Early Risers.

[pH]

Happy birthday to us (Canada collectively) - 150 today!

[Coombe Barton]

Not looking forward to future lessons backing a horse trailer.

 

Bigger is easier - everyone said so when we got a caravan - and I found out they were right

[Ohmisterporter]

So this morning there I am reading the Daily Wail when a glance at the advert on the back of their "Weekend" magazine.

 

"Bill the Flying Scotsman Bear" by Steiff a 10" standing teddy is available with "5 convenient monthly instalments" totalling £229 + P & P

 

Hmmmm - I'm sticking with Jones the Steam on RMWeb thank you very much,

 

Regards to one and all,

 

Dave

 

I saw this bear ad and noticed that across the corner of the page is All aboard.  I am rather out of touch with travel on the big railway these days but have we adopted the calling out of "All aboard" on our railways? There was a tv programme titled All aboard: East Coast Railways not long ago and two new staff taking over at Locomotion introduced themselves on the forum with a topic titled All aboard. Has this become commonplace?

 

Sorry to hear about your dad Nidge.

[Happy Hippo]

It's the length between the hitch and the trailer axle(s) that makes the difference. Short trailers are much more difficult to reverse than long trailers because they are more sensitive to a small change in the tow vehicle steering.

Yes, the longer the better, although in the case of the NATO standard hitch the problem is amplified by the hook and eye arrangement which means the trailer to vehicle connection has a lot of slop in it. About 1/2" fore and aft and and inch each side which means that even if the combination is dead straight (with steering wheels dead ahead) when you stop, as soon as you reverse, the trailer will slew to either the left or right without any steering inputs and it is never consistent so you don't know which way it is going to decide to wander off.

[DDolfelin]

Went to a Model Railway Show today and eventually arrived at 4pm due to the signage being misleading and/or absent.

"That will be £10", said a fellow on the door.

He was wrong.

[Coombe Barton]

New caravan awning arrived earlier in the week. Got it out to test this morning, but no instructions. Went online and it seems that there's a general lack of them from this supplier.

 

So as we were going there nipped to see the sample erected there and took pix. Slightly naughty as we hadn't bought it from there, but as their's was a hundred more expensive that was a reason why not.

 

Started out quite cold today and hoodie weather - but warmed up suddenly. Home now and she's furiously applying for Teaching Assistant jobs as the lad she's been assigned to is leaving the school and the funding has stopped. I'm banking brownie points at the moment as I found her loads of French curves (OI! Mind out of gutter) for pattern cutting.

Vacuum cleaner coming out in a mo as the tumbleweeds of dog fur are getting noticeable by their inundation. This will mean that the dog currently snoring under my desk will leg it sharpish to the garden as she really doesn't like that particular machine.

 

Have lost track of most people good news and problems, so please accept congratulations or commiserations where appropriate.

[DDolfelin]

Also went to a Preservation Railway of great fame.

A Vintage Vehicle Show was taking place at the next station two miles away.

"That will be £36" said the lady in the booking office.

She was wrong.

[AndyB]

Afternoon all and it's been a sunny one here today.

Visit to a NT house and garden followed by a pub lunch. 

Tasked with scrubbing out the bbq  after last night's cookathon. 

About to pour a glass of wine and watch a bit of TV. 

No work planned until Monday morning at 09:00. 

[Gwiwer]

Deepest sympathies to Nidge. I can relate sonewhat to your sense of loss having had my dear father depart in his 90th year during March. Still awaiting mum's decision on what to do with his ashes.

 

For what it's worth you are never alone with ERs. Always happy to talk here or in private.

 

For the rest of us it's goodnight from me, and it's goodnight from him.

[Tony_S]

Evening all. Most of the day has been spent sleeping or being a bit delirious. I have managed to eat today, chicken soup for lunch. Bananas and custard for dinner.

Aditi had a long chat with Matthew. His presentation was well received. Also of course people use these conferences to make contacts. I think he was rather pleased to see some of the people he had met in Cork.

[Rugd1022]

Deepest sympathies to Nidge. I can relate sonewhat to your sense of loss having had my dear father depart in his 90th year during March. Still awaiting mum's decision on what to do with his ashes.

 

For what it's worth you are never alone with ERs. Always happy to talk here or in private.

 

For the rest of us it's goodnight from me, and it's goodnight from him.

 

Thank you G, it's much appreciated. We've already decided on what should be done with Dad's ashes, we're going to scatter them in the sea off Pompie as that's where he met Mum when they were both in the Navy way back in '62. Sympathies to you too.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The show went very well today, no serious upsets and AFAIK not even any minor ones. We have a visiting layout from our 'twin' town in France and they 'borrowed' an English language student from one of their education institutes for the trip, a good idea as they have a translator and the student benefits from the contact with the native English speakers. A delightful incident, I pointed a dad with a 3 year old in tow to the Thomas layout. It only took a few minutes for the little one to get the hang of the controls and he was enthralled, so much so that he spent almost the whole of the afternoon playing on the Thomas layout, hopefully a future railway modeller.

[BSW01]

Goodnight all

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Horsetan]

Barrihuelo Rosada is incredibly drinkable. Need another. Next alcohack will have Viña Sol served....

[emt_911]

Washing and most of the ironing has been completed. The remainder will be tackled tomorrow.

 

The rest of the day disappeared when I started to do some research and before I knew it 22:30 had come and gone.

 

Rugd1022 - You have my deepest sympathies

 

Night all

[Barry O]

Cricket umpired, old colleagues met so it is time for some sleep.

 

Night all!

[DougN]

Thanks to every one re the trailer. I agree with the longer hitch length they are a heap easier to reverse. My trailer has the axle off set to the rear by 100mm from the centre line. Along with wider tires it sits and rides on the road beautifully. Having the mis fortune to once have an accident with a work trailer which had the axle centred and the monkeys that worked there off centring the heavy load... well it took me on quite a ride. Any how broken front and rear bumpers no one hurt so I guess it was all ok. It did prove to me that the car was not the right one for the job, it was a work car as well. The other thing is always pack a trailer yourself at least you know it has been done correctly. The new car also has trailer sway control and other things so it certainly won't ever be happening again!

 

Plan for the day is to do a run to the hobby shop in the next 30min then see if I can get some modelling done! Next item is to get into the lockup and see if it has the required scaffold I need for the parents repair job next week.

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all, and condolences to Nidge.

 

I was pleasantly surprised at what I managed to do with the chicken breast.  With guidance from a book by the Hairy Bikers, I sliced it butterfly-style, ie horizontally, to get half the thickness and twice the width when opened out like a book.  It was pan-fried for four minutes each side in oil.  A sauce was then improvised with perhaps too much Jif lemon juice, a teaspoon of runny honey and some Babycham instead of white wine, all boiled to reduce.  Served with new potatoes and frozen broccoli, it was pleasing.

 

Less pleasing is an e-mail that came in overnight.  British Gas wish to increase the cost of my boiler servicing package by £7 a month and helpfully point out that other providers of boiler servicing are available.  I seem to recall that they tried this on last year and that somehow I achieved a reduction over the cost prevailing the year before.  Tomorrow's telephone conversation should be interesting.

 

Today there will be more culinary adventures and, less enjoyable, a pile of ironing.

 

For some reason an early version of this post escaped into the wild before I had finished composing it.  How irritating.

 

Felicitations to the ailing and distressed

 

Chris

Edited July 2, 2017 by chrisf

[Hilux5972]

And some people say that RMWeb is nothing at all like Facebook? This thread proves that completely false.

[TheQ]

Morning Awl,

The Outlander series has been much discussed on another forum http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/search.php?searchid=3066352 . With varying theories on its historical accuracy of events, and of the tartans shown ( which are fictional). The person that designs the costumes joins in the discussions sometimes.

In general most seem to enjoy it.

 

A solid 5 hours sleep was had but I awoke early due to backache.

The Seaweed inspector on TV said cloud cover would be slow to burn back maybe clearing by 12:00, as I looked out on a cloudless sky at 09:00 just before we left....

 

We went to Sheringham yesterday and found it packed. We were lucky to find a parking space when going round the car park at the back of a long line of cars when one left behind me so I quickly reversed in.

 

Sheringham had some sort of Morris dancing festival on, the high street was closed to traffic and every hundred yards was a Morris group.

 

Ben the Border Collie was happy at first, but 3/4 way down the street something spooked him, he started barking and pulling backwards. I had to lead him through the crowds holding his collar, and off out round a long quiet way back to the car.

 

We only went down the street that far to go to AutoLoco, yet again closed with a note saying back at one o'clock. A July Saturday with huge crowds everywhere and the owner can't be bothered to open. We won't be back.

My parents and SWMBO headed back up the street but I beat them back to the top, Dad is now a little unsteady on his feet and needed to stop once or twice.

 

Once back at the Car, Ben the Border Collie leapt in and was then back to being his normal self. He may not have done much lead work but he knows cars, he leans into the curves so he doesn't fall over.

 

We then went to Cromer, to get crab for the evening meal, my parents stayed in the car with Ben the Border Collie.

 

I of course diverted via Bouys Toys, a model shop with a very high percentage of model railway stuff, it's open, it's well stocked ( though generally at full RRP) some stuff bought before SWMBO caught up from her diversion via a pet shop. I was pleased to see our Broadland Model railway club open day (Stalham Sunday 13th August 10:00 to 15:00) flyers on the desk, the owner requested more!!

A couple of books were bought at a discount book store on the way.

 

We returned home by 15:00, Dad and I enjoyed a can or two of liquid anaesthetic, which had its effect. Then the grass was mowed as thistles were growing up through it to a height of 12 inches while the grass was still only 3 inches. Cutting had to cease after 30 minutes as the mower was almost out of fuel.

 

There's a pair of brown eyes staring at me again, time for a stroll .

[TheQ]

And some people say that RMWeb is nothing at all like Facebook? This thread proves that completely false.

What's Facebook? Add smiley here this tablet can't seem to do them...

Edited July 2, 2017 by TheQ

[Donw]

Not had time to keep up lately just popped in to wish all well and hope life is being kind.

 

Regards Don

[jamie92208]

Morning awl from the Charente. It's good to be getting regular updates from Down Under again now that Rick is back topside.

 

Nidge, my sympathies go out to you and I hope that in amongst all the arrangements and admin you get some time for quiet reflection.

 

Anyway here things are going on rather well and two fly screens have now been made and fitted. 2 more to go, one of which is a kit from Lidl that will go over the back door and effectively function as an outer door so that we can leave the inner one open when it's hot.

 

The conversations with the lady who has he stuff in our shed were interesting and all being well it will all be removed in September. There's enough to fill a 40' container. She had her 19 year old daughter with her who is a trainee ballerina and was delightful to talk to and was obviously embarrassed by her mother's evasive answers about missing payments. The upside is that I should be able to acquire quite a bit of good quality gardening equipment rather cheaply. She has even paid some money. All in all a result.

 

Today I've got the grass cuttings to remove from the area at the back. These are already raked into rows so some barrow work will do the trick. Then this afternoon a friend is coming round to help me have another go at the satellite dish pre Wimbledon, more importantly a certain cycling event has now started.

 

Then a good evening out at a local Chinese restaurant with some friends that we owe a meal.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Horsetan]

And some people say that RMWeb is nothing at all like Facebook? This thread proves that completely false.

We even have "grandadbob" to provide the farce element that seems essential for Farcebook