What's on the workbench!

[McColm]

Thursday 30th October 2025

I got a text message to cover the 7am to 7pm shift at Coca-Cola, so the trip to the Library is off and extra cover is required for Friday. My name has been put forward but there's no confirmation by the Control Room at Kingdom Services Group in Saint Helens as yet.
Things have changed since I was last there, I'm on door duty and incoming parcels as well as CCTV monitoring. For all you Fanta lovers there's four new cans and three new flavours especially for Halloween.
All the top brass are in today with various meetings, so the cleaning team has been busy. Even one of the toilet handles door handles came off.
I noticed on the way in that the Royal Air Force are out with the tins and selling the poppies, they've changed the colour of the uniform to something similar to the USAF.
Got to go back to reception at 5pm and stay there until the night shift turns up.

[McColm]

Saturday 1st November 2025

I received a phone call from the scheduler and I'm working tomorrow on the day shift at Devonshire Square up by Liverpool Street Station.
Yesterday I was working on days 8am until 8pm at Coca-Cola, got caught up in the rain in the evening. It seems as if the Halloween spirit has already started, I have to say that some of the outfits were very convincing, whereas London's roads when it comes to surface water the pedestrian comes in second place, I know that I was soaked but driver's could go a bit slower through the puddles.

[PR19_Kit]

It's actually an offence if drivers splash pedestrians as they go past. Has been for a number of years, but how many times has it been enforced? I'd suggest 'never' would be close.............

[McColm]

Tuesday 4th November 2025

Well it looks as though I haven't got any work this week, (famous last words) .I have in the stash the 1/24 Italeri Longwheel base Land Rover Fire Truck and the 1/24 Austin FX4 London Black Cab.
The Land Rover is a possible GB candidate, I just need to find some suitable rotors. There's an amphibious London Taxi based on the Austin FX4 that used to be seen on the River Thames near Tower Bridge.
I'm off out to check out Charlton House library opening times from 2pm -5:30pm on Tuesday. Closed on Wednesday but there's Fireworks in the grounds during the evening.
Open on Thursday afternoon until 7pm. If everything goes well I will be editing a lot of my work that's been posted.

[McColm]

Tuesday 4th November 2025

Well it looks as though I haven't got any work this week, (famous last words) .I have in the stash
 the 1/24 Italeri Longwheel base Land Rover Fire Truck and the 1/24 Austin FX4 London Black Cab.
The Land Rover is a possible GB candidate, I just need to find some suitable rotors. There's an amphibious London Taxi based on the Austin FX4 that used to be seen on the River Thames near Tower Bridge.
I'm off out to check out Charlton House library opening times from 2pm -5:30pm on Tuesday. Closed on Wednesday but there's Fireworks in the grounds during the evening.
Open on Thursday afternoon until 7pm. If everything goes well I will be editing a lot of my work that's been posted.

Well I can't remember my password to login with this site, I used to be able to sign in as a guest but I didn't see the box to click on. I have no idea which file my photos are on and I might have opened a new account on Flickr. Apart from that the library is on the small side, I just need to go back on Thursday with proof of my address and sign out 'The idiots guide to use a PC '.
Alternatively there's some really good deals for the Black Friday Sale so I'll have to wait until payday to buy a cheap laptop.

[McColm]

Friday 7th November 2025

I have managed to pick up a few shifts next week and this weekend includes the Remembrance Parade at Whitehall. Every year I'll say that I will be part of the spectators but alas not this time. I'll catch it up on one of the news channels.
I will be training on Thursday 13th at the Diabetes UK Wells, Lawrence House, East Aldgate/Whitechapel, London E1 on the night shift and then on the weekend on the day shift with a few more shifts at the end of the month plus a few more in December, the other places are Westbourne Terrace near Paddington Station and BBVA, Canada Square.
More good news I have work for the first three weeks of December on nights at Lawrence House (subject to change).
I did hear the fireworks going off around the estate but didn't see much of the display, I think that the walk to the library and back again has worn me out, it's a steepish hill to walk up.
If you are ordering items from TEMU just check the size twice ,they do offer your money back and I must say that the dispatch times are very quick but it depends on the product. They now do plastic model kits although the range is very limited.
I will be stocking up with supplies next week and buying a roasting tray amongst other things, as I can use the electric oven now I can bend down to use it.

[McColm]

Monday 10th November 2025

I'm trying out AliExpress, placed an order for three items at the ridiculous price of 30p each from their promotional products: a cutting board,  an organiser/ welding board and some paint brushes. They also sell a limited amount of plastic model kits.
 On Sunday I watched the cenotaph parade, someone needs to tell Gordon Brown not to fidget or move up and down on his heels when the media is watching him. You can raise the heel of the shoe slowly to relax your feet/leg but you have to do it without anyone noticing it when standing for long periods of time. Other than that the parade was okay. I switched off after the delegates went inside for a cup of tea and biscuits.
 I saw one of the first videos/v blogs of the model show going on in Telford. Very impressive, which has given me a few ideas. I did notice that one of the exhibits has a broken undercarriage leg on a F-15 Eagle, whether this was intentional or a mishap. The modeller just left it under the wing.  Some of those builds must have taken ages to assemble and get the weathering just right.
 I'll tackle the ironing in the afternoon and read my notes for the site on Wednesday.

[McColm]

Wednesday 12th November 2025

Today I'm up working on the reception desk for  Wall Paper Publishing,  Countryside Future and Nissan at Westbourne Terrace near Paddington Station.
As usual complete chaos when it comes to deliveries and collections with no lists of items and no telephone directory but the staff are very friendly in more ways than one.
I took two buses, they were both on diversion as the South Circular road between Woolwich and New Charlton is being altered, Greenwich High Road closed and no buses are stopping outside the main entrance to Paddington Station as part of Prade Street is also being dug up.
On the plus side the lights do look pretty in Hyde Park and the Christmas lights are on around Marble Arch.
I didn't get to see the Northern Lights last night but they say that they might be seen tonight in the London area.

[McColm]

Friday 14th November 2025

TEMU has got a sale on at the moment and I have bought a reconditioned Samsung Laptop at a very cheap price and a heavy duty single bed frame. Well the bed frame is free with the deal,had to buy something priced at £20 in order to get it, this after working a 16 hour shift last night up in Whitechapel. Three interesting bus rides and surprisingly quick for a Thursday evening.
It's still raining from last night, I witnessed a cyclist getting stabbed as I was waiting for the security officer to train me at the reception desk. Luckily a motorist intervened and called the police. Six police vehicles arrived within minutes of the incident.

[NARSES2]

Friday 14th November 2025

I witnessed a cyclist getting stabbed as I was waiting for the security officer to train me at the reception desk. Luckily a motorist intervened and called the police. Six police vehicles arrived within minutes of the incident.

Flippin' Ada. Hope the guy was ok ? Whitechapel always used to be a bit dodgy, but never like that.

[McColm]

Friday 14th November 2025

I witnessed a cyclist getting stabbed as I was waiting for the security officer to train me at the reception desk. Luckily a motorist intervened and called the police. Six police vehicles arrived within minutes of the incident.

Flippin' Ada. Hope the guy was ok ? Whitechapel always used to be a bit dodgy, but never like that.

After the police arrived, I only saw one person get arrested but didn't see an ambulance arrive unless it was parked up further along the high street and out of sight from where I observed the incident.

[McColm]

Sunday 16th November 2025

The South ramp of the Blackwell Tunnel is closed due to maintenance over the weekend, so all of the traffic has been diverted to the Silvertown Tunnel. I saw the bus that takes bicycles through the tunnel on the way to work.
The bus journey has taken me less than an hour with three connections, on eBay I have put in an bid for about 15-20 models that need restoration in particularly the Sud Aviation Caravelle and the de Havilland Comet 4C, both lacking the undercarriage. Whether I'm lucky or not I have enough to be getting along with.
I caught the Eubank v Benn 2 fight .Well done Benn.

Feeling very tired as the shift is from 9am to 9pm over the weekend, I had a Chinese takeaway last night and didn't get any sleep until midnight. Too much coffee consumption as its free.
One more shift tomorrow at Canada Square in the afternoon and then 9 days off until it starts all over again for the next three weeks.

[McColm]

Monday 17th November 2025

It looks like this week will be busy as there's a lot of packages arriving, which is a good thing as I'm in need of some downtime . I have to admit that whilst the 108 bus was on diversion over the weekend it's route was a lot quicker, got home at 9:30pm.
Just getting things ready for this afternoon's shift up in Canary Wharf.
Yesterday I thought it was going to snow or at least get a flurry as it was bitterly chilly in the evening up in Whitechapel whilst waiting for the number 115 bus.

Tomorrow I will venture out and get a few supplies at the larger retail park.

Filler, papers and rattle cans. A thin layer of dust has descended on the builds
 waiting to get finished. Slow and steady seems to be the process.


No work for today, I will return on the 27th November. However the Samsung Chrome Workbook laptop has been delivered. Its been recommissioned but has a couple of scratches in the screen no wonder it was less than £50 on TEMU. I'm setting it up right now.

[McColm]

Tuesday 18th November 2025

Yesterday it took an age to upload stuff on this site and I have noticed not all has come through. The 1/72 Contrail Hawker Siddeley Shackleton Mk.1 vacuum kit is lacking the upper gun turret although it does have the clearish dome. Fortunately for me these parts are included in the Aeroclub Avro Shackleton Mk.2 conversion set.
The Revell 1/144 Ekranoplan A-90 model kit arrived yesterday ,got a few ideas for the next GB and a few changes to the model as well.
After lunch I slept well for a few hours waking up in the early hours of this morning.
It's definitely getting colder in Southeast London.

The Samsung Chrome Workbook won't allow me to upload my photos on my Flickr account, so a proper laptop or cheap PC will be needed. The PC in my local library uses the Cloud. I have tried using this but I haven't been able to follow the step-by-step guide.
The URL link allows you to click on it to reveal the photo, I know it's not quite the same but it's the best I can do at the moment.

My new bed frame arrived today and there's lots of bolts leftover after I followed the instructions on how to construct it.

[McColm]

Thursday 20th November 2025

The TEMU heavy duty bed frame isn't ideal for adults, it only lasted four hours before the middle supporting legs gave way putting a kink in one of the side stretchers. This could be repaired if I had the tools but at least I now have a headboard and a footboard, since it was a freebie the parts might be used for something else.

The 1/72 Avro Shackleton AEW.3 hasn't gone to plan as the nose is slightly longer than the MR.1, the white metal tail wheel broke off so I have bodged the nose wheel to take it's place. Putty has been applied to most of the larger gaps. An in-flight refuelling probe from a C-130 protruding from the upper flat nose.
My AEW.3 doesn't have the stubby look that the MR.1 has, the tail is slightly longer than the MR.2.
When I buy the Sanger Avro Shackleton MR.1 I will be using the wings, cockpit, landing gear, engines and twin tail fins from a donor model.