When one has been trapped in the home, either through weather conditions, injury, or both, one starts to wonder if there is not a solution to our weather problems. The media have been full of criticism of the various authorities responsible for transport and roads, and quoting their views on the Russian example. I was… Continue reading The Russian Syndrome, a proposition
Author: jp
1950 – , Local government, 4
SMOKE TEST No 1 There had been a complaint of rats in the lower part of the Ormeau Road area in Belfast and it was laid squarely at the door of the Sewerage Section. Sam, a plumber, was sent to investigate and decided that he needed a smoke test. I have always found it strange… Continue reading 1950 – , Local government, 4
1950 – , Local Government,Part3
A real event – dramatised I ‘m a bricklayer who has been instructed to examine the main drainage culvert beneath the quiet dark streets of our sleeping city. All afternoon a joiner and two men have been erecting a temporary sluice gate they call a stank to hold back the waters of the whole city… Continue reading 1950 – , Local Government,Part3
1950 – , Local Government Part 2
WHAT GOES ON BENEATH OUR FEETGoing up pipes, down manholes, through tunnels and into dark dank corners, beneath the sea, beneath the earth, deep or shallow, in compressed air or in sludge, was ever the lot of the inspection engineer. Fear of being faced by a mother rat the size of a cat, protecting her… Continue reading 1950 – , Local Government Part 2
1950 – ,Local Government, Part 1
WORKING FOR THE COUNCIL I am firmly of the opinion, in spite of all that is said and apparently proven to the contrary, that a well run Council beats Central Government hands down for efficiency, economy and compassion. You may laugh, especially when I am using my experience in the much-maligned Belfast City Council as… Continue reading 1950 – ,Local Government, Part 1
1950 – Excentrics and excentricities
I later joined the Housing Trust, which is now called the Housing Executive, I joined what could only be described as a happy band. Like all offices there were minor frictions, departments were often at loggerheads and there were the usual petty office jealousies, but by and large I looked forward to going to work.… Continue reading 1950 – Excentrics and excentricities
1950 – ,The helmet diving coures
In the Admiralty, people were trained as an Inspection Divers, capable of examining structures either old or under construction under water. I am believe the course at the Diving school at Chatham was intended to put the fear of God into us which it nearly did. We had to learn to dive in those old… Continue reading 1950 – ,The helmet diving coures
1950- , Civil Engineering, The Runway Job 4
MORE LESSONS I LEARNED I learned never to say right when it could be misconstrued. It was early morning and I needed to examine the surface water system of the old runway. The chainman and his sidekick had been struggling to get an old manhole cover off and once again I forgot what had been… Continue reading 1950- , Civil Engineering, The Runway Job 4
1950-, Civil Engineering The Runway Job,3
STEALING STONEThere is a road in Belfast known as The Limestone Road and many years ago, long before the Hitler War, limestone was quarried in the hills above the Horseshoe Bend on the North side of Belfast. It was ground up, and taken by that road to the docks in bogey trucks. The ‘road’ was… Continue reading 1950-, Civil Engineering The Runway Job,3
1950- ,Civil Engineering, The Runway job, 2
DIGGING FOR COAL Until some years ago, when a barrage was built across the River Lagan, just downstream from the Queen Elizabeth Bridge, the River brought down thousands of tons of alluvial silt which it deposited along its banks making it a black unsightly mess at low tide. Because the River was always navigable at… Continue reading 1950- ,Civil Engineering, The Runway job, 2