Friday 30 December 2011

A tall tale of an espionage Korea.

Just the other day I took a mission on in North Korea to bag some eyes first intel' on the hand over of power in that perilous state. Alas being somewhat taller than the average Korean Army conscript I knew I'd stand out but who'd have thought the Western media would pick me out amongst the million plus 'mourners'?

Back home now after a hasty exfil' and the usual full de brief.

Suffice it to say the new leader is as tricky as the last two.

Oh well.

Tuesday 27 December 2011

Actual Mission Action!

A pal who does actually does know some Special Forces dudes gave me this for Christmas. What a cracking gift!

This is an ammo box for 7.62 mm blank rounds. I guess these are for training sessions prior to live missions.

All I need to do now is think of something cool to keep in it and a convincing back story about my time on a deep mission in the middle east gathering intel' and zeroing in on CIA targets.

Thanks to the kind fella who wrapped it up for me.

Get in!

Thursday 22 December 2011

Christmas Merchandiser.

Today I was running an errand for a Christmas shopper here in BS5.

While we were in the city she was browsing and I was just spugging about waiting.

I noticed these personalised coat hooks where you buy one that matches your initial.

Took me a while to clock it but then had to take this picture for Blog BS5.

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Even more train drama.

Today I am coming home from Didcot where my brother lives. I am on an unusually quiet service because it's a day off and I am travelling just after lunch.

Plenty of seats in the entertainment carriage where you can pay for movies or hit the free to view screen for a location map that also shows speed.

Heading home at 124mph.

Get in!

Monday 12 December 2011

The elusive banana.

I haven't blogged in a while but this is a show stopper for BlogBS5

Today after about 30 months travelling in my current role on very many a train indeed, I bagged the Flying Banana.

This is the Network Rail
Measurement Train, an ex-service Class 43 that now runs a 13 week programme covering all the rail track in the UK and measuring its safety or need for repair. There is no published schedule so you never know when you'll see it. There is only one . It's long and bright yellow and you can't get on it unless you work for Network Rail.

Since I moved from regular train geek to the sort who collects numbers ( for class 43 only) I have not clocked 43014 The Flying Banana, but today at London Kings cross there it was in splendid yellowness. I was so excited and I had 22 minutes to my connection to take a gander.

There I was along with a discreet group of about eight other blokes equally thrilled. Harmless fun.

What a cracking Monday and out of the house from such a lovely weekend too.



Friday 9 December 2011

Cool!

Now this picture made me smile. It was on my geeky Flipboard feed (a great iPad app) , a fairly minority interest in class 43 trains.

Get in!

Thursday 24 November 2011

Total train drama!

On the way from Peterborough to London tonight and logged on to the 15 minute free wifi that standard class affords. Very impressed at the log in screen with a live update of the train's progress. Total geek action.

Saturday 19 November 2011

He is on the way....

My brother is coming to live with me from Monday. He's got this much shit and a firm plan to fill up my house with it.

Cosmic!

Thursday 6 October 2011

No more updates :-(

Beyond my clunky work laptop and its haphazard relationship with smooth operating, all my on line life is via products from this man. Indeed I am writing, posting and editing this on an ipad2.

He was a divisive sort of a chap and I am certainly in the group that liked him, but I was less fond of the control in the ecosystem.

That aside Steve Jobs has checked out and that's a real shame.

Thanks for all the cool products and the fantastic presentations and the branding.

Steve Jobs. Bit of a dude.

Thursday 29 September 2011

Top tractor action!

Well this is worth a brief downing of tools to watch. Noisy and explosive ex hedge!

Wednesday 28 September 2011

Weight for it!

Here's my brother larking about weighing the dog. Weigh self first then reweigh holding hound.

He is 28.8 kilos ( the dog, obviously).

Monday 26 September 2011

Get ahead, get a hat!

Thanks via BlogBS5 to my thoughtful brother who has just come home from Poland on a hill walking trip.

He bought me this soviet era souvenir and I am mightily pleased with it. I am looking forward to winter testing and to seeing if it persuades me into the way of collectivisation, centrally planned economies and long queues for bread.

Cheers Greg!

Sunday 18 September 2011

He has become one with The Borg.

This is Quaddie my brother's black Labrador.

It seems The Borg have infiltrated the house and Quaddie is now an automaton-canine swiftly despatching his brother Toby and moving on to look for new drones to join the collective .


If you know your Trek lore you'll know one of the first things you see of The Borg is the red laser eye supports
scanning space and time.

Saturday 17 September 2011

Winston Churchill.

This evening I had a fine Saturday night date with BS7. We spent the evening in Bath, about 9 miles from Bristol .

We went to the Theatre Royal to see Three Days in May, a fine play about Winsto' having to persuade Halifax and Chamberlain not to capitulate to Jerry in May 1940, 18 months before the Americans came in.

It was a belter of a play and this is a picture of the set just before kick off. Winsto' was played by Warren Clarke and very good he was too.

(We won, by the way).

Wednesday 14 September 2011

Special Forces Pa.

This week my brother has been doing some hill walking and camping in the Brecon Beacons, a mountain/hill range in mid Wales often used for SAS selection.

Here's my cool Dad checkin' out the route on a debrief over a pint.

I like this picture a lot.

Friday 9 September 2011

Rushin along.

Top drama!

My folks recently went on holiday and stopped in at Murmansk. At a hotel there my Ma and my Pa picked this Russian newspaper because they thought I'd like the lead story.

Too true but no idea what the article is really about.

Any readers of Russian out there?

EBay special zone

Now as you will know if you visit with any frequency, I love a good train, bridge, bus, cement mixer and so on. I like to look at train movies on you tube and I will always pause in a city to check out a good crane but *this* to bid on over at EBay is just too far from the sane crowd.

I put in a bid for £1.10....

Spod post

I am just testing a new iOS app for blogging on the hoof, saving draft posts and editing via my Apple device.

The picture from Doom is just for entertainment (and cool nostalgia).

Monday 5 September 2011

Spooky!

It had been raining for a good twenty five minutes when I took this. Dry squares under the seats make sense but the dry square to the left had been exposed all that time. I reckon it was a cloaked object and maybe even a time portal.... didn't dare go near it in case I beamed into next week and met myself, or appeared on Iconia.

Fancy that in BS7's garden.

Spod!

Sunday 4 September 2011

Progress!

This is the main bedroom in my house and it has now had the front wall taken back to the brick. A scratch coat and damp proofing have been applied and the wall is 'tanked' . That has now been plastered ready for decoration.

The anorexic thin carpet is going and I think I'll sand the floor (Daniel son).

Excited!

Thursday 1 September 2011

Fuse the Force , Luke.

Here it is folks, my new all-action fuse box. This little beauty is now installed at BS5. It is certified and signed off by the electrician which will help no end with potential resale value for the house. It also means any electrical surge will be dealt with rather than merely considered slowly as per the previous device.

All I have to do now is work it all out.


All this and two new lights too.

Thursday 18 August 2011

Very unsupervised.

Top BS5 in a lorry action!

Here I am at a show for work in charge of a lorry with a tail lift. I'm unsupervised with the keys.

What could possibly go awry?

Tuesday 16 August 2011

Getting on with it.

Here we are at last getting to grips with decorating and really getting about it.

Down to the brick where the plaster is done for and some damp proof and scratch coat before building back up and plastering.

I may have a new lodger next month and hopefully he'll find a sorted house!

Friday 12 August 2011

Invasion!

This was taken on the way back home today just into Cumbria. It may look like a cloud but I think it's a spaceship surveying northerners.

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Water sight to behold!

Today we have been to High Force a 68 ft drop waterfall on the river Tees in the north east. Loud, torrential and spectacular. Thanks to my friend Paul for recommending it. The spray and the noise and the spectacle were terrific! The waterfall has been at this stage of the river for about 11,500 years.

Holiday reading.

Thirty years ago when holidays came around with my Mum and Dad and my fantastic brothers, there would be an added excitement to the weeks - a holiday special from the Beano, Dandy or Buster. This was purchased a day or two before departure and lovingly saved to read in bed on a holiday morning to add to the excitement and anticipation of the day. It was always a larger format edition with a very colourful and exciting cover and longer stories.

Now nearly forty years old and holidaying alone with BS7, it hasn't changed much, save for the medium. I purchased a book on my whizzy iPad and have been savouring it each morning this week, mixed with anticipation of the day ahead and the train, castle, garden, museum, bookshop or event that we will see together.

The holiday book is called Go, Go, Go! It is an insider's account of the Iraninan Embassy siege at Princes Gate in 1980, broken up and concluded by the Special Air Service. Aged only 8 at the time, my Special Forces Skills were still in their infancy and I was not called in, so it is enjoyable to read the account.

The book is choc' full of drama and bloke-friendly illustrations just like this one. On reading the background it is an irony that the siege takers were protesting against Ayaltollah Khomeini and fundamentalist Islam becoming the cornerstone of Iran just the year before . All the siege takers were after was more democracy in Arabistan. Once they'd killed a hostage though, it only went one way.

It's a great book!

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Mpg geek post.

On Monday BS7 and I drove this far. Just the two of us but quite a lot of kit on board. We drove long motorway miles up to Cumbria and then took a right on the A66 right across the moors. All in all 52.7 mpg is pretty smart across 300 very varied miles for a car with 103k on the clock.

Thank you VX 52.

I'm sure bridges and trains and stuff will follow this holiday week.

Thursday 4 August 2011

Get in!

Oh yes! Now that ipad2 purchase reaches justification.

:-)

Wednesday 3 August 2011

North Devon County Show

Today we have been to the title of this post and it was just 4miles from our holiday base in north Devon.

The show ticked all the boxes for a Blog BS5 country show visit:

1 Large moo cows
2 A well made pork pie
3 tractors and farm machinery to have a gander at (not pictured here)


Great sunshine and a country pub pint of the way home. Ideal.

The Devil's Bridge.

These are the Tarr Steps, a 'clapper' bridge on the river Barle in Devon. They are about 1000 years old and each crossing stone weighs about five tons. The bridge was allegedly built by the Devil to win a bet. I don't think he was about when we pitched up but we saw a horse, plenty of children and dogs , and a couple of land rovers that crossed the river. Inevitably there were chav types who parked up as close as possible to avoid the car park charge and a walk, thus blocking it for other drivers.

Anyhow we had a right old time of it crossing back and forth and splashing about.

Top bridge action!

Tuesday 2 August 2011

Lynton and Lynmouth.

This is the Lynton and Lynmouth railway with two carriages that are counterbalanced by water alone.

As the bottom one releases its water so the top one becomes heavier and begins to travel. It drops 500 feet down on a steep 800 foot track and pulls its partner up. The whole thing recycles water and uses no oil, fuel or electricity. It is in Devon and has been in operation since 1890. 40 passengers per carriage and no harm to the environment. It's £1.50 each way and a right old caper. We had fish and chips on the beach at the bottom and then explored the shore. Perfect English holiday.

Sunday 31 July 2011

On the beach!

Construction action in North Devon today :-)

Friday 29 July 2011

Holiday packing.

Packing has started well....

Tuesday 26 July 2011

Top tunnel action!

Another away day at work and another after school excursion with a pal from the office who knows all sorts of interesting locations in Bedfordshire.


Three of us ventured out this time and visited Old Warden Railway tunnel that used to link a line between Bedford and Hitchin. It was built in 1857 and decommissioned in 1962. Both ends have have handsome capped stone and the length is 882 yards. The echo was really long.

Top geeky action.

Tuesday 12 July 2011

Signs

Exciting return to form on Blog BS5!

Here are some brand new signs at a Bristol station (Filton Abbey Wood, BS7).

This now means you can tell what's going on in the sunshine. Previously the 1970s goldfish bowl tv screens were useless in the glare and you never knew where you might end up.

Monday 11 July 2011

Almost out.

Running very empty at Blog BS5 through not keeping any sort of an eye on the important fuel in the important tank in the important journey.

Plenty of signs for fuel stations and a fantastic destination to head for but I took a random turn off the road and it's headed for a stop. I was navigating on my own (and I think that's the point).

It's the best road I've known and I turned off the thing.

I really don't want the route to end here, but then I shouldn't have veered off.

Thursday 26 May 2011

The 43 List!


I have started to make a list and a very geeky list it is too! The list has about 198 pairs and therefore nearly 400 separate entries and so far although I have seen about 200 I have only noted 4! It's very socially backwards and very exciting too.

The mega entry is unique and yellow.

It is ex-service, it is bright and it covers the whole UK each fortnight testing track (43013/14!)

I have seen it three times.

Get in!

Tuesday 10 May 2011

Last post at 38.







Here is my Blog in May 2011, days away from my turning 39.



For the first time in three years I have skipped a month without a post, so what to write in that absence?

Well I am just going to add some pictures that have been on the radar and in my thoughts (a little or a lot) in the last few days across the news and across my doings in BS5.