Early Risers.

[chrisf]

A couple of pages ago we were discussing Accrington Stanley.  Far too many do not know of the folk performer Stanley Accrington.  I do not know his real name but the derivation of his stage name is obvious.  May I share with you one of his particularly clever utterances, about a former member of the Greater London Council.  It may be sung to a well-known tune:

 

"Oh, Shirley Porter, what did you do

Sold council houses to your mates and made a bob of two 

But now the sh!t has hit the fan, you've really gone too far

Oh, Shirley Porter, what a silly cow you are"

 

On that happy note I shall shortly be setting out for Taunton.

 

Chris

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

6 hours solid sleep, followed by intermittent dozing.

 

Mk back in the day of CB radio was known as doughnut city, and not long ago I travelled on to near Oxford, to find roundabouts have spread like a disease on down that route. Drivers in MK are advised to put front tyre pressures up by a couple of pounds, to counteract some of the wear caused by all that driving in circles...

Our roads too have had increasing road works as tourist season arrives, there's another on the way to work where they are installing a.... Roundabout.

 

Outside macarthy and stone homes for the misled, there are traffic lights for road works on the main A149,.  Pity the actual roadworks which was the installation of a pavement across the former entrance to the site, was completed several days ago.. 

 

Ben the I want out Collie, has taken me on patrol, tis still very windy, and chilly. So I'm going to head for the sailing club and bring the jib club back. Also I'll add a couple of half filled with water plastic milk bottles hanging on strings to the cover, to hold it down where I can't get a strap to do it.

I've been finalising the changes to the jib club, I must take a tape measure with me so I don't make it too long.

 

Oh wonderful the seaweed inspectors are warning of late season frost during the next week.

 

Think it's time for a muggacoffee...

[pH]

4 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Mk back in the day of CB radio was known as doughnut city …

East Kilbride is/was known as Polo Mint City.

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, BR60103 said:

 

 actually watched a bit of sports today -- the Boston Marathon or at least the last couple of miles.  The women's race was interesting. There were three of them running as a pack at the front, chatting away. Then one was suddenly hundreds of feet behind. The pair continued, passing water around, until one suddenly was a few paces in front. Then there was jockeying and the lead may have changed a half dozen times in the last mile.  Part of the course seemed to have railway tracks beside it (Boylston Street?) that may have had third rail. Any ideas?

 

 

It will be one of the subway lines. Without getting access to a map I think the Orange andcRed lines are mainly surface running with 3rd Rail.  

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a cool and grey place.  Not a lot got done yesterday but I did fi ish uploading photos.  All the ones I scanned during lockdown are sorted, labelled and in logical order. It's the ones that were lieing in various recesses imported from previous hard drives that are tricky.  Perhaps one day I'll sort them out.  

 

Today it's time for the market and then time to start preparing for our trip to the UK on Friday.  Before that I have two files of financial stuff to go through as tomorrow I plan to do my tax return for 2021.  I have blocked the day off on the calendar.  It should be easier than last year but it's a Gevernment website that I will be fighting with.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Grizz]

13 hours ago, polybear said:

16 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

.....insomninium.....

 

That's a real fun word to try and pronounce......

 

Aha.....Insomniminimum...it comes from an episode of 'The Navy Lark'....more precisely used by Able Seaman Johnson. Who has a problem sleeping, IIRC. 

 

 

 

Morning All.

 

Spent 3.5 hours yesterday out and about in Sussex filming English Electric's class 50s who were, at times, definately in unfamiliar territory. It was a bit windy but well worth the effort. Especially as the MK1s may not have many years left on Network. 

 

A few photos from the videos we took. 

 

50007 Hercules on the rear of the BTN (Gotham City) to Newhaven Marine Sidings trip, passes Lewes.

 

50008 Thunderer on the rear of the Newhaven Marine to Haywards Heath trip, at Hamsey Crossing. 

 

50008 Thunderer leading the Haywards Heath to Eastbourne trip, at Cooksbridge. 

 

With 50007 masquerading as 50034 Furious on one side on the rear of the train, at Cooksbridge. 

 

Well got to go. We are off to shunt trains about for the morning. 

 

Have a good one all. 

 

ATB Grizz 

 

 

 

[jamie92208]

17 minutes ago, Grizz said:

 

Aha.....Insomniminimum...it comes from an episode of 'The Navy Lark'....more precisely used by Able Seaman Johnson. Who has a problem sleeping, IIRC. 

 

 

 

Morning All.

 

Spent 3.5 hours yesterday out and about in Sussex filming English Electric's class 50s who were, at times, definately in unfamiliar territory. It was a bit windy but well worth the effort. Especially as the MK1s may not have many years left on Network. 

 

A few photos from the videos we took. 

 

50007 Hercules on the rear of the BTN (Gotham City) to Newhaven Marine Sidings trip, passes Lewes.

 

50008 Thunderer on the rear of the Newhaven Marine to Haywards Heath trip, at Hamsey Crossing. 

 

50008 Thunderer leading the Haywards Heath to Eastbourne trip, at Cooksbridge. 

 

With 50007 masquerading as 50034 Furious on one side on the rear of the train, at Cooksbridge. 

 

Well got to go. We are off to shunt trains about for the morning. 

 

Have a good one all. 

 

ATB Grizz 

 

 

 

Nice.  I'm old enough to remember them on test on the Settle and Carlisle in steam days with a rake of 19 maroon coaches from Crewe.

 

Jamie.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Lovely start to the day here with lots of blue sky and sunshine.  A fine, dry and warm day is forecast.

The Boss was up at 6.00am to start food preparations for today's visitors.  She brought me up a muggatea at 7.30 which was, I thought, quite nice of her to leave me asleep/dozing for so long!  She is now wielding The Shark which is most unusual as she doesn't like it and usually leaves it to me.  I have been offered my preferred Sunday breakfast of bacon, eggs etc  so she must be in a good mood.  I haven't got much to do except decorate my cheesecake and at midday go and collect birthday boy Steve.  We're expecting 14 for lunch and drinks so a good day is in prospect.

Rugby and GP are set to record for my delectation later tonight after everyone's gone home.....if they do!

Have a good one,

Bob.

[polybear]

9 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

In other news I don't play politics in public but merely note that we are among the local areas where an election is about to occur.  Choose three from twelve in our case all of which are mainstream parties - not a whacky nor a Monster Raving Loony among them. 

 

The Beary take on P*litics......

Whilst I love watching The Muppet Show, I wouldn't want 'em running the Country.

Er, hang on a minute, actually I think I would want them running the country - I reckon they'd do a pretty good job after all.  Let's see now:

Fozzie:  Minister for Fun.

Animal:  Law and Order.

Cookie Monster:  Food

Oscar the Grouch:  Foreign Minister

Hmm, the Cabinet's shaping up nicely already....

 

Bear here.....

Well I think I'll wake the nearly new neighbours (not to be confused with the newest neighbour) with a little drillin' this morning - I still have two sets of architrave to fit, one of which falls into the "noisy drilling" (i.e. into brickwork) category.  They're still well in debt with This Bear after all the racket that went on just before Chrimbo when they had to have the concrete floor dug out of their bluddy great side extension and lounge cos' Bodger Bill the Builder (actually he was trained as a Postman....) laid the concrete with no DPC.  Not that Bear bears a grudge (see what I did there?).

After that?  Well there's still a paint scheme for the walls to choose, which I must do today cos' I very nearly need it now.  

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Off to Batley shortly. Looking at the two teams who are playing it could be fun.. a bit like herding poisonous snakes.12 noon start, 50 overs a side..

 

Moving spiders.. use my hands, moving bees.. use my hands, moving wasps . ... an empty jar and a piece of card.. I don't trust them!

 

No voting bumf here yet. Although one candidate has plastered his signs on sticks everywhere by the roadsides around here. But he is a "eco warrior" according to his on line Web pages. Yer! Right!  Erm the signs are plasticised printed paper stapled onto pieces of wood. ..

 

Have a great day!

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

 

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by Barry O

[pH]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

After that?  Well there's still a paint scheme for the walls to choose, which I must do today cos' I very nearly need it now.  

We’ve just repainted the kitchen. My wife describes it has having gone from one shade of beige to a slightly different shade of beige. I think it looks good - as my sister-in-law said “I do like a nice beige!”.

[Tony_S]

8 minutes ago, pH said:

We’ve just repainted the kitchen. My wife describes it has having gone from one shade of beige to a slightly different shade of beige. I think it looks good - as my sister-in-law said “I do like a nice beige!”.

Aditi spent ages choosing curtains that had a main colour similar to the painted walls. 

[The White Rabbit]

12 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

... As to elections we have our presidential run off tomorrow.  A French neighbour summed it up as do you vite for the liar or the bigot. ......

 

11 hours ago, polybear said:

Someone in France was being interviewed as regards who to vote for - they responded with "Pick the lesser of two evils - Cholera or the Plague".  Not sure which is the worse out of those two......

Whoever it was being interviewed obviously has an in-depth understanding of Politics.

 

Round here we also have some elections due. I think it's a choice of five evils to rate... though I suspect I shall follow a former mayor of London's philosophy, relayed in an unguarded moment to the media. One hard copy advert for the blue party through our door, followed by one for the reds. Nothing from the others yet but the bin's already full, so no regrets. Anyway, I can hear my luff fluttering, so...

 

9 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Or maybe bare bear paw?

 

I was thinking 'Bear's bare paw'? 

 

2 hours ago, Grizz said:

 

Aha.....Insomniminimum...it comes from an episode of 'The Navy Lark'....more precisely used by Able Seaman Johnson. Who has a problem sleeping, IIRC. 

 

 

That's the trouble with insomnin ... insomnonnia...  what you said... you've time to wonder about spelling and phrases! Yes, the genius of Ronnie B. I could hear it in my head but wasn't too sure about the spelling. Perhaps it varied anyway? 

 

Blue sky and sunshine, so time to stir. Carpe diem (as much as is allowed on a Sunday anyway). 

[tigerburnie]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

The Beary take on P*litics......

Whilst I love watching The Muppet Show, I wouldn't want 'em running the Country.

Er, hang on a minute, actually I think I would want them running the country - I reckon they'd do a pretty good job after all.  Let's see now:

Fozzie:  Minister for Fun.

Animal:  Law and Order.

Cookie Monster:  Food

Oscar the Grouch:  Foreign Minister

Hmm, the Cabinet's shaping up nicely already....

 

Bear here.....

Well I think I'll wake the nearly new neighbours (not to be confused with the newest neighbour) with a little drillin' this morning - I still have two sets of architrave to fit, one of which falls into the "noisy drilling" (i.e. into brickwork) category.  They're still well in debt with This Bear after all the racket that went on just before Chrimbo when they had to have the concrete floor dug out of their bluddy great side extension and lounge cos' Bodger Bill the Builder (actually he was trained as a Postman....) laid the concrete with no DPC.  Not that Bear bears a grudge (see what I did there?).

After that?  Well there's still a paint scheme for the walls to choose, which I must do today cos' I very nearly need it now.  

Pretty sure we have had Muppets running this country for decades now.......................

Morning, another restless night, up just after 6, a bit chilly so put the towel heater on in the bathroom before showering, went back to bed and fell asleep, not waking until nine, that's a first for a while. Cloudy but dry today and forecast this for a couple of days, so not much planned, I might try a short drive round the village to see how I get on, the neighbours have been warned lol.

[Danemouth]

Picking up on books that were hard/impossible to read the one I could never get into despite several attempts was Catch 22 - never got past page 30!

 

Dave

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A bit stuffed up with the hay fever this morning but that means no G word today. I have filled out my postal vote and I will drop it into the post box tomorrow.

6 hours ago, chrisf said:

 May I share with you one of his particularly clever utterances, about a former member of the Greater London Council.  It may be sung to a well-known tune:

 

"Oh, Shirley Porter, what did you do

Sold council houses to your mates and made a bob of two 

But now the sh!t has hit the fan, you've really gone too far

Oh, Shirley Porter, what a silly cow you are"

Chris

Dame Shirley Porter was never a member of the GLC, she was leader of Westminster City Council. Also she only sold of council houses in marginal wards to supporters of her own party. IIRC the leader of the GLC at the time was Ken Livingstone.

[PupCam]

Morning All!

 

Today should have started with a Hairy Biker bike ride (hairless in my case) followed by a suitable hairy biker breakfast in Bedford.   Having extracted the bike, "Togged Up" (always dress for the slide NOT the ride) and set off for the appointed meeting place along the A6 by the time I arrived (it was only a few miles) it was clear all was not well with Puppers.    An unidentifiable malady, just a thought that things aren't right so, as the Cardio nurse is always saying, "Listen to your body" and on this occasion it was clearly saying "GO HOME!".   So I did.   Bike in the garage, car back on the drive and then a DIY non-hairy breakfast.   Then descended one humdinger of a migraine (I just get the vision impairment and maybe a very slight headache).    Anyway, I'm glad I wasn't riding at the time.  

 

Shame, it's a gorgeous day for a bimble!

 

TTFNQ

 

Alan

[AndrewC]

47 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

Pretty sure we have had Muppets running this country for decades now.......................

 

The muppets aren't the problem. It is the evil b*stards who have their hands up the muppet's backsides that are the problem. 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Up later than planned, so I went straight outside to do some work in the garden. I'm currently taking a restfrom trying to remove the stump of an old shrub, it's almost ready to pull out, so hopefully it shouldn't take me much longer. Teas all gone now so it's back to work. 

 

Back later. 

 

Brian 

 

 

[Compound2632]

On 21/04/2022 at 06:50, jamie92208 said:

CHRIS remember my 2 rules re societies.

1.  Always attend the AGM or you will find you've ended up with a job.

2. Never ask a questi9n at an AGM or you will end up with a job.

 

Sound advice but it doesn't always work as @jamie92208 has recently discovered.

[jamie92208]

13 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Sound advice but it doesn't always work as @jamie92208 has recently discovered.

Yes I am  aware that my name may have cropped up at a certain AGM.

 

Jamie

[45156]

Afternoon All

 

At last, one bedroom is finished, cleared, redecorated, and ready for use - and just to prove it - here's an image.

 

It does look good, even though I say so myself.

 

That big wardrobe was an absolute b*gger to reassemble.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

 

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by 45156

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Spent a couple of hours clearing the racking and the end of the job is in sight, only one more box to make room for. A few more items will be heading for the garden shed or the garage and some things for the local charity shop. Kettles boiling so its be back later.

[Gwiwer]

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

On 21/04/2022 at 06:50, jamie92208 said:

CHRIS remember my 2 rules re societies.

1.  Always attend the AGM or you will find you've ended up with a job.

2. Never ask a questi9n at an AGM or you will end up with a job.

 

Sound advice but it doesn't always work as @jamie92208 has recently discovered.

I managed to end up with a job starting at an AGM I wasn’t at. I was over 12,000 miles away!  Short version - I’m still doing the job almost five years later so either I’m doing something righr or no-one else is prepared to ask questions or to absent themselves from the AGM 🤣

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl, 

Two hours were taken up by a visit to the Sailing Club,

A paddle across to the boat 

Attach two plastic milk bottles to the cover, hanging down the sides near the stern, half filled with water.

Paddle to the front, detach the jib club, from 3 ropes, and a shackle.

Paddle back to the club partake of a bacon butty, and muggacoffee.

 

While there, the Commodores son turned up, well on the way to having his brain removed.

No longer in trainers, jeans and T shirt,  but Correctly dressed, brown highly polished shoes for the countryside, (would be black highly polished shoes in town), light coloured trousers, with polished brown leather belt to match the shoes, Tattersall shirt, short back and sides... Yep a junior officer in training..

It was a quick visit between two weeks canoeing in Scotland, and flying off for a week's skiing .

All we got as an airman in the RAF was 5 days route marching through Sherwood forest in the snow...

 

I suspect his father being a sailing club commodore had much influence in getting to be an officer, not his father's job as an MOT inspector..

 

So back home with the jib club, angle grinder out, to cut off old fittings.

Then I cut a 2ft length, of 28 mm dowling, the jib club being 30mm of, unfortunately it's got a wall thickness of 3mm. So a considerable time was spent, with the section in the lathe. Initially with the chisel, then mostly with sandpaper.

 

Once it slid easily inside to club, a drill bit was put in the tailstock, and a 4 inch long hole drilled down the middle, followed by a 45degree hole, into the far end of the drilled hole.

 

Rubber bungy was fed through, with a knot tied in one end, the bungy reaches the far end of the jib club, with slight tension on it. A hollow was made big enough for the knot to drop into.

When close hauled I hope the wooden section will slide out about, 6 inches, to tension the jib foot.

 

After a stroll with Ben in the sunshine, various Berberis branches were cut close to the ground. I was getting cold, it's a whole 12.5c here with the easterly off the sea..