colin penfold

Interesting question. I also wonder what the exhibition equivalent of the man park outside the changing room might be?

Funny old day here. My range of personal ailments is keeping me quite low, and my little cat is not so well either. At 16 years old I find myself thinking about his mortaility which is really not a happy thought at all. Coolio's troubles might have been brought on by stress aparrently - we have had the builders in on and off since early December - so perhaps he will get back to normal soon. It seems my wish for everybody on here to have a healthier, happier new year is falling flat already - and I know my troubles are a lot less than some. 2013 can hurry up and b%%$$£r off as far as i'm concerned. It's nice just chatting on here, although I'm having to ration myself for fear of exacerbating the conjunctivitis. On a positive note, I have just reached a milestone of 1000 likes. Some of you must like some of the old nonsense I come out with. Have a good day everyone

I do think there is an obvious point here that we may be getting a bit hung up on finding you a lady who likes or even joins in with the hobby. I come back to my previous point about me time and us time. There is absolutely no need for your partner to be into the hobby with you, provided they are tolerant of it and acknowledge your right to have time to yourself to do it. I couldn't bake a cupcake to save my life, and am not interested in learning. My lovely wife hasn't scratchbuilt a signalbox lately or gone to a model railway show. We each encourage and show interest in each others hobbies but they take place during me time. Us time revolves around DIY, walking, family and photography. It's about balance, as the tortoise said to his girlfriend.

Unlike my mother who at the age of 80 is finding it increasingly hard to stick with her policy of dating older men

OK I am going to try some philosophy here and hopefully no nosebleeds, dizzy spells or nausea to follow. I have been married three times. I don't think the two divorces were connected to my railway interests. I would think that whether or not you are going to get on with a person you are dating goes way beyond your (or their) hobbies. I think you need to get to know them by doing the usual mainstream things like lunch, dinner, sightseeing, films etc. At some stage hobbies will come up, and then be open but sparing with the information you give. Imagine if your chosen date is the UK cross-stich champion. How much do you want her(or him) to tell you about their hobby? Do you want to know a quick overview of how they got into it, the skills required and the kind of things they produce. If you like them - yes, of course you will. Do you want to know the precise contents of their sewing box, the exact composition of thread they use for each project, and be taken to a cross-stich show every weekend for the rest of your life? I doubt it. In short, don't hide who you are, but don't bore people to tears with somethng they won't be that into. You don't need to have the same hobbies to forge a successful relationship. You just need mutual tolerance and understanding. There will be together time, and me time. Together time is about doing things of mutual interest or benefit. Sometimes people who share a love of a particular hobby or sport find it harder to keep a relationship up because of their dedication and/or different ambitions in the hobby. As Southern 42 has said, it's not all about gender. I met two of my second wife's friends husbands for the first time at a party. Settled in for a chat about football (safe bloke subject???) nope, they both hated football and to be honest I might have been a bit slow to pick up on it. Got there in the end and had a good chat about beer, curry, serving our country (forces in their case, police in mine) One of them later shared with me how close I came to alienating them on that first meeting. Not all blokes will want to hear about trains, not all women will be bored by them. The point is to be socially adept enough to understand that successful relationships are built on understanding and common ground, rather than expecting others to share all of one's own interests. I'm sure you manage it with your male friends - just use the same principles with dating. Also be very fearful of anybody who shows un-naturally strong interest in your hobby just because it's your hobby. May turn out to be a bunny boiler saying what they think you want to hear just to snare you Drat, nearly did a whole post with a serious head on. Close, but no cigar......

this time of year managerial posts come along more frequently than sheffield trams.

Nat west pigs maybe, two year old nat west leaflet on savings policies, nah, sorry I don't see it. If you don't agree fair enough. BTW I found out from the loco society's facebook page, and they clearly don't get it either!

the thread is about Ebay madness. If you don't think it's mad that somebody is selling something with no face value, no collectability value and no functional value that was given freely out by a charity, and two people have actually bid money for it - fair enough. I think it's mad.

how about this attempt to sell a leaflet that never had a cover value in the first place? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/THE-76084-LOCOMOTIVE-COMPANY-LTD-APPEAL-LEAFLET-/181057324727?pt=UK_Collectables_Railwayana_RL&hash=item2a27db86b7

ooooh you naughty boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

on

Anybody else watching West Ham v MU - keep an eye out when they show a shot of the Beckhams. Theres a blazered security man at the back of the box looks awfully like Sven Goran Errikson - nice to see him back in football

I'd like to build the world a home

there are some smashing lines in it - a real serious message delivered with much humour

You got it! Well done Ashcombe! Love that song..........

In the words of Roy Walker, its a good guess but it's not right. That is a great song though.

DonW - really sorry to hear of your difficulties and really hope things get onto an even keel asap Coombe Barton, Debs and Statonmaster Thanks for the advice from your combined expertise. I think I shall try the grenade as I have a good sledgy I can use to hit it with as well as a hefty mallet to start it into position. Interestingly in reading the advice on the web, two things completely at odds with what the tree surgeons told me. Firstly people seem to think the timber is best left to season beofre choppping (TS told me to do it straight away) and also people saying on bigger logs to hit near the edge rather than centrally. So I shall order a grenade, wait for some better weather (yeah Debs, I know ) and have another go. I did rather enjoy the session chopping the smaller logs and got quite a satisfying pileof firewood before I ran out of ones I could tackle Don't think I am in tip-top shape for haiving a go today - conjunctivitis in both eyes , a throat infection and a cold as well as the ongoing hiatus hernia. Reckon if I could lift an implement of destruction I would end up hitting my foot with it instead of the log!!! So a bored day sitting on the sofa being blokey and feeling sorry for myself. If things don't improve I forsee the doctors on Monday rather than back to work. Quick musical quiz, anybody get the musical reference in "implements of destruction" ???? Clue - 1960s protest song. Keep it up folks!

Given there seems to be some experience here can anybody suggest a cheap and easy solution to my problem (one that does not invove a chainsaw or any other form of certain death) I recently had two trees cut down and elected to have the tree surgeons leave me the wood for my wood burner. They cut the trees into slices of an appropriate depth for the wood burner leaving me just to chop the slices into logs. This went well with the smaller ones but my axe just won't split the bigger discs. I have seen log splitters for hire but I will pay as much to hire one as the value of the wood I will end up with. I see that you can buy wedges to hammer across the surface of a log to create the all-important first split, but do they work? All suggestions gratefully received

Agree with a lot of what you say David, with a couple of comments. Firstly I seem to recall Benitez coming a cropper a few times at Liverpool by showing insufficient respect to "lower" teams. Everyone knew that there would be a moment when the 'arry effect kicked in at QPR, and I believe we rested too many players. Yes we had plenty of shots but no real guile in opening them up properly. My second observation is that recent wins have masked the fact that trying to get through the season with only one (misfiring) striker was a recipe for disaster. Those are the times you throw on an extra striker, or even just change the type of attack - something the Manchester clubs have both achieved several times this year to win games like that one. Based on that I am very happy they dot Demba in. You can’t replace the Drog, but if you have the cash you can buy a Ba, apparently

Last year I dislocated a finger playing 5 a side football. Whilst at casualty I received official NHS advice that exercise is bad for you. I shall follow that to the letter at all times when it suits me. Having waited 24 hours to attend A&E thinking that it was "just a bad sprain it will get better on its own" I also got told off for being a complete bloke - putting it back is going to hurt twice as much now and that will teach you for not coming straight away. Bless the NHS and all the poor who work in it. I love the humour which is reminiscent of that found in the old bill, and in the public transport industry (where I have worked) I think it's a coping mechnism for dealing with trying circumstances and the "general public" (insert your own translation) Have a good day all

So 1980s Waterloo-Exeter is the next layout then Andy?

seven goal thriller at the Vicarage Ground, Charlton come out on top, and no sign of Simon??????? Whasss goin on!!!!

Jools was very good last night, managed to stay up to the end. Usual eclectic mix with opportunities to listen to and discover different music. I was particularly impressed with Bettye Lavette - great voice.

Andre Rieu, dont get me started! Unfortunately for Don, he is quite popular with the older community. My mum (80) is quite keen, so I put him on the TV for a bit yesterday afternoon to keep her out of trouble. Same principle as putting C Beebies on for the grandchildren. Don, I think you were basically being sedated by the warders at your place - you need to invoke the Human Rights Act.

Happy new year all - may life, health and modelling be what you want them to be in the coming year. No horrible annuses please. Apols to those whose time zones dictate that this message is incorrectly timed!