Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

5 minutes ago, polybear said:

.  Apparently the queue outside today was a hundred yards long......

At least from the North Pole it can be in only one direction. When Aditi went to our chemist last week the queue outside was short but contained a woman who couldn’t stand still and two men who had no idea of how to join a queue so started a new one. 
Tony

[newbryford]

Looks like my Big Bro is on the up.

He's been sitting up and listening to the radio and rock music.

Still has to communicate with a rattle though.

 

 

 

 

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 

Can anyone help me with the significance/relevance of these plates?

Too many numbers to be representations of genuine GB plates!

[Ozexpatriate]

Just now, Tony_S said:

Too many numbers to be representations of genuine GB plates!

The digits are not meant to be accurate - probably the designers initials or something. The numerals are the set number. 

 

My question was about the colours.

[jamie92208]

13 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I do have a question for London bus experts. Leaving aside the punny destinations (this is the number 9 to "Brickston", stopping at Brickadilly Circus, etc) there are two sets of alternative license plates - one in black and a front plate in white with a back plate in yellow.

 

Can anyone help me with the significance/relevance of these plates?

 

The black plates are the old style that would probably have been fitted when the bus was built. The white and yellow ones were optional for a few years, I think in the early 80's, and then became compulsory on new vehicles. I'm not sure whether the bus companies fitted new style plates to older vehicles. Perhaps bus experts such as Gwiwer will be able to help further. The number doesn't look correct to me though. AFAIK the were always of 6 digits, either three letters and three numbers  or 2 letters and 4 numbers until about 1964/5  when a year letter was added as a suffix to allow for more registration numbers.  

 

Jamie

Edited April 10, 2020 by jamie92208

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, jamie92208 said:

The black plates are the old style that would probably have been fitted when the bus was built. The white and yellow ones were optional for a few years, I think in the early 80's, and then became compulsory on new vehicles.

Thanks Jamie, that's exactly what I was hoping for.

[Simon G]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Back when I was an NHS junior managerial minion, I project managed a modest, err, project, and at the end of such wrote a report about the process.  My manager put their name on the top in big bright lights, pushed mine down to the bottom of the page somewhere and sent it out to the great and good.  All well and good for her for a little while as the project was a success, until in a meeting in my next job a very senior manager (actually the Director of Nursing) who knew me well from previous roles asked how much of the report I had actually written, as she recognised my writing style.  The cat as they say, was out of the bag, which opened an investigation into the naughty person's other work, which resulted in some very embarrassing revelations for them, and an almost job ending situation.  Laugh?  Oh yes, full karma moment. Did me no harm at all in the long run as it was widely known around the Trust what had happened.

 

That type of behaviour was rife in the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Agency in the 80s as it had a very civil service attitude.  I knew of one manager who insisted his name went at the top of every report written in his department which was a source of active dislike by everyone who worked for him.  On occasions it became a joke when he was asked about some of the details in the reports, and obviously knew previous little of it.  Luckily at that time, my managers were very good and insisted that whoever did the bulk of the work would write the report, and get top billing as the lead author.

[newbryford]

19 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

The black plates are the old style that would probably have been fitted when the bus was built. The white and yellow ones werw otional forva few years, I think in the early 80's, and then became compulsory on new vehicles. I'm not sure whether the bus companies fitted new style plates to older vehicles. Perhaps bus experts such as Gwiwer will be able to help further. The number doesn't look correct to me though. AFAIK the were always of 6 digits, either three letters and three numbers  or 2 letters and 4 numbers until about 1964/5  when a year letter was added as a suffix to allow for more registration numbers.  

 

Jamie

 

Black on white at the front, black on yellow at the rear.

 

We had a L reg car (Bright yellow Ford Consul RTD 817L.......!) that was one of the first to have the white/black and yellow/black plates when it was optional - so 1972. 

 

ISTR that London buses were still allowed to be white on black, long after the legal requirement for black on white/yellow on white.

I'm sure that Rick will confirm/deny as appropriate.

Edited April 9, 2020 by newbryford

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

did not include alcohol - except in Milwaukee where it was normal.

 

 

That's hardly surprising.

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, AndyID said:

That's hardly surprising.

With recent tragic workplace shooting there it was very weird to see Milwaukee's Miller Brewery described in the press as Molson-Coors. The long tradition of German immigrant brewers on Milwaukee is still (or I presume it is) a big part of the local culture and identity.

 

I took the Miller Brewery tour back while I lived in Chicago (mid-1990s). I enjoyed it. This was in the days where craft brewing was taking off but had not much penetrated the overall market.

[laurenceb]

London Transport (or whatever name they were using that week) were using black & white plates untill the mid eighty's

[newbryford]

4 minutes ago, laurenceb said:

London Transport (or whatever name they were using that week) were using black & white plates untill the mid eighty's

 

A 1985/6 registered MCW.

 

[J. S. Bach]

Good night owl from the Piedmont.

[PeterBB]

On 09/04/2020 at 23:02, Simon G said:

 

  On occasions it became a joke when he was asked about some of the details in the reports, and obviously knew previous little of it.  Luckily at that time, my managers were very good and insisted that whoever did the bulk of the work would write the report, and get top billing as the lead author.

 

Reminded me of my brother who at the time worked for a very well known computer company.  He was a 'delegate' to a seminar and as he listened to the main presenter realised that he was using one of his own reports.  As you can imaging he was not pleased and demonstrated his displeasure by asking a detailed question that  totally stumped the presenter ... he then answered the question quoting the page in the article on which the answer could be found and stated that it would have been a good idea if the presenter had asked the guy who wrote it before delivering it what it was all about.

 

The company was not too happy about that but thereafter he delivered his own work.

 

In the days of old I worked in a NHS department where most of my team averaged 72 hours per week, including emergency time, as we operated a 24/7 service.  In spite of that my team absence was a third of the national average.  A further memory ... one late Friday afternoon I rang my wife to tell her that I would be home for tea then the bleep went off.  I did not make it until Monday evening and therefore missed seeing  Arsenal win the FA Cup.  I also missed the day when my home team, Wimbledon won the FA Cup by beating Liverpool 1-0, but some years earlier I was able in 1963* to be at Wembley when Wimbledon beat Sutton United  4-2 to win the FA Amateur Cup, all four Wimbledon goals coming off the head of Eddie Reynolds.

 

*England won the World Cup in 1966

Edited April 11, 2020 by PeterBB
Dates Wimbledon v Sutton 1963 1966 England won the World Cup

[PeterBB]

9 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

With recent tragic workplace shooting there it was very weird to see Milwaukee's Miller Brewery described in the press as Molson-Coors. 

The latter took over Bass in Burton-on-Trent and one of the first things they did was close the museum as not financially viable ... fortunately someone somewhere had some sense and it became The National Museum of Brewing and is very well worth a visit.  Burton Railway Society (not got the name quite right) restored the locomotive some years back and still make sure it is 'presentable'.

 

When DEMU exhibited in the Town Hall the museum was included so it was excellent value.  DEMU this year was due to be held in Swadlincote - a good site and would avoid the 'close proximity' of the Burton Town Hall and the problems that DEMU had  there in recent years.

Edited April 10, 2020 by PeterBB
Correction of their to there!

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

Well I spent quite a lot of time in queues today, I mean FFS, the shops are only shut for 1 day more than usual, how much stuff do they need? Anyway, by the time I got back home there wasn’t a great deal of time to start playing testing, so I decided to redraw the circuit diagrams, as I’d made a couple of small changes to the originals. It was whilst doing this that I noticed a missing link, yes, I found the missing link. It took me all of 2 minutes to sort it out, hopefully I’ll get the temporary fascia made tomorrow and then testing can begin. 

 

Nice to see Pete popping in. 

 

Goodnight all. 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[The Stationmaster]

My mother-in-law (long deceased) worked in the Co-op for years and she always said that food shopping rush before Easter was always far worse than the rusj before Christmas.

 

We had an aircraft (looked like a B757) heading for LHR approach turning onto track for 09L directly over us this afternoon.  Only one we've all day and by golly was it noisy - shows just how much noise pollution these things normally create as it drowned out the bird song and sound of the bees.  No contrails today either.  I do wonder if folk getting this interlude from flights in/out of LHR will help to ramp up opposition to the third runway because they are now realising just how much noise they are not getting from passing aircraft?

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[pH]

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself, having just finished laying a floor of 'click and lock' 2 foot x 1 foot vinyl tiling in the basement, with only two complete tiles left over from 6 boxes. I don't think I've ever estimated as well with a tile floor before - I had to buy complete boxes, they don't allow splitting of boxes. There were quite a lot of bits of tiles left, but it's a very irregular area. Next job is skirting boards, which I do not enjoy doing.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all, with a warm welcome back to Pete Trisonic

 

This weekend should have been so different.  Today I would have set out on back roads across the Chilterns for Root One, the garden centre near Wallingford favoured by Mike Stationmaster, who introduced me to the rather good breakfast sold there.  From there I would have taken a short step to Long Wittenham and my annual visit to Pendon Museum, where on one of only four days in the year the Madder Valley layout would have been operating.  Tomorrow I would have started a short break staying with my cousin 88C and his wife, taking in the York Show on Sunday.  All this is off thanks to that ruddy virus, which seems to have been with us for ever instead of the actual less than three weeks.  It is small comfort that I now have even more time for m*d*ll*ng – oh, and g*rd*n*ng, at which I am even less competent.  One day we will all look back on the pandemic but I shall be very surprised if we do so with affection.

 

There was one bit of good news a couple of days ago.  A new date for Grace Petrie’s concert at The Stables has been announced.  As it is in November the chances of a further postponement are reduced, famous last words.  Against this, Folk by the Oak in the grounds of Hatfield House is off and one of my favourite occasions, May Day in Ampthill, is looking distinctly vulnerable.  It is after all essentially a pub crawl and to make that work you need the pubs to be open.  Oh dear.  Will the last optimist please turn out the lights.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[AndyID]

The weather here has been, to use a much over-used UK adjective, "stunning". To liven things up a bit I've been stunning some bits of wood with my splitting-maul.

 

 

Mostly douglas fir, locally called red fir, and some ponderosa pine - bull pine locally. Unless you hit a knot the fir splits quite easily. The pine is 'orrible stuff. It splits when it is really dry but when it's not the only way to get through it is with a log splitter. That pile of splits is a mere fraction of the firewood I have. I think I'm going to give some of it away.

 

Here's a better view of my little tractor. It's quite a tough little beast. It also has a detachable back-hoe and a home-made log splitter that runs off the tractor's hydraulic pump.

 

 

This is the view from where I was stunning the wood.

 

 

I suppose I could put my little boat in the lake and go fishing but I'd rather just enjoy the the view.

 

Keep well and have a great weekend.

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

On 08/04/2020 at 14:19, AndyID said:

The "constitution thumpers" a bit north of here are saying the Governor doesn't have the right to prevent people assembling in groups of any size.

I see that not north of you but south near Boise, the "acquitted in a mistrial with prejudice" for 16 varying counts, including but not limited to conspiracy, assault, threatening and interference of interstate commerce by extortion, ringleader of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupation is planning an Easter gathering in defiance of the Governor of Idaho's order.