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Ooops. Sorree. I'll leave attempts at humour to the wittier.

In another life I lived in Perth. WA. The local gliding club (based at York) held an open day. I drove my wife and 3yo son there for the day. My wife went up first, leaving me to entertain boyo. Pilot took her up, did a couple of circuits and landed. My turn. After a short briefing (this is the air ...

That's a lot of motorcycle. Far more than I could use. It's making about 110bhp more than my Suzuki SV650, and the Suzuki's performance envelope far exceeds my courage and ability. Jeepers!

Agree with CremeEgg. Perth to Broome is a doddle. Just leave plenty of time and pull over for a kip when needed. To Darwin is a lot further, but the same applies. The road is sealed all the way. Don't forget to fill up at Capricorn Roadhouse or Sandfire Flats. Oh, and the Crone at Turkey Creek won't...

'Ning. It's been threatening to rain for the past fortnight. Yesterday mid-day it started, a monster thunderstorm and it poured until dawn this morning. From the mountains west of me, they reported 20cm of rain in one hour. In the mountains east of me the authorities have evacuated people deemed at ...

Grumpy today. My office window faces East, across the town. Some evil capitalist has built a 5 storey apartment block (so that wrinklies can enjoy their declining years without having to shovel snow) opposite my window. It totally obscures my view of the town's concrete batching plant! Where's the o...

Some of us like women who look like females. My wife has a very nice line from bust to waist to hip . Some men like women who look like skinny underfed schoolboys. There's nowt so queer as folk.

Shindo 3 here The only time I've ever experienced a proper earthquake was when I was in Tokyo. I thought someone was knocking on my hotel door and as I walked over to answer it I realised the whole bloody building was moving and it was the door banging against the frame. Most disconcerting! The qua...

Minor earthquake this afternoon. Shindo 3 here, with first arrivals (P waves) running E-W. Shindo 4 in Miyagi and Fukushima, so they'll have had a few ornaments re-arranged. The Great Tohoku earthquake was scary-scary. It was hard to stand and you don't know how serious its going to be or how long i...

Windy with showers overnight, I had to patrol and close all the windows. Woke up this morning to a foehn and the house was cooking. Roll on Autumn

Jeebus.

Stonefruit coming into season now. Yamagata has exactly the right climate with plenty of winter frost to set the fruit and ample heat, sunshine and rain to bring it on. Just had three plums with lunch, precisely the right texture with firm flesh melting in the mouth and a combination of sweetness an...

Someone mention my name? When I lived in Oz I regularly used to watch videos of Asian, particularly Japanese, films. No problems, they were all subtitled in English. Now I'm here in Japan, I'm screwed. Either no subtitles, or subtitles in Japanese. Sigh.

Thanks team. That's very helpful and I'm most grateful. om15: Those ring spanners look very nice, balanced, rounded and will feel good in the hand. You'll need a Velocette to find a use for them, though :) On the subject of threads (I've mentioned this elsewhere and I hope I'm not repeating myself h...

Morning all. The commute has been succesfully accomplished. It involves a tricky descent of the stairs and a diversion via the bog before kitchen, kettle on and pot of tea made. The tea is a very nice Loolecondera BOPF. Two tablespoons in a French press (coffee pot makes a great tea pot). Then negot...

:( Grrr. Yes, decimal inches. Thanks all, it's nothing important, just an itch I'd like to scratch. The Haynes Manuel sounds good, but they are somewhat rare here. I'll get my brother on the case. Haynes rather lost me with the last one I bought. It's for Subaru Liberty/Legacy and it has chapter 2A ...

Thanks Woody. That's a good start. @ian16th. I knew about the Ford-made engines, which is why I specified "UK built" rather than RR. It's one of those areas with endless scope for a pishing contest. I've read stuff from Packard fans transmuting "re-drawn" to "re-designed". It's why I'm fishing for a...

I have a question about differences between the UK built and Packard Merlins. I know that the UK plans were re-drawn for Packard, doubtless to convert from 1st Angle (UK) to 3rd Angle (US) projection convention. My question. Did the Packard Merlins use BSW and BSF fasteners, or were they SAE? In oth...

Tis I



Thanks all for greetings.

Thanks Alison and 1DC. @1DC. Climate topic came up this morning with one of my students, a signaller in the Japanese Army (oops Self Defence Forces). I checked the Koppen classification and except for Hokkaido its CFa, or humid subtropical. In summer the prevailing wind is SE off the Pacific. In win...