Trained

That's Me!

Except not how you think.  Yesterday I returned to work in the office for the first time in two weeks.  Given that it was Saturday, there was only a skeleton staff present, no more than seven of us.  Our phone traffic amounted to no more than three calls per hour, which is low even by Saturday's standards, as external calls are disabled.  Our e-mail traffic has started to pick up, so no resort to soul-crushingly dull data-cleansing, hooray!

     And someone had left me a sketch of a train.  Art?

I don't need to tell you which is which, do I?

     According to my colleague Mia, it had been there by Thursday, but she didn't know who'd left it there, and there's no name present on the notepaper.  I haven't requested a sketch of a train from anyone, so Who? and Why? will probably have to wait until Monday.

     I know I haven't identified my employer yet - and I'm not going to - although they are a major name with a large employee workforce.  We in the Gomorrah-in-the-Irwell office are having a test Work From Home day on Wednesday, and Your Humble Scribe is now the proud owner of a work laptop.  All to test whether we can cope as a business if we are ordered to work from home in the near future.  Art?

From back when

     This picture is from 2018, when I worked from home for a good 8 months, and thoroughly enjoyed not having to spend 3 hours travelling to and from work, quite besides saving £16 per week on bus passes.  Konrad, who is currently working from home, used to get up and begin his WFH day at 06:00, so he could be done by 14:00*.

     I think that's us up to speed.  You're looking a bit peaky, motley - shall we make you some chicken soup?

See, motley?  We do care.

Just Had To Check Something Out

I wanted to bring up another insanely difficult Lego kit, except it's been a while since I last did this linking and wasn't sure how far along Den Of Geek's list I'd got.  Now it can be told - Art?

Hay Pesto!

     The Taj Mahal in Lego.  The kit has nearly 6,000 pieces and as you might imagine, is only for experts, because anyone else would go mad before getting it anywhere near complete.  Prices for it vary wildly, the lowest being £300, and one bampot hawking it on e-bay for £2,800; I don't think they'll get many takers.  Even the Chinese counterfeit Lepin are charging £151 for their version.  I haven't seen any quotes on how long it takes to put this monster together - Art?

With puny human for scale

      I have seen a time-lapse video on Youtube of this being built, by someone who was obviously an expert and who had bagged and boxed and sorted all the pieces beforehand, and who stated that it took a whole three-day weekend to complete.

     Obviously, some people have far too much time on their hands.

Your Daily Dice With DEATH!

Makes the heart beat a little quicker, doesn't it!  Today we are looking at "Adiponitrile", and if Art will put down his bowl of coal - 

Industrial plant for making the stuff

     It's made by the millions of tons thanks to it's role in the synthesis of nylon.  Gee, I bet you never knew your stockings were made out of liquid death, did you?

     Adiponitrile is horrid stuff indeed.  It will kill you if you were daft enough to drink it, although if you were that stupid I think you'd have Darwin Awarded yourself out of existence long ago.  The fumes cause serious eye and skin irritation, affect the airways and if inhaled in any quantity, will turn your hair green.  No, just testing - if inhaled the fumes will kill you.

     The fascinating world of organic chemistry!  That can kill you!

"The Battle Of Britain" By James Holland

I regretted taking this work into the office yesterday, because it's as big as a housebrick even as a paperback, and so is "The Rig" by Roger Levy, which meant they had to get shifted from my bag to make room for the laptop.

     Anyway, I'm about 250 pages in, which is only about a quarter of the way, because Ol' Jim is determined to begin the BoB from 10th May 1940, when the big Teuton attack on France and the Low Countries began.  Art?

The brick in question

     This makes sense as you then have the background information leading up to the actual, definable BoB.  You can also see the Teutons putting into practice the concept of Rob Citino's "Bewegungskrieg", attacking at the operational level with everything front-loaded, looking for a very intensive but also very short campaign.  The Luftwaffe casualties, for example, were extremely high whilst the fighting lasted, and only a quick victory prevented the Luftwaffe from winning itself to death.

     I may report back later on further thoughts.  You know Your Humble Scribe; never loath the let the world know what's going through his head.

     Oh, just so you know what I mean by "The Rig" let me see if I can dig out a picture.  Art?  Get looking!

     Nope, can't find one.  I shall have to take a photo later on.

Finally - 

Yes, another one of those "Why did that particular word pop into my head?" posts.  In this case it was "Elidor" when I woke up this morning.  I thought it sounded Biblical, but a modicum of Google-fu showed it was either hair conditioner or a novel by Alan Garner, which I remember reading many decades ago.  Art?

Set in Manchester

     So I'll go for the novel.  And now we know.

*  Mind you, he is Polish.  Polish work ethic and all that.