Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Erichill16 said:

I know you enjoy ‘local’ food when you’re abroad and wonder whether, as a well travelled man, you’d ever visited the pot noodle museum in Yokohama?...

Sadly, no. I have been to Japan, although my trip was for work and thus was fairly short, but I did manage to get to Kyoto and explore Tokyo a bit. But I never made it to Yokohama although I have heard of the pot noodle Museum. Sadly, I have not yet tried a Japanese Pot Noodles but I certainly want to try them as-or so I am told-the Japanese Pot Noodle is to the average European Pot Noodle as a Rolls-Royce is to the Trabant. (I am still hoping to get back to Japan for an holiday, once the coronavirus pandemic has resolved [and it will, eventually]).

 

With Mrs iD and the Wolfpack being at the Holiday Hovel, I am taking full advantage of totally unfettered culinary freedom and tonight I am making a Jamaican Lamb Breast Curry with no less than two Scotch Bonnet peppers to give it a bit of a zing. There are few things better than the high and the buzz that one gets from a full on capsaicin hit. But it’s got to be done right, there is no sense of having so much capsaicin that you can’t taste the ingredients, but it’s a delicate balancing act managed by few. 
Unfortunately, I can’t use Mrs iD as a willing (or even unwilling) guinea pig. She refuses to eat anything spicier than a “mild madras curry”. Nor can I rely on the otherwise impeccable taste of Lucy and Schotty as curries (and any other dish containing more than a trace of onion and garlic) are not good for dogs – although they will happily tuck in to the accompanying Basmati rice.
 

A wee dram of whiskey will follow tonight’s repast.

 

Cheers

 

F

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, Simon G said:

To be honest, not many pubs in the towns in Cumbria are suitable for the faint hearted on a Saturday night!  I recall coming out of the spoons in Whitehaven one night, and set off up the street, only to encounter what looked like a pitched battle going on.  We quickly turned round and went the other way!  That particular street does have a reputation for such things and there is a regular police presence there on Friday and Saturday nights.

 

 

During the Eighties things got so bad in Paisley's pub/club area that it was known locally as "The Somme".

[Barry O]

Visit to eye consultant did not go well.. late in to appointment...spent 5 minutes reading my notes..completely missed out one test got a reading for one eye she wasn't happy with.. so she asked one of the lesser doctors (who happens to be a bit clumsy when measuring eye pressures) so.. next up  more laser treatment sometime.. may wait ages as they have cancelled all NHS contracts with external providers.. BUR she did explain how to avoid getting beta blockers from the eye drops into my blood stream... better late than never...She reckons that the Beta Blockers are OK for diabetics to use.. any one able to say anything about this?

 

Baz

[J. S. Bach]

Ah, Along with Rip van Winkle's celestial bowling balls, we are having an old-fashioned gully-washer right now; whew, I can put off mowing the lawn for another day or more!! Maybe even longer, we are promised more of this through at least through Sunday! Not to mention that the letter carrier has at least two packages for me today and it is about the time that she normally shows up. I have my umbrella right by the door in case the packages do not fit in the mailbox.

Edited July 6, 2020 by J. S. Bach
Change "fir" to "fit" in the mailbox.

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

... tapas bar (whatever that is),

 

5 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

The only one I ever knowingly went into was certainly a tap-ar$e bar

Properly they are Spanish small plate restaurants. If they strive to be authentic they can be wonderful. The concept is to purchase several different small plates to share. Typical dishes include the Spanish tortilla (a potato frittata / omelette), chorizo, Jamón, seafood like sardines and squid and pasta (often blackened with squid ink).

 

Sometimes restaurants will brand themselves as "tapas" without any attempt to be Spanish and just interpret the name as 'small plates'.

 

We had a fabulous Spanish restaurant here in Portland (focused on tapas) that has recently closed over, of all things, a twitter feud, though the pandemic was likely an influence.

[TheSignalEngineer]

11 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

And it’s even worse in Italy.  There are definitely two classes of eateries in Italy: the first, patronised mostly, if not exclusively, by locals, have the menus only in Italian and serve regional and seasonal dishes; whilst the second type, catering to the tourist trade, serves poor quality food at inflated prices (not that I blame the restauranteurs, they have a living to make and with high rents in touristy areas serving what tourists expect to be fed is a reliable way to make your rent and costs).  A reliable indicator of whether or not an Italian restaurant is geared towards the tourist trade is to look at their menu – if the menu is in multiple languages run, do not walk, to the next restaurant

Our daughter was seconded to the Italian branch of her firm several years ago. Their operation is based to the north of Milan and the first flat they put her into was in Monza. As she was quite fluent in Italian she took us to some excellent eatong places with Italian-only menus.

One night she suggested a particular place and we had to wait a few minutes outside for a table to become free. Having quite a tanned skin, long black hair and wearing Italian designer clothing she could easily pass for a local. Two obviously English tourists stopped and asked her in faltering Italian as to whether it was a good place to eat and what she suggested from the menu. She answered in Italian which they couldn't understand followed by a translation of the menu in a broad Birmingham accent, much to the amusement of all around.

[pH]

26 minutes ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Two obviously English tourists stopped and asked her in faltering Italian as to whether it was a good place to eat and what she suggested from the menu. She answered in Italian which they couldn't understand followed by a translation of the menu in a broad Birmingham accent, much to the amusement of all around.

Friends of ours were in a small town in southern Italy and asked a member of the carabinieri for directions in their basic Italian. He replied in English, with a broad Glasgow accent! There has been a significant Italian community in the west of Scotland since (I think) the 1920s. The cop’s parents had met and married in Scotland, then moved back to Italy when he was in his teens.

[The Stationmaster]

5 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

True, that.  

 

It does seem odd that while for the months we have had this emergency that trains have normally run in their usual paths but with longer intervals between due to the many which have not run.  So today without warning things suddenly change.  So suddenly that most journey planners don't have today's service uploaded.  Which causes its own problems when faced with customers who expected the 07.20 to Little Nuttingford to have run at 07.20.  

 

The only explanation I can think of is that the change brings an even 15-minute headway to Motspur Park.  And to nowhere else.  What is special about Motspur Park, I wonder?  Does someone in a very expensive suit live there?  

 

Indeed planning and common sense are seldom on the same page of the Railway Operating Manual.  

 

From a quick look I think it might be an experiment that changes the service pattern to give improvements in some places and perhaps a reliability gain.  However it is very difficult to examine it properly without the diagrams and they might tell a further story however it is difficult to delve into the real detail.   But seeing that the entire timetable is STP there could well be a much simpler explanation that it was written by somebody different (or a different machine) and they have tackled certain problems their way rather than the way the TT was originally put together.  Or possibly that it was easier from the resourcing angle to write it (bearing in mind it is an STP job) that way than to dismantle and rebuild the permanent timetable  - that can often be the easiest way to resource a reduced timetable although altering patterns on the Southern does run the risk of upsetting the regular passengers.

 

So it might be someone grabbing the opportunity to try out some changes which would have been a much bigger task in a permanent timetable change or just that somebody has built the timetable ina different way.  Could well be worth asking somebody in train planning - if you can find a contact - why it's been done because a swap around like that normally has some reasoning behind it.

 

And having planned train services off and on over 40+ years as well as spending a decade or so in front line operating, and spending nearly the better part of 20 years managing train planning organisations and processes I can tell you for definite that there are usually some very good reasons behind the way a trainplan, and hence the timetable, is put together.  What most people, including many within the industry don't understand, is that  producing emergency train plans, usually at very short notice, is a very different job from the much longer timescales available when writing the permanent trainplan and timetable because you are playing a sort of three dimensional chess with, often, very limited time in which to do the job so you might have to work to very different imperatives.  They've obviously had a bit more time to write this one but at the same time they've had to face some moving targets and - no doubt - some conflicting demands.  I used to enjoy writing emergency trainplans but I had one consistent rule - anybody who came in with an 'I think we could  ...  ...'  always got a very sharp, extremely rude, reply instructing them to leave.  Or do the bl**dy job themselves  if they happened to think they were so clever because if you are trying to run the maximum you are able to run with the only resources available you inevitably find there is only one way of doing the job in the time available to write the plan and get it out in time to run it.

[brianusa]

14 hours ago, chrisf said:

Greetings one and all

 

On the subject of street parades, no doubt most have heard of the incident in Seattle recently, when protesters protesting on the freeway were mowed down by man in a Jaguar who obviously didn't agree with their cause,  Two were killed in a very similar incident to the one recently in Charlottesville.  This was on a closed section of the freeway due to trespassers  and somehow the driver evaded the barriers.  This shows how dangerous such parades are in spite of necessary precautions.  No doubt things are different back home but in today's climate nothing is predictable.

     Brian.

[New Haven Neil]

Well that was the day from hell.  No one particular reason or person, just a perfect storm of, well, that stuff.  Like you chase in the wind....  Things not working, a heap of e mails not dealt with (accidentally), flipping computer hassle with new software not interfacing properly with other software, phone ringing itself mad, you know the scene.  All sorted by the end of the day, but I don't want too many like that, I'm supposed to be semi retired.  Taking a week off always ends up like this, maybe I should never take leave.

 

Bu$$er it I'm going to bed early!

[brianusa]

11 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Call me mean, but I do not want a slack handful of useless coinage living in my sock drawer for ages afterwards.

 

The biggest culprit for small change (even Pounds) is the UK.  Its even difficult to get rid of it at Heathrow if you have a lot.  Paper money is much handier!

        Brian.

[AndyID]

6 minutes ago, brianusa said:

 

The biggest culprit for small change (even Pounds) is the UK.  Its even difficult to get rid of it at Heathrow if you have a lot.  Paper money is much handier!

        Brian.

 

They keep mucking about with it in the UK too. I have some UK coins that are now completely worthless. The US hasn't done away with any coins since we arrived in 1982. Also, two dollar bills are still legal tender. Just watch out for those three dollar bills.

[JohnDMJ]

Evening.

 

8 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Well that was the day from hell.  No one particular reason or person, just a perfect storm of, well, that stuff.  Like you chase in the wind....  Things not working, a heap of e mails not dealt with (accidentally), flipping computer hassle with new software not interfacing properly with other software, phone ringing itself mad, you know the scene.  All sorted by the end of the day, but I don't want too many like that, I'm supposed to be semi retired.  Taking a week off always ends up like this, maybe I should never take leave.

 

Seems to be a summary of the last 15 weeks! You will not need to take leave if you fully retire!

[The Stationmaster]

5 minutes ago, brianusa said:

 

The biggest culprit for small change (even Pounds) is the UK.  Its even difficult to get rid of it at Heathrow if you have a lot.  Paper money is much handier!

        Brian.

One reason I welcomed the arrival of the Euro was because I was getting distinctly hacked off with quantities of small change for France, Belgium and Germany together with occasional visits to Holland.  But it obviously didn't resolve my Swiss small change stash but at least I was down to a maximum of two currencies (plus GB £s) for the most exotic of regular trips abroad.  The situation with tickets was however always complex because in case of travel problems I always tried to make sure every eventuality was covered so a trip to Switzerland meant carrying  a free pass booklet with a couple of pages for SBB, and one each for the BLS, SNCF, DB, and SNCB which gave me the maximum flexibility for travel back should any one route be unusable or - if I was going by air - there was some sort of disruption due to strikes.

[Sir TophamHatt]

Eeeeeeevening.

 

The parents came round today to see Mrs STH and Baby STH.

Only saw him at 2 weeks old before the lockdown. They're okay, but noticing how old they're getting now .

 

I've also realised I feel better when I've "done something".

Like today, I changed the door handle on the front door (to silver, after Mrs STH painted it grey from generic uPVC white).

 

Changed the letterbox only to find it was too wide. Out with the jigsaw, which annihilated it. After having a think, the dremmel would be a much better tool, and it was!

Still didn't cut it small enough but upon adjusting the disc, it broke!

 

However, easy and quick task so bought some more discs from oir favourite auction website so by the end of the week, they should be here.

 

Got the duvets we're using as large cushions for pallet furniture into their weatherproof tubs, so they're now in their home behind the shed.

 

Just hoping stuff that should arrive this week actually does!

[Gwiwer]

38 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

a swap around like that normally has some reasoning behind it.

Mike - it is always interesting and educational to hear your viewpoint having had so many years experience.  I shall try to unpick things "on the fly" by watching the unit numbers and hence building up the stock diagrams in my head.  What I cannot easily do is build staff diagrams in that way.  One cannot always identify driver or guard and they don't work the same diagrams either meaning there are two different sets of staff diagrams.  

 

The one they really could improve is the Shepperton service but it would require an extra train which adds around 20% to the cost (for five instead of four trains on the service); a figure which would have accountants in fits.  But a longer turnback in Surrey would help reliability and reduce the number of stops skipped or outright cancellations due to late running.  

 

Performance has been largely exemplary during the emergency.  Fewer trains to offer conflicts and many many fewer passengers which has reduced station dwell time and customer-related delays.    When larger numbers of people return expect to see things dip again as trains cannot meet dwell targets nor can the full service clear Waterloo throat reliably unless it runs within a few seconds of right time.  

 

15 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Just watch out for those three dollar bills.

We have some £17 notes in the UK.  They say £20 on them but they're not worth that much.  It's the 87p coin you have to watch out for  

[polybear]

18 minutes ago, JohnDMJ said:

You will not need to take leave if you fully retire!

 

 

Don't you believe it.  I took early retirement at the end of April and discovered that you then don't get a day off.  It's killing me man....

The good bit is that at least I get to do useful things that I choose to do, not some pointless dross that some other tw@t thinks is a good idea.  Mind you, prepping and painting drainpipes today doesn't rate highly on the excitement scale - though it's pretty good when it's done

[polybear]

3 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

We have some £17 notes in the UK.  They say £20 on them but they're not worth that much.  It's the 87p coin you have to watch out for  

 

 

I remember a big news story in the mid/late 70's regarding fake twenties surfacing in big numbers in London.  Such a story was pretty unusual in those days.  The next day I heard from the Greengrocer I was working for (sweeping up/burning rubbish) that they were flogging 20's for seven quid at covent garden market......

[Coombe Barton]

... and science and the virus.

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/07/06/actually-used-cash/

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I've found a local company (Wickford) that can hopefully fix my printer. Having recovered and checked my paperwork I found I'd purchased it more than 8 years ago. Its still on the original ink cartridges though I'm getting a 'magenta is low' warning, which might be the cause of the problem. Tomorrow will mark my 72nd circuit of Sol, I wonder how many miles that is? I just looked it up, 584 million miles every year.

[PeterBB]

Well it appears that last night's entry did not go so this is the third edition or upgrade of the same blog item.

 

Gwier (that was last night) - congratulations on SWMBO's PhD - ( that was a week or two ago.

eight years hard slog just shows determination and staying power with obvious support from ... now I wonder who that might have been.

 

Interesting continuation of that cross-over.  Not sure if it helps but Dave, the mega point man has a wiring diagram etc. on YouTube that might or might not be helpful.

 

GDB -  I see that you are just bearing up after that dog led you into trouble ... just shows the memory that some ERs have.  Jamie's lighting seems to be problem but his Volvo problem suggests that some garages another countries do what they say a lot of UK garages do ... 'forget' to so some of the work needed or requested but still charge? Or will I get a battering for that?

 

Tonight (Monday)Like the science in the Spanish Water  ... pity that they still call the USA Flu (transmitted by the soldiers in WW1 to Europe) the Spanish Flu

[PeterBB]

Strange things happen - all there-in-one of the last fortnight or so that I was able to write before being cut ooff seems to have landed.

or not as this is going on top of it.

 

Gwier - congratulations on SWMBO's PhD - eight years hard slog just shows determination and staying power with obvious support from ... now I wonder who that might have been.

 

Interesting continuation of that cross-over.  Not sure if it helps but Dave, the mega point man has a wiring diagram etc. on YouTube that might or might not be helpful.

 

GDB -  I see that you are just bearing up after that dog led you into trouble ... just shows the memory that some ERs have.  Jamie's lighting seems to be problem but his Volvo problem suggests that some garages another countries do what they say a lot of UK garages do ... 'forget' to so some of the work needed or requested but still charge? Or will I get a battering for that?

Edited July 6, 2020 by PeterBB
Duplicate but not quite, duplicate but not quite!

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[brianusa]

Too many people seems to be problematical!  Now what happens?

 

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

Performance has been largely exemplary during the emergency.  Fewer trains to offer conflicts and many many fewer passengers which has reduced station dwell time and customer-related delays.

      Brian.

Edited July 6, 2020 by brianusa

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

... and science and the virus.

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/07/06/actually-used-cash/

 

Like they say,

 

"If it isn't Baroque, don't fix it."

 

 

and he's off. ..