PhilJ W

That's all I wanted to read after having an episcopy of my bladder just over a week ago. It turned out to be a prostate problem but at least a biopsy wasn't required. I was still peeing razor blades for the rest of the day however.

Members of my family lived in Victorian/Edwardian houses during the 50's and 60's and they all had coal cellars as you describe. My house was built in 1959/60 and has a coal storage shed attached (since re-purposed). It was only towards the end of the 60's that most new houses were built without an open grate. By then coal was being replaced by electric and gas heating which was not as labour intensive as an open coal fire. Coal as a fuel had been in decline since before the war except for the generation of electricity and one of the nails in the coffin was the advent of North Sea gas. The bulk transport of household coal by rail ceased to be viable well before that traffic ceased.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Not done much this morning except pottering about. The weather at the moment is pretty dire but it's stopped raining for now. The forecast for the week ahead is looking good, by Tuesday we should have just a bit of cloud and temperatures in the mid to high teens. Next weekend, which is a bank holiday we will have a high pressure sitting over the UK.

Further to the above the hopper lorries operated from the larger depots and the smaller depots were closed. The pre bagged coal was often sorted and bagged at or near the pit head and delivered on wooden pallets (and often by road).

Towards the end of household coal deliveries the larger coal merchants used hopper lorries with a weighing and bagging machine at the rear. A few years later coal came pre-packed in plastic sacks delivered to local hardware stores or garden centres. Only recently has delivery and sale of household coal ceased due to clean air legislation.

This might help. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/117554-what-sticks-to-really-useful-boxes/

Not a clinical trial as such but about twenty five years ago I had a rather nasty urine infection. I was put on a different antibiotic each week for four weeks. Some had a negligible effect on the infection if any. After the Fourth one I told my GP that there was an improvement after the third one so he put me back on that one and the infection cleared up within a week. The cause of the infection was one of the antibiotic resistant pathogens, I don't remember now what the name of the antibiotic was. About six weeks ago I had another urine infection and I was passing blood and one testes was swollen to the size of a grapefruit. I immediately called 111 as it was out of surgery hours and I had an emergency consultation with a doctor who prescribed an antibiotic (nitrofurantoin) that cleared the infection straight away. I was sent for a sound scan that revealed that I had an enlarged prostate (the PSA test did not show any cancer) so I was sent to the urology department for an endoscopy which revealed the swollen prostate. The urologist was very forthcoming about what was the cause, though I didn't take it all in but apparently its some changes in my testosterone. The Urologist has put me on a course of a drug called Dutasteride for one year.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. After yesterday's perambulations at the exhibition the arthritis was playing up a bit so before going to bed I took some co-codamol. The result was six hours solid sleep until I had a call-out from bladder control after which I went back to sleep for another hour and a half. Only the odd twinge from the arthritis this morning but a couple of Nurofen sorted that.

Goodnight all.

On the subject of steam into the blue era the VoR was just that. The locomotives were painted overall rail blue with no additions and looked rather drab.

Double groan.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. It was persisting down earlier but its now stopped but the seaweed twirlers are predicting more. All this rain has bought out Arthur Itis who is doing his rain dance so Nurofen has been taken.

They should have asked the local CAMRA branch for help. Also a good substitute for creosote.

Best to empty the loft completely while you can still get up there as the day will come when you can't get up there. I can no longer get up into my loft but luckily I've only got some empty boxes up there.

The pillar is on the one inside wall of the shed, it is 9" x 9". However there is a solution, move the pillar so that its outside the shed as there's more than a metre wide opening where a new pillar could be built and a bit of space 'grabbed' for the toilet.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Not a bad show in Romford, I didn't spend much. The only fly in the ointment was that they had marked off disabled bays with traffic cones Car width/2 traffic cones/car width etc. as there was no official disabled places. When I came out I found someone had moved the traffic cones to in front of my car and parked has car so close to mine that I couldn't open the drivers door. I reported it to the chap doing the car parking and he called the exhibition manager who took one look at the car and said he knew who's car it was and he'd get him to move it. The owner turned up a few minutes later wearing an exhibition stewards badge, he was a member of the host club. One of the other stewards who was there opined that the car owner would get a Bight Rollocking at the next meeting.

I've got a garage and three sheds. The garage(rented from the council) is used for storage as even the i10 wouldn't fit in there so there's no chance that its replacement would fit. Shed # 1 is at the bottom of the garden and is as rotten as a pear, and it's got woodworm. Shed # 2 is a diminutive shed used for garden tools. Shed # 3 is brick built and is attached to the house. It was built as a coal store originally it was external but when the house was extended its now internal. Its about 1 x 2 metres inside and it is earmarked to become a downstairs loo. The problem is that it is single skin brick and will require insulating. Also halfway along one of the long walls is a brick pillar that supports one corner of the house and if insulation is installed will reduce the width to less than 60 cm. That means that Singapore is no longer on @polybear's bucket list.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Just a short hello before I go to the exhibition at Romford.

Goodnight all.

I started out setting the time on my microwave but the clock used to lose several minutes a day that I had to keep adjusting it, in the end I gave up.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I don't know where today's gone, I went shopping this afternoon and that took longer than expected, I guess that I'm getting slower as I get older. I withdrew some more modelling tokens this afternoon as I'm visiting the Ilford and West Essex exhibition in Romford tomorrow. The venue is Marshals Park academy in Petits Lane, Romford. There used to be an exhibition there a few years ago run by the now defunct Romford model railway club.

It's now 16 years and 26 days since I retired. I worked for 37 years 6 months and 9 days to get my pension which means I've got 21 years, 5 months and 14 days until I've collected my pension for as long as I paid into it. That is of course if I live to 92.

Not EU silliness but Brexit stupidity.

But don't tell him Pike!