jamie92208

Morning all from a sunny Charente. Much positive news from the invalid this morning. She has got some art stuff out and started doing a picture. Also after I had done the ironing we have just had half an hour with Beth on one of the wheeled appliances in the new bathroom. We've been marking out where grab rails and taps etc are to be fixed to the walls. At least we dan now visualise the interior. Paul the builder is going to be doing the exterior during the rest of the week if the weather cooperates then start on the interior. If Beth had been having a bad day we would not have been able to accomplish what we have. This afternoon I'm off out to get a tyre sorted on Beth's car. Thoughts very much with John and Sandy. I hope that the care really helps. Also that Barry and Mrs O have a good meal with Gabe. Jamie

Even the relatively modern corail stock had a view of the track. Jamie

Good afternoon all from a rather noisy house. We have been shopping. The builder is now knocking through from our bedroom into the new en suite. We will be moving into tbe spare room tonight for a couple of days till the vedroom us habitable again. We need to be sorted before Rachel Laura and little Emily arrive on Friday. Lots going on here but life is never dull. Thoughts very much with John and Sandy today. Jamie

Many many years ago (1976), I won a £30 record voucher with which I bought many LP's. One was a boxed set of 4 Mike Oldfield platters. They have all been well played. One of my favourite bits is the b side of Hergest Rodge where a very inebriated Viv Stanshall leads a tour of the Manor playing various instruments at 2.30am. I can't remember what else I got but think it included Mozart's horn concertos and sone Bach cantatas which include Watchet Auf along with the boxed set of the concert for Bangladesh. I think the store let me puck a couple if extras. Jamie

Very sorry to hear about the problems with morphine. It is tricky stuff. I hope that you are getting some advice from pain relief specialists. Beth has found that sometimes cocktails of different pain relievers work better than just morphine. Loved your choice of music. I'm a fan of Mike Oldfield. One of my favourites is Ommadawn which always lifts my mood as it's such happy music. Jamie

Bon matin. Beth is up and the nurse has been. Yesterday Margaret and Teddy the golden retriever arrived as a surprise for Beth. Teddy has been several times before so the first that Beth knew was when Teddy came through the door and straight in to see Beth in the sitting room. A great day was had and I managed to spend time in the shed. 2 vices and a drill press were bolted down to the bench. That's a result. I'm now waiting for the builder to arrive and then we'll unload all the tiles and fittings from his van. Roof tiles are to be delivered as well. This afternoon after Margaret and Teddy leave we are off to a medical appointment in the Danglies of St John. Warm thoughts are with John and Sandy. Regards to all. Jamie

I seem to remember a quote from the book about the Vulcan raid on the Falklands " Air to air refuelling is like trying to stuff wet spaghetti up a cat's ar*se. Jamie

Good morning all from a grey and cool place only 13 degrees. The nurse has been and had a coffee and an Eccles Cake. We had great fun sorting out what currants are and where Eccles is. We will be off to the market for shopping and further coffee shortly, via the chickens who need to be let out. Unbeknown to Beth her schoolfriend who lives near Limoges is going to visit today alo g with her lovely golden retriever called Teddy. We are due to have lamb chops tonight so 2 extras are thawing out in the shed. As Margaret will be here I might even manage some time in the shed. I need to sort out where the metalwork vice is going to be fitted on the bench. It was rather rusted up from being outside for 6 years but WD40, oil, grease and brute force and ignorance have managed to get it freed up and even the ratchet is working. Regards to all. Jamie

My track feeds are orange and green. These were the first two reels thatI picked up when wiring Long Preston. Black comes in pairs and feeds volts to tortoises. Jamie

Big decision time. I got the post and there was October's Modern Railways. They screwed up last month and September's is en route as well.do I A) Read the October one today or B) wait till the September one arrives and read them in sequence. Answers on a postcard please. Jamie

Bon apres midi to you all. We now have a fourth wheeled vehicle to add to the shunting puzzle in the house. Beth's late fathers buggy. It works a treat and today we put it into the car to go choosing bathroom fittings with our builder and his wife. A good but tiring day has been had and the little scooter worked a treat round various French equivalents of the big orange shed. We then went for lunch at a Buffalo Grill. We all enjoyed that. Now it's chill time on the sofa and probably eyelid inspection. Then off to put our friends chickens away and see if they've left us any little presents. We've had 4 in 3 days so far. Good rugby score. Jamie

Good morning one and all. It looks like we could have a reasonable day. Beth is still asleep but the nurse will be here soon. The builder will also arrive shortly. Peace and quiet has descended as our house guests have left. We had a good evening at a quiz though the conversation to my right wasn't the best. Two ladies of a certain age discussing various tests that they are entitled to in great and gory detail. TMI. We did come home with a bottle of fizzy alcoholic stuff. Today will hopefully be fairly restful. I'm off now to start my breakfast, then off to feed the chickens that we're looking after for a few days. And to the observant ones, yes I do seem to miss n's when using the tablet. Fat finger syndrome. Jamie

Good morning all. Nice and quiet weather wise but cool here. Our house guests have now departed. Shiela is an absolute co trol freak and I have quite enjoyed doing some quiet teasing. When we go out in the car she always wants the destination address so that she can navigate using her phone from the back seat. Somehow the information is never provided. The rest of the morni g has been spent ru ni g around sorti g prescription problems, 1 visit to the GP and two to the pharmacy. It's the builders merchants this afternoon then the mo thly quiz tonight. Regards to all. Jamie

That was actually Centurion Bill. When they towed it out to Normany it needed some steam to operate the steering gear. Plymouth dockyard IIRC mounted a redundant loco on the aft deck as a stationary boiler. I've no idea what the loco was and have never seen any reference to it's ID. It would be nice to know. I believe that bits of Centurion are still off Arromances. I suspect that all the armour has gone from metal mining for pre nuclear age steel. Jamie

No that Orion was scrapped in the 1920's along with the majority of our dreadnoughts. Jamie

Good evening all from a starlit Chatente. A good day has been had. We went out this morning to show Dave and Shiela a family run Cognac distillery. The owner was in a generous mood and unsisted on giving generous samp,es of 6 yr old, 20 yr old and 5hen 40 yr old Cognace, after a snifter of pineau to warm the taste buds. A brandy breakfast no less. It's a hard life. Da, Shiela and I went out for a good walk this after then we all went out for a meal tinight which our friends insisted on paying for. Dave and I even had chance to pkay with some metal thi gs that run on parallel metal strips before we went out. We've just been over to the shed to see the layout in the dark with just the lighting rig on. It looked good. Beth has coped very well and it has been great to see our guests. I've known them since 1971. They leave to orrow morning. Regards to all. Jamie

That's intersting. Thunderer was part of the first batch of Super Dreadnoughts with 13.5" guns that could all fire to either beam. Orion was the lead ship and I got a long way on with modelling Conqueror. The other one was Monarch which was built on the Tyne, Conqueror on the Clyde and Orion at Portsmouth. A class that got little attention. I nearly fi ished the plug for the hull which was 6' long. It sat in my loft for over 30 years and last year I sold it to a modeller who has now had the hull cast and is progressing with the model. That's pleasing to me. By chance one of our house guests grew up in Becford in the 50's and 60's and remembers the Corn exchange well. Apparently the BBC proms were broadcast from there during WW2. I read your comments out to him and he fou d them amusing Chris. Jamie

And there was little me thinking we needed an EA alert. Anyway good afternoon all. We have been out to the Dr's and the pharmacy, then home via the bakery. The friend that was with us bought us a sort of fruit crumble tart. Very nice. Tomato soup is being made on the stove by Beth. She I getting a lot more mobile round the house. Our house guests for the next two nights are en route. Supplies of Eccles Cakes are with them. Regards to all. Jamie

They are based in Essex. They used to attend shows where it was possible to buy direct but I think that they have stopped that now. Jamie

I will try and find the article and then either up,oad it as a diwnloadable file or post it in chunks on this thread. There will of course only be text as I don't have either the photos or permission to publish them. Jamie

Hi The only person I communicated with about the Bugatti was my cousin who is the curator of the Bugatti Trust museum in Gloucestershire. He had access to several photos and the original patent application. He'd had some of it translated by a linguist but a lot of the technical details got lost in translation. He gave it to me to sort out and I turned it into an article for the Bugatti Owners club of GB, newsletter. I've got the text of it on a computer somewhere I think. Apparently the V8 engine had been test run successfully on compressed air at 140 psi (IIRC) when war broke out. Jamie

Observation is a strange thing. I realised this when I was abroad once and two of us made comments about a street that we had just travelled down on a bus. We both remarked that it didn't look like one that would have been safe for us to walk down(We were in El Salvador). When we talked about it later we realised that we had both reached the same conclusion from totally different observations. For me it was the body language and weapons of the police officers and my mate had got it from the state of repair of buses that we passed and the demeanour of pedestrians. The point is that both of us used our backgrounds and training when looking at the street scene. It is probably exactly the same when viewing a model or a prototype railway. We all have a differently trained set of eyes from our backgrounds and life experiences. Thus all of us will see layouts in different ways. Jamie

We've just had ours for extending our overseas voter registration. Beth got one type of email, I got a different one. It helps that an old colleague runs the voter registration office in Leeds. A quick phone call and the matter was sorted with two clicks of his mouse. I will be having a pint with him one lunchtime when we are next over. Jamie

Afternoon all from a dryer but cool Charente. We might get some spin off from the dying hurricane but we shall have to wait and see. Life is settling into routine and getting easier. Coffee and market yezterday morning. The in the after I fou d a discarded snake skin from a whip snake near the side door. I found one in the same place 2 years ago. We presume that the creature lives under the concrete path. This morning we ventured out to the supermarket which went well. The builder is cracking on and we are getting ready for some house guests who arrive tomorrow. On another tack, can anyone tell me how I can save the contents of a website that I created. It's costing $96 per yeR in fees with Squarespace but I don't want to lose it. Advice would be appreciated. It's the one in my signature. Regards to all. Jamie

Afternoon all from z wet and wi dy Charente. Up betimes again this morning just in time for the nurse. Then off to the market for a coffee and chat with friends. Then home and a stew for tonight has been donated by a neighbour . Then another friend rang to say that she'd made too much soup, so that was lunch sorted. It' good that I have an interest in things with wheels as I niw gave to solve various shunting puzzles each day. We are using 3 different wheeled appliances. Each can get through adifferent selection of doors. Beth can propel herself on two of them. Two have brakes that Beth can apply but one set only stays on when the levers are being squeezed. When transfers are necessary to complete a planned journey then the shunter has to position the articles corectly. It's all good fun making sure that there is always a clear route. Happy birthday to Mrs B and Mrs GDB. Regards to all. Jamie