Early Risers.

[Andrew P]

A little light watching if you get fed up with the TV over the coming days.

 

I've put together a Video of Preserved Lines I've visited, and there is a mix of Steam and Diesel, plus a bit of Narrow Gauge as well.

It starts with a short Video clip and then about 3 minutes of Photos followed by about 45 minutes of Video.

 

So sit down with a mince pie and a glass or mug of your favourite and enjoy.

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Andrew P

[tigerburnie]

Morning very frosty out and we have a weather warning for heavy snow in the next couple of hours, clear blue skies and sunshine at the moment?? As we have nothing to do and nowhere we have to go to, bring it on say I. Stay safe and warm all.

[tigerburnie]

CairnO'Mount snow gates are closed, so I won't be sneaking over to the whisky shop in Aboyne then.

[Barry O]

Checked the temperature here..1°C.. thought it was a bit cool for T-shirt and shorts... 

 

Sky was blue. But a  thick grey snow like cloud filled sky has appeared.

 

@New Haven Neil.. cloudy Bay.. excellent choice.. I may partake of some Te Mata Gamay Noir later

.

 

Snowing now .bugggrrrrittt. her self has gone all giddy..

 

Baz

[Tony_S]

It looks pleasant outside. I wasn't out for long, just long enough to collect plumbing tools. Aditi has a really calm way of announcing a problem. I know that it usually indicates a repair task. Today's was that the en suite cistern wasn't filling. Wiggling the float did nothing. So I found a replacement filler, one of the modern ones. When I removed the pipe it was full of sludge  I cleaned it and  replaced it. It still didn't work so I fitted the new valve. All OK now. 

The worst bit is getting up from the floor after accessing the pipes in a confined space. It seems finished but I will check for seepage later. 

Not what I expected to do is Christmas Eve. Actually my only scheduled task is to find space in the freezer. It seems most of our order from Waitrose is coming, apart from lettuce. There are a couple of sensible substitutions. 

I think I can cope with breakfast now.

Tony

Edited December 24, 2020 by Tony_S

[PeterBB]

On 22/12/2020 at 22:29, Coombe Barton said:

... and meeting Chester ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/12/22/sounds-of-the-season-24/

Like the Chester meeting and tend to agree with your sentiments, especially the last where I think with similar problems among their  members they might have realised that they would also have been on the end of the same diatribes currently being 'expressed' if it were them.

[Shedman5]

Morning, Thought I would pop in here and wish all of you the  best for  Xmas and New Year , Ive not been around for the last six months which has just seen me complete a major project.

In simple terms I have written a novel which Ive had printed (Xmas presents for the kids/friends) something Ive always wanted to do but never had the time or tenacity to follow through on.

I have a new found respect for writers!

The feedback should be fun or maybe not!

 

Enjoy the festive season guys

 

Alan

 

[5 C]

Morning awl from bright, sunny and crisp Tier 4.

 

Today's excitement will be a trip to the Royal Mail delivery office to collect the parcel that was the subject of yesterday's "knock-a-door-run" (but still fill out a card) by postie. The article I thought it was (an e*ay unmentionable) arrived this morning, so the identity of Wednesday's packet remains a mystery. 

 

This morning a muggaroastandground has been consumed along with one of the much-vaunted Aldi mince pies. Although I have nothing else to compare it against, I can confirm it was indeed very tasty. A supermarket trip may be undertaken on the way back from the DO, where another box may be obtained if they're in stock. The big question of the day remains - do I buy some sausages for tomorrow's breakfast? 

 

Tidying up will be done later to make the place look presentable - even if I'm the only person who will see it.

 

Regards to awl.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

It's Christmas Eve so it's 'Carols From Kings' later on, ham, egg & chips for dinner this evening, and - you've guessed it - tidying the dining room day.  But at least it is currently sunny outside and we have a couple of younger folk who could be despatched to the shops should any last minute problems or needs develop.  However I do believe there is sufficient suitable bread sauce mix to hand, unlike what happened a good many years back, and resulted in me being despatched to buy some on Christmas morning;  I was of course 100% successful in achieving the required result.

 

Nice video thanks Andy even if it comes with a pink diseasal - nice diesel shame about the colour.  Andy B I doubt Tesco will have Easter Eggs in stock until Boxing Day however if the shelves have been cleared by the locusts it's always possible they might be used as shelf fillers today.

 

On a more sombre note - sorry - it; 's looks as if at least some ground level parts of the NHS are gearing up for a lot more hospital admissions in the near future.  The GD received her first shot Covid vaccine yesterday so it seems the Trust she works are jumping one priority group ahead to try and look after their front line staff in the face of what they're expecting.  They've also now stopped elective surgery and are putting in place various redeployment plans from next week which I can't yet talk about.

 

That apart we are, at last, moving up from Tier 2 on Boxing Day and going stright to Tier 4 without passing Go or collecting any dosh for our trouble.  That will make no difference at all to me apart from losing a lunch booking on my birthday (although we might be able to get a takeaway from them instead.  The only thing we can hope for is that the recent lemming like behaviour I've seen in the town will go by the board but I do wonder because the idiots do seem to take an awful lot of convincing and no doubt the pubs will be jammed solid today.

 

Right lunch plan now agreed with the management because I am barred from the kitchen today.  But I will be given a 'window' to prep and sauté the mushrooms and we will both have mushrooms on toast (although without my usual 'garnish' of several rashers of streaky bacon).

 

Have a good day one and all and may your weather be to your taste.

[45156]

Morning All

 

Just a quick visit, as Currys are due to deliver the new washing machine and dishwasher today.  They did something which had the potential to cause a problem, as with the dishwasher I ordered a longer hose (3.5m) so that it would fit where the old one did.

 

They didn't have one in the warehouse where the machines are coming from, so sent it from a different warehouse by DPD!!!  AT CHRISTMAS???????

 

Got an email saying DPD would deliver between 10.12 and 11.12.  Then got a phone call about 10.15 to say that the machines were on the way - luckily, the hose arrived at 10.25 - talk about leaving it close!!??

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[Two_sugars]

56 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Checked the temperature here..1°C.. thought it was a bit cool for T-shirt and shorts... 

 

Snowing now .bugggrrrrittt. her self has gone all giddy..

 

Baz

Yea've got soft since you moved down south. . . 

 

Snaa covering the roofs and roads when I opened the curtains at 9 ish . . . . then it started p!ssing down rain. . . . .

 

Now  the SUN is out . .and I don't mean extinguished!

GDB  The biting Northerly got here first   . . about half a mile (as the seagulls fly. just to cr4p on my car!) back from the beach. . .

a tad bracing . . . I had to put a shirt on top of my T shirt.

 

Have a good day folks.

 

 

John

[iL Dottore]

Greetings from the Alpine Fortress of Captain Cynical. Sunny and cold at present, with threats of rain later in the day. I attach a photograph of an early morning view of my minions getting ready to head out and hunt down trespassers!

I am currently catching up on both my reading and my eyelid inspection duties! I have just completed reading a fascinating book called “SCOFF: a history of food and class in Britain“ by Pen Vogler. Although I read it from cover to cover pretty much in one sitting, it’s worth dipping into on a intermittent basis as it is full of very interesting little nuggets of information: such as why the pork pie  is a bond between the working class and the aristocracy; or how using the term “Tea” to describe your evening meal marks you out as either as a Northerner or a member of the working class (or both); or why the acceptance of brown bread and/or oatmeal made for better nutrition in the North and in Scotland than the insistence on white bread did in the South.

I am currently reading “Our Dogs, Ourselves: The Story of a Singular Bond“ by a scientist who studies dog cognition (Alexandra Horowitz) and I have just finished the chapter on the naming of our dogs. Which made me think on how we ended up naming Lucy, “Lucy”. I think it was because no other dog can do aristocratic disdain as well as she can, and at the time when we got her there were a number of rather “posh“ Lucys on the radar horizon (TV, radio, books). So inevitably she got the more aristocratic name of Lucy rather than, say, a more “doggy“ name like Bella or Mitzi.

As I write, a shoulder of beef is slowly cooking Sous-Vide, which will be served tonight with sautéed potatoes, carrots and a Yorkshire pudding. Add to that the bonus of winning a hefty Amazon gift voucher at an online quiz, and life is very agreeable indeed.

Have a Merry Christmas, and if I don’t get to post in the next day or so, have a Happy New Year!

iD

Edited December 24, 2020 by iL Dottore
Typo

[Tony_S]

23 minutes ago, 45156 said:

I ordered a longer hose (3.5m) so that it would fit where the old one did.

Our washing machine and dishwasher have a big valve thing on the tap end of the hose. If the machine detects a leak it shuts off the supply. I suppose If ours wasn’t close to the tap we would need an extension hose rather than a longer standard one. It was close enough but the back of the kitchen units needed a jigsaw to make the access holes bigger.  

Edited December 24, 2020 by Tony_S

[BoD]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

CairnO'Mount snow gates are closed, so I won't be sneaking over to the whisky shop in Aboyne then.

 

 

I suppose the one in Tomintoul is out of the question too.

 

[simontaylor484]

18 minutes ago, BoD said:

 

 

I suppose the one in Tomintoul is out of the question too.

 

I wonder if Mrs McKay still clears the Cockbridge to Tomintoul road with her shovel.

 

Sorry but only former listeners to the late great Terry Wogan radio show will get that one.

 

 

 

[TheQ]

Snow gates. Check for yourselves..

http://www.snowgatecameras.co.uk/

 

Not quite afternoon Awl,

Now blue skies having been sleety haily, rainy for the last half hour so having checked https://www.netweather.tv/live-weather/radar SWMBO has headed out with Ben, before a big patch of something nasty arrives. Why not me?, Because I've just wrestled with the keel and it was very close to me giving the submission..

 

The rechargeable battery electric screwdriver needs new batteries..are they easy to find ? Of course not..after measuring and searching it turns out they are 4/5 sub C,  Ni Cads.

So after more searching  the best deal was from the first company I went to, of course. Limited searching to the UK, with Brexit and the change of import regulations from elsewhere. I'll not be ordering from Beyond our borders until it settles down a bit.

 

No beep beep beep rumble rumble rumble today they finished late yesterday. This has left a gravel road, as all that rain has washed away the mud leaving the stones.

 

The roads were puddled fully across 4 times between here and Tes + Co, with much of the rest having water leaking from the fields the ditches are full so it was drive down the middle for the rest of they way.

Surprisingly very few empty holes on the shelves all the overnight deliveries got through. So the raid was successful..

 

Right Muggacoffee drunk, I'm going to make like a snowman again, or that's what I'll look like after sanding the other side..

gloves hat, mask goggles...go.

 

[simontaylor484]

Wintery showers here now 

Carrots have been peeled and chopperated ready for tomorrow.

 

Recycling bin has been emptied ready to fill tomorrow morning.

 

Does anyone know where i can get a Turkey that will serve 12 and potentially 2 police officers 

 

[PhilJ W]

Hello again from Estuary-Land. Just had a call from my friend, the pressie I bought for his lad can't be made to go. The destructions are apparently rather vague but I found some more detailed ones on the net and I will try to deliver a printed copy soon as. Then I found an 'open-the-box' revue on you tube that shows how to set up the car.

 

As the lad uses YouTube he soon found it but watching it myself I think I've spotted the problem. There is a thin plastic battery cover that isolates the battery that has to be removed first. Whatever it is my friend hasn't called back so I assume that the problem is sorted.

Edited December 24, 2020 by PhilJ W

[Tony_S]

I have just been given a task. It seems that Aditi’s hand must have slipped when ordering cheese. We have three times the amount she wanted. So I have been using Google to discover “Can you freeze Brie?”, “Can you freeze goat’s cheese?” etc. We did ask neighbours if they wanted any but they are all awash with everything as many had been planning 3 family gatherings that are now cancelled. We will be having scrambled eggs for lunch as I dropped something heavy on a carton of eggs and cracked some (only slightly!). 
We haven’t watched much tv, just the news and the Christmas University Challenge. The teams are former students and the questions are easier than the ones the current students get asked. As Aditi spends all day listening to Classic FM she had got much better at answering music questions than she did before retiring. Also she must have paid more attention than I did when we have been wandering round art galleries as she is now quite good at identifying artists. 

[Ashcombe]

Peace and joy to all this festive season. 

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Shedman5 said:

Morning, Thought I would pop in here and wish all of you the  best for  Xmas and New Year , Ive not been around for the last six months which has just seen me complete a major project.

In simple terms I have written a novel which Ive had printed (Xmas presents for the kids/friends) something Ive always wanted to do but never had the time or tenacity to follow through on.

I have a new found respect for writers!

The feedback should be fun or maybe not!

 

Enjoy the festive season guys

 

Alan

 

Please tell us more, such as what sort of novel and is it going to be published?

[PhilJ W]

Tony, what about a cheese omelette?

[Barry O]

I may be forced to eat some stand pie for lunch.. life can be hard at times!!

 

Baz

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Tony, what about a cheese omelette?

Thanks for the offer but...

 

[Coombe Barton]

Lunch is the (planned) remains of the pasta from last night.

And the tree is up and lit!

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Coombe Barton
TYPOMAN