The Book of Ashes

How to erect a crane 9:57PM

We've watched the building across the road come down and that was interesting but now they're preparing the site for putting a new building up and its not at all how I would have expected it to be. After removing every last trace of the old building they brought in a whole lot of gear, some big metal pipes (I could almost stand in the diameter), some metal frame work and other bits and pieces. They then dug a deep hole (about 4 or 5 stories deep) and placed the metal pipe into it. Then in went the metal framework and lots of concrete. It didn't really make sense. I had thought that the foundations would go down first but this one concrete pillar under the building site wasn't what I had expected for the foundations.

Then then brought in the square metal framework that went on top of the concrete and it soon became clear that this was the foundations, just not for the building, but instead the crane. I guess under every big building is a concrete pillar that once was a crane.

Next they came in with an extendable crane on the back of a truck and lifted the crane pieces up one by one. They only just managed to get the top bits on and had to take few bits back down for re-jigging. Once the crane was up it had men crawling all over it (no fear). The next surprise was that the arm is actually made up of two seperate pieces (I had thought it would be one big piece for strength) and that each piece hooks on only by the bottom two corners. The weight is then mostly held by steel cables going up to the top of the crane. It didn't look that stable until I thought about it a bit and now it makes more sense than a single beam. They then hoisted the motor up (at the end of the short arm) and a few concrete blocks to counter balance the weight. Then it was all go.

Fasinating.

So Friday nights was drinks out with Emma and other ex-TT people. Dave, Kev, Tom, Steve T, Mark E, Cliff and lots of jugs. It was all good. Crap night tho, lots of cold and rain. Good to catch up with everybody tho, good to go over the old stories.

Saturday was even colder and crappier. There was sleet, hail and something that might have passed as snow had I not lived in the South Island. It enforced a day inside and not much achieved.

Sunday the sun came out and things got done. I cleaned out the vege garden, pulling up the last of the carrots and chopping and freezing them along with some surprise potatoes (they tasted good).

Now its Monday night and I pose you this question...

In a game show the contestant has to choose between three doors. Behind 1 is a brand new car, behind the other 2 are goats. The contestant gets to choose one door then out of the remaining two the host will remove one door which is a wrong choice (a goat). There is now left a car behind 1 door and a goat behind the other. The contestant is given the choice to stick with their original choice or swap to the other remaining choice. What should they do? and what are their odds of winning for each choice?