30 times round the sun

But more importantly, welcome to the world John! Hope Pam and Paul manage some sleep at some point during the rest of this year!

So I woke up this morning (da da da da dum in a blues style...) and thought "oh crap I'm not a 20 something any more!" A few of times actually.
The last few birthdays have been basically just another day but today felt a bit different, and it's hard to say why. I can't really say that I felt more mature, more refined or less likely to streak across the beach at midnight, but I did, do, feel like some kind of milestone has been passed.
If anything I'd say I feel a bit more confident. And it seems a bit brash to say that is just because I've got time served; but maybe that's all it is, perhaps maturity and experience are just fucking up in the small ways when no one notices and carrying on, not letting them see you sweat and blagging the decent roles. Getting through the big problems by shear power of will and the appearance of confidence.
As one of my old kayaking instructors used to say, "don't be good - be convincing!"

Gods know it feels like that at work sometimes.

*edited to add* In something of a tradition of the last few years, once I've got settled in the evenings I took one of my cigars (thanks for the Don Tomas Clasico, Smudge!!!) out to the front of the flat and had a moment of "thought" which this year involved a comfy chair, a glass of wine and the aforementioned smokable. I should mention that I get through, on average, 3 cigars a year, so I don't think I've got too much of a problem.
While sat on the moon chair, hoping for a break in the clouds to show the aurora that is supposed to be out there tonight, I thought "hmmmm, I feel in a 'poets' mood" and so, like every 'modern' guy I whipped out my phone, tuned into YouTube and pulled up the videos for "If...", "trust me on the sunscreen" and a couple of Roger McGough poems.
I felt decadent and almost educated with my choice of videos, but that was rather offset by the wine and cigar. I doubt there was any kind of point to this, so rather than leave it without a punchline I'll give you a couple of links that some might enjoy: Here and here.

Plans sometimes happen when you don't expect them

Next month I'm flying back south ('deep' south). Not sure of the exact timing details yet but there's a few weeks left to organise that, must remember to take my DJ and possibly a kilt or two...
The week before I go south I'm moving house. Should be an interesting couple of weeks.
Next week I turn 30, and the implications of that really haven't hit me yet, but there's a whole load of stuff it could be. It's just a number, but over the last 3 days it seems to have become more and more significant. I'll put that down to paranoia for the time being.
Tonight I spent a fair amount of time this evening chatting to one of the guys from the search and rescue squadron, good guy; we talked about linux, Mac's reduction in the world of IT, xkcd, various things about the world of RAF funds reduction and the effect of an Air Commodore on groups of young officers (you really had to be there).
Got home and had a link sent to me to this, a talk by Prof Brian Cox (OBE or is it MBE? - anyway well done Dr Cox!!!) which matches almost to a tee one of the conversations I had this evening. Wonder, my friends, endless wonder about the world, the solar system and the universe in which we live.
There are some times I wonder if I made the right choice 5 years ago, the three courses available to me on that day (and it was actually a day - two job offers in 24 hours), choose one of the two offers or carry on as before. I do sometimes regret not staying working for Blacks, although by now I'd either be running the Cheltenham store or they would still have shut that store and I'd be somewhere else - but that is a path down a road undiscovered and a route forever unknown.
What if I had taken the job with James, working with AWE with the best job title ever - firing technician at the Atomic Weapons Establishment. I'd be working with one of my best friends and might even be on the way to getting a masters or a PhD. I can't describe how much I want a PhD so I won't try, but suffice to say it's a lot.
But here I am, I've taken the other road, it's taken me almost as far south as is possible and certainly further than I thought would be possible six years ago, and I'm still hoping for the chance to get that bit further south. I've still got the chance to get the commission that, it's fair to say, I still lust after. Admittedly, I've got a fair amount of work to do in order to get there, but it's within my grasp and the only thing stopping me from getting there is me. So I'll see how this deployment south goes.

And for those that haven't heard, I should say point blank. I'm going back to the Falklands for a few months :) And I'm really looking forwards to it for a whole bunch of reasons.

But as the song went a few years ago, trust me on the sunscreen.

Oh and for the record, Guitar Hero Metallica - BRILLIANT!!!!!

Realisation and a couple of links

I hadn't thought that I'd been up here all that long until a few months back I was down in Exeter doing a course in satellite interpretation (good course) and I was in the pub next to the hotel, looking at the whisky selection. I was surprised that there were only 6 malts, and that they were those specific ones (can't remember exactly which ones but basically a basic selection of the regions) and I mentioned to the guy behind the bar that I was surprised he only had one Speyside.
Turns out he was the manager.
He seemed surprised by what I said and asked me what the difference was between the different types, which I found I didn't have any problem answering, explaining the different tastes and characters.

Looks like I've been living in the Spey catchment long enough to pick up a few things.


OK, so this is a pretty pointless post but aside from that, have a look at this site of customer idiocies. There's also Text From Last Night which is just a bit too disturbing, all told.

Some extra reading.

A few follow up links from yesterdays rant:
The Daily Mash take on the matter.
A little something from the wonderful Cocktail Party Physics.
Astropixie's take, which actually prompted the post.
The Met Office VAAC charts page - that's Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre - (don't look too hard at the title, it stands for Volcanic Ash Graphic, ok? Nothing dirty with that at all...) and another Met Office one that gives some of the reasons behind the model.
One last (for now) Met Office one giving some gen on the particulates found in the dust layer.
A Norweigan model animation of the ash, but I'm not sure of what it specifically shows, I've mainly included it cause it looks cool.

And for a bit of a change, Kate's sister's post that was referenced by Ben Goldacre in his miniblog links.

Ash up your pipes

I'm glad that it looks like we're going to be able to re-open the airways tomorrow, even if it's not for all that long.
I'm more glad that no aircraft have fallen out of the sky.
I'm rather pissed off with the people saying that nothing happened so the precautions were excessive.
If someone plays Russian roulette and doesn't die, would you say there was no danger at the start or that they were lucky? Would you say "they were fine so I'll give it a go"?

There is ash in the atmosphere, it's nasty shit.
If you think I'm overstating that, consider that this is made of rock (generally between 0.1 and 1 mm but sometimes much bigger than that) that can rather damage windscreens and paintwork, not to mention potentially breaking the skin of the airframe; there's volcanic glass mixed in (more so in this case as the silicon dioxide makes up 58% of the tested ash at Lerwick) which can melt in the combustion stage of a jet engine and form a layer of glass over the insides of the engine (check Flight Global for images of what volcanic ash can do to the engine on a F-18) as well as the fact that the ash itself can build up on surfaces and stick, ruining airflow and making the aircraft somewhat heavier. Oh, and did I mention the sulphur? Yeah, it's sulphurous, too much of it and it becomes a danger to respiration, add water and it can become sulphuric acid, oh and it stinks!
Can be pretty though, the effects of the particles cause a static buildup that results in lightning at the volcano and St Elmos fire on the surface of aircraft flying through it. Cop yer whack at this:
from NASA for an indication.
More pictures (some amazing ones as well) from the Big Picture from the Boston Globe.

We've had recorded ash across the entire UK, you can't see it but it's there. Or at least you can't see it in the air but it becomes visible when it builds up on cars and other surfaces. We've seen this from Lerwick, Aberdeen, Boscombe, all across Devon and most of the south. They took samples from West Freugh in southwest Scotland and they found 2000 ft of ash at two different levels in the atmosphere today. Some parachute dudes found a couple of layers (they reported some weird visual effects and "a stinging sensation on the lips" as well as dark areas in the air) and before you say "but the BA and Lufthansa flights were OK", we knew that we don't know the exact areas of the ash, it's distribution or exact makeup so we knew there would be clear areas and not clear areas, the research flights that went up found both.
We had some satellites but they were obscured by higher cloud, our radar isn't good (expensive) enough to find the ash, we don't have enough actual weather balloons spread across country (or upwind - it's ocean, which isn't really conducive to weather balloons) to get detail of the atmosphere and our wind profiler/lidar network needs so much investment any political party that suggested funding it properly would be laughed off the stage. We do have some of the best observers and forecasters in the world, one of (if not the) best set of models in the world, although they could do with being a bit more flexible, which we could do with more funding and a bit more flexible approach. But we haven't had a situation like this crop up, we've no experience of this type of thing on this scale and it takes us time to get the required information. It might even take us a week.

I was asked "how much ash is too much, because I've heard there is no safe amount?" and I can't answer this because I'm not an engineer or a Rolls Royce specialist. They (Rolls-Royce) are saying you need to cover the aircraft, put them inside and don't turn on the engines. Preferably cover them with fine silks and satins. OK, I'm exaggerating slightly, but only a bit.

In the 1980s a couple of 747s hit ash clouds and had all their engines cut off. These clouds are one of the few things that can kill all the engines on a multi-engine aircraft within minutes. To clear the engines of the glass build-up you need to put LOTS of clean air through the engines which generally requires about 12000 ft of free-fall. Our ash layers were around 4000-8000 ft.

Yes, it's been an embuggerance for many, many people, our mail up here is stalled (the post is sent by aircraft then driven on), my girlfriend is stuck at Brize Norton until at least Thursday and we'd both rather she could have waited up here until she was needed, not to mention the financial implications and all the people stranded.
But let me put it this way, I would rather she spent ten years waiting at Brize rather than be in an aircraft that took the risk of flying through an ash cloud at 8000 ft and having the aircraft turn into a glider.

Have a look at this for more explanation.

Could different levels of reaction be used in the future? Yes.
Yes if we know the exact distribution of the ash.
Yes if we know the composition of the ash.
Yes if we know how fast it's being produced.
Yes if we know the winds at every 500 ft interval and the vertical motion of the air over the entire area of the ash cloud.

Until that point ask yourself if fire engines need to drive so fast to every call out, or if you want your doctor to take you seriously any time you have a sharp pain in your chest. Or would you rather the fire brigade assumed you were burning toast rather than stuck in a building, your doctor assumed you were over-reacting rather than see if it was an heart attack.
Are you happy with the airline assuming that they know best and that because "they didn't hit any ash areas" means "we won't hit any ash areas."
Or wait until we know more about the circumstances and can say "OK, we've had a check and we think this area is safe while this area isn't."
Even if it takes a week.

Or the volcano stops.

I probably should have called them back and told them it was a joke

Just in case there are any guys from 12 Sqn reading this, I was kidding, we're not being privatised (yet - ask me again after the election...), we're not being bought out by Disney, I won't be going into briefings wearing Mickey Mouse ears and we won't be diverting all telephone enquiries (including target weathers) to a call centre based in Mumbai.

Honestly, I was going to say that they should check the date but it was too much fun.
Wasn't as good as last years though.

Think I'll shrink wrap my boss' desk next year.

Some things, but not all, and not quite the ones I wanted

Christmas and the New Year, Kate, myself and two friends (Tash and Chris) went off to Arosa in Switzerland for a couple of weeks snowboarding and spending quality time together. It was epic and my 'boarding has improved massively (as I found out at the Lecht a while later - but more on that later). There was a decent amount of snow and some unbelievable conditions, although on Christmas Day the falling snow, which did give a wonderful surface, meant visibility was only about 10 feet and you couldn't see where the edges of the slopes were. Fell over lots, only big falls a couple of times though.
Spending time with Kate was marvellous, but the two weeks went too fast, as always happens.

Into the new year and Scotland had the coldest winter in decades, for which there had been a 1 in 7 chance of a colder than average winter for the northwest of Europe. People forget that the seasonal forecast is for large areas, not specific places. Some people think that the forecasts ruled out cold winters, but if you roll a die there is a 1 in 6 chance of getting a 5. No matter what the outcome, there was a 1 in 6 chance of getting a 5. But there's got to be someone to blame, hasn't there?

Moving on.

Work was quiet, so I managed to take the opportunity to use the service transport to the Lecht for a days boarding. Conditions were a bit icy in some places but generally awesome and it was the best boarding I've ever done. Also the longest session, for which I paid the next three days...
No photos of that, so you'll have to take my word on it.

Been working all the jobs we have, observing, forecasting at both stations, forecasting on the big desk; also found out how much my job is worth in the private sector. Turns out it's LOTS more than we are paid. Government say we should be paid just under median market value but the market is based on what we're paid. Go abroad (such as Australia) and you can get even more. Even with the exchange rates and cost of living, lots more. Not for me though, not yet anyway.

Friend (one of the Sarahs) has been in hospital a lot recently, she's got a rare form of MRSA called PVL MRSA (I think), so she's been in isolation having her system cleared, the rare times she's been out of hospital we took her dog for a bit of a walk on the beach.


Turns out I've got a lot to learn about taking photos in snow. Been recommended changing the exposure settings.

The house move has been delayed, partly due to weather slowing things down, but also problems with planning permissions; and still no news about the potential job development, but might hear next week, or the week after. Having said that I've started becoming an NVQ assessor, it's even more work that doing the sodding NVQ itself! The first assessment went ok, once I'd finally finished the write-up. Hope to get that finished by the end of summer.

Back to Exeter next week for more training, but now it's off to work for the night.