New Haven Neil

Weather here now horizontal sleet at about 60mph, directly from the north. Ugh. I shall remain indoors fortified by coffee and entertained by Eric Clapton.

Morning, howling gale over here in the Irish Sea this morning. As for the Swiss railway thing, it dpesn't surprise me. I have a Swiss friend here, a dear older lady, who reliably informs me that she would never, ever return there, due to the national trait of unbeding adherence to idiotic rules. Rings true now.... I SO love the Swiss railways too, the Rail Passes solved any ticketing issues for us.

I rather like the second ( I am often quite contrary!) it is certainly hard to give scale to. Plus I love V2's.... Given a slightly deeper thought process, I think it is because real world often has locations like that, light compromised under the bridge, shadows blah blah....so it looks real, not an 'ideal' photo location. I have some shots like that in Chur, better not post them as it would 'somewhat' be off topic, but would demonstrate my point! A bit more grease and oil on the motion of the V2 would finish the job off nicely. What a super train set you are building, Gilbert. Edit for speeling.

Thought so! I'm a Scots/Manx cross....born in Geordieland though!

Dreich - you must have Scots blood to use that word, 45156! grey and damp here too, although oddly warm (9c) after last night. Mrs NHN off with her best pal walking collies Doona and Ffinlo, Debs will be pleased to know!

Morning - just. Tough love made a young girl I work with, although it took until after her school years for things to work out - she is dyslexic, and the school missed it.....tough love giver single Mum 'made' her go to college to try to get some qualification, having left school with none at all. College immediately spotted the problem, and put the things in place she needed to understand. Said young lady now has an MA in Social Work and is a fantastic probation officer for juveniles, the best we have ever seen. To top it off she is a lovely person, and a pleasure to work with. Tough love - I'm all for it.

Just had a run out in the caravan with an engine.... ;-) caravan's weren't allowed here until recently. Mrs NHN's pride and joy, must say I rather enjoy it too, it's also easy to get in and out with the gammy hip, getting in my Flawed Focus is a lot harder. Temps plummeting, 8c - 1c in an hour....clear skies.

Morning, a late start again after another rough night. A gorgeous morning here, bathed in sunlight after an early frost, birds going crackers as they seem to think it's spring. A whole 5c too, which counts as OK, and not a cloud to be seen. Only thing is the local flying club destroying the peace, obviously a lot of students out today doing circuits. Why don't light aircraft have to have silencers?

I knew a Corporal who was there, but am totally failing to recall his proper name! He was known as Phineas to all and sundry in the bike world. Killed himself doing wheelies on his bike, shame, he was a nice lad. The 'Ramsey Trawlerman' chippy is just on Parliament Street as it leads off Paliament Square, been there for donkeys years. The other one is new, down by what was the police station. The MER station (unchanged since your visit!) is about to get a make over, or even possibly moved, as they want to make a multi storey car park there...sigh. We live in Andreas, not far from the now defunct range.

Morning, had a bad night so treated self to a little lie-in. A new chippy opened recently in the nearest town (Ramsey, 5 miles) and it is really good compared to the other, and in fact all the others on our little rock. As a Geordie I'm picky about F&C, so many chippies serve frozen fish, the close proximity of North Shileds fish quay meant great fresh fish. Chris Pendlenton missed that bit off his model..... Mrs NHN is Cornish gurl from a fishing/farming background so also knows a bit about fish too. Must wash up breakfast now as a friend is coming all the way from Port Erin to see me today. Manx joke, sorry, they don't like to travel, and PE is at the other end of Fraggle Rock!

Yes, I took a chill-music CD they play through the headphones, but you can't take metal items into a MRI scanner - they would be ejected at very high velocity!

Had MRI's on the hip, very noisy, noisier than I thought despite being warned, and claustrophobic. Best thing is to keep your eyes shut. At least it is painless, unlike the magnetic reactant stuff injection into the joint capsule. The clue there is 'don't look at the needle'.

Morning, winds as described by Shedman, don't suppose I'm that far away from him! Anchors are out so we don't drift.....

Thanks for that. I'm gutted for him.

Me too - and I read his American stuff too - I'm bi....countries, that is!! I'd love to meet him, he has inspired me for years and I personally enjoy his style, although I understand it's not to everyone's taste. Didn't think he looked to well on the telly last week.....

Morning, late on again! Gruff, I too have a bright young, er, bloke as a GP, but my experience of him is the opposite - he has really improved my medication regime for my blood pressure, due to his knowledge of modern medications, which has improved my lot considerably. He has also been supportive through three years of trials and tribulations with my hip problems, believing me and not an orthopod who missed the problem in x rays, but referred me to a bright young thing physio who spotted the problem in 10 seconds! A shame your experience of being fobbed off a bit by younger talent is so negative. Of course it's so they can get more names on their list and earn more money...cynical, moi???? I've had 7 GP's in my life, and I have to say this one is the only one who I would really trust...bear in mind I worked in the NHS for 19 years!

Lovely, Debs. My collie - caring friends do obedience and agility with their two, Doona is as good as gold, young Ffinlo less so...but he's only two. He is a free spirit though, maybe too clever for his own good.

Another sad event this morning, our condolences Phil. A grey but 'warm' 7c here this morning, dead still which seems odd after yesterday's 65mph gales! I should have said yesterday I have no isue with sensibly undertaken security checks, I was in a right grump when I wrote the rant (after physio!). It's the unbelievably idiotic attitude some, and only some, security staff have that gets my goat, and it's a Manx Loughtan with 4 wild horns!! (They're sheep actually, but hey, they look MEAN!). It'll be interesting to see if the same person is on duty next week. Better try to tidy up a little, my boss is coming on a welfare visit this morning, or as it's known, a tea and choccy hob-nob stealing visit! The police car on the drive gives the neighbours something to talk about if nothing else....

Thanks all for your posts, a few in there I have on my personal list but had forgotten about entirely - it's being in my 50's.... Keep 'em coming! I have had to dig out a few old RM's to look at several layouts mentioned! Ditchling Green is still voted by Mrs NHN as the best layout she has ever seen. She has a keen eye for scenic detail, but little time for locos with 'stupid little wheels and long spindly chimneys', which kind of writes off my garden railway or anything narrow gauge! Anything produced by Mr Bulleid is much more to her taste! I too saw Lydney at Leeds Corn Exchange 1970 ish, it sticks in the remains of my mind as this was the first show 'away' I ever attended, having persuaded my parents to take me there from Tyneside, I think I met CJF there too. Yes, there was a class 13, in TT!

Serious isn't it. Where's Darwin when we need him!

Yeah, shoes off even for us to fly the three yards to L'pool from here! I then have to ask the wheelchair assistant to help me put my left one back on! Got it all to do again next week, oh how I'm looking forward to that!

Late on parade, sorry. Hospital appointments. Sherry's experience is only too typical I have found. A few weeks ago, at a certain airport with a yellow submarine in front of it....'can you get out of the wheelchair please? No, I've just had surgery on my left hip....if we lift you out can you hop through the scanner?....I'll hop when you &^%$£g fly.....honestly 2 days post hip surgery, can you hop!!!!......where do they get them???? Grrrrr So my pennance was the uncomfortable intimate search, they then wanted to remove the admittedly huge dressing to see what was under it....at that point things REALLY went downhill, but the supervisor sorted it, and was mortified at the performance of the first 'security' guard. Just what you need, scruffy fingers in a wound two days old. #sigh# /rant, sorry.

Dave and Bev Lowery's LNWR layout - I forget the name!

I'm a smidge younger, it was '70 when I went to the Grammar school, caps were not then worn, but you had to have one for the kit inspection each term! Blazers were black or navy, shirts white or grey, school tie, and shoes had to be black - brown shoes ensured detention or lines, or worse, writing out the school rules. The parka was de rigeur, with fur lined hood (was the the bit that stunk?) and I used to use BOAC shoulder bag, as Dad was a frequent flyer and that counted as a pose! For school it was supposed to be a briefcase, but that faded out as I got older. Never jeans at weekends though, it was always cords, sometimes in awful colours such as maroon. Ech. Oh how I hated uniform....then I went to sea and had to wear one that was much more involved and strictly enforced! Now it's a suit that might as well be a uniform, although my taste in ties is legendary!

Oh, Mac Pryke's S&D layout - tiny, but I loved it, and met him at York?? show with it when he was an elderly gent - and he was a gent indeed, lovely bloke. 'Anyone remember the huge TT layout that used to go to Leeds show? It's annoying me I can;t remember it's name, I think the owner was Alan Smith?