Christmas

My new golfing gear

10-9-8................CERN goes live

TODAY at CERN in Switzerland, what is said to be the largest machine ever built, the Large Hadron Collider, will be switched on and – presuming the moment doesn't spark the end of the world as some doom-mongers have forecast it might – the search will begin for a particle that may resolve one of the unsolved questions about the universe: what gives it mass.The still-hypothetical particle is known as the Higgs boson.

taken from the Scotsman 10/09/08

The Oasis

Raising the Dead? - Update!

I possibly commented a little too quickly about the new pavement outside the Ramshorn Kirk covering or even disturbing the graves of the Foulis brothers. In fact, an attractive memorial stone has been placed into the paving. Who knows? maybe they added the stone after reading the comment on this blog!

City Chambers

Taken at 6:34pm on a summers evening and then at 2am the following morning, both images show an impressive, though quite different look to the city chambers building.

M People - Search for the Hero

Tesco - Every little helps ( 10 or less )

I was shopping at Tesco today for a few odds and ends and bought the usual 20 Felix trays Xena and Gabrielle enjoy. Imagine my surprise at the checkout when the woman said to me 'You can only buy 10 items or less from Tesco, but in this case I'll make an exception' ( It's worth pointing out that I'm not talking about a '10 item or less' checkout here). I could not let that one go, so replied 'That won't clearly count for foil trays of catfood where you even sell them in packs of 48'. She repeated her 'jobsworth' mantra of only 10 items or less. I was actually a bit annoyed at this, seeing as 10 trays would not last me 2 days and makes a visit to Tesco unviable, so went over to customer services to find out if this was the case. The woman there 'reassured' me that the rule was put in place to stop ethnic minorities buying up all the cheap 'buy one get one free' offers for their own shops and would be ok for me to buy more than 10 foils of catfood. So there we have it......Tesco - Inflexibility and Racism. I would suggest that if they are limiting numbers of goods then they clearly either don't have enough stock or else they are using them as 'loss leaders'. Either way, limiting to 10 is not a fair solution.

Why we wear Lanyards

I saw this chap at work the other morning, working on the city chambers windows. I'm not sure who did the safe system of work, but it doesn't need a genuis to work out that if he were to fall the lanyard would only stop his body rolling onto the road.
There are a few problems with this setup that I can see. The lanyard is too long which although if short can limit mobility, too long will make any fall dangerous. Secondly and more importantly, the anchor point should be above, so limiting the fall. Clearly in the above setup, the worker will hit the ground before the lanyard takes the strain. He is also carrying out work on a ladder which should only be a last resort if a platform can not be used. He is also working alone which should never be done when working at height. He is not wearing a hard hat and the ladders are not secured ( plus the feet are sitting on the movable rags ). He is working with a pot of paint and a brush on the ladder, meaning that he will only have his feet as two points of contact rather than the three at all times which is good practice. Other than that, all looks ok.

Steely Dan plays Aja live

Raising the Dead?

I was walking past the Ramshorn Kirk on Ingram street yesterday and noticed that workers were replacing the pavement with a very attractive new one. Full credit to the council in that the new pavements are a great improvement and a joy to walk over without fear of tripping. It reminded me however of a piece of history about the Ramshorn kirk I read a few years ago, about how the widening of Ingram street had meant that graves now lay under the current pavement. No concern seemed to be given about disturbing the graves of those dignitaries of Glasgow's past. Here is a passage from Strathclyde Universities 'History of the Ramshorn Kirk' :

The Foulis Brothers, founders of the early newspaper ‘The Glasgow Courant’, which eventually became ‘The Herald’, are buried under the pavement in Ingram Street. Their remains were not disturbed when the street was widened. They are commemorated with a concrete paving stone engraved RF + AF.

Waverley Engine Room

Engine room of the Waverley Paddle steamer, the world's last ocean going paddle steamer. 2100hp triple expansion steam engine. Notice that there isn't a ball bearing race to be seen anywhere. All steel and brass bushes with plenty grease!

Waverley Overview

Kilcregan

Breakfast

Gale in tee and shorts

Titan crane

Sight of huge fire

B-)

Cowcadens car park

Xena and Gabrielle make the news

Bike on train seat

Food

Falkirk wheel

Quarry

Twechar

Swans

The stables

Possil marsh