Dave Hunt

Something similar happened to a neighbour when we lived in Lincolnshire. He was refurbishing a grade 2 listed house and when it came to replacing the windows, English Heritage said the glass had to be the same thickness as the originals whereas the building regulations people said it had to be thicker and neither would budge. It took nearly a year before he could get the heritage lot to see sense and get on with the work. One of his less vitriolic descriptions of them was To**ers. Dave

What a damned shame. And shame is what the members of Tynwald should be feeling. Dave

Sorry to hear that Ian. I was hoping to see the Eagles in Liverpool in June last year but, like you, no luck. I've had to make do with a copy of their 2018 LA Forum concert, which I have to admit is spectacular. Dave

The MMRS Chee Tor in 2mm fs was a large amount of Peak District scenery and a railway running through it. Dave

So far today I've spent most of my time pulling out of our pond masses of an invasive weed called Australian swamp stoneweed that has proliferated like mad recently. According to the wildlife pond book I have it is virtually impossible to get rid of it once it has arrived and all you can hope for is to keep it somewhat under control by repeatedly hooking it out. I've no idea how it has got there as I've tried to take all precautions against such things but there the bl**dy stuff is. To make sure that none of the tadpoles or little froglets are caught up in it I've been sluicing it through buckets of water then piling it up on the edge of the pond where it will stay until this evening when it will be put in a compost bin to dry out then ultimately incinerated. I think that the appropriate expression is turdycurses and anytime one of our antipodean correspondents would like to take it back I'd be only too glad. Next in my fun filled day is taking Horace the cat to the vets but that isn't for another hour so it's down to the shed for me. Dave

I would imagine that the Bear will have had the same eye-watering, gut clenching reaction to that little statement that I did. At the age of 17 I had half an ingrowing toenail removed without anaesthetic by an elderly and unsympathetic Polish GP who had reputedly been in a Nazi internment camp and that was probably the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Lord alone knows what the operation described above would be like. Dave

It was established a few months after I was born. Did the medical profession know something about me that I didn't? Dave

I've got an appointment next Monday to have an MRI scan of my lower spine. It's only taken four months. Dave

Beat me to it Phil. I too thought that the Shenandoah National Park was a lovely place. One day we stumbled across the site of a minor civil war battlefield but I'm afraid that I can't recall the name. It was in woodland but in the 1860s it was open ground and after we'd been there for a while Jill said, "Have you noticed that there's no birdsong here?" And she was right, it was a bit spooky. Dave

It's not often that I back the ideas of the men in brown but I have to confess that my learned friend who wore the crowns on his shoulders has hit a few nails fair and square, including the final miniature wording. Dave (is that worth a piece of bara brith HH?)

My entry for the 'Most Ba**saching Job in Railway Modelling' is doing the flooring for a 4ft 6in x 2ft 6in loco shed. Currently day four, no sign of scurvy, crew still in good spirits. Goodnight/morning /day according to your global position. Dave

Cabbage is good Pickled eggs better But beans on toast Makes you fart the most Dave

One SME I had dealings with made a significant part of the Tornado F3 weapons system and when I was part of the weapons & tactics standards and training unit we used to visit them fairly often to suggest modifications, look at their suggested updates etc. They were always ready and eager to listen to what we had to say and their responses were invariably sensible and co-operative as well as usually quick without being sketchy or ill considered. They did have the advantage of employing several ex-service engineers and front-line operators that contributed to the the essential wider experience and background knowledge that Puppers refers to but I would imagine that was more by judgement than luck. Dave

When I was living in the mess at RAF Valley in 1967, my room was next to a small sort of courtyard where during a thunderstorm one night a lightning strike hit. The bang was unbelievably loud, sounding like a bomb going off and it cracked a window in my room as well as breaking one next door. Dave

Hence tramway. Dave

Bit of a panic just after I had finished posting last night. We had the grandfather of all thunderstorms with the sort of rain I used to associate with living in Singapore in the wet season. Fortunately I had just popped down to the shed to get my phone, which I had left down there earlier on, when the deluge started so I decided to sit it out until I could get back into the house without drowning. It's a good job I did as the grid outside the shed door was partially blocked and the rain was so torrential that the well outside the door was filling up and the water was threatening to come over the door sill. Hence I had to go out and dredge the detritus out of the grid, whereupon the water level stopped rising and when the rain eased off to a mere downpour started receding. Result? Shed saved from flooding but DH soaked to the skin. Also lesson learned about monitoring the state of the grid more assiduously. Dave

Funnily enough I heard today that Mr. Kipling's are going on to short time working. Dave

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A better day today. After church I got a couple of 'when you've got a few minutes' jobs done*, which earned sufficient brownie points for another couple of hours in the supplemental house extension department in the afternoon then after dinner Jill suggested that as there was nothing on the haunted fishtank that was of interest why didn't I go down there again. Never one to look a gifthorse in the bum I disappeared at roughly the speed of heat and have just now finished. I have to admit, though, that the recent encouragement to go and do some modelling is beginning to worry me; is there something in the offing that I am not aware of and I'm being softened up for when the bomb finally drops? Should I be afraid? * Which only took about two hours Dave

How much did they get for you? Dave Just seen that I was beaten to it. Great minds etc.

The Telegoons? Dave

The aerodynamics aren't 'scaled down' so to speak as a thing called Reynold's number, which has a marked effect on them, changes with size but the general principles are fairly similar so that the handling aspects will be somewhat akin to the full size unless you go to the margins of the envelope. I once saw a quarter scale F4 at a meeting and the builder was complaining that it Dutch rolled like crazy on the approach if you weren't careful. I said that the full size one did that if you made an approach with the yaw stability augmentation turned off so he'd obviously got the model right, although it wasn't much help to him really. Dave

Thanks Alan. If only it had markings other than 19 Sqn. but then that is being picky. It's a Mk. 6 which were beautiful birds to fly. Dave

I didn't realise that at last you have switched to S7 HH. Well done. Dave

Our energy supplier keeps badgering me to get a so-called smart meter, which so far I have ignored but today they sent an email saying that they are obliged by the government to install them in their customers' homes. This is a lie as all they are obliged by the government to do is offer each of their customers a smart meter by 2024. Just in case I am in the habit of wearing a tinfoil hat they included a 'scientific' paper refuting claims that smart meters are injurious to health. Sheesh! Dave