Early Risers.

[BoD]

Morning all

 

Our son’s partner virus test came back positive at six this morning.  He is off to the local IKEA for a test at eight. She works in a care home which, until last week had managed to keep the beast out.  Sadly a resident died of it last week and two others have tested positive.  She has been caring for all three of them.

The mutt is coming back this morning earlier than and for a longer time than expected.  

[TheQ]

Mooring awl inner Temple Hare, 

Nearly 7 hours sleep. Just interrupted by wake up and turn overs. 

One was around 03:00 this morning as rain hammered on the windows.  However some empty plant trays showed only a 1/4 inch of water in the bottom so there wasn't a big total. No puddles on the road outside. 

 

Ben was half an hour later than normal , and he wasn't that enthusiastic when out,  just gently plodding around. 

An inspection of the new shed showed it to be dry,  which is good.  Better than the other sheds built to the plan.  The built to plans sheds have a ventilation slot along the roof pitch,  however when it's windy the rain just blows in there.. 

 

Just found out natural England are trying to get the road access to the beach permanently closed, this bunch of idiots have no regard for the people who live in an area. Sitting in their shiny offices in London they wish to exclude anyone from the countryside,  even flooding people's homes given their choice. 

 

Just received the new contract for work,  that was supposed to be signed and returned to work nearly 3 weeks ago.  When I've washed my hands of bacon fat,  from a dripping toasty,  I'll sign and return it.

 

I've also got to send a cheque for the sailing club crane syndicate,  the secretary said,  they'd prefer a bank transfer,  but as I'm in lock down and don't have internet banking, no chance. 

 

Before that however

Time for a Muggacoffee.. 

 

[TheQ]

26 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

 

Going back many years now (20+?) my friends over the road (now sadly no longer with us ) purchased some sort of clever box that hooks up to the telly (recorder, player, decoder type of thingummyjig IIRC) from Curry's.  The salesman convinced them that a "special SCART Lead that was oxygen free (WTF) with gold plated pins was essential with this particular item, and of course not included in the box".  An extra seventy-odd quid later for the lead.....

Personally, I've never had a problem those from Poundland.

This was often demonstrated, by having A TV with the expensive TV cable against a TV with a cheap TV cable,  they didn't like it if you retuned the TV with the cheap Cable so it got just as good a picture.. 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

BoD hope everything goews well. Very worrying times.

Baz

[iL Dottore]

31 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

...Going back many years now (20+?) my friends over the road (now sadly no longer with us ) purchased some sort of clever box that hooks up to the telly (recorder, player, decoder type of thingummyjig IIRC) from Curry's.  The salesman convinced them that a "special SCART Lead that was oxygen free (WTF) with gold plated pins was essential with this particular item, and of course not included in the box".  An extra seventy-odd quid later for the lead.....

Personally, I've never had a problem those from Poundland...

It was probably an earlier version of one of these https://www.denon.com/en-gb/category/homecinema/avreceiver. They are quite versatile with oodles of inputs and outputs at the back.

In regards to cables, as far as I am aware, for digital equipment they either work or they don’t (I understand back in the analogue days cable quality did make a difference). I suspect that the only time you’d hear a difference between a cheap cable and an expensive one, would be with a really, really, really expensive high end system (and even then, maybe/maybe not).

As a relevant digression, may I make the observation that for many pieces of kit it seems that the better the quality, the fewer the controls (and the higher the price). So a cheap stereo system comes festooned with myriad knobs, buttons and blinky lights, whilst a high end stereo amp may just have an on/off switch and a volume control (maybe a L/R balance knob as well).

7 minutes ago, TheQ said:

....Just found out natural England are trying to get the road access to the beach permanently closed, this bunch of idiots have no regard for the people who live in an area. Sitting in their shiny offices in London they wish to exclude anyone from the countryside,  even flooding people's homes given their choice....

What is it with NGOs, Quangos and Charities in the UK? Watching from afar it seems that they are 1) all based in London, 2) all have a lot of highly paid “senior executives” who appear to know little about the organisation they are involved in, 3) spend an inordinate amount of the monies raised on “administration”, and 4) tend to operate from a theoretical rather than pragmatic starting point.

Furthermore, from the little reading I have done on the subject, it would appear that the most effective NGOs/charities are those that are purely local and/or run by people who are passionate about what they do (many small animal rescue charities come to mind).

 

Lucy remains under the weather, refusing food and treats (even refusing hand-fed buttered pasta, something she normally wolfs down) and she ate a lot of grass on the walk this morning. I am hoping that it is a transient stomach problem, but if doesn’t resolve by Monday it’s off to the vet.

[Barry O]

Turning to more mundane matters...ombudsmen..Flavio you are having a laugh..as the press tend to cover up their own deviences from the law they are useless at helping to sort out problems. I await the return of the man with his saw today!

Q, allof the large protect the world people are over zealous and don't think about the impact they have on people living in communities they damage. Worst case was in Horden. Close the access to the beach to stop the sea coal..stupid inane ideas from people who haven't got a clue.

 

On more positive notes..

 

A little bit of welcome rain overnight should help our garden lots of beautiful flowers including some Cala lillies are just starting to bud. Cheers me up seeing them!

 

Today is tidy up the garage day...apparently. i may just be taking the Beast for a drivee to drop some items off.

 

We need to book a time slot at our tip. Next garden refuse collection is Saturday 6th June.. D-Day will be GRD Day for us this year.

 

Stay safe!

Positive thoughts to all ERs but very positive thoughts to BoD and your family.

 

Baz

[iL Dottore]

Now posting from the vet’s waiting room. Lucy, after eating a large amount of grass, vomited. Nothing terribly worrying there, except this time there were traces of blood in the vomitus. So off to the vet we went. After speaking to the vet, the initial - tentative - diagnosis is gastritis (which can cause erosion of minor blood vessels and hence blood traces in the vomitus). Just awaiting the lab work and a final discussion with the vet. I suspect Lucy will be eating a lot of buttered rice and pasta (plus meds) over the next few days... 

[Happy Hippo]

According to Telf Central weather, we should be experiencing what on the Beaufort scale would be classed as Force 4, a moderate breeze.

 

Perhaps they need to look out of the window, because I am looking out at the trees on the large bank just south of the hippodrome and whole trees are in motion. So nearer a Force 7 or moderate gale.  I fully expect to go out later on and start picking up branches of dead wood that have been blown down.

 

To clarify: That will be after the wind dies down.  I am wary of being under trees in high winds having had a willow tree collapse just behind me a few years back whilst working clearing a ditch.

 

Certainly not the weather for a gentle perambulation on my penny farthing.

 

Perhaps I might go out to the garage and wire up a control panel?

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Windy here rather than breezy. 

I am going to be very brave and drive the car down to the pharmacy so Aditi can get out and collect my prescriptions. I won't get out until returning home.  

I felt a bit judgemental last night when many of the people in the road not exactly social distancing at the weekend were out clapping. 

 

Grub screws. Most common on slot cars are M2 in various lengths. Boltbase on eBay have supplied mine. If you want them from exotic materials the slot car manufacturers sell them at expensive prices. 

 

Poorly dogs. Robbie loved the white fish and plain boiled rice so much when ill he was very reluctant to go back to his normal diet. 

Tony

 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

The sun is out and the skies are blue, but there are a lot of clouds about and judging by the amount the trees are swaying, a bit of a stiff breeze too!

 

The plan is to spend the day outside attending to a few weeds and general tidying of the flower beds etc. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

[Kingzance]

Good morning,

 

Overcast is probably the best description for our sky today. It is windy (both outside and in) although no haricots were damaged in the preparation of such emissions by all parties here.  I know, too much information! A lot of diddly squat was achieved yesterday but I did get a rather good shot of one of our local red kites on the wing, even managed to capture her deadly eye clearly! The kipper was rather nice, even if not Manx - talking of which, my uniform had a couple more gold rings than NHN’s but in The Merch there were no half-rings, unlike our Armed Forces. We in the non-Grey Funnel Line didn’t have to order our men into battle and bar a couple of occasions, didn’t get on the wrong end of live fire. Consequently, the idea of military discipline and barked orders found no favour amongst our ilk where leadership was much about knowledge, responsibility and training others to do your role.

 

The debate about quangos, ngos and charities is one that I find particularly worrying. I choose to make donations to good causes when and where I recognise their positive contributions. I don’t elect people to decide how to dispense my taxes to charities just to make those politicians feel good. I particularly struggle when there are several charities ostensibly with the same aim and each with its own overheads, often based in London (why?) to be deducted from the overall pot of donors’ goodwill or when the salaries of some executives in these charities get published. In my opinion, it has also been too easy for too long to set up a charitable foundation to serve some very narrow cause. There remains a danger of the goose of the decent donating citizen that lays the golden egg finding the flow of eggs stopped or that its ovaries have been emptied by the recent clamouring of the charity sector. The Eagles captured my concerns in their song Long Road Out Of Eden wherein can be found the phrase “Through the litter and the wreckage and the cultural junk, bloated with entitlement, loaded on propaganda....” Last night’s local news highlighted the struggles of theatres and venues in these present times yet the producers chose to interview the deputy head of The Arts Council who spouted the usual stream of platitudes but failed to mention that they disperse 95% of their funds to facilities located in London.

 

What will today bring for the KZ household? Well, I have to get meat and eggs, some of which will be for the son. I may receive a Crawford dual-speed focuser for my 1200mm long, 254mm diameter optical tube, but then again I may not. I just might get to talk through my scope tracking issues with a knowledgeable person but such people seem to be in short supply right now. I shall attempt to view things from a more positive perspective!

 

Best wishes to BOD’s household, I hope both are able to recover promptly without serious side effects. I also hope those currently depressed are able to keep posting on here, it will help. To all others, stay safe and, despite my ramblings, stay sane.

[Simon G]

4 hours ago, chrisf said:

 

There was no angry letter to Currys after all.  Instead I spoke to a member of staff who explained that they are all working from home.  That would go some way towards explaining the disconnected phone calls.  Helpfully, the guy advised me to buy my lead from somewhere like Wilkos.  I did, and saved myself a few £.  Currys can sort out the part-completed transaction for themselves.

 

3 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Going back many years now (20+?) my friends over the road (now sadly no longer with us ) purchased some sort of clever box that hooks up to the telly (recorder, player, decoder type of thingummyjig IIRC) from Curry's.  The salesman convinced them that a "special SCART Lead that was oxygen free (WTF) with gold plated pins was essential with this particular item, and of course not included in the box".  An extra seventy-odd quid later for the lead.....

Personally, I've never had a problem those from Poundland.

 

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

This was often demonstrated, by having A TV with the expensive TV cable against a TV with a cheap TV cable,  they didn't like it if you retuned the TV with the cheap Cable so it got just as good a picture.. 

 

 

Just a word of warning on cheap cables.  I bought an additional cable to charge my iPhone and after working all right for a while, it fried part of the iPhone circuitry, the adapter nearly went up in smoke, probably only being saved by the fact that it tripped out the RCD in the fuse box.  Having said that, when I bought my current HD TV from Currys, they did try to sell me the most expensive HDMI cable, which I politely declined, and am happily using one which cost about a third of the price.

 

It is very wild and windy here today.  The sea is looking very grey, which lots of white horses.  I don’t think that much outside activities will be done today.  Time for more work on my layout control panel methinks.

[iL Dottore]

3 hours ago, BoD said:

...Our son’s partner virus test came back positive at six this morning.  He is off to the local IKEA for a test at eight. She works in a care home which, until last week had managed to keep the beast out.  Sadly a resident died of it last week and two others have tested positive.  She has been caring for all three of them...

Here’s hoping that the positive test means that your son’s partner has contracted the virus, had no or minimal symptoms, has recovered and is now immune for the foreseeable future. And, should your son test positive, let’s hope for the same outcome.

I know that, given the alarming (and frankly, sometimes sensationalistic) headlines, it is easy to get very, very worried. But hopefully data from large studies - which have shown that 80% of those infected have mild or no symptoms - can be a reassurance.

Wishing you all the best possible outcome.

iD

[southern42]

' morning all from red dragon land.

 

Despite overcast forecast, the sun is out!

 

My bird song book arrived the other day.  Several pages of historical information in English and German, and a few illustrations from the original compilation.  Where this edition, usefully, differs from the original is in the grouping of tunes according to the bird to be trained rather than being mixed up.

 

 

If you are wondering why the fifes are lying propped up, it is to give them room to dry out until I put them away.  Knowing how easy it is for them to crack (the one in the middle) I do not want to take chances with the new one (top).  General principal - wood expansion when wet.  So, acquisition of more than one instrument to prevent over playing, getting too wet, and cracking.  The trouble is, now that I appreciate how differently and beautifully the varieties sound,  I want MORE...     Er...maybe not.  That would impinge of my...er... m*d*ll*ing budget - there are a few things with flanged wheels due out that I need to save up for....

 

With the idea to arm myself with some more memorable tunes, I dug out my guitar book of Celtic music for pieces I used to play on the flute having already dropped the guitar to have time to play the former - busy mum and all that - and, of course, even that drew to a halt!  The book was also stuffed with sheet music of other tunes, again, a few of which I had played before.

 

Too windy, today, for the bike ride on the spot so, hopefully, I may get a bit more m*d*ll*ing done, even if it means starting a new project while waiting for glue/paint to dry on the current one.  The down side of that is tackling waterslide transfers...never having done it before...got to start sometime.    

 

Mugadecaf time,  then some recycling to go out to the bins.

 

 

Fitt   and   Elfie puffing along.

 

Take care, play safe.

_________

Best wishes

Polly

 

[Dave Hunt]

41 minutes ago, Kingzance said:

We in the non-Grey Funnel Line didn’t have to order our men into battle and bar a couple of occasions, didn’t get on the wrong end of live fire. Consequently, the idea of military discipline and barked orders found no favour amongst our ilk where leadership was much about knowledge, responsibility and training others to do your role.

 

The barking you refer to was not a feature of my part of the RAF. To lead formations of fighter aircraft you needed the same attributes that you describe, not to mention that personally I do not and never have barked. Even on the ground, in nearly 40 years in the service I think I gave plainly direct orders two or three times, and then to people who totally failed to do what I had asked of them. My usual way of getting people to do what I wanted was to say 'please' and address them as what they were - intelligent (usually) human beings. In the air, of course, there was generally no time for pleasantries so you could say that I gave orders but I didn't imitate a dog.

 

Dave

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A bit windy here but the predicted showers earlier this morning seem to have blown through though there was a dark and ominous cloud earlier. As for charities I support the local hospice and air ambulance and thats it. No doubt most of you receive those bags through the door asking for clothing donations. Apart from the fact that if we all filled every bag we'd all be walking around naked the charities have already received all that they are going to get. This is because they are distributed by private companies who pay the charities a pittance to use their name (and their charity registered number). This is paid up front so I'm quite happy with the free bin liners/rubbish bags. BoD, I hope things go well for you and your family though it must be very worrying.

[The Lurker]

On 20/05/2020 at 17:52, grandadbob said:

The Boss likes peanut butter and Marmite together on toast. 

Me too! I have that for breakfast most workdays. Mrs Lurker bought me the combined jar that marmite have been advertising heavily recently.

 

 

[tetsudofan]

Talking about rank reminds me of my time with The Chartered Bank (of India, Australia and China as it was called many years ago) when I joined in 1966 as a foreign staff probationer . Just after my 21st birthday (when you could the legally sign a contract) I was called to the Personnel Department and was told that I would be meeting the Court of Directors and later that week would be appointed to the covenanted staff as a Sub-accountant at the Hong Kong branch.

 

When I arrived in Hong Kong I was No. 4 Officer in the Current Accounts Department. Things were quite formal those days, I called my superiors "Sir" and my subordinates called me "Sir".

 

Things got interesting when I joined the Marine Division of the Hong Kong Auxiliary Police as a Constable (as our division was mainly European we had European constables and sergeants - the only ones in the HKAP).

 

As it happened one of the local staff in the bank was also in the HKAP but was an Inspector in one of the land divisions so when we met at work he would address me as "Sir" but if we met in uniform on duty (which we did once) I had to salute and address him as "Sir".

 

Keith

[grandadbob]

Good morning all, 

Some sunshine and some clouds here, a spot of rain earlier and quite breezy. Not as hot as yesterday.

Late on parade today, not sure why as I was up at my usual time but seem to keep getting side tracked.

 

Chris's mention of Sir John Moore reminds me of a GDB moment at his grave a couple of years ago.  We were on a cruise and before boarding the ship had started chatting to a woman and her elderly mother who had never been on a cruise before.  She decided to "befriend" us and every time she saw us on the the ship or ashore after that we'd hear a very loud "Yoo-Hoo!"

This happened whilst I was taking photos at the aforementioned grave and made me jump, I stepped back, turned round and fell down the steps in the gateway banging my elbow quite heavily on the iron gates (initially thought I'd broke the bl##dy thing) and twisted and grazed my knee.  Luckily I didn't damage the camera.

 

 

I can still hear that Yoo-Hoo even now !

 

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

[Rugd1022]

5 hours ago, chrisf said:

 

Greetings one and all

 

Flavio, you mention folk music in the same breath as Queen.  Some purists may not approve but I learned a long time ago that drawing and trying to maintain boundaries is a recipe for trouble.  I have heard all sorts at Sidmouth over the years.  Such tunes as “Calling All Workers” and the Dr Who theme have been used as social dance tunes, Glenn Miller’s “American Patrol” now has its own clog dance thanks to Lizzie Dripping from Sheffield, at least one morris side dances to Jona Lewie’s “Stop The Cavalry” and a respected ceilidh band from Coventry has drawn on the playing of Status Quo.  A couple of years ago a visiting American band would have had us believe that “Stop Stop Stop” was from the tradition rather than being a hit for the Hollies.  On one of Martin Carthy’s albums may be found his cover of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Nothing Rhymed”.  Come on in, the music’s lovely.

 

There was no angry letter to Currys after all.  Instead I spoke to a member of staff who explained that they are all working from home.  That would go some way towards explaining the disconnected phone calls.  Helpfully, the guy advised me to buy my lead from somewhere like Wilkos.  I did, and saved myself a few £.  Currys can sort out the part-completed transaction for themselves.

 

Candidate 8 for my top 10 albums is “Late Bottled Vintage” by Strawhead.  It is a compilation drawn from their finest work.  The track that I would take to my desert island is “The burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna”, set to the tune of “Tom Bowling”, a favourite of the Last Night of the Proms.  I played it incessantly after the band came off the road seven years ago, leaving behind many broken hearts, including mine.  Since then I have not been able to bring myself to listen to their music.  Maybe it’s time to remind myself what I enjoyed in half a lifetime of following them up and down the land.

 

To Andy Leopard and whomever else it may concern: it’s OK to not be OK.  Best wishes to all

 

Chris

 

It's often interesting and enlightening to hear snippets of musical influences appearing in various artist's work, even those which have been familiar fare for decades - on the way home from work last night I popped a new copy of The Byrds  'The Notorious Byrd Brothers' into the cd player and listened to the whole album from start to finish, something I've not done for years. The running order of the eleven tracks is spot on, the whole album seems to flow very well but even so a few of the tracks still manage to stand out, 'Draft Morning' ebbs and flows beautifully and the Vietnam war sound effects might seem overpowering but they really work. Track seven 'Change Is Now' is a belter that has a pounding bass line and a very psychedelic guitar part with heavy phasing effects, including the unexpected burst of country & western tinged pedal guitar right in the middle of the mix, it's a very clever bit of studio trickery and shows how creative The Byrds were in this period. 'Wasn't Born To Follow' is probably the most well known track as it was purloined later for the 'Easy Rider' film soundtrack but it fits in so well with the other ten songs. The jangling Rickenbacker twelve string sound of their earlier records has definitely been beefed up on this album, augmented really well by Vox and Gibson guitars making a wonderful sound.

 

Discovering new bands is great, but sometimes rediscovering old favourites can be even better....

 

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by Rugd1022

[Happy Hippo]

34 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

The barking you refer to was not a feature of my part of the RAF. To lead formations of fighter aircraft you needed the same attributes that you describe, not to mention that personally I do not and never have barked. Even on the ground, in nearly 40 years in the service I think I gave plainly direct orders two or three times, and then to people who totally failed to do what I had asked of them. My usual way of getting people to do what I wanted was to say 'please' and address them as what they were - intelligent (usually) human beings. In the air, of course, there was generally no time for pleasantries so you could say that I gave orders but I didn't imitate a dog.

 

Dave

I'd say that 95% of my service career was spent in management by stealth mode.  However, barked orders and lots of shouting becomes a necessity when you have to make yourself heard AND understood. 

 

When you are on the ground, right at the sharp end, in a situation with lots of bangs, smoke and other noise including screams, (and that's just from your side,) plus the opposition's contribution messing up your carefully prepared plan, then gentle and polite tends to go out of the window.  Although  a calm head is always an advantage.

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup where it is more cloudy than of late and blustery too. Mrs Lurker who has been for her daily walk reports it is very close out there. Fortunately she came back with coffee from a cafe and had ordered cookies from a producer she had found online near Maidstone. (Thomas Cookie Co).I have sampled one and can report that they are very good!

 

Best wishes to BOD's son and partner. I hope that they overcome the virus rapidly, which most do.

 

Work has been busy the last couple of days - no time to check in here properly - but I have managed a first draft of the work that was being demanded from me this week. It's largely fabricated based on flimsy accounting predictions. I have ignored the stuff which was plainly crap - the nearly defunct trader in pulses is not going to make a profit of $178m next year, whatever the numbers say. A good result in that business would be 0.

 

We should find out today when it is that Younger Lurker goes to school after half term and which days Mrs Lurker will work. She knows she will work one week on with whichever "bubble" she is assigned to and one day the following week with the key worker children - who are going to remain in the bubble that they are currently in. That is, if the government does not push back the day of re-start. But the rate of infection round here remains low so I suspect that we will be all go for 1 June.

 

Number 5 on my list of influential albums is "Thunder & Consolation " by New Model Army. This was the first album where they fused their post punk political venom with the violins of Ed Alleyne Johnson to produce some very folkish tinges to their music. This was not the first album that I ever had with a folk feel (that comes later in the list) but it did broaden my music tastes in that direction. It also inspired the Levellers, and my music exploration followed that route too, onto Rev Hammer, McDermott's 2 Hours, and Seth Lakeman. New Model Army are one of my favourite bands and at least one of their many albums will feature in a top 10 favourite; whether it is this one probably depends on when I draw up the list - but this one influenced my music listening more than most.

[Happy Hippo]

YOO HOO BOB!

 

Has he fallen over yet?

[Tony_S]

27 minutes ago, tetsudofan said:

 

As it happened one of the local staff in the bank was also in the HKAP but was an Inspector in one of the land divisions so when we met at work he would address me as "Sir" but if we met in uniform on duty (which we did once) I had to salute and address him as "Sir".

 

At my school our engineering teacher and his workshop technician were both in the TA but the teacher was a sergeant and the technician an officer. They seemed to cope with this perfectly well. 

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all.

 

Sorry to hear your news Bod and i trust any consequences for them will be of the mild variety and preferably limited to developing antibodies.

 

It has apparently 'rained' this morning as Mrs Stationmaster had occasion to open her umbrella to keep it off her while in the queue to enter Waitrose.  It has been  somewhat windy and reportedly (according to the nearest reporting location) gusting to c.27-30mph so little worse than a strong breeze.

 

I find the business of military ranks in retirement to be often abused nowadays although I know a couple of Majors (Retd) only one of whom actually uses his rank in various roles as it suits the civilian organisations he is involved with to have a Major (Retd) on their letterhead of their governing bodies.  It is also quite handy when dealing with certain Govt organisations and when I used to do occasional bits of helping out for him I was also described a with a suitable job title to outrank many of theirs - great fun.  The railway of course was once upon a time a very hierarchical organisation extending in some places where there was a concentration of such folk to having an Officers' Mess or even (BRB land) a 'Senior Officers' Mess'.  Regrettably all such wondrous things had been swept away before I occupied a job where I was titled 'Officer' or had risen to become a 'Senior Officer' (by then altered in description to the presumably more acceptable term 'Executive Grade').   Most things which went along with such grades had by then disappeared with the sole exception of travel facilities where ascent further up the grade tree led to better and better things.  But I think even that is now to some extent destroyed as those have become increasingly linked to salary level rather than status and as salaries in much of the industry have increased exponentially (oddly in many cases in order to take account of the loss of travel facilities) there is a situation where grade no longer necessarily equates with what folk get  

 

The other thing was that job titles had really become well and truly disconnected from any indication of 'rank' (by grade) hence I had been 'a Manager' on the bottom three rungs of the 5 management ranges, 'an Assistant' (to an Officer) while on the. 3rd rung, 'an Officer' on the 4th rung, then back to 'a Manager' on the top rung.    And I was still 'a Manager' after reaching Executive Grade.  So quite how we'd measure all that lot against any military ranks would be a complete mystery to me and the size of subordinate organisation would be no guide either as grading was supposedly based wholly on responsibility and to an extent on knowledge and skills.  In my final big railway job I found it much more interesting to hear my job title in French which had me as 'Chef de Planification d'Exploitation', oddly on SNCB my appellation would have been 'Inginieur' (but then SNCB is rather odd in some respects).

 

And back to earth with a task to clean the vacuum yet again because the cats have been making a mess of it.  Have a good day everybody and stay safe while staying alert for those who aren't staying safe. 

Edited May 22, 2020 by The Stationmaster