Simon G

I have three different versions of "Pictures". The first is the standard classical version, then I also have the ELP version, and I also have a version played solely on a church organ. As someone who is very keen on organ music, the latter was a 'must' for me. It is now a rather wet and nasty day. It is dry this morning, so we got out for a short 1 hour walk. Any more than that just now, and I am totally knackered. Just never seem to get any fitter. This afternoon, has been spent happily listening to The Doors Morrison Hotel, whilst ballasting the layout. Some good progress has been made.

No 1 on my 7th birthday was Elvis with Little Sister!

Like Tony, our aerial is in the loft, and gives a perfectly good signal for digital TV. As we also have multiple aerial sockets around the house, I installed an aerial amplifier, which means that all the rooms can get a decent signal simultaneously. It was a lot easier than climbing up on the roof to install an aerial!

Rick, I don’t suppose that it will be much help to her, but I have been on the shielding list from Day 1. It wasn’t good last spring, when I didn’t leave the house or garden for 3 months, but the current lockdown isn’t as restrictive as the first one. This time, I am still allowed out for my daily exercise, so I am getting fresh air, and meeting friends and neighbours while out (the meetings aren’t planned, they just occasionally happen), so I get to have some social interaction while out. The rest of the shielding issue means that I do what everybody else should really be doing. All in all, IMHO, being on the shielding list certainly isn’t worth getting stressed about. At least she will be bumped up the priority list for a jab!

Evening all, still blowing a hoolie here, so I didn’t bother with a walk today. Instead, I spent a couple of hours doing more preparation on the layout for ballasting, then managed a bit of the ballasting as well. I thought that the ballasting would be slow, but it is the prep work that really takes the time. I also managed to watch the Scotland v Wales rugby which I had recorded yesterday. Wales were lucky to win, but their young wing is really something else with his speed. There is nothing better in rugby than watching a real flier at speed. Now got Ireland v France recorded to watch later.

Afternoon all, Still bitterly cold here today, especially in the wind. We are sheltered from the current south easterly, but it is still not particularly nice out. We had a walk, then took the car to return empty horse manure bags, and came back with a boot full of firewood. The wood had been dumped by the roadside on a country lane, and was perfectly OK, so I got some free wood and cleared up some fly tipping at the same time. Now settling down to watch today’s rugby. Hopefully England will put on a better display than last week (it couldn’t be any worse!)

Afternoon all, todays walk has been walked and we went past a stables where there was loads of manure in bags for free. Two car trips were then made, so I now have a large pile in the garden. That makes 3 dumpy bags full and rotting down, and now this pile, plus a pile of already rotted stuff. I just hope that all this work is reflected in the quantity and quality of the fruit and veg this year! Todays post consisted of a letter from the NHS inviting me to go onto their online system to book my first Covid jab. The only problem is that I was phoned by the GP surgery this time last week and had the jab on Saturday! Left hand and right hand operating a bit independently! Still, better two invites than none. Lovely sunny day here, so I am sitting inside in the sun, nice and warm without the need for the central heating just now. When it cools down, the woodburner will be lit.

Evening all, Today has been very cold once again. Despite the sun, the temperature didn’t really rise much above zero. A walk was walked this afternoon, although I didn’t really feel like it. My thinking is that if I don’t go out, I will just get even less fit than I feel now. During the walk, we went past the roadworks that have closed the main road through the village for the last 10 days, and they seem to be nearly finished. The down side is that there are now signs about 400 metres further along saying the road will be closed again starting next Monday for a different reason. We are hoping that this closure is to sort out the ridiculous number of potholes over a 100 metre stretch of the road, but I suspect that whatever the reason is for the closure, it will only make the road surface worse. Now I am off the find the cricket highlights following England’s excellent win in India.

Evening all, Busy day today, starting with a visit to Sister Drac, only to find that the usual hamfisted person was supervising a new trainee. The trainee was far better and I hope to her her take my blood in the future. Then it was off to Cockermouth, as Mrs G had a dentists appointment. Due to a closed road in the village, I had to take a long way round. Once I got onto the main A595, I was astonished at the amount of traffic around. It was simply like there was no lockdown in force, as the numbers of cars appeared no different to what used to be normal. We simply couldn’t work out where everybody was going late in the morning. we then had a walk out this afternoon, and it was really bitter, despite us being really well wrapped up. On the subject of lockdown, a piece of local news made my blood boil this morning. A mountain rescue volunteer had suffered “life changing injuries” following a fall of about 500 feet. The reason the mountain rescue team was out was because two wild campers who were breaching lockdown had got into trouble and had called for help. They were fined £200. I only hope that they have a conscience between them and make a significant donation to the injured volunteer.

I completely agree. Scotland played very well, but should have buried England earlier. England never managed to even threaten to score a try. They are a completely one dimensional side with a power game linked to kicking for territory and when that doesn’t work, they have no alternative. the kicking today was woeful and just gave Scotland all the time in the world to return the kicks, which Scotland did so much better than England. The only thing that will change the complete emphasis on power and kicking is if they get rid of Eddie Jones as coach and Owen Farrell as stand-off. Farrell has been a good servant to England, but is totally lacking in creativity.

Afternoon all, Today has definitely been the best day of the year so far, for a variety of reasons. These are that no 2 son and his long term girlfriend got engaged yesterday, the next is that I received my first dose of the AZ vaccine today, then we have the Six Nations rugby starting, then England doing really well so far in the cricket against India. Finally today’s walk was very pleasant and we heard a couple of woodpeckers tapping away on the trees. sadly we didn’t get to see them, but we don’t often hear them either. The only downside of the walk was that it takes us past an indoor chicken farm, and being downwind of that is not a pleasant experience! No details yet on when the wedding will take place, but if they do things at their usual rate it could still be a long time away! Nonetheless we are pleased that he finally popped the question. Off to watch the rugby!

Morning all, Raining here again, as it is with NHN, and showing no sign of stopping. I don’t think we will be going far today (just for a change!!!). Nothing else to report!

I was pleased to get the phone call today inviting me to get the Covid jab on Saturday morning. I was happy to accept! The rain finally relented a bit this afternoon, so we managed a short walk in a light drizzle. Better than no walk at all.

Commiserations to Blackrat on the passing of his MiL. My MiL passed away nearly 19 years ago and I still miss her as we also got on really well. Not much going on here today as it has rained all morning and shows no sign of stopping. Some ballasting has been done, with more to follow if the rain continues this afternoon. It is slow progress at the moment getting the track bed ready for the ballasting, which is comparatively quick!

What a shambles! I was told yesterday of some neighbours in their late 70s (I think) who went to a local GP surgery for their jabs, queued outside in the cold for about 40 minutes, only to be told that the vaccine supply had run out so they had to go back and do it all again a couple of days later.

Evening all, I haven’t posted here for a while. In truth, I am so p*ssed off with so many things related to Covid that would have found it difficult to do anything other than rant! The latest thing annoying me was to hear that two friends of mine who live in Reading have recently had the vaccine. Nothing unusual in that you would think, but they are in the 65 to 70 bracket and with no health conditions. Meanwhile, most people in our neck of the woods who are between 70 and 75 are still awaiting it, and to make matters worse, it seems that vaccine supplies to Cumbria are being cut to allow the south east to catch up! Something not quite right in all this. We are continuing to try to exercise as much as possible, weather and energy permitting. Today’s 3 mile walk wasn’t really enjoyable as it started to rain half way through so we got rather wet. There was a lot of snow in Cumbria today, but not on the west coast, where it was just wet.

Morning all, It has rained all day here so far, and the rain is likely to continue. Ballasting operations have recommenced, and after my less than successful earlier efforts a few days ago, I am happy with the current work. Now on a coffee break before doing some more.

Evening all, A busy and varied day. the bathroom door had to be removed as it was catching on the floor tiles. While removing the door, I realised that the problem was due to the door hinges suffering from wear so that the door had dropped about 1-2 mm from where it should be. New hinges required next time I am in town. This afternoon, the rain relented, so we had a brief walk out. I can’t say that it was too pleasant, but at least it was fresh air and exercise! On the topic of exercise, Cumbria Police reported over 550 breaches of the lockdown regulations, with people coming from as far as Sheffield and Northampton! Out of those, only about 60 were issued with fixed penalty notices, so it seems the Police were quite lenient! Yesterday I made a start on layout ballasting, and just did a short test section. On checking it today, I could still see some parts of the blue underlay, so realised that I hadn’t put enough ballast down. Message to self - only ballast with lots of decent light! I will try some more tomorrow and see if I can do a bit better.

Methinks you need a snowplough for the front!

Morning all, Early start this morning as our food delivery came early courtesy of friends who also shopped for us during Lockdown 1. Temperatures here still around zero, but they may rise just enough to melt the ice in the drive. As our lane had become rather treacherous with ice, yesterday afternoon I walked carefully up to the end and filled a bucket with grit from a Grit Box. I then put bits down in the worst areas, saving some to make a narrow path up my drive. I then made another trip to get some more to put down in the lane. A quite bizarre rugby match watched last night between Bath and Wasps. I wouldnt like to have been the defence coach for either side, but it made for compulsive viewing.

In my latter days at work, I recall talking about slide rules to a relatively young colleague. She had never heard of them, so I took mine into work the next day to demonstrate. Although she realised that it did actually work, she had no concept of how it worked, ie by using logarithmic scales. Made for quite an amusing day, after others also wanted to try this piece of old technology. Still drizzling here, but a short walk has been walked and now it is time for a cuppa tea.

Morning all, for the first time in a while, we actually have wet stuff falling from the sky, and not frozen white stuff at that. Not much, but a steady drizzle. At least the overcast conditions mean that it is not as icy and slippery as it has been for the last week. Various tasks done this morning including cleaning and relaying the woodburner, taxed my car online, and a bit of household cleaning. What an exciting life we are currently leading!

I have always been pretty good with mental arithmetic, sometimes to good use. Many times I have mentally added up the approximate cost of shopping at a supermarket checkout, and then queried the total presented to me. The checkout operator almost always looks at me in amazement that I can do simple arithmetic in my head. I have just been sent a chart which shows that Copeland (ie the southern part of West Cumbria) has had the highest percentage rate in Covid-19 cases over the past seven days. It is up by 213% in those 7 days. Until about 2 weeks ago, Copeland’s rate was very low. It certainly isn’t now!

My sentiments exactly! I am really p*ssed off that the continued actions of stupid and selfish people means that I am now supposed to shield again for the next month as a minimum. Mrs G and I have really worked hard at trying to make sure our COVID risk is as low as we can get it. The problem that I now have is that back in March, I observed the request to shield for 3 months, but because the weather was good, I was able to spend hours in the garden and get my fresh air and exercise that way. Not so now, so my choice for this next lockdown is either zero fresh air and exercise or going out for the daily walk, thus not fully complying with the shielding requirements. On the plus side, I thought that the wood burning stove had gone out when we went for today’s walk, but I managed to just revive it, so it is still keeping us nice and warm!

Afternoon all, Just back in from a short afternoon walk. Neither Mrs G or I felt like a longer one today. As we had a planned 6 hour power cut today, we would have gone out this morning, but the roads and pavements were white with frost and looked lethal! We would have been very cold with the power cut had we not had the wood burning stove, which kept us nice and warm, but had gone out by the time we returned from the walk!