First Thing The Computer Guy Called Round,

Tom asked me to copy onto a disc the pictures I took of his party, naturally my DVD burner decided to call it a day, so the guy from Wattana gave it a good rebooting or something and now it is OK, he then downloaded some updates which totally disabled my blog page software, so back to an earlier date point, only to find that I had lost all of my e-mail address and all of my web page favorites AND the blog page still did not work! so back to as it was, the problem is that I cannot move pictures when they are in the blog, so if I find something I want to upload it is the leading picture, I can not drag it down as I was used to, also the right click on my mouse now no longer works, oh well back to pen and paper!

and back to the railways, scroll down if you are not into boys toys, it is full steam ahead on the trains! this is roughly what I want the finished track to look like, there are 4 oval lines, 2 electric and 2 steam, with a 5th line going down to the turntable and roundhouse, with a spur going to a small goods yard,

the 3 line goods yard,

but that is jumping the gun a bit, first I wanted to give the roundhouse a grimy used look, soot coal and dirt, so I made a mix of these, I wetted the dry plaster first or else the paint would soak in to quick,

also I did not mix all of the paint evenly, so if the brush hit the brown or black those few strokes would be more of what ever colour the brush hit,

busy, busy!

I wanted to continue the grimy look a little way up the slop,

and around the turntable,

the nearly finished "look",

meanwhile Diana was "ageing" one of the passenger wagons,

giving it a grimy and rusty look, I must admit I have always liked the idea of the engines and rolling stock to look used, the good news is that if I change my mind it all washes off with soapy water,

then time for our evening meal,

fish and UK chips for me, as usual way to much, so Diana helped out,

then feet up to watch some DVD's first up, Robert Falcon Scott, one of the many true adventures, as some of the narrators so eloquently point out, hind sight is a wonderful thing, also of note is that the only team to go completely across the ice cap that has not been resupplied at some part of the journey has been wholly human, not a dog or mechanical team has made it with out a supply drop or two, so I guess the old way of thinking of "man hauling" your own supplies still wins out,

then for Diana and me out and out slap stick comedy, DodgeBall, OK not every ones cup of tea, but funny for us, lines like, "this has not happened since the Helsinki incident in 1919, and we all know how that one worked out!" still bring me out in a chuckle, in my trade very reminiscent of the '73 guppy wars,

it was still a little bit early, so a couple of episodes of the first series of I Didn't Know You Cared, Uncle Mort was in good form, he was describing his association with ladies, in his soft Northern accent,

"they weigh twice as much when they lay down in bed, they roll on top you, yu can 'ardly breathe - it's like going t'sleep under a pile of bicycles"

then off to bed for us!