Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

Aditi returned home after her weekend away with her Mum (including my visit yesterday to take them to Maya’s birthday barbecue). MiL said it was the nicest weekend she had experienced for some time as no one had told her she was senile. Sad really.

Aditi will be back to Enfield on Thursday to stay with her Mum again for 5:days while her sister accompanies her husband on a speaking engagement in Glastonbury.

Tony

[Simon G]

A pretty quiet day here today, with somewhat cool weather. The sun didn’t come out until into the evening, and then not for long. I managed a longer walk today than I have managed since the last chemo session, so was pleased with that.

 

What is more pleasing still is that I will be at the Ratty tomorrow as a guard for the first time this year. As I am not 100% sure that I have the energy for a full day, I will be co-guarding with a friend, so can rest if it proves too much. I am really looking forward to getting back to it. With luck, I will get to ride behind either River Esk or Whillan Beck for the first time.

[Purley Oaks]

Evening all

 

Took a helicopter trip yesterday - Gabe's birthday gift for last year which was delayed by other stuff - at East Fortune airfiled in East Lothian. Was wonderful and would definitely go again but for longer.

 

East Fortune airfield is also the site of the National Museum of Scotland's Museum of Flight and there's a lot to do there - even Gabe enjoyed it, probably more than the, ahem, NRM - loads of planes on display including Concorde, BAC 1-11, Comet, Lightning, Harrier, Vulcan and loads more.

 

Stayed at the Goblin Ha' pub hotel in Gifford last night for some good food, beer, wine, sunshine in their real back garden. So called because legend has it that a wizard built Gifford castle in a day with the help of goblins who stayed beneath the castle in a goblin hall.

 

And that's that, really.

 

Rick, hope your toe is feeling much better, they can take a few weeks to feel right again (Gabe has broken a toe twice, ouch!).

 

Have a good week all, and to you in the south, don't forget your Factor 50

 

Mal

Edited July 22, 2018 by Purley Oaks

[bbishop]

So I go AWOL for a couple of days and it all blows up over English grammar!  Come on boys - behave!!

 

We had to do Use of English because it was a requirement for Oxbridge.  No chance in my case, but actually the syllabus was far more enjoyable that the 'O' Level.

 

Eric Morecambe is leaping in his grave. East Fife 4 Forfar 5 has actually happened - albeit in a penalty shoot out. 

 

Bill

[Gwiwer]

I believe Forfar 5 East Fife 4 was an actual result many years ago also. And goals scored within 90 minutes not penalties

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

Well I had a pleasant day in the garden, the rain held off for the rest of the day and even thought it wasn’t sunny it was quite warm. I decided to start in the front garden as I noticed yesterday that there were a few weeds that had started to grow in the block paving. These were removed and as there weren’t many the whole task, including getting tools etc, only took me about 30 minutes. I then went back round to the back garden and made a start levelling off the ground. Once that was done I marked out with spray paint (bio-degradable water based) where I’m thinking of putting the new path. I was going to leave it a few days to see what we both think, but our initial thoughts are that it needs to move over to one side by approximately 12 inches. So I might rake over the markings and re-do them tomorrow and see what it looks like then.

 

After dinner I spent an hour or so in the workshop where the gearbox I’ve been working on was finished and then test run for 15 minutes both ways. Tomorrow I’ll strip it down, pop all the bits into my ultra sonic cleaner then rebuild and re-grease it ready for use.

 

Rick. Ouch, like you in the almost 62 years that I have inhabited this world, I have never broken a bone, (and no, I don’t know how I’ve managed it either!). However, I am missing one, and the one that is missing, wasn’t complete when it was surgically removed, but I won’t post photos!

 

Goodnight all

[newbryford]

Early golf wasn't good. 

Actually, it wasn't too bad, but the other pair played better.

 

Work afterwards and a quiet day doing some catch up.

Home in time to watch the end of today's TdF stage, highlights of the F1 and then The Open. All watched without knowing the earlier results.

 

Preparing for an office move over the next few weeks - gives me a reason to "tidy" my workspace. The phrase "I may be gone some time" springs to mind....

I will hopefully make a start on it tomorrow.

 

Have a good week folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Horsetan]

I believe Forfar 5 East Fife 4 was an actual result many years ago also. And goals scored within 90 minutes not penalties

 

Still waiting for East Fife 5 Forfar 4.

[bbishop]

Still waiting for East Fife 5 Forfar 4.

 

You may have a long wait .....

 

Bill

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Ozexpatriate]

A very quiet weekend so far, lazing away the mornings in bed watching golfers duel with Carnasty. This meant that I didn't have much left of cooler hours to deal with the gardening on Saturday.  I did the emergency bits in the front, which is now more presentable. I waited until sundown to wash the car as well. It looks better - though it is spattered by resin drops from the fir trees in the office car park.
 
The jungle in the back awaits a cooler weekend and awakening energized.
 
I opened my current electricity bill to find it doubling over the last two months. This is directly attributable to recent hot weather and the boon of air conditioning. Here we have a string of several days in the mid 30s forecast, starting today, so next month's bill is likely to be even higher. I will happily pay the piper to not have to deal with sweaty sleepless nights the way I did for the fifteen years before moving into my present home.
 

.Last night's rain would seem to have almost entirely vanished although it was nice and cool while it was descending - we are not promised, or even threatened, to receive any more for the rest of this week so the farmers can stick to moaning about the heat (and no doubt the low yield in cereal crops due to the lack of rain).

Better that than to have the whole crop incinerated by wildfire as happened to many wheat farmers in central Oregon during the last week. Fortunately that fire is now largely under control. The last I heard was that the fire was 82% contained after consuming 80,000 acres.

 

We will not likely see any rain until perhaps September.

Edited July 23, 2018 by Ozexpatriate

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

We did have a bit of rain over the weekend, so everywhere isn't quite so dry as it was last week.  However, it wasn't much and the temperature is due to reach 35°C later in the week.

 

The weekend was relatively quiet.

 

Time for a coffee - Have a good day everyone...

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

It is amazing how many people can be found in a multiplex at 10.30 on a Sunday morning.  The reason, of course, was one of the 13 screenings of “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again”.  The dancing and singing was relentless and there was a cameo role for at least one member of Abba.  It took me a while to realise that Cher was in it and to my shame I did not recognise Dominic Cooper either.  That apart, it was good fun and this time for the right reasons.  I spent much of the rest of the day trying to find things on the interweb with varying degrees of success.  Tickets have been booked for a couple of London concerts in the autumn so Thameslink had better behave itself on the evenings in question.

 

Today the hunt for a new pair of boots and a way of re-heeling the pair I’ve got will continue.  Later in the week I will be with Poorly Pal on Thursday and unless he changes his mind we will dine royally on pan fried salmon.  On Friday I have an appointment with Sister Syringe.  Last time we met she asked me how I was feeling and was rather shocked when I told her.  At that time the black dog was doing his worst and it all poured out.  It will be a pleasure to tell her that I am feeling much better now.

 

Warm thoughts to Rick and his toe and to the usual suspects - Andyram, Andy P, Robert, Simon, Debs, Tony and Aditi, Mal and all who are in distress or missing.

 

Chris

[roundhouse]

Good morning form whats going to be another very hot day.

 

My other halfs train is cancelled this morning so 'improved' service early last week looks like its heading back down the pan again.

 

Meanwhile I am off to Mums to assemble her new wardrobe delivered yesterday from Ikea. I enjoy putting these togather so lets hope it all fits today.

[TheQ]

MooringAwlInnerTemplehere,Ohsoditthiscomputersforgottonthespaceagain...

 

Time for a reboot.. eh hang on, what just happened, do threats work as well?

 

 Anyway, the fire on the northern side of effin clown town , which was in one field, when I went past it on Friday, obviously jumped the side road and now two fields of wheat are looking decidedly black.  The radio reports fires over the weekend all across the county, the last day of school is Tuesday or Wednesday in Norfolk, I unfortunately suspect an increase from then.

 

Mind you it could also be car drivers, I've twice over the weekend seen car drivers throwing fag butts out of windows...

 

Time to go do soime work I have 6 days work in 5 days, ie two major systems to do....

[45156]

 

When I went in for further ibuprofen, I discovered something, the new packets of ibuprofen are a small white round tablet (old ones were red) in a silver foil packet. The Metformin which used to be a oblong white tablet, is now a small round white tablet in a silver foil packet... And I didn't have my glasses on... I had double dose of metformin, which must have pushed my sugar levels way down... .

 

 

That would be the least of your worries, as an overdose of Metformin also has a pretty rapid effect on the bowels, as I can verify from personal experience.  If you didn't get that, then you were quite lucky - but I've never had Metformin in the form of oblong tablets - always the plastic strip of 14 with silver foil to seal them in, which do, in fact, look a bit like some types of Ibuprofen - I can't actually have the red ones, as I have a reaction to the red colouring, also that red coating is sugar, which doesn't really help much with the diabetes.  I now get the Boots own brand, which is a small white oval tablet with no coating.  A bit more expensive (but I am still getting them at the mo on prescription) but they work for me, I have to say.

 

Morning All

 

It is (or was, it's now abated a bit) chucking it down with rain.  Well, we do need some, it has to be said. 

 

Still no news from Debs - and a few other ERs also missing. 

 

May need to go to Kendal this morning, as 30747 saw something in a shop that she has now decided she wants. 

 

Back later

Regards to All

Stewart

Edited July 23, 2018 by 45156

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Quite warm. There is just enough breeze to move the curtains. One of Aditi’s friends will be here this afternoon so that they can do some administrative work for their French circle.

I am not sure whether we have any plans for this morning, other than consume breakfast.

Tony

[AndrewC]

 

Greetings from the Gobi desert boring borough. We had about 8 drops of rain on Saturday. Then again that could have been the wind and a neighbour's sprinkler. 

Large parts of the weekend spent painting the front room and dining room. Still lots to do but enough completed to let the builders get the skirting boards down after they showed up on Saturday morning to finish off the flooring. Tonight we have to strip everything out of the bedroom so they can start demolishing it tomorrow. We can actually see the home stretch. Sadly the idea of keeping the newel posts on the stairs was a non-starter. 4 hours and half a tin of Nitro-mors has barely shifted the nuclear bomb proof layers of paint. Shame in a way as they are the only original bit of the house left. 

 

We did manage a couple of hours on Saturday to visit the newest micro-pub in the area. Happily it is quite literally a door to door bus ride. Yesterday evening was quite interesting. SWMBO had booked us on a TfL Hidden London tour many months ago. So long in fact, we'd forgotten about it until the reminder email last week. Down 105 steps into the depths of Down Street station we went. Not cheap but well worth it. The tour guides are all regular TfL staff and one of them by day is a signalling engineer on the Metropolitan line. Quite something to be standing far closer to the track than the yellow line as a train goes past at full speed. Albeit with a wire screen door between you and the train. My only regret is that I was unable to get any video as it was just so dark at times and whenever a train did come through we had to lights out so as not to dazzle the driver. I'll try flipping some of the few pics I did get of other parts of the station, the right way round and see if they will upload. 

 

On that note, have a great day everyone. Coffee awaits. 

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a sunny and getting warmer Charente.

 

Rick, that toe looks nasty, I wish you well with your recovery. Apart from breaking my collar bone when I was about 3 (My brother tried to murder me again) I've also managed to get through a fairly eventful life without breakages.

 

Q, that tablet mix up doesn't sound good, I'm glad you got through it OK in the end.

 

Here Beth is struggling with a changeover in her opioid painkillers and it seems that she has been prescribed too low a dose of the new one, she had to top up with other stuff last night and is going to up the regular dose of the new one this morning. Not an easy situation.

 

I managed to get more tidying up done yesterday and put a lot of crates onto racking. Then a couple of hours doing some wiring, which s progressing nicely.

 

 

Not sure what today is going to bring but it is going to be warm. The shed stays quite cool so I may retreat there.

 

 

Regards to all.

 

 

Jamie

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

The sun has literally just started to shine, it being cloudy just a few minutes ago. Today will be pretty much the same as the last couple of days, the morning will be spent in the garden, re-painting the new path with the afternoon being spent in the workshop. Once Sheila has gone to her Zumba class I’ll make a start.

 

Back later

[45156]

Just decided to have a bacon bagel.  I often wonder about this given the Jewish origin of the bagel.  Delicious nonetheless

[81C]

Morning Peeps

Good luck with the wardrobe Ian, did you know IKEA is the Swedish equivalent of MFI 

( Made For Idiots) I made thousands of pounds dismantling and putting that stuff together

for customers but the best one was an Indian chap  had made a babies cot and he called 

me for help as could not use it when I arrived he showed me that he had built it to plan

which he had, they were upside down so I turned the cot over while he was out of the room

when he came back he said how did I do that I said it was a trade secret and that will be 

£50 thank you very much.  

Today we have a man coming to measure up for a new glass panel to replace one with

condensation on the inside it the 4th one now at £200 a throw she keeps moaning about the

ones in the conservatory that are the same they can stay like it I want to have the thing knocked

down it's never used co's it's too hot even with the propeller going round.  

I see GDB must be touring the whole of the Hampshire county by the length of his absents

I'm surprised he can find so many things to see I've lived here 30 odd years and have never

been entertained by local attractions for more than half a day still he must be enjoying it.   

Anyway things to do today.

 

                                                                                                                                        enjoy your day R.I.Poff - Merchant  

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

The hot weather continues and worsens (i.e. today will be even hotter) and as it kills various plants in the garden why, oh why, does it not do the same to the weeds?  On a brighter note the British Gas, or whoever they are, tried renewing our maintenance and fault repair contract with £180 added on - until Mrs Stationmaster had a 'firm' talk with them and the price was reduced by !£140 instead.   In even more interesting news we have joined Tesco's battle to reduce and hopefully eliminate food waste as this now involves the useful idea of allowing the staff access to take whatever they like from everything which has passed its sell-by date and has been set aside somewhere in the 'staff only area' where they can get at it.  This strikes me as a far better idea than the previous method of chucking it all in a skip and sending it to landfill but I do wonder if it might be (mis)used to hold down any wage increases?

 

Little is planned for today, it's too darned hot, although organisation of various items preparatory to our excursion to Harwich (and presumably the Thames Estuary) next week will - I'm informed - commence today.

 

Have a good day one and all