Zero Gravitas

In my defence, that wasn’t what I went in to do - it’s just that in Didcot the Post Office is in the back of the store and I had a parcel to send...

For the sake of pedantic completeness, scheduled date from MRJ 267 was 17 Jan 2019, my subs copy arrived today, and there were no copies of 268 in WHS Didcot at noon today. So it’s actually arrived early. Which in some ways is vaguely disconcerting....

FYI - MRJ 268 popped through the letter box this morning: Very sad news about Stewart Hine.

How about Latimer, Bardens, Ward, Ferguson?

And for prog music fans, following on from the Marillion theme; good to see Steven Wilson and Nick Beggs getting name checks

At the risk of being boring, I’ve driven Superb and Octavia estates as both company and personal cars for a few years now and simply wouldn’t look at anything else in terms of practicality and sheer value for money. My current Octavia 1.6 diesel has averaged a real 61.2 mpg over the 34000 miles I’ve driven it so far, road tax is zero and it’s comfortable and well-equipped. I do like the idea of the Scout, being a tiny bit higher for Mrs. Gravitas’ ease of getting in and out, but can’t justify changing at the moment. As things stand, I’m hoping this Octavia will be the last internal combustion powered vehicle I buy - and by the time I come to change it there will be a proper electric Octavia equivalent.

Could it be something to do with resolving the spelling error in the original post?...

This is a work of genius. It gets around the “legs not lining up problem” I’ve experienced. Thank you for sharing.

It’s 4mm - EM.

I think that in this case, talk of trading standards is both disproportionate and premature. This is a classic case of the application of Hanlon’s Razor: “never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence”. After all, both the pre and post-offer prices are quoted, so you actually have all the information you need to make a purchasing decision.

FYI: Email from Hattons this morning about the Bachman GWR black version: “Release information not available”... (Edited for predictive text typos)

Currently temporally confused as 266 has just dropped through the letterbox at Gravitas Towers...

If it’s any help, I’ve been flying London-Shanghai on a mixture of BA 777s and 787s and Virgin 787s. IMHO, the 787 is better in pretty much every way. It’s quieter, the cabin is lighter and airier because of the bigger windows, and the cabin air quality seems better.

Given that I live less than half a mile from Cygnet HQ in Didcot, the most environmentally friendly option would be to walk down there and collect it in person...

FWIW, mine arrived packaged as normal - contained within a hand-tooled vellum pouch, adorned with my address in illuminated script, and delivered by a cheeky but good-natured street urchin who asked of me a florin for his trouble. Just kidding... it was in exactly the same envelope and label as usual.

36 Guineas 12 shillings and 0 pence, to be precise.

Subs copy dropped through the letter box this morning at Gravitas Towers. It’s renewal time, so time to write that one cheque of the year. I don’t know what I’ll do if cheques are discontinued - can you still get a postal order for 36 Guineas 12 shillings and 0 pence?

And a massive car park for Pendon Parva Parkway station...

From the car on the way from Shanghai airport to the city centre: There are a lot of pylons in China...

They’re going to burn sheds as well??

It’s got to be much further North than that. The train leaves KX at 11:00, there’s no record of it stopping anywhere, and it doesn’t get to Hogsmead until it’s dark. On September 1st, sunset is about 20:00 (19:52 in Didcot, 20:07 in Edinburgh), so if we assume it’s proper dark 30 mins later, that’s a journey time of 9 hours and 30 mins. Let’s now assume an average speed of 40 mph, and that’s a distance of 380 miles. Which would be somewhere between Edinburgh and Inverness. As far as water and coal is concerned, they are obviously replenished en route by magic. While leaves as the only remaining issue the fact it’s not real...

A timely question as we had to make this decision for one of our Great Danes last week. For her, the quality of life was gone and she was confused a lot of the time, and was having great difficulty getting up. My wife and I talked about it extensively, and it’s never an easy decision to make. The question we kept coming back to was whether we were carrying on for our benefit, and not for the dog’s. And there comes a point when you know it’s time - and to trust yourself that it’s the right decision. And I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but when the time comes, go with them and stay with them. It’ll be a strange situation and it will be easier for them with a familiar face. It’s incredibly difficult but it helps a bit to know that you’ve been there for them. Best wishes to you and Holly.

Subs copy arrived this morning. I particularly the Captain’s Planet - and his ingenious stock box with its fold-up liner. An idea I may well gratuitously steal. Hang on - I’m starting to sound like Mrs. Trellis! I’m off for a restorative cup of tea and a biscuit...

Fifteen years or so ago I was doing quite a lot of work in Eastern Europe and this was a well-known scam - fake a breakdown or an accident, get someone to stop and then rob them and steal their car. The hire car companies at the time use to warn people specifically against stopping if they encountered an accident or a breakdown even if people tried to flag you down (which is in itself quite scary on a Hungarian motorway at 11 o’clock at night). If my limited Hungarian was correct, there was at least on gang that had an upturned car with castors on the roof so they could wheel it more easily into position from a trailer...

A Great Dane. Preferably a really stupid one. Seems to have shredded pretty much everything in the garden at Gravitas Towers.