Back again posting

Not been posting very much last week as I have been back in Swindon. Home all week next week too as working on the M4 between Swindon junctions. Still doing connectivity surveys and all going well. quality of data is improving all the time. Going to be a lot of processing to do when I get back to Taunton. Lovely weekend with Nic and Ashley and had a great afternoon at Mum and Dads. James showing off his new Fiesta. Not to shabby Jimbo. Well done to the All Blacks on their triumph. France played really well and showed in the end that they are a very good team. Makes Wales 14 man performance even more impressive and if they had succeeded, I think they really could have taken the final. Ah well. Don't do what if's!!! Not even going to mention the Man U score. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Back soon!

Another week!

Had a lovely weekend but so disappointed about the Welsh game. I really dont think the tackle was that bad and the ref should have gone to video rather than kill the game. Still, that's life. Wales did very well and can feel proud. More connectivity surveys this week. Working on the M5 by Cribbs Causeway. Have about 3km to do before we move the Swindon and I can go home of an evening. Can't wait to spend some quality time with Nic. Bed soon as very early starts this week as we have to leave Taunton and travel to Bath. A little bit crazy but thats the way the traffic management works. Great to see global unity starting to happen with all of the protests going on. What the rich and powerful have to understand is they need to share the wealth. No need for povety with all the money in the world so just hurry up and get on with it before the people force you too!

Internet Back Yehaaaa

No posts for the last couple of days as internet has been down at the pub. Had a good couple of days although my body feels shattered after all the manhole cover lifting and walking. It has been great using the Ashtech PM200 as it does exactly what it needs to do. Battery life is superb and it works well with Digiterra.Data is looking good but there will be a lot of processing to do in a couple of weeks. Went back to Wales last night and saw Mum & Dad. Cracking cooked dinner and a visit from James. Nice. Now looking forward to going home tomorrow and the lads coming over for some wii golf. Then, oh yes then, the rugby followed by Liverpool v Man Utd. Come on. Nic away with work this weekend so things could get messy. Come on the Welsh!

A strange start to the week!

First, what a result for Wales. Amazing game. Can they win. Possibly. Can't wait for the French. Back on the M5 today but with an Ashtech ProMark 200on hire. All worked well and we got through 1.6km before a battery change was needed. It was at this stage that it became apparent that the SD card was locked. Ahhhhhh! What do we need to do to complete this section of motorway. We carried on ensuring the save was taking place after every point. All was well, until my colleague tried to loosen a manhole cover by striking it with an iron bar. With the luck we are having, it should not have been a surprise when the bar went straight through the cover. Managed to get it back eventually and tagged the cover for replacement. All was well again until my colleague dropped the tape measure down a gully. Simply unbelievable luck for us today. This actually sounds like we are the keystone cops I think. Anyway, we are not far from the end and its probably better to get these issue out the way early on. Wonder what will happen tomorrow!!

Its Friday

Back and home and watching the footy. Ohh Wayne. Please don't do it again! Finished the Exeter Truck Sewer processing in the office today and had a good trip home. Ashley and Nicky both well and good news from my Mums hospital tests. My niece Samantha's birthday tomorrow and of course the Wales match. A busy weekend ahead. Come on Wales!

Teccy Problems Yet Again

So the saga continues. went back on the M5 and re-surveyed 1.5km. Then, the Topcon GRS-1 packed up yet again and corrupted all our data. Enough is enough I am afraid. We have off-hired it and hired another ProMark 200. 3 days have been completely wasted this week with teccy problems so we have been left with no choice. Fingers crossed for Monday's survey. Great game of tennis tonight. Victory was sweet. Serve getting much stronger. Nice. Home tomorrow to see the lovely Nicky and Ashley. Looking forward to a great weekend.

Bloody GRS-1

The day started so well. Surveyed 1.4km and really started to speed up the data input process. On the Topcon GRS-1 you have to change batteries roughly every 2 hours. Yes, this is a real pain. However, you can hotswop which is what I have been doing. On the 2nd attempt today, the device completely wiped my SD card and therefore wipe the Digiterra software. We had no choice but to return to the depot. I managed to undelete some of the data but it was seriously corrupted. Not good! I don't trust the data so have to re-survey the same stretch of road tomorrow. Beginning to regret we are using this device now and wish I had the ProMark 200 back. Still, patience is obviously needed. Game of tennis tomorrow night after work. Want to sort my serve out. Nice!

2K day

The GRS-1 worked brilliantly today. Did 2km of surveys but not much line work. Having done a bit of this when we came back to the depot I think I will do it on site tomorrow. Still looking for ways of improving this whole process. Motorway was very busy and it can be unnerving when you catch an Arctic roaring up out of the corner of the eye. You do feel safe with the crash cushion though. Same again tomorrow. For a demo of a crash cushion please watch the video.

Teccy Problems!

Lovely weekend spent with Nicky. Too much food but very nice. Early start this morning. Got to Taunton for 7:30am and was on the M5 by 10am protected by a crash cushion. Then the problems started. The Topcon GRS-1 suddenly froze during mid survey. Following a reset I discovered the data layer was corrupt. Tried to rescue this but failed so returned to the depot. Reloaded the data and off we went again. Met up with the crash cushion and tried again. Exactly them same thing happened so we had no choice but to abandon the survey for the day. Did some testing back at the depot and all worked fine. So annoying. Will try again and see what happens. Fun and games!

Well done Wales

Really enjoyed the Wales match today. They played very well and although Fiji weren't great it is very encouraging. bring on the quarter finals. Early start in the morning as need to be in Taunton for 7:30am. Off to a Highways briefing and then on to the M5. Surveying Junction 27-28. It is a connectivity survey so basically GPS everything relating to drainage. Measure and grade assets and report any major issues. Should be easy enough.

Culvert Survey & A Big Hill!

A beautiful day today. Weather wise that is. Glorious sunshine and a trip to Liskard. Drove the Merc Sprinter and went in to my first Traffic Management absolutely fine. Carried the tractor (very heavy and it took 2 of us) in to the culvert and surveyed 130m of lined pipe. Job done. What I forgot to mention was to get to the the culvert we had to drop down a very steep, very muddy slope, about 100m. Getting down was easy just using the brakes. Coming back up was another matter!

Tried to take a run-up at the hill to start with. Got a quarter way up and started sliding back. eventually decide to come back down and wait for a tow. Something we had been told could happen. The guys came down in their land-rover and we hooked up and they started our trip upwards. Time after time, the engine would cut-out or the wheels would spin too much. In the end we actually started pulling the land rover back down with us. At this stage I managed to slip the one side in to a ditch. Missed the fence so drove back OK. Or so I thought!

One of the guys in the land-rover shouted you have a puncture, so we got out and listened to the sound of hissing. So a puncture isn't a great thing to have but with 3 grown men in the van it should be sortable. We first checked we had a spare. Yes! However, it is underneath the van so I had to reverse back and hang the back end out over a mud cliff. Very precarious. It was at this stage we discovered we had a jack but no wheel brace. To get the spare wheel out we needed a wheel brace. At this stage there were some suitable words being spoken about the situation. Our only route was to ask the other company if they had one. Nope!! Good reply.

I then managed to get a lift in to Liskard looking for Halfords. There's no Halfords. There's no shop that sells such a thing as spanners. However, there was an ATS so after a quick chat and a bit of charm I managed to borrow a brace. After a quick drive back, got the spare wheel out and the flat type off. Spare straight on and set to go again. This time we used a lorry winch to get us up the hill. Worked a treat. Should of used this the first time around rather than a tiny land-rover. Unbelievable.

After a quick trip into Liskard to drop off the brace, oh and get some air in our tyre we finally drove back to Taunton. Thank you Liskard ATS for a wonderful service. I think you saved us being stuck in a culvert for an eternity.

Well if all days are like this, it will certainly be an interesting job!!!

Training

Did some training for two new GPS users today. Went well I think. Well, they could switch it on after the training. lol. Off to Liskeard tomorrow to do some culvert cleaning. I am the hired help so no surveying. Hopefully won't get too dirty. In the middle of downloading Battlefield 3 so cant wait to play. HA HA!

Battlefield 3 is coming

Finished processing of two jobs today. Very pleased as I was worrying about merging the GIS data into HA format. All went swimmingly.

Week in the office this week and training some users tomorrow in using the ProMark 200.

On another note, really looking forward to Battlefield 3 beta due very soon. Take a look below. Simply amazing.

Battlefield 3 Teaser!! Yummy.

Nice Weekend

It's been a good weekend with Ashley here. Enjoyed the rugby yesterday. Bitterly disappointed the Welsh game is not until tomorrow. Will have to listen on the radio on the way to Taunton.

Busy week ahead in the office processing jobs and planning for HA connectivity training. Will keep you posted.

Well what a good day!!

Did the GPS survey job near Okehampton. Went very well which was a surprise. Starting to really understand the drainage systems. It was a surprise how much drainage was there for a small services.

Had a few issues with the ProMark 200. It kept losing signal so I eventually switched to the internal antenna to take advantage of the Glonass option. Was obtaining about 40mm accuracy which was fine for this job.

Lots of walking in the undergrowth today which is a bit a surprise. Mind you I am kitted for it so bring it on. Processing tomorrow and going home to see Nicky. Yipeeee.