Monday to Thursday 11 to 14 August 2025

This week England’s heat wave is due to return. Mid to high 30’s in some southern parts but a nice mid 20’s for Scotland. Western Europe is likewise sweltering with fires in France and Greece. Some buggar also set Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh alight yesterday and I see it’s snowing ferrets and frogs in Victoria’s snowfields. Strang old world at the moment. The Donald is sending in the National Guard to Washington DC and federalising the cops. Australia seems such a quiet place.

We went to Falkirk on Wednesday. First up was ‘The Falkirk Wheel.” This is a remarkable piece of engineering. The only boat lift (72’!!) of its type in the world. Architects and engineers from British Waterways, under the leadership of Tony Kettle from architects RMJM, did the mechanical concepts with the final design completed in a three-week period during the summer of 1999. Two caissons, one up and the other down, rotate, thus lifting and or lowering boats up or down the river in place of many locks.

The caissons or gondolas, always carry a combined weight of 500 tons of water and boats. According to Archimedes' principle, floating objects displace their own weight in water, so when the boat enters, the amount of water leaving the caisson for the other one, weighs exactly the same as the boat.

A computer control system maintains the water levels on each side to within a difference of 37 mm It takes only the amount of power of boiling eight kettles of water to operate the wheel.

We talked to three blokes on a canal boat going up in the wheel. They all had traded their wives in for a canal boat. Funny fellas. Getting hot now. It’s 26C. The local bike hire shop shut with a sign saying “Closed due to the excessive heat!” Poms. You gotta laugh.

Next stop down the road was the famous Kelpies. You’d automatically thing dogs, right? No. These are massive stainless steel horses. These horse-head sculptures are 30 meters tall and are the world's largest pair of equine sculptures. More great engineering. Flashy is happy.

The bottom boat begins to rise.
Half way up and or down.
Almost there.
One  up. One  down. 72 feet.
There is a red shirted man at the base of the horse. Gives you an idea of scale.
It's 1.05 pm. It's 26C.

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