It Has Been One Of Those Weeks

Regular readers will know that due to Mrs fbb's crippling arthritis in the right hip, fbb has been on full domestic duty for some time. After 47 years of loyal and dedicated service from the Mrs' victualling and catering service (with occasional help from the agnate line) fbb finds himself visiting supermarkets, cooking meals and operating the dishwasher. Those who complain about the occasional poor quality of the blogs may wish to understand.

A blog takes an average of two hours a day to research and write although sometimes that time is combined in a massive blog writing binge followed by a day or two unblogging and unblocking the aged brain.

Which bit does the blogging?

Monday 21st - Preparation for our monthly leaflet, distributed to about 50 persons who attend or prayerfully support our "duplicate" Sunday and Monday afternoon Christian get togethers with afternoon tea. (should that be "gets together"?)

Four A5 pages combining a quiz (often secular) with some Bible facts and a few spiritually helpful thoughts. This month, it is N for Nicodemus.

Tuesday 22nd - Above continued. The material, pictures, Bible extracts assembled on Monday are then turned into the leaflet itself. This task was interspersed with a bit of railway modelling and the flickering light bulb disaster.

Wednesday 23rd - Visit of our Isle of Wight correspondent and wife, always a joyous time including our 2021 Christmas Dinner (sadly not a Christmas menu) running a little late but at the Ship Inn Axminster. This is an annual event housed in a variety or hostelries with each couple paying in alternate years. It was the fbb's turn. The Ship at Axminster was the venue.

Top scran menu! And not much achieved after they left fbb mansions at 1700.

Thursday 24th - A full-on catering and shopping morning. A "vat of stoo" was assembled using all fresh ingredients (except the stock pots) and will provide 3 further meals after yesterday's dindins.

Plus buying stamps before the price of postage goes up. Did you know that the long established colours of red and blue have changed ...

... to purple and green. It ain't natural! 

Also, you have got QR codes as well. Apparently you will not be able to use stamps WITHOUT QR codes after January 2023. It is all designed to confuse the old people!

But there was time for a bit of modelling. The Peterville rock face (see also Dawlish and Teignmouth) has collapsed. Unlike the real thing, the supporting bit of plywood is revealed.

To help the Tetrion (other fillers are available!) stick, fbb has plastered the gap with PVA glue (A "No More Nails" look-alike) ...

... followed by a first coat of plaster filler.

It looks a bit like royal icing on a Christmas cake but doesn't taste as nice. It is only this bit that is perennially unstable (reason unknown) so maybe fbb should think about rock-filled gabions.

A model version has recently been added to the Wills (a k a Peco) range, so fbb might consider emulating reality.

Gabion comes from an Italian word for "large cage" - so you shouldn't say Gabion Cage as that is, in reality, saying "large cage cage" - like "PIN number" which reads "Personal Identity Number number".

Another layer of royal icing will go on sometime over the weekend.

Oh yes; the new (expensive) light bulbs arrived, have been installed and they DO dim and they DON'T flicker. Dim and Bright - a bit like the progress of fbb's brain in phases throughout the day.

O

Friday 25th March (yes that's today)

Leading Church prayer meeting today from 1000 to 1100. After a few errands that will be most of the morning gone. The time is valuable and some pretty hefty things are on the Prayer List for today. 

After Saturday's blog is completed, the rest of the afternoon may well be devoted to a bit more railway modelling and/or a close examination of the inside of fbb's eyelids.

There's that vintage Airfix Kit to work on.

What WILL Hulley's Run On Sunday?

Will the 257 be hourly as shown on Derbyshire's version of the Sunday timetable - which includes the BST "British Summer Time" extras? Then will the hourly service revert to two hourly for the new route, not happening from April 17th.

fbb bets a small bag of chewy toffees that the winter two hourly service will continue to operate until the route changes on 17th prox.

We Admit It - It Was Illegal

Question? When does compensation and redundancy pay become more expensive than the savings they are making by using cheap labour?

Is P & O's decision daft?

It all started going belly-up when they changed their logo from a large "P & O" in dark blue ...

... to a large "P&O" in dark blue - but not quite as dark as the older dark blue.

Clearly the huge sums the company paid to the brand consultancy people must have tipped the balance and led the operation into its huge losses. 

P & O stands for Peninsular and Orient being the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and then Spain) and expansion to the East (Orient) making loadsa money from the Opium Wars.

P & O Cruises is a completely separate company and not involved in any way with the Ferry business. The directors of P & O Cruises must be pig-sick at their policy of keeping the traditional name. They have had to issue a disclaimer.

As Britain’s favourite cruise line, your loyalty, advocacy and support has always meant the world to us. P&O Cruises has been part of Carnival Corporation & plc for over 20 years and has no connection to P&O Ferries. Our thoughts go out to all those affected. However, please be assured it’s business as usual on our cruises and our crew look forward to welcoming you on board soon.

Meanwhile, back with P & O Ferries.

The headline on their main web site seems a little understated!

The Sadness Of Things

A while back fbb reported on the sad demise of Wrights of Newark, a long term bus and coach operator and one that was well established and well respected. The owners wanted to retire and wanted to sell - but nobody wanted to buy.

So the fleet is being auctioned.

A sad end to a good company.

Take Me To Your Leader

An expensive but delightful OO model of a one-off experimental steam locomotive that was an expensive one-off!

And the real thing did, indeed, look like that!

Really weird. Remember it was a steam locomotive! And there it is ...

... steaming!

 Next Variety blog (possibly) : Saturday 26th March