spikey

Nah, it's a wossname.

This one had previously escaped my attention, but it's currently a favourite. Can't say I'm a huge fan of the verse in Esperanto, but it's certainly novel. And it is the Pixies ...

I should think the trams are too by now ...

And AFAIC that's the single most important fact that anyone who's diagnosed with cancer needs to get their head round. Good luck with it, Allan. PS. Immingeham eh? Trams. That and 40B ...

So it seemed. I guess the only variable was how badly decomposed they were ...

And there really was a Bacon banjo, made by the Bacon Banjo Company, which was started by Fred Bacon. But not many people know that. Or care about it. Anyhow, the mention of tinned sausage immediately took me back nearly 50 years to halfway up some godforsaken mountain in the Brecons in driving sleet one February, and my first encounter with the very wonderful tinned Pudding, Apricot as found in the Compo packs of the time. Nectar of the gods was that, and the memory marred only by the fact that later the same night after we'd moved on up and stopped for a very welcome drink from a fast-running stream, some rotten sod spoiled it all by pointing out that there were a couple of dead sheep in it just upstream ,,,

I've just finished ballasting my 00 1950s/60s branch line, and the next job is to put down some kind of ground cover between sidings that are too far apart to simply ballast across the gaps, and around the goods yard generally. I'm after that indeterminate mix of soil, ash and general crud which comes in various shades of browns to greys and supports threadbare patches of weeds and grass in places. I know I can use sieved ash from our woodburner for some areas, but I need a bit of variety. Any suggestions please as to what else I can try? Are any of the proprietory products any good for this sort of application?

Much obliged, Baz.

Just been watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_mBlh2LpCs which came up as a YouTube recommendation. Seeing as how I'm not up to speed with this type of hardware, can somebody please tell me (a) what's that nifty little queerthing with the good brakes that appears at 7'45" and what's the gun on it? (b) what's in all that overhang at the back of the turrets on MBTs nowadays?

It was 182327066747 and I see they're now £2.79 for 10 posted!

Nope, mine was the same. I've given up being surprised by anything like that. Only yesterday, a cheery Balkans-type chappie in his Yodel van delivered a small package containing the ten empty plastic bottles I'd ordered off Ebay for £2.60 post paid only three working days ago. Return address was in China, but they certainly didn't come from outside the UK ...

Less than A5 and thin enough to go through any letterbox. They're packed in a ziploc-type bag which is in an ordinary grey plastic mailing bag. All six have proper push-on plastic caps to protect the points - and those stay on properly! And no, unfortunately I'm not on commission ...

The Lady Wife having pinched my one and only pair of expensive Swiss tweezers to sort out her sewing machine and having knackered them whilst so doing, I found myself in need of a new pair. And while searching online for something similar at a sensible price, I noticed ... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Quality-Set-6-Precision-Tweezers-Epoxy-Coated-Watchmakers-Jewellers-Non-Magnetic/131707336758?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 "Hah!" thinks I. "Can't be any good." But I was in a silly mood, so I ventured £2.98. Two days later, I have a set of 6 tweezers, and very nice they are too. I'd have been delighted with any one of them for £2.98 post paid, but all six for that price is just plain silly. So ... if you could do with a decent pair of tweezers without breaking the bank, these come very highly recommended!

Orange, eh? Hmmm ... it must be getting on for 40 years now since I spotted an ad for Orange amps on the back wall of a music shop. Big picture of Stevie Wonder sat at his keyboard with the headline "STEVIE WONDER USES ORANGE AMPLIFICATION". To which some wit had neatly added "But he thinks it's Marshall" ...

Yep, that's what I reckon the picture on the box looks like, so that's how I've built it. There's now two of us here reckon the instructions are wrong, but what's now done is done. A chap's got to move on. So much layout to build, so little time ...

So I am building this kit, and the windows are of two types: type 19 which fit from inside the frames, and type 20 which fit from the outside. The instructions call for 7 of type 19 and 5 of type 20, making a total of 12 windows. There are 12 windows on the sprue, but whichever way I look at it and however many times I count them, 5 are type 19 and 7 are type 20. This can only mean one of five things:- a) I cannot count, or (b) I cannot tell one type from the other, or © the instructions are wrong, or (d) they cocked up with tooling, or (e) something else Can anybody please tell me which it is? I'll be over there in the corner, curled up quietly whimpering ...

Agreed ...

10 letters for 10p??!!!! Good grief! Anyhow, thank you kind sir. Another mystery solved

Back in the 1950's, a lot of stations still boasted a working example of the Dymo machine's great grandfather. It was a cast-iron cabinet with the letters of the alphabet (and possibly also the numbers 0-9) arranged upon it like a clock face with a large brass pointer in the middle of it. You put your penny in the slot, rotated the pointer to the character of your choice, pushed down a handle on the side, and by repeating the process, you produced a strip of thin zinc with your name or whatever embossed upon it. That was supposed to be a luggage label. I'd wager those machines were Victorian, and when I were a lad they were mainly patronised by bored trainspotters. But I never knew what they were called. Can anyone enlighten me?

Won't bore you with the reasons why, but there are two people here who have good cause to say that they could not agree more with you.

I am no expert whatsoever, but I do own the same laptop. As regards all the Lenovo crap on it, I wish you better luck than I've had getting rid of it all. Every time I think I've cleared it, something reappears ... As to your query about email, AFAIC the word is Thunderbird

Two things shocked me about the hospital in which my wife got most of her cancer treatment. One was the number of fat nursing and auxiliary staff, many of whom were often to be seen lurking outside buildings having a fag. And the other was the removal of four seats from all waiting areas and their replacement with two fatty seats, each, as we proved, wide enough for myself and my wife to sit on side by side.

I used to be a big fan of Border and Molly, hanky-waving not so much. Having said that, I was at one time a member of the Morris Federation, from an esteemed fellow-member of which I got the ultimate Morris joke ... Q Why do Morris dancers wear bells? A So they can annoy the blind as well.

I always thought it was damn silly of the Army to patrol Heathrow 30 years ago with 7.62 SLR's. But since finding out that the mags on the rifles were empty, I've often wondered whether that was even dafter ...

So would I, Mick, if I could afford to chance £8 on an unknown quantity ... I'll do as teaky suggests and phone the makers next year. There's certainly no point asking anybody anything in the local Halfords, except perhaps what time they go home.