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About this blog

trial and error....

Entries in this blog

Blog

Westward ho....

Some things don't change.    Peterborough to Ammanford. 4h 45 predicted by the satnav. 7h 30 on the day   The hideous tangle of roadworks on the M5/M6 nexus are largely gone but a single, fairly minor back-ender on the M5 produced a tailback over 30mins. Drove past a stationary queue over 7 miles long on the other carriageway, cause unknown   Long slowdown on M42, cause unknown   When is Monmouth going to get a bypass? The single set of traffic lights on t
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rockershovel in Blog

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Blog

Time, gentlemen, please....

Got back yesterday evening from a trip to Lincs to watch the flat track racing, to find my good wife watching Eurovision.    Dear oh dear oh dear. What a crock. Still, Graham Norton liked the British entry.... given the blatantly politicised voting, which seems to get worse every year, the armed police around the venue and the rest of it, surely its time for this ludicrous travesty to be put out of its misery?   
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Blog

Dearly beloved...

I've just heard of the death of an uncle, aged a few weeks short of 100. He was, I believe the last remaining member of my father's generation and certainly, the last WW2 veteran in the family (called up in 1943 and fought in Italy and Northern Germany)   Moreover, I've been asked to give a eulogy for the old devil. That should be fun.    We weren't close, but his own children emigrated long ago ..... although one is returning from the US for the funeral (it was his habitual
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rockershovel in Blog

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Home on the range

Tex-Mex, East Anglian style

At least three days a week, my good wife (who is retired) "forgets" to take anything out of the freezer for dinner.    Results can be .... varied. Yesterday's effort was a "vegetarian chili". This sounds good, but like many things she produces, it was bulked up with coarsely-cut carrot and tinned sweetcorn.    I quite like carrots.... but not like this. She also tends to add far too much liquid, so that many dishes appear swimming in a weak liquor and must be carried with car
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rockershovel in Home on the range

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Blog

Reality sandwich

I've just been thrown out of the living room.   My good wife has finally undergone what we hope to be the last round of the surgery resulting from the problems caused by lockdown, and she is sitting on the sofa catching up the weeks'-worth of soaps she missed    I simply couldn't keep a straight face. I havent seen anything so grotesquely absurd, so completely unfounded in any recognisable version of reality since... well, I can't remember.    I've left her to it...
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General

Tyred out....

I was minded to go to speedway on Bank Holiday Monday, but didn't. Turns out I did better than I knew.   Speedway has long been troubled with problems revolving around provision of standard tyres, and the present supplier (Anlas) seem to be particularly controversial. Peterborough's big, fast circuit was just too much on Monday and the meeting was abandoned after several nasty blowouts, after 10 heats of 15. This means the result stands and there were no refunds....    No 1 S
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rockershovel in General

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Slice of life

Boots and saddles

So, I'm back on the staff of a civil engineering company, which is pretty much the last thing I expected for what is likely, the last lap of my career.    There's a general purge going on, of contract employment as IR35 bites deeper. There's a lot of pushback, because civil engineering simply doesn't pay enough for what it demands, the work-life balance is seriously lacking and working conditions are no better than ever.    However there is an acute shortage of labour and ski
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rockershovel in Slice of life

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Slice of life..

New normal, tv version..

Glancing at the ever-present soaps, a difficult thing to avoid as my good wife’s knee surgery is no nearer taking place and a combination of deteriorating weather and my WFH means she is now largely housebound again, I notice a new convention in tv presentation.    The cast enter wearing masks, mumble behind them for a few moments then take them off or leave them hanging from one ear in the (presumed) interests of being heard. They will briefly pose in tableaux of social distancing, re
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rockershovel in Slice of life..

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General

WFH and Covid...

So, the WFH is working out quite well, with important reservations. I was brought into this team for my particular experience, and I know most of the other members, I’ve worked with them in the past. The IT works, which wasn’t always the case at Werrington (some company servers can be a bit cranky about working through home WiFi systems).    However I had a laptop problem, which was eventually sorted out by a visit to the NW London office. Otherwise I’d have lost three days while they
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rockershovel in General

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Travel

Lockdown traffic and services

Just been down the A14 to Ipswich for a site visit; surprising amount of traffic on the roads, even early in the morning. Huge tailback of traffic N of Bury St Edmunds, at least it was on the other side.    Stopped at Starbucks on the way back, and needn’t have bothered. The signs might say “come in, we are OPEN!” but they aren’t, just as take-away and why bother with that?    Very various interpretations of procedures. Stopped for fuel at a major chain, and the cashiers were
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rockershovel in Travel

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WFH (2)

WFH (2)

This WFH is a funny old business. It has taken a couple of weeks to create any sort of useful engagement, I am fairly sceptical of actual productivity, too. It’s a good way to get individual tasks completed but the absence of the general interfacing that goes on in the office, is definitely a limitation. No 2 Son reckons he needs 3-5 days a month in the office, averaging 2 half-days a week, to maintain impetus and tie up loose ends.    This isn’t a surprise to me. I’m used to remote wo
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rockershovel in WFH (2)

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Blog

Boring...

Life moves on, and I’ve now joined the ranks of the Working From Home. A directional drilling contractor I’ve worked for in the past approached me a while ago, about looking after the documentation for some new projects they expected in 2020. I was certainly open to suggestions; my attempts at re-entering civil engineering had rather turned out as a reminder of why I’d left the industry in the 90s, and we’d had a good relationship in our previous dealings.    I’d seen this as a possibl
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Blog

Holidays... well, maybe not...

Seen in today’s news, Qantas are apparently offering 7hr flights including flypasts of locations like Great Barrier Reef and Uluru. How bored would you need to be, to do that?    Mind you, Singapore are now starting “covid-secure cruises” with ships half-full, masks mandatory at all times, increased cleaning regimes and “mingling discouraged”. Best of all, vessels make no port calls and passengers are confined to the ship at all times! Form an orderly queue, please... 
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rockershovel in Blog

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New normal...

I was deeply suspicious of this term, considering how rapidly it appeared, so where in fact are we?    - judging by a recent day trip to Wells-next-the-Sea, ongoing observations at Ferry Meadows and occasional lunch out, “social distancing” appears to be falling into widespread disrepute and increasingly, observed in token form only, probably due to its inherent unworkability - do we still have police? Apart from the occasional squad car screaming round the Parkway, I don’t recall
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Maximum fuel and water capacity

I’ve just seen a piece on another forum, to the effect that the NYC PT Passenger Tender used with later Hudsons carried 18,000 gallons of water and 46 tons of coal. The UP Big Boy 4-8-8-4s towed 25 tons of coal and 25,000 gallons of water (all US measures, of course) with the Norfolk and Western Y class 2-8-8-2s in the same bracket.    That seems to be about as big as it came, although some South African and Australian locos seem to have towed additional water cart tenders or tankers f
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Building work during lockdown..

One thing I do notice lately, is that the combination of present property prices and unemployed construction workers (most of whom, are not receiving furlough payments) has produced a “perfect storm” of house conversions and cramming new-builds into former gardens.    I’m astonished at the amount of disc-cutting and drilling involved. Local streets and adjoining gardens are made hideous by the sound and dust of these infernal machines, day after day.. another unsung effect of lockdown.
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Cabin fever...

Just looked in my garage, and would have done better not to.    This would usually be the Racing season, and all the bikes are jammed handlebar to handlebar. None of the engines have been done, because I can’t get them to the tuner. My granddaughter hasn’t been, so the trampoline and swing are still cluttering the place up.    Changeable weather and boredom means the garden furniture is being dragged in and out...  
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The Big Crew Change..

Last year, I was moderately optimistic about getting some more offshore work in before I retired, but present circumstances seem to have completely collapsed the market. Any revival in prices, has quite gone; headcounts are being slashed and viable enquiries for work are non-existent.    Looks as though The Big Crew Change is pretty much complete. This is an industry term relating to the retirement, willingly or otherwise, of large numbers of older staff, working on to cover the gap in
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Porterhouse Blue

I’ve just had an exchange with another member which reminded me of my years in Cambridge. It brought to mind the Tom Sharpe novel, and subsequent David Jason vehicle, Porterhouse Blue.   Most of Sharpe’s locations around Cambridge are easily identified, if you know the place. Porterhouse College notionally stands on a site now known as All Saints Garden, at the junction of St John’s Street and Trinity Street, near the Round Church. Skullion lives in the Gwydir Street / Sturton Street a
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Aid to the imagination

Having for all practical purposes, at least semi-retired, I’ve been slowing down a bit... oh, quite a lot.    Had a slightly tedious evening actually using the office/study for that purpose, it was dark when I finished so I just turned off the lights and switched on the train presently laid out on the floor and watched it amble round, headlight on, lighted caboose in... very relaxing...
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rockershovel

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Coronavirus and gardening

One thing I do notice about the current nonsense, having ceased working at Werrington (I’m getting too old for this sort of thing, truth be told, and family circumstances don’t help) is that I’m getting more done in the garden and workshop.    My good wife has the tv in, most of her waking hours. I can’t tolerate the relentless blare of propaganda from the BBC, soap operas and Doc Martin irritate me behind words, and I watched those 1980s sitcoms long ago, so what’s left? 
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Rolling road..

Had the Williams USRA Light Pacific on the rolling road! I bought this loco for £80 in need of a little fettling, runs nicely now   https://www.dropbox.com/s/xwvo3r7ff1jmsiu/Video 26-04-2020%2C 12 25 31.mov?dl=0
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Smoke me a kipper....

Well, I enjoyed Red Dwarf last night. Good, formulaic knock-about stuff from the show that once included Blade Runner and Coronation Street pastiches in a single episode... the “erase your memory” set-up was pure old-school double-act, the usual silly sight gags and “Crossroads”- quality sets, the general Steptoe and Son IN SPACE! script... Holly's return, and the sort-of reprise of Ace Rimmer. I almost  felt sorry for Rimmer, but then I didn’t in a neat bait-and-switch. The “Boys from The Dwarf
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