Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Hello again from Estuary-Land. Our bin wagons dawn chorus was just that this morning, well for the black (land-fill) sacks anyway. The pink re-cycling sacks have only just gone and now every things cleared. Will have to get on with filling the fox holes while the weather is dry, as its beneath a large shrub where nothing grows an old concrete slab is going in to stop any repeat. I too noticed the double avatar, no doubt Andy will get it sorted but I doubt it is very high on his list of priorities.

[New Haven Neil]

Seeing double FL-9's here too, must stop drinking the coffee too strong.

 

Completed the honey-do list of the day, mostly in the garden, so lunch then a walk I think as the temperature is now 15 and the sun showing itself mostly.

 

No foxes here, despite Foxdale's name!  No snakes, badgers, tax, no forget that bit......

Edited October 1, 2020 by New Haven Neil

[Tony_S]

I did see double avatars for a while but only one now. 
I didn’t mind taking Robbie to the vets for his final day. He liked vet visits and actually got up for a moment when we took him in but fell over straight away. It wasn’t his usual vet but we had a plan in place for whenever it seemed the right time. We had been warned that his inability to move would come in very quickly once the medication for his spine problem ceased working. Thanks to human drugs and hydrotherapy he had had a few more active months. A younger dog might have had surgery but the vet wasn’t confident he would have lasted longer and it was too risky. 
Tony

[NGT6 1315]

Cheers, mates.

 

Still among the living though I’m definitely glad I’m now on a shortish bit of holiday till Tuesday. Work has remained fairly draining on my reserves, truth be told... And to round it all off, I needed to do a pair of earlies due to circumstances!

 

Though on a more light-hearted note, I wonder what kind of neighbourhood this might be...  

 

 

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

...I agree so very, very much with Andrew C's point about saying that last goodbye at home - so much more settling for our four legged friends than even accompanying them to the surgery.  Henry was dealt with at home, held by the Good Doctor (his favoured two-legged human) and wrapped in his favourite towel and it was so much more dignified.  And s*d the extra cost, even if you have to live on baked beans for a week or two....

I am in total agreement here. When it's time to say goodbye to Schotty and Lucy it will be done at home. Our regular vet does this service and if she can't/won't do it, then a good friend of Mrs iD is also a vet and will come and euthanise the dogs. It will, I know, be emotionally devasting for me (far more so than loosing either of my parents [probably because of years of physical and emotional distance/separation from the wrinklies]), but I owe Lucy and Schotty that much. I'd like to bury Lucy in her favourite spot for sunbathing in our garden, but this isn't allowed (at least in our Gemeinde), so I'll inter her ashes in the spot and place a marker there.

 

On more pleasant news, I went to see my surgeon for a post-surgical (and post pandemic postponed) check up. I turned up at 08:45, had X-rays done (all digital) and saw the surgeon at 09:30 - with my X-rays already up on the screen for our review. Apart from the Patellar Tendon and the Medial Collateral Ligament playing silly bu99ers (as is their wont - for at least 1 year after surgery) everything is totally Analogue Train Set - i.e. working as well as can be expected. When we reviewed the x-rays, we discussed a few findings which, although slightly anomalous, were WNL. "So", I quipped, "no article for the Archives of Orthopaedic Surgery" He laughed. Soft tissue management was reviewed - basically keep on doing the same old. A Yuletide review was scheduled for 2021. In all, a good morning.

 

A quiet day for me, today. Nothing on my plate for work (a document to review - but it can wait until tomorrow)

 

And to happily conclude, my client in the US has finally paid up for work done in July (they have a "pay in 60 days policy"   ) and a suitable amount of money with an adequate number of integers before the decimal point is now waiting to be converted into modelling tokens. As an aside, company regulations in Switzerland allows you to offset legitimate business expenses against taxes. I am wondering how expenditures for "supplies" from Barwell or Margate could be classified as "legitimate" business expense. I suppose that if I could get away with putting Lucy and Schotty on the payroll (as "personal security providers to the company CEO") I could write off Hornby and Bachmann acquisitions as expenditure on "executive stress releasing therapy instruments"....

 

Edited October 1, 2020 by iL Dottore
censoring software (good old anglo-saxon word removed)

[J. S. Bach]

3 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Seeing double FL-9's here too, must stop drinking the coffee too strong. ...snip...

Seeing ONE FL9 would be a blessing nowadays. Hmmm, on second thought, a jet would be even better!

Edited October 1, 2020 by J. S. Bach

[Gwiwer]

'dafternoon all,

 

Reporting for duty pricked and protected.  The flu shot was administered an hour ago and makes me among the first in the company this year to have taken up their generous offer.  The pharmacy cannot accommodate me until "the second wave" of vaccinations as they must attend to the over-65s first.  I don't qualify for that - yet - but I'm getting alarmingly close.  The surgery likewise has advised they cannot accept me until "at least late October" owing to NHS limits but somehow the employer has obtained enough vaccine ..... 

 

Weather has been sunny but clod.  Tomorrow is forecast to be wet and widny.  The thermals are on stand-by.  

[Simon G]

Pressure washing completed, or at least as much as I want to do in a day.  There was enough water supply from the old oil tank, so no mains water used.  Since then, I have managed to pick a few beans, peas, beetroot and dug up a parsnip as apparently we need one for the dinner tonight.  As it is a nice afternoon, I will venture back outside shortly to apply some teak oil to our garden seat, which is in dire need of it.  I have already cleaned off all the accumulated detritus and lightly sanded it, so just the oil to be applied.

[Happy Hippo]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I could write off Hornby and Bachmann acquisitions as expenditure on "executive stress releasing therapy instruments"....

 

Put them down under travelling expenses.

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

'dafternoon all,

 

Reporting for duty pricked and protected.  The flu shot was administered an hour ago and makes me among the first in the company this year to have taken up their generous offer.  The pharmacy cannot accommodate me until "the second wave" of vaccinations as they must attend to the over-65s first.  I don't qualify for that - yet - but I'm getting alarmingly close.  The surgery likewise has advised they cannot accept me until "at least late October" owing to NHS limits but somehow the employer has obtained enough vaccine ..... 

 

Weather has been sunny but clod.  Tomorrow is forecast to be wet and widny.  The thermals are on stand-by.  

I don't qualify for free vaccines yet, but I'm having mine next week.  It's a bit like private medical practice....If you pay you can get it pdq!

[Tony_S]

39 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I don't qualify for free vaccines yet, but I'm having mine next week.  It's a bit like private medical practice....If you pay you can get it pdq!

This year those age 50 to 64 will get free vaccines “later” after the old and vulnerable allegedly. Our GP surgery have sent us an appointment slot on Saturday 10th. The pharmacy we get our medication has also invited us to book a free jab too. 

[Coombe Barton]

I'm old and at risk so got mine last Saturday. Our surgery is very well organised.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Filled the hole made by the fox and capped it with a concrete slab. Interesting item on the Repair Shop today, a treadle operated jig saw (the machine not the puzzle). I remember my dad having one back in the 50's but I can't remember what he made with it. It certainly wouldn't comply with current health and safety. Tea has brewed, be back later.

[Coombe Barton]

Anyone found a way of turning off notification to reactions?

[PhilJ W]

20 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Anyone found a way of turning off notification to reactions?

If you click on the bell symbol in the top right of the panel it says 'Notification settings' click on that and at the bottom of the page you should find the switch off option.

[The Stationmaster]

3 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 

 

Reporting for duty pricked and protected.  The flu shot was administered an hour ago and makes me among the first in the company this year to have taken up their generous offer.  

Crikey that takes me back an awful long way Rick.  We got free flu jabs at work on the London Division of the WR although i think the first ones were in 1968 and the last one I had was - ooh heck - in 1970 so  a mere 50 years ago    (I was RHQ in 1971 and they didn't do them there.)

 

Interesting in all this flu jabbery talk that our surgery seems to have been ahead of the curve as they had the stuff available a fortnight ago although I don't think they start mass jabbing until this coming Saturday (it was the date we were offered originally).  Mrs Stationmaster had hers today at Tesco - no queue and all done nice and quickly with much sanitisartion of  everything in sight dne before she sat to get the jab.  But, no doubt to avoid any sort of panic, limited to only one per customer.

[Ian Abel]

BIN day and a later than usual check-in.

 

Nothing of note yesterday (other than the daft spam email, of course!), fair enough!

 

Today, all quiet, except for the eternal rumble of myriad BIN trucks most of the day.

 

Later I'm off to our final Cabaret rehearsal.

With the Cabaret being a live-streamed virtual production on Saturday some of us have "volunteered", during the final rehearsal, in all the church/cabaret bumpf, to answer BASIC questions by phone this evening and have folks "attempt to watch the stream", for folks who aren't sure how to watch the show Saturday.

 

It's SUPPOSED to be a simple "here's the location you go to on you 'device'", with no technical expertise proffered, but given the demographic of most of the potential audience I'm fully expecting to have many callers wanting to know if their TV is even "smart", if they can connect their phone/computer to their TV, and if so HOW, etc., etc!! 

Will be an entertaining 3 hours, wish me luck

 

5 kicking off the day, cloudy and supposed to remain that way all day with a high of 11.

 

Tally ho.

[J. S. Bach]

11 hours ago, AndrewC said:

 ...snip... (oops, something in my eye)

It seems that mine, too; the screen got a little blurry.

[Gwiwer]

The property manager has finally provided wheelie bins to replace the wholly-unfit, split and lidless round ones which the local vermin are adept at emptying. If only they had counted their properties correctly - eight bins arrived for nine flats and as they arrived pre-numbered flat 4A seems to be binless for now. 
 

Tomorrow is BINday. We shall see if the council’s contracted operatives are sufficiently adaptable to deal with the new arrangements. 
 

In other news two good friends who have worked side by side in the same industry for 38 years have become virus victims. Their premises was requisitioned in March to house the homeless and critical care staff and is not being released just yet. With furlough ending this month and no prospect of them getting their business back they have reluctantly accepted redundancy and will retire a couple of years earlier than planned. 
 

38 years work and customer loyalty gone at the stroke of a pen. 
 

We hope to see them next week. At a suitably antisocial distance of course and without tea or biscuits. 

 

[Andrew P]

5 hours ago, Tony_S said:

This year those age 50 to 64 will get free vaccines “later” after the old and vulnerable allegedly. Our GP surgery have sent us an appointment slot on Saturday 10th. The pharmacy we get our medication has also invited us to book a free jab too. 

Ours are both on Sat 10th as well, 2 minutes apart, 10.20 &10.22, I wonder if they will have to peel me off the floor in my usual fashion when needles are around.

Edited October 1, 2020 by Andrew P

[jamie92208]

We have both had the letters telling us to get the flu jabs but the pharmacy won't have them in stock till the end of next week so we will have to wait. In the meantime the plan for the day worked well and we got home by 7.30 pm. An evening  doing not a lot is being enjoyed.

 

Jamie

[Erichill16]

Evening All, 

Been helping out at the pharmacy today and so far the manager has given about 400 doses. The issue we have is actually storing them. The fridge is usually well stocked with other items so we have to have the flu vaccines sent in small batches from the warehouse. The only problem is the warehouses  have the same problem- not enough refrigerator space and are keen to offload their stock to us!When the Covid vaccine appears I think this issue is going to get even worse. 

I called at the chippy on the way home to get my tea as SWMBO had taken her mother and cousin out for the day and I had a bottle of gluten free Scarborough Fair IPS with my tea. I usually drink cider as it is naturally gluten free but someone had bought me the IPA for my birthday so decided I’d better get it drunk. I’m not much of a drinker, but this ‘brew’ went straight to my head, really wierd, but not unenjoyable! Enough rambling.

Goodnight. 

Robert

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup. I am liking the new look forum; and it seems to run quicker than the previous iteration. Work has been hectic; we have just passed the year end and had to get the tax returns in , successfully done. The auditors will be in - well not actually in but asking questions in a week or so. In the meanwhile the CFO has made me extremely unpopular by pushing the consequences of a decision he made; I have a feeling that if he is forced to back down it will all be my fault; there is a call tomorrow at 4.30 when I will he grilled by the aggrieved; the CFO is on that call too and it will be interesting to see whether he backs me or not.

 

 

have a good evening all

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Like Jamie this is an evening of me not doing very much. I saw a mention of a beer festival at St. Pancras marking the 152nd. anniversary of the beer store in the Undercroft (where its being held). I assumed its been cancelled but I can find no mention of it being cancelled. Its supposed to run from the 1st-10th of October if anyone's interested. Now for a brew of my own, tea. Be back later.

[brianusa]

11 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Morning, on a much faster forum than last night when the 504's sent me to bed.

 

Q, do you think they were wanting you to ask for loads of gear so they can say the place costs too much to run, etc...?  Maybe not for answer in public now I think about it.

 

Moving on with all the legalese to wind up the business, almost there now, it is such a faff, and costs a fortune.  Like we had any money left anyway.....

 

Sorry to hear the NB news, but as Mrs seems to have a new job then all should be well hopefully.

 

As for pets, we were so cut up when our last one went to the great whiskas bowl in the sky  we can't face it again currently, much as we like our cats.

 

Know how you feel, went through it a couple of times.  But once you get another, you'll feel as good as you did.  You don't forget the old pet, you just have a new one!

      Brian.