Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

First off, I’d like to wish Mike a belated happy birthday. 

 

We had a bit of snow at dinner time, large flakes of snow, but thankfully it didn’t last long, so it didn’t stick,, but it has stayed cold all day. It’s currently 0C, so I expect there’ll be a frost during the night. 

 

Today hasn’t quite gone as I would have liked it to have gone. The testing phase of the turntable control panel hasn’t gone as planned, the good news is the motor control side works perfectly. The section that controls all yard points control is another matter. All the LEDs are working, but not as they should be. The wiring was checked and a few crossed wires were found and rectified, but it’s still not right. It’s a little frustrating, but then these things are, but at least it’s all down to something that I’ve done and not something I’ve bought. I think I’ll try testing each switch circuit individually, get each one to work before going onto the next, but something for tomorrow, so another day of fault finding beckons. Still, once I get this one working properly, I’ll know what the problem is and be in a better position for when I build the next 2. 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[petethemole]

Belated birthday greetings to Mike.

[TheQ]

This is the third time I've typed this one mis-button press and it dumps the editor back into yesterday's waffle.

 

Mooring Awl inner Temple hare,

4 hours sleep so far so normal service has been resumed.

 

Sir TopamHatt is lucky baby STH cried at all, SWMBOS uncle never felt pain at all until the last six months of his eighty plus year life. He was forever injuring himself, throughout his life because his body never told him "that hurts, stop it" his parents must have had a terrible time stopping him getting severely injured as a small child.

 

Coombe Barton, has just cost me £10;36, that book looks interesting, I note it's dates of 1300-1850 neatly covers the Black death from when it arrived in June 1348, till the last wave in around 1666.

 

Luckily the keel is below hair height so no resin reached that high, though there are various blobs on the workshop floor. I can however smell my overalls from here, they will go in the washing machine tonight inside out so as not to get sticky stuff on the drum. This is why the new shelving will also be painted in the workshop not the future library.

 

Time to try to get sleep part 2.

[J. S. Bach]

Three items:

1. A very belated Happy Birthday to our Stationmaster

2. It is hosing us down right now; maybe I will have "Three Rivers" in my yard tomorrow.*

3. Night Owl from the Piedmont.

 

*Three Rivers from a previous hose-down:

 

 

 

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

My apologies to Mike Stationmaster for being too obtuse to twig that it was his birthday yesterday!  I trust that there were many happy returns.

 

Today I shall be busy in the kitchen.  It’s not every weekend that I have a proper Sunday lunch but the fodder run yesterday produced a suitably compact chicken and a packet of sage and onion stuffing.  I’ve got a bottle of riesling to go with it and no plans for the afternoon except slobbing out in front of the TV.  [What do you mean, you do that every afternoon?!  Ruddy cheek!]  I might do some more dreaming on paper later on, for it appears that there are lots of ways to get from London to Italy by rail.  As I said the other day, it costs nothing to dream.  I give full credit here to The Man In Seat 61 website which is most inspirational and repays careful study.

 

I’m trying not to worry about the absence of news of Gladys but not entirely succeeding.  Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[Barry O]

Ey up!

I need to get her indoors to have a lie in.. she seems to survive on 4 hours sleep a night...pah!

 

Cold here but no more snow as yet.

 

Not a lot scheduled for today.. could be time for more  muddling. I won't restart crust earning until tomorrow when I have some items to make dirty and some items to fettle.

 

Stay safe, try to have a good day!

Baz

 

[polybear]

Bear's awake.

Now where's the cake??

[jamie92208]

9 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Painting done. Hair is a little whiter.

At least you didn't end up with bright yellow hair which I did. The French house had been owned by heavy smokers and my first task was to wash the walls and CEILING in the lounge before painting.  Fortunately  it all washed out in the shower.

 

A good news story from here.  One of my former colleagues that I knew well, had a heart attack in November, recovered and went to Tenerife for a short break when advised. He then had a stroke and his insurance company refused to fly him back. A Gofundme site was set up a few days ago to try and raise £30K for the air ambulance.  This was publicised on social media and retired police facebook sites. In 4 days the target has been passed, mainly in small amounts from former colleagues. A fabulous response. I wish Bill and his wife a safe return soon.

 

Anyway it's getting light here.  I got another wall polished in the new bathroom, 2 down, 2 to go.  Today it's a trip to the market with a stop to help consume freshly baked scones on the way back. After lunch I will, hopefully, polish wall no 3.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

Edited January 3, 2021 by jamie92208

[polybear]

Not sure what the plan for today is - progress has been continuing on the kitchen refurb, albeit somewhat slowly.  Bear is in a bit of a flaky groove at the moment and ready needs to get his furry ar5s in a higher gear, otherwise I'll still be working on it this time next year.

So today will bring a bit of paint stripping off an old door sub-frame - it'll eventually be covered with a new door lining so the paint stripping (which is being done as the existing frame is less than flat at present) would be better if it were more level as this would make fitting the new lining easier.  I hope.

Then a bit of measuring and mapping of leccy cable conduit positions etc. while they are still visible; this should help immensely when fitting things like cupboard wall units and wondering if there's a cable where I want to drill....one drawback of fitting EML to walls is that it stops leccy cable detectors from detecting buried mains cables in walls.....

[jamie92208]

I forgot the other good news story.  A certain young lady got her first experience of snow yesterday and thorougly enjoyed it.

After this she went sledging with Rachel and loved it.

 

Sir TH, don't beat yourself up, all kids hurt themselves, all our three had several visits to A and E and have survived to tell the tale.

 

Jamie

[iL Dottore]

10 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

I haven't watched it yet i may download it i dont wztch the bbc out of principle for their bias and the fact they want to rob over 75s of their pension just to peddle poop whilst cutting regional programming on both tv and radio

I’m not sure if I agree with you about the BBC being biased, because both the left and the right of the political spectrum in the UK are convinced that the BBC is biased against them. However, what is – I think - uncontestable is that the BBC is very London centric. If it doesn’t happen within the M25,  then it hasn’t happened at all (foreign affairs excluded).

Where I do agree with you is regarding the quality of their programming, the fact that they want to cut the free TV licence for the over 75‘s (for many of whom the TV is basically what makes their lives tolerable)  and that many of the so-called “talent“ are both overpaid and under talented.

 

The amounts they pay to certain of “talent”  if scaled back to more sensible levels, would go along way to help fund TV licenses for the over 75s, as would cutting back the exorbitant salaries of “senior management“ (paradoxically, but not unsurprisingly, I have heard that the people who do the daily work at the BBC - technicians, cameraman, sound specialists, et cetera - are paid very poorly because it is “a privilege to work at the BBC”).

 

Returning to the idea of the BBC is being “London centric”, I am reminded of a Monty Python sketch which went along the lines of “This is the evening news presented by parrots. There was a devastating explosion today in Manchester, no parrots were hurt”

 

“Say No More!“ As Eric idle once said in a Monty Python sketch.

8 hours ago, The Lurker said:

Babies bounce!...

So do the under 12s! Many, many moons ago, I attended an equestrian event (standby paramedic sort of thing) and two events occurred which, because they happened in quick succession, have remained in my memory.  First, a little girl riding a pony came to a jump: the pony refused and the little girl went shooting off her ride, landing on the ground. She got up, shook herself down, admonished the pony and got back on seemingly without any ill effects.  A few minutes later an adult (I think it was a man in his 40s) attempted the same jump on his horse, the horse refused, the rider came shooting off, landed on the ground and the result was one broken arm!

16 hours ago, polybear said:

I see Big H isn't in the mood for taking prisoners.

Obviously the cake withdrawal symptoms are kicking in earlier than expected.....

If the big H isn’t taking prisoners, then I am certainly “shooting first, asking questions second” (and I have no questions I want ask anyone). The reason being is that I have created a cake which was inspired by one of my childhood favourite sweets: the Cadburys fruit and nut bar (so the cake is a hazelnut and raisin cake covered with a chocolate glasur).  Unfortunately, although the cake had been long planned before Christmas (and the ingredients purchased) I never had the chance to make the cake until yesterday - well after I restarted my diet which prevents me from having a taste of the fruits of my labour.

So, beware approaching the Alpine Redoubt (tm) in the near future, Captain Cynical (and therefore also his minions) is very grumpy and trigger-happy.  In fact, I just might shoot someone anyway, out of pure cake-starved meanness!

11 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

... I used to sleep OK at first in that, perhaps until I was in my late 40's when things started to slide a little, then after the hip issues that started 10 years ago at 51 became steadily worse.  I have only slept one night through in the last 8 years, and its not getting better.  ....

Apparently, “not sleeping through“ is very common after a certain age. Additionally, it could be that we are not biologically designed to sleep straight through for 6 to 8 hours at a stretch, but rather sleep in 2 to 3 hour snatches. I read, somewhere, an interesting view on sleep patterns:  basically, it was claimed that up until the industrial revolution and mandatory hours of activity, people used to go to bed at sundown, go to sleep and then get up sometime during the night, do some activities (have sex, have a meal, read something by candlelight, etc) and then go back to sleep. Which I think makes sense, given that most mammals have a sleep-wake-sleep pattern during the night.

4 hours ago, TheQ said:

..ty plus year life. He was forever injuring himself, throughout his life because his body never told him "that hurts, stop it" his parents must have had a terrible time stopping him getting severely injured as a small child....

That’s an incredibly rare condition, I am not sure how many per million it affects but I know it is but a very few. I first read about this condition in my early teens and thought that it would be quite a nifty thing to have. But older (and maybe, perhaps, a bit wiser)  I realise that not being able to feel pain when - for example -I stub my toe or hit my thumb with a hammer, is a poor exchange for the benefits that feeling pain brings.

59 minutes ago, polybear said:

Bear's awake.

Now where's the cake??

Under lock and key and in a heavily guarded area which cannot be found by Google Earth, is invisible to spy satellites, has no GPS coordinates and of which knowledge of location is definitely on a “need to know” basis. even Captain Cynical no longer knows where the cake is.
Mrs iD has claimed the cake for her own (see above) and whilst you may feel able to take on Captain Cynical and his minions, only a “bear with little brain” would take on SWMBO unless backed up by a full Army Group (and even then successful cake stealing would be unlikely).

 

Finally, belated birthday greetings and best wishes to Mike (The Stationmaster).

Edited January 3, 2021 by iL Dottore
Spelling

[greatcoleswoodhalt]

On 27/12/2020 at 12:08, jafcreasey said:

6°C

W 10kt, gusting 24kt

 

Firstly congratulations, @AndyB!

 

Storm Bella crashed through overnight with gusts of 61kts in the early hours.  Little sleep was had and am looking forward to getting out for some fresh air shortly, Mrs C breaking-in her new wellies as we do our usual circuit to Horsted Keynes station and back.  The sun is now shining though for how long we’ll have to see – the Met Office have just issued a yellow warning for snow and ice in the south east tomorrow.

 

Upon our return the fire will be lit and no doubt we’ll continue our over indulgence in some shape or form.

 

@The Stationmaster mentioned films a little earlier and was glad to see a post on Facebook with a link to Runaway Railway dating back to 1966 (and filmed on the Longmoor Military Railway).  Growing-up in the early 1990s I must have re-watched this umpteen times on VHS however over-time it faded from memory.  For those familiar, I have no doubt that the scenes (specifically) with Ronnie Barker and the model railway had a lasting effect!  I'm looking forward to sitting-down and watching this again shortly.

 

Re @iL Dottore's predictions, I likewise generally agree with all.  Certainly “cheap airline travel” will disappear for the foreseeable - in addition to the ticket price you have the cost of a PCR to consider too (Boots currently charge £120); travelling with a family will mean a considerable investment...

 

Stay safe.

 

1°C

N 8kt, gusting 14kt

 

A belated happy new year to you all.  Little fanfare heralded the arrival though fireworks in the village suggested not everyone shared our lethargy - something akin to an invasion warning a fairly accurate description of proceedings.

 

Sunday dawns cold and grey, again.  Unsurprisingly little on the agenda today though attempting a slow-cooked Marmite roast chicken for dinner.

 

Back to work tomorrow with the highlight of the week likely Tuesday's announcement from Hornby and their 2021 range.

 

Stay safe.

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Under lock and key and in a heavily guarded area which cannot be found by Google Earth, is invisible to spy satellites, has no GPS coordinates and of which knowledge of location is definitely on a “need to know” basis. even Captain Cynical no longer knows where the cake is.
Mrs iD has claimed the cake for her own (see above) and whilst you may feel able to take on Captain Cynical and his minions, only a “bear with little brain” would take on SWMBO unless backed up by a full Army Group (and even then successful cake stealing would be unlikely).

 

 

PB,

 

He doesn't know, does he?

 

Snigger

 

 

[Chris116]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear's awake.

Now where's the cake??

He's a poet, 

and doesn't know it! 

[jonny777]

Dry but cloudy and breezy in North Somerset this morning; however it is a couple of degrees above zero so not quite as cold as it has been recently. 
 

Another night of wide awake between 1am and 3am but at least when I went to the lav at 5.15 I then fell asleep until 7.30 so shouldn’t complain. 
 

No Sunday dinner for me to roast this afternoon because SWMBO’s decree is that she only eats meat once a week, and that event happened on her birthday (1st). Therefore I can have what I like. 
 

I have individual suet puddings from Rooks in Kent, and individual meat pies from Boston Sausage, both delivered via online shops; and very nice they are too. I will choose one from the freezer later and find a few veg to go with it while the superior foodie concocts some nonsense using lentils and chickpeas. 
 

I think I will read a book today. I am part way through ‘Hungry’ by the restaurant critic Grace Dent. It is very nostalgic and quite amusing as it recounts growing up in a terraced backstreet house in Carlisle during the 1980s. I’m sure it progresses beyond that but I haven’t reached that point yet. 
 

I have run out of wood for the fire and so am now down to smokeless coal which is ok for heat, but not very exciting to look at. I may visit the local petrol station, but with new rules starting in 8 weeks time I’m not sure how much ‘naughty’ fire fuel they will have. 

[Andrew P]

The Sun is out

The Sky is Blue,

Got to go

I need the glue.

 

that fooled you

[Gwiwer]

Good Morning all from the damp
Upon the Hill of Strawberries
Despite a poor sleep up the ramp
To better health I slowly wheeze

If necessary I can post a copy of my Poetic Licence

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dull, dismal and damp here. 
Breakfast has been enjoyed and that will probably be the highlight of my day apart from watching one rugby match this afternoon.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Sunny here but we have just had a short shower of rain. 
Not a lot happening. We had a message from our nephew to let us know he was just about to board his Eurotunnel shuttle. He has another couple of borders to cross today. He was a bit concerned about how his possessions and recent purchases would be treated now  but I suspect he won’t have problems. His only recent experience of being shouted at by customs was at the Swiss border  when he asked the Swiss official if he could speak more slowly. Apparently the official was saying “Sausage, do you have any sausage?” but in German.  
My car journey won’t require more than a token few inches back and forth. I need to install new maps for the navigation system and the engine needs to run. It will help charge the battery too. My map subscription expires tomorrow so it seemed like a good time to update the system. I will renew the  account but just in case  it doesn’t work I will at least have an up to date map. I wonder if it will have the new one way routes for Basildon that PhilJW mentioned. 
I have a parcel arriving today, a new hot glue gun, much smaller than the one I already have. 
Have a good day. 
Tony
 

Edited January 3, 2021 by Tony_S

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from a chilly and frosty white rock in the Irish sea.  1c, feels like -3, allegedly.  Both our cars are black (just how it worked out not by choice!) but this morning they are both white, looks quite strange.

 

Mrs NHN's plans for archery are cancelled, there was a spate of accidents yesterday due to the general driving standards here (ie crap) and as the glen is 20 miles away sensibly decided not to bother.  All the high roads are closed, and the 'low' coast road peaks at over 600 feet at a notoriously cold spot, so I don't blame her.

 

So we now have no plans, not often that happens.  I'm thinking of venturing outside to run one of those things that runs on heated water to the point of a change of state, as photos of water vapour plumes may be enjoyable.  Or I may just veg out in here.....

 

A photo stolen from a police officer I worked with, Jon Penman, which caught my eye.  Chicken Rock lighthouse is of the southernmost tip of Fraggle Rock, built by one of the Stephensons, and if you look at the first rock to the right of it, it is the 'drinking dragon'.  A certain imagination is needed from this angle, but you may get it!  It's better from the other side.  Useless fact time, Manx for dragon is 'barroo'.

 

[iL Dottore]

47 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

PB,

 

He doesn't know, does he?

 

Snigger

 

Yes he does (counter snigger)

I’ve let the lads know there’ll be game on next week’s menu - they’re quite looking forward to grilled Hippo chops and Bear ragout.

[Two_sugars]

I think the UN should be informed of the pending international cake war . . .maybe ask for an international peacekeeping force to intervene.

 

Morning all, and a Happy New Year.

 

John

 

 

Forgot to mention but our local ALDI are now selling Bread'n'Butter pudding . . . It may be the same south of the Tees but I won't be venturing that way anytime soon.

 

 

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by Two_sugars

[Chris116]

If I join this "peacekeeping" force, how many pieces do I get to keep?