Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

The car was picked up just after 10:30 and returned, serviced and MOT’d just after 4 o’clock. I on the other hand have been busy in the bathroom, after the small amount of filler had been applied and smoothed, I then prepared the woodwork for painting and I also cleaned the walls down too. The job of actually applying paint will start on Tuesday morning as most of Monday will be spent at ‘The Christie’ and I plan to spend the of the weekend in the workshop, although as James is calling round in morning to drop off my birthday card etc, so I’ll probably only get half a day in the workshop tomorrow.

 

The evening was rounded off by settling down and watching some recorded TV with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.

 

Goodnight all 

 

Brian

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The first time I ever travelled abroad on a ferry about 1973 it was so stormy that the ferry was rising and falling about 12-15 feet in the inner harbour at Dover. Despite that the ferry still sailed but because of the noise of waves crashing on the bow I couldn't sleep so I went to the cafeteria for an early breakfast (full English). I was about half way through my breakfast when a member of staff came over and asked me not to sit so close to the door as potential customers were coming in and upon seeing my breakfast were turning round and leaving. I have never had any problems with seasickness or any other travel sickness. Ironically that trip was in early September and the weather was exceptionally bad. A few years later I took a trip to Ostend in December and the sea was so calm that you could see the reflection of passing vessels on the surface.

[The Stationmaster]

6 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

True, I would not want to attempt to dock that thing is a crosswind.

Two bow thrusters and two controllable pitch propellors so she could very nearly turn in her own length if needed.  Not quite as handy as having full azimuth thrusters but not bad provided that there isn't a strong tide running in the same direction as a strong wind when trying to dock.  The big North Sea wind turbine servicing vessels have a lot more superstructure windage than that plus the crane and gangway gear aft and the latest ones can hold their position in all but the strongest wind/tide combinations although they have a more power as well.

 

And we have water - actually coming through pipes instead of running out of them where it shouldn't be running out of them.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[J. S. Bach]

Night owl from the Piedmont.

[TheQ]

7 hours ago, BokStein said:

 

 

I hold that, irrespective of whether we are talking GCSEs, A Levels, Degrees (all levels), PAT Certification of equipment, MoTs, Instrument Calibration (Sorry, The Q) and there are many other examples, the results on which the certificate is written are only valid at the time of test. People and equipment vary from day-to-day in their performance and can often be influenced by external circumstances (aka Ambient Conditions!)

 

 

 

Nothing to be sorry about,  it's a principal of calibration that it's only valid if it passes not just that calibration but the following one and of course it has passed the previous one as well. None of our equipment can be used first time unless it has passed at least 3 times before. 

 

  If one of our major systems fails,  the failure is reviewed,  if it fails by too much all the equipment serviced by that system since the previous calibration is recalled.  The economic consequences are huge,  let alone the safety consequences.  This is why some of our equipment is calibrated monthly and our primary voltage standards weekly. 

 

This is why also my labs  calibration accuracy has to be ten more accurate than the outer lab,  which has to be ten times more accurate than the equipment they service.  That equipment is used by customers  to service,  own in use equipment, or lower standard equipment such as a hand DMM. 

 

Our direct customers include the Atomic Weapons Authority, National Air traffic Services,  many military's, computer chip and hard drive makers,  other calibration houses servicing Airlines,  medical equipment makers. Not surprisingly their requirements are very stiff.. 

 

Edited August 22, 2020 by TheQ

[TheQ]

Mooring awl,  inner Temple Hare, 

And we are still moored up,  the wind has eased. 

I awoke screwed up in a ball, straightening up was somewhat painful.  My hands and finger joints are complaining again. 

 

My worst ferry crossing was from LochMaddy on North Uist to Uig, on Skye.  We were a couple of hours late leaving while the storm eased, it then took double the normal time for the crossing.  The same day the Stornoway, Ullapool ferry tipped on her side but recovered,  tipping all her vehicle cargo over. 

When we left,  the cafeteria was full,  only one other and me stayed for the trip, the rest were clinging onto the leeward side railings heads over the side. 

Total journey time 5 hours instead of 1hour 45minutes.

 

Todays plans, frame work for alleyway entrance,  finish,  the barbeque brick and blockwork.  Dismantle the old barbeque supports. 

 

But first.. 

Time for more sleep. 

[iL Dottore]

20 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

But if you only watch the highlights, when do you get beer, hot dogs, doughnuts and popcorn?

You mean you actually watch the match? I thought the whole idea of American football was to consume large amounts of junk food, drink lots of ice cold, fizzy, coloured, water (excuse me, I mean “beer”)  And be coerced into buying things you don’t really need whilst in the background a number of overpaid, over armoured so-called “athletes” run in to each other at full tilt.

20 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

... diabetes is an awful thing, and should always be dealt with the greatest respect.  Non-diabetics so often do not realise how destructive it is, I suppose that having being in the past a manager of a podiatry department I had a greater awareness of the issues when I was diagnosed, but I have a friend who deals with theirs very badly - it catches up.... it can decimate the body, and most diabetics actually die of cardiac issues, so there's another area to keep an eye on....

I couldn’t agree more on your statement about people without diabetes generally having no idea about the disease. Many decades ago, early in my career, I shadowed a nephrologist for a day and one patient we saw was a young woman (about 23 years of age)  who – through a wilful refusal to follow medical advice - was blind, crippled by neuropathy and in end-stage renal disease (which is why my colleague, the nephrologist, was called in). Needless to say, that young woman wasn’t long for the world.

Like with many chronic diseases, even the best cutting edge medical management is only a very rough approximation of how the body functions in normal circumstances.

18 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

I am not convinced that exam results are any real indicator of either intelligence or indeed the ability to retain knowledge, teaching to pass exams rather then teaching is not the answer, the world is full of highly qualified idiots as it is.

I think what the UK is facing is the (unfortunately) the consequence of a political decision for “educashun, educashun, educashun”,  whereby loads of kids had go to university (whether or not they are ready and/or able to do so), take degrees in subjects - that in more robust times would’ve been dismissed as both puerile and infantile - and then be fostered on a harsh and uncaring world that neither wanted nor needed people who come equipped with paper qualifications and little else.  In a way, I feel sorry for these kids. They get themselves into tremendous debt and end up, far too often, with a paper qualification that is (rightly or wrongly) dismissed as all but worthless by potential future employers

15 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

.....At 05.00 I discovered the milk was off and had to manage without muggertee and Weetabix; there’s nowhere open at that hour to help.  Toast and banana it had to be...

Oh, Dearie me. Oh, Dearie, Dearie me! You are letting down the side! Weetabix!!??!!  What about a full English for your early morning meal?  No milk is really needed for that - the French seem to get by with black coffee and a Gauloise (and if you are really desperate for a muggertee, and have supplies to hand, you can have a mug of “Royal Navy tea“: strong black tea, condensed milk from a tin, extra sugar if so desired, and a tot of rum [probably optional]).

I have just finished reading a fascinating little booklet about “the Traditional English Breakfast“ and whilst the usual suspects are there (sausage, bacon, eggs, etc), a traditional Edwardian or Victorian country house breakfast would also include things - such as slices of cold roast beef, Kedgeree, pork or game pies - that can either be eaten cold or quickly warmed up and thus very suitable for the busy ER on the go.

14 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

... I have suggested to Mrs Stationmaster that she needs to obtain some Duraglit or Brasso to keep all the new exposed copper pipework suitably shiny.  She mentioned something called 'paint' in reply but I have advised her that paint can discolour on pipes conveying hot water so an area of 'failed to agree' remains outstanding...

I am sorry to “rain on your parade“, Mike. But I think it is my duty to inform you (and, ergo, Mrs Stationmaster) that you can get heat resistant paints suitable for painting hot water pipes and radiators (indeed, the hot water radiator in my kitchen is painted a rather attractive Royal Navy dark blue).

Should the receipt of this important information result in you having to paint several linear metres of piping, I offer my apologies (well, not really, but one has to observe the niceties!)

12 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Whilst freely admitting to being no academic wordsmith myself, the standard of written correspondence I dealt with at work from many customers over the last few years was appalling, in both spelling and grammar.  Well written or constructed letters/e mail were very much the exception, not the rule. ..

How one can expect to function in a highly technical world without being able to communicate effectively and coherently is beyond me.

Many years ago, one of my schoolmasters said something that made quite an impression on me; he was of the opinion that the quality of what you write (i.e. coherence, structure, grammar) Is reflective of how you think.  So a badly written, misspelled and incoherent letter indicates that the writer’s thinking processes are equally poor. I’m not sure how universally applicable this maxim would be, but I think it does illustrate a very valid and relevant point.

10 hours ago, pH said:

Our son had similar experiences while working as a teaching assistant and junior lecturer. There was the extra complication that, since university education is so expensive, students have theI’m not sure how universally applicable this maxim would be, but I think it does illustrate a very valid and relevant point. mindset that they are consumers buying a degree. Any suggestion that, apart from money, ability and application may also be involved does not always go down well.

Again, what you are describing I firmly believe is the end result of a process begun a number of years ago. A process, described by one columnist as “prizes for all“, in other words no matter how poor the effort, no matter how worthless the contribution, no one gets criticised and told to “do better“.  All get rewarded, no matter whether or not justified.
One of my professors at University stated, quite bluntly, that the important thing about a university education is that it 1) teaches you how to find the answers to questions (whatever that question may be), 2) how to understand and apply those answers and 3) how to critically examine all points of view/data In search for those answers (no “safe places“, “trigger warnings“ or “no-platforming“ in those days. You were expected to leave your comfort zone and be challenged/shocked/intrigued/appalled)

It’s finally started to rain, so time to open up all the shutters and let some fresher and cooler air into the house.

Enjoy Saturday!

[polybear]

6 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

 I was about half way through my breakfast when a member of staff came over and asked me not to sit so close to the door as potential customers were coming in and upon seeing my breakfast were turning round and leaving. I have never had any problems with seasickness or any other travel sickness. Ironically that trip was in early September and the weather was exceptionally bad.

 

I knew a Wren once who admitted to having done the "cold vegetable soup in a sick bag trick" in the bar of a ferry in rough weather.  If the sight and sounds of her chonking into the bag weren't enough, then the sight of her scooping a handful out and eating it  soon cleared the place.....

 

5 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

And we have water - actually coming through pipes instead of running out of them where it shouldn't be running out of them.

 

Is this the "doorstep" leak?  Where was it actually coming from?

 

Another day of fun working on the kitchen refit beckons.  Today it'll be emptying the wall cupboards (fortunately I've plenty of cardboard boxes to put it all in - but where do I then put the boxes?) then taking them off the walls, single-handed.  I've discovered that a car trolley jack works very well for this job.  Then strip what's left of the wallpaper - the tiles and adhesive went yesterday.  One downside is that the plaster on the party wall sounds very iffy and I suspect will have to come off.  Bvgger.

[BokStein]

Morning awl.

 

3 hours ago, TheQ said:

Our direct customers include the Atomic Weapons Authority, National Air traffic Services,  many military's, computer chip and hard drive makers,  other calibration houses servicing Airlines,  medical equipment makers. Not surprisingly their requirements are very stiff.. 

 

 

In my early years of employment, I was involved with a facility to test (to destruction) various items of military hardware. We had a couple of specialist rigs for shock testing. With the light weight rig, we used to have to break the equipment (4 accelerometer channels) down and send it to our calibration lab on an annual basis. When we built the heavy weight rig, it had 8 accelerometer channels. Having served a part of my apprenticeship in the calibration lab, I sought their advice as to using an intermediate method of calibrating the two rigs' instrumentation as a whole, put a simple set of equipment (sine wave generator and a bank of capacitors) together and wrote a procedure whereby said set of equipment was calibrated before being used to calibrate each channel of each rig and then being recalibrated afterwards. The only thing we couldn't do either before or after this procedure was put in place was to calibrate the accelerometers which had to be sent to a specialist facility.

 

15 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

You mean you actually watch the match? I thought the whole idea of American football was to consume large amounts of junk food, drink lots of ice cold, fizzy, coloured, water (excuse me, I mean “beer”)  And be coerced into buying things you don’t really need whilst in the background a number of overpaid, over armoured so-called “athletes” run in to each other at full tilt.

 

 

IMHO (and here be dragons) football - an activity performed by some 22 overpaid actors chasing an inflated pig's bladder around an area of grass! If only cricket was hyped up to a similar level; I could watch that for hours (and hours and hours... ) and, in my role as team scorer, did so on many occasions!

 

38 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

How one can expect to function in a highly technical world without being able to communicate effectively and coherently is beyond me.

 

Many years ago, one of my schoolmasters said something that made quite an impression on me; he was of the opinion that the quality of what you write (i.e. coherence, structure, grammar) Is reflective of how you think.  So a badly written, misspelled and incoherent letter indicates that the writer’s thinking processes are equally poor. I’m not sure how universally applicable this maxim would be, but I think it does illustrate a very valid and relevant point.

 

To the latter paragraph, I would whole-heartedly agree; it is a pity that one can only rate the whole post with, for example, a Like rather than individual parts of a post. This paragraph, on its own, would have received a 'friendly / supportive"!

 

In a previous life, I was working on a project for which we had to write the requirements and design specifications for its various aspects. These were then submitted to a team colleague for review. In general, the technical content was accurate; the specs often just needed to be translated into English!

 

One of my then colleagues was my victim for Secret Santa; given that he was of the generation of 'hashtag', 'well, like, we done, like', you get my drift, my present was a concise Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus. I believe it to be still in mint, unused condition!

 

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

I have never liked Weetabix.  When I see it I think of breeze blocks.  Thankfully, other cereals are available.  I have a possibly infantile liking for rice crispies but these days I often start the day with a bowl of porridge garnished with wheat germ and runny honey.  This morning I shall have corn flakes garnished with leftover canned peaches, possibly followed by something else such as toast and marmalade.  A full English is more of a treat nowadays but a necessity if I am on the road to somewhere far from home.  Thanks to that ruddy virus I have not been far from home for months and dread the disappearance of some of the places where I would refuel.  It is no secret that the demise of Little Chef and its flagship Olympic breakfast was a severe blow and there are some trunk routes where there is no acceptable substitute - not that I have found yet,  anyway.

 

The talk of sea voyages gives me such a longing for what might have been.  Going down to the sea in ships is not something that I do very often.  I have done Dover - Calais a few times but only as a passenger on a coach and the cruise in the Bristol Channel on a paddle steamer was frightfully long ago - 1956 IIRC.  Some overnight ferry trips betwen Holyhead and Dun Laoghaire over 20 years ago facilitated exploration of the Irish rail network and I have sailed to and from the Isle of Man.  That would have been fine if getting to and from Heysham had not been such a PITA.  In June this year I had planned to travel to Dublin on the ferry from Holyhead but it was not to be.  It has top priority for 2021 until something else happens to spoil it.

 

I am waiting for a letter without much enthusiasm.  When it comes, it will be from Ffestiniog Travel.  It may ask me for a sum of money to pay for my Swiss trip over Christmas and New Year.  I think it more likely to confirm my fears that the trip is not going to happen.  This week's announcements by the Secretary of State for Transport about quarantine do not augur well.   How difficult it is to be postive at this hour.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris 

Edited August 22, 2020 by chrisf
typo

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Chuckeditdarn overnight here. My umpiring starts at 12 today , match starts at 1pm, weather forecast says it will be proper chuckinitdarn again by then.

 

Both my mother and my FiL could suffer from being seasick if the watched the start on the Onedin line.. my mothee was unwell on a Tyne Ferry..it was millpond flat at the time..doesn't seem to affect me, luckily.

 

Lots of Ers are missing, hoping they are well and that we may hear from them soon.

 

Have a brilliant day and use your time well!

Baz

[jamie92208]

Good moaning.  It's clouds and sun outside hopefully  it will stay that way. 

 

We had an excellent  BBQ lat night. 10 of us in total and at 20.00 raised a glass to our friend Jogn who died last year.  Two good friends, Grace and Jill, brought their new rescue dog with them.  He's a poodle cross, a bit bigger than s cocker spaniel, 7 yrs old.  He was a bit nervous but eventually  went round everyone and later explored the garden.  They've only had him a week but he seems to have established himself as a good part of their lives.

 

Anyway I must be away to do a bit of washing up and then amble down to ceck the unloading of furniture at the house we are looking after.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[AndyB]

Boing, said Zebedee. 

Lovely sunny day hereabouts. 

 

A spot of (crazy) golf is planned.

Jet washing the drive may also be tackled. 

 

The eldest has some more A level maths work to do tomorrow, ahead of formally starting the course in a couple of weeks time; there's been a steady drip feed of work since lockdown as no more work on GCSEs could be done. I asked what the steadily increasing pile of carefully highlighted index cards was all about.  

"Those are the revision notes I'm making as I go along." 

I rather wish I'd had that level of disciplined study when I was that age.

 

[Andrew P]

Morning Gang, I used to get Seasick standing on the Gosport / Portsmouth Ferry PONTOON.

The last of 6 crossings I did from Dover to Zeebrugge and back was on the Herald of Free Enterprise back in about 1972, As you all may remember sadly she sank coming out of the same Harbour loosing many lives needlessly.

The last Ferry crossing I had was as a foot passenger when I won a competition on Radio Victory for two return tickets from Southampton to Cherbourg on the Stena Line Ferry, and we left Soton following Canberra out and around the Isle of Wight, and I wasn't sick either. 

[AndyB]

Ferry crossings. Not my favourite. I recall one hovercraft crossing from Ramsgate. Scheduled for 35 mins.  Took over 90 mins in a Force 6. 

 

A few years ago now we attended a family wedding in the Loire.

Overnight crossing out to St Malo was OK. But not so good on the return leg from Caen. 

But as they say when the going gets rough, the rough get up on the dance floor. Didn't make us feel any better as we lurched from one side to another, but the already queasy-looking onlookers started to look a lot worse. 

And sometimes relativity is good enough. 

[Andrew P]

My Wife and Daughter did a Fast Cat crossing from Portsmouth to Jersey, in really bad weather, almost everyone on board was ill. On stepping off the Cat, the Captain  / Driver said; see you later for the return. My wife said; NOT if we can find a flight back first you wont. And they did get a Flight back to Southampton in better weather, but never got a chance to see any of Jersey as they spent all their time getting the flight sorted etc.

A nice day out never to be forgotten.

[Northroader]

Try the Scillonian.

[Coombe Barton]

Demolition started. Major disaster is sawdust in the coffee.

 

Finding room to move is another.

[Dave Hunt]

My last job in the RAF, when my service was extended, was teaching university students to fly as well as trying to equip them to enter the RAF proper. With a few notable exceptions  their standard of written English varied from a bit shaky to abysmal and it was a rare occurrence for me to pass on a report or other piece of paperwork produced by one of them without making a good number of corrections to spelling, grammar and syntax. This sometimes occasioned complaints that I was being 'too hard' on them and since the same standard was seemingly not required in university work, why did I insist on it? At a meeting with some university liaison people once I raised the subject only to be told that as long as what was written was understandable, the details didn't matter. The fact that the sort of mistakes I corrected sometimes actually did make a difference to the understanding was dismissed.

 

I rest my case, as the saying goes.

 

Dave

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Sunny spells and breezy here with the chance of some showers.

We were up and out early before breakfast to make a flying visit to Sainsbury's.  Apparently "we" forgot to order one or two things on our delivery Thursday.  Interestingly nothing on "our" list  and subsequently put in the trolley was anything remotely to do with me.  However I will confess to making an impulse magazine buy of the muddling variety whilst we were there.  Not very busy there and good to see that all customers were masked.  That didn't seem to apply to the staff apart from a very small number.

Rugby last night was Sale v Exeter and it was quite a good game although once again there was a high penalty count, mainly from Sale.  Exeter seem to be getting to grips with the law tightening.  Two games available to me today,  London Irish v Northampton and Leicester v Bath.  That's my exercise for the afternoon sorted!

It has been pointed out to me that a large building in the garden has not been visited for some days and I ought to go out there and do something.  Hmm,  might do that tomorrow as there doesn't appear to be a match on tomorrow and I have platforms to build.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[The Stationmaster]

Mornming all,

 

Firstly to Flavio's perceptive comment about heat proof paint which cleverly manages to replicate part of my conversation with the household management as he has suggested what I proposed to her albeit slightly different colours.  I will not mention her reply as it was not entirely complimentary and I doubt it would be any more complimentary to the second person to mention it.

 

For the information of the Bear, and others, the leak was finally narrowed down to the cold water balanced supply pipe under the floor of the utility room at the end furthest from  the back door.  It has managed to get into the Thermalite blocks in various walls and cause swollen skirting boards in the utility, the kitchen, the downstairs, facility, and possibly in the hall plus swollen door frames in the downstairs facility and in the doorway between the kitchen and utility.  Plumbing work for the diversionary route will be completed today and that effectively does away with any water supply pipework under the floors of the the downstairs facility, the utility room, and the kitchen.  the outdoor brickwork below doc level is engineering n bricks and is now looking increasingly dry, the ordinary brickwork above dpc level still looks damp but I think it is now starting to recede.  Next stage will be the drying out experts - which the insurance will pay for, leak mitigation cost is down to us.

 

That means the leak was basically in the area in the right hand corner of this view -

 

 

Which yesterday looked like this as viewed through the back door. (you can orientate from the electric sockets and the radiator position although it has temporarily been removed but you can see the feed pipes) -

 

 

 

Now the joys of ocean travel.  i must admit to enjoying being at sea when there's a bit of a blow although on my very first trip, Southampton to Jersey in the early 1950s,  I was wretchedly seasick but it was an extremely rough night, even the 'Queen Mary' delayed sailing because of the weather.  But I've never suffered seasickness since then and have been out in some fairly rough weather - Fishguard to Rosslare with the waves breaking right over the bows of the ferry; eating dinner in a relatively empty restaurant on the Hurtigruten making its way through some very rough weather in the Barents Sea - loads of extra reindeer stew available; going out on Patricia in a Force 8 gale to a defective lightship (slept through most of that journey as the move took place at night).  But I reckon one to avoid, seen below, is the MV Oldenburg on its run between Ilfracombe and Lundy Island - a trip which is often cancelled because of the weather - and this was on a day which wasn't really bad!  (hope it enlarges to show enough of what was happening)

 

 

Have a good day folks and remember to try to stay safe even of those around you don't seem to care about catching and spreading the virus (as the numbers are increasingly showing)

Edited August 22, 2020 by The Stationmaster

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Still blowing this morning but the seaweed twirlers say that you will be unlucky if you are rained upon hereabouts, we shall see. I noticed that one of the doors of the garden storage unit is open, probably due to the wind so I'll have to go and shut and secure it.

[polybear]

2 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Finding room to move is another.

 

I can resemble that remark....

Kitchen cupboards now off the wall without incident, next it's what's left of the wallpaper.  I tried listing the first of the cupboards on Freecycle (now Freegle) with no takers, so it looks like I'll be reducing these to a kit of parts later today.