Early Risers.

[pH]

... then as we all left one of the other neighbors (not at the party) got stuck trying to negotiate the hill/road in the snow, all hands to the rescue and amazingly 4 guys and plenty of wishes managed to get her safely up the hill and to her house.

 

Was she in a car or not?

[bbishop]

Evening all.

 

Just home from an operating day on Southwark Bridge.  Completely whacked out and I wasn't even doing the driving. 

 

I was signalman on the departure side, so on my feet most of the day.  Off to bed, shortly.

 

Bill

[trisonic]

Bring back Moleskin trousers says I. My first ganger, when I joined the S&T Dept in 1959, swore by them.

.

 

I’ve still got a pair of moleskin trousers. My favorite material in the ‘States is “duck” (which is made like canvass) that I use for work, the weave is almost impermeable to rain yet is still cotton.

I get them from “Dickies” - i love the risible label on my rear end....

 

Best, Pete.

[Coombe Barton]

Screwfix sell Dickies.

Honest.

 

As I was typing it I thought of all the comments that could be made - opening the floor for them.

[Ian Abel]

Ian is I assume ready to find out if Whitney is "tree trained". We were pleased that Robbie never seemed to treat our Christmas tree as a message site.

She seems OK with the tree, of course being female and therefore not in the "lift the leg" category seem it probably won't be a problem. She appears pretty much 100% house-trained, and we've only had one accident, our doing as we weren't taking notice of her parading back and forth to the door

 

Was she in a car or not?

Boy, you lot...  I noticed lots of smiley face ratings!

Indeed she did have a car with her - we'd have helped her up the hill anyway though, we were quite "festive" as it was 10:30PM and we were all leaving the party.

 

 

Right now at 4PM it's -16, wind-chill supposedly -28 and having just had to go to the chemist/pharmacy for a prescription that I didn't realize I needed refilled, can confirm it's NOT the sort of weather you want to spend a lot of time out in!

Overnight will be -23 with wind-chills in the -40s range. At that point no-one (except the plain STUPID) ventures out without the appropriate clothing, bare skin can become frostbitten in under 10 minutes in those conditions

 

I leave you with the quote of the day from our local and nationally well respected climatologist "...there's no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing choices."

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Its been foggy all day despite a valiant attempt by the sun to burn it off this morning. Its still foggy now so I expect it to remain so until the morning. Shortliner, I did check out the gilets and saw one or two that I liked but they did not have any inside pockets which I prefer, except for the very expensive leather ones which I might consider as they look very smart.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

Well the sun did make an appearance, but it never really warmed up and it stayed damp all day. However, once the sun had started to set, the fog returned.

 

I had a good day in the workshop, making up another 2 gearboxes, hopefully I'll be able to spend some more time in there tomorrow.

 

This evening was spent relaxing watching some recorded TV and with a bottle of red, another one bites the dust!

 

Goodnight all.

[laurenceb]

Night all

[southern42]

' Night all.  Nos da.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Barry O]

A lesson learnt..

 

when her indoors puts the tree up check she has got it wedged into the base......just spent 30 minutes tidying up broken decorations, taking everything off the tree and then setting the tree upright. Pah! Humbug!

 

Sleep well most!  Have a nice day Rick!

 

 

baz

[Horsetan]

....that wizardy thing. She promised "its the last book" since when there have been more books, 2 stage plays and a partridge in a pear tree

 

J.K. Rowling in it.

[108]

All I have to say is that I've finally found the full version of the site. A few posts rated and a sup of Uncle Arthur's Finest consumed. Best wishes to you all for the forthcoming celebrations.

 

Sweet dreams. Til tomorrow.

[newbryford]

, I had the pleasure of visiting the scene of many of his accidents last week and it's a tight fit crawling under his railway.   

 

Euphemism alert?

 

Cheers,

Mick

[emt_911]

Just back from the company festive evening. It was quite good with no dramas and good ale. The only bad part was the taxi company couldn't organise a p!ss up in a brewery.

 

Night all

[BR60103]

With our weather blowing in from Colorado, the arrival time and contents are uncertain. We were supposed to go to Messiah tonight, but the forecast was either freezing rain or frozen rain and we decided to stay home.  We had seen one with our Opera group last week (DVD from King's College). We watched Toy Trains at C*mas videos instead. I also managed to put in a few hours on a new Metcalfe kit, getting as far as nearly assembling the revolving door.

[TheQ]

Morning

I managed to sleep for 7 seven hour last night with only a couple of wake ups, for once I am rested.

The only problem was I woke at 05:20 thought it was work day got up and started rushing around. It was only as I started pouring out SWMBOs tea, I thought about doing my weekly sailing report, then realised I haven't been sailing. So now I'm lying on the site trying to wind down again...

At least I didn't wake SWMBO this early for her tea.

 

As I lie here CBS news is on talking about the weather in Minnesota, and the various traffic accidents across the USA, and one very lucky teenage couple who were rescued from a snow bank ( they may lose goes through frost bite...) Keep safe over there...

 

Time for the breakfast I made in a hurry, then flop out and relax for a couple of hours before sailing...

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

You can get zip fly jeans very cheaply at Pennys in Ireland. They trade as Primark in the UK. Yes I know people turn their nose up at Primark/Pennys but I have always found their clothes very good value.

 

Primark is my first choice of supplier for class clobber but on this occasion they were found wanting.  Thanks for the kind thought, John.

 

I should not have mentioned the frailties of Thameslink yesterday, for I was surely tempting providence.  When I reached Bedford station I was confronted by a bunch of cancellations.  The explanations were not consistent, including "earlier signalling problem" and "safety examination of tunnel".  The journey to St Pancras by East Midlands was intimate to say the least, a 5 car Meridian proving insufficiently commodious.  I failed to buy the book I sought but thanks are due to the lady at the London Transport Museum who found it available on Amazon.  On a random bus tour of north London before the 3 pm meeting a road sign was spotted which read: "Bus lane suspended.  Use bus lane".  If you don't believe me, go to Junction Road near Tufnell Park tube.

 

I got through the evening at the tandoori by ordering king prawn korma with rice and green bits, washed down with a vase of Kingfisher.  The proof that I can now cope with a curry house may lead to additional social opportunities.   During the day, for some reason, I recalled a Friday in the mid 80s when I was working in Westminster.  Turkey curry was on the menu in the canteen and seemed OK at the time.  Much of the train journey home was spent in the WC.  I hate confined spaces.

 

After the tandoori I headed home, being fearful of more nonsense on Thameslink.  The ticket barrier did not like my travelcard but fortunately the luggage gate swung pen to admit me.  Yes, cancellations were shown on the screen but none that would affect me.  Phew.  At Luton my onward connection to Bedford went from being on time when I arrived to six minutes late almost instantly.  Its running was unbelievably sluggish and I wondered whether I would be on the last bus after all.  I was, thank goodness.

 

Tonight I will be at The Stables for Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band.  Dead cultural.

 

Warm thoughts to the usual list

 

Chris

[Barry O]

I need tea!

 

Back later!

 

Baz

[Tony_S]

Morning.

I am not sure if it is light fog or thick mist out. Fogginess in my head has been dispersed following tea consumption

I shall venture into the loft today for Christmas decorations. Yesterday my task (postponed from Fridsy) was Christmas card writing. Last year I created an address lable document on my computer. However I no longer have an ink jet printer to match the lables. Fortunately Amazon had the laser printer lables so I was only delayed by a day.

Tony

[RhBBob]

Morning all !

 

Visited England on Friday night, Leeds to be precise, to see Andre Rieu and the Johann Strauss Orchestra at The Arena. Fabulous show, nearly three hours of first class entertainment, including artificial snow from above.

 

We stayed overnight at the Ibis Hotel Leeds Centre. England is so different; they have decent roads and polite people who speak and smile, and make conversation. A friendly young man (aren't they always younger ?) helped us back to the Hotel with directions and even offered to walk with us ! Managed the app for parking but Bugle Maps confused me completely. Shall have to take further lessons from Daughter 

Barcelona is next - the Camp Nou - in February.....wish me luck 

[jamie92208]

Bonjour from a rather foggy and cool Charente. We got home at 01.00 from the village Christmas do. It was great. 32 out of a population of approx. 60 attended. A great meal was served, dancing took place between courses in a variety of styles. Readers of a delicate nature will be relieved to hear that I only spectate dancing, having apparently got two left feet. The 8 anglais were made very welcome by the Francais and Beth performed her two carols on the guitar to which the Anglais sang along. All drink was included and flowed freely all night. We rose a little late this morning but breakfast has now been consumed.

 

I managed to do various jobs yesterday and got some brownie points for making an armature for a holly wreath out of some chicken wire. When asked for some thin wire to secure the holly I got at least another half point for stripping some 6mm cable and producing some lengths of thin copper wire. I was then left free for the afternoon and managed to finish sealing the railway area in the shed with dilute PVA.

 

Today we may be painting the bathroom but the daily orders haven't yet been finalised. I apparently will have the ceiling to do.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[emt_911]

Morning all. A few hours sleep and I feel great after some breakfast and plenty of coffee. A relaxing couple of hours before heading home.

 

Have a good day everyone

[andyram]

Morning all. I hope today finds you well. Chris, despite the travel frustrations, it sounds like you had a good day. I hope the curry was enjoyable with no after effects. NHN thanks for posting more pictures from Groudle Glen's latest festive services. It looked like another enjoyable event.

A foggy start to the day today. We are fairly bleary eyed again after another night of Amber's constant coughing. Sarah and I also have milder coughs too so it was a very noisy bedroom last night. Today is planned to be a quiet day with not too much happening. Sarah is off to church this morning whilst Amber and I stay at home. Later we are due to meet the inlaws for booked Christmas meal. Hopefully we will feel well enough to enjoy it.

Yesterday was spent looking after Amber whilst Sarah was off getting depressed by another Nottingham Forest defeat. I had hoped to get some work done, but Amber had other ideas. Instead I found myself constructing her Playmobil zoo which had been a birthday present. These are notorious for having lots of small parts and the bits are never placed logically in the box. One particular part was split across five different bags!

Amber spent much of yesterday in her pyjamas, but felt well enough to want to go to my parent's in the evening. She was fine all evening and played nicely with her cousins.

My planned work never happened. That did not help my stress levels. However I did achieve a couple of pre Christmas jobs. I have ordered a large wall canvas and a bed cushion for part of Sarah's Christmas present. Both carry photographs of Saffie, her much loved and sadly deceased 20 year old Burmese cat. She was such a big part of Sarah's life that she was devastated when she was put to sleep in January. It probably set the tone for a rough year. Hopefully these gifts, along with the memorial plaque for the garden, will act as a lasting memory.

I also managed to contact Twycross Zoo yesterday. They have started doing the giraffe feeding experiences now. Since Sarah enjoyed the one at Yorkshire Wildlife Park in the summer, I have booked her one at Twycross for next year. Their experience is open to five people so Amber can join in too, she really wanted to join the last one but was not old enough.

 

Right better get dressed so I can brave the walk around the super market!

Edited December 18, 2016 by andyram