Tony_S

Morning all. It is quiet here as well. We were supposed to be going to lunch at my wife's sister's house today. My mother-in-law is off tomorrow to California for a month so it was supposed to be a bon voyage lunch. If my toothache hasn't started to ease I may stay at home. I'm sure they will send me a food parcel! Tony

Just back from the dentist clutching prescription for antibiotics and appointment for Tuesday for extraction of tooth. Now off to collect antibiotics! BT just sent me an accelerator to add to my phone socket that is supposed to remove interference that affects ADSL. I'll fit it later after Matthew goes to college. He has a late start (2.40)as his morning subject tutor is meeting the chief examiner. The college (and students and parents) are still unhappy about the grades awarded this summer. Tony

Our recycling system here seems sensible and they do modify it if something seems silly. We are supposed to squash the milk bottles and replace the top to reduce volume. My mother (who doesn't live in Essex) is worried about getting prosecuted for putting the wrong thing in the wrong bin. She felt more relaxed after seeing the bin men chucking it all (including the waste food container) in the same vehicle. Anyway I'm off on an unplanned visit to the dentist. I thought the mouth pain I've had for a couple of days was just an inflamed gum but I think it may be a cracked tooth. I rang the dentist at 9.30 and he will see me at 10:45. It is nice to have a nice dentist within walking distance. NHS as well! Back soon! Tony

I was looking at the second Kingfisher photo and had just scrolled so only the birds feet were showing as my wife walked past. She wanted to know if my friends were now posting pictures of fences. I scrolled back so she could see the kingfisher. I think she now wants a pond for her birthday! Tony

I suspect it is just doing a spot of reconnaissance (spell checker corrected the previous word for me!) for the herons. Tony

Morning all, I've been visiting Deliaonline trying to find a cake recipe for my wife's birthday. The birthday is today so fortunately you can search on words like fast, quick etc. Anyway something has been selected, not a traditional cake but what is supposed to be blackberry and apple tart. I'll substitute pears for apples and there must be some sort of berry fruit in the freezer. Bonfire night was very quiet here. We set off a couple of pretty fireworks nothing at all noisy. Robbie kept trying to sneak out and join us but in the end watched from the dining room. He may have been more interested in the food going outside. Spaniels seem to be specialists in catching falling food. Tony

It may be better not to. My brother was in a similar position recently and has taken his pension early. Now that it has been discovered there is no one to do what he did he has been offered some consultancy work. I don't know whether as yet he intends to take up the offer. Tony

Hello all. Quite sunny here but it isn't that warm yet. It can't have rained in the night as Robbie was quite dry when he came back in after checking the garden this morning. Tony

Matthew is allowed to use a computer at college and for exams. His philosophy tutor was concerned that when he submitted handwritten work it was of a very much lower standard than if he word processed it. He was struggling to write and not putting down what he thought. He had to be assessed and was given permission by the exam boards to use the pc. His slow handwriting was due to co-ordination problems. Things like holding pens or cutting with a knife seem to be very difficult but using a mouse and keyboard seem straightforward. In addition when younger, he had gross motor skill problems, he was always falling over but had no problems riding a bike. I'm glad I no longer have to sit examinations although I suspect I could pass the A level Government & Politics as Matthew insists on telling me about everything he has done in that lesson. I don't understand anything my wife is writing about in her thesis (which may be complete in 2010!). Tony

At the school I went to (a long long time ago) those studying science subjects did not take General Studies, just some English examination to prove to universities that we were literate. My Matthew got a C in the AS General Studies. He is now taking the A2 General Studies course (not compulsory now) as he thinks he may need all the points he can get(he knows which Universities "count" General Studies and those that don't). If a subject is "compulsory" you may find that it is possibly because it attracts funding for the school/college without incurring too many staffing or consumable costs. Tony

Hello, Blue sky, no cloud but rather cool as I put the bin-bags and recycling stuff out. I don't know if I have anything planned for today. As the new bookshelf hasn't fallen over, I may put some books on it, or I may just carry on reading Blood, Iron and Gold by Christian Wolmar. Robbie will require a walk at some time later this morning. Tony

It is now raining heavily here. Robbie was confused slightly on the walk as the stream he usually jumps over and paddles in is about 20 foot wide now and must be 6ft deep today. It looks quite nice north of here. Anyway I'm just off to buy some sort of hardware to stop the new bookshelf falling over if someone (not me) climbs up it rather than getting a step-stool. IKEA always include a safety strap in their shelves and cabinets. Tony

I think the person I saw did it more convincingly!

There seemed to be a few comedians at Essex who while going over the top did a handstand. This did seem to confuse some of the onlookers as they saw an inverted person in the descending lift.

Like Eldavo I too saw the Essex paternoster while I was on a pre university visit/interview. I didn't go there. Matthew went on a University of Essex open day recenty but the architecture put him off (apparently he thought it looked like "it had been designed by s pair of depressed Soviet Union era architects who didn't talk to each other". There were many GEC Marconi establishments around here. I used to collect my brother-in-law from Chelmsford and take him back on Sunday night. He only did the first year of an electronics sandwich (a chip butty?) course after he decided he would rather study medicine. It is raining here but looking brighter, (I nearly forgot the weather report!) Tony

I went on one sometime last century at Essex University. Some people seemed to get quite excited about it.

Hello all. It is very sunny here and the forecast predicts it will remain so. No back ache (less thanusual in fact this morning) after playing trains yesterday. Perhaps playing trains is the new Pilates. Wife and child are back to college; dog and I are not. Tony

Just for once I'm not going to have to. I couldn't collect the bookcase as it is just to big for the Scenic and so I paid for delivery but that does include carrying it upstairs and unwrapping it. I'll have fun putting my books on it, as it is going next to my desk on the landing. Actually I don't mind having been evicted from the "study" when my wife started studying again. The landing area is rather warmer and more spacious, though I hope my draught-proofing of the garage has helped the study to be less draughty. I think this must be one of the design faults of rooms over integral garages. I've wondered about why do building regs insist on fire resistant doors from the house to garage but not fire resistant garage ceilings. Perhaps they do now! Tony

Hello, I'm back from the exhibition at Colchester. I'd never realised just how back-achy operating trains at an exhibition could be. Tomorrow should be a relaxing day though as I'm waiting in for a bookshelf to be delivered. Tony

Good morning. It doesn't seem as wet and windy as was predicted but it is quite early still. I'm off in a minute to the Colchester exhibition. Tony

We kept lots of toys and baby things in case Matthew wasn't an only child. I didn't think my wife was particularly sentimental about things but when she objected to my plan to use the baby bath I'd stored in the loft, to bathe the dog when he was a puppy I realised my error. We seem to have the British child car seat collection in our loft as well as the small mammal cage collection. I don't quite remember how I got the rat cage (Matthew may want more "one day") in the loft as it seems bigger than the loft trap. We have tried to give stuff away but it seems to be difficult. Fortunately our neighbours had the children's bikes and climbing frames for their grandchildren so the garage and garden are not as congested as the loft.

My Mrs S was so pleased with the draught proofing of the garage door(her study is over the garage) that she said I must spend some time getting my trains ready for the Colchester exhibition tomorrow. As I'm only taking one loco and some boxcars that wouldn't take too long but I could of course check some alternative stock as well! The rain does appear to have stopped! Tony

Morning all. It seems rather wet here this morning. We seem to be about to have a late breakfast. There will be waffles. Tony

I'm surprised I've made 30 sensible posts. I gave up being professional some time ago!

Hello. It is a nice day here. I'm going to attempt to add the draughtproofing kit to the garage door this morning. Tony I think Albert must have visited as I've just gained another spot under the avatar image and stopped being registered!