Sturday Variety (mini Blog)

 Please Note:  Faeroes report will be published on Monday 6th and Tuesday 7th Jan. This will explore, briefly, ferries, country buses and take a look at the airport. Apologies for the change of plan. It relieves pressure on our Fellowship meetings which happen on Sunday and Monday!

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Science Fiction Or Vehicle Fact

The above suspended railway image is both unrealistic and definitely science fiction. fbb doubts that the design would be strong enough to hold such a huge vehicle traveling at speed and, additionally, cope with the lateral forces on curves. You would also need a huge amount of power to move that thing.

Here is a blurry enlargement showing the driver and fireman (?) at their seats.

The Bennie Railplane was unworkable for similar reasons.

Sadly, a very young Mrs fbb did not have the bottle to climb up the steps to explore the rotting hulk as it stood at the bottom of her road on the outskirts of Milngavie.

But the idea below also became a short-lived working proposal!

Created by one Mr Steinwinter to increase the capacity of Germany's busy autobahns, it too did not last.

This video tells the story/

We are nearly there with some modern coaches, but built in one lump and with better visibility for the driver.

Mersey Tunnel Mini-posts

The first police vehicles and the Birkenhead underwater junction as first built but with added colour.

The same location with heavy 1930s cloggage ...

... possibly photographed on the opening day?

Red Cola Christmas?

Sure to be the famous Coca Cola festive truck?

Well, actually no! It is a close copy from ...

Lidl! Lidl Cola is branded "Freeway" but, surprisingly, in a red can.

A Birthday You May Have Missed

It was the oft maligned Dr Richard Beeching who proposed that freight should no longer travel in weedy wagon loads but be plonked into containers to travel in fast "Liner" trains.

And thus began the "container revolution" on the UK's railways ...

... complete with shiny white overalls for some staff!

Liner Trains was one of the many things the Great and Good Doctor got right.

Not Quite Right, Interwebnet!

This picture appeared on-line in amongst red buses from Torshavn (Faeroe Islands) and the blue country fleet.

fbb can remember no episode of "On the Buses" in which Stan Butler took a wrong turning at Luxton and ended up on a ferry to the Faeroes. Blakey would not have been pleased!

It's NOT All On Line

The fbbs' washing machine has been in steady decline (like the fbbs themselves!) over the last year or so. First the paddles inside the drum started falling off. All attempts to get spares to fix in place failed. Then in recent weeks the mechanics have been sounding like the Paddle Steamer Waverley at speed ...

... but with severe indigestion.

So, on Thursday inst, Mrs fbb called in to the local Washing Machine Shop and spoke to Damien. A replacement was ordered and paid for at 12 noon.

Two hours and twenty minutes later Wayne and a colleague arrived and installed the replacement.

Eat you heart out AO!

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"NOT the Advent Calendar", but ...

     The      

  CHRIST -mas 

  Criss-muss  

   Confusion  

 Critique  4  

Part of the Christmas Story ...

... but Later.

They went into the house, and when they saw the child with his mother Mary, they knelt down and worshiped him. They brought out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and presented them to him.

It is quite amazing how many modern readers let the story of the Wise Men (a k a Magi; a k a Astrologers; a k a Astronomers) pass them by as a "pretty" anecdote. It was far from "pretty".

Matthew recorded the visit (which took place about two years after the birth of the baby) because he wanted his fellow Jews to understand that the child was God's chosen Messiah (a k a Saviour of the World) and that the way to obtain Salvation was to recognise what really mattered about CHRSTmas.

GOLD

What people needed was the GOLD of an eternal heaven - far more important that blundering about in this earthly life. But getting there wold not be easy. God would not welcome anyone with the stain of sin, however small - and put up your hand if you have never committed a sin!

Sin's the problem.

INCENSE

What God wanted was for people to join him in a glorious GOLD eternity. But human seemed unable to come up to God's standards. So they faced a closed door to a heavenly future. But if someone could become THE WAY ...

 MYRRH 

Bluntly, Myrrh was used for embalming dead bodies. Its pungent odour would partially disguise the pong of necrotic tissue. This was a good thing when burying in the ground was impracticable.

Some groups burn the body, as do most people in this country.

So Jesus came to die! And, thankfully, to rise from death in the third day.

And his death was a substitute for the permanent death sentence we deserve for our suns.

THE END?

But for a committed Christian who "repents" and seeks forgiveness IT IS NEVER THE END!

The words of the hymn aren't quite what Charles son of Samuel wrote, but the music is most definitely from Felix son of Mendel.

Tomorrow is Twelfth Night!

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 Weekend Variety : Sun 5th Jan 

Fine Facilities on the Faeroes (2)

Routes, Times And Maps

Above is a bus waiting at the southern terminus of the cross-town route 1, show in a list (yesterday's blog) as running every 15 minutes, Monday to Friday, every 30 minutes evenings and Saturdays and every hour on Sundays. 

What fbb has not yet revealed is that Torshavn town buses are completely free to everyone.

So now, an attempt by your investigative blogger to follow route 1 from terminus to terminus, beginning with a view over the Haven of Thor.

Here is the first part of the route as indicated on the 2020 route diagram in RED.

We are in the general area of the community of Argir.

Once a village south of Tórshavn, Argir has grown and is now merged with Tórshavn. In 1997 it joined the municipality of Tórshavn.

In recent years more houses have been built in Argir and the village, or quarter, has grown upwards into the hills. This area has views over the sea and the capital.

There is a boat harbour with boathouses in Argir and a church which was built in 1974.

At this roundabout, service 1 meets service 3 ...

... but then turns back on itself to serve the stop at Albert Hall.

We then turn back again at Argjavagur to make our way into town. 

Everything looks very clean, very tidy and free from any sign of vandalism.

Here, a very simple bus stop without shelter does reveal a frame with a timetable. of which more later.

We are soon at the busy, noisy and over trafficked city centre ...

... with horrific hold-ups at the string of traffic lights!

And on to the next map extract.

There is another busy road past the "SMS" shopping "mall" ...

... and the overbearing gloom of yet another busy factory.

Thankfully, we move out of the busy city centre and off into the northern suburbs and the third section of the service 1 map.

Our terminus will be a loop at Hoyvik; but first we need to turn left at the Scania dealership ...

... then right at the athletics stadium ...

... and up the hill to the terminal loop.

Once again we are on the edge of open country and much of the property is new-build.

Here is a service 1 returning to the city centre etc.

In the newer part of Hoyvik, we have a supermarket ...

... and a sportswear shop, both with opening times in the 24 hour clock.

Very impressive - but early starts do not seem to be a feature of life in Torshavn! 

The church at Hoyvik is spectacular.

The timetable on-line and at the bus stops is minimalist in design but simple to remember once you sort out how it works.

Note that the running time is identical seven days a week with no peak hour variation.

The schedule shows every stop and runs from Hamrin (Argir) to Hoyvik and back. The table across the top of the times shows the three day-sets in white on red and the times between which a particular journey will operate.

click on the graphics for an enlargement

It takes a bit of getting used to, but fbb's agile mind had worked it out in four or five hours!

Tomorrow, fbb will look at the country (blue) buses and a couple of ferry journeys.

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"NOT the Advent Calendar", but ...

     The      

  CHRIST -mas 

  Criss-muss  

   Confusion  

 Critique  3  

Part of the Christmas Story ...

... but Later.

Like the "Find The Fault" quiz in earlier blogs, we ask, "What is wrong with this traditional stylised picture?"

Almost everything!

Perhaps we should remind ourselves of what Matthew actually wrote.

Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea, during the time when Herod was king. Soon afterward, some men who studied the stars came from the East to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the baby born to be the King of the Jews? We saw his star when it came up in the east, and we have come to worship him.”

The narrative continues ...

And so they left, and on their way they saw the same star they had seen in the East. When they saw it, how happy they were, what joy was theirs! It went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. They went into the house, and when they saw the child with his mother Mary, they knelt down and worshiped him. They brought out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and presented them to him.

So if the Wise Men, a k a Magi, a k a "Some Men" did not offer gifts most rare to the baby in a stable, a k a cattle shed, a k a cave ...

... when did they do the deal?

The best estimate is to look at Herod's infanticide whereby the age 2 years is critical. So the infant Jesus would be around two years old when the Wise Men rocked up.

Whatever his age, the presents were particularly crummy - totally unsuitable for a toddler!

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 Weekend Variety : Sat 4th Jan 

Fine Facilities on the Faeroes (1)

Another Wish You Hadn't Started blog!

Torshavn (it means Thor's Harbour) is the capital of The Faeroes.

Tórshavn is the capital of the Faroe Islands, and as such is the seat of the Faroes’ self rule government. Today a part of the government is located on the Tinganes peninsula of Tórshavn. The Prime Minister's office is there. The other ministries are located in other office buildings in various places in Tórshavn, i.e. the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Affairs are located near the Hospital of the Faroes in Eirargarður, and the Ministry of Finance is located in Argir in a building called Albert Hall on the street Kvíggjartún. The parliament, the Løgting, which was originally located on Tinganes, was relocated to the town square, Vaglið, in 1856.

We shall meet Albert Hall later! As we know, the internet knows everything and, despite asking about Albert Hall Torshavn, the system dished up several million pictures fo another Albert Hall.

Thank a bunch Google!

Local buses only came to Thor's Harbour in the late 1970s. Three arrived running four town services.

But the authority has always invested in new vehicles to keep a modest fleet up o date. Tomorrow, fbb will look at timetables and extend his research to the blue "country" buses.

More modern vehicles include (below) a small batch of these with a distinctive higher roof at the back. Maybe the engine is under that bit so people need a step up?

A delivery of four new vehicles is illustrated on-line ...

... and an even newer bus shows its face and battery back pack (or is it a gas, man!)?

Torshavn has a population similar to Dawlish which doesn't have its own transport company and what local services exist are largely tacked on to the Stagecoach interurban network No Dawlicious frequencies are as good as this in the Faeroes capital!

There does exist a network map ...

... which lists FOUR "normal" services, a schooldays only route (of which more anon) and three "villages" networks which run spasmodically.

All this information is on an enthusiast web site from 2020 and nowhere can fbb discover if it is still up to date.

fbb will sample timetables and the detail of the route map in tomorrow's blog with a huge dose of "polite suspicion".

Your brave blogger will start with route 1, 2 and 3 as they all serve areas to the south of the town centre.

Service 1 has a terminus with a view right over Tor's present Havn.

For those of our readers' who, even now, are planning a visit, notable features include a clutch of houses with very environmentally "green" roofs ...

... literally!

Apparently, it is cheaper and more sustainable than loft insulation but mowing it in the spring could be treacherous!

And here, rather unimpressively, is Albert Hall.

It has an eponymous bus stop which we will meet tomorrow.

Excitement all the way in an fbb blog!

==================

"NOT the Advent Calendar", but ...

     The      

  CHRIST -mas 

  Criss-muss  

   Confusion  

 Critique  2  

Part of the Christmas Story ...

... but Later.

Like the "Find The Fault" quiz in earlier blogs, we ask, "What is wrong with this traditional stylised picture?"

Almost everything!

As well as not being kings, there is no evidence to support that number 3. As we have seen, the Bible, which is the only historical account we have, just says some men. The number 3 assumes that each gift was carried by one wise man.

Almost certainly the gifts would have been carried by servants travelling with the Caravan, so the Wise Men would have been wise enough to let snivelling minions do the dirty work.

There are more Wise Men on the preserved ancient gates of the city of Nineveh.

But they certainly would NOT have been riding camels. Would you want to ride a camel for several hundred miles? Posterior pain would proliferate paracetamol-less.

Camels were the HGVs of those times, the men in silly hats would want something more distinguished as befits their status as ...

... what?

They were Magi, often disparaged today as being mere astrologers and not "proper" astronomers. 

But they were both. Back then, Magi studied the stars, plotted their locations, marvelled at the "Planetes" (Greek for "wanderers" because they did not obey the riles!) and generally did a good job.

OK, their motive was to try to see how the stars affected life on earth, particularly the life of their boss, the king!

But one document they studied was both astounding and a little scary!

Try to pretend the camels are horses!

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 Torshavn Transport 2 : Fri 3rd Jan