Dogs and Slides

It has been very quiet here at my blog over the past week or two. And there are a couple of reasons for that.

• Older dogs


• Work

Meet Duke...



And this is him after facial surgery to remove a fatty lump...



It is fair to say that he has been an unhappy chappy throughout the process. Not that he is a stranger to surgery, but usually that is carried out somewhere around knee level for him. And although he is getting the hang of the Elizabethan collar that aims to stop him from ripping his bandages off, he finally managed to destroy that against a doorframe at work this week. The next day he set about the removal process for his bandage, leaving him looking sullen (refer photograph above) after a growling from me.

I'm not really convinced that the stray cotton wadding and peeled green bandaging is going to be a trend for next year's sick animals, but I'll give him points for creativity.
Yes, he did eventually create such an interesting headdress that we succumbed and removed the whole thing. And, other than the usual post-operative fluid build-up to deal with (don't get in the way of a dog shaking his head at the highpoint of fluid build-up...it only ends in splattered yuckiness), he is progressing nicely.

On the work front, we are at the start of our busy time with the biggest job we currently do. It is an MES. Not in the commercial marine safety business? Okay. It is a Marine Evacuation System. Meet one of the four slides...



To gain some perspective, it is 25 metres long and I am around 5 foot 6 tall. I took this photograph from one end with my hands a few inches above my head. If you can't quite picture that, take a look at the photograph of a deployed slide, platform and 50 person liferaft so you can see what we are dealing with.



If you are intrigued by this photograph, you can visit Viking's website and take a look at a small piece of video footage showing the deployment of an MES. I would only recommend this to those with broadband though.

Things will continue to be a bit slow on the blogging front for the next little while, as there isn't any real spare time for fun stuff at the moment. I promise not to totally abandon you but you may have to put up with more work oriented entries however. :roll: