Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

The Broadmayne Vortex?

Or the Nethermayne Vortex perhaps?

Edited July 4 by PhilJ W

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Not done a lot today, the washing machine has just finished its spin cycle but I'll have to leave it for a while before I open the door as it squeezes the contents into a solid mass around the drum. I left school sixty years ago with five GCE's to my name, I never received the actual certificates as we moved house and my school was merged with another and they disappeared in the upheaval. Not that I've ever had to prove that I'd passed them in the following 44 years of employment.

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

 

 

* I always mentally translate that as MSC (Manchester Canal), a long muddy ditch with little purpose nowadays...

 

There Bear, I've corrected your spelling again.

 

I never got my degree in Chemical Engineering but did use some of the knowledge one night to work out why there had been an explosion in a chemical factory.   

 

When I joined the Police there were very few people with degrees and I  was a rare creature with science A levels.  By the time I left degrees were commonplace and then became compulsory but fortunately that has been relaxed.   I was however able to retire on a good pension some `15 years before the rest of my cohort at Uni.

 

Jamie

 

 

[Hroth]

3 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

There Bear, I've corrected your spelling again.

 

You're a bit confused there...  🤪

 

Do you mean the Bridgewater, the Worsley branch of the Bridgewater*, the Rochdale, or the Ashton when you say "Manchester Canal"? 🤔

 

* Which crosses over the MSC at Barton

 

[Winslow Boy]

4 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

And its still there...

I know that one of the occupants has some sort of illness and is probably bed-ridden, but the emergency ambulance has been there for over an hour.

 

 

I worked for a while in an occupation that required my BSc(Hons) degree. Later I did an MSc*, but that had no appreciable affect on my subsequent career trajectory (No names, no pack drill).

 

* I always mentally translate that as MSC (Manchester Ship Canal), a long muddy ditch with little purpose nowadays...

 

Especially now that United Utilities can no longer dump raw sewage straight into it with the possibility of being taken to court by the owners, Peel. Last estimate there were something like over a hundred points where this could happen. As Peel are not short of the odd bob or two - they have a significant amount of land either side which has proved beneficial, I suspect that UU are if not quaking in there boots they soon will be- perhaps at long last it'll make them 'reconsider there infrastructure maintenance/improvement programme' as they'll have finally come up against someone they can neither, bully or ignore.

Edited July 4 by Winslow Boy

[GMKAT7]

Good afternoon folks,

 

As per jjb1970's post above, I ended up becoming a Chartered Engineer and a Member of the IMechE.

 

When much of the railway industry was privatised post-1994 (1st April 1994 - ha!) many of us were moved into the private sector through management buyouts, etc.

The company I was in was keen to increase the number of CEng accredited staff, to help with their insurance and demonstrate competence.

 

So, encouraged by a financial incentive (salary increase), several of us made the jump albeit supported by the management team who were also CEng. Certainly helped with opportunities later.

 

Cheers, Nigel.

[DaveF]

Church was fine this morning although a couple of people did come in looking for the polling station which is in the church hall, behind the church.  After a cup of coffee I parked in town and walked across to the barber, not only was he there but he was drinking a cup of coffee between customers so I was dealt with straight away.  He tells me there is some better news about the empty shops, one is being converted to smaller units and the old Wilko is being taken on by another business.  Fingers are crossed that it actually happens.  Meanwhile the building work on the new cinema etc in the market place is speeding up, a lot of the steel is now in position.

 

Since lunch I have finished sorting out the plant pots along with their saucers and have got rid of a few more, they are now back in the greenhouse where they may get used.  I also did yet more deadheading and weeding.  I came in about 5 minutes before a sharp shower arrived.

 

Then I watched the Tour de France while doing some modelling and looking at the web.  I am beginning to look for a small (32") TV to replace the ten year old one in the office/railway room.

 

David

[polybear]

At last - the penny is finally starting to drop:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0vewvp14zdo

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Or the Nethermayne Vortex perhaps?

The Timberlog Triangle?? 

[Gwiwer]

6 hours ago, polybear said:

Amongst fellow ER'ers who did the University/Degree thingummy It'd be interesting to know just how many actually went into careers that required/used that qualification, or went into something completely different instead?

Yes. Just. 
 

After I graduated I was employed by my department as Assistant Curator.  Not least because I had shown organisational skills which our Curator claimed she didn’t have time for. 
 

The entire departmental collections required re-cataloguing and in some cases moving from lab to lab. It’s heavy work relocating several thousand lumps of rock along with the chests they live in.  Some igneous specimens were in the sedimentary lab for example. Some drawer numbers were duplicated while there were unfilled gaps in the sequence. 
 

All put to rights by Yours Truly BSc (Hons), MRGS, MGS, MGA in twelve months of employment. There was no extension. 
 

I could have spent my career “mud logging” (ruining my eyesight staring down microscopes and making notes). Or I could have taken up the offer from the Saudi Geological Survey. Five year contracts for any British geologist willing to prospect for water.
 

The sting in the tail was in the Terms and Conditions. 
- Accommodation and all meals provided;

- Approved quantities of alcohol provided for personal consumption only (in a “dry” nation);

- Transport provided on and off duty;

- Authorised women provided (!!);

- Mansion of your choice in home country purchased upon successful completion of contract;

- One return trip annually to home country paid for with six weeks leave;

- Any shortcomings, failures, breaches of conditions, offences against Saudi law or religion, any complaint of any kind or failure to complete five years will result in the termination of contract and will require the repayment in full to the Saudi regime of all salaries and the value of all benefits provided. 
 

Chances were that even if you could keep your head down and your nose clean - and avoid any “unauthorised” women or alcohol - that they could simply say at the end “Sorry, your performance didn’t meet required standards. You owe use $millions” 

 

I opted for a career on the railways instead. 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

9 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

the Colosseum would have been knocked down to make way for a parking deck and canals filled in to “improve access” to St Mark’s Square.

At least half of the Colosseum was stolen for building materials - along with most other public buildings in Rome. The Pantheon was spared only because it was coopted as a church.

[TheQ]

Did my RAF Trade and first equipment training ( 2.5 years total with 6 months working on site after the first 18 months), then did my OU degree ( Science and Technology) over the next few years.

I'd say the degree got me jobs, but little was actually relevant to those jobs.

 

With the pantheon being largely made of concrete, not stone blocks, it wasn't much use as a quarry.

 

I certainly would not go the Saudi on any local contract, only a UK /Euro/USA organised and paid for contract.

 

 

Today,

To vets to pay the bill.

To dentist, arrived way to early ,  called in 25 minutes late.

So much time spent discussing order of outside projects,

Replace main gate.

#### get scaffolding tower, replace 2 tiles on roof.

Do front wall south eastern  side, and brick weave between wall and house.

Use tower to repaint / repair eaves / guttering etc that side of front of house, 

Do wall  north eastern side, brick weave between wall and house.

Use tower etc.

Continue onto main gate walls finishing them off now we have a style decision.

 

Drove to GY..

 

Was starving but had to wait for din dins,

Then eat out during the day for the first time in many years, as in full roast dinner...

 

Shopping shopped,

2 magazines and  a book on unmentionables.

Two other books.

Knives, glue and paint brushes tiny for unmentionables.

And some food topping up of our stores.

 

On the way back plod was sitting in his car pointing a camera at cars arriving in GY in a near traffic jam.

Looking at pictures it appears it was an ANPR camera.

 

Just ordered 7M scaffolding tower, that dented the Deltic supply.

Need to go to big orange shed for bits to replace / rebuild gates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

There Bear, I've corrected your spelling again.

 

I never got my degree in Chemical Engineering but did use some of the knowledge one night to work out why there had been an explosion in a chemical factory.   

 

When I joined the Police there were very few people with degrees and I  was a rare creature with science A levels.  By the time I left degrees were commonplace and then became compulsory but fortunately that has been relaxed.   I was however able to retire on a good pension some `15 years before the rest of my cohort at Uni.

 

Jamie

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

You're a bit confused there...  🤪

 

Do you mean the Bridgewater, the Worsley branch of the Bridgewater*, the Rochdale, or the Ashton when you say "Manchester Canal"? 🤔

 

* Which crosses over the MSC at Barton

 

The censor filter is getting clever I replaced I and p of ship with 1 and t but it removed the whole word.

 

Jamie

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, polybear said:

Amongst fellow ER'ers who did the University/Degree thingummy It'd be interesting to know just how many actually went into careers that required/used that qualification, or went into something completely different instead?

I completed a degree in electrical engineering. I pursued a career where my foundation in electrical engineering was essential.

 

There is a wrinkle. My degree was split between electrical power generation and distribution and linear control theory. My professional career started in microelectronics. You might say I switched MW for mW but Ohm's Law is the same for both. 

 

An engineering degree teaches people to think like engineers - more than it is about the specific classes attended. Most of my practical knowledge was experiential.

 

I worked with many non-degreed people who were in 'technician' roles. Some could easily have been 'design' engineers - others less so, particularly people we hired in my early career as 'layout' designers. They were essentially doing drafting with CAD software and didn't come from a hands-on lab technician background.

[Ozexpatriate]

12 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

I see what you've done there!

I included one that was not like the others:

Quote

abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province

These days we would call that a "dog whistle" and is directed at Protestants particularly in New England. It refers to the Quebec Act. 

[petethemole]

8 hours ago, polybear said:

Amongst fellow ER'ers who did the University/Degree thingummy It'd be interesting to know just how many actually went into careers that required/used that qualification, or went into something completely different instead?

I did a Combined Honours degree in Archaeology and Medieval History, '68-71 after working for two years.  I had't got into my original course choices in '66.  'Clearing' through UCCA  was just getting off the ground and I didn't pursue that.  I wasn't sure whether it would lead to a career in either field but they were my interests.  Fortunately graduation coincided with the early days of "Rescue" archaeology, responding to the threat of destruction by development, so employment opportunities were multiplying, compared with the older model of academic research archaeology wher employment on digs was largely for summer 'volunteers'.  Sadly remuneration was based on the volunteer model until the early '80s, so full time, year-round diggers got paid at 'subsistence' rates, roughly equivalent to the dole plus a bit.  Hence I dropped out of it for a while and went back when I was 'headhunted' on a recommendation from a former colleague in '83 and did 30 years for the local authority archaeology service before simultaneous redundancy and retirement.

[Ozexpatriate]

I received the following graphic in an email from a direct-to-consumer, apparel retailer offering BBQ themed sales, today (the Fourth of July). 

 

They are a popular seller of underwear, and at first I was wondering if that was what they meant.

 

[Coombe Barton]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

An engineering degree teaches people to think like engineers - more than it is about the specific classes attended. Most of my practical knowledge was experiential.

And most of the experimental and practical learning starts with the word "Oops ... "

[Ozexpatriate]

5 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

And most of the experimental and practical learning starts with the word "Oops ... "

Or even stronger expressions.

[Gwiwer]

8 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

And most of the experimental and practical learning starts with the word "Oops ... "

On the other hand .....

 

A friend studied electronic engineering at Southampton University.  He also studied the female form and emerged with a degree and a wife.  He has only kept the degree; his first and only.  He is currently with wife number 3 and I have been his best man at all three weddings - also he at mine - but those are other stories.  

 

It was at his engagement party that I was introduced to the "electric nuisance".  Very simply a buzzer was wired to a photo-electric cell and powered by a battery.  This assembly was glued up out of sight beneath an item of furniture.  With daylight in the room or the light on nothing happened.  Turn the light off at night and bbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  Which frustrated the heck out of anyone trying to sleep because as soon as you turned the light on to investigate the sound stopped!  Turn light off, go back to bed and bbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  And repeat ad nauseam 

 

Slightly more advanced than the kipper we once managed to stick beneath a house-mate's wardrobe ......... 

 

One other little trick I learned that night was from friend's best mate whose car bore a nicely-made sticker with the wording "This car is owned by an electronics engineer.  Tamper at your peril"  It did have a few gizmos fitted.  One of which would apparently cause black ink to erupt over a person attempting to force the driver's door.  It wasn't explained how the ink might be cleaned off the car were it to be triggered.  But hey.  

 

It was from the same group pf people that I learned the expression "Oops - Crunch!" and terms such as "Smouldering Iron" and "Screw / Nail Persuader" which have remained in vocabulary ever since. 

 

 

[BoD]

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

At least half of the Colosseum was stolen for building materials

You should see what we did to Hadrian’s Wall.

[PupCam]

Evening All

 

I've had a glut of hospital appointments this week with the final one concerning the application of a Swann Morton tool  (with which many here will be familiar) to Pupper's bonce.   

 

I have to say the unbounded joy of having a head free of pain at last for the first time in 6 months is most welcome.      The only slight fly in the ointment is that the anesthetic probably hasn't worn off yet so that joy may turn out to be short-lived but no matter, I'm soaking it up while it lasts!        I've just got to wait a few weeks now  for some results that will determine what further action may be necessary.     It appears that it's not really practical to get a crash helmet on at the moment  - TCs!

 

I completed the installation of the new coil, leads and plugs to Monty yesterday so this morning I took him for a short test run .  He seems OK but I suspect further attention to various long serving emission control valves and associated pipe work may still be required.    In addition the rocker cover gaskets need replacing too as the very deep plug wells for plugs 2 & 3 were full of oil which was difficult to remove prior to removing the plugs.   If only it were easy to turn the car upside down 🤣    I also need to find out why the gaskets failed in the first place; hopefully that will be old age and not because the rocker box is being pressurised.    Meanwhile Monty edges ever closer to 200K miles.       Out of interest, I investigated the other day how misfires are detected and attributed to specific cylinders by the ECU.   Very cunning! 

 

Although I've actually done very little today I feel quite tired so I think an early night is in order.   It must be all of the excitement generated by the thought of Sammy the Scalpel coming out to play.

 

(Probably) Night all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Interesting that @Gwiwer is familiar with where I live now (Basildon) and where I was born and raised (Romford). When I left Romford in 1983 and moved to Burnham-on-Crouch it seemed as if every other one of my new neighbours and acquaintances had come from Romford and the surrounding towns. Speaking to one of the other MRC members I mentioned the brewery in Romford where my brother worked as an electrician and he said he knew someone who also worked there. He mentioned a name and it turned out to be my brothers electricians mate. 

Edited July 4 by PhilJ W

[Coombe Barton]

... Election: Noticed on my ballot paper there was no "Least worst" option. ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/07/04/latest-conspiracy-theory-support-attendance-work-retirement-obit/

[New Haven Neil]

No election for me.

 

I asked Mrs NHN about the deciphering of bar code country of origins on dairy products - turns out I was only slightly wide of the mark, it is in a little oval next to the bar code, it was an EU thing so may not feature now on home produce.  She then could make an educated guess as to the supplying diary by knowing the products, she dealt with an awful lot of them!

 

re the comment about Peel Ports having a lot of money? Yeah for sure, the owner lives here and is the richest man on the island, and that's saying something.  Whittaker.

 

My career began as JJB's with the same qualifications, and for 7 years followed that career path until a big crisis in the merch led to redundancy.  A rather convoluted path since has involved ending up with an unlikely HR degree and professional membership of the CIPD although it was just the IPD then, and working in HR, then in departmental management in the NHS.  Running away from that brought me here, a brief time as a Sub-postmaster, then back in HR for Social Services, then got head-hunted for the Youth Justice Team office Manager job (bad HR practice!), then retired form the and worked with pal JB running Trackshack.  I did the engineering stuff with the garden railway locomotives and therefore back to career number one!