sixoh8sixoh

Afternoon all from a grey but mild Scottish HQ. Merry Christmas (belatedly) to all the ERs. Gordon - sorry to hear your news, and while I know you were expecting it, it still can't be easy, and not a good time to lose someone (not that there's ever a good time to lose someone). Relatively peaceful Christmas ended with sales shopping in Newcastle yesterday as my girlfriend wanted to get Jamie some bits and pieces from the clothes shops. Still forgot to get a Christmas present for my cousin's daughter so will have to get that before I see them in the New Year. In work today and have been doing a bit of a clearout of old paperwork. The recycling bin is full and I've added a good heap to the confidential waste sack... Best time to have a clearout while there's so few people around and the phones are quiet.

Gordon, Sorry to hear your news, and as folk have said already, hope you can have a peaceful Christmas and that the modelling can take your mind off things for some of the time. Take care, Mike

Morning all from a blustery and damp Scottish HQ. Planning a POETS day, as it's pretty deserted in here. Have a few things I need to get done, so today won't be an end of term board games day like we used to get at school. Gatecrashed another team's Christmas drinks last night (I was invited along as I know a few of them) and sang karaoke with them. Think a big breakfast is on the cards this morning...

Afternoon all from a damp and darkening Scottish HQ. Still in the office today and tomorrow (though I suspect tomorrow will be a short day). I'm working 2 of the 3 days between Christmas and New Year, though the office will be very quiet then and I'm hoping to get some bits and pieces done while no-one's around... Christmas shopping is (hopefully) almost entirely done, couple of things to pick up tomorrow at the Christmas market (presents for my cousin) and something for my cousin's little girl, though I may hunt for that in the sales. Last night was the last pub quiz of the year. Having finished well out of the top 5 in the last league, the new league started last week, and despite being a small team (of 4) last night up against several 7-person teams, we came second, only half a point behind the winners. Not a bad effort and we're in joint third in the league after 2 weeks. Tonight is (apparently) karaoke night in town with some friends... should hopefully be fun. Have a good rest of Thursday!

The new Emma I can cope with. The new (old) Clarrie too. The one actor change that's really grated for me is Pip Archer. I still miss Helen Monks' voice!

Morning all from a grey Scottish HQ. The dawn was pretty spectacular though! Went out last night to see Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Very good movie, but completely different in tone and style from the other SW movies. It's a war movie, rather than a "space opera", more like Band of Brothers in space... It's very dark and gritty but with a few moments of great humour in it. No spoilers from me though! All I'll say is, It's A Wonderful Life, it ain't! Came 7th in this week's pub quiz on Wednesday, after managing to get a burger and chips meal for 5 with beer for a total of £13.80 in Byron in Edinburgh thanks to a special offer they ran for the first 200 through the doors on Wednesday after 6pm (it did mean queuing in the rain for an hour!). Hope all are well.

Afternoon all from a dry but overcast Scottish HQ. I've got a pair of Barbour wellies that I got when I was about 15 and they still fit and don't leak. That's about 25 years, so might consider replacing them in 2041... (windoze at work doesn't seem to like wellies and autocorrects it to willies...) Busy day yesterday, but interesting. Debate got extended to allow more MSPs to have their views heard, so didn't leave till almost 7. Plenty to keep me busy today. Work Christmas lunch is on Friday, as is the Christmas quiz which I got conned into writing and being quizmaster!

Morning all from a cold and grey but dry Scottish HQ. House guest went home on Wednesday evening after the pub quiz (the flat's still in disorder after his visit though!). Jamie had her birthday on Saturday (and apparently was in tears on Sunday morning as it's a whole year till her next birthday). She enjoyed her party at Hamleys - Santa came and read them The Night Before Christmas as well as listening to all their Christmas wishlists. Anamaria and I took Jamie up to Knockhill on Sunday as a birthday treat - she went karting for the first time (friends on Facebook may have seen the pics). To be honest, I probably had more fun on the karts than she did. Anamaria was taking photos this time, but wants to come on track too next time out. Back to the grind yesterday, and going to be busy (and late) today as we've got a debate in Parliament this afternoon that I'm supporting the Cabinet Secretary at. Tony - hope Aditi's on the mend soon, saw the post on Facebook. Hope all are well!

Morning all from a mostly grey Scottish HQ, though there is a near-horizontal beam of sunlight breaking through the cloud. Busy weekend celebrating Jamie's birthday (early) with her grandparents - her birthday's this Saturday, but we did cake and presents a week early with them. She also loved playing with the new puppies, two shih tsus who are almost old enough and inoculated enough to leave the house. GF and I now have a house guest for a few nights - an extremely excitable border collie/springer cross (who looks mostly border collie). He had an accident on the bed last night (thankfully on the sofa bed rather than the main mattress), so I ended up the evening going for another walk close to midnight. Hope all are well!

Afternoon all from a sunny Scottish HQ. Quick return trip to Durham was completed yesterday. Then back down there with Jamie this afternoon. Hope all are well!

Morning all! In work today at 7.35 to crack on with a few things before my 9am meeting. three meetings followed by an early finish, dash down the ECML to Durham, meet the parents' new puppies, Lodge and dinner in Durham, overnight at the parents' then back up the ECML tomorrow morning to get back into work. Tomorrow night will include birthday cake baking and birthday present wrapping for Jamie. I have to get that sort of thing out of the way before I can turn my attention to writing C*******s cards... Hope everyone has a good Wednesday. I'll be collapsed in a heap by lunchtime tomorrow...

Afternoon awl all from Scottish HQ! Mostly dry here. I see that AndrewC likes to live dangerously... Nice to see Debs here too! Went to hot (Bikram) yoga last night for the first (and very probably last) time. The place stank of feet, the men were walking around in just shorts, the girls only marginally less exposed. The room was 40C or thereabouts, and after a little while of trying various yoga poses, the sweat was running off me in rivers, and I was puce in the face... I think I'll stick to running, a 10K is far less painful an experience! Anyway, back to the grind just now... While I remember, I wondered if any of our US-based members might be able to help me get hold of something that's available from Target in the USA but not here yet? Please and thank you! Have a good day everyone!

Afternoon all from Scottish HQ! Hope everyone's well and enjoyed their weekend. We did some birthday/Christmas shopping for Jamie on Saturday (getting ready ahead of the mad rush), then yesterday I baked some rolls for her before we headed out to the switch-on of the Edinburgh Christmas lights. Jamie wanted to go ice-skating so we got one of my friends to take her on the rink as Anamaria and I can't skate! The freezing fog from this morning has lifted but it's still very cold outside here!

Hi All, another fleeting visit, though I'll try to pop back more regularly. I see Pete is due birthday wishes today! I'm still in shock at the fact it's mid-November. My brain is still of the opinion that it was August only last week... No lock-in for any of our team, though I managed to get the crystal and get out with one second to spare in my final game - that was cutting it too fine! I came down with some bug on Monday, hit me like a 4-ton truck mid-way through the day and I had to go home to bed. Joint and muscle aches, shivers, headache, temperature... yet no sniffles or cough. Felt tired but a bit better on Tuesday and almost back to normal by yesterday. Apart from that, have had parents' evening, pub quiz and mountains of work this week. Today is a slightly calmer day at work which is making a nice change... Hope everyone's well!

Next time you're there could you pick up the lottery numbers for me? Cheers! Seriously though, great to see you getting the mojo back and hope to see continued progress and hopefully trains running in 2017!

Hi all, Have received notification of this year's pre-Christmas promotional event: "We are delighted to announce that this year's pre-Christmas promotional event in the shop will again particularly feature Peco model railway products. Steve Haynes, Peco's Sales Manager, will be making the long journey from Devon to be with us. He will be 'showing you how' to incorporate the recent overhead line catenary system into your layout and explaining how the versatile "SmartSwitch" servo control system functions. As always, he'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. You might just see some brand new pre-production samples of products before they appear at that big exhibition held the following week near Birmingham ! There will be up to 20% off most Peco, Bachmann and Graham Farish products, giving you the opportunity to stock up for the winter ! Details: The event will be held in Harburn Hobbies model shop on Friday 11th & Saturday 12th November 2016 (9.30am - 6.00pm both days). There will be: 20% off most Peco Products. 20% off most Bachmann and Graham Farish products. Free prize draw to win Harburn Hobbies Gift Vouchers. Refreshments. The Harburn team and Steve look forward to welcoming you to the event. It'll be a fun time as always!"

Holes of the pond liner or golfing variety? :-) Look forward to seeing your next steps!

The first of those looks like it was made from TV test cards! Just needs a girl with a piece of chalk!

I'm not sure if Andy's been referred to as Harry Enfield before...! The chap on the extreme right was "The Baron", who was our MazeMaster (the Richard O'Brian role) for the evening.

Morning all from Scottish HQ! Apologies for prolonged absence but work, holidays, life, pub quizzes and other things have severely curtailed what little free time I had! Last weekend I was in London with a group of friends to do the Crystal Maze - thoroughly recommended if you can get a slot. Also went to see The Woman In Black at the theatre, which was good. I'll have to get round to watching the movie at some point. Over the last couple of weeks my iMac has gone kaput. It looks like the hard drive which I had installed in it (way back when) has expired. I now have to make the difficult decision of whether to repair an 8 year old computer or bite the bullet and get a newer one. Neither option is cheap, but I'm beginning to suspect that repairing may be the less sensible option in the long run. I still have the original hard drive and could have that reinstalled but the labour costs I've been quoted are pretty astronomical... Hope everyone is well and those recovering from operations are doing so speedily. I've no idea when my last post is, and when I asked it to go to first unread post it took me back to post #1... I think reading from there would be a bit of a time-consuming option!

Morning all from a drying Scottish HQ (and a drying Sixoh8sixoh). Happy birthday Tony! You've levelled up. It's been a pretty busy week for me. Had my "not an interview" for a job on Tuesday, and found out on Wednesday that I wasn't successful but was close. Pretty positive feedback for a knockback, actually. Speaking to another colleague today about a possible move. We did poorly in the pub quiz on Wednesday, had a bit of a nightmare week and came in 10th place, only scoring us one point for the league, which only has 2 weeks left. We're likely to get 4th at this rate unless we can put in a couple of good performances over the last 2 weeks. Have a safe day all!

Morning all from a sunny Scottish HQ. *hands in note from mum excusing absence* Last week was good fun - I was volunteering as a delegate aide at the Edinburgh International Culture Summit at the Scottish Parliament. I was looking after the Slovenian delegation. Yesterday took Jamie to the "Ultm8 Warrior" event in Mugdock Country Park, near Glasgow. It was 2 laps of a 1K run and obstacle course, including a water splash through a muddy pond. After going through it twice as part of the run, she then went through another dozen times at least, but had a blast. We took her swimming afterwards (apart from anything else, to get the mud out of her hair before her mother saw her!). Hope everyone's well and enjoying their bank holiday. No such luck for us in Scotland, it's business as usual today...

Morning all from a grey Scottish HQ. I've never quite understood why Scottish school summer holidays are so early. Yes, it means that parents can possibly get marginally cheaper holidays while the English schools are off, but it seems perverse to lock the kids back in school from mid-August when the Book Festival and Fringe are taking place in the Capital... Hey ho... Must say happy birthday to Brian, a huge thumbs up to Rick for an amazingly generous gesture, and greetings to everyone else. We took part in the pub quiz last night. Going into the total wipeout round we were tied for 4th place in last night's quiz, 5 points behind the leaders. We knew for definite 6 of the 10 questions on the wipeout round, but decided to risk the four answers we weren't 100% certain of in a brave all or nothing attempt... and we got full marks! This left us only one point shy of the winners, so an excellent second place was secured. And we won £40 on the "guess the random number between 1 and 1000" competition - it had rolled over 7 times and we shared the £80 jackpot with another team that had got it spot on. That leaves us 3rd in the league on 50 points, 7 behind the 2nd place team, but miles behind our friends who are on 74.

Good grief, graffiti! Usually your photos are rubbish and graffiti free!

Morning all from a sunny Scottish HQ. Not a cloud in the sky at the moment. Planned an early night last night, then watched the Keirin. And then watched the Keirin. And eventually watched the Keirin... Then couldn't get to sleep. So much for the early night. Pub quiz tonight, after my week off last week. The big yellow New Measurement Train was in Waverley yesterday lunchtime, didn't pop down for a closer look though as I was on an errand. Happy birthday! Me too! Glasgow went back on Monday. My daughter's starting back tomorrow as East Dunbartonshire goes back today, but they have an extra day off as they're moving into a new school building and the teachers need an extra day to organise the classrooms before the children arrive to disorganise them! I rated that "informative/useful" as it'll help me avoid said adverts... Have a fun day all, thank crunchie it's Hump Day...