Futureboy

Mate, I just think showing a wee bit of respect to a man who is no longer with us whilst his family is in attendance is reasonable. If that puts me in a position to f**k off, so be it.

Fair comment mate.

Seen a bit on social media about Dee's disrupting the minutes applause for JYM. I'm hoping that's not true (and I'll happily stand corrected). I'd like to think the Dundee fans I know are better than that given his family will be there.

It's quite the flounce!

I've been tested umpteen times through work. Twice I've got an NHS test due to contact with positive cases identified by the Protect Scotland app and another due to displaying symptoms (negative).

Gave my Ti Seamaster a bit of TLC over the weekend. Took it off the bracelet and stuck it on a NATO, gave it a good clean and repainted the bezel markers. This watch hasn't had an easy life as was worn offshore for years, but still looks good. Dagaz Typhoon TII came in to my possession. Had a horrible indent in the bezel but managed to Dremel it out. Picked up a Seiko Actus. Much smaller than I'm used to, but love it. The numbers match my birth month and year and keeps perfect time

Can't get my head around this. He's not done anything to warrant it (that I've seen).

This is tosh. He's worked on the same rig (not a platform) for years. In fact, I think he's been on the same one since he started offshore. He always came over as pretty sound in my dealings with him. We had a good bit of banter in the week leading up to the United v St. Johnstone final even though he was backing St. Johnstone.

It sounds like our paths may have crossed at some point then, having been to the majority of these places myself, amongst others. My weirdest moment was having a private helicopter known within the company as "Airwolf", flying a solo me around various rigs in the GoM at my request, but I'm not sure what relevance any of that has to the issue you raised about dry docks and the use of Nigg as a decom hub.

You are entirely missing the point. A dry dock doesn't work by size, it works by the tonnage per sq m it is in a position to facilitate. I'm going to assume your experience is limited to platforms. As Strichener points out, Hartlepool took advantage of the Enterprise Zone. Anyway, Andy Wightman.

97% of the Brent's were suitable for recycling. Asbestos on old platforms is relatively prevalent. As far as possible NORM is flushed before the platform arrives ashore so the steel can be recycled. Not much concrete comes ashore, the concrete gravity base structure is left in the sea and capped.

Aye, I've been on a semi in Nigg a few times. When I was at Hartlepool, they extended/strengthened the dry dock to take the weight of the big platforms. It can take something like 28,000T. They were using the steel from an old jacket as reinforcement. I tried to find out about the capacity of Nigg but couldn't see figures, just that it's marketed as suitable for mobiles, and ships. I'm assuming (possibly wrongly) that it's not strong enough to take a big platform. I've only seen one semi in the DD at one time and that's what, about 15,000-18,000T? ETA: Hartlepool DD is a fair bit larger than Nigg.

I spent a bit of time working at Hartlepool just prior to the first of the Brents coming in. We had a much bigger project team than those involved in the decom job. The reality is that by the time time the topsides arrive at the quayside for destruct, it doesn't support that much employment. You are basically looking at a handful of subcontracted guys with gas axes. I think it was the NW Hutton or Murchie which had been decommissioned before we got there, and the place resembled a giant scrapheap challenge. Some decom work has been carried out in Scotland. Buchan A was done at Lerwick and Spirit Energy's Morcambe Bay platforms are going to Fife this year. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Nigg is limited by the tonnage it can accommodate so it would be limited to taking smaller topsides.

One of my dogs went through a couple of weeks of random accidents (totally out of character) and it was down to a urine infection. Make sure you really clean and disinfect the pee spots to get rid of any scent, or she might come to associate that as an accepted place to slash. Also, my other dog drinks sea water like that every time I take him to the beach and we have to walk for a good while until the spew stops and we can get in the car. I just think he's a bit thick!

Aye, I was about 17.5% off the back of a fag packet too, but it worked out at about 5.5 times more than I would have spent on fuel/commuting. As happy as I was to still be getting an income, I definitely felt a hit over eight months of it. I didn't enjoy one minute of furlough. Eight months of wondering when the call was coming to say I was punted (work in an industry hard hit by the effects of the virus). Fortunately I've found another, better job...but furlough wasn't enjoyable for a lot of folk.

An example of one here, but I was worse off after 8 months of furlough. Sure, I saved travel costs, but my utility bills increased and there was no reduction in for example child maintenance costs to reflect the fact I was only on 80% of my salary.

Some dogs are lactose intolerant. My raw fed dogs get the odd bit of cheese without any bother and the odd dollop of creme fraiche . Some dogs handle it, others don't.

Bowie is my MP. Was delighted to see the job Monbiot did on him, and the Tories in general today.

As much as I like my dogs, walking them in this weather is shite!

I'll bow down to your superior knowledge of legislation and re-evaluate my past 20 years of a career as a health and safety advisor. Look up goal setting legislation v prescriptive legislation.

It's down to the employer to conduct a risk assessment and put in place suitable control measures. That is not the government's responsibility, in exactly the same way that the government don't mandate the use of safety glasses or other PPE.

That's entirely down to your old man's employer and hee haw to do with NS, in the same way that it's your old man's employers responsibility to implement every other piece of H&S legislation.

Fair do's I worked in China for a short time and the standard of work blew me away in terms of quality control (and that was what I was there to audit).

A completely non argumentative post, but why is someone neither British or European not worth a decent wage? These far east factories are employing skilled workers, certified to ISO standards and often ethically audited. Personally, I'd rather have the best gear which kept me warm and dry, after assuring myself they weren't exploiting anyone.

Fair play if I'm wrong. I have a pair of Munro sallopettes which are 100% made here. I'm not 100% against buying from the Far East, if the company puts due diligence in to their suppliers (inclusive of employee conditions). I've two old Patagucci jackets which have been repaired free of charge despite being made there. Not sure how my footprint would compare if if just chucked them and bought new twice.