Gwiwer

POETS Day is here and if I had a knocking-off time I could celebrate it suitably. Instead I shall have to make to with drinks and crisps at what ever time Dr. SWMBO decrees is "the end of her brain" for the week. It a beautiful Spring day at the Distant (Signal) West with a mostly-sunny and almost-warm feel to it. It was T-shirt and shorts weather for the shopping run this morning and I neither looked nor felt under-dressed. Paint has been purchased for adding this year's shiny coat to the cottage. I'm cheating and using water-based gloss straight onto the washed-down and lightly-rubbed previous coat. I have neither time nor skills to do a full rub-down-to-wood and apply everything from undercoat upwards. Neither do I have the number of Deltic Vouchers it requires these days to employ a tradesperson to do that all for me. And a broom-handle has been purchased into which a large metal hook has been screwed. This is the means by which the Velux windows upstairs can now be opened and closed; as they are something like 2.5m above floor level it's beyond the reach of even a tall Gwiwer standing on a chair to get them open so a pole it has to be. Pets at Home was visited for His Furship's requirements but his chosen diet was priced very much higher than it is for delivery. So thanks but no thanks and I ordered it online standing in front of the shelf as a very juvenile-looking assistant asked "Can I help you at all?". "No thanks - not at that price" was the answer as I showed her how much cheaper is was online. Same product, with delivery included, fully £10 cheaper. And then the Sainbury's Grand Prix which was actually quite civilised today. I did notice a van-plus-boat-trailer (complete with quite large boat) circulating the car park looking for a suitable place to park. Good luck with that one mate - try dropping the trailer off at the slipway first! There will be ales at the bar later. Because I say so.

Oh the irony.

Isn't is just? You know it's going to be a busy watch when you drive down the road and can see shipping almost nose-to-tail (all right, bow-to-stern) in both lanes. And you know it's going to be busy when you switch on the kit and find most of the local yachtspersons and local fishing / pleasure boats are out or making ready to go. Yes, that was a busy, BUSY, morning on watch. I hardly had time to make a brew. The moment I did so a hiker came past to report a distressed seal pup on the cove slipway. Not really what we are there for but she did also mention she had already reported it to wildlife welfare so other than noting the report in the log no further action was required. Dr. SWMBO will be home later therefore the Distant (Signal) West must be cleaned and everything put back in its official place. As opposed to where I leave things when she is away because I know where they are! Next weekend has given her some issues. She is due to present a paper at Cambridge University on Friday and was offered accommodation in order to return to Cornwall on Saturday. There are no trains from Cambridge on Saturday owing to an incursion by the Orange Army. So she booked the overnight sleeper from London on Friday night and arranged to leave Cambridge a little earlier than they would have liked. The sleeper has now been cancelled due to "Industrial Action Short of a Strike" in other words a ban on non-contractual overtime meaning at least one member of the train crew will not be willing to work and it cannot run. So she toyed with cancelling altogether. Cambridge came across with an offer of accommodation on both Saturday and Sunday nights which means she can avoid both the Orange Army and the Industrial (absence of) Action but will not get home to Cornwall for the weekend at all. That, in turn, means she has to figure out how to carry the extra clothes she will need for being away for ten days not four. She cannot manage a bigger bag than she uses; she has difficulty getting laundry done as service washes are the only option and they are expensive in her area. We'll nut something out. Meanwhile it is time to wrangle the Shark and perform other acts of Domestic Engineering and Purificatory Eurhythmics. .

2025 is the target. Which month and which event it is too early to say. It would be quite a large exhibit for SWAG25 but never say never. And I shall need a van to move it. Because three full and two half-size boards, plus legs, plus stock will not fit in the car!!!

I spent some time at club today checking out the boards and assessing the work required to restore Waddlemarsh to running order. It's perfectly do-able. The biggest issues are cost and space. Cost is always an issue and available space is determined now by the needs of the club and its other members and layouts. Ironically the plain track has largely survived intact and it is the pointwork which requires replacing. Some because it is damaged beyond repair and some because of the new end-to-end configuration which will enforce the relocation of a few points. A new custom-built fiddle-yard entry crossover will be required and I shall take the opportunity to obtain a two-to-four rather than two-to-three set-up. That requires two points feeding to a short central diamond with the exits both feeding double-slips rather than just two more points. The old one had one double-slip and a simple turnout. After brushing a significant amount of mildew off the boards - thankfully it's nice and dry now after a seemingly endless wet winter so they cleaned up nicely - the basic scenery and woodwork is not too bad at all. It looked far worse covered in blobs of green and black but that hasn't even stained anything. Today I stripped the old corner board of its sharply-curved tracks and cut a piece from it which will form a link span. That will support the crossover and will connect to the main fiddle-yard board at one end then to the station scene board at the other. The girder bridge which was built skewed across the lines as a scenic break is OK to use with a re-skin of the Scalescenes brick paper applied and may therefore remain at a skew angle rather than reconfiguring it to a right-angle. Too many layouts have 90-degree structures as scenic breaks; many bridges in real life are at anything but right-angle to the line. I have identified an area on the fiddle yard board where point control and isolating switches can be located which will minimise wiring across board joints; only the common feed will have to be connected rather than dozens of individual wires. I have not yet identified where the power controller will go but it has to swap from what will in future be the viewing side of the board. The best option may be to mount it in a cradle beneath a baseboard. Point and isolation control for the rest of the layout can be placed elsewhere again hopefully reducing the number of plug-in electrical connections required. Progress will not be fast. I have around 2 - 3 hours a week in the club room for my own projects. But progress there already is.

I remembered to say “Oss Oss” and replied to myself (because Dr SWMBO is away midweek) with “Wee Oss”. Padstow marks May Day in its own way. Not quite as unique as they like to think but special nonetheless. That thumping drum is like the heartbeat of Spring. I’ll not be there this year. It’s not too far but there’s work to be done here, it’s Muddling Afternoon and I need an early night because I’m on watch first thing tomorrow. No drunken shenanigans around the maypole for this Gwiwer then. But I’ll enjoy re-living the memories 🙈🙉🙊 “Wither we are going we all shall unite in the merry morning of May”

"Password must contain at least one special character" 🖕 Is not acceptable.

13,000 pages of friendly support, informed drivel and gastronomic delights! Well done all. 👏 👏 Why not have a walking thread? I already admin a Farcebook group for the South West Coast Path https://www.facebook.com/groups/1580784368659585 (13,000 members) and am a member of another for walking Britain's coast. I have "clocked up" quite a few miles around the inlands of southern England and North Wales / Gogledd Cymru as well. There are perfectly good if rather pointless paths from Berney Arms station but as you say the pub is long closed and unlikely to reopen so it's a fair old hike for the sake of it if you go. In other news it's time for His Furship's annual Roadworthy - first time at a new vet as the previous occasion was before we moved. I wonder how he'll take to that. He doesn't much like change. Nor car trips. This morning's tragic and regrettable events in Hainault will draw no further comment from me beyond noting that the sword-wielding offender was taken down by a taser.

Dr. SWMBO has safely returned from her day in Paris and is back in her London-area digs. I can go to bed now. G'night all.

That sounds incredibly familiar. It was 2002 not the 1980s but I was travelling on the Hunter Valley train from Newcastle to Maitland when exactly that happened - two Transits boarded and found every fault they could with ticketing. Including ordering two children of about 12 years of age off the train at fairly remote Sandgate station (where not all trains stop) at gun-point. What sort of impression does that give? And what sort of adults will kids subjected to that treatment become? The poor mites had tickets but for some technicality they were not valid on that train on that day at that moment in time. Or perhaps their faces just didn't fit. Or some other spurious and lacking in duty-of-care reason. I was not impressed. Luckily I was carrying my staff ID and all-states travel authority which they decided was all in order despite them being Victorian not New South Welsh.

I am OK with a sensible discussion around police and firearms. I don't see it as a argument in the sense of protagonists at ten paces. I do respect the sentiments around the recent events at Bondi Junction mall which is most regrettable and extremely uncommon in Australia. However whilst the officer who discharged her weapon did so in direct response to events and the ongoing threat it may well have been that a taser (had one been available) might also have brought the shooter down. Many UK police are issued with the non-lethal taser, or can be issued with them if they are likely to face disorder on duty which might require their use. They are considered non-lethal weapons of defence not lethal weapons of force. Victims are disabled instantly and for such time as it takes to secure them and remove them from the scene. A clear shot at close range is required - unlike a gunshot which requires a clear shot but can be deployed at much greater distances - but their efficiency at ending violent confrontations is not in doubt. I am all in favour of police (anywhere) carrying sufficient items to protect themselves and to prevent an ongoing and immediate threat to others. That does not by any means imply they should carry firearms. In response to the suggestion that British railway stations are patrolled by sub-machine-gun toting police that is not true. St. Pancras International has a few such officers localised to the international arrivals / departures area because it is a port of entry. Otherwise it is the unarmed British Transport Police who are responsible for all railway premises. They - at their discretion - may invite the local force for example the Metropolitan Police in London to assist them but Met Police officers will only patrol stations in response to a direct security threat. They did that in recent times when the UK national security threat level was raised to Critical as it was likely that a railway station would be targeted. They were stood down when the threat level was lowered. I spent the last six years of my working life at one of the busiest stations in the country, just outside two major London terminals and on the direct route to Gatwick Airport. It was (and is) a Category A list location and is considered high-risk because of its strategic importance and connectivity to other places. We very seldom saw police on patrol. The BTP had a base there but it was not continuously attended. The response required from staff in the event of need was to call 999; the emergency operator would either direct the call to the BTP or, should it require a level of response they could not provide, would assign Met Police whilst notifying the BTP of events. We called the police around once a year. Mostly to unruly passengers. Only once was there a suspicious package which could not be ascertained under station protocols to be safe; the Met Police were there within 90 seconds of the call and declared it safe within 3 minutes. Without guns or sniffer robots and without the need to close and evacuate more than the immediate 400m radius. That is policing by consent.

CCTV yes; dash-cam no.

Welcome one and all to a wet, windy and cold Moan-day. It began slowly as there has been no need to rush about today. Dr. SWMBO is in Paris on business. She left here yesterday afternoon, a day earlier than usual, and was aboard the 8.01 Eurostar from St. Pancras having made a very ER start indeed from her digs SW of London by minicab. She returns on the last train tonight which will make it a very long day for her. Having dropped her off at the statin I took the opportunity of negotiating the Sainsbury's Grand Prix which, for a Sunday afternoon, wasn't at all bad. Everything on the list was available except ghee. I can probably get that another time; I don't need it every day nor even every week. I then came home and came face to face with C0ckwomble Driver No.1. Heading over the moors on that hilly and winding road the oncoming bus had stopped at a rural farm lane to set down a passenger. Two cars were behind; the first came around with plenty of room to spare and the second waited. As the driver would have been unable to see anything at all around the bus due to the curvature and hills I expected they would stay waited. But no. I was perhaps a bus-length away from coming past when out he came, into my lane, with me approaching at a cautious 45mph. I hit brakes, horn and headlights all at the same time and stopped in short order only to see a green something cut sharply into the fast-closing gap with an erect middle finger poking from the driver's window in my general direction. I really MUST get that idiot-cam fitted because if it had been recording I would have had his plate and referred him to the local constabulary. Who are running a "send us your dash-cam footage of dodgy driving" campaign and publishing the results online. After safely stowing the shopping and quaffing a muggercoffy I hopped aboard the Coaster bus for a breezy trip around Lands End to Porthcurno and back. A nice enough way to end the daylight hours even if it was a bit cool. I was impressed at the numbers using the service; we picked up and set down quite a few ones and twos in all sorts of places from the larger Sennen Cove to the remote farm laneways leading off to who knows where. Porthcurno itself produced a fascinating view of light and shade which I felt obliged to record for posterity.

Plus Police/Law Enforcement - it's unfair to expect them to go up against the baddies with guns. Having lived in nations where policing is by consent and where policing is by big stick (in reality if not in the letter of law) I prefer the British Way. Most police are not armed with offensive weapons in the UK; those who carry firearms do so only in response to specific and credible threats against person(s) or in very high security situations such as the close personal protection teams or international security at ports of entry / exit. I suspect most police members (if that is how they currently prefer to be known) would not wish that to change. The average PC does not seek to carry lethal force neither is it needed 99% of the time. For the 1% they can call up the ARV who will tool up as the situation demands but otherwise might be on routine - unarmed - patrol. ARVs carry gun safes; the officers are not themselves armed until they receive the authority from above. Australian police all routinely carry loaded weapons. The threat of force is always there. Policing should be by consent but to a greater extent than exists in the UK it is policing by threat of lethal force. I never felt comfortable seeing cops on traffic duties with one hand raised to direct motor traffic and the other on their weapon. It never felt comfortable seeing "neighbourhood" police patrolling streets and shopping malls also with one hand glued to a weapon. I prefer to feel comfortable that the police are there as defenders rather than feeling awkward and that they are potentially aggressors. To each their own. It's probably "what you grew up with" but I was taught that the police are friends. Friends do not carry loaded weapons in my book. It speaks volumes that the UK remains extremely safe with very low rates of gun crime, substantially low rates of knife crime (acknowledging there are localised issues with certain sections of the community here and there carrying blades) and where one can feel safe on the streets day and night. Force met with force can escalate into a spiral of attrition. The last thing we need is police routinely armed in the UK; that will surely lead to the criminal element tooling up in response.

As opposed to "I am the seagull - you are the target" as happens all too often.

Better than working for a large illegal firm I s'pose 🤣

Here's a few of my efforts with Ratio plastic kits and later square-section rodding. Including a facing point lock fitted and part-rodded. The rodding cranks beneath the platform and beneath the board crossing by the signalbox. Each part - some of them tiny - is separate.

G'morning all. What a wet day. Outside. I have no plans to immerse myself in sky-wee without very good cause. Shopping. Habits have changed as our situation has changed. In London we were beyond comfortable walking distance of the nearest supermarket though there were numerous "corner shops" and a selection of miniature versions of the big chains slightly closer. We could never get all we wanted in one place. Before we had personal mobility I sometimes took the train to Kingston or North Sheen where there are large supermarkets close to those stations; we of course lived adjacent to the station Upon the Hill of Strawberries. Once we had the Little Red Driving Box I used that to do Tesco runs to the Ivybridge superstore. In the midst of all that along came the Wuhan Woohaa; we were already using Ocado anyway and we relied heavily on deliveries through and after the pandemic. We now live in a modest town of 4500 people, perhaps 5000 in summer. The local Co-op is well-stocked and what we occasionally can\t get there we can get over the road in an old-style general store which has adopted modern trends. They offer cleaning products in "bring-your-own-bottle" refills, all of the non-dairy milk alternatives and non-chemical pest repellants among a surprising selection of herbs, spices and "free-from" foods. So we are pretty well catered for with a two-minute walk to the shops. I do sometimes use Sainsbury's near Penzance if I really want a wide choice; dropping Dr. SWMBO to and from the train on Mondays and Thursdays and passing through to and from MRC on Wednesdays means there is not really any extra fuel being burned for such trips. We are also blessed with a traditional butcher and a baker in town, a farmer's market and a community farm (who have a stall at the market) all of which we support so the eggs come from fields around the town, bread is baked locally and some of the meat is also "grown" over the road from us. Low food miles. And no need for delivery vans. We do see a few of those but not daily and nowhere near the number which line London's streets.

Ocado always rang us as described. "Is it OK to deliver early?" or "Really sorry but I am running about XX minutes late; will that still be OK?" They know how far they are behind schedule so they can be pretty accurate in offering an ETA. We only had two really late deliveries. One was due to a van breakdown which delayed our delivery by around two hours but again they kept us fully informed and assured us that all chilled and frozen foods were protected and it was the van, not its chiller, which had broken down. The other was following a fire at their Erith depot which disrupted everyone's deliveries for a couple of days. This time it was Customer Services (based in Hatfield, I believe) who called offering their profound apologies and advising that our order was not yet on the road. A couple of hours later and they called back saying it was on the road but might not reach us until after midnight. That was OK with me. It was very OK with me that they then waived the entire cost of that order as compensation for the inconvenience. They were about five hours late that night.

But I shall never forget one such occasion. On my last shift before retirement all had been going quite well until around 10.15 when a train became gapped leaving Waterloo. That was a pair of 455s. Being able to see the exact location thanks to today's technology I immediately knew that a rescue would take around an hour. Another 455 would have to be dispatched from Waterloo down towards Vauxhall, manual releases of interlocking would be required and it would then have to shunt back bang-road and couple to the front of the casualty. Which put Waterloo platforms 1 - 4 and the Main Slow lines out of use and caused the expected significant network-wide disruption. I was due to sign off at 11.00 and we had just about got some sort of service restored by 10.58 when the 10.27 Waterloo - Waterloo "rounder" via Kingston called at Clapham 22 minutes late but on the Down Slow. That was going to be my final dispatch. I announced the train on the radio-mic (because it was running out of timetable order and because it would be the last time I did such a thing) and when ready I gave a good long blast on the whistle, checked all was good to go and gave the guard the tip. And was then presented in a very ad-hoc manner with my retirement gifts right there on the platform in front of hundreds of frustrated and long-suffering passengers. As the clock ticked past 11.00 we were alerted to the casualty having moved off and would we please stand by with the station wheelchair and bottles of water as it was still carrying passengers who had been trapped aboard for an hour. We did . There was no way I was walking away when all hands were needed. To ease its passage into Wimbledon Depot the train had been routed onto the Down Main Fast meaning that the rear coaches were off the platform end. The guard had managed to get everyone on board into the middle so there was no-one left to clear from the back. With passengers off and with the guard now off the train which was proceeding as e.c.s. someone had to give the driver a green-light tip to start. That - for those who don't know - is a process very seldom used but employed when the guard has left a train which will proceed with only a driver, or when the guard's signal bell is defective, or when a train has over-run a starting signal at red and is later authorised to move . Guess who was first to the front? In all my years I had never had to give a "green tip" but at 11.25 and some 25 minutes into my retirement I dispatched a 12-car 455 comprising of rescue unit and the pair of failed ones. As I had, technically, retired at 11.00 I couldn't even claim the overtime! Job done. Professional railwayman to the last.

We used Ocado for six years Upon the Hill of Strawberries. Unique among British delivering "supermarkets" they do not own any physical stores meaning there is no human to pick your selection from the shelves and substitute what they think you might like if the preferred item is unavailable. They work from huge distribution centres and regional hubs. Our order sometimes came from Erith, sometimes from Bracknell, so not light on "food miles" but in the context of a van having perhaps 30 deliveries to make compared with perhaps as many car trips to a local supermarket it's still a reduction in vehicle mileage overall. Their centres are almost 100% automated using robots to pick your items from the vast stores. When you place an order your request is matched to stock on hand and stock expected prior to your booked delivery; it will show Out of Stock if they cannot offer the item for your delivery day and (in most cases) alternatives are suggested but you can pick which, if any, of those you would like. This means their substitution rate is very low compared with their competitors though you will sometimes find a substitution made on the day and which you can refuse at the door with credit given on the spot. We had very few outright missing items and only a few substitutions; fewer than one a week overall. Ocado were also quick to respond to the sudden spike in demand when Covid arrived and we stopped being comfortable shopping in person. They prioritised delivery slots to their regular customers and loyalty card holders could even book a guaranteed day and time once a week. Stocks of most items were reliable and their software was quick to respond to panic-buying and limit the quantities one could purchase of those critical items we all had difficulty finding for a time. We were very happy with them overall and would recommend them over any of the regular supermarket delivery services. It's a shame they don't come this far west; we are too far from their nearest hub these days but it's easier here than it was in London (!) to walk to the local supermarket and get mos or all of what we need.

I managed to build OO rodding with Ratio kits. These Modelu products are definitely of interest here.

My late father started studying with the OU and tuned into BBC2 at those time appropriate to what ever he was studying. I forget the subject matter now. I do however remember him being very wary of the OU summer school at the University of Bath. Having never progressed beyond Public Elementary in his formal education thanks to the conditions of the time arising from the activities of a certain moustache-sporting German this was all very new to him but he was determined that he "could do something with his life". His concerns were not borne out. He was worried that it would be a case of "University - Big; OU - tiny and in a couple of rooms". It was very different on reality and he returned having thoroughly enjoyed himself. Not only was the OUSS given the run of the entire university but this included supervised visits to the greenhouse where "research" was being lawfully conducted into the cannabis plant. A heated glasshouse full of them! Visits were supervised and timed but hey. The only time my dad ever got up close and personal as a student with recreational substances! He didn't complete his course. As I remember he suffered one of several redundancies in his working life and found he could no longer afford the fees to continue whilst on the dole. To his admitted dismay he felt embarrassed and shamed that he was "unable to make anything of his life". And he went to his maker pleading much the same despite having been thought of by many who knew him as a good, kind, thoughtful and caring chap. He never wore a kipper tie either; dad was always a cravat man and could look dapper as you like when occasion required. Even when it didn't he often chose to sport a cravat just for sitting in the lounge doing crosswords, listening to music or reading the paper.

After-school pick-up ten minutes. It’s all over that quickly SUVs are not a feature. The kids mostly walk home as it’s within a few hundred metres at most. Those who live on outlying farms do get picked up. In suitable vehicles. Such as daddy’s Land Rover or work van. Or mummy’s little runabout. SUVs don’t fit our lanes and there’s nowhere to park them. Very few of us can park at home - we mostly use the central car park which is free, belongs to the town and is within 3-4 minutes walk of most homes.

Welcome to Wetnessday which, oddly, is not living up to its name at all. In common with other ERs the shiny thing is doing its best. Not a good night and I suspect sleeping too long might be the cause. I’ll try adjusting the llama to 6.30 not 7.00. His Furship met the neighbour through the front window yesterday and was unimpressed. Neighbour (Teddy)’s face was something at being presented with hind-quarters at close-quarters. Then there was one last trip up the tree Before it came down Leaving a clear view of and from the cottage