Out With the Cold

Well, I finally seem to have gotten the better of that cold which has been plaguing me for the past few weeks.  Which means that I can finally give up the diet of Lemsip and Strepsils which, for the last week, has helped me turn the tide against this cold.  The difficulty I have had in shaking off this cold has been a salutary lesson for me as to just how much my immune system has been weakened by having diabetes.  A couple of years ago,  I would have been able to take a cold like this in my stride, rather than having it linger for three weeks, (mind you, a couple of years ago, I would have been able to take larger doses of cold and flu medication to suppress the symptoms, but with all the stuff I now take for my blood pressure, I have to be careful).   Ultimately, it just emphasises the fact that I really need to avoid catching Covid-19 if at all possible - if my immune system has such trouble dealing with a milder coronavirus like a common cold, what chance would it stand against the real thing?

Anyway, with the cold out of the way, I'm hoping to be a bit more productive here and finally get around to writing about some of the schlock movies I've been watching of late.  I'm assuming I'll have more time - we're on lockdown, after all, and work still haven't got back to me to tell me what I'm supposed to be doing: all they've said is not to go into the office and that we've been pulled from the streets.  Which leaves me, for the time being, observing the government's directive to stay at home.  As with last week, I can see that I'm going to have to chase down my managers to try and get some kind of directive from them - otherwise, I know what the bastards will do: accuse me of being AWOL and use that to try and sack me.  Trust me, the fact that we're in a middle of a pandemic won't worry them - they have no consciences.  But enough of those bastards, let's have a quick look at something more constructive that I've been spending some time on - remember that battered Hornby Dublo West Country body I bought cheaply a while ago?  Well, it has now been united with an early Wrenn chassis:

The tender is borrowed from another West Country which is still being restored (note the slightly different shade of green, temporary lining and lack of BR totems, which are yet to be applied).  As I've mentioned before, tenders for these locos go for ridiculous prices on eBay (which, thanks to the coronavirus lockdown, is currently the only second hand market I have access to).  So, I'm looking to convert a Triang Hornby Battle of Britain tender into a representation of the 5500 gallon type of tender that the majority of rebuilt Bulleid pacifics were paired with, (Hornby Dublo and Wrenn always modeled the much rarer 5250 gallon rebuilt type of tender).  If I still have time on my hands, I might be able to get this bit of the project moving in the near future.