Grizz

Mmmmmmmm custardy goodness….

See, see….they've done it again! Weightrose have done it again. They have reduced their Portuguese custard tarts to £1 each……. This is a conspiracy. So I bought two….. And their plan worked….the birty dastards.

Yeah and there’s another whole hobby of Land Rover Defender ‘Less than Enthusiastics’… who are doing their bit for the environment by allowing particles of rust to fall off of their vehicles every day as they bomb around the country side, out farming, shooting and ‘off roading’ on what’s left of our highways road surfaces. There by making such vehicles more and more fuel efficient every day. Sometimes these particles of rust can amount to several kilos of metal and on one occasion they took the form of a whole back door! Still it is at times like that, that it makes you feel enormously proud to know that you are really doing your part to address world issues! I’m even considering writing to the Swedish Enviro Fascist to tell of my endeavours. Might even get on the Nobel short list…..well probs somebody’s short list anyway!

Is there a separate ‘List’ for Fiat 500 drivers whose nick names rhyme with James Hunt then?

Back then they didn’t get paid anything like they should have. But things have changed. We used to work with the juice on up until fairly recently. Had a tingle or two from the con rail over the years. On one memorable occasion I tripped over whilst doing switch and crossing inspection and fell across the live juice. Luckily it was a hot dry summer and my new boots and just issued new batch of hi viz overalls saved me from cooking out. I remember just laying there thinking (a) wow I’m not dead….and (b) how the fudge do I get up without earthing out. But my clothing was new and dry so I just rolled off into the Cess. Got a belt from a neg return bond terminal once, outside a substation, that chuffing hurt, although luckily there was only one 4 car on the section at the time. And I’ve had numerous belts off of the 150v AC high voltage track circuits in the wet. But those are low amps. Nowadays work is all done in possessions or line blocks, so apart from the actual engineering trains or other rail mounted plant and machines within those, no one is allowed to work (supposed to) with trains running and the juice on. Not like back in the day when I was at Clapham Junction, Red Zone working, changing juice pots on live juice, kango packing joints and changing sleepers, all on live juice, where your position of safety was another road open to traffic at line speed. Now that was fun, such an adrenaline rush…..so much so that it made most other places seem very boring.

Wotcha All…. Just lowering myself gently into a few single malts. A particularly delicious Bowmore, Bin a hectic few weeks. Hope all well with er …..’Y’all’…..? …N….that…..😊 The wettest winter on record in the South East has really taken its toll on the rail network generally. Sooooo continuing track geometry issues are cropping up at an irritating regular intervals . Run off from neighbouring land has dragged ‘fines’ of soil into the track ballast making it less than free draining. Which in turn has lead to movement in the surrounding and underlying ground. All this has been leading to bouts of localised declining track geometry and the knock on decline in general track quality / ride quality. Which is somewhat tiresome. It has to be said. As someone’s gotta fix it. Because to quote an old friend…”Unlike fine wine, it does not improve with age”. However…. ……gonna to be out with this kit next week. It is known locally as a ‘Noo Noo’ or more accurately a ‘Tin Bin’…or a rail vac. Except not from / with this firm. Loads of fun…..well it is for me as I won’t actually be..like …’doing it’…or anything…not the actual work n that. No not these days, or actually for nearly three decades…no… as these days words like shovel bring me out in a sweat. Ta Da…. Just think, years ago all this digging out used to be done by hand by loads and loads of blokes…..blokes like me actually…. And do you know what…..B@ll@x to that. Because all that digging out of ballast by hand has done is produced premature worn out joints in generations of railwaymen. Long live “The Noo Noo”.. ATB Grizz

LOL..most of the specimens I was referring to must have been a way higher percentage than that. Collectively they couldn’t manage their way out of a room with no walls!

Yeaaaaah…..about that last bit. Totally sure that at least one has slipped through the net. You should have met some of the specimens I have had to work with over the years. Hey maybe if we got them tested……obviously for the benefit of science and stuff…..…… ……..personally I’d recommend dissection as Plan A……….don’t even need a Plan B…. Hey don’t judge me….you've never them!

Although Beaker’s career was totally upstaged by Cookie Monster’s career….OMG i have totally cracked a few ribs and busted my nose in the mosh pit to this classic. …

I take it that you don’t mean ‘Beaker’? He made it massive with a career in Death Metal….Ta Da!

Totally agree. Don’t think traditionally. You are playing by some else’s rules. Also…think! These aren’t your b@llsh!t rules and it ain’t your game….but you can be better at playing it than they are! Remember you can always self identify as anything you like! Totally learnt that at the UK largest metropolitan transport organisation…..and I got a certificate…and everything!

Yeah but probs a certainty that the journalist writing that lives in the Home Counties. What what…

Woken up at 04:00 with a screaming sinus headache. Now got to balance taking some ibuprofen against my normal steroid meds. Ibuprofen doesn’t help my breathing, so it is a fine balance against getting rid of the headache and not being able to breathe. Tricky. Just mustering up the enthusiasm to limp off down to the castle kitchens to make a couple of Mokkas. Bleedin knee still playing up. The other day Mrs Grizz muttered a passing comment, something to the effect of “field ornaments get put down for less”… How much sympathy????…….NO f in sympathy! That’s how much! Mmmmmph…..a person should be careful about how little sympathy a person gives to a person, especially when a person brings a person a Mokka every morning.

Funny, That’s exactly what the cops said.

Yes……yes I did get an invite. However I was turned away at the gate….because they didn’t appreciate some of my essential ‘cultural tools and equipment’. Discrimination right there. Me politely putting my point across at the gate. Taken from security cameras on the day.

Yeah I struggled with ‘Thorbin Skullsplitter’. …..it was pure prejudice…just because the chair of the interview panel was from York. So a few relations of mine may have had ‘The odd Away-day’ to York, several generations ago. Ok. And ok, so a few of the locals can still be’a bit touchy’ about it.

Not in the UK it’s not. Especially if you want get past the initial screening of certain large government run transportation HR departments. I doubt most if not all people on here would get in using their real names. At interview it is likely you would be asked subtle scenario questions that would be used to determine or identify your like political view point. Especially for managerial positions. I have personally witness this. I would agree that ageism definitely exists but for sure it is not the only discrimination still extant in the UK workplace recruitment / potential employment.

Morning All Day off today. Yaaaaaaay. Might do some muddling. Suspect that I’ll end up doing some more mundane chores before that, although my mind is not on it really. It was wonderful to see friends who came over last Saturday night . We all laughed so hard about our yoof, with so many shared memories, both good and bad. They departed in the early hours and we finally stumbled up to bed. 36 hours later one of our friends was on a ventilator being treated for an extremely aggressive bacterial pneumonia. She may have to put into a coma to help her recover. We are now three days further down the line and she is still very seriously ill and has sepsis. To say that we are stunned is a fracking massive understatement. How the frack does that happen so quickly. She was fine on Saturday, absolutely no outward signs of illness, in fact she said how good she felt. Time for a cuppa…laters all ATB Grizz

I replied “No dear… i am just off to bed”…..

Mrs Grizz was glancing over my shoulder as you typed this…. in a low ish flat tone she uttered these words….. “Mmmmm courageous….. …… ..Don’t get ANY ideas”…..…… ……

Morning All Back to work today. Got to spend yet more time getting our computers upgraded, reupgraded, reintegrated or some load of bo//x that I really don’t have enough life left to be @rsed to want to understand. They have been a week kno& wobbling about with it. And they have spent half that time recovering stuff they accidentally deleted. …..although I have learnt one important term this week. When the poxy, useless and totally unco-operative thing doesn't work….’Rebooting’ your computer doesn’t mean stick your size 12, steel toe capped work boot through it a second time…..apparently. Ha who’d have thought. Have a great day all. ATB Grizz

I remember watching Notre Dame happing live, with my eyes welling up. Same again today. It is such a beautiful building with such a history. Wouldn’t like to be the contractors discussing this with the DK government right now. Or their insurance company either. 😬

We are so heartbroken at the terribly sad sight of this beautiful building being destroyed. https://www.google.com/search?q=bbc+news+denmark+fire&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari# Wonder if it was the same bunch of contractors who managed the fire safety at Notre Dame?

Oooooooooo did someone mention Custard????? Mmmmmmmmmmm custard….. Bear….you have sooooo got to try one……or two…..fudge it, as it is for scientific testing……take a round dozen….…..plus one spare….😂 Rule 2….you can NEVER have too much custard in your life! It would have been Rule 1….except getting custard on your layout doesn’t work…..take it from me!

yeah I think that it has a flag sticking out from behind its right ‘ear ol’ because….you’re defo not allowed to tattoo Koalas!