be quite honest I didn't realise that there had been changes made to the order of the smileys, if I couldn't find what I wanted I just clicked on the 'show all' option. At least Is was able to make the decision herself not to continue with the treatment, I have left clear instructions with my family what to do if I am unable to make such decisions for myself. Hopefully that situation will never occur and I will never have to make that decision on behalf of a loved one.

[Shedman5]

Morning, looked in earlier (honest) and was about to post then I was informed that breakfast was ready in the form of a full english. Now this is a rare occasion as we do not  normally have an english breakfast and I am old enough and wise enough to know that this is the start of a soft soaping campaign.

 

Anyway RMWeb adandoned and a pleasurable breakfast followed.

 

 

Not sure whats coming but I am sure I will find out eventually!

 

Dave and Is thoughts with you

 

Enjoy your day folks

[Tony_S]

I was quite surprised today that instead of toast there were scrambled eggs too. I didn't think it could a "use by" reason, as we are not at all strict about such things. However it turned out that they were from a pack of mixed size eggs and they were the "wrong size". I enquired why they had been purchased and Aditi explained she was too short to reach the large ones.

[HeeleyBridge]

Andy B you really need to find yourself a hobby. Knitting or fishing, maybe even ...

[Oldddudders]

Morning all

 

My previous post was intended to be far too sincere to be mixed with the usual garbage I purvey here. Hence this one. 

 

Brian W - I saw plenty of gifted engineers and managers rewarded with promotion that took them "off the tools" and into boring office jobs, worrying about recruitment, training and budgets. When we were doing BRIS Privatisation in the mid-90s, I recall a very senior engineer-turned-manager complaining that all he really wanted to do was design bridges! A few weeks later I was watching a video of a preserved railway and there he was in charge on the footplate....

 

Andy B's useful proposals for bees remind me that Alison is overjoyed that both her hives have life in them again. But she also has a colony in the ceiling void above her younger boys' bedroom, and one periodically descends to freak them out. As a dedicated greenie she will not be asking Pest Control to deal with the problem, but they aren't Carpenter Bees, so are otherwise fairly harmless to the structure, it seems.

 

Also on the Alison front, her grass is getting beyond a joke, so the new boyfriend has bought and 'loaned' her a Pubert mower thingie. It has 3 wheels and really takes no prisoners. 190 cc-ish Honda engine and big blades. Push along but you can vary the speed it pulls you at! Expensive at about £1k, but does the job well. I seemed to manage a big area in no time, without the usual clogging of a push-along mower. Her strimmer has packed up, so I've loaned her (yes, really) a standard electric one. But she was watching me use the Stihl here yesterday and is now considering a similar purchase. NH Neil should be on commission!

 

Hope Sandy's dad continues to improve and others perk up as Summer may be just around the corner.

[trisonic]

Unfortunately, I am my Wife’s hobby......

 

Best, Pete.

[Oldddudders]

Unfortunately, I am my Wife’s hobby......

 

Best, Pete.

 

TMI

[BSW01]

Brian W - I saw plenty of gifted engineers and managers rewarded with promotion that took them "off the tools" and into boring office jobs, worrying about recruitment, training and budgets. When we were doing BRIS Privatisation in the mid-90s, I recall a very senior engineer-turned-manager complaining that all he really wanted to do was design bridges! A few weeks later I was watching a video of a preserved railway and there he was in charge on the footplate....

 

Ian, when I worked for British Steel, there was a saying used extensively in the maintenance department. "if you were any good at you job, you stayed on the tools, if you weren't, you got promoted and shoved promoted into the office". That saying seems to true about every department that I've worked in ever since!

[Tony_S]

Aditi's younger sister retired about a year ago. She doesn't seem to have any problem adjusting to not being at work. She is doing all the things she wanted to do that she couldn't while working. She doesn't have a hobby as such but likes visiting places like museums, gardens etc, with friends. Her husband is about to retire and has been cutting down on his hours so only works a couple of days a week. He has been filling his time with work related activities but those activities are just about complete. He is not really coping with the idea of full time retirement. He does have hobbies but as they seem to be paranormal phenomena investigations and conspiracy theory research I am not sure they are conducive to calmness (well at least not in his case) .

I know Aditi was a bit worried about retiring but it was concern about finances. As soon as she retired she stopped being concerned!