Oldddudders

As the new Mrs Olddudders has just purchased a holiday cabin at Whiddon Down, we could do this trip in reverse!

Nightbirds - Shakatak

Not sure many owners thought that for very long.

Always nice when your shot is of a loco I actually saw. One of 22 A3s 'copped' in my ABC.

I heard you were going as a comedy duo called Sweet Tooth!

Did I ever tell the Hellman's story? Back in the '80s they ran a campaign poster for their product, noting that even a BR sandwich would taste better with Hellman's. Well, tee-hee. Sadly their Madison Avenue types had failed to talk internally with colleagues, as Hellman's already had a very nice contract with BR.....

TMI

Morning all My previous post was intended to be far too sincere to be mixed with the usual garbage I purvey here. Hence this one. Brian W - I saw plenty of gifted engineers and managers rewarded with promotion that took them "off the tools" and into boring office jobs, worrying about recruitment, training and budgets. When we were doing BRIS Privatisation in the mid-90s, I recall a very senior engineer-turned-manager complaining that all he really wanted to do was design bridges! A few weeks later I was watching a video of a preserved railway and there he was in charge on the footplate.... Andy B's useful proposals for bees remind me that Alison is overjoyed that both her hives have life in them again. But she also has a colony in the ceiling void above her younger boys' bedroom, and one periodically descends to freak them out. As a dedicated greenie she will not be asking Pest Control to deal with the problem, but they aren't Carpenter Bees, so are otherwise fairly harmless to the structure, it seems. Also on the Alison front, her grass is getting beyond a joke, so the new boyfriend has bought and 'loaned' her a Pubert mower thingie. It has 3 wheels and really takes no prisoners. 190 cc-ish Honda engine and big blades. Push along but you can vary the speed it pulls you at! Expensive at about £1k, but does the job well. I seemed to manage a big area in no time, without the usual clogging of a push-along mower. Her strimmer has packed up, so I've loaned her (yes, really) a standard electric one. But she was watching me use the Stihl here yesterday and is now considering a similar purchase. NH Neil should be on commission! Hope Sandy's dad continues to improve and others perk up as Summer may be just around the corner.

Bachmann are in business to eat. The first run had rave reviews, sold very well, so, quite apart from escalating costs in China, why not put a premium on the rerun? It's a business, I'm afraid.

Dave (TG) - Do keep pouring it out here. I found the support from RMweb enormously helpful when I was in a comparable situation. I also posted daily on a couple sites where Deb had been a most popular contributor, and received much warmth in return, of course. I think Smiffy may have been a member of one of them. The agony of watching a partner slipping away is indescribable, but sharing in public places like this worked for me, not least by giving me a focus, a self-imposed task, when all seemed lost and pointless.

I believe necrophilia is unfashionable in most civilised nations.

Too true! While I'm pleased to be a Soft Southerner (otherwise I wouldn't have met Sherry! Hey, smooth or what?!), both my father and my first wife's father were from the North East. My father in his youth would go with his family to Beadnell - or was it Seahouses? - for a week, and the first thing they did was buy a box of Craster kippers for the dog, meaning they could spend the rest of the money on beer. The dog used to go home with a coat you could see your face in! I have been a bit part-time the last few days, but Dave's news about Is is pretty unpleasant. Deb had ovarian - ironic in a woman who had no use for her reproductive bits, but it was her primary cancer - possibly triggered by the car crash, although medical science, aided and abetted by a zillion insurance company lawyers, has yet to sign up for any such connection - which may make a difference. I hope something can be sorted. According to the meteorologists, this whole week should have been a bit wet here. In fact the first rain fell at 2100 tonight, so the garden has had some treatment with mower, strimmer and hedge-trimmer. I think it was NH Neil who spoke warmly of a Stihl strimmer, and as I was bored with the cheap electric ones that never quite cut the moutarde - or the weeds - I bought one the other day. Suffice to say I today spent 90 mins using it, much longer than my body-beautiful (ha ha) has ever managed to endure the others in one session. But the weather is now here, heavy rain, and thunder has been rolling around for the last hour or so. The fuel crisis is here and thinning the already very limited traffic. I filled up locally on Monday, seem to have enough for a couple of weeks now, if I don't go too far. But next Friday is first scrutineering for Le Mans, and if Sherry feels up to it we may drop in for an hour or two, so that will use a bit - about 95km round trip. Hope your week looks good for a successful finish.

You're braver than me, saying that!

"Footmarks on the dashboard, upside down"

I knew a girl who lived in Maidencombe - but as she has three kids she's no maiden! By the time I married her she'd moved slightly down-market to Babbacombe, albeit smart Cary Park. I hope she'll appear here next Monday.

I would check what data there is - loads! - on the SEmG website. Click on prototype features, then Bulleid Coaches. This is just a one-pager, but about halfway down is a link to a database of set numbers and compositions. This may help.

Highways of my Life - Isley Brothers

Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan (talking of wailers)

Runaway - Del Shannon

Bosomier than Willesden!

Wouldn't that be Ripyerknackersova?

Not everyone gets the Betjeman connection, John, nor knows of a church once so buried in sand that the vicar had to be lowered in via the roof to hold a service!

And it's the letter that 'counts'.

CK has it right - what did the said member find offensive? Has he/she been told their fortune?

I think the duck needs help.....