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December 29th, 2008
10:58 am - Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to everyone!
May it bring everything you need, but not everything you want - dreams and wishes are often more fulfilling than the reality!
Current Mood:  optimistic
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November 30th, 2008
01:36 pm - Leaks..
Not the leak which landed the MP under arrest and interrogation, but a very damp patch and increasing puddle fed by a suddenly rapid drip behind the washing machine in my utility room.
I am very impressed by the Emergency call-out insurance that my house insurers sold me. Once I noticed the problem, I called the insurance company at 10am (promises within 1-2 hours), received the promised engineer call-back 15 minutes later, and the promised plumber (promised between 11 am and 3pm turned up from a local firm at 1pm. Apparently it was a quiet day, but even so, action within 3 hours in a country district where the journey alone would take a half hour or so is good.
As the leak was fairly straight forward, being a loose connection of the supply to the washer which had gone unnoticed in a dark cold corner for some time, all is now fixed under the insurance and the plumber gone and it is only 1:25pm! Simple though that was, it was outside my competence (and tool-kit) and in a rather awkward place which I'd have had trouble reaching.
I call that good service!
I've taken the plumber's card for future non-emergency work as he's local and clearly recommended by the insurers, which is always comforting to know.
Current Mood:  relieved
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November 5th, 2008
08:09 pm - Maybe tomorrow may be better....
Things kicked off with oversleeping past the early start I had planned for going to the office for a busier than usual day. Then heavy traffic going in to work delayed me further, so I was only a half hour earlier than usual, but that wasn't so bad.
Not so good news from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=88.8) twine42 arrived, news not entirely unexpected but nonetheless sad. Then one thing after the other, piled one on top of another work-wise, so nothing could be completed before the next one hit, all important and all needing careful attention. Add the spice of an escalation of the ongoing current levels of general unrest among the admin staff by a series of unpleasantly dictatorial emails from the HR, followed by the feelings of guilt at being unable to help out with a big office work event because I was so snowed under - all the others were pitching in. I wasn't organising this one, but I'm going to be needing their help in a couple of weeks on something similar, so felt bad that I wasn't more actively helping them today.
Stayed late to see if I could help out and so on with the last part of the event,but found myself just hanging about as the others had done it all already, so left a little early to come home at quarter to 7.
It was dark, well you expect that on a Nov evening at that time, but most of the journey is through open country so it wasn't till I got nearly home and drove past the next village that I realised the significance of the date which hadn't really impinged on my bothered brain all day - Guy Fawkes....
I drove into my village through a cannonade of rockets and bangers that would not have been amiss in World War 1 to find a terrified little dog, who had to be coaxed into the garden amid the bangs to relieve herself after being in all day. Ok, I though, things can only improve now - I'm home, the dog is as comfy as she's going to get until the bangs stop later so relax. She may be too scared to eat her tea until alter, but at least the worst is over.
Silly me. I picked up the post - a questionnaire from the neuro ward I was on last year (I was put on the ward with renal problems just because that was the only place they had an intensive care bed) plus the fact that they seem to think I had had a neurological condition so they've made me an appointment at the neuro clinic in Dec to check up on me. Another thing to sort out. So I turn on the light in the dining room to put my bag etc down - and the light bulb explodes with a bang and all the lights in that part of the house go out. I got the stool, went to the terminal fuse box in the kitchen to trip the switch (it is cunningly located at the back of the cupboard over the cooker behind the baking tins, reached in ..and knocked a pile of cake tins onto the floor below...with a bang and a clatter and narrowly missing the poor cowering dog. Flipped the switch, transferred to the dining room and replaced the bulb.
Light and peace at last.... then I burnt the pizza for dinner!
I think an early bedtime is called for in case anything else goes wrong! Oh well, at least I didn't fall off the stool as well.
Current Mood:  drained
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September 28th, 2008
01:14 pm - Mystified....
I know that when it comes to high finance, I am a complete beginner, and never have really understood the mysteries of stocks and shares, but one thing recently has mystified me a lot.
Why, when Bradford and Bingley are in such dire straits and liable to go to the wall at any minute, are we deluged over the last week or so by their very expensive looking TV adverts at prime time expensive slots setting out there caring sharing attitude and how safe one's money would be if lodged with them?
Surely this sort of statement is in contravention of the rules on telling the truth (or at least not lying and misrepresenting the truth) in adverts? The company must have known that it was a clinging on by fingertips situation.
Current Mood:  thoughtful
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September 23rd, 2008
11:27 pm - A tailor-made crisis?
Would it be very cynical to say that if we didn't have such a global financial crisis going on, Gordon Brown might have had to invent it?
Iit looks as if the current situation is tailor-made for an ex-chancellor PM and he is making great political arguments about it being no time for a novice to take over (Cameron, or possibly Milliband....?)
Odd that there has been little mention in all the high flown rhetoric today about the fact that over the past 10 years his financial guidance of the country has left us rather vulnerable to the hardships of the credit crunch, with high taxation, high public spending, the raids on the pension funds in the 90s, the failure to make proper and fair adjustments to both tax bands or house stamp duty - the list goes on. Instead, it was hand on heart political ranting about defence of hearth and home against the cold winds of the world banking disasters. Predictable stuff very well rehearsed and stage managed, even to his wife doing a warm up act in support.
Of course a dyed in the wool cynic like me might say that had things been the other way about, and the Conservatives in power that their leader's speech might have been just as insincerely sincere.... it is such a shame for the rest of us that all politicians are indeed grey at night, no matter how bright and colourful their political banners.
Current Mood:  cynical
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September 5th, 2008
04:32 pm
I'm fed up with Friday afternoon and want to go home..... but still got an hour t go :(
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August 31st, 2008
03:24 pm - more roof repairs...
I was wrong, they found another bit of roof that needed repair. One man could push gently upwards at the corner of the short bit of extension roof and raise the whole corner up by an inch or two without effort. Scary stuff when it is on the north side of the house in the path of prevailing winter storm winds. The whole lot needed re-felting and relaying - it seemed that the idiots who built the extension overlapped the under-felting the wrong way, bottom over top, instead of top over bottom, so the rain has been getting in and has weakened/degraded the under-felt, hence the raisability factor. :(
All now fixed, or nearly so, with currently a few tiles and a short length of hip tiles needing replacement to be put on in the next few days.. I know more about roofs now than I care to know - and about the cost of repairing them. You know how one often jokes about only being worried if the roof falls in - well apparently mine would have done just that sooner or later. The cost of repair has been high, and I will have to watch expenditure very very carefully for some months, so no more thanking about possible holidays or new bathroom for some time - oh well, at least I'll have a sound roof, which is very reassuring!
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July 31st, 2008
02:30 pm - chimneys
A quick update on the roof situation - the guttering etc is now nearly finished, but in resetting the ridge tiles, the men have found that the top two course of bricks on the chimney are actually loose - they could easily wobble the top slab and chimney pot with one hand. Not good at all, with winter gales due inevitably in the not too distant future.
So whilst the scaffold is still up, they are taking off the top two courses of bricks from the chimney and capping it with a slab as I don't plan on using the open fireplace below. The chimney is still potentially usable in future - all that would be needed would be the replacement of the bricks and pot. But to do that now would be an expensive task and not one that I want to do just now - I need a safe roof, without too much more expense.
So, to add to the fun sounds outside, I also have a steady stream of small bits of debris falling down into the open grate in the dining room - I've covered the hearth with a dust sheet to prevent it coming into the room. It will be nice not to have rubbish dropping down into the grate from birds etc in future - sometimes I found mouldy bits of bread and so on from careless pigeons!
This is definitely the last bit of roof to be dealt with as they have now covered every inch!!
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July 30th, 2008
02:52 pm - Peace and quiet...
So, a few days of leave from work, for a bit of R&R at home - apart from dashing off to Watford to consult with the solicitor about divorce financial settlement negotiations (some progress at last, .... maybe)
The sun is shining, the birds are twittering, the radio is playing classical music softly - and the three workmen are banging about in the garden fixing the guttering and the roof, dropping chunks of discarded cement from the old fillet that they're replacing under the tile edge on the gable end.
Now, just to add to the cacophony, two council workmen have turned up to start cutting up the temporary tarmac on the pavement across my gate, left from last year's electrical work in the area, ready to lay proper tarmac to finish that job.
The birds and my gentle classical music radio are having a tough job against the pneumatic drill and tarmac roller (in the roadway), the hammers, the workmen's pop music radio (on the roof) and general workmen-type banter everywhere!
Oh well, at least it is all happening at once so will be soon over, and I wasn't planning on going anywhere today so being temporarily blocked in is no big deal. And I am going to feel very much safer when the gales blow this winter with the roof ridge tiles properly fixed and sound guttering.
Current Mood:  relaxed, more or less
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July 26th, 2008
09:52 am - Is this something we should know? ....
On the BBC Homepage at the moment, there are three headlines listed one after the other as the top stories.
I quote:
"Obama meets Brown on UK visit"
"Senior ministers get behind Brown"
"Three charged over fatal stabbing"
Oh, surely not!
Current Mood: amused
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