Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone.

 

A rather dull and cool day, yesterday started like this but it improved as the day progressed, so here's hoping.

 

Today I'm off to St Helens, Widnes and Runcorn, as I wish to stay closer to home as I'm swimming tonight, it was closed Monday.

 

Chrisf. Wow, 70th wedding anniversary, that takes some doing.

 

Back later.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Murky, not raining and somewhat less windy. Bin bags deposited.

I think our main pastime today is waiting for a courier to deliver a rose. We bought a bag of aged manure for it yesterday.

 

Tony

[New Haven Neil]

Morning.  Sunny again!

[HeeleyBridge]

Tony's quiz started off easy for me, as I'd seen that city before somewhere (hate that imported stainless steel wall outside the station though) The bridge had to be guessed at though and never having any luck I finished with an annoying 95%.

Weather looking more like December than June here today, a trip out is therefore absolutely necessary. Friends in Germany all accounted for, some surprise was expressed that I was even concerned for them. They did however say that they would buy me a beer in my favourite Irish pub last night ...

 

Thought to all those at less than their best.

 

 

 

Edited for spoellink

Edited June 2, 2016 by HeeleyBridge

[Andrew P]

The NEW shirt purchased and actually fits, and the Suit STILL fits, (just) so tomorrow morning I will be picking Peter BB up about 7am for the drive down to Clacton on Sea to say a last farewell on ALL YOUR BEHALVES to our digital friend Jock. I'm sure it will be emotional. AndyB has written a wonderful piece that should be read out during the Service and I think he intends to post it on here somewhere tomorrow to mark the occasion.

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

Mornin' all,

 

Best regards to all that ail

 

Overcast & cool in The Moorlands.....birthday calorie burn around the short anticlockwise in anticipation of taking on a few later.

 

Most suitable 50th image to hand just now is one from my misspent youth. Here No7 provides the accoustic entertainment in barely dry green paint whilst departing Exeter in June 1984

 

Now music by Big Country......Look away

 

Mum, dad & aunt should arrive after lunch when we'll head for Is's bedside with a cake etc. Some time later it is off to our superb local Italian for a birthday tea, then a circuit of the real ale pubs in Leek with other friends.

 

Feathered ones provided for

 

Enjoy what you do

 

Dave 

Edited June 2, 2016 by Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71

[southern42]

' Morning all from red dragon land.

 

Another day of sunshine and blue sky.  Just right for cleaning out the club loco.  It's the 5" BR(W) 1500 Class (Speedy) and by gum does it shift!  Fills the smoke box with ash, too, but nothing my mustard spoon can't tackle.     Well, when did you last use a mustard spoon?   

 

I'm also hoping to get some gardening...er...jungle clearance done.

 

Don't let the weeds of life get you down - just walk all over them.  Enjoy your day.

[Barry O]

My appointment today is at Jimmies hospital in Leeds. Luckily her indoors can take me as its two bus journeys away from here. Going would be OK but coming back may be problematical.

 

Have a great day everyone.

Baz

[NGT6 1315]

Mawnin' awl, and once again, happy birthday, Dave. Do enjoy your day, especially in light of everything.

 

Weather has turned partially rainy since yesterday but the AC/DC concert-goers were lucky. Aside from some rather chaotic traffic in the late afternoon (which I believe could have been avoided if the Road Traffic Authority had turned their minds to it, but I'll leave it at that very modest criticism…) which required me to request, and be granted, a short turn working due to excessive delay, nothing really noteworthy happened. The standby part after the concert went agreeably trouble-free, probably also caused by the revellers having been very largely in a good mood and thus behaving well.

 

 

 

My ride for both shift halves, as it would turn out, was 1102 "Gotthold Ephraim Lessing", seen here signed for the extra Line 51 which on the down path worked a combination of the routes of Line 10 and that section of Line 4 through Waldstraße where the latter passes just near the stadium.

 

Later…

[Purley Oaks]

Sunny here again this morning.

 

Busy day today - family reunion at midday in the Balmoral Hotel (only the best), taking my 91 year old mum to meet two cousins, one 89, the other 85ish, the latter popping in on her way back to London from Aberdeen whilst waiting a couple of hours for the London train. She's accompanied by her niece and husband, so it's a light lunch for 8.

 

Later, off to youngest son's girlfriend's degree show at the Art School before Malaysian evening meal out. She got a 2:1 and is off to teacher training at Exeter in September. Hope they can maintain their 3-year romance long-distance. Could be tricky.

 

Hope you have a good day, Dave, and that Is remains comfortable.

 

Andy P, glad you didn't have to buy a NEW SUIT as well! Thanks for going to Jock's funeral on our behalf.

 

Hope everyone else's day goes well.

 

Mal

[NGT6 1315]

Andy P, glad you didn't have to buy a NEW SUIT as well! Thanks for going to Jock's funeral on our behalf.

 

 

Yes, indeed. I'll make sure to raise another glass to Jock later today!

 

As it is, we managed to secure a garden plot a few days ago…

 

 

 

…suitably located in the allotment area near the Gohlis-Nord tram loop! I'll probably see to getting some of the vegs we had begun growing on our balcony there later today.

[andyram]

Morning all and birthday greetings to Dave. I hope you have a good day. Things remain very grey here in Derby. Pleased to say I received a pm from Andy (leopard) to let me know he is ok which is good to know.

Yesterday I took Amber out for the day to give Sarah a much needed break. My good lady is finding things quite tough at the moment, her rhinitis has flared up, Amber is not sleeping and keeping her awake and her mood is not great. It does make things tough for the two of us, all I can do is support her as much as I can. Amber is pushing her luck at the moment - we are definitely in the "ready for school" stage - the McDonalds based temper tantrum was a sure sign.

Our trip out yesterday ended up taking us back to Masson Mill in Cromford. We were only there ten days ago, but Amber likes the soft play area. She had a good hour letting off some steam, we had lunch and browsed the various shopping outlets. The Hornby section is looking worryingly sparse.

The time in the soft play area proved expensive. Whilst Amber played with a new found friend, I browsed the web using the free Wi-Fi. The result, a G scale truck has now been purchased from EBay.

In the evening I caught up with an old mate in the pub. He is having a few problems at home at the moment and wanted to unload. I am beginning to wonder if I should take up a job as a counsellor!

 

Today Sarah and Amber are off to MiL's for the day. I am going to drop them off and then will head home to get stuck into the school paperwork mountain. I may take the occasional break to run some trains on the layout or work on my other layout.

 

Have a good day.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Happy birthday Dave hope you all have a nice day.

 

pH's video was great fun but I kept expecting Stanley Baker and Michael Caine to turn up in nice red jackets and white helmets while Nigel Green stood there saying 'steady lad'.

 

Meanwhile laddo is off for a session of clay pigeon shooting tomorrow - first time out.  So yesterday evening - hoping to at least instill some sense of weapon handling and basic safety - it was out with the airgun and a chalked target on an old piece of ply.  Hardly an under & over I know  but it did perhaps give him an idea of how to hold the gun and keep it pointing in the right direction (most of the time - the other occasion was suitably dealt with).  Alas the sights are somewhat off, even after I refitted the foresight but myself and the Good Doctor managed several inners (it was a pretty big inner) and I got a reasonable grouping with 3 shots.

 

Meanwhile the weather is grey (pale, not dark) and the wind is still blowing but we are promised occasional sights of the sun, hopefully the country road to Pangbourne will not be littered with too many bits of tree or motorised cockwombles.

 

Enjoy your day everybody.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. At least the weather is improving and Carol reckons that next week will be a scorcher. One of our members turned up at the club meeting with a young lady in tow, before any ribald remarks I would like to point out that it was his granddaughter. Last time I saw the young lady concerned she was about six years old but now shes turned out to be a stunner.

 

I only got 70% as well but I dispute this because I think they've moved some places. I know for a fact that when I first moved to Sutton in 1960 it was in Surrey but apparently it's now in London.

I was born and brought up in Romford, it annoys me when people say that its now in London, as far as I'm concerned its in Essex.

[Sidecar Racer]

The wildfire season in Western Canada has started early, and in a big way. Alberta in particular is having it really badly. Firefighters from several other Canadian provinces and US states are helping. They are even bringing in firefighters from South Africa - makes sense, since it's winter in the southern hemisphere, and they came to help in Canada last year.

 

When they arrived at Edmonton airport yesterday, this is what happened -

 

Is this part of firefighter training in the UK, too?

 

 I bet there was a lot of fun at baggage re-claim with all of those identical cases going

round and round on the carousel .    

[bbishop]

Yes, indeed. I'll make sure to raise another glass to Jock later today!

 

As it is, we managed to secure a garden plot a few days ago… 

…suitably located in the allotment area near the Gohlis-Nord tram loop! I'll probably see to getting some of the vegs we had begun growing on our balcony there later today.

Dom,

 

I think Keith and I were in the area a couple of months ago. I'm assuming a hut, flagpole with Hessian flag and that you will grow the ingredients for green sauce.

 

Bill

 

Bill

[laurenceb]

Birthday greetings Dave

[sixoh8sixoh]

Morning all (well, it was before I got sidetracked) from a sunny Scottish HQ. I've got about a week of posts to catch up on (which probably won't happen).

 

Had a busy bank holiday weekend as I took Jamie down to Mum and Dad's. Only one dog there this visit as one was ill and staying overnight at the vet's. Unfortunately he was so unwell he had to be put to sleep yesterday morning, as the vet thought he had cancer but was unlikely to survive sedation or anaesthetic to allow him to be tested fully. It's a shame as he went downhill so rapidly - only 10 days from seeming perfectly healthy.

 

Jamie's school sports day on Tuesday so I vanished out of the office to that, then spent yesterday working from home. So today's my first full day in the office since last Thursday...

 

Hope all are well - birthday greetings to Dave, and I hope Is is comfortable.

[BSW01]

Good afternoon everyone.

 

Greetings from a now very sunny Widnes. Most of the schools seem to be closed for the spring bank holiday so the roads are a little quieter than usual, but there are still plenty of cockwombles to be seen. By mid-morning the sun was out, but it was still a lot cooler than earlier in the week.

 

My first job in St. Helens was interesting, there's a huge amount of reconstruction work going on site and there were large holes and trenches everywhere, excavators swing round every which way. So my hi-vis and hard hat were the order of the day whilst on site. Needless to say, I only stayed there for as long as was absolutely necessary, waiting until I got to my second job in Widnes before I had a brew, followed by lunch, which I managed to sit out in the sun whilst I ate it!

 

Off to Runcorn now, back later.

[southern42]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. At least the weather is improving and Carol reckons that next week will be a scorcher. One of our members turned up at the club meeting with a young lady in tow, before any ribald remarks I would like to point out that it was his granddaughter. Last time I saw the young lady concerned she was about six years old but now shes turned out to be a stunner.

 

I was born and brought up in Romford, it annoys me when people say that its now in London, as far as I'm concerned its in Essex.

 

Similarly, my home town is in Middlesex -  I AM  NOT A NUMBER LONDONER!   

I think I said that before...

 

And before I forget completely and in good Southern livery

Happy Birthday Dave

[NGT6 1315]

Dom,

 

I think Keith and I were in the area a couple of months ago. I'm assuming a hut, flagpole with Hessian flag and that you will grow the ingredients for green sauce.

 

 

Green Sauce herbs could well happen, but I'm not really a friend of flying flags on private property (as this is something I associate too deeply with people of, shall we say, dubious ideologies). No garden dwarves either as this is, in my opinion, abysmally kitschy…

[Barry O]

Hospital attended. I have just wasted 3 hours of my life and 3 hours of the NHS's having the same set of tests undertaken that I have at a local GPs surgery (and his scanner is newer than the one at Jimmies. Unfortunately, while our GPs can pass information electronically the Hospitals seem unsure of how to do it. The people were very good its just the waste - which could be used to check out others. As it happens eyes are fine,  diabetic checkup in 6 months (3 months before my next GP check up) ..hey ho!

 

Eyes returning to normal so more crust earning to be done.

 

Baz

[edcayton]

Recovering from 3 days of playing  running trains for the public in excellent weather conditions then Tuesday driving steam loco day at ground level on the Joys of Life Railway just for pleasure(?) which got the adrenaline going rather.

 

' Night all.  Nos da.

 

Oh Polly.  A girl driving a steam loco.  Be still my beating heart!

 

Ed

[edcayton]

Friends picked up their new VW Touran yesterday. What an impressive car! Very easy to get in and out of and two seats in the boot for their grandchildren. So with the new bathroom last week things are looking up for them at the moment. Good.

 

Ed

[edcayton]

Son number two has had two job offers. He has taken the one he can walk to, which was also the one he liked the look and feel of most. He was really anxious about not having a job, but his joi de vivre has returned which is really good to see.

 

Ed