Busy Bee

Spring finally feels like it here, though the bumble bees have already been about for a few weeks.

Not that I'm getting much chance to enjoy it, since I'm sitting an endless stream of exams - eight so far with more to come, all to renew a qualification I first earned in 1992. It is not something I was expecting to be doing in my mid-sixties. 

So why am I doing it?

It is a classic case of the unintended consequences of a sensible regulation. Because the exam papers are highly controlled, the only way I can review them, and the textbooks they are based on, is by taking the exams myself.

I also found myself delivering a webinar to the biggest audience I've ever had, over 2,600 people. No pressure at all!

I've got a tight deadline to write a book, whose publication date has been announced without anyone asking me whether it was feasible. It will involve trips to Athens, so it isn't all bad news.

Oddly, the busier I am, the more likely I am to get on with some model making. Don't ask me how that works.

I've been making another attempt to clear some space in the office/workshop. I'm hoping it will let me get on with the three existing projects in sync, which is how I like to work. 

Meanwhile, I'm still dipping my toes into the sometimes murky world of TT:120. It is a strange place. It still feels like a toy train world rather than a serious modelling scale, but it is early days.

I used an Easter discount to get the Branchline set.

The B4 is actually better than I expected. Obviously, it could be better below the footplate, and the printing of the name is abysmal.

It is seen here alongside the excellent Caldon Low Tramway TT:120n9 (Is that right?) loco and wagon from Gubbin Box Models . The tramway ran a few miles a way from here, to the wharf at what is now the end of the Caldon Canal, and home to a rather wonderful tea shop.

Needless to say, the scene was much more industrial back in those days.

Whilst I do have Tusgawa chassis that it is designed to fit, I can't see much scope for an operating layout, but I have a small box somewhere that I could fit a diorama into.


Normally today I would be at the 16mm AGM, but despite the date being in the family calendar for nearly a year, my wife decided it would be a good weekend to meet up with her friend in Wales. So I'm sat at home, looking after Mum and our last two dogs, listening to our old rotten conservatory being demolished, and charging my e-bike in the hope of an early morning ride tomorrow.