Trainman's Trash

Another year down the drain

2009-12-24T10:22:12Z

Another year of ups and downs. We now have four snakes and two dragons as pets. Got rid of the furry one.
For the first time in my life, I now have friends but most of them are 10 years younger than me so they will probably tire of me soon.
Still living at Picton with woosang.
Just arriving home from work now to wait for Christmas.

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Holiday Photos

2009-10-02T07:03:15Z

I have finally finished transferring and uploading photos from this year's holiday. (I haven't finished 2007 or 2008 yet).

Photos available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gunzel412/collections/72157620557932570/

Some statistics:
Total photos taken 16592.

Daily photo totals:
10-Jun 241
11-Jun 523
12-Jun 502
13-Jun 441
14-Jun 1779
15-Jun 656
16-Jun 1142
17-Jun 144
18-Jun 1416
19-Jun 587
20-Jun 715
21-Jun 591
22-Jun 179
23-Jun 768
24-Jun 375
25-Jun 481
26-Jun 442
27-Jun 426
28-Jun 339
29-Jun 587
30-Jun 712
1-Jul 475
2-Jul 887
3-Jul 401
4-Jul 501
5-Jul 425
6-Jul 445
7-Jul 162
8-Jul 191
9-Jul 59

Update

2009-09-26T07:37:31Z

It's been a while since my last update. Most of the time these days I use Twitter to say what's on my mind. It's a pain to update multiple blogs and Twitter is just quick and easy. I still read all of my friends journals but I have noticed a large decline in their updates too.
Work is getting me down with the unrelentless training regime. I have applied to be a test driver on the new Lotus trains in Sydney. It's been nearly two months and I still haven't heard anything back. It will start out of Auburn so a lot of travel but should hopefully be more interesting work (with no trainees for a while)
Planning a trip to Canberra in 2 weeks to work a train to Lithgow and Hawkesbury River. I haven't worked on a long distance train in ages and it makes me sad as I really enjoy it.
I might be doing some part time work driving trains at Newington Armory in the future. Fingers crossed.

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Risky business

2009-07-28T00:54:00Z

At a RailCorp risk assessment. Kill me now.

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Death in the family

2009-07-13T23:42:49Z

Two nights ago I noticed one of our snakes had mites.
Yesterday we bought mite spray.
Last night I spent 2 hours removing mites.
This morning he was dead.
It's probably my fault.

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Back at work

2009-07-09T23:43:19Z

On the train going to work. Been up since midnight.

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Made it home.

2009-07-09T17:46:33Z

24 hours late.

Fell asleep for 11 hours.

Roster clerk didn't know when I was coming back to work.

Rerouted

2009-07-08T09:40:01Z

BMI cancelled our flight from Edinburgh. Missed our flight to Sydney. Korean Air offered us tickets on July 14th. woosang purchased tickets with Cathay Pacific, which the insurance company promises not to reimburse. Now at Hong Kong, and into Australia 23:55 late.

Travel insurance isn't worth the paper it is written on.

Ireland

2009-07-01T17:21:31Z

Done with Dublin. Of note, we went to the Guinness storefront and the Jamesons tour. Going to Edinburgh via RyanAir at sparrowfart.

Old North Wales

2009-06-30T06:47:46Z

Currently at Holyhead. Sailing to Dublin this morning after breakfast. Yesterday was Llanfair. Everything is overpriced over here. Not as bad as Paris who wanted AU$16 for a small (300 mL) soft drink, but still too much. Had to raid another account to pay bills - will really be scraping the bottom of the barrel by the time we are finished.

Blister

2009-06-27T20:40:21Z

Big blister on my right foot. Got photos of a main line steam special this morning. It came back tonight with a diesel at each end. Went to the Yorkshire Air Museum today. Very noisy in the hotel tonight.

York

2009-06-25T18:45:02Z

Got to York at 12:00 after a pleasant trip up on the Flying Scotsman. Walked to the hotel (More of a B&B). Fell asleep for 2 hours, then went for a 4 hour walk around the town. Very pleasant. Going to the National Railway Museum tomorrow. Will go to York Minster on Saturday, then head off to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch on Sunday. On Monday, a short trip to Holyhead, then on Tuesday, a ferry ride to Dublin.

Starting work on photo now. Might upload some to Flickr over the next few days.

Flying Scotsman

2009-06-25T09:32:07Z

Having done just about everything we wanted to do in London, we left this morning, bound for York. We caught the Flying Scotsman, and it has free wi-fi throughout the train. And power points at every seat. CountryLink really could learn a thing or two by looking at these trains. Ticketing is not so good.

Swindon

2009-06-23T21:37:50Z

Caught the HST to Swindon and inspected the Integrated Control Centre. Then went and inspected Swindon B and Swindon A signal boxes. Then caught the HST back, and went to the Tower of London.

Another day in paradise...

2009-06-22T22:21:58Z

Was going to go to the HMS Belfast today, but realised that woosang's discount card was also stolen in Paris. So, we went back to Russell Square and got another one, then I went to the London Transport Museum while she went to the market.

We then went to the pub for someone's birthday, and some people got very smashed.

Just went to Fenchurch St station to buy tickets for tomorrow, but staff discount 50% tickets still cost more than an off peak return!

gunzel412 @ 2009-06-21T15:33:00

2009-06-21T05:38:36Z

Just popped over to Paris for the weekend. woosang got pick pocketed yesterday and lost her Oyster card (the one I hadn't registered) and her Paris Visite card. $100 lost. Because of that, I had a pretty crap day all round. Visited the Catacombes (officially), but they would not let you use tripods or flash units in the good bits. We walked around the Notre Dame and went back to the hotel. At 21:30, we went back out and photographed the Eiffel Tower for a few hours, coming home on the Metro after 01:30. It is now a beautiful sunny day, and the others are both sleeping through it. Guaranteed there will be no sun by the time they wake up!

Rant:
Why do people want to sit in the window seat and not look out the window, but muck around with twitter on their mobiles?
Why travel with someone an then block out all conversations with an iPod?
Orange wi-fi sux - the longer version of this entry was wiped when they decided to disconnect me.
Twittering while eating dinner is rude, and no fun for the people on the table who don't have twitter available.

Photos

2009-06-16T22:21:15Z

Took 1144 photos today. Still less than I took at the air show, but enough. Went to Greenwich today and had a look at the prime meridian.

Tomorrow, we are going to Waterloo to inspect the control centre.

Cosford Air Show

2009-06-15T06:22:26Z

http://cosfordairshow.co.uk

On Saturday, I hired a car.

At sparrowfart on Sunday (0615), we drove North on the M1. Then took the M6, then the M54. Took the Wolverhampton exit (A454???) because the signs said to. Probably because the traffic was blocked back onto the M54 along the hard shoulder.

We came to a 12 kilometre long traffic jam. After spending half an hour sitting in it, and not moving far, I decided to abandon the car at Bilbrook and catch a train to Cosford. Possibly the best decision of the day. After 15 minutes, a late running and overcrowded train arrived. The train manager stated that the train was too full and couldn't take any more passengers. A look at the saloon showed large gaps in the corridor. Managed to force my way in with woosang, but Evan was stuck on the platform and wasn't able to get in. The morons were all just blocking the vestibules when there was plenty of room inside. 10 minutes later, there was an extra special that was nearly empty, so Evan followed us on that. Bought two tickets from the ticket seller at Cosford, and the return journey cost a grand total of one and a half pounds! ($3). Love the discount card.

Spent the day at the air show, got a little sunburnt, but nothing serious.

Arriva Trains had a special timetable with a whole heap of extra trains. On the day, there even more extra trains that were not advertised, and they were all well patronised. I think we made the right decision by leaving before the big crowds. Got back to London at around sunset (21:00), and Evan made a lovely lasagne before we all collapsed.

Batteries for my camera are having issues.

Korea

2009-06-11T03:22:31Z

Korean Airlines put us up in a hotel in Seoul overnight due to no connections from Sydney to London. Trouble is, noone on the plane knew anything about it. Got to the airport and were given completely the wrong information. Finally managed to work out where to go, and were given the necessary vouchers. It was a short bus ride to the Hyatt Hotel where we had an included dinner and breakfast, and back to the airport again.

A330-200 Uncomfortable and has wrecked my back.
Hyatt room excellent (probably worth $500 a night).
About to get on a 747-400 and fly to London.

Weather in Seoul is pleasant, but buildings are all way too hot.

'Twas the night before take off

2009-06-09T10:30:05Z

And not a creature was packing, not even my wife.

7 hours until we leave for England and we haven't started packing yet.

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Gunzel's twitters for today

2009-06-05T17:04:29Z