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Post by peggs on May 20, 2020 20:41:51 GMT
Was forced to be in a video conference all day in which I don't think anything was decided except that we needed another meeting to decide the things that we hadn't decided today. My mother helpfully told me it was hot outside and that it was very nice.
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Post by Forrest on May 20, 2020 23:27:34 GMT
Oh, peggs , that sounds dreadful! (And this is coming from a person who normally doesn't object to meetings - I kind of like them, tbh, even those where I take the minutes.) But the sun should be out tomorrow too! :) I spent most of my day setting up my new, fancy, gorgeous-looking MACBook Pro that I got from/for the office, and then ended up putting it away and working on my personal MAC (also a Pro, but an older generation) because the new one has no USB-ports (only USB-C, thanks Apple, very useful!) so I cannot plug a bluetooth mouse in. I've also managed to scrape off the anti-glare coating on a part of the screen on my old MAC, while trying to clean it because it looked shabby next to my new one - and I felt like crying every time I looked at it for most of the morning. (I know it's just a laptop, and I'm being a bit silly, but I normally take such good care of it and I hate being reckless with things.) So i decided, after finally finishing work around 7pm, that a walk would cheer me up, but made a horrible mistake of putting on Joy Division as the soundtrack for the walk (I always walk with headphones on) - because thinking about how young and unhappy Ian Curtis was/must have been when he died also made me sad (and Joy Division also make me think of someone, and that also makes me sad, sometimes...). I came home, finished a tub of (diet!) Ben&Jerry's, wrote a few emails (one of which also kind of made me sad - because something I really, really wanted isn't going to work out after all, although it's nobody's fault, really - just the way things are...) and am now finally getting ready for bed. Let's hope tomorrow will make more sense. |
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2020 10:32:07 GMT
the new one has no USB-ports ( No help in the moment, but when I encountered the same situation a few months back, I found Amazon does has very inexpensive USB to USB-C converter plugs that you can buy in packs of two or three. |
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Post by londonpostie on May 21, 2020 10:50:00 GMT
Well, the plumber has 24-hours to respond to this complete non-emergency that I'm handling as a favour to the guy in the downstairs flat, and I'm thinking about how to find something to absorb me. 30-minytes later there's a bleep at the door becasue the postman has scanned a package that turns out to be the book version of Normal People. So, that's that sorted  |
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Post by Forrest on May 21, 2020 13:46:47 GMT
the new one has no USB-ports ( No help in the moment, but when I encountered the same situation a few months back, I found Amazon does has very inexpensive USB to USB-C converter plugs that you can buy in packs of two or three. Yes, I've gone down the 'check if the company will pay for it, because it was their oversight to get me a laptop I cannot connect anything to' route first, but will definitely look into backup options on Amazon, too. Thanks! londonpostie, oh, how lovely! I still haven't finished the series - I've been watching it each Monday, as it airs on BBC - but I am absolutely loving it. My favourite thing about it is how honest it is about the things the characters don't say - because it's hard and embarrassing and it's easier to leave things unsaid - and how that takes them where they don't really want to be... It's so, so sad but also so... true, somehow. (We all do it, don't we?) Enjoy the book! Will be waiting on a report if it is better than the series! :) |
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Post by david on May 21, 2020 16:43:16 GMT
Last Friday night with nothing else better to do I decided as I have a bit of extra cash to change my bathroom sink taps as they were getting a bit bruised and battered. Having no plumbing experience, I posted the job on one of those online hire a tradesman websites to do the job. I got a phone call later that evening for someone to come round and sort it out on Sunday morning. Great, I can get it sorted without having time off work and he can get it sorted. The plumber turned up and fitted the said taps but told me that both the valve to the hot water tap and more crucially the water stopcock in my house are both busted so he had a look at the mains tap access point outside my house to turn off the water there. Opening up the access cover only to be faced with a good 6 inches of soil and stones covering the tap.
Great, another problem! So, there I am lying on my stomach in the middle of the path outside my house with my hand down this access point trying to clear away all the dirt to get to the tap. After a good 15mins the tap was located and turned to switch the water off. No joy, the tap didn't work! I ended up phoning my local water company to try and locate a tap that will shut off the mains water to my house. The engineer turned up this afternoon and after about 90 minutes and clearing away all the dirt accumulated in about 6 different access points along my street, he came to the conclusion that the only way for me to having the busted valves replaced is to turn off the mains water supply to about 6 houses along my street. I've now had to arrange with the plumber to come back out and carry out the repair work early on Saturday morning to try and minimise the disruption to the neighbours who I've now had to speak to in order to let them know what is going on if they find they have no water Saturday morning.
I should have just kept with the original taps! On the plus side, at least if I ever get a burst water pipe inside my house, I'll be able to turn the water off now once the valves get replaced rather than acquiring an indoor swimming pool if I hadn't of got the job done and found out I couldn't isolate the water supply. A silver lining and all that. The new taps look great though!
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2020 18:20:18 GMT
Oh, I hate plumbing. It always looks so easy: just tighten up the joint and everything's fine. Then I try it, and it takes three hours and several tubes of Furnox LS-X to stop the leaking.
Time to retell the story of my plumbing.
It started when I noticed a damp patch outside the back door. The path was a bit uneven so I thought the wetness must just be left over from the last bit of rain, in that determined way you think when you know what you suspect and desperately hope you're wrong. But the wet patch didn't go away, and eventually I called out the experts.
So up came the path and out bubbled the water.
The pipe had burst, obviously. They tried to fix it, but then it burst again a bit further under the house. And then again. They couldn't chase the pipe all the way underneath the house so they gave up until a tunnelling team could come out with a mole and reroute the pipe. Meanwhile I lifted some bricks from the path to create a channel from the leak down to the nearest drain and so I had a nice little water feature happily burbling away to itself for a few weeks.
The pipes under my house were a mixture of iron and copper, and iron and copper and moisture form a nice little battery, and the thing about batteries is that over time their electrodes corrode. The pipe under the house was completely rotten so a new pipe had to be laid around the back of the house. A nice, thick plastic pipe with gentle curves.
Thin pipes reduce your water pressure quite a bit. Thick ones do not. The first time I turned the tap on in the kitchen the water bounced off the bottom of the sink, then off the ceiling. The pressure was incredible. I ended up having to keep the stopcock half closed just to prevent a fountain that could literally have gone over the top of the house.
And so things remained until I had my central heating and boiler replaced. Under the old system all the taps apart from the cold tap in the kitchen had been fed from storage tanks upstairs. With the new boiler they were all at mains pressure. And every single tap in the house started dripping like crazy as the high pressure uncovered all the weak washers. So all those needed fixing too.
Oh, I hate plumbing.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2020 18:58:59 GMT
There is a reason plumbers make a good living.
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2,389 posts
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Post by peggs on May 21, 2020 19:12:55 GMT
Burnt palm of hand picking up what turned out to be burning hot fork, not sure how, think someone must have turned hob o under it. Have sat with it in water for an hour, had to break for clap (mimed). Really throbbing, shower suddenly off the cards.
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Post by Latecomer on May 21, 2020 19:45:02 GMT
Burnt palm of hand picking up what turned out to be burning hot fork, not sure how, think someone must have turned hob o under it. Have sat with it in water for an hour, had to break for clap (mimed). Really throbbing, shower suddenly off the cards. Poor you...have done the right thing. Cold water and then savlon... I am always burning myself...sometimes for quite silly reasons....eg taking cakes out of oven and perching the tray on my knee while I close the oven door.... Usually it’s on the rails of the oven as I shuffle things about. I am just quite incompetent. Hope it feels better soon...x |
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2020 20:01:02 GMT
I had a meeting with a customer scheduled for this afternoon. I finished work a couple of hours before the meeting and it turned out the meeting wasn't necessary anyway so I was waiting for the customer to cancel it so I could relax.
They cancelled the meeting two minutes before it was due to start. I'd made myself a cup of tea and everything.
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2,389 posts
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Post by peggs on May 22, 2020 20:32:33 GMT
Am trying out the Hay festival digitally.
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Post by tysilio2 on May 22, 2020 21:55:12 GMT
There is a reason plumbers make a good living. Porn films, I thought. |
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Post by Dawnstar on May 23, 2020 11:33:39 GMT
Getting up at the crack of dawn is so much better when you can go back to bed afterwards! Last night/this morning: slept 11.15pm-4.30am, went for walk 4.45-6am, slept 6.30-10am.
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Post by TallPaul on May 23, 2020 15:54:26 GMT
Maybe I spend too much time living in the past, but I've spent much of today reminiscing about family holidays from yesteryear. Although the date would obviously change each year, the Saturday before the bank holiday was the day we always went on the first of our two annual holidays. That's almost certainly why the weather has gone downhill. Sorry everyone!
We weren't a rich family, so no exotic jaunts for us. Until I was eight or nine, it was always Butlin's at Skegness, then until I was 15 or 16, we switched to Mrs Jackson's, just opposite the Spa in Bridlington.
Variety may be the spice of life, but there's something reassuring about going to the same place over and over and over again. Plus, it's easy to forget, in the age of the internet, that back then booking a holiday took some effort, especially if, like us, you didn't have a telephone.
Often it's teenagers who no longer want to go on holiday with their parents. Our trips to Bridlington came to an end when my parents decided they no longer wanted to go on holiday with their teenagers. Charming!
Even now, Brid is still my favourite place in the whole world. Not because it is the best place in the world, even I recognise that, but because when I'm there, I become 10 years old again. 🙂
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Post by Someone in a tree on May 24, 2020 5:31:04 GMT
@tallpaul as a kid I spent many happy days on Brid beach. When I go back and visit the folk in Hutton Cranswick I do enjoy heading upto the South Beach and walking
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2020 8:11:48 GMT
Wide awake at 4 a.m. for the second day in a row. What fresh hell is this lol?
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Post by theglenbucklaird on May 24, 2020 8:29:22 GMT
Maybe I spend too much time living in the past, but I've spent much of today reminiscing about family holidays from yesteryear. Although the date would obviously change each year, the Saturday before the bank holiday was the day we always went on the first of our two annual holidays. That's almost certainly why the weather has gone downhill. Sorry everyone! We weren't a rich family, so no exotic jaunts for us. Until I was eight or nine, it was always Butlin's at Skegness, then until I was 15 or 16, we switched to Mrs Jackson's, just opposite the Spa in Bridlington. Variety may be the spice of life, but there's something reassuring about going to the same place over and over and over again. Plus, it's easy to forget, in the age of the internet, that back then booking a holiday took some effort, especially if, like us, you didn't have a telephone. Often it's teenagers who no longer want to go on holiday with their parents. Our trips to Bridlington came to an end when my parents decided they no longer wanted to go on holiday with their teenagers. Charming! Even now, Brid is still my favourite place in the whole world. Not because it is the best place in the world, even I recognise that, but because when I'm there, I become 10 years old again. 🙂 We holidayed at Butlins but we did tour their other sites. I probably saw you there Skegness. Great for kids, has everything, loved holidays there |
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2020 9:39:40 GMT
Whenever someone mentions places I always feel the need to look them up on aerial photographs or Google Street View to see what they're like. Skegness seems to have the world's happiest bus. goo.gl/maps/74LCBizJ2NpP3ua66 |
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Post by peggysue on May 24, 2020 10:48:33 GMT
I worked for a short while in the early 70s in Skegness or Skeggy as we used to call it. I went to the Embassy Theatre a few times which was mainly the summer variety shows and did remember seeing Norman Wisdom and The Bachelors. Always a popular summer destination to visit.
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Post by dontdreamit on May 24, 2020 10:55:26 GMT
My other half has cut the grass for me this morning, and I’m now going to plant out all the lovely plants that a local garden centre delivered so efficiently in the week. My garden hasn’t looked this good in May for a long time, the extra time I’ve been able to spend on it has really paid off 🙂
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Post by Forrest on May 24, 2020 11:27:40 GMT
I woke up this morning, made some coffee and - ordered some clothes, including a lovely dress. There's been this designer/high street collaboration that I've been swooning over (I love the things the designer does for his label, but those are way out of my league, price-wise) and bought a few items already, but wish I could buy everything... Anyway, the site restocked some things quite unexpectedly, and it's all on sale, so I just went for it. I know it's silly, and that there really isn't anywhere to get dressed up for, but I'm hoping this standstill won't last forever, and I've also been quite reasonable thus far, so, yeah, small joys...
Also, my flatmate made brownies and the apartment smells like heaven, and I'm having my second coffee with Joy Division's Atrocity Exhibition playing in the background. It's been quite a decent day so far... :)
I've never been to Skegness, but it reminded me of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, which was one of my absolute favourite books growing up! :)
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Post by alece10 on May 24, 2020 11:45:12 GMT
Decided to have a go at cleaning the front windows today as no idea when my window cleaner is returning. Then I noticed the inside of the windows also dirty. So pulled the sofa out of the bay to get to them and noticed the floor behind also needed cleaning plus the paintwork around the windows. Then I thought the curtains at the side if the bay were grubby so currently washing them. Then had to dust the Venetian blinds in the main part of the window. This is all being done by myself who had to get up on the step ladder and I'm not good with heights and had to get down on my hands and knees with my arthritis.
Sitting down now completely exhausted and thinking "why did I not just wait for the window cleaner" and I would have never noticed the other things that needed doing.
Does anyone else start a task and end up doing 5 others as well?
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Post by sf on May 24, 2020 16:29:56 GMT
It's a year today since my mother died. Not my best day, but better than I expected, perhaps because I'm avoiding the family WhatsApp group on the grounds that a load of sentimental posturing by my brother - who couldn't be bothered to help take care of Mum while she was completely housebound, didn't care enough to answer the the phone when the hospice called in the middle of the night to say she was dying, but was round Mum's house, which was still my home at the time, helping himself to stuff before we'd even finalised the funeral arrangements - probably wouldn't improve my mood.
I'm OK, and I think I've done a good job of getting myself through the last year - and I've put some distance between myself and that side of the family, and it helps. And my aunts and cousins have been incredibly kind and supportive over the last year. Today is sad but also positive - everything relating to the estate is finally dealt with and wrapped up, and I'm free to start looking forward.
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Post by peggs on May 24, 2020 17:12:49 GMT
Does anyone else start a task and end up doing 5 others as well? All the time, especially with cleaning. It's why my to do list never seems to get done, so many things side shoot off the original task. |
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