Today it's been another day back to school, but as a teacher and eventually sensor and assessor this time. Part of my job is of course to train new sailors to take over this sort of profession in the years to come. Well, the engineers are the real trainers and teachers, but it's still the assessor who got the last word when it comes to letting the cadets through the needle eye or not.
I have been the "headmaster" to quite a few of them up through the years, and most of them have become owners of the certificate in the end, but this one has been a bit different.
Accurate, tedious but effective... and a really outstanding written test to round it all off. You see in addition to the practical side the cadets got a "Cadet Book" they need to fill in. Or it's not about "filling in" as such, but to really answer the questions in as good way as they can. I have seen a lot of cadet books up through the years, but I'm happy to say I've never seen anything like this one. The book has been worked on more or less every day for a full year, and the result is just something else.
I just signed off her last written test, which from this moment makes her an engineer holding the M4 maritime certificate. She will not know it herself until tomorrow morning, but I'm happy to break the big news to all of you out there right now.
There! See that? Now that's a proper marine engineer for you right there. On top of one of his 2,4 MegaWatt lumps of cast iron and bits and bobs of steel and other sorts of metal. Snapped with an old Nikkormat, I think. You can never be quite sure, but I'm fairly certain about this one.
Oh, and I almost forgot.
I just bought that Pentax Spotmatic I told you about a few days ago over here. Had to get it actually, just because it was now or never. I will write words about it whenever I get my hands on it and have eventually fed a roll of film through it.
I mean it had at least one great lens and a couple of other maybe not so great lenses on the side. A nice leather strap and everything, and it did actually come quite cheap (OK, not cheap as in more or less free, but you know...) after a very short discussion about the matters.
I'll be happy with it, as long as it opens and shuts when needed.
Congratulations to the cadet and congratulations to you for your new camera. I'm looking forward to reading your write-up and seeing some photographs from the camera.
SvarSlettThanks for that, Marcus.
SlettWatch this space, and something will be here for you to read at some point in the future. With my turnaround for work and stuff it might be a long time, but those who live will see.
You almost forgot. Yeh right :)
SvarSlettAll I can say is I'm glad you bought that old Asahi thing, Roy. Just thinking about those cameras takes me back to the late 70s/early 80s. They were never the most innovative of cameras, even back then, but there was something about them...and you know what?...they ain't making them any more so I totally get the need to invest your hard-earned cash in one.
Like Marcus I'm looking forward to the next installment of the Pentax story, whenever that might be. I think the glass will be good on a roll of FP4 or HP5, should the shutter thing do as it's told - Pentax knew a thing or two about lenses, I suspect.
Nope, innovative they were truly not, Michael. You could almost trust them with your life, though. And yes, made some really nice glass they did. I know the tiny little 50mm f/1.7 well enough as that's the one mounted on my fathers old Spotmatic. This one got a 50mm f/1.4 though, which I have never tested yet. I don't think I've even seen one. Well, we will find out soon enough if the thing works or not. I'm crossing fingers as usual. I should be pretty well loaded with both HP5 and FP4, so I'll find something to throw inside the thing whenever I can get hold of it.
Slett