The Queen

Today I am working in Cardiff , in one of my outfit's Regional Offices. This is pretty normal SOP and was in every way a routine Thursday.

I took the train from BS5 to Cardiff and left the railway station as normal. On emerging into the Welsh air a large crowd was abundantly obvious along with lots of Rozzers, plenty of Range Rovers and a stretch Bentley. I asked a policeman what was going on and he informed me that The Queen was due ! I was very content to wait about and have a bit of a cheer and an atmospheric moment.

Twenty minutes later , Ladies in Waiting emerged along with various civil holders of office, and then The Queen herself. And some double hard looking security types. The crowd cheered and I joined in. HM worked the crowd and said hello to school children. She passed right in front of me waving and beaming.

Here is my picture of the moment.

I had not seen HM before ( not officially, or in circumstances I could divulge mind you), so it really was quite cool!

Courtesy roller skate

VX52 is at the garage, or if you are reading in America, 'in the shop'.

About a year ago someone drove through BS5 dropping kids off in a minibus. The driver hit my car and damaged the wing and took off the minibus bumper in the process. I was away at work but two neighbours took the number plate and gave statements to my insurance firm. The minibus company flatly denied it and the claim stopped dead. I was a bit hacked off. Many months later, my insurance firm surprised me by saying they would waive my excess and just pick up the repair.

So VX52 is in the shop and I even have a courtesy car for the duration. It's quite fun, just a bit bigger than me, loud and unsubtle, but hey I'm not averse to a free car.

Doughnuts at the local car park and a bit of a burn around BS5 . That's my plan.

Tuesday Mongolian.

Tonight I am in Bedford overnight on a two day course.

The course is about time management and it has been well run, insightful, inspiring, useful and a very welcome use of my days.

I am at a b&b with a colleague who works at Herne Bay in Kent. He and I hit it off on meeting today, so we had some pints out and then ventured for dinner.

We happened upon a Mongolian buffet place but not the usual sort; the set up was that you picked your own raw ingredients and saw them cooked. You could either follow the recipes on chalk boards with a ladle of this, and pinch of that, a smattering of spices and a ladle of sauce. There were varieties galore and one could be free and easy or prescriptive.

My friend from work was cautious and went by the book, choosing to collate very set recipes for his first tries. I went ad hoc and crazy , making up my own thing. I tried chicken with water chestnut, leeks, bean sprouts, sweet corn, carrot and a mix of coriander powder, chilli, fish stock and garlic. Bang and onto the hot plate. A success! Then I tried lamb and veg and sweet and sour sauce, also a success, and finally I went for a dish of lamb-cheeky, and far too bloody cheeky it was too.

Anyhow, three bowls of great scoff with rice and prawn crackers plus a beer. A good night's eating for under a tenner a head and quite fun to do.

Maybe they serve cat, dog and horse on a Saturday night piss-head shift but Tuesday ingredients were definitely as advertised.

Even on holiday

Even on holiday the Special Forces missions keep coming in.

BS7 and I were driving home from Devon today when the call came in and the outriders hurtled our way, ready for an airport run and a Hercules take off.

Another country, another mission, another cover story.....

Working in the 21st C

Today I am on the train from Bristol to North Wales, the first of five days on the train that will take in Wales, Lancashire, Cumbria, Yorkshire and back home again in a big old tour.

I am on the cutting edge of technology, working quite efficiently with a 3g connection, an iPad and a bluetooth keyboard.

I can even do work.

And geeky stuff.

New Hub action!

Some teething troubles to start with and we're a bit hit and miss so far, but this is my new wireless hub which was a free upgrade. The old one was five years old and a bit tired, so hopefully this one will blast along at top speed.

Great service from my ISP too. And the colour and the lights are pretty smart.

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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