Early Risers.

[Barry O]

@polybear ..my first year in St Evenage saw a missive come round. "NO DRINKING ON SITE" . Come the last day at work numerous people appeared with flak.not normal! When the minxe pies, sausage rolls and cake arrived at 11:00 ( finish time had been set for 1pm) the flasks revealed various types of wines..we were invited round to the Departmental Heads' office ..just about to toast 470 Department when in walked the director who sent out the missive. A glass of malt was thrust into his hand (he was a scot) the toast was made and I walked to the station to get a train north. Happy days!

Baz

[TheQ]

Methinks the Bear needs

Mooring Awl Inner Temple hare..

6 hours of sleep in three pieces, I have noticed my back is steadily improving since the wearing of the back support began, very little pain this Morning.

 

Ben the lazy Collie didn't move from his bed until I headed upstairs with SWMBO's morning cupotee.. He normally hangs around outside the kitchen being hopeful..

He did go go for a good snuffle around in the garden, I lost him in the dark, as there is no moon today, however I could follow where he was, as the pigeons left from their trees as he arrived in each area.. Quite why a pigeon should be frightened by a dog on the ground I don't know, canines wild or otherwise are not known for their tree climbing abilities..

 

Cool but not chilly, light breeze, no cloud..

 

Two cockwombles this morning, one partly reversed out into my path before stopping as I swerved round him, he later caught up before I left that small village, and over took on a very narrow road before disappearing at high speed.  The other was already in front of me, went through a just changed to red light, then undertook the van in front also at high speed...

 

I noticed this Morning that the garage has forgotten to put the front tow ball back on, a phone call will result later...

 

I went to Tes and Co this Morning for required supplies, to reduce the time it takes to get home tonight for that phone call (they close at 17:00).

Now I have the Land Rover back, I'm intending to head for the Orange shed on the way home for house shelf building supplies, and another sheet or two of OSB for the workshop.

 

Yesterdays major system passed OK, the third one for this week I don't have time for and I'm off for a fortnight. So now I've put that one on crosscheck, if it passes tomorrow morning it will get a calibration period extension till next year.

 

Meantime I have shunts to do this today, to keep me occupied. I'm just waiting for the instrumentation to finish zeroing..

 

Time to... Check the company spam.. 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2020 by TheQ

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It is sunny here.  I was convinced it was raining overnight but I must have been dreaming. Food supplies will be arriving later. No serious omissions; no newspaper (don’t care about that) , “easy peelers” for oranges and loose sprouts instead of a stalk.

Did anyone else see the hippo story from South Africa? “Man killed by pet hippo” . Apparently the chap enjoyed riding and swimming with the hippo. It would seem the hippo wasn’t quite as happy with the arrangement. 
Have a good day. 
Tony

[jonny777]

Dry and sunny here in North Somerset. 

 

Most presents are now wrapped, and a discussion has been undertaken (by text) concerting eldest son's visit from Lancashire on Christmas Eve. I don't mind if he comes for a few days as he lives on his own and we are unlikely to start hugging each other (we haven't during his previous 41 years), and we can keep 2m apart inside the house without any trouble. 

 

That will be it. We tend not to have big family gatherings at Christmas anyway, and I have never been a party person, so the restrictions are not a problem really. 

 

I am hoping that with an infection rate of 125 per 100k we may be moved from Tier 3 to 2 this morning, as some places already in Tier 2 are around that level, and certain hotspots in Tier 3 have infection rates five or six times that of ours. 

 

[New Haven Neil]

2 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Just seen your comments earlier about ‘woolly’ head. I think this will clear in a couple of day. Bye for now SWMBO calling.

 

Tinnitus too, something I suffer from off and on (remember those huge marine diesel engines....they have very large turbochargers which make a lot of high pitched sound) is turned up to 10.  Still woolly.....more than usual that is.....but not as bad today and I had a better night, but still wiiiillld dreams, harking back to a job 30 years ago in one case!  The worst thing though, is I have put the washer on.  This is unusual behaviour! Hellppp!!

[Coombe Barton]

Someone mentioned this on FB - had never heard of it. But it may relate to one of our inmates of the asylum.
 

 

[TheQ]

2 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Someone mentioned this on FB - had never heard of it. But it may relate to one of our inmates of the asylum.
 

 

the original is by Gayla Peevey recorded 1953.

 

[AndyB]

Here's an observation that I guess plays out in many service industries, but may strike a chord with others working in IT.

 

Customer: Our data is WEEKS out of date. Can you do a refresh soonish? 

IT: Sure. We can also script it so it'll update every morning and never be out of date. Your boss will be happy and we won't need to do anything.

 

Weeks later....

IT: We're pausing the script  for 24 hours as the data publisher is tinkering with their api and we don't want to wreck your data. When we've done thorough testing we'll restart it.

 

24 hours and 1 minute later..

"Customer": WHERE'S MY DATA REFRESH!!!

IT: Do you not remember a few short weeks ago when it was WEEKS out of date? 

 

As we raise service levels the expectation seems to go up disproportionately with it. I think there's something about digital products that gives lay folk the impression that a few button clicks is all it takes. 

 

 

[TheQ]

1 minute ago, TheQ said:

the original is by Gayla Peevey recorded 1953.

 

PS Yes I do have a copy it's on a 1950's / early 1960's compilation of Christmas songs..

[coastalview]

7 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Someone mentioned this on FB - had never heard of it. But it may relate to one of our inmates of the asylum.
 

 

Kate Rusby has also done a version on her album Holly Head which we enjoyed on her live stream concert on Saturday. 

 

 

[pH]

14 minutes ago, AndyB said:

As we raise service levels the expectation seems to go up disproportionately with it. I think there's something about digital products that gives lay folk the impression that a few button clicks is all it takes. 

On an IT “service quality” course, we were asked how we felt we should perform with respect to users’ expectations. The commonest answer was, as you might expect, that we should exceed them. No, said the instructor, you should meet them as precisely as you can. Once you start delivering beyond expectation, that standard becomes the expectation, and doing precisely what is requested in the future becomes unacceptable. 

 

[Coombe Barton]

24 minutes ago, AndyB said:

Here's an observation that I guess plays out in many service industries, but may strike a chord with others working in IT.

 

Not IT directly, but I use Met Office data on my assessments

the met office have just changed the format

[iL Dottore]

4 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Bear never ceases to be warmed by the continued resurgence at this time of year of Good Will to all Bears (and Hippo's) coupled with overflowing chrimbo spirit (not to be confused with the alcoholic variety).....

Bear is being economical with the truth and has been selectively editing . My original post referred to illicit cake removal and ended with"asking nicely may help".

 

If asked nicely, I have been known to dispatch selected canine, ursine and hippopotamid chums on their way with groaning hampers filled with CAKE, homemade fruit infused gins, homemade brandy marinated fruits & fruit compotes, homemade Swiss Christmas biscuits and the occasional homemade pork pie (some selected h0m0 sapiens are sometimes included in my munificence).

 

See, even Captain Cynical has a soft side at Christmas (unfortunately...)

 

As for those who don't ask nicely? Let's say the last lot who did that are now helping shore-up the Gotthard Base Tunnel

Edited December 17, 2020 by iL Dottore
Spelling

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. The sore foot was making a meal of it last night and I didn't get to sleep until the early hours. If it wasn't for the lesser spotted glass and bottle wagon I'd probably still be in the land of nod. Muggatee is calling so I'll be back shortly.

[chrisf]

Bedfordshire has been moved into tier three.  Just what I needed.  This appears to put the kibosh on Xmas Day's dinner and I cannot see the posh hotel being able to offer a takeaway service for a three course meal.  Nonetheless I have asked the hotel to get back to me.  If I hear any more from hopeless ministers about not wanting people to be on their own at Christmas I shall say something which at best is not suitable for the ears of polite company.  "Grrrrr" must suffice for now.

 

Bah humbug

 

Chris

[BoD]

35 minutes ago, chrisf said:

Bedfordshire has been moved into tier three.  Just what I needed.  This appears to put the kibosh on Xmas Day's dinner

We have been in Tier 3 for a while and quite a few eateries are producing Christmas meals to take away, many of them are three courses.  The idea is that you pick them up on Christmas Eve for reheating on the day itself.  I’m not sure how ‘satisfactory’ that would be, but you may be able to find something similar.

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Tinnitus

I had tinnitus for years, a scritch scratch noise with slight white noise background. As treatment for my heart condition has progressed the tinnitus has disappeared. I am not complaining. 

[BoD]

35 minutes ago, chrisf said:

Bedfordshire has been moved into tier three.  Just what I needed.  This appears to put the kibosh on Xmas Day's dinner

We have been in Tier 3 for a while and quite a few eateries are producing Christmas meals to take away, many of them are three courses.  The idea is that you pick them up on Christmas Eve for reheating on the day itself.  I’m not sure how ‘satisfactory’ that would be, but you may be able to find something similar.

[PhilJ W]

Hello again, muggatee or three has been drunk so I'm back again.

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Forgive me for being obtuse Phil, but what do blackbirds and ravens have to do with The Repair Shop?  (which is an enjoyable programme, but I wish they’d concentrate more on the materials and methods used than on the soppy “I got daddy’s wotsit back” emotional b0ll0cks).

Your post about Romford Station brought back memories, I spent part of my childhood living in the Romford-Gidea Park-Hornchurch triangle (a bit like the Bermuda Triangle but without the sun...).
Although I model GWR (well someone has to do it...) when I first returned to railway modelling I had ideas about either modelling Romford Station or, more likely, Gidea Park Station as they were in 1968. Sadly, due to the absence of RTR rolling stock and a lack of faith, at the time,  in my modelling skills, I switched to my second choice-GWR-for which there was plenty of RTR material. Now that I am sufficiently confident of my skills to build from kits and from scratch, I have invested too much money in GWR rolling stock to switch to 1968 BR Eastern Region 

 

Sorry about that Flavio, putting my R's in the wrong place.

I was looking at various plans for the track layout for Romford brewery with a small industrial line in mind. Sadly the part of the Gotto Plan showing the Brewery and the adjacent High Street has suffered the worst damage over the years.

8 hours ago, TheQ said:

The problem with understanding London roads is the missing rivers. Prior to the little problems involving Mr Cromwell travel was often by boat across many rivers, I believe the Queen had a nice little income with over 40,000 Waterman and lighter men on the rivers 50 years before in 1600.

 

Around that time 1649 onwards..many more bridges were being built,  and the rivers started losing their Importance. By Victorian times rivers and streams  were being built over, turned into closed sewers rather than open ones. Rivers in London are effectively missing other than the Thames.

 

The river Fleet aka the Holborn is the most famous one, once a major river it became a flooded polluted ditch by Victorian times, before being sewered. But it forced road, railway/underground alignments and building positions.  So you find bends in roads aiming for former bridges or running alongside or over rivers lengthways unrelated to the Thames itself.

Indeed, in Romford the only indication of the River Rom in the town centre is the hump in the high street.

I came across this http://www.layersoflondon.org when looking for the Gotto Plan which is in there somewhere. However all the map enthusiasts should find it useful.

5 minutes ago, BoD said:

We have been in Tier 3 for a while and quite a few eateries are producing Christmas meals to take away, many of them are three courses.  The idea is that you pick them up on Christmas Eve for reheating on the day itself.  I’m not sure how ‘satisfactory’ that would be, but you may be able to find something similar.

I think that requires a microwave, something that Chris refuses to contemplate. In my case I will only be using the microwave to reheat some of the pre-cooked veg. The dry fryer will be used as a mini fan oven to do the root veg and the meat will be prepared either under the grill or in a pan. That way Christmas dinner will be prepared and on the table within half an hour.

[chrisf]

Thanks, BoD.  I am still waiting to hear back from the hotel but I am well and truly in "he who expects nothing ..." mode.  A friend in Herts is having his Xmas dinner delivered from a local hostelry - or was!  If the worst comes to the worst I get my money back [or else!!!] and rely on my own culinary wits for one more day than I had planned.  I would rather have had some sort of company for an hour or so but even more would I have preferred the sumptuous fare and surroundings of the hotel in Interlaken where I should have been.  If something is to go wrong it might as well go completely wrong and have done with it. 

 

Chris

[polybear]

4 hours ago, Barry O said:

@polybear ..my first year in St Evenage saw a missive come round. "NO DRINKING ON SITE" . Come the last day at work numerous people appeared with flak.not normal! When the minxe pies, sausage rolls and cake arrived at 11:00 ( finish time had been set for 1pm) the flasks revealed various types of wines..we were invited round to the Departmental Heads' office ..just about to toast 470 Department when in walked the director who sent out the missive. A glass of malt was thrust into his hand (he was a scot) the toast was made and I walked to the station to get a train north. Happy days!

Baz

 

Ah yes, the 1 o'clock finish - courtesy of the The Great Empire to "help the employees enjoy their chrimbo" etc. etc. - or words to that effect (the afternoon becomes "free" time off).  Complete cobblers of course - we all knew it was because they wanted to get the site shut down asap.  And if you wanted to take the morning off as well (sometimes we had to work on the 24th, so some wanted the full day to travel to relations, or do shopping etc.) then you had to use a full day's holiday.  Nothing like a bit of chrimbo cheer....

[TheQ]

They usually knock off at 15:00 here on Christmas eve.... I finish at 15:00 anyway since I start early..

 

Never had an early Knock off anywhere otherwise.. Normally because we were 24 hour manned 365 days 

Edited December 17, 2020 by TheQ

[PhilJ W]

The London borough where I worked used to insist on some staff being in in all departments between Christmas and New Year. It was only those departments that require manning 24/7 it should have applied to and then only with minimum staff. But the leader of the council insisted that all departments be covered. That was until someone revealed how much it cost in heating and lighting the offices that should and could have been shut. In the case of my department, payroll there was nothing to do as all payments due in December were paid by the middle of the month and we just sat around reading newspapers. It came to an end when the council leader retired and his successor was told of the heating and costs he stopped it straight away.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

3 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Someone mentioned this on FB - had never heard of it. But it may relate to one of our inmates of the asylum.
 

 

That gets more radio time in Oklahoma at Christmas than the “Rebellious Rhinoceroses sing the greatest hits heard over the fence from HH’s radio in the muddy hollow.”

 

Douglas

 

*Hello all again

[Simon G]

Afternoon all, today was supposed to be dry, but it is now very wet.  Just as well we went out this morning.  We drove to Egremont to deliver some cards, post some ebay items at the PO, then went for a walk along a cycle track (formerly a railway line) which made a pleasant change to the usual rambling from the house.

 

Last night, we appeared to have a surfeit of eggs, so for the first time ever I made a souffle for dinner.  The results were such that it wont be the last one I made.  We really enjoyed it!