Month: October 2024

The formation of the Universe

What historical event fascinates you the most?

It’s one that’s going to annoy a number of people on both sides of the spectrum.

The formation of the Universe.

My upbringing was in the Church of England so I have a Christian upbringing. I spent the first 16 years of my life going to Sunday school and then on my 16th I was given the choice to carry on going or to stop. I chose to stop. We were told throughout that the Lord built the world in six days and rested on the seventh. And I believed this.

But in school the teachers were telling us about the Big Bang, the science around it was amazing, mesmerising, there was now another choice. It was confusing. Creation or Evolution?

Now I don’t class myself as a religious person, however I do find comfort within my beliefs. I don’t force my beliefs on anyone, it is a highly personal aspect of my life and that’s how it will stay.

However the evolutionary route fascinates me and when I was younger certainly created a conflict of interest. I would question theories privately as who could I talk to about it? It’s not the sort of question you discuss with friends as a youngster, they’d think you were crackers!

No, I’ve developed my own understanding and it’s a healthy mix of the both. Purely because I’m not fully able to just ditch my entire upbringing, and as I previously stated i do find comfort in my faith. But I am always fascinated by the science and discussion regarding evolution of everything on this planet and from within our solar system.

I’m sorry it’s a bit long winded and I could have easily just said “ The Universe” and the question would have been easily answered. But it’s a bit more complex in my eyes. Sometimes our recent history puts blinkers over our eyes and makes us ignorant to the facts or truth.

But who knows the truth? I guess we will never ever know.

That’s kind of exciting in my eyes.

Journal – Post nine

It’s been 5 days since my last post in the journal. It continues to be a lonely old week as the wife is still away at our friend’s house. Health wise she is now getting the attention that she needed, a care plan is in place and her support network is now better than it ever was. Fingers crossed it’s all looking positive with the occasional wobble.

Living apart for a short while really makes you appreciate what you have, it also brings a dose of reality as you experience what some people have no control over, makes you think.

Just one more shift at work and I can drive down to see them both on Friday morning, I’m really excited about that.

Been a strange week at work, a lady threw herself under a train as a train was passing through at 90mph, the call went up for our response and the controller informed us we had one under a train. However that train passed over her, and she got up after it had passed and climbed back on the platform. I have never seen anything like it, the amount of equipment that hangs under these trains would normally rip you to pieces. How the heck she survived this and lived to tell the tale is a mystery to me. Needless to say we breathed a sigh of relief as we were not going to be needed to collect what was left of her. I believe she is resident at a local mental health unit, we have far too many of these issues on our route with those that are seriously unwell. It’s getting worse.

(Amended 31/10 unfortunately the same lady was successful in her attempt to end her life today. I feel sorry for my colleagues and I who were heavily involved, we didn’t need to be brought into this issue but we unfortunately were. She got what she wished for. I hope she has found peace)

I’ve purchased a few items to repair this week, all items that will be going on the site in the coming weeks. I have about a dozen draft posts awaiting completion, most of them are still awaiting parts before I can finish them off. I’ve also brought myself a new Multimeter, the previous one (good though it was) has been giving some spurious readings of late, so I thought it was time for an upgrade. Should be a game changer for me as there’s a multitude of other tests this one is capable of that the older one wasn’t.

Enjoy Halloween if that’s your thing, Here in the East Midlands it’s Diwali being celebrated this week so if that’s your thing – Happy Diwali – Stay safe. Be happy.

Walking

What is your favorite form of physical exercise?

Walking.

I’m one of those who’d sooner walk than jump in the car. Yesterday for instance a 3 mile drive would have taken a few minutes and I could have sat at home with my feet up.

No. I walked.

Two years on the trot myself and my dog Alf took on the “Walk 1000 miles” challenge and we smashed it. Unfortunately he is no longer with us and my mileage has dropped considerably as I no longer have that purpose. I need to break that attitude and get back to it as I love walking.

It’s so natural we all do it everyday. I just need to do more of it.

Have a super day.

Journal – Post eight

It’s probably been about a week since my last entry in the journal. My wife is still down south with our friend who is unwell, she has seen the doctor and it now appears she has started the road to recovery. My wife suspects she will be there another week as they have a return visit with medical staff next Thursday and she wants to be there to ensure she has support and that everything is well prior to her leaving. We are meeting friends in London for dinner on Friday so once I finish work on Thursday night it will be a few hours sleep prior to me heading south to pick her up, take her for a hair appointment and then on to our hotel, then out to dinner. To say I’m looking forward to this is an understatement.

We don’t have a big house but it has seemed massive these past few days. This is the first time my wife has been away and left me totally alone. I normally have Alf here to keep me occupied but he has gone, and the whole house now seems so empty. You notice creaks and clunks you weren’t aware of before, the mind plays some cruel tricks at times.

I’ve been to the local hospice and handed over the lovely items our friend down south donated, and they were over the moon. I think they will make some good money from those items. It’s a good feeling to walk out of these places knowing that you are helping people who genuinely are at a time in their lives when they need it the most.

Work has been busy, the autumn effect is in full force and we are fighting to keep the train lines safe and moving. It doesn’t help with thieves stealing large amounts of cable rendering safety systems useless. They put their lives as well as others at risk, and it inconveniences everyone. Well I guess it at least keeps me in a job.

I’ve purchased a couple of items to repair, and these will be going on the site shortly.

Until episode nine, be at peace, and be happy.

That’s a no from me

How much would you pay to go to the moon?

Much that I admire those adventurers who throughout my life have risked all, for the sake of these journeys, I wouldn’t pay a penny for the chance of going there.

Nope, I’m an old fashioned kind of fellah who is quite content keeping his feet on the ground. If at sometime this old world decides to go “Pop” then I’ll also be going down with it.

My sense of adventure doesn’t quite reach to the moon.

Have a great day all.

CHEF!

What alternative career paths have you considered or are interested in?

From an early age I always wanted to be a chef. Don’t know why, I wasn’t influenced by anyone in particular and my mum, bless her wasn’t a gifted cook but she always kept us well fed. Maybe that was why then!

Anyway that never occurred, as when you get older your choices increase and your preferences change. I was always good with my hands and as an exceptional student in Art, Technical drawing and metalwork I was being edged towards a career in engineering. I took all my entrance exams and interviews to work at Rolls Royce aero engines at Leavesden, however my school were two days late in submitting my course work so that option became a non starter.

I ventured into photographic production, maintenance and lab work and remained there for about ten years ending up as a freelancer.

Then I ventured onto the railway where thirty two years later I’m still employed.

So it’s Been a greatly varied career, however the next move I make is intended to be my best career move yet….

Retirement !

Have a good day

Rock & Roll clock

Here’s what the listing stated:

The clock features a swinging pendulum and is a great addition to any music memorabilia collection. However, please note that the clock mechanism is currently faulty and may require repair or replacement.

It’s been a while since I’ve been tempted to fix something totally outside my comfort zone, so here it is a novelty “Elvis Presley” Rock & Roll clock. I quite fancy learning how to repair clocks, perhaps this is the best place to start with nothing too complex.

Boxed
Need to get those legs swinging

From what I can gather the clock is a fairly std mechanism with a separate mech that operates the pendulum “legs”. I know the wife won’t entertain this in the house, however my elder sister is a massive Elvis fan so I may even shove it in her general direction… if I can fix it.

No assumptions as to what is going to arrive at the moment as you never know what you will end up with from auction sites, so let’s just await the mail man’s knock on the door.

All good on arrival, as expected

The clock has arrived and apart from having to just straighten the hands, a battery has been put in and the clock is ticking well and keeping good time. However Elvis isn’t shaking his hips as he should be even with a separate battery in place so there is an obvious issue there.

No hip shaking Elvis?

Well the issue is a bit of a pain in the ass one. The pendulum effect comes from a small electromagnet that opposes a magnet on the pendulum, hence when working the pendulum continuously swings. However this one has two of the wires from the coil broken. These wires are just about the width of a hair and had to be coaxed back into place using my microscope. I’ve tacked the wires back into place and the clock is currently working.

Electro magnet

However, apparently these wires are known to break even if a butterfly farts in the vicinity of them, they don’t hold up to repair that well, so I’m going to order a new electromagnet replacement. Cheap as chips.

Elvis shaking those hips

So I’m happy a fix has been possible, I’ll just wait for the replacement magnet until I move it on to my sister. In the meantime the wife has to put up with it shaking its stuff in the conservatory.

Edit: New magnet 🧲 has arrived, Elvis really going for it now and shaking his booty like a mad man 😂

Shaking like a mad man.

Now he’s off to my sister. can’t stand that much activity around me.

Another item saved from landfill. Result.

Happy days 👍

Baked beans on toast

What food would you say is your specialty?

Don’t come here looking for any arty farty top league cuisine, for me the best meal out there is also the simplest – Beans on toast.

My wife often comments that I’m a dream to cook for as I pretty much eat whatever is put in front of me. Gone are the days when a meal is considered to be a full blown meat and two veg, as it was for previous generations, for me especially, just keep it simple.

Want to jazz it up? Just add some grated cheese and you have beans on toast avec fromage 😂

Lovely.

Have a great day.

Rockets & Sinking boats

What major historical events do you remember?

There are a few historical events that have featured throughout my life so far, there are some such as the Apollo 11 landing, I guess I must have watched it if we had a tv then, however I’d have only been a few years old so I don’t quite remember it.

I remember the first shuttle launch in April 1981, I was at work and bunked off for about 30 mins with half the workers there to watch it on the company TV.

I’ve witnessed many high profile weddings and funerals, prison releases and successful / non successful legal cases. The one thing that really sticks out is the 9/11 attack in September 2001. We had only been there 9 months earlier and we had even seen the remnants of the last attempt when someone had attempted to detonate a car or lorry bomb at the foot of one of the buildings.

Of course for all of these memorable and historical occasions you did one thing, you collected the headline news papers of the day and I still have a number of these stored away in my home. I used to even have a copy of a paper that was issued the day the Titanic was sunk, this was my fathers and I used to take it to school for show and tell, this however disappeared when he passed away. I suspect it was foolishly recycled or disposed of.

Buying the newspaper today just doesn’t really occur as the news in its majority is now online. We’ve kind of lost a traditional way to pass on these nuggets of history as we used to do in the past.

Peace to all. Have a great day.

Journal – Post seven

It’s been a busy few days, so replying to WordPresses daily prompts hasn’t been high on the agenda, even though i was tempted by a few but just didn’t have the time. Since we got back from London it’s pretty much been all work, the weather as per usual has been awful and it’s all been about removing trees, cows and trespassers from the lines throughout the East Midlands.

We’ve been to look at some new houses. We’re not looking at leaving the county, we are just looking at moving about 12 miles or so into the countryside as the city is getting busier and noisier. I know it goes against a post i made a week or two ago when i stated that i had fantastic neighbours, that remains true, but when health and welfare and progression of ailments are moving faster than you do, these options have to be taken into consideration. It’s not for definite yet, but as each day passes another reason to up sticks and move on presents itself. I don’t suspect anything will progress until the middle of next year but who knows.

Today i had to take an unplanned trip back to London as our friend has taken a bit of a turn and i have had to get my wife back down there to keep an eye on her. I’ve had to come back home as I have work commitments, I’m suspecting she will be down there a week or so, we will miss each other immensely but sometimes there are more important concerns, and at this moment our friend needs us and we will be there for her. The journey back was interesting, just look at this idiot that doesn’t know how to use a wing mirror on the M25 Motorway! I’ve muted the audio as I wasn’t very complimentary.

Just an idiot on the M25

It’s strange being at home on your own, I’ve always been used to having my four legged side kick – Alfie, at my side whenever the wife has been out or away. Today is a first for me as i have neither and its hit me, it’s another one of those awful “first time” reminders you get whenever you lose a loved one. We think we’ve been having little reminders and visitations now, please don’t judge us, we are not crackers but little things have happened that just make us smile. There are probably very reasonable explanations but we don’t want that, and we like what we hear and see. It’s comforting, and in a world of utter misery you have to grab whatever bit of joy you can lay your hands on. Here’s a picture of the boys in the week, and for a brief moment the sun was in such a position to position a rainbow effect above them. This was a special and lovely moment for us.

For a moment…a rainbow

I’ve purchased a number of random ridiculous items to repair and these will be posted as articles over the coming weeks.

So for the moment we are up to date. There are a lot of calls going on between here and London, along with a lot of thoughts and prayers as well.

Stay safe, and check up on your older neighbours and family. They are a stubborn and proud generation and hate to ask for help. Be one step ahead and offer it without them asking.

Peace.