The older I get the more bemused and even disturbed about the actions of my fellow human beings! I call it the human condition which was brought to my attention by an Australian Biologist called Jeremy Griffiths. Jeremy has even formed an organisation called the World Transformation Movement.
From Jeremy’s point of view the way we are as humans is down to how we are neurologically wired. He uses many examples in the animal kingdom. We have primeval drivers, what I call our more basic primeval instincts. The reasons why certain humans have a propensity for such things as addictive natures and if not careful go on a downhill spiral with things such as gambling, alcohol, food, violence, theft, drugs and many other forms of addiction. Such as psychological control of others and the pursuit of money and power! Why do many younger men and women choose to commit suicide. Do they have sense of hopelessness and pointlessness of their existence? That tells me humanities value systems are all wrong, especially in how we value our life and all other forms of life.
Let’s use a small example of everyday instance of my train journey to Liverpool airport. My train ticket, which I bought on the app Train.com. It was a return ticket and my journey planner told me I had to change at Chester. I had to go to platform 7b get the 8.57am to Liverpool Limestreet station. I asked a passenger was this the train coming into station for Liverpool Limestreet. He said “yes”, I said “great”. However he said you can’t get on the train if you’ve come from wales? He said they’ll will fine you? I saw a station employee asked him if it was okay to use the train with my ticket? I said it told me on my app the recommended journey to Liverpool South park way. Using Mersey Rail from Chester to Limestreet station. I saw the doors had closed and thought I’ll miss my train, so I moved back to towards the doorway. I had walked away from train employee and he said I’m the driver, as I’m slightly deaf, it didn’t register what he said right away. He repeated “I’m the driver” I said okay! I showed him my ticket and journey planner which told me to take the Mersey rail train. He said well you can take the train via Runcorn but I said on my journey planner it stated using Mersey rail. I think I remember few years earlier a similar instance regarding Mersey rail trains and tickets!
I thought how would a foreigner deal with this situation? All trains in the U.K. have different regional and national rail companies so why would Mersey Rail be different? Therefore why have the U.K. complicated the rail network with different independent rail providers ? In Europe they have state run train companies in France, Spain, Italy and Germany. Why did the U.K. opt for such a complex disjointed system using separate operator companies? Conservatives brought this in after they denationalised British Rail. Some lines now don’t make a profit and have to be subsidised by the tax payer, whilst still rewarding stock shareholders? Public transport system I believe are part of a counties infrastructure and financial well being! Later I heard that the new Labour government will renationalise certain rail providers again? What’s with the U.K.? Capitalism is not always the answer for cost effectiveness!
Finally I arrived at Liverpool airport after getting the airport bus to the airport. I had no bags to check in so went straight upstairs to the security area. I had two rucksacks one had my laptop. I had to put my two bags jacket and belt into the separate trays. One was diverted after going through the X-ray machine. I waited for one of the security staff to bring it forward. She was a big lady with a strong Liverpudlian accent. No eye contact with no civil niceties. She told me to take out my lap top and remove from its cover. She used a wipe to clean the outside then asked me to open it so she could repeated the wiping of the inside. Once finished she took it away to be x-rayed again. I thought she could at least of been more civil. I thought she’s not a happy lady and happy with her job! Appreciate its very repetitive job checking baggage for suspicious contents. Surely human interaction with passengers would brighten her day? I find airport security people rather authoritarian! People’s actions aren’t always what they say but what they do and how they act!
This takes me to my recent short contract at the New Nuclear power station construction project. Another complex expensive British engineering project with construction delays and significant budget over run costings.
Albert Einstein once stated with every thing in life try make it as simple or if not simpler. Why do we humans make things much more complicated than they need to be? When they get overly complex they become unmanageable! Hence massive cost overruns.
As a side note when I was on the Mersey Rail train a couple sat next to me I ask them did the Mersey Rail train stop at Limestreet station. They said yes! I explained about what had happened with my ticket situation. They had got on the train at Flint which is on wales train service. They said that tickets were useable on Mersey rail. They were friendly couple we chatted and I told them where I was going and I asked were they both Welsh? Yes and they recently both had DNA tests through ancestry to see where their family roots originated from. He said he was 100% Welsh she said she had Irish roots and an Irish ancestry. The lady said her Irish heritage had been rail workers and had emigrated to North America. I ask them were they going to Liverpool to do some shopping they said “no.”
They were both Jehovah’s Witnesses. They were going to a pitch or stand in Liverpool to do a stint at mid day enticing passers by to become members of their religious sect! . Now this made me realise that other humans like to be members of a formalise religion. But I think it’s to have a sense of belonging being with like minded people. Religion does give us humans a sense of purpose and a deeper spiritual connection.
Okay let’s look at my brief time on the new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point near Bridgewater Somerset. Back in 2022 I did some work and in 2023 and again in 2024. I am a specialist pipe welder and have worked on petrochemical refineries, liquid natural gas storage, offshore floating ship production facilities and power generation. I was away in Greece on my sailing boat Stella Polaris and was contacted by a U.K. employment agency for work at the new nuclear power station construction project at Hinkley point C. Which is based on the river Severn estuary. It’s a two reactor nuclear power plant. I thought the money would be useful in building up savings for my world sailing odyssey project. I didn’t plan to stay long as my biological clock is ticking and next year I’ll be 74. I need to get on with my sailing odyssey before I get too old!
It was long drawn out process regarding character & criminal reference checks! Whilst waiting I picked up some welding work at Harwell science park in Oxfordshire near Didcot. It was the construction of new Moderna pharmaceutical facility for the covid vaccines.
I eventually joined the project on the 7 October 2024. First day was at Bridgewater technical college theoretical knowledge test on welding with a few safety questions thrown in. Next we went down to the workshop to undertake practical pipe weld test.
Following day was a medical I had a problem with the spirometry test:
You take a deep breath in and then blow it out into the mouthpiece as hard as you can. This has to be done three times. The spirometer will measure how much air you can breathe out of your lungs and how fast you eject it. Mine measured slightly below the dotted acceptable level. I was scheduled to retake it. Unfortunately it was on my return day after a scheduled long weekend break.
My medical lung capacity test was rescheduled for the 18 November. I thought that will allow me to earn few more weeks wages. I’ve never smoked but it’s been an issue over the last few years each time I’ve done this spirometry lung blow capacity test?
After the medical we had to do a site induction training to understand safety procedures being a designated nuclear site. After Induction we were introduced to the site it’s self and were issued with our security passes. We had intro meeting with union delegates to explain the benefits of being a member. I’ll return to that later. From there we collected our personal protective equipment and were designated a locker for our PPE. First it was on the western side afterwards I was moved to the east side.
It’s a large site with four worker canteens or restaurants at northern, southern, eastern and west location of the facility. There are buses that constantly rotate around the site to transport workers to their respective locker locations. I was staying in Burnham on Sea each morning I had to get the 5.25am bus to the work site. Usually arriving at about 6.20am. There was always a large contingency of workers, each morning we had to run the gauntlet of security before you reached the turnstiles to enter the site proper. From there we had to get the internal buses to my locker location on the eastern side of the site.
Once you put your Personal Protective Equipment on such as safety boots, overall high visibility jackets, hard hat, safety glasses and gloves you could again go through another set of turnstiles and clock on using biometric finger identification test. I found it a problem with this method of clocking in. Didn’t recognise my finger print even got the payroll to change from right middle finger to my left index finger. Didn’t seem to rectify the problem, another annoyance!
Walking down past big Carl the huge reactor crane. Each day I had to report to the welding store and supervisors. Unfortunately there was no TIG welding required as the pipe work hadn’t started. I asked if I could retake the MMA welding test. Spoke with my supervisor about it but didn’t get any further feedback? There was general Laissez-faire attitude. Or like a shrug of the shoulders!!
The mechanical consortium was a number of specialist mechanical engineering companies. The large site was strange to initially to find your bearings. But the management weren’t great at explaining what the time lines were on the project. From the time I was there I didn’t carry out hardly any welding work!
It was rather soul destroying and with out welding work to do the days were long and tedious! On the 18 November for some reason I had the time wrong for my medical lung test, I was 15 minutes late and my security pass was blocked because my examination was cancelled for being late. Meaning I couldn’t come back onto the site until I had a further lung capacity test. I hadn’t felt too well the week before due to lack of quality sleep at night. I thought I might have a problem with the test anyway. The first available test was the following evening at 21.30. I said I wouldn’t be able to get back to my digs as there were no buses at that time to Burnham on Sea. The next was the following Friday I explained that was the long weekend break. I thought I’m not happy with the overall situation. Really draconian state of affairs! I’m coming in each day with nothing to do and sitting or wandering around the site trying to hide out of the way. Now I’m blocked from coming onto the site! What a crazy place!
My general feeling was the size and the complex nature of the project with thousands and thousands of workers with little or nothing substantive to do. The wage costs alone involved must be phenomenal! With financial budgets running completely out of control. Nothing appeared joined up with basic shrug of the shoulders when asked about things. Because I wasn’t a 100 per cent well, I thought these long hours and with my disruptive sleep it was taking it toll on my health! I sent WhatsApp message to the GMB delegate about my being blocked from the site. We prearranged a time for him to call, he never bothered to contact me. So much for the union I thought? I also thought maybe my bodies telling me “Paul please forget about work and enjoy the rest of your retirement days?”
I guess it was another wake up call I’ve had few lately. I suppose it’s hard to come to terms with the aging process. I also see changes in the working environment which I don’t like. The extreme nature of the safety culture, look you can’t eliminate risk completely. Also the technical aspects of inspection and traceability it’s slows everything down and prevents you working. Hot work permits cool down period and on it goes. Documentation of procedures and welding consumables, NDT visual measured of the welding, using fillet gauges for exact weld profile! The signing and counter signing of various safety work permit forms, its paper trail of mountains and mountains of documentation. Everything takes an age to complete hence the unproductive nature of large modern 21 century engineering in the U.K. Humanity gone mad!
I bought my last boat Stella Polaris to circumnavigate the world. Maybe I was a nervous of the project can I really do this and can I afford to do it? Hence my putting the project back and back again to earn income to help towards the project costs.
I have thought maybe I need to have paying crew on board to help me financially and I need to write my journal and blog and make YouTube movies to help monetise the project. Keep a daily journal for my book of what I’m doing put down my feelings about what I see and experience.
Back to humanity and how things have disturbed my faith in it. The awful war with Russia invading Ukraine the Israel Palestinian conflict and loss of human life, now the Syrian civil war starting off against the Basher Al-Assad regime. It’s seems to do with humans wanting to control others because of personal power and greed! Wars seem to be never ending these days. Plus the most serious issue that is facing mankind climate heating through our addiction to cheap energy produced by digging, fracking and drilling for fossilised carbon based sources of energy such as coal, oil and natural gas. The cost involved in finding clean renewable energy solutions substitutes is prohibitive, however the ensuing damage from climate catastrophes will far out weigh new energy sources!
We as yet haven’t found one really to replace low cost energy of fossilised fuels and that is the crux of the problem. Hence the kicking of can down the road and constant changing of the goal posts with the slowing down of net zero targets. We not even developed large scale carbon capture projects. I don’t think we will in the time required to stop us from crossing over climatic tipping points. I guess this is what driving me again to undertake my sailing odyssey project. Before it becomes too climatically dangerous to undertake such world circumnavigation in a small sailing boat. What is the other driver for me? I believe in my heart we live on a unique planet. By some cosmic accidental incident or sheer infinitesimal chance all the ingredients for life were formed on planet earth. This blue planet of liquid water that created the atmospheric conditions for all the abundant life forms that surround us. The biggest and most beautiful of these are the magnificent oceans that surround planet earth. Really this is what my sailing odyssey is about. I want to saviour my final existence by sailing along this liquid watery world. To film and write about the beauty of it all. In fact it will be a spritual journey of personal discovery!