AndrewC

Greetings all from the boring borough. Mostly quiet here. Still fuming at Kelly's lack of joined up treatment. I have my own complaint this week but it pales in comparison to the fustercluckery that she has had to endure. Had a call from the GP yesterday about an ultrasound result from last October. Yes, they only just got the result letter from the hospital this week. Good thing it wasn't a pregnancy test. Since then I've had 2 outpatient appointments and a surgery referral that seems to have vanished. <sigh> Doc figures if she can't get the MSK dept to find the referral then I may have to start the process over again. Asshats. Little else to report apart from I've been out 2 school nights in a row this week. I'm really too old for this. Today was supposed to be busy with wall to wall meetings. However, the genius who booked all this forgot that 90% of the attendees are in Lithuania where today is a national holiday. Oops. 8 hours billable but blocked from moving forward without the decisions the meetings were supposed to approve. <sigh> Time for coffee and "work". Enjoy the weekend.

What he said. This is disgusting "service". In addition perhaps a bit of social media coverage highlighting Kelly's (mis)treatment.

Life, the universe, and everything.

We had similar after the place next door sold. If you replace the fence, move it wholly within your boundary. Send the useless w*nkpuffin a letter stating that you are creating a new fence and that it is your property and he has no rights to use or attach anything to it. You may also want to send an update to land registry. We did the same with our fence a few years ago and even though we lost about 3" of garden width, it was worth it to lose the crappy view. Make sure you leave the rotting remains of the old fence on his property to be disposed of by him.

Reminds me of a scene in the Rebel (the series with Simon Callow, Anita Dobson, & Bill Paterson) At one point Paterson's character has decided to chuck it all in and go back to Scotland. He announces to Dobson's character that he is going back north. To which she replies "Charles, we're in Brighton. Every where is north".

Greetings from that most boring of boroughs. A very busy week so far work wise. One project going ahead nicely. One project sinking faster than the Titanic. The latter being a case of one partner supplying the pig and another the lipstick. The actual customer is having a civil war about the whole thing as implementation would mean some of the stakeholders losing their jobs. The last project is nearing completion but having to work with this team has become difficult as many are based in Lithuania and there was a major outbreak of covid in their offices. About half are off sick. Once upon a time I went on a tour of a coal mine (1974). It was fairly large and not too bad. A year later I had the chance to go caving. Got about 20m in and that was enough. I call it Winnie the Pooh syndrome. Fear of being stuck. To this day I can't handle caves or tight spaces. I even have difficulties on the tube if it is too crowded. I will wait for several trains if I have to. Another batch of bacon has finished curing and is now being gently smoked with hickory wood. Should be settled and ready for slicing by moanday. mmm, bacon. A belated Hippo Birdy two ewe, to Ian and Mr Tiger. That's about all. Enjoy the weekend.

It seems one out of favour oligarch has offered $1m in cash to any Russian general or group that removes and arrests putin.

already happening. Pic on social media of a young woman covered in white foam dust as a group grinds down polystyrene packaging.

There have been suggestions around using personal drones and Molotov cocktails on convoys. There was also one I saw suggesting using a water bomber filled with petrol or napalm.

In general the end of the line needed to have some reason to exist and would be a bit less minimal. What would be more plausible is a tiny whistle stop on the line with a faux representation of it continuing onwards. Perhaps a wash out causing trains to terminate temporarily. It would still require some coaling and water facilities but no need for turning.

Not quite what I was referring to. With production control in house so to speak, it makes it possible to extend an existing run for an extra 100 or so without having to drag the tooling out of storage or interrupt the painting process. As long as the request came early in the production slot cycle. Been there, done that, seen it happen in the UK and Canada for other complex plastic products. As for size of the market I know it is far more than just population but without knowing Atlas, Horizon, Scale, Bachmann, and Walther's production run sizes there is no way to say for sure how much bigger. A reasonable guess would be to try and compare overall hobby sales. The MRIA had a 2005 figure for the US sales of about $950m. (circa £700m) Hornby for 2020 was £37.8m which includes all their non-train sales too. If you think the markets are similar sized then that puts Hornby at about 6% of the UK market. Logically it is more like 40% or higher. That makes the overall guestimate for the UK market at about 12% to 15% of the US. Lower if you include Canada. So yes, the North American market is far larger. As you said motors and gears are all bought from 3rd party. There is also economy of scale there to consider. 10,000 motors will have a higher per unit price than 100,000. Again comparing Rapido & Hornby. Rapido can keep adding or expanding their existing production to meet demand as long as the capital investment is worthwhile. Hornby is limited by available production slots in a very busy market place where the big boys and their money get priority. Their production strategy is actually brilliant.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is that Rapido's bread and butter is the North American market which is far bigger than the UK. That gives them far more growth potential and the possibility of reduction in unit cost of production when it comes to drive trains and motors. Rapido also "own" (as far as it is possible to own anything in China), their 2 production facilities. That gives them far more flexibility than nearly every other manufacturer. If X sells out on pre-order they can just shuffle their production schedule a bit and make a few more. Hornby can't as they are at the mercy of buying pre-defined production slots in a third party factory. As a very satisfied Rapido customer, I look at Hornby and think they are in business and quality terms are about 25 years behind. Every one of my Rapido locos comes with a complete exploded parts list with part numbers. A booklet with a brief history of the loco class, dcc instructions, maintenance, etc are all part of the package. I've had to enlist their warranty repair twice. First was a damaged truck (bogie) on a coach. They sent a replacement in the post within a week. (From Canada) The second is a damaged amp circuit on a sound decoder. Emailed them in the morning. Had a response with a warranty form within an hour of their opening time. Complete with a link to a video showing exactly how to get into the loco and remove the decoder. Email the other day saying the replacement decoder is on its way.

Greetings all from the boring borough. Sunny but with a definite nip in the air. A belated happy appearance day to Simon. Congrats on completing another solar orbit. You will find that each subsequent one seems to take less and less time. Commiserations to GDB. Sometimes a friend, even if and especially if recent interaction has been minimal, can have a bigger emotional impact than expected. The usual boring crap here. Shopping done, run to the butcher & French cheese shop for some Compte & butter. An afternoon of playing whack a mole with all the annoying tasks that need doing around the house. A trip to the lovely paint mixing lady at B&Q is likely today's punishment, as we've run out of the hallway's easy breasy blue and I need some semi-matte to finally paint the door frames. Failing that I may just say f*ck it and spend the day playing in the man cave. I've also got a pork belly to smoke & turn into burnt ends. Latte & breakfast time. political comment look away now: The whole Ukraine thing will become very nasty very quick if putin doesn't get them to roll over soon. The only way out of this is to remove putin. That won't happen unless his own people turn on him and eliminate him surgically. What really scares the sh*t out of me is the Russians have Chernobyl and access to all that contaminated material. I can see why they prioritised that location as it prevents the Ukraine from building dirty bombs.

My dad was the same. He’d bought Austins from the same dealership from 1948 until about 74. The 1600 was his last straw. After that it was big Fords for him. Interestingly enough the dealership still survives but has been selling only Volvo since dropping Leyland in the mid 70s. At one time there were 4 British dealers but they all dropped the crap that was being produced.

My dotty old aunt was addicted to "her stories" during the day. Another World, General Hospital, All my Children. <pure tripe>

40 years ago I worked an evening a week and performed all the Triang & Hornby repairs for a Canadian retailer / service partner. The so called quality control issues were just as bad then if not worse than today. Every single, and I mean every loco that came in new required an average of an hour of effort to make it fit for sale. Missing motor brushes, mis-gauged wheels, missing parts, jammed or broken gears on ringfield motors, disconnected wiring, etc, etc, etc. Rolling stock wasn't as bad but missing or fallen out wheel sets were common, as were missing coupler hooks. The shop eventually dropped Hornby altogether after being a retailer for more than 20 years as it was costing them more in my time to make them fit to sell than their profit margin. Compared to even crappy US Bachmann (botchman) or basic Athearn they were widely regarded as junk. Maybe the company just didn't give a crap and dumped their quality control failures on the foreign market, knowing full well returning the stock wasn't economically viable for the shops.

The Conquistador and his Salty Dog have walked off into the sunset leaving the world a Lighter Shade of Pale. farewell Mr Brooker.

Never seen one of those but I do vaguely recall a hookah smoking caterpillar.

Sadly it was cheap zinc that had actually been stuffed under one corner of the roof about 10 years ago instead of the owner properly replacing some tiles. Oh well. He has a lot more to fix now as I can see about a dozen tiles went into their side return.

I'd go for that as long as the airlock was big enough for screaming children and idiots who make flights a misery.

Maybe they are all bringing shovels to dig a hole so deep that they can hand deliver her to Satan. << stolen from Frankie Boyle. I've known a few people who's passing was more relief than grief. Moaning all from the boring borough. Damage report from our little corner. Impact damage to our front wall. No doubt by one of those b*stard boy racers in their chav'd up wheelie bins. Missing wall tiles from the house next door. Their new dormer room is less than 2 years old. A few slipped and missing tiles along the rest of the terrace, a couple of barge boards torn off, and a large piece of flashing found in our side return. (not ours) Blown out glass in a few bus shelters. The billboards by the Lidl didn't fare well either. 3 of 4 are either missing completely or snapped off their posts and laying on the railway embankment. Some poetic justice in there is a <censored> along the road who ripped out their hedging a few years ago and put in a very high fence. (well over 2m in height) Numerous complaints to the council from other neighbours came to nothing, even though it clearly violates the 1200mm max height when facing the public highway regulation. Large parts of it collapsed with even the concrete gravel boards being shattered. The man cave / shed / alternative home office / train room was unscathed apart from the flexing of the roof dislodging one of the insulation panels slightly. Most of the weekend was spent in pursuit of getting something running for the first time in nearly 3 years. Another day of ho hum ahead. Time for more coffee. Enjoy the day.

Greetings all from the breezy borough. A calm before the storm. The rain has stopped, the wind has died down, and there is a bit of sun showing. Of course you know, this means we are going to get hammered shortly. Southeastern even though they're no longer a private franchise are determined to maintain their modus operandi of cancelling trains for any excuse in order to save money. The SE London metro lines are basically stuffed as they've cancelled most services and shortened others. Asshats. SWMBO had to go into the office today to fix someone else's fustercluck. She's hoping to escape in an hour or 2. Bins not picked up this week. (again) The joke is on the new outsourced company. Our metal/glass bin took off down the street, spilling out about 20kg of glass and metal. Instead of a simple bin empty, they've now got the fun job of cleaning up half a dozen or so bins worth of recycling and food waste that is migrating down the road towards the high street. More asshats. Little else. TFIF Enjoy the weekend.

The only good Philly cheese steak I've had outside of the US is Passyunk Ave in London. He is originally from Philly and started out with a food truck in Spittlefields Market several years ago. mmmmm cheese steak mmmmm. I'll be back later. Need to place an order for a love bundle.

Greetings all from the boring borough. Another week has gone by more or less. Work has picked up a bit with me now having to balance 3 different projects and 3 different roles in 3 different time zones. <sigh> Crabtree reassures me he is not in the running to be the new Met commissioner. Roadside dining is a bit of a tough one in the UK. However, I've noticed many motorway services have started to introduce more and more of the smaller niche chains. Mexican, sushi, etc. Makes a big change from heat lamp warmed grease. The Little Chef on the A303 that was famously reworked by Heston Blumenthal a few years back is now a Starbucks. IMHO Costa-bundle has gone down hill since Whitbread sold the chain to Coca Cola a few years ago. The A1 seems to have a lot of American style diners. Anyone with experience of them? Likewise the chain of adult shops with cocktail lounges. Breakfast on the road while driving in the US meant a stop at Perkins. Like a clean version of Denny's. Steak & eggs with a stack of pancakes was my preferred brekkie. In western Canada it had to be Humpty's and their Cowboy Breakfast. Half a pig in the form of bacon and ham slices, 2 sausage patties the size and thickness of hockey pucks, a couple of eggs, proper hash browns, a stack of pancakes, and door stop toast. All washed down with a bottomless pot of coffee. Sadly they are a shadow of their former selves and only about 45 locations still exist. That's about all from here. Enjoy the day. I'm off to a day of endless Teams meetings.

The same snobbery exists with beer. The unwashed, socks & sandals, beardy weirdy CAMRA (CAMpaign for Real Ale) types keep on about cask ale. Trouble is unless you have someone who can keep it in good condition as well as use up a whole keg in 3 days or less, it can be bloody awful. The minute the cask is tapped, oxygen gets in and starts to degrade the beer. Clear bottles are prone to light strike and degradation. Modern brewers have mostly turned their backs on cask as the wastage and quality control are out of their hands the minute it leaves the brewery. Many now prefer key keg which is similar in many ways to the bladder in a box. The beer is kept in a bladder inside of a hard plastic keg shell. The shell is pressurised in order to dispense the beer as well as keep the bladder under pressure, reducing the loss of carbonation in the beer itself. Krups have a home dispense system called the sub. The beer is in 2l torps which are like mini key kegs. No waste, no spoiled beer, no stale ale. Tinned beer has been around since the 1930s but with the advent of more advanced canning machinery as well as lined tins, it makes for a far better storage and transport medium than glass bottles. On that note, I was supposed to be on a beer crawl with Mr Roundhouse today but my <censored> knee and lower back said no.