What Did You See Today?

[Tony Nitrous]

The pub I use for breakfast have been given / won $250,000 by a radio station and XXXX Brewery for a 3 week renovation makeover. Really pleased for them. Open day is Friday, big unveiling, Shannon Noll playing.  I don't think they even entered! They were just chosen.

The Criterion. Helidon.



https://radiotoday.com.au/christian-oconnell-on-a-quest-to-save-historic-queensland-pub/

[GSXKING]

I will put this one on the ESC map for a future visit 👍

[Eric GSX1400K3]

Awesome, I reckon you should try to get a few piccy's of the Gen 2 in the renovation photos, maybe a shameless plug for this .org

[Mick_J]

A Red Kite flew over my house yesterday, they have not been seen in somerset for many, many years, it was just having a look around and in no hurry, stunning creature.

[Dwain Dibley]

My road is right next to the countryside, and we regularly see Sparrowhawks hunting in the fields beyond the trees.
Also Goshawks and SparrowHawks over the fields and forest in Tywyn in Gwynedd where we regularly used to camp.

D.D.

[Tally]

Red Kites are ten to the dozen round my way @mick j, not surprisingly really as they were bred in secret on the Getty estate about 6miles from me, as you say a stunning bird eats bugs and worms or carrion.

[GSXKING]

At our Port of Brisbane docks there are reserves for migratory birds so I see all kinds depending on the season.
My favourite is the sea eagle family. There's an artificial nest high up over a transport yard. When the male launches there is an immediate scattering of many smaller birds in the area.
We have adult pelicans year round. The B52 of the bird world 🙏🙏

[Tony Nitrous]

Odd sort of day......

Been pretty ill over the weekend, had both flu and Covid jabs together on Friday, never normally a drama, got no sleep, got up in the early hours of Saturday, drove to Pittsworth in the dark and rain and tried to break my 5k parkrun time for the year (I didn't, but it was my 3rd best this year). Wasn't very well Sunday. Think I took a few too many painkillers, Mrs hasn't been well recently so I might just blame her.

Monday morning and took my Toyota Fortuner in for it's fixed price service, got there late, held up by 3 cars smashed to shit blocking the city centre, huge damage, cars destroyed but no one looked in a bad way! Amazing.

Got to Toyota late and they had no power anyway so were stood around doing nothing.

Had a walk into town and met Garry McCoy (ex 500GP racer) and had a chat. Known him a while. We both live in the same area, have mutual friends and both have very similar Blue Heeler Cattle Dogs, Cash and Roof.

Town was a bit chaotic. Several shops shut, no power, generators to run the traffic lights etc.

When I eventually got my car back they pointed out that the battery was low and needed to be replaced. That's interesting as I put a brand new heavy duty battery on recently and it bursts into life. They decided, whoops, our mistake, must have been the power cut.

I'm going back to bed.

Edit. Power company just turned up.
"We need to check your transformer power pole, they have to be checked every 10 - 15 years"
Fine, go ahead... just be aware that ......
A: Your guys came out and checked it last week.
B: Your guys were the ones who put it in 4 years ago.

[Mr Gee]

Garages do tend to make a lot, of mistakes. However, it's strange how they always, seem to be in their favour.   

[lurch]

Edit. Power company just turned up.
"We need to check your transformer power pole, they have to be checked every 10 - 15 years"
Fine, go ahead... just be aware that ......
A: Your guys came out and checked it last week.
B: Your guys were the ones who put it in 4 years ago.

Poles and wires aren't my thing, but I'm in the same industry (susbstations).

The inspection might seem odd, so I'll try to explain. These are typically handled by asset maintenance subcontractors and grouped by geographical area in an attempt to be as efficient as possible. If they don't do it whilst in the area it'll be 4 years behind others in the next inspection cycle, and making a special trip to each of the ~1,000,000 poles within the ~145,000km network would be madness. If it happens to fail within that 4 year period and cause injury/damage/death things can get interesting...

[Tony Nitrous]

Edit. Power company just turned up.
"We need to check your transformer power pole, they have to be checked every 10 - 15 years"
Fine, go ahead... just be aware that ......
A: Your guys came out and checked it last week.
B: Your guys were the ones who put it in 4 years ago.

Poles and wires aren't my thing, but I'm in the same industry (susbstations).

The inspection might seem odd, so I'll try to explain. These are typically handled by asset maintenance subcontractors and grouped by geographical area in an attempt to be as efficient as possible. If they don't do it whilst in the area it'll be 4 years behind others in the next inspection cycle, and making a special trip to each of the ~1,000,000 poles within the ~145,000km network would be madness. If it happens to fail within that 4 year period and cause injury/damage/death things can get interesting...

3 visits and still didn't touch one of the poles they wanted access to. Previous visits a while back included sinking a truck over its axles in an area they were told not to enter. They required heavy haulage towing to remove it and a subcontractor to come out to repair the land.

[Eric GSX1400K3]

How hard would it be to have a database where they can input a specific transformer/area or region and see what and when it was last inspected, then specifically target the ones that haven't been recorded. 
Avoids unnecessary and time wasting efforts like the above, all of which adds to our electricity supply costs.

Maybe too much common sense

[Tony Nitrous]

How hard would it be to have a database where they can input a specific transformer/area or region and see what and when it was last inspected, then specifically target the ones that haven't been recorded. 
Avoids unnecessary and time wasting efforts like the above, all of which adds to our electricity supply costs.

Maybe too much common sense

I'd guess there's some sort of system.

Electricity is something many folk get triggered by if you mention it around here.  Very easy to change who you deal with for gas, water, septic, internet, even PO Box's, but there's only one mains power company. Next suburb over from me gets regular power outages sometimes for a few days. I know they are looking into if they have any legal case for it.

Solar is a huge investment to do to a mains quality but it may be in my future. My 8Kva generator like my neighbours will do until then.

A lot of folk here feel how they are treated and the service they get go's hand in hand with their provider having a monopoly on it.

[grog]

solar now pay in is bugger all, A battery would be good but costs. My pay in now pretty much covers air pump in Winter, hate cold. not paying for more hardware. AC in Summer is free from solar. All i need. Generator for outages.

[lurch]

How hard would it be to have a database where they can input a specific transformer/area or region and see what and when it was last inspected, then specifically target the ones that haven't been recorded. 
Avoids unnecessary and time wasting efforts like the above, all of which adds to our electricity supply costs.

Maybe too much common sense

Such a system exists and includes reporting functions for similar reasons to your suggestions. How it's managed in reality is not something I've been involved with.

Approximate figures only but the area covered by Tony's energy provider is 1.7 million square kilometres (and 1,000,000 poles, 145,000km of overhead line network as I said before). In remote areas that overhead network can run for hundreds of km just to supply a handful of customers, or even just the one in some instances. It's often a challenge to keep the lights on, something my wife and I as supply industry sparkies are painfully aware of