S-Westerly

Good (?) Morning. Back to mist and rain again. I do hate this weather.

More than slightly sour I'd say. Full on sucking lemon sour and more than a bit dodgy imo.

I find I have the best of both worlds. I'm pulling in a legally tax free salary doing a job I mostly enjoy. I spend roughly 3 months away followed by 3 months home all on full pay. As the Master I am the boss anyway so there's no-one on my back and office politics isn't a thing on the ships. It is in the office but I'm well out of that apart from my annual attitude adjustment visit. There's zero company pension so there's no real incentive to retire. If I retired there's a shed load of stuff around the house I'd get stuck with which I don't like doing much!

Today I got introduced to a new level of hell. Until now I thought IKEA was the worst shopping experience I could undergo but no! There is worse! Today I was dragged into T K Maxx, I thought I'd died and was in the vestibule to hell. I was bag carrying for the boss and she wanted new socks. Apparently this place is good for that kind of thing. For being a good bag carrier and being more or less quiet I was allowed some cider afterwards. I needed it.

Bit of an update. While servicing they identified a warranty issue so I'm stuck with the Strom for the next few days. At least I wasn't planning on going anywhere in particular but I definitely won't be now until Gutsy comes home.

Took it in for service. Bloody cold. Suzuki V-Strom loan bike wasn't very nice in comparison to the Guzzi but given the freezing weather wasn't tempted to play with it to see what it could do. What it couldn't do was keep my hands warm!

Ah, but I do spend a fair bit when I'm lolling about on leave for 3 months. Admittedly this time of year isn't the best for gallivanting but....

Indeed. My former fleet manager is now out in China supervising the building of a series of new build large ferries for Stena. He is 81. I bumped into him a few years ago and asked him when he was retiring? His response- "retire? wtf would I retire? I'd only f**king die!" Don't plan on going that long but......remember I only actually work for 6 months or so in exchange for 12 months salary.

Ah but I'm addicted to the money! And being at sea is something I enjoy.

You're alive!

I'm still awaiting this mythical thing called retirement despite being on the wrong side of 67. I suggested to my employers that perhaps I'd retire this year but was told they'd prefer me to carry on. Don't know whether to be flattered or not. I suspect it's more a case of being the last man standing when they need to wheel out a Brit.

Google cooling vests for motorbikes. Believe it or not they do exist although how effective they are I've no idea.

Hotel prices these days you'd need a tad more than £50! I still rarely carry cash in any amount though.

Wind has already ramped up here, rattling the extractor fan vents nicely.

Happy New Year to one and all. Sadly can't see it being any better than this one but who knows?

My bike has right angle valves as standard and guess what? They don't leak.

You'd be disappointed i think.

Hope the treatment goes well. Always a stressful time so take care.

I do! Roll on February and I'll be off like a scalded cat. My luck though it'll be Alaska or somewhere equally frigid.

It happens. I had a youngish guy who made a real effort on his own time to make himself promotable from AB to Third Mate. I commended him and a year later he was Junior Officer. He performed adequately and then got promoted to Third Mate after the existing one had to sign off sick. He came back to my ship and was no better than satisfactory - bear in mind he had a total of over 12 months service on this particular ship so was familiar with it. Cut to last summer and a different ship with different officers but again under my command - he was a total disaster. Had made no effort to learn this particular ship and hadn't a clue what he was doing. Previously it had been a case of copy paste and when he couldn't he was useless. I sacked him after due process and company confirmed he was gone for good in November. Annoying though as I feel it reflected on me but you can only do so much and we can't afford to carry someone who doesn't pull his weight.

Back in the 90's i spent a lot of time in Malaysia and particularly the holiday destination Langkawi Island. It was weird - one half had really nice hotels with beautiful sea views over the Andaman Sea. The other side was industrialised to hell and the locals really couldn't give a toss. Just used to find piles of garbage randomly dumped.

Took the bike for a spin. Had to be at an early 0830 appointment. On the way out the weather was promising. An hour later it was back to the dismal shite we've been cursed with for the last week. Drizzle and mist. Got home and the poor bike looked as if I'd been mud-plugging. I am so cheesed off with this. Apparently it is going to be be blown away by gale force winds but heavy rain too. Bollocks.

I've got one of those. Do the job.

Excuse me while I quietly go and vomit in the corner. Consider my mind well and truly boggled.

If those are the goals probably looking at 10 mph.