Tony_S

 

 

If all else fails, I'll just have to ban that loco from using the reverse loop.....or sell the bloomin' thing.

Is there much demand for second hand reverse loops?

Good Morning.

Rather chilly but dry here. I extracted the tree and decorations from the loft without mishap yesterday. Matthew helped with the carrying. I did the tree decorating though. Matthew said his mum was having one of her Hyacinth Bucket moments describing the fairy on the tree as a Florentine Angel.

I don't know what is going on round here but from my window I can see lots of rooks heading towards the coast and gulls have come and settled on the nearby roofs.

Tony

The tree will be quite close to the windows to give a pleasant vista so it should be OK.

Morning all.

Just a very light dusting of snow fell here during the night but it is still cold. I think the plan for today is the installation of the Christmas Tree.

Tony

Hello.

It is very sunny here but probably still below freezing. I didn't accompany Robbie during his run round the garden.

Our road is still icy but the B road it joins looks OK and we are planning to go to my sister in law's today.

Tony

Our threatened second batch of snow didn't arrive here this evening so it could have gone somewhere else. It is colder than predicted though.

Tony

Robbie won't need any persuading,(I can confirm it was a typing error). When he was a puppy he used to try to catch snowflakes which was amusing to watch but he is a bit more sensible (for a spaniel) now. He will still chase a snowball and try and retrieve it though.

Hello.

BoD's image applies here as well! I don't think we are going anywhere except to talk Robbie for a walk.

I've just got back from my trip to North London. Enfield was not much fun to drive through due to quite a lot of snow falling in a short time, the M25 was clear but the Southend Arterial was not nice at all. Heavy snow but fortunately sensible driving prevailed.

I won't be going on Saturday to collect my mother from Droitwich as she has been advised to stay at home. Actually her GP wanted to admit her to hospital but she didn't want to go (she said that was where she caught the infection that is making her unwell at present) but the district nurses will administer her injections etc. I'm not sure if she will be here for Christmas (but my brother lives near her) hopefully I'll be able to bring her down to visit for part of the holiday.

Tony

Hello. It is very sunny but cold here. I can see some very dark clouds heading this way, I suppose they are the snow that is forecast for here today.

I'll be going to a funeral this afternoon in Golders Green. I'd better take the A to Z in case I can't keep up with the other cars.

Tony

We saw quite a few chipmunks running around the woods during our trip to the US this year. Our friends were fascinated to find out that chipmunks are exotic pets in the UK.

We also saw one running around the motorcycle exhibition at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont. Apparently it was attracted to the staff's lunches rather than the motorcycles. I did try to take a photo of the chipmunk but it was too quick!

Morning!

 

Nothing new yet on this front. Temps hovering around -1?°, though. Note to self - keep rabbits away from telephone cords in the future! Thankfully I had a spare one in my stash.

 

Later .

We used to let Matthew's pet hamsters have a run about but only in a room without cables (or dog). They were quite useful as the long haired hamster seemed to collect lots of fluff as she ran round the skirting board. Matthew's rats were were far too nervous to run about and always hid if let out for a run. They usually ran behind his computer so I was concerned about cables being nibbled.

Good Morning.

Rather chilly here this morning. Lots of recycling bags have been put out and the car windscreen has been scraped. I've just had a call from the Sky-TV repairman to say he will be here between 1pm and 4pm so I can go out with the dog later this morning.

Our Volvo (340 GLE) didn't eat tyres but otherwise was very expensive to run. The Renault's don't wear out tyres and are otherwise quite economical. I don't know what I'd replace our cars with. I don't like the new Scenic but whatever we have has to be capable of coping with a wet spaniel and probably Matthew's stuff if he spends a few years away at university. Matthew won't be driving himself for a few years yet and none of the universities he has applied to are particularly local (except for SOAS)so I can see a few years of still requiring a car with boot space. My friend was going to collect his daughter at the end of her university course when she asked him if her freezer would fit in the back of their VW Golf. He hired a van for the weekend eventually.

Tony

Trunk first would have aided removal...

I don't understand how an elephant got up the tree.

I had to scrape ice off the car this morning. It was our turn to have a frost today. My wife has to go to Stratford today (East London not upon Avon) and prefers to go by train. Today is waiting for City Link. Apparently we have a parcel that couldn't be left yesterday even though a neighbour offered to take it in. I don't think it is a train parcel. The only other thing it could be is some maple syrup and chipotle sauce my wife ordered from a shop that sells American food.

Tomorrow will be waiting for the Sky repairman. The Sky+ box has failed. Some lights come on but nothing happens.

Robert wondered why staff at my wife's place of work can't have Christmas trees. It isn't a H&S thing and although it sounds like a PC thing it isn't really. It doesn't apply to what people wear so I suppose someone could wear a Christmas tree.

Tony

Matthew is very useful for taking all the decorations downstairs as I get them out of the loft.He is very tolerant when I drop things on him.

I may try and find the little tree that my wife bought a few years ago to take to her office at her previous place of work, and put it by the front door. Christmas trees/decorations etc are forbidden where she works now so we now have an extra one.

Tony

Hello.

It seems rather cool and damp here this morning. I have a little list of tasks that seem to involve going to lots of different places. I was going to put the Christmas tree up but Matthew has mock exams this week and asked me to wait until he finishes them on Wednesday. It isn't due to a dislike of the tree, just that he will be too busy to help.

Tony

Good afternoon.

I didn't wake up up until quite late this morning. Must be the after effects of a day of playing trains and eating Christmas lunch. Fortunately breakfast was delayed as well! Robbie eventually got his walk when the showers stopped. My wife has gone shopping. They have a "Secret Santa" scheme in her office and she has to find something that meets the criteria of "less than ??5, seasonal and is amusing". My wife asked what I wanted for Christmas and when I replied "socks" she is insisting that I have a train or something for my railway. Apparently Matthew wants some X box games, Itunes credits, ownership of an ice hockey team and Canadian citizenship. I'll have to work out which are the serious ones.

Tony

I've been packing trains and some tools to take out for a day with the club modular layout. There will also be Christmas lunch. The weather is rather pleasant at the moment, blue sky fluffy white clouds and not too cold.

Tony

I've just had a nice walk to the local industrial estate to collect the Clio. The temperature sensor had failed and the fan wasn't turning on. The ECU actually switches the fan but fortunately that was OK as they cost lots of money whereas the sensor was ??20. The coolant had overheated in the traffic-jam and released itself through the safety valve, condensed on the inside of the bonnet and run out of the front grill. The cooling system and head gasket were checked and were OK. Mrs S is very happy as she really does like that car.

Tony

I feel as if I've done enough for the day already. I went out while it was still dark and and made my car fit for human habitation so my wife could use it. I also remembered to transfer her parking permit. At 8 o'clock I rang the garage and asked when they could look at her car and they said bring it in now so I did. I then walked back via the post sorting office to collect a parcel.

My wife's Clio has a 1.6L engine and there isn't much room in the engine compartment to work even if I could see a leaky hose etc. There are quite a few sensors attached to everything as well. My first Ford Cortina had enough space round the engine to be able to replace almost anything without too much difficulty but things did seem to need replacing frequently! The Clio has done over 100000 miles so we can't complain too much about the odd component failure. My wife always seems to meet nice police officers when stranded.

Tony

We have had a late dinner tonight. My wife was on her way home and her car started venting coolant rather impressively, filled with fumes (probably coolant) and the engine stopped. She phoned the AA who were unable to help as she was in the outside lane of the A13 and told her to phone the police. The 999 service had to find out if she needed the Met or Essex (it was just on the Essex side) and some very nice police officers turned up and escorted her car to the nearside after suggesting she tried starting it. . It seems to have overheated, lost about 1 litre of coolant with no apparent leaks. I don't think it is leaking into the cylinders as it isn't affecting the exhaust. Anyway the local garage can sort it out tomorrow. I've already set my car up for my wife, (she is rather shorter than I) and I'll transfer the shoe collection in the morning.

Tony

I don't wear contacts but I'm very pleased (but a bit poorer) with my purchases from the optician. I had my eyes tested on Saturday and collected the new glasses yesterday. The pair for close work are really useful. The pair for driving seem OK, at least both eyes are focussing at the same time/distance now. My reading / computer distance pair were OK but I'm having an older pair of frames relensed to the same prescription. I need a spare pair so I can find the other pair that I've put down. Perhaps I should choose less subtle frames.

I'm just off to the back garden to sort out some lights. I draped a string of small white bulbs through all the holly and ivy at the bottom of of the garden to try and be festive. They worked at first but some parts of the circuit are not lighting up so I've got to find the dead bulbs .

Tony

My school had the usual quota of chalk and board wiper chuckers but the really dangerous one was the Bunsen burner wielder. He usually preferred to flick pupils with the rubber hose but sometimes forgot and used the other end. The school was in a park and he could often be seen shooting (with a catapult)squirrels for dissection. When he "left" the lab techs had to clear out loads of pickled squirrel. One of his other quirks was that if your work wasn't good enough not only did get a bad mark you had to pay for the "wasted" paper in the exercise book.

Tony

Morning all.

Sunny and dry weather here.

When I was at school the only time names were used was when the register was called, otherwise there seemed to be a lot of pointing and use of "You, boy" There was ome maths teacher who called everyone "Charles".

Tony