Member Info for reteps

The 30,000 @ 08:18:47 was my buy, as was the subsequent 20,000.

I calculated 5,200 tons of V at a cost today of $149,000,000.

Je suis tout a fais d'accord, mais je prefere "un cul de cloche" :-)

51

Time for an update from me. I am six weeks into a new job, very rewarding in all the right ways :-) I am back on the tools with computers and working as Test Lead on a fairly large contract for a department of the Government of the Irish Republic that will last until December 2021. By that time, I will be three months away from my 66th birthday and hopefully the Bushy SP will mean that I can stop work before I draw the State Pension. My health seems to be stable (fingers firmly crossed!)

I have been invested in BMN since around October 2013, thanks to Pdub (I think) who dropped a hint on another board and, of course, Corbs of blessed memory. I currently hold about 1,400,00 shares in SIPP and ISA, down from a high of about 1.6M. I wouldn't have sold any but personal circumstances (three kids who are permanently boracic and ill health plus a minimum wage job) have meant that I have had to prop myself up over the past year. I'll get round to updating the spreadsheet one of these days.

I love the banter on the board on occasion and am especially fond of numpty5's contributions :-) I'd try to emulate them but fairly sure I'd fail.

I'll leave you with a joke that I think Corbs would have liked:

A young matelot was drinking in a Carribean shebeen when he espied Long John Silver, no less. In an access of adulation, he accosted the great man and offered to buy him a drink. LJS accepted and the two fell into conversation.
"Tell me, Sir, how did you come to loose your leg?"
"Arrr, well, 'twas a boarding party agin' the Barbary corsairs. I took a cutlass blow to the thigh and the sawbones had to take the leg to save my soul."
"Pray, Sir, tell me how you came by your hook?"
"Arrr, well, 'twas the accursed Navy, they didn't appreciate private enterprise, a cutlass blow to the wrist...."
"Now, Sir, how come the eye patch?"
"Damn seagull shat in me eye!"
"A seagull?"
"Arrr, well, 'twas the day after I got me 'ook..."

All the best!

And what's wrong with Talisker, may I ask? It comes from Skye and my mum was brought up there, so it can do no wrong as far as I am concerned. I have to say I love a Laphroaig Quarter Cask too.

I can thoroughly recommend Aldi's offering of Glen Marnoch Islay - given away at £17.49.

And me.

Very pleased to hear your news, RK and Claire. Best wishes to you both.

Nice one, Pdub! Hope the feet improve soon.

I wonder if anyone knows how important it is to maintain frequency across a national grid? That is to say, keep all the generators turning at the same constant speed all the time. In the UK, we have a generation frequency of 50Hz and the generation companies move heaven and earth to maintain this frequency. If the frequency falls below 48.5 Hz or rises above 51.5 Hz, many big electrical motors will stop working and this includes the boiler feed pumps and the ball mills that mash up the coal at the power stations themselves.

It is so fundamentally important to keep the supply frequency at 50Hz that generation companies will engineer that voltage will be dropped (or raised) from the nominal 230V supply so that the power consumption of the network is trimmed to allow the frequency to be maintained. Remember that power consumption is, simplistically, current squared times resistance. Current is equal to voltage divided by resistance. W = I x I x R and V = I x R where W = Watts (power consumption), I = current in Amperes, R = resistance in Ohms and V = voltage in Volts.

It has been many years since I have been actively involved in the power generation industry. I understand that EEC rules mandate even tighter frequency regulation than previously applied.

If the major generators cannot keep the frequency stable and within the mandated limits, they are obliged to start "load-shedding" or turning off their consumers on a selective basis. I am not privy to how this is done in practice, but done it will be.

We have recently seen the effects of losing major generation resource in the UK, about a week ago? hundreds of thousands of homes without power, trains not running...

In the past, bringing new power sources online was a long job. A conventional coal-fired power station would need 24 hours to bring a cold generation set online. The best resource I am aware of is the Dinorwic pumped storage station. It can bring a "black start" turbine online in 60 seconds and a "spinning in air" turbine up in 12 seconds. Sadly we only have one Dinorwic in the UK.

VRFBs can change all this! My money is where my mouth is.

Well done, Pdub, marvelous news!

I'd very much like to get in touch re machining. I'm not sure the best way to go about this but will take a tip from the late lamented Corbs: .--. . - . .-. .--.-. ... -.-. .- .-.. . ... .-.-.- --- .-. --. .-.-.- ..- -.-

The steroids are something else, aren't they? I always said you get the best drugs in hospital :-)

sober

I'm alright, it's the others. I've been doing a bit and leaving a lot. My own therapy finished a couple of months ago and I have been feeling better on a daily basis since. That being said, I am completely cream-crackered this evening and am going to have an early night. More when I have something worth saying. Keep the faith!

All the very best of luck, Pdub. Keep smiling!

Mine is very prosaic. I can never be "Peter" or "Pete" as those names went in 1994 or earlier. So I'm retep and the s is the first letter of my surname.

I finished my treatment on Friday 22nd March and have been feeling better day by day since. I'm still not "right" but am getting righter. I have no idea if I'm cured or not and doubt if anyone will tell me before my next appointment with my surgeon in June... For what it's worth, I don't feel ill, but then I never did.

Just think of the fun you can have explaining the road map on your abdomen to the ladies - "And this is where Ernst Stavro Blofeld lunged at my heart and missed." Glad to hear your news, Pdub!

Signed - 2174