powder powder and ohhh umm more powder

first things first
ryan kessler just scored an awesome single handed goal to put the canucks up 2 1 against columbus
woooo
so myself disco and sammy are sat watching the hockey
its pretty much the standard evening 3 times a week a couple of beers while watching the games
love it !
secondly
im acheing all over
2 huge party nights the rookie party ( messy night white tee shirts and permanant markers were the name of the game ) and the meet and greet ( where the table football machine got dominated my time in sixth form obviously wasnt wasted ) as well as 2 days of solid powder greatness
so yeh not a lot of sleep with 6 hours of snowboarding a day in deep fresh crisp gorgeous powder and im pretty much dead
but ive got a 6 day on the bounce stint on the lifts
im really excited for my ride breaks tomorrow as when i left the hill it had been snowing for a good hour and was coming down hard so more fresh powder will rock tomorrow
im working the sunrise lift which so far is my favourite (despite it taking 2 good shots at me and it knocking me head over tit and the resulting shoulder hurting like a bugger )
its got some of the most full on fun runs on the mountain
i think im going to session my fave little loop of lintons into the cat track ( a thinish winding track through the trees, which is primarilly a snowmobile route ) and then onto invitation which is a steep wide blast straight down with a few big old rollers to get your air on
i could sesh that all day
haha so i had a great day today
i spent pretty much all day riding with little jorden
shes a super sick chick she race's moto x and is just always happy and positive its infectious
But before i went riding with her me and little cody had a couple of runs through the glades
was fun but we got super stuck at one point on a little roll into an uphill bit and darn it was hardwork

so yeh riding with jorden was awesome she was just like lets go here i think i rode here before
and that was the start of our powder adventure
through the trees just bombing it off little jumps and stuff sooo much fun
all though we got lost a few times it rocked

then we bumped into english edd and his mate tom so we rode with them off of the hawk lift just bombing the runs sometimes through the trees sometimes on the groomers but hell it was fun

one time off the top of the lift i bumped into rudder troy and nic so we went and had a fun little sesh just looning around getting the surf style going

we were just loving hitting big back side turns and sort of bashing lips just spraying everything everywhere
i wish we had got some pics of that

then the day was over so we dropped off our gear and headed to fat teddys for a well earned beer

awesome day
awesome snow
awesome company
just awesome

tj

the aussie invasion

hey guys
so its about the 8 of december
have been in the courtenay area since the 22nd dont quote me on that though.
My conclusion is i love it up here
got a great crew of lads and lasses most of them seem to be those aussies though
so ive learned how to say i am from australia from cam
it goes something like this
im frommmm 'stralllliiiaaaa
he's one of the cona lads
The cona lads being Cam aka disco Austin aka snowflake ed aka ed... (hasnt done anything stupid enough to get a nickname) sam (the one local guy in the entire hostel) and myself aka weasley (we could all see that one coming)
The crew has changed a little from the start we lost dando, flo, zac and will various houses around town but they still pop in for a little table football session or if theres something going on in an evening this seems to be the converging place.
so to work
we've opened
did that last friday (the 3rd)
luckily i had the day off so with austin and johno ( my future roomie up on the mountain ) we spent the day boarding and we had blue sky weather
it was fantastic
hit up the powder for the first time ever in my life and darn its fun just hearing that crumple crumple under your feet
takes a bit of getting used to but im starting to get it
friday night was chilled as we had been on the beers on thursday as we had the day off on friday
then saturday had my first real day of work
i was on the hawk lift ( its a high speed 6 pack lift ) its possibly the busiest lift on the mountain as it gives access to the boomer lift (this is the lift to the back side of the mountain which is full on double black runs ) but also has a couple of super easy green runs and a few fun blue runs so every man and his dog and his kid come through this lift as it has the most varied terrain.
and it was awesome
another blue sky day
there was 6 of us working it instead of the usual 4 just because it was opening weekend so we paired up into 3 teams
me and dezy
austin and the south african girl
then the 2 aussie lasses faf and caris
so that made 1 brit 1 south african and 4 aussies a nice commenwealth team
we did all the set up put the gates out sorted the ramp out stuck up the signs tested the instrument panels worked and they we fired her up
me and desy took first shift at the bottom with faf and caris up the top
austin and his partner went for a ride break
then we rotated so me and desy were up the top with faf and caris riding
we kept rotating throughout the day
it worked a treat
so got in a good hour and a half of riding in total
was stokkkeeed
sunday i was on the whiskey jack with dave'o mattie and ed
sunday couldnt have been any different to saturday
cold winds fog and snow
the best place to be was at the top of the lift in the drive station hut
it was soooo warm
due to the weather and the lack of people coming on the lift we just had a half day so we were all done by midday so riding was the name of the game
sunday night we ended up at faf's place and we had a little gathering
monday was a day off so rode all day
monday night was karioke in the avalanche
it resulted in someone deciding that we (as a group of lifties ) should sing bohemian rhapsody
only problem was when it was time only me and alex went up with the rest of them either being wusses or out having a fag
so we were left up there to die untill suddenly the other 8 of us ran up jumped onto the stage and we rocked it out haha
tuesday was more riding but we had this horrible super wet powder that just stuck so you couldnt get anywhere fast and as it was snow/raining you got super soaked after a few mins so after 4 or 5 runs me and ben (aussie ben) decided to go sit and drink coffee / hot chocolate in the lodge
it was a great idea got warm drank free hot chocolate
and i even bumped into mike the mechanic from kabuki
was good to catch up
and thats that
love
x

weekend off

hey guys
so this is the first post of the Mt Washington BC era
im still in the cona
and will be for a month which im excited about as we have a great crew of guys here some Aussies a couple of Brits a German or 2 and the token Canadian.
We've done our lifty training which included char lift evacuations which basically meant half the group sat up on the lifts for 45 mins to an hour (we of course were second to last so it was an hour) in a blizzard.
I was on a chair with Austin and Ed and unfortunatly our chair was missing the safety bar and as te chair stopped austin looked down and mentioned that heights wernt really his thing.
a load of waiting around later heckling the people saving us we were rescued
this involved throwing up a rope to the haul rope ( the heavy cable the chairs are attached to) and then a kind of wooden chair gets tied to the rope
then you get on the rope and are belayed down to safety
well thats the plan but our guys struggled a little the fact that the girl who was belaying us deffo didnt weigh as much as us resulted in someone having to put weight on her.
All down safe then we swapped round
A bunch of us have got nick names already and then range from the obvious oi weasley ( or weasel ) to me to disco for cam ( a result of him crip walking through every dance floor he sees) lens cap for conrad the big ol kiwi who took 150 pics on friday night with the lens cap on. Then theres ryan who looks scarily like mc lovin so that was a given
you guys get the idea
As we've had early starts in a evening its been pretty much grab a beer and watch the hockey or play some table football (im the cona's undisputed champ atm )
but we've been told that the starts get even earlier
as the bus that runs to the mountain leaves at 630 am
ahh well just means late nights are off the cards a lil more
the liftys have got the party rep already after friday and saturday with other departments trying to organise stuff also but they dont seem to be able to
50 lifties hitting courtenay on friday was a sight to be seen

anyway i think thats about that

oh yeh 42 cm of snow on thursday and another 30 cm on friday morning
and another 20 cm last night

so we are opening on the 3rd :) woop

peace

snow snow snow

so so so
i am currently in the cona hostel
in courtenay
and i start my job tomorrow at the ski hill
i got here eventually
so got the greyhound
it has snowed so much in vic that we took like 3 hours to get out
so we were told no more buses north of nanimo today
so was already to get a hotel
then a nice guy called dan was getting a ride from his bro so me and my new german friend lisa were going to get a ride with him
by this time we had bombed it to nanimo
and when there we were told one more bus would run to courtenay
so jumped on this
but by this point i had lost my ticket
so bought a new one
so half way to courtenay and the roads are super icy wer going super slow
and guess what
i find the bloody thing
so thats another 25 bucks wasted
but im gunna go to the depot tomorrow and try to get a refund
so yeh im officially not living at 811 any more which im choked about as had a great 5 months living there
anywho night chaps

remember remember oh its already novemeber

Hows this for my old office ???

wow so its already bonfire night weekend

its really strange to be away from home first time ive missed the whitley gathering at chez Rumens since i was five maybe six i know Ian and dad never can quite remember and always have the conversation.

I did skype them though and was fantastic to see them all even old man webb

so whats been going on the past month or so hmmmm

Firstly I managed to wangle myself a pay rise which im happy about although my hours got cut so swings and roundabouts and all that jazz.

been bombarding various mountains with support theo's ski season emails and got a couple of interviews out of it just waiting to hear back from a couple and waiting for someone to answer a phone at a certain alberta mountain grrrr.

Ive picked up the pretty much all my board gear now just need boots and bag and some gloves and im all set.

Ive taken a bunch of pictures recently and Ive been getting pretty stoked about them actually.

this is one of my faves i took it on the greyhound back from nanimo where i had a job interview

The route we were on was just the standard one but it followed round the coast. Luckily there was still a little light out and caught the bloke doing a spot of fishing.

but heck what a view eh???

we also managed to host an after party for a friends band the after party started at 3 am

finished about ohhhh 8 or so im not really sure but the sun was well up.

I didnt know about it was woken up by kyler running into my room while saskia and me were asleep saying guys i love you but..........

we have 40 people turning up here in ...

knocking on the door

oh their here

my reply was something along the lines of i could kill you right now kyler but with slightly fuitier language.

but turned into a great night except for our current lack of glasses of any sort thanks to jayce's love of losing / breaking / borrowing them.

Heres a cheeky little picture of Kyler blending in with the kitchen cuboards perfect camouflage.

Ive been doing a bunch of cruising round the city on my bike as we've had a beautiful october without more than 2 days of rain on the bounce. We are still spending plenty of time out on the decking.

For Halloween I hung out with the work guys and included in the list of costumes were thor a scuba diver some clowns and myself as tiger .

( essentially the top and head of a five year olds costume with an orange t-shirt underneath) It really was fantastic I got the short straw on helping Kye with his costume but we had a laugh as he went as the sky so we spent an enjoyable hour or so cutting out templates for clouds birds the sun and then stringing on some toy planes to his tee shirt.

So this next picture is on the greyhound again coming back from up island and i was so excited as i had just found out that i could take light track shots on the little digital camera dad found on ebay just before i came out here anyway ill write again soon hopefully with news of skihill success

happy hunting

lots of fun

Hey so i just chucked in some pics of a misty morning the other week

anyways here goes

so its 11 45 am on a monday morning.
Im sat in our kitchen drinking tea with kyler and Georgia has just rolled in for the first time in about a week.
They are infuriated about the lack of the graffiti wall
(story goes like this the building opposite us is owned by our landlord and it has a giant wall and a local artist said if i paint it then no one else will tag it so it was done all nicely with flowers and flow and looked real good but now its been painted over just plain beige so we give it a week before it gets tagged)
so ive had a great time since i last posted
i got paid
paid off my bills and stuff and went out a few times and am back to square one
but im loving life
we (kyler and myself) had a great few days where we hung out watched movies went hiking had beers had people come hang and got more beers
this culminated in friday night. We started off a little bit hungover from thursday and didnt get a lazy morning as we went and worked at our friends construction site to help him out as they had a day of taking concrete forms down and clearing up in the rain.originally i wasnt going to be there but i get a call after 4 hours of sleep thinking to myself hmmm i didnt set an alarm clock hahah. so Yeh worked from 9 till about 2 then we headed into downtown to do some stuff.
This stuff got done but then we got a call saying that Current Swell ( a reallllly good victoria band) were playing a free gig right now at uvic (the uni in town) so we busted off up there to go see it.
they were really good
then another smaller band took over and we just chilled and watched while in the sunshine and the great thing was we kept bumping into our mates who none of were students except for jayce
was great.
The thing was we found out Current Swell were playing at the S.U that night for 15 bucks a ticket so we got on it !
so we went home got a few beers in chilled out for a few hours then headed out to our buddys house for some pre drinking in a group of like 20 of us
then to the concert and had a greatttt time
afterwards we headed to the student bar for a couple and while there we got chatting to these nice chicks who were partying back at theirs
so we got amongst it there
woke up at like 8 am being were the hell are we as my phone rang and work asked if i could be there at 2 i was just yes im there!
turned out we were literally the other side of the city from were we had left kylers truck
nightmare
especially as we didnt have any bus money
( and now georgia is taking pics of our new kettle) its a whistling kettle me and kye got sick of boiling pans for morning tea lol
so we trekked it accross town stopping in on a few mates on the way for much needed coffee and bathroom breaks lol
when we did eventually get home sustance was needed so hash browns sausages and kylers amazing avacado tomato and scrambled egg on toast was devoured by the pair of us
he got to go sleep then while i went to work
was good
then just chilled out for the rest of the weekend
went for a run on sunday and thats about it
just had a call from work and ive got major shifts all this week major result from 2 shifts to only today and saturday off im stoked!
anyways
peace out guys
:)
x

m i a

hey guys
dont worry im not missing in action
i am actually alive
still living in victoria still in vic west with kyler but georgia is moving out at the end of the month but her brother is moving in so we'll probably see her a load more than we do now
so whats been happening since last time
well this weekend me and claire went camping at china beach we had a great time
we rocked up on friday at about 11.30. Pitched kylers tent which we had borrowed.
Eventually got it up and then we just had a few beers and watched the stars for a few hours.
We even saw a few shooting stars it was amazing
The nice female ranger told us about the fact we were in bear and couger teritory though and so me and claire both didnt have the greatest nights sleep
Also it was freeeezing im talking about hat hoodie pj's tracky bottoms and socks
and it was still chilly though
then on saturday morning we hiked down the trail to the beach
and then probably spent a couple of hours exploring before we headed to jordan river to get fire wood.
we ended up going all the way to sooke and it was their autumn fayre on so we went a had a wee nosy round it
actually a bloke from summerset was playing a concert at the fayre
small world eh
then it was back home to light the fire
and have a couple of bevvies and play some cards
Claire absolutley destroyed me at 'spit' which id never played before darn scots haha
we had forgotten forks for our middle noodles so i went and borrowed a couple
Turns out these people were really nice lisa and larry they were called
when we returned the forks they asked us if we wanted to play cards with them as it was raining outside and we had just been sitting out under a waterproof blanky
it was ok though a 15 pack of lucky really helps you forget the rain
so we took a couple of luckys with us and played cards for a few hours with them
they were nice enough to say if a bear or couger did try to eat us we could crash on their floor
oh yeh and we found out kylers tent leaked
alot .....
but we had a great time and many thanks to kye for lending us his tent sleeping bag and truck to go with
what else have i been up to
oh yeh erica my wee sister has been over to stay
it was the first time id seen her since march and i was super stoked and just majorly excited to see her and we had loads of fun
we went whale watching and saw the 3 groups of local orcas all out together in a super pod
i showed her some of victoria
we hung out and yeh had a great time
also managed to score her a helicopter trip which she loved
and weve had our friend erica and her dog barcley over a few times and he loves our place now
he jumps outa the car in the parking lot runs around to our door and as soon as the doors open he goes tearing up the stairs to kylers room so he can see kyler
then we hang out and have a few beers or watch a zombie movie or maybe kung fu
weve been to thetus lake a few times as well done a little jumping in and swimming and just floating around on boats
oh and i suck at frisbee
what else has happened
been working at sportchek a bunch but theyve just cut my hours back as the summer is over
which sucks so im going to find a another job as just being there wont support me
and the season is over at kabuki
its sad that people are leaving the city for new pastures but there still is a core of people here
anyway ill try to remember what else ive dont and post soon
chow bella
x

howdy folks

ok guys sorry i havent posted in froever lifes been busyyy
so biggest thing is i moved
i now live at 811 craigflower
v9a 2w8
victoria bc
canada
and its a sick old pad
my buddy from work kyler was all hey need a place i was like yeh why not and so i moved in about 3 weeks ago now and im loving it
we are above a grocery store so after 9pm we can make pretty much as much noise as we like and we have full roof top access which is so cool
so we have a little bit of decking out there with our couch and barbie on and then on the rest of the roof weve got some tables and chairs and kylers sick little garden
also lonnie gave us a bunch of coloured pool lights so we are in the process of rigging them up for night time illumination
so yeh what else have i been up to well ive been working a bunch to support the general food and housing needs as well as the cost of partying and doing various things like buzzing off to saltspring island for a day or so and going tubing
tubing rocked a bunch of about 20 of us from kabuki went on the cowichan river in a bunch of inflatable tubes and for the majority explorer 100 boats
the 100 is a fine vessel definatly built for cruising down rivers and navigating rapids
well we ( that is team euro and myself ((team euro consisting of me and the two swedes oskar and marckus) decided to step things up a notch and so navigated the rapids backwards for the most part
it was a general shit show as ever
also on some of our nights out we have done many memorable things including supporting the gay pride festival in which we got a bunch of free drinks and the drag show was real good yeh thats were all of the guys ended up topless in the middle of the gay bar and oskar flipping the 30 set stairs and sticking it
that was sooo impressive
also we had the best sunday ever we (team euro lonnie and kyler) just got some beers grabbed a guitar and headed out to see what we would find at the beach
we found just the most amazing spot ever it was a little trek from anywere else and there was this sick decking up in the trees and it overlooked a little cove in which there was a concrete pipe accross the mouth which had trapped a load of drift wood so it was like a floating floor and so it was all moving and undulating
and then a bald eagle with a rabbit in its talons literally flew down and landed probably 30 ft away and it sat there for a while till a couple of crows started getting all anal and just kept dive bombing bob (oh yeh thats what we named our eagle friend)
and then like halfway through the afternoon kyler just started playing one of his songs and it was just a perfect time and situation and place and he reallly has some awesome pipes on him
so yeh it was one of those perfect days were everything falls into place
what else hmmmmm
ooh canada day shit show when team euro decided to go round giving out our phone numbers still getting harrassed by some girls that was one of our less well thaught out plans
me jess and kyler went up to thetus lake ( i kept thinking people were calling it fetus lake blummin accents lol ) and it was soo nice we hung out in boats on the water and did a lil jumping in off of stuff
so yeh im not coming back till this time next year ass 1 im having tooo much fun 2 my work visa has aaagggeeees to run on it and 3 im ready to do the whole uni thing yet
in all honesty this has been the best thing ive ever done
yep its a big call but yeh its just immense out here it really is home :)
love
theo
x

arg

so its the long weekend here
im like sooo tired and like man i need some full body detoxing doing lol
so yeh worked the bar shifts and then it was a case of drinks?
yeh go for it
next thing we know its sunrise already
oh guys suns up
already oh man we've done it again
breakfast anyone???
yeh were?
maccy d's?
sod it yeh lets go
so theres me j rock plumb jess and g hopper walking round an empty vic with beers in old mac bags like man this is a great idea
like ten bucks of food each and then everyone goes to bed
repeat the process and add a bbq on sunday evening followed by a beach fire and then not much sleep and that = my weekend
oh yeh and falling up the stairs
thats impressive
now its time for my proper job
shave check
jeans check
smiley face check
time to head out
laters
x

starbucks i love you

ok so im sat in starbucks in china town looking out at the pearl of victoria ( a giant metal globe with all the victorias in the world marked on it ) and the gates of harmonious intrest
its the oldest chinatown in bc and the second oldest in north america ( only san frans is older )
sooo oooh what have i been up to
lots is the easy answer lots of working in sportschek which im loving
selling blades hockey skates bikes footballs and other sorts of random crap to the unsuspecting public yay :)
and pedicabbing is as fun as ever i loooove this job big time even just hanging out after a shift with elisha and mike the mechanic just chillaxing out in the yard in the camping chairs with the stereo blaring rock fm or something like that and a coooool beer in your hand oh man you cannot repeat cannot beat this
so yeh funny story timmy one of the aussies working for us had a tour up to craigdarroch castle and he forgot the way so took these poor japanese tourists to the governer general's house ( they hadnt even seen a picture of the castle so they didnt know any better ) and told them that was the castle they of course beleived him
but on the way back they passed some of the vpc guys and they have a picture of the castle on it so the tourists were all wtf did we see
and timmy thinking on his feet was oh yeh guys thats what it looked like before it burned down and the totally beleived it so major props for tim for A getting a great tip and B totally pulling it off

oh yeh and me and tim were waiting for a pre arranged trip and this couple come up to us being all whats the scam then guys
cue us what do we loolk like were scammers then to each other oh yeh just coz were foreign think were up to no good
the couple laughed and the guy was like well ive never trusted gingers or aussie s

our reply was fair dinkum

they loved it scored a cheeky tour for a rookie

anyway wer having a costume party next monday night so me elishhhh nate colin and rob headed out to value village =to get something
we ended up with several kids size costumes (ive got a monkey with a tail ears and a banana in hand tooo :) )
nate nearly got us kicked outa the store too after we found a dinosaur godzillaesk costume he squeezed into most of it imagine the feet at his knees and the hands by his elbows
he then proceeded to stomp around the store roaring at everyone
this included a couple of little kids who pretty much bricked it ran to their mum and started crying

then there was some lady going down another isle so nate runs down our isle and like peers round roaring at her she starts arguing and so nate just roars at her some more

then we see some staff heading our way so we headed to the tills
good times


and i got a tape player so james lent me a couple of tapes they include spindoctors pocket full of kryptonite ( the one with two princes on !!!) and the beach boys and the beach boys entire tape is about blummin cars i mean i like cars but a whole tape of 'lil poop scoop you dont know what i got ' is a lil much but im kinda loving it for the chill vibes on my balcony lol

on the whole balcony subject i dont think i could manage without one now
its perfect for post / pre work chilling in my comfy chair with the beach boys soothing tones playing and a blue buck beer in hand
or kokanee (its cheap and beery)
blue buck is a local brew to get to mine it goes up 1 block and accross 2 so thats pretty much from purple moose to the spoon in comparison
i do miss non fizzy beer though
oh yeh ed
i got ed from yvr ( vancouver ) airport
anddd i got from here to there byyyy
helijet
(helicopter)
and it was amaaazing it was like being in a giant massage chair but it wasss loud
and i kept thinking what would happen if like the blades stopped going round
and man this would suck dying who would get ed
lol oh yeh and i had messaged ed saying i was going to meet him at the airport but for some reason he hadnt got it and seemed supprised when i turned up

anywhose im gunna head out now guys
love
t
x

happy bday lil sis

Its erica's bday today (my wee soeur)
And so happy birthday sis xxx
Ok then I've been in my place a week now and I'm loving it altho the huge double bed and a single duvet means I'm curled up in the corner
That's not soo cool but u know its warm
So I've had a gd week kubuki'ed a shed load and did my first shift at
........... Sport chek a sports shop and nope I haven't spelt it wrong that's how they spell it
Work in friday pedicabbing was ama7ing fun loads of us out there and loads of thrills n spills like lonnie and the police after the bastion square bombing
(Its a steep cut through with posts that you can slalom thru
She got a caught going suuuuper quick
Then we got our funk on outside irish times to good jigging music so we had an impromptu hoedown yeeehhhaaa
Members of the public did join in !
Sat eve was almost as gd except my cab got nicked
Cue me running down the street grabbin the brake n chucking the offenders out
Oh yeh and I got told by somne girls to stop pretending to be english
I was alll ummmm.... Oki then lol
And sat eve was total theo n jon double teaming and it was sheeer class guys look we got kabs let's stop walking start drinking and ill throw in the english accent for free
Was fun
On top of this is was hen night central and having the pink kab paid off
We ended up having 19 hen nighters in a huge 8 kab train all up hill though so me and mitch decided hmmm hardwork naaa
So we skitched jon halfway up johnson st lol
Then ther was the mass bomb of bastion for a second heb party followed by a race to the empress
Pinky and me could only manage second
Neway I'm going to bed now night
Xx

new place baby

ok guys biggg news
ive got my own place
well a room in an apartment lol
its suppper chill though as ive got a rocking balcony lol
and i currently have in my fridge beer milk instant noodles cornflakes and oreos!
yeh i gotta go buy more food in a bit
so yeh im having a great time kubuki kabbing its a fun job
im loving the night shift as we all seem to hang out getting the odd ride from 8 till like 11 then things start to pick up
then wer busting it out till 1 when it goes up a gear and the kubuki rules the streets
then 2-3 is the power hour and u can make serious dollar then
and then back to the shop for after work beers and chillage
so yeh my room is on north park road (827) its like 5 mins from the kubuki shop and like 15 mins walk from the bay centre downtown were my other job (sport check ) is
i start at sport chek on thursday.
(did u see my punctuation there ???)
yeh anyways gotta dash ill get some pics of the room up sometime soon
peace out
xx

just call me maverick

So when in the car on the way to go hiking the other week james put on the top gun sound track

i was all whats this

james replies only the greatest thing ever

i was ok..........

so then we end up watching top gun

and man i loved it

the whole

yeh thats right im am dangerous !!!!!

and all the epic jet shots and the music then made sense

so seeing as i think ive left my sun glasses at elizabeths (have i aunty) i decided screw it i need some aviators

and here they are

they are super shiny and i love blitzing round with them on
so in the past week or so its been more job hunting and i went accross to america for the day

this was due to my work visa coming through

But i had to activate it so i had to leave canada and cross an international border

easyiest way to do this is to head out to port angeles on the ferry

its an hour and a half each way

but i may have kinda made the ferry late....

This is due to the dear US border gaurds wanting to search my bags ask me questions take my finger prints ask me what i was planning on doing in the us etc etc

so ended up being late thanks to them

pretty uneventfull ferry trip accross except for a little turbulence
and got out here

Port angeles

A sleepy little place

really sunny with a few nice views but yeh it was a saturday and it was quieter than melksham you know

i cant imagine the kids out there have a lot to do

its a mecca for twilight fans

and thats about all there is to do there

they advertise 8 blocks of shops

i counted 5

at a push

so i killed a few hours there the plan had been to go to Forks for major twilightage

but na thanks to the ferry being late (my bad)

i didnt get to go there

i do plan to go back there though on my trip to san fran

just need a car ......... any offers guys???

Then on the way back in i got stopped and detained by the canadian guys for about 40 minutes while they went over visa's and the whole are you who you say your are can you prove this do you have a job do you plan to go to school here

arrrgh

but it was funny they detained 3 of us

all young guys

all dressed in hoodies and walking boots with a few days growth on the chin

funny isnt it

the 3rd guy came in and was like hmmmm i see a pattern emerging here

so yeh eventually got out of there and went and got a coffee thinking i had earned it and im sure i had you know walking all that way lol

sunday went for a masssive bike ride (and purchased the aviators ) it was such a beautiful day was sooo sunny and warm it was great

(oh yeh ps on saturday i handed in an application to mountain equipment co-op an amazing outward bound gear shop i would loveee to get that job so would james he would love the discount )

when i got back to jameses about 3 i had a chill read some harry potter woooo in the sun on the balcony and then we went for a masssive run till like half six

we were both dead apres ca

but he had to go study so him and sheena (his girl friend) headed out to a coffee shop to do some

we were out of milk so i valiently dedicated my evening to finding some

this was a mistake

the store was ages away and my already aching legs were like theo you idiot
but i got to the store and found milk woop and then trekked back to jwm's and went to sleep after a little more harry potter

oh yeh also on my ride around victoria on sunday i found this sweeet bridge and were the picture is taken from there is this amazing grassy slope that is soo nice on a sunny day

you can watch the float planes taking off and they bank right over you its just amazing to watch

but back to the bridge its all archaic and cool and the girders are starting to rust its amazing i love that bridge lol

any how im going to head to bed its 11 here so aidios amigos

much love

mav

x

bloody visa

so im still waiting for my work visa to come through ive emailed the people concerned and had a very unhelpfull email back from them its pretty dam infuritating to be honest grrr
ive spent the past week applying for jobs and ive had one very informal interview just waiting to hear back from them
ive applied to a couple of bars a few bike shops and a bunch of touristy shops
the bike shops have generally got people but if stuffs not working out im next on the list so i gotta hope someone fudges things up
it was the easter bank holiday originally me and james were going to head back to north van for the weekend but decided not too
oh yeh and wednesday james got off school early so we went and played golf it was uber
ok so it was pitch and put but it was very very fun
we then went for a jog as we had done on monday afternoon as it was such a nice afternoon (im properly unfit though) i also believe its pronounced yogging as its a silent j lol
i got jameses bike up and running and have since been racing cars between the sets of traffic lights its amazing how slow an auto car is on response compare to a skinny kid on a bike and ive found it great lol
im really liking victoria its a very cool city i think that im going to spend a few weeks staying in one of the youth hostel type places as they seem really cool and a good way to meet people
the lack of tea is taking its toll im reduced to coffee now
i feel my purpose in life is gone now i lack the tea :(
im thinking that i might try running the victoria 10k at the end of the month so im going to get in shape
this started with a major session on james's chin up bar
and 2 days later my shoulders still ache lol
oh yeh and saturday night jameses girlfriends mum cooked for a bunch of us as an easter meal (we had bbq!!!) and the food was just omg amazing
and i got on reallly well with her dad
he''s got a bunch of garages and some reallly cool toys which he showed me some of
he thinks he's got about 8 motorbikes in them in total hes not really sure
that bloke has got it sweet lol
oh yeh and friday we went for a trek along part of one of the trails an hour or so out from the city and it was just pissing it down all day so we got soaked through but it was good
anyways its just started to drizzle and i gotta race the traffic home so ill catch u later
x

ocean island back packers inn

righto chaps and chapesses im currently on the island in beautiful victoria i swear it even smells good out here im in the ocean island backpackers inn using their internet 3 dollars for an hour thats a bit of a bargain
also im thinking im going to ask them if they've got any jobs going so watch this space....
ive had a good few days spent a lot of time walking round or reading drinking coffee its a great way of seeing the place
so wednesday i said by to sas's amazing house and headed out to north van to go stay with aunty for a night
had no problems with the buses but may have got a little lost trying to find her house and having the heavy bag and the hot sun
eventually found the house and spare key so chilled for a lil before walking the 30 odd blocks down to lonsdale quay where coffee cinamon buns and sun were all enjoyed before heading back up the 30 blocks playing with my camera being all arty farty called in at a telus store (they be like 02 back in uk) and finding out how many arms and legs a cell phone will cost me
that evening me and aunty walked along the sea wall on north van and it was a beautiful evening
thurs it chucked it down and i went to lyn valley canyon (which is a park with a cool ol suspension bridge that you can get a good sway on ) i got soaked through so walked back to the mall and invaded a starbucks and got warm slightly dry and very caffined up :)
that eve i headed out to vancouver to go stay with cuz gin in downtown
her apartment is great its just off a main street so is quieter but still close to everything and i had a good cup of tetleys tea there made me very happy ive been really missing the tea
friday got woken up by ginnies fricking blender going grrr but to be fair she made a great smoothie :)
then got up went to a bookshop browsed a little and then decided to head out to gm place (its where the ice hockey finals were played and where the vancouver cannucks normally play ) its like over the other side of downtown so it was a good old walk but on route i sorted out my cell phone so that was a real good thing
then we headed out to victoria
the ferry ride is realll pretty but me and gin had these giant burgers so had like food babys so we just kinda napped a little
then we got out to cuzs james apartment and headed to the pub its only like a minute from jameses so thats pretty darn cool
saturday we went and hung out with gins friend matt his parents have bought an uber house about 35 mins out from victoria its got like 3 acres of land with it
saturday night we hung with gins friend zoe who is fricking awesome
we went to a concert and it was so cool the 3 bands all swapped in and out and different members of each band played with other bands and they all played like every instrument
one guy looked really like ned from school it was uncanny
so yeh thats an update of stuff
catch u later
x

pubs and subs

ok so more canadian stuff

day 2 was saturday

we had a lazzzy old day got up around 11ish.......

sas's dad bill had cooked amazing chocloate chip and raspberry panacakes there were just omg reallly incredible bills a great cook

then we just hung out and chatted and stuff till like 4 ish when sas eventually got dressed and we went over to langley thats millles away and met our friend dan

sas then chipped it off for a family dinner and me and him went off to a pub and had dinner a few beers and watched some hockey result

only thing was vancouver lost :(

we ended up getting back to west van at like 1 in the morning we were both dead

sunday we had a bit of a rush as sas had her vollyball game ( i keep calling it netball same thing really ) i went and hung out with her bf david and man he's a great man we got on like a house on fire

we went for a wander around vancouver n it started to rain so we decided it was time for coffee

we went to tim hortons and my dear that coffee sucks asss like ummmmm something that sucks a bum regularly

like i didnt realise that when they ask if you want cream they actually mean milk so i ended up with black coffee that i was filtering with my teeth ............

the other reason we went to tim's is atm there running a competition thing were if you roll up the edge of your cup you can win stuff and david wants to win a car lol

but guess whatt .......

thats right we both didnt win a thing

then we met up with sas who had won the game and we walked her to her sororosroororoity house as she had a thing on that night

me and david deciding we had the munchies went for dinner

and beers

and talked about hockey rugby football and stuff and it was cool

but canadian beer hasnt got a patch on doombar or the moose or 6x unfortunatly

then there was this anchor splash thing

which was a comedy syncro swimming thing that the sororitys and fraternitys do

sas's won

but this one guy looked like a midget from the like the angle of the light and the water and it was amazing lol

but on the donwside me and david were both very deflated by the proportion of shania twain's song man i feel like a woman we both knew ............

but on the plus side canada has been introduced to smits great dance moves of slippery ice heavy shopping blowing the leaves and starting the chainsaw along with the standard dad dancing at a wedding and victor travolta's point and shake the leg

on monday sas had uni so once at ubc (universtiy of british columbia) i decided to go and explore :D

i ended up in downtown van and it was lush and sunny and so i broke out the book and the ipod and just sat and chilled for a few hours

then i up my sticks and went for a wander and took pictures of the amazing bay at english bay and then in stanley park

got the munchies then as i do so walked across on the granville st bridge and got subway (wasnt as good as uk subway but then again the scottish bloke wasnt there) and walked around a bit while seagulls were eyeing up my sub the lil bastards

then i walked back on the burrerd bridge (well i think it was) it was a major trek lol

i then found hornby street so took a pic i thaught the guys back in wales (aka the train lovers) would like it

and then i found thurlow st but my cam had died so sorry dave i didnt get a pic but i will on friday i promise

i then made friends with some mexicans and the crazy lady who was a lil scary

then i headed to second beach in stanley park (its were we lost erica when she was like 3 or so ) and then it was time to head home which was good as i was hungry and my feet hurt

but oh yeh i had starbucks as well ooohhh and went and took pics of the bronze guys that are all laughing annnnnd erica they have eagles this year i kinda wish it was bears :S

neway peace out a town

x

hellllllloooo canada

so yeh im in canada yay

its been a pretty interesting couple of days

it started with the plane

the guy i was sat next to had spent a weeek in whitley aka my village aka 2 mins from my house crazy or what

then when the plane landed after getting no sleep and watching the same episode of top gear about 5 times (in flight entertainment wasnt great :( )

i checked the ol ipod (went online with it) and found out that any one of 3 people could be picking me up but i didnt know who or have a phone hmmm problem i think not

i purchased a fone card and rang round to my friend dan who was like theo whhhhaaaaat u dont know whose picking u up man gd luck

eventually i got thru to sas's sister lyndsy who ive never met or seen lol

so the convo goes hey is this lyndsy oh ok sweet its theo u know ur sisters english friend whose picking me up oh u are great what do u look like ohhhh okkkk im talll with red hair and a huge bag lol

so eventually find lydnsey (well she finds me lol) and we go to sas's dads house which has got killlller views of the ocean and mountains

the next day me and sas get up at like half 9 rush around go into vancouver as sas has a lecture i kinda joined her for it and god it was dulllllll

then i had my first tim hortons (ex hocky player ) experience its like a coffee place that serves donuts and chilli lol kinda wierd but good

then we went to stanley park and had a walk around the sea wall

we saw a seagull eating a starfish not one arm at a time but all in one the fat sod

we then carried on walking then we only had like 30 mins on our parking time left so thaught we would take a short cut through the park

bad idea we musta walked every trail in that park we were hella lost guys

we even found some lake that we didnt know was there lol

any ways gotta dash laters

x

penultimate week

ok so its been my penultimate week here
and ive had a great time
i havent been properly clean alll weekk grrrr
but the meerkats here (his car needed fixing to get thru the MOT so he drove here from holland for bob and dylan too he reallly is mad )
im watching the hockey at the same time though its canada 1 0 at the mo
so this week me and bob have been working on the ricket
but on monday pete and myself were putting the rivets into the lifting links and the links holders
the holes drilled through were with a half inch drill
then reamed with a half inch reamer
and so we were using half inch bar to go through
but when we tried to knock the first one in we may have kinda got it stuck
the words oh bother were used
so we drilled that one out
i then put all the others in the little myford super 7 lathe and just used some fine emery paper and toook a thou or so off
then we knocked them in allll hunky dorey
then from tuesday onwards its just been about blanche my favourite lady at the mo
so we hydrauliced the boiler and smokebox
we found 3 leaking superheaters
a leaking main steam pipe
a leaking main exhaust pipe
and a hole through from the top of the main steam pipe flange through to the outside of the cylinder
it was large enough to fit a hack saw blade through
i remade the joints between for all the fittings on tuesday afternoon
wednesday morning i put everything back in except for the super heaters as bob re ground the ball joints
i messed up one of the joints and we only realised this after everything was in and (its 2 0 canada)

canada 2 america 1

we also took the chimney liner out
as the peticoat at the bottem wasnt fitting properly so this was making the loco not draught properly
we spent about half a day rolling the liner circular again
this involved heating it up and bashing it down repeatedly on an elephants foot
then we welded the peticoat on and put the liner into the chimney and used a long old piece of pipe to ensure it was lined up correctly making sure the blast actually goes up the chimney
i also took the burner out and took it apart cleaned it up and put it back and also drained the axle boxes as we did a 30 day fitters inspection on it
then i took apart all the cylinder drain cocks and replaced the o rings in them
apres ca it was a case of putting a fire in the beast and seeing what leaked
nothing was the answer to that
but the cylinder drains did blow through so thats mondays job i think
any way time for a beer with the hockey
nighty night
x

lathes

so its been a while since i posted
last time dave posted i had spent a week or so installing a new fuel pump in the moelwyn and plumbing it in
had to blank off the old pump as well
then pretty much since then ive been learning to use a lathe
i first had to make some bushes for the merdins pistons
these were made in bronze which i realllly like working with its a nice soft material so very forgiving when just learning seeing as i started off being a little heavy handed
i made them all without too much trouble
just lots and lots and lots of checking my measurements
then i knocked the bushes in
and had to bore them out to fit the pistons
only thing was one i messed up by 6 thousandths of an inch thats about as thick as 6 rizla papers
so had to remake one this set me back by a good 3 hours not cooool
after this i had to make a couple of collars to go on the bar that holds the valve gear up
they were made from steel which is less forgiving so had a fair bit of chatter to start with lol
but got better at it
im not confident with the parting off tool though
then after this went back to helping pete drill the pins on the lifting links untill i get told to make 32 spacers for the flamming garret boiler
as when it was hydraulic tested it leaked from the dome
and garry couldnt tighten the nuts down the bolts any further so spacers were needed
i had to go find inch and 3/4 bar put a centre in it drill it out to an inch then part it off at about 15 mm
only problem was the drill was only long enough to part off 4 spacers at a time
and then after the first four i had a bit of a problem with the next four they wernt parted off square but had a taper on them
i tried tightening the bar in the chuck
then after this didnt help i went and got chris
we ended up changing the tip
this didnt help
so we turned the tool around and put a new tip in and bob was our uncle and back to nice square spacers
i busted out the rest without any trouble at all
on saturday me and emma helped out bonkers and rob with their wooden slate wagon
we had to cut a load of stainless to length then cut a thread on it
we spent a heck of a lot of time looking for bonks though to double check on the thread he wanted cutting and the lengths and what not lol
we did the same on sunday for a couple of hours but em kinda forgot to run a file around the base on a couple of threads so i got a couple of good cuts on the fingers from checking the thread doh
right now im checking out things to do in victoria i cant wait to go out there its only a few weeks now :)
right thinks thats it for now
oh grease is on now well that'll kill a few hours

god damn my pants (or coach) are on fire !

Sorry everybody, Theo's too busy to write his blog tonight - instead he's doodling on a tissue box! So far we have had golfing with an 8-ball, a dodgem, a ship on a BIG sea, a dice and a doodle-person sticking 2 fingers up. Yeah vitally important eh?!

So anyways, this is dave hijacking the blog again. Todays been an interesting day, the train service was meant to be a round trip up to trwyn-y-garnedd (a place in the woods) then back to port, and i was the guard. Jed had put the heating on first thing before i rocked up, cos the gas heating is crap and takes hours to get warm, so i cleaned the set and got ready to go off-shed. The Blanche came round into 14 road and I finished cleaning the set. I stepped out of the train and heard a hissing sound to my right. To me it sounded like the air compressor starting up down in the pit further up 14 road, so I went off to check that anyone working under the train knew we were about to go. As I walked along the side of oach 114 (the push-pull buffet car) a fireball erupted sideways out of the gas cylinder cupboard, about 10-12 ft in front of me.

At this point the rest of the works were going on about their daily business blissfully unaware that coach 114s heating was producing more heat than it had ever done before. I couldn't find a fire alarm smash glass thing in glan-y-mor where the carriages are kept so I legged it round into the carriage shop and set the alarm off before ringing control and the fire brigade (not that I could what either of them were saying to me down the phone cos I couldn't hear anything over the noise of the alarm) while beefy moved the three coaches in 13 road safely clear of the fire.

I got over to the top yard where everyone had assembled and ritually had the piss ripped out of me...all the jokes about making an easy guarding turn even shorter lol. The ginger one had gone racing off to the halt to open the crossing gates for the fire engines, which soon came racing across the cob - so they knew where boston lodge then.

It took a while befre we were allowed to go back but Dylan came and said we could go back into the den out of the wind. I didn't think it was that cold, having walked over the cob in a short sleeve shirt (i'm from up north and we don't do cold up there - its either warm of f***ing cold with nothing in between)

So the train got cancelled, which I guess was inevitable, and the fire brigade did their thing, putting out coach 114, and I walked back over to Port to speak to control. Word had obviously got round as I was getting texts off Joe (aka Young Boris Johnson) up in Blackburn to congratulate me

The day wasn't over though, for 114 torching itself meant we were short of coaches for tomorrow, so Phil and me came back to the works this afternoon to put a new set together for tomrrow. While I was over there I saw Theo in the workshops actually doing some work - yes he actually does work and isn't blagging it! When I saw him he was painting one of the Earl's bogies, while Tony was up a ladder on 138s boiler, Bob was painting some bits of metal light green (not sure what the bits of metal were, not being technically minded etc lol) and I saw Bruno kicking about there too, though I didn't notice what he was doing.

Phil fired up the Cricc and we shunted the burnt coach out of the way, put the push-pull coach onto the bottom of what's going to be the half termset, then attached them to the remains of my train from earlier (the bit that didn't get warm) and took the full nine coaches over to port. By this time it was well after 4pm and the works were all done for the day, so by the time we brought the Cricc back to put 114 away in the shed, everyone was gone...part timers!

So that was today. We;ve just been down to Tescos and had food, watched some crap on BBC3 about vampires (not as good as the lady fighters from last night tho) and Theo's still doodling - his words of wisdom for the day are: one way to avoid death is to be magnificent. Perhaps we should get him to do a thought for the day each day :-)

Right I've had enough now, normal service will resume next time

ashes to ashes

ok tuesday morning
moment of truth
filled the tal up with water
and yes it leaked from a stay in the front top corner of the firebox so underneath the tank on the drivers side
so thats going to be a major job
think there going to do the ten year boiler exam on it at the same time as the tanks gotta be lifted and the cab taken off and the boiler lifted from the frames an all the lagging removed
so yeh not goood news
for the rest of the day me and peter attempted to remove the ash pans from the earl it took the rest of the day
firstly we had to take out the short section of rail from over the pit to give us enough space to lower the ashpans off
then we had to take off the hand brake shaft and the brake linkages on the top end
was a little tricky ended up using hammers and whatnot
then we started to undo the 6 bolts holding each ash pan on
only thing is 2 at the very front of the boxes have about 10mm of clearence on them
and they were rather seized in so after some head scratching we managed to squeese in the gas axe and warmed them up then got a bit of pipe over the spanners end to give some extra leverage
after we'd got these out we jacked the big jack up to support the weight of the pan and then with the impact gun we undid the rest of the bolts and lowered the pan
the pan was reluctant to drop tho so got a bar in and jiggled it bannnng oh bother well at least its moving down now lol
shoved a bit of channel under it before lowering fully then we slid it out from underneath
repeated for the second one and then it was time to take the the firebars out
luckily someone who had been on that last time hadnt cleared the fire out and soooooo i ended up ghost like
ash in my eyes
ash in my ears
mouth back of throat
even somehow in my socks
yay
then we put the rail back and went home
fun
nighty night need some sleep

uhoh spaghettio

so its tuesday
monday was okish spent alot of time steam cleaning outside though
ended up with wet boots and a wet arm
so had to go create a second pair of boots from the various spares in the locker room
they wernt great if im honest but at least my feet were dry
(spare socks an essential for my locker )
on monday
we lifted the bogie
and dropped the wheelsets out and then it was up onto the wagon
was very straight forward shove it up to the cranes (one at each end as the bottom end with the cylinder block in is much heavier than the other) and then lift it
and drop the wheelsets out (after taking the keep plates off prior to lifting)
then it was a case of getting the truck in to lift the bogie onto
the cranes couldnt lift the bogie high enough to push the truck underneath it straight in so we had to slew the bogie across to the left and then push the truck in and then swing the bogie back over the truck
and lower away
simples!
then i got the less glamerous job of shunting the wheelsets out with the arrrrg and the truck with the bogie on and steam clean them
did this got soaked wasnt particularly happpy lol
during this time bob pete and dylan had been changing oil and fuel filters on moel hebog ( the snt/pway other disel) then they started it up and it was leaking oil and would drive forwards but not backwards hmmmmm strange any way pete just fixed the steam pipe to the cylinder drain cocks on the ricket as it had been blowing through a hole on sunday when i fired it and then it was home time yayy

tuesday
today i spent the day working mainly on the earl
knocked the bushes out of the various arms on the valve gear cleaned it up and took apart the valve gear
had a problem with one of the pins through the die block and expansion link
had to drill out the taper pins that were holding it in and even then it wouldnt come
so a gentle persuaded and a few choice words later and it was out
then we took a look at the hedgehogs (hebogs) problems and the problem turned out to be the brake cylinder on the left hand side had eaten itself
when the brake was released the piston was not retracking back in
we took it off took it apart and cleaned it up and found that it had unscrewed itself
so we screwed it back in and it all worked beautifully
after that me and bob started to set up the parrallels to measure the frames for what needs to be machined off of the axleboxes
then we went and had a gander at the tal which had been failed on saturday with a leaking stay in the firebox and a flexible pipe that had blown
untill we've hydrauliced it we dont know where the stay has gone but its looking like wer going to have to take the tanks off to do this so it was mentioned that we might just do its ten year boiler exam and whatnot at this time
anyway im sleepy
night

the pits

ok so a little something i forgot to mention in my last post
during mine and petes mahoooosive shunt last friday
i may have found the elf hat on the cric
and i may have waited till pete couldnt see me before putting it on
and i may have popped up when pete was wavving me on
cue giggles for about 5 minutes

ok so back to the week
tuesday was a massssive day
the earls bogie went from being 90 % complete to about 30 or 40 %
pete and myself just shifted and we got off all the valve gear
the....

OK Theo's just made a careless mistake, moving away from the laptop and Dave's now taken over the blog - ohhhhhhhh yesssssssssss!! Silly boy, which Amy, Mikey, Jon, Emma, Clarkey and countless others will no doubt agree!!!

So he spent the rest of this week, in no particular order, messing around with more bogies, grafitti-ing the Funkey's knackered bogies with marker pen bets on when its gonna fail this summer after the transmission gets sent back - sometime when Dave Davies Diesel Destroyer is driving it no doubt) going to get rump steak at the Union on Wednesday nite, then he got let out on the footplate of the Tal yesterday, not before assaulting it with his head though, and was firing all the way up to Trwyn-y-Garnedd while Phil B stood around doing sod all...(well, no change there haha) - actually I better take that bit back otherwise I'll get crap rosters for the rest of 2010 lol.

Oh between us we've also christened Amy's new car 'Bruce' - George the funky multi-coloured seatbelted Citroen Saxo appears to have bit the dust, so the box on wheels that is the Ford Fusion needed a nickname. It could have been either Bruno or Bruce - they both have significance (dont they Mr High and Mr Brayne).

He's now asking to have his blog back...shall I be kind?! Answers on a postcard please... :-)

ok that was dave 'wolfy' wolstenholme guard extrondinaire
ummm so tuesday
firstly we had to disconect the excentric straps from the expansion link so that we could get enough vertical movement to get the split pins out of the pins in the valve gear
i funnily enough was underneath in the pit and disconnecting the eccentric straps kinda ended up with one dropping on me noggin
the phrase oh bother that smarts was posssibly used
then when we had released the valve gear from the briddle rod link arm (the one that attatches the bridle rod to the frames) it was time to release it from the piston valves on the back of the cylinder block
more choice words were used when i kinda hit my head on the axle of the loco
we extracted the expansion links and then the eccentric straps without too much difficulty the only thing was the bogie was at the end of the pit so i kinda had to crouch on the steps to undo the bolts from the eccentrics to the straps
then i undid the springs from underneath using the air powered impact air gun
then it was a case of lifting the springs out and washing them in the tool washer

we also stamped things L for left and R for right
but pete had kinda had a little bit of a senior moment and got his left and right mixed up soooo we had to grind the stamps off and redo them oooops

wednesday
was a continuation of tuesday with the dissassembly of the earls bogie
to start the day i steam cleaned it to get more of the crap(technical vocab) off of it
i got the bad end of the job i was outside freezing my arse off getting covered in water and steam while pete just stayed inside and washed various components and took off some of the lubrication pipes

then we had to shunt some stuff about to get the wagon to put the bogie on once we've dropped the wheelsets out
this ended up with me pete the arrrrrg degreaser rags and lighters to set fire to the points to de ice them

we also did a fitters exam on talesin which needed its 30 day it was all fine but it was good as pete showed me what to look for in each place so was a very useful experience
then we did a fitters exam on the cric the first one for wellll to be honest a while i was sent under to check the propshaft and whatnot seeing as i'd spannered on it earlier in my contract and i also had to grease all the grease points for the first time in 2 months so i got covered in grease yay

thursday
went into work at the normal time and pete and me took the valves out of the valve ports and took the bits and bobs off that were holding them in
then i went and prepped the tal as i had been informed at wedsnesday afternoon tea break that i was firing it as there was no other crew available proper scrapping the barrel lol
had a great time firing didnt have any problems and had a laugh
wolfy was the guard and despite our best efforts we didnt leave him anywhere

wolfy and me celebrated that evening with dinner in the spoon and then after showers and what not went over to beths and watched juno man i love that film
made me want a pipe but i want one that can blow bubbles hehe

friday
pete was only here in the morning so we had an easy day today
we just took the pistons out of the cylinders and washed them and took the wayshaft off
the wayshaft was a lil bugger as you've got the nuts on the back with another set of nuts and bolts completey non related at 90 degrees to the ones on the wayshaft and you can only just get the spanner on and them you have to knock him out dead straight otherwise you catch the nuts on either one of the bolt heads at the side (the ones at 90 degrees)

that took most of the morning so afterlunch with no pete around i just took the flexible lubrication pipes off and drained the axle boxes (something i did to the tal on weds also) and drained the oil pots to the axle boxes and loosend the keeps (they hold the axle boxes in the )
and took the brakes off completely blocks hangers and brake rod ( from the steam brake to the brake shoes)

then just washed a bunch of stuff we had taken off already stuff like pins, bolts, nuts, grease nipples, lubricators (which i drained and cleaned inside and out), blower ring (just went over with a wire brush) and the blast pipe

so yeh a very productive week and an enjoyable one despite getting blogjacked

au revoir

ps im nearly sorted on my canadian bank account and the lass that helped me in hsbc was rather tasty

hehe

new post new decade

happy new year
its a new decade im a little scared as next decade ill nearly be thirty and thats not cool at all
so been back at work for 4 days
and in four days loads has happened
got back in last thursday and the funky bogies were still in bits
so job list consisted of
get bogies back together
QUICK!
so got the first one back in one piece easily only needed to put the keeps and springs back in and fill up the final drive transmission boxes with oil (trojan 150 oil at that) and seal them up with some sealent compound
the other bogie required a little more work
the wheelests had been dropped out and final drive boxes taken off so it was a case of putting the gears back in putting the cases on and wazzing them up tight with a bunch of sealent round the gasket
only problem was the box round wheels as you have to put the bolts in through the holes in the wheels and the bolt heads are allan bolts
so i kept losing the tip of the key from the ratchet grrrrrr
then we (pete and yours truely) got the two wheelsets roughly the right distance apart lifted the frames up and half dragged half wheeled the sets in then lowered them down
some smacking of the axleboxes was needed as the frame didnt want to go in sweetly as its heavier at the end with the air brake cylinders
we kinda had a mess up with putting the keeps/springs on
you have to put the springs on before the keeps and we kinda found it out the hard way
so things took twice as long as it should of but the job got done
then it was time to head home and hit the shower
on the friday we filled the second set of transmission boxes with oil then had to go help the loco crew with de-icing the points in the yard
alll the points had frozen solid so pete and myself devised a cunning plan to get them points a moving
a cunning combination of degreaser rag and a lighter and a nice warm fire started the melting process
then when they still didnt move we got out the crow bars and after some persuassssion they did move
then we had a mahoosive shunt to do
literally 3/4 of all the locos we've got had to be shifted around so we could get the earl out of the engine shed into the workshops
this took pretty much the rest of the day so all we managed to get done on the friday afternoon was taking off a few parts before we would lift the loco and get the bottom end power bogie out on monday

monday morning
its freezing the heaters are broken no ones particularly happy
then we reaalise the heaters are just outa fuel so from the diseal tank we fill a bowzer drag it round the back and then me and dewie had to pump the 300 odd litres of fuel out of the bowzer
by hand
not a happy theo
but a warm one
then me and pete go salt and sand the main ramp up to the the work site as its been barely passable since the snow started
also the clearness of the day made and the snow on snowden
ahhhh man just beautiful
then it was a case of cracking on with the double fairlie
we razzed through all the normal pre lifting stuff like disconnecting the atomising steam the cylinder drain cock linkage and the flexible steam pipe and in the smoke box taking the blower ring out and the inca temple off
oh yeh and the bridle rodthen we jacked it up dragged the bogie out and steam cleaned it after putting stands under then loco as with the earl there is a large overhang as the jacking point is right by the firebox so the stands went under for saftey
ill update again tomoz my batterys dead
adios