The Internet is a Scary Place.

No really.

Just when you think you've got it all sussed. Something new comes along and waits for you to walk past before jumping out and shouting BOO!

I refer to the interenet phenomenon known only as Facebook. I'll admit here and know I've definately jumped on the bandwagon and followed onto the site. But what I failed to realise what I was letting myself in for. I like to think of myself as fairly clued up, however the purpose of these personal networking site has just passed me by.

My first impressions weren't very good to be totally honest. It just seemed like another place where you could gather with friends (like a forum or at stretch a blog). There also seemed to be a bit of Ego to it. Especially as it allows you to display "how many" friends you actually have. When I initially signed up it wasn't looking to promising.

Now it's taken a frightening new twist. I've gathered up those friends I've been able to find (and if I've missed you don't be offended my time here is limited) and the thing has exploded into life. Oh my good there is so much information going on and messages flying this way and that I have no idea where to start.

I mean blogging is fairly hit and miss for me. I'm very scared that facebook is just going to swallow me whole if I let it. I think all I need is time to get used to it, however I don't know if facebook is going to give me time.

What's also scary about the internet is that it never fails to amaze how stupid some people are. This video is one I'm going to put into my "Combustion Control" traing course, that I give now and again. Remember children Don't play with Fire!

The Ultimate in Bad Taste.

I found this the other day and just had to share it. To me this is the ultimate in bad taste when it comes to Sitcoms. This was the only ever episode that was shown, but rumour has it there were actually eight episodes written/made. It's no wonder British Satellite Broadcasting went bust. My boss actually emailed this to one of his mates workplace in Germany before realising what he'd done.

So without further ado (warning may cause offence)...

Part1


Part 2


Quite aptly blogger is still half in German!

Loves, Labours Lost

I suppose I haven't had a proper update in a while. Believe me I have my reasons, but I felt now the time was right for some retrospective.

When we last left our hero he had just met up with the Big Boss (also known as the Vice President) and although he had come away unscathed the feeling of dread he entered his lair with was still there when he left. And our hero's senses have never let him down yet.

The last month at work can only be described in one simple phrase "sheer hell". Everything that I complained to my boss about reared it's ugly head last month. Lack of communication, more work than I could handle and definately more pressure than I could handle. For at least 13 days of the last month I was the only real technical guy in the entire office. Meaning everything technical came my way.

I have probably left the office on time only once in the last month. So my (slim) social life has been virtually reduced to nothing. And the pressure, oh my god. I know we've all had days where we don't want to go into work, but I was actively dreading it on some days. This is the first time in my life I've really considered taking a "sickie" but my own sense of honesty stopped me in the end.

Also my new medication hasn't helped. I was warned that it might make me drowsy, but oh my god I didn't realise how drowsy it would make me. I have to take it only at night before I go to bed so as to limit its effects. However, there were quite a few days where I wold be falling asleep in the middle of the day. Be it at the lunch table, or even worse at my desk. Thankfully they have decreased my dosage which emans I'm less likely to sleep during the day, but I still have my moments. If I'm active, I'm okay, but if I stop and relax it tends to hit me.

Things have improved in the last week at work so I'm generally starting to get back into the swing of things. People have been returning and my workload has become more managable. I was even cheering up, up until last Thursday.

I got a letter, nothing wrong with that you might think. However this let informed me that the dating Agency I had joined had gone into administration. So after only 2 introductions and 9 months membership, that was it. That was all I was going to get for my money. Galling no?

It wasn't so much the money. That just made me angry. If I'm being honest I'd pinned not a small amount of hope on this company. If not for finding that "someone" but at least improving my local social life and now even that opportunity has been taken away. The final nail I suppose was the fact that it wasn't even through any fault of my own. If it was I probably could except it.

As it is I've had a weekend to absorp it all and I've come to terms with it (my god I make it sound like someone has died). Although I haven't yet decided what to do next.

Oh and why oh why is my blogger suddenly half in English and half in German. Is this some subliminal attempt to integrte me with the rest of Europe?

Catching up With the Bandwagon.

Usually by the time I catch up with a wagon I get there to find...

... that everybody else has jumped ship. And today is no different, but hey why should that stop me having my own little bit of fun. Especially as I've got so many analogies in this post so far. So without further ado here we go.

Thanks first go to my friends Simon, Eileen, Dave, Amanda and anybody else who has taken part, but have yet to read.

1. Go to Career Cruising, www.careercruising.com
2. Put in Username: nycareers and Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post the top twenty results.

Results:

1. Crane Operator
2. Electrical Engineering Tech
3. Electronics Engineering Tech
4. Avionics Tech
5. Civil Engineer
6. Farm Equipment Mechanic
7. Race Car Mechanic
8. Industrial Engineering Tech
9. Heavy Equipment Mechanic
10. Commercial Diver
11. Mining Engineer
12. Cable Installer and Repairer
13. Physical Education Teacher
14. Heating, Air Conditioning, Refrigeration Tech
15. Optical / Ophthalmic Lab Technician
16. Industrial Engineer
17. Special Education Teacher
18. Motorcycle Mechanic
19. Pipefitter
20. Automobile Mechanic

With my sense of balance I do worry about being assigned "Crane Operator" especially if ti's one of those really tall cranes. Also P.E. Teacher seems to stiack out like a sore thumb in that list. Obviously it doesn't have "Cremation Engineering Technician" in that list, but I was surprised that the closest I got I was number 14.

I wonder what my old careers advisor would think if he knew what I was doing now?

Twelve of Twelve

I'm attempting to write this twelve of twelve while watching the second half of the football. So my concentration is wandering all over the place. All I ask is that you make allowances for my usual bad spelling which may be even worse during this one.

So without further ado.

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1. 07:10 Approx
I managed to catch the sunrising this morning. Well, rising over my neighbours houses anyway. I suspect I'd have to get up slightly earlier to catch the true "sunrise".

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2. 07:35 Approx
This is the latest concoction from my doctor to help with my current "digestive" problems. It definately doesn't taste as nice as the alst stuff I was given to try. In fact it tastes down right horrible.

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3. 07:50 Approx
Ah, BBC Radio 2. I always listen to Radio 2 when driving in my car. I find it much more interesting than Radio 1. People say it's a less fashionable radio station, but for me, I wouldn't sit in Rush hour traffic without Terry Wogan.

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4. 08:35 Approx
This is a new oxygen/Carbon monoxide analyser that we are going to trial in the near future. It may look odd, buit that equipment is worth £12,000 and is vital to the efficient running of any cremator or incinerator.

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5. 10:00 Approx
When I walked into the second of my departmental offices this was the site that awaited me. A new shipment of PC's that I need to setup for various contracts. What makes it more interesting is that they are installed with the French version of Windows XP. I find XP is bad enough in English, let alone French.

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6. 16:00 Approx
On my daily wander around our factory I came across this little (?) beast. It's currently in the process of being coated in refactory to make it heat resistant. I left my camera case in there to give you some sense of scale. When complete it'll become part of a machine used to incinerate livestock (mainly horses).

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7. 16:55 Approx
This is the current state of the white board in our office. I use it to remind me of the important things that I mustn't forget. The larger the writing the more important. I had to delete the reminder about "World Domination" as it didn't coincide with company policy.

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8. 17:25 Approx
The Sunday Times Crossword. I always enjoy trying to do the Sunday Times Crossword. Either with my friends Simon and Dave or as was the case this evening with my boss before we brave the traffic going home. Here is the fruit of our efforts for tonight.

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9. 18:40 Approx
Dinner. Living on my own I always find it difficult to cook. I either have to cook a big meal and freeze it or live on more convenience type foods. I also hate the way the portions you buy at the supermarket can't be geared to cooking for one. One meal I have found I am able to cook for one is this: Mushroom stir-fry with noodles and a Hoisin & Spring Onion Sauce. Yum.

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10. 19:10 Approx
The aftermath. I absolutely detest washing up. The nicer the meal, the more washing up there is to do. Suprisingly though, I refuse to buy a dishwasher.

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11. 20:01 Approx
Football! Need I say anymore, I'm a big football fan and I'll watch just about any match that's put in front of me. In this case this is an England international match of some importance, so I don't really have any excuse not to watch it.

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12. 20:50 Approx
I have over the last few weeks rediscovered my love of Teacakes. Especially for supper before I go to bed. These are the last of my teacakes and I toasted them up (becasue you can't eat them not toasted) during the half time of the football.

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So that's it for another month. No more post-amble, there's football on.

If you have read all fo this and have no idea why I did this, then pop over here
and read Chad's blog.

Pic n Mix

That title will be from the same literary school as Guns n Roses then.

This post contains all those bits and pieces that don't fit anywhere else. A veritable smogesboard of oddities from across the internet, found when I of course should be working.

The first is something for the lady that has everything. I know some marketeers believe a woman will buy anything aslong as it's pink, but I think this takes the biscuit. Everybody has the right to protect themselves but still.

And these, well these I just found rather funny. We always joke in the office about the life you lead working as technical support. I suppose that's how I found them. I don't quite agree with the sterotypes. But I always find anything with Foamy the squirrel funny.

Warning due to large amounts of swearing this is NOT safe for work.




There are 4 in the series and they can be found here.

Finally thanks to the joys of Penny Arcade, we can now all buy this slogan on a T-shirt. I think I know who'll want one! ;-)

Because The Girls Love a Man in Uniform

Supposedly, so somebody once told me! However after this picture they may just change there mind.



Yep that's me in my new Adult Sergeant uniform. The beret doesn't look as bad as I feared it would. It was worth sitting the morning with that thing soaking wet on my head. The shoes are also coming up well, although they could be better. The shirt however is a bit of a loose fit. They are sized on collar size, but becasue I have a thick neck, I think they expect this size of shirt to fit sombody of a "larger" stature. It also comes down to my knees, but you obviously can't tell as I'm wearing trousers.


Strange I know, but uniform regulations state that trousers must be worn. ;-) Oh and you can cut yourself on the sharpness of the creases. It also adds lots more time to my ironing as well. ;-(


In other news I have bought a new DVD player to replace the old one that died last week. It's black, shiny and looks like a DVD player unsurprisingly. It also is multi-region which means I can play the hundreds of region 1 discs (and the two region 3!??) discs which I have scattered around the living room.


Oh and I eventually had that "Talk" with the MD last Wednesday. There was lots of "I agree with you on this" & "I don't agree with you on that" but in the end I don't think anything will change because of this. That has really upset my boss as he hoped it would finally open his boss' eyes and something will be done.


I also found out that he's really scared that he's going to lose me because of it. It's nice to know that somebody appreciates me.

Twelve of Twelve

In the words of the immortal Alyson Hannigan; "I think this lines mostly filler". I apologies how mundane some of this months 12 of 12 is. I always dreaded a 12 of 12 that landed on a Sunday. This is defiantely a day of rest for me and 12 pictures of me snoozing on the couch just wouldn't cut the mustard, well in my opinion anyway!


But somehow I've avoided any pictures of me asleep and it being Sunday also means that you've avoided the pictures from work this month. So let's delve into yet another 12 of 12.

Warning: This 12 of 12 contains lots of pictures of food. Anybody on a diet should stop reading now. You have been warned.

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1. ??:?? Approx

What's wrong with this picture? My watch is missing! I put it down somewhere and now I can't seem to find it. I can't tell you how naked I feel without it.

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2. 11:30 Approx

This is my Dad. I'm visiting my parents today as my Grandparents are also paying them a visit. As always happens on these occasions they always put on a large Sunday Lunch, I can't wait.

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3. 12:45 Approx

Traditional Sunday Lunch in all it's glory. My parents always go overboard with the food, but no matter how much we tell them, they never seem to get the quantaties quite right. Thankfully there is always too much rather than too little. Here we have Chicken, Carrots, Swede, Sweetcorn, Brocolli, Sausage meat stuffing, Roast Potato's and Roast Parsnips. Good job I'm not planning anythign remotely active this afternoon.

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4. 13:30 Approx

Sunday Lunch wasn't all good. I did this little beauty picking up on of the hot pans with a teatowel and not covering my hand properly. Ouch!

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5. 14:00 Approx

Another tradition on a Sunday Afternoon, watching the football. Both me and my Dad are big football fans and there's nothign we like better than relaxing on an afternoon witht eh football on the TV. Well except for maybe a round of golf.

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6. 15:50 Approx

More food! You'd think after such I big lunch I'd still be full, but no! I always make room for desert. In this case it is a triple chocolate muffin covered in cream. Very sickly, but very very nice. It didn't stand a chance.

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7. 18:00 Approx

Even more food! Well I couldn't really take a picture of me asleep on the couch, so the next picture has to be of my tea. In this case it's a sausage sandwich. I promise this is the last photo to contain food. I also apologies if this 12 of 12 is making you hungry.

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8. 19:35 Approx

Found it! I'd actually left it at home, no wonder I couldn't find it at my parents house. I must of taken it off while having a wash and forgotten to put it back on again.

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9. 19:45 Approx


Do you remember the jungle from a previous 12 of 12? Well here it is after I attacked it with the Lawnmower yesterday. I did actually have a lawn in my backgarden, who new? I also found a Strawberry plant I didn't realise I had either.

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10. 20:00 Approx

Here's my other chore for the weekend, polishing my shoes. These are my parade shoes for when I'm in Uniform with the ATC. As I'm an Adult Sergeant, one of my jobs is Dress and Discipline on the squadron. I can only make comments on cadets unifoms if mine is immaculate. So the top caps on the shoes have to shine like mirrors.

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11. 20:45 Approx

This is the book I intend to read after I've finished with this months 12 of 12. It's one of about 5 in my current "To read" pile. I did plan to watch a DVD, but...

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12. 20:46 Approx

... my DVD player has stopped working completely. It doesn't even power up anymore. So it has joined my TV in the pile of old electronic items that I intend to take to the recycling centre as soon as I can be bothered.

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So here we go. I managed a Sunday 12 of 12 without taking any pictures of me asleep on the couch. Although there are more pictures of food than I would like. Still it asks for 12 pictures of my day and 12 pictures of my day it shall get.

If you have read all of this and have no idea why I did this, then pop over here and read Chad's blog.

The Big Un'

It's been a while so where to start? I know, lets be sensible for once and start chrnologically from my last post. I can't however guarantee anything about the sensibility of what follows. :-)

Well that means we start with my car. It has been restored back to working order. They told me that there was somethign wrong with the ignition system, so they replaced bits of it until it started working again. It also needed 2 back tyres so I had them replace those while it was in the workshop. I eventually collected it back on the Saturday (21stJuly). It hadn't been cleaned, but at least it worked, which was good as I needed it for the following week.

The following week was of course the week of my holiday. As last year Iwent to Whitehaven on the edge of the Lake Distrct to visit some of my friends from university. Thankfully the weather wasn't too bad, compared to what it had been the previous week. We still had some dull, grey days, punctuated by rain, but we also had one or two dry ones which we could get out and about.

I must admit I was glad to get away from work for the week. Things have been rather stressful at work recently so I was just thankful to get away from Leeds entirely (and cleanly I might add, more later). Anyway, I stayed with Mark and Hannah 2 friends from uni who both work at Sellafield.

As usual they were very kind in putting me up for the week and also for feeding me during the week. Those days when the rain failed to keep us inside we went out to Whitehaven, or went further down the coast to a place called St. Bees. I especially liked the little cafe on the edge of the beach at St. Bees, it serves rather nice Tifin.

Don't ask me to describe Tifin. It's very much a chocolate, flapjack, biscuit, type thing. The best thing I can say about it is that it is delicious and that I ate 2 slices. ;-)

The holiday was rounded off nicely by a barbeque (again at Mark and Hannah's) with more of my coursemates/former house mates from university coming up just for the BBQ. Considering my job you wouldn't think we'd have any difficulty lighting a barbeque, btu we did. We must have had the worlds worst matches. They would light, but then they would immediately go out. The wooden part of the match refused to burn at all. Eventually we had to use bits of rolled up newspaper and the cooker hobs to light the BBQ.

I think I also came back from that weekend at leadt half a stone heavy than when I went there. But I don't mind it's all in a good cause (me).

I'm also now offically an Adult sergeat within the ATC. My paperwork came through a week last Tuesday and I went to collect my uniform the day after. However this has meant that some of my free time has been spent ironing shirts and trousers and doing other parts of my uniform. As an Adult sergeant I am expected to have a standard of uniform much greater than the cadets. The worst parts of the uniform to do are the beret and the cadet shoes.

The beret has to be moulded into the correct shape before it can be word properly. To do this, you must immerse it in cold water and then wear it on your head (in the correct shape) until it dries. So I spent Saturday morning with a wet lump of beret on my head, trying to read a book without getting water dripped onto it. the shoes just take ages to polish. The toe caps have to be a very shiny, dark black and the only way to get them like that is to keep applying polish and buffing them for hours on end. I've made a good start, but it will take me a few weeks before they are perfect.

I'll post pictures whenever I can get somebody to take them.

Also while I was away I got plenty of leaflets for "Micklefield against the Wind Turbines". It looks like around my way they've caught the "Not in my Backyard" desease. One of the leaflets had a picture of the town with a massive turnbine towering over the top of it with the words "Don't let this happen". I had to chuckle as the scale is just so obvioiusly wrong in the picture. The turbine could have been something straight out of war of the worlds.

I can't really think that they can complain that they'll be noisy either! I mean we'll have the A1 motorway between us and the Windfarm, I can't see them generating anymore noise than that. Still I haven't seen the plans yet so I'm witholding judgement until I see the plans for myself.

Finally, I got back to work last week and straight away got snowed under by various requests from various departments. I even snapped at one point and almost started shouting at somebody from the French office down the phone. At the end of the day I'd had enough. So I emailed my boss with a critique of everything I could think of that could be run better (both for our department and communications from other departments). I also voiced my concerns for the future if thigns continues the way they were heading.

My boss surprisingly said he agreed with me entirely. I thought then he would then discuss some of the matters with his boss. What I didn't expect him to do was send a copy of the email to the Managing Director! I'm now scheduled to have "Frank Talks" with the Managing Director on Wednesday.

I'm not looking forward to those.

Car-tastrophies and Confessions

You'd of thought that I'd of had enough of catastophies this year, what with all the plumbing disasters and what not. But no, more were going to be piled my way.

This time rather than one centered on the house, instead this time it's the car! I was driving to my parents house on Tuesday night when I began to notice that there seemed to be a lack of power fmro the engine. This sort of thing is really noticable in my car as it doesn't have a lot to begin with. So when you lose some, you begin to think somebody has nicked your engine and replaced it with a sewing machine!

Anyway, as I got closer to york, a light began to flash on the dashboard. Not a red one, but a Yellow one. Looking in the owners manual when I reached my destination revealed that this light stands for "Engine Malfunction" - I greeted this news with the obvious cry of "No duh" and then a long groan. The manual says it should be driveable as long as it flashes and doesn't stay on all the time. Guess what it did when I tried to leave my parents house.

Yep you guessed it. So I had to call out roadside assistance (free while the car is still under warranty). The guy came out and said he couldn't fix it by the side of the road, but it looked like only 3 of the 4 cylinders were actually working. So my car has been taken to a garage in York and I now have to wait for it ot be fixed. In the meantime I have a borrowed car, but it's a hassle I could do without at the moment.

Next weeks, week off from work can't come soon enough!

And now for a confession. Yup it's another song which I shouldn't like but do. I personally blame Radio 2, but there you go.

Twelve of Twelve

Ding Dong merrily on high, it's Twelve of Twelve time again. I know it's july, but should be able to sing Carols all year round... well, maybe those that don't actually mention christmas. I mean we are now over halfway through the year, it's only just round the corner. Yes, it's a very big corner, but I have a v. good imagination. Which is also a curse, good imaginations mean you can conjure up images no matter what is described, which is not necessarily a good thing.

But hey who needs an imagination when we have pictures...

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1. 07:20 Approx

It's 99.9% finished. About a fortnight ago myself and my dad undertook the final task of fitting the floor to my new bathroom. It took us just under 2 days to fit it properly, so finally the upstairs of my house no longer looks like a building site. The only thiung that needs finishing is a little bit of edging where the bath meets the floor.

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2. 07:45 Approx
This is the lawn outside the front of my house. Well I call it a lawn, I don't know if it qualifies as such anymore. IT's more weeds and moss rather than grass. At least it's still vaguely green. It's also short as I managed to cut it last night before it rained.

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3. 07:46 Approx
This is my backgarden. As you can see I didn't get chance to cut this last night. If I'm not careful it'll become a Jungle before I turn around twice. Then I'll have to evict the gorilla's beforeI can cut it again.

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4. 08:20 Approx
A package arrived on my desk this morning, it contained this. It is a map of Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. We have maps of the different countries we have customers in, on our walls. Except we realised that we didn't have one of Holland, which is odd as we are a Dutch company. So I went on ebay to remedy the situation. This is our second map as somebody pinched our first one!

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5. 11:25 Approx
This is my savior on warm days as the office doesn't have air conditioning. Unfortuantely the lead on it isn't very long so it sits quite close to my desk. Plus the only settings it has are:

1. Gale Force

2. Hurricane

3. Look out Dorothy I'm on my way to Oz.

If I have it pointed at me, all the bits of paper get blown around my desk. So it has to be pointed away from me and I just get the draught it creates.

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6. 12:00 Approx
It's medication time. This one pill allows me to have a meal without ti causing me too much pain later in the day. So I have to take it 3 times a day, preferably half an hour before meals. I have an alarm which comes on my phone to remind me as I have a terrible memory for such things. I also have an alarm that reminds me of twelve of twelve time as well.

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7. 14:30 Approx
I'm working int he workshop testing various bits of machinery this afternoon. This is a finsihed machine with all of it's painted panelling. Would you believe this is the most popular colour we sell. Just once I'd like to see one a more interesting colour. The most interesting one I have seen is painted cream, orange and brown, to match the room decor!

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8. 15:25 Approx
This is a coffin loading machine. It was designed by our French subsidury and does exactly what it says on the tin. It pushes coffins into the machine so the operator stay away from the hot chamber and also doesn't hurt there back.

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9. 16:30 Approx
Do you remember this? This is the anaimal machine fom my last twelve of twelve. Except it's much more further on than the last time you saw it. IT know has most of the electrics and the gas/air pipe work used during the combustion process. You'll notice it is a nice shade of dark blue. This is the standard colour for our incinerators.

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10. 17:30 Approx

This is my meal for this evening, our lovely canteen lady made the sandwiches for me as I knew I would be working late. It's a Thursday so I have Tai Chi this evening and I travel there straight from work.

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11. 21:05 Approx
The aftermath of another intense T'ai Chi session. This fine Chap is Frank one of the characters in the group. Lobar (our instructor) is in the background, he's not posing, but looking for his keys in his pockets. Let me tell you after tonight I was just one big sweaty mess.

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12. 21:45 Approx
This is the view from the bottom of the hill, rather than the top of the hill for once. It's also a view that is going to change in the near future. A company is proposing to install 80 metre high wind turbines on the moor opposite my estate. Now i'm not against wind turbines, but I'm interested to see how the landscpae is going to change in the near future when the turbines go up on the moor.

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Bonus Pic: HOT

13. 16:55 Approx

This is my bonus picture for this week. Unfortunately we didn't have any lit cremators in the workshop today so you have this! This is a gas burner which we use on our standard machine. It gives out a much bigger flame than your standard oven, the flames can reach upto 3ft long. They are cable of heating a machine up to a temperature of 900 Celcius and beyond (given enough time).

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And that's it for another month. That's 6 down, with 5 more to go (one was missed). Hope you've enjoyed it. Maybe one day I'll down one without pictures of cremators in it. It'll most likely be a weekend ;-)

If you have read all of this and have no idea why I did this, then pop over here and read Chad's blog.

I am Here!

A plane old title, that seems innocucous at first, but actually came to mind as I was thinking about something I watched the other day. It's just that it was the last line from one of my favourite anime films (this one) and I was reminded of it while scrambling round for titles for this post! (I originally had some joke about "I can't believe it's not butter".


Isn't funny how the mind works...


... Let me rephrase that isn't it funny how my mind works. ;-)


Anyway there has been quite a bit going on since my last post so let's play catch up.


Last week I was working on site, but with one small difference. The site was actually only 2 miles further away from my house than my office. So for once, I wasn't living out of a travel inn and could instead commute from home. Although the hours each day were still long and it would of been nice if someone else was cooking my evening meals. Oh and I say commute, on somedays I was actually closer to needing an inflatable dingy to reach my destination.


I was driving along a country road coming back from the crematorium and I was thinking to my self "Funny I don't remember this bridge being here?" thinking I was just crossing a swollen river. Then it dawned on me, there wasn't a river anywhere nearby it was actually 2 farmers fields that were under a few feet of water and if it wasn't for the stone walls either side of the road, then my car would have been under a few feet of water.


Yikes!


That wasn't the only stress caused by the rain last week. Part of the new installation was on the roof. Can you guess which muggins was on the roof for over an hour (in the Torrential rain - worthy of the capital letter) checking the electrical wiring when we discovered a problem? Yep that was me. I was wearing my full waterproof gear and I still came down looking like I'd gone for a swim with all my clothes on.


Trust me to be working on the roof, in a month that contains Glastonbury, Wimbledon and the British Grand Prix. It's obvious what the weather is going to be like!



Luckily there was no need for any weekend site work so instead I could devote yet more time to my bathroom! As they say in the movies "It won't be long now" and it won't. The floor is finally fitted. It took 2 of us most of saturday to fit the laminate flooring and it looks much better than I though it would, which to my mind is a definate bonus. We bought the flooring in boxes of 5 planks and it turned out I needed 6 to do the floor. Typical.

But then I had a brain wave and on Sunday we used the remainnig planks to create a matching panel for the side of the bath. So we are entering the final phase. All that needs to go down is the beading to go around the edge of the room (to hide the gaps) and it will be essentially finished. Okay so there will be a small amount of accessorising to do, but that'll be an as/when job.

Which means that with all of the dusty work over and done with, this weekend has become my summer cleaning weekend for the house. Everything is going to be sorted, recycled, dusted, cleaned, washed and generally tidied ready for company the following weekend.

Is it possible to crank up the excitement any further. Let's see shall we...

If you're wondering what has taken up the rest of my time in the last fortnight. Well I have finially applied to go back into uniform as part of the ATC. After filling out the forms (including a security questionnaire with the question - "Have a been part of any attempt to overthrow the legitament government of any country") I got a date for the next stage. An interview panel!

Which happened on Monday this week. The interview was scheduled for 8:45 pm, but didn't end up starting until 9:15pm. It is a panel of 3 senior officers frm the wing asking questions to assess your suitability to go back into uniform. I had applied to become an Adult Sergeant (the lowest adult uniformed rank) and so was asked standard interview questions (who, what, why) as well as the ATC setup and the dreaded "Scenario" questions.

I got:

(i) What would I do if someone came upto me and said they'd seen Joe bloggs taking £10 from the tuck shop?

(ii) What do I think of the Wing Alcohol Policy?

That 2nd one was a really toughie, but in the end...

I passed! Which means as long as my paperwork goes through (takes about 6 weeks), I'll shortly be wearing a uniform.

Needless to say there will be pictures of me i my uniform and the finished bathroom, shortly!

The Mobile Strikes Back

Again.

I keep getting phone calls from numbers I don't recognise. You expect the odd wrong number now and again, but I never thought my number was so close to other peoples.

I think the worst one was when my phone went off at 2am. I didn't answer it, I just turned it off. You expect all sorts of drunken phonecalls at that time. The next morning when I looked at the number I was surprised to discover it was a landline, I thought it'd be a mobile looking for a taxi or something.

Just out of curiosity I put the number into google. I thought if anything could help me, it would be a search engine that picks up the most diverse things. Apparently the number belongs to a company on an industrial estate in Elgin, Scotland. Somehow I doubt they were working at 2am on a Saturday Morning.

I missed another one from a mobile number I didn't recognise at Lunchtime today. Somewhere along the way my number seems to have got really popular. I don't think I should be getting a warm glow from all of this, but I do like receiving lots of calls...

... just not at 2am. ;-)

12 of 12 June

I'm sorry abour missing last months 12 0f 12. I wasn't really feeling in any shape or form up to it last month. In fact last month can really be catagorised by a lack of anything. I'm beginning to feel better (and happier) now though, so I can now return to that world of a number no less than 11 and not greater than 13.
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1. 01:45 am Approx

This is my mobile phone that sits on my bedsite cabinet. It doubles as my morning alarm during the week for work (as it has an alarm you can set for Monday - Friday). It has also just gone off! Well not just as this was written about 20 hours later, but I couldn't resist taking a picture at the time. It was actually a text message from Helen in reply to one I sent her earlier. I forgave her though as I did find a parcel on my doorstep yesterday evening contains a DVD she had bought me (V for Vendetta).

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2. 06:50 Approx

Now this is more like my usual time to emerge from my room. This is my newly decorated bathroom. It's not quite finished yet as I still have to finish putting the floor down and accessorise it. All of the tiling is done though and the radiator and shower have been installed. You don't know how good it feels to be able to have a shower on a morning after all this time. The 5 weeks I couldn't use the shower seemed like a lifetime.

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Breakfast. Currently breakfast is Muslei with pineapple chunks and slices of Banana. I've actually lost 1/2 a stone in the last month and I've put that down to tweaking my breakfast slightly. That and the illness anyway. ;-)

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4. 07:40 Approx

I had to collect a parcel from my local sortting office as they had tried to deliver it while I was out last week. Our sorting office has some really annoying opening times. It is only open Monday - Saturday, 07:00 - 10:00 am. Also, parking there is a nightmare at those times as all of the postmen (and women) are there picking up there morning deliveries. Speaking of postmen, this one caught me taking a picture of the sorting office and wondered what I was doing. When I told him he insisted I take a picture of him in action instead. Unfortunately it turned out a little blurry, but here he is world:- Pete the Postman.

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5. 09:30 Approx

I bought some new glasses the other week to replace my old ones that were starting to get a bit battered. In total they cost me £300, that's the frames + lenses which are thinner than normal. Plus the lenses are the type that go tinited in sunlight, which I'm finding very useful at the moment. The thin lenses were really a must as well, as my prescription is rather large. If I can find somebody to take my picture then I'll post a picture of me actually wearing them.

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6. 10:45 Approx

My first cup of tea of the day. Work has been so hectic this morning as my boss is on holiday this week. I didn't actually sit down to have a cup of tea until mid morning. Of course you can't have a tea break without the obligatory chocolate biscuit. In this case the last 2 Jaffa Cakes from the bottom of our biscuit urn.

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7. 13:40 Approx

During my lunchbreak I was trying to download maps to a friends PDA. These maps are Ordinace Survey maps (basically the most detailed maps of the UK) to use with his GPS so that when we go hill walking we don't get lost. They take absolutely hours to download which is why I'm doing it at work and not tying up my laptop at home.

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8. 14:30 Approx


This is a machine for cremating small animals, mainly dogs and cats, although at the moment it is only half finished. It has 3 seperate chambers arranged in such a way that they all supply each other with heat. You can either bulk burn or you can individually cremate family pets. It depends on the owner. Pet cremation is a big business on the continent where this is destined.

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9. 16:20 Approx

This is an Air Blast Cooler. It is used to cool down the water from big boilers that are used in the filtration plants we build. These plants are added to the cremators to clean the flue gases from the cremators of particulate (especially mercury). You could in theory use the heat from a cremator for a practical use rather than waste it by cooling it with a fan. But most places don't like the ethics of using waste cremation heat for things like heating the building. However in Sweden there are crematorium where the waste heat is re-used to heat nearby buildings.

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10. 18:35 Approx

Ths is my parents house. On Tueday nights I perfrom my duties as a Civilian instructor with an ATC (Air Training Corps) squadron. I have been an instructor with the same squadron for 5+ years and when I moved house I didn't change to a different squadron. So I always visit my parents (and get fed) on my way to the Sqn on cadet nights.

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11. 18:40 Approx

Me, in my new glasses. My sister kindly took this picture while I was my parents. I know they're fairly similar to my old ones, but I imagine everbody wonders if there new pair suits them. I don't pose well for photographs and it's not really the 'rugged' look. More the 'After work' look.

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12. 19:35 Approx

This is the squadron building. And yes it is as small as it looks. We're currently an expanding squadron, rapidly outgrowing our current premises. We don't know when (if ever) we'll be getting new facilities that are more suitable to our current strength. If you want to know more about the ATC, then our website is here.

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BONUS PIC: SECRET

As part of the ATC we have to know all the different security cleareance types in the military. We never need to handle anything with "Top Secret" stamped all over it, however there are one or two documents which have "Restricted" on top. Here's the only picture I can bring you as it's got "Unrestricted" plastered on top.

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So that's it for another month. I hope this makes up in some way for missing last months 12 of 12. It's a little annoying that I can't claim a clean sweep of 12 of 12's this year, so I'm aiming for 11 from 12. Gods, there is so many numbers in this blog, I wonder if in the years somebody will read it and decided there is some secret code imbedded in all of this. Then they'll create a cult dedicated to the "Da Ellis code" and cities will crumble, thensociety falls into the abyss.

If you have read all fo this and have no idea why I did this, then pop over here and read Chad's blog.