Oldddudders

Cuckoo! I heard one loud and clear this morning in St Cosme, while brushing Varian. I think it was Delius who was so struck by the occasion that he composed music more or less on the spot. Doctor phoned, and I have an appointment for 1500 today, but not with the usual sourpuss. Yet to discover whether it's a locum or new incumbent. I know they have been struggling to get doctors to practise hereabouts, and the age profile of the incumbents is frighteningly high.

Take The A Train - Count Basie

Some of us watched it live on tv! These days there would be no way that would be broadcast, I suspect. As for Big Bristols, I am reminded that a couple of weeks ago I had roasted a chicken for lunch. When it came to carving, both my guests said they preferred breast, while, as Sherry will confirm, I am definitely a leg man. My guests were Sherry and Alison! Overcast and dull, and the crow-scarer has just woken up. I have to see the GP today, but merely routine. Hope your week goes well.

I thought I remembered a foursome where the better score in each team counted, and there were four balls in play.

Running qualities hardly matter to those who scarcely bother to run a model in, while appearance is everything. Nevertheless, with Hornby's version seemingly just as far off as ever, OR are increasingly making a killing here with those who must have one. And the prices on ebay and elsewhere are more attractive than some other contemporary models. An encouraging start to their toe in the OO loco water.

Doesn't that depend upon whether the foursome is two-ball or four-ball? Quite different games, I think.

Some of my mother's forebears are buried in Fittleworth churchyard.

The Boys of Johnson Street - Stanley Clarke

I assume Ian and Sandy still live at Brockhurst. The field there was one of many around Stretton where his late mother Pat would have horses quietly grazing. Leading a horse from one of those places right through the village to be saddled at Woodley and off over the Long Mynd for the day was one of the joys of those years. I wasn't often among the riders, but would meet them for lunch sometimes, at Wentnor or Picklescott. More often I'd clutter off to the Severn Valley Railway, or even the Festiniog, mind!

Too Many Rivers - Brenda Lee

Morning all F1 quali was better than Melbourne. But not much. The C4 presenter is a waste of space, adds no value whatever. Early evening I heard what sounded like a mini-explosion, thought I had mis-heard. Then a knock at the door revealed a lady in her 40s who introduced herself as the farmer and explained she'd installed a crow-scarer. She said it should shut off overnight, and in truth I didn't hear it after about 19.30, which is fine. It started again about 7.40. She gave me her phone number in case it misbehaves. Sunny start but it will cloud over later, and be wet by teatime. Hope your day pleases.

Which in my day didn't run throughout in Winter, because some of the bridges had to be dismantled due to avalanche danger. I think they've now dug another tunnel. I do remember the tunnel then had a distinctly tight curvature in it.

First launched in 1936, Pete, it then ran to Croydon Airport, but by 1938 that changed to Addiscombe Black Horse. By your era it was only running to Thornton Heath garage, later cut back to Streatham garage. By 1970 it stopped running north of Charing Cross. Edit : Duncan beat me to it!

Rick - the 414 had 65 Fare Stages. My house was in the middle, right by number 33, Betchworth Barley Mow.

Not my first shotgun attendance - Sherry was actually chauffeuse on one occasion - and all passed off well. I turn up about 5 minutes before the appointed time, park en enchelon as the car park demands, and sit and await arrivals, watching through the rear screen. The ex arrives first, gets out - he's gone grey in a very short time, is 40 this year - and fettles his borrowed Hyundai i20 to admit kids and luggage. Alison arrives a couple of minutes after time, kids are disgorged, and she belts the youngest in with his booster seat. Neither parent says a word to the other. The ex drives off, Alison waving to the kids she always fears she'll never see again. Then turns to where I'm parked and we greet each other, then drive off in convoy for coffee chez moi. Despite a veiled txt message from me - signed Yann - and a request for a friend to advise him, Farmer Francois knew nothing of his lover's illness this week. His wife had read my text, worded exactly as Alison had asked, but neither of them put 2 and 2, although that didn't stop her shouting at him suspiciously. No change there - she has a degree in fishwifery, apparently. Alison has a bandage to remove from her right wrist, where something - canula? - had been inserted into her artery. The cheerful instruction is to take it off carefully and if it bleeds for more than a minute, high-tail it to A&E. I made it clear that I was not keen on her doing that here, not least because her place is a lot closer to the hospital! Friendship has its limits, yer know.....

Redhill! Where I did much of my initial gricing in 1960, it being an almost affordable steam-train ride from Betchworth, where I lived, and the 414 bus outside my house went there, too. The pic of the EMU approaching appears to show on the left that the Control building where I worked in 1968/9 - before we moved to a new office in Croydon - has been demolished. Erected in 1941, I think, as part of Southern Railway's response to the needs of war. I have been asked to ride as unseen shotgun for Alison's handover of the bambini to the ex this morning at 11. She will then come back for coffee, and regale me with tales about last night's rendezvous with the French farmer who has her heart(!), and hopefully has now realised what his indecision is doing to her. Actually he had similar symptoms last year, equally unresolved by the medics. The eldest son joined her in bed last night, crying that he didn't want her to die. Tough stuff. Hope your weekend going well, and that we have good news of Jock soonest.

All Around My Hat - Steeleye Span

Thanks, Stewart. I did say I must be missing something and you have filled in the blank, TVM!

Nothing wrong with having an overlong 'day', Andy. The whole point about a WTT sequence is that the operator can start or stop when other matters in his/her day intervene, like lunch, shopping, golf, worship, whatever. Then when he/she returns the layout is sitting there with the next move ready to be made, everything in its place. If you look at the Peterborough North thread, Great Northern, who has rather a lot of trains, goes through a WTT that seems to take forever. No less fun!

Give Up Your Guns - The Buoys

I must be missing something here. R2220 is a Bulleid Pacific.

Well, Sherry tells me that disembarking was the slowest ever, so she has been grinding her teeth, despite a lovely morning. I, on the other hand, have driven through a lot of fog. I use the D2, which was beautifully realigned about a decade ago, and is a lovely piece of road. Sadly, I join it in St Cosme en Varais, after which the road climbs steadily for some miles, complete with bendy bits and thick forest, albeit with occasional vistas to the west. This morning I was second in the queue behind a transporter with a large excavator on board, which struggled with the slope. The young guy in front of me, in an elderly Scenic, so obviously a parent, overtook where he could not possibly see safely in the fog, but I held back until the white line allowed and the vision was adequate, a couple of miles later - mainly at 40 kph or less! Being an April Fool to that extent is not on. Significantly, while there was a lengthy queue behind me, none of the others ever appeared again in my mirror. Stress is the only possible cause for Alison's frightening event of Monday night, say the medics. How we help her to shed some of that is not obvious. The ex is pure poison, and sends hectoring emails. He refuses to use the phone. At least tomorrow the kids are away for a week with him, and a male friend is coming to stay for a day or two. He seems genuine - having twice stayed the night he has yet to make any 'moves' - so he will help her unwind.

Morning all I am on skool run duty this morning, but only for 7-y-o Sammy, as elder brother Brodie is having a day inspecting a college ahead of the decision about which one he chooses for next scholastic year. Waiting for the boys yesterday afternoon, two teachers approached me to discuss this, so I was txting Alison in English and chatting to them in my inadequate French. Brodie will be picked up and dropped home by another parent. Alison hope to be home by lunchtime. While she has been given all sorts of good news about her ticker and associated plumbing, I feel they haven't identified just what ailed her the other night. I hope it was a one-off. I don't have a sister, so that explains my keen ongoing interest in the opposite sex. Does that count as a deprived childhood? Certainly not depraved! Far Kew was a mythical location on the London Midland Region in SW London, just over the regional boundary from Southern. A busy place, it needed two signalboxes, named Far Kew One and ........ All this according to the Southern Regional Planning Manager's office, which I joined in 1984. And the boss who briefed me on this important aspect is now a railway author. In those days he was forever in the letters page of Modern Railways discussing André Chapelon and his works. A PM from another member, seldom an ER, although he knows one or two here, revealed that he is still working, despite not being that much younger than me. Yet another person who reminds me how lucky I have been, relatively speaking. Sherry finishing brekkie on board, should be on terra firma shortly, with a long drive from Portsmouth to Torquay. Hope your week winds up well.

Order placed late on Easter Sunday, despatch confirmed Tuesday, delivered in rural France Thursday morning. Tough to beat.

A headline text from Alison says they've proclaimed her arteries to be in excellent nick. A fine result, although medication may still be needed. Relief all round here. I told her that ERs folk were rooting for her. Made all the difference, thankyou all!