Wet and Windy on the M5

Just got in from a very wet and windy M5. There were 3 of us hiding in the middle of the van at one stage as it was raining that hard. Mind you there were still maniacs shooting by at 90mph in the opposite carriageway. They wonder why they crash!

The Promark 200 continues to impress as it just works in the harsh conditions. Making sure I dry it off at the end of the night. Especially as its on hire.

Walked the 2km tonight for the first time in a while as we had to hunt for buried drainage, Shattered now so bed is calling.

Messenjah Youth Mix - Click this to Play - Right Click and saveas to Save

If you like your music dub style or reggae then download my tribute mix to Messenjah Youth from Swindon. It is a mix from when they were on a radio show in Bristol last year. It's my first attempt at this so I would appreciate any feedback.

Another week before the office

Back on the M4 this week. Mind you it was a short shift last night as we were waiting for our closure to go on the motorway when we had a call to say the shift was cancelled due to another closure already in place. Not good but a short night for me. Back to try again tonight before switching to the M5 for the rest of the week. Well thats the idea but the suspicion is it will be cancelled due to no road space being available. So it will be data processing for me for the rest of the week it seems. Next week is also confirmed as processing so best get my typing fingers ready. Wondering whether I will see any auroras tonight as the earth is currently experiencing a barrage of solar storms. Would be lovely to see some but expect I am too far south. Will just have to see!

Feels Like Tropical Surveying

Been out on the M4 for the last couple of nights. Last night I had to scrape the ice off the car before leaving. Then during the night the temperature rose and the thermals caused the sweating to begin. Boy did I feel hot. I haven't felt too vulnerable on the motorway in a while but tonight on the central res I certainly did. With only a wire barrier between me and lane 3 of the opposite side of the motorway, I really did feel uneasy at cars hurtling by me. This was made worse when the barrier repair team turned up to repair the barrier caused by a serious accident yesterday morning. I think it is good that the motorway still scares me because when it doesn't it means I don't respect the danger that I'm in. When you are working just 2 metres away from cars doing 90-100mph its best not to think too much. You are not going to know much if the worse happens. Still, worse things happen at sea. Or on cruises so it seems! You'r just not safe whatever you do so enjoy life to the max while you are here. Well thats my motto anyway. Be back soon. Stay safe!

Still sub zero

Back in from another night on the M4 central res. Still sub zero temperatures. It was -4 again tonight but a warmer pair of gloves mean't by fingers were ok. The ProMark 200 is working well in the cold weather which is excellent. The Topnet OSNET service is also working well so means no irritating issues for me to sort. Just surveying. Had a good weekend with Nic & Ash and went to Mum & Dads for dinner. Met up with James and his girlfriend Becky. Seems a nice girl and keeping him in order. Mind you he has just started an army application process. Apparently he wants to drive a tank. When asked why he said "I want to blow shit up!". At least he is honest!!

Sub Zero Surveying

Just got back from my fifth night surveying on the M4. Well, fourth if you take the first night fiasco into account. The thing about night time surveying is you become a bit of a weatherman. So, in my best Michael Fish jumper I am here to tell you, its bloody cold out there. When I got back to my car it was registering -4 and it was very icy. I was wrapped up warm but there is nothing you can do about your hands. Simply freezing. Surveying going well and the mopping up of jobs is progressing nicely. Had to fix the ProMark 500 for the boss while waiting for our traffic management. It wasn't auto-dialling for some reason but got it sorted in the end. Looking forward to a quiet weekend. Ash is here and off to Mum & Dads for lunch on Sunday. Oh, and meeting James girlfriend for the first time to.. Sure going to eventful. More next week. Stay warm folks.

Back on the M4

Back on the M4 mopping up jobs before surveying a 60km stretch on the M5. All night work. Well, thats the idea anyway. Spent last night mainly waiting for traffic management near Swindon. When we finally got on the central res closure, we discovered no drainage. There was drainage but the other side of the barrier which we obviously cannot touch without a lane closure. So, we came off, sat at J16 of the M4 and waited. And waited. And waited. At 1pm I made a call and found out we were going home. Bit of a cock-up all round and will have to re-visit. Back on the M4 near Swindon tonight so hoping to actually get some work done. We will see!

New Logo

New logo added. About bloody time. Must remember to blog more often in 2012.

More wintery nights

So back on the A303 this week. We have now done about 1.6km and have gone to traffic lights rather than full traffic management closures. We have had one very icy night which was a bit of a shock for my system. So cold!! That said, wrapped up warm so not too bad. You can get a bit of rest bite in the van with the heather on full blast. Surveying going well and the ProMark 200 is performing nicely. I have been mapping all the line-work as well as the point items so it is a little more time consuming. However, things are slow due to the CCTV survey that also needs to take place. really looking forward to a week off over Christmas. 3 more nights to do then Chris Rea is going on the radio for the drive home. Cannot wait.

Windy Nights!

Back out on the A303 this week. However, not tonight due to the weather. Went to the depot but Traffic Management have called off the work. It certainly is windy and apparently in for most of the week. Been using the ProMark 500 on hire and it really is a good device. I love the way you switch it on and it connects to nTrip by itself. Well as long as its configured correctly. With GPS and Glonass it means you maintain the fix in most scenarios. So, 3 more nights left this week and then Nicky's birthday. Best get the presents wrapped. Stay safe in the storm!

Back at it!

Well back in Taunton this week for some serious processing. Lots of jobs to do but out on Thursday night for some A303 surveying. Nights all week next week too so Christmas still seems a long way away. Had to scrape the first frost off the car today so expecting it to be icy cold. Out with the ladies tights me thinks. Ashley is now 16 years old. Unbelievable how quick he has grown up. Loves his laptop though so superb to see him happy. Lots of things going on at home at the moment. Dad has just had the most horrendous local anaesthetic operation to remove sun damage from his head. starting to heal but hope he gets better soon. I think we all need Christmas to come to have a good chill out. Come on Rudolf, hurry up!!!!

Header Change

Thought I would change my header image. Hope you like it. Got though over 500 lines and connector nodes all of which had to be linked at a vertex. Glad to have got this part of the job done. I have now uploaded the coordinates and they are on their way to the master database. Looking forward to going home tomorrow and Ashley's birthday on Monday. Come on weekend, hurry up!

Over 1000 Views!

Thank you to everyone who has viewed this blog so far. Made it over 1000 views today so hope for many more. Good days processing in the office today. Had major issues trying to install Wincan 8 on an XP machine. Not sure what was going on. Viewed over 500 CCTV pipe surveys today so think i'm suffering from pipe eye. lol. Got the processing to do tomorrow so will probably suffer from Connector Node eye as I have to manually plot the pipe connections from the gullies to the main drainage pipe. Should be fun! More tomorrow!

So its been a while update

Back in Taunton so thought I would provide an update on how everything is going. First thing is to wish my mum a happy 73rd birthday. Visited yesterday with the family and spent a lovely afternoon in South Wales. James and Ash tucked in to a lot of cake, especially the gorgeous chocolate birthday cake Nicky made. Beautiful!! Since my last posts I have been surveying on both the M4 and the M5. Did a 5km survey one night on the M5 which involved me walking on my own in a 2 lane closure. It wasn't long after the M5 crash so felt very eerie. Surveying is going well and far more comfortably now with the requirements. Finished a job last Friday which was all my doing. Survey, Quickview photographs of pipes and the processing. Now uploaded to the database. Nice. Going to spend the next two weeks processing in the office and then back out on nights until Christmas. Wonder will I see Santa!! I have been seeing a lot of wildlife while out at night. 2 foxes, a badger and I could not avoid hitting a rabbit in the car. Its all go for us night time surveyors. Hoping this post sends me over the 1000 views for my blog. I think it will spur me on to post more!

Be back posting soon.

Just a quicky to say I will be back posting very soon. Been tied up with surveying and am back at nights so need sleeeeeeep!!! Nite Nite