More wiring plans

I've abandoned the idea of gouging out a channel in the underside of the thin wooden strip in order to conceal the wiring for the 6 street lights: the wood is too thin.

The wooden strip

The wiring to be hidden underneath the strip

Probably, one could afford a much wider pavement in front of such a grand station facade (even if I say so myself). If I were to lay down another strip of wood in parallel with the first, but with a gap in between, then the wiring could be hidden in the gap.

Then the two strips could be covered with a thin layer of paper or acetate which would be painted to look like paving and that would obviously hide the gap too.

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Currently listening to:

Auntie Flo.

This chap has the most distinctive accent: Rhodesian/Glaswegian is how I would sum it up.

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Last night's dinner:

Vegetable pakora

Chicken curry

At the Shenaz restaurant, Glasgow

Then home afterwards using our free bus passes.

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Currently dipping into:

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Drumming practice update:

Practised for an hour and a half, paying close attention to the overall sound and also the height of the sticks as they flew up from the caixa's skin.

Might get a pair of these boots for Christmas.

Wiring plan for row of six 12 volt street lights.

Turning my mind to manufacturing this pre-fabricated lighting plinth that will sit in front of the facade of the Gare du Nord, in the guise of a strip of pavement.

The lights have to be paired up in series in order to safely accept a 12 volt supply, and then the three pairs wired in parallel.

All of this wiring will be located underneath the thin strip of wood. That means a channel will have to be gouged out along the underside of the wooden strip so as to house the wires. I'm not sure how feasible a plan that is.

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Currently listening to:

A podcast called "Bass and Bleepcast" by Optimo and available from this website.

http://www.optimo.co.uk/podcasts/index.xml

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Last night's dinner:

Guinea Fowl

Bacon protection removed.

With a rather too floury gravy plus potatoes

Jam pudding and custard

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Currently reading:

Still on the Kindle sample of this:

As diaries go, it's very readable but completely unrevealing.

So, off to the Mitchell Library, Glasgow to see if I can find an actual book to read.

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Drumming practice update:

Continued with my deconstruction of simple patterns into even simpler patterns and practised and practised and recorded and scrutinised my efforts using my phone as a tape-recorder.

Night scenes (HO scale) from the Web

It's my intention that my layout will be highly illuminated with street lights etc.

Found this French website/blog which displays numerous photos of the author's very impressive layout, many in night-time mode.

http://www.biscatrain.fr/

The guy's a genius!

Flicking through his blog, one finds a treasure trove of how to do articles. It's an excellent blog.

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Currently listening to:

Never get sick of this and just now I'm playing it for the 5th time in a continuous loop.

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Last night's dinner:

Lamb's liver and rice and onion/mushroom gravy

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Currently reading:

Downloaded a sample of these political diaries to my Kindle.

They're very good but also quite expensive - might look for a copy in the local library - fat chance.

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Drumming practice update:

This Samba drumming lark is endlessly fascinating.

A very simple pattern has been required of the Caixa players for the last few weeks at both the Tuesday night class, and, by coincidence, at the  Saturday morning class.

It's basically this:

RH Loud, LH soft, RH soft, LH Loud, RH soft, LH soft, RH Loud, LH soft and back to the beginning.

But, as the pattern speeds up, I tend to do this - although I don't realise I'm doing it.

RH Loud, LH soft, RH Loudish, LH Loud, RH soft, LH soft, RH Loud, LH soft and back to the beginning.

It takes the leader to point this out or for me to record myself practising the pattern at home.

The effect is that instead of the required 3 loud beats (accents) of 2 plus 1, the listener hears 4 accents of 2 plus 2.

I've been working on this pattern for much of the afternoon trying to kill that Loudish right hand stroke, practising it and recording it again and again and again.

There are signs of improvement.

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Miscellany 1:

We cycled alongside the Clyde today - the water was like a sheet of glass.

Miscellany 2:

After a difficult start, I'm beginning to get to grips with the relationship between Truth Tables and Truth Trees.

Truth Table

Truth Tree

Frizinghall Model Railways

I was thumbing through some fairly ancient editions of the magazine, "Continental Model Railways". They hail from 1986. I didn't buy them at that point, my interest in model railways being only three years old. I bought a batch of them second hand at a Model Railway Exhibition in Rutherglen Town Hall a few years ago.

Rutherglen Town Hall

At the bottom of one of the pages of classified ads is one for Frizinghall Model Railways in Bradford - outlined in red pen.

Well Frizinghall Model Railways is still going, and yesterday, 28 years after their ad appeared in the above magazine, I received through the post 6 pairs of HO scale street lights.

The lights will be dotted around the front of the card buildings.

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Currently listening to:

An hour long mix of electronic music selected by Golden Teacher.

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Last night's dinner:

Wee Lochan, Broomhill, Glasgow

Actually, I was a bit disappointed with my meal at this restaurant last night - it's usually excellent. Maybe they have a stand-in chef on a Monday night.

Pigeon breasts, black pudding and lentils

Halibut - very chewy.

Every restaurant can have an off-day.

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Currently reading:

Very quickly, this book has become too silly.

The search goes on for something good to read.

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Drumming practice update:

Cycled passed the Kelvingrove Art Galleries on my way to a solo drumming session in the peace and quiet of the rooms above the Old School House Pub in Glasgow's West End.

Samba Class tonight - 2 hours of noise.

Noilly Prat

Back in the 1970s a friend of mine wanted to convey to me the sophistication of her new boss:

"Apparently, she and her husband have a Noilly Prat before their dinner each night."

At the time most folk had heard of Martini and the like, but Noilly Prat!!!!! Woofffff!

Anyway, yesterday I was looking for old wall adverts or "des anciennes publicités murales" to adorn the sides of buildings on my layout, in particular a long rectangular strip to affix to the yellow Lego building.

"Noilly Prat" seemed to have been advertised frequently in the 1960s and 1970s on French buildings and if the word Vermouth is removed then the advert can be fitted into the requisite shape.

So, I downloaded an image from the internet, printed it and cut it to size.

Where the advert is to be placed.

Used a Pritt Stick to affix it to the Lego wall.

Very pleased with the effect.

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Currently listening to:

Dissolving Dancefloor

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Last night's dinner:

Chilli con carne plus rice.

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Currently reading:

Downloaded to my Kindle a sample of Eric Idle's book, "The Greedy Bastard Diary". Of all the Monty Python crew, I found Idle the least sympatico, and hated his song "Always look on the bright side of life". But, actually, this seems pretty funny, so I might actually purchase it.

The title is very interesting. Apparently, "greedy bastard tour", is a phrase that rock groups employ to refer to tours where they perform solo or in an acoustic set-up as opposed to with a full backing band. As one can imagine, performing with a full entourage costs a helluva lot of money which reduces the profitability of the tour. Solution: do the occasional solo tour.

This book is an account of Eric Idle's solo stand-up tour of North America.

Idle (on the left) as one of his more hilarious Python characters annoying Terry Jones in a pub.

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Drumming practice update:

Did an hour on the Caixa and a half hour on the leg-strapped drum pad.