Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

She's trying to get back to Mr Gwiwer.

 

Long dig....

[BSW01]

A very long dig!

[81C]

Paperwork arrived re back op......5th May, so here's hoping it all goes smoothly!

 

Weathers great, 9 days off after Monday so..........time to get the bike out, the garden can wait!

 

IMG_7829.JPG

 

I've just resprayed the top box to match the rest of the bike.......useful being a modeller......lots of transferable skills!

Thats a nice moped Black Rat bet it cost a few bob.

[Tony_S]

I thought I had lost my wallet today. I found it or rather Aditi did wedged in the car upholstery. Not before I had cancelled a couple of debit and credit cards though. Fortunately not all though. Banks are so friendly and helpful now compared to even a few years ago.

I didn't panic but I did feel very relieved when the wallet appeared. I have been excused further shopping today, though I may do some trellis restoration.

Tony

[Tony_S]

Mike, Essex schools started their holiday last Monday. They return to school on the day after the Easter Monday Bank Holiday.

[Shedman5]

Afternoon, all lawns mowed etc thats me done for the day at least the weekend will be garden free.

 

Came in for a cup of tea turned the telly on and discovered the sad events in Sweden.

 

Oh well a hour or so later running trains in the shed beckons.

 

As per  Tonys post above schools around here the same

 

Enjoy whats left of the day

[Smiffy2]

Same for the schools here, or at least the state schools, private schools sometimes have longer. I think the dates are set nationally, so some of those 'pen pushers' must know what they are doing.

 

In fact as someone who worked for a few years as a 'pen pusher' I recall a lot of them knowing what they were doing...

[roundhouse]

Well it's POETs for me which really couldn't come soon enough after a carp nights sleep.

 

Fancied a beer but need to load the layout when I get home. Beer will have to wait till tomorrow night.

[BoD]

A local primary school has decided not to break up until next Thursday whilst all the others finish today.  They are also taking only one week and one day's holiday for Easter and having an extra week for the June half term break.  I suspect that it is an attempt to let parents (and staff) take a holiday out of peak time.

 

I also suspect that when (not if) other schools do similar things the holiday peak times will simply be extended.

Edited April 7, 2017 by BoD

[Tony_S]

Same for the schools here, or at least the state schools, private schools sometimes have longer. I think the dates are set nationally, so some of those 'pen pushers' must know what they are doing.

 

In fact as someone who worked for a few years as a 'pen pusher' I recall a lot of them knowing what they were doing...

I did, perhaps unkindly, remark to former colleagues who had gone "private" to teach perhaps it would be easier to say which weeks were working weeks.

The moveable date for Easter makes a mess of exam timetabling. I know we are able to calculate Easter for the foreseeable future but a fixed date for the "Easter" Monday would be sensible. Much easier than trying to get various religions to sort out their festivities.

Tony

[BoD]

I did, perhaps unkindly, remark to former colleagues who had gone "private" to teach perhaps it would be easier to say which weeks were working weeks.

The moveable date for Easter makes a mess of exam timetabling. I know we are able to calculate Easter for the foreseeable future but a fixed date for the "Easter" Monday would be sensible. Much easier than trying to get various religions to sort out their festivities.

Tony

 

It would have made long and medium term teaching planning a darn sight easier too.

[AndyID]

Morning all

 

Talking of whisky, had a very enjoyable Lagavulin last night.

 

We're away for the weekend, spending it on the Ardnamurchan peninsula - the most westerly part of the British mainland, more west than Land's End, but you'd be hard pressed to see it from looking at a map. Anyway, it's an incredibly beautiful place. And the midges shouldn't be out yet.

 

Back late Monday, so have fun!

 

Mal

A lovely spot it is! And you can pick up some strontium at Strontian.

[Donw]

Same for the schools here, or at least the state schools, private schools sometimes have longer. I think the dates are set nationally, so some of those 'pen pushers' must know what they are doing.

 

In fact as someone who worked for a few years as a 'pen pusher' I recall a lot of them knowing what they were doing...

 

I don't think the dates are set nationally as we get families taking a break while ours are still at school.They could be at private schools but I don't think so.

Don 

[Ozexpatriate]

A very blustery day here in the northwest.
 
Owl's house is surely on the ground.
 
There is a low pressure system off shore creating powerful south-easterly to southerly winds with 50-60 mph gusts.Presently it is sunny and mild (around 13°C), but the rain will come.
 
In my area there is tree debris everywhere, not to mention fallen wheelie bins like Napoleonic infantry decimated by artillery. At home, the lights flickered frequently (and I have underground power - so this is a knock-on effect from outages elsewhere in the city).

 

Apparently there are many trees down across the city causing many road closures.

[Donw]

I did, perhaps unkindly, remark to former colleagues who had gone "private" to teach perhaps it would be easier to say which weeks were working weeks.

The moveable date for Easter makes a mess of exam timetabling. I know we are able to calculate Easter for the foreseeable future but a fixed date for the "Easter" Monday would be sensible. Much easier than trying to get various religions to sort out their festivities.

Tony

 

It is also a real headache for event organisers the rest of the year you can pick say the third weekend of the month for your annual event. Not so if it is anywhere near Easter they are all trying to juggle to find a good weekend. I think an early Easter is not favoured by the Holiday trade. 

Don

[BoD]

I don't think the dates are set nationally as we get families taking a break while ours are still at school.They could be at private schools but I don't think so.

Don 

 

Many schools have now been given the authority to set their own length of school days and holiday dates.

[AndyID]

A very blustery day here in the northwest.

 

Owl's house is surely on the ground.

 

There is a low pressure system off shore creating powerful south-easterly to southerly winds with 50-60 mph gusts.Presently it is sunny and mild (around 13°C), but the rain will come.

 

In my area there is tree debris everywhere, not to mention fallen wheelie bins like Napoleonic infantry decimated by artillery. At home, the lights flickered frequently (and I have underground power - so this is a knock-on effect from outages elsewhere in the city).

 

Apparently there are many trees down across the city causing many road closures.

Just had a thunderstorm with serious downbursts here. Please don't send that wind over here. Lots of trees and overhead power lines. I hate when the power goes o

[Ohmisterporter]

My daughter is a TA at a school nursery. They finished for a two week holiday on Friday last week. Her son goes to another school in the city and they finish for a two week break on the Thursday before Good Friday, so that is four days before my daughter's school goes back. A parent at the nursery has three children who all go to different schools and all have different holidays. What chance do such parents have to take their children out of school for a holiday without falling foul of the "No holidays in term time" rule? 

[Ashcombe]

Mike, Essex schools started their holiday last Monday. They return to school on the day after the Easter Monday Bank Holiday.

As do Cheshire and Torbay (others may be available!). My daughter lives in Cheshire but teaches in Staffs so she misses out on time with her offspring. At Christmas too, the holidays did not coincide. Luckily, she has accommodating in laws who live nearby.

[The Stationmaster]

It would have made long and medium term teaching planning a darn sight easier too.

 

And train planning (honest - movable Bank Holidays and religious festivals could be a pain in the proverbial as they could make it very difficult to accurately (alright then 'vaguely accurately') forecast demand.  Christmas - although a fixed date - has always been an awkward hard one to forecast but with Easter the flexibility of the date and it relationship to the weather could be a real pain.

 

As do Cheshire and Torbay (others may be available!). My daughter lives in Cheshire but teaches in Staffs so she misses out on time with her offspring. At Christmas too, the holidays did not coincide. Luckily, she has accommodating in laws who live nearby.

 

We were talking to a woman in Tesco today and two of her sons broke up today, the other one breaks up next thursday (so will have his fortnight through to the Spring Bank Holiday.  Here the private school nearby seems to have broken up earlier this week while the one at t'other end of town definitely broke up last Friday; I'm not at all sure what the state schools are doing but the traffic pattern will soon let us know as things get quieter at certain times of day.

[Ian Abel]

...We got free ice cream too. I have never had salted caramel ice cream before...

Tony

Luvly stuff, I'll pass on the additions suggested by others though.

 

PS I do hope Ian A got home OK as the delays at JFK looked bad last night

Yes, eventually, see below for "some" detail...

 

 

<ack> <arrggghh> <yawn> <groan>... I THINK I'm awake, but it's hard to tell.

 

After SIX gate changes, and accumulated delays that finalized themselves with us actually leaving JFK at 11:30PM (about 7 hours LATE!), I managed to get home and to bed around 2AM local time, meaning 3AM JFK/body clock time.

and.... I WAS LUCKY!

Whilst enduring the seven hour flustercuck at JFK, pretty much every time I awoke from nodding off, they called the cancellation of another flight.

 

Synopsis:

Apparently this all started (Jemma aware of some intricate details as she was on a 4-day trip this week) when Atlanta when t!ts up Wednesday due to severe weather there for most of the day.

The entire system, and especially Delta, main hub in Atlanta, started going down the toilet rapidly. She saw serious problems as she went through Detroit (another Delta hub) Wednesday late in the day.

By Thursday morning, things were "already a total mess", THEN, JFK was hit with weather problems all day starting early, making things much worse (that's even POSSIBLE???).

The Wednesday fluster resulted in most of Deltas "reserve" crews being used, meaning there were NONE left to take the flights into/out of JFK as those crews also hit their duty limits, leaving planes and crews stranded all over the bloody place 

As we left at 11PM, there were certainly hundreds of folks bedding down for the night, some folks I talked to, had already been told they couldn't be booked on another flight to their destination until SATURDAY due to the plane/pilot! One Aussie tourist I talked to was going to Miami for four days and was told the first flight they'd be able to book her on was the morning of the day she was supposed to LEAVE Miami!!! 

Arriving in Minneapolis, there was a similar situation, lots of folks bedding down.

Jemma (home now came in yesterday) got several urgent emails from the Delta ops asking for volunteers at Atlanta, Detroit and JFK to help out with ground ops, and offering overtime to all staff that could pull extra SHIFTS. This is all ground crew, maintenance and gate agents. Pilots can't be requested that way because of the strict time limit rules, but, if they are "off duty" for a few days, sometimes there are posted requests and they can take those if they duty time is "OK". General it's harder for the pilot base simply because of their scheduling and the rules.

 

Net result is, the entire system is probably going to be sodding awful, to put it mildly at least through the weekend, so glad I'm done for three weeks with that CARP.

 

Today if I can stay awake/alert, I'll work some, pass out some and maybe POE if I can even figure out when that might be

 

Weekend looking to get busy as we may have a funeral call for the choir. A long time choir member died earlier this week at 90, her family were all in town for her birthday, and have requested a funeral Saturday if possible with the choir in attendance, still waiting to hear if it can/has been scheduled...

Singing Palm Sunday, though I'm so bloody tired I don't know if I can commit to both the funeral and Palm Sunday, AND a few other things (TAXES) that are planned. <yawn>

 

Hope everyone can POE or do whatever else that would cheer them <clunk>, sorry just fell asleep at the keyboard

 

EDIT: Correction, thanks OD - curious though, I thought I couldn't type shits in RMWeb as I expected shits would be considered a bad word and be censored

Addendum to the edit: Its singular root S*H*I*T, IS censored, go figure!

Edited April 7, 2017 by Ian Abel

[Ozexpatriate]

<ack> <arrggghh> <yawn> <groan>... I THINK I'm awake, but it's hard to tell.

... <clunk>, sorry just fell asleep at the keyboard

After three trips to the US east coast in a month, I am still tired, despite being home for almost a week now. I'm finding myself craving coffee in the afternoon just to function.

[Oldddudders]

Jemma (home now came in yesterday) got several urgent emails from the Delta ops asking for volunteers at Atlanta, Detroit and JFK to help out with ground ops, and offering overtime to all staff that could pull extra shits.

 :

Freud? Freud? Wherefore art thou Sigmund?

[Barry O]

Same for the schools here, or at least the state schools, private schools sometimes have longer. I think the dates are set nationally, so some of those 'pen pushers' must know what they are doing.

 

In fact as someone who worked for a few years as a 'pen pusher' I recall a lot of them knowing what they were doing...

Schools in Ilkley still in operation today...humph!

 

Obviously Education Bradford don't do joined up with Leeds!

 

Baz

[Barry O]

While a governor at a local high school we were asked if we would support a 5 term year. Stated etc said OK but between the council and one of the unions it was a no go so it didn't happen. The reason 'the exam timetable' which was one reason our staff wanted to do it...left hand/right hand.....

 

Baz