Ops-Normal.org

Isn't Xasteria the Greek word for the perfect starry, balmy,summer night? I seem to recall that I was reading about a rather fancy up market sailing yacht called Xasteria and that is what it's name meant.. In my seagoing days the Gulf of Oman during the NE monsoon was the perfect place for stars.. Lots of other places too but the atmosphere seemed to be at its clearest during the NE monsoon.
Flying back from the US one night I was asleep as the seatbelt sign went off and was wakened for breakfast forty minutes out of Manchester, best nights sleep ever across the pond. Pilot then announced that he hoped everyone had seen the Aurora which was the best display he had seen in all his years of flying, particularly the reds!!
Didn't get to see the Aurora from the Humber last night, too much light pollution and too far away.

1DC I share this feeling of missing out something great while asleep. Or I thought about planning a trip in Northern Scandinavia or Iceland only to be confronted with a thick layer of clouds.

Technically xasteria is the clear completely cloudless night with stars (asteria) look bright no matter the season even in the middle of the winer.

Boac wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 25, 2024 11:27 am

Why was our galaxy named after a chocolate bar?? https://onepoundsweets.com/p/milkyway-bar-60p

Come to think of it................... https://www.galaxychocolate.co.uk Can no-one think of any original names?

And a little closer to home...https://moonpie.com/

PP

12 AM
13 PM

PP

Continuing on an astral theme:

Stargazy Pie!
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/food/ic/food_1 ... 6_16x9.jpg

Morning all, cloudy, but forecast to clear up. Currently 19C, forecast max 30C.
Feeling a bit better each day.

A memory of days past regarding a black sky.
It was close to dusk in the middle of the northern territory when the pilot and I were setting up a turbo on a B47G3b1, by the time I had adjusted the
density controller it was dark, The Pilot pulled us into the hover to double-check the result with me shining my torch out the front to give him a
reference point, when all of a sudden the helicopter shook violently, the pilot pulled pitch and we were 50 feet in the air with only a dimming torch as
an aid in what was the blackest of skies imaginable, suffice to say someone switched on the Landrovers lights and we landed without incident.
On the ground two shaken people figured out what had caused the violent shudder. The pilot was taking a reference from an empty fuel drum lying on its
side, when we lifted to the hover the rotor wash blew the drum up a slight slope then it rolled back giving the pilot to think he was moving fwd,
so he corrected except the rear of one skid dug into the ground causing a violent shudder. A change of underwear later we both thanked our lucky
stars that it all ended well. Later, as I lay in my swag looking up the stars in the sky appeared brighter that night.

Some interesting silhouettes appearing on Flightradar24 around Wanaka just now as aircraft begin to gather...

First day back in work after the long weekend and the medical leave. I feel better but there are still some left-overs in the nose if I may say so.

Weather is that of a well advanced spring day with temperature reaching 24 C.

Morning folks. Blue sky cooling wind. The gardener is driving me crazy. I want everything spot on for our guest arriving tomorrow. He is just messing about instead of attending to detail. I swear I am going to kill him.

Mr Sun waking us up as usual: forecast says it won't last, with rain coming up from the Land of the Gaul. A late session in London this afternoon leaves me free to join a Hunt The Special Lightbulbs in Teddington this morning.

Good Morning All

8°c, 16°c predicted by the sooth.

There be snow on them thar hills, quite a good covering.
It will soon go.

As it’s Semana Santa (Easter week) and as big a holiday as Christmas, if not bigger they will be flocking to Sierra Nevada for the fresh snow.

The highlight of my day is an ECG later.

The Wind and Rain has washed the Calima from the air normal viz results.

Our Gardner has cried off, we agree, 6hours in single figures with wind and wet is not a day for it.

In our rural setting the roads are few and far between. In their wisdom Aberdeenshire Council Roads Department have notified two separate diversion routes to avoid two places near home where two separate roads are closed for maintenance this week. The only problem is that both diversions take you to the closed part of the other road. Left and right hands not talking obviously!

Sarcasm: (noun) The only way one can get wisdom and Council Roads Department into the same sentence.

13 AM
9 PM

PP

Nice bloke in Gemini Electrical Supplies on Stanley Rd sold me two brighter (than as fitted originally) miniature bayonet base LED bulbs to see if they fitted on "return if they don't" basis. They did ! Gloomy bathroom sorted...

Morning all. Clear skies again in Teddington, and warmer than back in Spain.

Morning folks. Sunny and breezy. We have to pick up our house guest from the JNB-MUB flight after lunch. It is usually a few minutes early so today it will be late.

Now we have a leaking irrigation system. Plumber is away but can come here next week.

Just returned from an overnight visit to Tumut to attend the farewell function for a bloke I used to work with. Great do, except that I couldn't drink alcohol. It was good to catch up with some old mates that I haven't seen since I retired, some that I only see at funerals and some youngsters that I'd never met before.
This morning at breakfast I caught up with some of the younger blokes, including the replacement of the retiree and hence, my replacement several generations on. They were about to carry out an exercise using some new gear (put on to allow people attending the send-off to do so as part of work). It's only 10 years since I was teaching some of these people about the then newest gear around, but the new gear is streets ahead. The nice bit is that a lot of it is made locally.
One major difference is in the safety gear and procedures. If they're within 2 metres of the water, they have to wear PFDs. We had lifejackets, but I only ever saw them used as cushions in the tinnie. They have a safety briefing at each site, which includes the hazards, what to do if something goes wrong, and directions to the local hospital. When I started, the closest I saw to a safety briefing was 'The bank's a bit slippery, don't fall on your arse.'
One noticeable thing was the way the work is shared. In each two-person (two-man in my day) team, when I started the junior did nearly all the grunt work, and the senior member did anything that required a little knowledge. The junior member was expected to absorb knowledge, often from someone who didn't know much more than him. These days, both members are far better trained, and while the tech is much more hi-, it seems like either could do everything. The only thing that seems to have changed for the worse is that they don't seem to have any exposure to the uses of the data that they are collecting, whereas I and others actually moved through different units, using the data for real work.

Good Morning All

15°c, 17°c predicted by the sooth.

Snow gorn

Need an appointment now for what she gleans from ECG, Can’t see her for two weeks as she is having Easter off. Can’t be sick at Easter.

The Wind still whistling from the NW, bits of white fluff scudding over a blue sky.

Just had a fight with a 13.5 tog duvet trying to get it into a bag for it’s trip to the charity shop.