New things learnt

[shermarama]

They say that any day where you learn something new has not been wasted. Here are some things I learned yesterday:

• Centurion tanks, put into service by the British in 1945 and still just about going in some odd corners of the world, were designed to have internal water boilers so that the troops inside could have tea.
• The Palace Pier has a service level underneath the main deck, looking like a series of wire cages hanging below it.
• The sea off Brighton is colder in February than it is in January. 9°C then, 6°C now. 
• At 6°C, it's actually better once your face goes numb.
• You can see interesting things on a dive even when the vis is down to half a metre or so - I've never seen that many lurking prawns before.
• Homemade stilton and broccoli soup is very tasty.
• Stacking freezer bags of soup before they're frozen is amusing but not very safe.
• Freezer bags of soup falling from counter height will split open. 

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

Good lord you are hardcore. I'm told that sea temperature lags land temperature by three months so March will be colder still.

Prawns are so fun and comical.

[shermarama]

Yeah. I did think, after this, that I might not dive again til the Easter trip to Weymouth, when it'll be about 9°C again.

Nice suit...

[steer.livejournal.com]

I won't be diving until early May and I bet it will still be cold then. We're doing Swanage (and their Pier). If you ever dive Swanage pier it's really worth looking at the plaques on the pier planks. They apparently decided to restore the pier by allowing people to attach brass plaques to it for a price. Some of these are standard memorials but some are distinctly weird. There's even a memorial plaque "to the fish that the Smith family ate for lunch" (or something similar, I forget the exact wording). There's thousands of these things -- one on each plank of the (long) pier.

[shermarama]

I've never been to Swanage; it doesn't seem to be on Clidive's list, and the Brighton club only leaves Brighton once a year.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Oh -- and please tell me the icon photo was not taken on this trip. Diving with no hood or gloves in 6 degrees!

[shermarama]

Ha! No, you can tell I wasn't diving without hood and gloves by the way I'm not dead. That was on the Thistlegorm t'other week.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I should have guessed but was fooled by the way that the new icon showed up after this trip not your previous one.

[philipstorry.livejournal.com]

The BV (boiling vessel, usually referred to by the troops as a "bivvie") is still a requirement of the British Army - every tank since the Centurion has had one.

I believe it's more than just required to be there - it's required to be usable when the tank is fully sealed for NBC operations. In other words, it can't stress the air filters or steam up the insides of the tank. So it's not something that can be solved with a plug socket and a five quid kettle from the high street...


Some people have speculated that, given the increasing efficiency of handheld anti-tank weapons and the lethality of helicopter-borne weaponry, tanks may be obsolete.

Which would mean our Challenger 2 tanks are affectively a four million quid armoured kettle that can go anywhere.

I see their point, but I'm not about to tell the tank crews.

After all, they have access to sodding great tanks. Pissing them off is not high on my to-do list.

[shermarama]

I was wondering about the steam problem. So it's an armoured *stealth* kettle, and that makes it all worthwhile.

[philipstorry.livejournal.com]

I think stealth might be pushing it.

Disguised, yes.

But the average main battle tank is hardly stealthy...

;-)

[xxxlibris.livejournal.com]

Truly splendid userpic, dude.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

MTE! That is an icon of joy.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

However if you stack the freezer bags of soup separated by layers of cardboard inside a plastic box, and then remove the box when everything is frozen, it all becomes pleasingly stacky.

[shermarama]

Ah, you're one step ahead of me there. I thought of the plastic tub but not the layer separators, so I've got a heap, not a stack.

[purplegril.livejournal.com]

Genius *notes for pasta sauce*