New Haven Neil

@jonny777 Our deepest condolences. Supportive thoughts for the process from here on. Been there....

Morning, drizzle but still here, outside much the same. Anyone seen iD? Oh..... Flavio, I think we're used to you having a few days of silence on here, due to workload on occasion. Chris, have a great break, and supportive thoughts to those undergoing times of stress and/or loss. Been there. Old Farts bike club day run out ruined due to said drizzle, so its the cafe in the bright lights of Royal Ramsey for brunch and bullsh!t.

Just caught up on line with the UndergrounD programme. Oh my oh my...Siddy.....

One is very much older than the other - and its not the sphyg!

Nice photos Douglas - I do like an electric railway/railroad.

@polybear I's a tram loco, battery powered, double ended. Its purpose was to move building materials and detritus along a garden that must be getting on for 300 yards long. He also has a little single cylinder diesel, Lister engine, but we didn't have that out on that day. Nick is a clever lad, holds several engineering patents, and builds everything himself. Stupidly, he lets the NHN's play with his toys!

This one's dead flat but does have the old Great Central line at the bottom of the (enormous) garden! There's also a 45mm garden railway....

Ah, like this, Jamie?

We bought a bungalow in our mid-40's when we moved here as Mrs NHN has a knee injury which we knew was going to cause her issues later in life. Little did we know my hips would fall apart first, and then I would have a nasty foot injury, so we are very thankful we did so. Moving from a rambling large end terrace in the north-east to a 2 bed (small) bungalow with a decent garden on Fraggle Rock was shocking, it cost 50% more than the old house brought - back to having a mortgage again, now thankfully paid off. No regrets though.

I have an aged but NHS approved one!

It is exactly that sort of response which causes my BP to be high in the surgery! Then I worry about it, which causes....yup! Always fine at home, away from white coats and stressy behaviours.

Morning, 'summer' is back on Fraggle Rock, 14c, windy and showers. Pah. I have fallen foul of folk on here before with opinions of (some) teachers, it would seem they can be....variable...in skill. I think I just got a bad lot, there were only a handful of what I may term successful teachers at the Grammar-Technical School wot I attended, and my results in their lessons were good. Others, 'less so', my results likewise, including abject failure in one subject, taught by a person with a PhD but no professional experience. Talking to friend's kids now, it would appear teaching standards have improved out of all recognition, so maybe we're all right! No sleight to those on here who taught, but my experience of school was horrendous. FE however, opened a different world to me, and I returned for more in my late 30's to an equally good experience. Tony, Indian domestic model motorbikes now seem have a sort of Sari-guard grid covering the sides of back wheel, the UK imports don't have it. I don't know if this is an option in India or compulsory. As for Polybear's CCM Spitfire, oh yes please....but you could buy three Enfields for the price of one of those! Thus it would remain a dream for me too, but in practice my dodgy hips and foot probably would rule it out on grounds of pain anyway.

Chuckinitdarn again, 16mm so far, garden is watered anyway. I seem to have emptied my piggy bank on a new Royal Enfield (bike, not gun). Just a little 350 Meteor (inappropriate name, it is certainly not fast!) cruiser that makes riding with the various broken bits of my skeleton easier. Cheap as chips for what it is, their quality has taken a leap into the 21st century, it's nothing like the old Indian Enfield Bullets, which could be, er, of dubious quality.

Hi Tom, that's looking really good mate! Needs the third rail though for sure. Ian's mention of Hilda sidings - I have just started a 7mm Harton E10, Judith Edge job - oh-oh, looks like a mini layout appearing....

A) was a Consultant, so no hope, they're bullet proof. B ) well, I cannot confirm nor deny....... Morning world, 16c currently, showers last night on the rock have left a fresher feel at last - more today though which is a shame, going to look at a bike this morning.....smaller and more knackered NHN compatible. Another Hitch-Hikers Guide fan here, I first heard it on an LP, then got the boxed set of tapes of the radio show. The film was dire IMHO. That's just not Marvin. (noted the real Marvin has a cameo appearance). Dads Army I think was OK, if of its time. My Dad was in the Home Guard for the early part of the war before eventually becoming a Wavy-Navy Lieutenant (E), he reckoned Dads Army was totally true to life. The Navy Lark was compulsory Sunday lunchtime listening, or whatever was on at the time, Goons, etc. We had Blaster Bates do a show at college, he was hilarious - I have several of the LP's in my vinyl collection.

Snipped. No, not that sort of snip.... Wasn't my department.... This, is why I left the NHS - exactly that issue. In my case 6 months work (as a busy outpatient department admin. manager, doing 49K appointments a year) and all the costs involved, thrown out by someone who changed their mind. Just like that, tens of thousands (from MY budget), plus all my work swiped aside. I was nearly an in-patient in the acute psych unit, I was completely out of my tree and in need of help afterwards. So I left instead, while I still had a mind left.

Oh Gilbert, I have sinned - I have not been paying attention, and thus missed the mini-poll and of course my vote would have been an N5 - thus taking it up to 9 and 'high polling' score.....so we're just waiting for it to be produced now! Sorry to hear you have given up the golf, but if your back agrees then perhaps no bad thing. Ageing is out of our control, just ask my foot.

Thanks Andy - you post too much for me to keep up with!

Exactly as you say!

@Andrew P - what's Bench Road? No link in your sig?

Reading Air Commodore Hunt's rant on the NHS admin, puts me in mind of my past, in particular the issue that directly caused his rant. Each bit of the NHS uses different computer programmes, and none speak to each other. When I left said organisation 19 years ago (this week!) a pal that I previously worked with in HR was engaged on a project to get those systems talking to each other, at least in the Newcastle (Upon Tyne!) area as a starter for ten. I think he's fairly recently left that job....not having made much headway! 19 years.... Of course data protection probably now means they can't do it legally.....there's a thought.

Morning, from a dull 16c rock and a dull but feeling better than yesterday NHN. Not sure what was bothering me yesterday afternoon, but I went 'right off' for the rest of the day, feeling distinctly unwell. No cough, no temperature, no change of taste or smell, so it's not the lurgy. Just 'malaise'. A very lazy afternoon and evening was had and early to bed which seems to have helped. Shoes are difficult for me, but not because of large sizes (I actually have small feet) but the fact that post-Lisfranc fracture and two lots of subsequent surgery I have two different sized and shaped feet. The left (knackered) one is sort of humped and a full shoe size and a bit shorter than the right. I have to use custom orthotic insoles too, so need a lot of height in shoes to allow for them, but a shorter left shoe would help! I leave most of the lacing out, just using the very top and bottom holes, to make space for the humpy bit. Elasticated shoes are agony, the mashed mid-foot bits don't like pressure upon them.

Morning. Well I think it is - I was so tired I didn't hear Mrs NHN leave for work, and my head is mush. Slow day to be had I think. Dull outside too, 16, overcast but dry, seems odd after two weeks of scorchio. Amazon...well it has its uses for island dwellers, but I try to avoid it if possible. We do however, have a proper old fashioned hardware shop in the bright lights of Ramsey, very useful place. OK, off to get this head in working order.

Hmm, it would appear this morning's post, didn't, until I started the computer again this afternoon! Q, Mrs NHN doesn't have any truck with target archery, all those sights, balancers, diddlers or whatever they are called, are considered cheating in her branch of field archery, it's intuitive shooting only, and also no compound bows (although one guy does use one, his scores don't get included in the club records). Debs (and most of the field archery club!) considers target archery as *&^%$£"! boring..... Also, being as the distance to the target is constant, they don't move, there's no trees in the way, and they have have all those gadgets, how on earth can they actually miss? There is a target club here, they're a snooty lot, a couple of the folk shoot there too just to get more shooting time, but don't much enjoy it other than the opportunity to shoot longer ranges than there generally are in field. Kayaking went well again, but friend Geoff has found there is a world shortage of the damn things, so can't actually get one he likes. He will be joining us next year by the look of it.

MOrning, 18c and heading upwards quickly once more. Taking the friend out again in the kayak, he's trying to decide if he's going to buy one so we're off to a different place, Derbyhaven way down south, and the place where the first Derby horse race took place - not Derby in the UK. The earl - or was it Lord - Derby owned Fraggle Rock at the time.