Friday, April 9, 2010

Da Week Dat's Awa, or the week from Hell part 1

After 10 days off for Easter I was looking forward to getting back to work, especially since there is a fair bit of urgency with some of the jobs, and 12 hour days are back on the menu.
I'm not a morning person, I really only switch on about 9am, get to full speed about 1pm, and by 7pm, asfter 12 hours I don't want to stop. But the body, at 53, doesn't always agree with me, so the muscles are taking a bit of time to get over the 10 day holiday.
But, all going reasonably well, apart from the aches and pains, until today.... Some butthole, sitting in an office at our union headquarters, has hatched the brilliant plan that we should go on strike next week. If I knew who he was he wouldn't be able to sit for the rest of his life, as sitting is a tad difficult with a size 11 steel toe capped boot lodged in your anal sphincter.
I've never been on strike in my life, and I'm not going to start now. So Monday morning, if the strike goes ahead, I'm going to work as normal. Well maybe not as normal, since our union rep will be on the picket line, so my first task will be to drag his sorry butt to a telephone, so that he can call the union and tell them that I am no longer a member of the union.
Come to think of it, perhaps after he's introduced the topic to them, I'll ask to tell it to them in my normal dialect, which I'm sure they would understand. Not because Norwegians would understand Shetland dialect, but purely because they would understand the liberal sprinkling of English four lettered words which will make the main body of my submission to them. ;)

Anyway, speaking about pressure at work, hows this for a bit of pressure when it comes to bending/straightening metal:
Two 25 ton jacks, two hydraulic jacks, many bad words, and a result which surprised me. It worked. :)
I'll try to remember to post a picture of the finished article, it's a flywheel for a winch drum, and it weighs about 10 ton. Once the drum is complete, flywheels, core, etc, it will weigh about 60 ton. Add that to the winch frame, add the cable, and all the motors and fittings, you're looking at a 400 - 500 ton monster. No wonder these anchor handling ships are getting so big.

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