Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[Ozexpatriate]

16 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

There was a Windows update last night and on my toolbar has appeared a weather report,

That happened to me too. Having just restored the laptop from 'sleep mode' is what it currently says:

 

My patio thermometer says it is about 76°F / 24°C but it is anything but sunny - there's a heavy overcast. Originally rain was forecast Friday through Monday. Last night (after only seeing rain on Friday morning) the Saturday forecast was changed to 'dry' with rain returning overnight. It was a (mostly) nice day.

 

Posting this I notice it is updated to:

And lo and behold, there is a little drizzle happening.

 

I'm not too keen on this mysterious memory and cycle stealer suddenly appearing without warning, but I haven't turned it off yet.

 

EDIT

Relative to RMweb privacy settings, on Windows, I am not required to acknowledge them with each session, but there is this settings menu floating at the bottom of the browser (Chrome) window:

 

Edited June 13, 2021 by Ozexpatriate

[BR60103]

It's here, chum; it's here, chum,

The second jab for you! *

We had ours this afternoon.

 

We have caller id on the phone. If there's no name and we don't like the number we let it go to the answering machine. Ours pops in after 2 rings. Persons who leave no message get no call back.

 

The American medicare system strikes me as much like car insurance  -- the govt requires you to buy it but from private industry.

 

* variation on WW2 song Second Front.

[pH]

14 minutes ago, BR60103 said:

The American medicare system strikes me as much like car insurance  -- the govt requires you to buy it but from private industry.

Not here in BC, it doesn’t!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurance_Corporation_of_British_Columbia

 

Edit: I forgot - nor in Saskatchewan, Manitoba or Quebec.

Edited June 13, 2021 by pH

[TheQ]

Mooring AWL Inner Temple Hare,

 6 six hours solid sleep so far, helped by the house being 2C cooler, we've had the same sun but the was a strong sea breeze most of yesterday, significantly cooling the house.

 

Travel departments,

RAF you got ordered to go somewhere, you went to the personnel flight. Got issued a rail warrant or got permission to use your own car. The claim for milage allowance afterwards was highly checked you'd not get an extra mile out of them. Highly unusual to be authorised to use a hotel, normally you live in transit accommodation on the nearest base. Which could mean triple bunks in a 16 man room now holding 48 men. We had no vehicles for long distance or say weeks trip somewhere. Only the CO had his own issued car.

If you were booked a hotel or b&b somewhere, it would be the lowest standard they could find , for instance having to pay extra for the handles for the taps to the bath!!! Which the RAF wouldn't pay for, you had to go to the Airman's accommodation on the nearest base and use their facilities. The officers of course were booked into a much higher standard proper hotel nearby.

 

GEC, no travel department, a secretary, she booked cars. Hotels. Flights etc. However the cars were booked via someone in personnel who controlled the company car pool,  personnel also booked hire cars when they ran out of company cars, with permission from finance and a manager. Hotels were booked with permission of your manager , if the bill went above a certain level it required his managers permission, which it always did for our normal week out, either way it needed finances permission as well.

On return the claim form needed walking round all these people getting signature after signature. If you sent it through the internal mail system it would take months to trundle round..

 

For some reason our department had the lowest permitted spend on hotels, even though we were the most traveled non manager level department. This meant a wireman booked from the workshops, could stay in a higher standard of hotel than the engineers and technicians in our department.

 

Alcohol was not allowed on bills, they even rang a Chinese takeaway I used to use regularly, to see if I'd ordered alcohol.. ( they didn't have an alcohol license).

 

And onto today, which is boat building.

 

Time to... Err think of breakfast.

 

Edited June 13, 2021 by TheQ

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

One of my little foibles is to study the Honours List for familiar names.  This stems from my time working in Westminster in the mid 1980s.  One of my tasks was to identify candidates for appointment to a non-departmental public body from the ranks of what might be loosely described as the great and the good.  It can be all too easy to overlook a knighthood or other gong and some recipients are understandably a bit precious about it.  One year my scrutiny picked up my opposite number in the Welsh Office.  When I spoke to him on the phone he seemed quite touched that anyone had noticed.  Over the years I have found quite a few names that I either knew personally or with whom I had had dealings.  The latest list has a few interesting names.  I spotted the CBE awarded to Rick Wakeman and the MBE to Engelbert Humperdinck.  Only the latter was for services to music!

 

Robert Erichill, I am happy to share my unfamiliar route to Interlaken.  I would have taken it last year but the trip fell victim to quarantine requirements.  With the mantra “if at first you don’t succeed …” in mind, here goes:  Rail Liverpool St to Harwich International, ferry overnight to Hoek van Holland, metro to Rotterdam Alexander, rail to Utrecht Centraal, rail to Frankfurt and five hours in an ICE to Interlaken West.  The main group, aka the herd, will leave St Pancras International at the crack of noon, spend the night at Aachen and reach Interlaken via Koln, the Rhine Valley and Basel.  I regard the journey to and from Switzerland as part of the holiday and like to ring the changes when I can.  

 

A few days earlier than I had expected, the new Bellowhead CD arrived yesterday.  The CDs that repose in the legendary hessian bag will be miffed that they must wait still longer to be put into the CD player.  Tough!  I need the excitement!  On a barely related subject, I can’t help wondering who will be serenading the G7 leadership with sea shanties on the beach in Cornwall.  Would Fisherman’s Friends be a bit obvious?  

 

Best wishes to all, especially all the sick and missing.

 

Chris

[Andrew P]

Ek its ot already, off for the paper and then back to tune into GB News for the start of its first broadcast at 7-30.

 

Have a good day one and all, stay safe and keep well.

[TheQ]

MBE OBE, in the military known as My Bxxxxy Efforts and Others Bxxxxy Efforts.

Ie the MBE was given to those earnt it themselves.

The OBE was awarded to those ordering others to do do the work, but got the gong themselves.

 

Dad was on the honours list once, he holds an obscure medal issued to a limited number of civil servants . So not only do you need to earn it, someone else has to die to leave a space for it to be issued again.

 

GB news will at least give an alternative news channel to watch, hopefully it will try to be different.

Sky news and BBC news often show the same things, RT is the anti America Channel,  while being different Al-Jazeera is often subtitled which means unless you can give it 100% attention you can't follow it if you have to look away.

 

 

[Mike Bellamy]

1 hour ago, chrisf said:

On a barely related subject, I can’t help wondering who will be serenading the G7 leadership with sea shanties on the beach in Cornwall.  Would Fisherman’s Friends be a bit obvious?  

 

 

Chris - The Bryher's Boys 'welcomed visitors' at Falmouth

 

https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/singers-g7-summit-cornwall-sea-shanties/

 

Du Hag Owr was the group who sang on the beach

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9675913/Sea-shanty-group-serenade-world-leaders-beach-G7-summit.html

 

More CDs for the collection . . . ? ?

.

[polybear]

8 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

@polybear i can't understand the Surveyor mentioning the height of the Windows  but I can understand the comments on the foundations of there was to be structural movement due to the foundations the Surveyor would be judged to be negligent. It's all.An bottom covering exercise really. The buyer will most likely have specified a homebuyers report which is more in depth than a normal mortgage valuation but not quite as in depth as a structural survey 

 

The Surveyor made no mention of the foundations; Bear was merely pointing out that the Surveyor was moaning about the windows because they didn't meet current regs. - many, many other things won't meet current regs either - such as the foundations for example.

Pulling a property up for not meeting current regs is just nuts**, as I very much doubt any of us live in houses that meet current regs to the full letter of the law, unless they were built last week.  And even then if they were examined in detail then I'd bet a LDC that a non-compliance (probably several) could be found without trying too hard.

 

(** With the exception of certain High Rise Buildings, for example, that may feature a certain type of cladding.....)

 

In other news:

Bear has an appointment with a paint brush today; also a sanding block and quite possibly a small strip of lining paper.  Michael Fish is predicting 27C for Bears today - so I've cancelled running the Marathon.  Just when I was soooo looking forward to it too .  Poly's don't do hot - unless it's overseas, but there's little danger of that for the foreseeable.

Edited June 13, 2021 by polybear

[chrisf]

10 minutes ago, Mike Bellamy said:

More CDs for the collection . . . ? ?

.

Never say never!  What I heard of Du Hag Owr was encouraging.   Well done to those concerned for avoiding the bleeding obvious.  I'm not decrying Fisherman's Friends, far from it as I have a ticket for a concert that they will give in July next year, but they are not exactly lesser-spotted.

 

Chris

[PupCam]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Pulling a property up for not meeting current regs is just nuts**, as I very much doubt any of us live in houses that meet current regs to the full letter of the law, unless they were built last week.  And even then if they were examined in detail then I'd bet a LDC that a non-compliance (probably several) could be found without trying too hard.

 

Absolutely!   Unless we live in some amazing high tech property that continually morphs so that it remains compliant  with the current, evolving (and probably contradictory) regulations that can never happen.

 

An example; my son has just moved into a newish property (2010) and the downstairs toilet which doesn't have a window doesn't have an extractor fan or ventilator ..... Next door's has (well, that's a reg that's been in place for years) but it looks like the builder just forgot or couldn't be arxxd! Looks like he'll have to get someone to install a suitable ventilator (as Puppers really isn't up to such antics these days).

 

I fancy Mr Bear could soon be over-run with LDC!

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It is a pleasant morning. Quite warm already. We have eaten our breakfast and we will set off round the M25 to Enfield later. There was going to be an intercontinental Zoom call in the afternoon but the Delhi resident family members have pulled out as they will be at a funeral. There could be a lot of traffic heading to the seaside resorts today but hopefully both this morning and tonight we will be going in the opposite direction. 
Tony

 

[New Haven Neil]

Morning-ish.

 

A warm but dull start to the day enlivened my driving the washing machine.  House-husband stuff.

 

Not sure what we're meant to be up to, no doubt orders will be issued.

 

Travel back in my merch days was organised by the company, the general idea being that you arrived at the port as the ship did, or left the ship and went straight to the airport.  This didn't always happen, as you might imagine!  I had a week in Gibraltar once, waiting for a seat in a flight home, and 5 days in Hong Kong similarly.  Also a few days steaming hot in Dubai awaiting arrival offshore of a poorly tanker.  Didn't like that much. 

[Coombe Barton]

Sunny

 

Light breeze

 

Hot later

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. According to the weather thingy its now 22OC outside. I might venture out later but will have to beat a hasty retreat if hay fever rears its ugly head. Now muggatee time, be back later.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Congratulations to Chris on his excellent route to Interlaken - fingers crossed that this year's Swiss expedition will happen as planned for him.

 

The weather is again hot and the G word is well to the fore but for me it looks like it will centre on the trimming of the oak tree in the front garden while herself is concentrating at present on new planting in the recently well weeded large bed in the front garden.  But it ain't arf hot already.

 

Pool cars used to be an interesting area as on the railway if the job didn't bring a car/van, or shared vehicle, for duty purposes or t you hadn't reached sufficiently exulted heights to have a personal (latter days leased) car of your own - I ended up one grade short but at least had been put on the salary scale for that grade.   So if you needed a car for other purposes it was important to know who had control of the pool cars and to make sure you were in their good books then make your own arrangements with them.  However maintenance/usage standards on pool cars tended to be not so carefully watched as it was by folk who had regular vehicles so I had one or two interesting moments like the gear lever of a Ford Escort coming off in my hand in the middle of Newport one day or a 'Land crab' which had been demoted to pool use and misfired all the way from Reading to Ledbury and back.  Dead easy in my final big railway job - there were no pool cars, not even for On Call purposes, so my own car had ready a useful selection of 'official purposes' parking badges for various parts of the network although I never had to use any of them.

 

Incidentally the 'Privacy' symbol mentioned by Ozex also appears bottom right on my safari screen when I'm on RMweb.  As for 'compliance' it reminds me of the servicing twits from British gGs who kept on saving the air flow into the living room (where the back boiler was situated) didn't comply with current regulations  - trouble was the flippin' regulations had changed twice since we put in the air grill.  I reckon they were just after work.

 

Have a good day folks and stay safe.

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon, it's already 29 here and is going higher. Thanks to Phil for the note about privacy settings. I will have to investigate.  I've just noticed it here on my Android tablet.

 

A lot got done in the morning yesterday, the two IBC's,, 1000 litre tanks now repose on pallets and the area has beeb cleared and strimmed. I hope to get the rainwater supply pipes installed on Monday.  The kit I bought even inclused a hole saw.  Very helpful.  The afternoon  was spent doing not a lot as it was hot, the pool had to be inspected, that took some tine.  After tea some new neighbours came round for drinks.  A nice couple and we had a good evening. They brought their two dogs with them, who enjoyed exploring the garden. 

 

This morning I was late up and the hens were not shy about letting me know about it when I let them out at 8.30.  Then it was off to the market fotpr various things then coffee with friends. Life is gradually getting better.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

It's a bit of a dull start to the day here in England's northwest. Up late again this morning, so straight outside to do the garden to water the plants.

 

I'm now sat in the cellar about to attack a pile of receipts that need shredding. Today will only spend the morning down here as we are going to James' new house for tea. He moved to Preston in March, so this will be our first visit there and we are both looking forward to it. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later.

 

Brian 

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Incidentally the 'Privacy' symbol mentioned by Ozex also appears bottom right on my safari screen when I'm on RMweb.  As for 'compliance' it reminds me of the servicing twits from British gGs who kept on saving the air flow into the living room (where the back boiler was situated) didn't comply with current regulations  - trouble was the flippin' regulations had changed twice since we put in the air grill.  I reckon they were just after work.

 

Have a good day folks and stay safe.

I had the same when my gas supply was renewed after a leak. The vent that was perfectly OK for the gas fire/back boiler suddenly became unsuitable. They were most upset when I asked a builder friend to instal the vent they said I needed at a fraction of the price they quoted. 

[tigerburnie]

Afternoon all, managed to get the outside of the big summerhouse painted with Creocote before it got too hot out there, corner one to do another day, time for eyelid inspection.

[PhilJ W]

Hello again from Estuary-Land. No problems with the fridge freezer now as its chilling everything nicely. Not so the TV, it keeps going into scan when it is switched on, I will have to locate the instruction book buried somewhere in a pile of magazines.  Apparently there is a serious shortage of salad vegetables, lettuce in particular as there is no one to pick the crop. Most of the pickers came from Eastern Europe and due to Brexit they no longer want to come to the UK. 

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

As you may guess it's too darn hot out there.

First job, move 1/4 ton of  25kg bags of cement and sand from landrover to shed or their future place of use. Numerous trips down the garden pushing a wheelbarrow, to the amusement of Ben who loves chasing the wheels.

 

Then to  finishing the keel bolt holes,  the nuts for a pair at a time were removed , the straightness was adjusted , then the holes filled with liquid resin, the new weight spreading plates put in place, then a big washer, then the nuts were tightened down. I'm glad to report that no resin leaked out below.

 

After that it was cleaning, sanding  and preparing another quarter of the boat for painting. 

After making like a snow man for an hour, it then got topped up by light blue paint as I lay beneath paying particular attention to the center line where a keel band used to reside, oh a few holes for the screws for that needed filling first.

 

During the above there were several interruptions as SWMBO required assistance on clearing the old deck.  During this an old football sized ball belonging to Duke, a previous Border Collie was found, it was stuck under the old deck. It's extremely hard plastic  as Duke would demolish anything.

Ben was not amused when he tried to play with it, he's much more of a softy.

 

Ben then took me for his walk, I refused the long walk requested by him as it was too hot, however even on the short walk we did part of it and he requested we go home as he was getting much to hot.

 

Time for a soak in the bath..

 

[leopardml2341]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Apparently there is a serious shortage of salad vegetables, lettuce in particular as there is no one to pick the crop. Most of the pickers came from Eastern Europe and due to Brexit they no longer want to come to the UK. 

There are plenty of people in the UK who are capable, if only they could be @rsed. I did say that Brexit would mean more people who think they are owed a living for doin' nowt might find Brexit a shock, now just to find a suitable 'incentive'.......

Edited June 13, 2021 by leopardml2341

[Erichill16]

15 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

 

Robert you do seem to get to visit some interesting places Penistone and Thurgoland.  

Thurgoland interesting I’m not sure about that! But one snippet of information, John Stones, current England football international, who’s playing as I type, was brought up in Thurgoland and went to penistone grammar school.

Its also where mil lives. 
Bye, Match resumed,

Robert
 

Edited June 13, 2021 by Erichill16
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