AndrewC

Happy Birthday Pete.

True enough but it always seemed to spoil the whole Thanksgiving thing for me. Even though we were north of the border the whole American Thanksgiving weekend was hyped up by the American TV stations we got as a sort of "gentlemen, start your shopping" event. I do miss a good pumpkin pie though.

Too true. However the rampant consumerism of Black Friday more than makes up for it.

Agreed. The hobbyists may love Linux in all its various forms and flavours but in 22+ years of IT I have yet to come across any large(or largish) corporation that uses it or Open Office as an enterprise solution. One firm I did some consulting for was looking at replacing their 3000+ Mac estate. They looked at Unix+Open Office. The year on year support costs for keeping up with the patches, upgrades, fixes, etc was more than the cost of the MS licenses for Windows + Office.

I thought the current version was Thinsulate 3.0

Morning all. Its a Friday and this bloody week is almost over. I can't recall a 7 day period that has been so s*** for so many people. Lets hope next week brings some good news for everyone. Work has died down as projects and other bits have all been delayed/cancelled/lost so its pretty quiet until the end of Jan when I will get redeployed. Today I will be mostly: bored Modelling this weekend will consist of finishing off the component recovery on the old Southern Region layout. Once I have all the tortoise & dcc bits off I can start to recycle them for the "Essex" fiddleyard staging. Just a shame the baseboards aren't worth keeping. A trio of 60" by 30" ultra-light boards that as an experiment were a total failure. Enough of my dribblings. Have a good weekend all and take care.

You also missed the first 90 mins which was on Saturday. Bloody good programme. (iPlayer has it under the series title of "Arena".

How the hell can you have a black IPA? (India Pale Ale)

Morning all. Just repeat my yesterday's ER post. Have a good Friday and enjoy your weekend.

Good morning all. another grey day in the boring borough. (why do I bother even posting when nothing changes) Another day of working from home waiting for muppets to get their work done so I can carry on with mine. Managed to fire up the airbrush last night and give the Summit gas station/convenience store kit a coat of paint. Need to do this with a couple more structure kits so I can bring them inside and finish them off while catching up on the 30 or so hours cached on the Sky+ Box. I am having some problem with the compressor though as its only ramping up to around 30psi instead of its normal 45. That means the airbrush is only getting around 15psi. (sadly its just a cheap Clarke with no tank) Have to go looking to see what's causing this. I've already eliminated the hose and brush leaking. Have a good day all, and take care.

Morning all, another damp squib of a day. Still waiting for some sunshine and dry weather so I can get #1 son to stain the deck. Once that's done I can drill and fit the LEDs. At the moment its just too dark along the side of the shed. Not much else going in in the boring borough. As a diversion I offer something from the laughing squid: http://laughingsquid.com/incredible-working-steam-engine-made-entirely-of-glass/ sort of on topic. Have a good day all.

Morning all. Tis another dull day here in the boring borough. The upside is I get to work from home again today. No sardine commute on the jubbly line for me. The downside is trying to get up to speed with 2 newer versions of MS Office at once. Company laptop went from 2003 to 2007 last week and my own PC went from Vista to Win 7 with Office 2010 over the weekend. Throw in a pile of documentation that is needed yesterday and let the fun begin. Now for several hours of Powerpoint poisoning and SharePoint shenanegins. Tony: hope your MIL is feeling better. Perhaps a wagon kit to keep her occupied. Always works for me. Time for more coffee.

Morning all. Cool, damp, cloudy, and that's just my brain this morning. Outside it's about the same. Still waiting for the second cup of coffee to help me reboot. Finally decided to upgrade my pc to Win 7 64. Of course that means a complete rebuild. Just backing up all the local drives to the NAS to be safe. How the hell did the profiles grow to 122Gb? Time for a massive clean down or archiving.

After reading the last dozen or so pages, I'm wondering if I should dust off my half finished SouthernPride kit. Had my first look at the Hornby model yesterday in Modelzone. Underwhelmed is the word I'd use. Compared to the Bachmann CEP, Hornby appear to have gone back to the bad old days of 1985. Traction tires??? Power bogie. Yea, ok I can see that on the Limby stuff, but on a newly tooled model??? They want at least £20 more for it??? Thanks but no thanks Hornby. Perhaps this is Hornby's Austin Marina.

Jack, his name wouldn't be Dave Elson would it? Too wierd if so.

Morning all. Another night with little sleep. Feel like crap. Waiting for the coffee fairy to deliver a cup of steaming caffeine. Tony, if Matthew is considering Western Canada for some studies, here is some propaganda from my home province. Feeling kinda homesick now.

Don, my dad was in the same boat with polio when he was young. His doctor recommended a stationary bicycle. Worked wonders for him. Dunno if you can fit one in but it may be worthwhile checking out a gym or fitness centre just to see if it makes any difference.

Tim, there were 3 runs of those hoppers. The last one was 4 years ago. Not surprising you are having problems finding them. I think I got the last couple Penguin had. Have you considered the NARC versions from Pacific Western Rail Systems? http://www.pacific-western-rail.com/view_product.php?ProductID=132774

DD your hol reminds me of this:

Morning all. Cool but bright here in the boring borough this morning. Yesterday was supposed to be for getting caught up on the club modules. I managed to plant around 60 posts for chain link fence then got distracted by a lovely lady bearing gifts of ale. the rest of the day was spent playing darts and just having a nice quiet day with SWMBO.

Tony: the shed temp stays fairly stable but I'm a grumpy old git that wants his comfort. I did have perfect temp control that kept the shed at 18c even with an outside temp of -5, and 22c when the summer sun hits 30c. Dave: thanks for that link. I like the look of the slim wall mounted models. Along with the timer and thermostat they look perfect for winter. Stewart: advice noted and thanks. The old unit is out the back and I'll take it to the recycling centre tomorrow. I've also cut off the power cord and made it inoperable in case some thief comes wandering by and fancies it.

Morning all. bright, sunny and chilly so far. Yesterday morning I went out to the train shed to switch on the heat for a bit to make it comfortable to work. Came back an hour later to no lights, no power, no heat, and the wonderous smell of melted insulation. Switched on the RCD and everything was fine. Switched on the heater again. So far so good. The heater is one of those combined Air conditioning / heat pump units. When switched on for some reason it flipped to air con mode. Grabbed the remote, clicked on heat and "crack" followed by darkness again. Opened it up and the circuit board is fried, the motor to the heat pump had siezed solid. Cost of repair, more than I paid for the unit. Went looking online for a better quality replacement. Lots of highly recommended units but as its the wrong time of year, none in stock. Looks like a cool winter of modelling or I'm going to have to install a separate heating system and add a plain air con unit in the spring. For now the little greenhouse frost heater is keeping things comfortable but it's not going to be adequate once temps drop below 5c. Any shedizens with recommendations for efficient heating? (12 by 24 shed, 2" jabalite insulation around all walls and roof, drywall lined walls) On that note, its almost warm enough now to fire up the bbq for our usual Sunday cooked breakfast.

I'm feeling really p****d off. Was supposed to be operating SB this weekend. Work sucks sometimes. If you get the chance, go and enjoy the Sunday at the convention.

With my luck "she" will be a former member of the East German Olympic Women's weightlifting team. :-)

Morning all. Just 2 stupid days of monitoring an upgrade for work then a week off. That means my plans for a weekend at the NMRABR convention were scuppered. Roll on Sunday. Bier keller stocked, train shed swept and ready to play in. Time for some modelling catch up. Finally got my test results back from the quack. As feared, osteoarthritis is now in my right shoulder, hip, and both ankle joints as well as my neck. Physio awaits, providing they get me an appointment before the end of the universe. They Still aren't sure what's wrong with my lower back though. moan moan, grumble grumble. Its true that your factory warranty expires in your 40s. Tony, shopping in Pitsea. You really do live on the edge. Don: and a lovely windly morning to you too. (as long as its down wind) From George Carlin: Weather tonight: dark. Continuing dark, turning partly light in the morning. Have a good Friday all and enjoy the weekend.