Early Risers.

[jamie92208]

29 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

Krait

 

One of Frederic Forsyth's excellent short stories involes a Krait, IIRC it's called, 'There's no snakes in Ireland.".  The title alludes to the absence of such creatures allegedly bei g down to one of Father Ted's predecessors.

 

Jamie

[Dave Hunt]

Way back in 1968 I was on one of the little islands to the south of Singapore one Sunday afternoon with a group of mates and was wading in waist deep water when a sea snake (which I think was a type of Krait) swam between my legs. No such things as mobile phones and the boat that had dropped us off wasn't due back for a few hours so not much chance of getting any help had it bitten me. A year later our next door neighbour discovered a cobra's nest in his back garden and during a beach picnic brand new SWMBO and a friend were seen poking into a rock crevice with a stick as they had 'seen something' in there. Turned out that was a krait too but luckily they got away with it. Fortunately all we have now in Salopshire from the dangerous creatures category is the odd hippo....

 

Dave

[81C]

Morning All 

The sun is breaking through the cloud I hope it's a nice day.

Brain is in neutral at the moment so enjoy the day Bin Feckedover 

[tigerburnie]

Morning, been in the greenhouse this morning, I think I have over done the cucumber growing, there's dozens of 'em, tomatoes not quite ripe yet and the sweet corn is sticking out of the roof vents, must be over 7 feet tall!. We have daughter and two grandsons invading later, so I'd better check the locos are running or I will be in trouble.

[Northroader]

That loco of Pollys, probably one of these that the artist has “got at”, usually found on the pushpull suburban trains out of Gare du Nord

[Kingzance]

Late morning all,

 

Busy yesterday at the old place, concealed cistern issue resolved (I hope) after a lot of bending / swearing / knuckle bruising as I didn't want to lift off the worktop as it also holds two washbasins. Sheds emptied, garage swept, house vacuumed and various tops etc wiped down. A further visit will be required Tuesday as SWMBO has a contact lens check and I can coup de gras. 

Ate out at the local pub last night. Whilst the food was perfectly acceptable, the significant error in teh bill left a bitter aftertaste such that I may not eat there again. When arriving back home, some cowboys were at the top of the scaffolding on the CowboysRUs site, god knows what they were up to but a loud metallic bang came from that area later. The site's security is certainly not a concern of mine and neither is the safety of stupid trespassers who clearly broke through fencing to get there.

Today may be more restful with some staging / shelving to erect, various items to relocate to the resulting storage (includes easy wine access for her ladyhicc) and maybe some leather on willow and/or squealing rubber. Also providing me with some mental stimulation is whether Wodney consumes significant volumes of Wattlers? That may be the reason there are few reported snakebite deaths in the west country, other than those resulting from persons knowingly consuming Snakebite the previous day.

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

 Fortunately all we have now in Salopshire from the dangerous creatures category is the odd hippo....

 

Dave

Yes, very odd (allegedly).

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Had a good lie in this morning so I'm a late riser. An ex-squaddie friend of mine served in Belize, if a snake was spotted they used to capture and kill a rat and stuff the corpse with Alka-Seltza. The snakes used to swallow the rat and the Alka-Seltza used to react with the snakes stomach acid and the snake would then explode. 

[New Haven Neil]

Morning.  Oh, it has just become afternoon. or noon anyway.

 

I recall passing through a huge (what is the collective noun for snakes?) err, mass of those yellow sea snakes on a ship I was on, doing some deck work for a change.  Thing is I can't recall where it was, but might have been the Malacca Straights or somewhere Indian Ocean, thinking about the ship in question.  As a newbie engineer cadet it scared the living daylights out of me, there must have been thousands of them, and I'm a bit snake-phobic.  Eeeuww.

 

Odd day here, feeling very lethargic, not sure if it is the somewhat restrictive diet or something else.  I've just had lunch of some things that are a little naughty and see if I perk up.

 

Off to uncover the garden railway as the flora seems to have had a frenzy and not much track can be seen in some places!

 

 

[BSW01]

 

 

 

 

Good morning afternoon everyone

 

Not so early riser today, but we both enjoyed the lie-in AND breaking bed. Just about to finish muggertea No2 and then I’m off to the workshop for the day, I may be some time. 

 

Back later. 

[Happy Hippo]

58 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Morning.  Oh, it has just become afternoon. or noon anyway.

 

I recall passing through a huge (what is the collective noun for snakes?) err, mass of those yellow sea snakes on a ship

 

I think such an apparition is a cluster f*ck.

'Coz the latter is what you'd yell if you fell in the former.

 

Individually, sea snakes although highly venomous, have a very docile disposition.

[JohnDMJ]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Had a good lie in this morning so I'm a late riser. An ex-squaddie friend of mine served in Belize, if a snake was spotted they used to capture and kill a rat and stuff the corpse with Alka-Seltza. The snakes used to swallow the rat and the Alka-Seltza used to react with the snakes stomach acid and the snake would then explode. 

 

Wonder if that would work with the local vultures crows and sea gulls?

[Gwiwer]

Welcome to Sunday. 

 

Yesterday went perfectly to plan. An 04.45 start saw me aboard the 06.35 from Waterloo. This is shown as having the unlikely destination of Maiden Newton until reaching Andover. The reason being that there are faster more direct services to Weymouth. It is then shown as “Corfe Castle and Empty to Depot” all the way to Upwey. The unit which arrives at Weymouth closer to London is detached there and spends the day in Jersey Sidings. 

 

By way of reversals at Yeovil Junction and Yeovil Pen Mill we reached Weymouth with a nearly-full 6-coach train. Four continued to the final destination of Corfe Castle. 

 

The last leg into Swanage was behind a Battle of Britain light Pacific. SWR cannot reach Swanage because there is nowhere suitable to cross trains on the single line. 

 

So afternoon tea was enjoyed with both Former Neighbours (Upstairs) who are now making their own post-university ways in life. 

 

I returned by the more direct main line up from Wareham but not before witnessing the Swanage Railway’s clever arrangement of connecting between their train and the SWR one. The former arrives at Corfe Castle in the up platform, connecting passengers cross the footbridge and board the diesel train waiting in the down platform. The crew of this train are then shown the token for Norden (proving there is no train on the line) and depart signalled by the ground disc.  A few minutes later the SWR train has cleared the section at Norden Gates. The signalman here gives 2-1 back to Corfe (train leaving section) and releases the block. The steam crew are then given the token at Corfe to follow on up to Norden. 

 

It’s legal. It works. And it’s a fascinating piece of co-operation between Swanage Railway, South Western Railway and Network Rail. 

 

A long but a good day out was completed by a hot green Thai chicken curry and an ice-cold bottle of white falling-down water. 

 

 

[AndyID]

Plenty of rattlesnakes in Idaho but not in this part. I think it's a bit cool for them here.

 

We do have garter snakes that live under the steps up to my shed and come out to warm up in the sun. They help to keep the insect population under control.

[pH]

49 minutes ago, AndyID said:

We do have garter snakes that live under the steps up to my shed and come out to warm up in the sun. They help to keep the insect population under control.

 

We only have garter snakes here. There are no rattlers west of the Fraser Canyon.

 

Garter snakes can physically bite, but have no venom. However, they apparently have bacteria in their mouths which can infect the wound, so bites should be cleaned and antibiotic applied.

[roundhouse]

Reading Ricks trip yesterday, we are on the Waterloo to Swanage service next Sunday formed of a 4TC top and tailed by 73's. Its the third such trip with the 2nd being today. We get 3 hours if all goes to plan in Swanage for beer. We travelled on that SWR service as far as Weymouth last Summer and it was very busy from Gillingham station. Corfe Castle is one of my favourite preserved stations as it looks so close to what it did back in the 60's form looking at photos back then.

 

Today I have been lifting paving slabs in next doors garden that became redundant when he demolished his garden shed. Most of the paving slabs are those we have him when we lifted part of the patio to build the conservatory many years ago, so they are now back home just over the boundary and now laid in front of the shed. They will be left to settle for a while before being lifted to put the plastic egg crate bases down which will give a much better base. It got to warm to finish lifting all the slabs so that will continue during the week weather permitting.

 

Currently working on renumbering a Bulleid light pacific to 34070 Manston which is / was at Swanage.

Edited August 4, 2019 by roundhouse

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Sorting out places to go I see that next Sunday is a bus rally at Waterside Farm, Canvey, nice and local. Tea to be drunk so its be back later.

[The Stationmaster]

Evening all,

 

Exciting day yesterday as I visited the 'toy shop' in Alton to collect some long awaited vehicles plus I lashed out on a new book of Ben Brooksbank WR photos and the latest copy of MRJ.   The day was the further enlivened by the arrival of the joining instructions for our next jaunt at sea - seems I'm a right clever beggar as the port of embarkation is only a few miles away from the one I'd originally estimated/expected it to be.  However just to be a tad awkward the port of embarkation now advised has to be reached via  a short sea journey on one of the very few ferry routes around the British coast on which we actually have to pay the normal fare.  And there's some fancy regatta thing on there at the time we are joining the ship so no doubt the workboat will have to find its way amongst all sorts of yachting types and their spectators.  I can readily foresee our port of embarkation undergoing a change when Captain Bob starts thinking about the practicalities of getting us aboard there - time, and a late 'phone message, will tell one way or the other

 

Incidentally we are bidden to meet outside a particular hostelry/eatery so might it be a good idea to book a table for lunch?  You must be joking - the sharks want a £25 deposit just for booking a flippin' table during the week of their fancy regatta (and the menu isn't up to much anyway).   A 'greasy spoon' type establishment with good ratings on the 'net is fortunately close at hand but I bet even it won't be as good as the one we found at Milford Haven a few years back.

 

And Rick are you sure your description is accurate?  Showing a Driver a token and not giving it to him to take with him is distinctly dodgy to say the least especially when a published description of the line sates that Corfe Castle to Norden is worked by NSKT - although it is not clear if there is a machine at Norden/Norden Gates to put a token into.  If there isn't a machine at that end then Working by Pilotman would be the best way to do what Rick described with the Pilotman taking possession of the token - which I suspect (hope?) would have might well have been what was actually done.  (Breaking down the discipline of normal token working is actually a reportable irregularity so I'd be worried if that was what they had done, even under a Special Instruction).

 

Enjoy the rest of your day one and all.

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, pH said:

Garter snakes can physically bite, but have no venom. However, they apparently have bacteria in their mouths which can infect the wound, so bites should be cleaned and antibiotic applied.

 

According to Wikipedia (yes, I know) it was discovered recently that they do produce a neurotoxin but they lack the fangs to deliver it.

 

I was trying to figure out a way to incorporate "fangs for the memories" but I thought better of it.

[AndyID]

7 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 

The last leg into Swanage was behind a Battle of Britain light Pacific.

 

 

In the absence of any panniers I suppose a Spam Can is the next best thing.

 

Hark! Is that the thunderous hooves of a charging hippo? I must away PDQ.

[Tony_S]

MiL told me that when she lived in India as a child it was quite common first thing in the morning to find snakes resting on top of the cooking range. Before their servants could light ovens they had to remove the snakes, by chucking a bucket of water over them.  

Tony

[Coombe Barton]

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2019/08/04/sandys-treatment-day-229/

[pH]

33 minutes ago, AndyID said:

I was trying to figure out a way to incorporate "fangs for the memories" but I thought better of it.

 

Apparently, you didn't!

[AndyID]

Given recent events in the US it might seem callous that I'm joking around. It's something of a defense mechanism on my part.

 

If I were to post stuff about how I really feel I'm pretty sure I'd be banned from here and quite possibly picked up by the FBI for interrogation.

 

 

[Coombe Barton]

1 hour ago, AndyID said:

 

 

I was trying to figure out a way to incorporate "fangs for the memories" but I thought better of it.

Unlike Cleopatra, who brought the asp to her breast - Fangs for the mammaries.

Edited August 4, 2019 by Coombe Barton