Dave Hunt

Another little stunner Mike. Dave

According to the keepers at a wolf sanctuary in Oregon, wolves are indeed less dangerous than dogs and try their best to stay away from humans. They said that there is no recorded instance of an unprovoked attack by wolves on humans. Dave

By 'eck, SM42 Towers going on a visit to the Motherland must be a logistical exercise and a half. Do you have to repaint it when it arrives? Dave

Tips are included although we did give our cabin maid a tip when we disembarked because her service was so good. Most of the crew were Filipinos on 8 month contracts with 3 months off. Saga apparently pay well and help look after the crew's families when they are away so many of the ones we talked to had worked with the Company for ten years or more. The fact that they were happy in their work was shown by their virtually unfailing cheerfulness and friendliness. The Saga ships are classified as small as they only cater for about 850 passengers. I don't think I'd fancy one of the big multi-thousand ones. The facts that there were no children on board and there wasn't a casino helped too. Dave

Most of the waterfalls were like this….. ….hanging rather than falling. Dave

Sadly not although we did go on the Flam Railway that goes from the coast up into the mountains with a ruling gradient of 1 in 18 (which occurs quite a lot) and is electric loco hauled. Dave

All of the above except curly fries as I believe that they are in short supply following a certain ursine citizen of UK coming off a diet. Dave

That has certainly been the case in my experience although I can't comment on the very latest aircraft, e.g., F-35/Lightning 2. Dave

Since it was GWR territory I was in a bit of a hurry to get away so I probably missed quite a lot. Just a lot - see post above. My wallet has been in intensive care since though and when Jill said, "I wouldn't mind doing another cruise but to somewhere warm," I'm sure I heard it whimper. Dave

Well, here I am back from the briny having spent five days above the arctic circle. My absence from TNM was due to Jill threatening allsorts of retribution if I spent any time while we were away on "that flamin' website" and I confess that I wilted before the threats. The cruise, though, was fantastic and I can recommend Saga to any of our readers of an age. We were collected at our front door, driven to Portsmouth, boarded the ship whilst our luggage was delivered to our cabin, spent 15 days in what is basically a 5 star floating hotel with several excursions and seeing the northern lights on three occasions, driven back home after our luggage was picked up from the cabin and delivered to the waiting car, and didn't have to spend anything at all on board as everything was included. The ship's appointments are top class, our cabin was brilliant and the service on board was superb; the only drawback is that the weight I lost since new year has reappeared as we basically ate and drank for Britain. The two Saga ships are smaller than most of the cruise ships and only accommodate about 900 passengers so with 500 crew you gat a lot of attention. We got back home on Sunday night but it has taken until now to sort out the unpacking, get on top of the jobs and admin niffnaff and trivia that have piled up in my absence., and try to catch up with what has been going on hereabouts; even with speed reading and a lot of skipping over, though, that has taken quite a while. Dave

And to think that I've walked along that stretch of line several times........ Bu**er Dave

Ad to think that I've walked along that stretch of line several times..... Bu**er Dave

There are some things that are incredibly appropriate, aren’t there? Dave

Yes, Mike, the weathering powders always seem to fade almost to nothing when varnished over. Dave

My most memorable contretemps with administrators was when a squadron I was on was changing squadron number on the first of a month. Some numpty in MoD duly deleted all reference to the squadron on the 31st of the previous month so come the first of the next month there was no squadron to renumber, at least in the main computer system. The big issue as far as I and all the other squadron personnel were concerned, though, was that when the squadron was deleted all reference to us for pay purposes was also deleted and as far as the pay system was concerned we no longer existed. It took several days before the mess was sorted out and MoD had to compensate quite a few people for charges that had been made for going overdrawn etc. but the ramifications went on for ages. Dave

Well, as an Englishman living within spitting distance of the Welsh border, the 6 Nations couldn't have gone much worse today. Incomers in North Shropshire not happy tonight 😥 Dave

It's like a dairy farm near us. If they got rid of all the cows they've got hanging around I'm sure they could use the land better. Dave

I didn't know that Churchward was so artistic. Dave

You mean he isn't real? oh, pooh! Don't you mean pot, kettle, red?

You really shouldn't be so judgmental on some poor soul who can be so misled and delusioned. Dave

.....and M. Poirot. Dave

The roofers having roofed, tidied up (well, nearly) and departed, all is gradually returning to normal at Hunt Towers except for the full skip that is still inhabiting the driveway and the damp patch on the lounge ceiling that is slowly drying out. Jill is so happy about them leaving that she even encouraged me to go down to the shed this afternoon. There really is a silver lining sometimes. Dave

Ah, it seems to have settled down now and the previous duplication has stopped but for a while the two pages were duplicates. Dave

Is it just me or is page 1760 a duplicate of 1759? Dave

The biggest copyright sharks used to be a well-known publisher of railway books who would claim copyright simply on the basis that they had a copy of a particular photograph in their collection, even though it may actually be a railway company official. I and most other authors just ignored them. Dave