New Haven Neil

Oh, yeah, before I forget.... Gurgle brought up reports of them going for thirty quid!

...on Terminator's 40th birthday too! I can't think of a single thing, Tony.

As I suspect you well know anyway, the Man in Man (or Mann, you can use either) isn't the male of the species directly, rather the name of a mythical person Mannanan Maclir who lived here - there is also a more believable explanation in that the name is an English language bastardisation of Ellan Vannin, the island's name in the Manx tongue. However....isn't there always one.....the island was briefly renamed some (10?) years ago for a week as the Isle of Woman, as some pre-woke feminist thing, with the underlying (aha!) launch of pink Yorkie bars 'only for woman truck drivers' as an advertising stunt. We still have one somewhere. Here endeth the history lesson.

I had to go to the Big City yesterday morning to deal with some HSBC business - as they have closed the Bright Lights of Ramsey branch for our convenience and to provide a better service - now a 44 mile round trip, pah. 🤬 Anyway, the road I wanted to go down was closed with a huge police presence, with UK registered police vans....hmm. Turns out the British Queen (to me marrying the King does not make her a Queen, but that's for elsewhere) was visiting to officially bestow city status onto the Big City. Oh while I'm on, she's not the Queen of the Isle of Man BTW, neither is the King, the King - the Lord of Man yes, but not the King. Its complicated. Anyway, huge crowds of at least err some schoolkids were there to greet her and make access to town difficult. Didn't even make national BBC news although it was on regional. I bet that's the police overtime bill shredded for the month. So we now officially have two cities, Peel that has a Cathedral, and Douglas which doesn't, but is the capital. All for 85,000 people! 🤔 I wonder what advantage that will bestow upon Douglas.....#waiting#......🤣

Morning, from a sleepy-head Fraggle. Thought I'd have another half hour after Mrs NHN went out to work at 0630, and thought I had slept about that, to find it was 0830! Not missed anything as it is wet, windy and 8c out, so a walk has been postponed. There are bus stops in our village, but no proper busses.....stupid hopper thing you have to book a day in advance with no timings even vaguely promised, the driver has to follow a sort of sat-nav kind of thing that tells him where to go for the next pick-up (not drop-offs already on the bus), which prioritises certain places, so the bus often back-tracks when closer to your destination. Then we tell the driver where to go....sort of.....#sigh# One driver who used initiative to drop someone off close by got disciplined for doing so, there's no common sense in the system at all. What a load of ballcocks.

I'm liking that first Dub D shot a lot! is that a new angle? The corner of the 'box slipping in really makes it for me.

Bit of a Casanova day - I *&^%$£ everything I touched. Ends.

Ah that's a north pointing arrow for the visitors to understand the distant land seen on a clear day is Scotland, not a suburb of Blackpool or something! Morning world, 9c and dry currently but the fore-guess doesn't look too good for the rest of the day, or week even. Yesterday was spring-like for a few hours, even saw my first flutterbye in the garden, shame it won't be like that again today.

I have to admit to really liking Japan, although it is a long, long time since I was there. I think I have been to 11 different ports there, and enjoyed my time in all of them, it is our intention to holiday there when Mrs NHN retires. Yup it's hot in summer there....and humid, but that never was a problem 'back then' as I was used to being in a ship's engineroom in those climates which rank and file folk from the UK would find 'a little hot'. Being in a steel box with a 30 thousand horsepower diesel engine in it, ventilated only by that hot humid air is not too much fun, but you do sort of get used to it. It would likely kill me now! After Mrs NHN finished WFH for the day we had a ride out to the Point of Ayre, (John O'Groats, Fraggle stylee) on the little bikes, it was quite pleasant at first, until it clouded over, when it became very much NOT like Japan in summer - aka bl**dy freezing. Directly above the tank of the yellow bike, you may just be able to make out a grey smudge on the horizon if there's enough pixels left in the photo after uploading - that's Scotland.

ION for @PupCam Puppers amusement. The friend we met yesterday has a fleet of old transport choices, but was on his Beezer C12+ It is a + as it is quite modified in terms of engine internals and carburettor, and electrically too with much improvements and even indicators on such an old steed.

I think you have misinterpreted our use of the word, I'm agreeing with Tony on this one. I do agree however regarding relative costs, we didn't find Switzerland outrageously expensive, but Paris certainly was! Prices here are higher than in the UK, but people do have more in their pockets to spend due to the lower taxation environment. There are also a LOT of HNWI's here, but you may have guessed that isn't us. When in the Lake District in the UK last week were were 'accused' of being posh by some younger men in a bar we like to go in, turned out this was based on accents that must have mellowed in the 22 years since we left the UK rather than our net worth.

Morning, there's a yellow thing surrounded by blue up in the sky, 11c, and dry. Can't last. There's no agenda set as yet, Mrs NHN working from home so I will make myself scarce, some salad greens and associated stuff to get then maybe out with my mate around the corner on the bikes for lunch. No Portuguese custards here, diabetes forbids. I can look at them though, not posh supermarket but in the Co-op. I prefer the traditional crumbly pastry type myself, the home bakery in the Bright Lights of Royal Ramsey does nice ones, again only to look at through the window. Pah.

As it's the first new pot we've bought for years, I don't see where you get the idea from we have so many. The plants do have to share space with the primary object of having a garden, though. Oh, three sheds...posh?

New plant = new pot. What's so hard to understand? 🤔

I was up early, honest. We had to whizz off early doors to take the camper van down to the midlands to get serviced, so then went off for lunch all the way to Land's End (The Sound) where we met by chance firstly an old friend of Deb's from a previous work, then friends of mine too. Then trial by garden centre for some new pots (wow they have got expensive) and compost. Eventually back to the Midlands to collect the now serviced van and drive back down north home. Opened e mails to find dear friend Mike Buttell, who is known to some on here too as he is very well known in Fraggle Rock railway circles and posts photos of his models on a thread, is seriously ill, taken to Walton Hospickle in Scouserpool. Fingers and toes crossed, he is a proper nice guy. I sad.

Same boards as the O gauge layout above, five years earlier, different scale and country.

Evening orl. Archery didn't quite go to plan, Mrs NHN being second, and NHN falling on his ar$e in the mud! Actually everyone did at one point or another, it was so wet and slick down there in the glen bottom and we missed several targets out as it was so dangerous - a shooter in another group hurt himself quite badly and tottered off home to recuperate. The winner, however, was friend/neighbour Steve who is a relatively new archer, and normally vies with me for last. He was somewhat pleased. Oh I can't get that to go the right way around, and yes, the start is a brewery yard! The owner of the brewery owns the surrounding land which he allows our field archery club and some commercial paintballers use on alternate weekends.

Recruiting: Cleaners wanted.

Morning, early-ish for once. 10c and damp, but rain has stopped. We're off to archery soon, the glen will be a quagmire no doubt, wellies would be a good idea but I can't get my mashed foot into such footwear so lace-up (police issue, #cough#) boots will have to do. They leak, no matter how much work you put into them with fancy types of dubbin (Renapur is the best). Pal Geoff is attending archery so Mrs NHN might not win today, he is by far the best archer in the club. I'm the opposite....dodgy eyesight.#stock excuse# Although I'm T2 I sympathise with Zariwhoop's situation, as I also have reactive hypoglycaemia so can go hypo if not careful. I tried one of the remote things when they first came out, useless as it took too long to react. I can feel when my BS is low so do an extra pinprick (I use Accuchek) and sure enough it showed it when the 'other' make remote monitor didn't. 99% of the time I can manage my BS with diet so seldom have a hypo, but did feel on the verge of one on holiday last week, not sure what triggered it, first for several years.

Just catching up after a week away - those Metro shots at Heworth/Felling brought some memories slamming back - the graffiti on the factory wall in particular, I recall that the owner made a big song and dance about it, with the result of it getting even more graffiti on it!

Oh, what a splendid shot of Gresley's finest design!

I have used Gaugemaster DCC80's on O gauge for sound locos for 7 years with no issues whatsoever. Dapol 350 (08 to the young) with Zimo/Digitrains decoder.

Played trains today.

I'm not sure where my fussiness in eating came from, the rest of my family as child ran on tomatoes and tea as favourites - I hate both, even the smell of tea. Mum was an OK cook 'for her day', not adventurous but did cook curry and some eastern food - they lived in the middle east for a few years (I was almost born in Iraq) as dad was in oil exploration.

Well that was the one I meant before thid lot and their dirty minds got started.....🤣