The Tale of the Manx Pussy Cat

Manx are prized as skilled hunters, and therefore have often been sought by farmers with rodent problems (must not say rat on the Isle of Man), and been a preferred ship's cat breed. They are said to be social, tame and reproductively active. An old local term for the cats is stubbin. Manx have been exhibited in cat shows since the 1800s, with the first known breed standard published in 1903.

Scuba divers are a funny bunch - they seem to delight in being attacked by wild animals such as seals.  Some are also fascinated by nudibrancs.

I'm visiting the Isle of Man with a group from my dive club - the water is cold and no plankton is blooming so the focus is on seal encounters rather than basking sharks.  Here is Roger trying to fix some defective dive gear...

 We are staying in the far south at Port Erin and diving mostly around the Calf of Man so I decided to visit the far North on the last day prior to taking the fast boat back to Liverpool.

On the road from Port Erin to Peel - not a dicky bird in sight.

At Peel - getting closer to picking up the TT course!

Momentarily I lose GPS coverage and am directed via Dublin and Liverpool to Ramsey!

Approaching Ballaugh....

Unfortunately I am moving so fast that Ballaugh Bridge flashes past.

At Point of Ayre (northernmost point of IoM) I fail to find a tea room...

..but see the biggest fog horn this side of Ardnamurchan Point

Salvation at Bride

I manage to offload this dodgy money for a coffee and cake just before a Michael Dunlop lookalike walked in with his fabulous GF and a chap wearing a BMW club polo shirt - how all very odd.

The film crew have been waiting for me on the notortious mountain section of the TT course as I doodlebug down to Douglas from Ramsey.

There were a lot of these IAM observers out on the Mountain showing me how to get my leg over or knee down or whatever.

I made it to Douglas and look for the port.

Sea front Douglas.

The guy in the ferry queue on the Guzzi had one of these - I thought that it was such a good idea I bought one myself.

This is Liverpool from afar - the best view.

Many more holiday snaps are -----> HERE

Quick Guide to Mecklenberg Vorpommern

 A weekend trip from Hamburg to visit Peenemunde is my first foray into the former DDR countryside and the Baltic sea. First night stop was at Greifswald, second at Schwerin. Museum at Peenemunde fascinating and well done.

View from the Stetinner Hof  hotel bedroom - a full size garden railway.

We visit the Museum at Peenemunde, the German aerospace development centre 1937-45

A4 rocket fuel atomisation nozzle

DDR elecricity meter - it's the little details like this that count.

This, Peenemunde island, was the German's version of Cape Canavral and if things had turned out differently tin Tin would have launched off the moon from here. The museum is housed by the harbour in the old power station.

Guided tours are hailed by the guide who is talking about the first of the so-called Vergeltungswaffen series.

The locker room of the museum  have lockers dedicated to the "stake holders" of WW2 sectioned into categories - quite novel

RV Jones was good egg in British Scientific Intelligence - I can commend his book to you "Most Secret War"

A short drive to Bruggen Island and the charming Binz

Quite delicious

German Baltic sea side

Another annoying German colloquism

2nd night stop at Schwerin

The fairy castle

 More holiday snaps ------> here

Gardens East vs West

Karl Friedrich Schinkel  - Schwerin Castle former GDR

Nikos - Tomkins' Toileterie Knutsford Cheshire East UK

Ryanair Confusion Again

During my recent visit to Peenemunde Museum (full report soon). I was comforted (they appear now not to be flying anywhere near Manchester) but disturbed to see this Ryanair route map on display:

This was savagely redolent of this NS propaganda poster on display at London Luton Berlin Scweinfeld Bremen airport Terminal 13c:

I do hope that those little pill boxes do not contain anything nasty.

Chromium Plating

The functional advantages of trivalent chromium are higher cathode efficiency and better throwing power. The better throwing power means production rates are greater. Less energy is required because of the lower current densities required. The process is more robust than hexavalent chromium because it can withstand current interruptions.

From a health standpoint trivalent chromium is intrinsically less toxic than hexavalent chromium. Because of the lower toxicity it is not regulated as toughly, which reduces overhead costs. There are other secondary health advantages:

• Higher cathode efficiencies lead to less chromium emitted into the air
• Lower concentration levels result in less chromium waste
• The anodes do not discompose

One of the disadvantages when the process was first introduced was that decorative customers disapproved of the color differences, however additives are now used to adjust the color. In hard coating applications, the corrosion resistance of thicker coatings is not quite as good as hexavalent chromium. The cost of the chemicals is greater, however this is usually offset by greater production rates and lower overhead costs. In general, the process must be controlled more closely than in hexavalent chromium plating, especially with respect to metallic impurities. This means processes that are hard to control, such as barrel plating, are much more difficult using a trivalent chromium bath.

Further to reviewing chromium plating processes , I was minded to take Mrs N to Rudesheim Magic Bike fest.

The tagging process is somewhat like entering a sterilisation clinic

A example of a fine minimalist backend

Amstrad* retro "hifi" unit, circa 1968.

Ladybird helmet captioned "eat more flies"

Single malt whisky container thoughtfully provided by Harley Davidson  - the idea of ownership is growing on  me.

Everyone except us was sporting some sort of uniform leder uniform

These over wide tyres suffer from tram lining - I thought that was well known?

Coming soon and in the next episode, Nikos World unearths the mystery of Tin Tin's space rocket at a secret location in North Germany (Peenemünde).


*Note to non-UK readers, in the 1960s Amstrad was a premier brand of astonishingly good audio equipment lovingly handbuilt in Cricklewood or Brentwood or some dump like that near London using at least one transistor and sold without warranty at Laskys in the Tottenham Court Road.  The owner of Amstrad went on to compere a situation comedy on BBC TV.