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The thoughts of Chairman Q


TheQ
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roddy said:

Haha, correct. It also has a fabulous burn your legs heater.

I wish I had one of those in my landrover 110, in fact I think most landrover owners would like one!

Just got the wife's car from the MOT, it passed, which is just as well because we've got to put it back in next week for the service, they are so busy I couldn't get it booked in before the MOT was needed.

The car had a shock the garage washed it! We gave up, because living surrounded by farms, the single lane road we live on it's often hard to see the tarmac under the mud, spuds everwhere today.

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TheQ said:

Thought for the day, just why is the BBC trying to distort the English language?

Today the they keep describing the last Vulcan aircraft, as a "Vulcan warplane" instead of "Vulcan aircraft" or "Vulcan Bomber"

they've recently taken to calling railway stations "train stations"

they took up saying we'll keep "across" the story

And yesterday one of the newsreaders said "one thousand fourty two" instead of one thousand and fourty two.

On a BBC (oddly enough) TV show Grumpy Old Men, one of the men on there talked of the bastardisation of the English language. Things like,'I'm going to need you to sit down' instead of just 'sit down'. Another was 'I'm at it 24/7'. 'twenty four hours a day seven days a week' and this bloke said 'oh don't do the long version after having stated the short version'.

Neal Kinnick said 'where does this "so" come from. Oh it makes me want to weep'. Rosanne Barr said to one of her writers,' you are so fired' and then everything became so this and so that.

On trains in Germany they don't have a driver on the ICE trains but a pilot.

I've given up watching TV at the moment as the ABC here is having their annual "mental health" month. I tried to watch TV and by the end of the night I thought I was mental.

Roy.

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The Outsider...

While being born in the UK, very shortly after, My father was posted to Cyprus, unusually we did not live on base, so I mixed with the local Greek children I'm told I could communicate with them no problem,

but I was an Outsider..these days I wouldn't have a clue with the language... it's all Greek to me.

Then we went to Northern Ireland, living on base, so I an English, Greek / English understanding child with a Scottish name went to an Irish /RAF local school...

I was an outsider with a strange Scottish name and a strange accent.

Then My father was invalided out of the RAF and we went to Wiltshire, so there I was an Irish/ RAF accent in a true west country school,

I was an outsider with a Strange Scottish name.

Then my father (now a civil Servant) got posted to the Outer Hebrides, I went to school there and then Inverness, with a real west country accent.

I was an outsider in the Gael lands with a Strange Scottish name. I'll point out here many Gaels refer to the Scots as Sassanachs (which means SAXON)

Then I started work, training in Milton Keynes in Bletchley Park!

We were all outsiders!! several of us with Scottish names, I had an odd accent,

Being made redundant, I joined the RAF,

Again we were all outsiders wherever we were posted, which for me included being back in the Outer Hebrides at the same place my father had been posted to, but Mum and Dad had moved on to Edinburgh by then.

Then I had to leave the RAF on medical grounds (there's a theme here somewhere)

and I got a job in Milton Keynes

I was an outsider as were about 50% of us, by this time with an accent from ?

Being totally stuffed by the last house price crash (it cost 60,000 and went down to 28,000 while inflation hit 20%) I took a post in Saudi, I needed the money.

I was an outsider... An Infidel.. incapable of Arabic.

Now we moved to Norfolk 10 years ago and don't Intend going anywhere, we don't even have passports,

I'm an outsider and probably will be for the rest of my life.

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WOW!! That's some life story Q!!!! Well your not an outsider on here mate!! :P:P:P We're all part of the same family on here :D:D:D ! Having said that, some people think we are strange playing with trains at our age, so I guess we're all outsiders really!! :lol::lol::lol: We should rename the forum The Proud Outsiders!!!

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Well I'm really glad to have found a forum for like minded people! Sometimes our hobby can make us feel a little isolated unless your really lucky and have a neighbour that shares our interest but since I've joined this forum I've found nothing but friendly, helpfull people that are more than willing to give advice/help wherever possible so I'm glad to be an 'outsider'. :D:D:D:D

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My other hobby is sailing Yeoman Keelboats, http://www.yeomankinsman.org.uk/ This is a report I'm preparing for the class magazine.. with a few extra explanations for you non sailors, please ask questions after if in any way you are interested.

This weekend was the start of the winter sailing. I belong to two sailing clubs, in the summer Horning Sailing Club has been running at least 75 years in it's current form but sailing / racing has been carried out there for over 110 years. In the winter Snowflake Sailing Club is a totally separate entity that hires HSCs premises, and has done so since 1963 having been at other places before then from 1949.

This year due to circumstances, Snowflake SCs biggest race, the Tri -Icicle Race, was the first of the season, which although it presents some organisational problems, meant that we had more entries for this open to all event, mainly from Horning SC and the Big cruisers stayed as their end of season is the following week. So we had a high turnout of 59 entries of which 51 started.

It is called the Tri-Icicle Race because there are three legs to the race, the River Bure from Horning to Thurne Mouth, from Thurne mouth to Acle Bridge and back, and then up the Thurne to Potter Heigham Bridge and then back to Horning.

Map(https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.6817699,1.5022773,13z)

This race is a mini Three Rivers Race, See (http://www.horningsc.co.uk/ and the unofficial site, http://www.threeriversrace.org.uk/index.php5?title=Main_Page)

The reason for the 8 not starting was the shortage of wind, the start was delayed by an hour and a half while we whistled. The race is split up into various starts of different classes of boats, we were in the 5th start.

We started first of our fleet and gradually gained a 400 yard lead but after about 2 miles sailed round a corner to find a traffic jam of about 15 boats stretched across the river getting in each others way, with very little wind and tourist motor boats trying to get through from both ways.

A gap appeared and the tourist boats cleared through and we went for the gap after them and got clear through by a couple of boats lengths, then a puff of wind came and the traffic jam moved on top of us. we drifted into a hollow on the bank and were forced to tack off the bank giving us right of way over the traffic jam, that broke up the jam but we were swept back up river with tide, it took us two more attempts to get past that point having lost boat speed against the tide and having to avoid Southern Comfort, a which a two story fake Mississippi paddles steamer it's actually a diesel catamaran! The Southern comfort has right of way because it's a vessel constrained by her size and Draft, though the skipper is very good and did his best not to get in our way either.

In the mean time the rest of our fleet had caught up and one sailed through and the last we saw of him was over half a mile ahead at the next turn. Once we got going again, we slowly started to over take the causes of the traffic jam as we overall were much faster. But we were being overtaken by the Big Sailing cruisers whose huge sails towered over the trees to get a good wind.

A couple of miles later we heard on the radio the race was being shortened, due to the lack of wind. There are several two way radios spread through the fleets, so that in emergency we can call any of the rescue boats along the course. Just after then we rounded a corner to find the "escaped" member of our fleet only 200 hundred yards ahead,... the chase was on!!, over the next couple of miles we got that down to 100 yards, and then found the turning buoy at Horning Hall Dyke. After rounding that, we had of course the tide with us, so sailing was much easier, trying to gain every little extra on every tack and turn we slowly gained on our lead boat until on entry to Horning we were within a few feet of the boat. Every time we caught up they would find that little bit extra and defeat our attempt to pass.

Then the wind came up a little bit and we were a bit faster again and we finally passed, they had reached the bank before us and called for water to tack but I didn't tack immediately ( you are not required too, but only to keep out of their way) but when we reached them we tacked, meaning that when both boats came out of the tack although we were leeward boat we had an overlap in front of them the extra wind moved us ahead and tack by tack we gained further ahead so by the finish we were maybe 150ft ahead.

So we won our trophy, but not surprisingly the overall trophy went to the big cruisers this year, They took the first 5 places overall, we came 16th overall this year instead of 5th last year.

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Not much done on the railway and it's environs this weekend, only a little extra insulation fitted to the fridges prior to final trimming and tidying up the fit. This was due to the above and On Saturday we had launched the boat which with rigging and setting up to 5 hours, I sail with Ian in the winter He owns the boat, he goes off and sailing a Solo dinghy during the summer, I'm too decrepit to sail a dinghy these days.

We had a company curry night on Thursday, I've had terrible wind ever since, not enough to sail by though.

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Following on from Biamor's thread, my 125 motor scooter has been mothballed for couple of weeks now, I just need to connect up the battery trickle charger for the winter. I' m wondering when to cover up the landys grill, but it can still be a little warm in the afternoon.

It was cold this morning, the first frost of the winter, up on the higher ground by the railway shed (that's all of 4Ft higher).

The cat did well with her hunting :twisted: two mice and A weasel/ stoat (I wouldn't know the difference).

Model railway club tonight, so I packed up at 15:30, more work on the shed tomorrow, but I'll keep it gentle as we've the sailing clubs big annual dinner and prize giving later. All suited and booted, or in my case kilted and ghille brouged. Actually it's at the boathouse inn in Ormsby, which by chance was on TV last night on the house swap programme (16:00 BBC 1) I just catch the end of it when I get home from work. The Norfolk house, Ex chapel, that was on that show, we pass on the way, nice building but its on the A149 a very busy road!.

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Well that didn't last long, less than an hour at the MRC, we had a power failure the entire building on the industrial estate. But not the other buildings.. Unfortunately the power failure was not in our bit so we couldn't reset it.

So I'm back home slobbing out with a Highland park and a cheese and onion sarnie, watching telly.

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The sailing club dinner and prize giving was a success except for the food. For a quite expensive place a pre booked meal for 70, there were only two waitresses. They put the gravy boats out at the start of serving table one, but by the time they got to table seven (ours) with the food was 25 minutes later! and the food was cold by the time it got to us as well. I don't think the club will return, actually because of the increased cost we had a low attendance of only 70 normally it's well over 100 for the dinner.

During the dinner we had a one minutes silence for Tom Gentle who was killed when his mast fell on him (reason as yet not announced) He would have been collecting two trophies. http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/minute_s_silence_for_sailor_tom_gentle_who_died_in_wroxham_after_tragic_accident_1_4249269

By chance yesterday We moored 3ft from the spot where is happened, the area is still taped off. although the boat has been moved.

Saturday I built the framework for the awning at the front of the railway shed, boxed in the electricity fusebox, modified the framework that will hold the railway by the main entrance to give more clearance for bringing stuff in and out and did some tidying up.

On Sunday my sailing club held an event at another sailing club (3 races), we came second overall, not enough wind again.

Economics will be a bit tight now, we have the chimneys surrounded by scaffolding as there are cracks, the men start rebuilding today, so yesterday when I get home SWMBO informs me the boiler leaking, it's going to be cold few days

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One of the problems with the place I work at is that at the end of the month they panic and try and ship everything out of the door to meet production or service targets. Therefore they don't want to release equipment for calibration during the last week of the month (it gets worse at the end of a quarter or annual).

The problem being I have six equipments which require a major service every two Months, taking at least 2.5 days ( total 36 times) and 3 which require a major service every 3 months, taking 3 days (total 12 times) this gives a total of 48 major services, Now I get 5 weeks holiday so that gives me 47 weeks to do it in, and then they don't want to release at the end of each month so that gives me 35 weeks to do 48 major services. The test equipment is mostly the same I can't run two entirely at once and some of it requires me to be exactly there So I can't be in two places at once, even if they sit 2 feet apart. .

Then because some are every two months and some every 3 months they occasionally move on top of each other.

Then a year ago they removed flexible working, so I can't work more in the busy times and take a day off at the end off of the month as I used to.

Also I'm the only one in my department being on a wage low enough to earn overtime so the department has no budget for overtime.

The pressure I get at times is downright silly, they just cancelled an equipment I was going to do this week so that will mean a 2.5 day equipment and a 3 day equipment to be done in 5 days next week and you can guarantee after 2 days both managers will want their equipment back.

The rest of the time is spent on the 200 + items, which require a service every 1 to 6 months of 1/2 an hour up to a day depending on what it is.

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Well I got home, no chimneys!! Big stack of bricks near the back door, and seven rubber dustbins of rubble. Also a big bag of sand, several bags of cement, and a concrete mixer. They've been busy.

I'm getting them to dump the rubble in my raised patio area by the railway.

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No progress today on the chimneys, it been bucketing down most of the day.

BAD, SWMBO accidentally let the cat in carrying a mouse, half eaten still alive and it escaped into the kitchen.

Good? When clearing the bottom of the cupboard that it ran into found the boiler leak had got in there, but no real damage only a soggy cardboard box. More drying out to do. Good job I used waterproof laminate on the kitchen floor!!

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Well I've just had my brain taken out again, or to translate, sat through the conference call for an hour on how to fill in my annual assessments.

It's the usual modern type you fill in what you think, on your form (or online), the manager fills in what he thinks on his form, you get together and he fills in the joint form (IE what he thinks)

They need make us sit through the lecture every year to do this,

A, Because they keep changing it

B, Because a lot of it uses language invented by an obscure professor of Human relations in Michigan in the 1960s

C, Because the rest is corrupted American English / American business talk, written as a script for a Dutchman (NO I'm Not joking) to read out.

D, Because it's written for Senior Managers, the example given had a budget of 14,000,000 Dollars, and so totally irrelevant to 99% of the employees,

E, Because it's rigged to keep marks down, so they don't have to give pay rises (I've received in the past above average marks, but below average pay rises?).

They announced a DAY to fill in your personal assessments ( BIG HEADLINES), hidden in the small print, "your local manager will allocate time if work permits it".

They have Leadership Anchors, (written general objectives for all) to guide you.

So I have to display leadership to myself, work with my team (ME), get their opinions before filling in my form.....

Luckily for me, my manager and I are almost the same age, and have the same point of view, on this waste of time and get together to concoct the forms each year.

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Well I got home last night to find the chimneys finished, but they are now wrapped up in hessian sacking for several days to allow the mortar to set with out being washed or blown away so no heating yet..

While looking up at the Chimneys, an airliner flew over nothing unusual in that but..

A, it was Easy Jet, which don't normally fly into Norwich.

B, it was flying down the coast and turned inland over our house, an unusual route for an airliner but not for the military.

C, it was quite Foggy, / low cloud

D, it was so low you could see the cockpit crew looking out of the window. (we are roughly 16 miles from Norwich airport as the airliner flies).

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