grendel

mass production in full flow

Well on my trip to support my parents this morning there are a lot of foreign trucks driving the back roads of kent today, i crossed the m20 at one point, and there was a single line of trucks on the hard shoulder, starting t ashford (where i crossed,) as i could see the back of the queue, I also would like everyone to spare a thought for the police who are out there managing the traffic. I also have a revisit booked to fix the soil stack that has broken loose from the house at the top, once i can get into B&Q to get a new bracket, little job for next week then.

This year my Christmas preparation was minimal, several weeks ago I picked up the basics for chrismas dinner alongside my normal ship at lidls, a turkey breast joint (frozen) and several packets of frozen Veg - honey roast parsnips (frozen ), roast potatoes, and frozen sprouts. as for the rest of the christmas trimmings, i am not fussed, one way or another, but a chance raffle prize in the company christmas raffle (all the gifts from suppliers and contractors) netted me 2 small 1 person hampers with a bottle of proscetto, a tiny christmas pud, brandy butter, stollen, and a piece of christmas cake in each, has furnished the remainder, along with the 2 boxes of chocolates and a bottle of wine, thats me set up for christmas food, an early night to bed, watching the dvd of Bohemian Rhapsody, and a bottle of baileys, set me up for christmas eve. And so to this morning, up early as per usual, 5am is no stranger, My body clock will wake me around 5am every day anyway. After lengthy consultation (and bearing in mind that they are within my support bubble, and that neither them nor I have really been going out anyway) I will visit my parents this morning for our normal christmas get together (coffee and mince pies) but on my own instead of taking my daughter with me. Plus I will be taking some essential supplies with me (my mum has run out of cassis and I have a spare bottle). My visit to my sisters boxing day will be replaced with a facebook group video meeting. Anyway, I would like to wish everyone here a Happy Christmas, and have as much fun as you are allowed, with hopes for a better year next year.

A few other pics I took

not a great start to my christmas break, came back from lunch to finish off the job i was working on, finished it, emailed it out and then checked my emails, to find a message telling me we finished at midday, by now of course it was 1pm, still I probably would still have completed that job anyway, even if i had known, as i am not one to leave a job thats near completion for next year.

and propped into position on the model

and finally i masked off a torch to see what it would look like lit from behind

so with a little work, some 4mm dia clear rod has been shaped and a teak baseplate added.

well at least 8 anyway, it seems 4 each side, and they werent there for the date my model depicts.

blimey, this is getting fiddly, i am working out how to do the side deck illuminations, size wise i decided the metal portion should be 4mm dia, unfortunately i didnt have any 4mm shiny steel, but i did have some 6mm shiny shaft from an old disassembled printer, so that was turned down to 4mm, as i only needed half a circle this was put in the mill and one side milled flat, not easy when you are holding a 4mm dia rod in a vice, anyway this was just managed without milling the vice too, then a 2mm slot was required through what was left, anyway after about an hours work, i had finally managed, the first fitting was started, now just the wood and glazing to be done, and the LED. then i have yo have a count to see how many more are needed about another 15 i think, well that will keep me busy through Christmas in tier 4.

considering that dover can handle up to 10,000 trucks a day and the channel tunnel another 6000 a day, its unlikely that the delay is down to the port or tunnel, more likely the testing required will be the limiting factor, it has been reported locally that anyone coming up positive on the quick test is being put up in a hotel and retested properly, the drivers that will be delayed longest are the ones trying to circumvent the diversions and testing requirements by using unsuitable back roads to get around the restrictions, who upon arrival will be sent back to the very areas they have tried to avoid for testing, these drivers will not only have caused nuisance by travelling the back roads, but are the ones that are moaning the most as they want to avoid the testing in the first place. the majority of the drivers are doing what they must to comply, and are getting their crossings as quick as can be arranged.

the main problem with this is that we have already announced the dates for the meet - and that people may have already booked a boat for that weekend, we try and give as much notice as possible to allow folks to take advantage of any deals going.

I am still spreading, but only at the waistline

i think one important message that the government have clarified is the question of travel, the guidance has been revised to specifically limit travel to within your tier area and local. this clarification puts paid to those arguments we previously heard over how far one could travel to use your boat for the day.

I believe once you are using the graphics card, it relies on the memory built into that card, does the graphics card have removable memory cards, the only option may be to replace the nvidia graphics card, but once again as its a laptop, therein lies the issue, most are built into the mother board, if you use an external screen, an external USB or HDMI graphics card might be a possibility.

sad to hear this Tim, remember you will be re-united over the rainbow bridge.

france has tested nearly 50% of its population, the UK, 75% yet france is ahead of the UK in the number of cases, we are currently testing 758,000 per million population, currently as a country we have performed more tests than any other aside from russia (who have tested approximately 60% of their population, other small countries have higher per capita testing rates, but a lot smaller populations. the big problem is that people are still travelling the world, and as long as that continues, so will the spread of the virus, no matter how carefully we test.

Paul, attributing it to brexit would put it in the political realm, banned under the TOS, whereas the stated reason by the French government for closing the border was due to the high levels of Covid occurring in this country. so unless you wish to refrain from discussing this we will stick with the known facts and statements from the French authorities, rather than attributing it to a political cause.

in other good news there was a covid testing site at Manston, which should make testing there easier.

most of them will be parked up at Manston, from where they will be staged to Dover in manageable groups.

The problem is that the press once again delight in reporting the ten mile tailbacks on the M20, but totally fail to report the changes to that situation, for example yesterday the M20 was shut between about J10 and J12, the previous day there had been huge delays on the M20, but 7 hours later, they had cleared the motorway and moved all the lorries to Manston, today there are road closures around the port and the approaches, and up near manston. The situation is currently fluid, changing by the hour as the traffic is managed by the police, but thats not what the press want to report, they want to show chaos and queues, as far as Brexit is concerned, this has nothing to do with Brexit, its the normal traffic chaos when the ports are closed, it happens when there are storms, or industrial action too. to be honest the preparations for Brexit probably mean it has been better managed than previous port closures. yesterday local sources were reporting that the local Sikh community had banded together to provide 800 meals for the truckers in association with kent police. There have been news reports of some truckers cruising around dover honking their horns, understandably they are upset, they may still have several days transit to get home, so the action by the french government was particularly badly timed this close to Christmas. there is a second large truck stop in Ashford under construction, unfortunately the facilities are not quite completed. I did notice a lot of foreign lorries parked up in laybys and on the hard shoulders of slip roads on the A2, apparently they are unwilling to use the official facilities as there is a cost incurred.

it came after K and before N

i know someone who may be selling a small boat, probably needs a good clean though eh MM

you could try pressing the insert button as that changes editing modes

when i have my warfarin tests i need to go to the chemists, but if the pharmacist isnt in yet (i tend to drop in early) they hang onto my book and deliver the medication later in the day, for some of their patients they call round their house to do the warfarin test ( the nurse jokingly told me she gets patients to stick their hand out of the letter box for testing)as there are only 3 pharmacys locally allowed to dispense warfarin this service saves a trip to the hospital and waiting in a busy waiting room for the test.