Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[TheQ]

Morning Awl, a lot better nights sleep was had, may be 6 hours.

 

My house in Norfolk is on a part time island, I'm told it was last an island during the 1953 floods, it is on clay soil as I know to my cost when digging down more than 18 inches. The brick house has no foundations, just a slight widening of the base of the walls as they hit the ground.

 

In Horning the houses by the river are on rafts or piles, the sailing club built 1964 from porta cabins is on a raft of railway sleepers. It's future replacement will have to be on piles.

 

Near to that is a group of houses. The test drilling for them hit gravel at 25ft below the peat.

When the builder applied for planning permission he applied for 25 houses and got permission for eleven.

When he built the houses most of the piles went down 90 ft. The test bores had hit a narrow band of gravel!!

The builder was lucky he built them during the house price boom of the 1980 as that was all that stopped him being bankrupted by the costs.

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

On the fodder run yesterday I spent longer at the checkout than I had done pushing the trolley.  Somehow I had picked a day when many shoppers seemed hell bent on emptying the place.  The woman in front of me filled no end of bags and spent upwards of £88.  She had parked near me and seemed to be having trouble squeezing everything into the luggage space of her Tonka toy [my less than affectionate nickname for 4-wheel drive trainee jeeps].  I wonder how much of what she bought will be thrown away as waste.  Some of it looked destined for serving at a barbecue.  I do not share the enthusiasm of my late father for that suburban ritual.  I recall that 52 years ago, when I was secretary of Huntingdonshire Young Liberals, we had what was supposed to be a fund raising barbie on a farm and discovered that the heating device intended for cooking the sausages was less than fit for purpose.  No doubt Ms 4x4 is better equipped.  My modest haul included an attractive piece of sirloin steak so three guesses what I'm having for Sunday lunch.

 

The weekend should be undemanding.  I do hope so.  Some unspecified pottering looks on the cards, leavened with impromptu slobbing-out.  I might even tend the garden if I can find the machete.

 

Best wishes to those in distress and, absolutely separately, those with birthdays or anniversaries to mark.

 

Chris 

[45156]

The foundation of our house in Prestwick was not on piles. We were slightly alarmed when they sunk whopping great piles for the foundation of the house they were building next door. Turns out there were old mine workings in the area. I brought it up with the builder but I never got a satisfactory explanation for the absence of piles under our house.

ISTR that the workings of the old Glenburn pit stretched all the way under Prestwick and a mile or so under the sea.  My brother lives in Prestwick, and it was he who told me that, and as he somehow managed to get down that pit while it was still open, the source is pretty reliable.

[Barry O]

Morning all!

Looks like I may be doing the cricket cover okeecokee today as showers are forecast.

 

Hope you all have a great day.

Baz

 

PS we seem to be heavily depleted in numbers. I hope those who are missing are safe and well.

[45156]

Morning All

 

Firstly, happy anniversary for yesterday, Barry.  Then foot-related supportive commiserations to Neil and Rick.  And of course the usual generic greetings to everybody else.

 

I agree that we do seem thin on the ground, but I know that Geoff isn't around at the mo, as his camper is not on the drive, so I suspect he's off in Wales somewhere.  And Pete has been off air for a while too.

 

I'll be off the air too for much of next week, as we are off for the second leg of our annual house takeover holiday to 30747's sister's place in Berkshire, and I don't bother with the laptop.

 

I mentioned that the local Barclays branch had been closed due to flooding - well it still is!  It was due to be "refurbished" soon (cue a plethora of machines and silly signs) and they are now saying that it may stay closed until the refurbishment is finished - but there has been nothing official - no letters to customers, and nothing on the bank website to indicate this.  The alternative is the student branch on the Uni - wow - our branch is Monday to Saturday, 9.00 - 16.30, the uni one is Monday to Friday 9.30 - 15.30 - ot get a bus to Morecambe branch which is also shorter hours.  Such is customer service in the banking business these days.  Still, if I visit the uni one, I may bump into the attractive American professor again.

 

Possibly back tomorrow, depending on whether we stand the A6 boot sale - if we do, cheap railway books by the boxload are on sale.

Regards to All

Stewart

[AndyB]

Morning all,

Flooding a bank may at least reveal one strength of the new £5 plastic note.

 

This weekend I shall be mostly wiring up a layout and studying. 

Sadly not studying the backs of my eyelids but a systematic work through of my course notes. 

Fingers crossed by next weekend I'll be free of this nause. 

 

Like Barry, hope that those that are missing are in action rather than not. Ian (OD), Pete, GB.....

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

I can't cope with eating toast this morning but for some reason I rather fancy vanilla ice cream with some apricot jam. Hot and cold flushes, nausea, and food cravings seem to be part of this flare up.

Hope you all have as good a day as you can.

Tony

[TheQ]

Morning All

 

 

I mentioned that the local Barclays branch had been closed due to flooding - well it still is! It was due to be "refurbished" soon (cue a plethora of machines and silly signs) and they are now saying that it may stay closed until the refurbishment is finished - but there has been nothing official - no letters to customers, and nothing on the bank website to indicate this. The alternative is the student branch on the Uni - wow - our branch is Monday to Saturday, 9.00 - 16.30, the uni one is Monday to Friday 9.30 - 15.30 - ot get a bus to Morecambe branch which is also shorter hours. Such is customer service in the banking business these days.

Stewart

 

You still! Have a bank branch WOW!!!! All ours have closed.. Natwest, Barclays, Halifax (in estate agents), nationwide (in estate agents.) All gone in a two year period.

 

Morning all.

I can't cope with eating toast this morning but for some reason I rather fancy vanilla ice cream with some apricot jam. Hot and cold flushes, nausea, and food cravings seem to be part of this flare up.

Hope you all have as good a day as you can.

Tony

Pregnant?

 

 

I'm some what frustrated busy coming my annual update of my parents computer, first thing it did was to update the network adapter, which now doesn't work...

Waiting for window restore to do it's stuff!!

Edited June 24, 2017 by TheQ

[New Haven Neil]

Morning.

 

Commiserations and congratulations as appropriate.

 

Foot sore this morning - why now? 

 

A day of pre-holiday shopping and camper-loading beckons, as we leave direct from work later in the week.  Little else to report really, which isn't necessarily a bad thing these days.

[NGT6 1315]

Mawnin' awl. Breezy but sunny outside and getting warmer again. Taking it slow yet, though we'll need to buy some food later.

 

Yesterday left me in something of a difficult frame of mind. As I was waiting to book on my shift at Central Station, I was advised that my tram was stood at an accident site on the other end of the city, so I needed to ride down there. As it turned out, a motorist had run over and killed a cyclist, with the cause still being under investigation, according to this morning's news.

 

The site hadn't been cleared up yet as investigators were working to record the scene, so the body (even if blanketed) and wrecked bike were still there when I arrived, roughly a hundred metres ahead. Frankly, it was just as well that not much more was to be seen.

 

Regardless of whose fault it may turn out to have been, I just wish that there will yet be road users who might be made to think by such incidents…

[Horsetan]

I'm going out on another alcohack after lunch. I need to scan all the etch parts in the MOK 47 so that I have a parts diagram I can work with in conjunction with the instructions.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A quick look in this morning as going out soon, C&C's where neccessary, be back later.

[AndyB]

Ok, so here's my recent collection of tarmac-related c@ckwombles.

 

1. Delivery driver steams up to a T-junction, fails to control his speed and overshoots by 3' with the obvious intent of forcing traffic on the main road (with right of way) to let him out. 

Result: Nope, I'm not playing.

2. Similar to 1. Drivers approaching X roads along the minor of the two roads turning left without slowing down, or looking for oncoming cars. Result. They all have to emergency brake when they encounter vehicles with right of way who are passing a line of parked cars on. 

3. Drivers overtaking a line of parked cars on a curved road. All overtake "blind" as oncoming traffic with right of way is not visible. Followed by other drivers all tailgating. Result. I've been forced off the road and onto the pavement a few times now to avoid a collision. Most recently by an emergency services vehicle who was tailgating; seriously officer you should have known better.

4. When on a narrow country lane you pull over to let an oncoming car pass; drivers who stare fixedly into the distance and don't acknowledge you've just done them a favour. Any chance of a cheery wave? Thought not. 

 

Rant over. For now. 

[andyram]

Morning all. Belated congratulations to Barry.O and his good lady on their anniversary. Here's to many more. My generic good wishes, congratulations and commiserations as appropriate.

Yesterday was the marathon I expected. After the hot weather we have had this week the school sports day began with a heavy rain shower, but it passed over and the event was completed successfully under dark, threatening skies. Fortunately the rain did not reappear and the school summer Fayre also remained dry through the late afternoon / early evening. The afternoon at school was spent setting up the event with loads of the older children helping out. I also seemed to running be here, there and everywhere. The boss asked if I could help him to unload the hog roast equipment from the van. Between us it was a simple task to get the roaster to its location, helped by the fact it was on wheels. Then came the gas bottle which was a full, solid metal contraption of about 5ft in height. It was far to heavy to lift and carry and too big to balance on our carrying trolley. Somehow the boss got "called away" at this point and left me to it! Thankfully I managed to manouerve it onto its side and roll the bottle to its position. I got my revenge an hour later when I conveniently found myself busy elsewhere when the boss decided to move it to another location.

I was supposed to have been acting as the goalkeeper for the penalty shootout during the event. The location of this particular attraction was too far removed from the rest of the Fayre and so there were very few punters. I wandered up to have a look around and ended up not getting back because I got stopped by a procession of parents who wanted to wish me well. There were a lot of very nice comments and I did feel very humbled by them. It is nice to know just how much some people have valued my work.

As part of the Fayre we had a mini-keg of Derby Brewing Company's "Business as Usual". Not many of the 54 pints it contained were sold so a few of the staff enjoyed a well earned pint, sat around the camp fire, after the tidying up had been concluded. A pleasant end to a busy day. Not wanting to waste the ale a lot was decanted into various containers to take away. I fortunately had a 2 litre bottle of water in the classroom. The last bit of water was tipped away and the container brought a few pints home for the evening. No wonder I fell to sleep so easily last night.

On the way home I called into the local chip shop and bumped into a local head teacher. She was aware of my situation and we had a nice chat. There may, just may, be the possibility of something developing there.

 

Today I think will be a quieter day. Have a good one.

Edited June 24, 2017 by andyram

[Danemouth]

I'm some what frustrated busy coming my annual update of my parents computer, first thing it did was to update the network adapter, which now doesn't work...

Waiting for window restore to do it's stuff!!

 

A lesson I learned many moons ago, particularly on laptops. which is what I use, is never update the drivers unless there is a very compelling reason :yes:

 

On my HP laptop I once allowed their device manager  to bring things up to date and it managed to screw things up Royally! That tool was immediately disabled.

 

However I make sure that Windows, Firefox and Thunderbird are kept up to date and the AV also updates properly.

 

Dave

[Horsetan]

Ok, so here's my recent collection of tarmac-related c@ckwombles.

 

1. Delivery driver steams up to a T-junction, fails to control his speed and overshoots by 3' with the obvious intent of forcing traffic on the main road (with right of way) to let him out. 

Result: Nope, I'm not playing.

2. Similar to 1. Drivers approaching X roads along the minor of the two roads turning left without slowing down, or looking for oncoming cars. Result. They all have to emergency brake when they encounter vehicles with right of way who are passing a line of parked cars on. 

3. Drivers overtaking a line of parked cars on a curved road. All overtake "blind" as oncoming traffic with right of way is not visible. Followed by other drivers all tailgating. Result. I've been forced off the road and onto the pavement a few times now to avoid a collision. Most recently by an emergency services vehicle who was tailgating; seriously officer you should have known better.

4. When on a narrow country lane you pull over to let an oncoming car pass; drivers who stare fixedly into the distance and don't acknowledge you've just done them a favour. Any chance of a cheery wave? Thought not. 

 

Rant over. For now.

 

Do you find that driving deteriorates as the weather warms up?

[AndyB]

Do you find that driving deteriorates as the weather warms up?

 

Funny you mention that. 

In these instances the X roads seems to have been an ongoing area of uncertainty viz a vis the Highway Code for many months.

As for the others, yes it does.

Not because the people are warmer per se but evidence would lead to the conclusion that it is due to progressive dehydration as a result of being warmer, and consequent reduction in attention on task etc. 

[lightengine]

At long last NR has returned to Teignmouth station to complete the repairs to the station footbridge. The footbridge was closed and partially dismantled over 2 years ago. There is no longer a foot crossing at the station. Travellers have had to use the station either via the torturous route of the nearby road Bridge and old rear yard or the temporary footbridge sited at the end of the platform and fairly torturous in itself.

By November we should have an enclosed footbridge once more. I doubt if a lift will be installed.

[Horsetan]

....evidence would lead to the conclusion that it is due to progressive dehydration as a result of being warmer, and consequent reduction in attention on task etc.

 

Thing is, during this week's 30-degrees-plus levels, I've seen much more random weaving in and out of traffic, especially by convertible drivers. Normally it's the customised car drivers who do that type of thing; think it's called "driving like a boss". Driving like an ars*, more like.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

I has rained, well drizzled for about 30 minutes although according to Exeter's seaweed we were at that time under 'heavy rain'.  But at least it's a bit cooler and more rain (or drizzle) might arrive in the coming few days.

 

We might possibly visit Wargrave Festival today but I await orders on that potential trip (once I've told herself that part of it takes place a mile from the station).

 

Continuing an earlier theme building foundations wise our road is a geological mess and Building Inspector's nightmare - our foundations are the standard one metre deep in most places but over 2 metres deep, with plenty of rebar, in one corner plus a 'mat' of rebar across the entire oversite.  Next door in one direction the foundations are probably standard post-war 18 inches to a couple of feet, the other side (on tipped ground) the present house is on piles but the one before it wasn't and fell down.  3 doors down , beyond the one on shallow foundations,  the house sits on piles some of which go down 60 feet but the one next to that is on standard foundations about 2-3 feet deep at the most. Two doors up is on piles, mostly around 19 feet deep but the one next to it sits at the end adjacent to the piled one on foundations barely a foot deep although they're standard depth at the other end - it's been there over 60 years and hasn't moved.  But a further two doors up from that the extension to a bungalow sits on piled foundations although the original part of the building doesn't, and has never moved in over 80 years.

 

Finally a nice little pic for Chris F showing what somebody in Aus thought of their 'trainee jeep' - with a numberplate like that who could resist taking a photo?

 

Enjoy your day.

 

[NGT6 1315]

Do you find that driving deteriorates as the weather warms up?

 

 

As for the others, yes it does.

Not because the people are warmer per se but evidence would lead to the conclusion that it is due to progressive dehydration as a result of being warmer, and consequent reduction in attention on task etc. 

 

 

I would agree with that also. That's one reason why I keep topping up my carry-on water bottle in such weather in order not to dehydrate and lose attention. I also find road users (and passengers!) tend to be more easily frustrated and short-tempered in hot weather.

[Tony_S]

Even in the traffic free regions we visited recently there were examples of poor behaviour. We were about to return from Schynygge Platte and we were waiting for the guard to unlock the carriage. As Aditi stepped into the compartment a mature woman wielding a tripod barged through. She sat down at the opposite end of the seating units to us. She then started waving the tripod about trying to prevent anyone sitting opposite her. This didn't create a good impression with the next people who just sat down in between tripod swipes. Then her young companion turned up and demanded my seat as she wanted to sit on that side. I said she was welcome to find another compartment to do so. She then jumped over the seatback into the next compartment only for the guard to inform her it was reserved for the intermediate stop passengers and she would have to alight and queue at that station. I can't imagine why she thought she wanted my seat as all her photography was taken from the opposite side anyway.

Getting onto the train at Wilderswill we were getting into an empty carriage and someone tried to barge past Aditi. He didn't succeed. As he tried to push she moved aside slightly but by then he was attempting to also push past on that side. I gave him my best glare and he ran off to another carriage.

I suspect that they would have dreadful drivers too.

[Gwiwer]

Morning all.

 

A difficult and largely sleepless night put paid to today's plan of enjoying the annual Eel Pie Island artists collective open-house.

 

Just on the verge of sleep I received word that elderly aunt had been moved to the ICU from the observation ward and wasn't expected to see the morning. Much discussion with sister as to how to approach mother wirh this news. We opted to sleep on it unless things changed.

 

Sleep just wasn't going to happen. Too many thoughts. Mum probably doesn't have enough left to deal with the loss of her own sister. Aching feet gave rise to twitchy legs. No sleep happening here.

 

Around 1am another message. Not what I had feared but. Good friend in Oz had become innocent victim of cockerel-womble. Friend was stopped second in line at a red light when c-w approached without making any effort to slow down and hit them at a full 60kmh (around 40mph) pushing their handbraked car into the one in front, which was then pushed into the line of moving traffic. Ultimately six cars involved in the smash. All bar friend's Prado were written off at the scene. Friend "limped home" with whiplash, cuts and bruises but as she says "I've never been more grateful for being a well-endowed woman driving a large 4x4 car."

 

More non-sleep followed. Finally rose for breakfast and promptly caught a few hours kip afterwards.

 

Thoughts today with those aboard the charter train heading for Mazey Day in Penzance. It started 73 minutes late. It was over 2 hours late by Bristol following expiry of both class 37s. A 66 is now taking it westwards close to 3 hours late and in good time to miss most of the merriment of the day.

 

Best wishes to all here. Aunt still with us for now and is even "off the oxygen" so might be fighting hard.

Edited June 24, 2017 by Gwiwer

[roundhouse]

Just been pooped on by a seagull on Poole Quay... the jackpot tonight is over £21m...its mine!!

Edited June 24, 2017 by roundhouse