Sunday Variety

Please take note!

Busy week. Christian Fellowship meetings today and tomorrow; routine doctor's appointment Wednesday morning; car for pre-expedition service Wednesday afternoon; Thursday to Isle of Wight; Friday lunch with correspondent Alan and his Mrs; ride on the new Island Line train(s); Saturday friend's daughter's wedding; Sunday morning taking service at former church in East Cowes; Monday returning home. Somewhere very soon need to prepare said service!

So a quiet week ahead!

Unless anything REALLY DRAMATIC happens in the world of Public Transport, mini-blogs will apply from today until Tuesday 15th June inclusive.

Please take note 2!

fbb apologies unreservedly for some pretty gruesome errors in recent blogs. Some have been spotted by correspondents, others have been politely ignored. Put it down to old age and incompetence - too little time to do homework! Must try harder!

More Purple Platinum

G B Railfreight class 66 Jubilee-ised. And on the North Norfolk Railway ...

... a more minimalist treatment of their class 47; a Union Flag ...

... a purple buffer beam and ...

... purple nameplate!

Talking of Purple ...

London Buses seem to think that the Elizabeth Line line has opened. Sadly there has been very little publicity for the timetable changes on many bus routes that serve Purple stations!

The Bidding Room ...

... is yet another daytime TV antiques programme. Punters bring along their valued items, present them to a team of extrovert dealers who bid for them! All is overseen by smoothie thespian Nigel Havers (who must be desperate for work!). In a recent episode a seller turned up with a Jouef train set.

Jouef is a French model railway company, now owned by Hornby but, in the past, trading at the toy train set end of the market. The set on offer came with transformer and controller, three wagons, a juddery tank engine and a simple circle of track. It came in a very dilapidated box.

Briefly, Jouef entered the UK market with a poor selection of rolling stock under the Playcraft name.

But the Pierrefitte wagon was definitely French with french couplings ...

... so utterly incompatible with UK models. Amazingly, the chubby jolly one bid £50 and his bid was accepted.

Even fbb in his most enthusiastic desire for a modelling bargain would consider £50 about £45 too much!

The Silver Bullet (OO Version) Arrives ...

... but not one of the Lone Ranger's

fbb will complete the unboxing tomorrow!

Note Mrs fbb's beslippered foot, top right.

Which reminds fbb that his lovely wife is beginning her slow but successful return from hip replacement to domesticity by tackling the occasional kitchen task. A highlight has been the creation of three fruit loaves for our Sunday and Monday fellowship meetings.

Observant readers will notice that rigorous testing has been in progress to ensure that cake is of the highest quality for our "congregations".

It is - especially with a good dollop of butter on each slice!

Information Is Power

Or so they used to say. Has any of our readers read the notices as displayed at the front of a typical bus?

Thought not. 

Here is a part display from Arriva ...

... and part two on the same bus as recently twittered.

Waste of time and space!

Are You Wearing Your White Clothes?

In the UK we call it Whitsun, a shortening of White Clothing Sunday and thus a name that has very little to do with the reason for the special day. The idea was that white apparel signified the purity of God's gifts.

The "correct" name for the Festival is "Pentecost" - except that even that name is less than accurate.

For a non-believer or cynic the whole narrative is a bit spooky - it even is for some Christians! But before the risen Jesus paid his final farewell to his disappointed band of followers, he offered them a new deal.

"Stay in Jerusalem", he told them, "and I will send God's Spirit to help you." So, they were gathered together, behind closed doors, afraid for their lives, but waiting.

When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place.

Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there.

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

Weird or was it weird?

Hard to believe? Probably - but, any time an eternal God steps into our puny little world to make things happen, it will always be hard to believe unless you are open minded and want to understand.

Maybe the best way to understand what happened is to look at the consequences.

And A Puzzle Picture

The "where" should be easy ...

... but what train is it?

Answer in tomorrow's mini-post.

 Next Variety Blog : Monday 6th June