Safe 'n' Sound

A quickie to say howdy to my blog.
Dear Blog - i am back. I am fine. How are you?
well... didn't quite get the info right.
Was met by katie and chap from over there at Chicago O'Hare as
opposed to meeting at Philly.

I will recount in significantly greater detail at a later date.

This is what got us out there.... Airbus A330 US AIRWAYS (of Hudson River splash fame)

This is what got us from Chicago to Washington DC mid-stay
A UNITED AIRLINES Boeing 737
And, repeat script - this is what returned us safely from Philadelphia to Manchester.
Well, this is the starboard engine of the A330 anyway.

That'll do for now
HAPPY DAYS!

Gone missing

In 25 hours i will be outta here.
En route to Cheshire with a view of catching a plane on wednesday morning.
Jan B and I will fly to Philadelphia where we'll meet up with Katie in the airport and then we'll fly on to Chicago.
I haven't started packing but i'm working my way thro' bits of ironing and i can slowly begin to collate that which i am taking. Clothes, paperwork, entertainment etc.

Behind me i leave my wee cat and my wee motor. However much i feel bonded to my machine it is my cat that i am gonna miss BIG TIME!




Here, Storm sits alongside 't' Vixen at Churchstoke
Cool huh? :0)

No wonder i'm so screwed

Below is an interesting report which i have lifted from another blog.
All acknowledgements shown via the link below.
And, thanks to Tom Reynolds at Random Acts of Reality for bringing it to his reader's attention

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/nightshift.html?cid=151336285#comment-151336285

To create circadian disruption, Scheer's team put test subjects on a 28-hour cycle for eight days, each day waking them four hours later than on the previous day. The researchers took hourly blood samples when test subjects were awake, and monitored their blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature and oxygen consumption around the clock.

The subjects' bodies soon produced less leptin, a hormone secreted from fatty tissue that signals a body to stop eating by triggering feelings of satiety. They experienced increases in blood glucose and insulin, which are linked to diabetes. Levels of cortisol, a hormone released during periods of stress and linked to nearly every disorder in which night work has been implicated, shot up. Test subjects' blood pressure also rose.

"The surprising finding for us is that even so brief a misalignment caused quite impressive changes," said Scheer.

Night shift workers often attempt to keep semi-normal hours on their off days, said Scheer, preventing their circadian rhythms from ever becoming settled. Van Couter added that even a small exposure to daylight while commuting could continually re-set their biological clocks.

Scientists are not yet certain how circadian rhythms regulate metabolism, said Van Cauter, but animal studies have found circadian machinery in the hypothalamus — a brain structure linking the nervous and endocrine systems — and other parts of the body, including the glucose-regulating pancreas and leptin-releasing fatty tissue.

But Scheer cautioned that the experiment only approximated shift work.

"The future question is whether changes in these mechanisms would be maintained after chronic exposure and observed in a more lifelike situation," he said. "Our study was highly controlled and mechanistic. Now it's time to do something less controlled and more realistic."

If the findings are replicated, researchers will try to find therapies capable of restoring metabolic order. The best therapy of all, said Van Cauter, would be a permanent move to night work.

"That's better than shifting between day and night work constantly," she said, "but very few people want to always be a night worker."

Citation: "Adverse metabolic and cardiovascular consequences of circadian misalignment." By Frank A. J. L. Scheer, Michael F. Hilton, Christos S. Mantzoros, and Steven A. Shea. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 106, No. 9, March 2, 2009.

_____________________________________________

I have no doubts that i have a bad-temper or become irritable at certain things in this world and life.
I also believe that my seemingly less rational explosions at things could stem from shift working for 22 years. 16 of which included archaic on-call system.
I know that my eating habits are all over the place but, worst of all, my sleep pattern is totally wayward.
I can stay asleep and i rarely sleep more than 4 hours in a block before waking and being aware that i am awake.
I cry for no reason.
What do i need? other than to do my job between the hours of 08 - 22... a better diet, a good sleep pattern and to re-acquaint myself with one of my best attributes. My sense of humour cos it is distinctly losing it's direction yet has been the one inner thing that has maintained my sanity.
I also wish that my friend's who wouldn't know a shift system if it slammed them full in the face would make a few more allowances and unerstand why it is soooo fucking frustrating when that which keeps me fed, clothed and housed also prevents me from partying with them and how fucking damaging it is to my mental health when they shrug it off.

the nearest they have a sense of what happens is attending an event during the week which means they don't get to bed much before 0100 yet the poor lambs then have to get up at 0700 to be at work by 0900.
Gee! boo-fucking-hoo!
I say it's time to party midweek to give your average 9 to 5ers a taste of what it's like to miss out.
play music until 0300 on a week night. they whinge that "Hey! it's a work night!"
"Well that didn't shut you up when i had to be up at 0600 the other sunday" or "That didn't stop you from wielding your chainsaw at 0900 on sunday morning when i had been in bed less than 4 hours"
See... that'd be like me mowing my lawn at 0500. You'd all be whinging pretty quick then wouldn't you?
Oh... hang on... but you want me to be nice to you at 0250 (10 minutes before i knock off) when you're pissed up and fallen over and broken something.
And no, despite what you may think I don't get paid for the fucking privilege tho government and management would have you believe just that.
Why do i have an almost new car outside my house?
because for 22 fucking years serving the pricks of this fair land i have paid my dues. I have saved. I have lived within MY means. When i borrow i know that it can and will be re-paid. In 2013 i will also own the house in which i reside. Everything in it is bought and paid for - as i will my car that sits outside. My car that i have had for two months yet someone has already deemed "unfair" and has put some deep scratches in to
Cheers fukwit! may Karma be your guide when you least expect it!

Yes! I am angry. I am tired. I am also sick and tired of Blame-Claim Britain. We have an incredibly beautiful country but it is constantly desecrated with peoples vile finger-pointing lack of responsibility.

We owe you NOTHING. Get off your arse. Do a decent day's work and then do another and another and another. then a year's gone by. Then a decade. Yes. Work for YOUR living. For it really is NOT my responsibility to keep you at home smoking and drinking yourself to death whilst you flick thro' a 1001 sky channels wondering why life is so fucking boring. Life is not boring. You are!
So - Mister and Missus and Miss Chav... sort it. Do something useful and productive for your fellow Man. WE may even thank you for it tho' whether you recognise that short sentance is yet to be seen.

Rights - food, shelter, clothing, warmth. that's the crux of it all.
Everything after that is a bonus.
Having said that i do reserve my right to feel aggrieved at the lazy fucks who contribute nothing positive to this world.

Word of the day: FUCK and all derivatives thereof.............

Three cheers to therapy.
Blog = therapy :0)
Oh - and i do love my friends... honest

An unSULLYed Man

New York sits at the confluence of three major bodies of water. Most noteably, for this tale is
the Hudson river.
On 15th January of this year an amazing incident took place.
An A 320 Airbus marked up in the livery of U.S.Airways made an emergency landing into the Hudson river.

Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger was the pilot in charge with FO Jeffrey Skiles riding shotgun.
155 people were aboard the aircraft when, shortly after take off from La Guardia, the twin engines suffered birdstrikes in both sides. The plane had no chance of making the distance to any form of airstrip in the vicinity. Sullenberger quickly recognised that there was only one option to give them all a fighting chance. The Hudson river.

It was a scary sight for witnesses as well as for those going thro' the event on board.
2001 and the dropping of the twin towers isn't so far away. And now, another airliner is about to crash in New York.

Sullenberger calculated his rate of descent, the angle he needed to drop the plane in to the water with the tail entering first.
The Hudson river ferry captains were alerted along with all the usual 911ers.
The water was just 2 degrees above freezing.

Of the 155 people on board 155 survived. Those that did suffer injuries were fortunate to not suffer anything too serious.
Many called the good captain a hero. He, rightly, said he was only doing his job.
I agree. Less a hero and more an experienced pilot who used all that experience to carry out the most incredible heroic measures!

He was not the only person to bring about such a happy conclusion to a potentially horrific incident but he was the man in charge and on the spot at that time.
I salute all involved.
I salute Sully over and above.

Mad March.......snow!

Who says spring has arrived?
oh there it is... ain't that lovely?
I was out in Storm yesterday morning running into lunchtime.
I just decided to go for run and had the camerii with me. The roof was down and I was up.
How glorious. How beautiful. How sunny.

See....
And further shots were taken of similar. Blue skies, fluffy white clouds, the sun.
Lovely.
I got home.
And by mid afternoon things had changed - quite dramatically.


here is my rhubarb fighting it's way up. It's been poking it's nose up since mid January and it looks gorgeous and almost ready to eat but it's been thro' some varied weather conditions. Sun, rain, wind, freezing temps., snow.... the lot.
I can almost taste the crumble already

Later that evening before the sun dropped into the western horizon the snow had stopped and there were some lovely colours out there

And, despite sunset being in the west this is looking north-east!

- Cloud sits over the Teme with Stowe rising behind-

Britain - where the weather is the best talked-about topic in the land
Hell! and people wonder why.... tsk!!

Another time of day - at night

Tonight... i have my camera (this was last night but go with me)
So i will be taking some shots. We are on a break so we're parked up in a lay-by just south of Shrewsbury.
A few lengths back from two sleeping lorry drivers. Who are we to disturb the knights of the road. The garage sandwiches are nothing to write home about but they fill a hole along with the latte from the Coffee Nation machine.
Who would own up to creating such crap tasting cardboard?
we so need to learn from the french...pleeease!
It's good to stop and the air is mild so it's out of the motor to dump some rubbish and see what sights are there to be shot.
traffic.
We're in street-lighting which will affect the effect but let's have a look-see.

That's looking south. I lean against the sloping bonnet of the peril watching what's passing by. Whilst still sat in the cab i noticed that the traffic moved quite fast. Some eager to get past slower drivers. It's a whole other ballgame during daylight hours. More traffic less speed tho people still wanting to move quicker.
There's a freedom during the dark hours especially when it's dry.
Now, i'm leaning against a vehicle that stands out. It's lurid yellow with battenburg checks down the side plus the added lightbars etc. I am now stood holding the camera in front of my face pointing at the road.
I seriously reckon that people were not driving quite so quickly.
Now, as i said, our vehicle is yellow. A specific yellow that no other working motor can wear including the police but people are not quite as quick exiting or entering the 30 limit close to where we're parked.

Time to move on and watching traffic approaching may make for a shot or two.
Blurred but with light trails. A wagon is oncoming which gives an added dimension to the lights.
It allows me to stay awake. I couldn't get back to sleep meaning i've not slept enough so staying awake as much as possible has gotter be safer in case i ned to drive later. We're only just over halfway thro' the shift so i nede to be acreful. I may even need to refuse the keys if i think i'm gonna be unsafe. I don't wanna be contacting harshly with any static pieces of tall wood by the roadside - now do i?

Ahead another vehicle is marked as it spends times on the byways of the UK

It's a HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE vehicle which we follow into Craven Arms where he pulls over and we carry on our way.
I am grateful that we weren't needed later.

Coming to now part 3 of the Six Nations has kciked off. After just over half an hour and Wales has the edge over France in Paris in the Stade de France.3 -13
6 - 13 at 37 minutes and we're moving forward again
COME ON BOYS!!!!!...... it's a hard bruising game!
Oh dear... as we approach half-time the french touch-down.

What will the second half bring? It's hard to watch

With a spring in my step

.... and love in my heart.
Well okay, so i am rather fond of new babe, Storm but never mind.

The first official spring month will here by this time next week.
My rhubard has been peeping further and further over the growing grass since mid January.
No photo at this time.

-Snowdrops & Crocus -

There is a plethora of snowdrops and the crocuses are close behind.
The above were taken in the graveyard of St David's Whitton.
The crows, Rooks and Jackdaws in the main, were hanging around and nest-building.



,,
I took another run up to the Elan Valley only avoided the dams and went straight up the mountain road from Rhayader (CwmDeuddwr). this put me close to the source of the Elan and, more significantly, the Ystwyth. I stood in No Man's Land and took the above two pics. to show.
It's beautiful up there but i was quite surprised by the degree of traffic passing by.
I carried on down in to Cwm Ystwyth and by the time i got to Devil's Bridge i saw what could've been the reason. They are doing re-structuring works on the bridge and the road is closed. I did umm and ahh about returning via the mountain road but ended up trolling onward towards Aberystwyth. I didn't go in to town but cut thro' the trading estate and popped in to Halfords tho i was carrying very little money on me.
The journey back was, tho still beautiful, boring due to the pace. One can't really knock the wagons for taking care but some car drivers really do need a kick up the arse. And the weather didn't allow for going topless so i was cocooned with the lid in situ.

Long may Spring reign.
Three days of sunshine.
Chances to go topless.
Life is good