Depends on your perspective!

The following photos were all taken within a couple of minutes of each other last evening.  Almost from the same spot.

Blue sky to the south.Hazy to the west.North west and its getting darker.North and the black clouds are gathering.This is where the heavy downpour came from 5 minutes later.

A bit of history.

After yesterdays blog I did a bit of detective work to see what I could find out about the old English Electric multiple units used on the Wellington commuter network.

English Electric unit with second refit colour scheme change.

The first consignment were ordered in 1936 and delivered 2 years later solely for the electrified Johnsonville line. It wasn’t until 1942 and 1946 more units were ordered for the Hutt Valley and Porirua lines. These arrived in stages up until 1954.

First major modification with the single headlight changed to twin lights. A Ganz-Mavag unit in the background with the first change in colour scheme.

The vehicles that have found their way into preservation are all from the 1949-54 batches. Three 2 car units and 1 three car set are genuinely preserved but a further 8 trailer units have been bought for other more unusual purposes. The fire service bought one as a fire fighting training module and the SAS bought 2 for anti terrorist training. The remainder are in Nelson (3) and the Hibiscus Coast (2) as accommodation units. The latter 2 apparently being in a sad state of repairs.

English Electric unit as built. I believe they originally had a silver stripe along the side.Now on to one of our new Matangi electric units I am off to Wellington.

What a shrink wrapped train? –Yeah Right!

What to do on an indifferent sort of weather day. Get out the Gold Card and go for a trip of course. A car ride down to Waikanae to catch the train into Wellington for starters. These new Matangi Electric units are certainly swish and a match to anything we travelled on in the UK.

So realistic. From the movie "The Hobbit".

Passing through Paekakariki where the steam preservation group “Steam Incorporated” are based we got a fleeting glimpse of a carriage painted blue covered in plastic. A mental note was made to have a closer look on the return journey. Approaching Wellington the weather changed for the worst with rain showers.

Gandolf in flight.

Arriving in Wellington it was across the road to McCafe for a bite to eat before we caught the bus out to the airport. We were not planning on flying away but wanted to view Peter Jackson’s giant eagles/birds for the Hobbit movie. Gigantic and realistic is the only way to describe them. Mooching around the airport terminal for half an hour and then it was back on the bus to the railway station.

The closeup of Gandolf in flight.Gollum fishing for his tea. You can visualise how large by the size of the mere mortals underneath.

On the return train trip were better able to view the mystery blue carriages wrapped in plastic. They were in fact a pair of the recently retired English Electric unit’s circa 1938. Unfortunately they were a modified pair with twin headlights unlike the original huge single headlight. Why the colour blue and the  plastic wrapping, I  can only assume it was protection from the weather as the sheds are probably already full of other rolling stock.

Wishing Well!

New garden addition! Will we be asked to move it?

What a lovely birthday present which now adorns our front garden. Just trying to cover up the manhole.

He’s dead Jim!

Oh no, after a weekend away recently we returned home and my computer immediately did a Microsoft update.  The dreaded blue screen kept appearing after the screen froze and then restarted.  Now here’s me blaming them and after several different attempts to correct the problem, it was obvious I was getting no where. Despite the picture we don’t suspect Google Chrome.

Time to call in the computer expert my son Brent.  Christmas day was spent trying to resolve the problem between times celebrating with Christmas Dinner (New Zealand style BBQ).

After several hours work and changing the hard drive and memory to no avail, the decision was made that it had to be a hardware and not software issue.

Just out of warranty of course, but here in New Zealand the Consumer Guarantees Act should cover such a problem, we hope, time will tell.

Luckily we still have the old computer I bought for his lordship in the UK so a quick sort out of the software required and we haven’t lost too much.  Luckily I managed to backup all the files, photos and whatever before it was too late.                         

Merry Christmas

To all our followers, family and friends we wish you a Merry Christmas.

It’s my turn now!

Happy Birthday to me.  Yes it was, my long overdue 21st birthday party.   Well we can dream can;t we?

Our wonderful friend Sandra decided that as Dot was not in the habit of birthday parties, this year I would have a BBQ at the farm.  Wow was it wonderful, surrounded by several of our new neighbours and friends, I am not used to all the fuss.  I think I might have another 21st again.

Multiply the candles by 7 - Yeah right

For my birthday Derek bought me a small something for my garden.  A photo will follow.