u/IllustriousWedding94

After only 4000 checks of the Apple Store app, my MBP has finally turned to preparing to ship.

Gemini tells me that means I should have it tomorrow. I've had a daily back and fore with Gemini on the likelihood of it arriving tomorrow and she has tried to stay calm and reassuring. Consistently the estimated chance of it arriving tomorrow has been 70%, and now upped to 90-95%.

I've variously accused Gemini of optimism, hallucination.."quote your sources" ...but maybe just maybe she was right all along.

Yes, I'm very boring. Yes, I'm impatient. Yes, I'm hoping to get my 16"MBP m5pro/64gb tomorrow. In the UK btw. A final word from my ever patient friend Gemini:

"Why it stayed "Processing" so long

​Because you ordered the 64GB M5 Pro, Apple likely moved it in a "blind" bulk shipment from the factory to the UK. It only appeared on the system once the UK hub opened the palette and scanned your specific serial number this morning. "

I've mentioned a few times in other threads about visiting Crewe Works in the mid-1980s and decided to add a little more detail in a post of my own.

I went to the Open Day on 2nd June 1984, which was brilliant, and another later one maybe 1987(?) with my Dad. Also took a tour of the Works on a normal working day with my school Railway Society. In hindsight, the variety and richness of the experiences seems incredible in today's simpler and more anodyne world.

At the 1984 Open Day I remember brand new 56133 being named Crewe Locomotive Works, 87006 & 87012 wearing their one-off liveries. 006's Railfreight Grey remained a one off, 012's IC Executive became the mid-80s template.

The 47 ETH/refurbishment programme was in full swing with the 476xx series in works.

I think the school visit and the 1987 Open Day was when the 37 refurbishment programme was now a major part of the workload. Newly withdrawn 50011 had arrived as an engine test bed. 86211/86429 were sheeted over in the distance - the locomotive victims of the awful Colwich crash.

On the school visit we walked through the Melt Shop and witnessed live cutting up of class 40s. It was huge and dark in there and the sparks were flying as the axeman worked on 40023 Lancastria. We were maybe the last non-rail workers to see her relatively complete.

Throughout the visits there were some regulars - 84008 rusting more with each year, accident victims like 81015 and 81022 (iirc), certainly the one that hit Linslade tunnel with tragic results. Cabless 47470. 85s like 027 and 033 written off with fire damage.

Locos in their prime apart from the new builds included walking around the corner and finding 47708 prestine in then new Scotrail livery. I saw the chalked up numbers 89001, 87201 and 87202 on freshly laid frames as well as the Badger close to completion.

Lines and lines of scrap 40s and 25s outsides, dozens of locos being rebuilt inside. What days! And then over the road to the station before going home, another post of memories all in itself.

Don't have the pics, but they would be less sharp than the memories anyway. If you got this far, thanks for reading!

I've never owned a mac and I am sometimes lukewarm on my iPhone (compared with my second phone which is a Vivo), but the MacBook itch has been bugging me.

I last upgraded my laptop in 2023 with a Samsung Book3 Pro360, which I will now hope to sell. It's a lovely machine but windows feel of being so much legacy in a new wrapper irritates.

After much spec to-and-fro I have decided not to get the nanotech screen. I've gone for 64gb of RAM to future proof with the M5 pro chip.

I am equal parts excited and nervous of feeling ... is that it for £3.3k...when I get it.

Intending to run a parallel windows VM for some legacy apps and leverage the power of the Mac with Gemini and Claude. Plus run a lot of leagues in FM26 if time ever allows.