Early Risers.

[Hroth]

6 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

You need to watch that very carefully ......

 

You could probably get a PhD in "Observation of the drying rates of topical decorative treatments"

[Sidecar Racer]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

A mate of mine often responds with, “Can’t help you mate, I’m just here with the bailiffs.”

 

Dave

 

 Best one ever done for real .

 

 

 

[Hroth]

On 16/05/2023 at 09:40, PhilJ W said:

I looked the book up and decided I wanted a copy. Unfortunately the book company has now sold out so I looked on E-bay and found a copy brand new for £12 post free.  

 

On 16/05/2023 at 11:50, Hroth said:

 

Shhhhhh....

 

You shouldn't have said that!  I had a rootle too, as I love books like that.  Having found that the place DaveF got his copy had sold out, I hit ebay too and found the £12 copies. However, being economical I bought one of the Like New/New (other) * copies from the same vendor for £8.60, inc delivery...

 

As the cat is now out of the bag, just in case anyone wants to follow up too

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/362845110538

 

* S/H but unmolested...

 

 

My copy just arrived. My! Its a heavy tome!

 

I don't know why they advertised it as like new/new(other), its new, shrink-wrapped, never been read with no damage at all.

 

Now, I dare not open it!

 

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from a Sidcup where it surprised me by raining, fortunately just as I was getting the washing out of the machine and not when I had already hung it outside! It has dried up since (the weather) so the washing has ventured out into the garden!

 

Work has been non-stop - info requests for "strategic reviews" having been taking top priority, They often tend to be an exercise in moving the deck chairs on the Titanic but we shall see where this one goes. On the plus side the Ascension holiday has meant that most of Europe including my boss has taken the day off, which cuts down on the number of meetings and calls I have had to deal with.

 

I dropped the car off outside Mrs Lurker's school as usual and walked back via Foots Cray Meadows, hearing the sky larks at Upper College Farm, which always amazes me given that it's a recovering gravel extraction site in the heart of suburbia. Walking along the river towards the meadows through some woodland I came across a group of older folk one of whom was sitting down. As I approached it became clear he''d fallen over and couldn't get up. he was a good 20 years older than me and a good deal more rotund (and I am not slim!). A lady walking a dog had got there just before me, although we didn't take her suggestion of the bloke crawling over to a tree- having found he could not get his legs under him if me and one of his mates lifted him from a sitting position, he was able to get into a crawling position and from there he could get his legs under him when lifted. I think he'd fallen over a hidden tree root. He walked off reasonably steadily, helped by his mate. He seemed unhurt but a little shaken. So that's my good deed for the day. Or probably the year actually!

[PhilJ W]

21 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

 

My copy just arrived. My! Its a heavy tome!

 

I don't know why they advertised it as like new/new(other), its new, shrink-wrapped, never been read with no damage at all.

 

Now, I dare not open it!

 

Mine arrived this morning too, also shrink wrapped. Seeing as it was published in 2016 IIRC its possibly recently been remaindered.

[45156]

Afternoon All,

 

AWOL again - sincerest apologies and generic greetings are all I can offer - just been too busy using the laptop for Ebay, and am around £1500 better off in the last six weeks as a result.  The cabinet just can't compete, so we've given notice to end the rental at the end of the month - we wil probably try the stuff on Ebay instead - or at the car boot sale - yes we're going to start that again - well, it has always been fun - but this time no railway books for sale - well, only a few.  7am Sunday can't come soon enought, I've really missed doing them and we haven't doneione since lockdown.

 

Today, the K word was uttered, and after taking Lily to Croft Castle for a long walk, I was set for a sit down, when 30747 decided that the front path and slabs at the back needed to be done with the Karcher - so now I'm just a bit cream crackered.  And tomorrow, the V word has been uttered, so it will be the Vax carpet shamoo machine - WOW.

 

Any Emily Linge fans, here's her latest offering - no idea who neon trees are or is - bit she makes a good fist of the cover.

 

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. The arthritis is quiet at the moment so I'll be popping down to Tess Coes for bread and eggs. I have some chips in the fridge so I might get something to go with them.

[jjb1970]

This amuses me. The Singapore LNG Terminal is surrounded by security fences plastered with the rather intimidating no photography signs they use for protected places here. And whereas they aren't bothered about ship spotters snapping ships at the cruise terminal they don't like any sign of taking pics anywhere near the LNG terminal. However, they are happy to have this model of the terminal in the maritime gallery, and they make explicit that photographs are allowed in the gallery. Why risk getting into trouble when they've provided such a nice model.....

 

[jjb1970]

This is one of the nicer models in the maritime gallery, the Port of Singapore might never suffer ice conditions but they do make ice breakers in Singapore. Two of these were built by Keppel.

 

 

[jjb1970]

I had one of those moments that lighten otherwise dull days today. I attended a meeting and when the minutes were reviewed one of the attendees asked for them to be changed. The minutes accurately reflected what he had said, but he clarified that what he had said was not what he had meant to say, therefore he asked for the minutes to be amended to capture words which were presumably spoken by voices in his head, unheard by anybody else. The chair politely pointed out that the secretary can only minute what is heard, not what exists inside a persons head. 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Mine arrived this morning too, also shrink wrapped. Seeing as it was published in 2016 IIRC its possibly recently been remaindered.

 

Bear would very much like to hear fellow ER'ers book reviews....pretty please.....

 

Bear here.....

Much G-word in the back garden this afternoon - now a lot tidier; another 150 sessions like that and it'll be back to what it looked like in late summer 2020....

But.....Bear is a very dizzy little, er, Bear - it got worse n' worse throughout the afternoon to the point where I several wobble round the garden moments doing my best not to fall over; I decided to call it quits before I did actually fall over (I'd had enough G-word anyway).  B.P. & Sats. seem normal so it must be cake deprivation.

BG

 

 

 

 

 

 

[polybear]

Anything in the rule book about this one Baz? @baz

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-sussex-65646484

 

Nice landing though.

 

Not good:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-65642974

[Coombe Barton]

... marking, setting up checks for answers on spreadsheets. And cursing myself for making so many options ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/05/19/down-a-bit-more-spring-booster-now-54-88-of-those-75-and-over/

[New Haven Neil]

36 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

I had one of those moments that lighten otherwise dull days today. I attended a meeting and when the minutes were reviewed one of the attendees asked for them to be changed. The minutes accurately reflected what he had said, but he clarified that what he had said was not what he had meant to say, therefore he asked for the minutes to be amended to capture words which were presumably spoken by voices in his head, unheard by anybody else. The chair politely pointed out that the secretary can only minute what is heard, not what exists inside a persons head. 

 

This was a massive issue back in my HR management days, far too common an attempted occurrence, and I once had to really stand my ground with a senior person who wanted what they had actually said, totally reversed in meaning.  No way Jose, you said it, you have to stand by it.  It was of course, complete bolleaux what they had said.....completely caught out.  Made an enemy there, but they were later somewhat, err, compromised with 'something else' (can't say) that ended their employment. 

[The Lurker]

I used to get round that by minuting "the subject of so and so was discussed at length and it was decided to do whatever had been decided". Then it didn't matter who'd said what, just what the collective decision had been. Only if someone strenuously objected to a decision in the meeting would it get noted.

[tomparryharry]

Unsolicited phone calls?

 

"Listen matey. Either you can put your phone down, or I'll put Jeremy Vine  on the line...."

[Barry O]

45 minutes ago, polybear said:

Anything in the rule book about this one Baz? @baz

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-sussex-65646484

 

Nice landing though.

 

Not good:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-65642974

Yep

 

In the MCC Laws of Cricket it will now be "dead Ball, players and officials to leave the field and go to a safe place"

 

Baz

 

 

 

[Barry O]

Scaffolders arrived and removed scaffolding. Grass needs to recover before it gets another cut.

 

Her indoors has been to Grimsby and Hessle for her  to take her brother to an eye appointment. Supposed to last 30 minutes.. 3 hours later... Anyway she is back.

 

I did some wire strangling.. now found out what the problem is really all about.

 

Mugatea awaits..

 

BAz

[monkeysarefun]

8 hours ago, tomparryharry said:

 

Stock response here: Well, until I invent another stock response... "Oh! Hang on, I'll just get her!" Lay phone down, nothing to see here; carry on.... 

Gary The Parrot always says a cheerful "Helloooo!" every time the phone rings and keeps it up for several minutes so I used to just press the answernitton then hold the phone up in front of him.

Now the phone requires anyone not on my whitelist to state their name before putting the call through to me so robocalls and nuisance cold calls have stopped.

 

The skies have been incredibly clear here the last couple of weeks so I've just  braved the cold to rush out and get a piccy.

 

The four stars near the power lines near the dark patch form the Southern Cross, the two bright stars in the middle, Alpha and Beta Centauri, are "the Pointers" that point to it.

 

This shot shows the most famous Indigenous constellation, The Dark Emu. Their sky pictures are formed from the dark spaces between the stars rather than the join-the-dots style ones that we inherited . The Dark Emu, though more Scrawny Chicken in my eyes is upside down,  formed by the dark patch I mentioned earlier near the power line being its head, the rest of its body is formed by the dark mass stretching up to the top of the photo, its extended leg being toward the upper left of the picture.

Edited May 19, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[Gwiwer]

And now.  Friday Drinks.

 

Tomorrow should see us in Bournemouth just because we can.  We might even picnic on the beach!

[Ian Abel]

POETS - probably the afternoon off.

 

Yesterday the Canadian fire-effect resulted in a lot of folks with issues around the area. That included me, asthma flare and sore throat. Many of the schola similarly affected.

Driving to rehearsal - only time I went out all day - the smog/smoke was obvious and very visible on the roads, reduced visibility quite apparent.

 

Rehearsal was good, though some severe throat issues for several of us!

 

Today, air quality alert was lifted around 6AM, seems much better out there, but I didn't sleep well, so will be some naps/recovery this afternoon for sure.

 

Weekend plans include the funeral service tomorrow, and a fund-raising concert, last of the season, on Sunday evening. Beyond that, the weekend is "free" 😀

 

Morning weather was clear and sunny though only 7c. Clouding over later and an expected high of only 14c.

 

Carry on.

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

This amuses me. The Singapore LNG Terminal is surrounded by security fences plastered with the rather intimidating no photography signs they use for protected places here. And whereas they aren't bothered about ship spotters snapping ships at the cruise terminal they don't like any sign of taking pics anywhere near the LNG terminal. However, they are happy to have this model of the terminal in the maritime gallery, and they make explicit that photographs are allowed in the gallery. Why risk getting into trouble when they've provided such a nice model.....

 

Speaking of fuel distribution, this quad trailer road train has just been developed to distribute fuel through outback Northern Territory. Although quad trailer fuel rigs have been on the roads here for a while, the tanks have not been as large.  It holds 158,000litres, is 56.5metres long, weighs 186 tons, has 98 wheels  and will do 90kmh  fully loaded. Prime mover is a 600HP Kenworth. Overtaking it will take about 45 minutes.

 

 

Edited May 19, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[DaveF]

All I can say about the heavy book of photos is that I am enjoying looking at it.  I have seen a very few of the photos before but the other 99% are fascinating.  There is so much incidental detail - ideal for period railway modellers.  Obviously the bigger the town etc the more the photos.  It's well worth the money (to be honest it might even have been worth it at full price).

 

Today has not had anything dramatic.  This morning I worked on photos and at the last possible minute decided to have sausage and chips for lunch instead of salad.  Fortunately the oven heated up quickly.  Just after lunch my expected delivery came via Yodel, a man in a very clean and shiny black car.  It was 1 large pack of 20 chrysanthemum plants from Woolman's.  They are garden sprays, I've potted them up and later on they will go in the garden to flower in the autumn.  I grow them most years and always enjoy them.  I used to grow the large flowered greenhouse ones but stopped when I decided that heating the greenhouse was too expensive for the benefits it gave.

 

After that I gave some more spare tomato plants to neighbours, I ended up with one left over which I will put in a spare pot tomorrow and keep as a spare.  Then I decided to go out for a very short ride in the car, just to the car park half way along the Links as I had noticed a yellow field on the inland side of the road which need photographing.  I also saw a field of buttercups and cattle, very old fashioned.  I headed for home and passed the cemetery so went to have the very short walk to Mum and Dad's grave which looks tidy but isn't yet grassed as some of the ground is still settling, hardly surprising given all the rain we've had in the last few months.

 

I stopped off at the beach for a few minutes, the Battery people were setting things up ready for this year's WW2 reenactment over the coming weekend.  Then my toe decided it had done enough walking.

 

I heard a little more about yesterday's fire - the man of the house had been on night shift and was asleep and only woke when someone knocked on the door to say his house was on fire.  I don't know who it was that raised the alarm.  His wife was at work and his two children at work and school.

 

A few photos I took today are below.

 

 

Yellow field

 

 

Buttercups and cattle

 

 

In the cemetery

 

 

Beach huts

 

 

View from the Links

 

 

WW2 weekend 1

 

 

WW2 weekend 2

 

David

[polybear]

"The satisfaction in exercising this type of professional judgment has been much diminished in recent years by increased regulation and scrutiny, with the need to record every consultation in time-consuming detail. Applied to something as straightforward as syringing the ears for wax-induced deafness, “I used to write ‘Ears syringed, clear of wax, drum intact’”, writes one GP. “Now there is a template 44 lines long that takes three times as long to complete as the procedure itself”.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/medical/the-real-reason-you-can-t-get-an-appointment-with-your-gp/ar-AA1bovSC?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=5f99dff4733c447283d1e41fef4cb78c&ei=25

 

[The White Rabbit]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. The arthritis is quiet at the moment so I'll be popping down to Tess Coes for bread and eggs. I have some chips in the fridge so I might get something to go with them.

 

I could be wrong but I get the impression you're going for an egg banjo with 'garnish'? Or a chip omelette bap?