BokStein

Good evening. And there was I under the delusion that Hippos loved water! It is perfectly logical! When the dreaded virus first raised its ugly head, our antipodean cousins panicked as their bog roll was, it seems, a product of China which went into lockdown fairly quickly. Said cousins, not wishing to be caught by a shortage, created one by panic buying. Unfortunately, for want of a better phrase, this craze went viral! Tip, ChrisF, recall the Hotel Speer in Rapperswil! No paper required!

If a colleague of mine takes an automated call, his response is usually "wibble"!

This reminds me of a former colleague's take on foreign languages: When at the bar with a friend, "I'll have that, he's paying" - the only two phrases you ever need in any language!

Good Evening, I suspect you really mean that magnificent minstrel! In true, time honoured fashion, singed in triplicate! (See what I did there?) I've noticed that as well. I always go via View New Content and am often surprised to see some of my regular haunts not listed. Often, I hit the refresh button (in Firefox, the circular arrow between the forward and home buttons) and the missing thread(s) reappear. My theory is that they are not shown because someone is saving a new post to them.

Oliver’s Army - The Attractions

There's no time like the future! Everything I didn't do yesterday plus everything I haven't done today combined with everything I won't do tomorrow completely exhausts me!

Once Upon A Daydream · The Police

I have no timer on the boiler; it's a combination one and generates hot tap water on demand at any time of day or night. My Honeywell thermostat is set to give 21C when I'm around, dropping to 17C overnight or when I'm at work. It has two useful overrides; if I'm away, I can set it to maintain a nominal minimum temperature for the duration and if I'm on staycation, I can set it so that every day's on, say, the Sunday cycle when I'm mostly at home. Where I lived previously, there was a timer on the boiler for both central heating (which had to be manually overridden if it started to get a little chilly and the thermostat was clicking in) and hot water. With my current system, this is totally unnecessary!

ISTR that we have Australia to blame for the bulk purchasing of toilet rolls! It was said that most of theirs are produced in China so when the lockdown struck, the Aussies (almost literally) s**t themselves and panic bought. As a result, the urge to panic buy toilet roll went, for want of a better phrase, viral. Seconds out, round two! Apologies if this view has been previously expressed; 120 pages of 25 posts (= 3000 posts) is too much to trawl through!

Morning, What a way to start a Sunday! ISTR that there is one religion which carries out a similar practice on the and also that a Japanese order ceremonially remove the end of their little finger as a rite of passage.

Three Times A Lady - Commodores

In line with iD, I smell excrement of bull here. OK, thou shall not purchase more then 32 paracetamol from a supermarket in a single transaction. Within a timescale of less than an hour, I can visit Tess C0s pharmacy then Sainsbury's followed by B00ts and a private pharmacy next door (only the brick wall separates them) and end up with 128 paracetamol! If I could be bothered to walk the extra 1/2 mile to Lidl, I could end up with another 32 (= 160!)

Careful, John, you're almost tempting me to offer the Indian deviation of Pythagoras' Theorem!

Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) - Edison Lighthouse

Back from the great metropolis that is Downtown LA with a few provisions now in store! Whilst from the professional RAF point of view, it may have seemed pointless, but I would suggest that it, as did the CCF I was involved with at school, did instil discipline into the participants. Visiting Switzerland as I do from time to time and where military service is still compulsory, it is not uncommon to see those involved heading off to their barracks by train in full uniform (complete with firearm). As such, the discipline amongst the native Swiss is exemplary. (No, I won't start a petition but) there may be a case for nicking Farcebuk's button!

There are exceptions! As spectators, yes mums and daughters do turn up to shows. I was more thinking them spending the weekend assisting in the operation of layouts.

Morning, Too dark outside to see what the weather's doing but looking at the railway map, it seems that we are the terminal for engineering works. On the other hand, ChrisF, consider why these restrictions have been applied. If I have understood correctly, during Freshers' Week, said viral infections increased amongst the student population. Thus, IMHO, it makes perfect sense to tell them not to socialise.

Yeah! Result! Ordinarily, I would be joining ChrisF on the much mentioned trip to Switzerland. However, having already having had to cancel my Birthday trip to Amsterdam, funds are a tad short. Apart from visiting our beloved Switzerland (and possibly spending a few hours in the excellent company of iL Dottore), our prime objective is to escape the forced festivities over here and to relax and 'play trains' (12":1 foot scale) and distract us from unpleasant memories associated with the time of year. I have already offered to the shop manager, my services to stand in for anyone with family who wants time off during the period and would be happy to be in residence to take customer calls on 25th Dec and 1st Jan. Like your style! Their failure to do so enhances the idea of discrimination!

So often customers 'phone in and say they've seen this in an advert and want to purchase it. You say OK, it's £x.yz. They come back and say "but your advert says it's £a.bc, you have to sell it to me at £a.bc". Response can be twofold: 1. I don't have to sell it to you at any price 2. The advert is an invitation to treat (and probably several months out of date due to publication lead times) and not a binding contract. The price is £x.yz end of story. A situation I had at the NEC a few years back: customer comes to counter with 5 packs of a product priced (then) at £25.00. The ticket on each box declared £5.95. I refused the sale and promptly withdrew the product from display. Matey protested that "that's the price it says, you have to sell it to me at that price" I refuse and remind him that it's been withdrawn from sale. No, sir, I don't have to sell it to you at any price, however, as a gesture of goodwill for bringing this to our attention, I will allow you to purchase one pack at the price on the ticket. Less disgruntled customer, less to pack on the homeward van and a few pennies in the till. Correct price labels then attached to product and it put back on sale.

Technically, not necessarily (there may be other reasons for not serving you). But as the end of the transaction draws nigh and this fact is revealed, then withdrawal of service is still an option. (Albeit possibly a wasted pint, say!) Can't pay; we'll take it away?

Present them with an oval of track and a Roco Z21! (Other systems controlled by smartphones or tablets are available!) I can understand the pessimism about the downward spiral. Having visited several exhibitions in Holland, Germany and France, their whole attitude to railway modelling differs from ours. Over there, you see not only fathers and sons, but also mothers and daughters involved in the show and there are many clubs which encourage this. In the UK, railway modelling, per se, seems to be a somewhat closet activity and, as such, a taboo subject, at best involving the fathers with, occasionally, their sons but rarely the mothers and daughters. My apologies if I have strayed , reign me in if necessary! IIRC, this thread is, IMHO, now so far off topic (I'm cancelled, I'm cancelled too, hey so am I) that I'm not sure where it's going!

Any retail trader has the right to refuse to serve a potential customer without necessarily giving a reason. However, if it is stated that you must do 'this' for entry but if you are saying you can not come in because you don't have this where he has, then I'd still cite that as discrimination (the haves vs the havenots).

The main precept behind long distance, high speed train travel is that the journey city centre to city centre should be 4 hours or less. By train this can be direct with no changes of transport. By plane, it includes: City centre to airport (change transport) arrival at airport to departure (change transport) flight time arrival at airport to leaving airport (change transport) airport to city centre. (change transport) ISTR that the Air France check-in desk for flights from Bruxelles to Paris was at Bruxelles Midi station; you were going by TGV!

Evening! A pleasant visit to the station last night to watch (camera batteries failed) a Class 60 (60 055) pass through with a revenue freight train rather than Notwork Fail supplies. Apparently, first pass by a Class 60 and first revenue train for six years! The usual gang were there to record it. With works at this station this weekend, more engineering trains are due. I noticed the Chinese Secret Service were evident in my local supermarket this evening - Ming Spies! (What a shame the groan button only applies to the whole post ) I have bookmarked "View New Content" on my RMW link and often notice that its content may vary, sometimes including, sometime excluding threads which you have just visited in a previous session. I've also noted that the time frame seems a tad random; I have seen it jump, when loading new activity, directly from, say, 1 hour ago to, say, 6 years ago! Probably more a function (feature?) of the engine hosting the forum, I guess. To me, not being allowed in because your 'phone does not support apps is discrimination.