Gwiwer

Perhaps the driver of the car I was following was from Barnsley. But likely not. Returning from a successful day’s exhibiting I drew up at the St Erth roundabout where the A30, Hayle Causeway and St Ives roads meet. The car ahead did not move off when the way was clear (i.e. empty roundabout) twice. I observed the passenger apparently prodding the driver who then pulled out into the path of an approaching HGV. As I followed the car onto the A30 I was then obliged to maintain a steady 19mph in the 30 limit as they seemed reluctant to go any faster. They also seemed reluctant to drive in a straight line preferring to occasionally cross the centre markings or veer towards the ditch. Behind me was ……. a police patrol car. So I pulled in at a bus stop and allowed them to become the following vehicle. That left me around six back in the traffic but close enough to see that one was clearly following the other. And in due course pulled them over for a few words. I shall never know the end of that story.

Best Western here. Because the “Great” has been appropriated for another industry. Just as Australians know the burgers are better at Hungry Jack’s. Because an Adelaide business was “The Burger King” and David beat Goliath in court when it came to a stoush over the branding. In other news Dr SWMBO arrived on time for a change. Which means her tally of Delay Repay claims is now 36 out of 42 trips. That’s 36 which did not arrive within 15 minutes of the advertised time. A few have been over 60 minutes late and two have been over 2 hours late. Not-so-Great Western Railway, then.

Afternoon all. What is this big yellow thing hanging in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t?* It warms my back and dazzles the peepholes. Domestic Engineering was completed earlier. Since when a pasty-run has been completed, I have dropped in on an old friend and have come away with a “new” camera to play with. I randomly bumped into another LTNS old friend with whom we had lost touch. And now it is warm enough that I am enjoying a coffee outside before tackling the Sainsbury’s Grand Prix. And collecting Dr. SWMBO from her train in 50 minutes from now. After dropping her at home I am then back on the road to collect a layout and set up for the weekend’s show. Did anyone say retirement was quiet? No it is not. * ℅ Douglas Adams. The answer is not a Vogon Constructor Ship. I hope!!!

The depends upon how many fingers you propose to use

I find avoiding curry reduces emissions! I also find avoiding the brand name you mention reduces emissions because of the amount of packaging they choose to use. Which I choose to consider excessive in the extreme.

Afternoon all. Where am I? Is this ERs? The fog is so thick here it is hard to see where I’m going. Speaking of which. On watch this morning I was concerned by the progress of a small leisure craft. Only its name and size came up on the trackers. No idea what type of craft, how many souls aboard, intention or destination. She was making around 4 knots so probably under power rather than sail. And she was perilously close to the shore and undersea reefs. In near-zero visibility I couldn’t see her even at a half-mile range so Falmouth Coastguard was alerted. They called her but four hails went unanswered as she got to within 100m (by radar track) of disaster. She abruptly altered course - possibly having seen rocks dead ahead at underwear-changing range. And passed that hazard in what must have been white water. Only to then vanish from the trackers altogether as she came towards the cliffs once more. Falmouth asked several nearby fishing vessels if they could see her. In that fog they would have been lucky to see their own bow from the bridge. As the watch changed this remained unresolved but with no report of any casualty. Curious. And concerning. In other news this took place while my assessment was also taking place. At the end I was presented with my epaulettes having qualified as an NCI watch-keeper. And with an almost 100% score. The coast will be that little bit safer now. Provided water-craft at least carry and answer a working radio!

AI It meant Artificial Insemination when I was a little tacker. Also referred to as “The bull with a bowler-hat” How times change.

Does that mean a miscarriage of justice has been executed?

Some last-minute preparations for this weekend’s show saw Porthgarow gain a few bits “borrowed” from the currently-stored Waddlemarsh layout. A brick signalbox (with Scalescenes name sign) has appeared as have the bean-sticks from the shunter’s allotments. The GPO van is fixed at the top of the roadway and - barely visible but adding interest - pot plants and a couple of dogs have appeared outside the cottages. Station furniture now includes a picnic table and a few more waiting passengers. The layout was cleaned and tested with both gauges powered and working. Various different locomotives were tried on the standard gauge line with the heavier ones performing better because they can cope with the slightly uneven track. Being laid on foam-board has its issues but it keeps the weight down.

Porthgarrow is not N-gauge; it is OO and OO-9 featuring two gauges and one scale. See you there

Clever and skilful use of some software which I appreciate at that level. Perhaps easing back on them might help the server load as well? In other news it's thickly misterous, werry vet and no doubt deeply fogsome up over the moors. I'll find out how bad in an hour or so on my way to the awl-inspiring club. And in other other news you know you're getting older when you spend an hour grovelling about in the loft (which is rather tiny but acts as the rolling-stock store), finally return with what you sought and have put the ladder away and closed the hatch. And then you look for your glasses ................. ........... which turned out to be perched on a bookshelf and not back up in the loft as I had feared!

The wind has gone. The sun was here but has also now gone. We are promised fist and mog tomorrow but I shall believe that when the morning arrives. In the meantime here's proof there was sunlight earlier. A Lesser-spotted Glassbird caught in its native habitat.

Some gentle weathering of the Kernow MRC steam railmotor to give it a "being used" look

Some gentle weathering of the railmotor to give it an "in use" appearance.

G'morning all. Still here despite the weather's attempts at relocating the Distant (Signal) West. Saturday night's storm was rough; last night's was off the scale of ferocious. I recovered the bin this morning from three streets away; the elecktrickery people are out in force restoring service as fast as the chain-saw folk can cut up the fallen trees to allow it. I am reminded of a chap I once worked with whose English was learned a long way from these shores. "Ferocious" was pronounced "Fur-OSS-ee-us" for example. As indeed one can argue that it should be here. A trip into the Big Bright Lights City is called for after lunch in order to deal with some banking which cannot be achieved online. I might also treat myself to a reasonable muggercoffy while I'm there. In other news my assessment for Watch-keeping is on Thursday morning. I shall either leave the watch with my epaulettes as a qualified watch-keeper or be referred for a few more supervised sessions. Either or. Dr. SWMBO had an interesting trip to London yesterday. Hers was the last train to leave Penzance before the sea piled over the wall (and the defensive rocks) and prevented further movements. It passed Dawlish without incident whilst I watched on the live webcam to see how it was there. At Exeter they were all turfed out. And everyone from a train arriving from London was also turfed out. Two nominally identical trains were swapped over, hundreds - if not thousands - of passengers were inconvenienced and most lost their reserved seats making do with what ever they could then get. Dr. SWMBO did at least get a seat onwards to London though many were standing. I wonder how the Pullman diners fared; her train offers full dining from Plymouth so they would just have been seated for their meals and probably served the first course when the order came to change trains! No reason and no apology was given. The swap resulted in a train which had arrived punctually at Exeter being 36 minutes late into London. And resulted in her lodging a Delay Repay claim for the 37th time in 42 trips.

You might be surprised at the places I took buses. Many of the (non-local) passengers were. The locals just took it for granted. In all my years driving I never once so much as scratched the paintwork despite often having 1cm or less clear either side.

Loud'n'Proud, eh? In Japanese culture it is disrespectful to be overheard using the lavatory. In the UK one respectfully tries not to draw attention to yourself but there is normally no need for sound-deadening devices. I’m unsure of US etiquette. In Australia it can be a case of “Strewth. That’s better. I needed that one, mate” after a resounding (and resonating) visit to the bush-dunny. After checking for spiders and snakes first.

That sounds like low-hanging fruit to me

There has been a lookage in the muddling box It has been cloned with wetter and soup.

Ah yes. It happens every season. Geelong vs Western Bulldogs. Is it raining ….. ? Other apt pairings include Dockers vs Port (Freemantle - Port Adelaide) and Cats vs Lions (Geelong - Brisbane, ex-Fitzroy),

I certainly remember the days when the outside privvy would be supplied with carefully-torn pages from the Daily Telegraph. The indoors lavatory had the luxury of Izal Medicated! Rough is as rough does. We were brought up hard in them days. None of this namby-pamby soft tissue then. In other news it is warm, sunny and very windy. Not as severe as the seaweed-mongers would have us believe, not too windy for Dr SWMBO to have set forth on the tricycle bound for the WI market and an hour or so sketching in church making use of her pastels and art-paper. But windy enough to have removed the well-anchored bike cover from the bikes (though not from its anchor points) and windy enough to have lifted a near-empty sack of briquettes over the wall from the neighbour’s. Stay safe. Keep yer hairs on.

The band. Capital T and D. To avoid any ambiguity. One of the few to have endured the trial by time and have been out their thrashing their kit since 1979. They have worn out quite a few drummers along the way. Olga is quite a handy guitar-wrangler too. Two of my favourites. Both covers.

It can be a very valuable networking tool and a means to find people in the same professional sphere as yourself whom you might only have heard about or not even have known of. I have an effectively unused account; I found it wasn't for me and I wasn't getting anything from it. Dr. SWMBO uses her account pretty much daily and has a huge worldwide professional network going on it. She sometimes tells me she has been "found" or looked for by others and also that she has found someone there whom she might have met at a conference some time in the past or knows only by their published work. It has proved very useful for her indeed. Horses for courses. It is largely a professional networking platform. As for the antisocial media as a whole I am growing less enthusiastic of it by the day. It now spams me far too many irrelevant and inappropriate adverts where ever I look. When I go into the "Why am I seeing this advert" link the usual reason offered is that "This advertiser is seeking to engage with people like yourself". Fine. But I don't transact any business in US$, I don't buy anything from Temu, I don't have a mortgage or loan needing protection (nor any form of "Over 60s Life Plan") and I most certainly do not require any services which might be offered by under-dressed ladies who appear to be much less than half my age. I should put some of the apps to bed. But there are one or two good friends who only communicate using one or other of them. It's a bit frustrating to keep an app just to talk to at most two people but unless we can find another way or our friendship fades then that's how it is. What would be nice is to have a definitive means of knowing whether someone is simply no longer interested in maintaining a friendship; sometimes it is possible to tell if you have been "blocked" but not always. That, however, relies upon the other party actively "switching you off" as opposed to just not replying to messages. Just tell me "So long and thanks for all the fish" rather than keep me hanging on and sending the occasional "Hi how are you?" into the void of cyberspace. Grumpy old git mode will now be put to bed.

Given the apparent predisposition of ERs to medical issues I might be forgiven for having initially misread that!

£270K fine? Methinks the Wife Widow is rather justified in being p1ssed off. Hopefully the Judge that awards compo will be a lot more sensible and give the Companies concerned a right kicking. A rather modest fine indeed but reading the full article will disclose the facts that the maximum penalty (of $1.5m) could not be imposed because this case was heard in a “lower court” (Melbourne Magistrates) rather than a “high” criminal court. His Worship also commented in judgement that “there is no penalty this court could impose which matches the severity of the incident and extent of loss.” To have only issued instructions by handbill left in the cab in the hopes the driver would read them is not safe practice. Daily notices must (in the UK) be displayed on a designated notice board at the sign-on location and staff are required to sign to say they have read and understood them. The temporary diversion of trains via the Wallan loop required a deceleration from line speed of 100kmh to 15kmh without trackside signage or advance warning. ARTC signalling does not retard the train in the way British signalling does. Staff past and present who I know as friends have been widely critical of ARTC on many fronts. Track condition is one of those. Despite the loss of the train crew the integrity of the train construction withstood most of the forces involved and saved many lives. The power cars are the adapted British HST design; the trailers are all-local built by Comeng but are structurally similar to the British Mk3 coaches. I shall probably hear more as the judgement and implications roll out across the industry