Early Risers.

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

When I was a wee lad I used to sleep in a corner on a pile of straw

Dry straw?

 

You were lucky 🤪

[iL Dottore]

Did I say dry straw?

 

I mean most people would consider a bit of horse wee as “wet”, but 'twas dry straw to us.....

Edited January 3, 2023 by iL Dottore

[grandadbob]

3 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Don't you have a spare pair? My optician offers an extra pair at a very reasonable price (free lenses and a discount on the frames). 

 

I do have a spare pair but the ones I broke are my "best" specs with anti glare coating for driving.  Couldn't fix them myself so phoned Boots and a very nice lady said "bring them in and I'll see what I can do."  Did as instructed and she sorted them in about  five minutes although she did point out that the frame is slightly damaged and there is a tiny chip on the edge of the lens.  However they are perfectly OK as far as I'm concerned and it didn't cost a penny.

I did have a slight road rage moment on the way home when trying to turn right at a junction near a set of pedestrian traffic lights which is quite clearly marked "Keep Clear."  First a bus blocked it, then a van and then a woman in a Range Rover.   My white car turned blue but then a gentleman in another van let me out. 

Must remember that this year I'm supposed to be trying to "Keep calm and build model railways."

Time for some lunch.

Edited January 3, 2023 by grandadbob

[Dave Hunt]

33 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

I did have a slight road rage moment on the way home when trying to turn right at a junction near a set of pedestrian traffic lights which is quite clearly marked "Keep Clear."  First a bus blocked it, then a van and then a woman in a Range Rover.   My white car turned blue but then a gentleman in another van let me out. 

 

There's a similar setup near me where I and many others have had your experience many times over. A few months ago someone added, "And that means you Dumbo," to the keep clear sign. Unfortunately it disappeared shortly afterwards.

 

Dave  

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

Dug area of mound, 6ft by 3ft by 1 spade depth and moved soil to elsewhere , that's 1/5 of the surface area to be done, but there will probably be a bit more depth to do as well. Lots of rocks, bits of concrete and broken brick in the mound, they will go into the foundations of the loom shed.

 

Cut the two sides of the centre console for Blue Moon, framed up one side, which is now under weights while glue sets. This ply is too brittle to bend so a redesign of the cup holder is required..

 

Ben took me for a medium length patrol, horsey hoof prints plus bicycle tracks and  human Welly prints.. I know who it is but what's unusual is they used the muddy lane, they normally use the tarmac lane. They often have a couple of dogs with them, which why Ben had lots of smells to investigate.

 

Just spent two base model accura Deltics on the new boom and fittings for Blue Moon,  ouch....

Edited January 3, 2023 by TheQ

[polybear]

4 hours ago, Grizz said:

Ooooo just had a horrible thought, the combination of holding down a stonky wonky hangover and shopping for bathrooms would have been a nasty combo. Been shopping with a hangover before, not an enjoyable experience. 

 

Bear suspects that it'd make you very susceptible to agreeing to all sorts of wild (= expensive) "suggestions" purely in an attempt to cut short the shopping so you can head back home to die quietly.....

[New Haven Neil]

A day of ups and downs.

 

Down, it is persisting down, cold and windy, and I had to go out to several places in it. Soaked. Cold.

 

Hip review somewhere in the middle,  a new direction of treatment as the previous attempts have not helped.  An up in that the joint is not yet at the replacement stage, although it has degraded in the two years this has been going on.  A down in that the new regime involves injections directly into the joint space, (been there before with MRI reactant), it hurts.  But if it works, I don't care.  Now I have to wait - another downer.  New Consultant I saw was an almost middle aged and rather attractively trim lady, who promptly struck up a conversation about motorbikes.....she has my faith!

 

Finally an up, looked in at the second hand bookshop in Peel (way out West)  on my way home from the hospickle to cheer myself up, where I found an absolutely mint copy of Pat Hammonds Rovex (Triang) story volume 3 - the rare one.  They go for up to about 90 quid on evil bay if mint, this was £25!  been after it for years, I have the first two volumes and enjoy the nostalgia trip, the trains of my childhood.

[The White Rabbit]

And one 'Deltic' spent on a new TV. After some deliberation, the Chief Acolyte asked for one, so after much peering at specifications (in the hope that the sockets are as described and will provide a home for our plugs from various boxes) a Samsung model was selected, a supplier chosen and the cash handed over. Delivery later, then I foresee some 'installation'. Hopefully with a minimum of bad language. 

 

One thing I have noticed lately is that certain words and phrases creeping into my consciousness and sometimes spoken language from ERs over the months. Whether it's 'a Deltic' (instead of say a pony or monkey)  or 'that ruddy virus', 'avagoodun', not to mention the ever useful 'turdycurses'. Some - such as SWMBO and good moaning - were well-known already but not used or heard very often. As I did English Language as an AS level many years ago, it's something I think about a little in association with the development/evolution/corruption of a language over time. Probably triggered by reading an obituary of my old teacher in a certain railway group's magazine. Not much else going on, it's piddling down outside and the forecaster just said 'build an ark', so I suspect I won't be doing much gardening this week. Possibly some of the forbidden topic, I see someone's just replied to an enquiry. TTFN. 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, grandadbob said:

did have a slight road rage moment on the way home 

I must admit to a slight annoyance on our way home last night. For once the traffic on the M25 was flowing nicely. I was in the third lane doing 70, when someone pulled out (no signal) from lane 2 (probably moving at about 50mph) and then slowed down. I know Aditi was also pressing phantom brake pedals from the passenger seat. If I hadn’t braked we would have piled into it. I couldn’t move out as there was traffic going past me at over 70mph. I then had to wait for a gap in the outer lane traffic to overtake my personal rolling roadblock. 

[DaveF]

Today started cold, dull and dark with a biting wind.  It is still dull and dark with drizzle but less cold.

 

Yesterday was much better, a beautiful sunny winter's day, with a frost until late morning.  It took some time to deice the car.

 

I went to have a look at the Quayside and saw one of the Arklow ships loaded with alumina waiting to unload, then I went to the beach and had another walk along the promenade.  By then there was some wind which was bitterly cold so I didn't go too far.  There were people in the water swimming.  I took some photos and headed home for coffee and to get warm.

 

In the afternoon I made a start on going through boxes I'd brought home from Mum's flat, I found a doll probably over 100 years old with its original clothes, Mum's wedding dress and some baby clothes - I'm not sure whether they were mine or hers as they are mainly white.  For the time being they will be kept and I have labelled the boxes so I know what is in them.  There were also a few photos I hadn't seen before which I will scan in due course.  I've also found a good place to store them when a few more tidying jobs havebeen done.  It feels like a big step forward.

 

I went across the road to wish neighbours a Happy New Year as they were out on New Years Day and had a cup of tea and caught up on their news.  I took them a couple of books of which I had two copies, it turns out they are ones they were going to buy themselves so that was good.

 

The evening was the usual TV, music and book.

 

Arklow Muse at Blyth

 

 

Beach from the Battery

 

 

January swimmers

 

David

Edited January 3, 2023 by DaveF

[southern42]

On 02/01/2023 at 12:26, southern42 said:

Later, today, I will see how much meat is left on the bone, if any, and rig up a duck cottage pie. Fingers crossed.

 

The duck cottage pie turned out alright with enough left over for tonight, as well! Which leaves me with a bit more "free" time this afternoon. Yesterday afternoon included time spent ahead of Bin Day, today, which included getting the duck carcass ready for the food bin. I mentioned last week that Bin Day was cancelled then re-instated and then nobody came to collect it. Well, it seems the BinTeam collected from the beginning of the road, TODAY, but failed to come to the end where our bins still remain unemptied. Email to the Office duly sent. 😁

 

@Barry O & @polybear Woolly socks and Pipe insulation. <<Mind blowing...>>

However, a short toot on the flute was gained this morning trying to maintain an element of discipline - an order of play so that things do not get "forgotten" because I have not played them regularly. Yup, I even wrote out an order of play a few weeks ago, as we were heading for a new year. I even dared to add an agenda for introducing new stuff over the next few months, though it did seem a bit ambitious at the time. We will see! Some things take longer to learn than others...and it is still basic novice stuff but it will include a more concentrated effort on another Raga - in Western form, D major on my flute (which I'm used to) but playing A to G which I am not. A totally different feel. So, that is this end of the year marked out.

 

Down on the tracks, will include the museum rails and, probably, some time at West Shore during the warmer months, and a few other locations as they materialise. We visited one RM Exhibition (Ely) last year, so I expect we may get to one or more this year. There are quite a few in the North West, so it could/should be possible.

 

Back to earth and I have the create-online Calendar to finish and get reprinted, not to mention the partaking of a mugadecaf.

 

Keep warm / keep cool. Keep safe. Keep your feet on the ground...

Polly

 

 

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by southern42

[The Lurker]

But did DaveF see Thor the Walrus?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-641512

 

[45156]

6 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

The Tempur mattress doesn't speak to me either, other than occasionally to remind me what an enormous hole it left in our bank balance.  They do damp any movement, turning over on it is a  major exercise.  I spent the night in the huffy bed, which has a conventional cheap mattress, not sure it made much difference.  Jury's out, but I foresee a new mattress in our future as SWMBO isn't too happy with it either. Pah, more train tokens down the swanny.

I just visited the website, and we thought that our bed at £1500 for divan, mattress, and headboard was expensive - it came from Bensons for Beds, and only had a seven year guarantee.  The mattress still seems to be very supportive, and we turn it monthly, as it has a microspring topper, which means it can only be turned end to end.  It's still very comfy, and after eight years, it does not yet seem to be showing any signs of dying.  Our last bed was a Millbrook - which is still in use as our spare - it was well under half price, and set us back £800.

 

Afternoon All

 

Well it's chucking it down here, and the stove is lit - we seem to be watching a load of boats on TV - looks like 30747 has discovered that Howard's Way is being repeated.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[TheQ]

You may have noticed my sympathy heart for Howard's way.

It started as an interesting show with yachts and went rapidly down hill into a poor soap opera.

 

The main yacht, by the way, is an MG Spring 25  designed by Tony Castro in1987. About 150 were sold in the UK, Australia and Brazil.

Hmm, I can do I direct copy and paste photo from another website, but posting from memory, it says format incorrect. Even for the same photo!!!

[PupCam]

Afternnon All!

 

5 hours ago, Grizz said:

Been shopping with a hangover before, not an enjoyable experience.

 

No, I never enjoy shopping (even for toys if I'm honest) !

 

25 minutes ago, 45156 said:

Well it's chucking it down here, and the stove is lit - we seem to be watching a load of boats on TV - looks like 30747 has discovered that Howard's Way is being repeated.

 

Blimey, that takes me back!    It used to be the late Alex Whittaker's  go-to DVD box set when he was holed-up in the cabin of his boat in the marina.     Wasn't a good year last year was it?   Far too many people became "the late XXXX" unfortunately as we know only too well here on ERs.

 

In Other News

 

Battle has been done with Windows 7 today with the result of : 

 

                Puppers 1,   Windows 0  😀

 

The Windows 7  installation on the the ex Mrs Pupper's and now the "Astronomy Laptop" had been mortally wounded by I know not what.   The result being that the standard Windows plug and play video camera driver had disappeared rendering the only application on it, Sharpcap, pointless as with no camera driver it couldn't see my  little telescope video camera!    Unfortunately the original installation disk is long since MIA but removing Sharpcap, followed by selecting and going through Windows Repair during boot-up and then re-installing Sharpcap seems to have restored the damaged goods.

 

Having done that and a bit of further fettling on the focuser I thought I'd have another fiddle with the collimation.  I'm slowly fine tuning my procedure having sampled many, understanding the process better and devoting a good deal of "thunking time" to it.    I think I've got it as close on perfect as I can  now (I thought that last time!)  so I'm  itching to have another go to see if I have indeed cracked it.     Looking out the window reveals gales, thick cloud and rain and plenty of it!    I think the word is Turdycurses - I'll not be getting anywhere this evening then!

 

TTFNQ

 

Alan

 

 

[DaveF]

1 hour ago, The Lurker said:

But did DaveF see Thor the Walrus?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-641512

 

 

You'll have to wait for tomorrow's instalment!  I can say that I didn't know anything about Thor when I was at the beach yesterday morning.

 

David

Edited January 3, 2023 by DaveF

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, DaveF said:

January swimmers

Meanwhile at a beach near you … 

 

https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2023-01-02/dozens-of-swimmers-brave-new-years-eve-dip-wearing-ball-gowns

[Tony_S]

7 minutes ago, DaveF said:

 

You'll have to wait for tomorow's instalment!

 

David

I hope Thor doesn’t head north via Norway. The last walrus heading north was killed by the Norwegian authorities to “protect the public”. The public on that occasion were people ignoring advice to keep away. 

[New Haven Neil]

1 hour ago, 45156 said:

just visited the website, and we thought that our bed at £1500 for divan, mattress, and headboard was expensive - it came from Bensons for Beds, and only had a seven year guarantee.  The mattress still seems to be very supportive, and we turn it monthly, as it has a microspring topper, which means it can only be turned end to end.  It's still very comfy, and after eight years, it does not yet seem to be showing any signs of dying.  Our last bed was a Millbrook - which is still in use as our spare - it was well under half price, and set us back £800.

 

IIRC the mattress was over £2k, the names have changed since we got ours - marketing!  We bought the bed it sits on locally but the mattress had to come via RM. Must look to see how long we've had it, but IIRC we got it when my hip first went u/s and after the surgery, so it may be as much as 7 or 8 years - don't they fly by now.

[Ian Abel]

Happy New Year, one and all...

 

Been quiet here since I last posted, a few days of little activity much relaxing and a lead-up to NYE which was just the Mrs and myself enjoying our own company.

 

Yesterday was the scheduled "family Christmas", time when everyone could get together this season.

We had a lovely time, plenty of food, drink and chatter. Fun with the dogs and even Bob, who was most appreciative of his catnip presents 🤣

Star prize (which everyone had already known about EXCEPT ME!) was a wine chiller/mini fridge for the bar for me.

Been considering using muddling tokens for one of those for a LONG time, so now I've spare tokens to fritter away.

 

Back to work today, quiet so far as I'm sure the client staff are all recovering from being gone over a week and need to get their proverbial ducks in a row before bothering me too much.

 

Weather here has been mild-ish (for this part of the country!) but summed up today best by a picture;

 

That's not dust on the lens, whopping snow flakes, and forecast to get 6-8+ inches time it ends tomorrow morning.

Jemma is due to drive to the airport in this carp to do a 3-day trip!! 🤯

 

-5c first thing and wasn't snowing then high of +1c possibly.

 

Tally ho.

[grandadbob]

Due to me dancing on my specs last night and then spending time getting them fixed earlier the Christmas de-lighting procedures stalled.  After lunch I took down the three lots of lights I thought were left but then The Boss pointed out there were another three sets in the conservatory I'd forgotten about.   After saying "Oh drat" or something not quite similar I decided that enough was enough and they can stay there for another day (or two).  Tomorrow we're heading to Sainsbury's for a full weekly shop for the first time since pre-Covid.  Most of our online deliveries have been OK but there has been the occasional "I'd NEVER have sent that out to a customer" from Management so she has decided it's about time she visited her old place of work to "do it properly").  This means I get to drive the shopping trolley and see if I'm still good at slipping in an extra one or two goodies without being found out until it goes through the checkout.  😂

After that we're going round to see Joe before he heads back to Canada on Thursday.

Tonight Chilli con carne is on the menu and I will shorty select a bottle of something red to accompany it.

[Coombe Barton]

Just now, grandadbob said:

another three sets in the conservatory I'd conveniently forgotten about

There, I've fixed your typo :)

[DaveF]

Like a number of ERs I have my supermarket shopping delivered, there are 6 supermarkets which deliver to my town so there is plenty of choice.  I actually have delivery passes with Morrisons and Asda, a hangover from doing things for Mum.

 

My Asda delivery pass was due to expire just before Christmas, but it was set to "Auto renew" so I thought no more about it.  Except it didn't renew - apparently a software issue.  After a couple of phone calls it has now been renewed today.  For some reason my delivery slot still showed as active even though the previous pass had expired.

 

So when I tried to do my next order it said I had to book a slot and it tried to charge me.  Another phone call sorted out the payment, it now shows free delivery.

 

As for the regular delivery slot which showed as active when it wasn't?  I finally realised that I had to delete it and then rebook the same slot time.  Of course there is nothing on the website to explain that.

 

It worked eventually but what a hassle.

 

David

[NGT6 1315]

Cheers all. I‘ll just leave this here as I found it hilarious!

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

11 hours ago, polybear said:

It seems that in Manitou Springs, USA they have a competition every January to see just how far they can throw away their Fruitcakes.  Very, very Weird......

"Fruit cake", (particularly at the holidays) is considered a joke here.

 

People here have lost touch with the tradition of baking their own Christmas fruit cake, so when people in the US talk about "fruit cake" it is usually something manufactured - dense and made months ahead of sale. They are largely considered as "a gift of last resort that no one wants" - hence the elaborate means of disposal.

 

Traditional Christmas pudding (steamed fruit 'cake') is even rarer.

 

Stollen, on the other hand, is common. I remain partial to all manner of fruit cake.

 

While not unheard of, the whole family of tea cakes / fruit or date loaves are uncommon (most people are unfamiliar with them), with the exception of "coffee cake" which is very crumbly and usually coated in cinnamon and sugar.

 

Regionally at this time of year you can find King cake (essentially a cake-sized, iced, hot cross bun, sans cross and fruit and often decorated with, or encasing, a baby Jesus figurine) originally an Epiphany tradition. Danish Kringles (usually a large circular Danish pastry) are also a seasonal treat for some. A company in Wisconsin ships them all over the US.

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Ozexpatriate
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