ER un pont?

Y'en a plusieur qui on de la misere a me croire quand je leur dis qu'il n'y a pas de pont dans le sud de la grande terre. C'est pas tout a fait vrai, il y en a certe quelque un mais quand la riviere ou le ruisseau est assez petit les caledoniens ne font plus de pont! Juste des petits blocs de ciment pour dire la route est a peu pres la. Quand c'est le temps des pluies, c'est a dire ce temps ci de l'annee, et ben ca donne ce que vous pouvez voir sur la photo!

faut clicker sur la photo pour voir plus grand

Ta Da Wahoo!

Hier j'ai ete a la peche en mer avec des amis et ca c'est ce qu'on a pogner! Ben oui, rien qu'un poisson, c'est ca la peche. Et quand je dis "on" c'est parce que c'est un effort de groupe. Le truc que j'ai dans les mains c'est un Wahoo, missile intercontinental du monde marin. Ca nage a 80 km/h pis ca a une bouche comme un brochet sur les steroids. C'est pas un gros specimen (apparamment?!?) il ne fait que 25 kilo! Un petit article wiki si le coeur vous en dit: Le Wahoo

Two Weeks At Home

It's tough being on vacation when everyone else is not. I'm not complaining with my mouth full. I enjoy being on vacation. It's just that I'd like for everyone I know to be on vacation at the same time that I am.

After spending one extremely bored monday I decided to go and do stuff because I wasn't, for any reason, going to spend two weeks inside my skull, being bored. First off, I went for a little retail therapy ie: buying stuff and generally spending time in stores looking at stuff I might buy.

I ended up buying a Meccano set. I had seen it when we went skating in february and could not justify the asking price at the time. "What the hell" was the justification this time. Oh, and allegedly I bought it for my children, who are not born, errr not even the shadow of a thought at this point, because, well... err... I can't autoreproduce (that's a good thing...I think) Of course I had to test it to make sure that it was the genuine article.

I can't remember the last time I've had this much fun without touching someone (or being touched by someone for that matter) as I've had with my new Meccano kit. I ended up building a crane.
I also did some painting, on a canvas and everything! I tried out a new technique I was told about by a friend which consists of mixing paint with sawdust to create texture. I'm not too sure about the results. You see, being a bit exessive by nature I figured more is better and, well, my sawdust was more like sawCHUNKS and I've got texture that would rival the surface of the moon. No big deal, I'll just slap some more paint onto it and see what come out. You'll understand that I have no picture to show you, this being a work in progress and everything.

Sometimes (often) I'm at the wrong place at the wrong time. This time though I could not have asked to be home at a better time. When I got there my bonsais were just breaking bud and I could pinch of the terminal shoots to keep them the right size. By the time I was ready to leave the buds had extended and I could nip them to compact growth and favour branching off. Seriously I think some planetary alignement had something to do with the fact that I was home for the most important two weeks of the year in bonsai culture.

I also pretty much listened to one album my whole vacation. I mean endless repeat cycle listened to an album. Dropkick Murphys "Live on Lansdowne" which I think is the perfect remedy for the reggea and pseudo reggea they call Kanake that we are bombarded with around here. You have, I think, to be seriously under the influence of several drugs and/or horse tranquilizers to find Kanake even remotely interesting musicaly. So Irish punk comes as a bit of fresh air after two months of bleugh.

There was question at one point that I would sell my truck. Well, no more. I'm keeping it and furthermore I have decided to turn it into an experiment. Therefore, my truck shall now be known as "The Mule".

Apart from putting new tires on (thanks dad for finding them) I've started to remove all the unessential bits from under the hood. First stop the mess of piping Ford calls an intake ducting. As you can see in the picture it now looks quite neat and the red thingy "sport" (that's a laugh) air filter gives it that "new school" look. Good thing it's under the hood and nobody sees it cause I seriously think it doesn't look to to good. At least it allowed me to remove a whole bunch of plastic pipes that were restricting the airflow to the engine.

Next step is getting rid of the fiberglass box cap. Hey, anybody want to buy a fiberglass cap for a Ford Ranger short box?

I’m ready to go back now!

After living your life out of a suitcase for a while you get the art of packing light down to an art. Distilling everything down to the essentials. For some reason the same thing happens to life in general. All the un-essential bits get left out either by purpose or just because I don’t, can’t, seem to find a way for them to have any importance.

I’ve landed in Montreal last Sunday around midnight and as I’m writing this down it’s Sunday close to midnight. In the span of one week I’ve managed to cover all the essential bits, if only very lightly in some case but covered them I did.

The important bits, in no peculiar order:

I’ve spent some time with my best friend in the whole wide world. (I’ve flown over, at least half of it so you can trust me when I say the world is a big big big place) Anyway, my best friend and his lovely wife are having a child and if that where not enough cause to be happy they saw it fit to name me the child’s godfather (not, as you may be thinking the crazy gun toting Italian type of godfather; more the doting kind)

I’ve spent a pleasant Friday with my other friend (yes, I can count all of my friends on one hand… I can even amputate a few fingers and count them all) A Friday for which I’m really glad she could make the time.

And just this evening I’ve had a grand meal with my whole family.

I’ve given a few gifts here and there to the people I care, to make them smile, to bring in a bit of sunshine. I’ve even managed to receive a completely unexpected and really really cool gift. A signed copy of "Alienor" by Richard Desjardins, how cool is that?

I took care of my bonsais who are extending their new growth and are therefore in need of a bit of training.

Did a bit of yard work with dad, took in the sun.

It’s a fairly light suitcase you’ll agree but in the end, all pared down these are my essentials and I really don’t need anything else. I’m ready to go back, everything’s been covered. Luckily, I still have a week and a few days to go and all I really need to fill those days in is more of the same, lot’s more, of all of it.

Quinze jours au Quebec

Quinze jours au Quebec, ca passe vite en maudit. Quand même, je suis un gars gâté. Ma blonde, Celia, est venu me rejoindre pour une petite vacances ou on a fait plein de trucs ensemble. On a visiter des vieux coin qu'on connaissais déjà et des nouveau qu'on a découvert ensemble. On a été accueillis par Pat et Joanne dans leur nouveau condo. (pas mal beau en passant) On est aller marcher a plusieurs endroits... marina, parc provinciale, montreal biensur et on a même trouver un après-midi pour s'effoirer dans le parc laffontaine et profiter d'un printemps a peine déclarer. Celia a fait pour la première fois expérience d'un déjeuner servi a la chambre d'hôtel! Et, elle a pu manger des meilleurs burgers au Quebec! Ceux de Gilbert!

Celia est repartie du Quebec plus tôt que moi. Le reste de mes "vacances" je l'ai passer a régler un tas de trucs que je n'avais pas eu le temps avant de partir pour la Nouvelle Caledonie. Enfin, une fin de vacances peu glorieuse sauf pour la pièce de théâtre de ma petite soeur qui étais drôle a se faire mal au rein (bon ok peut-être pas mais drôle en maudit pareil) Ah oui, ma maman a décider que même si j'avais pris du poids c'étais pas asser donc elle a décider de me faire engraisser avec des tartes au sucre, du jambon et toute sorte de bonne bouffe.

There Can Be Only One.... Well, Six Actually

It's about time I get around to these as Christmas is quite a ways back already. Mom put on her wishlist some napkin rings this year. She also sent me a picture of some that where cut out of sheet metal in the shape of some fleur-de-lys. Well, I tried. I made one that looked nice enough after three tries but I doubt seriously if I could make six that looked enough alike to be called a set. Let's face it I'm no sheet metal worker. What I am though is a toolmaker and toolmakers are supposedly somewhat good with machine tools. So my final solution was to make these out of vacuum rated stainless steel. Polished the hell out of them and what you see is the final product. They weight in at a quarter pound each so the napkins they will be holding are not going anywhere but the thought of asking everyone at the table to wear steel toed boots in case someone dropped one crossed my mind for oohhh 23 seconds. Imagine the great story you'll be able to tell to your drinking buddies: I was sitting there enjoying my entre when all of a sudden... Bam! right on my little toe. And that is why I walk with a limp since..... All kidding aside I think mom liked them so that's all that counts really.

Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take pictures of the gift I made for my dad so I won't be able to write it up here until he sends me a picture of the finished product.

Bohle My Dear I'll Miss You

I think Pat is the only one who's ever visited my work so I thought I'd take a few pictures of my favorite machine there to give you guys an idea of scale. There it is in all it's glory. It's a German made medium size milling machine. Yes, we've got bigger one's than this one but I like the Bohle, it's a nice aprocheable size and nice to work on. It also contains the whole and extent of my German vocabulary... actually I don't really know what the words mean but I can very well see what's happening when I press the "Notausschalter" button. I think that one means something like emergency stop or something to that effect. By the fact that I'm standing directly on the table you can see this ain't your uncle's drill press! To get a better idea I'm five feet six inches tall. You have to click on the picture to get the whole picture!

Precious Things

What do we hold precious? That's the question I've been asking myself for a little while. I've been packing my things so that I can store them for the time I'll be in New Caledonia. Last weekend Dad and I made a strong box out of plywood so that I can assure the safekeeping of the things I hold precious. So, what do I put in the box? What do I hold precious? What you see are some of the things going in the box. Some are precious in and of themselves, old silver coins, "semi" precious rocks... Others are not so precious for what they are but more so for what they represent. The memories, THOSE are the most precious things going in that box. I guess I could throw out most of these things and still remember the memories. Still, there is something strangely comforting knowing they will be safe. Ready to jog my brain back to what might have become a half forgotten memory. They are just things, the true value of what is in that box is the preservation of my personal history, somewhere in that mass of flesh I call a brain.

Situation Update, Project Update and More!!

Here's a small update on the New Caledonian adventure which by the way is more of a "dealing with the french consulate" adventure up to now. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, oh early hour at the doctors office for my consulate medical. How much of a tough cookie are you? Well I'm not a spring daisy but I don't know how tough I should be... at which point he started jabbing sharp needles into my arm. Vaccines oh ye! Oh and blood work too, cool sorta, not really... an ECG, what the hell is an ECG, ok so you put stickers on my chest and look at the computer monitor for a few minutes, at least there's no needles involved! A chest X-ray, cool, I love the smell of radiation in the morning! After the fun and games at the doctors office it's back to paper work... bloody hell will this never end.

Project update, I showed you a nasty looking little anvil a while back and now I show it to you again. All that remains is a nice final polish and an appropriate looking tree stump to mount it on and it's done. Doesn't look half bad if you ask me. Now what I really need is to learn how to use it properly!

And now for something completely different! In the shits and giggles category I'm proud to present to you the Dali-esque, music lovers, listening room clock! I saw this on Make or Instructables some time ago but never really went ahead with the idea which I think is really cool. Anyway, boil one long play record (yes that's what people mean when they say I just bought a new LP.... long play) so boil your long play until quite pliable and, quite literally, throw it unto a convenient shelf nearby, watch it re-solidify for a few seconds. Install a cheap quartz clock movement and you're done. Cheap and cheery!

Le formulaire A-39 "Les douze travaux d'asterix"

Well, almost a month! Not lack of activity on my part but rather lack of motivation I guess. These past few weeks have been filled to the brim with paperwork! And, not the nice kind of paperwork either. Application for a long stay visa and work permit is a torture I would reserve only for the very worst of my enemies. I swear they must be making some of this stuff up as I go along, there's no way this is the normal procedure.

Seriously the object of the exercise is to take one guy from here and send him somewhere else (for a time) to work and hopefully better the knowledge of the place he is going to. I mean, frankly, if you look at it from that simple statement how hard can it be. Plenty hard is the answer if you ask the bureaucrats.

The moral of the story is, if you hear on the news that a bureaucrat has been killed in action you will not have to look very far to find the culprit. And, if you are of the bureaucratic brotherhood I urge you to find something fulfilling and meaningful to do with your life. Something not involving the shuffling of paper or the passing of the puck to the next in line. I guarantee your days will be brighter and your outlook on life will be better!

That said I did get the chance to transplant my little bonsai in training. It's not the proper time of year to do so but I have little choice in the matter. They'll spend the time I'm gone in my parents yard, tucked between a telephone pole and a fence. Hopefully they'll survive the transplantation and be invigorated by their time there.

Lazy Weekend

So this is what we did on the weekend, apart from drinking beer and teasing kiddo about something I do not wish to tell you! I just don't want to provoke her wrath. She'd probably cast a spell to turn me into a newt! Anyway, back to the program! We went walking in the Montreal Botanical Gardens. Great fun was had by all. I think. On saturday we had a nice homey supper. Something like the kinds of suppers we used to have on a schoolday when we were all living at home. Good simple food, good company what else should someone ask for?

Oh! And I got the time to do the brakes on my truck but that is relatively unimportant.

For those who didn't know: You can click on any picture on my blog to go see a bigger version!

Good things come to those who wait

The saying turns out to be true, I guess. I finally got the offer from Vale Inco! The salary, conditions, perks etc.... are all way beyond my expectations! In a few months I'll be on a plane, for 40hours no less, and when it lands I'll start a new life. Exaggerating a bit but it's not far from the truth! Imagine that, south pacific island, taking 6 young lives and teaching them the way! And free to teach the the way I choose. The old way, the only way to make machinists and not "button jockeys" and "shop hands".

I've been told on different occasions by different people "you're a master machinist" or "you're a master toolmaker". I've always disliked the term "master" it is so often thrown lightly and without warrant. 20 years experience doing the same thing over does not a master make. A master, in my view, has "mastered" every facet of his chosen profession and can vulgarise to an uninitiated and be understood.

Maybe teaching for 18 months will take me closer to being a true master. We'll see.

Last Weekend

Last weekend was the monthly visit (hell that sounds like going to an old folks home, I assure you it's not) I was saying, after picking-up kiddo at her flat we drove to my parents place for the weekend. My dad bought me a bandsaw as a "commission" for hooking him up with a couple of contracts to make shipping boxes for the place I work at. If you ask me, which is unlikely, the commission was way to much for the actual amount of work involved. Nonetheless I'm very pleased to have a sturdy bandsaw and I already have a project for it to be started this coming weekend! First though I have to fit casters on it so I can take it outside where I can handle large pieces of timber. Maybe that'll be my project for Saturday and I'll be able to start the actual woodworking on Sunday, weather permitting.

Below is errrrr "un coffre a ca-canne" or something like that. You get to see the picture because I had to prove that I have so many ca-cannes that I had to make dedicated storage for them. Dad and I made this thing last Saturday. I've been working for years in a shop and my dad's been working wood since before I was born and you know what it's been ages since the last time we did something together in the shop. I really enjoyed it.

Now mom, you reading this? Next time I come down for a weekend better get your paint box out 'cause we'll be painting! Maybe we can coax kiddo to bring her paints and canvases too and make it a colourful afternoon. :o)

Careful, Tornado Like Rant in Progress

You guy's had me going there! Boy, what a deception. I just got five copies of the latest Lee Valley flyer from the assistant to the president with a small note that the picture of my router plane was on the inside cover.

Bloody hell, you couldn't even tell what it is at that size. I've tried it, a quarter (as in a 25cent piece) covers it all. Wow, Aren't the other guy and me winners too? I am slighted by this and I would've rather had no mention in their catalog than that. At least Woodcentral (the host of the contest) had the decency to put up all three winners on equal standings.

This isn't a call to boycott or anything like that. Lee Valley makes and distributes fine products and I will continue to buy from them in the future. Now, if I could have a few words with the guy who picks what's going to be on the cover. Next time around have only one winner that way you won't piss off anyone, and you won't be forced to publish a 1"X1 7/16" picture that shows absolutely nothing in a failing effort to please everyone. Or better yet put everybody who wins on the cover! What a novel idea you say! Just plain old common sense if you ask me, which you didn't but that's normal.

There I feel better now.

Untitled

You know it would be nice to have some of you comment once in a while. Sorta let me know who's reading this stuff if anybody?

Hey, kiddo, you're excused from the duty call!

The Grand Prize

Remember a little while back I told of a contest I won with one of my little creations. Well, this is what I got out of it. The prize was 300$. Which I thought was a 300$ gift certificate for Lee Valley. Apparently I didn't read right because a 300$ cheque showed up in the mail. Having my heart set on spending that gift certificate I just treated the cash as such. Here we go: A book about skin on frame boatbuilding, a book of art nouveau designs for sho' cards and signs, a barometer insert(handy when barometric pressure triggers headheaches), copper plant tags for my bonsais and last but not least the queen of them all one of those fancy Veritas 200$ block planes. Smoothest plane I ever used. I hope to get a whole lot of mileage out of that one.

On top of the cheque there was also two magazine subscriptions one for "Fine Tools" and the other for "Popular Woodworking". To top it all off my dad just told me that there is a picture of a mechanically perfect router plane (their words not mine) in the front cover of their latest flyer. Some dinky scraper made the cover but I was expecting as much my entry wasn't spectacular but it does exactly what it is supposed to do.

Fluevog's and the Wait!

Well, three weeks and counting. It's quite frustrating to wait for something but this is unbearable. I re-read the last e-mail about a zillion times and yes I've got the job but no sight of an offer or a contract yet. They said I would hear from them in a couple of weeks. What's a couple of weeks??? Anyway, to distract myself a little bit I went shoe shopping with Kiddo (little sister and I'm known as Big Brother and the Holding company) If you're old enough to remember who that was then congrats on making it this far, if not then I shall tell you. Big Brother and the Holding Company were Janis Joplin's backing band in the early days. Anyway, back to Kiddo and I shoe shopping. To be fair I already knew what I wanted. Someone turned me on to Fluevog's and I had to go and see for myself if they're all they're hyped up to be. Happy to say first impressions are very favorable. Now all I need to find out is how long are they going to last? It's a Canadian company so I was ok with paying a bit more than I usually would, though they were on special, else I could never afford them. Click on Fluevog if you want to see their site. The model I have is the "Hitch"

Well Folks

It's 11h past and my nose is stuffy and my head feels like there is too much stuff in it! Just got back from mom and dad's with kiddo on board. I think I've got myself a bloody cold! Not one this year and now that it' finally nice out I catch one. Bloody hell. Not everything is bad news though. And now for something completely different>>>>>

Bonjour monsieur Gingras,

A la lumière des informations recueillies lors de notre conversation téléphonique et après discussion avec Jean-Marc Landry, responsable maintenance centrale, j’ai le plaisir de vous informer que vous êtes retenu pour le poste de « technicien de maintenance ».

Well folks that pretty much means I got the job! All I've got to do now is see what their offer is like and if I agree to it sign on the dotted line

I've got loads of stuff to show you guys mostly past projects but some new one's as well. We'll see how this cold goes and I'll try to do some updates during the week.

Thank you Tara for the comments. I did not find you on the ravelry (knitting for those wondering what the hell!) website. Maybe I'm not 100% with their interface.

THE INTERVIEW

Well that was a first! I just had an interview dressed in my pj bottoms sitting on the couch with people 17000kMs away. It went surprisingly well! I guess it helped that the guy I'd be working for is a Quebequer (however I'm supposed to write that???) . They asked me if I was a patient person and I said yes then they asked me what I though was a bad character trait and without skipping a beat I told them I had a short fuse, which made him laugh. All in all I think it was a really good interview. I really hit it off with this guy and I think it might be fun to work for him. The HR girl that was with him had absolutely no clue what we were talking about so she mostly stayed quiet.

What she did tell me was this. Within 15 days I'll know weather or not I got the job. From there on I will be put in contact with their man in Toronto. He in turn will help me get all the papers in order>visa, medic coverage, criminal record (I didn't get that one either) etc... That can take three months! If all that goes off without a hitch the lady from over there will be waiting for me at the airport with tickets in hand and the minute I board that plane I will be frocked into the order. I think they have a secret handshake and decoder rings too...

One thing on my mind

Well, countdown to the interview that might just change my plans for the oh... next three years or so! Pretty much all I can think about right now. New Caledonia, hell I didn't even know where it was two weeks ago and now I desperately want to be there. I'll try to put up some updates during the weekend. Actually, I was going to do that now but I found out the hard way that the batteries in my camera are dead. So, charge up and possibly tomorrow some updates with nice pictures and all.