The Night Mail

[Dave Hunt]

Regarding Bear's post about the use of terminate rather than abort to end an exercise, the change was simply because NATO was standardising terminologies and adopted the American terminate rather than what we the Brits had been using, I.e., abort.

 

Dave

[Happy Hippo]

8 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Regarding Bear's post about the use of terminate rather than abort to end an exercise, the change was simply because NATO was standardising terminologies and adopted the American terminate rather than what we the Brits had been using, I.e., abort.

 

Dave

Let's use a long word instead of a short one🤣.

[jjb1970]

Personally I still think 'assault ship' and 'hunter-killer submarine' are much better than 'LPH', LPHD', 'SSN' and 'SSK'.

[Dave Hunt]

Take a bit longer to type, though, and aren't subject to misinterpretation due to mistranslation.

 

Dave

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

A few years later I had to go and inform the shift at South Kirkby, an isolated former mining community, that they were about to get a new female probationer who was openly gay and that they had to be careful.  It went fairly well.  Afterwards I went out in a panda with one of the crews to a shout.  We crossed into the next village which is South Elmsall.  I asked "Where exactly is the boundary between the two villages". "It's Elmsall Dyke boss,   oh sh1t" we all disolved into laughter.

 

Jamie

Those into brass band music may recall the Black Dyke Mills Band. They once did a tour of the USA and they had to explain that their name was not offensive.

[Happy Hippo]

3 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Take a bit longer to type, though, and aren't subject to misinterpretation due to mistranslation.

 

Dave

'I say Dave, As there is a rather nasty projectile heading towards your tailpipe, I might respectfully request you move off to the right .'

 

Or  

 

'Dave: SAM: Break right!

 

 

[polybear]

20 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Let's use a long word instead of a short one🤣.

 

Big H beat me to it - for a word often used when you need a fast response it'd make far more sense to use a shorter word.  Only that would mean the U.S. standardising to the UK terminology - and there's more chance of knitting fog than that happening...

[PhilJ W]

I see that Agathagate will be dealt with at twelve today. A tiff between two silly cows with more money than sense. Its estimated that its cost them £1.5 million each, a good time to be a lawyer methinks. Only thing is what are the tabloids going to write about next?

[bbishop]

Except that sometimes the short word can be ambiguous.  "yes, well, I'll think about it" can be misinterpreted.  LAS people either use "yes, yes" or "affirmative".

[simontaylor484]

We had a code of conduct at the Council that had been brought in by the Cheif Executive (CX) now this CX was from out of the area, I think she is now with an Authority out Manchester way. She tried to stop us calling the public public they were Residents or Citizens calling anyone Love was out.

This is Yorkshire, calling someone Luv can either be male or female. It was quite amusing at mother job being called Luv by a rather large Barnsley lorry driver.

 

Needless to say not many of the frontline dealing with public day to day took any notice of this despite having to sign a copy on an annual basis.

[simontaylor484]

6 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I see that Agathagate will be dealt with at twelve today. A tiff between two silly cows with more money than sense. Its estimated that its cost them £1.5 million each, a good time to be a lawyer methinks. Only thing is what are the tabloids going to write about next?

There is always Meghan bl00dy Markle

[PhilJ W]

4 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

We had a code of conduct at the Council that had been brought in by the Cheif Executive (CX) now this CX was from out of the area, I think she is now with an Authority out Manchester way. She tried to stop us calling the public public they were Residents or Citizens calling anyone Love was out.

This is Yorkshire, calling someone Luv can either be male or female. It was quite amusing at mother job being called Luv by a rather large Barnsley lorry driver.

 

Needless to say not many of the frontline dealing with public day to day took any notice of this despite having to sign a copy on an annual basis.

I worked in the payroll department of a London Borough. One day one of the trade union branch secretaries came storming into the office while I was dealing with another employee shouting about a payment that was due to him. I had not even been informed about the payment and told him so but he kept ranting on so I told him to F off. That as you might imagine put the cat amongst the pigeons. I apologised to the employee I was dealing with and he said he would have said the same thing in the circumstances. As it happened I was a rep for the same union but a different branch. Half an hour later I got a call from the regional secretary and I explained to him what had happened and he said he would deal with it. Next time the branch secretary came into the office he was full of apologies. What had happened was his line manager told him a payment was going to be paid to him and then omitted to pass it on to the payroll department.

[jjb1970]

When I worked in electricity generation the staff were unionised and the operators, fitters, plant auxiliaries etc were represented by a union which could be described as active and with a robust approach to pay negotiations. Everybody outside thought they must be the union from hell for management, but actually there was a very positive relationship. Their focus was T&C's and helping members in trouble, as part of that they weren't interested in vexatious trouble making and didn't want management having excuses to rock the boat. Meaning they were very good at keeping the shop floor well behaved. I was an operations manager, if I noticed people starting to extract the urine on time keeping, questionable claims, not doing their job etc my first port of call was actually the union rep. I didn't mention names obviously but I'd just mention I had a problem with a certain behaviour, if things didn't turn around I would have to make it official and start following up with the relevant company procedures. Every time (literally every time) things reverted to a happy state of affairs almost immediately. For me the union was great, and they always got their members great pay deals, so everybody was happy.

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

I see that Agathagate will be dealt with at twelve today. A tiff between two silly cows with more money than sense. Its estimated that its cost them £1.5 million each, a good time to be a lawyer methinks. Only thing is what are the tabloids going to write about next?

Probably  me giving my tablesaw the finger 

[BoD]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Regarding Bear's post about the use of terminate rather than abort to end an exercise, the change was simply because NATO was standardising terminologies and adopted the American terminate rather than what we the Brits had been using, I.e., abort.

 

Dave

 

To be fair, Arnold Shwartzenegger in 'The Abortinator' doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

[polybear]

3 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

A tiff between two silly cows with more money than sense. 

 

Careful - that could be libellous....

Oh, hang on, it's true.  You're safe.

 

3 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

She tried to stop us calling the public public they were Residents or Citizens calling anyone Love was out.

 

 

Yet HR refer to the employees as "Resources".  Bear isn't a f. resource.  I'm a Bear.  Poke that, Ms. HR Director....

edit:  Whatever was wrong with the term "Personnel Dept."?

Edited July 29, 2022 by polybear

[Compound2632]

3 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Those into brass band music may recall the Black Dyke Mills Band. They once did a tour of the USA and they had to explain that their name was not offensive.

 

Oh dear yes... I do wonder though, if there were some audiences who found the band members didn't meet expectations and demanded their money back.

[br2975]

6 hours ago, polybear said:

Please - don't leave it too long.....🤣

.

I worked for many years with  a fellow police officer who hailed from Bridgeton, Glasgow.

.

His full name was John Kenneth T******

.

He was known by everyone as "Jock"

.

One day around 1998 'Jock' was working the station enquiry desk , as I appeared from the nearby cells and called "Alright Jock ?"

.

A female Inspector, and our Superintendent were passing when the Inspector (who I had known since I joined, and with whom I'd served as a PC) , out to score 'Brownie points' in front of the boss, says

"Brian, there is no place for nicknames in today's police service"

Quick as a flash I retorted - "What's your full name Jock ?"

He replied - "John Kenneth T*******"

"And, what is the Scots  for someone called John ?" - I knowingly asked.

"Jock, or Jocky" replied my colleague, with a knowing wink.

Exit stage left, yours truly, grinning, well aware of an Inspector glaring at my back.

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by br2975

[Happy Hippo]

A busy day so far. I started out by continuing the demolition of Splott West Sidings.  In it's present form, it's too bulky and heavy, but it's a lot of fun to operate, so the chances are that it will be restructured.  That means all the stuff less the track and ballast stripped off and the track bed cut out with a jig saw.  This makes storing a couple of 'track flats' an easy proposition.  It can then have new lightweight ply/foam boards made and resurrected at a later date.

 

I'm carrying out the partial demolition as I am not quite in the manual dexterity zone for scenic work on Pantmawr North. It will also free up quite a bit of space.  However with the current price of timber, I'm going to be looking at recycling all the timber I can and recover it for reuse elsewhere.

 

Note to self:  The recycling of the timber includes cutting it up with various power tools.

 

I was then dragged out to the local garden centre on a mission to purchase more seeds for next years veg.  This took a lot longer than I anticipated, although I did run into one of the SWS operating team, who had not been seen since we stopped meeting as the Wrekin Finescale Group when every one went into Covid lockdown.

 

I may be minded to resurrect the WFG come the autumn which could prove entertaining (or not).

 

Cleaning duties now beckon.

 

 

 

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Back to Wrekin Havoc, HH?  It's been a while.

 

MER was heaving again today, for the continuing transport festival, cars 1, 2, 7, 9, 14, 21, 32, 33 and a clopper in service - first day of the cloppertrams for three years.

 

[Happy Hippo]

3 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Back to Wrekin Havoc, HH?  It's been a while.

 

I still have everything for WH, apart from the boards, the track and the two big sheds (goods and target).  The guardroom the barriers and fencing, all the figures and the Tea van are all extant as are all the vehicles apart from the tank.

 

I keep getting the urge to get back out into the garden and have a new site behind the garage cleared and earmarked to set up a small 'roundy' of around 18' x 14'. (Which would be bigger than the original 14' x 12'.)

 

However, I am wondering that in the interests of speed of construction, and lower maintenance of the track, whether a drop in track gauge, but not scale might be on the cards.  Peco SM32 track instead of hand laid, as the SM45 stuff is astronomically expensive.  Of course 18" gauge railways were a speciality of the British military towards the end of the 19th century.

 

The question then becomes what do I do with all my hand built 45 mm gauge track?  The locos and rolling stock are not an issue as they are easy to re-gauge.

 

Time for more procrastination.

[The White Rabbit]

10 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

...  This is Yorkshire, calling someone Luv can either be male or female. It was quite amusing at another job being called Luv by a rather large Barnsley lorry driver... 

 

I'm not sure I'd describe it as amusing. But yes, 'luv' is (almost!) interchangeable with words such as 'mate' or 'pal' - and folk from Barnsley are renowned for the former. Maybe I'm displaying my prejudices but when you're used to only being called 'love' by your girlfriend/fiancee/squeeze, hearing it from a 16 stone 6'4" Hulk kinda grabs your attention in a scary sorta way... Another peril of the exhibition circuit! 

[figworthy]

22 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

A while back there was a TV program on the subject  that showed a panel of general Joe Public a dramatised work scenario. 

At various stages they were asked if they had seen any discrimination  in  the work place. 

 

All said "no" many times when things like compliments were paid about a new hair do  or other such niceties of life that no-one gives a second thought about. 

Opinions only changed when things got really openly discriminatory 

 

The crunch came at the end when the legal professional explained what a low bar there is to prove discrimination. Even saying you like someone's dress, suit, tie or new look can be seen as discrimination. 

 

It seems you have to second guess how someone will react to anything you might say or do, no matter how innocent or just being nice you think it is. 

 

It was a real eye opener and a bit depressing. 

 

Andy

 

 

I remember a conversation 10 years ago with a lady of my acquittance (social rather than professional).  She was bemoaning that no one paid her compliments any more (e.g "you're looking well today").  A couple of us pointed out to her that in the corporate environment that was now a no no.

 

22 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

When we started getting female fast jet aircrew I was instructing on the Tornado F3 conversion unit. One day I was flying with a female back seater and after the sortie the Boss called me into his office. It turned out that he had heard me say, "OK luv, let's go," as we were walking out to the aircraft. I admitted that what he said was correct but so what? "It could be taken as sexual harassment, calling her luv," he said. I couldn't believe it and said so. "I'm from Liverpool,"I said, "All women there are referred to as luv,"  but he was adamant that it could be misconstrued and I shouldn't do it, at which I'm afraid that I got angry and told him that if he objected he could get a new flight commander because I would quit. Eventually we smoothed things over but when some time later I was talking to a chap from the legal department he said that there were indeed some people who would use what I said as sexual harassment. What a load of horse droppings. Not that I actually changed my ways (which were in no way intended to belittle or harass anyone) but then neither did I get complained about.  

 

Dave

 

That reminds me of the tale told of one of my grandmothers (who didn't have the privilege of being from God's Own County).  She moved to Halifax in the 1930s, and told a bus conductor not to be familiar when he addressed her as "love".

 

Adrian

[Winslow Boy]

10 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Probably  me giving my tablesaw the finger 

 

Thought we'd done that already Big H. But if want we can carry on.

[Dave Hunt]

12 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

'I say Dave, As there is a rather nasty projectile heading towards your tailpipe, I might respectfully request you move off to the right .'

 

Or  

 

'Dave: SAM: Break right!

 

Close HH - 8/10 - but to be 10/10 it would be 'Dave: break right: SAM 7 o'clock.' (addressee, action, information) 

 

Dave