A Change of Tack

Peace doesn't last long around here.

We've had a house full this week, with mum, who was 94 this week, middle daughter and three grandsons. Today is handover day with the grandchildren, with the twins coming to stay for the weekend .

Sadly, for the boys, it has rained a lot, but whilst I was working, everyone else had a trip to Longton Park.

And how do you keep young boys entertained in a Victorian park?

With a traditional model boat from Ocean Craftworks.

In the absence of wind, the kite line had to do a lot of the work.

The fleet has since been expanded with a more modern vessel.

They are both very simple. I suspect I won't be able to resist refining them both to improve their performance and to allow for some tuning of the rig. But I'm also hoping to grow the fleet as the grandchildren become more able seamen.

Peace at Last

 A few parcels have arrived in recent days.

Probably most exciting was the one containing the recent Kato OO9 point. I really like the integrated design.

This is intended for a very simple scenic test track, so I can live with the appearance of the odd rail section. 

Yes, I know it is the old edition, I couldn't be bothered to fetch the new one from downstairs

Another delivery was a Rapido Sirdar, though I've not got around to unboxing that yet.

Finally, there were the fittings for the manual point motors I'm using on the OO project. These were originally meant for TAoC, but if I ever return to that layout, I think I'll use servos instead.

At least now the new book and training course have been released, to positive reviews and numbers, so I can put away my recent bedside reading.

Of course, all these books now need updating to take my book into account...

In theory I now have some spare time back. Except on Friday I had one of those chain of events disasters that ended up bricking my personal laptop, which wasn't the one that got a cup of coffee split over it before being knocked to the floor - that one survived unscathed.

So I've spent most of the last five days configuring an el cheapo Mini PC as a short-term measure. Fortunately, I have an overabundance of monitors - at one point when writing the book I had five screens on the go. Less fortunately, I've had to dive back into the arcane world of network settings and hardware devices.

I find myself looking at the Mini PC and thinking about how it could be used on a layout to control a range of things.

Mum is also back with us after a few weeks at my brother's. Whilst her physical health has improved slightly her mental health is visibly declining. She now constantly verbalises her inner monologue and can't be left alone. So peace is a relative thing.