Early Risers.

[AndrewC]

 

That about sums it up. Coldest morning of the year and I've got the roofer coming to replace the guttering. Oops. £5 says he cries off before 08:00. 

 

The beautiful metropolis of Telford beckons early next week for a technical workshop. 9 1/2 hours round trip for a 4 hour whinge-fest. Joy unbound. 

 

Burger all else. Enjoy the day.  

[jamie92208]

\Morning all from a bright but rather cool village, how do I know it's cool.  Simples I forgot to put the bin out last night so have ventured out to put the bin at the top of the drive, it is cool.    Breakfast is being consumed and Beth is up and about upstairs.   She is doing very well.  The dressing was taken off yesterday and we survived a trip round the White Rose Centre.  We took the wheelchair but she was able to get around in the shops on her crutches.  Things seem to be moving on well.   Today there are various tasks to perform this morning and then a stew to prepare.    This evening it's off to Castleford to deliver another talk.   

 

Hope to hear some better news about Debs today.   

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

Neil,

Passenger train...invercargill.......not any more as a scheduled service.

 

Shame as the railways are seriously underused here.

 

Visited a bird sanctuary to see a pair of takehe. Believed extinct they have a small colony near here. Blue plumage and flightless.

 

Baz

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

A bit chilly but the sun has made an appearance and hopefully it will stay dry.

Today I'm free! It's Nicki's day off today so the Boss is meeting her and they intend to shop and lunch and do a bit of catching up. I mean to say a lot has happened since they last spoke at length about 3 days ago!  

I've not yet made any plans for myself. The layout is an obvious choice but I need some exercise so a walk could be fitted in. We have one reasonable pub within walking distance so I might possibly head there for lunch. Of course that would destroy all the benefits of the walk.

Decisions, decisions. I'll think about it over breakfast.

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited February 8, 2018 by grandadbob

[grandadbob]

Visited a bird sanctuary to see a pair of takehe. Believed extinct they have a small colony near here. Blue plumage and flightless.

 

 

I've never heard of them but Wikipedia informs me that they belong to the rail family, so that's rather apt.  

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Frosty overnight.

It is quite sunny here now.

Have a good day.

Tony

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all.

 

Bit nippy here as well and it looks and sounds as if the builders of patios might actually have finished, or are staying in the warm for now.  

 

I have an appointment at the surgery for a needle sticking session but this is an addition instead of the more usual subtraction as I'm getting the aunty shingles jab.  According the notices in the surgery I will be called for this when I'm 70, I called them and they seemed a little surprised to be called although the Doctor (just the one back then) from said surgery delivered me so my date of birth is surely on their system - maybe they have a system problem?  Yes, and just the one Doctor back then and if you needed to see him you just turned up at the surgery, took a number and waited for your turn - the surgery, in a different building nowadays, now has 5 or 6 GPs plus usually a couple of trainee GPs, at least half a dozen nurses, a phlebotomist, two receptionists on duty during the day (from a pool of them), a couple of medical secretaries, and a practice manager, yet you often have to wait 5 weeks for an appointment unless it's an 'emergency' (where you should get an appointment within a day or three).

 

So a nice healthy walk for me down the hill and up the other side, then back again giving a total linear distance of about 1.5 miles and a vertical distance of 200 ft in total (half of which is climbing).

 

Have a good day one and all

[DDolfelin]

MiL's funeral went as well as these things can yesterday.

Good to meet up with some relatives we don't see very often.

BiL survived without a dent in his head.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

It’s another chilly day, but thankfully no frost. Sheila is feeling well enough to go to her Zumba class, which is good. It also means that I can get on with painting the attic. So far today I’ve given all the walls a coat of white paint and I’m currently having a well earned muggatea, after which I shall carry on with all the cutting in around the skirting boards, doors, sockets and switch etc. Hopefully by the end of today I’ll have got a second coat applied too!

 

Back later.

Edited February 8, 2018 by BSW01

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. It got cold early last night, I had to scrape the ice off of the car windows at just past seven o'clock before going to the model railway club. I also put the bin bags out when I get home from the club so they are not forgotten. I didn't notice the bin wagons normal dawn chorus so they must be using the stealth bin wagons again. Time to get on now, best wishes to Debs and other ailing ER's, be back later.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning world.

 

Warmer here today with a bit of brightness - according to the electronical remote thermy-meter auto-seaweed-guessometer thing anyway. 10c!

 

Foot dressings have been changed this morning, looking a lot better, incisions almost totally dried up now so doesn't look so gory. Another week of partial weight bearing to go, see the Consultant-that-knows-his-stuff on Wednesday next week.  Hopefully released from that then, but another 4 weeks on crutches after that to make sure it doesn't crumble before everything hardens up - those big screws leave big holes in the bones!  Got told to slow down last week, rather than the usual 'get on with it' messages.  I am an impatient patient.  Sitting about like this drives me nuts.

[roundhouse]

Neil,

Passenger train...invercargill.......not any more as a scheduled service.

 

Shame as the railways are seriously underused here.

 

Visited a bird sanctuary to see a pair of takehe. Believed extinct they have a small colony near here. Blue plumage and flightless.

 

Baz

Yes all gone South of Christchurch passenger wise but back then they ran Monday to Fridays and certain weekends. We just missed the steamers based at Kingstown as they had run a special the morning before we arrvied there and the fires had just been dropped. We also travelled from Greymouth (still runs) then form Chrsitchurch to Picton which is currently suspended. On North Island we also took the train from Wellington to Hamilton then on the Silver Fern railcars to Tauranga and Rotorua (both now long gone) before arriving in the old station in Auckland and bus to the airport. At least there is now a restored suburban service in Auckland

[New Haven Neil]

Wot?! You just lost those?!

 

 

Screws, not nuts.....the nuts were carefully protected while I was in the scanner!

[Gwiwer]

Morning All,

 

Where is everyone this morning...

I’m over there on the other platform

[AndrewC]

My gob has been smacked. The roofer showed up on time. We've now got all new guttering, downspouts, and 3 leaks patched. From what he said there was an inscription on the flashing up top that said ABC 1983. That means the current bits are 35 now. I can see a total re-roofing job in the next 5 years for sure. 

[Happy Hippo]

Quick trip to Reading yesterday evening.

 

Granddaughter Eira with new brother Quinlan born early this morning

[Tony_S]

I had a phone call from the hospital I was due to attend on Monday postponing my appointment by a week. So at least I won't be eating bland food and laxatives this weekend!

Tony

[Ian Abel]

Lovely to see freshly minted kids - they always looks so sweet and innocent - congratulations Richard to you and the family

 

BIN Day - <brrrr> decided to quick trip out and move BINs in just my indoor clothes. Managed to get snow from BIN lids on my hands, promptly melting due to warm hands, THEN due to a -12 temperature and -17 RealFeel you quickly discover how painful even a few minutes with bare WET skin in this weather is!  

 

Last night the modeling became a serious running session instead - does that still "count" as modelling?? Was a lot of fun for sure.

 

Today, first thing had to meet the refrigerator technician at the rental house - complaints of food/milk freezing in the fridge and dripping water from the freezer. Very educational, and most of the issues "operator error". With a few changes, including moving the fridge about 1/4 inch away from the WALL that was preventing the freezer door sealing completely <sigh> the problems should be solved. Will need to give a quick lesson and tips to the rental ladies.

 

Working only a half day today, heading off this afternoon for "TEA".

Whilst it's easy to find in Blighty, a pukka "Traditional English afternoon tea" is more of an event here, and hard to come by. The local arboretum has such an event for a few days this month and we managed to get a reservation for 4 (our travelling companions with us) today.

 

"A four-course menu features a demitasse of house-made soup, a selection of prepared finger sandwiches, warm quiche and profiteroles, scones with clotted cream, fresh baked mini-pastries, chocolate truffles and a selection of specialty teas."

 

Still a BRISK -12/-17 RealFeel, high will be a whopping -11 apparently, with snow tonight 1-2 inches...

 

That sums it up for now...back to work/play everyone

[Tony_S]

... and a selection of specialty teas."[/i]

 

That is the bit that puts me off the traditional afternoon tea menus.

[southern42]

' Evening all from red dragon land.

 

Confession time.

Having resisted all sorts of goodies at Warley and again at Stafford, I finally gave in to Temptation and ordered another 14xx (to be renumbered) and GWR railcar (Twin Cities).  Both now arrived and awaiting Test and Chips from Techno Lad.  That's me living on toast and jam for awhile!  Oh, I am, already, well...er...

...OK, I'll do without the jam! 

 

Time to get the veggies on for dinner, now...one of those bung in the oven meals to last for 3 days or so.  I might need to replace the meat with scrag end, next time...

[Barry O]

The silver Ferns now operate out of Dunedin. We saw them doing a "Seasider" trip to the steampunk HQ to Omaru then off to Timaru. We travelled on the Tiarei Gorge train. Very nice. Dunedin railways do still go to Invercargil for specials. All of the trains we saw were diesel powered but they do have the odd preserved steam special when it's not too dry.

 

We will be on the Tranzalpine from Greymouth to Christchurch followed by a coach trip to Piston for the interislander ferry.

 

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Baz

[Simon G]

Currently in Leeds with number 2 son. We have a wedding in In Devon on Saturday and driving here was the first leg of our trip. I am not being allowed to drive all the way to Devon, but was allowed to drive to Leeds. Son will drive us to Devon tomorrow. I foresee a great weekend with lots of catching up with family. I will be on minimal alcohol because of the drug cocktail I am on. My consultant did say that a couple of glasses of wine would be OK, but just don’t go stupid!

 

The rainy morning broke just as we left home, so we had a pretty dry journey here, although I was disappointed at the lack of snow over Stainmore on the A66. I suspect that there was a lot more yesterday. I did think of the train stuck in the snowdrifts at Bleath Gill as we passed the Stainmore Summit sign.

[newbryford]

Transatlantic negotiated quickly - an hour ahead of schedule due to favourable tail winds. It was a little bumpy early on and there were a few altitude adjustments going on to avoid the choppy air.

As for the seating plan....

About 6 weeks ago, the plane looked fairly empty with pre-allocated seats, so we went for three on a middle block of four (It was a B777 with 3-4-3), leaving out one middle seat. 

The night before the flight doing online check-in, there were still plenty of unallocated seats, so we swapped for the two outers of a 4 and the middle single in the adjacent 3. We were quite prepared to move around if the flight filled up for any reason.

 

Arriving at the gate, it wasn't too busy, although we then found out an Amsterdam bound flight had been cancelled and some passengers were transferring to our Heathrow flight. Somuch for the plan..........

As it turned out, there were only about 5 of them.

 

Doors closed and no one is around us and there are plenty of spare seats. The cabin crew were already starting to shuffle people about to spread them out, as there were a couple of full rows.

For some reason, the middle 4 in front of us all moved elsewhere and about 15 minutes after wheels up, Mrs NB moved forward into that row.

Between the 3 of us, we had 11 seats!

 

A fairly clear run into London and I think we circled over Rick's head to land westbound at LHR. Feeling very refreshed from being able to lie-down. The outbound flight had really kicked off my sciatica and I was dreading the return - how wrong was I!

 

Payback though was in the seating of the A320 up to Manchester. 5 minutes in and I was in pain. Luckily, it was also a relatively empty flight so could stretch out.

 

Doc duly visited (SiL had already booked my appointment) and my pain medication has been upped in advance of a MRI scan in 10 days time.

 

Now off to do some wheel cleaning and stock checking in advance of BRM Doncaster this weekend. If I get that done, I may have a go at sorting some holiday photos or even playing with my new US acquisition.

 

Possibly drop in later folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Coombe Barton]

For those who haven't seen it, Debs has posted some photos on Facebook.

 

I'll repeat them here later for those not on - she and I have been emailing for much of the day

 

To say I'm relieved that she feels that can do Facey is an understatement.

 

Only just got in, need food, have sick Sandy from a bug going round school, so laters, guys.

[Gwiwer]

Mick - probably. A lot of folk circled over my head this morning. A lot more were in my face as we had all manner of problems across the (former) Southern Region and not helped by the District Line Richmond branch being closed due to a fire.

Baz - I made it to Rotorua though not Tauranga. Other than that my sole Kiwi train trip was on an ex-Perth diesel railcar from Auckland (the grand old one, not Britomart) to Mount Eden via the very curious double-reversal at Newmarket.

Debs - excellent news from the camp. We are not connected via Fiascobook but things sound much more hopeful.

To all - rest well and good night.