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