45156

Afternoon All Welcome back to GDB - great to hear from you and to get some update. Discovered (the hard way) how many railway books not to try to put into a box before it becomes totally unliftable - and the answer is not a large one - for the benefit of my back, and that of the removal people, I'll keep it to about 20 per box - so with over 1000 books to pack, that's a lot of boxes. All posts have been read, and some also rated - and that's the first time for months that I have been able to say that. Generic greetings Regards to All Stewart

Message In A Botttle -The Police

My HP printer has died, so I ordered a new one (well unused and returned) as I want the same model and make, as I just bought two new ink cartridges for the present one, and I begrudge giving them away as they cost me more than a printer does- HP304 has been replaced on the current models by HP305! Anyway, got one off Ebay - estimated delivery Tuesday next. Got an email off UPS this morning, saying that my parcel was due to be delivered TODAY between 8.30 and 12.30. Good job I had gone out at 7.55 this morning then, and the email was timed at 8.20. Got home around 11.30 (30747 was at Drs for a blood test arranged yesterday, and also her pneumonia jab) and no parcel and no missed delivery card. Checked the UPS website - there is no real time tracking, and it appears that the "help" staff don't have it either, as all they said was "it's on its way". Was on the toilet at about 1.15pm when ding . Then I got an email saying my delivery had been delivered, and then after that, another advising me that the delivery had been "recheduled" to up to 7pm, And it was not a UPS operative, at least he wasn't wearing a uniform, and he was driving the inevitable white van, not a UPS liveried vehicle - I didn't know UPS sub contracted any delivery work. In other news, came down this morning to a small flood under the fish tank, so we need another one - Ebay here we go again. Still, I've sold nine rolls of William Morris wallpaper that I bought some years ago at Boundary Mill for £2.50 each for £100 plus carriage. In yet other news, our Indesit washing machine decided last night that it didn't like the balance on the load that was in it, and having spun it twice, would NOT embark on the final spin. It took a 30 minute (27 waiting and 3 of talking) to the Indesit helpdesk to get it to stop trying to spin, and then to reset itself for the next load - and I was left with a sopping wet duvet cover which luckily just went into our old spin drier bought for a fiver at a car boot sale, and which i won't get rid of as it is good for such emergencies. No musical offerings today. Generc greetings, of course are offered. Regards to All Stewart

Evening All Just a quick visit and as usual, mucho skipping, as I've been SOOO busy with other matters. Generic greetings are all I can offer. Apologies. Car needed some attention, according to my regular garage when it was MOT'd - they gave me an estimate of £299 inclusive of parts and labour, and in the meantime, I had to have a tyre replaced, and the tyre place almost refused to let me take the car back, as in their opinion, it was "unsafe to drive" - and quoted about £350 for the same work. The upshot was that it wwnt today to my regular garage, where the work took just under 2 hours of Dave the mechanic's time, and after careful examination of the rear brakes ("need new shoes" - according to tyre place), all they needed was a good clean, grease, and pulling up. Final bill was £220 inc parts and labour - big difference, and I know the work has been done, and done to a high standard. Jubilee Garage is a very rare thing - a totally honest garage where they charge fairly (£50 ph + VAT) and where they will NOT do un-necessary work, and always tell it like it is. I will miss them when we move - though we may just try to arrange our visits to Lancaster to co-incide with the date of our annual service and MOT = the only problem with that being if the car did fail, we would no longer be road legal. I now also have a very resonable estimate for replacing th O2 sensor which is only giving intermittent service, and is causing the engine management light to come on from time to time - oh and they didn't charge for the diagnostic plugin either - can't say fairer than that. Oh and the MD gave me a lift home and came to pick me up rather than have me sat in the office for two hours reading a book - excellent service indeed. Now then, fans of my occasional musical offerings, the algorithm led me to this wonderful player and this is lovely And here's the latest offering from my all time fave - Josh Turner, which popped into my inbox while I was typing this - though where it's been for six days is anybody's guess Regards to All Stewart

I Should Have Known Better - The Beatles (again)

Way On Down - Elvis Presley

I used it on Firefox, worked very well indeed, but I find uBlock Origin to be better - it's currently blcking 5 ads - I have no qualms about using it on any site - and I will NOT use MS Edge as my browser

Morning All Good to see the site working again- - thanks Andy, as ever. It's only when here is't here that you miss it - and thought I am not quite such a frequent visitor I do like to be able to pop in - IMHO the "other" modelling forums just don't come close to this one. As usual generic greetings are offered, as I have not been able to view or rate every post - but I do echo the good wishes for the missing ERs - you are all missed. 30747 has gone out with her friends to go to a jumble sale then on somewhere for lunch, and most probably Lords antoque centre at Ingleton - I am stuck with taking Lily to the vet's this afternoon - and packing some boxes, as the legal processes of buying and sellling of the respective houses has started. Railway books seem to be favourite as there's over 1000 of them in various places, and the removal people have warned me already not to overload the boxes. Once I get back, I have a nice bottle of Weston's cider chilling. And for the musicians among us - and on my case, the very jealous musician, this came into my inbox this morning

Come Together - that Liverpool lot again

Love Me Do - the band that Decca never signed

I have a 16 plate SEAT Ibiza - I asked my normal dealer to look out for a similar model in an 67 or an 18 plate, as my car needs about £500 spending on it now to get the brakes fettled, and an intermittent sensor fault rectified. The other day, I got a call suggesting that I give up my search for now, and instead spend the £500 on getting the existing car put right, as it was now worth about £1000 more than I paid for it 18 months ago. It is now booked on for the work, as it has only got 42K on the clock, given that it was not used for a while during lockdown - no brainer really in the sircumstances.

Nowhere Man - the Mona Lisa Twins (utterly excellent cover and very accurate to the original - this pair are keeping the music of the 60s alive, and now reside in Liverpool where they had a two year residency at the Cavern -they were born in Austria)

Was, Ian - they moved a couple of months ago to Surbiton

Afternoon All I just did a long page here, and was about to submit it, when the site decided to throw a wobbly, and it disappeared never to be found. Briefly, the highlights were Simon, hope your wife gets a diagnosis and some treatment, and is back home ASAP. We have found a house, we chose the one near Ludlow as it's only ten miles from 30747's best friend, and also about the same from Leominster where we hope to have a cabinet in one of the antique centres. And Peter our builder has agreed to work for us down there provided we put him up in a Travelodge - the nearest one is about quarter of a mile from our new house. And we met up with my cousin yesterday - he has long Covid, as he was very ill with Covid last November, and all of his family got it as well, but not as badly. Well that's the edited version Regards to All Stewart

I hate Eon now - no consultation, repeated "requests" for meter readings - then they are ignored and I get estimates - still all the time I am in credit, I will stay with them - until I move in a coupe of months, then I'll see who seems to be giving the least mediocre service.

So now we're in a quandry - luckily, the car is full of go juice, and 30747 has a couple of days off, so we can get Lily into kennels this morning, and do another 400 mile round trip tomorrow to decide which one to go for - you would think that we would be really happy, but we are so tired of it all, that it just hasn't sunk in how strong a position we're in now. Stewart

Offer on one house accepted - apparently the vendor liked us - well it does help. Solicitor advised and let's hope that all goes ahead;. Stewart

Morning All The waiting game has now started, as I have placed offers with the agents dealing with the two properties which I would like to buy. One almost gave me a heart attack, as the first person I spoke to said "it went under offer at the weekend" - however, when I spoke to her colleague, it transpired that the offer was, in fact, mine. And of course, generic greetings are on offer from an ad free 45156, as I will now persist with using uBlock - which is currently blocking 6 ads on this page. How I wish that we didn't have to resort to such measures, as I would accept a few ads, paticularly here, but I fear that the ads are going to be a permanent feature now, as Warners cannot support the site ad free. Regards to All Stewart

Afternoon All Aplogies again for absence due to a day trip to Herefordshire, which involved 400 miles of driving, over a period of 8 hours 50 minutes, and included four house viewings, which resulted in two houses on which we will be making offers - it does jar with me to make more than one offer, but with the market like it is, we have little choice. So as usual from this quarter, it is generic greetings to all - Rick, sorry to hear you will not be frequenting this site so often - I have no qualms about using Firefox with uBlock origin - I refuse to use MS edge, as the ads would drive me mad. Also sorry to see Barry and Andy leaving our quarters - keep an eye open, and come back from time to time. On the way home, we had a VERY near miss on the M6. All the way up, we were seeing signs to advise of delays between 32 (Preston North) and 33 (Lancaster South), so we decided that as it would only take a few minutes more to leave the M6 at 32, then go up the A6, and wriggle round the back roads from Galgate to home that might sone time and avoid a queue. Well, we got to 32, where the M6 has five lanes - two on the nearside for M55 traffic, and three on the offside for M6 northbound. So as per normal Highway Code driving, we pulled into the nearside lane, where the M55 traffic was a little bunched, and we were slowed to about 40. All of a sudden, an Audi decided to change lanes from Lane 4 of 5ion the M6 into lane 2 cutting across two busy lanes of traffic, one for M6, the other for M55 - he was doing about 70 at the time, and as he crossed onto the M55 bound lanes, he clipped a brand new Range Rover, caused it to spin, it spun into lane 2 and 3, and was struck from behind by a Honda containing two fairly elderly women. All this took about 5 seconds. I braked hard, and thanked SEAT for the emergency brake force that hitting the pedal hard produced - just missed the debris in front of me - and managed to zig zag between the Range Rover and the Honda, and round the Audi - the Range Rover and Audi had their airbags deployed - in so doing, I was almost hit in the rear by another Audi which was travelling too fast for the road conditions. I don't have a dashcam, so I felt no qualms about not stopping - anyway there were plenty of other cars stopped behind me who would also have seen this, and who probably did have the equipment to record events. We got home via the A6 and I had a very stiff drink to calm my jangling nerves - I have now been driving for 52 years, and this was one of the nearest misses I have ever had. Yes I have had a couple of minor bumps, and one side collision which was not my fault - other driver pulled off from a parking space off road without looking, bit this was a bit concerning as to how near we were to being involved - a matter of ten feet, and 15 mph. Regards to All Stewart

You really are a useful guy for the rail operators to have around - your traction knowledge, and also your route card really do make you a very good asset to GBRF

Evening All Well what fun we're having here at present - NOT, but after apologies, and generic greetings, I will explain how things seem to be falling apart here with the house move. We placed offers on two properties a couple of weeks ago, one was 25k YES 25k over the asking price - the other was a few K over, Well on Monday BOTH of these offers were blown out of the water, and left us with an able buyer, who offered 6K UNDER and then demanded exclusivity - which we foolishly agreed. So on Monday, we did a trawl and found a few properties which we might like to view - went down - first one was a dump, and that we polite - agent described it as Requiring some updating but guided to reflect that and will undoubtedly sell quickly. well it wasvirtually uninhabitable - and I mean that - we felt we needed a shower when we came out of it. I have complained that we have, between 30747's lost wages, hotel, meals and petrol, around £200 - will be get a reply - I doubt it. Second was just off the main A49 in Hereford, as was the third in Ludlow,also a few yards from the same A road. I've got to say that we are a bit down, to say the least. Fodder run tomorrow AM - back tomorrow (?). Regards to All Stewart

Afternoon All Many posts missed, as the laptop has been needed for many other purposes - mainly related to trying to get some viewings booked in case our offers (due to report tomorrow) are rejected - then trying to get all the numbers for the various options onto a spreadsheet, which given that my spreadsheet abilitities expired with Lotus 123, was very difficult indeed. So as ever, all I can offer is generic greetings to the ailing and the suffering, and of course the celebrating. Flu jab dive through was this morningat Lancaster Uni, though for a day or two, that was doubtful, as the supplies of vaccine were not delivered to the Lancaster GP practices on Tuesday as expected, but apparently arrived on Thursday - so the clinics happened - we were in the first wave today, from 8.30 to 10. We got there at 8.20, drove straight in, were waved on by the marshalls at every turning, and drove straight to a table manned by a nurse, names and DOB taken, jabbed through the car window, and off again by 08.22. Really well organised, and very professional. And it's my lucky day as I've had two notifications of new videos from the brilliant Josh Turner, with his equally talented musical partner, Carson McKee And a cover of a classic 10CC song by Foxes and Fossils Now waiting for our cheap (£3 got us three dinners) stewing beef stew - started in the slow cooker at around 05.00 today - once the dumplings are done (5mins) we should be well fed. Regards to All Stewart

Of course, Round Midnight, which was my answer in part, was the 3 CD compilation if these three albums, so I do still claim this one, as there was one CD which I couldn't obtain separately

Of course, the best amps they made were fantastic - though IMHO, the VERY best were the AC30 and AC50 Bass - originals now go for silly money - and even modern repros for a lot. I had an original AC 30 on long term loan from a lad who couldn't play for toffee, and as I could, he lent it to me for a couple of years. Many of the 60s bands used an AC30/AC50 as their main amp, then miked it into the PA - no DI in those days - The Beatles did this for years.

Afternoon All Many, but not all, posts read and rated and the uisual generic greetings are offered. Still awaiting decisions on the two properties on which I have offered - agents both say decisions tomorrow - but then they said that on Monday as well, when I discovered that one had submitted my offer without doing a chain check - and much telephoning and emailing ensued - as the property in question is owned by a family trust, all trustees have to be unanamous in their decision - and they are meeting again today to see of they can reach a consensus. Now then - fodder run today took much longer than of late - the mummies are back in force, taking their little darlings the half mile or so to school. In my schooldays, my father was a teacher at the same school (and for those who remember him fondly - also taught Jock 67B music when he was at primary school) and before he had a car, we all walked together, and if the headmaster passed and stopped he got a lift, and we still walked. This persisted after he got a car. We never got a lift to school. @chrisf - hope you enjoy Riverdance - I have heard it's amazingly good. @jamie92208 hope your recovery is going well Regards to All Stewart