‘Task Failed Successfully’ – was not meant as an invitation!

I was

Already collecting various failures BEFORE applying the above catchphrase. Now, things are getting ridiculous.

For example, I just picked up a no-name battery analogue wall clock, because its case/surround allowed it to be stood on a shelf or mantle – not usually possible if they’re round. Just some old stock, covered in thick dust and, with a ticking second hand, not sweep.

The case had wood top and bottom with open sides supported by metal rods, and a silver face.

All it needed was a clean and polish, particularly the face, which some idiot had splashed tea or coffee through the open side, and it had dried there.

What could go wrong?

Quote a lot, cosmetically at least.

The face was made of thin aluminium sheet laminated onto a hardboard backing. No numbers, just radial lines marking the 12 hours.

From its appearance, I had no reason to suspect anything, and made a first pass with water to remove the tea/coffee, then applied a cleaning wax.

This did not go well.

Although all I had used was a microfibre cloth, the aluminium turned out to be some sort of soft alloy. The surface was covered with random scratches – the alloy was so soft it couldn’t even be polished to remove the scratches.

No idea what this stuff is made of, although I have come across it before. Not sure what it was for, but it came on a roll, like a thin tape, which was malleable and could be used to conceal gaps.

This is a stainless steel one – you can hit it with a hammer (gently) and it won’t care!

Not sure what to do – replacing the dial is simple, but not really economic – unless I have a suitable one in stock, but mine are all round, and this one is square, to suit the case.

Subterfuge may be the solution – I can use the cloth to lay on a ‘brushed metal’ finish, and depend on the clock being mounted far away on a wall, where the detail cannot be seen, and it looks original.

Then again, I’ve got a REAL aluminium clock face (just kidding, it’s stainless steel and can be cleaned and waxed without ‘melting’) liberated from a failed movement. Only problem with that one is that it’s round, and thick, having been intended to be hung on a wall with no surround or case.

I STILL can’t really believe this one.

After all, who in their right mind makes a clock face out of what amounts to little more than toffee?

All this hassle from a quick ‘Dismantle and Clean’ 10-minute task!

It will drag on for DAYS!

Knock on the door, “OPEN UP – TOURISM ENFORCEMENT!”

I miss the videos I used to see posted a few hours after being shot in various Far Eastern location, mainly Korea (South), Japan, and China.

I don’t know what’s changed, but they seem to have, and I don’t see the crazy colourful night scenes they used to feature. Instead, there’s a load of glum material.

Whatever, there are still occasional gems, such as this grab from Hongyadong.

Not sure how ‘enforcement’ is applied to something like tourism.

I tend to think of ‘traffic enforcement’ or ‘parking enforcement’, with appropriately licensed officers, in uniform, with the authority to issue penalties for non-compliance, and compel compliance with rules and regulations.

On the other hand, if you caught the video of Chinese party officials (not tourists as many reports stated) ordering people NOT to video them in a UK train station – maybe ‘tourism enforcement’ is not such a strange concept.

I now have a mental image of enforcement officers knocking on doors in the middle of the night, pulling dazed people/families from their beds and telling them to pack and be ready to leave in ten minutes as their flight to China is waiting.

If that sounds familiar, I was going to use the word ‘Gestapo’ in this post, but decided not to.

Good news, Graffiti Cat survived the works

Last time, back in June 2023, I noted this little piece of graffiti was, I thought, about to be lost as the adjacent land was being filled with various lumps of concrete and associated plant and machinery.

I thought someone had acquired the land, and something was about to appear on it.

Not so, back here for the first time since then (it’s now May 2024), the site/land is once again derelict and deserted, and one of my favourite character is back in the open, as good as before.

Not sure if the original post was correct now, as it referred to Graffiti Cat 2020 – Catch it while you can (it has CATBUTT!)

From other catches featuring this character, I’ve found its companion is actually a dog, NOT another cat, although in this case, the angle makes it less obvious. However, the devil is in the detail, and the cat has a rounded connection between its ears, while the dog has straight lines for its ears.

Obvious when you know, but I hadn’t come across this back then.

Even MORE graffiti

While there’s always graffiti around this ground, most of it is rubbish, mainly just ‘Word Graffiti’ and not worth the effort of even looking at.

However, I noticed a few more imaginative murals and images had appeared since I was last there (what had been there already was weathering and fading), and tried to catch some, hopefully useable in another post.

Problem was it was late and getting dark (as usual for me, it seems) and when I tried to get to the images, I found that a lot of contractor’s perimeter security fencing had been tied across the streets to prevent access, so I was forced to work from a distance.

I noticed a couple of guys wandering around while I was there (they were graffiti artist spying their next location), but don’t tell anybody.

Not sure where they found gaps to get into the streets, I couldn’t see any, although some of the walls do have breaks and gaps to be found when you get closer to them.

Everything breaks!

I had a brief moan in a recent post, grumbling about the way everything seemed to break, or fail, be unfixable, or something similar.

I had a perfect example recently, arriving home from a long bike ride.

I used to (and apparently soon will again) have a rear mudguard similar to the one shown below attached while there was still a chance of rain or, more likely, middy puddles all over the place.

It helps prevent that lovely wet/muddy line developing down the middle of your back, or on your backpack.

I found it while cycling through a park, and it was brand new, but missing all fixings, and was ‘collected’ as it was much better than the horrible one I was using at the time, which I don’t think had ever been near a stylist or designer. I cobbled together a mounting bracket from my junk, and used it for ages.

A few weeks a go I spotted a mudguard set that looked decent, with the advantage that it could be quickly clipped on and off the bike, rather than the usual jumble of screws, nuts, washers etc, which need at least one tool to fix in place.

The new one seemed to be great, Tight, secure, and fast to fit and removes as the weather demanded.

Things were fine, until I arrived home and got off my bike – my habit is to swing one leg over the back wheel. Unfortunately, that usually collects the mudguard, since I don’t have much clearance.

On this occasion, there was a loud crack or click as I collected the mudguard once again.

However, this time, the clip (which uses an over-centre ratchet to tighten) would not tighten, no matter how many times I tried.

I thought I’d broken something, either the bracket that goes around the seat post, or the ratchet strap itself. But, no, everything was there, complete, apparently undamaged, and without even a crack to be found in the material, no mater how hard I pulled or twisted it under magnification.

However, if I fitted it to the post, just the same as before, it took virtually no effort to make the ratcheting mechanism slip a tooth and leave the mudguard loose.

I’ve given up staring at it looking for the failure point, and even tried jamming a shim behind the ratchet teeth and pawl, to stop it moving or jumping past its engagement point.

IT STILL JUMPS OUT AND GOES LOOSE – something I hadn’t been able to make it do when I tested it before taking it for its first ride.

I’m at a loss to exp-lain this one.

The ratchet pawl is solid, has no cracks, all its teeth are present, none are broken, and they are all complete, all the way to their tips.

The ratchet strap is also complete, with all teeth present, again all the way to their tips.

The base is complete, and has no breaks or cracks.

The over centre clamp works normally, and hold securely until I stress the clamp, at which point it just seems to come loose, the ratchet strap goes slack, and when checked, has moved one tooth or more.

As per the previous thread, ‘Task Failed successfully’.

And I have to go back to my screw on clamp rear mudguard.

Frustration

It’s hard to describe just how frustrating this particular failure has been.

Although I have all the pieces on the bench in front of me, NONE of them appear to show any signs of damage anywhere, Yet while they may all look like new, and were working perfectly, when assembled after being ‘bumped’, will no longer work together, and secure the mudguard to the post.

My best guess for now is that, even though I can’t see it, the sharp point of the affected teeth (two are engaged when it is locked in place, not just one) just isn’t sharp enough now to stay ln place, and the slight rounding is allowing it to slip under the tension of the clamp.

That said, there’s a row of these, and they all look exactly the same, even under magnification (same goes for the pawl that matches them).

The other, possibly more likely cause, and one I CAN’T check because I don’t know the original/design spec dimensions, is that the plastic material stretched slightly when I bumped it, and has not returned to its original size.

This would, of course, leave a slight gap, and this could allow the parts to move enough to lose engagement.

The only way to check would be to buy another set, and see which parts worked together, and which didn’t.

And THAT’s not happening – I now have plenty of mudguards, and don’t need more, just ‘To See’!

Sphinx cat (and girl) have gone!

While I knew it wouldn’t be a persistent mural, I am sad to see that ‘Sphinx Cat and Girl’ has gone, especially after all the ‘fun’ of trying to get the colours right in the pic.

That’s what happens when you don’t get back to spots for months.

This is one I’ll miss, but I do have my pics.

So, what fabulous work has replaced it?

Well, if you’re a crazy cat person, you’re not going to be happy.

A fat greyhound!

I’m NOT being funny or negative. In fact, I think the view is very well rendered.

I’d not long passed some people walking greyhounds, and the real thing is nothing like the example above, unless they were starving theirs!

I should add that this qualifies as one of my hand held, low light, night shots.

This spot is fairly well served by street lights (white LED of course), although I would not have been surprised if the autofocus had protested, given the lack of contrast, but it was happy.

I’ll have to try to divert for a daylight shot though, now that the weather is threatening to get better, and I can cycle to Partick rather than go by bus, and save time.

Depending on the number of loonies I meet, cycling can be as little as 40 minutes, but 50 minutes is more realistic. Sadly, the bus is well over an hour now, and can hit 90 minutes if Glasgow has decided to host some daft event.

Meet the worried building at Yoker Ferry

By chance, I ended up at Yoker Ferry Road last night, without even realising where I was.

I’d gone for a ride along the cycle route from Glasgow to Clydebank, and pulled off when the section converted from a former rail line came to an end. I thought the place I ended up looked familiar, having gone there via road routes some time ago, and realised I was at the corner of Dumbarton Road and Yoker Ferry Road.

Frankly, the place is an utter tip, and such a mess I couldn’t even tell if the ferry was still running – it was back in 2022: Spotted the Renfrew Yoker ferry recently – not a happy sight

I followed close to 100 search links, none of which had live info on the ferry, with stories about cancellation from around 2010 and 2014 being all that was returned. It may have a Facebook page, but I don’t go near that. The most recent mention was about the bridge I photographed arriving, but even that was 2018/19, and about the proposal.

This visit was at night, so I guess I should get back during the day. That seems to be the only way to find out anything. There was even an info board, or fare list, as had been found previously.

I’m sorry for any poor sod trying to find out about the ferry.

The worried/alarmed building

Overlooking the slipway used by the ferries between Yoker and Renfrew is a derelict building, which has managed to stay standing, so far, despite that dereliction.

However, it may know something bad is coming, as it looks distinctly worried, or even alarmed, and is watching its back.

Heading back to the road later, having been down to the river and photographed the first section of the new to have arrived, I found there was some more artwork on the other end of the building.

Good job I took a closer shot – the first isn’t readable!

Strangely, this has my ‘catchphrase’ on it!

Don’t know why, but whenever I’m wandering strange places I have no knowledge of, strangers and cars seem to home in on me, and ask for directions, and that’s the answer they always get.

New (proper) mural appears on River Kelvin underpass

It’s a while since I’ve been through the underpass over the River Kelvin on the path to Riverside.

While the bad news is the spread of ‘Word Graffiti‘ over the proper/real murals sprayed down there, the good news is that there is still the occasion piece of proper mural artwork.

I had to stop and go ack for a pic, in case the morons show their usual disrespect, and start painting over it with their rubbish.

It was almost too wide to catch, and I had my back against the fence, but didn’t want to start taking multiple shots, so I could recreate the view.

Govan Partick footbridge – still being installed

Not sure when it will be completed (there were some boards up months ago, which gave May as the projected date, but I think they’re gone now), I did catch this pic of the new bridge, still in its open position as the approaches are being created.

It was a handy coincidence of catching the first section of the new Renfrew Yoker road bridge about the same time, as I hadn’t been aware of just how different the two were, but this pic provides an easy comparison between the two.

If I’d had to rely on my memory, I’d have got this completely wrong.

They may be similar bridge types, but are significantly different.

The Renfrew bridge:

And the Govan bridge:

I should pay more attention 🙂

Something old, something new – things on the River Clyde

Last time I passed here (recently), I hurried past and didn’t grab a quick pic, then regretted it when someone asked about the Waverley, moored at Pacific Quay.

This time, late evening like before, I DID stop, mainly because the PS Waverley’s sailing season is upon us, and I might not get the chance later.

It’s a reasonable catch, especially since I can now combine more than one image to include not only the Glasgow Tower, but its complete reflection in the water below.

In the background, moored at the old Govan Dock site, the TS Queen Mary has settled while refurbishment work continues. This shot came anyway, but the last time I wandered along for a specific view, she was gone! I don’t really keep a close watch, and was worried for a moment, but after a quick update, learned she had been taken to a nearby yard to have some work done.

Getting in closer, to see just the vessels.

Although I’m no expert, I’m quite impressed by the features in some new (to me) image processing software.

The original, as shot, versions of these view were most depressing, lacking colour, and almost monotone – these are late evening shots taken on a sunless day, initially devoid of almost any colour or brightness.

They looked much like the water seen at the bottom of the first shot.

I get a surprise every time I make the right settings, and hit the button to process images like the above from something that starts off so dull.

Task failed successfully. Toaster repaired… and not repaired

You may have noticed mention of a new, but faulty, toaster I had a small moan about a few days ago.

Although I’d been using it, I didn’t realise it was only toasting one side of anything placed in it. I didn’t notice as I had been flipping stuff, as another toaster had been burning everything, and I was deliberately using a low setting with the new on, to avoid this. I only spotted the issue when I happened to look into the slot while it was on – only the centre element was glowing!

This bent tinplate clone of a Morphy Richards 1950s chrome toaster turned out to be a pain to dismantle, with almost no access to many screws.

Given how awkward some items are to dismantle and reassemble, I often wonder how they are assembled in the factory. I’m guessing this one has a strict order for fitting the parts, and access to screw heads is only possible if that sequence is followed.

As it was, I actually got to use the various flexible drives in my screwdriver box, and even a 90° drive at one point, or I’d still be staring at some screws, and wondering how to get them out without cutting access holes!

I did try for a pic of the severed neutral, and the mark on the live wire next to it, but this was after disassembly, so they’re not lying together as I found them at first.

That neutral had no connection between the two ends when I got to it – how the toaster worked at all is a miracle. It wasn’t even hanging by a thread of insulation.

The matching scuff/scrape on the live wire also showed up, however this is only on the surface.

I was going to reterminate the mains cable with new spades, but the Chinese assembly used an odd size somewhere between my usual UK size spades, so I ended up have to install a join.

Only this pic I’m afraid, it’s just too difficult to take pic like this without a camera/lens intended for it.

So, why only heat from the centre element

Like most toasters, the centre element is separate from those on the outside, which are usually in series.

It took a while to home in on the trouble spot, made longer because I didn’t want to unsolder the wiring to the elements to isolate them for test. I’ve found this wiring can be unwilling to solder if removed, so tend not to try. Combined with the hassle of getting reliable contact with the nichrome element, having the elements connected together makes for some odd readings.

However, I did get readings that indicated which side was the cause of the problem, and found where the break in the element was.

It looks as if the thin flat nichrome element wire was just pulled too tightly around the former/backing, and broke at the edge. It may have been nicked, and just failed mechanically, or may have heated once, and the damage resulted in a hot spot that burnt out the first it got hot.

I’ve seen this happen, the damaged spot glows bright, then melts. Game Over.

Because the wire/element gets red-hot, there’s no way to repair it. Any repair would have to be able to withstand red heat.

Pity I don’t have another faulty toaster, the elements are often similar.

I won’t ditch this one though, it has fairly wide slots.

Having only a central element is retro too 🙂

My grandparent only ever had their ancient (early 1900s) toaster, and it only had one central element, and was actually quite clever.

You toasted one side of the bread (no timer, just watch), then opened the doors on each side. These were arranged to fold down below the raised element, so the bread would slide down onto the open door, toasted side down. Quickly closing the door meant the slice, now ‘automatically’ turned over, went back in with the untoasted side facing the element.

I would have loved to have inherited it, unsafe cloth/rubber wiring too, but circumstances meant a house clearing, and we never saw thing 😦

They’re still around.

I started looking for something like that old toaster online, and there are many to be had, but not quite the same. The examples suggest it was from around 1920.

The crazy earlier ones, from around 1900 and earlier, look great – just vertical elements fitted to a base, and you lean the bread against them (actually an open frame around them).

Rather than a pic, this crazy Russian played with some back in 2019 – and didn’t even test or restore them first!

Don’t miss the lightbulb moment – when he realised the old toaster is designed to automatically turn the bread over!

I need to get back to Bowling, and find out if there are changes at Henry Bell’s Obelisk

If there are too many word, jump down the page for the pics 😉

Surprisingly little time has passed since I made my land based visit to find out if there is any way to access the memorial.

I specify ‘land based’ since I first saw the thing decades ago after getting shanghaied and thrown on a massive car ferry from the far north of Scotland, able to carry something like 400 cars (plus passengers). It had a fault with its steering gear, and delivered two funny stories (neither involved me, I’m happy to say). First was the initial response after we were asked to look at failed gear. Such is the dependence of Scotland’s islands on ferries (known as Lifeline Services), two engineers were despatched on a charted private aircraft. That may SOUND glamorous, but the reality was this was a small plane which was thrown about like a leaf whenever it encountered turbulence, and the guys never stopped speaking for days, about watching loose rivets on the panels rotating from the engine vibration. Second was the Captain’s refusal to let them off the ferry after he discovered he could keep running as long as the guys worked the steering manually, in response to radio instructions from the bridge. They were buried deep in the stern, at the gear, so never knew where the ferry was, so couldn’t jump off. One of them said that after a solid week of doing that, when he got back on dry land he couldn’t walk straight, having got so used to the rolling of the ship.

I ended up on board during trials on the Clyde, which meant sailing downriver after repairs had been completed with new parts fitted, and a new PLC (programmable logic controller) fitted and programmed. Muggins got sent because he was familiar with the setup and the guy on the project was off. But, the reality was I could have done very little if there had been a failure. I didn’t know the software, what it did, or even where all the different parts of the system were installed. Maybe given a week I could have made a start, but all I was really there for was to stop the client complaining that nobody sailed with the installation on its first outing.

And that was how I came to be on the Clyde, and see the mysterious, almost unknown Henry Bell Obelisk.

I forgot all about it. Located inside a BP oil terminal site with no public access (I assume), there wasn’t much to be done.

I’m guessing the only people who ever visited it years ago (there are pics to be found) did so from the sea, probably getting to the shore by canoe.

However, the BP oil terminal is long gone, although the site remained sealed, fenced, and gated after the closure as it was considered unsafe and polluted, with a long remediation eventually getting underway.

That remediation is now complete, and the land is being made available for industrial/commercial use.

I’m not even going to attempt to describe what that may be as I’ll probably be wrong and quote something out of date, and I see there is already some sort of contention and argument being noted between interest parties – at least that appears to be the case as noted by the media.

If you really are interested and want to know what’s going on down there, do as I do, and look for the most recent news online – then check to see if it’s changed 10 minutes later 🙂

I should maybe have tried emailing the site operators, to see if they were prepared to give anything away about the site’s immediate future, and access to the obelisk. But, having been to the site and its entrances, the degree of ‘PRIVATE NO ENTRY’ type signs suggested I might not get much of a response, so didn’t bother.

Easier just to go there, and watch for any changes to access from the road.

Access the obelisk (NOT)

Although I have some pics, you can’t have too many of a difficult subject, and this one can be difficult given the distance, and its colour.

This came out quite well, given it was evening, and dark enough for street lighting to be lit.

The entrance to the site uses a one way system, and is very wide once all the signs are taken into account – it took three wide shots to capture this view.

You have to zoom it to see the detail – the obelisk seen above lies just left of centre, and to the left of the T-shaped lighting pole.

On the left is a sign giving details of the project, which is (or was) due to finish shortly after this visit. I have yet to get back for another look, hence this post’s title.

The big green sign next to isn’t worth enlarging.

The three on the right are just repeats.

During various visits to Bowling around this time, I eventually toured ALL the north side perimeter fencing/wall which faces towards Dumbarton Road.

At that time, everything was closed/locked/blocked, eventually becoming inaccessible due to the presence of the railway line, with no open/ legal crossing provided anywhere to the west.

Just my observations.

Back at the site entrance, there are two sign that might suggest any approaches seeking permission to visit the obelisk are likely to be met with a frosty reception, and I didn’t feel like trying. I also suspected that the gatehouse, like many such places nowadays, would be staffed by hired security rather than company employees, and would therefore not have a clue, or any authority regarding non site business enquiries.

Not sure why this one is on the extreme right, the exit, and not the extreme left, which is the entrance.

Incidentally, while I don’t claim to be an expert, while the landowner can state there is ‘No Right of Way’, probably legitimately in this case, recall my reference to water based visits above. The public generally DOES have unrestricted access to the land between high and low tide.

But, it’s a little complicated.

Given the contract completion date, and imminent clearing of the site by this contractor, I decided an enquiry would probably be pointless, and leave it to see if anything changes.

I may be wrong (probably am based on past experience) but this seems to be the only other entrance on the Bowling side of the road, suitably locked and decorated with inviting signs.

Again, the signage is definitely NOT welcoming for anyone not wanting to get in for non site related purposes.

The last line of the sign second from the left is probably the one that matters, and a security drone (if there was one) would point at.