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Today I have mainly been v3

Cutting the grass for the first time this year.

I spend more time getting tangled in and farting about with wires and sockets than I do cutting the grass. It's a knackering enough job as it is, so I'm seriously considering a Ryobi 1+ mower, as I already have the batteries and charger.
 
That’s a super spot, not been for years. Used to spend a lot of time in the Bull. I suppose they’ve got a captive audience with the restaurant and no shortage of punters, otherwise everyone would be in the French Horn!
I just seem to spend most of the time there trying to cross the bridge!
 
A gentle day today, cleaning a couple of dozen albums for Headway charity shop.

Also I sold a record online for the charity, so I have checked that sale - another £10 for the charity. (a Northern Soul 7”)

Lazered eye is settling down now, and is now ‘The Good Eye.’ Looking forward to getting the cataract treated in the other eye so I can get yet another eye test and get another prescription for spectacles.
I am going to book an audio hearing test as well, The Wife has had treatment for earwax recently, and I want to get in on the action. Worth noting that my hearing is probably my best functioning Sense remaining, and I want to keep it as long as…
 
Funeral today at haycombe in bath ...what a view from the chapel . A lovely lady who was a guide for the city centre for 20 years into her 80s and travelled the world .amazing character .

Managed a walk by the beautiful river with daffs out .business meeting tonight
 
Went for a quick walk in the city to see how the magnolias are coming on - spectacular. I hope there’s not a late frost.
While in the park, the air ambulance landed near an ambulance the other side. I notice the road was closed for tree works, so I hope there hasn’t been a nasty fall or chainsaw accident. Planefinder tells me they’ve been all over the south to Kent, Surrey etc already. That must be a long day.
 
A day of complete crap...almost literally....

On a day that should have been 'good' - My wife and I had our first date 30 years ago today! (she moved in only a couple of weeks later, apparently I was the 'one')

I went downstairs to open up and sort out the dogs to find the hall floor dripping wet - turning on the light switch blew the circuit breaker - tracked back to find our shower had leaked badly.

Then wife noticed her car had dripped oil (we assume) all over the garage floor. Call the dealer. Fairly recent service and MOT.

Then the wife noticed a wet patch on a garden path - so I had to stop work and found a very very badly blocked drain, whole yucky mess under the drain inspection cover, now overflowing. Nothing to do with the shower - wrong side of the house. Sigh. Left the wife (on a day off, fortunately) to find a drain unblocker, with strict instructions not to call Dyno-Rod - should be called Dyno-Rob.

Then one daughter messaged to say her car failed its MOT and would need £370 to sort it out.

And then I try to do some work and the ruddy internet went down at least 5 times in the morning. Missed a meeting because of it.

The shower was self inflicted damage - I have been replacing the tap and waste on a bidet in the next door house bathroom - and the en-suite shower shares the shower waste and the shower decided to drain via the open waste I had left rather than go to where it should. A quick bit of pipe added to the spare waste (until the bidet re-fitting is finished) and all is good. Will have wait for the wet ceiling to dry out before repainting.

Wife's car has been taken to the dealers - so I had to take an hour out of work (more time lost!) to help the wife on that errand. - No report of what it is yet - but my guess is loose oil filter, or bad gasket.

Drain was attended to by some drain company who purported to be local but weren't (ruddy Google!). More time lost! 'cos the wife was on a long financial advisor call. But at least it was an easy fix and I can do it myself if there is a next time. It's never blocked in more than 18 year here, but Wet Wipes to blame apparently - but we do not use them - BUT - Mother in law was staying a few days ago so suspicion in that direction.

Daughter's car will be fixed by the end of the day - but I will need to pay that bill too - she is but a student.
 
A day of complete crap...almost literally....

On a day that should have been 'good' - My wife and I had our first date 30 years ago today! (she moved in only a couple of weeks later, apparently I was the 'one')

I went downstairs to open up and sort out the dogs to find the hall floor dripping wet - turning on the light switch blew the circuit breaker - tracked back to find our shower had leaked badly.

Then wife noticed her car had dripped oil (we assume) all over the garage floor. Call the dealer. Fairly recent service and MOT.

Then the wife noticed a wet patch on a garden path - so I had to stop work and found a very very badly blocked drain, whole yucky mess under the drain inspection cover, now overflowing. Nothing to do with the shower - wrong side of the house. Sigh. Left the wife (on a day off, fortunately) to find a drain unblocker, with strict instructions not to call Dyno-Rod - should be called Dyno-Rob.

Then one daughter messaged to say her car failed its MOT and would need £370 to sort it out.

And then I try to do some work and the ruddy internet went down at least 5 times in the morning. Missed a meeting because of it.

The shower was self inflicted damage - I have been replacing the tap and waste on a bidet in the next door house bathroom - and the en-suite shower shares the shower waste and the shower decided to drain via the open waste I had left rather than go to where it should. A quick bit of pipe added to the spare waste (until the bidet re-fitting is finished) and all is good. Will have wait for the wet ceiling to dry out before repainting.

Wife's car has been taken to the dealers - so I had to take an hour out of work (more time lost!) to help the wife on that errand. - No report of what it is yet - but my guess is loose oil filter, or bad gasket.

Drain was attended to by some drain company who purported to be local but weren't (ruddy Google!). More time lost! 'cos the wife was on a long financial advisor call. But at least it was an easy fix and I can do it myself if there is a next time. It's never blocked in more than 18 year here, but Wet Wipes to blame apparently - but we do not use them - BUT - Mother in law was staying a few days ago so suspicion in that direction.

Daughter's car will be fixed by the end of the day - but I will need to pay that bill too - she is but a student.

What a streak of crappy things to have happen! Hope they are all soon in your rear view mirror.
 
Hospital this a m., for a pre-op for second knee replacement. They won't do anything before 7 weeks have elapsed since I cleared of Covid, which would be about 3rd week in April. Meanwhile..waiting for review of first knee replacement, which is giving me a bit of 'gyp', so all a bit up in the air at present.
In other news, older daughter's 43rd birthday yesterday more than a bit spoiled by her going down with Covid for second time, but she's fully jabbed. She missed her 40th celebration due to first lockdown..
Tomorrow Cardiac review with GP, followed by a family funeral.
Friday, more bloods in prep for another HF clinic next week.
As my pal said the other day .."if it wasn't for funerals and medical appointments, we'd have no social life at all!" :)
 
Into that London by train again for a photo training event. Typical. Today and last time I went, problems on GWR. Today it was a line side fire at Maidenhead, shutting almost everything down on that line so had to use SWR from Windsor into Waterloo.
 
flip jensen ... what a nightmare !!! leaking bathrooms are the bain of my life . waiting for weeks now for a tradesmen to work on a bath to stop a leak . very hard to get bathroom fitters
 
I spent part of the day looking a a beaver* in the middle of a city.

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*due diligence subsequently shows it to be a muskrat and not said beaver. I wondered what a lone beaver was doing up in daylight, chasing ducks to pinch their bread from them.
 
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Update from nightmare Monday.

Shower leak was a self inflicted issue. Temporary fix holding up just fine. Still waiting for all the water under the bathroom floor to dry out properly - the hall loght breaker blew out again this morning so still a way to go on that front.

The oil leak on the wife's car turned out to be a gearbox seal. They phoned up quoted £963 to fix - plus the £180 inspection charge. Gulp. Its a Nissan Qashqai 1.6 Diesel with CVT box.
Then the selling starts - wife has a maintenance contract with a third party sold by the dealership. This contract only covers annual routine servicing and MOT. They are now promoting a Nissan contract which is similar - but does not include MOT, so it works out slightly more expensive per year than the 3rd party deal. BUT it apparently does include discounted parts.

So.. if she switches to the new deal (she has, dear reader) the gearbox oil seal repair suddenly becomes around £550. Still a big repair, but one heck of a difference. I have no idea how such a discount works, but we have taken it.

Daughters car was 2 front tyres and a shock absorber - so despite her protests (she wants a car upgrade!) I have pointed out that these are not reliability issues, they are simply consumables. Seems to eat front tyres though - so I wonder how she drives it! So repaired for MOT and it will soldier on for a while yet....
She is a little peeved that she gets to use the old learner driver banger, now worth about £1200 and her twin sister drives a £12K 68 plate low mileage 1.5L Yaris - which is smashing car.
BUT Yaris girl lives in Manchester and commutes to Oldham every day with a real job and salary. Ford girl is a Masters student who lives walking distance from York Uni and a has bus stop to town literally 10yds away from her front door. Yes does have a job at wedding venue bar - but her team could give her a lift if she was stuck - and anyway the Ka has actually been extremely reliable. I have said we will look at the car situation again - if and when she gets a graduate job later this year.
 
nursing a thumping headache. yesterday was a bad news day, so we drowned our tears in cider and wine. started with cider and after 3 pints changed to Chenin Blanc, it was only then I noticed the 7.3% abv on the board.
 
yesterday - interviewing, offering jobs - first leaving lunch for my boss - committee meeting - tap room to collect some bottles my brewing friend had dropped off for us. Pizza

today - workload management workshop with the company managing our transition to a new system. offering jobs.....

Car service was meant to be today - took it to dealer at the allocated time, and was told they'd need it for 2 days - not what they agreed when i booked it in........so had to rebook for next week. Carpark was rammed full of new cars waiting to go out.
 
My transport had to stay at the dealer overnight too for an over-the-air firm/software update. I presume that’s over the internal LTE SIM, but why they don’t just plug a USB stick in, I have no idea. I’m fully expecting them to call later to tell me the download aborted, and they’ll need it another 24 hours.

I am starting to fondly recall the time when you could change the mix on a Mini by twisting the distributor cap
 
I've been contemplating the second anniversary without my dear Heather. 35 years ago, today, we were married and had an amazing life together. We supported each other through the various ups and downs life threw at us until lung cancer took her from me. I sometimes feel guilty for the times I prevaricated about doing things and the opportunities we might have missed. The fates conspired and we were not able to have children and I often think what a wonderful mother Heather would have made.

Then again I think of those who didn't get that length of time together,because of illness or the breakdown of the relationship. I have a young friend who life seems to have dealt an awful hand: he has MS which has progressed significantly over the last couple of years and now his wife wants a divorce and has already been playing silly beggars with the joint finances. His best friend died suddenly last week after a virus turned to sepsis. A nicer young person you would struggle to find, and he has a great taste in music to go with it. There may be 30 years between us but we have wonderful conversations.

Another friend told me today about her sister-in-law who like me is now into the second year since losing her partner. She needs the help of anti-depressants to cope despite keeping herself busy helping with the RVS cafe in the local hospital and the Darby and Joan club. I may be struggling at times but at least, for the moment, I don't need that kind of support. There have been a few tears in the run up to today, but I'm generally coping. The phrase "time is a healer" is something I would never say to anyone now. In time you may learn to cope but I haven't healed any in 15 months.

Last year I was struggling to cope after my bike accident and I think the anniversary almost passed me by in terms of the emotional involvement.

I'm going out with my sisters and their husbands tonight so wont be at home on my own. I felt it best to plan this distraction.
 
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Some sad stories there cc .tragic re sepsis .not too long ago a 24 year old died here after paper cut infected .sepsis is a bugger

Visited my dear friend today on thickened fluids and its a pitb getting him to drink 1. 8 litres a day .trued to persuade a carer who is fasting with a chest infection that God wants her to look after her body as it says in the Koran by drinking plenty even tho its ramadan

Signed a load of papers as witness for poa and enjoyed a few moments with his wharfdales which are very old but sound fab still .
 


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