Tony_S

Hello all. My wife's car wasn't put in the garage last night and ice needed scraping from the windscreen and other windows. The thermometer showed -4 when I first went out and -2 just now but it is sunny. My wife is hoping the journey to work will be quiet, the traffic is usually much lighter at half-term. I didn't get a list today which means I've got to search out all the tasks that are "obvious". I think a list is easier! Tony

I couldn't think of any instant replies this time. Tony

Unlike Andrew I'm not building a corner of Canada but it was suggested that a stretch of the Ma & Pa would be very suitable for the branchline section. Tony

My wife has always liked coffee but insisted one day in late 1991 that it tasted very nasty and metallic. It turned out that she was pregnant. She didn't drink coffee again until after Matthew was born. Tony

and we have been triang our best to be entertaining.

I suspect if I replaced the energy saving lights at home it might be noticed that perhaps some painting (not just dusting) might be needed. Actually the lounge and dining room really do need painting but I just can't summon up the enthusiasm and I'm not going to pay someone to do it. The strange thing is once I start painting a room I quite like painting but it takes me forever to actually commence the job. Fortunately we are not fans of wallpaper so at least I have not got to repeat the horror of my first attempts at our previous house. Fitting a pattern with a diagonal repeat on to a somewhat trapezoidal wall that bulged put me (and Mrs S fortunately) off wallpaper for ever. Tony

There may have been some lima beans in the sausage and bean casserole that we had for lunch. Tony

You will be pleased to know that the punning continued in darkest Essex today at the model railroad group I go to. I noticed Robert has been lighting churches. Our layout is set up in a nicely lit church hall but for its appearance at Warley apparently lighting will be necessary. It is probably best that I'm not on the lighting working group. I used to do the stage lighting at school but my job was to hold the ladder while other people did clever stuff. Tony

Morning all. I'm off to play trains this morning. There is also the club AGM. I don't think I've been to a meeting with an agenda since the year 2000. The weather here looks a bit overcast but there doesn't seem to be any sign of snow/sleet/rain etc as forecast. Tony

That one deserves a Preiser

At least we are not doing Noch Noch jokes!

Oh no, not puns, Wrenn will it all end?

I've just had some Viessmann overhead cable kits delivered from Conrad-UK. I can't work out from the paperwork if it has actually come from near Wigan (as the label implies), Barking as the invoice implies, or from Holland. The tracking emails were in a mixture of Dutch and English and the parcel could only be tracked as an international shipment. I wondered if this confused my credit card people but it wasn't one of the items they asked me about! I'll have to get my tame economist (Matthew, GCSE grade C!) to explain globalisation to me.

Perhaps you need to remove the Garfield from the iPhone screen? I hope you feel better soon. The current round of viral things seem to be deja flu, it goes and then you seem to get it again a few days later. Even my wife was ill for a few days and she is normally one of those people who is too busy to be ill. It is normally holiday time that germs catch up with her. I've just got back from shopping and the supermarket said my credit card was blocked so I came home and phoned the bank. Apparently my pattern of purchases was unusual. I'm not sure if it was the top up for Matthew's phone or the purchase from a well known model shop in Cornwall (I explained that it is a toy train shop and it should fit my profile!), or the fact that when my wife was in Marks yesterday she only spent Poundsymbol 13 that alerted their software. The purchase of stuff from a large railway emporium in Hamburg wasn't queried. Tony

There was a notice saying it was shut until 0800 GMT for file transfer. Hello. It is slightly misty here this morning but is clearing up. Matthew's college start half-term holidays today. My wife doesn't have half term at her college. Tony

Now that Mayor Boris has forbidden the consumption of alcohol on London Transport I'm sure we are safe from such criminals in our capital city!

I've never met Bo Derek. I hope she wasn't one of those people who talk through the film or eat pop corn.

No snow here now but the lawn (small piece of grass in front of house!) is still white from yesterday's light dusting. We spoke to my mother in law at the weekend and she said it is quite pleasant in Delhi at the moment. She is determined not to overwinter in Nottingham again. Until she sells it she is treating her Nottingham house as a summer only residence, she seems to prefer spending the winter in Enfield, California or India. I haven't been to the cinema this year yet. I thought perhaps Matthew would want to see Avatar and we could go but I think he wants to go with friends. My wife may go with me though! I think the last film we went to as a family was the most recent Star Trek. Tony

Morning all. It is rather cold and dry here this morning. The window cleaners are at work but it sounds as if they are scraping the window rather than wiping them. I've been out to transfer the crates with my wife's work stuff in from the Scenic to the Clio. Tony

Murmeltierfett seemed a very popular product in Alpine regions. I thought marmots were protected in Europe so I wonder if the pharmaceutical product on sale came from rendered down boodog dinners? We had chicken tonight. Tony

I have got my wife's car back. It did just need a new alternator belt. There was no charge (money not battery!) as they said it was covered by the 12 month /12000 mile guarantee on their repairs (they fitted the belt/pulley in July). They did suggest bringing it back in a couple of months and they will check the tension. I'm sure my wife will be happy as she doesn't really want a new car. Edit. I've just had an email from my wife, she is happy. Especially she said as it took 5 minutes to reverse the Scenic into her parking space at work. She used to have an easy parking space but had to swap as a colleague couldn't get her Range Rover into her allocated space. Getting a Scenic into a Clio sized slot is quite good I think. The Scenic is normally so muddy that people park well away from it. I'm sure the car cleaning people at local supermarkets have me marked down as "don't bother asking" as I always politely decline the car cleaning service by saying it isn't dirty enough yet. Tony

A former neighbour who worked in the used car business at one time had as his speciality restoring cars that had fatalities (mainly suicides) inside. I'm not sure his specialist cleaning stuff would have coped with the after effects of some of the security measures mentioned in recent posts!

A couple of years ago my Scenic was rear-ended. The other driver was at fault, was insured etc but my insurance company wanted to write off the car as the repair was about GBP10 more than the value. The repairer negotiated with the insurance company and the car was saved. I could not have found a Scenic like mine for the write off value. Tony

Good morning. Now that I've finished putting recycling out and taking the Clio to the garage in a mini blizzard it is now sunny. The battery charge the AA man did last night, was quite adequate to start and get the car to the garage. My wife drove off happily in the Scenic. Matthew is off college today. He has started coughing again and I think I may be about to. I suspect my wife brought some new germs back from her week away. Tony

We took out the joint person AA cover in 1981 when we had our first car and have never ever regretted the cost. We haven't had to make much use of it but when we have needed them they have been superb. If Matthew drove we wouldn't hesitate to put him on a family membership. He can't apply for a licence yet, he is old enough but has had some medication changed last year so he can't apply until next year. He doesn't seem too bothered about driving while he has parents to ferry him about or where he wants to go is accessible by bus or train. Tony