grendel

crocus pots, used for growing crocus bulbs

I have been thinking and I know Charlie wants his model to represent Broad Ambition as she will be after this current AMP, with the new decking and upgraded solar panels, so I think for my model I will go with the look as she is currently, this will give the two models their own individuality.

yes,those little battery sets of christmas lights should do the job brilliantly. the power supply for the lighting will be independent of the propulsion battery, I have some usb solar power banks that will be used for the solar panels, the connected batteries will power the lighting.

I do have a satnav, but its rarely charged, that said I can usually get to within the 5 minutes that it has left in the battery before I need it

I think you just type his name with a : in front

my dinner tonight is 4 pork loin steaks diced, in the slow cooker with a couple of stock cubes, lentils green and red, and a stew pack of veg diced, all in a slow cooker earlier this morning, will be perfect when my daughter gets home and will feed two of us, tonight with mashed potato, and with the mash on top as a cottage pie tomorrow, 4 meals for a few quid

I dont use a conventional satnav, mine is software on an old laptop, this is positioned outside my normal reach, it does not tell me where too go, but shows me where I am, and my exact speed to 0.1mph, do I look at it - rarely, it has no voice to distract me. when I look at it, its set just below my passenger side mirror. generally that means I only look at it when I need to spot an alternate route - this is usually when I am stationary in traffic. most of my navigating is done before I leave, this means I memorise a route by road number - eg work to stalham would be A127 - M25- M11-A11 - A47 to Acle then turn left over the bridge and another left then a few local roads (it should be signposted from there right?) all that is from checking the route a week or two back, and I have been there once before. my phone is out of reach when driving, I do have hands free bluetooth, but its rarely turned on.

today, the epoxy on the first side was set, so another decorative board was added to the transom, before epoxying the second side, then it was down to work, fixing another rib, and steaming the next rib and roof support. this morning was the boot fair as normal (it only shuts down for a month in the winter, as its on one of the local park and ride car parks - this morning I found a dovetailing jig) then it was a trip over to Ashford to see my parents and take my dad shopping. (I go over about once a month to let him get the heavy shopping in my car). So the ribs are steamed, and as a I had a little of the epoxy left, I coated the floor of the well deck with epoxy to protect the printed flooring.

I think the problem really is - not that more people are dying- but in reality more people we have heard of are dying. Talented people have always died (except Elvis- apparently he went away with Aliens) its just that in the modern world we have grown up being able to appreciate those talented people - they have been on TV in film and on the internet, so their talent has become widely known, and the more talented people we know, the more are being seen to be dying. after all it happens to the best of us eventually. Also many years ago, the death of a major personality would have been reported less, maybe an obituary in the deaths column of the Times, but it would not (except for rare cases (Elvis springs to mind again here)) would it have been reported as front page news worldwide. Nowadays of course the press has to get it out there on all major newsfeeds- facebook and even the papers. and then we have to have a 6 week period where all of the things they are famous for are spread over every media outlet to celebrate their life.

Today was first a trip to the tool shop to get some long reach clamps, as I need to reach deep into the transom to attach the pretty facing timbers, this morning I mixed a little of the epoxy finishing resin and gave one side of the boat a sealing coat, once I had spent a fortune at the tool shop (dont worry Charlie I'm not charging you for these tools ) picked up some white paint and another wood blind I found. Boat #2 has turned end for end as we are now half way. no deck support as I cant get to them to fit them

I first heard of the Norfolk Broads through reading Arthur Ransomes Coot Club (and then the Big Six). then always wanted to relive the stories, I still want a boat- all through those books.

did you do the bit where you lead everyone out of your building blindfolded to simulate smoke, this was always great fun when you werent on the course

That's good news. Re- the cuprinol, I havent used that so far, as unlike Broad Ambition I dont expect the hull to take up any water, and the models wont spend the majority of their time sitting in the water. once the outside is sealed the inside might get a coating to protect it, but I am aware that I dont want to add too much top weight, even though some ballast may be needed it will be kept as low down as possible for stability.

I did consider that, but to be honest the hull is plenty rigid enough as it is, the fibreglass cloth I was looking at is only 17g /m2, and the difference between that and just plain epoxy is minimal, I literally only mixed up 2x 2p sized puddles and brushed it on with an old brush, and it did the bow block and about 6" down one side, for most of the hull this is just a base sealing coat.

I also wanted to test the finishing epoxy I have bought, this should seal the planks and make the hull watertight, I tested just a couple of drops mixed up on the bow, I have done the bow block, and a few inches down one side, from the look of it it is going to give a really good finish.

so the floor is now fixed in place and the hatch detail is added (aluminium sticky tape).

Tonight we see another rib in place, more steaming and some more side decking, but additionally we see the well deck floor in situ (its still not glued in place yet)

I should add that one of the main benifits of the system is in an emergency we can locate the nearest operative and get them to the problem quicker, another use is to reduce the mileage each driver has to drive through the day.

Well an early addition to the build thread today, this was because what I needed to do had to be done at work, today was time for the well deck flooring, the well deck was carefully measured and the shape transferred into CAD, here I could lay out the decking as I wished, this was then set to an appropriate background colour and printed on the laser printer. Its still to be glued in place but here is the first attempt at the well deck flooring (the hatch detail will be added later).

in my company we have trackers fitted to most of the company vans. these not only track the vans but have cameras to record the exterior and interior view of the cab. the company has very precisely set out what information they capture and to what use it can be put. bear in mind that this system records any accidents and if the vehicle is stolen also records an image of the thief. the protocols we have in place allow a manager to comment if the employee has been speeding, but not to punish an employee because of it, though the employee may be asked to take a speed awareness course, similarly with the cameras on board, these record and send data to a central computer, and only select people have access to that data, once again it is not allowed to be used for punishment, just to allow the manager to raise the issue as an advisory, for example suppose on several occasions the employee was seen on the phone whilst driving - he would be reminded of the company policy on using his mobile phone while driving and recommended to pull over, or just turn his phone to silent while driving- or just make sure the bluetooth was working correctly on the employees van. We had quite a few people who were against it at first, but as soon as people realised that nobody was being punished for transgressions, they accepted it and forgot about it, and just get on and work as normal.

my wife has done several mystery shopping posts, one at starbucks, you are pretty much given a script of what to buy, at starbucks she had to take the temperature of the drink when she got outside. at another shop she was considered so reliable that she was commissioned to mystery shop several branches where the results were too good and it was suspected that the other people who mystery shopped there were in thick with the managers and skewing the results, in one shop this was patently obvious as the staff were performing very mediocre compared to the rave reports received from the other mystery shopper. mystery shopping does result in consistent standards being applied across all of a companies branches and makes sure best practices are spotted and rolled out to all. if the company is aiming to use it to punish staff then they are doing it wrong, its more a way of identifying excellence and spreading it to all branches, if used correctly, and breaches the trust with the employees if used to mete out punishment, one of the nicest comments I heard today at work, was a new member of staff who commented that everyone he met was happy so we (as a company) must be doing something right.

for those interested the last 4 pictures were the olympus without flash

yes last night was good, birthday tea was a chinese takeaway, anyway onwards and upwards, tonight I have done the usual work, a rib glued - nearly halfway now almost time to turn the model around. new ribs and roof beams steamed and some more side deck supports glued in place, nearly halfway along this model with these too. as an aside I am going to post the same pictures twice - this is to test out an olympus camera I picked up for £5 at the boot fair last weekend the flash doesnt work, but the interesting feature is that it came with its waterproof diving case, which makes me interested in the picture quality, as if its half decent it will let me do some different shots of the models, and maybe real boats too, I still have to test the case for leaks, but it allows me a different viewpoint if it all works

was it designed so each hull passed under a separate arch of the bridge at Potter?