2025 Quick Daily Posts

[richardandtracy]

We finally got to the Broads, and are now on our 4th day. However, keeping attached to MIL and her carers thrice daily visit reports via mobile telephony is making it a tad less relaxed than it might have been. MIL seems as if she's recovered from the last crisis, is a bit worse than before and is showing some signs of preparing for the next.

The crises are coming closer together and getting worse, all indicators showing end of life may be nearer. Horrible, but it's going to happen. I'm glad we took the opportunity to go on holiday, I suspect it's going to get more difficult to get away the longer she continues to have problems, and now might be the last chance for some while.

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

Glad that you both have been able to get away, even if it isn't entirely ideal. I was saying to a palliative physician friend of mine yesterday, concerning another friend, that it's funny how any idea of “new normal” starts to telescope increasingly rapidly until it collapses into a totally new state almost without warning. There's almost no time to plan much, only to react to what's in front of you. The whole thing is very, very hard.

[Mabel Figworthy]

I hope you are managing periods of peace and calm in between updates, and manage to "switch off" when not receiving messages. Enjoy the wind and the water and the sun, and store up memories of peaceful times!

[Mabel Figworthy]

The workshop I mentioned, for the people on our Austin Seven holiday, was quite a success, and eight of the twelve people have sent me pictures of their finished projects. Some of them had done some stitching before, but a fair few hadn't, and I thought their work was really impressive! More in FoF.



And one pic to show that it was, indeed, an Austin Seven holiday, not an embroidery holiday

[Serinde]

As if we doubted you! Very dapper! Where did you find those shoes?

Your students have done very well indeed.

[Mabel Figworthy]

All of £7 on eBay, some years ago now. A bit of a gamble, but they fitted. They did need new heels but all in all a good find!

[Serinde]

One of my great-nieces was here from the US visiting briefly on a whistle-stop tour of curious places in Europe (Marseilles, Porto...), and I was taken around both Glasgow and Edinburgh -- about 5 miles each time; over 17K steps! -- on curious routes as she thought of interesting places to have coffee, etc. Let's just say my ancient hips have now just about recovered, and any notion I had of being able to revisit the West Highland Way have now been thoroughly disabused!

[Mabel Figworthy]

Sounds like a lovely trip though, and an adventurous and very interesting great-niece!

[richardandtracy]

Back from holiday. Work is a shock.

We got off late to travel to Norkolk, and given the traffic on the way, only just arrived in time to pick up the boat. We were too tired & stressed to leave the boatyard first night, falling asleep at 6:30 and staying that way to 7:30 next morning.
Then over the next week we managed to travel possibly 25 miles, get rained on lots and largely relax. We couldn't relax totally as MIL was still having problems at home, the carers were double handed and had to be reminded daily where the supplies were. That proved a pro & con for mobile telephony. Stressed us, but meant MIL was cared for better.
After a week we were feeling better & had to go back home.

In an absolute deluge. The Van wipers couldn't cope and the M11 motorway slowed to 40mph as everyone struggled. Then there was a huge smash on the M25 other side, but rubber necking caused a 10 mile queue on our side. It took 5.5 hours to travel the 160 miles to get home. 30mph-ish. Ridiculous.

Ah well. We then picked up a kitten on last Thursday. A dark grey Maine Coon called 'Toby'. He has a very determined chin.. Will try for some photos soon. He's so tiny.. And hisses at Ozzie without backing down, who is huge in comparison, hisses back & shakes like a leaf. We're not yet having much success in introducing them, but it will happen.

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

I'm glad you got some R&R anyway, even if the trip back probably sapped a bit of that newly-stored energy. Which you'll need for this new kitten! Must say, you are brave...

[Steam.Jo]

Work is a shock.

I would use a much stronger term than "shock" if I had to go back to W**k. Tomorrow is my 7th Anniversary of my Retirement and I still don't have enough time to do everything I want to do

Who was it said that when you retire you are time rich and money poor? Its is a fib! I have the money to pay someone to do the chores I struggle with (decorating & gardening) but no one wants to do it anymore.

Jo

[richardandtracy]

Hmm. I must admit my leave felt very nice, at least the days when we were on the boat & not at home having to do 'home stuff'.

Because of dripping taps, I explored the full potential of QA in plumbing supplies last week. I needed to change the kitchen sink tap, and the taps on the cat sink at the other end of the kitchen. The cat sink is for all the really dirty washing up we don't want in the sink where our crockery goes, and is where we wash filthy hands and cat food bowls amongst other things.

We're in a hard water area, and lumps of limescale float about in the system, and both limescale lumps and flint chippings get supplied to our house by the water suppliers. Much gets filtered out in the house pressure regulator filter, but some doesn't, and the flint in particular, is a killer on tap seats. There is only so far you can cut the seats back before the taps won't seal. And I think I'd gone way past that into spongey brass in the tap body, so the taps dripped all the time.

Anyway, the feed to the sinks is all 15mm pipe with compression fittings. I have three spanners for the compression nuts. They are nominally all the same size. One spanner should do. The spanner should just fit the biggest size and the tolerance on the nuts should be small enough that the smallest nut can be used in it. So much for theory. The biggest spanner works on the biggest nuts, but slips off the mid size nuts. The mid size spanner works on the mid size nuts, won't fit the biggest, and slips off the smallest nuts. The smallest spanner fits the smallest nut, but won't fit the mid- or largest-size nuts. Plumbing supplies QA is utter rubbish. I almost have to colour code the wretched things so I know which spanner to use. The amount of time grabbing the wrong spanner adds to the job is ridiculous. Oh, and one manufacturer used 8 sided nuts, while the rest were 6 sided like the rest of the world uses. And the new monobloc mixer tap on our 'clean' sink is now held in by an 11mm nut. I thought it might be an imperial size, but no imperial socket from my socket set worked. It was metric, and 11mm. Why was this a problem? Well, no national standard anywhere that I know of uses 11mm as a nut size, so spanners for this size are uncommon. It turns out I did have one, but it has never been used before in the 30 years I've had it and it wasn't with my commonly used tools - that took time to find. Gaah!

It took me an hour to empty the cupboards, an hour to drain the system, 5 hours to change the taps, and an hour to check for leaks. For some reason putting everything back took two hours to go back in, and took much more room. How does the 'stuff' in a cupboard expand so much when you get it out? One of life's mysteries.

Why didn't I get a plumber to do it? Mostly because I wanted it done this century.

Regards,

Richard.

[Mabel Figworthy]

This probably explains why DH has not yet tackled the dripping taps in both the kitchen and the scullery, even after several years. If I allow him to read your report, he likely never will. My goodness, what a palaver - you brave man for sticking with it and fighting your way through!

Glad to hear that in spite of rain you managed to have some relaxing time in Norfolk, although the return journey sounds the stuff of nightmares. How fortunate that you have a new kitten to soothe your jangled nerves and lower your blood pressure

[Mabel Figworthy]

Tutors and exhibitors at Knit + Stitch (the craft fair formerly known as the Knitting & Stitching Show) are given a number of complimentary tickets to use in giveaways on social media - which I'm doing, like a good girl - but the Forum is social too, right? So I'm sure I can offer a ticket here, if anyone would like to visit the show at Alexandra Palace (London) in October.

[richardandtracy]

Been offline for a couple of days. Had my first motorcycle accident since 1987 when going home on last Thursday. Ran into the back of a car that reversed out in front of me from a side road. Can't have happened above 20mph, probably slower. Bent the bike, bruises over large areas, scratches on my legs (one is 6" long), all the usual sort of thing. Sum total of damage to the car: small area of red paint transferred from the moped. I must admit I ache still and the bruises have gone through the range of colours from black, purple, red, green & yellow (at the moment much of my left thigh is yellow).

Anyway, it meant I had a relaxing * laid back weekend doing very little..
Back to work today. Hope I can get through the day, but I have important meetings tomorrow...

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

Richard, there is your favourite tipple behind the bar at the S&G. I'm so, so relieved the accident wasn't more serious. A multi-coloured Richard is inestimably better than a hospital-bound Richard!! Bet the other driver was pretty alarmed. Rightly.

[Mabel Figworthy]

I hope the paint was the only red that flowed - glad to hear that although scathed (is that one of those non-words like gruntled?) you are still in one piece. Could you justifiably plead injuries and shift the meetings onto a colleague?

[richardandtracy]

Unfortunately the red paint was not the only transfer or red. I had a cut on each knee that leaked, the left one leaked enough that by the time I'd ridden the damaged bike home, my trousers had soaked up all they could and were dripping onto my socks.

Regarding today's meetings, even when the 'Programme Manager' conducts this type of meeting, the 'Technical Manager' must be there to answer any questions of policy & finance outside the remit of the 'Programme Manager'. So, while I won't be conducting the meeting, I have to be there, looking decorative much of the time <Simper> .

Regards

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

Decorative and colourful - is there no end to your accomplishments Richard?

[Serinde]

Being both decorative and colourful deserves another drink left behind the S&G bar.