The Night Mail

[AndyID]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Thank you.  I was worried you'd turned up to do a council job at someones house and you'd been invited in for a cup of tea, muffins and crumpet.🤣 

 

I was tempted to make a crude reference to crumpet but I thought better of it.

[AndyID]

We had great weather on the coast and despite the availability of swimming pools, a small river, baseball bats, and ingredients to make smores there were no serious injuries to any of the eight children in attendance.

 

We did go to an oyster bar at Samish on the coast. Amtrak runs along here on the way to Vancouver but it's not running at the moment because of the virus. Note the well protected level-crossing.

 

 

 

[SM42]

The east wing is now weathertight  

Which is lucky as it is raining. 

 

Had the work experience lad with them today.  He said as he's on work experience he should watch them and not actually do work 🤔

 

I think his experience of work today  was rather disappointing as he had to do some, albeit slowly. 

 

Still from little acorns.

 

Andy with a door now

[Happy Hippo]

Typical Shropshire morning:  Sun's out, but there are grey clouds looming in the south west.

 

 Obviously Danemouth and br2975 and are kindly letting me have their excess rainfall.

[br2975]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

 Obviously Danemouth and br2975 and are kindly letting me have their excess rainfall.

.

I doubt we  have any spare following last evening's deluge..

[New Haven Neil]

8 hours ago, SM42 said:

Snip<

 

Had the work experience lad with them today.  He said as he's on work experience he should watch them and not actually do work 🤔

 

 

No doubt he'll want his first job to be at least over £30k and in charge.....🤬

[Compound2632]

9 hours ago, SM42 said:

Had the work experience lad with them today.  He said as he's on work experience he should watch them and not actually do work 🤔

 

Experiencing work is one of life's little pleasures.

[Oldddudders]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Experiencing work is one of life's little pleasures.

Watching it is a greater one....

[Compound2632]

16 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Watching it is a greater one....

 

That's what I meant: "experiencing" work in the sense understood by @SM42's work experience student.

 

If I'm going to have to be more explicit in my humour for it to be recognised as such, I think I'll give up trying for it.

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Experiencing work is one of life's little pleasures.

Matthew’s school was in a work experience project. They were having a lot of problems finding places locally but Matthew got a week in a fire safety firms office/warehouse. That went fairly well but they couldn’t find anything for the remaining time. So parents were asked. Aditi got him a post with the publicity manager at her college. Part of that was helping arrange a conference about work placements for young people with learning difficulties. On his penultimate day he was asked to be there ask some questions at a rehearsal for the event. As a result of his questions he was told not to attend the event.I don’t think the organisers could cope with his forensic enquiry. As he had been asked the day before to prepare a few questions, he did some research, unlike some journalists we see on broadcast media. 
When he went to Australia for an intern scheme before starting a masters at LSE unlike everyone else getting posts in big organisations he got one in a Co-working office. They provided big company facilities, legal. HR, and conference facilities for small businesses. It was a fairly relaxed environment. One of the interview questions was “how do feel about Champ, the office dog?”  As he had said he was happy about all the other tasks he had been asked to do he thought he had better set a boundary so he said he didn’t mind dogs but would prefer not to have poo picking up as a duty (except of course if he took him for a walk!). 
The work placement he had while at the LSE was so awful he decided,he really wasn’t really suited to a career in HR management, hence his decision to start a research masters and then the PhD he started in Ireland. 

Edited June 29, 2022 by Tony_S

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Experiencing work is one of life's little pleasures.

 

31 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Watching it is a greater one....

Having staff to do it for you, is even better!

[simontaylor484]

8 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Having staff to do it for you, is even better!

Or in Captain Cynical s case a whole army of minions

[Northmoor]

Not my first experience of work, but the industrial training (sandwich) year of my MechEng degree set me up for my career.  I worked for 14 months, not just the expected 12 and split the time between the Tech Development and Metallurgy labs, although they would have gladly given me time in the drawing office or other areas if I'd asked for it.  What I learned, especially in the second half of my time there, was the difference between me finishing with a 2:1 (just) and a 2:2 (which wasn't certain); they set me up with and supported my final year project which pulled me over the threshold and I learned things I still benefit from nearly 30 years later.  Had I not accepted an offer from the MoD the previous day, I would have taken the company's offer for a minimum six-month contract as a Technician; plenty of grads didn't immediately find employment in the early 1990s, so to be offered two jobs in two days was heartening!

We were all young and fresh-faced once and @SM42's young builder might end up running his own company one day.  He's probably not the sort to expect to be in charge from day one; we had a few at the defence company I worked at for 16 years who came straight from Uni (like me) and were disappointed not to be senior project managers two years later.  It didn't register that the people that were in those roles had twenty years experience, not two and the application of those 20 years was why their projects weren't going Tango Uniform.

[Compound2632]

30 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Or in Captain Cynical s case a whole army of minions

 

That leads to endless trouble, as I recall from the films.

[Happy Hippo]

We are about to set off for Wappenshall, and Brian and Dave's gift of the rain has arrived.

 

[SM42]

My work experience week was arranged through my uncle at his employers.

I spent a week with him using a large Cincinatti ( IIRC) lathe at a local engineering firm. There was also a site tour during my week including the drop forge and the shot blasting shed.

 

The latter highlighted the importance of eye protection  as a high speed projectile ricocheted of my safety glasses.

 

I still have the various test pieces I turned, including turning a radius to produce something that looked like a rivet ( second one was better than the first)

 

I did actually do something to help the company though and I like to think there is still a Caterpillar diesel engine out there somewhere still with a components I  made. 

 

It was an enlightening week and taught me a lot, not only about metalbashing but also the  culture of work. 

 

I've never looked back and have not used a lathe in my career since.

 

Andy the desk jockey 

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Having staff to do it for you, is even better!

Simples then.  Become a cat.

 

Jamie

[Dave Hunt]

16 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

I've just been obliged to go to the cinema to see a film about fighter pilots, instead of being allowed out for model railway club evening. Apparently it's a sequel to one that I've never seen and don't now feel the need to, since I've got the gist. It was basically Star Wars anyway.

 

But it does confirm an unpatriotic view I have held for a long while, that United States Navy dress uniforms are a good deal smarter than Royal Navy ones.

 

If you are referring to the Top Gun sequel, unless it is an order of magnitude more realistic than the original it will be a load of the product of a horse's bottom and I have no intention of going to see it. As far as what you call dress uniforms, it depends on whether you mean what we would call number 1 day dress or mess kit. In the former case I would tend to agree with you but I think that the RN mess kit is smarter and less showy than than that of the USN.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

I have today committed a basic schoolboy error. This morning we were discussing what to get a friend for her birthday and I had a brainwavefart. "I know," says I, "Let's get her one of those things we saw a few months ago at Trentham Gardens. Then we can have lunch there and that will save us cooking this evening." 

 

My idea was that we would go into the main shop at Trentham, go straight to where the required item was to be found, buy said item, go to the restaurant, have lunch, go home.

 

Stupid boy.

 

We traipsed round every bl**dy corner of the place examining virtually everything on offer until my legs ached but eventually my general demeanour was an obvious giveaway and I was told to go and have a coffee until herself had finished 'shopping'. 

 

We did finally get a late late lunch though so one part of my plan worked.

 

Dave

 

 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2022 by Dave Hunt

[iL Dottore]

16 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

If you are referring to the Top Gun sequel, unless it is an order of magnitude more realistic than the original it will be a load of the product of a horse's bottom and I have no intention of going to see it. As far as what you call dress uniforms, it depends on whether you mean what we would call number 1 day dress or mess kit. In the former case I would tend to agree with you but I think that the RN mess kit is smarter and less showy than than that of the USN.

 

Dave

Your wish is my command.....

https://www.nbc15.com/2022/06/08/real-top-gun-pilot-reflects-accuracy-entertainment-top-gun-maverick/

[Dave Hunt]

17 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

I think our own Vice Air Marshall may be able to comment on that last sentence.

 

I refer my honourable friend to the reply I gave earlier.

 

Dave

17 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I had assumed he was RAF. I'm probably making some gross social blunder here...

 

You are forgiven.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

4 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Your wish is my command.....

https://www.nbc15.com/2022/06/08/real-top-gun-pilot-reflects-accuracy-entertainment-top-gun-maverick/

 

I suppose he's entitled to his opinion but in my experience it's not what my contemporaries thought of it. I think that his last statement about it being good PR gives the gist of things.

 

Dave

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Morning all,

 

A Land Rover is being bought today, and to keep you interested I won’t say anything else about it until it’s happened….

 

 

Re work experience week. Not something schools in the USA do anymore. You can do 3 week internships mostly with doctors or petroleum engineers, but you are let’s say “expected” to live in a certain tax bracket for that privilege, because god forbid we have someone from north Tulsa walking around the ONEOK office! That is sarcasm btw, but sadly the school

system in Oklahoma, which is the least funded in the country, does not do internships because people who would be successful in those roles will obviously  go to the private schools, and anybody who’s in the public system is only good for being on a landscaping team during the summer, rather than assisting an ER doctor. Very sad. 
 

Douglas

[jamie92208]

13 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

I suppose he's entitled to his opinion but in my experience it's not what my contemporaries thought of it. I think that his last statement about it being good PR gives the gist of things.

 

Dave

Our mutual friend, Uncle T referred to the original  as a comedy film to be wztched after several beers for a good laugh.

 

Jamie

[Dave Hunt]

2 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Our mutual friend, Uncle T referred to the original  as a comedy film to be wztched after several beers for a good laugh.

 

Jamie

 

Which just goes to show what a fine assessor of screen entertainment he is. And as a test pilot he has had more than his fair share of flying entertainment.

 

Dave