andyram

Afternoon all. I am just taking a few quiet minutes to peruse RMWeb at a more reasonable hour before I close the shop for the day. I offer warm greetings to everyone and hope @chrisfenjoys in jaunt to Bristol. Today has at least been a little more promising. The shop has been busy and sales have been steady producing the best day since Tuesday last week. There is also slightly more promising news from Pride Park with renewed interest from other parties in purchasing the club although time is somewhat tight. Still no positives from EBay or Sky, however the letter relating to Sky's regulator has dropped into my inbox so I will be giving them a call on Monday. We will see what, if anything, this will bring. Enjoy the rest of the day. Andy

So the EFL’s fit and proper person’s test has again proved to be nothing more than a sham. For the third time in two years my club have been conned by a potential buyer who passed their checks - aside from the biggest con artist on the planet who put us into this mess. Now there is a very real chance, possibly even likelihood, that the league will see the biggest casualty in its history. That is in no way being disparaging to Aldershot, Newport, Accrington, Bury, Maidstone, Boston, Macclesfield and others who have all gone out of business. These were all dreadful events and tragic for fans and employees alike. But - Derby County! Founder members and former league champions! For us to cease to exist shows what is fundamentally wrong with our game. And, the administrators - Quantuma, who were appointed to save the club. Racking up a bill of millions in the process. Yet they ignore the approaches of former safe owner Andy Appleby, the genuine offer from the financially solvent Binnie family and the proven owner Mike Billionaire Ashley in favour of an unknown American chancer who walked away once and then returned after Preston decided he was a fake. Completely unforgivable.

Evening all. One day I will write a post that is not negative or related to the black dog, things going wrong or others letting me down. Sadly, today is not that day. Today was deathly quiet in Matlock Bath and was only saved by a customer walking in on the dot of 5pm and purchasing a decent load of Warhammer stuff. Unfortunately, it was not mirrored by events at Pride Park with no last minute purchase by the American chancer prior to the 5pm deadline. The threat of the club going out of business is now becoming the most likely outcome. I waited for the Sky call until 3pm. Nothing came so I chased them again. They cannot tell me where the cheque was and are refusing any additional compensation claims. All they can do is check the tracking and then consider issuing a replacement. That could take another month. I have threatened them with the small claims court and the response was to send me details of their regulator so that I can pursue further compensation. The letter was due to arrive by email within fifteen minutes of the call ending. Guess what?....... Meanwhile, EBay emailed to say they have closed my complaint. Was I satisfied? Well, the money remains on hold and my customer does not want the item posting for another five days....what do they think I will say? I really am beginning to lose faith in most things right now. However, there are some crumbs of comfort. In amongst the calls to Sky and EBay were some others to students who were having difficulties. All of their issues resolved and subsequent emails back thanking me. We will ignore the call I made to threaten a student with removal from the course after one too many cases of plagiarism! Finally, my distant friend has been in touch and things are much less distant and text exchanges much more positive. Maybe, just maybe, we will get to catch up again and build bridges. Everything is crossed that the weekend will bring higher sales and some good news. Have a great weekend. Andy

Evening all and welcome back to @Dave Hunt. I am sorry to hear that you are also struggling with the black dog. I hope you find these pages of some support. I know I have, even the process of journaling thoughts, worries and challenges can be helpful whether people read them or otherwise. Here in this corner of Derbyshire many of the issues I described yesterday remain. The morning was spent chasing up Sky and EBay but without success. Sky have promised to call with an update by the end of tomorrow. I have heard that before and I am not optimistic. They have been challenged to come up with suitable date for payment and revised compensation otherwise I will be looking to take further action whatever that may be. On the subject of deadlines, I see that the American chancer has been given a deadline of 5pm tomorrow to complete the purchase of our football club or walk away. I am not optimistic. At home, as if there were not enough problems, we now have a leaking boiler to contend with. I am really beginning to wonder how much more I can take. I am trying to find some kind of positive but it is difficult. Take care Andy

Evening all and many happy returns to @iL Dottore. Today is one of those days where I really wish I had stayed in bed. I awoke to a story on local radio suggesting to take over of my financially stricken football club was set to fall apart. I have already mentioned how those Saturdays prove a crucial part of social life and wellbeing. Worry mounted and social media trawled throughout the day for updates. Perhaps I set a new record for refreshing Twitter. There are many conflicting stories but things are not looking good. Prior to departing for work Sarah filled the washing machine with the first load of laundry which I then deposited out on our rotary line after returning from the school run. A second load was then started whilst I trained a new college tutor via Teams - a job made harder by a dreadful connection. After the training I went to hang out the second load of washing only to find the line broken and lying on its side. The spike holding the line in the ground having snapped. I tried to put it back in the hole but to no avail. The weights from the gazebo were tried as a temporary fix - no luck. Then I tried to support it using the metal, weighted base that usually supports the parasol for the outside table only to find the tightening screws would not turn and rusted in place. No amount of WD40 would shift it. The only solution was to place the pole through the middle of the outdoor table, using the hole normally reserved for the parasol and then using the weights underneath. This worked enough to dry everything, however the wind did manage to tip the whole thing over a couple of times! Did Sarah appreciate the efforts. No! Just moaned about creased washing and the fact that I returned from the shop with the wrong brand of toothbrush! Add to this the continued silence from Sky who had promised to call back today so I remain firmly out of pocket. Then I checked my account and found the EBay sale money had not gone in. It appears this is on hold awaiting the delivery of stock. Considering the customer asked for an item to be held unto” later in the month”, that is simply not on. Tomorrow is sure to see several angry phone calls! Stress levels are now through the roof and black dog running amok. Perhaps when my dear wife placed me in the dog house for having the audacity to be stressed, she allowed the beast to escape. Take care all. Andy

Evening all and generic greetings. There has been a skim read through the recent pages. Yesterday was a severe black dog day. A few issues in the morning allowed it out of the kennel to run amok. It led to a less than happy atmosphere at home. That extended into a Teams meeting with fellow college assessors this morning with the senior member of staff definitely managing to press the wrong buttons. She soon saw the error of her ways and, to be fair, telephoned later to apologise and check on my wellbeing. She is well aware of some of the reasons for the canine’s presence. A day on my own in the shop allowed me some space and there were one or two customers to chat to. Things remain a little too quiet at present although that is June for you. At present I am trying to focus on small positives in a bid to brighten the mood. There were some today. I have made small progress with Sky. Their ineptness surrounding the take over of the business broadband has left me over £600 out of pocket. It has been now five weeks since they promised to process the refund and nothing had been received. They have exceeded their own 30 day timescale and I have threatened legal action unless the refund is sent and suitable additional compensation is agreed. Whether the threat will bring any speeding up of the process remains to be seen. The second positive is the EBay shop which is now up and running and I am slowly adding to it. This will give the business an added outlet and actually it has performed better than expected in the first week. Small roots of growth perhaps. Finally, things seem to be on a much better footing with the previously absent friend and there is at least regular communication now. Take care all Andy

Morning all. Tiredness and time with the family meant I did not check in yesterday. I hope today finds you well and generic good wishes are sent out to all in ER land. Last night I finally sat down to watch some of the Jubilee celebrations with the music concert outside Buckingham Palace. I remembered these events from previous Jubilees and was looking forward to it especially the performance by Queen and Adam Lambert. They were an interesting choice to kick off the event and I felt did a great job despite the challenges presented by some feedback from the microphones. Lambert is a fantastic singer and his flamboyance makes him the perfect successor to the great Freddie Mercury (I will ignore the dreadful Paul Rogers years). Sadly, the rest of the first hour seemed to go downhill from there and I was underwhelmed by much of what followed. Maybe I am getting old, but I did not even know some of the performers. The low was reached with Rod Stewart who must surely now accept that his voice has gone and he should retire. Sadly not - apparently he is on tour this year! Thankfully things improved after 9pm. I do like George Ezra and many that followed him were also enjoyable. Even the penultimate act put on a great show enhanced by the amazing light and drone effects. I feared that Diana Ross would be another Rod Stewart disaster as she was helped onto stage. Thankfully not and she provided a decent end. The lighting effects, large crowds and pageantry once again show what this country can do. A few more decent acts would not have gone amiss and its sad that nobody decided to mark the occasion as Gary Barlow did with the Commonwealth choir for the last Jubilee. "Sing" is still one of my favourite and uplifting tracks and it is a shame that something similar was not created this time around. Have a good day. Andy

Evening and best wishes one and all with supportive thoughts to @Erichill16. I hope the arm heels as quickly as possible. Here in Derbyshire the energy levels are flagging. Yesterday’s exertions in the garden have caught up with me. A long day in the shop will not have helped of course. Matlock Bath was very busy although I might as well have been running a museum because most who visited walked around with short arms shoved into very deep pockets. However, on a positive note I have sorted out further issues with EBay so that is one job off the list for next week. I also cleared more of the marking for the college so my to do list is beginning to reduce. This evening it was home to Jubilee celebrations with the in-laws visiting. My parents go away tomorrow so could not make it. It was an enjoyable night but I was struggling to keep eyes open. With that in mind the bed is calling. Night all. Andy

Just found this project. How have I missed it. Looking promising Andy.

Good evening all. As the day ticks beyond midnight I will have to offer belated birthday wishes to @BlackRat and anniversary wishes to @jamie92208. Today has probably been my first full day off from the combination of shop and college work since the start of the year. Mum and Dad covered the shop for me and, based on my spying moments via the CCTV, things appeared to be much quieter today than on Tuesday. My day was spent tackling outstanding jobs in the garden. The lawn was cut and one of the overgrown flowerbeds completely cleared. Weed proof sheeting was then laid and a liberal layer of slate chippings added on top. There was not quite enough bags of slate to finish the job so that will have to wait until one day next week. However, at least the apple tree, planted in memory of a dearly departed pet cat two years ago, will no longer be under threat of being swamped by weeds. I feel fairly pleased to have made progress in the garden, but sad that my battles with the black dog and efforts with business and education work have taken away time and motivation for such tasks over the last couple of years. I had so many plans for a garden that was a blank canvas when we moved in. Some progress had been made but the subsequent neglect has left it an overgrown mess and I am back to square one. On the positive front, the time in the garden allowed me to observe the blackbirds coming and going from the nest. I even managed a sneaky peek through the branches and got a nice view of the three chicks, mouths open awaiting the next worm. Nature can be so amazing at times. Tomorrow it is back to the shop before Jubilee celebrations in the evening. Take care. Andy

Evening all and generic best wishes are offered with specific supportive thoughts to @Gwiwer. I lost my closest University friend a few years ago to a similar operation. Sadly my headteacher at the time (yes that one!) would not give me time off to attend the funeral so respects had to paid the following day by viewing the collection of flowers. I am pleased to report that Amber is much better. After a good night’s sleep, with no further sickness, she felt refreshed and well enough to return to the camp this morning. The day has been fairly successful with a meeting attended and an online class taught all before 11am. Assignments were marked by lunch and the afternoon was spent visiting my parents who are covering the shop for me tomorrow. The EBay shop issue appears to have been solved with many items visible by mid-morning. It appears it was nothing more sinister than delays in the EBay system. The shop even brought in its first sales this morning which was unexpected considering I had not managed to get much listed. This afternoon brought about a pleasant surprise with the discovery of a nesting blackbird, complete with hatched chicks in the branches of the buddlea in the corner of our garden. Our cats are now confined to the house! I had better tread carefully during tomorrow’s planned gardening activity. Take care. Andy

Evening all. I hope today finds you well. A quick skim through the pages today and I noted @Tony S comments about the EBay issue. I really wish I had managed similar success. They have been pushing for me to open a business account and shop with them which, after some deliberation, I agree to do. It is now set up and I have part of it looking quite nice. Last night I started adding some products and various category pages. The only problem is only 4/12 of those products can be viewed. They appear in my listings but not to the public. Only 1/4 categories can be viewed by public with the other three hidden due to being empty. No matter what I do I cannot make the other products visible, nor can I add them to the relevant category or make these pages visible. EBay no help tonight at all. The account manager has been sent a stern email demanding he call me tomorrow! Meanwhile the day has been busy. It started by dropping Amber off at our local church’s outward bound centre for a three day camp. This was followed by a rush up to Matlock Bath to be ready for opening the shop at 11am. I found the car park packed and was fortunate to get a space. The day was busier than some weekend days and I was shattered at the end of it. But a decent day at the till which was good. A quiet evening in front of the tv was then disturbed by the camp organiser asking me to collect Amber who had been sick. I think she has fallen victim to over tiredness after being allowed to stay up very late Saturday and Sunday evenings whilst at the inlaws. Hopefully a good night’s sleep will result in her feeling better. If she is not sick again she has the option of going back in the morning for the rest of the camp but we will see how she feels. As for the dark canine, it is snoozing in the kennel for now at least. Take care. Andy

Evening all. It has been a busy few days so I have not had chance to check in. I am sorry if I missed anything and I hope you are all well. The weekend has been spent on my own with Sarah staying at her mum’s ahead of, and following, a trip to Wembley Stadium for the Championship Playoff final. Naturally, as a Forest fan, she had a very enjoyable time and can contemplate home games against the giants of Liverpool, Manchester United and City etc. As a Derby fan the delights of Forest Green Rovers, Burton Albion and Accrington Stanley (who are they?) await. I made the most of my freedom to catch up with my mate, Mark, on Saturday for a few real ales in a local micro pub. He is a fellow black dog sufferer and we have been trusted confidants for many years. I was not in the best of spirits on Saturday due to problems with an ongoing personal issue relating to another friend. Mark’s patience was clearly waring a little thin and his advice was forthright to the point of being brutal. To be fair, following his advice has actually improved the situation and we ended up catching up again for a couple of pints last night. This time the atmosphere was much more convivial. The trouble with the black beast is it can erode motivation and prevent you from doing things often for fear of getting it wrong. This has impacted everything from the modelling mojo to the jobs around the house at present. Even cutting the lawn is a hassle too far at the moment. It will need to be done soon though otherwise we may end with a garden more suitable for lions and tigers than the three domestic felines who actually live here. Take care all. Andy

Finally caught up. I turn away for a couple of days and he had only gone and knocked down the dairy. To be fair, I think you made the right decision. I was not a fan of that building. Perhaps the siding could lend itself to some abandoned wagons - Hornby sound van for instance! The layout continues to progress well and I thoroughly enjoyed video 10 which provided accompaniment to my evening meal on Saturday.

Evening all. A quick check in before bed at the end of a long day. Delays on the drive to Matlock Bath meant no time to visit the Post Office so the orders will have to wait until tomorrow. All customers have been informed however. The Zoom meeting was the waste of time I predicted and the lead had one of those boring monotone voices that can send you back to sleep. At least the request for us to have camera and microphones off allowed me to leave the computer on in the background whilst busying myself preparing the shop with some items unpacked and displayed. DPD also managed the delivery safely and this was sorted later in the day. The traffic did not lead to a busy day of customers and Matlock Bath was extremely quiet. This meant plenty of time to deal with the rep and the phone calls from other suppliers. Some college stuff was also completed and I waded through many moaning emails from some of the precious little darlings who make up our student population. It amazes me how many of them ignore the feedback from their tutors and then blame us when their work does not pass. This new generation of work from home students need to learn some life lessons! On the subject of the adverts, I have seen little change today. I appreciate the site needs to earn money but I still question the sense of making parts of it unusable due to their presence. As I have said before, it is like me putting up large adverts across part of the door and the aisles of the shop making it difficult to enter or walk around. Then charging customers to remove them to make life easier when a few years ago the doors and aisles were clear. In my humble opinion it is not on and I object to the option of paying for what I enjoyed uninhibited for years. Can you tell I am not a fan? Tomorrow is a bonus day off. My parents are covering the shop because I have to taxi Sarah around in the early afternoon. So college work will be completed at home and I will catch up on posting out orders during the morning. Take care. Andy

if the email does not address you by name and does not possess your account number or any personal details then it will be a scam. It certainly sounds like one. I’m fact if you check the email it was sent from, it is highly likely to be some kind of random hotmail address rather than a recognised BT one. @tigerburnie I hope the medical appointment goes well. This morning has dawned bright and sunny. The DPD hour delivery slot has just been received. At least I will be open at 2.05 - 3.05pm which gives them a chance of managing a delivery today. Today’s timetable involves an early drive up to Matlock Bath via the Post Office to despatch a couple of orders. I need to be at the shop early for a Zoom meeting. This is a pointless moderation feedback meeting arranged by the college’s awarding body. With a bit of luck I can have camera and microphone off and have it playing as background noise whilst I sort things out in the shop. Some marking will then be completed in the afternoon around the visit from one of the modelling reps. Hopefully there will be some customers to deal with too. Have a good day. Andy

Evening all. This is just a check in before bed. The day has proved to be as busy as I expected. Marking was completed at a decent rate this morning interspersed with breaks to complete household chores. The two interview were completed with mixed results and the vets visited with a positive outcome. Further household jobs were completed upon return although my dear other half still managed to focus on the tasks that lack of time had prevented me from completing. Some days you just can’t win. At least tomorrow I will be back at the shop. We will see if DPD can manage a safe delivery on this occasion. Andy

Morning all. A quick check in whilst mulling over the day ahead with first mug of tea of Wednesday. I have to say I have never understood the attitude of no trains and models on here, especially on a site dedicated to such topics. With that in mind I was intrigued by the photos from @tetsudofan, not of the Japanese artefacts, but of what looks to be an extensive garden railway system. I for one would love to see more of this. With the shop closed on a Wednesday, today will be spent at home but there will be plenty to do. I have two Teams meetings for the college in order to interview possible new assessors and some marking to catch up on. This will need to be interspersed with household chores with the laundry piling up again. Ideally the vacuum cleaner needs to be wielded around the house and there is also a check up at the vets for one of the resident zoo members. There also needs to a chat with a certain online auction site about the business profile I have tried to set up and why this is not working correctly! Perhaps the busy time will prevent me from dwelling on the silence from a particular friend who I fear I have may have offended. Have a good day Andy

Afternoon from a sunny Matlock Bath. The early morning rain that threatened to soak me on the walk from the car park has disappeared and it has been a beautiful day with plenty of warmth to the sunshine. I have been out to the end of the alleyway on a few occasions to catch some rays whilst partaking in a mug of coffee. Sadly, there has been plenty of opportunity to do so because things have been quiet. That being said, Tuesdays are always quiet because many of the shops do not choose to open. In fact I am the only one open in the alley and one of only 3-4 open at my end of the the parade. With so many places not choosing to open, it does nothing to attract the footfall. However, I do tend to benefit from the modellers coming to see me on a Tuesday so many a Tuesday can actually turn out ok and today has thankfully been one of them. Today started with one gentleman rattling on my door 45 minutes before my advertised opening time. Normally I would let him in, but I have a regular meeting with the college via Teams on a Tuesday and this was about to start. Fortunately he did come back later in the day and bought some bits and pieces. Even more fortunately he was not the only customer of the day so I am not really complaining! The one down side of things being quieter is it gives more time to think and dwell on issues. The personal problems which have caused the black dog's appearance do not benefit from time to think at the moment! Have a good evening. Andy

I caught up on the latest video this morning whilst having breakfast. Very enjoyable as always and some useful tips on ballasting which may come in handy if the modelling motivation returns and I get a chance to breathe some life into one of my stalled projects. More impressive photos too. The more I see this layout develop, the more I see shades of Pencarne which, as I am sure I have mentioned, was my favourite of all of the builds I have followed. This one could well be challenging it.

Evening all and generic greetings, best wishes and supportive thoughts as appropriate. Today I can sympathise with John (CB) because my day has taken on a similar theme. It may be a day away from the shop but it began with marking, interspersed with laundry and use of the kettle, more marking, more laundry, more kettle and then more marking. There was a brief escape late morning to deliver an order to a customer and then a diversion to the pet shop for food for my wife’s pet rats! The afternoon saw more marking, a trip to the Post Office to despatch more shop orders before returning home in time for an online interview. The candidate failed to show up so I did manage a couple of minutes shunting a couple of wagons on the current work in progress layout. Not that much work is taking place on the model although being out of storage in the garage is a small step forward. This evening I may partake in a beer in front of the tv. Back to the shop tomorrow. Take care. Andy

A quick check in. I have noted the comments about trying to post from Fire tablets. One of the reasons I was away from RMWeb for a while was due to the problems I had uploading from IPad. Thought for the day - if I decided to post a massive advert across the door of my shop, making it difficult to enter, what would that actually do for my reputation and footfall?

Nice photos Andy. Things are progressing well. I am glad to hear that no For Sale board is likely anytime soon. Having said that, in the world of Andy Peters Model Railways, that could mean only another two weeks! I have noted the new video has arrived. Not had chance to watch it yet. I may save it until tomorrow morning when sat at home with my post school run coffee.

Afternoon all and greetings from within the cave at Matlock Bath - any ER's who have ventured into my shop will know what I mean! My best wishes to you all, with condolences to @DaveF as well as welcoming you to these pages. My supportive wishes and condolences also go to those members who have had to part from much loved friends of the animal variety. It is never easy and I have been though the same experience on a few occasions in the past few years. Last night was spent relaxing at home with the family whilst consuming a take away curry accompanied by a couple of beers. Sadly, sleep proved to be limited and so I am feeling the effects today. The shop has been steady but not sensational. Fortunately, things have been steady over the internet and website visitors have snapped up the surprise arrivals of Midland liveried 1P tanks which formed part of my recent delivery from Leicestershire. They are all to local buyers so an evening of driving out to deliveries beckons tomorrow. Hopefully there will be similar interest in the GNER Class 91's from Hornby or the Bachmann Swallow liveried Class 47's! The week ahead looks to be busy, but next weekend will provide some much needed time to myself. With a certain Nottingham based football team heading to Wembley (for the first time since the last ice age I may suggest), my wife and daughter will be away from Friday to Monday. I have just not decided whether the time will be spent visiting friends, going to pubs, running railways or even some kind of wild party. I am fairly confident it will not be the latter! Take care all Andy

Afternoon all. It is a grey, but so far dry, day in Matlock Bath and I am a little bleary eyed this morning. With wife and daughter away last night I escaped to the pub with a long-standing friend for a few real ales. The last few weeks had already started to catch up with me and I was tired before I left home. The result was that the slumber extended well beyond the morning alarm and I faced a mad dash to be at the shop in time for opening. At least my favourite cafe was open so I could recover with one of their very large sausage cobs for breakfast. Hopefully the busy morning will be rewarded with plenty of customers and sales.