New Haven Neil

Great news from iD, but was it he, or Captain Cynical that undertook the tests? I have an image of Captain C thundering away on the treadmill, cape streaming out behind.... Interesting about the specs, Tony. I was caught out in Captain Cynical-land a few years ago when when my specs did not react on the train to the bright white new snowfall on a sunny day, riding the Glacier Express. I hadn't thought to take additional sunglasses of any kind, having become blase in the use of reactive lenses.

Morning, from a 17c warm but slightly overcast rock. Congrats to Jamie and Beth, on their welding anniversary, as Ian would say. I recall having black hair too, but it was a long while ago. The day will be occupied by going to see a machinist about bike parts, trips to the tip with grass cuttings and......some lounging about, hopefully!

They got a little larger, to 105cm bore, but that was a step too far, and they were troublesome. Actually the 98's were far from perfect..... to coin a phrase. Crepe was another word for them. That language you refer to was common around them! Sulzer/Wartsila have now settled on 96cm bore for the current generation, they make a lot more power pr cylinder than those engines I sailed with. We used engines of similar power to a class 37 for generators.....babies!

I think the one on the right is closer to the camera.

When I talk about my past working on BIG engines, its often hard for people to grasp how big ship diesels can be. I came across these today.... That's a piston he's sitting on (not me)....98cm bore. And yes, two exhaust valve rockers, that's an 8 cylinder engine, 30,000 hp. Burmeister & Wain 8K98FF engine. And this is the fan it drove.

Yes I agree for a healthy person, but not if you're T2 diabetic.

That is the corporate NHS line, to save money. I know, I was an NHS manager. It is complete ballcocks, you need to know your BG to know you're eating right. 'Eat to your meter' is the mantra. Go to diabetes.co.uk and read up, it's eye opening.

Editor full of old post again - from yesterday! 26c in the garden now, I'm looking at the grass that really is too long, but the hay fever it will cause is just too much to contemplate today. I had a brief walk to the shop, and really need to go further to get things moving, but I may drive into the bright lights of Ramsey for a change of scenery - there are only a few walking routes in the village, the next 'stage' of loops so to speak is too far for me. 2 miles I can do, 4 not.

This! I'm so pleased you referred to it, iD. One of the greatest issues hidden in so-called 'healthy eating', I have seen this 'fat is bad' tale having being totally disproven repeated in several books, referenced to good research, and demonic fat simply is a lie we have been brought up (in my generation) to accept. Its wrong.... the best research was IIRC a large cohort of Australian nurses monitored for cardiac health over many years, half on a low fat diet and half on eating fats, and there was no difference whatsoever in their cardiac health. Nothing. Fat being bad is Pseudo science.

Good morning. Once again toastie outside, with a breeze keeping it pleasant. 19c currently heading upwards. I'm a bit broken after yesterday's 75 miles on the bike, mostly down small bumpy lanes. I'm not sure how much longer I will be able to ride, so make the most of any good weather. Riding in the cold and damp is no longer an option, Mr A Ritis says so. It was a struggle to arise this morning! Baz is one of those good guys that keeps an eye on anyone missing. He kicks my electronic backside when I need a nudge too! I'm always a little reticent to PM people I don't really 'know', but do so on occasion where it looks like a little support would be appreciated. I don't like to push my way in to people's lives, I feel a bit guilty doing so sometimes. I do worry about those of our friends on here who are on their own though, and will always respond and have a chat on PM or e mail should anyone feel the need.

Just the straw bit. Mrs NHN is eternally grateful, as out of the box she came fitted with an enormous double barrelled surname which meant it took ten minutes to sign something. Changing it 37 years ago to one with three letters was a good thing, apparently.

I use an Accu Chek Mobile - it links with my computer and downloads pretty graphs and things - dunno what it would do with a phone, I'm not electro-techy. Hate the bl**dy things! It is an expensive meter but easy to use, although i use a different pricker from an older one. I don;t like farting about with strips, this one uses a cassette so lees junk to carry around. https://www.accu-chek.co.uk/meters/mobile No connection, just satisfied user.

That was some of our thinking when we moved here getting on for 20 years ago - it is our retirement home and was bought as such, but we moved long before we retired - last year in my case. So we have built up friendships here (we did know quite a few folk here already though) well in advance of decreptitude. The buses are OK from here still, and the village shop has everything needed to survive without visiting the supermarkets in the bright lights of Ramsey - at a price.

I forgot to mention the most important thing - get a blood glucose meter! The tracking of what foods affect your BG is revealing, test before and two hours after each meal, having noted what you ate - soon identifies the culprits, rice and pasta in my case are the worst. So soya or red lentil pasta, cauliflower rice (ugh but OK with curry) or chick pea rice, and so on, there are alternatives to most things. Oh, and one other point - a lot of people aren't diabetic because they are fat, but fat because they are (T2) diabetic.....don't feel guilty.

Hi Douglas - no, the Isle of Man 2-4-0T is a UK Accucraft model. One of several versions, I forget how many over the years. The little tank is a Lady Anne yes, Harry's new loco having only its third run. Ran like Swiss clockwork, it's a Roundhouse. I have steam locos by Beck, Roundhouse, Accucraft and Regner, these are all in a different league to an old BL Mogul, very easy to run, will pull forever, never run out of steam. The RH locos can run for up to 40 minutes once you get the gas firing right, and they're well run in. All radio controlled, a manual loco wouldn't work on my line with steep gradients. Some have tried.....need to be younger and fitter than most of my mates to catch them!

Another late call - I have a note. Scorchio once again on Fraggle Rock, there will be human thermidor on the menu again. 22c in the garden currently, hay fever off the clock, which is ironic being as its my surname. I can;t take anti-histamines with one of the other neds either, so Kleenex sales are high. Going out on the bikes this afternoon with our Belgian friend, who unfortunately has a Harley. No-one's perfect. we take our little bikes out when we ride with him and embarrass him on twisty roads. Horse for courses, his course is California....

Morning, and well done Jim! I'm also Type 2, and have reduced my HbA1c from low 50's to a constant 37 over 18 months. Purely on diet - get rid of the carbs! I have lost 3 stone (15 down to 12) and do feel so much better for it too. It is our over production of insulin as a result of carb overload that causes our issues, the body then becomes insulin resistant. I strongly recommend reading 'The Diabetes Code' by Dr Jason Fung, a Canadian - debunks a lot of the crepe talked about T2, and the 70's hangover of all fats being bad for you - they're not. But the real way to putting T2 diabetes into remission (you can't cure it) is reduction of carb intake. Takes a while, you do get carb craving, but you don;t have to go daft with it - full keto isn't too good for you long term I don;t think, but get to reading carb content on [packets, you may be amazed. I do about 100 - 150g a day of carbs, and have settled nicely over the last 18 months. the NHS 'heathy plate' diet did nothing for me - it has carbs and fruit in it, fructose is worse than sucrose.....keep fruit & fruit juices in strict moderation, berries are OK though. I thought the 'Desmond' course was incredibly out of date. Well, rubbish actually. Also look on diabetes.co.uk, great stuff on the forum there. And me. ;-) I'm less great. There's another book I found useful but I can't recall the title, I'll look for it this evening. Keep up with the exercise, I can do about 8k paces a day but have limits due to my wrecked foot and hip arthritis, I won;t be walking up Snowdon any time soon - maybe Snaefell though!

A railway needs a waiting room....

'Some time ago' #cough# our club tried to standardise on an improved tension lock type coupling. It worked a treat but events conspired to work against it - it was the now long-forgotten TT version of the Triang coupling. Similar in size to the later Mainline type, but metal, and worked much better. A shame it wasn't available more widely.

Well, ours is...BR (S)

Evening. Wow, 24c sur le rock, there's a lot of pink folk about. Calamine sales will be through the roof tomorrow. The NHN's did go to archery, stakes are raised.....only 6 in the round, Mrs NHN third with a personal best 300. Two of the guys were really having a good day, 326 and 324. It was scorchio even down the very wooded and shady glen, absolutely lovely day. It was a long round, it was after 5 when they finally finished, so we were forced to go to Peel seafront for fish n chips it was still really busy, pink fraggl-lings running about everywhere. There really will be some sorry folk later, when will the rank and file learn to protect from UV? We are both now absolutely shattered, so to ruin the evening the p1ssheads next door are in the garden with music blaring to spoil the peace. This will mean it goes i=until the wee hours when one of us in the street call the police, who will be waiting for the call - every Bank Holiday weekend this happens. Bound-over to keep the peace again no doubt. #sigh#

Good morning, from an oddly warm rock. 19c at 0900hrs, there will be fainting Fraggles all over the place, unaccustomed to such equatorial temperatures. It's going to be nicely warm here at last. It's an archery day for us, so down the glen we will go - I'm torn between that or visiting Groudle Glen and having a ride on the railway and barracking my pal who is under footplate tuition today, but I shouldn't really, he needs to concentrate. It'll be busy down there and TBH I'm not in the mood for crowds so the field archery wins out. I'll be there forever yacking with the lads and lasses if I do go to Groudle, and its my turn to cook later so may end up in doodoos if late. That's cooking slightly above Bear LDC/Pizza level, but not up to iD's standards I'm afraid.

Cheers Dave. It's nice just to play trains sometimes. Three friends visited, really nice afternoon, one is new to live steam but he gained a lot of confidence. The line has severe gradients (some are intentional, some less so....) so you have to drive properly.

Today we have been mostly....

A'noon. Had a couple of good friends around for , you know, vapour powered things in the garden, BQ, and chat. One friend brought his wife who hadn't been here before, as she didn't want to be left at home but she was worried about it being a boring boy-fest - she had a great day and professed to having really enjoyed watching the trains (and yakking with Mrs NHN of course). Result. 20c all day too, this is like Saharan temperatures to a Fraggle. 3rd result! Mrs NHN also had her first go at cooking on the BBQ as she usually makes me do it, and that also went well - another result! I'd post a photos but......our overlords watch.....