Gwiwer

We have another supporter here??? In other news it is Mothering Sunday for those in the UK. Other nations recognise different dates meaning Dr SWMBO has to be alert to the Australian Mother’s Day and act accordingly to avoid upsetting the Dragon-in-Law. It is almost seven years now since my folks left us - 11 months apart - but I can still picture very clearly mother on her knees weeding the front garden just days before she departed. Active to the very end she was. And then she just stopped. In happier times here they are on the occasion of their 60th wedding anniversary. They had two more years together and had had three before marriage giving them a sterling 65-not-out innings together.

The same 4 or 5 are still at our local Methodist “Miner’s” chapel in 2024.

I experienced something similar on the now defunct Kingfisher Air in India. We were always of the opinion that Singapore Airlines cabin crew all came from the same mould. Every one the same shape and size as their colleagues (distinguished only as male or female) and to date the only airline which consistently manages to get the food carts down both aisles simultaneously. Mostly a top airline but the actual food offered has dropped somewhat in quality.

Not sure about the “nylon anoraked” but it certainly gave rise to some comment when Our Friends in Camborne first employed a female marketing manager unfamiliar with our understanding of such terms. I understand she was gently and sensitively trained in the ways of the Unspoken Awl-inducing Pastime.

An interesting piece of working on Thursday. The usual 17.03 off Paddington (booked 2x5-car IETs) was, as it usually is, a 9-car IET. Apart from the now-customary confusion about seat reservations there were two added problems. 1. The set in use was unable to provide any heating and 2. Trains are terminating at Liskeard due to Cornish signalling works and a 9-car unit is too long to fit between the starting signal (the limit of operation) and the crossover clearing point in the rear to allow it to shunt back towards Plymouth. Passengers aboard the 17.03, which was keeping good time for once, were advised at Totnes that their train would be terminating at Plymouth “due to a fault”. No mention of any onward arrangements. The preceding train, 16.35 Paddington - Plymouth 1C89 was formed of 2x5-car units. Upon its arrival at Plymouth these were split and the front one assigned the headcode of the 17.03 1C90. The 9-car 1C90 was platformed alongside and Cornish passengers were transferred to the waiting 5-car unit. Which was nicely warm inside As the 17.03 is booked a 9-minute stop at Plymouth to split the units 1C90 left right on time despite being a set-swap and having to detrain and re-train around 200 passengers. Some good work all round there topped off by Dr SWMBO being helped from one train to the other (she always has assistance booked but this was an unscheduled change of trains) and then being seated in the first class carriage down to Liskeard. From where I collected her and drove her home because another three hours on two replacement buses - one to St Austell then another to Penzance - was going to be beyond her.

Those are the nights I decamped to Edithvale beach with a supply of chilled water .....

Round Tuits are always available through something called “The Internet”. Which reminds me I need to order one when I get around …….. Good Morning from the Distant (Signal) West where it is breezy, grey and with a threat of yet more sky-widdle imminently. Dr SWMBO is at her lentil Lenten study group after a fleeting visit to the “farmer’s market”. We liberated some fish which will become pied later but as usual the farmer’s side of the market was represented only by our community farm. The rest was hand-crafted soaps, baby-bonnets, house-plants and the usual cake stall. Not much farming in evidence. Speaking of cakes and speaking as Minister for Train-sport I should remind all Bears of this parish to beware of the difference between LDC which can be yellow in colour and “yellow cake” which is a commodity transported in large quantities by Australian railways. One is best consumed by bears; the other is best consumed by nuclear power stations. Domestic Engineering duties are required of me if I am to be presented with lunch. Better get tuit. Which is where we came in.

Known to many as the Criminal’s Protection Service. With a modicum of justification based upon some of the outcomes: - Community Service Order for violent or persistent offenders placing them right back where they will re-offend - Teeny tiny sentences for anyone who might have the slightest hint of mitigating circumstances - Case dropped due to unsound or inconclusive evidence. Even when cctv or dash-cam footage has clearly identified all of the victim, the perpetrator and the offence being committed. As with most nations our jails are full of people who are all there for one reason - getting caught. It’s the ones who get off with a slap on the wrist or even an apology who we need to be watchful for. They live among us.

Where the operation of nominally 125mph trains is severely constrained by the need to path them between 110mph class 387s, 60-75mph heavy freights and the conflicting moves across Southcote Junction and the Reading triangle. Signallers are reluctant to put a freight “inside” in case it takes so long to re-start that it delays something up it’s behind. Cue regular traffic jams. And for every delay approaching Reading there is a lost path up to Paddington often leading to more delays

The butt of all AFL humour. And I do mean the butt 🤣

Penalty = Stroke and Distance? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-australia-68501403

Much the same on race days - notably Royal Ascot - I am assured. Race meetings seem to fulfil numerous social functions one of which is racing the fillies. Another of which has been described (with apologies to anyone whom it may offend) as racing-off the fillies. Afternoon and evening trains returning from Ascot and, to be fair, other major race meetings but we didn't serve Epsom Downs - our Southern colleagues copped that one - were filled with various bodily waste materials, cigar butts, collapsed inebriate humanity and condoms both used and still à la foil no doubt in some sort of forlorn or misguided hope. I was never aboard those trains so cannot comment first-hand upon any events which might or might not have occurred. But I was in a professional capacity aboard certain trains serving the Melbourne Cup whilst downunder. The race-course had its own suburban branch line which saw passenger traffic just once day a year but very intensively. Think Royal Ascot / Grand National / Derby Day on Australian hot-weather steroids. Minimal clothing, maximal alcoholic consumption, a requirement to ride the trains and alert control to those which required urgent cleaning (usually just bags of sand thrown over the floor before the next trip) and - on more than one occasion - couples engaged in very intimate activities less than furtively behind a seat. Fascinators and all. The waist-level fascinators were by then adorning the ankles 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♀️🤣

Ms. Annett lacks the "not inconsiderable charms" of Ms. Grogan in my book. The latter fits my bill for under-tall and amply round all over. The former misses the mark. But to each their own as I should hate to have to share KK's with iD. And most certainly not with Captain Cynical!!!

This matches my experience of Dr SWMBO’s trips Her Monday Up service is a booked 9-car. It typically arrives in Paddington 15-30 minutes late. Her Thursday Down train is booked 10-car to Plymouth and 5-car beyond. It is usually a 9-car set and has typically arrived 20 - 30 minutes late. On the rare occasions it is a 5-car (into Penzance) it is closer to right time. On one occasion it even regained a few minutes on paper from 7 late at Saltash to right-time arrival at Penzance. Examination of the running times suggest that while the set kept to its booked time the minutes were regained from pathing and engineering allowances and a couple of shorter-than-booked station stops. Not time was regained by the set itself.

Passenger levels have returned but the overall pattern differs to pre-Covid. For example the East Coast Main Line, which is almost exclusively an IET-operated railway and has three open-access operators competing for traffic with LNER, is said to be at or above pre-Covid levels with many trains running full. GWR is not at that level yet with something like 80% overall pre-Covid traffic but less than that during weekday peaks and more off-peak. Of note the 12.03 Paddington - Penzance is now regularly overloaded whereas the 10.04 (the “traditional” Cornish Riviera slot) is lightly loaded; the 17.03 is only moderately loaded beyond Reading where it was once standing room only to Exeter. Of other operators SWR claims barely 70% of pre-Covid traffic overall, Waterloo entries / exits (the standard measure of passenger numbers) support this, and whilst most suburban peak-time trains are packed these are now mostly 8-car instead of 10-car and none of the one-time peak extras runs; the “off-peak” timetable applies all day.

Now we’re talking! The original was Altered Images front-woman, Gregory’s Girl co-star and one of my all-time most-wanted namely Claire Grogan. She dropped the “i” from her given name for professional reasons due to there already being another of the same name within Equity. As KK in Red Dwarf she was credited as C P Grogan for the same reason. When I followed the band she was just a loud teenage show-off and I was just out of uni and enjoying some of the London alternative music scene. She is still five years younger than me even now.

One of those fancy pieces of headgear which is neither a hat not an Alice-band but sits somewhere in between. So-called because it is supposed to fascinate the non-wearer whose gaze it attracts. And because the (usually male) party to the relationship and who finds his account suddenly emptied is fascinated by the obscene cost of a bit of twisted fabric with or without a feather attached.

Dr SWMBO has travelled weekly since last Autumn between Penzance and Paddington on these wretched things. Of her 36 individual trips to date no fewer than 31 have triggered a Delay Repay claim. Not all of those delays were attributable to the rolling stock but in some cases an adequately-powered train could potentially have regained enough time to have avoided the payout. Some, such as creeping over the Devon banks before being terminated at Plymouth “because we have a faulty engine” clearly have been motive-power related.

Porthgarrow is being tidied up and generally put into good order ready for its outing next month. Recent works include re-surfacing the station platform which brings it up to a better height and covers a few glue blots on the original plus the installation of the second overhead strip light on the “roof”. A boat has appeared in the water and strategically-placed greenery covers a slight gap in the sea wall. I have struggled with the planned fitting of festoon lighting over the beach. It is in place but despite working when tested it refuses to work now it’s fitted. The jury is out on its future. Most importantly the demountable extension board has been fitted allowing completion of the standard-gauge run-off. That means for the first time the sg line is also powered and able to show moving rather than static trains.

I have to admit mild disappointment in the level of enthusiasm for St Piran locally. The children’s dance was lovely but only one of the hundred or so in the crowd was attired in the “full Cornish” kilt and all. And it wasn’t me. There was a bit more enthusiasm come 9pm as all four pubs were doing a fair trade and the Trelawney Shout was raised.

Commonly used now in place of stitching for minor injuries and some surgeries. Also, I believe, for more major surgeries where suitable. It leaves minimal scarring which can fade to nothing noticeable. Which, for those for whom it matters, is probably better than having a visible "zip" scar.

I see its bright yellow class-mate has challenged an Oxford Street shop-front to a duel.

And all other Meta platforms. We shall have to talk to each other with our voices instead.

Have you watched Collingwood play? Have you driven both under and over the same river within five minutes?* Have you watched the sunset from Frankston beach? Have you watched the flares / dragon’s breath at Crown Casino? Have you hung out of the carriages feet-first riding Puffing Billy? Have you been to Omeo? Have you seen the Mutton Birds come home at Port Fairy? These and more require completion before you can “tick off” Victoria. * Domain Tunnel - Bolte Bridge or Bolte Bridge - Burnley Tunnel. Substitute Westgate Bridge for Bolte Bridge but it adds 10 minutes to the double-crossing.

I will admit that, in ignorance and out of unfamiliarity, I once did perform a direct right turn rather than the required hook. I received the blessings of a trammie for my efforts - he serenaded me with a lengthy session on the gong!!!