gordon s

Seems we crashed out again and my post disappeared, so let's try again. Looking forward to Nanny's knitting arriving. At least that will brighten up the day. Not the best of starts today. Got up to make the tea as usual, opened the fridge and NO milk...Not one drop. A trip to Tesco's at 6.45am is not the best way to start a new day. Needless to say an investigation has taken place and Mrs S's superior debating skills left me in no doubt that I was the guilty partner. First lesson for the day. Never discuss such a delicate issue with a lady with no make up, haystack hair and a head ache at 06.45am...

Sorry, I can't say as we all had to sign a non disclosure agreement. We did have a great time though and personally I enjoyed the trip up the WCML on one of Mr Branson's Pendolino's. Brought back loads of memories of travelling up to Glasgow on the Royal Scot each summer as a kid to stay with my Grandmother. Of course it was so much more interesting in those days with stacks of steam locos outside every shed on the way up. Spent the whole day cutting corners, or one to be more precise. What started out as a quick hack with a jigsaw, turned into something far more complex. They always do. Not only did it have to be rewired, both of the remote Tortoise motors had to be remounted as they were right in the path of the cut line. Thankfully this corner will be well hidden as hand cutting with a jigsaw in quite a restricted space is always going to be a challenge. Well it's done and the Tortoise motors work, so that's a blessing. Just the wiring to finish off and then I can add the rest of the back scene blanks and then it's all systems go on the other end. With any luck the whole of this side should be complete before the end of the month.

3/- Jubblies? Jeez they must have been big ones.......

Aha! Courtesy of Google... Lovely Jubbly' was originally an advertising slogan for a triangular-shaped frozen orange drink which was popular in the 1950s and 60s. When John Sullivan was writing the script for 'Only Fools and Horses', he included the phrase as one of Del Boy's own. Others say... "I'm talking early 60's here; the price was 3d, but if you wanted a frozen Jubbly it cost 4d. A Jubbly was in a triangle shaped carton and was basically frozen orange juice, you clipped one end and sucked it like an ice lolly. A frozen Jubbly could be an afternoon's activity."

I thought Jubblies were 4d......Mmmmn

Ouch! Just surface burned the fleshy part of my right hand. Drilled a hole, put down the drill and somehow put my hand on top of the drill bit which was still blooming' hot from the friction of drilling into wood.. Power tools can bite back at times..... Apart from that, all is at peace with the world....

Amazing, Mick! Wonderful to hear your long lost puss has returned. Just goes to show you should never give up hope when cats go walkabouts.... Great start to the day and the sun is out as well.

Mid May and the year is rolling round. Been a bit distracted over the last couple of weeks by a trip to Glasgow to film an episode of Eggheads. What started out as a bit of a joke during a family quiz at Christmas, went to an application, audition and finally filming last week. At least that is done now and as the episode won't appear for months, I can get back onto ET. Made a start on the other end of the storage roads. Pointwork has been built and a few bits of 95 x 25 lashed together to form this shape. The first issue for those with good eyesight is a slight dog leg relief section in one of the cross members. Even having seen the final plan in Templot, I still managed to put a cross member in the wrong place and directly across the position of a Tortoise motor. Couldn't believe I'd made such a stupid mistake, so a hasty rework was in order. No one will see it under the ply, so not the end of the world. Couple of noticeable differences from the other end. Having got the boards into their exact position, I found that access under the eaves was severely limited for a 100kg, 1.90m male with a bit of a tum from years of sampling God's finest ales from all parts of the world, so this time the corner has been removed and improved the access no end. OK, it was a bit more fiddly to put together, but it has proved so successful that I will have to revisit the other end and do something similar, retrospectively. Bit of a pain as that will involve some rewiring as well, but it has to be done. The final shot is one that few will see unless something goes radically wrong. This is the down side of sloping roofs. Height and angles conspire against you and I've probably lost between three and four feet overall in the width of the room by these angles.

Funny this, even as a Spurs supporter, I want Chelsea to win as they are representing the English Premier League. As far as Spurs are concerned, 4th is just not good enough. We had loads of chances to finish 3rd but blew it. I know you can say Spurs finished above Chelsea and have more right to it, but I would still rather an English team won the Champions League rather than the Germans. I've supported United, Liverpool and even shock, horror, Arsenal in finals in the past, yet I've been a Tottenham man since my Dad took me to my first game 54 years ago. Of course I won't be devastated if Chelsea get beat, but couldn't support a European team over a Premier League one.

Well it started bright but now clouded over and a gentle drizzle prevails. Having seen Pudsey win £500k on BGT on Saturday, I've given the dogs a good talking to and told them to get out there and earn some money. A right pair of free loaders, if ever they were....

It was just as exciting watching the City game. Technology is so fast now, that QPR fans on the terraces were cheering for Stoke before it was picked up by the commentary team. Every time a cheer went up, you knew something had happened, but had to wait for Sky to organise themselves before finding out what was going on...

Hope you enjoyed the game BoD... I'm totally drained from watching the City game. Probably the most cliff hanger of a game ever... I see your young protege looked chuffed with his medal...

Jeez, what a fantastic afternoon....Even as a Spurs supporter, I was willing City to win, but once again the football Gods conspire against you. 2-1 down against 10 men and then two goals in injury time. Tremendous excitement... Will Barton ever kick a ball again? He may be innocent before proven guilty, but its happened far too many times.

Could be, mine's mixing up weedkiller....

I must have been on another planet yesterday as I saw Hamilton get pole, stop on the circuit and then heard no more. It was only BoD's 'Force Majeure' post that made me realise something may have happened..... B*gger! Oh well, GP then footie, just the same. ...and it's bright and sunny again.

Team selection for tomorrow?....

Sad to hear about Carroll Shelby, Pete. Always loved AC Cobra's. A real muscle car that needed a muscle man to drive. Probably why I couldn't with my sparrow arms..... Morning all. Sunny and bright.

Congrats to your parents, Deb's. My parents married in '45 and were together until 2010, when my Dad sadly passed away. 'For better or worse' really meant something then.... I took the same route as you, Mike, only in my case, St Andrews Day....

5'14" is a great height Deb. I've been 6'3" since I was about 14 and there was a huge shortage of tall girls when I was looking. My dear lady is only around 5'4", so we always have a good laugh at certain pics...

Sorry guys, sharp intake of breath as I forgot to mention Andy who is my niece's boyfriend, but DD beat me to it. You have to take six team members, just in case one gets taken ill etc. Andy had all the fun without any of the trepidation. Yes, that's Dave who took over from CJ. Don, the guy next to me is my brother, hence the family hairstyle. I really can't praise them all enough. It was a very friendly and relaxed atmosphere that couldn't help but make you feel at ease. After five minutes I completely forgot it was a TV recording.

Morning all......Back to the our southern softy home and away from the cold and wet north. Dog tired by the time we got home last night after four and a half hours on a Pendolino to Euston and then another half an hour on the FGW to Reading. Where do all these people come from? Train out of Paddington at 21.45 last night was heaving and by the time we left, every seat was taken. Thanks God we got off at Reading, as a whole group of loud and happy rugby lads were off to Bristol and Bath for a long boozy weekend...and then a whole crowd of young girls wearing next to nothing greeted us at Reading station. Not sure which group I would have preferred. Well, here you are a team photo. Muggins, my brother, daughter, SiL and niece. First shock of the day is how tall Chris is. I knew he was a big lad, but no idea he was around 6'2". Had a chat with him about railways. He was a fireman and often worked out of Hornsey, so we talked about Coffee Pots (J50's) and the old days. Lovely guy, as they all were. It may be several months until the show airs as they recorded four shows each day for 10 days.

On our way back and the deed is done. Sworn to secrecy about the result, but had we been one team earlier, we would have had Charles and Camilla on our team. They just happened to arrive at the same time as us. Got some pics of all of us to post tomorrow. I'm quite taken with wearing make up........

Getting close to Carlisle so must give Dave a wave.....

Heading north on a Pendolino as we speak. Big day tomorrow!

Here's a starting point for you Tony.... http://www.cameralabs.com/buyers_guide/compacts/best_compact_digital_camera.shtml