Ok Folks, here we are at the end of September, so let’s see the thoughts of Chairman Ted for this month. And remember, it’s my blog so I can be as nutty as I like. I don’t mind what you do on yours.
Location wise it went like this: Dunstable, Bedford, Tilbury, Wrotham (Kent), Holsworthy (Devon), Llanelli, and Bristol.
I bought an electric bike this month, and for a fairly straightforward reason. My daughter lives within a couple of miles from me which I can walk without going near a main road. However the journey is up and down hill which if any of you suffer from bad knees will know can be pretty painful. So the perfect answer was the electric bike as the route is off-road and I don’t have to worry about drinking and driving. Well within reason, I don’t want to end up in the hedge. Once I’ve assembled the thing I will give a road test report for you.
Went to ELEX (Electrical Exhibition) at Nuneaton with my old mate Professor Griffiths. Always manage to pick up a good bit of useful info and this time was no different. We got chatting to the guy on the Hagar stand about their AFDDs and it was quite a revelation. You might recall the fault indication lights we get such as "Arc Fault" and "Earth Fault" etc. There is one that so far I hadn't paid much attention to and that was "Overvoltage", well it turns out that could be quite useful, as it is likely to occur with a lost main neutral on a TP&N system, which is not an uncommon fault.
For my hotel gourmet food review this month I propose the Beefeater, attached to the Premier Inn at Dunstable. I had dinner in there on two evenings and was very pleasantly surprised.
On the first evening I had the following (cut and pasted from menu): Salsa Verde Sea Bass, Served with crushed roasted potatoes, grilled asparagus, mixed fresh tomatoes and peas.
On the second evening I had: 8oz Sirloin Chimichurri Steak Salad, Served with crushed roasted potatoes, rocket, Parmesan and mixed fresh tomatoes (I asked them to leave the parmesan out).
And I can honestly say that both meals were as good, if not better than any I have had in some supposedly “top” London hotels. So well done Beefeater Dunstable. I would also add that their cappuccino coffee was about the best I had tasted for a long time.
Nowadays I just have my evening meal accompanied by a coffee and a tonic water, no wine, no dessert. Although I’d eat it if you put it in front of me, my doctor would not approve. Don’t worry, I haven’t gone completely teetotal just yet, I do have a glass of vino at the weekend.
On the home front I have got rid of a couple of above ground planters that we used to have flowers in as I really want to get closer to that low maintenance garden, and on top of that the scaffold planks I made them with went bloody rotten. So I can only advise if you’re going to build planters use those planks that are like railway sleepers.
My vegetable patch was in fact doing pretty well until we had the hose pipe ban when I had to turn off my watering system. When I came back off holiday nearly everything had died. I’ve also had a letter from Thames Water announcing their intention to fit water meters in our street so that’s it, I’m finished with the veg growing.
What I’m actually looking for now is more of a “Mediterranean Garden” with more yuccas and grasses than flowers and vegetables. I shall probably still have a few tomatoes and carrots that I reckon I can knock up a tank fed watering system for.
Those of you that follow my exploits will know that I can’t resist a mystery. So here’s one for you that has not been completely solved. Somewhere from the 1700’s up until early 1900’s cruet sets consisted of not two but three containers. We know this from paintings and drawings throughout this period. But here’s the rub, we can of course guess that one would be salt and another pepper. So why three? Nobody knows as it doesn’t seem to have been documented anywhere. If you research it you will see quite a few good guesses but nobody knows for sure. What do you think?
Thinking of puzzles and as you know, I deliver electrical training courses for a living. It also keeps my brain active and it is a subject I enjoy. One of my favourite courses is Fault Diagnosis as it involves a bit of science and problem-solving. Fault Diagnosis is a discipline that can be taught, if those attending have an open mind.
You have to be prepared to learn a procedure that you follow to get to the root of any particular problem as the secret of fault-finding is to have a logical approach. There are several layers that we run through in our procedure in finding the fault and the important part of the procedure is to be patient and follow that logical order. To help us get to the fault quickly we need to eliminate what we don’t need to know so we don’t waste our time. This can be often done by figuring out what parts of the system are, or are not, working properly.
For instance has power been completely lost or only the heavy duty circuits affected or vice-versa? The idea is to “zoom in” to as near as we can to the fault by applying a process of elimination. We might ask next if a short circuit or an overload has caused our problem. Because these can be clues to getting to the root cause.
And always remember: Shorts go Bang, Overloads are a slow burn. If you look carefully you will see that a bang will leave a black mark where an overload will simply discolour. There are a few more points I could go through but I’m sure you are getting the idea by now.
I like to quote Sherlock Holmes with regard to Fault Diagnosis “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth”. So Holmes was doing what we should do, get rid of all the crap that you don’t need to know about. As I stated earlier, Fault Diagnosis can be taught if you are willing to learn, but it must be said that some people will never be fault-finders as long as they have an aperture in their derrière (that’s putting it politely), but mostly cos they don’t listen in class.
Some people do have a natural flair for it though, I had one bloke on a Fault Diagnosis course who looked like a character out of the Beano’s “Bash Street Kids” he was a scruffy and rough as buggery, but as a fault-finder he was formidable. His experience, coupled with the way his brain worked took him straight to the core of almost any challenge I set him within minutes. He was a pleasure to work with and I think even old Sherlock would have tipped his deerstalker to him.
So, we have reached that time again dear chums where its time to saddle up and ride off into the sunset.
Adios mi Amigos y Amigas, until we meet again, take care and have safe trails.