Simon G

Cold here today! After all the posts yesterday on Powerpoint presentations, I have another one to do today. I "inherited" the Powerpoint and immediately cut it down. I will then start by talking and getting the experiences of the trainees for a few minutes before going on to start the Powerpoint bit. This then gives the presenter some insight into how you can use the slides to best effect with the group that you have.

We do face south-west and are only 400m from the sea so get foul weather in spades. I have used the International brand paint as well and it is good. The breatheable bit is called microporous as Oldddudders says. I used it on bargeboards for years until I decided that I don't like climbing ladders to the top of the house to paint the boards any more and got plastic boards instead!

Also off to the dentist today - to get a crown fitted. I dont think it will be too painful, except on the wallet! Lovely day here so far. I get the sun in my office area in the mornings, and it is now too hot!

As with NHN, no idea where the weekend has gone! Very pleasant weather though, but with a keen wind today. SWMBO has a bad cold, so I have been keeping well clear! Even had to do the shopping myself today as she wasn't up to that, and then made her dinner as well . Having been on RMWEB for some time, I decided to put a photo into my profile today - one taken a couple of months ago in the mountains on Gran Canaria.

Correct! All mine have come from CD tray motors. My experience, using a variety of good DC controllers, is that the slow speed control of Lima motors isn't particularly good. I have definitely improved this aspect with the CD motors. In other respects, Lima motors pull well and are very reliable.

There have been a few threads on RMWeb about Lima remotoring. You might be interested in this thread (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/78418-susmotor-lima-remotoring/). I have remotored a few LIma pancakes with an equivalent to the Modeltorque and can post a photo showing how I get the new motor centrally located and fixed in the original Lima motor frame if you are interested? I also have a few of the motors in my spares drawer at home - all harvested from CD drives. If you want a complete remotoring kit, then I think you can still get them at http://www.diesel-trains.co.uk/shop.html. I have bought any motors from them myself, so am unable to comment on how they install and run. If you want a motor to try yourself, please PM me. Simon.

My father once summed up getting old rather well when giving a public talk. He said that you know you are getting old when your offspring have grey hair - whilst looking at me all grey haired in my late 40s!

Morning all, damp and drizzly here, but I dont care! No 2 son called yesterday to say that he has got a job after graduating from Leeds Uni, and it is in Leeds, so he and girlfriend are now planning to find a flat together. I am delighted that he has the job, and the girlfriend is really good for him so I am chuffed about that bit too. Having delivered Manual Handling course earlier this week, it is a risk assessment course today - I actually enjoy delivering these. How sad is that?

The NT have p*ssed us off in the past. An aunt has gifted her old farmhouse in Wales to them, and they then seemed to think they now have the right to use my mother's nearby field as a potential car park. They got a very short and sharp reply! We have friends who live in France, but have been staying with us this week. I suggested that if they get a PPI cold call on their UK mobile, they should feign interest and ask the PPI company for a home visit - then tell them that they live in the Poitou region of France!

I had a similar call from some 'wide boy' type who started by saying 'This is just a quick call..' to which I replied 'Dead Right it is' and cut him off. A bit rude maybe but it made me feel a bit smug.

Neil, thanks for the clarification. I have to admit that everyone looked very smart on the photos you posted of Groudle Glen - I was definitely impressed! If we get back to the IoM. I will definitely be visiting it. In my days on the Lakeside & Haverthwaite, I spent some time as a guard and I was certainly not smart - just wearing the clothes that I turned up in at the start of the day, but with a little badge to say that I was the guard.

I remember similar issues on the Lakeside & Haverthwaite when I was a volunteer in the late 1970s. The few 'full time' staff looked down at all the volunteers, while conveniently forgetting that without the volunteers, there wouldnt have been an operational line at all! I just hope a friend of mine who is an occasional guard on the Ratty doesnt read NHNs post! On Neil's other thread, I have 218 days to my 60th and possible retirement. Ironically I have considered joining my friend as a volunteer on the Ratty!

Morning All, Dry but cool here so far today. I will be delivering 'death by powerpoint' later today when training some of our personnel in Manual Handling! Hopefully I wont fall into the oft seen trap of just reading the slides verbatim.

If your mentor(s) are really on your side (as mentors should be!), then I would advise going ahead and telling them. The more that they know about your concerns etc, the more they might be able to help. It is cold and windy here today - just starting to warm up with a cup of tead after a one mile walk into the office.

Most of my logs for the woodburner come off the beach. Seeing me strolling down the beach one day with three foot felling axe in hand, a friend remarked how no-one came near me! He then commented that wood off the beach was good value as I was pretty warm collecting it, then would get warm again cutting and chopping it, and would finally get warm a thired time when I burned it!

Today's plan was to help No 1 son to install loft insulation in his new house in St Neots, but woke up with a stiff back (not unusual, unfortunately) so I may have to just supervise him instead!

What a great idea - simple when you think about it! Have done this, and got Teamviewer installed and running this morning. Quite impressed Mother by playing Freecell on her PC from my laptop! Have just mapped her iPad to her email account, so if the PC falls over etc, she can stil receive & send emails. Result!!

It didnt just batter Shropshire! I drove from Cumbria to Berkshire today and I think a serious proportion fell on my car! It was a most foul journey. Evening then spent clearing malware and various bits of clutter from my Mother's PC, and it now runs nicely again. Tomorrow's task is to install Teamviewer as advised to me on this thread a few weks ago, so that I can monitor and check it from afar in future.

That passed me by - and I am a Health & Safety Manager! Just as well I didnt get too stressed about missing it! Beautiful morning today - shame I am stuck inside at work.

I fully agree with that. I went with my gut after running some interviews some years ago and appointed a good candidate, only to find that our senior management had actually wanted to bring an external person in, and that I had been expected not to appoint anyone from the interviews! I got some real stick for that, but was proved right in the end when the appointee turned out to be far better than the proposed external person.

It is fascinating to see how companies etc recruit these days. My two sons who recently graduated seemed to go through assessment centre after assessment centre. However, as I plan to retire soon (hooray!) my job in Health and Safety has been advertised and it appears that there are no planned assessment centres, just the interviews. Makes life easier for all concerned, and I suspect will still result in a good quality candidate being recruited. Do these assessments actually add value?

I am not aware of any such line. There is no room on the north side of the castle for any line. The only possible area would have been where the main line does run past the caste, as there is a space between the line and castle for a siding, but it wouldnt have been a long one, as it would be restricted by the tubular bridge on one side and the 'archway' on the other. If it would help, I could ask the older members of my family and see if they knew of any such thing?

There was never a railway going through the castle itself. It still does have the North Wales main line running directly to one side of it. The line going west comes out of the Conwy river Tubular bridge then runs immediately to the south of the Castle. You can see the trains passing by directly below from some of the castle viewpoints. Conwy station is then a further 100 metres or so to the west of the castle. It was closed back in the 1960s (I think), then re-opened in the 1980s. The line does pass through the Conwy town walls between the castle and the station - this is the archway described in one of the other replies above.

It started raining in West Cumbria just as I got to work. After the glorious weekend with 20 degrees temperature yesterday, I am rather pleased that the rain waited until a work day. Mrs G wont be so pleased as she had just put the washing out to dry when I left! I agree with Oldddudders about the teaching. Who really remembers those other then the inspirational ones after a few years?

What a good day - all day sunshine with a beautiful walk round Ennerdale Lake. It was just warm enough for shirtsleeves most of the way, and we had excellent views. Then a nice family meal with lots of fun and laughter. A pity all days arent this good.