tetsudofan

Retirement day for me was December 30, 1998 and was celebrated with a glass of champagne on a Northwest Airlines Jumbo rolling down the tarmac at Narita Airport, Tokyo bound for Hong Kong. Was back in Tokyo as a tourist a couple of weeks later (having surrendered my work permit on December 30) to stay with a friend to sort things out, visit some other friends in Asia to say goodbye and see parts of Japan I had not seen before returning to the UK on April 10, 1999 (crikey, nearing 22 years ago.....) conveniently allowing me to sort of my tax returns in Japan as of December 30, 1998 and arriving back in the UK just after the start of a new tax year. Keith

Due to the warm sunny weather down here in the south east corner I've been spending most of my time in the garden getting my garden railway (the EG&SNNR - you can find some pics in the Garden Railway section of RMweb) back up and running so apart from setting-up the GT3 on my Z21 its spent most of its time been resting in the shed area. All I can say is that the GT3 is a great model, well worth the wait. Keith

LGB did some of these as well: and some other Austrian stuff to go with it: Keith

Well, I'm somewhat gobsmacked....... Received my email from KRM at 19:02 last night advising that my GT3 had been handed over to Royal Mail at 18:56, was reported passing through the Medway Sorting Centre at 04:34 this morning and was delivered by Royal Mail down here on the south east coast a few minutes ago. Plans for today have been abrupted, a morning working in the garden has been postponed and a box marked KRM-GT3-00-S has got to be opened........... Yippee! Many thanks to all concerned . Keith

Just received my copy of the newly released book "Locomotives of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway" by Anthony Dawson (Pen and Sword ISBN 978 1 52676 398 3) - there are certainly lots of Liverpool and Manchester Railway locomotives and rolling stock shown that could be modelled in the future. Plenty to keep everybody happy in the years to come! Keith

Puts my marks to shame...........

My Sun Castle arrived down here in the far south east corner late this afternoon courtesy of Bure Valley Models. Bit disappointed at first when I got it out of the box and found one piece of metal left lying in the box. Not to worry though, it turned out to be the reversing rod easy to replace. Put the loco on the track and ran it in on dc each way for 30 minutes and all was well. Decided then that it was time to fit a decoder and, to my great surprise, the tender came off without the normal trials and tribulations of trying to separate body and chassis. Remove one screw under the tender coupling and that was that. As the ultimate aim is to install a sound decoder, in the meantime I fitted a TCS DP2X-UK decoder (which was from another loco that was recently fitted with sound by Coastal DCC) and found that the TCS decoder works perfectly. Result? One happy bunny. Keith

Snap, I got a call from BVM at 4.47pm yesterday but was out weeding the garden. Managed to call them back when I got indoors at 5.20pm and, like you, was advised that mine will be sent out today on 48hr tracked. Keith

Had to smile last night, got a surprise visit from one of my neighbours from along the road asking if I knew where the owner of a long wheelbase van parked recently parked outside his house lived. The road where I live is (as explained in the estate agents blurb for a house for sale opposite me) a quiet residential road tucked away from the main roads but within easy distance to the train stations and seafront. Being within easy distance to one of the stations has its problems one of which surfaced once the high speed service to St. Pancras started and the local council established residents parking zone (no parking for a couple of hours in the morning) in the roads adjacent to the station. As time went on the zone was extended and now starts at the end of my road. As soon as that happened we got daytime parkers (wanting to avoid the expensive parking charges at the station) at my end of the road. The inconvenience is something that we, at my end of the road, have grown to accept. The only solution to this problem is to get to get the parking zone extended to include the road for which you need more than 50% of the residents to agree to the extension of the zone but as the road (which used to be a cul-de-sac) is made up of large houses at one end and chalet bungalows (at my end) we could never get more than 50% to agree to the change. The pandemic and resulting decline in daytime workers travelling to London meant that the daytime parkers disappeared but, more recently, we have gained a long term 24 hour overnight/daytime parker in the form of the big long wheelbase white van which parked itself outside my front door. I managed to speak with the owner (who lives somewhere in the parking zone) later and asked her if she could move her van a few feet so that it gets hidden behind my hydrangea bushes and I can't see it most of the time. She agreed and that was that. Over the weekend the van disappeared and reappeared a couple of days later parked outside one of the large houses at the other end of the road. Interesting, I thought....... The guy who turned up last night was one of those who did not agree to the extension of the parking zone and was looking for the owner to get them to move the van although he had no right to insist that she moved the van as it was parked on a public road causing no obstruction. He got quite aggressive when I told him that it's something we have to live with. I notice that today the van is still parked outside his house. Be interesting to see how long it stays there, made my day!! Keith

Its interesting reading reports of of daffodils and other spring flowers are now making an appearance up north whereas down here in the far south east corner there is one daffodil that always makes an appearance before Christmas: It's the only one in the garden that appears before Christmas but it does it every year. Just before the recent arrival from the Beast from the East the lonely daffodil (in the distance in the following pic) was still flowering but certainly on its way out just as the first snowdrops were appearing: Within the last couple of weeks the daffodils have appeared with a vengeance and are now taking over parts of the garden as can be seen in the next couple of pics: In other parts of the garden tulips and hyacinths are starting to make an appearance but think it will be a few weeks before the azaleas will start flowering. Just noticed in the last picture you can just see the snowdrops right at the end of the garden but the first daffodil seems to have disappeared. Keith

Not a great pic put shows the full set of vans: Keith

......and may I introduce HiKe (pronounced HiKi) the Akita together with Dad: Picture was taken around 1978 when Mum and Dad visited me in Tokyo. Dad always liked dogs but Mum didn't so we never had a dog at home. Keith

I had an Akita (a real Japanese one) when I was living in Japan and when I got home his front paws reached to my chest when he jumped up to greet me. They are big dogs!! Keith

There was no phishing in my case. The link I was sent was the proper link to the NHS booking system. Seeing comments elsewhere about jumping the queue I phoned the NHS booking system to confirm that I was entitled to get the jab and the guy at the other end confirmed that I was entitled to get the jab so there was no need for me to cancel my appointment. As it happens on the afternoon that I got the jab I got a call from my local GP asking if I would like a jab ..... and the following day I got the invitation letter (dated before I booked my appointments) from the NHS inviting me to have the jab. My jab was given (on the first day) at a newly opened jabbing centre(called Folca) operated by the NHS whereas the local GPs are running a separate local jabbing centre. Things are changing so quickly these days luckily for our benefit. Keith

Take on all what you say but my brother has made it perfectly clear that he does not want to be named as the Executor. He is well aware that using a Solicitor will cost money but he certainly does not want to waste his time coming down from Lincolnshire to sort out my bits and pieces (and there are boxes and boxes and boxes of them!!) to save a few pounds. The idea situation would be that my departure would happen in an orderly manner. One day I would reach the stage that I can no longer crawl around the garden running trains or play with the others indoors and therefore would be able to arrange the disposal of these items before my departure. But life's not like that. All I know is that I've taken all the necessary steps to make sure that whoever has to sort out my affairs will be able to do so without encountering any problems. Keith

Think I've got things sorted for when I curl up my tootsies. Powers of Attorney (Health & Finance) and Will has been updated after my Mother passed away - had to do that as Mum had the right to stay in the house if I pre-deceased her. Details of Powers of Attorney and Will were discussed with my brother and his eldest daughter (in case my brother pre-deceased me) prior to the documents being prepared and signed. As I'm single (and don't have any hidden wives, girlfriends or children to worry about) everything gets left to my brother (or eldest daughter) who can then decide where the proceeds go based upon the needs of the family at that time - most probably going to my brother's grandsons to which I have no objection. My finances etc. are quite straight forward - just the house (less the equity release which might help reduce the inheritance duties), some original Japanese prints, my bank accounts and savings (all details documented and kept with copies of the will etc. in a known place), the car ....... and all my trains and pile of railway books. One thing my Brother insisted was that I did not not ask him to be the Executor as he did not want the hassle of sorting out all the trains and the books. This will be done by the Solicitors, I'll be gone then. As far as I'm concerned I could not care a toss what happens to the trains and books. Most important thing is I've had my enjoyment buying the things in the first place, running the trains and enjoying them with my friends as well as reading the books. Keith

...and maybe you might like to know what became of this: Keith

Hi there, Nearly two years have passed since I first started posting pics of the EG&SNNR, I'm still here and the railway is still here. Survived last year's lockdown most of which was spent working on the railway and keeping the garden looking neat and tidy. Don't know what I would have done if the railway and garden wasn't there. Thought I'd start again with some more pics taken during the last few years. Let's start back in 2017 when one of the first trains to run that year was this to ensure that the track was clear: followed soon after by this: and moving over to Switzerland this was found tip-toeing through the tulips: with a Krokodil making its way through the daffodils: A year earlier the azaleas were out in full force: ..... and to bring us up to date, this is what the railway looked like a week or so ago: Was going to get this out to clear the track but it turned out to be the wrong type of snow:

I've got holes in the end of my outdoors sheds ......... but not boring any holes through the side of the house!! Keith

Talking of water shortages reminds me of 1967 when I was in Hong Kong and there was a water shortage during the summer and as it continued we ended up with 4 hours water every 4 days. Hong Kong depended upon water supplies from mainland China but as there was normally plenty of rain during the summer they had only contracted for water to be supplied 9 months of the year - and they were not due to turn the taps on until October 1st. 1967 was the time of the Red Guard Riots and everyone was getting worried that the taps would not be turned on again but the Chinese kept to the contract and we had water again from October 1st. Soon be time for bed, pleasant dreams..... Keith

Yes, Alzheimers is sad. Having cared for my Mother for nearly four years I know what it's like. Ghastly. This day last year it was the day of the Tonbridge MRC show. Last show I went to before lockdown and last time I've been on a train to get me there and back. See that today there has been a biggish earthquake close to Fukushima, where the nuclear power station went bonkers about 10 years ago. Seems as though there have been a number of smaller quakes in the area so hope its not followed by another major quake. Tokyo (not far from Fukushima) where I lived for 18 years had it's last major quake in 1923 and is overdue another big one. My biggest quake whilst there was about 4:00am on a Sunday morning when the quake was directly under Tokyo and the apartment was bouncing up and down, quite scary as most quakes were of the gentler side to side shaky version. Time for bed now, pleasant dreams. Keith

Must admit that my hybrid has not been out of the garage since before Christmas. Fully charged its supposed to do about 37 miles on electric so it will be interesting to see what it registers when I next start it up. Up until then in view of lockdown and only venturing out for essential journeys the car was only used to do the weekly shop at the out of town Sainsburys. Since then I've worked out that I can split the weekly shop into two (or sometimes three) trips by foot taking just under 25 minutes walking each way. So armed with a backpack off I trot getting some necessary exercise as well. This day last year it was the Tonbridge MRC show. Last show I attended before lockdown and last time I was on a train to get me there and back. Keith

During the last couple of years I've been purchasing some European stuff (mainly Piko, Roco and LGB) from Modellbahnshop Lippe and as of December 31st I had one outstanding preorder. Instead of cancelling the order I decided not to cancel the order so that I could see the cost and how such transactions will be handled in the future. On February 4th MSL advised me that the item was in stock so I immediately placed my order bearing in mind that MSL were removing the German VAT and increasing the mailing cost from Euros 3.90 (MSL Premium member rate) to Euros 9.90 (the same rate that they charge for shipments to Switzerland). The amount due amounted to Euros 264.40 (which included a MSL Premium credit of Euros 23.00) which later appeared on my credit card statement as £240.72. Adding back the MSL Premium credit the full purchase price would have been about £262.00 On February 11th MSL advised that the shipment had been handed to DHL for forwarding to the UK. Later that day I looked at the DHL tracking and they advised that they had the item and that it was being forwarded to the UK where it would be handed to ParcelForce (whereas all previous shipments had gone to DHL/UKMail) for delivery to me. Looking at the ParcelForce tracking they advise that the item has left its origin country and is on its way to the UK. In due course I'll update this message as and when I get further information from ParcelForce to enable me to ascertain the total cost of shipping the item from the EU to the UK. In the meantime I've looked at the Gaugemaster website where Roco 70379 (shown as not yet released) is priced at £355.00 Keith

When I was working in Tokyo one of my Japanese colleagues was sent to London for on a training course and I got my parents to invite him down to visit them for the weekend. After spending the weekend with them when they left the house to take him back to the station to catch the train back to London it was a bit chilly and without thinking my mother said "oh, there's bit of a nip in the air"....... Keith

From the icy picture above one of me polishing a friend's Routemaster a couple of summers ago: and a picture of the bus during the polishing..... Keith