Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

And another happy birthday (if it is the correct day) to Andy P as he joins our select band of septic, er sceptic, ah, septuagenarian folk, and many more of them Andy.  Congrats are also due it appears to Mr Roundhouse who has won 'something' in the virtual SWAGday raffle - something being whatever might be left to choose from by the time the remaining goodies reach his name on the list.  The raffle strikes me as a potential starting gun for the winners to find themselves entering a very new and different era or scale of modelling so could be even more fun than it at first appears.  I recognised no other names on the list as being relevant to ERs.

 

I have only ever once won something in a raffle and even then I think it was probably a fiddle as my then fiancée attended, as the managerial presence, the annual prize and award giving evening at the Chard Junction Ambulance Class a few months before our impending nuptials.  The fact that we won a pair of blankets has always left me with the strong suspicion that our 'prize' was in effect a sort of 'craftily disguised' wedding gift as we got considerable applause and a few laughs when we walked up to receive it.

 

Much cloudier sky today and a distinct drop in temperature as, no doubt, a prelude to tomorrow's promised rail - which will no doubt be good for the garden (including the weeds and verdant undergrowth).

 

Havea good day one and all and stay safe (among numerous idiots who appear to be keen to 'get back to stupidity work' in their hordes around London).

[The Stationmaster]

8 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

Happy Birthday Andrew.

 

 

Walk walked but only half an hour. The good thing is that The Hip is nowhere near as painful today. 

 

Now going for a walk to The Shed but can't do a lot until a small parcel arrives. Fingers crossed it'll be today but if not then I'll just have to be patient.

Ah you sure you used the right word there Bob?

[newbryford]

11 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Have you heard about the couple who the forces of law and order collared in Falmouth.  Found sleeping overnight in a car and it turns put they had driven 300 miles to get so on the spot fines for failure to observe the lock down travel restrictions.  But of course the rozzers once roused really go to town and found the vehicle was not insured and the driver didn't have a driving licence, so they confiscated the vehicle as well.

 

 

A bit like the 3 guys from Liverpool who decided to go camping in Wales last week -" because they were bored"

One of them was on a police wanted list and was promptly arrested.

[newbryford]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

 I wonder how many others are using the lockdown to start new layouts?

 

Lots and lots of them........

As well as resuming build of long-stalled layout projects.

 

I have just about cleared the weekend emails - including a two-hour session "pre-writing" them last night.

I feel the need to exercise my legs having been sat down for the best part of 3 hours.

 

 

 

 

[laurenceb]

Birthday greetings for Andy P

Afternoon awl

[J. S. Bach]

8 hours ago, BR60103 said:

I tried smoking a pipe.  I found that I usually didn't have all the paraphernalia with me.

All that I needed was the pipe, some tobacco, and matches.

[jamie92208]

 

18 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

All that I needed was the pipe, some tobacco, and matches.

But watching my father handling all those whilst driving was an 'interesting ' experience to say the least.

 

Jamie

[Gwiwer]

6 hours ago, Barry O said:

weetibangs. The "things"sold in Oz look like a  solid biscuit

 

They are not as enjoyable as the British ones being harder, flakier and less keen to soften in milk.  The Aussies claim they are better because they are square meaning you get a full breakfast rather than having rounded ends wasting space in the box.  Hmmm.  

 

3 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Sandy never smoked, but they found her cancer had spread to her lungs. Although we can go on about causes, the big C's a sneaky little bu99er and can appear in places you don't expect, and take along time to develop, often without symptoms or very mild indications that can be attributed to something else, so they sneak out and jump at you.

 

I am and always will be very grateful that I was able to choose my treatment regime and that I had the option of a PET scan to confirm there had been no appreciable spread of anything prior to that treatment.  While it cost me a significant amount overall what price being alive to tell the tale?  Six years on from the all-clear and on those occasions when something makes me wonder if it has come back or appeared from under-cover somewhere else I comfort myself with the knowledge that I had the best available treatment at the time and that my specific version is both rare and has a very low rate (admittedly across a fairly small sample size) of recurrence.

 

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

happy birthday Andrew P.

 

Happy Birthday sir.  

 

Good afternoon.  Welcome to Anotherday.  The calendar suggests it is Moan-day and that was certainly the case with one colleague this morning.  His name begins with M and he has now acquired the alliterative appellation (did you see what I did there?) of "Moaning M_______ "   

 

SWMBO has retired for a post-luncheonal snooze and to hopefully rid herself of the morning's anxiety.  Ever looking for the worst-case in things she came across an article suggesting that obesity is a primary cause of Covid-19 morbidity. It may contribute in a few cases but that wasn't enough to reassure her.  A couple of hours curled up with a cat and a duvet and she should feel better.  

 

Stay well one and all.  There is light at the end of this tunnel.  

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

stay safe (among numerous idiots who appear to be keen to 'get back to stupidity work' in their hordes around London)

 

As with the past week today has seen a very slight increase in numbers travelling through the House of Fun.  There are still a very few airline passengers both inbound and outbound.  If looks and language are anything to go by then around 60% of the total are in the construction industry and many of those are of Eastern European nationalities possibly stuck here for the duration and making the best they can of it.  

 

Of the rest many wear NHS or other clearly identifiable lanyards and I have no qualms about them making what are surely essential journeys.  Some are shop staff - we see the same faces at the same times daily and often exchange greetings so we know where some of them are working.

 

There are lesser-known but specified valid reasons for travelling which include attending court or complying with any legal requirement or instruction such as attendance or reporting.   Anyone may travel to and from work if they cannot work from home and if their workplace has not been directed to remain closed.  A very small, but increasing, number are doing just that and perhaps working to save their businesses from permanent shut-down and redundancy.  

 

A very few - perhaps 5 across the day's work - are truly questionable.  We are not permitted to ask; only on-duty police officers may do that.  They are out there and they roam the network randomly.  They will stop and ask you your business.  And they do have the power to send you home or - should you refuse to comply - to fine you.  

 

 

[TheQ]

Afternoon awl,  

4 hours of Ivy clearance done,  completed.. 

Holes in roof patched,  completed. 

 

Unfortunately on removing the Ivy it was discovered the lean to bike shed is terminally sick, the Ivy and wood worm caused the damage. It's built on the side of the garage,  and partly depends on the garage rooves  18inch overhang. Unfortunately the Ivy broke off some of the overhang.. 

It's rusty corrugated iron and odd bits of timber, built by I expected the previously mentioned bodgit and run. 

So for the duration the bike will be moved to the gardening shed and squeezed in alongside the mower. 

 

Anyway a new tin shed has been ordered, it will arrive in about 10 days. 

 

After moving the motor scooter,  it's time to head for the MhRC. 

[Simon G]

Birthday Greetings to Andy P.

 

Following a piece of a tooth breaking off about a week after lockdown started, today my crown came away from the implant post that it is fixed to.  The net result is that I now have a large gap where the crown used to be, filled only by the metal post which is rather rough and sharp on the tongue.  Fortunately it is at the back of the lower teeth, so the tongue shouldn’t come into contact with it much.  I have managed to speak to my dentist, who can still do nothing for about 2 months he reckons.  He advised getting some orthodontic wax to cover the post over, so I have asked via our Lane WhatsApp group if anyone can help get some.

 

Why to these things always happen at the most inopportune times?

[BlackRat]

I shared a grot (room) with a heavy, nay very heavy smoker.......weighed about 5 stone wet but could run like the wind.

 

He would smoke Old Holborn and 'Pussers' hand rolling in a pipe!

 

He'd often smoke two at a time, whilst lying in bed to see him thru the night.....

 

His fingers were the colour of Lucozade.....l

 

We were delayed 'on board' on one exercise and he ran out of both fags and money........he nealrly had a breakdown through nicotine withdrawal...... which to us, his long suffering cabin mates was funny and long overdue.

 

I wonder how my lungs fared with all that passive inhilatiion!

 

No doubt he will live to be a hundred......his nickname was The Rotherham Stallion!

[Andrew P]

Good afternoon ALL

 

I am somewhat embarrassed and humbled by the many Birthday Greetings that have come in here today.

 

I try to read ER most days, and sometimes pick up and rate topics and pass comments, or make light of them. I sometimes rate them, depending on both my time available, and comment should the topic be something I know something about .

 

BUT, I have very rarely commented and pass remarks on Birthdays and Anniversaries, why you may ask, and the honest answer is, I don't know. After all it is only good manners and courteous to do so, as all of you, even though I have met only a handful, I would class as virtual friends.

 

We are living in tough times, and the likelihood of meeting at Exhibitions, or visiting Preserved Railways, or even socialising at other peoples homes still seems to be a very long way off, and on here is an opportunity to keep in touch, and to express friendship to one another.

 

SO from today I WILL try harder to spot such events that mark peoples lives, comment and acknowledge far more than I have in the past.

So I would like to wish ALL ER's a belated Happy Birthday, and Congratulate on any Anniversary of recent times, and hope that we all have many more to come. 

Edited April 27, 2020 by Andrew P

[BSW01]

4 hours ago, laurenceb said:

Birthday greetings for Andy P

 

What he said! 

[grandadbob]

A'noon all,

The postman didn't ring twice or even once but what he did do was post a packet from Fraggle Rock through the letterbox so yet again superb service from all parties concerned, particularly considering how things are at the moment. This means that the final pieces of track can be laid in the next day or so and I can then get on with painting and ballasting. As the latter tasks will take place above the layout I may avoid doing this for a while!

 

 

Beer o'clock and today's tipple is Ruddles.

 

I.F.Eelnopain

 

P.S. Just realised I'm long overdue for a haircut, it'll be dragging round my ankles soon and tripping me up and we need to keep me out of A & E

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2020 by grandadbob

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. A parcel arrived this morning, nothing that can't be mentioned here on ER's, a new pair of slippers. I see that RMweb went down for a while this afternoon but not for long.

Edited April 27, 2020 by PhilJ W
Fat finger syndrome.

[AndyID]

5 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

 

But watching my father handling all those whilst driving was an 'interesting ' experience to say the least.

 

Jamie

 

My dad smoked a pipe (actually he had quite a collection of the nasty things). We went to Mallorca in the early sixties and stayed in a newly built hotel. It had plate glass doors.

 

Dad walked right into one with his pipe in his mouth. Fortunately the only thing that was injured was his pride.

[AndyID]

5 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

All that I needed was the pipe, some tobacco, and matches.

 

Wot? No pipe cleaners, one of those multi-tool gadgets for packing and unpacking the baccy, and a reamer for cleaning out the carbon buildup?

[BoD]

Many happy returns, Mr P.

[roundhouse]

6 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

 

 

And another happy birthday (if it is the correct day) to Andy P as he joins our select band of septic, er sceptic, ah, septuagenarian folk, and many more of them Andy.  Congrats are also due it appears to Mr Roundhouse who has won 'something' in the virtual SWAGday raffle - something being whatever might be left to choose from by the time the remaining goodies reach his name on the list.  The raffle strikes me as a potential starting gun for the winners to find themselves entering a very new and different era or scale of modelling so could be even more fun than it at first appears.  I recognised no other names on the list as being relevant to ERs.

 

 

Happy birthday Andy P.

 

And thanks Mike as I heard it here first and recently had the email from Andy Y.

 

A suitable item from Kernow selected that I had toyed with getting but with no invites for the foreseable future for our friends layout there wasn't much chance of giving it a run till I built the high line test track.

 

Sainsburys has been visited and no queue form the upper car park. Usual issue of customers testing on their phone blacking access to required items. I will ask nicely to persuade them to move but my other half just gets frustrated and wont ask. so she either waits some distance away or keeps going around the block of aisles and one item she didn't get. Sainsburys are installing big screens between each check out till resembling more like a border control - I wonder if I will get any chuckles if I show my passport next visit.

[BoD]

6 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Congrats are also due it appears to Mr Roundhouse who has won 'something' in the virtual SWAGday raffle ................I recognised no other names on the list as being relevant to ERs.

I’d better keep quiet then.  

[Shedman5]

Evening,  well we went for a walk this morning my first outing for about 15 days which was nice  and after a very nice lunch I went for a nap and the afternoon disappeared!

 

Hope it does not effect tonights sleep, given my lack of doing anything today nothing much to report however Happy birthday Andy P and congrats Mr Roundhouse!

 

 

[grandadbob]

2 minutes ago, BoD said:

I’d better keep quiet then.  

 

Yes Warren twice over I believe!

[tigerburnie]

Happy Birthday Andy P

[Ian Abel]

Happy birthday Andy P.

 

Moaning all...

Busy weekend here, Saturday nice weather so while the Mrs pottered in the garden I started laying out the garden railway at the front of the house.

Sunday we spent a lot of time making cakes, to take to our friend who is a nurse and also one to drop off at the cop shop, they all seemed to appreciate the gesture.

 

Other than that, little to report.

Today we'll receive another grub delivery, hopefully everything we order will be there. Seems easier now than it was a couple of weeks back to get timely deliveries so that part of "things' may be stabilizing.

The crazier parts of the US appear to be hell bent on "going back to normal", here in MN the governor is easing restrictions on some industry and offices provided they can maintain some basic rules/distancing and providing masks etc., for folks. It's going to be along summer!

 

Jemma and her boyfriend went to the lake cabin today to put the pump in for the season, so we've got Whitney with us for now.

 

Rained first thing, but cleared up, lovely day and currently 19 heading for 23.

 

Hope everyone is staying safe and well

Edited April 27, 2020 by Ian Abel