Blog for June 2024 Ok folks, so where has Teddy B been this month? Well, in the last week of May myself and commanding officer achieved one activity that had been on our wish-list for quite some time and that was to visit Snowdonia and get to the top of mount Snowden.
We took the little train (reminded me of Ifor the engine) from the base of the mountain and slowly ascended to the top. If you like trains that was a treat in itself. It only travels at about three and a half miles an hour so you get plenty of time to enjoy the trip and views.
Speaking of which, when we left the station at the bottom of the hill it was a beautiful bright sunny day, as we finally made it to the mountain peak we entered into cloud and could hardly see a bloody thing.
So we had a cup of tea at the top and caught the train back down again. But in the words of a lady we met in Cuba who had suffered from shitty relatives trying to get one over her “We were there”
The first week in June I set aside for household/garden maintenance and repairs. I should think I must have painted everything that didn’t move. I repaired the shed roof, replaced fence posts, repaired the garden gate, repaired all damaged rendering to house etc etc etc. I don’t mind telling you I was glad to get back to work.
So, first week back was a 3-day ongoing training contract with a customer in Hemel Hempstead, then on to Bedford, Luton, Towcester, and Cambridge.
I see that the IET have issued an “Emergency Amendment” to BS7671 regarding solar PV and electric vehicles. I have two issues with this. Why not just issue this as an update bulletin rather than an amendment? I think this is rather like the Met Office keep issuing “Storm Warnings” to demonstrate how important they are.
My second point in regard to this is I think that BS7671 is becoming too big for a single document/publication. I reckon that Energy Efficiency along with Alternative Energy systems should have their own codes of practice.
At the time of starting to write this blog I’m sat in the restaurant of the Travelodge in Hemel Hempstead where I can see the road that filters down from the M1 into town. I have been here several times before and am always amazed by the sheer volume of traffic on this road, and it doesn’t stop! It will begin to ease off at around half past nine in the evening. Wow. That seems to indicate that these are mostly commuters returning home. They probably leave home in the morning before six o’clock to go the other way.
I can’t imagine living a life like that. Working like a maniac to pay off the mortgage and not having any sort of life with the partner you profess to love so much, until you are so old you can’t enjoy anything. I might have been a fool in my lifetime, but I was never a bloody fool.
Thinking about electrical safety, Safe Isolation should always be uppermost in sparkies minds. We go through loads of scenarios and look at routines like “The 7 Stages of Safe Isolation”, Test the tester and so on. There are also numerous flowcharts for this. But I was always a fan of the late Professor Feynman who came up with KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). Of course I take students through all the stages of Safe Isolation but nowadays summarise with – “Test before Touch”. How’s that for keeping it simple.
Got to go back to Spain again before too long, good job I’m self-employed, I can take holidays whenever I fancy.
When I was working in industry it was always a struggle trying to fit holidays in, on one occasion as follows: Me – “Would it be ok if I took these two weeks in July?” Manager - “Well Bert hasn’t had a holiday for two years so he’d like to take those two weeks” Me – “Ok’ how about these two weeks?” Manager – “The thing is Tony is just getting over an operation and he has asked for those weeks” Me – “All right so what about these two weeks? Manager – Doug has asked for those as he has kids at school that can only do that date” Me – “I’ve got kids in school as well, I tell you what, Why don’t you just tell me when I can have a fecking holiday!”
Then, when I went into full time teaching I could only have my holidays at certain times. So now I don’t have to put up with any of that crap, I take my holidays when I like.
If you have a page on LinkedIn its easy to see when you have said something controversial on Facebook as you will get a flurry of profile views on Linked in. What’s happening is the ecos, cycling freaks and other new religions are trying to find something to take you down with.
You are not allowed an opinion. Their dogma is the only path of the righteous and if you don’t agree you must be eliminated (and they claim to be anti-fascist!). So what they are trying to do through LinkedIn is find out where you work so they can get you fired if you disagree with transexuals performing in children’s primary schools or something else that normal people find disturbing. And when you check those that have checked you out you will see they are the most useless individuals with equally useless roles in society such as “Environmental Change Management Advisor” and “Equality and Inclusion Advocate” and to think Douglas Adams thought Hairdressers didn’t perform a useful role in society.
Terry Pratchett would have a field day with characters like this. Most of us Brits don’t mind people having strange beliefs or peculiarities, we simply ask you not to impose those beliefs on others.
So sometimes, when I’m bored I will purposely make some comment that is bound to fire them up. To paraphrase Ricky Gervais “Are you so arrogant you believe nobody should ever say anything offensive to you in your lifetime?”
Well that was my blog for June, I hope you have a wonderful summer and enjoy your holidays or just kicking back in your garden.
Time to saddle up and ride off into the sunset, so until we meet again “happy trails folks”.