SM42

Father was also Home Guard and spent many an hour firewatching from the roof of the local cinema. He didn't get called up till late 1944 ,I think , and saw out the war in Libya and Palestine in the REME. Not enough service to get his WW2 medal but was in Palestine when the King David hotel was bombed and was lucky not to be there that day. Andy

A colleague recently asked if I would like to try some ( home made) tiffin It did make me smile, for reasons other than free cake Andy

It seems slightly different nowadays An actor,/ actress suddenly becomes the in thing and are absolutely everywhere and in everything. Then a few months later nothing. They disappear and maybe pop up once or twice a year if they are lucky. Andy

HH is now appearing as crossword puzzles answers in a left wing paper. It all a conspiracy I tell you. Andy

I've always wondered what would have transpired over the years if the SVR had gone north rather than south from Bridgnorth. Maybe it may have got as far as Highley after many years of fundraising Andy

Not the Sabrina I was thinking of. I think she may have been Italian Andy

Mrs SM42 has a family trait ( or it could be a national thing, not enough information to establish that with certainty but it looks possible) that essentially means that if you have to be somewhere at a certain time, then that is the time you leave the house, or at best you leave 30 minutes after the time your spouse advises would be a good time to leave for the airport, station or anywhere a timetable is involved. Thus we are often late for our restaurant bookings. OK, mostly around 10 minutes, ( we eat local) but I do wonder how long they leave it till you are considered a no show. Not so long ago we were outdone by a couple who arrived 45 minutes late, but they kept the table. I appreciate that they may have phoned to let them know. Andy

I think it was definitely the iron. It was not in the best condition to start with and probably could have benefited from a new clean tip and probably one of a different shape. The person I took over from wasn't getting very far with it ( more lack of understanding of how soldering works, especially the clean bit) and I'm surprised he got a far as he did. It took a good 30 - 45 seconds to get enough heat in to get the solder to adhere. We gave up after managing to tin some wires as it was just too frustrating. Andy

Finally some modelling activity. Well not much really I tinned a bit of wire and the rail to attach it to, but due to a rather weak ( borrowed) soldering iron no further progress in connecting the two items. At least I remembered the basics. Heat and cleanliness. It's been a while since I soldered anything Andy

A bear packing heat. Run Andy

The beauty of Polish birthday parties is that there is always enough cake to feed four times more people than attend. Don't want to run out you see. Thus there are lots of left overs that get shared out. Guess what will be served soon with coffee. Andy Livin' the dream

Not sure thats in the range yet . Ti's only a matter of time Andy

Well I thought about doing some modelling this evening but then was overcome by a bout of the cannawantos, so I just watched some snooker instead. I really must get on a bit. I have five projects on the go for other people and I need to see the back of them in the next couple of weeks ideally Unfortunately I seem to have lost momentum since last November and have done very little modelling. Even going to the club has seen little achieved there too, even though a new fiddle yard set up is required for one of our layouts, all I've done towards it is buy supplies, dismantle the old one and drill two holes. My mojo seems to have gone on holiday of late, probably not helped by my regular partner in crime being out of the game with illness for the last 8 months. Hopefully I'll find some motivation this week and make some progress even if it's just to try and get the lid off a pot of Railmatch paint that I'm going to need to use on one of those projects. . Andy

As you may have guessed we are back from thd BBQ, full of pork products and oodles of cake. The weather cleared up just in time and it was nice to see most of the congregation and the priest all together in a social setting. There is such a strong sense of community that I sometimes wonder where it all went wrong in the UK. Andy

My father grew up in a house with a communal toilet. 5 seats and you could chat with your neighbours over the partition whilst you went about your business. Alcohol free beers seem to be a growing trend in the motherland as well. A few years ago it was IP and APAs. I've tried a few and have settled on three so far that pass muster, namely Perla, Lomza and Zatecky Lezajsk. They make a change from the 5.8 to 6.0 % of normal beers and very useful if you are duty driver and fancy a pint. Andy

It's a wet start here. I'm told the priest has set up the BBQ underneath some sort of temporary cover arrangement. Probably just as well. Andy

Turns our we ate off toast friends 50th birthday celebrations tomorrow. This will involve a BBQ at the church after the service, so an early start. I suspect the person cooking might be under an umbrella while the rest of us hide inside. Regardless there will be cake. Yay! Andy

I've got my old GEC set up (which I inherited from my parents in the late 80s) which I hoping to resurrect at some point. 3 speed turntable, 33, 45 and 78. I last used it around 1991. Andy

A friend of mine who hails from Kent once told of a New Year's Eve event at his local pub. It was a fancy dress event and there were several competitions. One was a caption competition, the picture was of a man holding up and admiring a pint of the house beer in traditional advertising poster pose . One entry which went down well with all except the landlord was " Even the water's come in fancy dress this year." Andy

Round here the Party 7 was a Worthingtons thing. Cut the top off the empty can and it was ideal for dropping the oil out of a Mini or Renault 16 at oil change time. The central part half of our drive was unsurfaced for this activity. ( it also saved a lot of concrete) Dig a hole. Insert can, remove sump plug. Store can about the garden for when you needed to get a bonfire going. Happy days Andy

I fear your prayers may be answered soon Andy

The vacuum cleaner attachments. This is my usual method, but Mrs SM42 insisted the whole car got washed before she went out. It won't win any concourse awards but at least it looks a bit like the colour it came out of the factory now. Andy

That took longer than I thought. Had to try 4 car washes before I found one that worked. As usual had to finish the job off at home as not all the gull concrete came off, bit a least the majority did and the rest was softened up to be easily removed. Time for breakfast Andy

It appears that I have to wash the car before breakfast ☹️, it having recently been the target in a rather successful bombing raid by the local gull infestation. 🤬 Luckily there is a car wash less than 500yds down the road so no need to get the hosepipe and buckets out this early. This is a good thing as the outside tap is still in winter isolated mode and the hose pipe is full of holes anyway. Later we will be going shopping as Mrs SM42 has a voucher to use. I will be mainly trying to get various ongoing household projects to progress in the mean time. Andy

Mrs SM42 has just gone to put the milk bottles out and found that tomorrow's delivery has already been delivered. I suspect our milkman has plans for tomorrow. Maybe he's off to the NEC Andy