Thursday, 28 April 2011
The artist formerly known as
If it was good enough for the "purple one" to change his name, its good enough for me.
Threading the needle
Another one of my Bob the Builder stories. This one concerns London Bridge station, a station I know well. We often travel up to London Bridge because there are lots of lovely restaurants and interesting places to explore. It is also just round the corner from where we got married.
Anyway the trainline I catch into work is one London's main North South rail routes and gets horrendously congested. Thankfully it is now being upgraded to the tune of £6 billion
In order to relieve one of the major congestion points on this route they realised that they needed to create two new railway lines going in and out of London Bridge station. The only problem was the route of the railway lines ran via an elevated track over a bustling open air market on a series of cast iron bridges and brick viaducts. This elevated railway line passed close to a large number of listed occupied Victorian buildings. There was no room on this existing structure to take the new lines. These lines were an integral part of the upgrade and could not be put off as too difficult.
To help matters worse just 200m away Europe’s tallest building (London Shard – 87 storeys) is currently under construction. (A mere baby The Shard will only be occupied up to 72 stories – Eureka tower in Melbourne is occupied up to the 88th storey!)
The main tower is due to be finished in 2012 after which the entire concourse for the London Bridge station will be rebuilt together with an additional mid rise office block. Because of the associated congestion with these works it was decided that the new railway lines had to be completed before work started on new concourse and associated office block. This has meant that the bridge is being constructed now which is 6 years ahead of when the rerouting of the new railway lines through London Bridge will be completed
The solution was to insert a new elevated viaduct on piles over and beside the existing buildings and build a new bridge across Southwark Road.
Among other things the builders had to lop one storey off an existing pub to allow the new viaduct to pass over. A new roof is being built for the pub and a single storey extension provided to replace the lost space. At another point the new viaduct passes within 157 mm of an existing building.
The new viaduct is supported on 8 irregularly placed piles 2.4m in diameter. These piles required a 90 tonne piling rig to drive them into the ground. The trouble was the access road used to drive the piling rig into place wasn’t strong enough to take the weight of the rig. So they had to remove the top of the road and expose the Victorian brick arches underneath so that these could be strengthened and allow the piling rig to be manoeuvred into place
Before each pile could be dug a 5m deep archaeological excavation had to be completed – one such dig uncovered a 17C delft pottery plate
One of the 2.4m piles had to be drilled into a 3m zone beside one of the tunnels for the London underground – that’s only one foot either side of the pile. The piles in another area had to be double sleeved to avoid transferring loads to the adjacent tunnel carrying one of the escalators down to the platform station. Throughout this work the tube lines running beside the new piles remained open. All the tunnels and escalator shafts were continually monitored by automatic theodolites mounted in the ceiling to measure any deflection
The 1200 tonne 71m single span truss crossing Southwark Road couldn’t be fabricated off site and trundled up the road and craned into position because a service tunnel and old cast iron water main underneath the road could not take the imposed load of the truss and multiwheeled transporters. Southwark Road was deemed to busy to allow it to be closed for the time that would be needed to strengthen the road. Another solution had to be found – this involved building the truss piece by piece on top of the new narrow viaduct 4 storeys up in the air beside an operational railway line and within a metre of an occupied building.
On April 30 it will then be winched out over the Southwark Road, rotated slightly to clear an neighbouring building and then lowered onto the waiting piles on the other side of the road. Southwark Road will only planned to be closed for one week
The market underneath has remained open 3 days a week throughout all of this work.
Saturday, 23 April 2011
How long can one man take
A big congratulations needs to go my good comrade and perpetual student - Dr J. He has finally completed his PhD having taken something like 15+ years to finish it. On many levels this is a feat worth celebrating. Dogged determination and stubborness. A frantic race to complete before his supervisors either died or retired. Starting in typewriter days and finishing it in the iPad era. Completing it before your son finishes his secondary education (just - literally by only a month or so). Not getting so totally bored with one topic for that long.
For all of these reasons and more I raise my glass to Jeff and say well done. Big effort mate.
According to Guinness World Records however this effort is paltry compared with the record holder. The longest time to complete a degree (not even a PhD just a degree) was Robert Cronin who began his degree on 9 Feb 1948 and graduated 30 May 2000. 52 years!
Therapy
As part of regaining some measure of balance in my life I have started going to a life drawing class once a week. I never did any of this sort of thing during my degree (although I probably should have done) so it has all been a bit daunting.
To test myself further and go even more out of my comfort zone I asked for a set of crayons rather pencils for my birthday. Pencils have a precision that is comforting. You draw hard edges in the main which is what i am used to when visualising buildings. Crayons however bring two different aspects - colour and tone. Both are difficult. Showing shape with tone is a whole different ball game for me. I find it very difficult and am constantly reverting to drawing edges. Slowly though my lines are getting freer and more expressive. I am also slowly exploring how different colours go together. Mainly when looking at shadows but also when capturing the negative space around the models.
The classes are for two hours on a Monday evening and involve a range of poses from 2 minutes to 30 minutes. The time flies as I am concentrating frantically for the whole two hours trying to make my blobs look more human like. It is amazing at how sensitive the eye is when the proportions of the body are out slightly. You can see it looks wrong but it is often quite hard to be specific about what needs to be changed to make it look right.
Michael has been deeply worried when he found out i also have to sometimes draw naked men. "Yes I can see all their bits Michael". That said most of my attempts have been quite sexless as there is usually a white patch where their genitals should be. It is hard enough to get the arms and legs looking right let alone the dangly bits.
I am not the worst one there and i am finding it very relaxing. Focusing completely on something quite different from work is very therapeutic
To test myself further and go even more out of my comfort zone I asked for a set of crayons rather pencils for my birthday. Pencils have a precision that is comforting. You draw hard edges in the main which is what i am used to when visualising buildings. Crayons however bring two different aspects - colour and tone. Both are difficult. Showing shape with tone is a whole different ball game for me. I find it very difficult and am constantly reverting to drawing edges. Slowly though my lines are getting freer and more expressive. I am also slowly exploring how different colours go together. Mainly when looking at shadows but also when capturing the negative space around the models.
The classes are for two hours on a Monday evening and involve a range of poses from 2 minutes to 30 minutes. The time flies as I am concentrating frantically for the whole two hours trying to make my blobs look more human like. It is amazing at how sensitive the eye is when the proportions of the body are out slightly. You can see it looks wrong but it is often quite hard to be specific about what needs to be changed to make it look right.
Michael has been deeply worried when he found out i also have to sometimes draw naked men. "Yes I can see all their bits Michael". That said most of my attempts have been quite sexless as there is usually a white patch where their genitals should be. It is hard enough to get the arms and legs looking right let alone the dangly bits.
I am not the worst one there and i am finding it very relaxing. Focusing completely on something quite different from work is very therapeutic
The other one
Sonya has advised me that all of you want to read more about the family and less about my ramblings. So I thought I update everyone on the other one.
Costandina goes back shortly to finish the second year of her degree. It started as a joint degree in creative writing and drama but as time goes on she has come down firmly in favour of creative writing. It is likely she will drop most if not all of her drama electives next year. She continues to explore various formats as she searches for her "voice". I think this process gives real pleasure and I hope she can find some outlets for work.
She has set herself up with a little business providing waxing services for fellow students at Winchester. It being difficult and all to find any legal work. So far it has been slow but as i have had pointed out to me women do not bother with waxing during Winter. It is only when Summer comes round that their thoughts turn to the removal of the hairs around their ankles (Using the term Clydesdale in reference to a woman being apt to produce a knife thrown in one's direction). So she is hopeful business will pick up. (I am threatened with waxing if I get too frisky but so far their taunts of cowardice have no effect)
Sam and her continue to be an item.Which seems a good thing but what would I know.
Michael is going down with her next week to spend a few days with her at Winchester (he has still got another week of half term holidays). The mind boggles at what mischief he will get up to while she is at her lectures. Michael is still a bit shell shocked that one of her lectures is 3 hours long! Do him the world of good i think
Costandina goes back shortly to finish the second year of her degree. It started as a joint degree in creative writing and drama but as time goes on she has come down firmly in favour of creative writing. It is likely she will drop most if not all of her drama electives next year. She continues to explore various formats as she searches for her "voice". I think this process gives real pleasure and I hope she can find some outlets for work.
She has set herself up with a little business providing waxing services for fellow students at Winchester. It being difficult and all to find any legal work. So far it has been slow but as i have had pointed out to me women do not bother with waxing during Winter. It is only when Summer comes round that their thoughts turn to the removal of the hairs around their ankles (Using the term Clydesdale in reference to a woman being apt to produce a knife thrown in one's direction). So she is hopeful business will pick up. (I am threatened with waxing if I get too frisky but so far their taunts of cowardice have no effect)
Sam and her continue to be an item.Which seems a good thing but what would I know.
Michael is going down with her next week to spend a few days with her at Winchester (he has still got another week of half term holidays). The mind boggles at what mischief he will get up to while she is at her lectures. Michael is still a bit shell shocked that one of her lectures is 3 hours long! Do him the world of good i think
Addiction and treatment
At the end of Naked Lunch William Burroughs includes a letter to his doctor in which he clinically and with some detachment describes all of the drugs he has taken and the various treatments he has undergone and assesses their efficacy.
I thought I'd do the same about PS3 addiction. For the last year we have tried a range of treatments; mostly of little effect. Michael continues to display all of the symptoms of addiction. His dogged determination to resist all attempts at a cure. His stubborn and subtle attempts to evade treatment and get around cures and punishments would be noteworthy were they directed toward something more useful in life
Disappointingly when we refer to the impact on his schoolwork he turns round and produces a term report showing significant improvement in effort and attainment with no discernible lessening of his addiction. This somewhat undermines our position.
We shift our attack and instead refer to our desire for conversational interaction with him on a regular basis. This produces a puzzled look of incomprehension and a grunt. We explain that the art of conversation is a two way process. We had to amend this definition to stress that his part of the process needed to involve more than one word responses. So far we have had negligible success. The only two things that animate him are shooting people on PS3 and the possibility of seeing naked breasts on TV.
We are resigned to a somewhat tedious struggle of wills for the next few years.
In the meantime we will continue to hunt for any commercially available cryogenic service to put him in suspended animation for 4 years until he is 18
I thought I'd do the same about PS3 addiction. For the last year we have tried a range of treatments; mostly of little effect. Michael continues to display all of the symptoms of addiction. His dogged determination to resist all attempts at a cure. His stubborn and subtle attempts to evade treatment and get around cures and punishments would be noteworthy were they directed toward something more useful in life
Disappointingly when we refer to the impact on his schoolwork he turns round and produces a term report showing significant improvement in effort and attainment with no discernible lessening of his addiction. This somewhat undermines our position.
We shift our attack and instead refer to our desire for conversational interaction with him on a regular basis. This produces a puzzled look of incomprehension and a grunt. We explain that the art of conversation is a two way process. We had to amend this definition to stress that his part of the process needed to involve more than one word responses. So far we have had negligible success. The only two things that animate him are shooting people on PS3 and the possibility of seeing naked breasts on TV.
We are resigned to a somewhat tedious struggle of wills for the next few years.
In the meantime we will continue to hunt for any commercially available cryogenic service to put him in suspended animation for 4 years until he is 18
Friday, 22 April 2011
Republicanism rules
I have to give an honourable mention however to the best exploitative marketing strategy. This is marketing genius
A new look
As you can see I've also given the blog a make over. Time for a new look. Green is supposed to be calming and I find bamboo fascinating. Deep symbolism eh
Jedi
Easter this year looks like being bathed in glorious sunshine. Mid 20's and bright sunshine. Absolutely perfect. Michael is outside trying to regain his basketball prowess as I type. The french doors are open. Not quite sure whats happened. Good weather is normally confined to working days with rain and clouds on our days off. Somebody sure messed up upstairs. Sonya and the kids are off the start of the Greek Easter church services. Me being a heathen infidel gets the evening off
Reminds me of the census we recently filled out. Under religion I put Jedi having read somewhere that 390,000 Britain's put Jedi for their religion in the last census (in 2001 when Star Wars was much more current). How cool is that.
Annoyed the hell of of a work colleague who was furious. He felt that aetheists needed to stick together. "Now they will just count you as religious and use your vote to justify more free faith schools". In his view this was worse than being an Australian - something I had little control over.
It had to be done though.
(Costandina's boyfriend put his race down as Cornish which was also pretty cool!)
Reminds me of the census we recently filled out. Under religion I put Jedi having read somewhere that 390,000 Britain's put Jedi for their religion in the last census (in 2001 when Star Wars was much more current). How cool is that.
Annoyed the hell of of a work colleague who was furious. He felt that aetheists needed to stick together. "Now they will just count you as religious and use your vote to justify more free faith schools". In his view this was worse than being an Australian - something I had little control over.
It had to be done though.
(Costandina's boyfriend put his race down as Cornish which was also pretty cool!)
Phoenix rising
Well after almost exactly a year of silence I have summoned up the will to restart my Blog. I thought of renaming it Phoenix rising but the name has already been taken so I'll have to stick with the one I've got.
I don't really intend to bore everyone with all that has gone on and the multitude of reasons for not writing. Suffice to say I think i had my version of a mid life crisis and this is part of my way of coming out of the end of long dark tunnel.
Much of the past year has been spent being angry. Really angry. Angry at the Tory Government for decimating social housing in Britain and in the process decimating my career. Angry that the recession has stripped me of any real alternative to my current career. Angry at turning 50. Angry that at my boss for being such a poor boss. Angry at not losing weight. Just angry. Too angry to write anyway.
I think the turning point came on my birthday. A birthday I really didn't want. A celebration I really didn't want. Much to my surprise Sonya organised a very thoughtful day (well actually a couple of days) and confined the teasing to quite gentle levels. I was very touched and I think that was the start of the road back.
I guess more might come out over the coming weeks but that will probably do for now.
As Paul Newman says at the end of the Colour of Money "I'm back"
I don't really intend to bore everyone with all that has gone on and the multitude of reasons for not writing. Suffice to say I think i had my version of a mid life crisis and this is part of my way of coming out of the end of long dark tunnel.
Much of the past year has been spent being angry. Really angry. Angry at the Tory Government for decimating social housing in Britain and in the process decimating my career. Angry that the recession has stripped me of any real alternative to my current career. Angry at turning 50. Angry that at my boss for being such a poor boss. Angry at not losing weight. Just angry. Too angry to write anyway.
I think the turning point came on my birthday. A birthday I really didn't want. A celebration I really didn't want. Much to my surprise Sonya organised a very thoughtful day (well actually a couple of days) and confined the teasing to quite gentle levels. I was very touched and I think that was the start of the road back.
I guess more might come out over the coming weeks but that will probably do for now.
As Paul Newman says at the end of the Colour of Money "I'm back"
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