Today I ... (bollocks!).

[Nick Jones]

Ah, the Jubilee weekend….. now over.

The village celebrated this with a picnic.  I managed to largely stay out of the actual organising but as SM was on the organising committee I did end up with a number of tasks…… like raking cut grass off the field, and putting up a couple of marquees. That’s ok… don’t mind that. Suddenly having to take one of the marquees down immediately afterwards in the face of an advancing thunderstorm was a bit of a curve ball, especially as it involved re homing the electrics in the process. We did get the large canvas marquee down and away before it rained - without about 10 mins to spare. The (still live) electrics were re-homed in the other tent with about 3 minutes to spare. The storm then broke with a vengeance leaving us trapped in the tent, which turned out to be as waterproof as an upturned colander….. Luckily we had a tarpaulin to throw over the electrics and sundry other items that didn’t want to be wet. We hung on for a bit hoping the rain would pass …… but this was a full-on thunderstorm with loads of flashing and banging right overhead, so in the end we just had to make a run for it.  At least the rain held off until nearly everything was tidied up and nearly everyone had made it home - could have been very much worse!

A “first” for the day was taking part in a tug of war. Made the error of being in the winning team in the first heat which meant being in the final “best of three”.  Quote of the afternoon from our captain after the first one “damn, that’s a lot less fun than it looks!”. Which was spot on…..

His second wise words, just after winning the second pull in the final having lost the first we’re “oh crap, now we have to do it again…..” We won in the end, but at the expense of aches and pains in strange places.

 

[Escadrille Ecosse]

30 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:

A “first” for the day was taking part in a tug of war. Made the error of being in the winning team in the first heat which meant being in the final “best of three”.  Quote of the afternoon from our captain after the first one “damn, that’s a lot less fun than it looks!”. Which was spot on…..

@John D what an excellent story.

The Jubilee was not so publicly obvious up here. The monararchy and by extension the Queen are yet another casualty in the yes/no polarisation. Not helped by the West of Scotland 'flag problem' which has co-opted the union flag for sectarian reasons and now seems to be adding the saltire for the nationalists who are afraid to confront the issue.

I don't know what SNP supporting Rangers fans do, explode?

I know a number who have been celebrating the lack of flags being flown. Which seems to be more a reflection of them.

As a result many or perhaps most keep their views to themselves and their friends round these parts.

Regardless of which side of the argument you stand, my mother who was a damn good judge of character had a lot of time for HM as a person which is good enough for me.

However, I have enough room to love Scotland and the UK and up here our weather has been really quite superb since I came back from Mallorca, although not sure I can claim responsibility. Saturday was exceptional so I took the bike the long way over to Loch Katrine and home again taking in as many hills as possible (101 miles and 7,500 ft). Belter of a blue sky day.

[Nick Jones]

Looks like a particularly nice day for a long ride, and that’s certainly longer than I can manage by a generous margin.

The house cyclist managed 126 miles and 9.5k feet of climbing on Saturday. Nutter…. Makes my butt ache just thinking about it.

Not particularly a royalist here though HM QE II has my respect. Not so much her potential successors though. I think I’m among many in feeling that way.  What I do object to is that the monarchy pretends to provide the head of state, a supervisory role, when it does no such thing, being purely ceremonial. Thus allowing the grisly charade that pretends to be our government to totter onwards, the rank, over-ripe boil on its ugly snout still unlanced.

[Escadrille Ecosse]

21 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

Not particularly a royalist here though HM QE II has my respect. Not so much her potential successors though. I think I’m among many in feeling that way.

I am in very much the same boat and at best ambivalent to many of them. But then the same is true for some of my own family and wouldn't like to find myself judged on what they do.

21 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

What I do object to is that the monarchy pretends to provide the head of state, a supervisory role, when it does no such thing, being purely ceremonial.

I would disagree with that Nick. The Queen (and her predecessors with few exceptions) are acutely aware of what their role is within a constitutional monarchy. Ever since the Restoration the Monarch has in effect been chosen by parliament and parliament has made that point crystal clear many times. The most obvious cases being Charles II, William II/III (depending on your country in the UK), George I and most recently of course HM QE II's father after Edward VIII got the boot.

I would be very concerned otherwise. Just think what might have happened otherwise with an appeasing Prime Minister and a Nazi sympathiser King in 1939.

Actual power lies with Parliament. This is pretty much the case for all the constitional monarchies that remain, Denmark, Spain, etc. Even in places like Germany which have a President as Head of State but the actual power lies with the PM (Chancellor) and parliament.

The fault of the current omnishables lies with the electorate who let this shower and their immediate predecessors into government. Like pretty much every other non-presidential democratic system, the electorate choses the members of parliament and those members choose the PM. At least we have an number of ways to get rid of them, slow and uncertain they might be it does work.

With a presidential system it's virtually impossible to get rid of an incumbent short of their elected term without actually killing them. However having been tipped the black spot I strongly suspect Boris's days are numbered regardless of what he or the Member for the 18th Century might try to pretend.

Although what we get afterwards is anyone's bet! Fixed term parliaments being yet another consequence of Cameron's lack of foresight.

Democracy is the worst system there is - except for all the others as Churchill remarked.

[Nick Jones]

1 hour ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

Actual power lies with Parliament

Doesn't feel much like it recently.  King Boil does mostly what suits him, to the detriment of all else, including his own party at this point.  What's going on at the moment is a single-party dispute, though played out in our parliament the opposition MPs don't get a look-in.

From Marina Hyde's column today

Today’s other official angle is that last night’s horror show allows the government to “draw a line” under leadership speculation, and to stop the Tory infighting. A reminder: things we’ve done fairly recently to stop Tory infighting include: having a referendum, having two general elections, and having no-confidence votes in both the past two leaders. How’s it working out for us, would you say?

1 hour ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

The fault of the current omnishables lies with the electorate who let this shower and their immediate predecessors into government.

No argument there.  Though the right wing press really don't help. Voting while ignorant is just as anti-social as driving while drunk...... and yet.....

I really dislike this personality-led politics, especially when the personalities involved are so toxic.  Something like the Swiss system perhaps where each of the "cantons/kingdoms" elect a first minister (7 IIRC) who then form the leadership cabinet and elect their chairman.  Limits the potential for a single personality to dominate.

[Escadrille Ecosse]

I agree wholeheartedly with your last two points there Nick. Especially the bit about personality politics. Unfortunately that too seems to be following the general trend at the moment with the whole toxic 'identity' siloing we have on the soshul networks.

[JohnD]

We think we have problems.   The US Gov proceeds against the perpetrators of the 2021 Capitol Invasion.    Today's article in the Guardian Proud Boys leaders charged with seditious conspiracy in 6 January riot | US Capitol attack | The Guardian is illustrated by the image below, which better than any I have previously seen shows how it was full revolutionary violence, when most other pictures seem to show just idiots in fancy dress.

Strangely, the picture isn't there on the Guardian website, nor can I find it online, although it is credited to Reuters.   So I've scanned it, never a good way with dotty images.

[DeTRacted]

A very dramatic photo (lighting/smoke) perhaps but what does it actually show? A crowd of nutters demonstrating with flags - hardly the storming of the Bastille and IMO far less frightening than the BLM/Antifa looting riots that occurred throughout the country earlier.  

 

[Escadrille Ecosse]

4 hours ago, DeTRacted said:

A very dramatic photo (lighting/smoke) perhaps but what does it actually show? A crowd of nutters demonstrating with flags - hardly the storming of the Bastille and IMO far less frightening than the BLM/Antifa looting riots that occurred throughout the country earlier.  

If you're just going by numbers the capture of the place by the British army in 1814 would probably have looked even less dramatic. Up until the point it was all set on fire along with much of the rest of Washington (the White House was supposedly painted white to cover up the damage).

The reality of the storming of the Bastille was little different in absolute numbers involved and the few small cannnons involved wouldn't have compensated much for the disparity between heavy automatic weapons and a few muskets and swords. It was the outcome that mattered.

And whilst not condoning the other riots there is I believe a fundamental difference between protesting in the streets about civil liberties and overt discrimination and conspiring to use armed force to occupy the seat of government in an attempt to overturn the electoral process.

But at the end of the day it's not about how bad one thing is in comparison to another really bad thing. Excusing one on the basis of another is not acceptable in a civilised society. The Russian invasion Ukraine isn't OK because it's not as bad as the German invasion in 1941. But maybe I'm just old fashioned in thinking that.

Edited June 8 by Escadrille Ecosse

[DeTRacted]

2 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

whilst not condoning the other riots there is I believe a fundamental difference between protesting in the streets about civil liberties and overt discrimination and conspiring to use armed force to occupy the seat of government

I see no real difference I'm afraid.

Both are symptoms of a sick and fundamentally polarised society.  There is no excuse for widespread looting and arson no matter what the justice of your cause (which in any case is hardly helped by such behaviour). There is no excuse for occupying democratic institutions just because your side lost an election.  

[Escadrille Ecosse]

2 minutes ago, DeTRacted said:

I see no real difference I'm afraid.

Both are symptoms of a sick and fundamentally polarised society.  There is no excuse for widespread looting and arson no matter what the justice of your cause (which in any case is hardly helped by such behaviour). There is no excuse for occupying democratic institutions just because your side lost an election.  

Yup, which was my point exactly.

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Kind of sums up the way the world seems to be heading

[JohnD]

Bringing it back home, violence, albeit not armed, seems to be on the increase in the UK, even against groups usually most trusted and appreciated in society :

GPs tell of ‘appalling’ abuse as violence at UK surgeries worsens | GPs | The Guardian

Community pharmacists speak out against rise in abuse and attacks - BBC News

Violence in the workplace | Advice guides | Royal College of Nursing (rcn.org.uk)

Paramedics abused and assaulted while on duty, survey reveals | The Independent

Violence in schools | NEU

OK, I'm biased in favour of medics and paramedical groups, but why, when only a few years ago they led the list of 'most trusted professionals'?   See: https://www.cv-library.co.uk/recruitment-insight/10-least-trusted-professions-uk/

Doctor (61.3%) 
Nurse (40%) 
Teacher (36.9%) 
Paramedic (36.5%) 
Police (23.2%) 
Armed forces (20.8%)
Vet (16%) 
Scientist (14.3%) 
Judge (13.2%) 
Hairdresser (8.4%) 

John 

[JohnD]

Today, I.... took SoS for an on-track test day.    All by it's little self.     And Lo!   just running it in the garage clearly exposes the marginal power vs. cooling of my installation, as racketing around Three Sisters didn't cause it to over heat and the oil pressure stayed this side of worrying!.

Three Sisters is really a kart circuit, very tight, only one part you can call long, and it's less than a quarter mile, so I was circulating in third, just a few laps to warm everything up.   And Wow!   Put the foot down early and even in third I could loose it coming out of corners.   Let's try a bit more scientific driving, in other gears.     BOLLOCKS! What gears?    No drive in second!    I had braked to a reasonable speed first, Officer, and by this time first could be useful too!    DOUBLE BOLLOCKS!! Nothing there  either.   Back to third and that's gone too.   Oh, %£"*!

Dear readers, I pushed it back to the pits and the paddock and came home.  I'm still summoning strength the push it back into the workshop.   BOLLOCKS

Edited June 14 by JohnD

[Nick Jones]

Bollocks indeed. If you are lucky it’s only torn the centre out of the clutch….

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Oh crap.

Although there is some good news buried under the pile of poo.

Nil carborundum John

PS I feel for you mate. If I was closer I'd be round with the overalls and a packet box of Tunnocks caramel wafers

Edited June 14 by Escadrille Ecosse

[Nick Jones]

Does the selection process still feel normal - ie can you apparently select gears but get no drive?

[JohnD]

Thank you for the warm hugs and boxes of Tunnock's ( although the Teacakes are more comforting)

But back to the diagnosis, doctor.   Yes, selection feels normalise, Nick.

I supplemented the lightweight flywheel with a sintered metal friction plate, from a most reputable specialist, not an eBay knock-off.  Oh, dear another post mortem, this is getting like Silent Witness.  Worse the specimens don't need alcohol, just WD40 and it doesn't taste nice.

[Hamish]

Oh John bollocks indeed. 
I truly hope it’s something cheap and simple ( bit like me, come to think of it)

bur I know you can do without these forensic tasks.

[JohnD]

Ok, engine and gearbox out, and split.   Clutch seems fine, as is input shaft.   Gears seem fine, no teeth missing.    Synchro rings seem fine, BUT they won't engage when I think I should be able to push them together by hand.

The selector forks show a lot of wear, and the magnetic drain plug had a lot of wear particles on it, a few of 'yellow metal' but mostly steel - but then I suppose yellow metal isn't magnetic.

I had this rebuilt - return to maker, I think, but that will take a while, so I've put a spare box on.   I think it's a Dolomite box, and I'll have to run without a speedo, but it could get me out on track.

OK, enough reporting - back to the workshop!

John

Edited June 19 by JohnD

[mpbarrett]

that's a lot of debris/swarf.. Can you see where the large gold bit has come from?

Your car really is fighting back this season, it can only get better..

mike

[JohnD]

The yellow metal bit certainly from selector fork.  The pic is extreme close-up, so not so big as it looks - in fact about 3mm long.

Engine/spare gb back in, connections need to be made.   One advantage of this ?Dolomite GB is the long rear extension - I don't need to change the propshaft from O/d to non-O/d.

Test drive by weekend, I hope. 

[michaeljf]

Hello John, You almost make it sound "easy". Good luck. Regards, Michael.

[Escadrille Ecosse]

22 minutes ago, michaeljf said:

Hello John, You almost make it sound "easy". Good luck. Regards, Michael.

Seconded 

[JohnD]

I've done it so often I have a routine!