PupCam

If its a Video8 device and working Puppers has a need for such a device to transfer old family V8 tapes to something more useful before it's too late!

You may, although there have been so many it's almost churlish to single out so few! It's interesting to see different people's differing perspectives, none right, none wrong in this respect. I wouldn't have thought of any sport related achievements but then, those that know me already know that have an almost total lack of interest in sport. I attribute this to a complete failure of my parents and teachers to motivate me in that direction during my formative years and no, I'm not criticising my parents at all with that statement although the same cannot be said about my teachers. However, I could provide a very, very long list of engineering, medical and scientific examples that I consider would support the original assertion. Just don't get me started on the current trend to try and change or erase history and the achievements of notable individuals from the past just because some of the methods and conditions of the time that enabled those achievements and philanthropic gestures might offend some of today's miss-guided, "perpetually offended" band-wagon riders!

Puppers felt extremely weak and tired on Thursday, almost to pre-Pacemaker installation standards which it has to be said unsettled him somewhat. On reflection, I think it was the response to the 2nd AZ jab, indeed MRs Puppers was feeling tired too although thankfully not to the same degree. Anyway, Puppers seems to be back on a more even keel now, the sun is out and I feel that some fettling in the garage might be the order of the day. I need to finish off the maintenance of the neighbour's Chronometric speedo so he can go roaring around the countryside on his new, old steed. Shame Puppers is grounded as far as chugging around the lanes on old bikes is concerned for a couple of months. Now, where can I find the drawing for the thick paper washers that separates the dial and housing from the mechanism of that 80+ year old speedometer dial? Isn't the internet a wonderful thing! Have a good and safe day. Alan

And an air defence system that Switzerland seemed to get on with.

Watching Bear fishing with a paw might be amusing, at least for a few minutes ...

And he wasn't! I hope such graphically, explicit model railway content does not breech any ER rules of etiquette! But it works all for about £30 of hardware and lots of free software

Clear Prop! Well, that didn't go with a swing! A couple of weeks ago we both got text messages saying we could re-book for an earlier jab. As it was only a couple of weeks and I was in the middle of my "Minor Inconvenience" (Under-statement TM) we decided to leave it. Then Mrs Puppers had a text saying her appointment had been cancelled and she had to re-book. Puppers received no such notification .... No appointments could be found at our most convenient centre so she had to plump for the wilds of Flitwick which left my appointment just down the road and her appointment a couple of hours later in Flitwick. Not a problem just another minor inconvenience. I arrived at my allocated time only to be turned away by the "Car park greeter" (a former work colleague as it turned out) on the grounds that I wasn't under 40 and they were only doing Pfizer jabs so I failed on two counts! Now we know why Mrs Puppers was cancelled! On returning home I managed to book a slot for this coming Friday but when Mrs P set off yesterday for hers I thought I'd go along and see if I could bluff my way in so that we could get them all over and done with. This was successful as they were sort of operating an AZ Walk-In service for all the disgruntled old gits who'd been turned away without warning from the other centre that morning. So, all's well that ends well! In other news; Puppers continues to amuse himself in a "Low impact" manner sitting at his desk playing with the Arduino DCC++ base station and a wireless train controller phone app. Progress is being made although only via some other software running on the PC at the moment. A functional, direct connection between the phone and the Arduino continues to allude Puppers but he will not be beaten! Have a good day everyone.

Fingers crossed that the ticker is not dickie! I have become acutely aware recently of just how much we take what we have for granted and those fortunate with good health (with whom I associated myself until very recently) may find life has a cunning, unseen plan to say "Hold my beer ....." Anyway, good luck Captain.

What a beautifully tranquil scene (although I note the fact that we cannot hear what was going on!)

Pupper's doesn't know Robert Dingwall, professor of sociology at Nottingham Trent University or indeed have access to the huge resource of data that no doubt he has. Doesn't stop Puppers from not having a very high opinion of Professor Dingwall ...... There used to be a joke that went round work along the lines of "Sociology degrees are available in the paper dispensers in the cubicles of the toilets". Perhaps slightly unfair and apologies to anyone here with a sociology degree ....... No offence intended.

Clear Prop! I'm here! A relatively uneventful day in Puppersland with the main action being focused on my young Grandson (Tuesday's are "grandson minding days") which is hard work for Mrs Puppers and pure joy for Puppers. I had to repair a damaged level crossing gate (for his Brio like wooden train set) but that was attended to with some fettling in the garage. Grandson is very keen on trains and who am I to try and dissuade him? Whilst in the garage, I thought I'd do a quick calibration check on that Smiths Chronometric tachometer I mentioned previously. It was lovely and linear, apart from a step at about 6000 rpm. Me thinks the needle moveth on the drive shaft so that will need some attention and then another check. Jab #2 in the morning

When the RAF have been unable to oblige we have had a number of visits from Maurice Hammond with one of his beautiful P51s (usually Marinell). As he provided our extra-curricular entertainment free gratis on those occasions Phil thought it would be a nice gesture if we had a whip-round and presented him with a painting. As one of my other friends is a member of the guild of Aviation Artists we commissioned him to paint a picture of Marinell against the very distinctive Tibenham skyline. The video (you may want to skip bits as it's quite long) shows a typical Maurice arrival and display and the presentation of the painting to him (~9m 20s). I have spent a lot of time drooling over the amazing restoration (e.g. 19m 43s) of this beautiful aeroplane - it is absolutely fantastic although sadly it now lives in Italy.

Clear prop! Morning awl. Not a huge amount to report from Puppersland at the moment. Puppers is still basking in the simple joys of being able to stand and move at will with the added bonus of being able to draw great breaths of air into his lungs. Pleasures hitherto taken for granted but no more. Whilst I remain relatively inactive I have allowed myself a first tentative trip into the garage in order to fettle a small piece of Veroboard to provide a suitable mounting for a WiFi module for my second experiment with a DCC++ EX control station for a model railway. I have to say I'm inspired by the concept of DIY DCC. Whilst in the garage I noticed the innards of a Smiths Chronometric tachometer I have been servicing for a neighbours old Triumph Bonneville that I was working on before I was unexpectedly "called away". Said neighbour provided me with the spares yesterday that he'd ordered so that I can restore it to some sort of glory. I can't remember if I've bored you with my enthusiasm for these wondrous mechanisms before, but when you consider the basic design is over 100 years old you might appreciate my admiration for them. Anyway, I'd better get a wiggle on with it as he's nearly finished all the other tasks on this newly acquired steed. In previous years I would have been venturing over to Tibenham airfield this last Friday. A very dear friend Phil, a true "Norfolk boy", organises a number of excellent R/C model fly-ins at this ex USAF WW2 airfield. I particularly like Phil's events because not only are they extremely good fun he has a sense of duty and always includes a few minutes respectful remembrance for the fallen and there were plenty of those from Tibenham and other basses across the country. He also tries to arrange for a treat in the form of a fly-past from the RAF. We've had Jaguars, Tornados elements of the BBMF in the past but it's all the luck of the draw as to what might be about at the time. Of course, at the moment that's off limits for Puppers but I shall return! Anyway, enjoy your day and stay safe!

Was i the only one expecting a "Steve Irwin" ending to this video? Looked like he was unnecessarily chancing his arm there. Alan

But they still got your money, so Steve won. He doesn't care what you pick off of the shelf just so long as it's his shelf. To make the protest stick you've got to pick it off of someone else's shelf unfortunately. Knowing that Bear formerly had a contract for industrial quantities of LDC a loss of such a contract could severely impact the Co Op's annual profits.

Puppers hasn’t a lot to report today other than he’s been discharged from hospital and is now home with family. Such a happy day in Puppersland !

Oh well, that was a false alarm. NBM again tomorrow morning then! Well attempt #2 went much better today. The DCC decoder has been correctly wired and all CVs have been set. They will be fine tuned and hopefully the thing that caused all the damage will be determined and as far as possible rectified over the coming weeks. I feel very different today compared with last Thursday. Funny old week although not in a humorous way! Thanks for all the kind words and support, it really helped. Bionic Puppers

You might think that, I couldn’t possibly comment ....

Oh well, that was a false alarm. NBM again tomorrow morning then! Thank you for your kind thoughts chaps. BTW If I happen to leave an unsuitable reaction to a post it is not intentional bad form it’s because it’s so hard to use the feedback buttons on my phone and I haven’t been able to correct it!

Thanks Mike for your comments. I wanted to press the Thanks button but couldn’t find it on my flippin phone so I had to make do with a default Like. UPDATE: Found it!

Sorry chaps Puppers has been AWOL for a while. It’s a long story but I’ll just provide a couple of highlights .... The doctor was as good as his word and in my response of “I feel absolutely terrible” to his question of how did I feel he said you’d better get here for 11:30. After a physical examination(now there’s a thing!) and seeing that I didn’t really have enough energy to get off the couch he said “I’m admitting you to hospital”. And so Mrs Puppers took me to A&E for admission. It was very busy but Puppers found a cunning way to get to the head of the queue - collapse in a big heap close by people so they can catch you. Much racing about and I was in Resus within 2 minutes (I should imagine I wasn’t really very aware at the time!). Anyway, long story short; I’ve been fitted with a DCC Decoder, no sorry a Pacemaker last week. There’s a bit of hitch so I’m still sitting here NBM waiting for them to have another crack at it. I’ll be back when I can and best regards to all particularly the poorly ones. Puppers

Not the Mk1 but the Mk2 might The complete project (technically incomplete - as you can see I still haven't finished it!) has been most educational. I effectively have a complete set of Sopwith drawings for every last bit of the full-size aeroplane to work from and now have a real understanding of its construction. Indeed I've even given a couple of lectures on the subject with the proceeds being donated to the Shuttleworth Collection. Similarly, I knew nothing of machine guns and their bits and pieces and whilst I'm still far from knowledgable on the subject you can't help picking up knowledge as you try and work out how to make each bit.

No Tony, I don't believe it is. I think it is justifiable pride in having achieved something by one's own efforts and skills and applies to all aspects of life not just (in your case) building model railway locos, it could be a marvellous piece of art, the creation of a fine garden, (in my case ) the building of a 1/3 scale model of a Sopwith Triplane complete with Vickers machine gun etc etc etc. As has been said countless times on this thread there is so much to be gained from creating something for yourself; whether that be a light dose of weathering on RTR loco or building from scratch a fine clock (I can recommend the "Clickspring" YouTube channel if clocks etc float your boat). I have to say, that in my working life job satisfaction generally declined as I did less and less tangible stuff and more and more Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations! Thankfully that's not an issue these days. Anyway, here's the Triplane and Vickers (hewn from solid bar and sheet material, the corrugated barrel jacket was fun!) presented with a modicum of pride but hopefully no arrogance or pomposity! Somewhere, buried I have an old Codar controller and inertia module. Dates back to the late 60's and was, I think, the very first controller to offer such advanced facilities. I fear we are already there, an appalling state of affairs in my opinion. Alan

Yes but where would the future fun be in that?

But chaps! "It's to enhance your user experience and the quality of your life". Funny enough I know a nonagenarian who won't be updating her phone or getting a computer either. I think my case is well and truly rested