Early Risers.

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Yes there was nothing ordinary about my conception 🤣

Does that mean you were a shot in the dark. 

 

Jamie

[polybear]

Cash withdrawal, anyone?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-68883799

[Flanged Wheel]

Interestingly, there are also questions surrounding the oldest footprints found in the Americas (in New Mexico) that are also much older than previously suspected. They suggest that humans were in the area between 22,000 and 23,000 years ago, much earlier than previous estimates. The latest evidence from last October suggests that this may be true but it remains a debated finding.

 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/oldest-fossil-human-footprints-in-north-america-are-23000-years-old-study-reaffirms-180983018/

[New Haven Neil]

It's 'liar weather' here now, looks glorious, sunny, blue skies, just a breeze - but feels rather cool, to say the least.  The thermy-o-meter indicates 13c, but for some reason it feels nothing like that.  Pottering in the garage with the doors open is OK, in garden isn't, so I earned Brownie Points by making a shelf in Herself's shed (oh yes, we have several) with hangy-up knobs on the edge like wot she asked for only three days ago.  This may be an all time record.  The questions over dinner will no doubt surround what I have bought without telling her, but surprisingly it is nothing!  There's time yet of course.

[Ian Abel]

Morning...

 

Busy weekend with taxi service to PT and chiropractor for the Mrs. 

Sunday up early for the Earth day services, last full choir performance for our season. Long services and choir standing for all of it! Needed a nap following that 😮

 

Yesterday, more taxi services...

 

Today, yet more taxi services, Mrs having a cortisone shot and updated x-rays for the on-going treatment. This leaves me to also head to Costco as the Mrs and Jemma were scheduled for a  trip together, given the Mrs current mobility issues, yours-truly will take on the task.

 

Weather getting delighful, 7c first thing, sunny and calm, expecting 13c for the high.

 

Onward.

[DaveF]

Another day is quietly passing.  I've spent most of it scanning the family photos - as it happens the albums I am doing first becasue they were in front of others were mainly taken by Dad and Mum from about 1947 onwards, like the black and white railway photos I put in my thread here.  I recognise most of the relatives and one or two of the family friends.  However there are a lot of photos of me about 2-5 years old on holidays.  A number of other children appear in them, like me they gradually go from about 2 years old up to 6 or so.  I wonder who they are?  I suspect people we met each year on holiday, the photos show me in Scarborough, Brighton and at Sandilands on the Lincolnshire coast - which was just about destroyed in the 1953 floods.  Some may be of a family who had a food business in Nottingham.  I've just looked at a print, it has "Parr" written on the back so perhaps that is the family name.  I am enjoying looking at them but I don't think anyone else will want them.

 

I had a trip into town to take two bags of books to a charity shop, while I was there I called at the pharmacy and came home via the Quayside but there were no ships to see so I had a walk in the park instead where I met a couple I haven't seen for some time.  He has dementia but today must have been a good one as he recognised me.

 

It's been sunny at times with a few light showers but cold in the wind, it feels like late March.

 

David

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. More eyelid inspection this afternoon hence a bit late on parade. Now dinner is ready, liver and bacon with mash and onion gravy plus veg.

[PhilJ W]

6 hours ago, Tony_S said:

For,years we had our neighbours 3 daughters playing in their garden. The younger one has a spectacularly loud “outdoor” voice. They have all gone past playing outside age now but we thought it was quite nice hearing children play. If they were on their giant trampoline and we were in the garden they would talk to us as they bounced. The next door but one neighbours clearly didn’t like hearing children at play and I think  were looking for support to “complain”. I think Aditi’s enthusiastic support of the “lovely children” soon stopped us being considered as co-complainers. 

I often hear the two little girls (5 and 7) next door playing. They are delightful children.

[Dave Hunt]

16 hours ago, TheQ said:

I suspect I've lost some high frequency hearing, I've increasing tinnitus, it's a high frequency whine. That may well be to do with the high frequency whine a lot of electronic equipment had when I worked on in those darkened rooms .

 

Many years ago I had to attend  medical board at the RAF Central Medical Establishment in London following an accident in which I was knocked unconscious. The doctor who tested my hearing (who was an aviation medicine specialist) commented that my high tone range was not as good as it had been and asked whether there was anything I thought could account for it. I replied that maybe spending over thirty years working with and near jet engines could be a cause, to which he looked thoughtful and said maybe I could be right. That did little to foster my faith in aviation medics. 

 

And like Q I have a nearly constant background high frequency whine in my hearing that although not really intrusive can be annoying in a quiet environment.

 

Dave

[Coombe Barton]

... If people demand the freedom to smoke, then I demand the freedom not to be assaulted by their by-products. ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/04/23/is-cigarette-cost-a-deterrent-to-smoking-and-the-faithful-few/

[Captain Cuttle]

7 hours ago, woodenhead said:

an extra long extension to the long pole that had the roller on

Well at least you know that with your acrobatic skills they are always looking for dextrous individuals to help paint the Forth rail bridge!

[Captain Cuttle]

11 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Engines this big are Very. Noisy.

And look relatively clean much more so than did the poor old Achille Lauro with its original 1947 Sulzers.

[Captain Cuttle]

On 22/04/2024 at 21:10, Winslow Boy said:

things like audiology  being out sourced to the private sector.

Well i hope you have more success than i did, originally going to NA hospital some years ago. Now its Specsavers and am attempting my third appointment with them as the new aids are just not working as they should. Now having to source batteries for my older hearing aids and not sure where to go from here. Trustpilot reviews for audiology at Specsavers are dire!

[monkeysarefun]

Smoke from a  hazard-reduction burn in the BLue Mountains to the west is probably no good for the lungs but has led to a gorgeous sunset last night, and this mornings sunrise was epic too, starting dark red, then pink then through to orange.

 

I couldn't get outside to get a photo because Gary The Parrot ws on my shoulder and wouldn't get off, but the Sydney Live webcam caught a bit of the orange stage and is a more interesting view  so it'll have to do instead. The sun is rising out of shot  on the left hand side of the photo so you don't get the full effect unfortunately. 

 

 

 

Hmmm, some cloud, that's disappointing, the last few days have been lovely!

 

Edited April 23 by monkeysarefun

[Gwiwer]

5 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

8 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Yes there was nothing ordinary about my conception 🤣

Does that mean you were a shot in the dark. 

That might give rise to a misconception

[New Haven Neil]

25 minutes ago, Captain Cuttle said:

And look relatively clean much more so than did the poor old Achille Lauro with its original 1947 Sulzers.

 

That was my first ship in 197....err.....6 or so, and was fairly old by then - it was a Sulzer 9RND90  (IIRO 25,000hp), Japanese (Mitsubishi) built  120,000 ton bulk carrier, and a good ship with a good engine and was clean for an old ship.  The Stirling Bridge, later sold to Shell as the Tagelus. The Lauro, ooerr, not my cup of tea!

 

 

 

[Captain Cuttle]

3 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

The Lauro, ooerr, not my cup of tea!

 

They did two lifeboat drills in Genoa  before that last trip and thrashed those engines and it had been pouring out black smoke for the last year or so. Evidence of that on one of Peter Knego's videos on MidShipCentury in September of 1994.

[Gwiwer]

9 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

a  hazard-reduction burn in the BLue Mountains to the west

Not Kirribilli then?  That  might be a better place for a hazard-reduction burn.

 

[Gwiwer]

G'devening all.  A busy old day today had been and no mistake.  Thursday cleaning was done this morning because visitors were expected after lunch.  They duly arrived and, as had been arranged with them previously, saws were brought and the dead cordyline tree was removed.  It now consists of three stumps each approximately 18" tall while the rest has been taken for recycling.  How does one recycle a tree?  One's friends take it in their car to a rural location, land which they happen to own, and place the cut sections alongside a stream.  Nature will then take its course over the coming years while we hope that wildlives, various, find a good home.  

 

So the tree is gone and a better and uninterrupted view of the cottage has arrived.  Surprisingly it doesn't look too bare.  We had tea and cake (lemon & basil for those playing at home) which was described as "lush" and they went on their way with nothing more for thanks than a brown muddling voucher.  That was as much as I could persuade them to take.  

 

Fission Chips were enjoyed for a slightly early dinner just before 6 as I was quite peckish.  The earliness of the feast allowed me to engage in a very "me" sort of evening.  Our open top "Coaster" bus has been running since Easter and I have already made a couple of trips on it but unusually - for a rural area and a route largely pitched at tourism - there are some evening trips.  So I boarded the 18.35 to St. Ives and Penzance and was pleasantly surprised to find I wasn't alone.  There were around ten others aboard and we even collected a few more at remote farms and isolated spots along the coast road.  With superb scenery and a lowering sun the cool conditions on the upper deck in the open-air didn't really bother me and I enjoyed the ride until we joined the main A30 towards Penzance.  At which point I opted for the lower deck having sat upstairs for 90 minutes of the two-hour trip.  And then back home aboard our little red evening bus.  One of those the council includes in its contracted services and which, again, was surprisingly well used for a Tuesday in April.  

 

When peak-season arrives there will be even later buses along the coast - later than there have been ever before.  I shall sample the 20.35 trip at some point, remarkably late in the evening for an open-top bus to be out but it doesn't reach Penzance until 22.30.  And there is still a bus home even at that hour as the last is at 23.20 thanks to us having a pro-public transport unitary authority who support such a service.  Which is, in turn, supported by a modest number of passengers most evenings.  

[New Haven Neil]

13 minutes ago, Captain Cuttle said:

They did two lifeboat drills in Genoa  before that last trip and thrashed those engines and it had been pouring out black smoke for the last year or so. Evidence of that on one of Peter Knego's videos on MidShipCentury in September of 1994.

 

That will have been what caused the crankcase explosion, that started the big fire.  Scary stuff......

[TheQ]

Evening Awl,

MRC went well , got rained on as I arrived back home..

 

Arrived home to the vet calling... 

Ben's results of the blood tests.

Raised protein and calcium levels. Not good.

Parathyroid disease seems unlikely as he has none of the symptoms...

Which leaves kidney disease or cancer or ?

The ? Is because the vet is struggling to find a definite cause to match Ben's results.

 

So what do we do?

Ben is 13+, a border Collie's life span is 12 to 15. It would be unfair on him for anything invasive. If it's cancer chemo at his age probably not worth the suffering he would get from the chemo..

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Our (SEERS) AGM on Thursday. At one time we used to run a few coach trips each year but we haven't run any at all in the last couple of years especially last year as coach hire charges went through the roof. This year though they have dropped considerably and trip suggestions will be put to the members. One already on the cards is the Chatham show on the 20/21 of July. I was going to suggest the K&ESR 50th anniversary gala but looking at the prices I'll be suggesting another weekend.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

It seems like quite a while since I’ve done an evening post, but lately it seems that there aren’t enough hours in the day and I just couldn’t seem to find the time to post, keeping up with everyone else was enough. 

 

Anyway, back to today, we had some great weather, sunshine but a bit of a cool wind. Despite that, we had a lovely walk  at Dunham Massey, we saw lots of deer and plenty of birds (the feathered variety), but nothing unusual. This afternoon Charlie did come round, a bit later than usual, due to him getting his days mixed up! As usual, he continued working on his current model, whilst I built the chassis of what will be a small industrial 0-4-0 locomotive. I built the gearbox the other day and today I was able to install and test it the chassis. It ran well, but will benefit from running in, which I’ll do over the weekend. I also started modifying the body of an old Hornby loco to fit the chassis, but there’s still a bit of work to do there. 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Tony_S]

34 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Parathyroid disease seems unlikely as he has none of the symptoms...

Robbie had some tumours removed from his parathyroid. His symptoms really only presented as drinking a lot and elevated calcium levels. He had a parathyroid hormone test (frozen blood sample sent to special lab) . The vet removed the tumours, they were malignant but slow growing. Back then the parathyroid blood test for dogs was quite new. I had the same test for my parathyroid and had to have it done at the hospital. Done at outpatients clinics routinely now.