jjb1970

I am not sure that people in Europe and the US appreciate just how much of a hit the reputation of the collective west has taken in recent months. I get some very pointed comments from people of various nationalities on why do Europe and America feel they have a right to pontificate about rules based orders, democracy etc.

The unarmed British Police service is a myth these days. Go to major stations and airports and Police armed with machine pistols is an everyday sight. Walk around Westminster and Whitehall and they're all around, with H&K machine pistols. In other areas they're less visible, but Police of any kind aren't that visible. I wonder if it's an example of 'boiling frog' syndrome, people haven't noticed just how armed the Police now are. In Asia it's normal for Police to be armed, and in the US it's normal but it is not normal to see Police in darth vader suits with machine pistols as a matter of course in Asia and the US. I know loads of people who feel uncomfortable when they visit the UK and some other European countries for that reason. Even American friends often remark on the heavily armed nature of many of our Police officers. When I was growing up it was almost unheard of to see an armed Police officer.

Been glorious all day here, no rain (yet) and bright sunshine with a gentle breeze to keep it comfortable. Probably pay for it tonight.

Nowadays Turkish is a global powerhouse offering excellent service and a very comprehensive route network. Their A350s are superb and their food offering is well above average IMO. The new airport at Istanbul is also extremely impressive.

Gun violence in the US is way beyond my competence and it baffles me. I am sure that the are psychologists, behavioural scientists etc who can explain it but to me it is inexplicable. I do think there is a compelling case that ease of access to firearms is a factor, but it's not that simple as there are other countries with lots of firearms in circulation which have nothing like the same level of gun crime. Tragic.

I am watching the new Disney adaptation of 'Shogun', the book was fantastic and the old Richard Chamberlain TV adaptation probably did more to popularize Japanese culture in much of the world than anything. I have the box DVD set and still enjoy it. The media has been singing the virtues of the new version and claiming it to be more authentic than the original. James Clavell was an Australian born British writer so was obviously writing about Japanese and Asian culture as an outsider, but he clearly had a passion for Asia and showed an empathy and affection for Asia which was unusual among western authors for the time. I see some criticize him for indulging in oriental tropes yet he did much to change how we viewed Asia in a very positive way. The new adaptation is darker and gritter as is usual for modern productions, and some of the characters are extremely well done, however overall I am finding myself preferring the older version. One of the critcisms of the original is it disney-ised Japan (kind of ironic given who made the new series), however in some ways the new series is just as alien and feels like it is applying a lot of current thing type characterization. Worth watching and excellent TV, and it may introduce a whole new audience to a classic story but I still like the original. And the book remains the best of all

A nice aspect of Istanbul airport is that they operate simultaneous take off and landing on parallel runways, so if you are on the right side of the aircraft in a window seat you can watch other aircraft descending or climbing alongside, not too far away.

Shared legal responsibility is a recipe for confusion, buck passing and legal wriggle room. There's nothing preventing a manufacturer offering a warranty and return to base service, and many do, but ultimately UK consumer law puts responsibility with the seller. That is clear and unambiguous. The seller will have their own relationship with the distributor/manufacturer.

Stuff other than Turkish.

A few pics taken in Istanbul on my way back to Singapore from Brussels.

From a customer perspective UK law making the retailer responsible is excellent, it makes life much simpler and living in a country where warranty responsibility is with the manufacturer or local distributor (as applicable) I'd not recommend going that way.

Ordinarily a manufacturer should have a good awareness of delivered quality from warranty return figures, however in the case of Hornby model trains that figure may be seriously distorted by a the amount of models sold to collectors who don't run models or even modellers with plans for a layout some day. Have a look on well known auction sites for the number of locomotives for sale in mint boxed unused condition.

Based on experience, I suspect it might be best not to ask for her opinion on curly fries...... She was singularly unimpressed by Belgian fries though in fairness I think they've gone downhill since they knocked double frying on the head. I did try and persuade her to try fillet americain as a quintessentially Belgian dish she can't get in Singapore but the concept of raw beef is an anathema to most Asian people I know, she views it in a similar way to how I view jellied eels.

I remember being told by a third engineer that a diesel generator 'was *****ed, would you like me to be more specific?', yeah that might be helpful.......

The last desperate gambit of a former model company to stay afloat was to try and copyright locomotive designs. If anything it probably helped the company on its way south, blowing whatever residual goodwill they had and making it look an even bigger clownshow.

If the biggest complaint I had about BBC news (and the news media in general) was use of generic photographs to support stories I'd be as happy as a pig in muck.

Apparently I missed a bit of drama while I was away, a visiting tarantula. Usually they stay hidden in the forested areas but go walkabout occasionally.

Shi En (who travelled with me) almost makes Il Dottore look low rent when it comes to food standards, I keep meaning to rewrite the words of the old Spitting Image song never met a South African to words about never been to a restaurant Shi En likes. She really is impossible to please, I find it quite funny. Actually I am being unfair, she arranged two dinners in Singapore which were incredible, a dim sum place and a high end fine dining place, I'm glad the company was paying but I will say in all honesty that the title of 'best Chinese meal I've ever had' was one of the two. However she has that Singapore naivety when overseas.

I'm back in Singapore, the journey was uneventful and enjoyable apart from the taxi to Brussels airport, which was awful. The driver was accelerating hard and braking hard, veering between lanes, pushing into lanes and got quite stroppy when I asked him not to use his mobile phone. I'd have happily used the train but the young lady from our office travelling with me felt a bit uncomfortable around stations. Though in all honesty the risk of being robbed or assaulted at the station was probably lower than an RTA given the driver we ended up with. Turkish Airlines was excellent, their new A350's are superb and the food offering was equally superb. Excellent in-flight entertainment too. The transfer in Istanbul was scheduled for 70 minutes which is quite tight but arrival was on time and they have short transfer security routes so the time actually felt more than ample and my bags arrived in Singapore with me. Outbound the transfer was longer, something which made me laugh is there is a Salt Bae restaurant in Istanbul airport with a huge picture of Salt Bae (a very expensive celebrity cook/restaurant), after seeing Uncle Roger extract the urine out of him I just couldn't help laughing. Back to the warmth and humidity, been a typical mercurial day here, it was rather lovely when I arrived at Changi this morning and my taxi home took the scenic route across the island along East Coast Park and through Marine Bay which was nice, then rain, now looking quite pleasant.

To me the success, or otherwise, of the railways depends on establishing an arms length relationship with government and ending DfT interference. After that the big issue is money. The UK has high debt, has been deficit spending and economic growth hasn't been impressive, all of which is significant for spending plans. And it's not like the UK is a low tax economy. We need to retain the willingness of markets to lend money, and at reasonable rates of interest. The answer might be to grow our way to funding investment but good luck with that. There are much bigger macro and geopolitical shifts in play too, I feel we are passing an inflexion point and politicians arguing about who owns railways is probably akin to the old adage about two bald men arguing over a comb.

Sadly, few maritime regulators other than the USCG seem to know it these days and use collision for ships hitting both moving and stationary objects. Another one is riparian, in Europe many maritime regulators no longer know the difference between riparian and littoral.

The problem isn't so much privatization as the way governments have managed railways and allowed DfT to micromanage. As with any idea, it can be done well or done badly, Japan privatized JR before BR was privatized and made a much better job of it than we did (which in fairness isn't unique to railways, Japan did did and does a lot of things better than the UK).

Usually one of the first things taught in statistics 101, and then universally ignored by politicians, the media, commentariat etc.

I guess the question might be what size of ship could allide with the bridge without resulting in a catastrophic structural failure? The Dali is a big ship, but a smaller feeder ship is still a big object. The 2500TEU boats of the early 70's had a deadweight of around 50,000T, I'm not sure that would have made much difference to the consequences of allision with the bridge compared to the much bigger boats of today.

The ability to absorb a missile strike without total loss is subject to multiple variables, but as with almost any engineered system the risk controls for warship design aren't based on worst possible scenario (which tends to be impracticable) but either worst credible scenario or a scenarios defined by regulation or user. Documents like the naval ship code/ANEP77 basically call out the concept of operations to define the degree of damage and functionality but most damage incidents aren't missile strikes but regular accidents such as allision and collision.