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rockershovel

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Blog Entries posted by rockershovel

  1. rockershovel

    Dearly beloved...

    By rockershovel,


    Blog
    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 assertion that NASA paid for his nursing care)
     
    He lived at home, albeit increasingly frail into his 90s, to general concern. He went on a series of cruises in his 80s, declaring that his money was his to spend, whatever his children might think! 
     
    He was totally unreconciled to pretty much every aspect of the modern world, on particularly misanthropic days he would remark that "if we'd known what the government planned, we'd have shot our officers and come home"
     
    So, lots to work with! 
  2. rockershovel

    Boots and saddles

    By rockershovel,


    Slice of life
    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 skills and rates are rising. I still wouldn't travel any distance for work under the conditions offered, having become accustomed to conditions in other sectors. Who knows what Boris is doing with HS2, but the next couple of years are going to be pretty nuts on the recruiting front ... and 2-3 years is a long time in my present career state. 
     
     But, right now I'm in steady work within an easy commute, so I'm going with that. 
     
    As ever, PPE is an issue and I can't wear my drillers wellies (until I get the Risk Assesment signed off, anyway). I've also thrown out my old lace up boots and gone for the Red Wing Boa boots I got from the Slimdrill rep in Yarmouth (freebies are back on the oilpatch, folks!). Same goes for my full brim hard hat. I've got a big issue of cheapo stuff from Arco which has gone straight in the back of the car, I've got Helly Hanson and Cofra, Black Lader (blackadders as they are known over here), I don't need Arco cheap junk for a British winter! 
     
  3. rockershovel

    A14, A1

    By rockershovel,

    Had another trip down the new section of the A1 and A14 yesterday. Things are moving rapidly towards completion, with road signs in place and the general tidying-up of the verges and batters. The cross-connection between two by way of the A1198 is now the obvious route, doubtless THAT road will soon go the way of the A605, near-destroyed by HGVs seeking to save a few minutes’ driving time. 
     
    The A1M near Peterborough is in a shocking state, patches, repairs and general wear and tear much in evidence. So much for the “brave new world” of contract road management... 
  4. rockershovel

    Tex-Mex, East Anglian style

    By rockershovel,


    Home on the range
    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 care. 
     
    It was hot, and because she left the rice on too long, that at least had some texture. Otherwise it was disgusting. 
     
    I've never been able to dissuade her from this sort of thing. 
     
     
  5. rockershovel

    Reality sandwich

    By rockershovel,


    Blog
    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...
  7. rockershovel

    Tyred out....

    By rockershovel,


    General
    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 Son was less than impressed with the track at Cardiff for the GP and from what I saw on tv, he wasn't wrong.
     
    Dear oh dear oh dear...
     
  8. rockershovel
    Well, that was fun. For family reasons, a long and difficult journey at a difficult time, in which some showed to better advantage than others.
     
    First leg, Cross Country, Plymouth to BNS. Cross Country consistently fail to impress, and this was no exception; a crowded, short-formation train (4 car Voyager instead of 7-car HST; reservations in disorder, charging sockets not working despite the new overhead reservation displays). The diversion for the incident on the line was just one of those things that happen, but the train was already late and the announcement about “not stopping at Westbury or Bath, due to not having the necessary insurance paperwork” was downright unprofessional - don’t train crews get set announcements for such circumstances?
     
    Next leg, LNWR to Stafford. New-looking 3-car DMU with plenty of seats, good timekeeping.
     
    Return journey was made on Sunday, on storm conditions. Skipped the Stafford-BNS leg, which proved to be a mistake. No 2 Son became hopelessly entangled in Birmingham traffic due to road closures for the half-marathon (this brings me to an earlier theme, the constant delays encountered almost everywhere at any time, when travelling by road).
     
    BNS was ... unhelpful. No identifiable Cross Country presence, no useful information from Virgin, information on the boards not really helpful either. Had I come in in the Stafford train, I could probably have spoken to the platform dispatchers, caught the late-running 15:12 and saved around 90 mins on my journey; as it was, although I was on the station, I missed it and had to wait until 17:12.
     
    17:12 was another short formation, heavily overloaded. Sat in First, no attempt to check tickets so no problem. Anyway I did have a First Class Upgrade for my scheduled train... various confusing and at times, contradictory announcements along the way. Missed the opportunity to abandon the journey and hire a car at Bristol, due to the general confusion and it wasn’t really feasible after that. Somewhere around Bath, the Conductor made a notably fatuous announcement about “passengers who broke their journey, would be able to travel tomorrow” - not tremendously useful at that time of a Sunday evening, with the most likely stopping points already behind them.
     
    Taxi transfer from Exeter to Newton Abbot, due to flooding damage. Quite obvious that GWR staff were receiving no useful information from Cross Country. GWR were doing a good job, given that they were obviously running out of options (apparently the coaches had been running since 07:00 sonthe drivers were running out of hours) and had little idea what was still incoming. Plenty of GWR staff at NA, straight onto a train and in Plymouth by 23:00.
     
    Again, a solid 8/10 for the LNWR service. A bouquet for GWR, for rising to the occasion, but none for Virgin for playing no useful role. 6/10 for Cross Country on Friday, 5/10 for Sunday with a resounding “NULL POINTS” for their information.
  9. rockershovel

    Lockdown traffic and services

    By rockershovel,


    Travel
    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 working behind a single screen, no masks with a notice proclaiming that was “in accordance with government guidelines”. Tesco fuel station yesterday, cashiers behind screens, dividers between them AND wearing masks. Take your pick, by the look of it. 
     
     
  10. rockershovel

    Super Bowl

    By rockershovel,

    Just spent the evening on the sofa in Bradenton, Fla. with a big bag of crisps, half a dozen Budweiser and the Super Bowl. My good wife has occupied herself with her customary clattering about with the dinner plates, wittering on about “is it finished yet” etc but I give her no heed at such times. 
     
    I wont post any spoilers for those watching on Monday...
     
    I don’t pay American football much attention, in the U.K.; I simply don’t have the time. I don’t feel any particular attachment to any NFL team, although I did change my itinerary to watch my nephew play at High School, a couple of years ago. I watch the NFL Show when the opportunity offers, but otherwise I tend to feel that it doesn’t fare too well out of context. 
     
    However if I’m in the US, that’s a different matter. 
  11. rockershovel

    New normal, tv version..

    By rockershovel,


    Slice of life..
    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, reminiscent of a Madness stage performance, then the usual conventions of “getting the necessary people in the required camera shot” assert themselves. 
     
    A case of art imitating life, I dare say? 
  12. rockershovel

    WFH and Covid...

    By rockershovel,


    General
    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 sent me another one, because I couldn’t piggyback around the office as I would usually have done. 
     
    The office was... odd. Little, to no useful work being done there, Covid 19 practices having lapsed into a ballet of virtue signalling; I saw two people literally prancing around each other, hands at shoulder level.... IT consisted of two individuals, at opposite ends of a 20-desk open-plan office. No 2 Son tells me that he is being “encouraged” to return, his employer having spent considerable sums on new premises a while ago, but he finds it so difficult to get anything productive done under the regime in force that he avoids it if at all possible.  
  13. rockershovel

    New normal...

    By rockershovel,

    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 when I last saw one. 
    - stock levels in retail appear to be low to non-existent, and a lot of suppliers are doing nothing more than passing on orders to the same drop-shippers. I’ve just sourced some Yamaha clutchplates, but it took several attempts to actually find some in stock, including two suppliers who both accepted the order, took the money and then not only couldn’t supply, but had no idea whether they had despatched or not. Refunds are presently outstanding. I certainly won’t be ordering anything else until they are received, and any future orders will be contingent on confirmation of stock availability. From what I hear, this seems to be increasingly common. 
    - I’ve stopped carrying cash altogether, because I just don’t use it. Apparently Royal Mint has no plans to produce £1 or £2 coins this year. 
     
  14. rockershovel

    WFH (2)

    By rockershovel,


    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 working in the oil and gas sector, where a degree of direct interaction is generally regarded as essential. 
     
    Anyway, I’m off to a site visit on Monday 
  15. rockershovel

    Boring...

    By rockershovel,


    Blog
    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 possible opportunity, it works well in the oil and gas sector but British civil engineering, not so much. HDD people are close enough to oilfield people (sometimes they are the same people) and they make it work. 
     
    It also gets me off the IR35 hook. This was a major crisis in its early stages, immediately before Covid19 hit the fan, and no part of it has been resolved. Civil engineering will undoubtedly try to “reset the clock” on paying flat, all-inclusive rates when work picks up again, and that dog won’t fight, not at this stage. There are clear indications that at least some companies are taking the bull by the horns, and reverting to PAYE forms, including a long-overdue recognition of the uses of fixed-term and short-term contracts... offset by much blind resistance from contractors who in many cases, don’t properly understand their own accounts, and a range of wilfully over-optimistic hair-splitting and dancing on the heads of pins, about being “inside” or “outside IR35”. With WFH and an oilfield-type. contract which pays reimbursable expenses on a realistic basis I won’t have to deal with it, hooray! 
     
    Press on! 
  16. rockershovel
    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... 
  17. rockershovel
    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 for maximum range (the NYC locos refilled from track troughs and refilled with coal part-way; the UP and N&W locos didn’t need the range, although that’s different in preservation)
     
     
     
     
     
  18. rockershovel
    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...
     
     
  19. rockershovel

    Cabin fever...

    By rockershovel,

    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...
     
  20. rockershovel
    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 industry demographics resulting from the 1980s price collapse and the extended recruitment hiatus which ensued. 
     
    I’m not particularly sorry. I dare say I’ll continue to do occasional jobs for as long as the phone rings, and my tickets are in date, but “occasionally” seems to be the key word. It was a lot of fun, but you can’t go on for ever. 
  21. rockershovel
    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 area, and the pub he frequents is the Dewdrop Inn, now The Cambridge Blue. 
  22. rockershovel
    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...
  23. rockershovel
    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? 
  24. rockershovel

    Rolling road..

    By rockershovel,

    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
  25. rockershovel
    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” ending wrapped it up neatly. 
     
    I hope they knock it on the head now, though. 
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