The Stationmaster

Needs a couple of smoke units to go with that sound.😇

Leaf tea is preferred in our household so nether of the OP options apply.  And yes - it's either Yorkshire (imported but blended and packed there) or Cornish (grown and packed there).

However there do seem to have been 'supply difficulties' lately for cat litter with the local Tesco not having any of the size of pack we buy for a couple of months - but Waitrose did have it in stock.  I note more recently that the cheaper varieties of cat food seem to disappear off supermarket shelves far more rapidly than used to be the case.

Much more amusing is the case of a patent medicine I buy, Dioralyte.  we couldn't find this anywhere in the supermarkets we normally frequent including one in Tilehurst (on the western end of Reading).  So herself bought some via the organisation run by large ladies.  it duly arrived by post the next day - from a wholesale company in Reading.

Phew - I thought for a minute that you were announcing an announcement.

Fancy going on strike then?   But seriously best of luck and I hope you get what you're after.

East Coast at one time - National Express days was when it started - developed what might best be described as the very irritating habit of not using separate pots for tea or coffee and then not very thoroughly de-flavouring' them between uses.  So coffee flavoured tea was all too common place on the ECML - and it tasted bloomin' awful.

Starmucks also seems to serve coffee flavoured tea at times.  But fortunately my experience of their establishments is extremely limited in large measure due to the stuff they call tea which very definitely hails from neither Yorkshire or Cornwall..

You might find something here Cap'n

https://www.queensjubileebeacons.com

I had it three weeks ago and it was really like a bad/very bad cold although I was tired at times and lost my appetite to some extent, plus few occasional headaches.  Senses of smell and taste were unaffected.. If it goes like that the worst should be over in no more than a week or so and hopefully you won't get the continuous nausea which hit me as everything else improved.

Seems to work perfectly well on the Mac but at times it is very slow although that does seem to vary considerably according to which part of the forum you are looking at - layout topics going really fast, r-t-r threads creeping along.   I wonder if that sort of thing tells a story?

If it was like that for Model Rail Scotland what on earth will it be like for Ally Pally?

I wonder how many passengers were pleased to get an extra 30 hours added to their time at sea.  And looking on the bright there probably weren't big queues for the restaurants so you could grab a nice seat and maybe a few extra helpings for your meal.

Not as bad as 1987 - when we finished up with a hole in our roof caused by tiles which had blown off - but still well and truly a big blow with a metal chair being blown around the back garden as if it were plastic and a few fence panels waving about in the 'breeze'.  Despite being down in a valley the town was not so lucky - two women injured (one seriously) by brickwork blown off roofs, lots of trees down or badly damaged. an out of town fire engine arrived because the local chaps were fully engaged, and even a power cut at the other end of town (we only had a short outage of power).

Hope it's lost some of its kick by the time it reaches you Mark.  We're well inland but the town didn't get off entirely lightly with lots of trees down, two people hit by falling masonry (1 seriously hurt) and even a power cut for the north end of the town - in the allegedly civilised Thames Valley.  It was even blowing quite weighty aluminium chairs about in our garden at one stage as it gusted quite strongly - so definitely keep the main engine on!!

So was that Devonian turnip or what the folk up country call turnip?

I have actually watched three programmes in one day on BBC1 in the past week - I think that is the most time I have spent watching BBC1 in the whole of 2021 so dire has it become.  Normally I watch very little on BBC tv - thee quiz sessions on Monday evening on BBC 2 and occasional programmes on BBC4 and that's about it.

Excellent timing as far as I was concerned because I was out at an OFs' Christmas lunch at Stoke Gifford for a large chunk of the day 

How about naming railway companies which existed before the Grouping but still existed after the Grouping (although its acceptable that their ownership might have changed)?  But probably too narrow a field for Pointless.

Going back to the original question my favourite for a pointless answer would be the Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway (which was jointly leased by the GWR and LC&DR/SECR).

Just imagine - I wonder which Pre-Group railway companies would be pointless answers?  I think I'd go for a certain joint company in London