Thread 6 - TalkExiles: "Yup, still round."

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous threads (thread 5).

Gather here all ye refugees from the JTT Flat Earth Society, welcome to the reassuringly oblate spheroid of MN! Ye all already know the answers to the questions "How the heck do I format my post?" "Why can't I edit my typos?" "What do those acronyms mean?" and most importantly, "Where is everybody that I used to know?"

So really we're all here just to chat randomly.

If I ever saw that crathur in person I would almost certainly and quite literally soil my pants. It's fucking terrifying! Evolution is seriously fucked up.

In other news, I dog-sat two dogs today. One was my beloved Seamus, who I often call the crathur, and his new cousin Beam, a standard poodle who is very tall, which we know because he likes to stand on his rear legs. Seamus is much bigger on all fours, so goodness knows how much taller he'd be if he ever got on his hind legs but he's a greyhound so that's never going to happen.

It was such hard work. They both decided to come up to me for cuddles then went off for a lie down and left me be until everyone returned home. I don't know how I managed. I was knackered and dropped off for a bit and woke at 1800. I was amazed that Seamus, who is all about the food, hadn't woken me at 1700 which is his tea time and then remembered that dogs don't do BST. I need to go to bed but am currently leg imprisoned by two cats. Life really is very hard indeed.

Winterborne

We don't often get shore leave, but I was in a hotel for over a week, before joining. I did go out, but Darwin is too hot and humid for walking, really.

I did see lots of birds and insects, as well as fruit bats. In fact, when I came onboard, hundreds of them flew into a thicket at the dock, come twilight.

What sort of ship are you on, @SinnerBoy ?

A 34 metre catamaran, which is not very suitable for survey work.

A 34 metre catamaran

I feel sick just picturing that.

Ah right! I thought you were on big ships (I work at a shipping company and the baby of the fleet is a mere 39,000 tons).

That must get quite tippy when it blows.

Where are you catamaraning to, @SinnerBoy ?

Hello new thread. Haven't been on here for a bit as had my office/bedroom redecorated including a brand new carpet. Luxury! Anyway meant I couldn't get onto my computer and I can't do mumsnet on my phone. Hope everyone is well and happy. Great news about world athletics; appallingly news from New Zealand and Speakers' Corner yesterday. But we carry on! The suffragettes never gave up and nor will we!

VENCEREMOS!!!!

On Saturday Badger escaped (easy to do with no fences or walls round the garden) under macman’s supervision and an hour later a villager brought Badger back on a lead while macman and Dottie were still out looking for him. Her bitch is in season, she said, and Badger found them on their walk and followed them home, “so he knows where we live now” (I don’t know where they live!). She could have just phoned, from the tag on his collar, but I think she was hoping I’d ask her in for coffee, which of course I would have done if my house had been tidier.

So it’s been prison warden duty for me ever since and this morning the little fucker woke me up HOWLING in his crate. I don’t worry about him, but I do worry about my trigger-happy gun-toting anger-issuey sheep farmer neighbour, as we’re completely surrounded by fields full of his lambs at the moment.

SqueakyDinosaur · Today 08:54

Ah right! I thought you were on big ships...

They're usually bigger than this vessel, but not 30,000 tons. I was on the Petrel (see Leith dry dock and falling over) lots of times, from when it was Seaway Petrel, then Acergy Petrel, then 7 Petrel, before Paul Allen bought it.

Kuc I'm doing a gas field survey, then a pipe route prelay survey.

Interesting @SinnerBoy - isn't there rather a lot of seismic activity in the region you're in? (Ring of Fire ish?)

Meanwhile, my planned broken-bathroom rip-out-and-replace is off to a flying start. NOT. After months of waiting, it was due to start today. Last week, builder messaged to say "Sorry, job overran, will start Tuesday." Fine. Now he's messaged again to say "Sorry, still not done, will start Wednesday." Nothing to be done but wait, but Big Sigh.

That's the nature of jobbing builders, ours was two weeks delayed and then another fortnight, as parts were missing and had to be ordered!

And yes, it does get a tad earthquakey here.

My new electric car is now charging from our new solar panels!

One the one hand your travels sound fascinating, Sinner, on the other I can imagine it gets fairly gruelling after a while.

My new electric car is now charging from our new solar panels!

I'm vicariously excited by that. No suitable roof space here - I think we'll have to wait until we can move.

Swish!

Oooh! Living the dream!

Exciting times! Mine is 4 about now and is just having a post-service and MOT wash. I would like an electric roof to charge it from.

Very jealous of all the panel and charging action. I would love to be in that camp, but a/ I can't see how I'll ever have any money for panels or car b/ I live in a terrace with no front garden, so the charging would be tricky. I think when my car eventually dies, I'll have to use a shared vehicle

Good for you, Bint As other people have wondered, why don't electric cars have solar panels on the roof and bonnet?

Winterborne it can get a bit gruelling, yes. I was due off this one on the 15th / 16th, to go on the next one on the 26th. They've changed the date to getting off on the 20th.

I wanted some time at home with my daughter, which won't be very meaningful now, as I'll be tired and grumpy. I need to do admin, go to the bank etc.

And my daughter messaged yesterday, her and her mother have had a massive row and aren't speaking to each other. Not much luck in mediating, as my wife has ignored several messages.

That all sounds rather stressful, Sinner.

There have been solar concept cars around for a while, but until very recently the weight of panels and the capacity of batteries meant they weren't really feasible if you wanted to be able to carry a passenger and drive more than 10 miles a day. There are a couple now that have pretty much reached the ready-for-production stage, but I don't how they're doing on raising funds (not big car companies).

They tended to look like this:

But I see I'm wrong about major car companies - Hyundai's got one on the way: https://www.techradar.com/news/hyundais-new-electric-car-has-a-solar-panel-roof-and-the-ability-to-charge-other-evs (not full solar, but as a top up)

But also several start ups doing this sort of thing: https://www.dezeen.com/2022/06/30/lightyear-0-worlds-first-solar-car/ if you only do city driving in the Med, and can afford quarter of a million or so for a car.

@SinnerBoy @BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn Hannah Fry visits Lightyear in this episode (and has a bit of a 'mare driving on the other side of the road, honestly I was cringing so hard for her).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001f7y1/the-secret-genius-of-modern-life-series-1-4-electric-car

Thanks, that's interesting from both of you!

I read once that there was research involving solar-collecting paint and window glass. That always sounded like a promising line to me.