Early Risers.

[jjb1970]

49 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Female flight attendants on *some* Asian airlines look like clones. It wouldn't surprise me if there were "weigh-ins" with a "do not exceed" threshold.

 

I remember flying on a (now-defunct) domestic airline in India where the service was impeccable, but the cabin crew looked like they all had exactly the same uniform size.

 

I don't know about SQ but I know quite a few of Asian airlines do indeed monitor weight and if cabin crew expand they're told to lose weight or get another job. The fact that SQ attendants are all very slim indicates they do it. Another thing is that other than the cabin service manager they're all young, you don't see old flight attendants.

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner temple hare.

 

3 hours sleep loooooong awake, a little bit of sleep..

 

Ben the cautious Collie ventured out carefully, but did not go beyond the reach of the house lights. It's clears skies out there, but no moon..

Roads slightly damp, dry beneath trees...

 

Devious route taken to work , they are trying to cut off North Norfolk again.

One major road is totally closed for resurfacing, a proper job, not just gravel thrown at it..

Much closer to work, another road is closed and they are digging holes in it.. This prevents me getting near one of the alternative routes...

 

Another Test Equipment box loaded into the landrover, that will probably be the last, I don't think there's anymore TE on order...

 

Something big and propeller driven is warming up on the peritrack, I can hear it quite loudly over the noise of the equipment in  here.

 

Overnight run completed, Now measuring 100MOhms, before working all the way down to 0 ohms.

 

Time to.. sit and not move..

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Damp start here,  sunny spells and showers forecast.  12°C now possibly reaching 18°C.

Missed posting yesterday as I was a bit busy with various things including domestic stuff.  Oven cleaning has put more Brownie points in the bank.

First task today after breakfast is a slow walk (joints are aching) to Asda for a couple of things.  After that I was going to wash the car but the threat of rain has put that on the back burner.  I've pencilled in Wednesday next week as that might be a warm and sunny day!  🤔

This leaves me with time to visit The Shed.  Muddle or play with trains?  We shall see.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from a sunny rock with a mere 8c to enjoy.  Lot of condensation everywhere.

 

Not sure what the day will bring, mudelling if the mojo shows up perhaps.  A ride into the Bright Lights of Royal Ramsey to see to my bike insurance maybe, if it warms up a bit, I have an 11c threshold as I just don't like getting cold nowadays.  As winter moves in and I acclimatise the threshold does lower, but I draw the line at about 8c, even with heated handlebar grips.  The amount of protective gear ends up with you looking like a Michelin Man, the pleasure of the ride is much reduced by all that!

 

Thinking about.....another O Gauge industrial.  But black or green.....decisions....

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Arthur Itis  was in action this morning but is quiet now and no pills needed to be taken. I've a meeting this afternoon so I'm off to run a bath, be back later.

[PupCam]

Morning All!

 

It appears we are in for a partial eclipse in Britain shortly, it's looking quite busy at the moment.   

Not quite enough time to get to Northern Scotland to get the best view though ....

 

 

Back later!

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from the Charente where it is still dark and the hens aren't up yet.  

Now back from  supervising the winterisation of an outdoor pool for some friends.  The hens were left bleary eyed waking up as I dashed out to meet the pool guy in the morning gloom.  I was rewarded by a spectacular  su rise however. I took my book with me and got well into the 3rd volume of Hilary Mantell's Wolf Hall trilogy.

 

Now the day awaits.  Shower to be had then out to a garage sale at my late friend Mike Storey's house. His wodow is going back to tbe UK and everything  must go.  I have actually been instructed to go and look through his railway books by tbe domestic authorities  here.  Some other items have been mentioned.  After that it's shopping this afternoon.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[simontaylor484]

Morning all from a sunny Wakefield, her ladyship has an appointment this morning early doors so here we are.

@Erichill16 was it Inverkeithing you spent a lot of time watching? We did 

And the guy with the Hunslet diorama. Lucas also liked the O gauge US shed in the foyer near Wentworth especially the Big Boys.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

A bright and sunny start to the day here in England’s northwest corner. It’s a good day for getting some work done in the garden, but instead we are off to the RHS Bridgewater for a walk through the woodland area, followed by a pot of tea and slice of cake. What’s not to like with that eh?

 

Back later

 

brian

[The White Rabbit]

12 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Commentary by Sir David might not be a problem. 
 

Dr. SWMBO sees him frequently and they speak sometimes; she is a huge fan and he has, very publicly, singled her out for praise when addressing a large audience of influential peers. 
 

“The Attractive Planet” has its …. errr …. attractions as a working title. ....

 

Perhaps a charity special as a spoof? Comic Relief or Red Nose night sort of thing? Meanwhile: 

 

[The White Rabbit]

Morning all,

 

Fine and sunny so far, with enough blue sky to make many pairs of trousers. A big change from yesterday's grey murk and kapurtles. Hopefully I'll get some air shortly, though several admin tasks beckon. Life continues without much to report... 

[PupCam]

1 hour ago, The White Rabbit said:

 

Perhaps a charity special as a spoof? Comic Relief or Red Nose night sort of thing? Meanwhile: 

 

 

At this rate we are going to have to make SDA an Honorary ER!

 

[Barry O]

Typical..trip to London going (not) like clockwork.. Late and Never Early Railway is not reducing the late running of this train..pah!

 

@simontaylor484  the Hunslet "diorama should be back next year as a full layout. The owner was the last Works Manager at Hunslet so it should be right!!

 

 

Baz

[polybear]

12 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

Just for you -  at the 30 sec mark...and the 3.34 mark.... and the  4:47 mark.....

 

 

 

Bear got all the way to 31 seconds; a Bear's bravery knows no bounds.....

 

11 hours ago, BSW01 said:

Well that’s not strictly true, actually, for the last couple of weeks I’ve still been struggling to get a fully working prototype of the modified turntable control board. So  last night I looked at the schematic drawings I’d been using and spotted a mistake, meaning that all the versions I’ve built have all had the same inherent fault. So, I decided to print a hard copy of the functioning model I’ve created on my computer using the ‘Crocodile Clips’ software I have installed on it. This is a very useful piece of kit as it lets the user build virtual circuits and test them out.

 

Bear is intrigued - does the T/T have some clever indexing mechanism and is that what the control board is for?  And do you have a link to the croc clips software by any chance - Bear is intrigued, though I suspect it's not a freebie download.

One of these days I might just join MERG (with all the house refurb work it'd be a bit premature at the moment - though once the Great H/S/L refurb is done....); I'd like to see what they have in the way of control circuits/features etc. that are applicable to T/T as I'd like to have a crack at building something.  I'd really like one of the Metalsmith T/T Kits but the last time I spoke to them he was in the process of selling the business (or maybe part of it?) - the kits haven't resurfaced as yet.  Turdycurses.  Option 2 would be to splash the tokens on an ADM Turntable, which is a painful possibility.

 

Bear here.....

A morning of H/S/L work - fixing some EML mesh into one of the (2" wide) cracks in the plaster to give the filler something to grab onto.  Why so wide?  Well the doorframe stiles for the upstairs rooms go all the way up into the loft - so the blockwork that's above the door is actually supported by the top of the frame; as a consequence the plaster is prone is cracking in those areas - I removed the loose plaster covering one of the stiles back to sound plaster (which is the original lime plaster) and it's revealed the wooden stile all the way up into the loft so I fixed EML mesh onto the timber.

Then it was removing the three remaining lengths of skirting, two of which were most likely the originals from the 1920's; these two were nailed on and instead of the nails pulling out of the wall they pulled thru' the wood instead, leaving the nails in the wall.  And bluddy hell, they were there to stay as well - I eventually managed to shift 'em but I suspect at least one Beary Paw will be protesting tomorrow.  As for the wall behind the skirting - well numerous areas will be in need of big dollops of cement to fill the holes.....

And after that it was yet another go with Mickey the Miele to hoover up all the bits from the landing; I've a sneaky feeling that I'm really, REALLY gonna be fed up with hoovering the H/S/L by the time this refurb is done....

This afternoon will see the walls being washed down - deep joy yet again;  is it just Bear, or does everyone just hate the prep work??

Bear gone.... 

[iL Dottore]

6 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

 

The standards required of Singapore Airlines crews would probably be unlawful in Europe, they're rather rigorous, even down to stipulating standard hair styles. They'd probably be on a sticky wicket with performance demands too. My brother-in-law once advised me to be careful with feedback as apparently all feedback is taken seriously and traced back to the crew concerned. If it's positive the crew concerned get a 'well done' and it is considered when assessing whether crew should be promoted. If it's negative they are informed and it goes in their file, if there is a trend then they're down the road. I guess from a passenger perspective the result of this rigorous approach to crew standards (and it's very much a prestige job here with very high selection standards so their people tend to be excellent anyway) means passengers are well looked after. In our last home a lady on a different floor in the block was a flight attendant for MAS, their uniform is very similar to SQ but with different colours. I'd sometimes see her going to or returning from work and I'm not exagerating to say she looked like she could walk into the pages of Vogue or something, absolutely immaculately presented.

 

4 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

 

I don't know about SQ but I know quite a few of Asian airlines do indeed monitor weight and if cabin crew expand they're told to lose weight or get another job. The fact that SQ attendants are all very slim indicates they do it. Another thing is that other than the cabin service manager they're all young, you don't see old flight attendants.

To be honest, I don't see any problem with insisting on standards for both appearance and performance. It's one of the reasons SQ (and other Asian airlines) are consistently voted/assessed as being the best in in the world. If you are paying someone's wages I think that it's only fair to have expectations of your staff. Furthermore, being a flight attendant really is a young person's job - it's tiring and demanding on so many levels.

 

Another thing, not often mentioned, is that in many Asian cultures providing a service to others isn't considered as "demeaning" or "being subservient": service to others can be an honour. Given a choice between flying on an aging aircraft with grumpy, well-past-her/his-sell-by-date flight attendants for whom every request (no matter how minor) is treated as a major imposition and flying on an immaculately maintained, new aircraft with friendly, attractive and helpful cabin crew - I know which one I'd choose*

 

Finally, (and presumably I'm being unPC here) these young women are very much sort after as partners/spouses and go on to fulfilling lives in other careers.

 

* which is why I would happily fly with SQ, JAL Air Malaysia, Cathay Pacific at any time and would only fly with Delta, United, BA if the only alternative would be "walking across"

[New Haven Neil]

Reading the resident Bear's comments about the skirting boards took me back to doing - yes - the hall/stairs/landing refurb of our last house, a rambling 1914 end terrace.  Removing the skirtings for damp course work and subsequent plasterwork revealed the nails, those old flat ones, were into wooden wedges bashed between the bricks.  This left great chunks of cement missing.  The sealing up of these holes, plus the cracked floorboards etc, made a huge difference to the warmth of the house, the howling draughts that obviously came from those holes and cracks were to blame.  But boy was I glad when it was all finished....until the point when we stood back and both didn't like the colour!  Painted it all again. Aaiiieeeeeeee.

 

 

 

[TheQ]

All I'm going to say about skirting boards is that in our house they used barbed 4 inch nails hammered directly into the bricks...

[PhilJ W]

3 hours ago, PupCam said:

Morning All!

 

It appears we are in for a partial eclipse in Britain shortly, it's looking quite busy at the moment.   

Not quite enough time to get to Northern Scotland to get the best view though ....

 

 

Back later!

No chance of seeing it here, thick cloud overhead.

[polybear]

36 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Reading the resident Bear's comments about the skirting boards took me back to doing - yes - the hall/stairs/landing refurb of our last house, a rambling 1914 end terrace.  Removing the skirtings for damp course work and subsequent plasterwork revealed the nails, those old flat ones, were into wooden wedges bashed between the bricks.  This left great chunks of cement missing.  The sealing up of these holes, plus the cracked floorboards etc, made a huge difference to the warmth of the house, the howling draughts that obviously came from those holes and cracks were to blame.  But boy was I glad when it was all finished....until the point when we stood back and both didn't like the colour!  Painted it all again. Aaiiieeeeeeee.

 

 

 

 

Nice house; the wall colour is remarkably similar to what Bear has discovered below the wallpaper in Bear Castle - and must date from probably 60+years ago.  I wasn't going to bother with dado rail in the H/S/L but I'm rapidly coming round to the idea that I will after all.

 

20 minutes ago, TheQ said:

All I'm going to say about skirting boards is that in our house they used barbed 4 inch nails hammered directly into the bricks...

 

Bear's were into the brickwork (actually some sort of dark grey concrete-ish blocks) but fortunately weren't barbed.  I've used similar into timber ("Annular Ring Shank Nails") and bluddy hell they sure do get a grip.

 

Right, a few phone calls to talk Paint Stripper - hopefully without them realising I'm a private user....😉 

[TheQ]

25 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

No chance of seeing it here, thick cloud overhead.

no chance of seeing it here either....

 

 

 

 

 

 

no windows....

[BSW01]

5 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear is intrigued - does the T/T have some clever indexing mechanism and is that what the control board is for?  And do you have a link to the croc clips software by any chance - Bear is intrigued, though I suspect it's not a freebie download.

 

polybear

 

Yes it is and it’s all homemade, the drive mechanism, the indexing system and the method of continuous supply to the bridge rails is all designed by myself. The one I’ve built for myself is already finished and is up and running. 

 

The current turntable control board that I’m working on is a modified version of my fully functioning one for a possible future article in the MERG journal. The reason I’ve modified it’s that the 4 pole relays that I’ve used (it uses 3) for my working version are now no longer available. These were destined for the skip until I intervened and I went through the stores and helped myself to what I thought would come in useful, it official of course and I’ve still got loads of stuff to use. So I’ve done a quick redesign so that it now uses 3 - 2 pole relays instead, (which are still available) I just want to build a working version so I can confirm it does actually work. 

 

I’m afraid I don’t have a link to Crocodile Clips, I got my copy from one of my old apprentices who was given a copy for her college work. 

Edited October 25, 2022 by BSW01

[jjb1970]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

 

To be honest, I don't see any problem with insisting on standards for both appearance and performance. It's one of the reasons SQ (and other Asian airlines) are consistently voted/assessed as being the best in in the world. If you are paying someone's wages I think that it's only fair to have expectations of your staff. Furthermore, being a flight attendant really is a young person's job - it's tiring and demanding on so many levels.

 

Another thing, not often mentioned, is that in many Asian cultures providing a service to others isn't considered as "demeaning" or "being subservient": service to others can be an honour. Given a choice between flying on an aging aircraft with grumpy, well-past-her/his-sell-by-date flight attendants for whom every request (no matter how minor) is treated as a major imposition and flying on an immaculately maintained, new aircraft with friendly, attractive and helpful cabin crew - I know which one I'd choose*

 

Finally, (and presumably I'm being unPC here) these young women are very much sort after as partners/spouses and go on to fulfilling lives in other careers.

 

* which is why I would happily fly with SQ, JAL Air Malaysia, Cathay Pacific at any time and would only fly with Delta, United, BA if the only alternative would be "walking across"

 

A lot of that I agree with. There's nothing wrong with demanding high standards, and it is indeed why given the choice I much prefer to fly with Singapore Airlines, JAL, ANA (notwithstanding their recent ticketing debacle...), Korean etc over European airlines. I find it very noticeable in hotels, when I compare regular international hotels like Marriott, Hilton, differences in service standards can be striking between Asia and Europe and America. People here don't have the sense of entitlement that pervades Europe and I think it is the better for it. That said, I do think some things go a bit far. For example, I look at pressure on kids to succeed and although pushing them is good it can get a bit silly. I see it with my wife, don't get me wrong, I suspect one day the kids will appreciate the tiger mum pressure to do well but sometimes I tell her to lay off a bit as kids also need to be kids.

[Tony_S]

46 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

link to Crocodile Clips, I got my copy from one of my old apprentices who was given a copy for her college work.

@polybearSearch for Yenka and investigate the free use at home for non teachers option. 

[PeterBB]

Crocodile Clips rang a bell ... used in teaching days as also fun.

 

Airlines - too long ago to remember the 'big' ones but have experience as a passenger in 6-seaters with a full view forward - quite something although noisy - and of course no service staff.  Son once had a trip in the 'spare' seat with the pilot - a thoroughly enjoyable experience and he spoke about it for weeks.  Also remenber  flight to and from Guernsey watching the pilots  and of course even earlier a Dakota to Jersey.

 

Gutter cleaning this am ... surprising what a fortnights heavy rain and wind can do ... I would rather have 'leafed it' alone as it required top of ladder usage..

 

[Ian Abel]

Chewsday. Morning all (late morning for most)

 

Yesterday fairly pedestrian, spent personal time after work transferring info to the Mrs new phone, old phone broken but at least capable of being used to transfer all the data to the replacement. Love having insurance on phone, far cheaper than simply buying a new one!

 

Today expected to be "simple" and quiet, just toiling away, oh well 🙂

 

Weather taking a turn downward, 3C first thing, 10C the expected high.

 

Onward.