One or two words

Things have changed since the last blog entry, as you’d expect with it being almost 9 months ago.


I’ve moved out of the flat and am now sharing a house with a friend from the mess. She had the chance to buy a 4 bedroom house for under £100,000 and needed someone to help with the rent, I get most meals cooked, someone to keep an eye on my kit while I’m south/away and I get the ironing, martini making and spider catching duties. It’s a nice place but I do need to drive to work rather than cycling.

I’ve been asked to be godfather to a friends’ bairn, which is awesome, and I think I won the “most inappropriate Christmas gift for a baby” award with a Leatherman and two rock CDs :)

I’ve changed my car, I now drive a Grand Vitara 4x4 which is much more sensible up here, although I miss 50+ mpg like you wouldn’t believe.


I did go south (photos to follow) about 3 days after moving my stuff into the new house and didn’t see a single live penguin while I was in the Falklands. At one point I was thinking “next week I’ll see if I can get on a trip to Sea Lion Island” and then realised I was flying out in 4 days! I could have gone over to Bertha’s Beach to see some Gentoos but that would have been like going to the zoo. In the end I felt that it was almost more impressive not to have seen any ‘guins.
Kate and I broke up while I was south, although that means that it was face to face rather than over the phone as she’s still down teaching at MPA. We were looking after a place for some friends down there and she came in from the garden to say that we need to talk…

Yeah.

In the end I understood her reasons, we had a few days avoiding each other but with the mess not exactly being a big place we were guaranteed to run into each other fairly soon. I’m glad that we managed to stay friendly but I was, and still am, somewhat gutted.


Back up here and the way we’re working has changed. I’m now apparently on permanent early starts, and I do mean EARLY. The shift starts at 0530 and it’s a 20 minute drive into work. Some of the time I’m over at one of the squadrons, sat in the planning room to answer all their questions like “what’s the weather at our target?” “Will we be able to get laser lock on from this height?” “When will the wind increase?” and, more often, “Will I be able to fly my personal light aircraft this afternoon?” or “will I be able to go mountain biking over the weekend?”
I’m still waiting for “would you like a cup of tea?” I’ve done a couple of extra training courses, including one on how to talk to people (not totally useless, to be honest) and none have covered more than 50% of what I get here on an average day. What the future holds for the station, my job and the office as a whole I don’t know, we were supposed to hear something last week which got put back to maybe next week, I think I’ll be ok as long as the station is here (so no guarantees) but I think a lot of my friends may get shafted.

In lighter news, I’ve taken up dive training with the camp BSAC club and I’ve bought a Kindle, fulfilling an earlier wish of mine. Both good so far, especially the Kindle. I sprung for a third generation 3G enabled model and it is brilliant, the screen is very easy to read, the library is pretty good and conversion to the right format is easy with Calibre. Down sides are that the web browser is pretty poor and it feels a bit delicate but I’ve got a good cover for it now and it’s a book, not a tablet. Some people have said “oh but it’s only greyscale” but again, it’s a book, not a magazine. I haven’t tried any of the papers on it yet but I might try the Times free trial soon. At the moment I’ve got more than 250 books on it, most of them open source/out of copyright. I can see that it would be VERY easy to run up a huge bill very quickly. I’m told there are some file sharing options but one would never do such a thing :)
The third generation Kindle, like mine, natively support PDF files and I’ve put on some ones from work so, rather than lug around three A4 files, I’ve got a light piece of kit that fits in my jacket, let alone my bag. Down side of this is that the pages are very small on the screen so you need to zoom in a few times or use the landscape orientation option. There is a bigger version (the DX) that would be better for this and I think I’ve planted the seed of thought in one of the executives in the office that they could be very useful to forecasting staff to have with all the reference documents on, although I think rugged cases would be a worthwhile investment in that case.
No, it doesn’t feel or smell like a book, you can’t kill a fly with it, use it as a beer coaster (well I bloody well wouldn’t) and, despite what you see in the adverts, I wouldn’t put it my back pocket. However, it is very light, easy to read, the battery lasts a long time (especially if you don’t have the whispernet wireless turned on) and, did I mention, I’VE GOT OVER 250 BOOKS ON MINE! I haven’t even filled a quarter of the capacity. All this on something that is actually smaller than my pencil case. I’ve started reading from the Kindle rather than normal books these days at home, partly cause you can’t tell what I’m reading from the back of the device.

Anyway, it’s almost half twelve, I’ve been in work since half five and I’ve got to get back to the main office for some admin then I’m buggering off home.
I’ve probably forgotten something massively important that has happened and I need to add some photos later so there might be another post coming before too long.

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.