Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood?
My mum bless her heart wasn’t the best cook in the world but she kept us fed and happy.
Bread pudding
On the day she decided that we were going to have bread pudding the excitement level throughout the house hit the roof. She was a master at cooking bread pudding, I haven’t tasted one that could hold a candle to hers in all my years of life. She was unrivalled when cooking this.
The smell as the cooking wafted through the house, and the impatience of everyone awaiting the oven door opening was intense to say the least.
And then there it was sitting on the kitchen table in its golden crispy glory. Rarely did it last that long to even venture into getting cold. Mum had done it again, created a culinary masterpiece.
Boy do I miss that, and every time I see bread pudding I get transported back to my childhood. But as of yet I’ve never tasted one as good as mums.
Lord Horatio Nelson is my favourite historical figure. My favourite teacher in my junior years at school was responsible for this. He himself was a sailor and taught us to sail as well, as a result we learned knot tying skills, were regularly tested on our skills and generally fell head first into the whole nautical thing.
We learned of the battle of Trafalgar and many other naval operations, and Lord Nelson was our superman of the day. His whole history, what he achieved and his dalliances outside of the navy all became the topic of conversation in many a history lesson.
And then the message he displayed to rally his men, all by using flags/semaphore just blew my mind. I do honestly believe this was what got me into amateur radio communications in later life especially learning Morse code.
Still interests me to this day, a few years ago we were fortunate enough to have a tour of Windsor castle and there in a display is a musket ball pulled from Nelson’s body. I stood transfixed to that item for ages.
Probably my only true historical hero. Nothing has changed. He’s the man in my eyes.
Probably the first and only person to give you love and security unconditionally. Your Mother.
Well, not your Mother but I’m talking about my Mother. That wonderful person who sacrificed so much in her life to ensure I had a good life. Right up to the day she drew her last breath she declared her everlasting love for me. No one has ever done that and I doubt very much you will ever find such a love as that maternal instinct only mothers possess.
My first crush definitely. Never to be experienced again.
To be honest I’m a creature of habit, i will continue to go to that little quiet part of Cyprus that we love as the people are lovely souls and the life is good. If we had the chance I’d up roots and move there lock stock and barrel. Iceland is another one I will continue to frequent as I absolutely love everything about the place. Two crazy totally different environments.
Akamas peninsula Reykjavik Iceland
There is only one other country that I’d love to visit, and that’s Canada. I’d love to do one of those Rocky Mountain explorer train trips, the sheer wilderness and beauty would really appeal to me.
Other than that there is no other country I wish to travel to. To be honest there are still too many places in my home country I still yet have to see.
I’ve got a few things I don’t like but that’s not what the question asks.
The over riding thing I do like about myself is that I’m not totally reliant on others. I quite like my own company and can quite happily just get on with things without having to have a large contingent of hangers on, or fake friends.
I know who I like and what I like and I’m happy with that.
Now this is a prompt I like. I’m in My late 50s and I’m looking into this seriously. My boss knows i plan to retire 2 years from my next birthday and the planning has already started to be looked into.
I want to retire comfortable, not looking at massive amounts but something that will keep us as we are currently. The mortgage is already paid so we are fortunate there, and outstanding debts will all be realised within the next 18 months so in theory by the time I do retire we will owe no one anything, so the need for a higher Income will not be necessary.
I am paying extra into my pension and we obviously have a small amount put aside for incidentals, to be honest the future looks ok. Touch wood (That’s my superstitious side shining through
I may take a little no responsibility, part time job to keep my hand in, but to be honest we want to travel, and just take it easy. Oh and my hobbies and garden can then get the attention they all deserve.
That’s of course as long as fate doesn’t throw a spanner in the works.
What’s the oldest thing you own that you still use daily?
The old Three pence piece in the UK, other wise know as Thruppence or the Thruppenny bit went out of circulation in 1971 when we went decimal
And that’s when my dear old nan gave me one as a keepsake when I was a five year old tot.
Three pence piece
So I guess that’s the oldest physical thing I have but unfortunately it isn’t used daily so I guess I’ve wasted my time with this post. But then again I do use money daily, and this was money so I guess I might be able to sneak this in on a technicality.
Never mind, it’s nice to hold it every now and then and think of my lovely old nan.
I was very fortunate to see the launch of a space shuttle.
STS-79 mission patch
The date was 16th September 1996 and the launch was the 17th launch of the space shuttle Atlantis as STS-79. Its mission was to dock with the Russian space station Mir, and to deliver equipment and supplies and relief personnel.
I was fortunate that we were holidaying in Florida at the time, so it all blended in just lovely.
Launch pad 39aKSC Shuttle display
We had travelled to KSC a few days prior to launch and did the full touristy thing, we went back a few days later in the very early hours of the morning to watch the launch and were not disappointed. It truly is a moment that will stay in my mind forever.
Here I purchased the toy I most wanted back in my teenage years. Unfortunately I wasn’t available to get the original MB version produced in 1979 so I had to settle for the latter “improved” version made by Zeon Ltd that was made in 2010.
It’s arrived and to be honest dosen’t look too shabby, needs a bit of a clean up and maybe some new transfers applying but we’ll get to that at another time, for now we need to try and get the machine up and running.
I’ve eventually managed to get the lid off. This unit was built to ensure that it was difficult to get into so repairs couldn’t be carried out. Some of the screws are buried under fascia dressings, and if you aren’t careful you could end up snapping some of the body shell.
Big trak body shellBig trak circuit boardDetached speaker wireDetached battery wireBig trak wheels removed
With the two halves of the body shell detached it’s obvious there are some detached wires. One was a battery wire, one was a speaker wire. Oh if this was the issue wouldn’t it be great? But it wasn’t. I soldered these wires back into place, put the three D types in place and it was still dead.
I’ve now desoldered all connections from the circuit board to assist in carrying out checks for continuity and tracing voltage. I can also check the board under the microscope. I may change all the capacitors for SMD ones.
I started checking continuity and tracing voltages and was doing really well until I got to a large section of the main board where everything seemed dead and unresponsive. What the heck was going on here? And then I noticed the wire had detached from the positive probe of my multimeter thus ending any further testing for today. I need to order some new probes. Well, I’ve ordered some nice new probes and croc clip connectors as well, so as soon as they arrive I’ll get back on with the testing. They arrived and were damaged on arrival, so back to the drawing board.
Big trak worn cogsBig trak worn cogs
I took the drive train to pieces and here it became apparent that a number of the cogs are damaged. I believe there is also some issues with the motion detector but I can’t confirm that until I get some power into the motors. I can’t find spare cogs online so I have ordered myself a second damaged unit to use as salvage. To be honest this new unit has all the transfers in place so I will probably use that shell and the guts of my original unit to form one complete Big Trak.
New donor Big Trak – better than my original one
The donor unit has arrived and boy I’m impressed. It’s in far better condition than my original one, so as expected this one will become the working unit and my original one will be come the donor. Any parts left over will be sold on as spares or even used on another damaged one if I can source it.
My new Bigtrak
If you look at the video above you will see the new Big Trak going through the motions. However the one thing it dosen’t do is turn. Could be a wheel sensor issue who knows. Good thing is that the cogs haven’t broken as the drive wheels are both solid and not free wheeling.
There are only two real issues with the donor here. Firstly it will not do the turn command and secondly, one of the drive wheels is damaged. Luckily I have a spare wheel so this was swapped over, some decals were missing but I coaxed these off my old truck with a hot air gun and reapplied them with no issues.
Missing decalsDecals applied
Looking into the drive issue meant opening the gear box. In here we have two magnetic independent gear controls that should have a gap between them, these two were stuck together thus rendering independent motor operations of the turning control useless.
Magnetic sensors joinedMagnetic sensors as they should be
I removed the two motors and repositioned them and the cogs holding the magnetic gear, this gave a gap of about 3mm that now allows the wheels to turn in opposite directions allowing the unit to turn.
Now the Magnetic sensors are adjusted….it turns
Whilst in this gear box I was able to confirm the issue with my old gear box and it really is all down to two damaged drive cogs that I need to obtain. I’m pleased with that as I could now get two good working units for just a small outlay once I can source some cogs. I will have to repair the wheel I removed to replace the one on my new unit however I have an idea how I’m going to remedy this and again it’s a low cost option. But that’s a job for another day.
2:18 of rebuild magic
So if you look at the video above, it’s the full fix that I posted on YouTube. Really pleased with this fix, again I’ve learned quite a bit about these units and I’m going to have immense fun programming it. My wife dosen’t understand my excitement over this toy, but all my old buddies and colleagues understand it as they grew up in the same era. Maybe it’s the male menopause, reliving the past and all that.
But hey, it keeps me occupied and out of mischief so who should worry about that
This one is going on my shelf so when the kids visit I can show them the joys of basic programming we experienced back in the day.
It’s just after 5 in the morning and the only notable thing that has occurred so far today is that I have woken up.
And to be honest for everyone that’s no mean feat. The fact we have awoken from our slumber is something to be grateful for. You have another day on this planet, another go at trying to have a good day, another day to mend relationships and to forgive those little misdemeanours and mistakes.
Another chance to be a better person.
I’ve had my first cup of tea of the day and my next big decision is whether to make another.
Tea – typically British
Start the day with a blank canvas, and go paint a masterpiece.
Hopefully you’ll get another go at it tomorrow. You just never know.
Foxes Den 
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