AndrewC

I took a brief look. Its almost as bad as the brexit crap on twitter. Standard modus operandi, read half of something, misunderstand it, get knickers in a twist, reply looking like a sh!t gibbon flinging his excrement. Life is too short for that.

Another dull day in the boring borough. Still waiting for my ransom note from ParcelFarce. Today is day 10 since it arrived at customs. According to the tracking, the customs charge was revised twice and the box finally shipped to Dartford last night. Wonder if it is just stuff originating in the US. A care package from MiL is usually door to door in 5 days from Canada. B*gger else happening so I'll just say have a good day everyone.

While are at it, this bloody forum software boils my p1ss as it can't handle emojis and the smilies don't work from a tablet. Time to ring round that York bloke and sort him out.

I know where you live mate. Literally less than 500m from me. I also know that b*gger all happens here. The spoons are merde, wimpy is for those keen on regurgitation, and the bloody Lidl is 5 months late in the rebuild. We also have the Door Hinge. Possibly the most CAMRA cliche micro pub in the universe. Bring it on mate.

This is why Canadian exhibitions are normally held in hockey rinks. A couple of guys from opposing clubs disagree? They just drop their gloves and go toe to toe until they work it out of their system.

Good morning noon afternoon from the boring borough. Good to hear everyone is good & safe after the Michael Fish 30th anniversary big blow. Still in p!ssed off mode at ParcelFarce / Customs. Today is day 8 of the hostage situation. My parcel of trains is still sitting in Coventry. I still haven't received the ransom note. According to the tracking, the customs charge wasn't raised until last Friday. How bloody long does it take to send the bloody card. Good to see Duncan back. That's about all from me. Enjoy the day.

One of tonight's Dutch specials

Are you sure he worked there and wasn't just another commuter waiting for his train?

TFIF that is all.

Insert joke about the effectiveness of Testor's Dullcote here.

Morningish all from the boring borough. Still no sign of the ransom note for my parcel. Its now been sitting in Coventry longer than it took to go from Blaine WA > Seattle > LA > San Francisco > Heathrow > Coventry. This means I'm not likely to get the toys scale models in time to add them to the Freemo car list for next month's Mendip meet. Tony, I've heard of a Cockapoo, but not a Cockapee. All this talk about compressing horse crap into briquettes makes me wonder if that is where the expression sh1tting bricks comes from. On that note. Enjoy your day.

Not much difference than working in a kabab shop then.

Ahh. Seems strange though since they have a massive hub in Dartford as well. Most tracked parcels seem to end up there. First time I've seen one sent to Coventry.

Afternoon all from the boring borough. This morning was another pin cushion session with the physiotherapist. Was surprised at how effective the treatment has been. Currently awaiting HMRC's ransom demand as they are holding my latest North American train order hostage. How bloody long does it take? It was marked as 'held in Customs' on Monday. That's another rant. How come Parcel Farce loses track of a tracked parcel the second they throw it on a plane, but USPS is still giving me full on tracking with the package already in the UK? That's how I know exactly when it arrived at Heathrow and exactly when it was held at Customs in Coventry. Which also makes me wonder why a parcel destined for London, arrives in London, but gets diverted to fecking Coventry. Wickes: I never ever enter the store without having first checked the stock online. Unlike B&Q theirs is quite accurate. No tomato soup here but leaky spud instead. SWMBO's hand crafted delight. yum. That's about it. Enjoy the rest of your day.

oops. Happy Birthday BoD. Congratulations on completing another orbit around the sun. (that's ~945,518,700km)

TFIF A shockingly worthwhile trip noorf yesterday, resulting in arriving back to Euston just in time to have a few jars with Mr Roundhouse and co in the Euston Tap & Bree Louise. One rather stereotypical happening on the train was a young oriental girl who spent the bulk of the trip on her phone chatting away in perfect English. When collared by the guard for having a Midland only ticket, reverted to the "no speak English", confused tourist routine. Guard didn't fall for it and she left the train at Euston some £77 lighter. The boobie-squeezer-mobile is set up today at Queen Mary, so I'm tasked with chauffeuring SWMBO. Gents, remind your ladies to get checked, ladies get it done. (today's public service announcement from the boring borough) Retro 80s tonight in the form of Blancmange in concert. No, not the tennis playing one from Monty Python. Hopefully the weekend will allow me some muddling time. I've only got 5 weeks till the next outing for Millarville. Enjoy your day and have a great weekend.

Morning all from the borough most boring. Not a lot happening around these parts. We bought a new mattress. Whoopie do. Back, shoulder, neck continue to improve but very slowly. Good days and bad days. Good night's sleep followed by a total lack of sleep. Today I shall be preparing a demo for work. Tomorrow sees me in Solihull. Meh. At least the tube strike has been called off, so I don't have to attempt getting from London Bridge to Euston by crush loaded bus or non-existent taxi. For your entertainment I present the lesser spotted Essexwomble. Lovingly ripped off from Twitter. Enjoy your day.

This is the double edged sword of modern manufacturing. As Hornby's factory is essentially outsourced it's no longer a simple matter of reordering or producing more to match demand. They have to book a slot in the manufacturing cycle. This can sometimes take up to 6 months, or they risk delaying another model by swapping slots. Hornby has found this to their cost when demand out strips supply after the production run has started. Previously they have been very poor at estimating sales. Some models under produced and others still gathering dust. For under produced models, by the time they can get another run, the demand has likely cooled somewhat, leaving part of that stock unsold. In the old days when they managed their own production, it was a simple matter to just extend a run by a day or 2 to increase the numbers. It also helped that models then were far simpler than they are now. For example a class 47 from the early 80s would have less than 40 component parts. These days a modern, fully detailed model will have well over 100 parts.

Strange. It has been to Calgary. I've seen it twice. Once in WA during the Boeing tour while it was under construction, and once when KLM started flying direct to yyc. (Hence the naming) iirc it was their first 747-400.

Morning all from the boring borough. B*ggr all happening here. Congrats, Andy. That is all. Enjoy what's left of the weekend.

I may just for future reference.

Got to meet the guys last weekend. they make some great beers. I highly recommend the bourbon barrel aged Mexicake @ 11.5% and the amazeballs 'All the leaves are brown' which is a maple infused brown ale @ 10.5% The only maple beer I've ever had that didn't have a fake chemical after taste.

Here's one I picked up in Bodegraven at the beer fest last weekend. Will be saving it for a special occasion methinks. I did get to try a couple of small (120ml) glasses direct from the wooden barrel. edit: just noticed they have the bottle size wrong on the label. It is actually 70cl.

Good moaning all from the borough of woe and disaster. Commiserations to Dick, John, and Dear Debs. Life really sucks at times. A good weekend was had in the low countries with Mr Roundhouse and co. Many good beers were enjoyed including a 21.3% eisbok version of a Bowmore barrel aged stout. BW Ian, the Het Uiltje Apfelstrudel is being made available bottled. Came home to a life expired power shower. As some may remember from many moons ago our house was given a rather quick and dirty makeover prior to us buying it. Contracting work done by Bodge-it & Scarper. Nothing is as it should be. We have a separate shower cubicle and tub. Well the tub has a shower tap but the diverter never worked. I ordered a replacement electric shower but couldn't get it delivered for a few days. (went with the same model as I didn't fancy having to start tearing out tiles to modify the plumbing to fit. The alternative was to replace the tap in the tub so we could shower while waiting for the new electric unit. Argh and the troubles begin. First they put up a tiled tub "panel". The reason I'd not replaced the taps previously is that I'd have to remove the existing panel. Ripping that out was a bucket of no fun. New taps installed with minimal fuss, apart from the fact I'd not noticed the O ring on the cold fitting had vanished. Didn't leak at first but after a couple of hours the floor under the tub was slightly damp. Tear it all apart, head to Wickes, get some O rings, put it all back together. Meh! Secondly the ceiling switch for the electric shower showed signs of damage. (well, a crack and scorch mark) This tells me the RCD breaker didn't do its job fast enough when the shower went. Off to Wickes again for a new RCD and new ceiling switch. What a mess. The connecting wires in the switch were fried too. Now there is a chunk of ceiling removed to cut back the existing cable and replace it with new. Back to Wickes or not so fast. I need about 50cm of 10mm twin & earth. Smallest in stock was a 50m spool. Same with the local Screwfix. Amazon Prime to the rescue. Now I await a 2m length of T&E. My tame electrician will inspect and certify later. (Like me with IT he refuses to do work for friends but is happy to check, validate, and certify for a couple of pints) Today I shall be tearing up the floor at the front door to shut off the main stopcock, as unlike every other bit of plumbing in the house, there is no inline stop valve for the shower. Lucky for me that involves removing a bit of edging to release a bit of pre-cut laminate that allows me access to a hatch I created just after we moved in. All in all its a fecking pain in the nether regions. If I ever run into the cunglebunts that renovated this place I shall be inserting this into them: Tomorrow I shall be locking myself in the shed and playing trains. Enjoy the day.

Here's #3 on the Prairie Dog from May.