DaveF

I decided to go to a garden centre this morning. Leaving town I found only one set of lights by the new roundabout works, the ones at the level crossing/station site were turned off so only 10 minutes was added to my journey. Just north of Morpeth I leave the A1 where it changes from dual to single carriageway, there was a traffic tailback as sometimes happens, fortunately there was just enough room for me to get onto the slip road without having to stop. I had my free cup of coffee and a nice cheese scone and found the thing I was looking for - a long handled trowel as bending is not easy yet. The handle is a bit longer than a normal spade so I can easily remove small weeds and plants, it also enables me to reach across the very wet soil without standing on it. I also had a look at The Works outlet and found a few books I couldn't live without. I managed not to buy anything else at the other outlets and left just before noon. It is a large place, it takes about 5 minutes to walk from the door to the restaurant at the far end of the site. I came a different way home into the north side of town to avoid the roadworks by using the newish northern Morpeth by pass which worked well. But why do some people drive at 10 mph under the speed limits and then stop at roundabouts when there is no other traffic? On the way into town I stopped at little Asda which is about half a mile from big Asda. It is useful as it often has things in stock which big Asda doesn't have, that proved to be true today - and I ended up with a 25% discount as things I wanted were on offer. I had a ready meal for lunch - a shepherd's pie which was vacuum packed and keeps for over 6 months without refrigeration or freezing and then heats up in a microwave. I looked at the ingredients, there didn't seem to be anything "man made" except for the Worcestershire sauce. It was very tasty. This afternoon I've tried out the trowel and done some church things. David

Some WCML photos around Hademore and Harow and Wealdstone. Hademore Class 87 Euston to Carlisle Jan 76 J5028 Hademore Class 310 Nuneaton to Stafford Jan 76 J5029 Harrow and Wealdstone Clas 86 Liverpool to Euston June 76 J5291 Harrow and Wealdstone Class 501 Watford to London June 76 J5292 going away Harrow and Wealdstone Class 501 down June 76 J5293 Harrow and Wealdstone Class 310 down June 76 J5294 David

A dry morning with a small patch of blue sky to the north. Last night's forecast suggested rain later, this morning says a bit of drizzle then dry but cloudy and still mild. I woke at 06.30 and decided to have 5 minutes more, the next thing I knew it was 08.15 so I quickly got moving and have just about caught up. The next task is to look at the roadworks map to see which roads are open and do not have long delays before deciding what to do. David

Thanks for the information about the J20 photo so I now know it is at March. I've updated the caption. Now for today's photos. These are again from Switzerland at Zweissimmen, an end on Junction between the MOB (Montreux Oberland Bernois) metre gauge line from Montrues and a branch of the BLS, standard gauge, from Spiez. Very recently trains have been developed to allow through running from Montreux to Interlaken with aoutomatic gauge changing at Zweisimmen. The photos are from August 1991. Zweisimmen BLS Re4/4 175 Interlaken Ost to Zweisimmen 16th Aug 91 C16450 The loco is in the middle of the train. Zweisimmen MOB ABDe8/8 4003 Zweisimmen to Montreux 16th Aug 91 C16451 Zweisimmen MOB BDe4/4 5004 Zweisimmen to Lenk 16th Aug 91 C16452 Zweisimmen MOB BDe4/4 37 16th Aug 91 C16454 Zweisimmen MOB BDe4/4 3002 16th Aug 91 C16455 Zweisimmen MOB GDe4/4 6003 16th Aug 91 C16457 Zweisimmen MOB GDe4/4 6002 16th Aug 91 C16458 David

I'll have to be honest and admit I don't know, I didn't look at the railway in Cambridge until the 1970s. All I can say is that it was one of a small batch for which there was no catalogue entry but was in Album No1. When I scanned it I took the caption details off the notes he had written on the back of the print. If it isn't Cambridge it will be in the area, I know he visited March from time to time and sometimes travelled to Liverpool Street. Does anyone know? David

After church this morning I had a meeting to discuss both writing and actually doing intercessions to make sure I am up to speed. It turns out I have the right books, a couple more have been suggested and duly ordered. It was also decided that I don't need training on speaking clearly as no one has complained when I do readings - it must be from my teaching days and speaking in school halls. So "all" I have to do now is write the prayers, starting with next Thursday's and then the ones for Ascension Day in May, then about once a month. I went into town to collect my prescription, unusually the pharmacy was very quiet, then I had a walk round the shops but didn't find anything I wanted or needed. Not that there are many shops any more. This afternoon I removed a few weeds from the garden but it is still much too wet to do any serious work. Apparently it will rain again tonight. A few days ago I found some old cassettes including one of John Betjeman reading his poetry. Today I came across a USB cassette converter. Perhaps one day I will actually digitise them so I can listen to them. David

Black and white late 1940s photos at Cambridge from Dad come next. One is at March Cambridge B1 up Yarmouth to Liverpool St c1948 JVol1202 Cambridge B17 1624 up pass c1948 JVol7270 Cambridge J15 ecs 1947 JVol1438 March J20 1947 JVol1429 Cambridge K3 ord pass 1947 JVol1430 David

Just a very quick visit having eventually go the page to load. It's cloudy, dry and quite mild. It should be a normal Thursday with church, sometime I need to call at the pharmacy to collect a prescription. After that there are a lot of choices depending in part on whether it stays dry. David

Some photos at Butterley , The Midland Railway Trust in 1978 and 1982. Once again a reminder that in those days people were allowed to walk almost anywhere they liked. Butterley 6203 27th May 78 C3845 Butterley 4F 44027 27th May 78 C3848 Butterley 673 27th May 78 C3851 Butterley 27th May 78 C3858 Butterley 16440 Aug 82 C5841 Butterley 16440 Aug 82 C5847 David

Today I've been continuing to get things back to normal now I can start to do things again. So the rug is back in the living room, the bins are back in the garage and so on. In the late morning the postman brought me a parcel from Rails of Sheffield with 2 n gauge locos, one German, one Swiss. The prices were very good, the German one, in mint condition cost me less than a third of the price of a new one, the Swiss one was about half the price of new. They are both in mint condition, the wheels look as though they have hardly been run and they are spotless. Now I really must get the rest of the buildings built and do some more scenic work on the layout. As I've mentioned elsewhere I am sorting out the family photos, a lot are in the bin, a very few of sentimental value have been kept. However the rest need more thought as they may be of use to some of my relatives who have an interest in family history so when I have made a space on my computer bench for the proper scanner I will scan them and send copies to interested reltives. If I didn't have computer stuff I'd have another 7' of wall space for model railways! David

I went for a walk on the prom this morning. Having left the house wearing a fleece I quickly went back to get a sweater and windproof jacket before I even got to the car. At the beach it was cold, even young people were wearing jackets. When I got home I found the window cleaner working next door fixing a gutter problem. Mine had overflowed yesterday so he gave mine a good clean as well. He will do the ones at the back next time he cleans the windows and will also do some pointing for me when we get a dry spell. It rained again for a while. While I was outside talking to him another neighbour arrived wheeling her very elderly dog in his pushchair, he can't walk much but likes to sit and be taken out. The postman came with a magazine, a few minutes later he came back with his van and brought me a large parcel which contained some small things from a shop in Sheffield which I am very pleased with. As planned more stuff has gone away, the bins are back in the garage, the rug is back down in the living room and so on. It's good to be about back to normal. I have weighed myself and need to eat a little bit less over the next few weeks and walk more. Throwing out photos has continued, the next photo album needs scanning as they are mainly "important" photos and news cuttings, useful for anyone working on family trees. So I need to make space on the computer bench for the proper scanner. Now I am ready for tea and a relaxing evening of reading and TV. David

The ECML around Little Bytham in 1971 and 1973 once again this evening. Little Bytham Class 40 down March 71 J2528 Little Bytham Class 47 poss 1515 down 14.20 Kings X to York May 71 J2652 Little Bytham Class 55 9018 11.30 Kings X to Leeds and Harrogate May 71 J2654 Little Bytham Class 47 1973 12.00 Kings X to Aberdeen May 71 J2657 Little Bytham Class 47 1101 14.10 Newcastle to Kings X May 73 J3193 David

The morning started sunny but once again cloud is arriving, doubtless it will rain by teatime. Yesterday evening I sorted out more photos from albums to go in the bin. I also finished copying files so now I have at leat 4 electronic copies of everything (more if you count older hard drives which are full and safely stored, they still work). I also tried looking at the some of the photos on the PC screen, they are a lot better than postcard size prints. So the thinning out process will continue over the coming days/weeks/months* (*pick which you think is most likely as a time scale). A few prints which have sentimental value will be kept in a nice album as well. Later today more things I moved before surgery will go back into their proper places, it is nice having a less cluttered house. The wheelie bins will go back in the garage which means I can put the car further down the drive which I prefer. It is odd, my house has two bedrooms and a drive long enough for two big cars, the three bedroomed houses along the road have a drive just long enough for one car. It is now almost 8 weeks since surgery, so it should be OK. Shortly I shall go for a quick walk then I am expecting Royal Mail to deliver a parcel. After more than 10 attempts to track it on the Royal Mail website it finally stopped saying there was a problem and told me it should be delivered today, but no time specified - usually it gives a time slot. I no longer trust Royal Mail at all....now I wonder why?... Apart from that not much is planned. I've had another think about the garden and have decided simple to cut back the heathers rather than pay someone to dig them out. After all in the wild heathers regenerate well after cutting or burning, so why not in a garden? I am not sure gardening books always give good advice. Many say lavenders do not regenerate from old wood, in fact they often do. David

It's June 1972, probably the 10th this morning and we are at Fenny Comptom watching trains while waiting to see Clun Castle on a special working. Fenny Compton Class 33 6513 down oil June 72 J2936 Fenny Compton Class 47 1758 June 72 J2937 Fenny Compton 7029 Clun Castle Birmingham to Didcot Celebration Steam Run June 72 J2938 Fenny Compton 7029 Clun Castle Birmingham to Didcot Celebration Steam Run June 72 J2940 Fenny Compton Class 47 1753 Birmingham to Paddington June 72 J2944 Fenny Compton Class 117 Reading to Birmingham June 72 J2945 dmu class corrected David

It might be a set which was transferred to Heaton when they were very short of dmus and were using 47s with 3 coaches on the Carlisle trains. David

That is appalling. I hope you manage to get a scan before Thursday but it just seems so disorganised. David

A very wet day so I've stayed at home. The first part of the morning was spent working on the model church and catching up on e mails. Leonie then came and did the housework. While she did that I did a bit of a crossword. After lunch I decided to tackle the family photo albums and start to throw out photos where I either have a digital copy on my PC or where I don't know any of the people. To make the job easier I started by making sure I have copies of all Mum's, Dad's and my photos easily accessible on hard drives. Some tidying up and copying was needed. There is a little more copying still to do. I have so far got rid of a lot of photos of my cousins which my aunt must have sent to Mum. I only keep in touch with three of them and have only seen one of them in 35 years. I didn't recognise most people in the photos. Then I sorted out some prints of photos taken in the north east in the last 40 years or so. I have scans/files of them all so they are going in the bin. As far as I can see no relatives will want them. In due course I'll get on to the much older photos, where they are clearly captioned I will scan them, otherwise they will go. I think it will take some time. I've just been watching the local news. The main road ( A189 spine road) which runs past my town is now closed by floodwater. I don't think I'll be going anywhere in the near future. David

Just across the border in Scotland at Burnmouth on the ECML in the 70s. Burnmouth Class 55 up May 74 J3702 Headcode not recognised 55019 Burnmouth Class 55 55007 down May 74 J3704 10.00 Kings X to Edinburgh "The Flying Scotsman" Burnmouth Class 40 up freightliner Aug 74 J3995 Burnmouth Class 47 up ex passAug 77 C3510 Burnmouth 40085 up freight Aug 77 C3511 David

Many years ago I was told of a school which got a quote from a local dealer for a new minibus. They were then told they could only buy it through the council, funnily enough it would have come from the same dealer at a much higher price. The school then said that it would be interesting if the two quotes accidently got sent to the local newspaper. The council backed down. After I retired I did some consultancy work for a school which was having new buildings built as a PFI contract. The Governors were not happy with some of the ongoing costs in the contract so they engaged their own solicitors and managed to improve the services and get them for a lower cost. The council was not happy but there was nothing they could do to stop it. It meant that the school was open from 07.00 until 21.00 at a slightly lower cost than the original contract for 08.00 until 17.00 and pay extra for evening hours. Several other terms were amended. David

Another dull dismal morning with gentle rain. The groceries have comeminus one item, CoQ10, which isn't needed in a hurry so I will order it again and see what happens. I have about 6 weeks supply of it in stock. It is just that it costs about twice as much from anywhere else. Leonie should come and clean today, I will get on with working on the model and other odds and ends. Unless the rain stops I won't be going far. One shrub in the garden still needs a trim to remove some dead bits but it isn't going to get done today, it is far too wet. David

Switzerland again, this time at Rheineck, between Rohrschach and St. Margrethen just south of the Bodensee (Lake Constance). As well as the SBB trains it is the terminus of the line to Walzenhausen which is 1200 mm gauge, has one point and one railcar. Photos of the railcar will appear later, all you get today is one photo of the track in the 5th photo! Rheineck SBB Ae4/7 10903 northbound l e 7th Aug 91 C16195 Rheineck SBB Tmi 424 7th Aug 91 C16197 Rheineck Mercedes rail road vehicle 7th Aug 91 C16198 Rheineck SBB Ae4/7 11022 southbound parcels 7th Aug 91 C16199 Rheineck Rheineck to Walzenhausen platform on right 7th Aug 91 C16196 David

When I started teaching we had Bandas and the Roneos which needed to have a typed stencil for them to work. The VCR was reel to reel tape, we had one TV camera which was rarely used as there weren't any TVs in the labs. In those days we had textbooks. Later when I was a head of department in another school I queried the text book buying system through the council where they added a 10% handling fee to the retail price. As I was new I pretended I didn't know, did a deal with a publisher and got a 30% discount. I got told off but then everyone else did the same, after about a year the council scrapped their purchasing system. It was exactly the same when buying paper. In much later years when I was a senior member of staff we always looked for the best price and saved a great deal of money. We even managed to get a local firm to operate one of the three school kitchens, got better food and it was cheaper. David

I think this is what I will look at next. David

I spent some time this evening looking at brochures for river cruises. It was quite easy deciding where I would want to go and a selection of dates. I had a long think about the prices but decided that if I really wanted to go I could even though it would be just me which makes it more expensive. But... the more I looked at the details the more two things struck me. I looked carefully at the places I would be visiting and realised that I have been to them all before in the days when I took the car to Europe for three or four weeks each summer. Since they are historic places much of what I would see I have already seen back in the days when I was a lot fitter and could walk much further in day. Then I looked at the actual schedules and found that in every case a surprising amount of travel on the boats would be at night to give more time for the town visits. If I want to go along a river I want to see it all go by me, good and bad not just the carefully chosen highlights. It is rather like being on a train, I am the one spending all the time looking out of the window at the world going by. I think I have too many good memories of just driving around stopping whenever I felt like it for as long as I wanted and finding a hotel for the night when I felt I had done enough driving. I have never been on any form of package holiday or cruise and the more I think about the less likely I am to do so, even if it means I just travel more locally now I am older. David

I went to the surgery for 9a.m. and saw Katie, the MSK lady. She agreed that I have plantar fasciitis and has given me advice concerning shoes and some exercises and warned me it may take several months to get back to normal. Apparently it is not uncommon in people who have had surgery for hernias as before the surgery people stand differently to try to reduce the discomfort and it takes time after surgery to get back to a normal posture, which I have just about done. Apparently being "old" doesn't help and I have yet again been told to rest. I've had a look online in my health record at her notes of the appointment, they are very detailed and accurate. As usual the car park was full and all the double yellow lines were occupied by cars on one side of the drive, the lines make it much easier to line up the car as you park it. It is NHS land and free parking with no obvious cameras so no one bothers, there is always just enough space for ambulances to get by to our hospital. I parked in one of the town car parks about 100 yards away, also free, but time limited to a maximum stay of 72 hours so you have to be careful. My apologies to those who have more normal parking systems. My cleaner didn't come as she was stuck at a previous client's waiting for an ambulance and help so she will come tomorrow. It was efficient as AgoCo rang me a few minutes before she should have arrived to explain and apologise. So I had a quiet rest of the morning, after coffee I went in the garden and did some more light trimming and dead heading followed by finishing tidying the plants in the garage by the window. I did try taking hyacinth bulbs out of a tub but even using a trowel to lift them was painful so I quickly stopped. The rest of the day has been a short rest and and reading a book. I had to look up Bluey so now I know it is a series about a rabbit dog. I don't think I'll investigate further. The whole of the first page of Google results was about it, I didn't look beyond it. I don't know why I typed rabbit. David