Early Risers.

[emt_911]

I honestly don't know where the time has gone today yesterday. I thought that I'd spend a couple of hours on a couple of small kits.

 

Night all

[pH]

Son and self have spent the afternoon using a rented chainsaw (electric) to cut down and cut up (don't you just love the English language?) two significant and one smaller tree in the back yard. Count of attached body parts was the same at the end of the process as at the beginning, so it can be considered to have been successful. Chainsaws scare the carp out of me, but at $28 for a day's rental compared with the several hundreds it would cost for a professional job, I can be safety-conscious and brave! Next job - rent a pickup to take all the bits to the dump.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dry but rather cooler than of late. A mixed forecast for today with cloud, sunny periods and showers.

Surprised on the doorstep this morning by friend and neighbour Russ as I was leaving to take The Boss to work. He offered to take her as he now works at the same place and has changed job and shifts so some coincide with hers. Rotas are being compared so that may happen more often.  Result! 

Things got in the way of me trying to muddle yesterday so will try again today. This will of course be after things like shopping getting in the way along with anything else that The Boss throws at me.

The really big news though is that after a phone call last night to arrange a visit to see Steve in hospital we learnt that he has progressed so well that he may possibly be sent home today or tomorrow. This is amazing considering how seriously ill he has been and I just hope it's not too soon.

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited August 31, 2017 by grandadbob

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

We have rain this morning, and it has cooled down slightly - although not as much as the forecast seemed to suggest.

 

In other news, a very large chunk of Frankfurt is due to be evacuated on Sunday as a 1.8 tonne (!) HC-4000 blockbuster bomb has been discovered.  It is one of the largest evacuations in post war history.  Coincidentally, just around the corner from where I used to work.

 

That certainly makes you wonder what may be lying under your feet!

 

Have a good day everyone...

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

Today, as practically everyone on earth must already know, is the 20^th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.  Woman’s Hour will be covering it this morning and you would expect nothing less.  I’m afraid I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news.  I was in my tent on the campsite at Fylde Folk Festival in Fleetwood, slowly regaining consciousness, like you do after Saturday night at a festival.  When I turned on my Walkman for the weather and news, just before 7 am, I heard the voice of James Naughtie instead of the duty weather presenter.  Even in my fuddled state I twigged that something awful must have happened.  I recall that one of the less salubrious Sunday papers had screaming headlines about Dodi Fayed, who had of course perished in the same car crash.  Talk about bad timing.

 

Today I will visit Poorly Pal – listening to Woman’s Hour on the way! - and cook us both sweet and sour prawns with a bold selection of vegetables.  Some m*d*ll*ng will get done, though how much will be new and how much remedial is for the moment an unknown quantity.

 

Best wishes and felicitations to all in distress and recovery

 

Chris

[jamie92208]

Good morning all from a village that's slowly waking up.   An interesting day for me.  It was my mother's birthday and is also my No 2 son's wedding anniversary. As Chris has mentioned the day's news appears to be dominated by Diana.   I remember coming down early that Sunday morning and switching the TV on and hearing the news and immediately going and waking Beth to tell her.  I must confess that I was never a great fan of Diana but felt very sorry for her two young sons.   

 

Anyway it's back up to the chapel today for some more running and fettling of the layout before dismantling it and starting to pack it all away.  

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

Greetings from sunny South Essex.

It would appear to have rained overnight.

We will be off to Canvey Island this afternoon for Robbie's hydrotherapy session. Hopefully he will be cooperative.

I have put out assorted bins and bags. The day late due to the Bank Holiday seems to have confused some householders yesterday.

Tony

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Here.

 

A reasonable nights sleep of about 6.5 hours.

 It was extremely chilly taking Ben the Border Collie for his Morning stroll, but at least yeaterdays rain had stopped.

 

I left early to go to the garage to drop the car off for it's new exhaust, in the hope the man who unlocks would be a little bit early.... nope he was 15 minutes late. That meant a forced route march the 1.5 miles to work, instead of the gentle stroll I had hoped for. But I still arrived 5 minutes late for work.

 

I totally agree about Oban, I travelled through there once or twice 1971 to 1975 and then regularly 83-85, on my way to Benbecula. If I look at google earth / street view today the changes are huge and not generally for the better. Although I would have liked the bus shelters on Benbecula while waiting for the school bus in a howling gale coming straight off of the Atlantic...

 

I did an open University Chemistry course, the farily large box arrived at the RAF base I was on and instead of being delivered to me was opened and put on stores shelves. Eventually someone got round to summoning me, demanding to know why I had this stuff delivered to stores (I didn't) and what was I doing with all these chemicals. Gently trying to tell them it was part of my Open university course (as it was stamped on the box), It took much persuasion to get it back and it was safe to have in my accomodation.

 

Due to our fairly small kitchen, All of the various bits of kit except the kettle and toaster are hidden in a cupboard somewhere, so making a toasty often meant 15 minutes of excavation to find the toasty maker. When the toaster broke recently I made sure we got one capable of taking a very thick piece of bread or as I now use, Toastie bags with two thin slices of bread plus the contents. It works very well if you can get the toastie into the toaster without it dropping all the contents to the bottom of the bag.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=toasty+bags

 

Well luckily I've got the major system on semi automatic tests this morning, while I recover from the route march.

 

Time too... rest and recover while waiting for the next lead change...

Edited August 31, 2017 by TheQ

[BlackRat]

But you still haven't elaborated on your trip to our capital BR

Unlike many in Amsterdam......my lips are sealed.......

 

I do think however that the herbal tobacco malarkey......could catch on.

 

Maybe I should open a combined coffee bar, tobacconists and herbal remedies shop?

 

Peace bro's

Edited August 31, 2017 by BlackRat

[Barry O]

morning to most.

 

delivered car to have its scratch fixed.. her indoors brought me home then set off to Dr Eldest Herbert to start moving his library back home.

 

So I have some ironing, a trip to the building society to undertake and parcels to pack.

 

Cleaning up is on my list and then I am allowed some time to crust earn.

 

Have a great day everyone.

 

Baz

[emt_911]

Morning all. A bright, sunny but windy start to the day but I think that showers will arrive this afternoon. Morning swim has been completed in a slightly rougher sea which I found to be much more pleasant.

 

A trip out in a while to Axminster for some paint required for the model kits that I've been working on.

 

GDB - Seriously great news about Steve.

 

Time for another coffee.

 

Have a good day everyone.

[AndrewC]

Morning all from the little construction site in the boring borough. Another day, another brick in the garden wall. To be fair, yesterday the junior brickie managed to dig out and pour the footings for the third side of the wall. Other than that it was too wet to lay bricks. 

 

Result: just managed to score tickets for the Jethro Tull 50th Anniversary at RAH. 

 

I missed the whole Diana thing as I was too busy with my mum's last 2 weeks of palliative care. Afterwards I found the over the top grief and all the shrines full of tat quite vulgar and tacky. (see also Amy Winehouse)

 

That's about it from here. enjoy your day. Time for another coffee.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. The rain had stopped when I got home from the club last night. It is my normal habit to put the rubbish bags out when I get home as normal bin day is Thursday but as Tony said they run a day late when a bank holiday happens along so they'll be out last thing tonight. As Andrew said the whole Diana thing is way OTT and quite frankly I'm fed up to the back teeth with it. What makes it even worse is they have to revive the conspiracy theories, it was a tragic accident, nothing else so live with it.

Edited August 31, 2017 by PhilJ W

[Horsetan]

...Aditi wouldn't normally be rude to someone but the other person had been a bit dismissive of teachers earlier.

I've had news this morning that the two sons of David Beckham will be leaving have left my old school after just one year. Something about at least one of them not being up to scratch academically.

 

Money can't buy brains.

Edited August 31, 2017 by Horsetan

[Gwiwer]

Morning all. Bright, sunny and cool to bid August farewell. I guess that was summer then. Slowly surfaced again somewhat later than ideal having been alarmed at 6.30, 7.00 and 7.30 to hopefully prise SWMBO from beneath the duvet and point her in the direction of her office. You mnow it's a cool morning when that task requires three or more attempts.

 

Excellent news from Steve. Somewhat over the Diana thing. Whatever your thoughts on the conspiracy theory she died a violent death that I wouldn't wish on anyone. However "convenient" it might have been for some of the Establishment at the time. She did a lot of good work. Let's remember her for that.

 

Off to Richmond later. Coffee first. Maybe with a croissant as well if I'm lucky.

[AndyB]

Morning all and it's been a busy one here so far today.

Awoke around 07:00 and made swmbo a cuppa. The phone went almost immediately, and at that time it is only ever going to be the emergency call line linked to mum's pendant. 15 minutes later I was on site helping mum up after another fall; no damage this time but it had unnerved her. I'm gradually adding things to a list of household chores that are unwise for her to tackle.

 

Greetings to one and all.  

[Horsetan]

....Somewhat over the Diana thing. ....

 

My alcohack partner is somewhat obsessed by it, unfortunately, whereas I couldn't be more disinterested. I just find it sad that, after 20 years, the circus (the Daily Excess in particular) will not allow her to rest in peace.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Timely idea for Black Rat as he could establish his proposed business in the old station building at Saltash, as I understand the council will be looking for a tenant for part of it for a tea room or similar and if he wishes I can put in a word for him with our contact on the local council.

 

Sunshine has returned and rather pleasant as it is not too hot - yet.  We are promised several days of it before the rain returns but I'm sure the jungle won't dry out in that time.  Alas all the Diana hype really passed me by as it got far too ridiculous in many respects and far too much of it is being raked up again by even some of the allegedly more responsible newspapers (well some think they're more responsible).  A lot of the stories about 'the Royals' (including several about her) p** me off big time because I know they are total fabrications.  A good example was a tale about her being 'smuggled' aboard 'the train' before they married and as this was supposed to have taken place at a spot where I had spent part of the night and various of my staff had spent the entire night while the train was there I knew it was a load of invented nonsense, as indeed are various other stories - presumably it helps to sell 'papers or keep up website figures. But still a tragedy that the young woman died as a result of a serious road accident.

 

Anyway back to earth and back to faux Friday.  Today's $64,000 is will it be the local Waitrose (with a chance to pop into WHS for the Irewell mags) or will it be Tilehurst and train spotting?  The latter will be out & back via country roads as the main road to Reading is blocked by piling work and no doubt, as yesterday, some twit driving a 30 ton artic will have ignored all the signs and gone several miles in the wrong direction before trying to turn round in a road barely 25 feet wide.  Maybe the pub adjacent to that end of the block should be selling tickets?

 

Have a good day one and all.

[newbryford]

My alcohack partner is somewhat obsessed by it, unfortunately, whereas I couldn't be more disinterested. I just find it sad that, after 20 years, the circus (the Daily Excess in particular) will not allow her to rest in peace.

 

The Excess only seems to have variations on three stories as it's headline.

 

Diana, house prices (up or down) and the weather (hot, cold, windy or wet)

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Horsetan]

The Excess only seems to have variations on three stories as it's headline.

 

Diana, house prices (up or down) and the weather (hot, cold, windy or wet)

 

...and all of them presumably interlinked. *rolls eyes*

[DDolfelin]

I see the GB£ has shot up by 4 cents against the Euro.

The profit takers will be out in force.

I have some Euros but need more for a holiday in September.

I wonder what the exchange rate is for Green Shield Stamps?

(For those not old enough to remember, they were issued by participating businesses and the family would sit around a knob of coal in the winter licking and sticking them into books.

They could be exchanged for luxury items like a box of matches when enough books had been saved).

[Gwiwer]

And all the pensioners waited until double sfamps day before shopping

 

Then it went crazy with up to 24-fold stamps before The Gummint stepped in to stop it all.

 

Green Shield Stamps morphed into Argos IIRC. Still offerring cheap tat at catalogue outlets though what you go for is never in stock. Some things never change!

[Horsetan]

I see the GB£ has shot up by 4 cents against the Euro.

The profit takers will be out in force.....

 

That's a turnup for the books. Local money changer here was offering £1 = 1.05 Euro yesterday. I thought we were heading for parity. 

[Tony_S]

A sort of follow up to the posts about customer surveys.

In the past if something had gone wrong it was suggested an email or phone call to the CEO was effective. For those of you who use Twitter I have found that every time I post a comment about some service problem on a company's Twitter page, something happens!

I ordered some new lock cylinders from a well known lock manufacturer. My credit card was debited but I received no email confirmation, or despatch information. The phone line seemed to be permanently in one of those "all our team are..." messages. My email just raised a "ticket".

So I put a polite query on Twitter (used all 140 character limit), got a response within the hour and my locks are dispatched.

 

Tony

[Ian Abel]

BIN day, but I miss the fun and excitement, oh well.

 

Another flurry of odd requests/activity yesterday as one of the key players was back in.

There ought to be medals or Queens honors for some of the "creative accounting" that is performed in these places

 

POE today for that much heralded event "the trip from JFK back home"  a slight twist this week as the car (a brand NEW Cadillac XTS with just 380 miles on the clock) I have seems to have a slow leak in the left rear tire. Dropped 10lbs pressure overnight the last two nights but maintained a pretty even  and correct pressure all day yesterday after I filled it. Since it's a new model, as with most of the cars I end up renting now, there's all kinds of information/warnings provided on the dash as to the tire pressure situations.

Given my choices are to call their roadside service and wait, potentially an hour or so, for someone to come and install the spare, or fill it and drive, wishing it stays OK till I drop it off, I'm planning on the latter!

Don't have that far to drive and it's only on local roads so since it managed all day yesterday and into the evening with only a couple of lbs loss, here's hoping.

 

20 and sunny this morning expecting a high of 25 and weather should be consistent with a delay free departure from here and into Minneapolis.

 

 

Hope your BINs get the treatment they deserve, have a good day.

Edited August 31, 2017 by Ian Abel