Early Risers.

[Winslow Boy]

6 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I do hope thst you weren't in flagrante delicto with the bride.

 

Jamie

Kindly leave stage please. We do not like hear about such things thank you.

[jamie92208]

A useful morning has been had. It's lovely and sunny.  I started with half an hourvon the phone to Orange  and we will be getting a new and updated hub/router for free. They couldn't sort out our mobiles though so I have to make a trip to Cognac to speak to someone in a shop.  

 

I then set up the ironing board and started when the fosse man arrived. He started pumping 20 cubic metres of gunge out whilst I continued with the ironing. Suitable  music was supplied by All about Eve and Peter Frampton. 

 

Jamie

[Gwiwer]

27 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I do hope thst you weren't in flagrante delicto with the bride.

Is that a Gordon Ramsay recipe?  Or was it Rick Stein???  

[Tony_S]

38 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Suitable  music was supplied by All about Eve and Peter Frampton. 

Suitable for gunge pumping or ironing? 

[The Stationmaster]

Not to worry about folk like him Rick - passengers have always known best it comes to train timetable.  Try about 14m10secs - 14m30 in here, from 1961, -

 

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-terminus-1961-online

[polybear]

4 hours ago, jonny777 said:

And why should I worry that a few millionaire tennis players are confined to their 5-star hotels in Australia because someone on their flights tested positive, and they didn't realise that one positive person will mean the entire aircraft's passengers must be quarantined for 14 days. Where do they think the virus goes at 35000ft in a sealed metal tube?

 

Especially when there are thousands of Aussie residents stranded abroad and having extreme difficulty getting home again.  Why didn't they cancel the Tennis?  Oh yes, money.....

Cynical Mode Off.

 

4 hours ago, TheQ said:

I see various American care homes have been offering vaccinations free to outsiders.... If they've made a substantial donation to the care home trust.. 

 

I wonder if Bear gives Boris's Mob a bung I can jump the queue??

 

3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Unfortunately having my Dad with us who is a pudding fiend as well as Jill's insistence that no meal is complete without a mound of carbohydrates means that it is sometimes difficult but I shall try to persevere.

 

 

Bear is at your disposal, Sir.  Dustbin mode engaged, gob waiting.....

 

In other news:

Bear has done the washing, changed the sheets and been planning and making preparations for the plasterer to start - I'll call him later to arrange.  Also the hoover (actually it's an electrolux) was fixed - the drive belt turned out to be stretched so the turny -bar bitty at the front wasn't.  All done.

 

[Compound2632]

20 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Not to worry about folk like him Rick - passengers have always known best it comes to train timetable.  Try about 14m10secs - 14m30 in here, from 1961, -

 

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-terminus-1961-online

 

The young lady stood up by her South African boyfriend turns out to be astoundingly well-spoken - 14:23 - out-Celia'ing Celia Johnson.

[simontaylor484]

We now have super fast Broadband woo hoo engineer came sorted out anew socket and messed in cabinet at top of street.

 

All sorted

 

Oh no it isnt. Despite us ringing old provider and cancelling contract which ran out yesterday. Talk talk should have taken over today allegedly that hadnt happened according to old supplier post office. 

Its all turning in to a living nightmare as does everything we try to do to improve things. 

So what the chuff has gone off i dont know. Post office alledges that talk talk havent been in touvh with them. They then said we hadnt been in touch with PO they had a record on their system we told them we were going to BT originally but TT gave us a better deal. When we booked the engineer with TT they said they would sort it all out with PO.

 

I just want to scream

[Winslow Boy]

18 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

We now have super fast Broadband woo hoo engineer came sorted out anew socket and messed in cabinet at top of street.

 

All sorted

 

Oh no it isnt. Despite us ringing old provider and cancelling contract which ran out yesterday. Talk talk should have taken over today allegedly that hadnt happened according to old supplier post office. 

Its all turning in to a living nightmare as does everything we try to do to improve things. 

So what the chuff has gone off i dont know. Post office alledges that talk talk havent been in touvh with them. They then said we hadnt been in touch with PO they had a record on their system we told them we were going to BT originally but TT gave us a better deal. When we booked the engineer with TT they said they would sort it all out with PO.

 

I just want to scream

Wouldn't touch BT with a barge pole and that's with them buying the barge pole for us. They are a bunch of incompetent W.......... who I would trust to run a sweet shop let alone a multi national telephonic company.

Apologies if any readers have the misfortune to have worked for them.

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Not to worry about folk like him Rick - passengers have always known best it comes to train timetable.

Absolutely they do.  In this day and age they sometimes genuinely know more and know it sooner than the staff.  A swift refresh of a suitable app will show whether their train is running, is on time and in many cases how many carriages it has and what the numbers are.  IT is far from uncommon to be approached and asked "What's happened to the Little Nuttingford train" when we are blissfully unaware of anything unusual having happened.  It is still shown on the departure screens as "On Time", no word has come through from our control point and the auto-annoy auto-generated announcement Sonia* hasn't told us anything.  But cancelled it jolly well is and the app the customer is looking at has refreshed from the feed faster than our own.  Or at least they have had more time to gaze at their tiny screen whilst we have been safely dispatching trains among other things and complying with the requirement to NOT look at our phones during work time!  

 

I coach most new entrants to the job these days.  I have had the same add-on to the daily role in several previous employments within and outside of the industry, in the UK and in Australia.  I always teach the "Three M's of Customer Service".  The customer could be Mistaken, Misguided or Misled but is NEVER Wrong.  If I end up with that attributed to me on a headstone somewhere then my mission will be partially complete.  Another piece of advice I give - and it cannot be said too often - is "Check Signal".  I will tell trainees to say it to themselves before making any move.  Even go to bed saying "Check Signal".  Only when that is drummed in and you do it every single time will you pass the Rules & Regulations Exam and become a qualified dispatcher permitted to work solo.  If I see a dispatch tip when the signal has not been checked I will act accordingly.  Safety isn't just first - it encompasses everything we do.  

 

* The (usually female) voice of the pre-recorded announcements driven by the various computer systems used to monitor and record train performance.  So called because she Gets Sonia Nerves.  

 

 

 

 

[J. S. Bach]

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Morning All,

Just passing through.
I just wanted to post this link (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jan/17/gary-taubes-interview-obesity-calories-hormones-case-for-keto) as a FYI for those of us struggling with obesity and/or Type II Diabetes Mellitus* - quite literally much food for thought!

Back later, enjoy Monday.

iD

* Did you know, that apart from Type I and Type II Diabetes Mellitus, there is also Diabetes Insipidus? Which is a very different beast to DM!

Hmmm, that reminds me of the Atkins (sp?) Diet popular some years back. Yes, it did work.

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

The young lady stood up by her South African boyfriend turns out to be astoundingly well-spoken - 14:23 - out-Celia'ing Celia Johnson.

 

I don't know if she was an actress - several of the people seen in the film were played by professionals although judging by what they said the words had been taken from real life (including the lady talking about the train she had been travelling on for years and the lady with the lost umbrella).  T. he little boy Matthew Perry was a set up - he was the son of somebody who Schlesinger knew and was deliberately abandoned on the station concourse but what followed was totally unscripted - his 'mother' was played by his real mother who was an actress.  

 

The gentlemen apparently on their way to a less than comfortable holiday camp on a well known moor were also actors and the compartment labelling was incorrect unless the SR dd it a different way from us.  At Paddington we typed (reserved for)  'Home Office Party' on the reserved compartment labels. (now that is worrying because it is 56 years ago this summer that I typed some  of those labels),   They were also shown as 'Home Office Party' on what was known at Paddington as the 'Saloon List'. Eight years later when I was sent to cover an AAM's job at Swansea High St, and before being left in charge of the station, I was asked if I could manage to produce the (station) 'Daily Orders' it turned out to be basically the same thing but a lot simpler.

 

[New Haven Neil]

JSB, Atkins is the extreme end of it IIRC, but yes!  You don't have to go that far to make a difference though.

 

Just back from the vets, yes she is tall, young, and statuesque but blonde, not dark!  Crikey she's an absolute stunner actually, shame she isn't going to stay at our practice. So a referral onwards, back to the department where it all started 8 years ago - only now I don't think they can use an MRI due to the metalwork in my foot, not sure.  All a bit sore now due to 'range of movement' aka torture tests, stronger pills to try to get some sleep, didn't want to go that way as we all know the difficulties opiods can cause so I won't be taking them all the time.  Not actually very keen on going to the hospital currently, but by the time my referral gets to the top of the pile I'll probably be dead ten years anyway.

[The Stationmaster]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

I wonder if Bear gives Boris's Mob a bung I can jump the queue??

 

Although he is over 80 I don't think Rupert Murdoch is a care home resident round our neck of the words but he reportedly was vaccinated in the very first lot of folk done here back in December.  So maybe you could pop out and buy a newspaper to jump the queue?

[simontaylor484]

5 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

JSB, Atkins is the extreme end of it IIRC, but yes!  You don't have to go that far to make a difference though.

 

Just back from the vets, yes she is tall, young, and statuesque but blonde, not dark!  Crikey she's an absolute stunner actually, shame she isn't going to stay at our practice. So a referral onwards, back to the department where it all started 8 years ago - only now I don't think they can use an MRI due to the metalwork in my foot, not sure.  All a bit sore now due to 'range of movement' aka torture tests, stronger pills to try to get some sleep, didn't want to go that way as we all know the difficulties opiods can cause so I won't be taking them all the time.  Not actually very keen on going to the hospital currently, but by the time my referral gets to the top of the pile I'll probably be dead ten years anyway.

She would nt do the blood pressure much good though 

[Compound2632]

29 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

 

I don't know if she was an actress

 

 

Having watched it again, I think she must be, since her role is clearly a set-up. But with that voice, fresh out of RADA!

[Ian Abel]

Moaning - Martin Luther King day here, and for some a public holiday, AND, TWO DAYS AND COUNTING.

 

It's a "national" holiday of sorts with banks and Post Offices etc., closed, but many businesses carry on regardless.

Confusingly, it's NOT a public holiday on my company calendar, BUT, the Long Island client DOES take it as a holiday!

So, do I work (have sh!t to do for them and can justifiably bill)  or NOT, taking the day as personal time-off! Confusing, probably work half-day, covers both bases

 

I have a SERIOUS PUZZLE/CHALLENGE for those who want to try for it - with TWO CAVEATS;

CAVEATS;

1) Don't judge me for using Amazon. We use them A LOT. Things that should be "in stock" locally but never are, and things that can't be found locally - try as we do, local shops simply don't really care on an individual item or customer basis.

2) Don't judge me for using Tetley tea bags. They WORK and are convenient and I rather like the tea, though I know many will shun me now 

 

THE PUZZLE/CHALLENGE- figuring out WHAT THE HELL happened here, and more to the point what to do about it, or not! 

Saturday I ordered two 80-bag boxes of Tetley tea from Amazon - the local grocery store I have got them from for years have decided to ONLY carry the DECAF version now!

Order says - delivery between Jan 25th - 28th. coming from a third party Amazon store. Quite acceptable as I've some left in my stock.

 

Sunday evening at 6:29 (security camera has the footage), a guy "looking" to all intents like a delivery guy, drops off a package of said tea. From footage he appears to check his hand-held for details, drops it off, take a picture etc., etc. as is normal practice here, and we FIND said package about an hour later.

The package is simply two boxes of Tetley Tea (as "ordered") in a Walmart plastic bag. The only label on the entire thing is this;

All AMAZON packages here come in distinctly Amazon boxes, can't miss them, AND they always have the complete shipping label on them!!!!

 

ADDITIONAL PUZZLE PIECES/CLUES/DETAILS

1) We never shop at Walmart, not sure we've ever even been in one!

2) Usually get a text message announcing expected delivery AND once delivery has been made - neither appeared.

3) Amazon order STILL SHOWS arriving per original date, not shipped even yet.

4) If it's a mistaken delivery, what are the chances someone ELSE ordered two boxes of Tetley tea from ANYWHERE and managed to get it delivered to us.
     Not like it's a gallon of milk which half the US may order, we're talking something VERY SPECIFIC and not exactly a common order "around these parts".

5) Using any/all of the data on the label results in nothing being able to be found via google etc.. Customer name, nothing showing locally!!

6) There's no indication of a return address to contact the shipping company.

7) Order number or any of the other numbers bear no relationship to ANY Amazon recent order!

 

Suggestions?

It's not ticking so not a bomb  it appears to be what was ordered, but does that mean some alien intercepted my order and decided to do a good deed?

I'm in the twilight zone and it didn't really happen? That MAY be true except we still have the package on the porch table

 

Oh well - confused in Minnesota 

 

-7 and cloudy, actually expected to go DOWN for a high of -8 later

 

Off we go for the start of another week.

 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

I always teach the "Three M's of Customer Service".  The customer could be Mistaken, Misguided or Misled but is NEVER Wrong.  If I end up with that attributed to me on a headstone somewhere then my mission will be partially complete.

 

Bear quite likes the words "So much cake, so little time....."

Though Spike Milligan aced it I think - he had the words "I told you I was ill" on his gravestone.

[TheQ]

I see storm Christoph is arriving tomorrow, but the first of the rain is tonight and there going to be a lot of it...

That will add to a burst water main on the road  just before the NDR on the way to work...

 

The car park at effin clown town village hall, is full again.. good, but I've just realised , that may stuff our MRC open day, which is provisionally booked for May in that hall,

I'm not sure they want our muddling running around the vaccinations.

 

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

other piece of advice I give - and it cannot be said too often - is "Check Signal".  I will tell trainees to say it to themselves before making any move.  Even go to bed saying "Check Signal". 

 

 

 

 

If you don't check signals going to bed, you may end up talking in a high voice...

 

[pH]

23 minutes ago, polybear said:

Though Spike Milligan aced it I think - he had the words "I told you I was ill" on his gravestone.

In Irish Gaelic, because the diocese wouldn’t allow it in English.

[TheQ]

2 minutes ago, pH said:

In Irish Gaelic, because the diocese wouldn’t allow it in English.

Duirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite" 

[Barry O]

56 minutes ago, Ian Abel said:

Moaning - Martin Luther King day here, and for some a public holiday, AND, TWO DAYS AND COUNTING.

 

It's a "national" holiday of sorts with banks and Post Offices etc., closed, but many businesses carry on regardless.

Confusingly, it's NOT a public holiday on my company calendar, BUT, the Long Island client DOES take it as a holiday!

So, do I work (have sh!t to do for them and can justifiably bill)  or NOT, taking the day as personal time-off! Confusing, probably work half-day, covers both bases

 

I have a SERIOUS PUZZLE/CHALLENGE for those who want to try for it - with TWO CAVEATS;

CAVEATS;

1) Don't judge me for using Amazon. We use them A LOT. Things that should be "in stock" locally but never are, and things that can't be found locally - try as we do, local shops simply don't really care on an individual item or customer basis.

2) Don't judge me for using Tetley tea bags. They WORK and are convenient and I rather like the tea, though I know many will shun me now 

 

THE PUZZLE/CHALLENGE- figuring out WHAT THE HELL happened here, and more to the point what to do about it, or not! 

Saturday I ordered two 80-bag boxes of Tetley tea from Amazon - the local grocery store I have got them from for years have decided to ONLY carry the DECAF version now!

Order says - delivery between Jan 25th - 28th. coming from a third party Amazon store. Quite acceptable as I've some left in my stock.

 

Sunday evening at 6:29 (security camera has the footage), a guy "looking" to all intents like a delivery guy, drops off a package of said tea. From footage he appears to check his hand-held for details, drops it off, take a picture etc., etc. as is normal practice here, and we FIND said package about an hour later.

The package is simply two boxes of Tetley Tea (as "ordered") in a Walmart plastic bag. The only label on the entire thing is this;

All AMAZON packages here come in distinctly Amazon boxes, can't miss them, AND they always have the complete shipping label on them!!!!

 

ADDITIONAL PUZZLE PIECES/CLUES/DETAILS

1) We never shop at Walmart, not sure we've ever even been in one!

2) Usually get a text message announcing expected delivery AND once delivery has been made - neither appeared.

3) Amazon order STILL SHOWS arriving per original date, not shipped even yet.

4) If it's a mistaken delivery, what are the chances someone ELSE ordered two boxes of Tetley tea from ANYWHERE and managed to get it delivered to us.
     Not like it's a gallon of milk which half the US may order, we're talking something VERY SPECIFIC and not exactly a common order "around these parts".

5) Using any/all of the data on the label results in nothing being able to be found via google etc.. Customer name, nothing showing locally!!

6) There's no indication of a return address to contact the shipping company.

7) Order number or any of the other numbers bear no relationship to ANY Amazon recent order!

 

Suggestions?

It's not ticking so not a bomb  it appears to be what was ordered, but does that mean some alien intercepted my order and decided to do a good deed?

I'm in the twilight zone and it didn't really happen? That MAY be true except we still have the package on the porch table

 

Oh well - confused in Minnesota 

 

-7 and cloudy, actually expected to go DOWN for a high of -8 later

 

Off we go for the start of another week.

 

 

 

Have a cup of tea and a little rest... worry not about the delivery.. unless another one arrives..

 

Baz

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Went to Tess Coes this afternoon, the place was empty but at least everyone except for a few young children were masked.

4 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Not to worry about folk like him Rick - passengers have always known best it comes to train timetable.  Try about 14m10secs - 14m30 in here, from 1961, -

 

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-terminus-1961-online

I thought that they looked as if they were from central casting. Still didn't stop the police sergeant from shooing the cameraman away though.

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Although he is over 80 I don't think Rupert Murdoch is a care home resident round our neck of the words but he reportedly was vaccinated in the very first lot of folk done here back in December.  So maybe you could pop out and buy a newspaper to jump the queue?

Does Rupert sell newspapers?

[Tony_S]

5 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

Wouldn't touch BT with a barge pole and that's with them buying the barge pole for us. They are a bunch of incompetent W.......... who I would trust to run a sweet shop let alone a multi national telephonic company.

Apologies if any readers have the misfortune to have worked for them.

Hasn’t been my experience at all. Either with just telephone or later on broadband. In addition I have a Sim from BT mobile for my iPad. Easy to check on any feature of my account. My main mobile is with O2 as it was originally with BT Cellnet. I don’t have the BT TV service though. 
 

Edited January 18, 2021 by Tony_S

[tetsudofan]

8 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

 

 

Mine had a personal plate from new, and was subsequently given a new age-related number. I'd always assumed new cars were allocated local numbers from new, to which they would revert once the personal plate was transferred on, but apparently not. Apparently, all re-registrations get London plates these days.

 

John 

 

 

 

Things have changed now John.

 

If buying a new car now and you want to have your personal plate on the new car the first thing you have to do is put the current car "on retention". This can be done online at which time the DVLA will issue you with a new local age-related number. You then have to get a new number plate made and put that on the car.

 

DVLA will then send a new V5C Registration Certificate showing the new number as well as the V778 Retention Document for the personal plate.

 

In my case I then went off to the local M-B dealership with the above documents and they made the new plate and put in on the current car and arranged to have the new car registered and delivered with the personal plate. Soon after that DVLA sends a new V5C for the new car.

 

Compared to what is was when I first got the personal plate the current transfer procedures are a doddle most of which can be done online.

 

Keith