New Haven Neil

Today we mostly had been:-

Is that like MRJ but for Bears?

Morning, from a time-warped rock where it is breezy, sunny and 11c. The NHN's are grumpy, sore and tired after yesterday's exertions, and the apparent slippage of time. Donk's asleep on the back of my chair as usual, Dronk is in an alcoholic coma in the spare room, also as usual. I blame D!sney for commercialising the whole Pooh thing, the fame goes to their heads. iD's ministrations would be better aimed at the cause not the symptoms.....stop said organisation ruining ER's children's stories. I think a bimble out on bikes is once again on the cards, tomorrow looks as if it is going to be wet off and on so maybe a ride on something green and chuffy beckons for that.

Oh, Anna's rendition of Interstellar themes are quite something, no? But normally, I like the usual top 10 organ stuff, Widor, Bach, Vierne etc. I cannot claim to be sophisticaked.

Just took ages to load this page!

@Andy Y20.59 hrs, community unavailable.

I'm a little surprised my rather throw-away comment about music dislikes caused so much discussion! Hmm, jazz - a bit of Dave Brubeck is OK, but a little bit, couple of tracks only, but just can't do opera, sorry. 'cept maybe Fascinating Aida......especially the one about budget airlines. Now, a bit of full on pipe organ, something with a lot of stops pulled, maybe played by Anna Lapwood.....oh yes. A bit rocky, or MOR or Glenn Miller...my tastes are wide, but no pickup trucks crashing into trains please, even if your mum is in jail.

I've had it a couple of times too, and very slow page loading. win 10, Edge. Turned out a pleasant day, had a nice ride out on the bikes and then foolishly decided to split some firewood - ended up clearing out a couple of the firewood stores and doing far, far too much. I am now officially broken.

Morning, from an undecided rock, was raining but now sunny, 8c. @polybear The family have spread far and wide, they're a bit like rabbits in some practices.... MrsD, aka Dronk, is a bit too keen on booze, as may show in the photo. The first kid, Dink, now lives near Swansea, and looks after nephew and great-niece and nephew. The familial likeness can be recognised by the smile, other miserable non-Donk related versions should be discounted as impostors from overseas.

Somewhere on't u-toob there is a Mazda 4 rotor endurance race car, it is the most evil, howling exciting thing, this side of a Deltic. As for the Norton, when you're there.....it is still in my head, all these years later.

The whole rotary thing is the sort of development I love, outside of the box stuff. And boy do they sound good, I was sitting on the bank at Sulby village the day Hizzy won the senior TT on the White Charger, passing at close to 200 mph - sublime. I have video somewhere. (And a few years later there we were living on the island and with our besties who live just around the corner on the course at Sulby Bridge). The arguments as to how to measure its swept volume will never be settled mostly because 'they' (discuss whom) were doing their best to ban it, as it was making them look silly. Great stuff from Creighton, and he's still at it.

Yer man, err, donkey, would be only too happy to guide you both over, around and under said course! he sends thanks for saving Bonk from the grasp of some urchin!

Yer man, err, donkey, would be only too happy to guide you both over, around and under said course!

Sorry to revert, but the age of adulthood thing brought a memory from my last-but-one employment, as the office manager of our equivalent of a young offenders team. A young person whose family had only fairly recently come to live here, had come to our attention for a number of quite nasty offences. Upon interview, their approach was very much of 'I'm 17 so I'll only get an easy juvenile let-off, so you lot can all do one'. With a smirk. A shame for them that at 17 here, not the UK, they were in fact an adult in the law on our little rock, and while our attentions would normally have been focussed on diverting and improving behaviour rather than a punitive approach, this obnoxious person had somewhat urinated on their chips, as they saying goes. The change in attitude was remarkable, but rather too late as we shunted them off to adult court. Who gave an adult sentence, having noted our report regarding their responses to our ministrations. Tough poop, pal. 😄 Back on current topic, I must admit country and/or western music rather leaves me cold, only they and opera have that effect on me, I like a broad range of music but draw the line there!

Late call - Mrs NHN driven day! Q said:- Having worked in Saudi, where the outside temperature officially don't go above 50C, but we put a thermometer on a chair in the shade behind the packing case 8ft tall, 4ft wide and deep that we were filling. It hit over 70C, were were surrounded by tarmac... The guys on the flight line would change overalls half a dozen times a day. It's also a high humidity area on the coast where we were. Hmm yeah I agree, try working in a steel box (ships engineroom for instance) with a 30 thousand horsepower diesel engine for company, and the air as described above is the intake temperature. Like Q, I couldn't do it now, it was hard enough then back in my 20's. A scrappy day, we had the Old Farts Bike Club breakfast, then we were at a loose end as it kept raining so rode the electric thing that runs on parallel steel things, and then on a horsey powered version of the same thing in the Big City prom. It rained off and on all day.

Sage advice - having run a well-known 'box-shifter' for 5 years with a friend and with 8 staff, it has taken three years since we gave up to get my interest in the hobby back.

Ahh, southerners, bless their cotton socks. They do sometimes have pre-conceived ideas about us unintelligible northern picts. As for addressing people, here it is 'orrite gurl?' or 'orrite boy (or orrite feller? if over 60)?' And 'yessir' is often heard after a statement, 'she'll be orrite, yessir'. Yessir is sort of more yezzer in pronunciation.

Well the miserable start got worse initially, dropped to 4c and hoying down, so I went out west to the pharmacy to collect my supply of pills of varying colours. After lunch it brightened up and warmed up so I went down to the garage/layout room and worked on our BMW, stripping the front forks to replace the oil seals- started yesterday. I didn't have anything to push the seals in with, I DID have a suitable drift, but it has vapourised. So off to mate Mick's, who had a bit of suitable pipe, cut a bit off and turned the OD down a bit (he has a lathe) to suit. Seals fitted and bike re-assembled, with only moderate bad language, could have done with an extra hand rather than the third leg. Job done, Otto is back on the road. Oh, BTW as it only has two wheels, the indicators do work despite being a BMW. Well it is old, 34 this year.

Morning, from a damp, well wet really, windy and cool 6c rock, where enthusiasm is at a bit of a low. @OzexpatriateI would think the idea of dolphins is to divert a vessel, ie to a glancing blow, rather than take it to a dead stop, somewhat too much momentum there as you say. As @jjb1970 says, I'd like to see the operator sat in a chair in wherever cope when all the fuel filters block due to dirty fuel (unlikely, as actually fuel is purified - via a centrifuge - before use but sheet happens) so just changing one over doesn't last more than a few minutes. One thing is for sure, stranger things do happen at sea, you wouldn't believe some of the breakdowns that do happen, especially on older vessels.

A little thought about the ship/bridge interface - haven't heard any chat today about autonomous vessels that were all the rage in the news last week. No crew, so super cheap to run by a youngster watching a telly on a warm office in Londiium....or Beijing. I wonder what the computer will do when number 2 generator throws a leg out of the bed at a crucial moment, say, when approaching a narrow bridge, as a for instance? Turn it off and on again? Pah, full rant.

Perhaps he has a Macc lads album (Macclesfield - not quite Manutopia but not far off) .......now THAT will set the profanisaurus wilting.

Yup.....

Morning, from a very damp rock, persisting down, 5c and yeuch - a technical term used by meteorologists. As JJB has said, it will be interesting to find how how the accident vessel's engineroom stand-by was being handled in terms of generators on line, were they taking a gamble with a failure that left them with only one? - there's a LOT of pressure on container vessel officers to depart on time, regardless of what 'the office' see as minor issues and the law and sensible engineer officers see as a disaster waiting to happen. Seen it..... MV Dart Atlantic #cough#. Hell we once moved a general cargo vessel down river on a quayside by warping (using ropes and winches) with the main engine dismantled - the pilot thought we were on telegraphs ready to start if needed. No, it wasn't my responsibility I was too junior! Well known alcoholic Captain.....he over-rode the Chief Engineer's 'advice'. Oh what a (verbal) scrap that turned out to be. There were repercussions, as you may imagine. Long time ago now, but my point is risks are taken, even by 'reputable' companies.

Tyne Dock.

Indeed - you can't just turn them back on - I have spent half my day explaining this to folk, as well as the fact the Pilot is not in charge up there with the star gazers! Been in a similar situation years ago, in Hong Kong - almost hit a Russian cruise ship, the frantic double rings astern and panic from the bridge on the phone as we got the gennies back on and started the main engine astern will stay with me all my life! Bl**dy Doxford engine didn't want to co-operate either. It was close.....