27 October 2021

Good Days

I have been having some fairly stressful weeks where the mind is all 
encompassed by work. This has been partly through expectations - both 
my own and others. It has also been partly through trying to do 2 jobs 
at once. Last week I was thankfully able to get some way to giving the 
one role up. It is not an ideal hand over but the poor sod and I have 
managed to work out a least worst way for us. That has enabled me to 
focus on the role. Instead of leading a team of machine designers, I 
am now responsible for the integration of the disparate parts which 
make for an electrical drive system. Having time has meant I have been 
able to actually start reading into electrical machine control theory. 
Baffling stuff which involves remembering laplace transforms and other 
such horrible memories from my degree which I have ignored for the 
past decade. I have surprisingly enjoyed it but I think that is more 
to do with having the time to sit and do rather than always 
responding. Throw in a machine team meeting in the nearest Marks and 
Spencer cafe for lunch along and you get a rather lovely day. I have 
only been pestered for helping friends with their promotion packs, 
which are always a pleasure to help with. Today's soundtrack has been 
selected by Angel Olsen thanks to BBC 6 Music asking her to be their 
'Artist in Residence'. She has a fabulous taste in music which makes 
sense as she is a great artist. My favourite play list was 'rock 
moods' which was wonderfully relaxed with the likes of Nick Drake, 
Karen Dalton, JJ Cale and Fleetwood Mac (non-Peter Green). It has all 
made for a rather lovely day where I feel at peace. Not common while 
at work! 

Music has been a key part of what I have been doing for the past few 
days too. I resurrected my MP3 player and been listening to that 
during the working hours. Add in some wonderful Anonradio shows and I 
seem to fill all my hours with music. Northernlights's goth show last 
night was a blast. They played Bauhaus, the Cure and what not but 
threw an interesting curveball. We were all settled in the groove of 
Echo and the Bunnymen when suddenly "I was kissed by a rose..." began. 
Yes! Seal's mid 90s hit started playing. It was a nice surprise. 

Back to reading about permanent magnet machines and the equations for 
how they work. Those horrible equations which explain how to turn 
electrical energy into rotational mechanical energy.