I was doing some research for a thing today and came across this wikipedia page:
Sounds like a cartoon villain, but was actually a Field Marshal and also Governor of the Crown Prince of Prussia, the future King Frederick II.
If you didn’t recognise his name immediately, it might be because you know him better as Karl-Wilhelm Reichsgraf Finck von Finckenstein, but are all well aware, Reichsgraf is a title, usually translated as ‘Count’, and not a first or middle name.
Durr!
The Queen’s Pier in Ramsey in the Isle of Man is in dire need of restoration. First opened in 1886, 104 years later it finally closed and has been in a state of decay and decline ever since. But things are looking up – the Queen’s Pier Restoration Fund are slowly but surely making progress on bringing this impressive landmark back into use.
It’s painstaking, expensive work and you can help them out with some funding by clicking the link above if you so desire. And – if you’re local and feel the need – you can even volunteer to help with the ongoing work.
“Oh ya, and I also helped rebuild a 2,244ft long Victorian pier.”
Stick that on your CV and smoke it.
But there are some locals who are trying to assist in ways that you and I could only ever dream of: taking historic engineering from way back in time and dragging them kicking and screaming into the 21st Century: rejuvenating the superstructure of the Queen’s Pier via the means of #RBOSS.
This incredible image appeared on Facebook yesterday.
Amazing. You can literally see some of the stabilising cross-bars between the Victorian cast iron piles (over 40 feet in height (with 18 foot piles) on a 6° pitch) glowing brightly as they are heated to around 1200°C in order to remove impurities which might weaken the overall structure.
You can usually only do this is a specialised foundry. For the metal on the pier, this heating was last done in Stockton-upon-Tees in the 1880s: the RBOSS technology to repair these important stabilising braces on-site simply wasn’t available until now yesterday morning.
This revolutionary technique is not without risk, however. Primary dangers in flinging the saturation slider all the way to the right, saving the image and then doing it again include literally burning right through the iron which is holding the pier up (you can see this occurring on one piece of cross member) and also turning the corona of the sun a weird grey-green colour.
But in the hands of an RBOSS expert (as we undoubtedly are in this case), this method is a quick and easy way of mending a Manx landmark. It’s surely only a matter of time until Peel Castle gets an evening* makeover. Sure – that’s made of stone, which will only melt at 4000°C, but with the right software and a desire to make everything oranger than it actually is, anything is possible.
In the meantime, we’ll keep enjoying the seemingly almost unbelievable explosive colour of every daybreak in Ramsey via Facebook, while the Queen’s Pier gets rebuilt by whatever means are available.
* West coast, see?
I may moan about the beagle from time to time, but the fact is that even I have to admit, the beagle is the most good-natured, docile and loving of dogs.
True, the beagle may have many faults, but her amiable nature is undeniable.
Except this morning.
It started as any other, with the harness going on, the lead being clipped into place, and a left turn up the road for a nice little 3.5km wander and snorf. And then the unthinkable happened: the beagle snapped at the ankles of a passing jogger.
Bad beagle.
She didn’t get very close, to be fair. But still, this is wholly inexcusable, and though I apologised immediately and he was very nice about it, I found myself rather embarrassed and actually rather shocked.
This was not typical beagle behaviour.
The grumpy, somewhat aggressive behaviour continued through the walk, but thankfully, I was forewarned and kept things (mainly the beagle) on a very short leash. Still, we managed snarls and tugs in the direction of people, vehicles, other dogs, squirrels (ok, fair enough) and birds. Feisty, irascible animal. She even had a bit of a go at a fence.
A fence! How grumpy do you have to be to take a pop at a fence?
I’m putting this weird, out of character behaviour down to her just getting out of the wrong side of her basket this morning, and she’s actually been absolutely fine ever since we got home, but I’m definitely going to be keeping an eye on her next time we head out around the neighbourhood.
My run this morning wasn’t great. I managed to pull back a bit of time at the end, but the combination of a gale force NorthWesterly wind, my reluctant legs and last night’s disappointing meal at the Blockhouse Kitchen at Uitsig weighing me down made for a tough five kilometres.
The country is on hold this morning, wondering whether the Springboks can make it through to the Rugby World Cup final. They’ve had something of a free run so far: since losing losing to New Zealand on the opening day, they’ve only played one team ranked inside the top ten. And that was Japan.
And only one team in the top twenty. And that was Italy.
Wales might be a tougher test, but there’s always a French referee on whom to blame any prospective defeat.
Me? Well, the rugby is on in the background, but I’m doing jobs around the house and feeding myself with coffee and anti-inflammatories.
Later, I may drink some beer and watch some football. I deserve it.
UPDATE: As soon as I clicked the publish button and glanced at twitter:
Like I said…
The rain did eventually stop yesterday. 102mm later.
We went out as things were beginning to let up a little and walked by some roaring water. The camera came along, because it always does, and you never really know what you’re going to get with the weird light that follows a day full of cloud and gloom, together with a hint of golden hour hanging around.
Monochrome (or close to it) was certainly still the order of the day though. Whether it was the angry water in the canalised Liesbeek River:
Or the dangerously slippery footbridge going over it.
We came back damp, but happy.