Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Happy new year!

Just a quickie as a “distraction” from TMR 4 as Dougal charges around the house and Liz packs for an MA module in Edinburgh next week.  Unlike you guys I’m not really doing a separate Phase 4 so I’m developing what I’ve been doing up til now, with an aim to join some of our designers to get the A and B competencies ticked.  This works for me, but I’m starting to feel conscious of the fact that I’ve not got overly technical yet.

TAR jobs.  These are going well and materials are finally getting specced and ordered; I’ve made a few calls on materials for some of the lines that are being replaced so that’s always an interesting one!  There are still a few outstanding issues mind, including the only remaining vendor pulling out of the fabrication of one of the emergency shutdown valves (ESDVs) on the cold boot upgrade.  We’ve now got another procurement team on the case, as ESDVs have a 20-week lead time and the TAR starts in July…

The ETAP ALQ is moving forwards slowly, mostly due to it getting pushed down on my priorities list.  This isn’t ideal and it may get “taken from me” if I don’t get some progress on it, but there are only so many hours etc. etc and the programme lead understands that.  I’ve asked if I can keep it chugging along and give it to Imran when he gets in as it’s a nice and easy (albeit pretty big) one to start off on.

The Magnus Bravo crane.  We have a decision, and the decision is… PIECEMEAL!!!!!  After months of investigating and putting together arguments for different options we’ve going with a piecemeal/stick build approach (like a 6-piece lego set) to replace the 100 tonne Bravo crane.  The reasons: essentially it’s because there are known-unknowns using a piecemeal approach, plus it is easier to modify if and when things slip.  The HLV option is technically easier (once the cab’s removed, sail in a big ship with a massive crane on it up to Magnus to swap the cranes over in single lifts), but the unknowns remain unknown and it’s a lot of commitment that can easily change.  For more details see TMR 4 where I investigate what drives the selection of the method!

And in other news: Christmas was spent at home in Scotland with the in-laws up for a few days and various other visitors here and there.  We got another day of skiing in on Cairngorm which was good fun, maybe best described as “better than some days I’ve had in the Alps”.  I also got the axes out for a play on Lochnagar which was exciting, but the ice was melting rapidly so we didn’t get too much done.  Lots of good walks on the beaches, woods and over the hills though.  Looks like the weather is starting to chill again over the next few weeks, so hopefully get some routes in between the thesis and everything else.

Liz is loving life in RHQ right now – with a Regt 2IC on resettlement courses and the RCMO gapped it’s not the easiest of lobs for her so we take it in turns to complain about our workloads.  She normally wins hands down during the week, but I champion it at weekends!