It’s just gone four in the morning, the birds are awakening and I’m stuck in an office in Leicestershire awaiting my next call out of this long night shift.
Despite weather reports being favourable it has been heaving down with rain for the past few hours , and it doesn’t look as if it’s going to let off at any time today.
It’s a rainy night in Leicestershire
This is pretty much a post about gardening, another activity I like to get involved in, and at the moment I have a project underway that was pretty much weather dependent.
I have begun the digging out of a small part of the garden in preparation for laying a small patio area. Our garden is pretty much clay based under the grass and to be honest as a result of that drainage is not brilliant. We never used to have issues with drainage due to there being 12 trees in situ that the previous owner had planted, he never looked after them and they became diseased. These sucked every bit of moisture from the garden and never gave us any issues with pooling water.
Turf removal Digging out
Fast forward a couple of years and those trees had to be removed due to the aforementioned disease, right down to the roots. Now during the normal British rain season ( most of the year ) we have pools developing around the garden. We are replanting a number of smaller trees but it’s going to be some time before they are drinking the quantities of rain water we usually get here in the East Midlands.
I chose this week to do my digging as it was forecast to be the driest week in a while and there was a sufficient chance of me getting all the digging done and getting the sub base in place before any inclement weather arrived.
I sit here this morning cursing so called weather forecasts.
I have been doing work between night shifts spreading it out and was so pleased with progress thus far. I removed all turf yesterday and today started digging out to about 15 c/m and started to level the area out. All excess soil was being spread around the flower beds of the front and rear garden so nothing was going to waste at all.
I stopped work on the garden at about 4 pm yesterday, well happy with progress telling the wife I had about another 2 days of work to do on levelling before we could start to get the sub base in place and compacted prior to paving, hopefully the job would be completed by next Sunday.
That’s not going to happen.
Looking at my security camera in the garden I can see that the patio area has now taken on the look of a pond and later today I half expect to see a couple of ducks taking residence.
The moral of this story is , weather forecasts don’t work. It’s not yet an art despite all the technological advances over the years.
Hey you, we’ve come this far and it wasn’t all that bad was it? Had a bit of a dodgy start and you were heading in the wrong direction but you pulled it all back in, not half bad mate. Met a wonderful woman after thinking it was never going to happen and look how it turned out, if you’d taken the other route who knows if you’d made this day.
I wish I’d had more friends but I believed I had enough, now I’m here alone, everyone is a stranger everyone has left me now. It’s punishment I tell you, society has lost its glue now, things are so different and I’m constantly confused.
I think we’d have made great parents if fortune hadn’t dealt us such a bad deck of cards, I still think of how we’d have brought our kids up, you the soft loving touch and me the stern father. But we had tons of love to give, it didn’t go to waste as we loved each other and all those around us.
I’ve never envied anyone and that’s the same today, admire those people for what they have and for what they have achieved and and be happy for them, don’t ask why not me? You know I always used to say that.
There is a lot of hatred around, you know how much I detest that word however there is no escaping it, it frightens me and I still struggle to understand it all even at this age.
I’m waiting now until I can join you all and we can all start again, am I wrong to say I’m excited about that?
I’m surprised I made it here, I never thought I’d be that one but then again why not.
Memories are still strong and looking back I often ask myself if I’m happy, I think I’m content and just biding my time. Would I have done anything differently? Hell yeah but I’ve learned from my mistakes. I did what I could with the tools I had.
Regrets are few, expectations now are low. My time is nearing the end and I think I’ve made my peace with the earth. This cage that is my body will one day break open and let myself be free again from the ties of this existence. I hope I will then meet with my family and friends and that we can do it all over again.
The Bardic lamp was introduced into the British railway system by the Bardic company of Southampton sometime around 1962. Just about everyone who has worked on the railway since then in a trackside role was given one as a personal issue.
Fast forward to today and new plastic LED lamps are being issued, however they don’t have the appeal of the old lamps, they break easy and the lens colours are not true Red, Green and Amber that they should be. The old style Bardic lamp is still in use many of which are still being used today. I still have the original one issued to me back in 1992.
This post is going to cover a basic power conversion for these lamps that will hopefully result in them being used for many more years.
Bardic lampEver ready AD28 batteryTwo that I have recently converted at work
The fundamental issue with these lamps is that they use an old Mercury cadmium battery that accepts two pins that insert into the top of the cell. Even though these batteries used to be available for a reasonable amount of money, nowadays it is unethical to purchase these batteries due to their construction they have in theory been banned, so they are no longer manufactured. They can though still be purchased via the web at extremely inflated prices, however they can’t guarantee that they would still work – so you take your chances.
With this simple conversion we can extend the life of this unit and save it from being cast aside as waste. The conversion is very cheap, uses std “D” cell batteries and can be converted by anyone – even me. Kits to do this can be purchased for around £10 (GBP) on line, but this one should not cost more than £2 (GBP) even less if you have the parts as spares.
There are two ways of doing this conversion, the way the kit works is to use a couple of electrical “Choc bloc” adaptors to connect to the male pins of the AD28 connector (I’ve used that example on this page). The cheaper option is simply to have a 3 cell “D” type battery holder, cut the old AD28 connector off, solder the two wires together and use some heat shrink to cover the solder joints. Simple.
This really is a ten minute job that increases the lifespan by years.
Bardic lamp old AD28 connector Bardic lamp conversion
The conversion is completed with the D cell battery holder being stuck to the base with some hot glue. I’ve also put some on the chocolate bloc connectors for some extra strength and protection from the damp.
We recycle these batteries at work with a company that we have connections with, I also take spent batteries to the local supermarket that also recycles. The old AD28 batteries go to a specialist company for recycling/disposal.
Pretty basic and I now have a constant supply of these coming into us from our locations throughout the East Midlands awaiting conversion. We now do the basic simple conversion with our own stock and I think we have the conversion cost down to about £1.80 GBP per unit. A very cost effective simple conversion that will keep a 50+ year old lamp going for a few more years.
Anyone remember these? To say they were popular in my younger years is an understatement. Originally I had the Walkman (A cassette tape version) and I came to the Compact disc quite late in the 1990’s to be honest. Lately I’ve been looking at getting a Discman as I do still have an amount of discs at home and I like to listen to my old music whilst walking the dog. Yep I have my phone and Spotify so I guess I have access to pretty much everything there is out there but I just fancy trying a bit of retro and stepping back into my formative years.
Why not buy one that needs attention? I can kill two birds with one stone, get a repair on this site hopefully and the jobs a good one.
So off to EBay I trot and find this Sony Discman D121 that the seller agrees to sell to me for my offer of £10 GBP.
Sony Discman D121Sony Discman D121
I expect age related issues, as this particular model was produced sometime in the mid to late 90s. This one has an issue where the disc isn’t recognised and is intermittent. This range has a few known issues and to be honest I don’t think I will have too much trouble in getting this one going again (Famous last words 🤦♂️)
I’m expecting its arrival sometime in the coming week so I’ll come back to this post when it’s in my possession for an update on its condition.
Update: 9/3/24 23:11 – For some reason I’ve now purchased a damaged Discman D171 as well🤦♂️ I’m a glutton for punishment.
Sony Discman D171
Further update: 11/3/24 22:30 – Stop 🛑 🛑 just 🛑 😳
For some reason I’ve just brought another 2 faulty Discman. This time the D-141, two of them. That’s it I’ve got to stop now 😂 really I have to stop 🛑
Shopping where would I go.? To be honest shopping is my wife’s forte and to be totally frank from what I see of the bank statements, she is very good at it.
My wife pretty much buys all the stuff that enters our home, I just have the pleasure of earning the cash to pay for it all, but to be honest I wouldn’t have it any other way. Today for instance I was wearing a tee shirt to garden in that was over 25 years old. It’s still in good condition and fits…I look after my stuff but I’m not a tight arse by any means.
I love my hobbies and interests and to be honest any buying I do is for purely selfish reasons and usually involves the purchase of some tech kit such as recently, when I have purchased a Microscope for electronic work as well as a new solder flow rework station and a bench power supply.
If really pushed I guess I’d be heading for my favourite destination of Latchi and Polis in the north west corner of Cyprus. It would be expensive as I’d probably want to buy a seaside villa or something similar…. So I guess for the meantime that shopping spree is just going to have to be a pipe dream. We all need a dream or three in life though.
What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?
Though I don’t have a recognised or official middle name I always grew up thinking it was “Arsehole” as that is how my father – lovely chap 🤦♂️ used to address me. If I’m asked now, my first thought is to reel that one off but I’d probably come across as facetious and that’s not probably a good way to introduce one’s self. So the correct answer in this situation is probably “I don’t have one”.
Looking at this sorry attempt of a blog thing that I have set up, the thing I have learned is no one is really that concerned anyway. I’ve pretty much known from the start that I’m probably putting stuff out there into the ether, and who knows 50 yrs down the line when I’m back to dust some ancient civilisation who might have just seen the voyager space probes zap by might see some old chuff I’ve enlightened them with about old Cameras…
I guess I just need to somehow increase my output with some better content but I’m not that way inclined, I’ve just got so much going on i seriously need to retire to be able to do that.
So I’ll just tootle on and do much the same. I’m not fishing for likes or follows here please don’t think that, it’s just I was asked what was the last thing I learned and that is that this t’internet thing is not easy!
Heard last night that an old work colleague who mentored me in my early years had passed away. I must admit I shed a tear for him as he was a wholly decent individual. A family man, fit as a fiddle and had time for everyone. Unfortunately struck down with the big “C” carrying a brain tumour. We’ve know he has been unwell and his prognosis was terminal but he even beat the two weeks previously diagnosed to go on for at least 2 months. He was a true fighter.
I sent him what I’d class as cheerful and thankful messages each week telling him what a fantastic man he was, and each time he’d reply back sending his love to the family. He was always thinking of others.
However this week I had no reply…
His wife made contact last night to say in the last few days he had lost the ability to eat and speak and passed away surrounded by his family last evening.
I looked back this morning at all my text messages and I could see that he did read my last text I sent, that gave me comfort in that he knew just how much I appreciated him and how special he really was. It was my last contact with him.
Here’s wishing you eternal peace dear friend. You will never be forgotten.
I have tonight added a new gallery to complete the Halina A1 Reflex renovation I completed in August of 2023. The gallery can be found by using the links in the margin or by clicking HERE.
Negatives on light tableNegatives on light table
As I don’t have the correct mask for my scanner I have had to go about getting the photos on the site in a peculiar way. Firstly I take pictures on my phone and then invert them to get a positive image, an action that I discussed in a previous article that was posted HERE.
Please don’t expect anything too fantastic, it was a test roll and mistakes were made, but a lot of enjoyment was had getting the results.
Foxes Den 
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