Swiss Miss Not

No!  Nothing To Do With Laurel And Hardy

Conrad is unsure whether or not he's actually seen "Swiss Miss", nor is he clear if it's actually anything to do with Helvetia, which is what the Swiss put on their postage stamps instead of "Switzerland" because they'd probably be federally-mandated to spell it in German, Italian and Romansch and the stamp would consequently be the size of a dinner-plate.  Art!

Hey what say what?

     Art!

Ah.  A musical.  In that case, no, I haven't seen it

     Moving on from philately, today we talk tunnels.  I am grateful to the intrepid Tom Scott for raiding the subject matter of the Gotthard Base Tunnel.  His Youtube video concentrates on the safety aspects of the tunnel, but we're going to cover some of the background first.  Art!

     The 35 miles in all their glory, even if they do it in kilometres.  Note the way that the tracks inter-connect.  This is deliberate, meaning any disruption in one section can be avoided by cross-transfer.  There are two single-track tunnels with trains headed north and south, eight of them on each track per hour.  O and for those of you with a penchant for the Guiness Book Of Records, this is the deepest and longest rail tunnel in the world.  Art!

     It runs just over a mile and a half deep at the central part.  Putting it another way, if it were flipped vertically, it would take you half an hour to walk from tunnel to mountaintop.

     There are two control stations, one at the north portal and one at the south.  Art!

     That enormous rusty disc is the cutting face of one of the Tunnel Boring Machines, with puny human cars for scale.  Let's have a look inside one of these control stations.  Art!

Hmmm.  Complicated.

     Should anything go wrong, maintenance, repair or emergency teams have access to a service tunnel, which sports a special Tourist Window.  Tourists can experience the awe and wonder of standing next to a train whizzing by at 140 m.p.h. which included Tom.  Art!

"That was terrifying!"

     If there is need of physical recovery of a stricken train, then the methodical Swiss have another answer: a special fire-fighting train capable of towing out anything stranded in the tunnel.  Art!

     Evacuating passengers have their own tunnel, which is over-pressured to ensure a supply of breathable air, and to keep smoke out.

     The thing that impressed Tom the most lay far beyond the tunnel itself: ten miles away from each entrance is a special instrument gantry, which scans every train that passes.  Art!

Tom and his gantry

     These crafty electronic eyes spot anything generating excess heat or any shifted loads, and if not cancelled within thirty seconds will automatically stop the train, so there's no risk of a potential fiery set of wagons trundling into the GBT and immolating a thousand passengers.  Thorough chaps, the Swiss.  There haven't been any accidents in the six years since the tunnel opened, a fact one hopes will continue to be true.

     Motley!  Break out the Tri-ang Hornby*!

Korean Kookery Kontinues

Come on, you didn't think I'd be able to resist a title like that, did you?  Besides it's an hilarious piec

     ANYWAY last night I made Korean Fried Chicken Burgers, and here they are in all their glory.  Art!

     I did the coated chicken thighs successfully in the air fryer, a bit of an experiment but a top result.  They are sitting on a bed of kim chi, and topped with a sticky sauce.  Predictably I could only cope with one - hey, the recipe called for four! - and had the second for lunch today.  There's enough recipe ingredients left over to do three more <stomach squeaks in anguish>.

A Further Observation On K-Drama

Conrad is unsure if what he's observed is to do with watershed and censorship or not, but in the ten series of K-Drama that I've been watching, a knife used as a weapon has sometimes been blurred or pixelated to the degree that one cannot tell if it's a knife or a bar of chocolate.  Certainly not all knives.

     And the latest series I'm watching, "Alice", is the only one where guns have been used, bar a single scene in "Taxi Driver".  Is there a convention K-dramas are following here?  Or is Korea much like the UK in that there is zero gun culture?  Art!

     This has only just occurred to me and sounds like the sort of question that merits research, which I don't have time for just now.  We will come back to this.

"The Sea Of Sand"

Our Italian officer protagonist, Tenente Dominione, is beginning to lose his temper and patience at tales of monster.

"Summon Balduccio!" snarled the Tenente.  "I need this nonsense made clear for what it is - nonsense!"

     When Caporale Balduccio completed the interrogation nobody felt any the wiser.  The British undergraduate, Albert, displayed considerable vehemence in his insistence that the aliens were going to come and attack the garrison - for their blood, from what Dominione could make out.  Albert put across the idea that everyone should declare a truce and bond together as allies.  The big academic, Templeman, haltingly told how his colleague Bourgebus had been killed by one of the black tanks.

     Dominione shrugged his shoulders and felt his flesh creep at the dispassionate recounting of the older man.  A companion shrivelled into nothingness.

     Which, recalled Dominione, is just what the British survivors and Sarah Smith had said.

     "You are lying!" he accused, via Balduccio.

     "You are merely picking on me because of my Hebrew ancestry," replied Templeman, with enormous assumed dignity and hurt. 

     "He thinks you're a Nazi, sir," translated Balduccio.  "You know, hate the Jews, blame them, everything's their fault."

     "I am picking on you, sir, because you are a complete raving lunatic!" barked Dominione.  "Blood of the saints, get them into that hut with the other madmen.  And madwoman."

     Worryingly consistent, aren't they, Tenente?  Perhaps that's what's really troubling you, because they haven't had the chance to mutually rehearse their stories.

More Of Picturesque Scotland

Er - that is, I hope so.  The Beeb only has a list of so many pictures and we may have hit the last of them.  Allow me to check.

     Phew yes, lots left.  Art!

"Local Hero"

     This is the real Aberdeenshire coastal village of Pennan, pretending to be Ferness.  Conrad has seen the film, but only when it came out.  Is that the one where Burt Lancaster plays an oil tycoon who's so important the only contents of his desk are three pencils?

     Also, don't be deceived by the sunshine above, because you don't see anyone sitting outside, do you?   Conrad bets it's freezing.

Finally -

Dogsitting is coming to an end tomorrow with the return of the family from their travels, which will no doubt please Edna as it means three humans to fuss over her and pay attention and beg food from, rather than a single flinty-hearted Hom. Sap. (and barely that).  Likewise, Conrad will no longer be bound by the furry ball and chain, nor will he have to get up at 05:50 when madam needs to do her business and get her breakfast.

 * To put you out of your misery - Art!