virtual crazy gang, part II

[tweediekiwi]

You're mentor be smarter than that last sentence of your.

[YM-Mundrabilla]

'Betimes I think I am Devilling, and my body will any .....'

Has he nodded off, been bitten by a snake or has there been an ER calamity requiring his immediate attention, perhaps?

[Varley]

Beheading?

(A sentence of yore, or it was until re-invented by the primitives).

[tweediekiwi]

No decapitations please. In this current climate, heads will just sit around and sweat and stink the place out. Keep your heads on guys. Look Up! Here comes the Coast Guard - everybody look sober!

[Varley]

Well, last night's dinner was the last of the Christmas curry that wouldn't fit in the deep-freezer. Spoiled myself with proper breakfast this morning. Now I have nothing to do until this evening except feel guilty (and make the fire - passing cold presently, although bright).

[tweediekiwi]

And of course mentring the men sir. Shall I get them all in by the whiteboard? You can give us a lesson today on which part of the ship is the whiteboard, and tell us why it's hung by gimbals on the end of the snooker table.
Has anyone seen Richard? "All hands on Dick!"

[Engine Serang]

The electrical grid people in UK and Ireland are concerned that demand is approaching peak supply. This is because wind power is delivering nothing, or paltry amounts to the grid. (Thank you Green Party).

The above got me thinking, how does IOM generate its electricity? what spinning reserve does it have and is there an interconnector with UK?
Perhaps our Lord Lieutenant could reply.

Believe Me.

[Varley]

The IoM has two power stations (sites) with Pulrose being gas fuelled gas turbine and steam turbine waste recovery. The last diesel station remaining for standby use. Capacity 88 MW. Peel has a diesel power station not quite mothballed of capacity 40 MW. There is also an AC interconnector between Douglas and Blackpool capacity 65 MW. It is mainly used for import now but for a time made hay out of the lack of local carbon tax to export. The safe waste incinerator has steam turbine heat recovery and can export about 8 MW at full whack (from memory). A minor 1.2 MW hydro generator is installed at Sulby dam. Maximum local demand is around 60 MW but I don't know how much of the surplus capacity is spinning. With the interconnector I imagine the figure is as close to nil as the configuration chosen (on economics?) can manage.

Electricity was generated for the electric railway with some of this DC infrastructure remaining. The first planned domestic supply was provided by a power station on North Quay Douglas (now housing switchgear) and the MER soon bought this in instead of generating. Not that long ago the rectifier station at Groudle and Laxey (one time power stations I suppose) operated on mercury arc rectifiers and I understand that there still some new spares in storage (I am told that lightning tended to cause them to explode).

(We do not have a Lord Lieutenant we have Captains of the Parish and a Governor).

[Engine Serang]

Ireland also has interconnector with UK and I hope the naval authorities are keeping an eye on traffic on the Irish Sea. But the Irish Navy has about half its ships tied up due to shortage of personnel, mostly technicians of various sorts. And, if the press are to be believed Cooks.

[tweediekiwi]

The air is full of electricity and static. Has the GD stopped?
ES, what happened in Stavanger and why are you in Dublin?
I'm in Auckland at the moment - 24C breezy and sunny.

[billyboy]

Hmmmm. methinks we cut up through the suet channel into the Med. Be a we bit warmer up there.

[Engine Serang]

Originally Posted by tweediekiwi

The air is full of electricity and static. Has the GD stopped?
ES, what happened in Stavanger and why are you in Dublin?
I'm in Auckland at the moment - 24C breezy and sunny.

Following a major gearbox failure on sea-trials I spent a week in Volda observing the rebuild and I enjoyed everything about Norway except fish at every meal and the price of drink.
By extrapolation I determined Bergen or Stavanger with their larger populations would be more to my liking.
Dublin or Larne? Keeping my options open although Brexit has decimated (fcuked) my MNOPF pension.

[tweediekiwi]

My Dad enjoyed Norway too. He made friends there on his first trip (to Trondheim) with Salvesens and that friendship lasted his whole life - they came and visited us in Aberdeen and we went over there, so just little visits but lots of letter writing and cards back and forth. Happy Memories.
So we're south of Suez eh? I thought it was hot, but maybe that's because I'm in humid Auckland, looking after Mum again. And, are we still towing that rusty tug?
Ok. Steady as you go. Left hand down a bit.

[YM-Mundrabilla]

Yes Norway is a lovely place where Narvik was my favourite as not so many people as may other places.

I thought that the old tug had sunk already and that we are just waiting to divide the insurance money. Has someone absconded with it?

Or are we still awaiting a suitable time and place for the accidental sinking. Despite the rust she is riding well and looks pretty seaworthy to me.

Maybe a lick of paint and we could sell her instead? I am sure that ES could get her engine going again.

[billyboy]

come on lads keep up now.... we are on our way to the Suez having beached the old tug.

Just said good bye to a good friend from Bergen. he fly's back later today. lovely place if expensive.

we live in hopes that the agent will find us a job in the Meddy.

[tweediekiwi]

Oh God! What rotten brastad cut the toe things out of my jandals? I just put them on, ran towards the lounge for a bevy, did the splits and flattened my bollards! Anyone know how to remove deck tar from grazed bollards? Apply in writing to Mr Brown, No.2 Back Passage, Cleethorpes. All applications to be hand written on the labels of 25 year old, new and sealed, MacAllan bottles, in display boxes.

[Engine Serang]

Put TweedleDee in the Meat Room for half an hour, the heat has got to him. If we had ladies on board he would be letting us down.

[Varley]

2 eh? One punched and the other bored.

He does sound a trifle blasted but I doubt there is room in that freezer, we've still got all that gin to get rid of and we seem to have lost that iceberg we were towing when it turned into a tug. Lost that too, think we'll be up Mr. Brown's creek when it comes to getting P&I Club cover next year.

(Our Wang computer did that too when overheated. Didn't crash but arithmetic went wrong - can't have paint stripper that is both new and 25 years old. No use cooling him down, needs to be re-booted or perhaps re-sandalled).

[YM-Mundrabilla]

A lot of us have been booted and rebooted over the years.
In my case each booting proved the benefits of rebooting - a blessing in disguise!
Don't know anything about sandals or jandals. We have thongs here in Oz rather than jandals. The occasional thong is often worth a second look nevertheless.

[tweediekiwi]

That cut-out steward told me no bare feet in the lounge, so, I still haven't had a drink. Thongs in NZ are minimal cover ladies underwear, also known as g-strings or fanny floss, not that I know about such things. Are we at the Straits of Hormuz yet? I want to fire some more limbo rubbish at the unfriendlies before we get hijacked for ransom. Only 22C here today so heat's not the problem. Looking after an 88 year old mother is my biggest issue at the moment ... 'Hey! Mum! come and look at these mortars will you? Big tubes. Yes you might fit ..."

[Engine Serang]

I really miss Lord Varley arriving home around midnight on a Saturday night full of cheap fortified wine and then sitting down to entertain us with his Way of the World postings.
Has he signed the pledge, run out of money or just suffering a Yuletide lack of bile? I think we should be told.

[tweediekiwi]

Is Varley poorly? From what I've heard, me mainly runs on tawny and electrickery. Have we got jump-starter and a tun of port to help him out? I've got new year apathy and I have to drive home tomorrow - 641 Km behind the wheel, with a detour as SH1 is closed through the Rangitopuni Desert Road. Uggh.

[tweediekiwi]

That was supposed to be 'he mainly ...' I must check my spelling in future. I was watching the GP2 sailing competition on the harbour here yesterday. NZ Lost, but does anyone know how those Foiling yachts work? More like flying that sailing.

[billyboy]

with our foils extended, (retractable they are ), we can rise up and hit 60 knots with the big red button up on the bridge pressed.

[Varley]

With that colonial chappie running around the smokeroom barefoot you expect me to join you there for my post prandial Havana and tawny? (Thank heavens he didn't mean 'me', supplies are stretched enough as it is - none on the shelves of Tesco when at Thursday shopping - without verruca-boy weighing in).

As for bile - damned surgery has started messaging medical stuff by SMS - if they/NHS intend to waste money on a paid service instead of Email then they will have to subsidise my mobile. I have Emailed with stop and desist message (which elicited the many time advised double automatic reply) suggesting that youth responsible become fluent in one modern medium before they move on to the next.

A second propaganda SMS was received on the perils of smoking. I therefore suggested that anyone who had made 74 (last Monday) and sixth form might take umbrage if offered guidance from intellects rarely even making the common-room of the second year fifth on the topics of avoiding smoking, alcohol, jumping from high buildings, stepping out in front of speeding traffic or NASA bulletins on de-orbiting space debris.

(Although that last might be useful if the intelligence were treated time-critically).

Perhaps I should expect a prescription for a 'specific' against bile by Snaptalk, Facepad, TwitX or even Gorillagram.